Where did we get away from this & how can we get back?

I was reading in the Word this morning in Matthew 8 something that really popped out at me. Here is what it says in 8:14 "When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He (Jesus) touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him."

The natural response when Jesus does something in your life is to serve because of your gratitude for what He has done. I have seen this in lots of situations where Jesus saved someone from sin or heals a disease and the person's response back is an attitude of gratitude which is manifested in some service. Here is my thought... the further we get away from a personal miracle the easier it is to justify not serving. I want to encourage you who are reading this to be in the Word of God so that He can change you and your heart. We as believers need to stay freshly connected to Jesus so that we can see Him work and receive the blessing that comes from naturally serving.

Let's together live in the joy and gratitude of what God has done. We can celebrate when we know what He has saved us from.

What has helped you grow in Christ personally?

Hey Y'all,

Just wanted to ask a few questions about your personal spiritual growth. What has been some things that have helped you grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ? I am serving on a team (discipleship) at NewSpring Church where we are asking that question. What has been you thing? If someone helped mentor/disciple you, what did they do? Email me if you want joeltippitt@yahoo.com or just leave a comment on the blog.

Thanks!

FREE Rent for the Tippitts!!

I cannot tell you how much joy Amy and I are experiencing as we follow the call of God! We are trusting God with everything and believe that "if it's God's will, than it will be God's bill." We know that He has called us (even without jobs) to South Carolina, but we are not sure how He is going to provide for everything that we are needing. On Saturday, Amy and I were going to send our down payment to the apartment complex in Anderson, SC were were were wanting to live. It was a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment and was going to be about $750 a month. So before we sent the check, we called them and they informed us that we needed to send a letter from the church explaining that I was a pastor in transition. To be honest, I was a little frustrated that the process had to be slowed down, but communicated on Sunday to our Finance Chairman who signed a letter for us. A few minutes after church we received a call and it was from Amy's uncle informing us that he had a 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bathroom house about 4 miles away from the church that we could have RENT FREE (Until Amy finds employment)!!!!!!

I am telling you, God is good! He is truly taking care of us! There are many things that we could be worrying about, but we choose not to. Jesus says in Matthew 6:33 the solution to worry. He says, instead of worrying, "Seek first my kingdom (His Rule in your life) and my Righteousness, and ALL these things will be given to you as well." We could choose to worry, but we have made a choice to work hard at seeking first His Kingdom in our lives and marriage and His Righteousness. He cares for us so much and wants to do amazing things in us as we seek Him with our lives.

I want to encourage those who are reading this, if you have something in your life that is creating a lot of worry, know that God loves you and start to seek Him with your whole life! Hebrews 12:2 says, "Fix your eyes on Jesus" and when we do that, our loving Father will watch out for us. You can trust Him today.

Sermon: Making War (NewSpring Church)

This past Sunday was AMAZING

I am still overwhelmed at what God did this past Sunday! Here are a few things about the great day.

- We normally have about 170 people in attendence, but this past Sunday, we had 420 people!
-We watched at least 15 people cross over from Death to Life!
- People signed up for our "Next Steps Class" starting Jan. 2nd
-People signed up to be baptized on Dec. 26th.
-Many of the new guests shared that they are coming back and there were some that said that they are going to start coming regularly!!!

Be praying for this coming sunday! The best is yet to come is the conversation that I keep hearing!

Amazing thing God did for me tonight!

I can't sleep... I think I will start there. I am blown away at what God did in me tonight and I feel like I have to write about it so that I do not forget.

For you to really understand what I am going to say, I think I need to share with you a little background. When I was growing up, I did not really have a strong sense that I was listened to or did I think that I mattered to people. I knew that my parents loved me very much, but I felt very much like I did not get the attention that a child should get. If I look back (my wife helped me see this tonight for the first time) I would say this is where my "wound" stems from. This is a place of great pain. When we have wounds, we tend to compensate where we are hurt, and that tends to not be in healthy ways usually. With that said, I have had one of the most busy scheduals I have ever had in this past 2 weeks when it comes to ministry.
- Friend Died and I drove to sacramento to be with his family when they pulled the plug.
- flew down to speak at a winter retreat and ministered to an awesome group of teens!
- spoke at friends funeral at the church I grew up in *pasadena nazarene
- night two (tonight) of our series, "Killers of the Heart- Sex, $ and power"

I tell you my schedual for one reason and that is because with everything on this list, I was in the lime light in every place. I was a camp speaker, looked up to in front of about 1,300 people at a place where they used to look down on me because I was young, but now a leader, doing cutting edge things in ministry (told by many friends in ministry). My wound became temptation for me this last two weeks. The temptation to say, look at me... They were looking at me and I was taking credit for things that only God deserved! I am understanding that what feeds my wound from my childhood is being seen by people. The temptation is to put myself in the line of the praise that is intended for God. I KNOW that I was taking what God should have owned. I was sinned and wow, I am totally wrong for that. I was sharing this all with my very patient wife and something amazing happened, and for this I want to praise God for what HE did. On top of all the busy schedual, I got home from camp and was in the house for 15 min when I ended up hitting my head really hard and got a really bad concussion and lost memory, and speech was all messed up, but it eventually came back over about 2 days. What never went away was my SCREAMING Heacache!!! Here is what I want to praise God for... Out loud to my wife, I confessed my SIN of taking God's praise and asking Him to be the leader in my life in a new way. I want God to get all the praise. I want to become less and Him to become greater! When I said Amen, I opened my eyes and my headache was GONE! It was completly gone! I shared this with Amy, and out of no where, God popped in my mind this, ( Had to look up text later) James 5:16 "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other SO THAT YOU MAY BE HEALED." I cannot tell you the emotion that went through me, but I was a total mess- in a good way. I have never seen personally God work in a way like this before. I have seen Him do some pretty crazy things, dont get me wrong, but this just floored me! My heart is in praise and worship to a God that says, "Joel, I forgive you, and I want to show you even greater things, but remember, it is I who does the great things, it is I who changed the lives of those kids at camp, and it is I that will change you if you let me!" We (pastors, I am saying this to you if any pastors read my blog) need to be careful in thinking any Kingdom work is our doing. It is Him and His Spirit that does it ALL!

So, that is my story.... My question to you is, when something great happens, or you get a complement, where does your mind go? What happens in your heart? Do you long for power that God deserves? Where or who is getting the Glory? Are you stealing something that was intended to be God's all along like I did? Any thoughts?

A good quote from a book I am reading

So, my dog- bella about 5 months ago ripped the cover off my new book I got, so I tossed the book aside and forgot about it for these months. I picked up the coverless book about a week ago and started reading it again, and I came across this quote, "Many of our conversations with our friends are unproductive because we do not have the right goal in view. We may be helping them overcome a particular problem, answer a troubling question, or resolve a pressing conflict. Those are temporary issues. We need to keep the ultimate goal in constant view. We need to see the current issue as one step toward the grand objsective: Christ-likeness."

Book: Making Disciples- One Conversation At A Time (Henserson)

What are your thoughts about this?

Despiration

Have you ever thought about the word "Despiration"? I mean, think about it, when someone is despirate, they are focused! When someone is drowning in water, all they are focused on is their next breath. When a wife says, "I think my water broke!", the only thing a husband is (Should be) thinking is here are my keys (to go to the hospital).

What would it be like to be despirate for God? Where He was the only thing that mattered. Would we live differently? What would your physical characterics of your life look like if you were truly despirate for God? Does your like have those characterics in it right now?

The most dangerious prayer you can pray for yourself would be, "God, make me desprate for you!"

I think we all need that desprate prayer!