As a pastor I have a strong desire to see people grow and mature in the Lord.
This really affects all areas of life so I don’t hold back on talking about all sorts of things when I’m teaching. Paul mentioned something like this in the following verse:

Acts 20:20
You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house.

This verse gives me great liberty in making applications of the word of God in all kinds of ways. Any way that would be helpful in maturing people.

Starting in January at church I’m going to start teaching the basics of Christianity.
I’m going to use an outline from Andrew Wommack’s Discipleship Evangelism course.

But I believe Christian maturity is not shown by how much you know or by how gifted you are but by how you act. Specifically how well you operate in the Fruit of the Spirit as outlined in

Galatians 5:22,23.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.

Now I have been doing an offering message during most services since I started pastoring but in the new year I’m going to switch that and do a Character Message before the offering. I’ll start with the Fruit of the Spirit but then move into all different types of character qualities that we should have.

I’m pretty excited about this because it’s on me just like any time the Holy Spirit is on me to do something. I believe He(the Holy Spirit) has a bunch that He wants to share with us.

So I invite you, if you’re in the Chicago area, come check us out at the Wheaton Bowl 10am Sundays. If you’re not local hit us on the web at our church site, you can listen to all of my sermons or radio shows there. Make it a regular habit. I believe its time for Christians to grow up and become mature. The Lord may be calling you to this. Are you ready? We are. Join us.

Pastor Joe

20635

Hey Friends,

What would you like for Christmas???

That question either brings up a list of desires or stirs up some anxiety.

Nancy & I went out to lunch a few weeks ago with a couple who’ve been used mightily by the Lord. It was the first time we had met them but I felt prompted by the Lord to ask them a question:

What are you believing God for?

I figured, everybody wants something from the Lord. Most people wish something in their life would change or they want something that they are lacking.

When I ask people that question it causes them to dig inside themselves to find out what their real desires are. That can cause some anxiety and it did when this fellow started to answer.

I put him at ease by letting him know that I really just wanted to add my prayers and faith with his. After he and his wife started digging around on the inside of themselves he brought up something that was a real hot-button topic for me. He started talking about organizational structures and preparing for growth in his ministry.

This was when I realized why the Lord had me bring up the question. God wanted to minister something from the inside of me to the inside of them. It was a powerful experience as I began to encourage them with what God had given me already.

They left that lunch time sensing that they had been touched by God. And it all came from asking a simple question:

What are you believing God for?

So, I have a question for you:

What do you want for Christmas?

Let me know,
Joe

20322

Hey Friends,

I just found out that some of the links to my songs were broken. I just fixed them for you.

Click on the list to the left side of this page and you can hear some of my original music.

God bless you
Joe

20168

Well the end is coming!

The end of the year that is.

53 days left. Maybe less by the time you read this.

Have you given up on your 07 goals?

Did you hit any of them.

People who pay attention to their goals have a much higher chance of hitting them.

(Next time make a poster and put the goals up!)

You still have time to make some progress on your 07 goals.

If you can find them, pull them out, look them over.

Did you really want to do that?

Did you make any progress?

What could you do before the end of the year?

Remember, thinking big is great for goal setting,
but thinking small (in bite-sized steps) is better for actually accomplishing the goal.

I challenge you: go ahead and finish one of your 07 goals.

You still have some time.

Remember, Napoleon said that one of the reasons he won so many battles is because he understood the value of 5 minutes.

I’m working on mine.

Be blessed
Joe

19869

Here’s a video I’m going to show this Sunday.
Enjoy.
Joe
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-7885835831822787256&hl=en

19761

Hey Friends,
Go check out Mark Collins website, watch his video then rate it on the Apple website.
There’s a contest for doing a video in 24 hours. Rate his and push it to the top.
Thanks.

Hey Friends,
I’ve been teaching lately on the renewing of your mind.
This concept is taken from Romans 12:2

• Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,
  but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—
  his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Friend, if you knew what God’s perfect will was for your life, would you do it?
What if you don’t know what that will is?
You don’t want to get to heaven and find out you had an assignment on earth that you never knew about!

The only way you’re going to know what God’s full will is for your life is if you begin to renew your mind. You see if you’ve given your life to Jesus Christ then your spirit is brand new. The problem is you still have your old brain and body. So although Jesus has done a complete work in your spirit He has left some work for you to do:

You are responsible to renew your mind.

If you don’t do it, nobody else will.

Realize though the benefit: if you renew your mind you will be transformed. The word “transformed” there comes from the same Greek word where we get metamorphosis. So imagine a caterpillar being changed into a butterfly. God’s will for your life is that you be more like a butterfly than a caterpillar.

If you’re walking around this life with an un-renewed mind you are more like a worm, a caterpillar

than what you are supposed to be like:
a butterfly.

Spend time reading God’s word.

Listen to some good teaching about who you have become now that Jesus lives in your heart.

I’ve shared about this several times in our teaching at church.
Take some time and listen on our church website. I believe you’ll be blessed.

Love ya
Joe

19480

I was going to title this post, “The Cutest Picture Ever Taken”.
But as I looked at it, it reminded me of how God sees us.
Just like a little child that has just taken a bath, is all ready for bed and is trusting completely.
Here’s our Jules(JuliAnna Therese)

19080

I have seen throughout my career
Christians who do business with other
Christians only because they are
Christians.

Repeatedly I have seen this lead to serious disappointment.
Generally speaking, giving business to someone because he is a Christian is bad business.

Giving business to someone because they do excellent work for a reasonable rate is good business.

There is a natural tendency for Christians to want to bless their fellow man or fellow businessman. But don’t ever forget that that natural tendency is called CHARITY not BUSINESS.

If you want to bless your brother send him a check.

If you have a job that you need to hire someone for, find someone who’d be best at that job.

I’ve seen many, many, many people who’ve not followed this advice, fallen into the trap of mixing charity with business and ended up regretting it.

Also, if you’re a Christian in business and expect to cash in on your faith to make up for your shoddy business REPENT! You know better. Start providing an excellent competitive product that’s worth the money others are spending.

I’m not trying to be harsh, but to smooth this out would take a whole lot more words.

Hope this helps.
Joe

18830

Hey Friends,

I finally got the songs ready for you.
See the list on the left that says “Free Songs”?
Download any that you like and you can listen and distribute them for free.
However, they can’t be used for any commercial use without written permission.
All of the songs are written by me, except “Nothin’ But The Blood”, but this is my version of that. The recordings are copyrighted as well.
Blessings,
I hope you enjoy them.
Joe

17494