Wednesday Night Notes 2/23/11 - F.A.I.T.H.

We’ve started studying Faith Evangelism. F.A.I.T.H.

The need to know how to explain to someone the plan of salvation is important 

and lot of people understand that Christ died on a cross but that’s all.

As we go through the word FAITH, we’ll take each letter and bring it through the plan of salvation. 
This helps people share their faith but hopefully they will get a better understanding of what that sacrifice on that cross cost.

This Wednesday we started with “F” which stands for Forgiveness.

Forgive

: to give up resentment of <forgive an insult>

: to grant relief from payment of <forgive a debt>

: to cease to feel resentment against (an offender) 

: Pardon <forgive one's enemies>

The Greek word for forgiveness means: to let go, to leave, to leave behind

Forgiveness is more than two parties being brought back together.

It also involves completely forgetting the offense that initially caused the problem.

The bible tells us that when God forgives us, He forgets our sin, never to bring it up again.

Jeremiah 31:34 
 …“And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”

Everyone has sinned and need God’s forgiveness

Romans 3:23

God’s forgiveness is in Jesus only

Ephesians 1:7

The bible doesn’t categorize some sins more more or less serious than others. Sin is sin, regardless of our assessment of its severity.

James 2:8-11

Here some more scripture on forgiveness:

Matthew 6:14, Matthew 26:28, Mark 1:4, Mark 2:5 

Acts 5:31, Acts 8:22, Romans 3:25, Romans 4:7 

Winter Jam 2011 Video #3

Here's some footage from the concert.
KJ-52 and Newsboys

Winter Jam 2011 Video #2

Matthew 5:14-16

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Don't ever hide it guys....

With the protesters trying to damper the spirit of the people waiting for the concerts our group decided to sing Until the Whole World Hears. Even some of the crowd joined in.

It was great to watch our group run through the crowd praising the Lord. 

With no regret they lead in "This is How I Praise The Lord" urging the crowd to participate.

Winter Jam 2011 Video #1

David Frey from Sidewalk Prophets takes a phone call from Tennessee.

All the artist there were super nice, even to the point of making small talk with Lacy Jay. That's only found with the love of Christ.

Chris August came out to sing for the crowd while we were waiting to get in the doors. Awesome guy, he even gave away some free merch before he went back in. Here's the video of him singing Starry Night, even the crowd joined in.

Winter Jam 2011

Here's some snapshots from Winter Jam 2011.  I have some videos I will post later of our group hanging outside the River Center. We entertained ourselves, met some band members, watched some guys protesting the concert, even entertained the crowd a little and to top all that off we saw some amazing Christian bands and heard a great speaker.

All in all it was a good night. 

"One life to fight the battle and all eternity to celebrate".... Tony Nolan

Headed to the River Center for Winter Jam with my students.
Boy it sure is fun to be a youth minister!

Ninja isn't quite as fun sitting down

Quick photo-op with David Frey from Sidewalk Prophets

With Jon Micah from Kutless

Duncan from Newsboys speaking words of encouragement
to the youth ministers backstage

RED brought an amazing show

KJ-52 rocked the stage in the middle of the arena

David Crowder Band brought some awesome Praise & Worship!

Michael Tait with Newsboys didn't hold anything back
when it came to his turn with the mic. 

Wednesday Night Notes 2/16/11

This is a summary of my notes from Wednesday Night Youth, I hope they help for the ones that weren't able to take notes or weren't able to make it.
We read from Matthew 8:23-27, Jesus Calms The Storm.
Have you ever worried yourself to death? Yeah its just a metaphor, but the guys in the boat with Jesus were worried about drowning, yet they called themselves disciples. 


-They were faced with a storm. 
 In our life we're faced with problems.
 Reality is we're going to have problems come up in our lives.
-The waves crashed into the boat. 
 Like the overwhelming things that happen to us, we panic and try to figure out a solution.
-Their boat couldn't weather the storm "waves breaking into the boat" 
 I'm sure these disciples were wondering if the boat could hold the water.
 We try to figure out how we can get through the situation with what we have. 
 We may even play the "What if" game on the things that happen to us.
-Jesus asleep in the boat.
 Some times we think we need to wake Jesus up with the things going on in our lives. 
 We wonder how long he's going to stand by and watch how things happen, we worry.
 Yet Jesus is there the entire time and is very much capable of calming any storm,
look at
Matthew 8:27
The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
 The reality is we will have storms in our lives, we just need to face reality with faith in Jesus, knowing that he takes care of us and loves us. We call ourselves disciples "followers of Christ" yet we still question Him. Reality is, we will ask questions because we're human, but the faith we should have in Him should give us comfort for the things we don't understand.


Helpful Scripture during the storms in life:
Luke 18:27, Matthew 11:28-30, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Psalms 91:15, Proverbs 3:5-6, 
Philippians 4:13, 2 Corinthians 9:8, 2 Timothy 1:7, 1 Peter 5:7, Hebrews 13:5

So Blessed & So Loved

Just 7 years ago to this day I made one of the biggest decisions of my life.

I made the decision to propose to Misty! I think that was one of the longest days of my life, but it was a good one.

The morning started off with one long stem red rose on her pillow with a card. As the day went on, she received several more roses. That evening as I walked to her door to pick her up for our dinner reservations, I brought her a dozen more. See that was the easy part, now the hard part, asking her father for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Since I was early she went back into her room to finish getting ready, so I slipped outside where her dad was. I had to act fast so that she didn’t expect anything. (You know I think this is probably one of the most respectful things to do, but man is it one of the hardest!)

Well he said yes, I’d give you the details but that’s between the two of us. Lol!

So I made my way back inside ready to go. See I already planned out the night with dinner and then to a pier lined in candles going out onto a lake. Sounds kind of like something you’d see on TV right, but I thought it up myself. But as we started in on our dinner reservations Mother Nature had different plans. Yes, it started raining. But I was prepared. Just beside the lake was a small cabin where inside I decided to prepare just incase of bad weather. Well, after dinner I acted like we didn't have any other plans and that we could just call it a night. But then I told her I had something else we could do. Well for about the first 5 minutes she asked where we were going. That was until I gave her a blindfold for her eyes, then she was really curious. But she just sat there as we drove along, I wonder what was going on in her head. Well we arrived at the lake and I asked her to wait in the car, that I'd be just a minute. It was still raining so I ran in to set the table. There in the middle of the table was our favorite cake, champagne glasses (no we were drinking sparkling white grape juice), lit candles with rose petals all around and another dozen roses. So with the ring in place under the table I ran back to get Misty that was still blindfolded in the car. She said she didn't peak while I was gone, but she did wonder why she heard ducks around the car. I just laughed and brought her inside. There she took off her blindfold and we enjoyed our cake and sparkling white grape juice! What was running through her mind, she could only tell you. But right there I dropped to one knee and poured my heart out to her. I’m sure my words ran all over each other but in the end she said “YES” as I asked her to marry me.

7 years later I can still see the smile on her face as I dropped to one knee and pulled out that ring.

The race home was just as fun as we went to tell her parents and then mine.

I am truly blessed to have Misty as my wife. A woman that I truly love and that truly loves me. To top that off God has blessed us with a wonderful son named Maddox and I pray that he continues to bless us as we live for Him.

Genesis 2:18, 21-24

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. “At last!” the man exclaimed.

“This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’”

This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.

Happy Valentines Day

High Attendance Sunday

Well Trey kept his hair this morning. With our extreme goal of 100 we had 34 come join us. Some of us are starting to think that Trey asked people to stay home, Ha! Just kidding.  But since we only had 1/3 of our goal we told Trey we could just shave a 1/3 of his head. It was a great Sunday morning, the church was packed and we had our High Attendance Sunday. 
Bro Wendell began a series on the Armor of God, starting off with the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. After we had dinner on the grounds and enough food to feed an army, it was all good. 

Ephesians 6:13-14

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place.

Calling All Youth! Calling All Youth!

This Sunday, February 13^th Holden Baptist Church will be holding a High Attendance Sunday. Sunday School will start at 10am and the youth have set a goal of 100 youth in attendance for Sunday School. For our church that’s a lot. But youth worship leader Trey Addison has put his head on the chopping block. Trey has stepped forward offering to shave his head if the youth can meet this high goal. Yeah he’ll look funny if we succeed, but he can just wear a hat! With all fun aside, this High Attendance Sunday is the push some of us need to invite our friends and family to come to church with us.  Too many times we’re nervous or scared to ask someone to join us on a day of worship. But too many times people sit there waiting for someone to invite them. Be the hands and feet of Christ, invite someone you care about to enter into the House of God with you.

Psalm 22:22
I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people.

How Our Hearts Yearn

Wow when we start to realize how much we miss a relationship, it hurts. It’s been just over a week since my sister has gone to be with the Lord. The longing to see her again is crazy, someone that was always there, just a call away, a ride across town to visit. How our hearts yearn for contact with someone that’s not there in our lives any longer. 

Just thinking about this makes me wonder how we can live on without God. That relationship that’s just a prayer away, the knowing of a great love and yet some don’t desire it, some don’t hurt for it, some don’t long for it, and some don’t yearn for it. Do some even know what they’re missing? Or have they hardened their hearts. Either way they are hurting for the love of a Savior. Some just don’t know it and have filled that hole with anything that comes along. Oh the day that Christ is in every heart. I pray for that day and that it comes soon, so that no one misses out on the love we can find in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 3:17

Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.