Listen as Pastor Joel explains exactly what we owe to Christ.

It’s easy to worship God when everything is going right – but what about when your world is falling apart?

Listen as Pastor Joel talks about the privilege and duty of Christians to worship our God even when the circumstances of our lives are not what we want them to be!

When people new to our church experience VBS at Liberty for the first time most are just “blown away”. It’s not unusual to have the adults as fired up as the kids are about it. There are some churches that spend all of VBS “hushing” the kids and trying to keep them quite – uh hummmm…. we don’t do that. We turn up the volume and have a blast with them. Our attendance normally increases every night as kids go back home and tell other kids – “You’ve gotta experience this!!”

How important is this “experience”? Consider these statistics from 2007:

• 2,876,877 children, teens, and adults participated in a Southern Baptist Vacation Bible School.
• Of those participants,  267,771 identified themselves as unchurched – many more are most likely unchurched in practice.
• Of those who identified themselves as unchurched, 37,888 enrolled in Sunday School following VBS. Think about this – 37,888 sounds like a lot of people, but when you consider that each person represents a home with additional siblings, parents, and other relatives living in the home, that number can quickly becomes 1,000,000.
• One of the most amazing statistics is one of every sixteen 1st – 6th graders was enrolled in an SBC VBS in 2007.
• VBS 2007 accounted for 88,097 professions of faith during the week of or immediately following VBS, resulting in 26% of all 2007 SBC baptisms.

Wow!!!

You are doing a good work church. Yesterday I had everyone stand up who was saved as a teen or earlier – easily 80% of the church was standing. That’s how important VBS is.

So, roll up your sleeves ~ put on your cowboy boots ~ drink a 5 Hour Energy ~ and lets tell some kids about Jesus!!

In 1975 American Express launched an ad campaign with the phrase “Don’t leave home without it”. It became one of the most recognizable marketing campaigns that has ever been launched in the US. When someone says, “Don’t leave home without it” the majority of Americans know what that refers too.

I want to encourage you in a different way this summer. I want to encourage you – “Don’t Leave Home WITH it”! With what? With your tithes and offerings that belong to the Lord.

It is pretty common practice for churches to experience summer slumps in giving. Why? Some Christians take their tithe money that belongs in the work of God and spend it on vacation. Instead of giving it to the Lord, they give it to “Mickey”. It is too tempting to take that little “extra” with you on vacation just in case you need it. And, many probably do it with the good intentions of making it up when you get back – but that gets harder and harder with each passing week or month.

So, this summer season when most churches experience a financial decrease – at Liberty let’s do the opposite! Let’s increase in our giving so that we can do even more Real Life Ministry this year.

Here are a few tips to make that happen:

• Don’t take your tithe/offering on vacation. Leave it at home so you won’t spend it.
• Mail your tithe/offering in to the church the day you leave.
• Give online before you leave. We now have online giving through our website to make it even more convenient for you to give to the work of the Lord.
• Give extra during the summer months. We incur so many expenses in the summer months with VBS, camps, etc. It’s a great time to give a little extra to the Lord in the form of an offering to help with summertime costs.

It would be awesome to get to the end of the summer and have given so that we have more to do ministry with than we ever have. More money to put into our building campaign ~ more to invest in missions ~ more to help us reach our community.

You are a great church and I know we can do it! This summer – “Don’t Leave Home With it”!!

2 Corinthians 9:6-8
Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.

These are exciting times in the life of the Southern Baptist Convention. The SBC has been drifting downward for the last few years and we have heard the call to wake up and get busy reaching the world for Christ. How we go about it, though, is up for much debate. And, much of that debate will be going on at this year’s annual meeting.

I am involved in two things in Georgia Baptist Convention and Southern Baptist Convention life I’d like for you to keep me in your prayers about:

1. TalkSBC - this is the project I am doing with the GBC where I am partnering with them to cover the convention via social media outlets – blog, facebook, twitter, and youtube. We are trying to give the average SBC & GBC church and pastor a way to have their voice and opinion heard and to keep up with what is going on. I will be in Orlando for 7 days covering the convention and would appreciate your prayers in this effort.

2. Chairman, Committee on Committees SBC – Pastor Johnny Hunt [President of the SBC] has asked me to be the chairman of the Committee on Committees for the Southern Baptist Convention this year. Most of this work is done before the June meeting and during the June meeting. With attendance estimated to be 50-100% higher than previous years this committees work will be under much scrutiny. Be in prayer that I would have wisdom to lead this body. You can read about the new story about it here…. http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=32846 .

I always appreciate you praying for me!

Is your family crazy? Probably!!

I’m not talking about your crazy uncle or cousin that everyone is ashamed of at the family reunion. {if you don’t know of a crazy uncle or cousin you’re probably it }I’m talking about how crazy our family and home situations can be at times.

The days of the perfect family seem to be over. Where did ‘Father Knows Best’ and ‘Leave it to Beaver’ families go? Fact is, our family lives don’t resemble that well ordered life anymore.

So what does that mean? Can God still do something with your family? Can God still use your family? Can some “sense” come out of your crazy family?

Believe it or not – He can do great things with your Crazy Family! There are a lot of crazy families in the bible and there is help and hope for yours!

Join us beginning on Mother’s Day and find out how. Invite someone to be with you. Almost all of us know a family that is hurting and needs help. You can really make a difference in their lives by just inviting them to church.

PS. If you click on the picture you can watch a video where I talk about the upcoming series even more.

When you think about a marriage workshop three things normally come to your mind:

1. My marriage is fine I don’t need a workshop.

2. My marriage is a mess but it is too late.

3. My marriage is a mess but I’m not going to admit it. My head is in the sand.

All three are the result of faulty thinking.

First if your marriage is fine you can use the workshop to make it great. Marriage is not one of those things you “conquer” and then move on to something else. It is one of those things that has to be continually managed. Problems can develop overnight that set us back. You can use the Real Life Marriage workshop as preventative maintenance.

For the second group, know that is never too late. I have seen marriages come back together from the worst of circumstances. Your marriage is worth giving it every effort you can. Your marriage is well worth a six hour and $97 chance.

For the third group – get your head out of the sand!! Don’t play games with your marriage. It is too important.

The Real Life Marriage workshop is just a few days away. I urge you to sign up.

Your Marriage is worth it!!

Some highlights to relive:

• Guess what? Jesus is God!! Don’t get His identity confused with anything else. He is not a good man, good teacher, or all around great guy. He is God!
• We had another saved yesterday – in my office – and join for baptism. I can’t really remember the last Sunday we didn’t. Keep inviting your unchurched friends so they can know Christ as well!!
• Choir and worship yesterday was great. I love singing about the name of Jesus.
• Last night our skit team did an awesome job – if you missed it you just missed it! And, I have some of the “Stop Leak anointing oil” on sale for $4995.00 if you are interested. You can make 100 easy payments of ………………… you get the idea. It was all very funny but really hit home!
• And finally. We had ‘em runnin the aisles yesterday morning! Yep. But….it was a toddler that broke lose from his mama at the 11:00 service!! He made it all the way to the front right when I was a preachin up a storm!! Great grab Ryan. And, one of those moments you don’t forget. I wouldn’t want it to happen every Sunday – but since it was the first time in 8 years  – very funny!

Be praying for this weekend’s services.

Love you Liberty!!

But, the fact is, Spiritual Warfare happens every day of our life for the ‘regular’ Christian.

How do you fight a spiritual battle?

How do you win a spiritual battle?

Listen to this sermon by Pastor Joel Southerland and get some help on “Winning Spiritual Warfare for the Regular Guy”.

If you don’t have a prayer plan or a prayer list you won’t pray. If your prayer plan is to pray about everything that crosses your mind – then EVERYTHING will cross your mind and you’ll wind up daydreaming. So, before you sit down to pray, take a few minutes and create a prayer list.