God is doing some amazing things at New Season Church and we should celebrate!

The world celebrates more than the church and that’s just not right. We have so much more to celebrate!

A Super bowl win is awesome, winning a Oscar is amazing but those things are temporary. A life changed by the power of God is eternal!

In Luke, chapter 15, Jesus went out of His way to teach us to celebrate over just one person repenting. We should be celebrating more!

So far in the first few months of 2013 we have seen: 18 people publicly recommitting their lives to Christ, 38 people joining New Season, 121 people signing up to serve at New Season and went through training, 45 people trusting Jesus as their Lord and Savior…that NEVER gets old! New Season Church, we have many reasons to celebrate!

Let’s rejoice over what God has done and let’s bring people who are not believers to church on Sunday so that we can celebrate some more!

I Corinthians, chapter 1, verses 26-31 says, “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.” (the Message)

I love this passage. If you have ever had any doubts whether or not God could use you, this scripture clears that up!

God doesn’t look for the experts or the specialists. He doesn’t have an entry exam. You don’t have to pass any test. There is no IQ requirement or social status needed.

God loves to use ordinary people to do extraordinary things. You don’t have to be a champion thoroughbred to run in His race. He loves to use plain donkeys (another word comes to mind). Your collar doesn’t have to be white; God uses blue collared, normal people with dirty hands to do abnormal things for His glory.

When Jesus chose the twelve disciples, some were fishermen, others were tax collectors, some were husbands and fathers while others were single men. They weren’t smarter or more gifted than anyone else. They simply obeyed when Jesus said, “Follow me.” That is exactly what God is looking for. People with hearts that beat for him. People who will simply follow Him and seek Him.

Maybe you’re more blue jeans than blue blood. Maybe you are more ADD than MBA. Maybe you are more of the high school dropout than beauty contest winner. I don’t know who or what you are or what you have done or haven’t done. I don’t know if you have grown up in church your entire life or just started attending last week.

I do know this. God loves to change the world with people like you. You may ask, “why”? It is so that no one can take the credit but God! So people can look at your life and know that there is only one explanation for you and how God is using you and that explanation is Jesus…simply Jesus. All glory and honor to the only one who is worthy – JESUS!

I have been in church now for 28 years. I have seen and heard just about everything! I have seen people argue over the color of the carpet in the auditorium; I have seen people throw their Bibles at people; I have heard people curse and get belligerent.

“I don’t like that kind of music”; “I don’t like that version of the Bible”; “I think the piano should sit on the left side of the stage”; “People should be more reverent in church”…I could list a hundred more statements that I have heard muttered over the years in church. I bet you can too if you have been in church longer than six months!

Where did we begin to think that church is all about us? How did we develop such a “consumer mentality”? When did we start thinking that church is a Spa where you come to get pampered?

Every church at some point will fall into the deadliest of all traps – the trap of focusing inward. “It’s all about me, what I want, how I want it and if you don’t cater to my whims and wishes, I will withhold my tithe or even leave.”

Let me remind you…the church is about Jesus! It is about what HE is about – seeking and saving that which is lost. It is about bringing glory to the one who alone is worthy.

Let’s put our personal preferences aside and be the church in which Jesus died for.

My favorite restaurant is the Cheesecake Factory. My wife and I have eaten at this restaurant in many different cities including Baltimore, Miami, West Palm Beach, Naples and of course, in the Atlanta area. We actually ate there a couple of weeks ago for Valentine’s Day.

It is an excellent restaurant that offers a wide variety of menu options. The food is delicious and the service is great. Every experience that I have ever had has been a pleasant one. The cheesecake is amazing, banana cream and vanilla bean are my favorites!

The California based restaurant is now going global. They are preparing to open 12 restaurants over the next eight years in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru and even in the Middle East. Cheesecake Factory, CEO David Overton said, “we certainly weren’t the first in but we don’t want to be the last in either.”

This past Sunday at our 5 Year Celebration, we cast a vision for multi-site to expand New Season to different areas and possibly to different states. The multi-site plan isn’t new and it is not a fad. Multi-sites will allow us to raise up new leaders, expand our culture of multiplication and of course, spread the gospel.

Technology today offers so many possibilities for reaching more people. Similar to what Cheesecake Factory CEO, David Overton said, “we weren’t the first in, but by God’s grace, we won’t be the last!”  

“Impossible” – Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

“Impossible” – Philippians 1:6 says, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

“Impossible” – Romans 8:31 says, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

“Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.” -Napoleon Bonaparte

One of my all-time favorite quotes is this one by Napoleon Bonaparte. I really try to live believing this. I don’t believe in quitting or giving up…throwing in the towel or the “three strikes, you’re out” mentality. Maybe that is true in baseball but not life. Don’t take no for an answer , don’t quit on your dream, your family, your work or your life.

I have been at the point of exhaustion, burn out and complete total frustration. Who hasn’t been at this point? All of us have come to the same fork in the road where we ask, “what will we do; will we give in, give up, let go, lay down and play dead or will we rise up, take that situation by the throat and say ‘no,’ I will not go out like this. I will not visualize the regret of failure, I will visualize the reward of success for staying in the game.”

Pat Riley, NBA coaching legend says, “In every contest, there comes a moment that defines winning from losing. The true warrior understands and seizes that moment by giving an effort so intensive and so intuitive that it could only be called one from the heart.”

I am not saying your situation is easy and I am not saying that I understand exactly what you are going through but I will say to you, don’t quit! Hang in there and get fired up thinking about tomorrow and your future, all that God has for you.

I’m asking God to give myself, and every member of New Season a renewed sense of passion and urgency when it comes to reaching people.

There are times in life when action must be taken. Passivity has no place in the Kingdom of God! God gives us a passion and an urgency for people!

People really do matter to God. Everyone you see today… EVERYONE you and I come in contact with today will spend eternity somewhere. Heaven is real, hell is real and people will spend eternity in one or the other.

Even though this Sunday is a special celebration it is still a great opportunity to invite lost people, unchurched people and all people!

God give us an urgency and a passion.

I will see you Sunday at 10:00 am at East Paulding High School

Don't come alone!!

My life purpose is to make plain the gospel so that people can enter into a relationship with Christ and grow to their full potential.

God led me to launch a non-profit organization called “Over the Wall” that has a commitment to radically transform the spiritual condition of the world and the landscape of the local church through growth, development and impact.

My Pastor put in me a love for other pastors. It thrills me to see a pastor filled with vision for his life and his church. A vision for the kingdom of God! Right now I am working with six pastors (my limit is seven) in a coaching, consulting, encouraging relationship.

We started Over the Wall Ministries to give back what God has poured in. As I said earlier, Over the Wall is a non-profit organization. It exists by gifts from individuals and churches, and through the various resources that we offer such as CDs, DVDs and devotional books.

Please pray for Over the Wall Ministries. It is exciting for me to watch God doing some amazing things through this ministry.

Visit us at: Over the Wall Ministries

We Have An Assignment from New Season Church on Vimeo.

I know, we all have. Making the right decision isn’t as easy as people think. We are all where we are today based on the decisions we have made. Whether financially, emotionally, spiritually or physically, we are the sum of our choices. The ultimate outcome of our lives will be based on the decisions we make. That’s true of today and eternity. We are all in situations of our own choosing.

That is why it is so important to choose wisely. We must stop blaming other people or circumstances. I am…you are in the place you are in because you have made a choice. All of us would like to go back in time and change a decision we made at some point. The outcome that was the result of our decision was not what we thought or maybe we knew the outcome but didn’t think through the consequences of the decision. No matter what decision you made, nothing you can do will erase it.

The past will never change but you can change the future by changing your decisions today. You can change how you respond. You can decide to move on, forgive and trust God. It’s decision time…make the right choice!