Here is the group from my church that went to the NLC this year.
We have... the Sr Pastor and his wife, the Youth Pastor and his wife, the Alive Creative Arts Ministry Leader, The 5th&6th Grade Leaders, and me. :) Great group of people that I love so much!
The Lord calls us to record what we have learned and experienced so that we can remember His faithfulness in our lives and what He has taught us. That's a big reason I have kept this blog and the main reason I am writing these next few posts.
I want to share with you and record for myself what the Lord has taught me. Thursday from 8am until 6pm I heard 7 pastors speak with authority The Word of The Lord, and here, on my blog, I want to record what I learned. Over the next couple days I will be writing about the lessons I learned from each pastor at the conference.
If you have any questions or want further information about any of the content below, you can message me! Also, I'm linking to all the pastor's churches if you want more information about them or their church.
This man is smart. He studies more than I sleep. I mean, he is SMART. He's popular among a wide variety of Christians and is one of the most downloaded and quoted pastors of this time. Here's what I got out of his sermon at Newspring...
- Your family must come before your ministry
- Make sure that the work you are doing for the Lord does not become your idol.
- Just because you have the theology of something does not mean that you live the reality of it. Make SURE you are living what you preach.
- Your spouse should be your friend, not just your partner in kid-raising (life) or ministry, because when you move into different seasons of life, you are going to need to have more that just a work-type relationship.
He and his wife wrote a book on marriage that will be coming out soon. He was very real in sharing struggles and hurdles that he and his wife have overcome in their marriage as well as personally. A smart person who also is humble and shares his heart... now that's a good pastor right there :)
I heard about Steven Furtick last year at around this time and have been listening to his sermons online and reading his blog posts pretty regularly ever since. He is a bold young man of God and his wisdom is from the Holy Spirit. I was a little geeked out to see him in person, which is slightly embarrassing to admit... but hey, I'm just being real :) Steven spoke on gratitude, (I had heard this sermon before, but he added and took away some content since then) and when you have 45 minutes to spare, I strongly, strongly suggest that you listen to this sermon, which is the 3rd in a 3 part series... all really good, but this was the one he revamped for yesterday. It quite literally changed my life through the way I think. Here's what I learned yesterday...
- Psalm 100:4 God want's praise before anything. Give Him your praise, your gratitude when you "enter His courts".
- Gratitude is never invisible or silent. If you are thankful for something, you say it. If you aren't speaking it, then you aren't feeling it. "From the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks" Matthew 12:34
- Gratitude sustains joy and blessing. When you remember and are thankful, you will be joyful and receive God's blessings.
- Gratitude begins where my sense of entitlement ends. When I feel entitled to something, I am not grateful like I should be. I need to know and remember that my God is the giver of all things good in my life. I deserve nothing good, everything good in me is God, and I am grateful.
- Grateful people can FIND a blessing, ENLARGE a blessing or CREATE a blessing in almost any situation, and on the flip side, negative people can FIND a burden, ENLARGE a burden or CREATE a burden in almost any situation. Quit being a crap factory and look at the good in life.
- Lots of times the very things I complain about are things I have asked God for. They were at one point a blessing to me and now I am complaining! Staying home with my kids, working in ministry, dealing with a spotty Skype connection with Ryan... these are all things that are a HUGE blessing in my life and yet I can so quickly become negative about them.
I am so thankful for Pastor Steven and his willingness to share this reminder... seriously, this is a fantastic sermon to listen to... I HIGHLY recommend it!
I had never heard of this pastor before... but let me tell you, I have never laughed so hard during a sermon. All the pastors at this conference were hilarious, but Pastor Craig was HIL-AIR-E-US. On top of that, he was incredibly relevant and had very good things to say. It's no wonder that his church has multiple campuses and is continuously growing. Here's what I learned from Pastor Craig...
- Be aware that after you have taken steps in following The Spirit's prompting in your life, you will experience uncertainty. If you have every step planned out and you don't have to rely on the Lord for guidance, then you are missing out on what He has planned for you.
- If you aren't ready to face opposition for God, then you are not ready to step out in faith. Hard-core Christ followers are often criticized... for many, many things! I think it was Craig who said "If you're church isn't being called a cult every now and then, you probably aren't moving the world enough." People like to call out Christians for anything they can... and you have to be close enough with God so that you can know, that you know, that you know that you are on the right path.
- Don't build your ministry based on what you don't like, (ie. we're not like that boring church over there who just sings hymns) but build your ministry on a positive base (ie. our church plays contemporary music because we are trying to reach the younger generation for God.) Don't be negative!
- Acts20:24 Make God's plan more important than my comfortably.
- We (as Christians) can live in 3 different categories... the middle one is where most people tend to hang out...
- Our goal is to make a difference in our world.
- We think that we (our church, our ministry) is good.
- We are happy when our numbers are up and we get upset when our numbers are down because that is where we find satisfaction.
- Our enemy is all the other churches because they are taking the people from us...which is bad because we're the best!
- When we switch our thinking from I'm or we're good to "God's good" then we are able to change History... God's glorification is top priority and our only enemy is Satan. Imagine how succesful we would be in the eyes of God if our only goal was to glorify Him.
- God wants to change the world with us. He does not want us to only make a difference. Follow the Spirit's prompting in your life for the glory of The Lord because only then can He change the world through you!
Craig said so many good things... I wish you could have been there to hear him as well as the others.
Tomorrow I'll wrap up the day with the 4 other pastor's lessons. Thanks for stopping by... I pray that the Holy Spirit gave you clarity while you were reading :)
1 comment:
nicely done.
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