Wow. I can't believe how well the sermon went last night. There were places to improve, sure, but you can't improve the work of ma man the Holy Spirit! In the 9am service it well okay, but I felt that something was missing. I felt that I had all the right ingredients, but that I missed something. So I started praying after the 9am service and as I prayed and prayed the Spirit showed me that I was preaching on unity: the hardest thing to achieve and the thing that battles Satan's strongest weapon of division! So, I needed to battle man! I needed to spend more time on my knees to get myself and the congregation ready to receive this message. So I did. And it went great in the 5:30pm service!
I had been prayn off-and-on throughout the day, but I prayed hard core right before the service. I just went off to myself and had me some good God time :) Well, God time is always good since it means that you are in His presence :) I was a little scared to tell you the truth because I wasn't getting ANYTHING in regards to what I was going to do different. So the service started and I wasn't ready :/ But throughout the service I had a feeling that the LORD was going to give me something to say before I started preaching... and He SO did! He prompted everything with what He put in Paula's heart to say right as worship was finishing their last song. Paula talked about her wanting to pray for the future of the church and for all the big changes that are coming. THAT WAS SO GREAT! The Lord instantly spoke to me about how when there is change, there is great danger of division within the church. When there is change, a church, as a whole, can either go with God's vision or stay in the stale plan that the church "thinks" they are supposed to follow. Or, sometimes people leave the church because they don't "agree" with the new pastor's ideas/theology etc.. It's SO sad!
The church... hmmm.... I thought that there was only one Church with a big "C." The Church of our LORD Jesus Christ. The ONE Church. So, denominations in Santa Barbara. Can we PLEASE work together and see what the ONE Holy Spirit wants for our city? Can we please look and see that we have more resources than the 1st 3,00 people church in Acts and STILL have poverty in our city while the 3k in Acts made it so that none lacked anything! Man!! Preach on Jesus!
Unity... without Unity there is no power. Read John 17 and noticed how the ONE thing that Jesus prayed for His disciples and His future disciples (US) was for the Father to protect us so that we could be ONE just as the Father and Jesus are one: in will. Unity is the hardest thing for the church because it's the one thing that makes us have to be totally humble and totally in LOVE with Christ! When Jesus talked about the most important commandment He said "Hear, Oh Israel" He didn't say, "Hear Oh, Pablo" or "oh 1 person." He was speaking to the WHOLE COUNTRY... TO HIS WHOLE CHURCH! As a church we need to be united so that we can fully do the work that He has prepared!! I wish that I could speak instead of type so that my expression and voice can show through!
ONE church in SB, ONE Holy Spirit, ONE strategic plan for Santa Barbara! But only if we are humble in love and in unity...
Below is the powerpoint that I used...
POWERPOINT IN SPANISH
God Bless,
Pablo
Monday, July 28, 2008
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