Guys Like Cars!

Wow! What an amazing day! We had a huge crowd of people - many first time and return guests. By the way, I need some volunteer Counters, not money counters, people counters. If you're interested, let me know. The Worship Team was simply on today! Chris Tomlin's arrangement of Amazing Grace during communion was inspiring. For those of you who think Jr. (our drummer) is a real tough and gruff guy - my wife begs to differ. She says he's just a big ol' softy. What gets to him you ask (other than his grand baby Rosa)? Singing about the amazing grace of God! Any way, from start to finish, they just did an awesome job. And a packed house definitely adds to the dynamic.

I'll be honest with you - I struggled putting my message together this week. I'm not sure what it was, but it just wasn't clicking early in the week (Janet heard me moan about it all week). And then it just came together. My message was about Peter walking on the water from Matthew 14 - quite a wild ride if there ever was one. We talked about faith and fear. And obviously, we talked about getting out of the boat and walking on the water. Faith requires risking failure. We're all going to sink from time to time, but if you never get out of the boat, you will never know that Jesus is faithful to save. Faith means choosing to follow Jesus. That's the heart of what it means to be a Christian. But every time you choose to get out of your boat and follow Jesus a fear will rise to the surface. Following Jesus is a choice between comfort and fear. Finally, I talked about how faith results in remarkable things. Just looking around the auditorium today I am in awe of the remarkable, miraculous results of faith. You are a miracle! And every once in a while, if you choose to step out in faith, you get to walk on the water!

At the end of the service we pulled a Connect Card and gave away a gift certificate for a Deep Sea Fishing Trip (wild water ride - get it?). The comments from our Coastal people are hilarious. "I deserve this!" - Josh Beam. "I want to go fishing!" - Jeremiah Brown. "My husband wants to go fishing!" - Cyndi Brown. But what was really awesome was the people who want to learn more about Coastal, join a Small Group, and renew their commitment to Jesus! Keep it up Coastal! Every one of you are a part of that miracle. I really hope you see that! Every person who comes to faith. Every life that is changed. Every step of faith that is taken. Yes, it is all by the grace and power of God, but God (and this just blows me away) uses people like you and me to draw people to Himself and change lives! And that's what we're here to do - share and experience LIFE! And every thing you do - serve in Nursery, greet, work the sound, operate the computer, serve in Children's Ministry, prepare communion, bring doughnuts and juice for the 3C's Cafe, serve in Student Ministry, clean the building, everything, you name it, it all works together to accomplish that purpose - share and experience LIFE! If someone asks you why you do what you do here at Coastal, you ought to say, "So that people can come to LIFE in Christ and experience LIFE in Christ."

And I haven't even mentioned THE CARS! Wow! Yes - guys like cars! We had 40+ Corvettes, Cars, and Trucks! The folks at the Coastal Carolina Corvette Club were great. We will definitely do this again next year! This was one of the easier events we've ever put on. We put up a tent, provided some food, and the car folks did the rest. And the payoff was tremendous. It definitely created a buzz that went along with our series and many people used it to invite their friends.

Oh, and an update on Rob (see previous post). He got the job at the Fat Hen. He has another job during the day with a guy from our church. And he has a vehicle. He told me after church today that although it's only been two weeks, he's learned something every week and that we communicate God's word in everyday language that he can understand. Yes! Truth be told, there are countless stories of LIFE change here at Coastal every week! I love what I do and I love you!