I shared this with our Lead Team this past week as a leadership lesson, but it also relates to our everyday lives.

Ever feel like God’s napping in your life?  Like you’re in the middle of a storm and He just doesn’t seem to care?  Maybe you felt like you were following His leading, you started traveling across the sea in the direction He said to go, then BAM…a storm comes out of nowhere?  Well, if you’ve never felt that way, the disciples DID and you’ll probably face it eventually.

Luke 8:22-24 says this ²² One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and started out. ²³As they sailed across, Jesus settled down for a nap. But soon a fierce storm came down on the lake. The boat was filling with water, and they were in real danger.  ²⁴ The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves. Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm.

Jesus KNEW the storm was coming yet He LED them into it anyway.  THEN, in the middle of the storm He was just taking a nap.  So again I ask, have you ever felt like God was taking a nap in your life?  Cause if the answer is YES, then remember this.

God will sometimes lead us into a place of FEAR so He can show His FAITHFULNESS!

God will allow us to face PERIL so He can show His POWER!

Just because you’re in the middle of the storm doesn’t mean that He is NAPPING or that He doesn’t NOTICE…it just might mean that He knows what’s NEXT!  Trust Him!

Waiting for what’s next,

Jeff

—  Found out that TWO people said “YES” to Jesus and accepted Christ as Savior today! WOO HOO!  If only for the ONE!

—  Those two people were first time guests AND we didn’t even give an invitation.  LOVE it.

—  We were right at our average attendance today and packed everybody in to 3 services.  If you are a regular at Element and could attend either 1st or 4th service it would help us a TON!

—  2nd and 3rd service are BY FAR our most popular services, ESPECIALLY for first time guests.  Each seat represents a soul that can hear about Jesus!

—  As we’ve been talking about, we are offering extended worship in our 4th service.  If you like the music portion of Element and enjoy extra singing, that service would be a great opportunity for you.  If you are an Elementer, PLEASE at least consider attending one of those two services.  In doing so you really are helping us tell more people about Jesus!

—  Was glad we only had 3 services today.  Had a little bit of a cold or something this weekend so my voice was already rough coming into the day.

— I actually started seeing a voice therapist to try and help me prepare and care for my voice.  I’m a pretty aggressive preacher (if you haven’t noticed), and I want my voice to be as strong as possible.

—  We started our series called “Movement” today and asked the question “What should be seen in a movement?”.  That will be our big question for the whole series.  We’re taking a look at the first church in the book of Acts and the qualities that made them a movement.  The big idea for today was “Life Transformation”.  Here are some excerpts on the day:

• We may not use the word movement anymore to describe the church, but it’s really what we are, or at least what we should be.
• We’re not talking about the church you’ve always dreamed of, or a church devoid of problems but the church that God designed.  A church that God desires.
• We’re not gonna deny we have problems as a church, we’re just not gonna let them keep us from pursuing our God sized purpose.
• I want to pursue a mission and vision SO BIG that if God doesn’t show up we’re destined to fail.
• The Apostles weren’t satisfied with 3,000 people because they understood something.  They weren’t a mega church when compared to how many people STILL didn’t know Jesus, and that to them was a MEGA problem.
• God doesn’t want you to do what THEY did, He wants you to do what only you can do…and WHEN you do, people will notice you’re an ORDINARY person doing OUT of the ordinary things because you serve an EXTRAordinary God.
• When you hear about Jesus you might be taught about life, but if you’ve BEEN with Jesus your life will be transformed.
• If people watched the way I live, could they say “He’s been with Jesus?”.
• Without life transformation there is no movement, and where God brings a movement there WILL BE life transformation.
• It’s one thing to live the kind of life that MAN takes notice of.  It’s another thing entirely to live the kind of life GOD takes notice of.  (Job)
• A lot of us could talk a LOT about Jesus, the question is, would Jesus want to talk about me?
• I’m not talking about being perfect.  I’m talking about being different.
• I think sometimes we read the book of Acts and think “Well, that was then”.  But friends I’m telling ya…I read the book of Acts and think “WHY NOT NOW?”.
• We are gathered here today because 120 or so people were CRAZY enough to believe that God could actually do what He said He could do.

—  I’m SO EXCITED about this series.  This next weeks message could truly be LIFE CHANGING for many people.  I believe the five things we’re going to talk about in this series will be so inspiring, encouraging and challenging.  CAN’T WAIT to see what happens.  Trusting God for BIG THINGS!

—  Don’t forget, on March 4th, Lord willing I’ll be giving a CLEAR Gospel presentation.  Please be thinking about and praying for who you could invite to come to church that week to hear about the LIFE CHANGING message of Jesus.  (If God could save PAUL He can save ANYBODY)

—  I challenge you to read the book of Acts this month as we go through the series.  We will be in Acts the whole time and it would be a GREAT time to read Acts again, or read it for the first time.

—  Enter worship and prayer experience is this Tuesday night.  This is a GREAT time of community as we seek God in worship and prayer.  6:30 PM & childcare IS provided!

—  I believe the MOVEMENT of God is still going.  It’s just up to us whether we will join it or not!

—  Alright, I’m gonna watch this final quarter of the Super Bowl.  GO GIANTS!!

Till the end,

Jeff

We WILL be having our three morning worship experiences AS NORMAL!  8:30 // 10:00 // 11:30 AM.  If you can attend our 8:30 service that would be GREAT!  Expecting a full house in the other two.  Our normal schedule will pick back up on February 12th.  I encourage you to get together with friends & co-workers.  Use the Super Bowl as an evangelism tool.  Invite people to church with you for NEXT week.  Be the person at the party that models purity and godliness.  Bring someone you’ll be watching the game with that night, to church this Sunday morning.

We’ll be kicking off our series called MOVEMENT!  Can’t WAIT to talk about what we should see in a movement! I’m expecting God to do HUGE THINGS through this series.

“WOW!”  That was my only response.  “WOW!”  That, and I was moved to tears.

Like “big church” does each Sunday, Pastor Derek offers a chance for kids to turn in any prayer request they would like prayed for, and that’s what my daughter Mariah turned in.  Again…WOW!

This is one of those moments as a parent I live for.  SHE GETS IT!  Her prayer?  “More people to come to know Jesus and come to element church!”  Nothing like the heart of your child to convict the parent.

Her prayer makes Mark 10:15 come to life  “I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”

What do you say?  Will you join my daughter in this prayer?  I think it’s THE MOST important thing we could pray for.  “More people come to know Jesus…AMEN!”

Praying,

Jeff

P.S.  And I LOVE she put her name “Mariah Maness” and then added “Jeff’s daughter”.  YES SHE IS…and I’m PROUD to say it!  And by the way, she prayed that prayer Sunday and FORTY PEOPLE acknowledged to us they accepted Jesus as their Savior.  YES!!

The Circle Maker came at JUST the right time in my life.  I can honestly say, it is the most challenging yet encouraging book on prayer I’ve ever read.  Inspiring to say the least.  I would say that last year was the best year of prayer I’ve ever experienced.  I was more motivated and moved by God through prayer in 2011 than I ever have been, and The Circle Maker only fueled my fire for prayer.  I truly believe that prayer is the forgotten discipline in the church.  I’m convinced, if we fully understood the power that prayer has to connect us with the heart of God, it wouldn’t be just the thing we add before a meal, or the desperate plea for provision.  We’d be DEDICATED to seeking God daily in it.

Trying to capture the essence of The Circle Maker in one blog is impossible, but here is one statement from the 2nd chapter of the book that I think sums it all up:  “Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers.  God isn’t offended by your biggest dreams or boldest prayers.  he is offended by nothing less.”  WOW!  Makes me wonder about my own prayer life.  It inspired this statement in me “Our prayers should be so big we SHOULDN’T expect them to happen, but our GOD is so big we do.”  I want to pray those kinds of prayers.  Prayers that are generational.  Mark talks about that in the book.  That God is outside of time.  There are prayers He’s already answered 50 years from now, that we haven’t even PRAYED!  (That’ll blow your mind)  Makes me want to pray BIGGER prayers over my children, my grandchildren…OUR CHURCH!

From PRAYING through things and PRAISING through things (new concept for me).  From fasting to goal setting, Mark covers it all.  I was literally captured from the first sentence.  Rarely are there books that I can’t wait to pick up and continue reading…this was one!  All that to say, if you’re looking for a practical yet inspiring book on prayer, this is one I’d recommend.  I’ve started praying circles around things in my own life, in fact, I think it might have even inspired a whole sermon series I’m circling in prayer!

Praying Circles,

Jeff

—  40 people acknowledged to us they said “YES” to Jesus and accepted Him as Savior! WOO HOO!  If only for the ONE!

—  Preached on honoring God with our bodies and people got saved.  I LOVE it!  The Holy Spirit is not limited to the topic of the message OR the one who delivers the message.

—  Concluded our series today by asking the question “How do I know if God has my body?”.  Preached from Romans 12:1-2.  Today’s message was VERY tough to prepare for and even more difficult to deliver.  I believe it was one of the most avoided subjects in the church, the issue of the body!  I appreciate people allowing me to speak into their lives on this subject.  Hope it was helpful.

• A lot of people are willing to give God their heart, we’re just not willing to let go of our bodies.  Subconsciously we say “I’ll let Jesus forgive me of all my sins as long as I can still be in charge of all my senses.”
• We cannot control how long we’ll live but we can control how much life we’ll have.  We have no say in how long we’ll be alive but we do dictate how much living we’ll do while we’re alive.
• “It’s my body I can do what I want.” NO it’s not and NO you can’t!
• Everything I have is a gift from God, and I am to manage everything He’s given me in a way that pleases Him…INCLUDING my body!
• As Christians we are saved FROM sin, but also TO bring glory to God and we do that with how we manage what was given to us.
• Our motivation in how we use, care for, treat and manage our bodies should be honoring, glorifying, obeying and worshiping God. If we truly believed our bodies were instruments of worship, we’d change the way we manage them.
• Everything’s better with bacon!! (had to be there)
• Shared some of my own struggle in my life with self-control as it comes to food and exercising.  It is a discipline I’m still trying to master in my life.
• Taking care of our bodies is an act of worship.
• I don’t want us to be obsessed about being healthy, I want us to be obsessed with JESUS and we’ll naturally want to live healthy lives.
• It’s not about looking better, feeling better or living longer, those are great benefits…it’s about worshiping JESUS by living self-controlled lives with our bodies.
• Spent some time talking about our habits that need to change.  Addictions, pleasures, activities, lifestyles that are NOT honoring to God in our bodies.
• If God has my body, my body will be used to build HIS Kingdom.  Yet when it comes to kingdoms, often times it’s OURS we’re most concerned about.
• The main reason there are Christians who don’t help build God’s Kingdom by serving through His local church, is because we’re so concerned with building OUR Kingdom we believe the local church is there to serve us.
• The first 11 chapters of Romans are about the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, how God loved us so much He gave us Jesus to bridge the gap, not only so we can be WITH Him but so we can be more LIKE Him.
• The first 11 chapters are building up to chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 where Paul says “BECAUSE of all God’s done for you, I PLEAD with you to give Him your body.”

—  I spent the majority of our talk on the health portion of our bodies.  I felt it was the one that is the most prevalently needed and probably least talked about.

—  I feel like we could have done an entire four week series based on the four points we talked about today.  1.  How I am — a matter of my health; 2.  What I do — a matter of my habits;  3.  Who I am — a matter of my hunger (calling); 4.  WHO’S I am — a matter of my heart!

—  When it came to our bodies, I just couldn’t ONLY talk about our health.  Our bodies include EVERYTHING we are!

—  Excited about our new series starting this Sunday called “Movement: Church as it should be”.  We’ll be looking at the book of Acts, the FIRST church, and talk about the signs that the original movement of God had.

—  This series is not about the RIGHT or WRONG way to do church, but looking at the characteristics of the very first church.  The church that GOD designed.  We are here today because of that movement THEN!

—  If you want to read ahead, start reading the book of Acts.  Specifically gonna be in chapters 1 – 4 this week.

—  That’s it!  Element Church, you guys are AWESOME!  See you next Sunday.

Till the end,

Jeff

Well, this past week was Jonah’s dad time, and over the course of the past couple months we had been working on writing a rap together.  Jonah is a NATURAL writer.  He LOVES writing songs, poems, or just journaling his thoughts.  After several cumulative hours of working on the rap (Jonah dreams of being a performer), it all came to fruition this past Saturday when we recorded it at Pastor Adam’s Triple Pane Studio.

So without further adieu, here is the OFFICIAL release of Good Times by Jonah Maness (Download lyrics HERE)

Church…When you hear that word what comes to mind? Everybody thinks of something. Whether it’s stained glass & steeples with pews & potlucks.  Or smoke & seats with projectors & ear plugs. We all think of something.  Some say it’s nothing but a crutch. An organized religion used to manipulate people. Some say it’s home, a family. A place where they’ve been accepted.  We all have opinions on what should be done. Church should be this or church should be that. We should do this and we should do that. But the one thing you never here is movement…and that’s really what we are. A movement. Not a church as you’ve always dreamed of, but a church that God designed.  A movement…church as it should be.

Come to Element Church starting February 5th as we look at the very FIRST Church, and talk about the MOVEMENT that was started roughly 2,000 years ago and how it relates to GOD’S church today!

Sunday mornings @ Element Church 8:30//10:00//11:30 AM & Sunday EVENINGS 6 PM.

As a pastor I’ve fallen for this before, and I continue to see and hear SO many others do the same.  Things are said like “MAN, I wish we had the favor like THAT church has.”  “If I had the favor THAT pastor had.”  “If we just had MORE favor.”  And to be honest, when we say things like that, I think it just shows how much we don’t really know.

In Luke 1:27 Gabriel appeared to Mary and said “Greetings, FAVORED woman!  The Lord is with you!” 

FAVORED?  Before you ask for God’s FAVOR you better remember what Mary had to FACE!  Her fiance wanted to divorce her.  More than likely she was accused of being a harlot.  Who KNOWS how many threats she faced; friends and family she lost.  She gave birth in a stable (cave, livestock holding area. Whatever you want to call it, it wasn’t FAVORable).  She fled for her and her Sons life to Egypt. She watched her Son rise to prominence, then be BRUTALLY beaten and crucified on a cross.  FAVORED?  If that’s favor, do we really want to seek it?

Paul had the favor of God.  Read 2 Corinthians 11:23-29.  Stephen had the favor of God.  Read Acts 7:54-60  .  The unnamed people of Hebrews 11 had God’s favor.  Read Hebrews 11:35-40  I mean, I could go on.  Now don’t get me wrong, the favor of God is also an AMAZING thing.  It just seems we focus on all the REWARDS of God’s favor and none of the REFINING!  We see all the PERFORMANCES of those who have it but none of the PAIN they went through to keep it.

The favor of God WILL bring the contempt of men.  The favor of God WILL require more sacrifice.  The favor of God WILL test your faithfulness to Him.  The greater the favor that God pours out, the greater the faith it requires from man.  I just think we…I, need to remember that.

Remembering,

Jeff

— I was moved to tears in worship today as we were singing “Jesus Paid It All”.  As we sang the bridge “Oh praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead”, I looked around to see people…specific people, whom God has saved and set free here at Element Church lift their hands in praise to their Savior.  It was just ANOTHER reminder of the PRIVILEGE I have to be a part of what God is doing.

—  I texted Pastor Adam after 1st service today and said “Bro, the band sounds AMAZING!”.  Seriously, they were ON today.  I am so appreciative of the caliber of people we have that lead us to the throne in worship each week.  SO good!

—  Had Joe Sangl as a guest speaker today.  That dude preaches on money in a way I’ve never heard anyone preach before.  Clear, compelling and convincing.  Sat on the front row all four services and got something EVERY time!

—  This was our fourth time having Joe here, and I am confident EVERY time that he is going to bring a fresh, challenging and encouraging word from God on the matter of money.  He did just that today.

—  We continued our series called “The Year Of The Comeback” today and Joe spoke on the issue of coming back in the area of our finances.  He spoke from portions of Genesis 39-45 and the story of Joseph.  GREAT insights.  Here are some excerpts:

• Principle #1:  Joseph was faithful with what he could control.
• Joseph didn’t have control of being put into slavery, but he DID control what he did once he was IN slavery.
• Money will not do for you what ONLY God can do for you.  (That’ll hunt)
• No matter where you are in your life or your finances, God is with you. (See Joseph)
• No matter where you’re at, if the Lord is with you you’re in a great place. (YEP)
• The Lord is with you and is that enough?  (GREAT question)
• He applied what he had to where he was.  The same can be true for you in your finances.
• A budget is not telling yourself “no”, it’s being able to say “yes” to what is BEST in your life.
• When God blesses you with SOME, that amount INCLUDES what He wants you to give back to HIM!  (That is straight GOLD there)
• When you have margin you don’t have to look 5 or 10 minutes, days or months down the road…you can look 5 or 10 YEARS!
• You can live life with margin, which allows you to live life on a MISSION!
• Principle #2:  Joseph used his gifts to help others.
• Sometimes God allows you to go through a burden so you can eventually be a blessing to others with the same burden.
• Principle #3:  Joesph was ready when it was time for the comeback.
• One of the reasons God takes people through tremendous challenges is to equip them for the COMEBACK that is coming later.
• You’ve GOT to be ready, and the way you get ready is being faithful with what you have NOW.
• God blesses us in times of abundance to prepare us for the times of famine.
• If you don’t save when times are good you won’t be positioned to prosper when times are bad. (SO good)
• If God blessed you with a million dollars, would you be able to handle it in a way that honored HIM?  (WOW! Such a GREAT question)
• Principle #4:  Joseph forgave those who wronged him.  (Joe did a FANTASTIC job unpacking this issue here and how it plays into our freedom, even financial freedom)

—  I love sitting in on each service cause there was a golden nugget each time he didn’t say in the others.  You can thank me for adding them all here.  HA!

—  We did a cool “next step” today in the service.  Joe had people write down on a card what their financial goals were for 2012.  Whether it is starting to give God our first fruits/tithe to Him, saving money, paying off debt, buying a house or WHATEVER the goal might be.  We then had them put them in stamped envelopes, sealed them and address them to themselves.  We’re gonna mail them back to each person this summer as a personal accountability reminder of what their goal was.

—  Had TONS of envelopes turned in.  LOVED the idea and praying that this would help people take their next step in their finances.

— By the way, I filled one out as well!  With God’s help, we WILL achieve it!

—  We have over 160 people signed up to attend the Financial Learning Experience tomorrow night @ 6:30 with Joe.  It’s not too late to register.  You can register HERE.  It’s from 6:30 – 8:30 PM, childcare IS provided and Joe will be teaching on the financial principles and tools that helped him overcome the financial hole HE had created in his own life.  It’s HIGH energy and SO practical.  Whether you are DESPERATE for help or just need need some confirmation and encouragement you need to be at this event.

—  A new season of Community is starting in February.  If you are not connected into Community here at Element, we have some GREAT groups starting up that you could be plugged in to.  We have groups that go along with The Year Of The Comeback, spiritual formation groups, classes and more.  Check out all of our Community opportunities HERE and sign up to get plugged in.

—  That’s bout it folks.  Can’t wait for the Financial Learning Experience tomorrow night.  This will be my FOURTH time to attend and I get something new every time.  Thanks Element for being who you are…I LOVE you guys!

Till the end,

Jeff