THIS SUNDAY - BRIDGE DAY & BLOCK PARTY!!

This Sunday is our big outreach day! Building a bridge to our community and celebrating life together at our Block Party! Thanks so much to everyone who worked so hard on building renovations, Block Party plans, Daycare preparations...ALL OF IT! We're blessed at Mooresville Church of God with a lot of dedicated and capable Christ-followers!

Pray with me that God will honor our efforst as we honor Him with all we've got! Are you excited? Let's see what our God will do!

"Give Us Clean Hands, Give Us Pure Hearts..."

In recent weeks we have been asking God to let us see people, our community and each other through His eyes. We've asked, through prayer, for Him to give us His heart for people who are far from Him. We want to weep over the things that make Him weep and rejoice over the things that make Him rejoice! As we anticipate our outreach effort this Sunday, September 13, 2009 -- Our Bridge Day & Block Party events -- we felt the need to ask God to do some interior work on us, His church. So we asked a few key questions:

What Made Jesus Weep?

1. Lost People - Luke 19:37-44
Jesus wept as he looked out over Jerusalem and contemplated how so many people had not believed that He actually WAS the Messiah and had not accepted His gift of salvation through faith in Him. He was moved to tears that anyone would be eternally separated from God! And He asks us to weep over lost people too!

2. Sick & Dying People - John 11:32-36
Some of Jesus' closest friends were the sisters, Mary & Martha and their brother, Lazarus. When Jesus gets word that Lazarus is sick he and his disciples begin to make their way to his home. But by the time they arrive, Lazarus has died. As Jesus sees Mary, Martha and some of their friends and family weeping and mourning, it moves Him to tears as well. Jesus weeps over people who are physically, spiritually, emotionally and relationally sick or dying. Our infirmity in any of these areas moves our Savior to weep for us! We are also called to let ourselves be moved by the sufferings of others as we follow Jesus' example.

3. The Burden of Doing His Father's Will - Luke 22:39-46
As Jesus knelt in the garden called Gethsemane, He cried out to His Father in heaven, He sweat blood, He was in anguish over seeing God's will done on this earth! His words, "...not my will, but yours be done" must become OUR words each day as we seek to actually BE His church! Doing God's will brought Jesus to tears! It should move us in exactly the same way because we are the living body of Christ!

What Did Jesus Tell Us to Rejoice In?

1. When we are persecuted for His sake - Matthew 5:11-12
Jesus didn't just tell us that we would be persecuted for His sake, He told to REJOICE when it happens! While this may not make sense to the rest of the world, this is kind of the point...that the world would see us joyful in the face of persecution, suffering, trouble and hardship! What a testimony to God's grace, power, provision and promises! As we are able to rejoice in our sufferings we grow in our understanding of what Jesus did for us! His sacrifice on the cross was painful and cruel, but through His own power Jesus rejoiced in doing it because it paved a way to His Father for all of us!

2. That our names are written in heaven - Luke 10:20
No matter what happens to us down here on earth we can rejoice because of the promise of heaven! As we are obedient to the call of Christ, receive salvation, pursue holiness and strive to be like Jesus, God imparts an ability to rejoice no matter that...we lost our job...our marriage is struggling...we're neck deep in debt...no matter what comes! We can rejoice because our names are written in heaven!

3. That what was lost, is now found - Luke 15:3-7; 8-10
In these verses Jesus tells two powerful parables that illustrate the rejoicing that happens for us and in heaven when someone far from God comes to know Him personally! However, the second parable, the parable of the lost coin, challenges believers in some ways too: In order to find the lost coin the woman illuminated the darkness and eliminated the dirt. And when she illuminated what was dark and eliminated the dirt, what was lost...was found! In our efforts to reach people who are far from God, we may have to let God illuminate the dark places of our lives and clean out the dirt and dust that has accumulated there. When we let God do that, then our hearts, our minds, our attitudes and our spirits are prepared to be used by God to reach the world around us!

Lord, give us clean hands! Lord, give us pure hearts! Help us to weep for what makes You weep! Help us to rejoice like You rejoice! Help us see the world, people, ourselves and our churches through Your eyes. We need You! Apart from You we can do NOTHING! Come in power and bring glory to Your Name!

Amen!

In His Grip,

Pastor John

2 Sunday Challenge

This Sunday, September 6th - 10:30 am
A Day of Prayer for Our Community

Please join us this Sunday as we dedicate a day to praying for our community. Churches aren't perfect, nor are people, but our community needs it's churches to step up to the plate and fight the spiritual battles that must be won if we're to see lives transformed and changed!

It is our responsibility to labor in prayer for the people, needs, public servants, schools, businesses and future of the greater Mooresville community! We must also pray for each other as we individually fight the good fight every day at our jobs, in our families and in our church. Won't you join us this Sunday as we carry out an important responsibility of the church: Being prayer warriors for the sake of our people, our church, our community and our world!


Bridge Day, Sunday, Sept. 13 - 10:30 am
Block Party, Sunday, Sept. 13 - Noon - 4:00 pm

Have you invited the person you're bringing to our Bridge Day and Block Party? We need for everyone to bring 1 person! We want to celebrate what God is doing among us by sharing this good news with anyone who doesn't know Him personally!

Come dressed in your shorts and T-shirts, celebrate God with us at 10:30 and then stay for the Block Party immediately after our morning worship service! This is your opportunity to change the world by changing a life! Invite them to be a part of this fun and potentially life-changing day!


Lord, would you bless our efforts as we look ahead to these important days together! We need Your presence, Your Spirit, Your power, Your boldness, Your provision! We need good weather! We need you to inspire those who are far from you to come. We commit, Lord, that as they come we will do our best to make You known! May all we say, do and accomplish be only and always for Your glory!

In Jesus Name we humbly pray,

Amen!

Are You A Leader?

Beginning this Sunday, August 23rd, we will spend two weeks examining the topic of leadership from two perspectives:

Aug. 23 - Pastor John will speak about leadership from a pastors perspective. Answering a couple of important questions: "What is the call of Jesus to pastors?" and "How should a pastor lead among the people he is called to serve?" These are key moments for our congregation as we continue to develop the relationship between pastor and congregation. This will help us understand what the pastoral staff is called to do as leaders as well as help us define what lay-leaders within the church are called to do as leaders.

Aug. 30 - Scott McDonald will be speaking to us about leadership from a lay-leader's perspective. Scott is a dedicated follower of Jesus Christ. He served in executive positions at Fed Ex / Kinkos for 12 years before taking a Managing Director role with Oakwood Worldwide. Scott, his wife Leisa and their two daughters, Emily and Abby, live in Carmel, Indiana where they attend Northview Christian Life, a thriving congregation of approximately 3000 people. Scott began to sense the call of God to use his own leadership gifts to serve the church as well as expand God's kingdom. Scott became an Associate Trainer with Equip (Dr. John Maxwell's ministry to train and mentor leaders within God's church all over the world). Scott travels to Panama and soon to Guyana to do leadership development with pastors and church leaders in those developing countries. In addition Scott heads up the leadership development ministry of his church. He has served a variety of lay-leader roles in the church. He is passionate about helping pastors lead effectively, and helping lay-leaders lead effectively!

In addition to Scott's Sunday morning message he will return Sunday afternoon at 2:30 and offer a "Leadership 101" course for any persons in the congregation that would like to explore their potential as a leader! You will not want to miss this opportunity to begin exploring how God can use YOU as a leader in His church! We hope everyone will plan to be a part of this excellent leadership training opportunity!

Just Walk Across the Room - Summary

OK, so here's a quick review from weeks 1-3 of our series "Just Walk Across the Room":

God has called us to reach people who are far from Him. That task is exciting and challenging, but it's not always easy! So here's some steps we can take to (with the help of the Holy Spirit) be productive and successful in carrying out God's mission of reconciling EVERYONE to Him!

1. Enter the "Zone of the Unknown" - This is being willing to walk across that room, even when it's a bit scary or uncomfortable, and reach out to people who need connection with God (and may need connection with YOU).
2. Follow the Promptings of the Holy Spirit - This is simply keeping a prayer connection to God so that as you walk across that room and connect with people who are far from Him, you'll be able to discern what He wants you to say and do!
3. Just Walk!! - OK, no more talking about it...this is actually DOING it! Walking across that room, confident in the leading of God's Holy Spirit and prepared to connect with whomever God has led you to!
4. Develop a Friendship - An old saying goes, "People won't care how much you know until they know how much you care". Do just spitting out the "4 Spiritual Laws" or leading them down the "Roman Road" may not be enough! They will need to see you cultivating a friendship with them first! They want to know they aren't a notch on your evangelistic belt! They are dearly loved by God. They want to know they are dearly loved by you too!
5. Discover their Story - This is simply becoming an expert listener. They will want to tell you their story eventually. You can hear the obstacles, questions, pain and hurdles they may face in coming to know the God that you love! It will take time in building the friendship, but hearing a person's story is a privilege!
6. Discern Next Steps - Once you have begun a friendship and begun to hear their story, you must stay connected to God and use wise discernment in your next steps of helping them draw near to the God who loves them, wants to save them and desires a personal relationship with them!
7. Tell them God's Story - As you discern your next steps the time will come when it's time to tell them God's love story with humanity! You get to tell them the John 3:16 perspective! That God loved them (and us!) so much that He sent His ONLY SON to die in our place! How they receive it and respond is not up to you...your job is simply to tell the Good News of Jesus!
8. Tell them Your Story - After they hear all the wonderful things about God they will likely want to know, "What difference has it made in YOUR life?" That's a question you need to be prepared to answer! So consider what your life was like BEFORE you knew Jesus Christ - How you came to know Him personally - And what your life has been like since! That's a simple but effective framework for telling your story!

As you consider all of the above steps here's a good clarifying question to answer:

What kind of vision for your life are you living? Is it a small, easily manageable, safe vision that requires little or know reliance on God? Or is it a large, sometimes risky, GRANDER vision that may cost you something, but will be exciting, fulfilling and God honoring?

If we are to live the "Grander Vision" of God we must build a foundation for that vision based on these steps:

1. The Priority is People - Luke 5:1-11
Jesus modeled this over and over in the Bible! He made the masses of people a priority and He made the few who followed him daily a priority! He spent time with people, listened to people, healed people, taught people, mentored people, confronted people, rebuked people. His priority was always PEOPLE! In the above Luke passage we see him teaching the masses as well as teaching and calling Peter, Andrew, James and John! He made them push out into deep water to catch the fish! The deep water isn't the safe place, but it's evidently where the fish are! So we too must push out into the less safe places of life so that we can reach those people God is calling us to influence for His sake!

2. The Focus is Their Potential - Luke 5:27-32
Author and speaker Max Lucado once said, "God loves you just the way you are but He doesn't want to leave you that way...He wants you to be just like Jesus"! Through God's eyes we all have almost limitless potential! We MUST begin to see ourselves and other people through God's eyes! In the above Luke passage Jesus sees the potential in Matthew (also called Levi). First is his potential as a follower of Jesus. But also Jesus saw Matthew's potential to reach people who were far from God! And what's the first thing Matthew does? He throws a party! A party where all of his cheating and sinful tax collector friends would hang out with Jesus and all of the disciples! GENIUS! We must see our own potential as well as the potential in those people God calls us to reach!

3. The Starting Point is Prayer - Collossians 4:2-6
So after 4 weeks of preaching and processes, where do we start on this business of walking across rooms, yards, offices, family rooms and bedrooms to reach people who are far from God? Well we start at a very familiar place...PRAYER. We must commit ourselves to pray earnestly, without ceasing and with passion and endurance for the people God has called us to reach! In the above Collossians passage Paul is asking his readers to pray for him and for all of the disciples as they carry out the mission God had given them to reach the entire WORLD for His sake! In fact he starts out the passage by saying, "devote yourselves to prayer..."! Be devoted to it! So what are you waiting for? Start praying for that person right now!

Well, there it is...a good challenge...a dynamic calling...a way of life for Christ followers! Walking, running, calling, emailing, texting, driving, flying...WHATEVER IT TAKES to reach the people God has called us to reach with His love, grace and saving power! So don't wait any longer...

...just walk across the room...and let's see what our God can do through US!

In His Grip,

Pastor John

Just Walk Across the Room - Week 1

"Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend,
somewhere along in the bitterness,
and I would have stayed up
with you all night,
had I known how to save a life".
(How to Save a Life - The Fray)

As I hear the lyrics from this song it brings to mind a number of times in my life when I've seen difficult, painful, tragic or fatal situations in someone's life. Sometimes later I've begun thinking, "If only...if only I could have...if only I would have...if only I had known...". For Christians the statement doesn't need to be, "if only I had know how to save a life". In fact, what if the answer to the question "How to Save a Life" is simply to walk across a room and be willing to enter into the lives of people all around us that simply may need someone to reach out to them.

We know that this perspective does not answer the question fully, but it is a significant first step! Because until we walk across that room there is NO CHANCE of God using us to offer hope, encouragement, healing or new life to the person that the Spirit is urging us to reach. So here are some initial first thoughts on walking across that room and reaching the person that God has called you, prompted you, and challenged you to reach:

1. People who want to reach those whom God has placed in their sphere of influence must first enter the "ZONE OF THE UNKNOWN".

This zone is the place where we wonder, "what's going to happen", "what are they going to think", "what are they going to say to me", "what am I going to say to them". It can be a scary place, because the unknown is always a little scary and intimidating. But we MUST go there if we are to be used by God for His purposes! Think of all the biblical people who entered into difficult, scary, intimidating and unknowable situations simply because God called them to go! Abraham, Moses, David, Esther, Mary, Joseph, Peter, Paul...and of course...Jesus, as He endured separation from His heavenly Father for the first time in eternal history so that we could be reconciled to God! In each of these situations God brought victory and advancement of His purposes and His kingdom through ordinary people like you and me! And He's still doing that today!

2. People who want to reach those whom God has placed in their sphere of influence must stay sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

It is our job to grow spiritually. Churches play an important role, our family and friends play important roles, but it is ultimately our job to grow in our maturity and sensitivity to God's movement and call on our lives! Galatians 5:25 states, "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit". This is a great command that will further our ability to walk across that room when God prompts us to do it! To NOT walk across that room, or to put it off or deny the promptings is nothing short of disobedience to God! This is a hard but true word for us today! There are many, many examples of the tragic and sometimes fatal results when the people of God disobey God's promptings to accomplish His will and reach those who are far from Him!

3. People who want to reach those whom God has placed in their sphere of influence must...simply...walk across that room!

Remember Nike's slogan from a few years ago? God is asking us to "Just Do It". When God says go, we go. When God says speak, we trust Him for the right words. When God says listen, we close our mouths and listen to Him and to the person He's calling us to reach! And we do this in the knowledge that what God is asking us to do, Jesus has already done...to perfection. Jesus left a place of security (communion with the Father and the Spirit), took a cosmic walk across time to enter into our world, put on flesh and bones (a Zone of the Unknown for Him!) and being led by the Spirit of God He changed the world for you and me sacrificially giving His life in exchange for ours!

So here are 2 good challenges for all of us today:

1. Just walk across whatever room God is prompting us to traverse in order to reach the person He already has in mind for us to reach!

2. Send a word of thanks to those persons who walked across the room for us! Send a card, an email, a letter, make a phone call, go visit them...whatever it takes...so that they know how much their boldness to walk across that room for your sake means to you!

Let's see what God will do through us as we keeping walk across rooms for His sake!

In His Grip,

Pastor John

Important Upcoming Events!

FINANCIAL PEACE UNIVERSITY
BEGINNING THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2009
MOORESVILLE CHURCH OF GOD





All MCHOG families are encouraged to take this course! See Mike & Vanessa True for questions and to sign up!
Cost - $100 per couple
(See Pastor John if financial assistance is needed)

BRIDGE DAY & BLOCK PARTY!!
SEPTEMBER 13, 2010
BRIDGE DAY WORSHIP - 10:30
BLOCK PARTY - NOON - 4:00




This is an important outreach opportunity for our congregation! Plan to invite your friends, neighbors, family members, co-workers...EVERYONE!

See Matt & Maggy Fisher to volunteer for a team for this important event!