A few things I saw / heard this morning:

·         Wild weather…I’m convinced that snow is only good for skiing.

·         We learned a new worship song this morning and it took rhythm…not cool for me…I was born without a lot of talents and having musical rhythm is not one of them…thankfully the choir has it.

·         We baptized a few people in each service…never gets old.

·         Started a new 3 week series called EPIC – the fall, flood & fight

·         A few notes from pastor’s sermon: Genesis 3

o   The voices you listen to influence the choices you make

§  We like to listen to the voice that tells us what we want to hear

§  Eve did not take an apple, it was a chocolate bar

o   The choices you make determine how your story turns out

§  God had given them heaven on earth and they threw it all away for a moment of pleasure

o   As far as we have fallen, we are still within the Father’s reach

§  Interesting, the first recorded death in the Bible was to cover the sin of Adam/Eve…perfect precursor to what Jesus did for us

§  It was a sneak peek of Calvary

o   (for all you pastor’s reading this post, you’re welcome for the free sermon outline)

Steven Furtick is the Senior Pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.He spoke a challenging message to us from Matthew 13. Here are some of the highlights of his teaching:

• Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law and many people think that is why Peter denied him
• Jesus is not our homeboy. He is the ruling, reigning Son of God
• So many people have a Ricky Bobby theology when it comes to Jesus
• We need to restore a sense of honor to church leadership
• Don’t let anyone talk about your pastor.

Tommy Barnett is the Senior Pastor of Phoenix First in Phoenix, Arizona. He talked about how the church ought to make it a priority to make people feel like they belong.

• We should be setting the pace for culture and not having culture set the pace for us
• It is easier to be a member of a country club than a local church
• I believe that God has called us to make the church a place to belong first, and then they’ll start believing
• If you don’t have many cigarette butts around your church, you don’t have much of a church
• Sometimes it takes a little while to clean people up, so we don’t need to turn anyone away
• We’ve got to learn how to get empty vessels into the house of God
• We have made the methods sacred instead of the message

Although all the sessions have been great, I thought that this session was far and away the best one so far. Craig Groeschel, the Senior Pastor of Life Church (which has more locations than I can keep up with) spokeHere is what he shared with us:

• Becoming obsessed with what people think about you is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about you.
• People pleasers take most criticism personally
• People pleasers feel an extraordinary fear of rejection
• People pleasers find it hard to express their true feelings
• People pleasers have a hard time saying, “no”
• People pleasing is a form of idolatry
• The fear of God is best antidote for the fear of people.

There was so much more to this teaching than I could write down and communicate, but it was awesome!

Jentzen Franklin is the Senior Pastor at Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia. He led the fourth session and gave us some great takeaways. He talked about being addicted to ministry, and here are a few of the thoughts he shared:

• We need some people addicted to the ministry
• I was raised “Penta-hostile”…we didn’t believe in anything
• God is looking for people who will go to unusual measures and means to communicate the Gospel
• Are we addicted to what Jesus died for?
• Jesus said what, when, and who, but he never said how because it’s up to us to braille our culture
• Ministry is a four letter word…WORK!
• God blesses where His reputation is safe. Live right.
• I am afraid of preachers who don’t pray.

Bill Cornelius is the senior pastor of Bay Area Fellowship in Corpus Christi, Texas. He took us to the Book of Haggai and talked about the lack of prayer in the lives of pastors and churches. Here are a couple of takeaways from his teaching:

• It is ridiculous how much we do for God without God’s help.
• You can build an amazing ministry and never really know God.
• To hear from God, you have to get alone with Him.
• Man-made systems begin to eat away at the men who made them.
• Someone has been dealt a worse hand than you in life and they are winning with it.
• Your prayers should lead your feet to match your mouth.
• Our job is to make our town the hardest place to get to hell from.

I’ve never heard Bill speak before, but he was authentic and outstanding!