Hey, everyone!  If you have completed Foundations of Fellowship, we would like to invite you to a special Dream Team gathering on May 31st at 12:30.  The event will be held at The Crown Center located at 13300 S. Western Ave.  Bring your own lunch (most of us will stop by Sonic or some place like that) and bring it with you.  The point of this gathering is to begin introducing you to other key leaders so that we can begin the process of adding all our new members to the Dream Team!  it’s gonna be a fun few hours and we hope you will mark your calendars now and be there!

Dude.  What a first night.  Worship was awesome.  Message was great and encouraging.  Connecting with Next Leve Church Team (Matt, Sarah, Mike and Scott) - Priceless!  Watch the ARC Conference live online at www.c3church.com

More tomorrow

I must say that I think today was by far the best service we have had at Fellowship Church.  The spirit of God was so strong.  Got a message from someone that said, “Never have been moved to tears before in church.  Great job today.”  Another person tweeted about the service saying, “…service was great today.”

Attendance was back up around 90 or so.  My goal by mothers day is to be at 100 again.  We are so blessed with all that God is doing and has yet to do as we continue to develop Fellowship Church.

Thank you to all of you who attended All Access.  Man it is incredible to see people interested in Fellowship and what we want to do in this part of the Kingdom.  Don’t forget to come to Foundations of Fellowship next week.  For more information, click on the Connect link up top then select Calendar.  Click on the Foundations of Fellowship Link for more information.

Shandra and I concider it an incredible honor to be pastoring Fellowship.  You all are awesome.  Great days are yet ahead!!!!!

Some have asked about the music for the intro video that we are using during our One Life series.  It’s by the group 33 Mile.  Here is the video for you to enjoy!  New one next week!

from on .

Hard to believe but Fellowship Church is 4 weeks old.  In the first month we have seen 17 people come to faith.  Incredible!  We have also seen our attendance average in the 130’s.  Praise the Lord.  I just wanted to let everyone know how proud I am to be associated with the team that has come together to make Fellowship Church happen.  What an awesome thing this is to be a part of.

In April we have several firsts that I am excited about.  We will hold our first membership class called Foundations of Fellowship.  This 2 hour event will be led by Shandra and I.  We will share information about the church, our structure, purposes, and vision.  It’s going to be exciting to welcome new members into the family.

We will celebrate our first Easter together.  Can’t wait for the first holiday at Fellowship.

Shandra and I will attend our first conference under the title of pastors of Fellowship Church when we attend the ARC National Church Planters Conferenc called All Access.  Looking forward to seeing our church planting coaches, Matt & Sarah Keller.

May God continue to bless Fellowship Church and mold us according to his plan and design!

2. Do Not Stop Growing.

Paul does us a great service here by revealing a secret that can change your life.  You are never going to find joy until you connect with the reason why God has created you in the first place.  iF you are constantly in this survival mode, life will stink.  But if you have purpose in full view everything that the enemy throws at you will be nothing more than a distraction.  Life may stink but if you understand the purpose for your place on the planet man you can make it through with your joy in tact.

Let me share with you the Theology of Problems.  Here it is.  Everyone has problems.  In fact no one has any more problems than anyone else.  Those who handle problems better than others are the ones who have something bigger than the problems in their life.  If you don’t have something bigger than your problems in your life than your problems are going to drown you and your joy is going to sink with you.

That’s why Paul said,

(Philippians 3:12-14) “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Do you want to know why the Dream Team is going to be such a big deal around here at Fellowship Church, it’s because I believe that one of the things Fellowship Church can be for you is a place for you to invest your time, talents and resources that is bigger than yourself.

If we are ever going to see marriages healed, families, restored, lives changed, addictions broken it will only come by the level that we serve others.  We could stay right now the size we are - a church of about 130.  Not bad.  But it’s not really what I had in mind.  And if you will get involved … if you will go through the Growth Path … if you will step up and give yourself to this cause, we will grow.  God will bless.  Your life will change.  Your joy will increase.  Cause there is a big difference between watching the game and getting in the game.  And when you get in the game…the game changes.

When you understand that, you enjoy even the process of growth.  If you understand the end result, the struggles confirm your growth.

(James 1:2-4) “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

If you want joy, please fall in love with Jesus and not with Religion.

He would also rather you find the reason that he created you than settle for what others tell you is the best.

3 Things we can do to maintain joy.

1.  Don’t Stop Knowing

(Philippians 3:8) “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”

The word that Paul uses for “knowing” in the greek does not have the meaning of head knowledge or even life friendship.  It’s the intimate type of knowing.  Like “and Adam knew his wife eve and she brought forth a son.” kind of knowing.

He is presenting an idea here that he knew would rattle the religious peoples cages.  To them God was something to be feared and obeyed.  To Paul, God was his life.  He was possessed with this affection and this love relationship he had with God was more valuable to him than anything he had earned in his life or price he had or would yet pay.

That’s why he could write a few verses later…where he shows us the depth of his passion for God when he says….

(Philippians 3:10) “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

(1 Peter 1:8) “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.”

The third thing that Paul warns us to watch out for is the Substitute

.

Watch out for the things that life will try to convince you will bring you joy that just does not bring you joy.  Career.  Social Status.  Houses.  Cars.  “If this happened I would be happy.”

You can’t have any “thing” making you happy.  Paul said, “I’ve tried it all.”  Check out Paul’s list.

(Philippians 3:4-6) “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel (legalism/religion), of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews (race); in regard to the law, a Pharisee (carrer/power) ; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless (top of the food chain).”

God is a jealous God who doesn’t accept anything taking that place in our heart.  Likewise, He doesn’t want us to accept anything in place of the ture joy that he wants us to experience and it only comes from an intimate fellowship with His Spirit.

In this regard, I think Paul saved some of the most beautiful scriptures in this entire letter for this moment.  The rest of the chapter shows us what we can do to truly help us maintain Joy.   In fact I want to offer you a promise that the next three things that Paul writes about here, if we will download them to our daily lives and apply them, there is nothing that this life can bring that can rob our joy.

Tomorrow…Maintaining your joy.

Next Paul warns that we should watch out for LEGALISM.

Legalism is both right and wrong at the same time.  It’s right because it’s right.  It is a rule.  More than likely it’s a rule that is based on something that is in the Bible.  You probably should do it.  But legalism changes the motivation for which you do it.  If you do something out of a demand, it will suck the life out of you.  So you can be right and be wrong.

For example, if I remain faithful to my wfie simply because I made a commitment to her 14 years ago, I am right for being faith but because my heart is not in it I am in the wrong.  Right action.  Wrong motivation.

It’s the same choice Adam and Eve had. I love the story of Adam and Eve.  I get so many things out of this story.  The more you hang around here we will look at it from every angle.  Here is one for you to think about today.  They were presented with two path ways to God.  They could come to God via the Tree of Life where you want to do something because you are so in love with Him and he is your life.  Contrast that with the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is the path that people take who try to come to God by doing right and not doing wrong.

God doesn’t want external constraints he wants internal motivations.

Paul is saying that these religious people who were coming around telling all these Christians that they had to mutilate their flesh to be saved, “guess what, I am one of those people.  I am some one who was circumcised.  I’ve been through all that.  Been through bible school.  Kept all the law.  And I say…

(Philippians 3:3) “For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.””

I’m telling you guys, it’s not about the rules it’s about the Ruler.  It’s not about commands it’s all about the Commander.  It’s not about what you give up that makes you righteous but about what He gives you that makes you righteous.

Tomorrow, watch out part 3

This past Sunday, we looked at Phil 3 in our study called The Pursuit of Joy.  In this chapter Paul challenges his readers to watch out for 3 things that can steal our joy.  Here is a run down of the things we should watch out for.

1.  Watch out for NEGATIVE PEOPLE

None of us enjoy hanging out with negative people because they such the air right out of our world.  We prefer to be with people who are possitive because they bring life into our lives.  Sometimes Christians can be the most negative people on the planet.  We can tend to be way too focused on what people do and don’t do or more concerned about communicating what we are against instead of displaying what we are for.  Paul understood that his young church was about to encounter negative people who were going to show up and tell them all the things they were doing wrong.

When we have people like this show up in our lives we need to keep them at arms distance, don’t let them get too close or walk away if we can.  Your success in life is determined in large part by the friends you keep.  Make sure that those who are close to you breath air into your world and build your confidence in yourself and in God’s love for you.

Tomorrow, the second thing that Paul warns us to watch out for.