Posts Tagged: one prayer

revolution church sacramento / sunday night reflections — No Comments
21
Jun 09

Sunday Night Reflections: June 21, 2009

Tonight was the night that I had been warned about. When the start time for our gathering tonight came & went without anyone there to worship with us, I was a little worried about how the team would want to proceed. I felt we should move forward with the service as it is never about us, but it should always be about our worship and service whether anyone is there to see it or not. Just before I was about to ask them to stand with me and move forward with the service, cars came into the parking lot. We started late, but it was okay. Today was a memorable day and here are the reasons why:

  • We were able to go through with our worship set even though it was our smallest gathering to date. This honored God and I know he was pleased! Not many people get a chance to face this situation. It was a blessing in disguise for our team.
  • I had a chance to hear Annette throw down some rhymes today. I like the way she raps, “yo, yo, yo!” We need more Asian hip-hop artists in Sacramento! :)
  • Being smaller today allowed us to be more-relaxed. It was fun time and we engaged in some good fellowship. I don’t want Revolution Church to be stodgy & traditional. Talking about running 10k’s, and about our studies, and joking around together…what a great way to prepare ourselves to worship our God together! I may put up some clips on our vimeo site :)
  • As always, Steven Furtick brought it all today! I’m wondering if there is ever going to be a time when I watch Pastor Furtick preach a message and I don’t get emotional and get teary. I just get so jacked up hearing this man speak! His enthusiasm for the local church and his love of God is incomparable. God wrecks me every time. Steven Furtick and I may never meet in-person and he may not know me by name, but I guarantee you that people in Sacramento are going to know the saving grace of Christ Jesus because of how Pastor Furtick has influenced me and my ministry. I will never be the same!
  • I’m so indebted to the kingdom-minded team of Craig Groeschel and staff at LifeChurch.tv. One Prayer this year has been crazy good and has been a great way for us to introduce Revolution Church to Sacramento during our public preview services this month. Much love always to Pastor Craig and the amazing team at LifeChurch.tv…we will be forever thankful that we could grow in our faith and grow closer together through your making resources such as One Prayer available to small churches such as us. For those of you that have my blog for any length of time know how grateful I am for Craig Groeschel’s kingdom heart and for all that he has spoken into my life and ministry. Someday I hope we as Revolution Church Sacramento have a chance to give to others as LifeChurch.tv has freely given to us.
  • I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: We have an unbelievably gifted and big-hearted worship team for our public preview services and I am awed in their presence. I’ve been to several churches as part of my seminary studies and through my travels. I know some churches with thousands of people in attendance on a Sunday that don’t have the cohesiveness and spirit of worship that our team has. God so answered our prayers for this aspect of our ministry and I am completely humbled that of all the ministries in all the world that he would put together this outstanding team for our preview services. As Pastor Furtick shared tonight, God is GREAT!
  • We finally got all of our sound system issues resolved today! It sounded really nice and we are ready for our guest worship team from Xaris Church next Sunday. Wow, how we got some low budget, used equipment from ebay to perform like this could only be the result of a GREAT God! Wow!
  • As it was Father’s Day, I had to get together with my daughters after service so I missed hanging out with our church for dinner. It really felt strange to me. Seriously, I am wondering how I am going to respond when we stop meeting Sunday nights after next week and go to gathering for small group gatherings in homes for two months. I can honestly say that I am going to miss our church after our preview services. It’s making me feel a little sad at the moment.
  • As we conclude week three with just one more week to go for One Prayer, I know that we could not have realized this time without the strong prayers of some great people that have partnered with us throughout the world in prayer. Combining the prayers of our partners along with those from over 1,800 churches participating in One Prayer makes for some abundant favor upon God’s house and his people. Prayer is being lifted up and God is responding in awesome ways. When we can recognize his hand in the little things we can come to expect his hand in the bigger things.
  • Hearing Steven Furtick’s testimony again about how Elevation Church got its start always gets me excited. When people see him speak and learn that he is a senior pastor the first thing people comment about is how young he is. So beautiful to see God work in all sorts of people that will pursue him in faith. Young or old, loud or quiet, tall or short…God will use the least of his people at times to speak power into people’s lives. Praying that God will continually do that as he grows our ministry here in Sacramento. Can’t wait to see how things come together for us!
  • The text I studied and prayed over last week in Philippians really spoke to me tonight. On the surface it may have seemed like tonight was kind of uneventful, but I feel that we had much to rejoice about and many to be thankful for. Tonight we stood in unity and it wasn’t about theology or mission or worship style–we were truly brothers and sisters i Christ and it was a wonderful time to be together.
  • After having the video messages from some gifted preachers being received so well this month, I’m going to have to step-it-up for next Sunday. Hoping I don’t disappoint anyone…please pray for me.
  • Share/Bookmark
church / church planting / one prayer / revolution church sacramento / sunday night reflections — 11 Comments
7
Jun 09

Sunday Night Reflections: June 7, 2009

I just walked through the door at 10:30pm and feel compelled to update all of our praying and supportive friends even before I get settled in. Without you there for us, none of this would be possible!

  • Our worship team is simply amazing! They spent time working on harmonies and structure through all of the technical issues I was having with the sound system. Immense thanks to Robert, Annette & Charlotte…today was wonderful!
  • As always, things got thrown in our way to distract us, but I think we made it through okay. Our venue changed the room on us at the last minute so instead of a multi-purpose room where we could make it feel more intimate we ended up in a big, traditional Episcopal Church sanctuary. No one seemed to mind, and even some liked the traditional aspect of the environment.
  • It was great to see how Jentezen Franklin, pastor of FreeChapel in Gainesville, GA connected with our group here in Sacramento, CA. I don’t think anyone aside from myself knew who he was before they came out tonight, but now they all want to know and hear more of his teaching. As someone whom I have try to emulate a bit and a person that has mentored me from a distance, it was great to be able to share the gift of Pastor Franklin’s ministry with the people of Sacramento.
  • For all the things I go through in setting up our entire service, sound system, powerpoint, media, etc. I am in absolute shame knowing that Pastor Jentezen Franklin preaches services in Gainesville, GA Sunday mornings and then catches a flight to Irvine, CA and preaches there Sunday night…every week! That along with the responsibilities of leading a megachurch just amazes me. Obviously God is strength to an infinite degree in Pastor Franklin. I’m praying for you!
  • Not only did we have some new faces join us for our gathering, but we moved over to a restaurant for dinner and continued getting to know each other and sharing in conversation. It was a great time and I am so thankful for those that God brought across our path today. It truly was a special day!
  • Starting at 12:30pm and running through to 10:30pm is a bit too much for me. I don’t see how I can sustain spreading myself over two church services/fellowship that span that much time. It was seriously non-stop for me today.
  • As excited as I am about being a part of One Prayer, it is interesting to see how people are comparing 2009 with what happened in 2008. Those in our gathering that came out and supported us during One Prayer last year seemed to relate better to “God make us _______.” rather than “God is _______.” Interested to see if any other churches have the same thoughts.
  • Today we were informed that our request to use our current gathering space  for our official August launch of weekly services was denied. So, we have to start searching for a new location and working on developing some financial support to allow us to pay rent somewhere. This was the original plan, so obviously God wants us to stay true to that. Praying about our next steps on this.
  • The coolest thing is re-connecting tonight with some of the group that were with us during One Prayer 2008 and hearing them recite things from the messages last year. It still is making an impact on them a year later. That’s pretty awesome!
  • My faith truly sucks sometimes! I created an offering box that is self-service rather than passing around a tray. I had it just in case someone felt like giving, but really didn’t expect anything. Of course, at the end of service there were offerings and I need to spend some time in prayer about how small I make God out to be at times
  • People throughout the world were praying for us and it was felt deeply. Many thanks for the faithfulness of our friends that prayed for us.
  • Looking forward to introducing Francis Chan to Revolution Church Sacramento next Sunday. Not many in our gathering know who he is or have heard his teaching before. People of the Revolution, prepare to hear God once again next Sunday :
  • Share/Bookmark
one prayer / revolution church sacramento — 1 Comment
3
Jun 09

One Prayer 2009 is here!

op-120x240I can’t begin to tell you how I excited I am about what is going to happen this month! This is our second year joining in with the One Prayer project from LifeChurch.tv and I feel as if I need to explain this a little bit.

Last year we at Revolution Church Sacramento got a lot of interest in our connection with One Prayer because we used that first campaign to start our (then) preview services in June 2008. However, those were preview services for our sending church as a way to let them know we were committed to seeing unity within the church and to have a chance to share our vision with the congregation. We invited other churches to help participate in our services and brought in worship teams from different local churches. We crossed cultural lines and stood together with the body of Christ. It was a great experience. As I blogged about One Prayer (you can see the archived posts here) I was blessed to have encouraging replies from pastors such as Craig Groeschel and Steven Furtick. Many doors were opened for us and coincidentally, we are now in a position to have our first public preview services connecting again with LifeChurch.tv and One Prayer beginning this Sunday, June 7th. We didn’t expect it would take a full year to get this point, but we appreciate the opportunity to be of service to God’s people and share the message of the gospel to our city in God’s timing, not ours.

Through our unity and call to stand together as one church in the name of Christ, we are able to share video teachings from such gifted pastors as: Francis Chan (Cornerstone Community Church, Simi Valley, CA), Jentezen Franklin (FreeChapel, Gainesville, GA) and Steven Furtick (Elevation Church, Matthews, NC). This time we’re inviting everyone to join us for worshiping God through song with an amazing group of people God has brought to us (Thank you Robert, Annette, and Charlotte!), be engaged in the Word, pray together and share in communion. It’s an exciting time to be in ministry and I’m ecstatic and filled with joy knowing the Lord is going to move in amazing ways throughout the world as a result of One Prayer. As of today there are over 1,600 churches and almost 1,000,000 people united in faith to see God answer prayers for the church at large.

The theme this year is to complete this statement: God is ____. I submitted a video teaching with the title “God is Calling.” He is calling everyone, yet we often mistake the call or don’t interpret it correctly. I explain that once you know what to look for, it’s not as difficult as we make it out to be. My video teaching is available at the One Prayer website here: http://2009.oneprayer.com/the-messages or if you’re local to us here in Sacramento, won’t you come share in community with us as we hear the message together at Revolution Church Sacramento?

  • Share/Bookmark
Bible / devotion / prayer — 2 Comments
30
Apr 09

Solomon’s one prayer

If God spoke to you and promised to immediately deliver on one prayer, what would you pray? Some may pray for a job, or a house, a spouse, world peace, an end to poverty, strength to just get through the day. Once even Jesus prayed that the burden be taken from him if possible as death on the cross was going to be so painful.

After videotaping a message for LifeChurch.tv‘s One Prayer project, I have the thought of one prayer on my mind a lot. Even this weekend I’m preaching at the mother church and I had to pick some verses from the first half of 1 Kings. This is where Solomon’s one prayer takes place.

I don’t know if I could condense my prayers down to just one if given the opportunity, but let’s see how Solomon responded:

    1 Kings 3:5-12 NIV:

    5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

    6 Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

    7 “Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

    10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.

Solomon was so honored by God that he only wanted what God wanted. In verse 9 his prayer is that God grant him a discerning heart to govern his people and to distinguish between right and wrong. How humble and noble is that? He didn’t ask for wealth or obedience from his servants or long life or anything practical from a human perspective. He just wanted to be wise. So often, after seeking things from God, in the end, wouldn’t it have been better had we just asked for wisdom and discernment?

I have such a long list of things I’d like to have for my life, my family, my business, and the church plant. Usually at the top of that list is something that money can buy. However, today I need to re-direct those thoughts into seeking God’s wisdom and asking him to give me a discerning heart. Help me to cut through the garbage and focus on things that money can’t buy. Put my sights not on the silver and gold and things that moth and rust can destroy, but turn to heavenly things and trust that God will give me all that is needed to do his will.

In light of Solomon’s wise choice for his prayer, if God were to grant you one prayer that he would immediately deliver upon, what would you pray?

PS. In honor of Solomon’s humbleness and humility, immediately following the passage above, in verse 13 God tells Solomon: “Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both riches and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings.”

  • Share/Bookmark
church / prayer — No Comments
3
Apr 09

God, make us ________ !

I’ve been giving a lot of thought about LifeChurch.tv‘s One Prayer project for 2009. This year’s theme is “God is _____.” Last year’s One Prayer project was a bit of a struggle for me as it was going on around the time my mom was ill and she passed away a few days before One Prayer went live last June. The only time I had to record my video message was on a lunch break in-between visits to the hospital. It was rushed, unedited, and I ended up rambling on a bit too long in some places. However, as poor as the message may have been, I just felt so compelled to make it happen. Even just getting the video uploaded took enormous effort. Finally, I was allowed the opportunity to just FedEx a DVD to LifeChurch.tv (it seemed like another one of those battles in my life of spiritual warfare). I don’t think the video message was used in any churches last June, but I do know that I saw other pastors take the title and make it their own. I also met some amazing people that are still my friends today as a result of my participation last year. The theme last year was if you could have just one prayer to God for the church, what would that prayer be? The title had to be in the form of this prayer/statement: “God, make us _________ .” My title was “God, Make Us Uncomfortable.” (You’ll have to sit through the video in order to learn the story behind that title) :)

So, as I’m thinking through (and definitely praying Ephesians 6 over myself this time!) the message for this year, and reminded of all that happened last year, I thought I’d present the question to you. So, if you had just one prayer that you could lift up to God and that you knew he would answer, what would that prayer be? Reply below with your prayer: “God, make us __________ .” and why you chose it. I’d really appreciate having the opportunity to see what burdens your heart for the local church.

PS. Whether you are in a position to participate this year or not, would you please at least visit http://2009.oneprayer.com and see what it’s about? If you can’t participate as a church, then maybe you could just lift this initiative up in prayer. Pray for the team at LifeChurch.tv and for the churches and for God’s blessing on all the new ministries that will be planted through this project. Thanks!

  • Share/Bookmark
← Older Entries