The series we’re in the middle of at Quest, “I Believe in God, But…” is wreaking havoc on the hypocrisy gaps in our lives. This weekend Transformation Pastor Helen Musick hit the hypocrisy gap head on in one of THE single most important areas we face…sharing our faith. Jesus entrusted His mission to YOU and ME! We are His eyewitnesses. When we tell the world about Him, hope spills out onto everyone we meet. If you have been rescued,  you want to rescue everyone around you. Tell someone! Get help learning to share your story. You are His evidence! Your story, the story of a broken, rescued person received, forgiven and made new by a loving, gracious God will help them see Jesus for who He really is, and when people see Jesus for who He really is, they tend to want Him! You can DO this, Questers!

Here are some highlights from Helen’s teaching this weekend, along with a few more of her thoughts. She had great practical steps for us. Take them!

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When you love someone, what they care about, you care about and what matters to them, matters to you.  Simply put, God cares about people far from Him.  At some point you want to ask yourself, “Does my life reflect love for God by the way I care about what matters to His heart?”

• Am I implying that our love for God can be seen in the way we love people?  I am.
• If we don’t care about lost people, am I implying it’s a reflection of our love for God?  I am.

It’s the great commission not the great suggestion.  The sad thing is for years I lived as if the Great Commission was optional. Are you?

One of the enemies greatest tactics today is to get up to keep our faith to ourselves.  Since he can’t take our salvation away, he’ll do everything he can to keep the impact of our salvation from influencing anyone around us.  He wants us to stay silent.

An unlikely evangelist…that’s what Craig Grosheil calls her.  The woman at the well is what I’ve always known her as.  I guess Jesus knew he made a great move to reveal to her His identity as the Messiah.  She did want we are to do – not keep the good news to ourselves. 

Ask Him for the one, trust Him for the many.  Who is the one person that you want to ask God to use your life to help come to know and trust Jesus as the forgiver of their sin and leader of their life?  Ask Him.  

When 75 of us gathered in Springs Inn we said yes to not keeping our faith a private and personal thing. Instead we committed to take God’s mission personally.  Seventy five became 3000.  What can God do if 3000 rise up and say yes, too?

I wouldn’t have had a message to preach this weekend if it had not been for the reality of Pastor Pete’s vision and investment in my life and the gift of being apart of this church.   Because of those things, I remembered what God called me to when I was 12 years old.  That what I had just encountered in Him when I gave my heart to Him was meant to be shared.

Somewhere along the way I forgot that.  Thank you, Pastor.  Thank you for all the investment you made in me to “fan into flame the gift” God placed in my heart years ago.  Thank you for allowing Jesus to use you to give us a place where people care enough about lost people that they will give their life, their time, their finances, their best hours to this mission.  – Helen

This series has been phenomenal! Every weekend has challenged “checkmark belief” and led us into transformational encounters with God that have decreased the gap between what we believe and how we live — and this weekend was no exception! Our sex lives are one of the primary “Keep Out” areas in our relationship with God, but this weekend, we got a crystal clear picture of the blessing and leadership God wants to offer us, especially in our bedrooms.

Thanks to Assistant Pastor Justin McCarty for bringing such a great message! Here are a few of Justin’s reflections on the weekend:

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I loved that our church is a place where we can talk about sex frankly and openly. If not the church, where else are people actually going to get God’s perspective and leadership as it relates to sex? This weekend proved to be another important week for hundreds of Questers. I’ve heard stories of so many people, especially married couples, that have had long overdue conversations about the state of their sex lives and are taking steps to follow God in what means to surrender and submit to his leadership about sex. I know there’s a general buzz around the topic of sex (especially when you say some of the words that I said in church today!) but there was more too it — God showed up in a powerful way in the 4th week of this seismic series.

Here are a few key lines and ringing thoughts that seem like invaluable takeaways:

- The Bible is unabashed in its celebration of sex! Sex was intended as a good gift from the God who created us. He is not squeamish or judgmental about our desire for sex. He created us that way and knows how sex works best!

- Sex is like gasoline. Outside its proper context, it’s explosively dangerous and volatile. But in its proper context (the commitment of marriage), it’s high octane fuel in the engine of our relationship.

- When we gave our lives to Christ, we surrendered “doing what is right in our own eyes.” No matter how good it feels, no matter how right it may seem to us – if it’s not right in God’s eyes, it’s not best for us.

- The picture of my little boy Wyatt crying at the gate of his bedroom proved to be a stunningly accurate picture of how we tend to relate to God’s leadership of our sex lives. We perceive punishment when He is actually protecting us from dangers that we don’t understand.

- One of my favorite lines from the whole talk: “No matter what you’ve done or how far you’ve gone, you are not disqualified from wholeness.” The cross of Jesus Christ offers us redemption and healing for our guilt and shame – we can trust Him to make all things new, even in our sex lives!

- I loved getting to point people to our freedom and recovery ministry, The Mat, that meets every Friday night. Just this past week, 471 people turned out for the annual Mat Chili Cook Off! If you need help, you are not alone! Hundreds are experiencing the freedom that God designed them for — if you need help, humble yourself and be there this Friday night! Find out more at questcommunity.com/ministries/the-mat

- Concluding the service with a clear word to married couples was another highlight: “A boring sex life does not honor God!” He designed us to serve and satisfy our spouse sexually – and it’s a good thing! Just in case you missed it, here was the key action step for husbands and wives:

Husbands: Create an environment where your wife can’t keep her hands off you by loving her singularly, romancing her and pursuing her!

Wives: Create an environment where sex is like a buffet – lots of variety and plenty of return trips!

I love our church! And I love that God is eager for us to experience the wholeness, healing and vitality that is meant to be a part of our sex lives. Here’s to all you married folks out there – enjoy the gift and live out an orthopraxy that’s beyond belief!!

Pastor Kenny Land was in the house this past weekend wrapping up 2011 & ringing in 2012…a fitting way for our newest QCC Pastor to mark this milestone moment in a milestone year of our church. (Frankfort, I hope you were pumped to see your campus pastor going for it from the main stage in Lexington!)

I love having Kenny and Jess on board at Quest Frankfort. The passion God has placed in Kenny to be ALL IN is who God has hard-wired us to be as a community. It’s who He wired me to be…and I believe it’s how we’ll live out the plans and dreams God has for us individually and as a church. We’re meant to be people who live with audacious faith!

I tweeted this great verse yesterday…a verse I believe to my core:

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him. – 1 Corinthians 2:9

Get ready for our best year yet, Questers. Go ALL IN with Jesus. I can’t wait for what He’s got in store.

p.s. Here’s a glimpse of what Kenny had to say about this great community and his experience teaching this weekend…let’s follow his lead and go ALL IN in 2012!

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The saying goes “Time flies when you are having fun.” If that is true, then this has to have been the most fun I have ever had. It was just 7 months ago when Jess and I moved our family to Frankfort, KY. We had no idea what to expect when Jesus called us to be part of the Quest Community family. All we knew for sure was that He had our “yes” in advance.

Now, in retrospect, I see more clearly the gift he was offering us…

• I see the 72 lives that have been changed in Frankfort since May.
• I see more than 1,000 eternities forever altered in the U.S. alone.
• I see friends we have made that it seems like we have known forever.
• I see ministries exploding in Lexington and Frankfort that are transforming unconvinced people into whole-hearted followers of Jesus.
• I am living out Ephesians 3:20.

I would not have even known to ask Jesus for this beautiful community, and yet it was His plan all along. It makes me believe more for you and for the people I love than ever before.

Something special has been happening on the weekends during Come See for Yourself. Week 4 of the series was no exception, with Assistant Pastor Justin McCarty up teaching. If you haven’t experienced what God is doing here, you’ve got to get over to one of our campuses in Lexington or Frankfort, or check it out online at questcommunity.com. Seriously, come see for yourself!

Here are some things that rang out this weekend…

• If everything about our lives is “subject to change,” what makes Jesus so different from other things I’ve put my hope in? (It’s a valid question and exactly where we started).

• Peter, one of Jesus’ closest friends, was a lot like us. He had his hope in Jesus mixed with other flimsy hopes: (1) circumstances (2) people (3) conditional hope in God, and (4) himself.

• Putting hope in our circumstances is like playing Jenga (how many things have to get taken away before it all crashes) and people are far too fragile to the be anchor for your soul.

• How many of us say our hope is in Christ but it’s actually in some set of instructions or conditions we’ve given Him? (And when He doesn’t meet our conditions, we blame Him as unworthy of our trust or hope?)

• The cross & empty tomb shout to our world, “I have something bigger for you than a ‘better life’ – I want to give you a NEW life!”

• One of the most important questions we can ask is: “Where is my hope?” Honestly. So where is yours?

• Hope is knocking at the door. Are you going to stay there arguing, refusing to believe it’s possible, or are you going to run with Peter to the empty tomb and see for yourself?

Several people decided to “see for themselves” and give their lives to Christ this past weekend! The hope in their eyes, the freedom in their hearts, the joy all over their faces… the newness of life in them was proof for anyone who cared to look — Jesus Christ is alive and well, and He’s still in the business of resurrecting hope in the lives of ordinary people just like you and me!

Are you LOVING My Generation this summer at Quest? Ani and his team of musicians are making it impossibly fun to go to church and honoring God with their worship and their talents at the same time. Remarkable work, guys!

This weekend Billy Fray, our Frankfort Campus Pastor, stepped up live in Lexington to teach on One Hit Wonders. Thanks for leading out, Billy! Here are a few of Billy’s highlights and reflections from the weekend. He asks some great questions worth spending time on this summer.

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Thanks for the great reception in Lexington and Frankfort both as I gave my annual “One Hit Wonder” of a talk. The way you guys soaked it in and engaged was truly amazing! Here are a few of the things that stood out to me as I got to lead from the stage this weekend…

1. The opening medley of One Hit Wonders ROCKED. Is there anything this band can’t do?? Loved it…from Ani and his team’s fingers stretched in the air for Europa’s Final Countdown, to Sharon and Justin’s Kung-Fu chops, to one of my fav’s…Johnny Depp all over the screen during Gonna Be (I would walk 500 miles), this weekend gave us a new appreciation of the One Hit wonder and it’s place in our hearts and lives! The energy was amazing—and the Singing Bee was off the chain!

2. Summer is just a great time to hit the “pause button” and look at our hearts and spiritual lives and the story we are living out. So many of you took the opportunity seriously.

3. Questers on both campuses were challenged by Tim Gilbert’s story about writing Incense and Peppermints and how it wouldn’t even make it into the top 10 things in his life. The truth is…the “big story” of your life from the world’s perspective can’t compare to getting a clear picture of Jesus. What would make the top 10 things in your life? (How about you and your whole family coming to Christ? Unbelievable, Tim!)

5. Have you ever had a brush with fame? Telling the stories of Billy Frey stealing my thunder…and me driving Geoffrey Rush (aka Captain Barbosa), into the ocean for a chat, made me stop and think about how meeting famous people can be a litmus test to what we find important in our lives. Have you ever had 15 minutes of fame? Do you feel like it captured what your life is about?

6. What’s the one thing you’re living for? “Kentucky’s Best Kept Secret,” aka “The Turtle Man” went out at seven years old and caught his first snapping turtle…and he was hooked. He sleeps, eats and breathes turtles! (Watch more of the story on YouTube…) He knows what he’s living for. What about you? What are you most consumed with? Take out a pen and write it down.

7. Have you ever given serious thought to what your headstone would read? Pastor Pete has referenced several times before the idea of our DASH—we each have a day we’re born and there’ll be a day when we each breathe our last breath. But in the middle…our Dash…what is yours going to be about? What will your epitaph read?

8. John the Baptist was determined to be about one thing…preparing the way for the Messiah (Luke 1,2,3) and he ordered his whole life around that one thing. If the spotlight were to swing on John the Baptist we would find him eating wild honey and locusts and wildly trusting God and living out the story that he was meant to live. His life was pretty consistent. “What are we ordering our lives around?”

9. Lorelei and I planted a full-on anomaly of a garden in our front yard and it went from “barren to bumper crop?!” In Matthew 13, Jesus talks about the Farmer sowing seed (God’s Word) and the types of soil it falls on (rocky, weedy, and good…the condition of our hearts to receive it). How’s the soil of your heart?

10. Let God Lead: God has a story waiting for each and every one of us. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
Donald Miller writes: There is an intrinsic feeling in nearly every person that your life could be perfect if you only had such and such a car or such and such a spouse, or such and such a job. We believe we will be made whole by our accomplishments, our possessions, or our social status. It’s written in the fabric of our DNA that life used to be beautiful and now it isn’t…and if only this and if only that, it would be beautiful again. Beauty was simply Adam being with God. Because of Jesus’ one thing, the sacrificial love that took Him to the cross on our behalf and restored man’s relationship with God—we, me and you, can walk in the garden with Him again. You don’t have to miss out…it’s not too late. It can be beautiful again!

So sorry I had to miss country music onstage at Quest this weekend. (Can’t imagine how my vacation got scheduled for this week!) My great friend Helen Musick, QCC’s Transformation Pastor, was up teaching this weekend and hit it out of the park. Here’s her take on the weekend:

* No Horsing Around… I really did ride a horse in on stage!  What a way to welcome everyone to “My Generation: Country!”

* Is line dancing allowed in church? It was this weekend…and to the Kentucky favorite, “Achy Breaky Heart.” I love my church!

* An announcement worth waiting for! Questapalooza 2010 line up was announced and the cheers from everyone gave me a glimpse of the cheers we will hear in just a little over 3 months as Group One Crew, Newsboys AND Switchfoot take the stage on September 5!

* Dressing up country was more fun than I thought! Cowgirl boots, big belt buckles and blue jean jacket… most fun outfit I’ve worn on stage, for sure! [And BTW... I'm glad I had a picture to prove that Pete really does love country. Pete you outdid yourself this weekend!]

* Truths that rang out from Psalm 139… I’ve probably read Psalm 139 more than any other Psalm and I never get tired of the truth that God really knows me. Here are some ringing lines that are worth taking note of and banking your life on:

- He cares about me. Hearing 100′s of people say it out loud gave me hope that it will be more then words but a daily reality in our lives.

- He gets you and we all want to be gotten. He not only knows me but He “gets” me.  He understands the way my needs, my struggles, my longings and my dreams.

- What you care about, you know about. It’s amazing to read over and over in this Psalm that He knows everything about me.  There’s a comfort that comes in my heart to realize I’m that important to God. You’re that important to Him too.

- Are you traveling too far from home? “He sees me when I travel.” Interesting thing about traveling: sometimes we can find ourselves in places we were never meant to be. It’s important at those times to remember who we are and Whose we are.

- You want the truth that “He cares about me” to become a reality. I think lots of us might “know” He cares but do we really experience His care?

- “I can take care of that for you.” Yes, He cares about me but I get to choose if I let Him care FOR me. Everyday, every situation, He is saying, “I can take care of that for you.” Nothing is too small or mundane in your life. You mean that much to Him.

As I headed out for vacation with my family this week, I loved tossing the ball to Assistant Pastor Justin McCarty and the QCC Band to kick us off for My Generation. What a weekend! Here are Justin’s reflections on a week that really hit home:

Summer is officially here! And at Quest this year, that means My Generation! I’m so grateful to Pete for letting me launch this unbelievably fun series with “Rock.” If you weren’t there this past weekend — I’m just sorry! We had a blast and I invite you to make sure you catch every week you can during “My Generation” this summer. Here were some highlights from this past week…

1. Quest Band — you guys rocked the house! When we call a weekend, “Rock,” we mean it! From “We Will Rock You” to “Enter Sandman” to “Vertigo” — it was a breathtaking medley of rock music that we easily could have charged a cover for! Thanks for the way you honor God with your talents and have so much fun at the same time.

2. Anyerin Drury – who are you?? I couldn’t believe the musical feats our Worship Director is capable of! Sounding just like Freddie Mercury (of Queen), singing exactly like Bon Scott or Brian Johnson (from AC/DC — which I wasn’t sure was possible!), or wailing like Slash on a GNR solo — it was unbelievable. I’m so thankful God brought you to Quest! You are an invaluable gift to our lives and I love watching how you bring the best out of our musicians.

3. I had so many fun conversations with people after the services who were surprised and delighted that we covered some of their favorite rock songs. It’s amazing the way that Jesus can use these familiar pieces of our culture to open up doors to people’s hearts. (By the way, if you want to see Audioslave, AC/DC, Metallica, Guns & Roses, Kings of Leon, P.O.D. and U2 blended together into 8 minutes — check this out: www.questcommunity.com)

4. Thanks to Michael, Chris, and Matt — members of the Quest Band — who shared their story of how God has transformed music from a self-centered pursuit into an avenue of worship. Thanks for giving us a “behind the music” glimpse of your heart as you stand on stage and lead us in worship. (And congratulations to all 3 of you on recent spiritual birthdays! One year, 2 years & 5 years of knowing Christ — you are transformed men!)
5. It felt like we picked up right where our previous series, “Making The Most of What You’ve Got,” left off, with Pastor Pete’s question: Have you ever had the thought that you were here for a larger purpose… that your life was meant for something more? I loved that we got to dive deeper into some of the territory Pete covered in his great sermon last week.

6. Walking through King Saul’s life in 1 Samuel was eye-opening for so many people. Here was a guy who had it all — a full-on Hebrew rock star to the people of Israel — who ended up detouring the plans & purposes of God for his life. “Experience is the best teacher, but it doesn’t have to be your experience.” (Rick Warren)

7. Whether you’re King Saul or a world famous rock star, no one can live out God’s dreams for their lives if they’ve taken the two major detours we discussed: Detour #1 — The Crowd (living for the approval, admiration or affirmation of others) or Detour #2 — Self (living like “it’s all about me” in big or small ways).

8. Perhaps my favorite moment of the entire weekend was getting to look people in the eye and tell them: God is a fan of your life! You were never meant to perform for a crowd, you were made to live before an Audience of One. It’s an amazing reality that the God of the Universe looks at my life & your life and He already likes what He sees — no performance required!

9. The picture of Saul ending up with only tattered pieces of the plan of God for His life was an unforgettable picture that provoked us to wrestle with the question: What are you clinging to that’s keeping you from the plans of God for your life? God won’t force His plan on us if we’ve already got our hands full. The picture of God moving on and handing Saul’s plan to David was a sad reminder that a series of small, self-hyphenated choices can keep you permanently detoured from God’s plan for your life.

10. Saul’s replacement, David, was an ordinary guy who stepped into the dreams God had for him and lived a life that echoes in eternity. I’m so encouraged by the reality that God can create a “David-heart” in us — a heart that loves doing what God has called us to do.

P.S. Anticipation is running high for the second week of “My Generation” where all of us will see a Quest Community Church first: a weekend that will only feature Country music! You don’t want to miss this!