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Posts Tagged ‘Gregg Matte’

Final Community Group

Posted in Passion, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »

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It was a quiet walk to community groups. I said my goodbyes to my friends that I had made in the neighborhoods on my daily walk. It was cool to hear them talk about Passion, our shouts and the beam of light from last night. As I passed through the plaza, I couldn’t believe that just 12 hours ago I stood here with my brothers and sisters in Christ shouting out for Freedom.

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My Community Group (minus two) all week at Passion 2013

This was our last time getting together as a community group. I felt very blessed that God put me with these people. Even though we had exchanged information, something in me knew this would be the last time I see all of them. It’s hard these days to stay in contact long distance. So I really tried to soak in the moment of being in fellowship with them for the last time.

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Gregg Matte giving out books

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As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Ephesians 4:1

Gregg Matte gave out some books and CD’s to start off the morning. He spoke on the above passage about living a life (that’s already) worthy for the Lord. He talked about how we are like tarnished silver – if we continue to read God’s word, the junk starts to come off.

He then gave an illustration from a visit he had on a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. He saw the painting Saint Paul Writing His Epistles by Valentin de Boulogne. The painting started off as a self-portrait and then he painted a picture of Christ over it. Then he painted over that with a picture of the apostle Paul. The cool thing is that you can still see the picture of Christ if you turn it upside down.

We’ve painted our own self-portraits. The face of Christ begins to seep through as we begin to grow. Now we can go out into the world with the face of Christ on our own painting (ministry, home life, work, etc). Gregg then had us answer some questions on how our week at Passion went. It was a time for me to reflect on how God had spoken to me while here. We closed with this verse:

and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:19

Paul

Saint Paul Writing His Epistles

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Community Group – Trust

Posted in Passion, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »

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What an amazing night session! I can’t believe all that I’ve experienced so far. Next up was time with our community groups to download and process the day. I know God was speaking to me in many ways and I needed to talk and journal about it.

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Community Groups

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“Isn’t it interesting [that] secular science is addressing the question, ‘Does man have a soul? Is there such a thing as immaterial reality?’ And it’s couched in the category of ‘is there life after death?

I mean look, you guys know I ride a motorcycle don’t you? So, at any moment, especially with the idiot people who cross the diamond lane into my lane, alright, without any blinkers, not that I’m angry about it, but at any minute I could be spread out all over the 210 (Freeway), but that’s not me, that’s my body parts. That key distinction undergirds the entire Judeo-Christian worldview and also your pursuit of reality.”

Francis Chan shared this audio clip tonight from radio KKLA host Frank Pastore. He had been a guest on his show. Three hours after saying this over the air, Frank would be involved in a motorcycle accident that would lead to his death. Our first question in community groups tonight is what we thought of this audio clip. For me, it was a reminder that death is real and that we could go at anytime. We need to live our lives knowing that we can go at anytime.

The next two questions focused on ‘trust’ and how our lack of trust in people can spill into our relationship with God and why should we trust in God’s promises. I’ve always tried to live my life as an open book because it’s my testimony. But at the same time, my trust in people has diminished over the years. Lately I have developed deeper relationships with some of my friends despite my guarded heart. I need to continue to maintain my trust in God as these friendships continue to grow. This is evident in scripture as God has always been faithful and trusting to us despite our shortcomings.

What did I take away from this day? I really appreciated hearing Greg Haugen. I also love that Passion doesn’t just shove stats down our throats and then to do something about slavery. We have heard these past two days of how faithful and trusting God is and that we can’t effectively do justice without grounding ourselves in who He is first. Learning about who God is allows us to to learn who we are and what we are created to do.

After our discussion, Gregg Matte had several people stand up if they had received Christ today. All of us leaders cheered and celebrated with our new brothers and sisters of the Kingdom.

Our focus verse for the evening:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”

Lamentations 3:22-24

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Community Group – Humility

Posted in Passion, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:14-19

After Francis Chan spoke, Gregg Matte led our community groups in this passage on leadership/humility:

Humility is the key to leadership

1. Paul kneeled before the Lord in prayer. This communicates humility (v. 14). False humility is when we accept praise but downplay it outwardly. It’s when we act like can’t do something even though we know we can. Humility is being self-forgetful.

“Catch him at the moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, ‘By jove! I’m being humble’, and almost immediately pride—pride at his own humility—will appear. If he awakes to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt—and so on, through as many stages as you please.”

C.S. Lewis – Screwtape Letters

2. Realizing we are leading in the name of Jesus. Non-humility is when we are doing things for accolades and rewards. Only secure people can love – insecure people need something in return.

3. Deep strength comes from the deepest resources (v. 16, 17) – His glorious riches, His mind, His Spirit. We tend to minister out of our own power (our own experiences, personality, knowledge, etc)

MINE – think of this word when you think of Jesus looking at us. We belong to Him. Know that before you go out and minister.

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Community Groups

Posted in Passion, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »

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Passion wants to be more than just an event. So how do they make a conference of 60,000 people feel small? Community groups are the heart and soul of Passion. It is where we spend the week downloading, processing and praying about everything we are learning. I still stay in contact with people I did life with at previous Passion conferences. They randomly split people up into groups based off the color of our wrist bands. I was placed in the leader’s community group. Louie Giglio came and shared his heart to us on leadership and how important our role is. Gregg Matte of Houston’s First Baptist church (and of Breakaway ministries – a ministry near and dear to me) was our leader for the week. He is a senior pastor, an author and one of the founding leaders of Passion. He emphasized a passage of scripture to us in Genesis 1:27 about God creating us. Then in Genesis 1:28 we see that God blesses us. What we usually to do is put too much in between the part of God creating us and God blessing us. This has a tendency to shrink our hearts and we forget who we are in Christ because we get focused on the work that needs to be done. We need to know our identity and allow God’s work to flow through us. For me that comes with humility and being on my knees in prayer.

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Louie Giglio

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Gregg Matte

I’m always anxious to see who God puts me with to do life with. My family group consisted of seven guys and one female. They were from all over – Alabama, Texas, Colorado, etc. We spent our first night getting to know each other and talking about our respective ministries. I very thankful to have met these amazing people and I look forward to my time in prayer and growth with them.

The leaders

The leaders

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Getting to know my community group

 

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