I’m pretty excited today. Why? Because we are causing a commotion. We are stirring up trouble! We are creating an uproar on a cosmic scale. Let me explain.
A few weeks ago, we scheduled “Marriage Night.” This was an event that was streamed live via internet into our church. We had over 100 people show up, many of whom were not members of our church. That is what we preachers call a success. If you can get more than 10% of the congregation at any event AND a good portion of that are non-members then that is a success! However, as many of you know, in the middle of the event the internet cable was cut and we had to cancel. Now, many people would see that as a failure.
This Sunday, we begin a united series within our church. All of our classes; children, teen, and adult will be studying attributes of God in the “Real God” series. Then those attributes will continue to be accentuated in worship and sermon time as we come together. I’ve been praying that God work through this as a unifying experience for our congregation. But today, we find out the electricians cut the internet cable. So all of our streaming video won’t work.
I had someone say, “Well, if you didn’t try to do all this fancy stuff you wouldn’t have these problems. Our church doesn’t have any problems like that cause we just stick to the basics.” Now, I’m too nice to say it to that individual but I disagree with that statement.
See, I view all these things as attacks. Spiritual attacks. The enemy is threatened when we reach out to the community. The enemy is threatened when God’s people come together in unity. And the reason those churches that aren’t doing “fancy things” aren’t under attack is because they aren’t doing anything. Period. Satan has no need to attack an idle church. They aren’t a threat.
Or to use a football analogy. The player on the bench doesn’t have to worry about getting hit.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, or even internet cables. Our struggle is against the powers of darkness in the heavenly realms. And when Gods people start to make Kingdom waves in our community it causes those powers to try and knock us down. And that gets me pretty excited!
I hope you join us this Sunday. Todd Tipton will be leading a discussion style class in Classroom E. Wes Altom (I’m pinch hitting for him this week) will be leading a video-based discussion in Classroom C. Cullen Lyles will be leading a video-based discussion in the young families class/Classroom A. Martha Barnes will be leading a study/discussion in Classroom B. Plus our youth and children’s classes will also be involved in this study. And we will all be leaning into learning to love “The Real God” starting with His goodness.
I hope you join us this Sunday. We aren’t going to let internet problems stop us from the work of the Kingdom. We aren’t going to let the attacks of the enemy slow us down. Instead we will consider it …. pure joy!
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds” – James 1:2
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” – Ephesians 6:12
Pursuing God 