You may not know it, but the student past (Britt) and I have a little competition going on. He has the the blackberry curve and I have the iphone.  The competition is to see who has the best app for there phone. I have a new app I can’t wait to show him, but he always gets me when he says do you have the app that charges your phone and I respond  they don’t have an app for that. We live in a society that is dependent on quick fixes and is amazed by new technology. People say they have an app for everything, but one thing they don’t have a app for is a broken heart.

It reminds me of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked “what must I do get into heaven.”  Jesus responded to him, “sell all what you have and follow me.” Rather than following Jesus, he went back to his wealth and possessions living  the life he wanted to live. So the truth is thatjesus is the only one can heal a broken heart that is filed with sin. Will you let him heal your heart and stop trying to fill your life with apps that leave you wanting more. Lets sayif we compare your self to a smart phone: what apps would you fiill your life with instead of Christ?

Well there is the Consumer app- This App is made up of Wall street, Ebay and Amazon which try to make you fill the void of unhappiness with quick fixes that don’t last.

Addicted app: This is your favorite app: the one you go to all the time. It can be sex, drugs, or alchohol

The Controller app: this app hasto be over someone or something, trying to fill your void with power and popularity.

You may realize one of these apps represent you. Remeber what I said about the only one who can fill the void. That is Christ and Christ alone!

In Christ Bro Will

Concert featuring:
Severed Ties – www.myspace.com/severedties08
Flight From Below -www. myspace.com/flightfrombelow
Shaken – www.myspace.com/shakencore
To Love a Monster – www.myspace.com/theunfinished14
One Day at a Time – www.myspace.com/onedayatatimemusic
Bridge

This benefit concert will help a friend of the church pay for a costly surgery! Asking for $5 a ticket or other donation amount. No tickets sold in advance. Gate opens at 6:30 p.m. Show up early! It’s gonna be great!

I remember when I was hired at The Grove Church.  I was told my job description would be to learn about ministry in a church. Since we are a new church, we do not have a secretary or janitor, which means those duties fall upon the staff.  The student pastor and I clean the church, take out trash, and clean the restrooms every Friday.  While most people say those jobs are what a grunt or goffer does, and little respect is given to those who do these tasks, may I remind you that this true in the secular world, but not in the Christian world. I find it very humbling to do these tasks, although I also do other things for the church like teach, make visits, and help plan ministry events with our staff.
I remember hearing a pastor explain it like a pyramid. In the secular world, the CEO is on top, and the lowest people are on the bottom of the pyramid. Well in Christian leadership it’s the opposite.  We lead by humility. We do not lead with pide and power, and the interesting way God reminds us where we are in our leadership is when we find ourselves scrubing toilets and washing dishes. We should remember that Christ washed the diciples feet in the upper room. The feet were dirty and smelly, but he washed them to show how a leader should lead. We may not wash feet in the 21st century, but I can tell you, we still can lead by humility!  Today, may I recommend some reading?  Study John chapter 14, or you can read Jesus on Leadership by C. Gene Wilks.

In his book, The Power of Prayer, E. M. Bounds wrote, “We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organization. God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.”

God is not looking for new or novel ways to reach our world for Christ.  The only way the Church can succeed in impacting our world for Christ is through people who have been radically saved and changed by the awesome power of God in their lives.  So why then are we making so little of an impact on unbelievers?  I believe that part of the reason is because we have fallen into the trap of thinking that reaching people is dependent upon our intellect, our persuasive arguments, our innovative methodology, our charisma, etc., you get the idea. The only thing God needs to make an impact on our world for Christ is men and women who are wholly dedicated to Him. Again, Bounds wrote, “What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer.”

You see, we are the key.  We need not be the smartest or most gifted speaker to be used by God, but we must definitely be the most dedicated to God’s use.  We must be filled to the overflowing with His presence, His power, His personality, and His passion to save the lost, and the only way to do that is through spending time with God in prayer. 

When I was a young man serving as minister of music at a church, I began to notice older couples who had lived together for years as husband and wife.  I could easily have put each of these couples together without anyone ever telling me who was married to whom, because they looked alike, thought alike, and acted alike.  The striking similarities were due to the fact that they had spent so much time together that they had actually become one in body, mind, and spirit. The same is true for the person who has walked and talked with God through years of consistent and constant communion with Him in prayer.  As we spend time with God in prayer, we become one with him in heart, mind, and spirit.  We think like God thinks, we act like God would want us to act, we talk like God would have us talk, and we love like God would have us love.  You see, we are God’s message, and we are God’s method.  But the key to being used by God is by becoming like Him, and that my friend only comes by much prayer.

Jesus put it this way: ⁴“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. ⁵“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15: 4 – 5)

Let’s become people that God can use to build His kingdom by abiding in Christ through constant and persistent prayer.

Do you remember the energizer bunny commercial. He keeps going and going.  That”s how I felt this last trimester at William Carey University. I just finished up the winter trimester and it was the most challenging semester I ever had in my life.  Iit was sometimes frustrated with late nights of studying and writing papers I knew it would be hard to finish, but I knew I had to finish strong, because in James chapter one it tells us to persevere and finish strong. Let me ask you a question: when things happen in your life, do you finish strong? This semester I challenge you to finish strong!  The Word says it’s going to be hard and I speak from experience that it is true. So in closing remember to be strong and finish strong.

In Christ Bro Will