experience is necessary!

our new series is all about experience. the basis thought tonight was if you don’t experience the power of God in a real way, then who will miss out on knowing Christ? tonight we took a look at the cripple man that sat at the gate beautiful begging for alms…peter and john came by and said “look at us” he in turn gave them his attention and listened to them. whatever you give your attention to, whatever you choose to listen to, that’s what will define your experience! the world we live in is looking for something real. if we don;t experience the power of God will they? Peter and John were dragged before the religious leaders of their day because they did something kind when the cripple man was healed. The leaders took note that they had been with Jesus! When you choose to be with Jesus, people will see and experience him in your life. The world around us is simply waiting for us to experience him so that they can have a real life changing experience.

Experience is necessary!

great series we are in…i am loving what God is doing in our students!

sermon series “burn pt 3″

tonight we are continuing a series called burn and we finish off with a night to burn on saturday. this was a great series focusing on the spiritual atmosphere of our youth church. if there is one thing i want and desire it’s to raise the spiritual temperature of our students. tonight we are talking about the fire…the benefits…

1. fire reveals the junk as well as the direction we need.
you can stumble over the junk in the dark or you can walk in the leading of God.

2. fire demands a response. you just can’t set someone on fire and expect them not to respond.
i think of 2 responses when the fire falls-people will run from it or run to it!

3. fire restores purity. the dross…the contaminants in our lives will only be purged by fire.

we all need the fire-no matter what age or what place we are spiritually we need the fire in our lives.

wake up

last night i started a series called wake up!  we looked at 3 sleeping disorders and related them to the spiritual lives of kids…this message was fun informative and stirring. as a youth pastor i have seen so many just plain numb to the things of god…this message was meant to stir up the numb to wake up!

here is a few highlights copied right from my notes:  

the word asleep means-not attentive or alert; inactive, having no feeling; numb…dead to the world, zonked….to slumber

Romans 13: 11 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.

sleeping disorders…
1. Automatic behavior-
Purposeless verbal or nonverbal motion behaviors without conscious control

too many are talking nonsense and acting out of control…purposeless!

2. sleepwalking
Too many are walking around asleep – eyes open – but their actions don’t line up! They don’t live it!

3. Narcolepsy – falling asleep at any given time…faling out at inappropriate times

I honestly knew a kid that was a narcoleptic. he fell asleep walking down the road in belize on a missions trip…and then fell out all over the country…it was for real a mess!

If you are asleep – you are not conscious of the world, you will miss out on the destiny God has for you!

Judges 16:20 Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him

Samson was fast asleep and they cut off his hair and he did not realize the lord had left him

Its time to wake up – to be alert –

are you numb to the things of God?

the open door-part 3 of youth series

the door is open for worship.  

revelation 4: 1 Then I looked, and, oh!—a door open into Heaven. The trumpet-voice, the first voice in my vision, called out, “Ascend and enter. I’ll show you what happens next.” 2 I was caught up at once in deep worship and, oh!—a Throne set in Heaven with One Seated on the Throne. (message bible)

there only 2 things that stand in the way of you walking thru the door of worship…

1. you stand in the way with pride.

pride is – the consciousness of one’s own dignity. i love the story of david when he chose to bring back the ark of the covenant from obed edoms house to jerusalem. every 6 paces they would slaughter a bull. the 12 mile journey would have been a bloody mess, but the moment they entered jerusalem david is out front dancing and worshipping God. His own wife despised him and basically threw him under the bus when she saw him. his response was…basically shut up woman…i aint doing this for you and i will be even more undignified. i believe david was not conscious of his own dignity he was conscious of his gods desire for worship! what about you?

2. someone else stands in the way…when you give them the power to.

Romans 12:2 don’t conform to the pattern of this world-
The word pattern has to do with a die – it was a shape that was cast by exerting great pressure on something! Pressure is real! we face it everyday to conform to a set of standards. the patter of this world is not to be a worshipper, so if you give power to the opinions of others, you are basically allowing them to stand in the doorway of worship!

remember the one place god desires for us to be is close to him, no better place to be than in a place of worship. you want access to the throne room, then you gotta walk through the door. walk through the door and enter into the throne zone!

revelation 4:1 The trumpet-voice, the first voice in my vision, called out, “Ascend and enter. I’ll show you what happens next.” 2 I was caught up at once in deep worship and, oh!—a Throne set in Heaven with One Seated on the Throne (message bible)

lucky charms?

tonight i came home from a creative meeting for a series i am preparing for the end of february.  we have some great ideas for 3 services, but fell short of the whole umbrella for the event.  every chance we get we look to take this whole thing to another level, and that takes involving people that can add to the mix. 

after the creative meeting i met with students going on our missions trip this summer.  now that takes some serious effort in order to pull off with lasting effects.  ministry is not about luck.  you just don’t luck into success, you just don’t luck into pulling off quality events.  ministry that is effective is planned out, prayed thru and perpetuated by thins thing called work. i have this philosophy that if you only do the minimum then you wont get the extraordinary.

so whats the deal with lucky charms?  i’m home watching the coldest football game in greenbay, where a bunch of these jokers are sleeveless on the field, i am in no way that tough! oh yah i am eating a bowl of lucky charms.  go figure! 

new sermon series

today i worked on a new series that starts this week in crave. “friends with benefits”… the urban dictionary defines it as “A physically involved relationship, where both partners enjoy some comforts of sitting on the fence between serious relationship and simple friendship.” basically a relationship between friends that is physical but no strings attached. now you may be thinking, why are you focusing on this aspect of a relationship…well I’m not! it’s more of a play on words or better yet a tease to get students to think about relationships! what i am focusing on is what benefits are there in having friends. pt 1 we will look at…the first place to start with friendships is yourself! you need to be a good friend to yourself! we will also focus on the fact that “show me your friends and I will show you your future” this is going to be an amazing series for students. everything flows out of having the right relationships. what kinda friend are you?

can’t wait to preach tomorrow night!

sermon series…love covers

tonight we are going to dive deeper into love. 1 peter 4:8 love covers over a multitude of sin. if love covers what does it do? we took a look at the word cover and it means to guard and protect …so we can see that love guards and protects. cover also means to protect, to pattern and to probe. so tonight we are going to deal with the fact that love is a shelter for protection. god wants to cover us and protect us…Love is a pattern of the original – a cover song is a newer version of an original. Jesus is the original and he is the pattern we are to follow…love also is a probe- it investigates- to cover does not mean to hide something but to investigate it as well. Jesus did not come to cover up our sin but openly deal with it and set us free from it. simply said…LOVE tells the whole story! so many people are trying to cover their lives with so many things…God is LOVE and he is the only one that can cover us! tonight is gonna be a good night at crave!