This Sunday, as part of our GOING sermon series, we’re doing something a little different.  Most of Sunday’s message will consist of testimonies from PCF members who have seen God working in moments when faced with a choice of fear or faith.  I’m excited to hear these testimonies of living faith, and I’m sure that we’ll be blessed this Sunday.  Don’t miss it!

VBS has been going really well this week.  I’m floored by how many volunteers are pouring their week into this ministry.  Thank you for your prayers for the families God is ministering to this week.

We’re also getting ready to install our new sign, so we’ll have the new sign on display in the sanctuary, and we’ll bring in the old sign next week so you can get a closer look at it–it’s a great reminder of God’s faithfulness to our church.  Keep your eyes peeled!

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Are you, like me, an uncomfortable evangelist?  In today’s message in the GOING series, the transformation we talked about was moving from places where we are comfortable to uncomfortable in responding to our opportunities to share the good news about what God has done in our lives.  The audio for today’s sermon will be posted here soon.

It’s easy to see that sharing about God’s work in our lives is a key part of our faith, but it’s also easy to build up reasons in our minds for why we can’t be the ones to be the messengers of God’s grace.  We’ve been given a wonderful privilege in having the joy of sharing God’s work in our lives, but we can sometimes make it too complicated or too difficult for ourselves.

A great approach to evangelism that I heard summarizes the steps this way: 1) make a friend, 2) be a friend, 3) bring a friend to Christ.  Sharing God’s story is effective when done in the context of a friendship–and I think more and more people will come to know the Lord this way rather than through televangelism or door-to-door cold calls.

After the service today someone mentioned that even if we are concerned that we might not be a Billy Graham, we don’t have to be the one concerned about “closing the deal” in terms of leading someone to Christ.  We might simply need to share what Christ has worked in our lives, and we might never see the fruit from that–it might be that you or I might be the fifth person to share the gospel with a person, but they respond to the sixth or seventh.  That’s great!  Paul said in I Corinthians 3:6, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.”

This week in our early morning small group (Weds., 6:30-7:30am @PCF) we’ll go into how we can be messengers of God’s story, and we’ll cover it the following week in the BIG Small Group (not meeting this week due to VBS, but picking up again on Weds., August 4, 7:00-9:30pm at Praise).  Everyone’s welcome to both of these groups (and they’ve been a blast so far!).

Questions to ponder–feel free to respond in the comments section below:

What excuses get in your way when faced with a chance to talk about God or invite a friend to church?

What scares you when you think about initiating a conversation about spirituality?

What approaches to sharing good news about God have worked for you?

How has God used people in your life to lead you to him?

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Today was the third part of the GOING series – we traveled from the Wilderness to the Promised Land through faith and courage. Our ‘up front’ points were:

• Change is inevitable
• Choosing wisely takes courage
• Fear inevitably leads to failure
• Faith leads to growth in Christ

Here are the Powerpoint slides…

Download (PPT, 1.48MB)

… and the audio will be posted here.

Don’t forget – we’ll be covering this at Small Group of Wednesday morning and evening – all are welcome.

Here are some questions to mull over – please leave a comment as well:

1. How many times have you responded with FEAR instead of FAITH? Was there a choice?
2. How many times have you rejected FEAR to live in FAITH?
3. How did God speak to you through His word today?
4. Is God calling you to make a choice about reaching out to a friend?
5. Is He asking you to bring someone to church?

For further reading: Keep reading through the book of Joshua to see God leading people like us.

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Today was the second part of the introduction to the GOING series (the audio will post here). Even though God performed many miracles before the Israelites, each generation had to come before the Lord personally. No one rode in on the coattails of their parents. And as we look at Judges 2, we see that the people in the OT were continually turning from the Lord and refusing to give over parts of their lives.

That applies to us as well. We as individuals and as the church continually need to be drawn back to God. It’s so tempting as Christians to think that we’ve “arrived” at this perfect stage of spiritual maturity, yet there is always deeper growth and change waiting for us. As sinful beings, we hate change and resist the transformation God desires for our lives.

Here are the Powerpoint slides:

Download (PPT, 290.5KB)

Here are some questions to mull over–please leave a comment as well:

How have you sensed God calling you back to him?

What parts of your life have you not wanted to turn over to him?

How does God transform the church to remain obedient?

How did God speak to you through His word today?

For further reading: Keep reading through the book of Judges to see God transforming rebellious people like us.

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We’ve just started a new sermon series at Praise called GOING–and it’s all about God’s transformation of our lives as we personally commit to the mission he’s given us.  We’ll be talking about different aspects of this transformation Sundays, 9:30am, July 4-August 22.

Each week there are a couple ways that we can continue and personalize the conversation and application.  You’re invited to participate in the discussion here at PCF’s new blog each week, and you can also attend the new early morning summer small group which will meet on Wednesdays, 6:30am-7:30am, at PCF, starting July 14.

When it’s posted, the sermon can be heard here:
Going – The Wilderness

Here are the PowerPoint slides:

Download (PPT, 948.5KB)

After today’s message, “The Wilderness,” I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the following questions:

• Have you ever found yourself in trouble for doubting God?
• Has God ever taken you through the wilderness–a time of “formation” to re-focus your heart or attitude?
• Have you ever seen God achieve the impossible or unlikely?  Tell us about it.
• How did today’s sermon speak to you?

To leave a comment, simply click on the “leave a comment” link at the bottom of this post.  Thanks for sharing and enriching our spiritual growth!

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