Category Archives: Spiritual Growth

confidence

Be Confident That God Is Confident

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Have you ever felt like you didn’t have a clue as to what was going on? Like you were just taking each step praying that it’s the right one? Maybe I’m making sense. Maybe I’m not.

Last night at LiveLoud (River City‘s Student Youth Ministry) I was speaking and the whole time everything I was saying just didn’t feel right. The funny thing was that I was speaking on confidence and the only thing I was confident about at the time was that everything I was saying was probably not making sense at all.

You ever feel that way? Like maybe you had a friend and they needed help and you wanted to give them advice and when you did you were like “did what I just say make any sense at all?”

That’s kinda how I felt last night.

After the service though I went up to my wife and whispered in her ear “how bad was it?”

She looked at me with this look of confusion and said “I thought it was perfect”.

At the time I thought she was just being nice like any wife would and was trying to encourage me. However, when we got to the car we talked more about it and she told me about some of the things she’s been hearing our students struggle with and she told me that she thought it was perfect. In fact, at the end when we offered prayer for our students, she informed me that several of our students who raised their hand for prayer have actually spoken to her about issues regarding confidence.

My point is this: If you’re not confident in what you are doing be confident that God knows what He’s doing.

There are times in all our lives that we just feel like everything we are doing has got to be wrong. It’s almost a feeling as if you’re walking in the dark. But the thing to remember is that in those times, just because you may feel like you can’t see where you’re going doesn’t mean God can’t. God has you right where he wants you. It may not feel right to you, it may be confusing at times, you may feel like you are stumbling, but at the end of the day, we serve a God who is confident in us, therefore we must be confident in Him.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)

 

6 Reason You Should Come To River City Worship Center This Easter Sunday

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Let me just first off say that this is NOT me saying “these are the things we do that other churches don’t do”. All I’m saying is that this is what I think is awesome about my church.

Our People: I started coming to River City about 2 years ago and I’ll never forget how on day 1 my wife and I felt so welcomed. Members of the church introduced themselves and wanted to know who we were and what our interests were. It was just so welcoming and allowed us to feel so comfortable.

Our Diverse Demographic: I love the variety of people we have in our congregation. There’s black people, white people, teenagers, college students, couples about to get married, couples who just got married, couples having kids, single moms/dads raising their kids, couples who are celebrating their 40th/50th/60th anniversary. It’s impossible not to find someone you have something in common with.

Our Children’s Church: I don’t have kids but if I did I know they’d have a blast with our children’s pastor Jennifer Choate. Her and her team work hard each and every week to provide a fun learning environment for kids of all ages. Just recently we installed an amazing check-in for kids so that way your kids are even safer and you can be made aware if at any time your child needs you.

Our Worship: Every week we kick our services off with 4 worship songs and in the middle have a calling for prayer. It’s such a powerful and emotional time where we get to worship God and pray for one another about things going on in our lives.

Our Pastors: Our Teaching Pastor, Jason Isaacs, and our Executive Pastor, Cecil Green, lead River City. Together they have led the church for 5 years and have done an outstanding job. They do such and an amazing job at helping you connect to God and have a relationship with Him. I truly believe that most of our congregation doesn’t just view them simply as their pastors but also as their friend. You can come to them at any time and they’re ready to help you in any way possible.

Our Mission: At River City if you ask anyone what our goal is it’s simple: Love God Help People. It’s short and to the point and it’s exactly what we do here at River City.

I could go on forever about all the amazing things we do at River City and in the community but I want to encourage you that if you don’t have a place to go this Sunday for Easter to come to River City and check it out. This Easter Sunday we will be having 3 services at 9:00am/10:15am/11:30am. Hope to see you there!

River City Worship Center
7515 3rd st rd
Louisville, KY 40214

jesusis

A Book Worth Checking Out

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I just finished reading Judah Smith’s book, “Jesus is ____”, and I thought I would share with you my opinion on it. I’m by no means an expert on books and for those who know me you know I’m picky when it comes to reading.

Anyways, my opinion of the book is that overall it’s good. I found it to be more of a book I would give to a new Christian. I’m not saying I wouldn’t recommend it to you if you’ve been a Christian your whole life though either. The book makes some very good points and one of my favorite parts was when it talked about how we as Christians can sometimes be like the pharisees we read about in the Bible. No way? You’ll be surprised at how Judah Smith nails it when he talks about how us Christians can be so judgmental and he’s right in every way when he describes how.

Again, I’m no expert on books but I give it a score of 7 out of 10.

davidandgoliath

What if David lost to Goliath?

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I’m assuming that most of you have read the story of David vs. Goliath. If you haven’t, then here is a basic summary from 1 Samuel 17:

The Philistine army had gathered for war against Israel. The two armies faced each other, camped for battle on opposite sides of a steep valley. A Philistine giant measuring over nine feet tall and wearing full armor came out each day for forty days, mocking and challenging the Israelites to fight. His name was Goliath. Saul, the King of Israel, and the whole army were terrified of Goliath.

One day David, the youngest son of Jesse, was sent to the battle lines by his father to bring back news of his brothers. David was probably just a young teenager at the time. While there, David heard Goliath shouting his daily defiance and he saw the great fear stirred within the men of Israel. David responded, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of God?”

So David volunteered to fight Goliath. It took some persuasion, but King Saul finally agreed to let David fight against the giant. Dressed in his simple tunic, carrying his shepherd’s staff, slingshot and a pouch full of stones, David approached Goliath. The giant cursed at him, hurling threats and insults.

David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied … today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air … and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel … it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

As Goliath moved in for the kill, David reached into his bag and slung one of his stones at Goliath’s head. Finding a hole in the armor, the stone sank into the giant’s forehead and he fell face down on the ground. David then took Goliath’s sword, killed him and then cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. So the Israelites pursued, chasing and killing them and plundering their camp.

I’ve asked several people what they think of this story and what they think the moral of the story is. What I’m constantly getting back from people is that “with God we can conquer all things”. I completely agree with that statement. I believe that with God all things are possible. But the problem though is that there are many times in our lives when we have faced obstacles and we haven’t had victory.

For the sake of todays blog I want to ask you this and I want you to think about it: What if David hadn’t  defeated Goliath? What would that mean? Would that mean that God wasn’t by his side? Would that mean David wasn’t loved by God? Would that mean David wasn’t a man of God?

There are many times in my life when I have faced obstacles and failed and as a result asked myself these very questions about myself. Was God not with me? Does God not love me?

Recently there was a lot of news regarding what happens in this video:

WOW! Did you see that!?!? Brandon Knight got DUNKED ON!!!! When this happened the world went nuts. Twitter was lit up with jokes about Brandon Knight. I myself watched the video originally and thought, “why on earth would you have tried!?” I think a lot of people asked this very question.

That’s the problem though.

I feel like we live in a world where today we are told not to face our giants. When Brandon Knight was interviewed about the dunk and asked why he tried going up against another player 3 times his size he said it was because he was doing his job as a player. He was playing defense. He was guarding the basket. Where as many times you’ll see a player just step aside and let someone get the dunk and score, Brandon Knight accepted the challenge knowing full well what could happen.

One of the things I see a lot of people do these days is take no risk without guaranteed victory. Part of taking risks when facing obstacles in life is having faith in God and not that God will give you victory every time, but, that God will be with you every time.

There are people who have stayed content with where they are because they don’t want to take a risk in losing or feeling defeated. Here’s another question: What if David never chose to face Goliath?

The answer: He’d have just been like everyone else doing the same exact thing.

My point is this: Great faith is believing when there’s no reason to.

When I read the story of David and Goliath I don’t find the message in that David won, I find it in that he chose to go up against Goliath. He had no reason to believe that he was going to win other than his faith in God.

What are some obstacles you’re facing in life right now? Are you stepping aside whenever a challenge comes up, are you willing to face them knowing you could lose, or are you only willing to place your faith in guaranteed victory?

sex

Something I Have To Talk About

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SEX! SEX, SEX, SEX, SEX, SEX!!!!!!!

I thought if I said it more it’d be less weird but it’s not.

I remember when I was about 12ish my parents talked to me about sex. It was INSANELY weird. 1) Because my mom did most of the talking and 2) because a lot of what they were telling me I had already found out from school. That’s not to say that the talk was a total waste. In fact, a lot of what my parents told me set things straight. I heard this and that from various students and then of course there was health class but I never had a clear understanding about it.

Looking back, as awkward as it was I wish my parents had talked to me sooner about it. The reason being that it was already something that was being talked about in school by students a year or two before. The thing is though that my parents didn’t know. They didn’t know how long that had already been a subject of curiosity in my life. And when I say curiosity I don’t mean that I was experimenting or anything like that. But the fact of the matter is that I was hearing words thrown around that I didn’t understand the meaning of.

Another scary thing for me were students who said they were homosexual. That freaked me out like no other. I mean here was this dude who was like the manliest guy I had ever seen and he’s telling me he’s attracted to other men!?

The point I’m trying to make is that I’m 23 years old and it wasn’t that long ago that I was in high school. I think that’s one of the benefits for me in being a youth pastor. I know what’s talked about. I remember the confusion. Lucky for me though I knew I had parents I could go to and talk about this stuff with. Yeah it was awkward for me and probably just as awkward for them but I knew I could go to them.

There’ll come a day when I have to talk to my kids about sex. I’m not going to WANT to but I know I want to. Make sense? I don’t want the first seed on sex to be planted in my kids head by anyone else but me. The big question for me though is at what age do I do that? I was in sixth grade when sex began to be talked about by other students. That was about 13 years ago. At what age will it be talked about by students when my kids are in school?

Something I’ve been telling my students lately and what I want to tell you is that we live in a sex-saturated society. Sex is everywhere. If a kids parent doesn’t want to talk to them about sex then the kid can just go look online. Problem is that they’ll just become even more confused.

Parents MUST talk to their kids and be willing to answer the tough questions. That doesn’t mean the parent has to have all the answers. If you’re a parent and you don’t know the answer tell your kid you’ll get back to them. Your goal should be to guide them in a direction so that when temptation rises in their heads or questions about their sexuality come about they can either make the right choice or come to you.

The bottom line is this: Someone is going to talk to your kids about sex. Who’s it going to be?

2 Things I Learned In Guatemala On Day 1

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1) “We’re not in Kansas anymore”

When traveling from the airport to the orphanage my eyes were opened. The way people interact, work, and move about is so different than what I’m used to seeing. It’s 7:38pm right now and kids are still in school. People are driving around on buses that are worn down and beaten up. 10 year old kids are lifting bricks and doing manual labor. Young girls are cooking and cleaning for their families. The culture is so different and nothing at all what I’m used to.

2) I serve a pastor who has a passion for helping others.

This is actually something I knew already but got to see it in action like never before. We sat down in one of the offices here at the orphanage and I watched my pastor, Jason Isaacs, as he listened to what was being needed here. One of the things that is needed is $5,000 to help fix a van that is driving 45 kids to school. Immediately leaving the office I asked my pastor what he thought and he looked at me and said, “We’re getting that $5,000 today.” There was determination in his eyes. No joke. No cocky attitude. Just a determination to help out with something that he believes we at River City can do so that the leaders here can sleep better here at night.

Day 1 was a long but awesome day. I’ll do what I can to keep posting what all is going on here as the week goes on.