I think the biggest stumbling block is simply buying into the myth that engaging in social media is somehow optional for the church today. It’s a requirement. I have friends who I can call repeatedly without response, but when I message them on Facebook I receive a response in less than three minutes. The way people engage in conversations, commit to attend a gathering, and share their lives is changing — and the church must be at the forefront.

The church cannot afford to drop the ball on Social Media. Too many lives, souls, depend on it.

Think about all you can do in the arena of Social Media:

• engage believers and members
• engage unbelievers in the community
• get your message out via video
• get your message out via print
• discover ministry needs
• Share the gospel
• encourage the saints
• organize small groups for effective communication
• communicate with over 80% of your church body instantly
• ask questions
• get opinions

…and that list is so much longer! Any church would have paid such a high price to be able to do that 10, 20, or 30 years ago – and today it costs nearly nothing!! You would have hired a staff member to do what you can do through social media today!

Pastor – church, you can’t afford to drop the ball on this!

Lives depend on it.

Souls depend on it.

To find out how Acts18Media can help you accomplish all these goals and more for less than 1/120th the price of a staff member check these out:

Social Media Outreach and Ministry Lite

Social Media Outreach and Ministry Full

According to this article, Mr. Lucas believes the world will end in 2012. He has either bought into the hype or is helping create the hype surrounding the Mayan calendar.

So what do you think? Where does the truth lie? Here is what I believe:

Matthew 24:36 “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. {NLT}

Could the world end in 2012? Not really. I think according to the Bible that some things have to happen before the world “ends”.

Things like: the rapture of the church, the resurrection of the dead in Christ, the tribulation period {7 years}, etc.

Could those things begin in 2012? You bet! They could start today!!

But for now, lets not have another Y2K scare. Yes, the Lord is coming back. Yes, the world is going to be burned up. Yes, some bad things are going to happen. No, no one knows when it will be.

Live for Jesus! Trust Him! Tell others! It’s OK for you to ‘preach’ the world is going to end – everyone who doesn’t know Christ is going to have a terrible ending. We MUST tell / warn them. Just don’t attach a date to it!!

Personal well-being blossoms among U.S. adults who strongly identify with their religion, regularly attend church and have three or more close friends in their congregation, say sociologists Chaeyoon Lim of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Robert Putnam of Harvard University. Members of this devoutly connected group cite especially high levels of life satisfaction regardless of how many or how few friends they have outside their congregation, Lim and Putnam report in the December American Sociological Review.

Wow. Regularly going to church & having Godly friends really does make your life happier!

Here are a two bible verses that said it first:

Psalm 5:11-12  But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them sing joyful praises forever. Spread your protection over them, that all who love your name may be filled with joy.
  For you bless the godly, O Lord; you surround them with your shield of love.

Psalm 133:1  How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!

So, don’t ignore the evidence – get connected to God through your local church.

Here are 5 quick tips on how to be happy:

1. Know the Lord as your Savior – nothing else matters!

2. Join a vibrant, Bible believing church. You ought to sense the joy of the Lord when you walk into the building. If you feel like you are at a funeral service – visit somewhere else!

3. Join a small group / Sunday school class / life group – or whatever you want to call it. You need to meet & make friends with people who are in the same life situation as you.

4. Go all the time. The study found that it was people who attended regularly that experienced more happiness. You can’t go to church too much!

5. Grow in the Lord – the closer you get to Jesus the more joy & happiness you will find.

Be happy – go to church!!

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

¹⁹Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.

²⁰But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

²¹And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

²²Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

²³Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

²⁴Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:

²⁵And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS. (Matthew 1:18-25, King James Version)

Think for a moment about some of the odd events that surrounded the birth of Christ:

1. Mary, a virgin, conceived the child of God. Angles appeared to her and spoke to her and she told people about it.

2. A star guided a band of wise men – traveling in all their pomp  - to Jerusalem looking for someone to be king! They told the current king they were being guided by a bright light to his replacement!!

3. Jesus was born in a manger. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords was born in a smelly cave surrounded by sheep and manure. But, in the providence of God, where else would the Lamb of God be born!

4. Shepherds, working the third shift, were visited by a multitude of the heavenly host and told of the event. They probably saw and heard thousands of angels. Shepherds – not royalty – had the birth of Christ announced to them.

5. Joseph had his engaged wife tell him she was expecting – and GOD was the father! They lock people up for saying things like that.

I could go on and on. That’s just the main characters. That’s just enough to make you ponder a little bit this Christmas season.

Don’t just read the Christmas story. Read the story and talk about it. How would you have felt? Reacted?

Then remember, God did all of that so you could have a relationship with Him.  He did it so that your sins could be forgiven – so that you could go to heaven – so that you could be saved.

It’s a great story.

And…… it really was a strange way to save the world.

Great job Lucas Grant playing the part and thanks to Scott Crow and Jamie Grant for putting it together. It was tooooo funny!!

After your sermon on tithing we decided to tithe that very day. To be honest, we didn’t have it but wanted to take God at His word. We wrote a check for our tithes and put it in the offering plate and decided to trust God. That was on Sunday.

By Thursday we were completely out of money – and we started looking back on the tithe.

We thought about doing various things to get some cash – but decided we would just trust God. He had said He would bless us so we decided to wait. We were having that conversation and my husband said something like, “No Honey. We tithed. We trusted. We will wait and see what God does.” Those words were not out of his mouth for 30 seconds when our phone rang! I could tell the conversation was about money. When my husband hung up the phone he was so excited. Someone was giving us a check for 10 times the amount of money we had tithed – as a gift!! God came through. We were in tears.

His promises can be trusted!!

This Sunday we are challenging everyone to take God at His promise on “Prove the Tithe” Sunday. Lets all trust God and know for ourselves that His promises can be trusted!!

She heard that recent sermon of yours, felt convicted to tithe on the gross, shared it with me and a discussion ensued.

We beat the horse to death (pros and cons)…is that right or not?…and so on. Finally, I told her we have to trust the man of God and obey his teachings, but ask the Lord to deal with him and educate him if he is dispensing ungodly counsel to the flock (even if erroneously).

We committed to tithe…and to tithe on our gross…to our hurt this week. Well, you know the rest, sortof. {We received}  a check for each of us in the amount of $ _____ ……… this was almost the exact amount we were tithing to our hurt!

Yep. There’s a lesson for you and us. We learned you were “right on the money” (pun intended) about tithing on the first fruits (the gross…before Cesar–or Obama–gets his), and you will learn that God prompts the heart (and purse strings) in mysterious ways for His purposes, spiritually.

This week is “Prove the Tithe” Sunday. Why don’t you join us in claiming the promise of God and watch as He blesses your life – He promised!!

Malachi 3:10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

A few weeks ago I spoke about the promise of God from Malachi 3:7-12 regarding tithing. I expounded the Scripture and explained that God would bless you for tithing. The best financial advice you can follow is God’s advice – tithe and He will bless you beyond measure. We are even giving you the opportunity to try it together as a church family on Oct. 17th when we have “Prove the Tithe” Sunday.  We are challenging everyone to test God {He told us to} and tithe!! Some have already tried it and found Him faithful.

The week after I preached on the Promise of the tithe I received this email from a church member. I got their permission to share:

Yesterday you spoke about tithing, something God had already been dealing with me on since He blessed {my husband} with a new job which you and I both know are scarce right now.  I wrote a larger check than I had planned on in order to step out on faith.  Today an unexpected check came in the mail that more than covered the one I wrote yesterday.  I cried tears of joy, and I wanted to share God’s goodness with you.  You are such a blessing every day to our family—thanks for always preaching the messages we need to hear even when they are hard ones to hear.

That’s not “preacher talk” – that’s a real life example. The truth is I could ask any number of people and they would give the same testimony.

Don’t you think it’s time you trusted God? Don’t you think it’s time you tithed?

It’s the best investment advice I can give!

If you lived life claiming every promise that God had about:

• Family
• Finances
• Fear
• Witnessing
• Church
• Life’s Purpose
• Priorities

…what would your life look like?

The #1 factor that is keeping you or me from doing it is FAITH!! We want to trust God but sometimes just don’t seem to have the faith. FEAR wins out!! And, those are really the only two choices we have when it comes to the promises of God – Fear or Faith!

Are you afraid to trust God? Are we afraid of the outcome? Are you afraid you will mess up your life? The answer to all of those is “Yes”! But, there is a solution. 1 John 4:18 says, “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.” The key to getting the fear out of our lives and filling it with Faith is the love of God!!

If you want to have faith to claim the promises of God, fall in love with Jesus!

So, why don’t you do it? Why don’t you just pick a promise of God and by faith say to Jesus, “God I’m not sure I understand all of this but I’m going to believe it and act on it!” If you would, you would change your life for the good forever.

Walk with Jesus – Throw out Fear – Take Hold of the promises of God by Faith!!

“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world…” 2 Peter 1:4