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)

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!!

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!

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.

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!!

If you slept in because of the time change, here are some highlights of what you missed….

• Another trusted Christ….
• An awesome new song last night… [great worship yesterday]….
• a Word about the importance of the church – to Jesus….
• a completely packed house on Sunday night and a move of God concerning our prayer lives. The altars completely filled after I preached on “Pray before the Emergency”…..
• A video about an exciting new project I am doing with the GBC…

Knowing that a lot of people have difficulties with prayer…..I plan on posting a few simple helps to get you started….

Tip #1 – Find a time – if you don’t find a time to pray you won’t pray. So, look at your calendar and find out when you can pray. Book it like an appointment with God. If it can be the same time every day – great!! But, because of your schedule Monday may be a different time than Tuesday. Just make sure you have a time to pray.

Blessings!

Pastor Joel

Immediately, two Bible passages came to mind….

Acts 2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

John 3:8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

I can’t tell you for sure if we are having revival in our midst – but I can tell you that it sure feels like revival and that 2 of the obvious signs of revival are happening….

1) Souls are being saved. The last night of February we baptized 18 people [the largest 1 time baptismal service in our history]. During revival, we had 4 more saved. This past Sunday, we had 15 saved [including my daughter] and 1 join for baptism. If all of those are baptized in March, we will have baptized nearly 40 people in 2 months! To put that in perspective, the most Liberty has every baptized in a YEAR is 52!! Keep inviting the lost and sharing your faith!

2) Giving is at record amounts. The last 2 weeks total offering [Tithes, Missions, KTFB, Revival] may be the largest 2 week offering in our history. If it isn’t, it is real close. I just finished reading in the OT [I'll let you look it up in your quiet time] where giving was a sign of revival. They had to stop the offering because the people were giving  faster than it could be used! Now, we aren’t going to stop the offering - I am a Baptist preacher and we are in a building program – but it is just another sign that revival is happening in our midst. Keep giving and lets see how fast we can get relocated so we can see more saved! Keep giving so we can see how many ways we can touch our community with the love of Christ.

The last sign of revival is confession of sin and forsaking of sin. Maybe today you want to start praying and asking God if there is something between you and Him that is keeping you from being in a close, vibrant, growing relationship with Him? If /when He shows you something – get rid of it and let’s watch as revival continues in our midst!!

Cause if this Ain’t revival….I don’t know what is!

1. Liberty you did a great job the whole weekend. Thank you for your attendance and for your commitment to Super Sunday and Revival. Even though we didn’t reach our goal, you filled the building and the parking lot up to capacity.

2. We had guests everywhere  – especially Sunday. We will reap the rewards of that for a while. If you invited someone, make sure you reconnect with them this week to see if they have any questions about the church.

3. “Wild Bill” did a fantastic job of preaching exactly what we needed to hear! Thanks to Bro. Bill for bringing it hard and straight!

4. We had 4 saved Sunday!! To God be the Glory!!

5. We baptized 18 last night – awesome! Lets keep it up and see more saved and baptized in 2010 than we ever have before in our history! And speaking of last night, what an amazing service to END revival with. The building was full with the balcony nearly full – that was amazing!

3 thoughts looking forward…

1. I am starting a 2 week [4 sermon] series called “Christianity – a little dab WON’T do ya” this Sunday. Too often the average Christian wants just enough of God to ease their conscious and we need to understand that is not how God wants His relationship with you to work. So, I’m preaching it hard starting this week. Don’t miss and be praying.

2. Too often we have a post-Super Sunday let down the weekend after – don’t let it happen. Teachers and SS leaders make sure you do your job of contacting and encouraging this week so that we stay on a high in church and Sunday School.

3. Bro. Bill commented on the incredible joy our church has – he talked to me about it in depth. So, don’t let that subside. This Sunday, show up withe the joy of Jesus filling your hearts and showing on your face and attitude!

Blessings…