Element Church: Sunday Rumination (7-27-08)

27 07 2008

It was a great day at Element Church today. Here are my ruminations.

— 407 today in attendance. Had a hefty dose of first time guests again today. That’s encouraging to see in the summer time.

— Actually had more in first service today than second I think. Seemed like it anyway.

— Had a local pastor from here in town visiting while he was on vacation from his church. That was cool. Appreciated him and his family coming.

— Today we concluded the One Prayer series. Pastor Steven Furtick brought the heat today on his one prayer “Lord, make us audacious!” The timing of his message and how it fit what we are facing as a church was priceless. Dude can preach. I REALLY enjoyed this series.

— I enjoyed doing the month long prayer and Scripture reading. Maybe we’ll do that again sometime.

— I felt that the three messages went very well together. It was awesome to hear from two other pastors on what their one prayer is for the church.

— Rock Band is our next series. I am VERY excited about this series. HERE is a link to our promo video on YouTube. Use it as an invite and email it out to your friends.

— You won’t want to miss the start of church this Sunday. Don’t be late.

— Adam was gone on vacation today. Weird not having him there.

— Nate Brennan filled in and did a GREAT job. Element, you are totally blessed to have the musicians and leaders you do. To ALL the band, THANK YOU! SUPER job.

— Had another volunteer step up today to start pulling the trailer and that is HUGE! Since we started doing previews in July of 07′ I’ve been pulling the trailer and setting up every Sunday. It’s becoming too much for me and Jerry James has stepped up to assume that role. I can’t tell you how much that means to me. It’s terribly hard for me to focus on the message each Sunday when I’m focused on loading the trailer and setting up church. There will be some Sundays when Jerry can’t pull it but he is willing to let us use his diesel pick up when needed. If anyone out there is willing to be a “fill in” trailer guy please email me! This is a big step I think for me. It will be weird not being there all the time but it just needs to happen. Thanks Jerry!

— THE AC WORKED TODAY! At least for a while. When we got there at 6 it was running and cool. 9 AM service it was GREAT. When Pastor Furtick started preaching in 2nd service I noticed it was starting to get warm so Grant and I went to check it. Sure enough it wasn’t set to run long enough. We’ll get that fixed. Just glad we don’t have to move everything again.

— WOW, what a difference set up and tear down was today. I think it’s just getting used to the new theater set up, AND we had some extra hands. We can ALWAYS use extra hands in set up and tear down.

— I announced today that our fire egress drawings have been submitted to the city and now it is all in their hands. PLEASE PRAY for favor with the city and approval of our building permit. We’ve raised $45,000 for The Climb so far. Please pray about what God wants to do through you financially for The Climb. I hope to announce great news soon about our permits. We’ll keep you posted.

— My family comes back in 9 days. Can’t tell you how much I miss them. I call Makalah my “care bear” and I call Mariah “my princess”. Sabrina told me yesterday that the girls said “I bet daddy really misses his care bear and his princess.” Made my heart melt. This has been the longest I’ve been away from any of them.

— I think that’s it. Long post huh? Heading to hang out with friends tonight.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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One Prayer (Final Day) - Element Church

27 07 2008

Hey Element Church!  Today is the final day of our journey together.  28 days of praying, fasting and reading Scripture together.  I hope this has been a benefit to you.  I failed to post on Friday or Saturday my thoughts.  Today we’ll lump all those together.  Today’s prayer is “Lord, make us audacious!”  We’re going to listen to a sermon by Steven Furtick today at church.  You can check out Acts 26-28 online HERE.  Here are my thoughts:

Acts 26:6 — Paul’s arrest and hatred from the Jews rested in his belief in the fulfillment of the law they were so adamant about.  EVERYTHING in the Old Testament pointed to Christ.  In fact, on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 Jesus explains from the books of Moses and ALL the prophets the promises he came to fulfill.  Everything was set up for the Jews to experience the fulfilling of God’s promise to them, yet most of them missed it.  Paul’s hope was in the fulfillment of those promises through Jesus.

Acts 26:7-8 — The Jews shared the same hope as Paul, they just didn’t believe it had come yet.  And they didn’t believe because they believed Jesus was dead.  I love Paul’s question in v. 8 “Why does it seem incredible to any of you that God can raise the dead?”

Acts 26:18 — Paul’s purpose statement.  He stated he was sent to the Gentiles to “Open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness unto light and from the power of Satan to God.  Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.”

Acts 26:20 — Paul’s message wasn’t just to turn to repent and turn to God but to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance”.  To live as if you’ve been saved.  We need to take note of that.

Acts 26:24-32 — Great exchange of words between Festus, Paul and King Agrippa.

ACTS 27

Key verse of this whole chapter Acts 27:25 — The boat Paul was on was in a fierce storm and the men were afraid.  Paul had received a vision the previous night from God that they would all survive.  Paul says “So take courage!”  WHY?  “For I believe God.”  THAT’S IT!  We can have courage too WHEN WE BELIEVE GOD!  Not believe IN God, but BELIEVE HIM.  Believe what He says He will do in, for and through us.

ACTS 28

Acts 28:17-20 — Paul arrives in Rome and calls all the Jewish leaders together to address them.  He tells them “I am bound with this chain because I believe that that the hope of Israel — the Messiah…” EVERYTHING up to this point ALL Jews would be ok with, “…has already come.”  UNTIL THEN!

Acts 28:21-22 —  They were at least willing to listen for all they had heard was that this movement as denounced everywhere.  They hadn’t been poisoned yet by the Jewish leaders who were so opposed to Jesus.  Ever noticed that the Jews who were MOST opposed to Jesus were the ones who actually knew Him?  It was the Jerusalem Jewish leaders that hated Jesus.  It was the leaders who experienced Jesus everyday, and the people they led, who tried to stop what Jesus did.  And they tried to no avail.  How many times I wonder, is it the church, WHO HAS JESUS, which tries to stop what Jesus is doing?  WOW!

Acts 28:23-25 — Paul explained through the law of Moses and the books of the prophets about Jesus.  He used the very Scripture they held hope in, to reveal their hope was fulfilled in Jesus.  Some believed, others didn’t.  What is our responsibility?  To boldly preach the Word of God.  To proclaim freedom for the captives.  To offer Jesus who can turn people from darkness unto light, and from the power of satan unto God.  That is ALL we can do.  OFFER salvation.  Some will believe, others will not.  It is NOT our obligation to make sure everyone is saved.  It IS our obligation to do our best to make sure that EVERYONE is given an opportunity.

Believing,

Jeff


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