Church Notes: It's All About the Give #noitsnotitsallaboutthetake

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"Giving horrific to Jesus and taking everything good from Him" -Pastor Carl Lentz

God has been and is so good to me, that it would be selfish of me not to share His word. So for my benefit and hopefully yours, I will begin a new series on the blog called "Church Notes"; where I will share my church notes from any and all services that I attend during the week. Today's blog is from Tuesday's night EBS (Exchange Bible Study). There were two messages spoke that night and both were awesome. However, today's post will be about "It's all about the give #hashtag no it's not, it's all about the take". This message was randomly brought to us from our Pastor Carl Lentz who just finished co-officiating a wedding. I hope you receive a word from this message as I did.


First of all, I was on the fence about going, but of course we know that in this life nothing is a coincidence. So after picking up my batter from the 14th Street Sprint store, I headed up to 22nd St and 4 ave where Tuesday's night service was to be held. Honestly, my body was in service, but not my mind or my spirit. I sang the songs, I closed my eyes for prayer and I took notes from the first word. There were so many questions going on in my head: "Should I stay with my job?", "Is D the right one?", "Should I move back to Miami?". I mean my thoughts were shooting a mile a minute. Then Pastor Carl came up and was like, "we're going to take a 5 minute break, then I will preach and take some questions." Nothing in me wanted to leave, I just needed to be around God's presence and anything that would take me there I was going to stay. So 5 minutes later Pastor Carl begin the preach and God was clearly speaking through him to me. Every single question I had was answered, giving me hope and assurance that He has heard my prayers. See for yourself what Pastor meant about "it's really all about the take".

• We give our horrific (sins, lies, insecurities, doubt, fears) to Jesus and take everything good (favor, grace, mercy, love, forgiveness) from Him.
• Giving: the state of my heart
• We take ALL He has to give 

3 Things to take: 

1. Take Wisdom
2. Take a Shot (not of alcohol silly!)
3. Take Comfort

Take Wisdom
There are 3 ways to learn: the easy way, the hard way, and the tragic way

•  The easy way: learning from someone else's mistake
• The hard way: learning from your mistake
• The tragic way: never learning

{Since finding myself with decisions that need to be made, I found that I was stuck between two path and was unsure of how to respond. I want to make sure that I was making the God choice and not just the Good choice. So hearing to take wisdom, confirmed my quest.}

• Be like a child in your faith, but not in your habits.
• We need to be humble enough to receive wisdom. [Proverbs 1] the whole book of Proverbs is and talks about wisdom. 
• Get wisdom where you can get it, even if you don't prefer who's giving it.
• Seek wisdom in all you do 
• Habits dictate our future, get discipline, hear God thru all things
• Don't get lost in the messenger that you miss the message.

Take Shot (no, not of alcohol)

• They are scary, but sacred; leap of faith
• give it (whatever "it" is) a try
• It's not about the "how" but the "who"
• God loves crazy Christians

3 things to take a shot on:

1. Opportunity (love, volunteering, dreams, etc.)
2. Newness (Give the Holy Spirit time to work in your situation)
3. Grace (give them grace; acceptance)

{This really spoke out to me because I've been question my relationship with my boyfriend (long story) and hearing this point just basically shut me up and helps me to keep still. God is still working and I know He will continue to work in and thru me. We are not to change anyone, the Holy Spirit can and will work through them. I'm honestly in expectancy for the testimony that will come out of our relationship.}

Take comfort

• God is for me, not against me [Romans 8:31]
• Think about everything Christ did for you; allow God to take you to another place.
• John 16:33 "...so that in me you may have peace"

Closing in prayer, Pastor Carl had everyone close our eyes and have us hold our hands out as if we were receiving a gift. As my eyes were closed, a hand touched my shoulder and it was as if every thought was released from me and I just begin to weep. I couldn't control it. I knew God was in that place and I Thank Him for being there, right where I need to be......in His Presence.

Thank you to Pastor Carl and the Hillsong Family. To get to know more, check out the website.

-Daph