Bobby Lepinay

Needed: Those Who Will Commit to the 8:30 Service

This Sunday, we continue with the 2nd week of our "God On The Billboards" series that is by far the most popular series we do at Harvest.  Last week the 2nd service was on the verge of getting crowded.....

Remember folks:  New people feel a place is "too crowded" when it is around 80% full.  Statistics show that no matter how good it is, they usually don't come back, as they mentally dont want to fight the crowd. 

As evidence, a lady I talked to last week who has never been but wanted to come, asked me "which service has the LEAST people?"  She doesn't like crowds.  Preachers love crowds. The average person doesnt.

All that said......

PLEASE, CONSIDER SERVING HER AND PEOPLE LIKE HER BY COMMITTING TO THE 8:30 SERVICE! 

As I wil talk about at our CORE meeting Sunday night, we have about 15 more months in the RAVE.  We need to create more seats for people to attend at the time most Newcomers will try us out, 10am!  Just think:  You COULD be making room for a 'seeker', like the lady I talked to, to come to God!  No witnessing to....no even having to invite....just simply helping give them "space".

Love you guys and please PRAY for Sunday!

PB

Hosting God's Presence

Read this today from Bill Johnson......

I want to "host" the Presence of God in my life.  I want more "breakthroughs by accident" due to God's Presence.

Pressing in with you,

PB

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One of the greatest privileges in life is to learn to be a person that God will rest upon. He already lives in every born again believer. But He doesn't rest upon all of us. One way I like to say it is, "He is in me for my sake, but He is upon me for yours." When He is upon us, it especially changes others around us. Jesus modeled this lifestyle in the story of His baptism in water.

When Jesus was baptized, He came out of the water, the heavens opened, the Father spoke, and then the Holy Spirit came upon Him as a dove and remained. "John testified saying, "I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him" (John 1:32 NASB). If, in the natural, I have a dove sitting on my shoulder and I want to go about life without it flying away, how am I going to live? Every step would be with the dove in mind.

As we become faithful in learning how to host the presence of the Lord, it is important to understand that there is a tension between two realities: He has been given to us without measure, yet what we enjoy on a daily basis has been "measured" to us according to our faithfulness. In other words, we have access to the unlimited measure of God's presence, but He doesn't entrust Himself to untrustworthy people. All of the measurements are set up on our end of the equation. He typically entrusts us with the measure of the presence we are willing to jealously guard.

We are to become His resting place--the place from which the exploits of heaven are accomplished. For when the Lord rests upon a person, there is actually an atmospheric shift that takes place wherever that person goes. How do you think Peter's shadow healed people? Our shadow will always release whatever overshadows us. When we learn to host the presence of the Lord, we get more breakthroughs by accident than ever used to happen on purpose. That is a possibility for every believer every day.

One of the conflicts we face in learning to host the presence is sometimes found in the very lessons we learned from the previous seasons. Believe it or not, those principles sometimes war against the actual presence of the Lord upon us. We are to use principles to plan by, but we must learn to live from the presence. And if there's a conflict between the two, presence always wins out over principle. For example, I may be accustomed to aggressively pursuing the will of God for my life. My key verse might be Matthew 11:12, "and the violent take it by force." Living by principle has me apply what I have learned up to this point--violent faith. But in this story, the presence of God may be leading me to "receive the kingdom as a child" (Luke 18:17). If you live entirely by principles only, you will make assumptions in certain moments and seasons that are entirely based on Scripture, but they will be in conflict with the Spirit. In this example, both violent faith and childlike faith are biblical. It is the Holy Spirit who knows how we are to respond in each particular season or in a given situation.

We are supposed to be well grounded in what God has said so we can discern what He is saying. It is the presence of God that gives me access to continuous ongoing faith, because faith comes by hearing, not having heard. "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:1). Learning to host the presence of God provides the atmosphere of the heart where faith becomes natural and normal. Let's commit ourselves to become the resting place of God.

Sons and Daugters of God

As promised Sunday, I will be posting additional "fuel" that I did not get to from the Rave service, due to time limitations.  Hopefully it will stock the fires of your heart and be a blessing.

One of the things I talked about Sunday morning was how vitally important it is to "preach to yourself" the primary truth:  "I AM MY FATHER'S SON/DAUGHTER:  THIS IS MY TRUE IDENTITY!"  

A thousand times over, you will have to preach that central truth to yourself.  Every time you fail.  Every time you feel condemned. 

Again and again and again and again, for the rest of your life, you will come back to this central truth.

Libby Sandberg, one of our Frontline intercessors, sent me this last week.  I did not have time to share it Sunday morning.  It was the teaching she delivered to the team last Monday.

Enjoy,

PB

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Over last week, July 19-24, God gave me a really good teaching on being sons and daughters.  He said it's an issue of "sonship".

 
The weak or lack of faith in the body of Christ is because believers are not relating to our heavenly father as the sons and daughters we really are. (1John 3:1 How Great is the love the Father has lavished upon us that we should be called children of God). 

Christ's blood adopted us into God's family, not as servants or slaves.  As Sons and Daughters.

As believers we must live out of the positon of sonship (Rom 8:16) where we accept and receive the privledges of being a child of God, a real child of God.  I love my children, not because of anything they do or don't do, I just love them to pieces!!  Out of that love I bestow gifts, blessings, discipline, affection, instruction, etc.  Other children may come into my home but they do not receive the same endowments that my own children, the ones all mine,  do. 

I still love those children but I do not call them mine.  Our Father holds all people dear and loves all people (John 3:16), but those who have believed and confessed Jesus as Lord are endowed with the privileges of sons and daughters.  Servants do not have the same privileges and opportunities as children.  Servants remain outside the inheritance from the Father.

 
There is a difference in being a servant of Christ, where we seek to follow the example of Christ (Jesus went all around doing good) and relating to the Father from the position of a servant.  Servants don't crawl into the lap of the Father and display adoration and affection freely.  They also don't have expectations that a son or daughter have.

The story of the prodigal son shows us our position,.... our forever position.  When the son "comes to his senses" and decides to go home, his intention is to return as a servant because he does not deserve to be a son any longer.  The father, however, has no intention of the son ever being a servant.  The redemption is clear when the father places the robe on the son and then the ring.  It displays the father's heart.  You are a son, with all the privileges and blessings restored.

As sons and daughters we've got to get a clear picture of how our Father sees us, no matter where we've been or what we've done.  Believers also have to grasp more expectancy.  Jesus said we are to be salt and light in the world.  As we pray believing our Father for the things He has promised, it should not be a surprise that we have blessings others do not.  This is how or why we stand out!!  Others see that our jobs are secure, our children are spared, etc and want to know, "what are you doing?".  Jesus said when I am lifted up I draw all men to me. 

We exalt God through faith, prayer and answered prayer!

We must live, breathe and accept our position as sons, and cry out "Abba Father" and receive all that goes with that position, but not out of a performance oriented basis. 


Blessings, Libby

Sunday Review

• "God On The Billboards" started off with a BANG!  Pastor Craig called me last night from Norfok to ask how it went.  As I told him, "It was the strongest one yet!"  Our Creative team nailed it on the lighting, the intro to the song....everything was on the money.
• Best of all, GOD SHOWED UP!!  Amazing how he blesses our attempts to use anything we can for His glory and to truly reach people far from God. 
• We had a number of people in the 2nd service who came from the radio spots.  Hope they filled out Connect Cards so we can follow up.....!  God has their number though and is faithful to work.
• Did I say that the band NAILED it??!?!  From "Carry On My Wayward Son", to every song in worship, it was A-MAZING!  Super job, Adam, on the delicate lead guitar there....love seeing you play!
• The message I brought seemed well received.  My stomach was giving me problems before, but Deb prayed with me and God ALWAYS hears her..! :)...Really....
• The last 2 Sundays, the energy in the services is the highest I can remember.  Though its EARLY, the 8:30 service is perking up.  More caffeine??? :)
• We start our new flow of church meetings this week.  Looking forward to more and better effectiveness for Jesus.  Good management is a BLESSING and makes everything easier on everyone else.
• I will bring some good thoughts on being God's Children tomorrow.  Tune in...!

PB