Thank you West Rome for rockin’ again tonight. Thanks for allowing God to turn a discussion about a building into a full blown worship and prayer service. It’s great to be a part of it.

I’m honored to be your Pastor. This is just more fun than should be allowed!!!

It’s been a crazy and amazing 3 1/2 years. It really has been a gift just to be a part of it!

Jeremiah 1:4-10
4 The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” 6 “Ah, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” 7 But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD. 9 Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

My goal was that everyone in the room would understand that God made them on purpose and for a purpose. I think it’s one of the coolest things in the world to know that God knew EVERYTHING about me before He formed me and He made me just like this anyway. He knew our faults, He knew the things that you wouldn’t like about yourself… He knew it all, and chose to make us just like He did. Why? Because this is the way He needed us to do what He has appointed us to do.

I think the enemy has been lying to us for way too long and I want the Children of God to begin living in the victory of what God wants to do through us. Not wishing that we were somthing different or someone different. God built you just like you are and He loves you just like you are. If we could only grab ahold of that fact, the world would be a different place.

I learned from my children this weekend that, even at very young ages, they begin to want to look and dress and be like other people. The world has trained us to want to be something other than what God made us. I think this leads us to defeated lives because we are always looking for something “better” than God’s plan for us. And, just so you know, there is nothing better than God’s plan for us. If we would simply recognize that, we would be more effective for the Kingdom than we have ever imagined.

But, the big news to me is that, this morning, our staff prayer was simply that God would show up and do something amazing among us. Boy, did He!!! He truly blew our minds with that way He moved in our midst. The Holy Spirit was all over us and moving freely. There is absolutely nothing better that seeing God move as He desires. I hope and pray that we see that everytime we ever get together to worship Him. I know today was awesome and I don’t ever want to miss that in the future. Thank you God for coming through every time!!!

God is good. Don’t forget it.

1. He began to forget where all the blessings came from.
I think this is where the “slow fade” toward pride began in Solomon’s life. He began to think that some of the great things that God had done for him were actually his fault. We must be very careful to remember the blessings of God.

2. He decided he could handle things on his own.
When he started marrying the daughters of the Kings of rival nations, he was going directly against the command of God. At first, it’s a slow fade. Then, we are going directly against God’s direction for our lives. Be careful!!!

3. He surrounded himself with people that did not support his love for his God.
God specifically told him that, if he married these foreign women, they would turn Solomon’s heart against God. And, that’s exactly what they did. Learn from this. You cannot surround yourself with people that do not support you, and expect to grow toward Christ. They WILL have an affect on you.

4. He actually began to worship other Gods.
Anytime we allow the slow fade toward pride in our lives, if not stopped, it ALWAYS ends up with us worshiping something other than our God.

I was challenged this week that the story of Solomon reminds me of a lot of men in our churches today. We begin to think the good things we have accomplished in our lives have something to do with us. We move from there to trying to handle our lives on our own, and in our own way. Then, we find ourselves spending most of our time with people that WILL influence us against God. And, then, finally, we end up worshiping things (cars, houses, jobs, money) other than God.

Where are you on this scale? Are you fading slowly? Stop it now. Are you already worshiping things other than God? Repent today, and get back on track. You don’t want to end up like Solomon, looking back on a life that ended up meaningless. REMEMBER, it’s not how you start, but how you finish!

Have a great week.

It has been a great month at West Rome. We have been preparing each Sunday for what God is going to do during 21 that is coming up April 5th. We really do believe it will be 21 days that will change our lives forever. God is calling us to a whole new level of relationship with Him. It is going to be so cool to see our church worship in freedom. God is using this time to clean out all the junk that has held us back for so long. When all the bondage in our lives is pulled out there is just no telling what God might do. I think we will experience a whole new side of that abundant life that Jesus promises, and I just can’t wait.

A few thouhts on today:
We had a great morning at West Rome. We had a great time of worship and the Preacher didn’t talk too long. That’s always good.

XL was cool tonight. We finished up the Deal or No Deal series tonight. We are pretty excited about what’s happening next week. Our band will be back and they’ll be rockin’! We’re gonna do some different stuff next week and we’ll walk back through the vision of XL and what we are working to accomplish out there. It’s gonna be a great night. Make sure you invite everyone you know and some people that you don’t know yet. We all need to make some new friends.

On a side note, Marquette lost tonight. I’m still so ticked off I can’t even relax. I’ll get past it, but it won’t be tonight…

Have a great week!

Some things from today:
Our numbers were a little down today. I’m not sure if it’s the flu or the topic!
Worship today was awesome.
Our Staff pretty much rocks in every way!
I got to play outside with my kids this afternoon. I am way out of shape!
I have the coolest children in the world.
My wife rocks too!!!
My parents drove all the way from Texas to watch the girls play basketball yesterday. They’re amazing.
It’s great to be a part of a church that will cover the difficult issues.
I’m fired up to be a part of something only God can do.
I’m very excited about next weeks message on Grace! You do not want to miss that.
Something HUGE is coming April 5th. Be ready!!!
Gina ran a camera at XL tonight. How cool is that?!
I’m going to bed. Peace.

Last night was great at XL too. We baptized 5 people before the Superbowl started. Now, that’s the kind of Superbowl party I like to go to. Lots of baptism and lots of food. It was awesome!! We had hundreds of people there and it was a crazy night. And the game turned out to be pretty good. Who knew??? So, next week at XL we start a series called “Satisfaction Guaranteed”. This will deal very heavily with the sexual issues going on in our world today. When we give sex over to the world like we have, we do not get the satisfaction from it that God intended. We plan to take that back!

So, whether you go to XL or West Rome on a regular basis, don’t miss it for the next few weeks. You don’t want to miss what will be going on. It’s gonna be crazy!

Don’t miss next week. You never can tell what’s gonna happen when we get together.

Make sure you take time this week to invest in people. God will bless that.

We also had a great time at XL tonight. We stopped right in the middle of the service to watch the end of the football game. Just another thing that makes us a little different. One other thing is that we had 50 people in the XL Kidz area. That is HUGE!!! We also learned that the Bible sets the standard for how we should make the major decisions in our lives. If we set the standards up front, we have lot better chance of making the right decision! God is constantly teaching us some really cool things.

Be ready for the Superbowl party on Feb. 1st. It’s gonna be a blast!!!