Just wanted to briefly talk about the night we had last week at The Christmas Extravaganza last week. The Student Ministry staff and team members were praying for over 300 students to enter into the doors for the night. We have averaged around 230 for the year and thought 300 would be a great goal to shoot for during the service.
We had 349!!
I knew people were going to come to Christ during the night. I go into a message with that expectation every time I get up to preach. But the thought hit me while Greg and Lisa were playing "O Come Let Us Adore Him," that this whole night could be about ONE person coming to Christ. What a beautiful thing God would ordain, that an entire night be dedicated to one special person to change their life for eternity. Because each one is eternally valuable to God... so much so that His blood would have spilt for that one person alone. So I prayed for just one person to respond to the grace of Jesus Christ.
And 13 came to faith in Him!!
In short, God takes expectations and blows them out of the water. We should come to expect it from a big God to do HUGE things, almost to a point that it should become mundane. But time after time, I find myself placing limitations/expectations on God, and time after time, He shatters them. In the hands of God, everything is truly possible.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas, be sure to come and enjoy the Christmas Eve services at The Cove, invite your friends, it's going to be another incredible, eternity-shattering week.
No CSM until January 12th when we will kick off a series called Unlikely, and we will be talking through the life of Moses. You won't want to miss it!!! Let's take 349 and see how God blows that number up in 2011!!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
Gearing Up for the Extravaganza!
Wow!
That pretty much sums up my feeling from the Night of Worship last week at Student Ministries as well as my excitement going into the Christmas Extravaganza from 6:00-8:00 on December 15th. The band absolutely rocked, it was the loudest I've ever heard the auditorium on a Wednesday night for a Student Ministries event.
I got up to share what I thought was going to be a brief, 10-15 minute message, but God got a hold of the night. What was a planned, short devotion turned into a 40 minute, Holy Spirit experience that led to tears, inspiration and motivation for life-change by the end of the night. I challenged the students to desire to leave a legacy with their lives by pointing people to God's Son, it is not only a huge part of our mission statement here at The Cove ("Introduce Our Friends to Jesus), but it is our purpose as Jesus followers to be a witness to the ends of the earth as to what He has done.
I asked the students to think about friends that they knew who need Jesus Christ, and challenged them to write down their names and pin it to the cross we had in the back of the room. God wanted me to tell them, "If you bring your friends to church, I will bring them to Christ." So with that motivation in mind, I asked the students to respond, and respond they did:
In my desk drawer are all of these cards and I along with the Cove Church staff and volunteers are praying hard for these names.
I am so excited to see what God is going to do with this night on the 15th. God has placed a great message on my heart and I'm just putting the finishing touches on it now. If you are a student who regularly attends Student Ministries, remember these names that were placed on the cross, pray for them and bring friends to hear the message of Jesus Christ. If you are a parent, please be in prayer for this night as well as encourage your student to come, encourage your friend's children to come. I know that this will be a night that many students will look back on and remember as the day that God got a hold of them and with His eternal love, never let go.
That pretty much sums up my feeling from the Night of Worship last week at Student Ministries as well as my excitement going into the Christmas Extravaganza from 6:00-8:00 on December 15th. The band absolutely rocked, it was the loudest I've ever heard the auditorium on a Wednesday night for a Student Ministries event.
I got up to share what I thought was going to be a brief, 10-15 minute message, but God got a hold of the night. What was a planned, short devotion turned into a 40 minute, Holy Spirit experience that led to tears, inspiration and motivation for life-change by the end of the night. I challenged the students to desire to leave a legacy with their lives by pointing people to God's Son, it is not only a huge part of our mission statement here at The Cove ("Introduce Our Friends to Jesus), but it is our purpose as Jesus followers to be a witness to the ends of the earth as to what He has done.
I asked the students to think about friends that they knew who need Jesus Christ, and challenged them to write down their names and pin it to the cross we had in the back of the room. God wanted me to tell them, "If you bring your friends to church, I will bring them to Christ." So with that motivation in mind, I asked the students to respond, and respond they did:
In my desk drawer are all of these cards and I along with the Cove Church staff and volunteers are praying hard for these names.
I am so excited to see what God is going to do with this night on the 15th. God has placed a great message on my heart and I'm just putting the finishing touches on it now. If you are a student who regularly attends Student Ministries, remember these names that were placed on the cross, pray for them and bring friends to hear the message of Jesus Christ. If you are a parent, please be in prayer for this night as well as encourage your student to come, encourage your friend's children to come. I know that this will be a night that many students will look back on and remember as the day that God got a hold of them and with His eternal love, never let go.
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