July 4th Celebration Service

This Sunday falls on July 4th, only happens every few years.  What a fitting day to celebrate Independence Day.  Freedom is a precious commodity, both politically and personally.  Freedom is a God idea, and our freedom as a nation was a work of God though many don't choose to recognize that fact.  So many God moments contributed to the founding of our nation and it was for a reason.  So that we can use our freedom to bless the world and share the Good News.  America has done just that.  It's the same reason that God wants to bring freedom to your life, so that you can share the Good News with others.  So many are not free, but instead are bound by hurts, habits, and hangups in their lives.  This Sunday we talk about freedom, real freedom which I'm convinced is misunderstood.  Freedom can be yours.  It is God's will for your life.

S.O.A.P. What are you writing with your tongue?

Psalms 45:1  Beautiful words stir my heart, .....for my tongue is like the pen of a skillful poet.

I was thinking that if our tongues are a pen, what are we going to be writing today?

Tabloid piece: Tabloids deal in rumor and the latest gossip, and when engage in rumor and
                     talk about people discussing their problems and issues, we are in fact writing a
                    tabloid piece.

Hatchet piece: This is where articles are written that chop people up and criticize them over
                     something they've said or done.

Horror story: This is when all we talk about are the hard or difficult things that we are
                    experiencing.  Recounting the horrors instead of God's help.

Novel: You know, you just talk and talk and talk and really don't have much to say, it's all
          fiction anyway.

Wish list: all of our words center on the things we wish we had or want someone to give us.

And I could go on and on, but i think you get the message.  If our tongue is a pen, then we can use it to write beautiful words to our great God or use it to write things that only discourage and damage the hearer.

I want my tongue to write an first person story on the goodness of God.

Lord, you are my only hope! S.O.A.P.

Reading Psalm 39 this morning, and it's good stuff.

This psalm of David begins with David making the statement that he's not going to sin anymore, he's going to watch what he says and do good. But then he goes silent, because he realizes that he can't keep himself from sinning.  I think we've all said, "I'm not going to do that anymore".  But when we really get honest, we know that if we possessed that power we wouldn't have done it in the first place.  He asks God to show him how short life is, my guess is to motivate him to passion towards God.
Then he says, Lord, you are my only hope.  Rescue me from my rebellion.  David does what we all must learn to do and that's ask God for His help, because it's only through Him that we can live this life.

Father's Day this Sunday

Father's Day is this Sunday and I want to encourage you to honor your father(and you should have also for Mother's Day) this weekend.  That is one of the commands that comes with a promise in the Bible.


                Ephesians 6:3 (NLT)

                3 If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you,
                   and you will have a long life on the earth.”*

Listen to these stats on those who don't have fathers from www.parents4justice.us

• Girls without a father in their lives are two and a half times more likely to get pregnant and 53% more likely to commit suicide.
• Boys without a father in their lives are 63% more likely to run away and 37% more likely to abuse drugs.
• Both boys and girls are twice as likely to drop out of school, twice as likely to end up in jail, and nearly 4X as likely to have emotional or behavioral problems.

In the gospel of Matthew in chapter 28 we are challenged to "Go and make disciples..."  I really believe that begins in our homes.  Our children are our main disciples, and then we work outward to all others.  Disciples are made by discipline, which simply means training.  When we intentionally train our children in the ways of the Lord three very interesting things occur:

 1. You really feel like you belong to God.

7 As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children.              Heb 12:7

• As you train(teach them how to live) your kids develop a feeling of belonging to you.

2. You have the capacity to believe God

8 If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all.           Heb 12:8

                                                           

• Training makes you legit, as MC Hammer said, "To legit to quit"l.
• When it's real to you, you can beleive.

3. You have the ability to become.

But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.                                    Heb 12:11

• It produces something good in us, a peaceful harvest of right living.  

A New Coaching Network

I was so impacted after my last coaching network that I enrolled in another one along with Wade.  He's going to plant a church in the semi-near future so I want to expose him to as much learning as I can to see him be a huge success, which I'm confident he will.  I believe that we all need coaching, no matter how long we've been a believer or what place we rise to in our walk.  All of the greats in sports and business utilized coaching.  I need it and look forward to it in my life now more than ever before.  What makes a person NOT want to be coached?  That's an interesting question that I'll explore here a little.  In Matt. 8:9ff the centurion spoke with Jesus and told Jesus he was a man UNDER authority.  He was coachable, and Jesus said about the centurion that HE had not seen such great faith.  I believe a lack of faith makes us uncoachable.  When we believe that God wants to do a great work in us, that God sends those exact people to us, then we have faith to submit to coaching and see ourselves grow.

S.O.A.P.ing Today

Hebrews 9:12 (NLT)

—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.

I've been thinking about this verse this morning especially the "once for all time" phrase.  How many things do you know that you can do "once for all time"?  Not many that I can think of but Jesus gave His life "once for all time". That's just a huge thought, He's never going to change His mind or change His heart about you and I and what was accomplished on the Cross.  Imagine the pressure that takes off of us, we don't have to worry about Jesus changing His mind.  What that means to me and you is that He never going to change His mind about loving us, forgiving us, helping us, praying for us, saving us, comforting us, empowering us, leading us, using us, blessing us, etc...   There is one thing you can be confident in today and that's in God's love for you.  I can't be confident in much about me, but my confidence is in Christ and His once for all time commitment to me.  It's gonna be a great day.

Dirty Church

I am so anticipating this weekend and part 2 of Dirty Church.  We are talking about the process of becoming good soil.  You know the seed of God's Word is good seed, and the season is right for growth, so the only variable is us, the soil.  The good news is that our soil(hearts) can be made into good soil.  This week we delve into the rocky soil.  As a believer we have got to trust the process that God is working in our lives.  P. Greg did a phenomenal job last night talking about waiting on God from the story of the 5 foolish virgins and the 5 wise virgins.  We all start out as pathway soil, you know, hard and indifferent until we repent and then God's Word can find a place in our hearts.  The next part of the process is to overcome being rocky soil.  I promise it will be good and speak to your heart.  See you Sunday.

Living Sacrifice

I've been wrestling with Paul's encouragement that our lives are to be a "living sacrifice" to the Lord.  Those 2 words, living and sacrifice, just don't seem to go together at first, but it really begs us to pay attention to what Paul is saying in Romans 12:1.  "Sacrifice" is the noun that defines us.  We are called to give our lives in the same manner that Christ gave His life.  The idea of dying to self and to our selfish ways best embodies this act of sacrifice.  It's hard to say no to something so determined and defiant as our flesh.  Still we are challenged to sacrifice our will to the Father's.  "Living" is the adjective to describe us.  When we give our life as a sacrifice to Jesus, then we experience the power that raised Jesus from the dead and we are alive.  Philippians 3:10-11 Paul states,

                 "I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised 
                   Him from the dead.  I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death
                  so that one way or another I may experience  the resurrection 
                  from the dead."

It's by knowing Christ and His sufferings that we experience the power of the resurrection by the Holy Spirit.  We are not called just to know, but to experience God.  I want to know by experience not just by someone telling me.  Determine to live your life as a "living sacrifice" today and make yourself available to that mighty power that raises from the dead and causes us to live.

SOAP for today

Today I was reading in Philippians 2 and thought I'd share some things that spoke to my heart.


2 Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate?
                                                                                                         Php 2:1


Our relationship with God provides some things for us as outlined by Paul in the form of questions.

1. We gain encouragement from belonging to Christ.

• Knowing what Christ has done for us leads us to be greatly encouraged in our faith.
• THat God would care for me so much is the most encouraging thought I can think.

2. We gain comfort from being loved by God.

• God's love is an active comfort in our lives, we are never far from His love if we take the time to realize and respond to Him.
• Knowing that I'm loved by someone comforts me greatly.  Knowing that I'm loved by God is beyond comprehending.  He who is perfect loves me who is imperfect.  
• Not just love in words, but in action, The Cross, love personified.

3. We are not alone because of our fellowship with His Spirit

• We are not alone because His Spirit lives in us.
• The Spirit of God walks beside us teaching, leading, convicting, helping.
• He's our supernatural helper in this life we live.  

4. Our hearts are soft to His leading.

• This walk with God produces a soft and tender heart for God and for people.
• God's nature becomes our nature so that we can act and live like He does.

Let's Turn Up the Heat

I'm so fired up for the next 5 weeks as we begin a new series of messages.  This Sunday I'll be sharing some thoughts about how God sees us and wants to bless us out of the Book of Job.  Then we will begin a series called "Dirty Church" that I can't wait to get into.  I was SOAPing one day in the gospels and God spoke some things to me through the parable of the sower.  I can't wait to share this with HOF as I believe it will be a blessing to our lives.  I know we all take a breather once school is out and the routine is relaxed a bit, but let's keep our eyes on the prize and make this summer count for Jesus.  Summer is prime growing time: grass is growing, veggies are growing, you and I need to be growing too.

While I was away

As many of you know, we were away on vacation the last 2 Sundays and it sure is great to get back home.  I am always reminded of how much I miss this place when we are gone.  It's great to get away but it's better to come home.  We did the Disney thing in Orlando and it was alright, but it made for long, tiring days.  I heard that church was slamming while I was away and I can't say enough about how I appreciate the staff God has blessed us with at HOF who take care of things whether I'm here or not.  I don't ever want our church to be built on a personality, but on Jesus Christ and the leading of His Spirit.  Our church must be bigger than any one person, while all are valuable, we are all the church.  That's the reason that I want all who will to be involved in the life of our church.  Just like a ball team, we need to be 2-3 deep at every position whether preaching, worship, children's ministry, ushers, at every position.  Well, I"m getting back in the groove and looking forward to speaking to HOF this Sunday.  I've got a fresh passion for church and something that I believe is a timely word for our church.  Then in the 1st Sunday of June we are beginning a new series called "Dirty Church".  I'm pumped. It's going to be  great summer and let's see what God will do.

Mother's Day at the House

Mother's Day at the House is going to be exciting.  Tommy Tenney will be with us for both services.  Tommy is best known for his God Chaser book  and has a passion for God's presence.  I know that you will be changed and impacted by his ministry this Sunday.  Recently while reading the bible, I read Jesus' analogy which compares Christ and His church to the union of a man and his wife.  Ever since that time, I can't read the bible without thinking of any woman mentioned as having a special message for the bride of Christ, His church.  There have been so many influential women in the bible and their lives have much to speak to us.  While SOAPing today in Prov. 5, I read about the immoral woman versus the faithful loving wife.  What a powerful picture of what God is doing in these days, raising up a church(bride) that is faithful, loving and very satifying to His heart.  It's going to happen, and you need to be a part of what God is doing in His church.  You belong in God's house.

Haiti missions tonight

Tonight at Connection Cafe we are talking about the recent HOF trip to Haiti.  Come see the pictures and hear the stories of how you are making a difference in the lives of people all over the world.  Missions is our heartbeat and one of the foundations of our church. We believe that God cares about people, all people in every country.  We are blessed to be able to reach out and serve them through ministry.  I answered an email today from the Phillipines that wants to partner with us.  Whether we are giving water to those in our own parish, backpacts to the homeless in New Orleans, or love to the displaced in Haiti, missions is our Mission.  Also, XG will host the 1st ever Pillow Pit.  Don't ask me, but it sounds like a ton of fun.  Get your teen to church and we'll enjoy a meal together and talk about what it means to be on a mission.

AllAccess2010

Well, the conference is over and I have to say it may have been the absolute best ARC conference to date. Every speaker had a timely word and so much spoke to my heart as a pastor and a person living for God. I have to say that the HPC Arena is an absolute wonder, you can really see the impact that Hillsong Church has had in Dino and DeLynn's life. They did a fantastic job hosting and it was great being 25 min. from home. It was also bad being 25 min. from home because it's great to get away with the team for some great away time. It was so good to see all of the friends that we've made over the years of ARCing together. My A Team buds were there and they are all just the best of God's people. I'll be there again nest year and I hope that you will too. Looking forward to all the God has us involved in, and i know that the best is still to come.

Nehemiah 12:30

30 And the priests and the Levites purified themselves; and they purified the people,

and the gates, and the wall.

This verse simply shows the progression of the work of God in a family or a church. God always begins with one person. I cannot ask someone else to change their lives until I've first let God work in me. The purifying process is an inside out work. If you want to see some movement in your home or your business or your church then allow God to work in you. The priest had to deal with themselves before they stood in front of others and told them how to live. That is the power of the gospel, it's alive and at work in me and then it flows over into others. While the wall was built for protection of the people, it was the overflow of what God was doing in the people that purified the project of the wall. An interesting question is "Do the people make the church pure?'" or "Does the church make the people pure?" The projects that God give us to accomplish are made pure by the purity of the people who are called to lead and accomplish them.

Semi-Big Announcement This Sunday

This Sunday you won't want to miss out on the big announcement that affects everyone. It's going to be good so don't let the time change of moving up an hour keep you out of church. One hour less of sleep is not going to be worth what God is doing at HOF. Also, starting a new 3 sermon series on Nehemiah and I feel like it's going to speak to hearts.

What a great SOAP morning today

Today I read Nehemiah 6 and really felt like God spoke to my heart about the direction we need to move in for the next 3 Sundays. It all has to do with the 3 battles that Nehemiah faced and how he responded to the attempts of the enemy to distract him. You are going to be the victim of a distraction attempt and we have to be prepared to know how to answer or else we could become a victim.

#1 First challenge: the challenge of purpose

Enemy says, "Meet me in the plains of Ono." Nehemiah replies, "I'm engaged in a great work and can't come. Why should I stop working and meet with you."

• Purpose defines our schedule
• Purpose determines our friends
• Purpose helps us know when to say, "NO"
• Purpose keeps me ending up at Oh no!

Preaching it this Sunday and I'm pumped.

Rebuilding the Wall

I'm currently S.O.A.P.ing in Nehemiah and really being challenged as a believer and a leader. The whole idea of "rebuilding the wall" is such a God idea for our lives. When you think about a wall and what a wall does, then you know why we need one. Walls in Nehemiah's day spoke significance about a city. It says, "There are things of value here that need to be protected". Our lives are that way also, we are valuable and need God's protection around us. Broken down walls serve no purpose, they can't keep out what doesn't belong nor keep protected what is valuable. A person's life with a broken down wall is open to anything the enemy wants to do: steal, kill, or destroy. The enemy reallizes how valuable we are and will begin to build the wrong kind of walls of resentment, unforgiveness, jealousy, insecurity, etc... if we won't allow God to build His kind of walls in our lives. Godly walls are built when we obey God's commands to : forgive, be generous, pray, fellowship, partner with others, take part in the local church, etc... There is so much protection when we allow Godly walls to be built in our lives. Let Him continue the building process in your life today.