It’s late but I just wanted to write a few thoughts on today before heading off to bed:

• Today was the first Sunday back for Pastor Marshall since he went to Africa.  Great to have our pastor back!
• I shared a teaser video and introduced the “Chasing Daylight” series that I’m going to be teaching to the Young Adults Bread and Breakfast class in a couple weeks.  I’m so pumped about this!  The book by Erwin McManus has been an incredible inspiration and I really am looking forward to interacting with the class on the story of Jonathon and his armour-bearer taking on the Philistine army…Seizing the divine moments!
• Both morning service praise times were INCREDIBLE!  I’ve gotta confess though – the second service was especially amazing as God touched those coming to the front because of weariness and tiredness in their lives.  You could see the impact the Spirit was making in their hearts and lives!
• There were also some incredible Holy Spirit led words from the Lord as people moved in the spiritual gifts this morning.  Those who stay away from corporate worship don’t know what they’re missing.  It’s so IMPORTANT to come together to minister to one another!
• Pastor Marshall launched the three week series we’re doing on Worship called “Worship is Essential”.  Today he focused on the PRIORITY of Worship.
  • Started with the question: is worship a “part”, “prerequisite”, or “priority”?  Good question to ask – worship MUST be a priority in our lives – God created us that way…(dang – if I’m not careful I’m gonna start launching into the message God’s putting on my heart for next week…!  I’m so excited that Pastor Marshall has entrusted the second message in this series to me!)
  • Pastor Marshall shared the scripture verse from Luke 4:7,8 that he read while reading through the One Year Bible (Friday’s verse)….folks – I’m so glad I serve with a leader who doesn’t just study the word of God for preparing sermons but also reads the Word for his own spiritual nourishment!!  What an encouragement for all of us to follow his example and get in God’s word EVERY DAY!!
  • “satan understand worship, craves worship…we have the created asking the creator to worship him!”
  • “Sadly, we have at times worshiped the created rather than creation!”
  • “Our priority must be to worship the creator!”
  • “satan is doing his best to distract, disengage, and hinder me from worshiping the creator…”
  • “If you have a TV show that you can’t miss an episode of – you’re worshiping that TV show!”  ouch…I’m sure that hit home for a few people…the place got pretty quiet after that statement!
  • The main text for the message is from Luke 19:29-40 which is the story of events of what is commonly known as “Palm Sunday”
  • “People were WILLING to worship…they began to take their clothes off!” – I’m sure Pastor Marshall didn’t mean what that sounds like…but still…the point is very similar to what I was teaching last week – Worship (Holy Desperation!) isn’t concerned with what others think – but the focus is on the object of your worship!
  • “There are times in our lives that we wear ‘clothes’ that impede our worship:
    • Our comfort zone
    • Our identity
    • security
    • familiarity in worship
    • fears
    • doubts
    • uncertainties
    • insecurities
    • pride
    • habits
    • routine
  • “worship…involves laying those clothes down”
  • “be CHILDLIKE in your worship NOT CHILDISH!”
  • they were WILLING and they were WASTING (extravagant worship)
  • Pastor Janette sang an awesome rendition of “She Came Wasting”…when the message gets posted to our church site her singing hopefully will be included!  What an awesome way to introduce the next point!
  • Our worship needs to be EXTRAVAGANT!
• This afternoon Ker and I hosted a family from the church in our home and we had a blast getting to know them!  Once again, my wife blew me away with her awesome cooking (and I think I did a pretty good job carving the chicken…)
• I’m VERY upset that I COMPLETELY FORGOT a special birthday celebration that was being held for one of my friends at the church this afternoon.  I felt sick when I remembered.  I hope they forgive me for not dropping by…I’ve become too dependent on the reminder notifications on my blackberry…when it fails, I fail (there’s got to be a lesson in there somewhere…)
• the service tonight was contributed to by the youth in our church who participated in a Worship and Creative Arts experience called “Ignite my Life” this past week.  Listen to this…and this ROCKS… these young people GAVE UP their March Break to develop and work on their God-given skillz so they can GLORIFY God!!! How cool is that?  Tonight was AWESOME as they shared the results of their week.  I just know that God is going to do GREAT THINGS through these youth!!
• I brought my oldest son to service with me tonight.  It was a rare opportunity for me to sit with my son during a service and not have any other responsibilities.  BUT…get this – we were short on ushers and my 10 year old son volunteered to fill in.  I was so proud of his willingness to serve!
• Mark Colwell spoke tonight and his message was INTENSE.  He really pulled no punches as he passionately implored us to consider the Promises of God and God’s desire for us to stop settling for the mediocre and pursue an adventure with Him!!  I couldn’t help but think….God is definitely hammering home in the messages that have been delivered this past while a common theme!  I can’t wait to see what happens with people who catch the VISION that God has for their life!

Well, I’ve got to go – my wife has been patiently waiting for me to finish this entry and I’m all typed out.  Night!