Resurrection Sunday

Today millions of Christians around the world celebrate the Resurrection of Christ from the grave 2000 years ago. The power of the Resurrection is still changing many lives today. 25 years ago it impacted my life that I decided to follow Christ at the age of 17. (its OK ..you can do the Math).

My desire is for others to experience the same power in their lives.

• Party in the House!! Its Resurrection Day! This is the Day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.!!!
• Young people!! You bring are lot of joy and freshness to Sunday Morning worship. Keep working on those moves!!!
• Great to meet so many new faces today at church. I love chatting with new people, especially those who have never been to church before. Love their perspective on church.
• Today at LifeChurch in both morning Services people made decisions to follow Christ. Excited to see first time guests receiving Christ.
• Tears: the language only God understands!!
• The Bread and Clothing ministry are tools to bring people to Christ.
• Prayed for new Christians, prayed for deliverance. Shutting the doors the enemy is using to bring people down!
• Spoke on The Difference Easter makes in our lives. Forgiveness, Power of Resurrection, Eternal Assurance.
• Pastor Julia Amosa spoke briefly. A great encourager who always has a word in season.
• Noticed so many kids today in church! They can’t keep still!!
• Quote of the Day: ‘This Church is not full of hypocrites! There is always room for more”. - Rom 3:10 ‘There is no one righteous’.  I want to do a sign for LifeChurch on the road.

This Coming Sunday: 3 Services. Communion 6:00pm – Servolution Special!!

Weekend Reflection

It is absolutely amazing what God is doing in our church right now.  Forgive me if I sound like I am bragging but I’m not, I’m just in awe of God’s power to change lives. We are seeing people stepping up to the next level of faith, allowing God to do his will through them. I am mostly excited with the new leaders who are now taking leadership roles in different ministries.

Watching people saved, got baptized, planted in the House of God, growing spiritually and are now leading others is just exciting!

For any leader who sees that is SO rewarding!

This morning my wife Ane preached up a storm with her own version of “Faith at another level”, challenging people to pursue God.

• Whatever you are going through…..YOU CAN HANDLE IT! You got the faith for it and the grace to go thru it.
• Expect changes when you come to Christ! Expect healing, expect miracles, expect radical transformation!
• Some things gotta show for your confession of faith!
• In order for you to step up the next level you got to know what level you are on right now
• Luke 22:31-33 Satan only sifts you when he gets permission from God.
• Make Faith decisions.

Today 4 people gave their lives to the Lord.

Jesus is still in the business of saving and transforming lives. Jesus still forgives, heals and restores today.

Last Sunday I met 9 new people at church, today I was able to meet with at least 10 first timers. One lady was her first time in a church service  all her life. She’s NEVER been to church before. WOW! Still can’t get over that.

One lady came for the first time and gave her heart to Jesus. One of our leaders invited her and she prayed desperately during the week, she told us on Thursday. What I am trying to say is this: God is willing to save! But we must invite and introduce people to God. And ray that they will accept Christ’s forgiveness.

I just love the passion of our LifeKids Team for the children. We have around 120 kids under 12 and it is a responsibility to invest in these kids.  As a church we are committed to children.

Today we dedicated a new born baby to the Lord. She smiled as I prayed. So cute!

Servolution is only 3 weeks away! God is using this simple tool to reach people through simple acts of kindness. Over 40 churches will be participating in this year’s Servolution from the  14^th – 20^th of April. Find out more www.servolution.co.nz.

This coming Sunday…….. Will you invite someone to church with you?

Stop Being Normal!

…………following from last Sundays Sermon…………………..

You can not be a follower of Jesus and stay normal.

“When anyone is joined to Christ he is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come”. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17

The dead old, boring, gutless, purposeless, normal you is GONE! You are now a new person, fueled by the power of Christ in you. Someone is going to take notice of the change and say ‘Something has happended to you. You are not the same person you used to be. If your boss at work doesn’t know that you are a Christian you are probably not.

You are new person. You are now radical and willing to do whatever it takes to live for Jesus and follow him, to love God and love people. It takes guts to follow Christ. Jesus said “If you want to follow me take up your cross and come follow me”.

You can’t follow Jesus and still try to live a normal life.

Cefas was a normal, everyday fisherman. But when Jesus called Cephas to leave everything and follow him, he did and he was not the same again. First his name was changed to Simon Peter. He never went to any preaching school but when he spoke on the day of Pentecost 3000 people gave their lives to Christ. Now thats not normal for a fisherman!!

Paul was a normal Pharisee doing what normal Pharisees do. At the time he was killing new converted Christians. But when he encountered God on the Road to Damascus, he wasn’t the same again. He reached the Gentile world with the gospel.

You can’t follow Jesus and continue to live life in a normal way. You can’t love with the same normal love you loved people before you found Jesus. You can not give the same way you used to give. You can not serve the same way you used to.

People who follow Christ Are not Normal. The Bible calls them ‘Perculiar people’ – 1 Petr 2:9, because with Christ they are now people of power, people of promise, more than conquerors but most of Faith in God who can do exceedingly, abundantly and above all……..Ephesian 3:20

Normal people are ‘average’ people who do average work and produce average results. No one is inspired with ‘average’.

Tell me someone who is well known because he/she was average. Show me a monument of an average leader.

Normal people don’t inspire others

Normal people don’t make incredible leaders

Normal People don’t change the world

Normal people don’t take risks

Normal people don’t face fears

Normal people die with a lot of regrets.

Step up another level today and live above normal.

This Weekend

You can Do it!

LifeChurch Manurewa November Series

I am excited to announce our new series this month at LifeChurch. I believe you are going to be Blessed and Inspired by the Word of God but you must also be willing to allow the Word to challenge and change you so that you can reach your God given potential.

You are more than what you have done! Don’t settle for anything less than Gods best. You can do it!!

If you are in Auckland City, join us this Sunday morning 11:00.  www.lifechurch.co.nz

Don’t give up! 4

Give me one good reason why you should give up!

Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah!

NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

Think of  Nelson Mandela, spent 27 years in prison because of his opposition to the apartheid system of his country. He did not give up on his convictions. As a result he turned a nation around and made a huge impact in the political status of South Africa.

Don’t give up. You are writing history right now.

If you are getting knocked around and you think life is tough, think again!

There are many other people who are in worse off situation than what you are facing right now. I remember a story of a selfish teenager who was complaining about not having the latest Nike footgear. While he was complaining to his mum on their way out to the car park, he met a man with no feet sitting outside begging for money.

Are you complaining and about to give up? Think again. Put things in perspective.

Don’t give up!

Get Real!

Following Pastor Andy Forsgren’s sermon on Sunday, here is a practical exercise to help you take inventory of your spiritual life. Take the challenge and rate yourself and see how authentic you are in these disciplines.

These areas are vitally important in our spiritual growth. After rating yourself, make a list of all the 1′s and the 2′s and start tackling them one by one. Find an accountability partner and ask him/her to help you, move from 1 or 2 to 3.  Its called discipleship. An accountability partner will add fuel to the process. Do it together.  You can be his or her accountability partner too. Have fun!. It is not meant to be a judging session.

Admission is the first step to freedom in God. Don’t let that 1 or 2 hold you back from reaching your potential in God.

Rate yourself   1 – Need a lot of work,  2 – average   3 – Good

•1) Money:

• Are you a good steward of what God has given you?
• Are you in debt? How bad?
• Are you giving to God through tithes and offerings?
• Are you giving to others in need?

•2) Moral:

• Are you morally pure?
• Are you having sex outside of marriage?
• Are you in an adulterous relationship?
• Are you messing with pornography?
• Websites you visit?
• Email & Text messages. ?

•3) Prayer

• When was the last time you prayed?
• Do you pray only when you are desperate or do you pray regularly?
• Do you pray for other people?

•4) Word of God

• Do you read the Bible every day?
• Do you study the scriptures?
• Is it the final authority?
• Do you practice its contents?

•5) Devotional Time

How often do you have devotional time?

Is it a 1 minute, 5 minutes or longer?

•6) Witnessing

• How often do you talk to people about God?
• Have you shared your testimony of how you came to the Lord with someone?
• Have you led someone to the Lord recently?

•7) Fellowship

• How often do you fellowship with other christians?
• How often do you attend life group?

•8) Worship

• How regular is your attendance on Sunday services?
• Do you consider yourself a passionate or a passive worshipper?

•9) Serve

• Are you using your gifts and talents for the good of others?
• How much of your time is dedicated to voluntary work?

•10) Family

• How much time is set aside for spouse and children?
• Are you a Violent and Abusive person at home?
• Do you model the love of Christ at home?
• Do you teach one thing and practice the opposite?
• Do you practice hospitality often?

I encourage you to do this together with your spouse or a close friend. Then pray together after!

Weekend Reflections

Had breakfast with our leaders at our place 6am Saturday morning. That’s crazy…. Great fun… we probably woke up the neighbours…… time to catch up. Our guys are so pumped with what God is doing at church and our next season as a church.

Spent the whole Saturday thinking, preparing, studying, reading, praying…..……..

Sunday morning on the way to church I prayed, “Holy Spirit bring conviction to our hearts”

Overwhelmed with the presence of God during worship.

There was a great sense of freedom and excitement. During worship I looked behind me and on the bleachers!! What a joy it is for any pastor to see young people worshipping God HARD OUT!! Church is the place to be on Sunday mornings!!

Preached my heart out.  Spoke on the heart of Jesus for the lost and the role of the church as representatives of Jesus …..along those lines…… Initially I planned to preach on the ‘Christ in the Community’ but after Saturday …..in my sermon preparations it ended up in a different direction…  The Holy Spirit answered my prayer and definitely brought conviction to our hearts.

On Sunday, we also launched our new season of Outreach. 2009 we will only be doing a few ‘Bridge Events’

Servolution: 3 days of Serving the Community

$2 Christmas.

Weekly Bread Run – Free to Randwick Park Community

Rubbish Collection – monthly

Paint Out – monthly

Global Day of Prayer

Prayer Walk

What attracts young people to church?

I spoke with someone on Monday from a local church just down the road. They are having difficulties with their young people. He said, ‘Our youth are out of control and they are not interested in church’. They are so difficult and they hardly come to church. They say church is boring”. He carried on …. He said “Lui I have noticed the number of young people that come to your church, how do you attract them and how do you keep them excited for church? Wow!!… to be honest I didn’t really know what to say, it took me by surprise because it seems like normal to have so many young people at church. Anyway I had a brief chat with him. I came home and I emailed the young people in our church and I asked them to help me answer my friends questions.  

Here are some of the comments I’ve received so far:

• How to attract youth – Besides been given it as ‘the vision’ for this house, so therefore God will make it happen and give strategy for it.

From the begining you keep saying it from the pulpit – that we value youth. A declaration in the house coupled with actions that reinforce it. By putting them into positions of responsibilty and then make that the norm. It becomes the norm of the house.

• One of the main attraction is youth seeing other youth, youth leading in church and youth doing car parking and connecting. Everywhere you go there are youth so of course youth would be more drawn to the church. When you see people you can relate to e.g. age, race, speaks the same language, attend high school etc etc… you feel connected straight away
• Also you always preach in a simple and practical way, not some prepared hard to follow and boring service. You also come across as a ‘approachable’ pastor, the kid/teen in you is real so young people feel comfortable and less threatened.
• LifeGroups for youth also plays a major role, this is where the youth bond and build friendship.
• Pastors funny not the traditional type of pastor to sit on his own High chair (“,)
• Sermons are just a bow and arrow in our hearts, never know what to expect lol
• I love that we are active and fun
• Worship is Great
• We catch up with the new beats
• Everything’s Adventurous like our pastor
• We young people are motivated because Life church value young people. We come cause we feel “valued”. Ministries within other churches are lead by much older people and the youth do their own thing.

• At lifechuch we are not separated and we all work together our motivation to live for God is through the accountability of everyone.
• I love it because being valued also means we are trusted. Our pastors trust us and encourages us all the time. Young people can never be excited about church if they do not have a close relationship with their leaders and pastors.
• Our pastor appreciates every work we do. Most of our youth members come alone, some have no parents to force us to come to church. We come by choice because the spiritual feeding we receive is overwhelming, it relates to us and helps us live through this hard life we live. Our love for god always increases and part of the that is the foundation of a great church to belong in.
• 1. Being Valued
• 2. Being Trusted
• 3. Having that close Relationship with our Leaders
• I believe the attraction of young people in the church is a reflection on the teaching and “Vision” of the church.  One of the visions of the church is “Valuing young children/youth” by committing to raising, training and empowering and releasing a generation (young people) of leaders.  This is what I truly believe in and this is what I see – a passionate leader (pastor), who is real and likes to keep things real for us to understand, and is passionate about the youth and believes in them, and in return they also believe and are on fire for God.  You can see this by the young people taking the Praise and Worship Team, the sound equipment, the announcements,etc.  The focus is always about letting the young people have a say.  When we as young people see this, we feel excited and are on fire knowing that we have someone who believes in us, understands where we are coming from, and is not afraid to let us dream and worship God in how we as young people would love to. I hope my novel helps, but I’m excited just writing about how I see the young people perceiving the church and how they can be heard and are able to voice their opinions.  I think its AWESOME!….

• When people ask me why I love going to church and why it excites my week its because of the culture and the environment the church holds.
• My previous church, people were never excited about church because the surroundings were boring, no one was welcoming and it was tradtional-religion oriented.
• As a young person still, church now (esp at lifechurch) attracts me by warm welcomes, friendly approaches and really connecting with me. That is why I think it attracts young people to church because the connecting, fellowshipping, draws them nearer not only to the church but God.
• Communicate really well with Pastor Lui and Ane because they understand what the youth is going through right now. So what im trying to say is, church is filled with people who listen to people no matter what their background was like. We accept anybody.
• We have a lifegroup set up with different age groups. We also invite them to bbqs or dinners so that we are not only a family within the church but outside of church. We fellowship in our lifegroups and try and connect and know each other by knowing our strengths and weakenesses.
• Our youth is growing rapidly because we are not only about lifegroups and connecting. We have fun. We enjoy each others company and encourage each other without any lows. The most exciting thing about coming to church is the people. How we love God, love people and we differently enjoy life.

 

Church Vision pt1

After Vision Sunday, I received several comments from our church people regarding the vision of the church. Most of  them were overwhelmed and greatful for having such a vision for the church and the community.

Some of the comments I made on Sunday:

Vision is the picture of the future that produces passion today. What is the picture of the church do you see? What picture of the community (Manurewa) do you see?

A Vision Guides us
A Vision keeps us focused all the way. -
A Vision fuels creativity and potential – Vision makes us do things we never thought possible - 
A Vision launches us into ministries and areas never considered before -
A Vision unites people - 

Vision reminds us of:
• Who we are:     Identity & Values
• What we are called to do:     Mission
• Where we are going:     Vision
• How we are going to get there:     Strategy