John Piper – Prayer

This Sunday I am beginning a new study on prayer at Neel Road. I recently ran across this video clip!

6 Marks of (real) Christian Fellowship

This Sunday’s message is about fellowship. (Or maybe next Sunday’s message, if we have too much snow!) Anyway, fellowship is essential for the life of every believer and every church. Why?

Here’s why…because you and I were created in God’s image which means we were created to live in community and fellowship with one another. Our relationship with God TOTALLY DEPENDS on our relationships with one another and our relationships with one another TOTALLY DEPEND on our relationship with God.

But our view of fellowship – true Christian fellowship or koinonia (Greek) – is often times limited to covered dish meals, being polite, and occasionally praying together.

True Christian fellowship is much deeper and much more meaningful than this. There are many characteristics of true Christian fellowship. Here are 6 that are key.

1.   Forgiveness – It all begins with forgiveness! If we want to be forgiven by God so that we can be in fellowship with him and with each other WE HAVE TO BE WILLING TO FORGIVE EACH OTHER. I’m not kidding! Check it out  Matthew 6:14-15.

2.   Acceptance - God totally accepts each one of us for who we are and we should accept one another the same way. For way too long churches have made acceptance conditional – we accept you if you dress like us, act like us, or whatever. Read Galatians 3:28.

3.   Encouragement – “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11) This passage is awesome! One of the main reasons we gather for worship and meet to pray together each week is to encourage one another as believers! When we encourage someone we build them up spiritually!

4.   Service – Jesus was the model servant. He served us by giving his life for us. God has given each one of us different gifts and abilities to use to serve him. To be Jesus’ hands and feet on earth today we have to be willing to serve one another. Check out 1 Peter 4:10.

5.   Unity – Let me be really clear about this one – not only does God want us to get along with each other, but he wants us to agree with each other and to live with a spirit of unity and cooperation. Paul writes,  “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.” (1 Corinthians 1:10) Fellowship doesn’t mean agreeing to disagree. It means agreeing that Scripture commands us to agree.

6.   Love – Jesus COMMANDS US TO LOVE EACH OTHER. Here’s the verse. It’s important here for us to realize that in the same way that Jesus’ love was not conditional – neither should ours be. Jesus commands us to love each other even when we don’t get along or don’t understand each other. Love is like a force-field that God places around those who seek authentic koinonia fellowship. When God’s love is present in us, God is present among us!

Seven things I believe about Neel Road Baptist Church

2009 was a great year for Neel Road! Here’s why. In 2009 we. . .

• Continued to have new people visit and join our church. . .
• Gave more to local charities and missions groups than the previous year. . .
• Gave over $7,000 dollars to Lottie Moon for international  missionaries. . .
• Had our first full year with a full-time Student Minister. . .
• Exceeded our budget expenses for the year. . .
• Baptized a record setting eight people in one service. . .

I believe 2010 is going to be an awesome year for Neel Road! In fact, here’s what I believe. . .

1. I believe that we will have the opportunity to make a huge impact on our community this year!
2. I believe that God is raising up a new generation of leaders at Neel Road.
3. I believe that disciple-ing children, youth and parents is more important today than ever before.
4. I believe that God is giving us a renewed sense of purpose and vision for our church.
5. I believe that we could see even more people come to know Christ and join our church this year than in the past two years combined!
6. I believe it is time for us to focus less on who we used to be and more on who God is calling us to be today.
7. I believe that prayer must be the starting point for everything we do and every decision we make this year.

Sunday Night Reflections December 6

Neel Road Baptist Church has so much to be thankful for and excited about right now!

1. The Bible study on James has challenged us all! Can’t wait to finish next week.
2. We may have the opportunity soon to start a new men’s Bible study group soon! “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” – Proverbs 27:17
3. The Severio’s were in town this weekend and are getting ready to go off and be missionaries overseas. They continue to be a blessing to our church!
4. Our kids are so cute when they get dressed up to sing for the singing Christmas tree!
5. This Sunday is the Christmas cantata…and that’s always good!
6. Psalm 29:11 is a great verse for encouragement!
7. Being in church is a lot like being in a flock of sheep! Sometimes it’s great…sometimes it feels a little crowded…but as long as Jesus is our Shepherd…IT’S TOTALLY WORTH IT!!
8. Next year is our 40th anniversary…we going to do some really great stuff!!

pastor appreciation

Tonight  Neel Road held a surprise pastor appreciation fellowship for me and Graham. I have to confess they surprised me! But mostly I am so thankful to serve a church that is healthy, caring, loving, compassionate, gracious, and accepting.

It was amazing tonight to look out into a crowd of people of all ages and see God at work.

I love you Neel Road!

Thank you God for bring my family here! Amen.

discover your spiritual gifts

This past Sunday I preached a message entitled, Spiritual Gifts 101. It was a basic introduction to spiritual gifts and how we can discover what our spiritual gifts are and begin to use them to serve God and make an impact in the world!

Most of us (believers) have no idea about our spiritual gifts! So here are some passages in the Bible that give us an idea of what they are and how they can be used.

• Romans 12
• 1 Corinthians 12
• Ephesians 4

Unfortunately, none of these passages tell us exactly what a spiritual gift is. So here is my definition of a spiritual gift: “A spiritual gift is the God-given capacity of every believer to live out his or her purpose in life!” That’s it! It’s that simple. . . yet it’s that mysterious!

So how do we discover our spiritual gift(s)? Do we have to be super-spiritual to know what our gift is? What do we have to do to know how to use our gift? Well, you can go online and take a spiritual gift test and it will (supposedly) tell you.

However, I would like to offer three ways that you can discover your spiritual gift while spending time directly with God!

1. Ask God to show you what your spiritual gift is. This may take one hour or one year depending on how persistent you are in asking and listening. 
2. Ask God to tell you who your gift is for. That’s right, it’s not for you! God gives us spiritual gifts to be given away and shared with others to strengthen believers everywhere.
3. Passionately pursue God’s purpose and plan for your life! This is incredibly important. Too many believers are still chasing after their own dreams and making their own plans.  STOP and trust God! God has dreams and plans for us that are way better than any we could ever create on our own!

Easter has come and gone, but we are still celebrating Jesus’ resurrection! He gives us new life everyday! God is still in the life-changing and the world-changing business, but he’s not going to do it all alone – he wants us to help!