We simply want to obey the biblical mandate to go to the whole world to Make Disciples found in Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8.

This is simple and not complicated.  We just want to obey the words of Jesus found in the Word of God, the Bible.  We started in Loganville & Walnut Grove, we have now moved to Social Circle and helped plant in other places like Pennsylvania.  We want to take the gospel to the “ends of the earth”.  Nothing more needed.

We want to live by the Psalm 67:1-2 principle of “paying it forward”.  

God has been so gracious to us and He has blessed us so much with the gospel.  We have WAY more than we need and we believe in the “so that” principle.  He has been gracious and blessed us “so that” we can make Him known to the nations.

We want to cultivate “selflessness” in our lives.

Philippians 2:5-11 describes the character of Jesus & how he left his heavenly throne to come to earth wrapped in human flesh to show us how much God loves us.  He “emptied” himself for us!  We want to live in that same spirit and that same character.  How can we keep the “good news” of God’s love, mercy and grace to ourselves?  How can we escape the wrath of God and not invite others to join us?

Are you living your personal life with the same sense of “mission”?  Are you living day by day with a plan to grow as a disciple of Jesus?  Join with us at Church at the Grove as we seek to fulfill God’s mission for sharing the love of Jesus with our community and the world!  I hope to see you Sunday as we share about our experience here in Romania!

Keep praying, keep investing, keep inviting!

First of all, a characteristic of wisdom is seeking God’s counsel when we are in need.  There are two attitudes that keep us from seeking God’s wisdom: Pride and stubbornness.

How do we seek God’s direction when we are faced with a decision?

First we seek God’s direction through His Word.  

Read Psalm 119:24; Psalm 119:98-99; & Psalm 119:100  We often turn to experts, friends, the internet or some other source, but our first step should be to consult the Bible.  What does God say about my specific decision?  How can God’s Word give me counsel?

Second, we should seek the advice of godly people.  

Check out Psalm 37:30-31  We should rely on the godly wisdom of other followers of Jesus that God has put in our lives.  We should listen for God’s voice from respected people that are following Jesus.  God has gifted people in His church in specific areas. 1 Corinthians 12
Seek counsel from a believing spouse.  Seek advice from Christian parents.  Seek wisdom from Christian leaders in your church and potentially from other places of leadership.  Seek out people with experience in the same dilemma you are currently experiencing.  Scripture states that it is wise to seek counsel from a “multitude of counselors”  Proverbs 15:22; Proverbs 11:14

Third and most importantly seek counsel from God.

The scriptures identify God as our counselor.  Psalm 32:8; Psalm 73:24; Psalm 16:7.  We should seek God’s counsel through prayer and Bible Study and listening to the Holy Spirit given to us by God to lead us into all truth, John 16:13.

Counsel to Avoid:

• Avoid the counsel of the Wicked. Psalm 1:1
• Avoid fortune tellers, mediums and spiritualists. Leviticus 19:31
• Avoid Biased Counsel.

Some people have an agenda and you need to be careful of listening to the counsel of those biased.

How do you hear God’s voice for major decisions in your life?

Here is the general idea that many American Christians have, “Pain and suffering come from the devil.  Since God wants His servants well and free of pain, healing and happiness are of the Lord.” (pg. 91 Swindoll)

As a result of our addictions to creature comforts and some faulty theology, many followers of Jesus do not know how to “suffer well”.  Here is a simple truth that we often don’t want to admit.  God uses suffering and difficulties in our lives to accomplish His will in us and through us.  There can be joy, fulfillment and the “shalom” of God as we journey through less than desirable circumstances in our life.

Paul was an authority on suffering.  Read 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 Simply read the entire 2nd letter to the Corinthians and you will discover much of the suffering Paul experienced in his life.  I do not consider myself an authority on suffering.  I have lost a brother and a father and I have experienced some difficult times in life but I don’t know that I can say that I have experienced true suffering.  My wife has some ongoing health issues that causes her quite a bit of pain.  I have a friend, Terry Ivy who I consider a godly man who has encountered a great bit of suffering.  I love how he writes about God’s purpose in suffering and you can find it at TerryIvy.com and click on his category of “suffering”.

Paul teaches us that God does accomplish His will through our suffering.  Here are a few of the ways that God uses our suffering and difficulties to accomplish his will:

• God uses our pain to allow us to comfort others in pain. Read 2 Corinthians 1:3-4  Paul experience pain to the point of not wanting to live. Check our 2 Corinthians 1:8
• God uses suffering to keep us from boasting in ourselves.

Paul boasted not in his ability to endure but in his weakness. 2 Corinthians 11:30 Paul writes about having a “thorn in his flesh” 2 Corinthians 12:7 that ensured him having a humble spirit.  Have you ever thought that God may use “thorns” in our lives to keep us from becoming proud people.

“Pain plants the flag of reality in the fortress of a rebel heart.”

• God uses pain and suffering to compel us to rely on God’s “sufficient grace” that He provides through Jesus!

We often want relief from pain and sometimes God grants it, but when he doesn’t grant relief, He will give us something even better, His Grace!  Paul pleaded three times for God to remove the thorn and Jesus replied that his grace is sufficient and his power is perfect in our weakness. See 2 Corinthians 12:9

“His grace supplies more than we ned to endure whatever it is that threatens to undo us.” (Swindoll pg. 101)  It is not always God’s will that we are healed.

• Pain also awaken us to our simple need for Jesus.  

My father was one of the most independent, prideful people I have ever known and his self-sufficiency is what kept him from turning to Jesus.  He suffered with illness in his later years to the point that he could not do anything for himself.  In his realization that he was no longer independent and strong, he turned to trust Christ.  He realized that he needed something outside of himself and it led him to salvation.

C.S. Lewis said,

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

Let’s learn to suffer well in a way to bring glory to God and make Him known to people around us. 

What are your thoughts on suffering?

Keeping the Message Simple:
We emphasize that God’s plan was to eliminate unnecessary religious components and make it simple to connect with God.  In order to accomplish this we attempt to remove any and all religious “hoops” that churches can tend to force people through to connect with God through a personal relationship with Jesus.  By religious “hoops” I mean things like dress, worship styles, liturgy (all liturgy is not bad), terminology, or connecting certain disciplines or religious activity to your acceptance with God.  Please don’t get me wrong, we do teach doctrine and we encourage spiritual disciplines as a means to grow spiritually.

Read this: Acts 15:19

The NIV states “we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.”

We are constantly evaluating how we communicate the gospel to our church and our community.  Our desire is to “lead” people and not emotionally coerce people into a growing relationship with Jesus.

Keeping the Methods Simple:
We realize that we live in a culture that is more and more demanding on an individual’s and family’s time.  We believe that we (Church at the Grove) can accomplish more by doing less.  I learned in a seminary class that the most committed people in a typical church will potentially spend 14 hours per week on the campus of their church keeping the operations going for that local body.  If they are spending that much time on keeping the church going, there is very little time left to invest in people outside the walls of the church!  Our desire is to simplify the methodology of our church for the purpose of freeing up time for people to invest in the mission of the church.

We do three things at Church at the Grove to accomplish our mission of leading people to follow Jesus and Make Disciples:

• We create environments where people can explore faith in Jesus at their own pace.
• We encourage relationships through Community Groups where people can connect in meaningful and discipling friendships.
• We start discussions that lead to sharing the hope found in Jesus by serving our neighbors and our community.

Things we will not do or require to keep it simple:

• We will not start a Christian school.
• We will not launch a sports league.
• We will not require men to be circumcised.
• We will not ask or force people to serve in multiple areas to be a Small Group leader.
• We will not ask people to spend all their free time doing work to keep the church going.

What we do ask people to do to keep it simple:

• We ask people to simplify their lives for the purpose of having margin for God’s mission.
• We ask people to utilize their children’s sports and other extracurricular activities as a way to invest in people for the purpose of sharing Jesus and inviting them to The Grove.
• We ask people to connect in a community group.
• We ask people to serve on a Sunday Serve team regularly.
• We ask people to look for opportunities to start conversations that lead to sharing the hope that is found in Jesus.
• We ask people to do these things in their normal circle of influence.

How do you keep the message and the methods simple in your life?

SERVE
Why is this number 1?  I think so many followers of Jesus miss out on the impact of serving people around them in practical ways to demonstrate the love of Jesus.  Jeremiah 29:4-7 says to seek the peace and prosperity of a city and if the city prospers we will prosper as well.  One of the greatest ways to make an impression on the people and the world around you is to simply serve people in the name of Jesus.  The spiritual discipline of “service” is under-utilized in making Jesus known to people.  Serve in your church and in your community.  In John 13:3-5 Jesus demonstrates service as he washes the feet of the disciples.  Question:  How do we wash the feet of people around us in the 21st century?

GENEROSITY
In America, we have more money than we know what to do with. (And yet we are still in debt.)  We live self-indulgent lives and money has a stronghold on our hearts through greed.  Jesus told us that we cannot serve God and money at the same time (Matthew 6:24) The way we break the stronghold of greed and money is to give generously!  There is nothing like the discipline of generosity to change our hearts.

SHARE
Most believers don’t know how to start a conversation that leads to sharing the hope that is found in Jesus.  We must cultivate the discipline of sharing our faith.  Regardless of your personality you are accountable for making Jesus known to people in your circle of influence.  You can learn how to get into conversations and actually share your faith.  You can click here to see how I equipped our church to share their faith.  I believe if you practice the disciplines of SERVE and GENEROSITY, this discipline will come more naturally.

Read God’s Word
Some will ask, “Why in the world is this discipline number 4 on the list of most important spiritual disciplines for a believer in America?”  Simply because most Christians that are involved in spiritual growth are “over-read and under-applied”.  We have no shortage of Bible studies available to us but most followers of Jesus are not actively applying the Word of God to their daily life.  Some of us need one less Bible Study in our life and need to get out in the community and serve and practice generosity.  Here’s the deal:  If you are serving and giving generously of your resources and sharing your faith, you will want to read your Bible even more.  God’s Word, the Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to us and we should read it daily, don’t get me wrong.  These disciplines are specifically applied to believers living in America.  READ IT THEN DO WHAT IT SAYS! If you do what it says, you will want to read it MORE!

Talk to God
We should communicate with God through the amazing gift of prayer.  This is an underutilized discipline with most followers of Jesus.  Prayer is learning to depend on God.  This discipline is so often a formality and ritual in the life of the American Christian because we don’t lack for anything.  We don’t HAVE to depend on God because all of our needs are met in our culture.  Real, life-transforming prayer is depending on God for what we don’t have.  Pray without ceasing!  Don’t just stand there, pray something!

Connect with other believers in a local Church
Go to church! Join with other believers for the purpose of glorying God and joining Jesus in His mission of redemption.  God has sovereignly chosen to involve us in His mission of redemption.  We get to take the gospel of Jesus to people that are far from God.  2 Corinthians  5:20-21 says that we are His ambassadors.  Go to church!  Hear the Word! Celebrate Jesus with others!  Put into action what you hear!  Do it every week!  Don’t forsake it!  Hebrews 10:25

Circle Up with a Few other Believers
Circles are better than rows!  Invest your life with a small group of believers that can put into practice together these other disciplines.  You can read the Word and study together, serve together, give together, pray together, love one another!  You can’t grow spiritually as God intends by sitting in rows every week simply staring at the backs of people’s heads!  Get into a small group and get to know others on a deeper level and discover what it is like to live on mission with God with a small group of other followers.

These are the disciplines I believe that followers of Jesus must put into practice to grow spiritually and join God in His mission of getting the gospel OUT into the world we live in.  Some may not like or agree with the order of importance I put them in and that is ok.  Let’s don’t argue but simply apply these disciplines in our lives and the lives of those we are responsible for ministering to on a daily and weekly basis!

 Because of the Cross of Jesus, we have all lost our excuse for not forgiving others.

 Ephesians 4:31–32 (ESV)
³¹ Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. ³² Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Paul addresses the causes of unforgiveness and addresses bitterness, wrath, anger and malice.  What are we to do with all of these causes of unforgiveness?

Stop it!  Get rid of it!

Often our response is, “I can’t get rid of it!”  ”If I get rid of it, I will lose an excuse!” or, “I would get rid of it, but I don’t know how!” God is trying to cover all the junk and all the causes of the junk that leads to an inability to forgive.  At the heart of redemption is forgiveness!  At the heart of the health and wellbeing of all our relationships is the issue of forgiveness!

You can get rid of all this stuff by forgiving one another!!

Pastor Andy Stanley states there are three important things to understand about forgiveness:

1. It is a decision you make.

We are commanded to forgive.

2. It is making a decision that someone doesn’t owe you anymore.

When we are hurt, there is a sense something has been taken from you.

It could be tangible–It Could be intangible.

3. Forgiveness is a decision to cancel that debt.

The result is being FREE!

Forgiveness really doesn’t make any sense unless you are a forgiven person.

As Christians, we are forgiven by God through Jesus Christ!  We have been completely forgiven of our sin.  Has forgiveness ever become personal for you?  The degree of which you understand your forgiveness is the degree to which you will feel freed up to forgive those who have hurt you.  If its not personal, there will be no forgiveness for others.  ”just as God forgave you”

Matthew 18:21–22 (ESV)
²¹ Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” ²² Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Is there someone you need to forgive?

1. Because we understand that found people find people…and we will not stop doing whatJesus commanded us to do.

• Matthew 28:18-20- “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of age.”
• Matthew 9:35-38 – “When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field”

2. Because we understand that saved people serve people…and we will not stop doing what the Bible commands of us.

• 1 Peter 4:10 – “Each of you should use whatever gifts you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
• Matthew 20:28 – “…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

3. Because we understand that growing people change…and we will not stop praying for Jesus to change us.

• Psalm 139:23-24 – “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

4. Because we understand that we can’t do life alone…and we will obey what the Lord has instructed us to do in Hebrews 10:24-25.

• Hebrews 10:24-25 – “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
• Ecclesiastes 4:9 – “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor.”

5. Because we understand that we cannot out give God…and so we will obey what God’s Word teaches.

• Malachi 3:6-12- ‘”Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”
• Proverbs 3:9-10- “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine

I can’t tell you how excited I am about what God is doing in and through the life of Church at the Grove!

Listen to this

“I haven’t been to church for a long time. This is one of the best I have ever been to.”

Words from a mother attending CATGrove with her daughter this past Sunday.

Here is another:

“Wow, I took my mom there last weekend and she LOVED it……. She said if they lived down here that this would be the church they went to. She couldn’t say enough about it. We love going there. I have gotten my hubby to start going too… he likes it. We love the fact that it’s laid back, casual dress and not so high opionated about everyone. Everyone is loved. You can tell the moment you come thru the doors. I actually took my mother-in-law last Sunday…WE WERE ALL THERE.
Thank you guys for introducing us to this wonderful church FAMILY.”

God is working and we simply want to stay focused and continue to join and partner Him in the Great Commission!

Summer is approaching it is a time to slow down and bit and relax.  THAT IS A GOOD THING!

Please let me challenge you not to relax about continuing to allow God to use you through the summer. Summer is a great time to prepare to hit the fall running with seeing new people introduced to a relationship with Jesus!  Please stay focused in these areas:

Sunday morning: Don’t skip out on what God wants to do over the next few months in our Sunday gatherings!  If you are going to be out of town for a vacation, go and enjoy it!  Make sure you are not missing too many gatherings!  You can’t invite someone to come with you if you are not there yourself!

Community Group & and Summer Group Link: Don’t miss the opportunity to connect and meet new people and hang out with your friends at our 3 group link fellowships this Summer.  Put them on your calendar for June 12; July 10; and August 7.  You will hear soon about the locations and details of these Group Link events.

Starting Conversations and loving our community: Always remember to be praying for your friends, family members and neighbors, always be investing and always be willing to invite them to join you at our Gatherings.

Also

We want to be intentional about everyone taking steps in their spiritual journey! We want them to be easy steps to take that will help them connect in their relationship with God and in relationships with other people.  Here are some specific steps you can help direct people to as they come into our community:

NewComers: This is a monthly small gathering for those that have attended and visited CATGrove.  We take 15-20 minutes to share briefly the vision and heartbeat of CATGrove and why we would start a church in this community.

Next Steps 101: This is our gathering where we share in more detail about the vision, mission and values of CATGrove.  We share about our beliefs, how we “do church” and share about what is important for anyone to be a member and involved in the life of Church at the Grove.

Launch 201:  This gathering simply leads people in understanding and practicing essential disciplines of a follower of Jesus.

Help us move people into connection and our process of discipleship in the life of Church at the Grove!

Summer Slump:
Most churches struggle financially with the summer slump!  People travel and go out of town during the summer but many do not make up their giving when they come back to church.  Let’s continue to provide for the ministry that God has entrusted to us!

One of the ways to do that is to get setup to give automatically online.  You can go here to this link to give “one time” online.  You can go here to this link to set up automated scheduled giving.

Let’s keep moving forward with what God has called us to do!

Keep praying, Keep investing, keep inviting!