Last night was great!! We got to hear what JESUS has been doing in the lives of some of our friends and got to celebrate baptism with others. It was a beautiful night!! We got to celebrate what GOD has done in our lives, and making commitments to, as Annalyse put it, “Let GOD do His thing”. It is amazing when we can celebrate what GOD is doing by sharing our stories with others. Through hearing what JESUS is doing in the lives of others we can be encouraged in our own journey.

So what do you think??

What’s your story?

Tonight was week 3 of “The Price is Right” Jeremy threw out a HUGE question for us. .. What can you do to bring glory to GOD?

We looked at Matthew 28. One of the last things JESUS told His disciples was “therefore. . . go.” They had seen Him raise people from the dead. They had been touched by His life. And with everything they had seen, touched, experienced, JESUS told them to GO.

And just like them we have seen and felt and known JESUS, and just like the disciples GOD is telling us to GO.  Because we are too often confronted with the option to just hold what we have. And too often we are content to look over the “therefore. . . GO” mandate.

So what do you think??

What can you do to bring glory to GOD?

Who do you know well who needs to see the glory of GOD?

Tonight Jeremy led u sin a look at grace and a place that most us have been or find our selves in, and that’s treating the grace of GOD as an excuse to be a lazy Christian. We looked at John 3:16. . .

And looking at grace and mercy people will fall into 1 or 2 categories. In one group you are able to read of the grace and mercy of GOD in John 3:16, but then continue to sin. Coming every week to our small group and saying, “um, I did it again. I’m sorry” and the next week, “um, I did it again. I’m sorry”, and the next week, “um, I did it again. I’m sorry”. . .

Jeremy shared a story about how when he was in college he got in some serious trouble with credit cards. It started with one and then snowballed until he owed more than he could pay. His parents bailed him out and he was genuinely remorseful, and his behavior changed. . . for a while. Then a couple years later he got another card and again put more on it than he could cover.

And too often we are tempted and do look at the grace of GOD as something we can just pull out over and over again and never actually change. From looking at porn on the internet time and time again, and just saying sorry, asking for more grace and mercy but going back to repeat the same cycle. . .to what ever sin we just don’t really struggle with but rather just keep asking for more grace and mercy knowing we will do it again.  But there is no struggle with the sin, just a giving in to it knowing you can ask for mercy.

So what do you think?

You ever been in this category?

How did you get out? 

Do you find yourself there now?

In light of what the mercy and grace of GOD really is, what will you do now?

You know it’s gonna be a great night when it involves wrapping your friends in TP and Saran wrap while trying to run around the gym. Although I have to admit one of my favorite parts or the night was watching the freshman continue to play with the toilet paper long after the relay was done.

And at the end of the night Jeremy shared about Life Groups, and wer’e so glad that we have so many students involved with our different groups. So much of growing into who we are in JESUS involves growing with others around us. Some people in our lives encourage us, while others challenge us: this is the beautiful part of the body of CHRIST.

What do you think?

Is it important to have good friends in your life who love JESUS and will challenge you to do the same?

Has being in a Life Group helped you in your journey?

And if so, how?

Tonight Jeremy led us in a look at Luke 15, a text that most of us have read and often want to write off because we know the ending. But there is so much all of us can learn from it.

In looking at the text we were presented with a couple profound ideas

*If you’re a prodigal- start walking back becasue GOD is waiting you and ready to party.

*If you’re pious- get over yourself and get a glimpse of what makes the Father happy.

It is very obvious when we’re the prodigal, we feel it in our gut and carry it with us everywhere.

But all too often most of us can have a tendency to fall into the trap of becoming pious, and it is not too easy to identify. Jeremy laid out 3 indicators that we have become pious. . .

    1)Immaturity- just like the older brother got mad and had a fit, immaturity is a sign of piousness. . .taking your ball and going home.

    2) Sense of Accomplishment- So aware of what we’ve done and what we’ve accomplished.

    3) Sense of entitlement- thinking “I deserve. . . ” “GOD should give to me. . .”

And Jeremy left us with some amazing wisdom. . . The longer you serve GOD- the harder you have to fight this mentality.

Read it again. . . The longer you serve GOD- the harder you have to fight this mentality.

But then we saw how GOD responded to the pious older son. He said. . .

You have always been with Me and everything I have is yours.

And just like the poor immigrant who saved and bought a ticket to America and almost starved staying in his room didn’t realize that with the purchase of his ticket he had all his meals paid for. He had a seat in the dining room, but was eating crackers in his room. Too often we too don’t realize that all the Father has is our because we are looking at what we don’t have but we think we should.

But the party wasn’t for the younger brother. . . it was for the dad. He had to celebrate cuz His lost son was home. The story of the Bible is not the story of me and you. It is the story of the Father. . .

We have the choice tonight: to love GOD and obey Him, or to take off and do it our way.

So what do you think? Where do you fit?

*If you’re a prodigal start walking back becasue GOD is waiting you and ready to party

*If you’re pious, get over yourself and get a glimpse of what makes the Father happy. 

Sunday Pastor Mark continued his series “influence” by looking at pleasure and the great pleasure of pleasing GOD. If you missed it, you can stream it here.

We looked at attributes of the Great pleasure of pleasing God as well as some practical ways that we can seek to please GOD. Using spiritual practices, sincere relationships, and spirit-led counseling we can know what pleases GOD. For me (Danee) one of the things that stuck with me and I have continued to think about is the question “Is the pleasure of pleasing GOD my greatest pleasure?” Hopefully we have all experienced the sheer delight of pleasing GOD- doing something that we know makes Him happy. But is it high on our priority list?

What do you think? Are you aware that you please GOD? Do you know what pleases Him? Is pleasing Him on your priority list? Is it even practical to strive to please GOD?

Last night Jeremy did an amazing job teaching based on 1 Corinthians 5(obviously  Jeremy isn’t writing this- but wanted to calrify)  and how as the church, a big part of loving each other involves accountability. If you missed it, we’ll have the podcast up sometime in the next 2 days.

A big part of accountability is making sure we have set boundries in place to ensure we don’t even go near what tempts us. Like a fence in the backyard. it isn’t there to keep a child from enjoying what’s outside the fence, but it is there to ensure that the child can’t even go near the road or that a stranger can’t get to the kid.

     What boundries have you set up in your life to ensure you don’t give in to what tempts you?

If internet pornagraphy is something you are tempted, there are programs such as  x3 that  help you in the accountability proccess.

In addition to making sure our boundaries are set, we also must get the backs of our friends who love JESUS. We are all a part of the same family, and we claim the name of JESUS, which brings about responsibility to live a life that brings Him glory. And when we see another CHRIST-follower who has given in and living in sin, we have an obligation to come to them from a place of love and hold them accountable. Matthew 18 shows us how we are to go about this.

So what do you think?

     Are your boundries set strong enough in order to keep temptation far from you?

     What could you do to strengthen your boundaries?

    Are you in a place where you need to be held accountable for the sin you have given over to? 

Sunday Pastor Mark continued his influence series with taking us through a look at our motives. It was an amazing message which was both encouraging and convicting and posed the questions “Whom am I trying to please and why?” and “Whom am I trying to inspire and how?”

 If you didn’t have a chance to hear it, you can stream it here. The sermon started with a great skit where 2 men were talking at work and we were able to see their thought bubbles. Their thoughts didn’t match with what they were saying, and in seeing their thoughts, we could see their motives.

We looked at how our motives can either be self-pleasing, people-pleasing, or God-pleasing. We were also challenged to ask GOD to search our hearts and our motives (Psalm 139:23-24), and to asked to ask some pretty tough questions about our recent decisions. .

     If God tested my motives about recent decisions or relationships, would I pass?

     If God tested my motives about recent actions or attitudes, would I pass?

We can use these questions to test if we have God-pleasing motives that reflect a genuine concern for Christ’s message, and a genuine care for others.

So what do you think?

Does the challenge to ask GOD to search our hearts and motives have a place in finding our next step?

If so, how?

Wednesday night we talked about where we were in our relationship with Christ by looking at the story of Peter out of Luke 5. Then we asked the question:
What is your next step?

We had some great answers as people were very transparent about their own place with God. We decided we are going to read THIS everyday and talk about it.

So, what do you think?

Wednesday night was an amazing service starting with us worshiping our GOD together and ending with a great teaching by Jeremy. We’re in the middle of a series called True[ish] and last night we looked at GOD wanting us to be happy.

So many times we are tempted to base our relationship with GOD on if we’re happy or not. And many times, when we’re not happy, we point the finger at GOD and say He’s failed us. I know there have been countless times when I have had to apologize and truly repent to GOD because I was upset that things didn’t go my way and I was left miserable.

But as we looked at this topic last night, there are certain times when GOD doesn’t want us to be happy. . .

WHEN IT CAUSES YOU TO DO SOMETHING WRONG OR UNWISE.

And

WHEN IT IS ONLY BASED ON THINGS IN THIS WORLD

We are called to be Holy because GOD is holy (1 Peter 1:15), and not to find our happiness in what the world has to offer (1 John 2). Last night we talked about some things the world says we should base our happiness on: success, a great body, a good career, a sweet ride, etc. These things in and of themselves aren’t bad, but we can’t stake our happiness on them.

What GOD wants for us is to be blessed, which often doesn’t look like we think it should, but always is more amazing than we could ever dream. (Ps 112)

So this begs to ask the questions. . .

*Are you blaming GOD for your unhappiness in something? This is a tough question and the answer is not often obvious.

*What are you finding your happiness in? (Remember it’s not wrong to enjoy the things in the world- but they shouldn’t be what our happiness is dependent on. )

So what do you think???