WEEKEND UPDATE (031311)

Daylight Savings Time kicked my butt.  Not Sunday, but this morning.  Boy it was dark at 0530!  So dark in fact, I crawled back in my cave for another hour.  This weekend, we had a lot of people out on Sunday and the auditorium during the first service (which would have felt like 0800 to everybody's bones) looked like a ghost town.  But things heated up as the morning went along and we actually had a huge crowd in the second service.  I know it was tough just getting up Sunday.  Hats off to everyone who got it done!  Here's just a few things from the morning at Crossroads:

• I loved worship Sunday morning.  I stood in the third row during first service worship and had an AWESOME time!  I love to sing and praise God.  For the first three years of pastoring Crossroads, I''ve stood in the back and worshipped on Sunday morning.  Guess what?  It sounds WAY better down in front.  I think I'll be there a lot more in the future.  Love to connect with God in that way!
• Same as last week, totally digging the ENERGY in our new Children's Center.  Kid's Crossing is absolutely BUZZING!  Awesome to be around all the kids and parents and everyone who serves in children's ministry at Crossroads!
• We kicked off 'DEADWOOD' Sunday morning, a brand new original series for Crosroads.  It's a study of John 15, and a pretty challenging message for Christ-followers!
• I was sick all week leading up to Sunday.  It took all the energy I had (and quite a bit that I didn't have that I'm sure came directly from the Holy Spirit) just to make it through both services.  I do my best to put everything into the work when I am sharing a message, in preparation and delivery, but Sunday's message was particularly...well, challenging.  That's the only way I can put it.  Jesus challenges a lot of our assumptions as His followers in John 15.  It wasn't a message about puppies and kittens, know what I mean?  
• As someone with the gaping character flaw of wanting (needing?) people to like him, messages like that a hard for me to share.  But I'm comitted to doing it anyway, even when it's hard.  Besides, I didn't write John 15.
• Jesus says, "Remain in me".  All of us (totally including me) are naturally pre-disposed...to not to.
• Remaining in Jesus means making Him "first" in our lives.  That's hard for us to do because we like to make US "first".
• Jesus makes it clear that God wants us to be fruitful.  Knowing Jesus doesn't making us fruitful.  It only makes us a branch.  While being a branch is necessary, being a branch that bears fruit is essential.
• Because the whole point of fruit is to make more fruit...followers are fruitful.

Next week we're going to unpack the whole idea of God "pruning" us to make us even more fruitful.  We're going to talk about how difficult it is at times, how unfair it seems, and we're going to get a long-view of what "being fruitful" means in pratical terms.  This week, join me as I pray asking God to reveal the things in my life that are real fruit, and the things in my life that are fake or artificial fruit.  I think that as we do that, God will show us the things that make us useful to Him and to others, and the things that keep us from accomplishing God's plan and purpose for our lives.

Have a FRUITFUL week!