4 Ways God Designed Us To Experience Him

In the message on Sunday I covered the first stage of our spiritual growth process. Since everyone's spiritual journey begins with a personal experience with Jesus Christ, we identified our Sunday morning gathering as our primary environment to help people experience God.

I also shared 4 ways that God designed for us to experience him. These I will reproduce here:

1. God designed us to experience him in corporate worship
2 Chronicles 5:11-14
Acts 2:1-4
Challenge: Commit to weekly church attendance. Prepare your heart before coming to church. Come with a hungry and expectant heart. His Word says that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled and that he rewards those who diligently seek him. Come expecting to meet with God.

2. God designed us to experience him through the preaching of his Word
Acts 10:44
Challenge: Come to every sermon with a humble and expectant heart hungry to receive the word of God. God desires to speak to you. Be prayerful during the sermon asking God to speak to your heart.

3. God designed us to experience him through personal prayer
Mark 1:35
Exodus 33:9-11
Challenge: Develop a habit of personal prayer alone with God. Expect to interact with him in a personal way. Find someone who can hold you accountable for your prayer time. Nothing can substitute for your personal time with God.

4. God designed us to experience him through the reading of Scripture
Hebrews 4:12
Challenge: Develop a habit of disciplined reading of Scripture. Utilize a Bible reading plan if it will help you. Come to the Scriptures prayerfully, asking God to speak to your heart through what you read.

New Series: E3

This Sunday we will be starting a new 3-part message series called "E3: Making Disciples In 2008." In this series we will be diving into the heart of our mission as a church and our direction for '08. What does E3 stand for? Come Sunday and find out! You won't want to miss this important series.

Unwrapped Continues This Weekend

This Sunday we will be continuing our Unwrapped series. We'll be looking at Unwrapping Fear and Intimidation. If you haven't visited unwrapped07.com, take a moment to go over there and see it. You'll be able to see the thoughts of others and also post your own.

Unwrapped Series Video Trailer

Check out the trailer for our upcoming message series beginning this Sunday called UNWRAPPED.

Our goal in the series is to study the Psalms and songs written in Scripture and learn from the authors how to open our hearts to God. We will be focusing on learning how to get honest with ourselves and with God by unwrapping our hearts to him and experiencing his grace.

We've created a website to help facilitate this expression of our hearts to God. Visit unwrapped07.com and join the conversation by posting a thought, prayer, poem, or any other expression of your heart to God.

This series will be a great opportunity to invite a friend to church. All first time guests will receive a free $5.00 coffee card.

Dropping Off Depression

Thought I'd post some action points from today's message called "Dropping Off Depression" the first message in our Baggage series. These are from 2 Corinthians 4:13-18.

1. Speak the truth of God’s Word- v.13-15
“Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.”

2. Be spiritually renewed daily- v.16
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day."

3. Focus on eternal realities- v.17-18
“For this slight and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Baggage

This Sunday we're beginning a new series of messages called Baggage. We're going to be looking at gaining freedom from depression, addiction, emotional pain, and failure.

Many of us have baggage because of how we were raised and the different experiences we've been through in life. God desires us to live in his freedom. In fact, he has called us to be free and has provided everything we need to experience liberty in Christ.

I'm excited about this series. This would be a great opportunity to invite a friend to come and experience Christ's transforming power.

Finding Hope In Difficult Times

Had a great service this morning. My message was called "Finding Hope In Difficult times" from Jeremiah 29:4-14. In my message I shared 3 actions to take in times of difficulty and 3 promises that God gives us in difficult times. Thought I'd just post them here:

3 actions to take in difficult times

1. Pursue life according to God’s plan- v. 4-6
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there and do not decrease.”

2. Seek to be a blessing right where you are- v. 7
“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

3. Refuse to listen to lies that will come against you- v. 8-9
“For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.”

3 Promises from God in difficult times

1. God promises to honor his promises- v. 10
"For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place."

2. God promises wholeness and not evil, a future and a hope- v. 11
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

3. God promises to reveal himself powerfully to us when we seek him- v. 12-14a
“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart I will be found by you, declares the Lord…”

Growing In Godliness

This was the third message in our Disciple series called "Growing In Godliness" from 2 Peter 1:3-11.

Disciple Series Begins This Weekend

Have you ever hit a roadblock in your relationship with God?

Have you ever felt like you were in a spiritual rut that you couldn't get out of?

This Sunday we'll be launching a new 4-part series on discipleship. We will be diving into some foundational truths and principles of walking with God. We will discover some keys to living a vibrant and exhilarating Christian life.

This study will revolve around the person of Jesus Christ. Though he was God Himself, he became a man in order that we might be brought back into fellowship with God. In this series we will discover how to grow in our personal relationship with Him. We'll be looking at what it really means to be a follower of Christ.

Widsom Part 1

This is the first message in our short 2-part series on Wisdom from Proverbs 2:1-11.

The Reluctant Prophet

This is the first message in our Jonah series. Through this study we will be looking at what this book has to say about the prophet Jonah and more importantly what it teaches us about God.

Jonah Series

I'm getting very excited about our upcoming series on Jonah. We will be taking a fresh look at this familiar story and the insights it gives us into God. I've been finding so much richness in my study and preparation this week. I'd rather have God put one word in my heart than share a thousand of my own thoughts.

Strength

This is a sermon I gave two Sundays ago. Based on Ephesians 3:14-19, it focuses on God's desire and ability to strengthen us in our innermost being.

DNA of a Hero 2: After God's Own Heart

This is the second message in our series DNA of a Hero called After God's Own Heart. It is a message centered on insights from the life of David.

One of our theme passages for this series is Daniel 11:32, "But the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits." Spiritual impact is released through people who know who their God is and who they are in him.

New Series: DNA of a Hero

This week we began a new message series called DNA of a Hero. In the coming weeks we'll be looking at various men and women of Scripture and the characteristics of their lives that made them great in the sight of God.

While we're not talking about flying faster than a speeding bullet, being more powerful than a locomotive, or able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, we are talking about living to the fullest the life we were created to live - a truly extra-ordinary life.

This past Sunday, the introductory message was called "A Heroic Life" from Hebrews 11 which is now available for streaming or mp3 download here.