Greg Peters Live

John Piper – We were made for global missions

• 5 people stood and trusted Christ this weekend – that is AWESOME!
• Loved teaching on Jacob’s encounter with God. Genesis 28:10-22
• Loved teaching through the lives of Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Esau!
• A Big thanks to Denise for her help in this series!
• A Big thanks to Dr. Randy Poyner for his help in this series!
• Really enjoyed sharing my heart and everything I am learning about relationships.
• Love the people of parkview – so many friends and so many people that love me!
• Seth told Denise and me that we did a good job in this series.
• Last night he made up a song about following Jesus and sang it as he played his tennis racket(guitar). He brought tears to our eyes!
• My throat is in serious recovery mode. Nasal drainage is rough on the vocal cords!
• Had a great Discovery Pointe yesterday! Our volunteers did an awesome job!!
• I am blessed to be surrounded by such a high caliber staff.
• Our church is blessed with some amazing lay leaders.
• Bruce Scott, Dan Willis and the entire team did a phenomenal job pointing us to God this weekend!
• Rumor has it that the parking lot is going to get paved this week – that sure would be nice.
• I have a great week ahead of me and am really looking forward to it!
• Totally fired up about STAMPED this coming weekend!!!!
• We have given out over 400 tickets to the missions expo – DON”T MISS IT!!!!
• I have been doing some advance prep for sermons and series’ - really excited about the Spring!!!
• The first 7 words of Isaiah 63:9 really shook me this morning! Think about it!

• In so many ways, Relationship Rehab, has been such a challenge.
• In so many ways, Relationship Rehab, has been a learning experience.
• In so many ways, Relationship Rehab, has been a blessing.
• Denise and I have really enjoyed the last few weeks of ministry together.
• Great spirit at church this weekend.
• Really sweet time of Parent/Child dedication. I think we had 8 or 9 families participate.
• Had a good attendance this weekend, especially considering it was Daytona 500 and Valentine’s Day.
• Had a real good number of people sign up for Discovery Pointe next weekend.
• REALLY looking forward to STAMPED, Feb. 27,28.
• The Missions Expo on the evening of Feb 28 is going to be awesome!
• We gave away a bunch of free tickets for the expo!
• Our parking lot can’t get finished soon enough. Looks like at least a couple more weeks.
• I have a couple friends in town and we are enjoying catching up.
• Seth is really looking forward to having off Presidant’s Day!
• I absolutely love pastoring Parkview. It is the most challenging and exciting thing all at the same time!

Meetings can be a very unfulfilling and frustrating experience!  A few years ago I read a book entitled, Death by Meeting. The book’s title said it all and gave great insight as to how to conduct meetings so that they don’t feel like they are going to kill you. We have all been in meetings that were laborious, pointless, directionless, etc. The saddest part is that I have led and been in charge of meetings like that! Because of my position, I have alot of meetings in my life – one on one, small group, medium group and large group.

This morning I had a meeting with our elders from 6 to 8am. I have this meeting at the same time every other Thursday morning.  I love these guys! They are  a real blessing to me personally.  This morning we were also privileged to have our pastoral staff present with us as we met (the pastoral staff now attend the elder meeting every 6 weeks). Our meeting was great and I want to give you a few reasons why I think God is rewarding and blessing our time together:

• Each man has a genuine passion to know Christ. They have a heart for God and the things of God.
• Each man possesses a spirit of humility and desires it as a quality of their life.
• Each man owns the mission of our church – Guiding people to life change in Jesus Christ.
• Each man is in the trenches. They are not coaching from the sky boxes, but they are actively involved in serving. They model servant-leadership.
• Each man loves me and my family. I know you have heard me say this before, but forgive me for repeating - I have never felt so supported in all my years of ministry.
• Each man loves the people of our church.  They have a heart for loving others.
• Each man recognizes God’s hand of favor on this ministry and each man gives ALL the credit to God.
• Each man believes that God has awesome things in store for Parkview.
• Each man is willing to do the hard work and go toe to toe with the Enemy. They know Satan hates us. They know that in Christ we can be victorious.
• Each man is not afraid to lean into conflict. They will deal with it and speak the truth in love.
• Each man is not afraid to be honest with me. I love our honesty. We have built enough trust that honesty and love simultaneously flow.
• Each man is gifted and desires to use their gifts for the furtherance of God’s Kingdom.

I could go on, but I think you see why it is that I enjoy meeting with these men. Lord, may your hand of blessing rest on our elders and staff today and may you use us for your glory!

Relationships are a ton of fun, awesome times are often had and phenomenal memories are made; but the downside is they require a massive amount of hard work.  As we have been working through our series, Relationship Rehab, I have been reminded of just how much work relationships take.  I have labored so much over the last couple weeks messages because there is no simple solution and the topics of pain and forgiveness do not come with simplistic, cookie cutter answers. Last Saturday night about 90 minutes before the evening service I deleted all of my notes to my fourth point, which was the work of a couple hours of study. It had been a real long time since I was tweeking, rearranging and rethinking a message so much – that sermon was a ton of hard work. I do not say those things for your sympathy or applause, I say it because it is simply indicative of  relationships – they are hard work.  If relationships were easy it would be easy for me to write sermons about relationships and it would be easy for you to enjoy the benfits and fruit of relationships. Let’s just admit it – Rleationships Are HARD WORK!

Although they are hard work, relationships also bring incredible rewards.

Monday morning I had breakfast with a friend of almost 20 years and he talked about the joy of our friendship and how he is glad we have recently had a little more time together.  This morning at 7:45 I spoke with a friend from Texas for about 15 minutes.  Before he hung up he mused about what our friendship would be like when we are both grey headed (After I hung up I laughed because for neither of us is our problem greying hair, but keeping what hair we have!). I have also had a lot of fun lately with my best friend, Denise. She makes me laugh, she is a great hostess (she threw a mean Super Bowl party), she is an awesome mom and there are many other things I enjoy about her! But all of the friendships I just mentioned have taken me alot of hard work.

Just so you don’t think I am patting my self on the back, I also have screwed up alot of relationships. In fact, for whatever reason, I have a frinedship right now where I can’t get a returned phone call. I also told my wife a couple weeks ago that I was too hard on a friend and left them feeling drained when our conversation was over. I have another friendship where an apology is owed by me. Just typing this paragraph brings me stress.

Thankfully, hard work brings even greater rewards. Let’s do the hard work this week!

• So thankful for all that God is doing at Parkview. 
• Closing with the John 8 principle was powerful with many stones being brought to the altar and layed down.
• Heard a couple of great stories about the timeliness of God’s Word in people’s lives this weekend.
• Totally taught the lesson as a student not a professor.
• Have really enjoyed Denise joining me for the first 2 weeks of this series. She brings tremendous wisdom and insight!
• Loved singing about the forgiveness I have received.
• Met some new friends.
• It was great to have Mark and Renee Gage as our special guests this weekend. Really hope some of our people will take a short term missions trip with Mark.
• Had a real nice lunch with the Gage’s and one of our Life Groups.
• Forgiveness is a choice
• Forgiveness is hard work
• Forgiveness is about seting myself free
• Forgiveness is based on the righteousness of God
• Looking forward to watching the Super Bowl game tonight
• Have a great week!

Some random thoughts and links:

• Read a blog post that included a video – very good and thought you would enjoy a little learning. Click Here
• A guy at the city told me there are some jobs open. A guy at Sea Ray boats said they are hiring.
• This is a really good post - thought provoking and convicting.
• If you ever leave our church I plead with you to do this!
• I am REALLY looking forward to this weekend and talking on the topic of Forgiveness.
• Can’t wait to double our parking. The rain slowed things down but hopefully jsut a few weeks to completion.
• Enjoyed my first book over breakfast! Got a great group of guys.
• See you this weekend! Bring a friend – we are making more seats available!!!

• I slept horrible last night and it was awesome!
• Yes, you read the above line correctly.
• Here is what happened – it seemed as if every time I rolled over I was awakened but the goodness of God on my life and on our church.  My pulse would quicken, my soul would fill with joy, I would praise him, fall back to sleep and then repeat the cycle again soon. Never had the experience to that extreme!
• This weekend was a weekend of life change for SO MANY!
• Baptism was incredible in all 3 services!!!
• We talked about pain, and Denise and I shared some of our pain. Amidst that tough talk was such a sweet spirit.
• SO MANY people in our church want to work through their pain and get healthy.
• Lean into it, learn from it and never be the same again. Embrace it, deal with it and move on!!!
• If you missed the service you can go here and listen now.
• I am not an expert in anything but I do feel like I have a Phd. in pain.
• MASSIVE attendance – had to bring out chairs for the 11 am service!
• Many people have stepped out by faith and begun to practice grace giving!!
• God will keep his promises!!! 
• We ran out of the Scripture memorization packs we are making available for this series – we will have more next weekend!
• What God is doing at Parkview is blowing me away.
• It is a team effort!
• He deserves all the glory!!