Introducing People To The Life God Intended

Brandon Goff. Lead Pastor of Radiate Church in Columbia, SC. Married to Megan, 2 kids - Brody and Kiley.

Monday, February 25, 2013

"Draw Me Close" Tweeters

Here's some one-line Tweeters for you to share on Facebook and Twitter this week from Sunday's message "Draw Me Close"

Physical Intimacy is as much a spiritual act as it is physical. Don't abuse either!

God doesn't desire for your relationship to just survive. He's set it up to THRIVE!

Honor your marriage with the highest of honors. Your love is to be honored in every way.

Keep your marriage bed undefiled, stay pure physically and in thought.

Emotional connection with your spouse is bred from deep love. (1 Peter 3:7-9)

Make a way to connect emotionally, it shows your love, honor, and appreciation for one another.

Emotional intimacy increases physical and spiritual intimacy as well.

If your life isn't based on spiritual intimacy your relationship won't be either!

Without the foundation of God in your relationship, nothing else will matter.

The secret REALationship formula: Follow God, Take care of each other! THRIVE!

Use the hashtag #realationships and #radiatechurch when posting!

Friday, February 22, 2013

In Your Wildest Dreams...

The past couple of days I've been thinking on Ephesians 3:20.

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us." (NASB)

In your wildest dreams, if money were not an issue, what would you do to help spread the Kingdom? What would you do to help people see the love of Jesus? Think about it. What is it?

For me I have several, but the 3 things I would love to do is to:
1- lead a powerful movement (church) that equips people to be what God created them to be.
2- Build a ministry that helps orphans.
3- Help single parents.

But how can I do that? How can we make the dreams a reality in life? What can we do? The answer is this: NOTHING! Let me explain...

We can do nothing within our own power. All we can do is work like it depends on us and pray like it depends on Him...because it does! The key to this verse that is often overlooked and underappreciated is the end... "according to the power that works within us."

The power that works within us is the the power of the Holy Spirit. Upon repentance the Holy Spirit became available to us, the filling of the Holy Spirit takes place as we lay ourselves down and allow Him to take over. It's a matter of surrender of ourselves, and acceptance of the Spirit. The power that the Spirit works within you and I depends on the amount of surrender we've given.

The beautiful thing is this: What we desperately dream and want to accomplish, God wants to accomplish more, with more power, with more authority, with more results that we can think of. And He has given us the power (the Holy Spirit) to help us accomplish our dream, plus some.

So, what now? Surrender. Surrender your dreams, your plans, your ideas, your model of getting things done to the Spirit. Let the Spirit move you into a place of success and submission. Pastors, we need to surrender our models for leadership and church growth to the Spirit and get His approval. Leaders, it's up to the Spirit to lead us in our next step.

Remember: after all, it is the power that works within us that accomplishes the great things! Walk in His fresh steps, because making your own doesn't work so well.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Sunday's Tweeters

Here's the "Tweeters" from Sunday's REALationships message: "Know Your Role Men"

- God has a strategy to help our relationships THRIVE instead of just surviving.

- Man may be head of the relationship, but God is the head of it all!

- If you want a REALationship that will thrive, the man must lead.

- 1 Corinthians 11:3 is the God given way to ensure a proper relationship that will make a difference.

- Family/relationships were established to be Kingdom movers!

- A man must follow Christ's example of loving the church in order to properly love His wife.

- To truly love someone sacrifice is a key in the relationship. Sacrifice shows love!

- If you want your partner to be proud of you, give them something to be proud of! Your actions speak louder than your words!

- Serving one another is a way to express your appreciation towards one another.

- In order to help fill Heaven and empty Hell, we must show future generations proper relationships.

- God created relationships to be something special in this life. He must sit in the center of your love.

Share these throughout the week to share the power of God in relationships!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Wells of Fresh Relationship

"But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of flowing water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying 'The water is ours!' So he named the well Esek, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over it too, so he named it Sitnah. He moved away form there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it Rehobeth, for he said, 'At last the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land." (Genesis 26:19-22)

"But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes." (Matthew 10:23)

Church can be a harsh, condemning, hard place to fit in and be loved sometimes. There are literally people that would just love to see people fail, fall, and make mistakes. It's like they seem to be waiting around the corner, so when that moment of weakness does sneak up on you they can jump out and scream "I told you so!!" It's not all churches, I would venture to say it's not most churches. It's not all Christians, and not even most Christians. But there is a rising number of "believers" that have a perfect parallel to Genesis 26:19-22.

It's almost like when Isaac's herdsmen were digging the well and they found the water. They were excited, everyone was. They were pumped, ecstatic and wanted to share the findings. But somewhere, somehow the spirit of authority and selfishness reared its ugly head and decided not to go away. All of a sudden, the herdsmen of Gerar stepped up and said, "Wait a second! You may have dug this well, but this is our land! My grandparents paid for this land, tilled this land, built the well covering, and made this a reality. This isn't your well! This water that you're so excited about is worth telling people about but they can't just come up and hang out. They can't be dirty, stinky, messy, sinful, frustrated, or even dress inappropriately. They must live up to certain things before becoming part of this well. This well is distinguished and different. And if you don't agree, you can go find another well to call your own."

So, Isaac's guys did just that. Until they found a well that Gerar would leave alone. They then camped there, found a home there, and were FRUITFUL there! In fact, Isaac knew that they would be FRUITFUL in THAT land because they found a well that accepted anyone, for anything, at anytime. I was also reminded of Matthew 10:23 when thinking about this. Do you want to know why people are jumping from church to church, not committing, loving, or standing still in a place? Because they feel persecuted, uncomfortable, condemned, and even judged! It's a matter of principle that was set in place. Jesus told His disciples to do this. If they felt that way - go where they didn't.

I'm tired of seeing pastor's that would like for churches that are different from their fail. I'm sick of hearing people hold past grudges against one another so they can't even grow the Kingdom with a good heart! I'm frustrated with people feeling condemned and unwelcomed in church because a mistake was made. I'm tired of answering the question of "will you allow homosexuals and lesbians in your church?" When we start entertaining these thoughts, ideas, and concepts we begin to try to dictate who can come to the fresh water that we've found. That is when people will start looking for a well that people won't keep them from enjoying!

Lord, please don't let Radiate or me, be a well that people run from, but a well of your fresh water that people run to! It's about bringing people to salvation, true repentance, great things in your plan, and restoration. Help me to help You, help them! Amen.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Tweeters: "Perfect Connection"

Here are the top 10 "Tweeters" (since everyone else uses Tweetables) from Sunday's message. Spread them out and post them on Twitter/Facebook this week!

- Jesus didn't just die for you but for your relationships as well.

- If Jesus isn't at the center, nothing else will matter.

- God created us all to be relational, He is relational, He has big plans for your relationships!

- The way we handle our relationships is a reflection of how we handle the Kingdom of God.

- Convenient relationships will never satisfy like a companion relationship. Get out of convenience!

- If you aren't encouraging, equipping, and engaging each other to greatness...do something different!

- Before you can be in a right relationship...know who YOU are first!

- Inventory your outside relationships...if they are inappropriate, cut the cord!

- The easiest way to kill your relationship is never to work at it. Successful love is WORK!

- The goal is not to find the right person, but to be the right person!

Share the Word of God this week using Social Media. These are just tools, maybe you wrote something down or something stuck with you and you want to share that. GO FOR IT! Grab a friend, bring them with you, and see you Sunday!