INGATHERING SUNDAY IS ALMOST HERE!

"It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).

Many people go to church for what they can get. Well, if you go to church just for what you can get out of the music, or what you can get out of the sermon, or just to get blessed, you've missed the point and therefore you may miss the blessing. The music and the sermon aren't ends in themselves, they are but stimuli to cause you to seek and worship God. And if you have any thought less than that, you've missed the point! Giving God the glory He is due is central to the Gospel and central to life!

We go to church to worship God, and that's done by giving, not getting. How can our worship be pure if our first instinct is to “get what we want.” No, instead, we first go to offer something to Him. We offer Him praise, a humble heart, a willing spirit. We lay our service and even our treasure at His feet to worship Him. Worship is a consuming desire to give to God, and it involves the giving of ourselves, our heart attitudes, and our possessions.

So, as Ingathering week approaches, plan to give well! Give sacrificially! Yes, give financially but also come prepared to offer Him great praise from a pure heart. In doing so you and I will be giving Him the honor & glory & praise He deserves. Let’s bless the LORD next week with all the passion we can muster! Let us come together and honor Him, and as He asked us to in Malachi, let us test Him and see what He might do amongst us when we give sacrificially to His Kingdom work.

Building Bridges Through Love and Prayer

Building a bridge is an art. Not literal bridges that you drive over, although those are incredibly important...no, instead bridges for the gospel…bridges that help us sow the seeds of the gospel.

I love the prayer emphasis we are experiencing together right now. It is a joy to know a group of our members are praying every day and for the same things. Yes, we are agreeing and seeking the LORD in prayer, asking for his favor, for revival, and for a blessed offering this month at Ingathering.

Likewise, we should pray, as we learned last week, for God to break our hearts for lost people. And, we should pray for the wisdom and opportunity to reach them. Here are some other ideas to help us all:

1. Love people until they ask why. Then give Jesus all the credit.

2. Ask more questions than they do. Show your genuine interest in other’s lives…and this helps you to know how to pray for them.

3. Pray for them. And let them know you are doing it by continually checking on them.

4. Pray for your heart. We are by default selfish and we need to pray daily to ask the Lord to help our focus be on loving others as we love ourselves.

5. Connect them to church/gospel. Continually invite people to your church, your group, & your home.

6. Follow up. This is the step that everyone seems to forget. Never assume their silence means they are not interested. They’re busy, just like you. Keep reaching out. 

I Love My Church!

Lately I’ve been contemplating all the great things I love about Shadycrest. As I began to make a list I was overwhelmed by the number of great ministries and great people we have here who serve the LORD so well. It literally made me exclaim, “I love my church!”

I LOVE:

Watching our kitchen crew serve our members with great love.

Hearing the stories of members like Alvin Rose and Gene Weaver who visit our homebound and nursing homebound. 

Listening to the testimonies of our youth (Blaine Israel) about what God is doing in their young lives.

Hearing the giggles and watching the smiles as the children played this past week at our AWANA kickoff carnival.

 Praying with our prayer warriors during our 40 Days of Prayer.

Singing with our Celebration Choir and awesome praise band. 

There is so much to love about Shadycrest! What a great place to serve the LORD!
What do you love about Shadycrest? I’d love to hear your story. If you have a story to tell, please contact me. I’m collecting stories and I truly want to hear yours. Call or write me ASAP, and tell me why you love your church! 

Discovering/Revealing God’s Will Through Fervent Prayer

God gets the glory. Always. You want to try and accomplish some incredible task in your own strength, go right ahead. I hope you live a long time because you are going to need lots of time to do it. On the other hand, even the impossible tasks for us are simple to the LORD. He is the Almighty.

As we began to pray together this past week, and specifically in our group prayer meetings on Wednesday, some themes emerged that I’d like to share with you. I pray these revelations will provoke you to join us daily in seeking the LORD together. Here they are:

1.       God is in control. He already has a plan to bless Shadycrest, provide for our needs, and expand our influence in His Kingdom. Will we join Him in His plans? (Ps. 24:1)

2.       We must seek Him. He is jealous for the glory for He deserves the glory and we do not. We must rid our hearts of selfish intent. We must pursue goals for the glory of God and none for us (2 Chronicles 7:14 & Jeremiah 29:13 are instructive here).

3.       We must not be afraid to ask. We have needs as a church and we often don’t see blessing because we don’t seek the LORD and ask together in unity. Asking for provision of real needs is faith in action. The LORD blesses people who are full of faith (James 4:2-3 is instructive here).

4.       We must have a missional vision for the blessing we receive. Will God bless us if He know we are going to spend that financial blessing on more stuff for us? We believe not. We are committing to make God’s mission our mission!

Givers…Can I Get an Amen?

Two men were marooned on a tiny island. One man paced back and forth worried and dreadfully frightened, while the other man sat back, whistling and sunning himself. The first man said, "Aren’t you afraid we’re going to die here?" "Nope," said the second man. “How can you be so sure?” the first man asked. “Well, you see…” said the second man, “I make $100,000 a month and I tithe faithfully to my church… My Pastor will find me."

Did you laugh at that? That is a funny story, but it speaks of a perception that isn’t true in most cases. The perception is that pastors are motivated to preach on giving because of their selfish concern for the church budget and building program. Do pastors shy away from preaching on giving so as not to appear focused on the bottom line? (not this one) No, our mission is not to “pay our bills,” instead our mission is the glory of God through gospel sharing and serving others!

Can’t we just assume if people are growing spiritually they will eventually learn to give? Consider this: there is no other area of spiritual growth where we make assumptions that believers will grow without reminders, exhortations, and accountability. Do we learn to pray, witness, or serve without being taught these things? No. Nor should we learn to give without being taught to give.  

The reality is the bible speaks extensively about giving, tithing, sacrifice, sharing, and stewardship. Therefore, we should have the conversation and challenge one another to such obedience with regularity. We should embrace the conversation about giving with great joy and give, give, give!

Exciting Weeks Ahead…Can You See It?

Sometimes we get shortsighted. Sometimes, as the saying goes, “we can’t see the forest for the trees.” I pray you join me in “seeing” the blessing of the Lord that is here and that is coming! Exciting weeks are ahead of us…do you see?

“…a man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7).

I have the honor of working with our baptism candidates and I’m presently working with 7 of them. What a joy! Celebrate each week of baptism with us! Sing praise! Clap!

Aug. 9^th – Stephen Atkinson rejoins us for a day of outstanding preaching from an Irishman who is passionate about reaching the Jews for the glory of Jesus Christ.

Aug. 16^th – Southern Gospel Day; a new favorite Sunday of ours where we celebrate our Lord through the performing of our favorite gospel tunes; our members are talented!

Aug. 19^th – 40 Days of Devotion starts. Pray for Ingathering!

Aug. 23^rd – Youth Led Revival Sunday. Our outstanding youth leaders will inspire us. Pray!

Aug. 30^th – Back to Church Sunday. I’m excited to invite people back to church. Together, and through the blessing of invitation, we will see faces we haven’t seen in a while and rejoice together as we all get back in the swing of serving the Lord together in preparation for a strong end to our 2015 year!