Easter Series
Get ready to Get Social. Join us in Awaken for a unique Easter Series that will connect “God with us” and “Us with them.” April 12, 19, and 26 at 9:30 and 11:00 am in the Hall.
Get Social – New Series Starting Easter Sunday [April 12]
Published March 26, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment
I am not a blogger as so many people are..but felt the Lord wanted me to comment on the new Series called “Get Social”.
I guess it would only be fair if I also was transparent in saying how lately God has been working in my life and where He has been guiding me.
For the past year I have been hanging with the “wrong crowd”. I am 31yrs old and slowly started making space between my “church friends” and making new “earthly friends”. (For lack of a better term here.) All the while I was thinking to myself….”well, some of these people go to church…so what if they go to bars and dance…dancing is fun right???…nothing wrong with that…” Yes, I was justifying things and even if for a while I continued to go to church..it was a SLOW FADE (Yes, the Casting Crowns song is true) and I slowly began to give myself away to the temptations the world had to offer.
Well, a couple of months ago…I said “NO MORE!” I can’t keep doing this. So, I cut (slowly but surely) ALL of the negative people that I had in my life. If I felt the relationship didn’t honor God…THEN BYE BYE!
Hmmm….that didn’t leave me with very much. I am fortunate to have a wonderful bible believing awesome Christian woman as a best friend but she lives 200mi away. And I have a GREAT Christian family but how many Friday and Saturday nights do I really want to spend my ol Mom and Pops?
So that brings me to this past Easter weekend. I spent most of the weekend depressed. I layed on my couch and thought about going to Awaken on Saturday night and didn’t. I did nothing and communicated with no one all weekend. (Cept a few stupid Facebook quizzes). I was depressed because I had NO friends and nothing to do and it was ALL because of the poor choices I had made. (Cry me a river huh?)
So Sunday morning rolls around and I am doing everything I can to justify why I shouldn’t go to church. You know how you say..”well, I haven’t been going very consistently for a while and if I show up on Easter…I am going to be like ALL of those other people that only come on Easter and Christmas….yada yada yada.” (It’s amazing the lies the devil tells you that are so seemingly riduculous but yet we believe them!)
So I get a text from my wonderful Father and he says they’re going to the 9:30 Awaken service. (Which by the way they don’t generally go to.) So I drag myself off of the couch and force myself to get ready and head out the door. Once I pulled in I did get somewhat excited because I do love Sagemont and I love the people there and being by myself ALL weekend had started to WEAR on me!
I found my family and the music begins. Words that speak to my heart like they always do and then Russell approached the podium and begins the message.
AND LO AND BEHOLD…WHAT IT IS ABOUT????
Being a FRIEND OF GOD.
So, all the while I am loathing in my self pity how I am so alone and I have nobody to do anything with….I have a friend in God through Christ Jesus that was with me the whole time. Could I have turned and talked to Him at any point? Yes. Could I have opened His word and He have spoken back? Yes.
Now I have something to look forward to. This was just the beginnng of the series. Am I going to go back next Sunday and find out what else it means to “GET SOCIAL”? Absolutely. God was preparing me for yesterdays message in a HUGE way and I definitely want to hear what He tells me next week.
Thanks to Russel and Aric and the Awaken team. Your music and messages are God’s mouthpiece to me more than you know.
-Shera