Serving allows us to experience miracles.

In John 2, Jesus was at a wedding and the couple was running out of wine for its guests. He tells the servants to fill several big jars to the brim. When they served the water to the guests, it was wine! The guests never knew what happened; the servants were the ones who witnessed the miracle. The same is true for us when we serve.

We cannot do everything but we can do something. Find something you can do and make sure you do it for the right reasons.

Every problem is an opportunity to trust God.

When you forgive, the debt doesn’t just go away. You absorb the debt. That’s why forgiveness is so hard.

Say you lend a person one thousand dollars, but suppose that when the time comes for the loan to be repaid that person is unable to repay you. If you forgive that person of his debt, then that person no longer owes you anything. By forgiving, you forfeited the money—you absorbed the debt. How is it that God is able to forgive our sins against him? He absorbed them by sending his son to suffer the penalty for our debts (sins).

Vision is a conception that is inspired by God in the heart of a human.

The greatest gift God ever gave to humanity is not sight but VISION.

-Sight is the function of the eyes,

-VISION is the function of the heart.

-You can have sight but no Vision.

Vision is seeing the future before it comes into being.

Love is the visible attribute of an invisible God.

1 John 4:12 says, No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. In other words, even though no person has ever actually seen God the Father, we are able to see God’s character as we love one another. Remember that God is love (1 John 4:8); so, when we walk in love, we are like God. Thus, although we can’t actually see God, we can see his character in our love for each other (and in his love for us). Indeed, Romans 5:8 tells us that God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Furthermore, Jesus said that we, his disciples, will be known by our fruit: By their fruit you will recognize them(Matthew 7:16, 20). Galatians 5:22 tells us what that fruit is: The fruit of the Spirit is love. Thus, we are known by our love—love for one another and love for God.

It is so important to walk in love, because love is the visible attribute of an invisible God.

TEN ATTITUDES TO AVOID IN THE CHURCH

1. Rebellious Attitude: This kind of attitude leads people to be unteachable, critical of leadership, defensive to correction, and prideful when dealing with.
2. Socially-Weirdy Attitude: A weirdy is someone that cannot have a normal conversation without others feeling awkward. Sometimes it manifests in “over-sensitive emotions,” talking to much about one’s self, long periods of silence, and desire for “clingy-co-dependent-friendships.”
3. Perverted Attitude: Everything turns into a sexually slanted conversation. Guys mostly struggle with this, but this could also be seen with a woman who may think that every guy in the church is trying to hit on her.
4. False Prophet Attitude: This person believes that everything they “feel” God tells them is always to obeyed by others (including leadership) without question. They think they are above rebuke and correction because they believe those who don’t see things the way they do is because others are not as “spiritual” as them.
5. Know-It-All Attitude: The know it all always has to let everyone know what they know. They have to have the last word in every conversation, make the most comments in small group, and take forever to convince they need to learn something new.
6. Controlling Attitude: This person is not happy unless everything in the church is done their way. They can’t compromise or remain silent when they disagree with something. They need to remain in control and let everyone around them know if they’re not happy.
7. Victim Attitude: The victim believes that what the church is doing for everyone else will not work for them because they are too messed up. They think that their past, current problems, or issues always need special attention because unless they have everyone’s attention they think nobody loves them.
8. Quitting Attitude: The quitter cannot stick with discipleship or the church because every time things get hard they quit and blame it on someone or something else.
9. Self-Centered Attitude: This person cannot serve, make sacrifices, or think about what’s going on in the big picture of the church. Everything in the church is about them, their family, and needs.
10. Luke Warm Attitude: They don’t want to be challenged or expected to grow. They just want to be left alone and made to feel comfortable with their current walk with God.

To Bear Fruit, Get Connected

Right before Jesus goes to the cross, he gives his last minute instructions to his followers: “Live in me, and I will live in you. A branch cannot produce any fruit by itself. It has to stay attached to the vine. In the same way, you cannot produce fruit unless you live in me” (John 15:4 GW).

Jesus says that being spiritually connected is like being attached to a vine. You’re not going to have any fruitfulness or productivity in your life if you’re out there on your own. You’ve got to stay connected.

In plants, a disconnected branch can’t bear fruit. Not only do you lack support and start to wither and die, but you also don’t have any productivity in your life if you’re not spiritually connected.

I grow a lot of vegetables and fruit every spring. If I cut off a branch, those branches aren’t going to produce any tomatoes or anything else. They’ve got to be connected in order to produce fruit.

What kind of fruit should you produce when you are connected to the Body of Christ? “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control” (Galatians 5:22-23a NIV).

I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be more loving. I’d like to be more joyful. I’d like to be more at peace, no matter what happens to the economy. I’d like to be more kind to people who are mean to me. I’d like to be a good person. I want to be faithful, not unfaithful. I want to keep my promises. I’d like to be gentle with people who are not very gentle. And I’d like to have more self-control.

That’s called the fruit of the Spirit, and it’s the evidence that you are spiritually connected. If you are not seeing yourself grow in all these things, guess what? It means you’re not spiritually connected.