Much of God’s instruction to His people begin with the word “Remember.”
- The Feast of Passover.
- Stones from the Jordan.
- Jesus: “Do this in remembrance of Me”
- Paul: Remember that at one time we were separate from Christ, without hope, without God, in the world.
- Today we remember a very special day in our church history. We call it Strategic Faith Launch, Sunday.
“Lord, seven years ago today, in the midst of a financial crisis, our church family gathered in Your name to trust You for our future. We asked You to use the crisis to produce three specific things for us, all of them strongly endorsed by Your word and even though the presenting need was financial, none of our requests were about money. We asked to know You better, to love each other more deeply and authentically and we asked You to empower us to appreciate the gifts You’ve given each of us and use them to meet our needs. Seven years later I believe You continue to answer our prayers. Those prayers have become our defining values thanks to the individual and collective work of Your Spirit.”
1. Know Him Better
We must never think we have reached the maximum potential of what our relationship with Him can be. We haven’t even left the floor, let alone hit the ceiling.
This time period is precious ore that the Lord uses to forge and burnish our knowledge of Him.
If there is a main idea to today’s message: The point of the Lord’s miracles is not to lead us to “happily-ever-after” in this life but to help us trust Him through the next crisis.
- David: The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and bear will deliver me from this big dude named Goliath.
- Joshua and Caleb: The one who parted the Red Sea? He is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”
2. Love each other more deeply.
1 Peter 4:8 (NIV) Above all, love each other deeply…
1 Corinthians 13:13 the greatest of these is love.
John 13:35 ” By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Romans 13:9 “whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” .
No program, no project, no principle, no problem outranks love.
Love means we are guarding and taking responsibility for our attitudes and actions towards each other.
3. Recognize and Release our Gifts To meet our needs – as He will.
Ephesians 4:16 (NIV) the whole body… and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
1 Peter 4:10 (NIV) Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
- These are the verses that define what we call “Anthesis.” Spring in full bloom. “The You Effect.”
- Released energy of church as each member seeks to share his or her manifestation of the grace of God.
God’s purposes are not always packed in our plans.
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