The Fullness of the Holy Spirit

Every Tuesday our staff spends extended time in prayer together.  This week we focused on being "full of the Holy Spirit" as we recognize more than anything else we need a greater manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our lives, our families, our church, our ministries, and our community.  Below is the prayer guide we used.

“The work of God is not by might of men or by the power of men but by His Spirit. The philosophies of men fail, but the Word of God in the demonstration of the Spirit prevails.  The resources of the church are in the “supply of the Spirit” [Phil. 1:19 KJV].  It is for the church to explore the resources of the Spirit; the resources of the world are futile.” {Samuel Chadwick}

Obtaining the Fullness of the Holy Spirit [Ephesians 5:18b]

REPENT

If we want to know the presence of the Holy Spirit, we must live a life of repentance.  As soon as conviction comes, repent. Turn from sin and find forgiveness and cleansing in the blood of Christ.

As soon as people cry out for a filling of the Spirit, there will be immediate conviction of sin.  People will be convicted of breaking God’s laws and also of spiritual apathy that has left them weak and powerless.

Several godly individuals have used questions like the ones below to help identify areas of repentance:

Questions to “examine” ourselves:

• Am I slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?


• Am I enjoying prayer and Bible study?


• Do I pray about the money I spend?


• Do I insist on doing anything about which my conscience is uneasy?


• How do I spend my spare time?


• Am I defeated in any part of my life?


• Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?


• Do I grumble and complain?


• Have you exposed yourself to any questionable material (entertainment choices, time with opposite sex other than your spouse, etc.)?


• Are you holding anything back from God that you need to surrender?


• Is there anything dampening your zeal for Christ?

BELIEVE

We must believe in the truth of God’s Word to understand that apart from Him we can do nothing. We must believe that He has promised us Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit so that we can experience Him and His power in our lives.

DESPERATELY ASK

We have not because we ask not (James 4:2).  If God were to respond in proportion to your asking, would He sense your desperate need for the Holy Spirit?  Would He conclude that you could not live without His life in you? Would He be convinced by your persistence in prayer that you want to live a Spirit-filled life (Luke 11:1-13)?

Weekly Rundown (9.26.2010)

• Follow Me-Part 2: The fullness of the Holy Spirit is so "undertaught" and "underrealized" in churches and Christians.  I am praying today's truth really grips us as a church and we take the time to claim and seek the promise from Luke 11:13.
  
  
  
  • Seek the Holy Spirit in prayer. Ask for "fullness" with passion and persistence.  Believe there is no substitute or short cut other than God's gift of the Holy Spirit.
  
  
  • Sign-up for 24-7 prayer initiative. Make it a point to come to First Wednesdays to seek God together with our church family.  Take prayer seriously, believing what prayer can really accomplish.
  
  
  • Believe that through the Holy Spirit you can pray prayers that get answered, serve God with effectiveness, get rid of habitual sin, be the spouse/parent God wants you to be ... we cannot live like God's Word is not true.
  
  
  
  


• Next week's message: One of the more controversial aspects of following Jesus, but essential to understand.  Scripture is Luke 13:22-30.
  
  
  
  • Please know that this series is one of the most important and fundamental set of messages and is part of an expanded vision for our church.  If you miss a message, get a CD or listen/watch online!
  
  
  
  


• What's going on?
  
  
  
  • Lots of prayer for more of God!!  We desperately need and want more of the Holy Spirit!!!
  
  
  • Working on our church's 2011 budget.  Very excited about the faith and vision found in the initial drafts. We will be challenged and stretched, AND God will be glorified.
  
  
  • All new staff should be in place by mid-October.
  
  
  • In Calhoun: continuing to work through the building opportunity.
  
  
  • Less is More: our December special offering is coming up.  Please pray and plan now about how God wants you to participate!!
  
  
  
  


• My prayers right now:
  
  
  
  • For healing and restoration in some marriages.
  
  
  • Isaiah 64:1-4 -- for God to "rend" (open) the heavens and manifest Himself more at RBCC; for God to do "awesome things" we did not expect; for us to wait on Him in prayer.
  
  
  • For some specific people who are on the mission field overseas or about to go overseas
  
  
  • For someone that needs to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ
  
  
  • For the spirit of mammon ('more') to be broken and the spirit of religion/tradition to be defeated and for people to passionately, radically and unconditionally follow the Jesus of the Bible!
  
  
  
  


• My life right now:
  
  
  
  • Abreham is trying to/wanting to walk ... he is getting so frustrated!
  
  
  • Eyasu is like a sponge! Having to watch my example before him ever so closely.
  
  
  • Struggling being a 'Dawg fan!
  
  
  • Learning more and more what is means to be "full of the Spirit"!!
  
  
  
  

More Staffing Announcements

Our season of replacing & repositioning staff members appears to drawing to a close for now.  Been a crazy 6 months where many staff have had to do 2-3 jobs as we awaited new hires and prayed for God's guidance.  God has been faithful and we are excited to have our FULL team now in place.

John David Boreing is our new Technical Director: John David will handle all things AVL (audio, video, & lighting) for our church at all campuses.  He is coming in from Columbia, TN with his wife and son.  Great process of prayer & multiple interviews that finally brought John David to Rock Bridge.  Our team is pumped! He starts in early October (and then Brian Holt will move into the role of leading our Small Groups ministry).

Bridgette Harris is our new Chatsworth Children's Minister: She will be replacing Anna Holt.  We really appreciate Anna getting this ministry off to a great start at our newest campus.  Bridgette has been a great volunteer and we are excited for her to join our team in Chatsworth.

Daniel Kiser is our new Chatsworth Student Minister: Our plan in Chatsworth was to add a part-time Student Minister at about the 6-month anniversary of Chatsworth's launch.  Grateful for Daniel's passion and heart ... and looking forward to how God will use him!!

Future hires? Right now we are prayerfully discussing the need to add staff in the areas of local & global missions.  We are in the middle of drafting a 2011 budget so all discussions are preliminary and we don't yet know how or when this will take shape.  However, we are ramping up how Rock Bridge obeys the Great Commission locally and globally. We believe this "fuller" level of obedience will require adding staff to oversee our missions strategy and efforts.

Weekly Rundown (9.19.2010)

• From my heart: I really believe our church is on the verge of a greater manifestation of God. All I sense from God is to seek Him but wait for Him.  Please pray with me for our church to walk in step with God, glorify Christ, and depend radically on the Holy Spirit.  Please pray God's Word is honored like never before.


• New on Staff:
  
  
  
  • We hired Ben Honeycutt as a new part-time worship leader. Ben will be leading mostly in our student ministry but will lead occasionally during our adult weekend services.
  
  
  • We hired Kent Boyd (part-time) as our Student Production & Outreach leader.  Kent was in our FIRST youth group.
  
  
  • We hired Jarred Owens as our new IT Director.
  
  
  • Crazy but all of the above hires were replacement hires (We did split one full-time job into 2 part-time jobs)! Had several folks resign, move, etc over the summer and are just now filling their vacated positions.  I am thanking God for faithfully providing these individuals so quickly. They have all hit the ground running!!
  
  
  
  


• Celebrating & thanking Him:
  
  
  
  • For the 3rd straight year we have been named one of America's Top 100 Fastest Growing Churches!! We are #46 ... wow! But church is so much more than just the number of people attending ... how many are we sending? How many disciples are we making? Is God being glorified?
  
  
  • Baptism today was incredible ... God's grace, life change, God's glory ... does not get much better!!
    
    
    
    • Seeing our Calhoun Student Minister, Kurt Kessler, baptize his son was awesome!
    
    
    • Story after story of life change (overcoming pain, addiction, religion/legalism, etc.) ... wow!!
    
    
    • It never gets old to hear people proclaim Jesus as their Lord!!
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Missions: We continue to pursue local and global opportunities to partner and proclaim Christ.  I am so excited to learn of God's work that is occurring everywhere and in the most unlikely of places!
  
  
  
  • Good meeting this week with church planters in the greater Chattanooga area.
  
  
  • Hearing some interest about Rock Bridge going into Ringgold??!!??
  
  
  • Had a conversation this about Rock Bridge helping plant churches by equipping potential church leaders in IRAQ!!
  
  
  • Great discussion about incredible work in Whitfield County called, City of Refuge.  We might come alongside a few other churches to help meet real needs in our community.
  
  
  • We are continuing to press forward with doubling our missions budget/giving in 2011.  We are committed to investing this kingdom money in the wisest and most strategic ways possible.
  
  
  • These Scriptures are guiding my prayers regarding missions right now:
    
    
    
    • Isaiah 58
    
    
    • 2 Corinthians 9:9-11
    
    
    • 2 Corinthians 8:2-4
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Preaching:
  
  
  
  • Follow Me: Part 2 -- I love preaching about the purpose, power, and potential of Christ's church!! Especially convicting is the thought that we have made the church more about our comfort than Jesus' cross. Especially exciting is that the church holds the "keys" to help reveal Christ to the world!!
  
  
  • Next week: Part 3 -- I was personally "rocked" during my preparation for this message. It is changing my Christian walk.  We'll be talking about a subject that can be easily misunderstood and is seemingly hard to apply.  The scripture for next week is John 14:12-27.
  
  
  
  


• What's going on?
  
  
  
  • Many of us continue to challenged by David Platt's book Radical.  You can get a copy in the lobby space of any of our worship venues.
  
  
  • Preparing to unveil new opportunities to pray through a 24-7 prayer initiative.
    
    
    
    • Pondering and praying about other ways to increase prayer in and through our church.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Our new Technical Director has been hired.  We can't announce anything yet until he has had a chance to talk with his current church ... but we are pumped!! This means Brian Holt will be moving into the Groups Pastor role in a few weeks.
  
  
  • We need to multiply, reproduce, & plant NEW small groups!!  We need to see a major breakthrough in this area.
  
  
  • Exciting to hear our new Children's Minister, Allen Bishop, share more of his thoughts and vision. Exciting possibilities on the horizon as we seek to enhance/improve an already amazing ministry in our church!!
  
  
  • Calhoun Campus is looking intently about leasing a building!!  God has been really manifesting Himself in that campus ... several salvations and "God-stories"!!
  
  
  • Asking this question a lot: Is there anything we are doing that is good, but keeping us from what is best?
  
  
  • PLEASE let us know if you have questions -- email justask@rockbridge.cc or my personal email is matt@rockbridge.cc.
  
  
  
  


• My life:
  
  
  
  • Love my family and being a dad!
  
  
  • Had to have my first (but definitely not last), "I made a mistake as your dad" conversation with Eyasu this week.  He understood and I think (?) he forgave me.  Being a father helps me see my sinfulness from another angle and gives me even more motivation to seek God's grace!
  
  
  • Georgia football ... ugh! Go Navy!!
  
  
  
  

Weekly Rundown (9.12.2010)

• Really pumped and excited to kick-off FOLLOW ME today!!  I think this series has been "brewing" inside of me for quiet some time as I myself have wrestled with several things that are pretty clear for us in God's Word.
  
  
  
  • Today's two big questions:  Who is Jesus? How do I follow Him?
  
  
  • These questions will guide us through the rest of this series.
  
  
  • Our "endzone" or where we want to be at the end: Matthew 28:19-20
  
  
  
  


• Some of the books that have helped me get ready for this series:
  
  
  
  • Radical by David Platt
  
  
  • The Hole in our Gospel by Richard Stearns, President of World Vision
  
  
  • Exponential by David and Jon Ferguson
  
  
  • Fresh Power and The Church God Blesses both by Jim Cymbala
  
  
  
  


• Really making good progress on our overall "missions" strategy for Rock Bridge.  I can't wait to see how it all comes together for God's glory.  Below are some of our partners/potential partners and links to their web sites:
  
  
  
  • Compassion International (likely partner)
  
  
  • E3 Partners (potential partner)
  
  
  • MVI (Haiti: Ed Lockett)
  
  
  • Samaritan's Purse: World Medical Mission (Kenya: Dr. Rhett Shirley)
  
  
  • Shevet Achim (Middle East: Donna Petrel)
  
  
  • Living Water International (Haiti; Honduras)
  
  
  
  


• Baptism celebration is next week!!


• We are really working to make prayer more intentional, focused, and organized throughout our church.  Be looking for more information or you can email Alfred (alfred@rockbridge.cc).


• Celebrated Abreham's 1st birthday!! He loved his cupcake!!


• Have a great week!!

Just Ask!!

A few months we conducted an online survey to give us a sense of how our church was doing.  One of the highest negative marks toward Rock Bridge was in the area of communications about how decisions are made, why we do (or don't do) certain things, or just how to get questions answered.  We definitely do not want people to be confused, frustrated, or to even have to guess about our church's mission, vision, and operations.

We want to do better and are committed to taking steps to remedy this.  This is why we have created a NEW email address:  justask@rockbridge.cc.

Just email your question (which will be seen by a minister) and you'll get an answer in a few days.  If we get several questions that are related, I'll answer the question in a blog post.

Thanks for the feedback and we hope this simple step will make a big difference!!

Missions Monday: Things I'm Learning

I've been on a process of discovery lately seeking to learn more about the global status of Christianity and discern how God wants Rock Bridge to be part of His kingdom work to the ends of the earth.  Here's a summary of what I am learning so far:

1. The most evangelized countries (USA; Canada; Europe; Australia) are not giving much money and resources to the least-evangelized countries.


2. A U.S. dollar can do a lot more in Africa, India, & South America than it can in America.


3. A lot people (children mostly) die everyday from preventable causes and the "world" barely notices.


4. Christianity is growing very rapidly in a grass roots type of way in unexpected places like Afghanistan, China, and Ethiopia.


5. The Bible does not give us the option to "opt out" of global missions.  We are commanded to "go" to the ends of the earth (I had to repent when I was confronted with that truth!).


6. We can feed people food and give people water but if we do not share Christ and His Gospel then our "mission" is incomplete.


7. About 25% of the world's population lacks any real knowledge of Jesus Christ.


8. Prayer is the most important strategy for missions and world evangelism.


9. Generous giving is a critical component.


10. I am convicted: are we praying and giving to advance the Gospel?

Weekly Rundown (9.5.2010)

• Finished with LIES OF THE DEVIL this weekend.  New series starts next week: FOLLOW ME.


• I really believe this new series will be an epic one for our church.  We are going to examine what it really means to be a Christ-follower.  I am praying hard that we all see Christ more clearly so we can follow Him more closely!!  These are great opportunities to understand exactly what it means to follow Christ and live for Him.  Please pray!!


• Having several exciting conversations about missions opportunities before our church.  Getting a more "global" perspective of Christianity has been an incredible learning process for me.


• Remember in 2011 we will seek to DOUBLE our budgeted missions giving!!  This is a big step of faith-based generosity but one I am confident God is calling us to take as we seek to do our part to both demonstrate and declare the Gospel locally, regionally/nationally, and globally.


• Great First Wednesday service this week!


• Our Calhoun Campus is prayerfully working and preparing to move into a long-term lease at the old Piggly Wiggly location on Highway 41.  I am so pumped about this opportunity!!  Building decisions are so much more than money, bricks and mortar.  It is an intense spiritual process of seeking God on many different fronts. There are multiple decisions to make and details to work out but the ball is rolling and we are praying.


• Dawgs looked good in the opener.  Next week (@ South Carolina) we'll know more ...


• This week was my last week doing Football Friday for awhile.  I've done it for 4+ years straight now but being a dad comes first and it is hard to be out so late on Friday night when my kids get up so early (with so much energy) on Saturday!!  Seriously, that show has been a great way for me to be involved with something I love (high school football and young people) and try to represent Christ and our church in a different setting.  I am grateful to have had the opportunity.


• Have a great week!