…for the rest of us

Can’t wait to see you and those you’ve invited this Sunday at 9:30 or 11am!

What a great Sunday, yesterday!  And if you need more Easter invite postcards, let me know and I will literally bring them to you anywhere in Lawrence this week.

Here are some takeaways from yesterday’s talk:

• Your words are always a fire.   A fire under control can bring a lot of warmth and light.  A fire out of control can destroy homes, families and friends.
• Your words are a window to your true character.   Don’t look at info or about pages on blogs and Facebook to find out who you or your friends really are.  Look at their past few months worth of status updates, blog posts or tweets.  What you’ve felt you needed to tell the world tells us more about you than anything else.
• If you want to change your future, change the way you talk.
• If you want to change the way you talk, fill your heart with God: talk to Him honestly (praying) and read what He has to say (Bible, but get a version that reads in plain language.  I recommend the NLT).
• Rely on God daily so we have the best reference point of how to respond in all circumstances.

What if I said I had a recording of everything you said in the past week and I was about to post it on this blog for everyone to hear?   What would we learn about you and your character?

Umm, I’m thankful that recording doesn’t exist for me.  But God hears it all and wants us to come to Him daily to change our hearts.  He wants us to take practical steps forward in the area of managing our mouth.

This Sunday is our last week of Surviving the Madness and we’ll look at how to manage our mouths.  This isn’t just relevant to talking out loud, either. We live in a world where anyone can have a published voice on the internet - are we really watching what and how we say things?

Then on April 4th we launch TWO services!  This is an awesome opportunity to create more room for people who don’t like church or have had bad experiences in the past.

Then five days later, Friday, April 9th at 7pm we are having our first worship night where we will rock out to more songs and celebrate communion and baptisms as the EastLake family.  You absolutely do NOT want to miss this.

So many stories of healing and hope are coming out of growth groups.  More people are jumping in to volunteer. People are connecting on Sundays, firing off new friendships.  It’s awesome.

Then to top it all off, April 25th after services, we will have our very first EastLake 101 membership class.  Don’t worry, it’s not some laborious 8-week seminar or anything.  It only takes an afternoon.  You’ll get to hear what makes EastLake EastLake and what it means to be a member.  And don’t worry, you aren’t automatically a member because you attend.  You get to decide that for yourself at the end of it!

Yesterday we talked about how God wants us to learn patience not only with people, but with Him on answering our prayers.  If you’re anything like me, patience is one of the hardest things to put into practice in life.

We’re so conditioned to get answers and info immediately in this day and age, and when that Google-factor doesn’t translate into our relationships, it can be frustrating, but God wants us to keep it in check.

Here are some main takeaways from yesterday:

• KU fans now need an extra dose of patience
• When circumstances are uncontrollable, we try to compensate by worrying (a form of impatience).  Worrying about something you can control is dumb.  Worrying about something you can’t control is useless.
• Using Job (from the Old Testament) as an example, we can see how deep our trust and love for God goes when other things we love are taken away from us.  If our confidence endures (patience) the hard times, it shows our confidence in God, that He always has our best interest (our character, integrity) in mind.
• God is in control and moving our entire history to a climax.  Tough circumstances do not mean God is not there or has abandoned us.  He is at work and will never allow anything in your life that you can’t successfully get through while relying on Him.
• A delay in God’s response is not a denial.  He may be waiting for you to move forward with what you’ve been given or preparing a better answer according to how He wants you to grow.  There is a difference between “no” and “not yet.”
• We must wait on God expectantly.  That means we prepare the best we can for God to actually answer our requests.  If we want God to work in our financial distress but we aren’t willing to change our spending habits or financial outlook, we can’t expect God to bless that part of our lives.
• God wants to bless you.  Despite what some “Christian” books tell you, there is no turn-key system to a specific type of blessing hidden in the pages of the Bible.  However, God does promise to bless us when we’re patient with Him, diligent with our relationships and generous with the blessings we already have.  What form those blessings take will vary from person to person since God’s relationship with you is personal.

Oh, and check your mailbox this week for this and get ready to invite at least three people to Easter Sunday!