Rev. Brad Stevens(God Has A Place For You) 2-26-12

Pastor Joey Burns(The Lost)2-26-12

Reassurance By Michael Davidson

Here lately I've been in a struggle. I even blogged about it a little bit (here) and its been a tough couple of weeks for me, spiritually. Nothing I seemed to have read made sense to me. I fought with myself about calling my pastor and making explain some scripture to me. I didn't understand it at all. I didn't see the answer I was looking for in any of my prayers. Its disheartening. Last week in discipleship class Clay was talking about how God will reveal himself to you when you need it to keep praying and so that's what I done. I kept praying, I kept reading until I did find something. Last Wednesday Bub's sermon was about being renewed in the spirit (hear it) and its just what I needed to hear. This morning I had a dream, and it may sound silly to you and you may think its coincidence, and who knows, it probably is, but if so it was coincidentally what I needed so I feel the need to share it. Anyway, I had a dream that I was a pastor and I was preaching to a large group of people. I mean thousands; and they were all Christians. I was telling them in my dream to do God's work because they were lost. Regardless of what they felt, they weren't saved and they needed to obey God and do his work. This morning the title of the message that our pastor preached was "The Lost" - Now he wasn't saying we were all lost and we didn't know what we were talking about, but his sermon was about being lost for different reasons. When I first got saved one of the first pieces of scripture I read was the prodigal son. One of the stories discussed this morning was the parable son. My relation with that scripture was the other son, the one that kinda got a little upset and said "Hey buddy, I'm the good guy here! Why didn't you kill a fat calf for me?" I never quite understood why people who intentionally done wrong were getting great things in their life and me, who never done anything wrong, wasn't getting it. But that's a whole other story, anyway, it hit me. It touched me. I felt like that message was for me, that was my answer I had been looking for. That was the reassurance that I may have came across something I didn't understand, I may not see the answer I'm looking for, but keep holding on because He still hears me. I let that feeling that I had been having defeat me and this morning was such a positive uplifting revelation I had so tonight I stepped in for prayer. I like being prayed for and my reasoning that I told my pastor was "I want to feel positive." I wanted to be prayed for that if something comes my way I can handle it. I wanted prayer for the strength to stand strong and face whatever comes my way, head on. That may sound a little selfish. Clay said in discipleship class on Friday to put others before yourself, maybe I'm not understanding him the way he meant it, but I don't feel like I'm in any position to tell someone "Do this!" and speak a positive word about God and encourage others stay positive when I struggle with staying positive myself when I have to go through 2 weeks of a rough time. I didn't give up, I didn't waiver in my faith, I didn't doubt God, but I did struggle. I did feel for a minute that maybe I didn't know what I was doing. Yes, I did go and ask for prayer for myself. Yes, a small part of me does feel selfish for doing so but Psalm 67 says "May God be gracious and bless us..." I was telling someone a couple months ago that I like hearing the good and bad stories when people speak in front of our church because it lets me know I'm not the only one who goes through a struggle so I don't really hold anything back. I started my own blog about my relationship with Christ because it helps me be a better disciple, it helps me be more bold and confident, it helps me strengthen my relationship as well. I was writing the other day about an experience I had in discipleship class and my associate pastor told me afterward "Everyone misses the boat the first time" (regarding the specific incident we were discussing) "but eventually it becomes so strong that you can't hold it in." I've blogged before about something Beverly told us in Sunday school one morning about how when she first got saved she would ask herself "Am I really saved?" Those are the kinds of things people struggle with. Hearing them say they both had struggles was nice for me. I enjoyed hearing it because it let me know I wasn't alone. That's why I blog all of mine; maybe I'm not alone. If one person reads it and relates then I'm fine with that. That's another reason why I do it. I felt like this past week was a great reassurance to the questions I had from the previous weeks. If you're not seeing an answer to your prayer, if you're not understanding the word, if you're feeling confused, just hold on. God's not ignoring you, He's testing you. If you struggle and feel like you need the strength to make it through, pray for that strength. I pray to God to give me boldness, confidence, strength, knowledge, and a better understanding all the time. I want to be used by God. I need all of that to be used by Him. Tonight was the first night I asked for someone else to pray that for me and again, that may sound selfish of me, but my church is full of some prayer warriors, lemme tell ya. I know God hears them and I wanted my prayers to be heard so I asked for help for it. Don't be afraid to ask for help because we all face problems

Fearlessly

Who Can?

Your Role in Eternity

Teach Me

The U In Jesus

Before U were thought of or time had begun,
God stuck U in the name of His Son..

And each time U pray, you'll see it's true,
You can't spell out JesUs and not include U.
You're a pretty big part of His wonderful name,
For U, He was born; that's why He came.

And His great love for U is the reason He died.
It even takes U to spell crUcified..

Isn't it thrilling and splendidly grand
He rose from the dead, with U in His plan?

The stones split away, the gold trUmpet blew,
And this word resUrrection is spelled with a U.

When JesUs left earth at His Upward ascension,
He felt there was one thing He just had to mention.

"Go into the world and tell them it's true
That I love them all - Just like I love U."

So many great people are spelled with a U,
Don't they have a right to know JesUs too?

It all depends now on what U will do,
He'd like them to know,
But it all starts with U.

A Necessity

Psalms 37:34

Jonathan Owens(Renewed)2-22-12