Hi there Relate Church! Six things I would like to share with you today.

#1 Three people crossed over from death to life this past weekend at Relate Church! This never gets old. These three people aren’t just numbers, they’re real people with real stories. Heaven took notice and applauded and celebrated the step of faith they made to receive God’s free gift of salvation. We should too! Maybe you brought someone who didn’t respond to the altar call…that’s okay, just remember 2 Peter 3:9 and how patient God has been with you. Keep believing and keep bringing.

#2 Followers fish. I’m asking each follower of Jesus, each found person that calls Relate home, to find, reach, and disciple one person this year. I’m pretty sure God would honor our faith and our effort as we purposed in our hearts to do this. If only 25 people took this challenge and taught another to do the same; after 25 years we would have reached more than 26 million people. This is doable!

#3 If you haven’t completed the Growth Track yet, I would like to encourage you to jump in now. If you know someone that hasn’t completed the Growth Track, encourage them to jump in now. The Growth Track meets on the first Four (4) Wednesdays of each month at 700pm. You don’t need to sign-up for anything, just come.

#4 Our new series, Going Deep, got off to a great start this past Sunday. Remember, “In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make You love me more, and nothing I have done that makes You love me less.” Please pray some form of this prayer over yourself everyday this week. Preach this to yourself everyday this week. Preach this to someone else everyday this week. This is a powerful, powerful truth! You can watch the service here.

#5 The best is yet to come! No matter what you are facing or will face; God is for you! He’s on your side. He we will never fail you!

#6 I love my church! Enough said.

I’m really looking forward to what God is going to do at Relate Church Sunday. Our staff and Dream Team members are preparing diligently so that our worship experiences will be meaningful and life giving.

We are beginning a new series this weekend that will be life altering. You don’t want to miss!

Here’s some thoughts for meditation to prepare your heart:

Jonathan Edwards, an 18th century missionary, likened his reawakening to the gospel to a man who had known, in his head, that honey was sweet, but for the first time had that sweetness burst alive in his mouth.

It is one thing to know the gospel in our head but it is another thing to experience the gospel in a way that we  feel it in our hearts.

“The gospel, and it alone, can make you genuinely passionate for God, free you from captivity to sin, and move you outward to joyful sacrifice on behalf of others”. J.D. Greear

Sunday we are going to get reacquainted with the gospel about Jesus, which is the power of God…

I cannot wait! See you Sunday.

This weekend we will be diving in and exploring the depths of God’s love. The gospel about Jesus is not a subject we should move on from but one we are to go deeper into. This is going to be a life transforming season for us as we discover how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. You will never think about yourself or others the same again.

We have “entered a season of ease”. There is added grace for us to do the work of God…so invite/bring people who are far from God to church with you. The gospel will be proclaimed and the gospel is the power of God to save. Don’t tell anyone, but I give you permission to peak during the altar calls.

Check out the trailer for our new series.

Deep Trailer (Small).m4v

visit our church website at: www.relatechurch.com

Hi there Relate Church. Seven things I would like to share with you today…

#1 Twenty-one people have taken their first step in their relationship with Jesus so far this year. Seeing people pass from death to life never gets old. That’s what Sundays are for. These are people you brought to church with you. Now I need you to encourage them in their next steps. 1)Attend the Growth Track with them. We begin a brand new session Wednesday at 700pm. 2)Get them involved in your Relate Group. This is where they will meet other friends and receive pastoral care. 3)Encourage them to be water baptized. This is their public declaration of their faith in Jesus. Our next baptism service will be Sunday, February 26th during our 1045a service.

#2 This past Sunday we finished up our series, All In: One Year To Live. I believe the truths we shared in this message series have the potential to revolutionize our families, our church, and our city for the glory of God. We are living in the last days and that necessitates an All In attitude. We aren’t to live casually as though everything will continue as is, but we are to live prayerfully, faithfully, urgently, purposefully, and Now. In other words we are to be whole-hearted in the work of God. If you missed any of the messages in this series or you want to listen to them again, visit www.relatechurch.com/resources.

#3 Our 21 Days of Prayer was an awesome time. I’m thankful for each of you that spent extra time seeking God for His will and plans to be done. We’re already seeing some of those prayers answered. God is faithful to do what He said He would do. I would like to encourage you to make prayer a priority. We have prayer each Saturday morning from 900a – 1000am at the church. Powerful things happen when people gather to pray. Just read Acts 4:23-31.

#4 I want you Dream Teamers to know how much your pastoral staff appreciates you. The way you allow Jesus to shine through you every week is amazing! Keep up the good work. Life-change is happening because of you.

#5 Tammy and I received a word from God during our special meetings with Joe Morris. The Lord told him to tell us “you are entering a season of ease.” I would have liked to have interpreted that as less work. Then Tammy said, “If it’s going to be a season of ease we may as well go BIG!”. Let’s do it. Let’s go big to win souls this year. Bring! Bring! Bring!

# 6 If you haven’t signed up for a Relate Group its not too late. Relate Groups are an important part of our church life. It’s how we care for and pastor people. There is a group you will feel at home in so sign up today here.

#7 This weekend we’re diving into the deep end of the pool with a new series called “Going Deep”. In this series we are going to explore the depths of God’s love as presented to us in the gospel. “The gospel is not merely the diving board off of which you jumped into the pool of Christianity; the gospel is the pool itself.” The apostle Paul prayed that we would understand, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. This series of messages will be life transforming. You will never look at yourself or others the same again. I can’t wait for Sunday!

“The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ. If they are not doing that. all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose.”  – C.S. Lewis

“You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work. And go not only to those that need you, but to those that need you most…It is not your business to preach so many times; and to take care of this or that society; but to save as many souls as you can; to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance.” - John Wesley

“Pardon me as I yawn at the notion that the church is a gathering of believers on Sunday morning who live only for that.”  – Matthew Barnett

“This generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of souls on the earth.” - Keith Green

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let the perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there un-warned and un-prayed for.”  – Charles Spurgeon

Hi there Relate Church, Eight things I would like to share with you today…

#1 I love what Jesus is doing in us right now as a church family. I believe our spending extra time with God is and will make a huge difference. I’m getting a lot of feedback of how much people are enjoying our 21 Days of Prayer & Fasting. If you haven’t made it to one of the special prayer services I would encourage you to do so. We’re praying Monday-Friday from 6am-7am and Saturdays from 9am-10am. We also have alternate Tuesday and Thursday times from 9am-10am. This will be time well spent for you.

#2 Our current message series, All In: One Year To Live; though challenging, really seems to be resonating with many of you. God has created you for eternal significance so do don’t allow the rhythm of an ordinary existence to lull you to sleep. Stir yourself up and realize God is ready to do exceeding abundantly above all that you could ever ask or imagine.

#3 We have began a videocast of our Sunday Worship Experience. We’re in practice mode right now but when we get comfortable we will begin streaming live all over the world. In the meantime share this with your friends. You can watch this past Sundays message by clicking here.

#4 Tammy and I will be ministering at Relate Church in Savannah, GA this weekend. We are really excited! The Lord is doing great things there and we’re glad we will be able to bring you back a first-hand report. We would appreciate your prayers. Make sure you are at church Sunday. Pastor Paul will continue with One Year To Live.

#5 You don’t want to miss church ever…but especially January 29th. Rev. Joe Morris will be with us. Joe’s ministry fits perfectly with our current series and I know there will be an urgency imparted to us like we’ve never experienced. We will have a special service that Sunday night at 6pm. Joe will be updating us on what is going on in the middle east. Until then, check out Joe’s website here.

#6 We are now in open registration for our winter/spring semester of Relate Groups. Make some new friends. There are all kinds of groups to choose from. Please only register for the ones you can commit to.

#7 As our attendance grows so do our need for children’s ministers. If you would like to see God really impact the next generation why not serve in one of our children’s areas. We’ve made it very easy and fun. If you are interested please see Pastor Fonzie.

#8 Will you commit to being 1 of 25? If only 25 people would commit to winning one person to Jesus this year, disciple that person, and both of you repeat the process next year, this is what the numbers would look like through 20 years. You should do the math for 100 people. We would win the world!

Year     People

-                       25

1                       50

5                    800

10            25,600

15          819,200

20    26,214,400

For those who have asked about Evangelism Training, I’m working on it. As soon as we have it ready to go I’ll inform you.

Have great week! I know the best is yet to come for you as an individual and our church.

The first two weeks of HTLTABD have been very powerful and relevant to everyday living.

Week one: Be Forgiving. This seemed to resonate with many people. Harboring unforgiveness doesn’t hurt the other person as much as it does you.

Week 2: Be Compassionate. Jesus was. Even when he was suspended between heaven and earth between two thieves he showed compassion and ministered to someone else.

Eight people received Jesus today!! This is what it’s mostly about!

Can’t wait until next week.

Have you ever observed an argument at the dining room table because one sibling was staring at the other? It goes something like this; “Stop staring at me!” or “What you looking at?”. It should be obvious what the other sibling is looking at.

Jesus’ disciples were asked the same question.

Jesus had spent 40 days after His resurrection speaking to His disciples about the kingdom of God. He also spoke to them about the Kingdom on many occasions prior to his crucifixion. They had become Kingdom minded to the point they thought Jesus physical Kingdom would appear on Earth any day.

“Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them…who also said…”why stand gazing up into heaven.”

Basically they asked, “What you looking at?”.

You would think it would be obvious what they were looking at. The King had left the building. The One who was to establish His Earthly Kingdom…gone.

I think we should ask ourselves, ‘What are we looking at?’. What has our attention?

Jesus had already attempted to re-direct His disciples attention once before. They had asked about the establishment of Jesus’ kingdom and He answered them by re-focusing their attention to the work at hand…that of being His witnesses (Acts 1:8).

In John 4 Jesus spoke to His disciples about the immediacy of the Harvest.

“…Four months between planting and harvest…wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest”. – Jesus

The Lord spoke to my heart a couple of years ago and I’m sure its still true today:

“There are people you know that don’t know me.”

This is true for all of us. And Jesus’ instructions to His disciples in John 4 are for us today: “Wake up and look around…”

Talking faith and living by faith are two different things entirely.

You can have the lingo without the life.

Faith is not just believing something and doing nothing.

God told Joshua, “I have given Jericho into your hand…” That didn’t mean there was nothing left for Joshua to do. God gave him further instruction…a strategy if you will, and then commanded Joshua to possess the city. It wasn’t enough for Joshua to just believe.

Faith REQUIRES ACTION. James says, “faith without corresponding action is dead”.

By faith Abraham left…

By faith Noah built…

By faith Peter stepped out.

When the kings of Israel, Judah and Edom found themselves in the middle of a desert valley with no water for their troops or cattle, this was Elisha’s instructions to them.  “Make this valley full of ditches“. And by the way, you will not see wind or rain but tomorrow this valley will be full of water.

Maybe you need God to flood your marriage with His love…dig a ditch.

Maybe there’s a relationship that’s been strained from an offense…dig a ditch. Make a phone call.

Maybe you have a family member or friend that needs a relationship with Jesus…dig a ditch. Invest into them.

Don’t waste anymore time believing something and doing nothing.

Put some action to your faith!