GATHER. EQUIP. SEND.

Its absolutely resounding in my heart:  GATHER. EQUIP. SEND...

There will be more to come later but be assured that 3trees is about to GATHER, EQUIP, & SEND people in an unprecedented capacity throughout the days to come.

• GATHER to Experience God.
• EQUIP to Make Disciples.
• SEND into All the World!

Greater things are coming!  I can feel it........

Access Granted

Define ACCESS - "the right to enter" 

In order to enter any room you must have access to get in. It doesn't matter if you want to go into a gathering place or not, if you don't have the right to enter, you are not getting in!

Entry rights can be gained by someone giving you a key or opening a door for you--which could transpire in a variety of ways. I have found that in all realms of life there are circles, even spheres of influence, and in order to progress from one level to the next, you must establish legitimate connections with those who have the ability to open doors.

Undoubtedly, you have seen Hollywood's red carpet events.  Hundreds of people stand barracaded by ropes while celebrities march by--posing all the way--into the entryway of culture's most eloquent events.  Millions want in, thousands stand within view of the door, but only a handful get in.  Why?  One word: ACCESS.

In general, I believe that if you do not have fame or wealth on your your side then two things in life can still help grant you access into influential realms: 

1. Favor
2. Honor

Honor is a principle that must be acted out and favor is the by-product of an attitude. 

Favor can be supernaturally imparted, but I am coming to believe that it is most often only experienced in our lives as we practice an attitude of friendliness.  Literally, we must embrace a heart of doing unto others as we would have them to do unto us.  We must smile and kindly greet people with sincere conversation.  Simply by making small talk we can many times open doors that would have normally never been opened to us.  If you want favor then be friendly!

Honor is the type of principle that will set the course for our lifestyle when practiced. We give it to whom it is do: parents, elders, authority figures, teachers, and spritual leaders to name a few.

How do we give honor?  We bestow honor upon someone by exemplifying our respect for him/her through our actions.

Honor is thorough in its approach and will almost always--even in casual situations--choose to address an elder by his/her proper title and will always refuse to defile another person's name. This much is also certain, when you truly focus on being a person who regularly gives honor to other people, those people will want you around.  They will enjoy having you in their circle.

Many leaders tire easily because they constantly feel as though they are being leeched of their time and resources.  They long for someone to make a deposit instead of a withdrawal--someone who will give rather than take or request to receive.  Honor does exactly that--it shows up ready to serve rather than to be served! 

Honor is not simply brown-nosing. Flattery is manipulative in nature, while honor is pure in its ambition to give respect to someone without any hopes of return.  Honor has the capability to respect someone, fully-aware that someday the action may open currently closed doors, but also fully-content to continue to give respect without receiving any personal gain or recognition. Successful leaders got where they are for a reason and typically the stronger the leader the more keen his perception will be.  In other words, great leaders are constantly on guard for manipulative tactics and if they sense that manipulation is near they will remove it (and the person who brought it) very quickly from their space.

When you are friendly you will gain favor by default.  This is important because favor is typically the blessing that gets you close enough to bestow honor upon the people into whose circles you desire to enter. 

Think of it this way... FRIENDLINESS gets you to the door, FAVOR is the key, and HONOR is the doorkeeper whom ultimately grants you ACCESS into the next level of your destiny.

• FRIENDLINESS --> FAVOR --> HONOR --> ACCESS

(Foundational thoughts originally inspired by a combination of tweets from Pastors Steven Furtick & Danny Chambers.)

The Overflow

Jesus said, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything else shall be added unto you..." 

Seek first the Kingdom of God... Got it!  But, what is the Kingdom of God??? Here's Paul's take on it:

• Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,

In the hour of Paul many believers were being converted from Judaism, with them they brought baggage that had unintentionally become legalistic.  Their upbringing in the law of Moses restricted them from doing many things that had little to do with spirituality and more to do with simply following rules.  It is as if Paul was attempting to communicate to them that the Kingdom of God's presence in their lives was not determined by whether they ate pork or not (a no-no in Jewish culture); the Kingdom of God IS A MATTER of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. In fact, Paul goes on to say:

• Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may OVERFLOW with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit

What does it all mean? Simply put, the Kingdom of God is not about rules and regulations.  It is about living in joy, peace, and right-standing before God--to Love God and Love People.  I have joy that I am saved!  I have peace that I am saved!  I have right-standing because I could not save myself, Jesus did it for me.  When I seek this attitude in life, Jesus has promised that anything else I need will be added unto me--I will OVERFLOW with hope by the POWER of the Holy Spirit!

Greater things are yet to come!

The Fulfilled Path

 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. --Matthew 5:17

Jesus answered, "I am the WAY and the TRUTH and the LIFE. No one comes to the Father except through me... --John 14:6

The Orthodox Jews that I have met do not consider the Bible's law to be legalistic, instead they believe the best English word to directly describe their perception of the Biblically translated term "law" would be "path".

Think of this for a moment... The law was not considered first and foremost a tool for prosecution.  It was instead intended to be perceived as a PATH to life. The only problem is that as Paul mentioned, all the boundaries created by the law (or path) of Moses wound up creating a crooked, impassible road to death.  Why? Because it was so complex that no one could follow it. No man could navigate his way through the path and every man that tried ultimately fell to his death along its narrow passageways.

4,000 years into humanity's feeble attempts to chart a course through the path, Jesus arrived on the scene and made an astounding pronouncement, "I have not come to destroy the law, I have come to fulfill it."  I believe that Jesus was actually saying, "I have not come to destroy the PATH, I've come to show you how to navigate it!"

Up to this point, every individual reached the end of their life with no bridge between heaven and earth.  They couldn't find it along the path because the road was so complex.  Thousands of rules and regulations caused them to be lost.  Don't eat this meat, don't cook food that way, don't start a fire on this day, don't go to the fields unless it is such and such time...

God's point had been proven:  the law killeth!  No man could walk the path. Even with his best attempt, by accident he would in the end stumble to his death.  God's response was to insert his son into the path with the sole-purpose of bridging its gap between heaven and earth.  The first Adam had fallen off the path in the Garden of Eden, but the second Adam would succeed in the Garden of Gethsamene at staying the course.  The result: God's second Adam, Jesus Christ, became the WAY of the Path, the TRUTH to direct the steps along the Path, and the LIFE to prevent death on the Path, so that we may follow the Path back to the FATHER! (Ref. John 14:6)

We now walk the route of the fulfilled path, which means that we do not have to memorize thousands of boundaries.  We must only walk the path guarded on each side by two curbs:  1) Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, and soul; 2) Love thy neighbor as thyself.

Do you want to walk with God?  Do you want to have an assurance that you are on the right path in your life?  If so, walk in such a WAY that you are guided by the LIFE of these two boundary forming TRUTHs:  Love God & Love People! 

I assure you that not only at the end, but also along the journey of this path, there is Life and Life more abundantly!

From One to Many - Isaiah 51

For the average reader, the Book of Isaiah, must in some ways be viewed as simply a poetic delivery of the infallible Word of God, as the prophetic elements of Isaiah's penmanship can become difficult for the average Bible student to maneuver his way through. For instance, trying to perceive in which sections he is talking about present-day events of his time, versus, when was he looking much further into the future can be very challenging.  However, despite its challenges it is overall a fantastic book and in my opinion holds within its pages more prophecies concerning the arrival of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, than any other Old Testament book.  In all truth, Isaiah may have been the most poetically-gifted writer in the entire Bible.

Today, as I got past all of the theological evaluation and simply read through its pages I found the first few verses of Isaiah's chapter 55 to be particularly encouraging...

• Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord; Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave birth.  When I called him he was but one and I blessed him and made him many... Isaiah 51:1-2

You can feel all alone at times in your pursuit of righteousness (right-standing before God) but if you look throughout the course of history you will find that fantastic testimonies abound.  Elijah felt as though he was the only one being called to stand for God, yet he eventually found out that 7,000 more had likewise not yet bowed their knee to Baal. Jonah thought his situation was so hopeless that he believed preaching the message God had given him would be useless, yet after several pit stops he declared the word and an entire city responded with repentance!

Abraham was old and Sarah was incapable of bearing children; however, God spoke and that settled it--a son would be born!  As a result, what began as the dream of one man became a mighty nation.

God called you and you may currently be the only one on your jobsite pursuing right-standing before God--or at least you feel that way. Maybe no one wants to seek God in your family or even attend church, but I encourage you to keep up the fight of faith.  He that endures to the end shall be saved.  You may start "as one, but in the end God will bless you and you will become many!"  It is the way of God. He seems to be enthralled with exponential multiplication--just check out the Book of Acts or the miracles of Jesus sometime.  Even Jesus, Himself, was one, but now he has become the first-born of MANY brethren!

I assure you, greater things are yet to come!

Upcoming Schedule

A brief run-down of our upcoming service schedule:

• Saturday, July 31st @ 9am - 3pm  /  Work Day  (We need everyone!)
• Sunday, August 1st @ 9am, 11am, & 6:30pm  /  Last Services in the Old Facility
• Thursday, August 5th  /  No Service
• Sunday, August 8th @ 10:30am  /  Begin Again in the New Facility!
• Sunday, August 8th @ 12pm - 2pm  /  Community Picnic & Open House
• Wednesday, August 11th @ 7pm  /  Our New Mid-week Schedule Begins

Please note:  In an attempt to better serve our community and congregation beginning Sunday, August 8th our new service schedule will be as follows:

• Sundays @ 10:30am & 6:30pm 
• Wednesdays @ 7pm

Outdoor Baptism

Tomorrow @ 1pm we will have an outdoor baptism at the creek--most know the spot as the Sam Coffey Hole. For directions please pick up a map at tomorrow's services.

If you would like to be baptized meet us in Hillside's sanctuary at 12:15pm for a quick time of prayer and discussion, before heading creekside.

Robert Sheffey's Trigg, VA & Claytor Lake...

Three years ago, I didn't even know there was such a place as Trigg, Virginia or even Staffordsville, Virginia--for that matter.  Yet, tomorrow Mandy and I will head to the captivating mountains just outside of Dublin,Virginia for the third time in three years. 

On the other side of Kentucky's Black Mountain, we have made what we believe to be life-long friends and I am grateful for the opportunity to return.  Tuesday - Friday I will be speaking each night at the Robert Sheffey Memorial Campgrounds as we join in with the annual campmeeting led by George Phillips & Friends.  It is a unique experience, with services convening in an outdoor pavillion, you feel completely sheltered from the busyness of life by thick timber and an adventurous gravel driveway.

Its going be a fun week and I am especially looking forward to daytime visits to one of the most charming hidden gems our family has ever discovered, Claytor Lake...

Pray for as we travel.  3trees we will see ya Sunday!

Begin Again: Sunday, August 8th

The date has officially been set!  Sunday, August 8th @ 10:30am we will conduct our first worship gathering in 3trees' new worship facility. 

The day will be full of activity with a Community Picnic scheduled to immediately follow the service and we will swing the doors open wide for an Open House from 12pm - 2pm.  For your kids, we will have inflatable games, so they can bounce out the sugar they fuel up with via snow cones and cotton candy!  (Please Note: There will not be a PM service.)

Its very easy to drift out of church during the summer, but don't be discouraged as your KIDS GO BACK TO SCHOOL your FAMILY CAN GO BACK TO CHURCH.  August 8th @ 10:30am is a perfect opportunity for your family to BEGIN AGAIN!

Please know that everyone is welcome and I want to personally invite you to come BEGIN AGAIN with us as we gear up for what we believe will be the greater things that are yet to come!

New Church Name

A brief explanation of why we selected the new name 3trees for our church...

FIRST, THE REASONS FOR A NAME CHANGE:

1. We were no longer comfortable describing our praise as "higher". While the thought process behind our original name was never based in egotism, we came to realize that it could potentially be perceived that way.
2. There arrived among our fellowship of believers an undeniable consensus of agreement that we needed to bring the cross of Jesus, in a much more visible way, to the forefront of our ministry.  

SECONDLY, WHY THE NAME 3trees?

2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, the events surrounding three trees on a hillside changed the world. On one tree Jesus RELEASED grace. On the second tree a man REJECTED it, but on the third tree, grace was RECEIVED. The two men made different choices but both had to RESPOND to Jesus.

In 2010 and beyond, it is our most sincere prayer that from a hillside in Russell Springs, Kentucky, 3trees Church will be used of God to provoke a RECEPTIVE RESPONSE to the RELEASE of Jesus' grace, as we strive more than ever to move from just being a "Come and See" church to becoming a mobilized "Go and Tell" fellowship of believers!

We covet your prayers as we move forward with the most-focused vision we have ever had to plunder hell and populate heaven by the power of the Cross and Blood of Jesus.

May greater things come for the cause of Christ!

• 3trees Church is a Spirit-empowered, Life-giving ministry that is connecting people to Jesus, while finding needs and meeting them.  For more info please visit:  www.3trees.com