Same God. Different Venue.

So it has been a week since I got back from Passion 2012. Wow...as I started to process all that was talked about and how much the Lord did in those four days has blown my mind. I definitely came expecting God to show up tonight, but I had no idea how HUGE the praises in the dome would be. I am honored to be apart of a generation who will not stand around while injustice goes on, but rather dive in and see what part of the solution we can be. It is exciting times with God moving in various ways throughout the world.

More than all the people that were worshipping in Georgia Dome. More than all the amazing preachers and teachers that gave convicting and solid Biblical teaching. More than the great and insanely talented guys and gals leading us in worship. More than all of those things combined the thing that made it different is JESUS. Jesus was lifted up and proclaimed at every session and people were pointed to the character and quality of Jesus throughout those days in Atlanta.

As I thought back through times of intense worship through songs and sermons, I tried to think of what was different from a "normal Sunday service". My conclusions convicted me and challenged me to fix certain things in my life so that I am not surprised by God blowing up a place with His glory and His Spirit. I feel that if we can put these things into our daily lives, then our churches will be blown up and God will get all the glory.

1. Pray Expectantly - In the months leading up to Passion, there were thousands praying and asking God to move. It sounds so elementary, but when the people of God are on their knees asking God to move and seeking the Lord, God does what only God can do. We must pray for our local churches like we were praying for Passion 2012. The event of Passion is great, but we must take that expectancy for God to blow up into the local church body that we serve and do life with.

2. Immersed with Scripture - In the couple weeks before Passion 2012, they started Acclimate with was Scripture scrolling on the 268generation website 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week. This is key for the local body to see an explosion of God because something crazy happens when the people of God reads God's Word. We need to earnestly ask God to give us a passion for his word and then dive into it like nothing else matters. Scripture is God's word to his people and we should want to read it so we can hear from God in our lives!

These two things would greatly change the culture and how we serve and love the local body. I know that since Passion 2012 God has been so apparent in my life through prayer and His word. I am not saying that God is a vending machine that we can do these things and we get what we want like coins into a machine, but when we pray and ask God to move, he is always faithful to make himself apparent in our lives.

My hope and prayer is that revival breaks out and that it would stay in that Dome, but the 45,000 that came home would start it individually and then the local body would benefit from the Church praying for the church as we learn God's Word and apply it to our lives.

Love God. Love People.

-Kyle

Thinking About Grace.

I am sitting here today just thinking about the grace that God has shown in my life and thought I would put some words to it. I have just been reflecting recently about how much grace God as poured on my life each and every day. It is something that we can definitely take advantage of if we don't think about God's grace and thank him for it daily. 

God's grace bring about worship in our lives as we praise our Creator for granting up to be chosen and set apart as children of His and we need to remember that daily. Our life is one that should always give glory to God as we thank Him for the many blessings that we get. Life throws us curve balls, but we can rejoice that nothing that happens in our life that surprises God. 

The price of grace was God's son, Jesus. This sacrifice is something that we must never forget because when we sin against God, Jesus' blood covers that offense as we come to Him and gain grace from our heavenly Father. I am blown away at how God has been so faithful in my own life and how I can see God's grace through my friends and family. 

God is in the business of reconciliation so if there is anything you have done that you think you are out of the reach of God I challenge you to hit your knees and cry out to God because nothing that we do makes us void of God's grace and mercy. I hope that if anyone reading this is in this spot right now where you need to cry out to your heavenly Father, do that. Then find someone that can give you good, godly counsel and talk to them about what you are going through. 

We are meant the carry the shields and bear the burden of our brothers and sisters so I hope this week we can rejoice in God's grace as we worship Him in our lives and that we would extend grace to others that we may come in contact with and point them to the God who saves and reconciles people to Himself.

I hope this helps someone who reads it because I know God has been teaching me about this and helping me never to forget the grace he has granted me by calling me "son". 

-Kyle

Just wait...you'll see.

My time between posts are way to much, but I always get brought back to here when I need to just think, pray, and get some thoughts out. I am 50 days away from graduating from Ouachita Baptist University, something that three years ago looked incredibly terrifying as I was going to be returning to school at such a University as Ouachita as a statistic. Through great strength from God and perseverance to make it through the degree program here, my dream is about to become a reality.

With that reality comes the question everyone asked someone about to make the leap from college student to college graduate..."What are you going to do after this?"

This is where I get antsy because I know what the Lord has called me to do in working with a Student Ministry and serving at a church, but where will that take place? When will it all fall into place? Will I be able to take what I have learned and put hands and feet to it? All these questions have been racing through my mind over the last couple months and I am sure they will be here for the next 50 days as graduation approaches faster by the day. I haven't until recently found myself consistently praying about this. I am not proud that my first response wasn't to just hit my knees in prayer, but it wasn't. God has been bringing me to a place where I can give up control over this area and submit that since he already has it all worked out, I can rest in that.

Doesn't make it easier, but it makes it comforting. Knowing that God has predestined where I was going to be serving at and to what area I would be in from the foundation of the earth now brings me great joy. I can assume that I am not alone here in wondering where God is in a situation or when is he going to act, but allow me to offer some encouragement.

He is in Control. He knew our beginning. He knows our end. He knows all that will be in between.

Those sentences give me a peace that comes only from the Lord and I hope it does the same for those that may stumble upon this to read. In my life recently, when I have been praying about my certain situation of where I am going after December I can't help but think of a child who gets in the car with his parents and instantly starts asking all kinds of questions like "Where are we going?" "What are we going to do?" "When will we get there?" and the Father turns around to his child and says "You just enjoy the ride...just wait, you'll see where we are going soon enough."

I am enjoying the ride because of the faithfulness of God in my life and the comfort that comes from His sovereignty over all of creation.

-Kyle  

Don't Waste Your Summer.

Well summer is here and I feel I have breathing room again to get back to blogging...it's been too long. This last semester was possibly my hardest yet at Ouachita, but I survived and here we are. I have been really thinking about what we talked about in our Men's Discipleship group towards the end of the semester. We challenged each other to not take the summer off and just push growing aside for 3 months, but do the opposite and really press into the Lord to see how much we can learn, grow, and serve Him during this time away from school.

This summer is going to be one of transition for me since this will be my last summer as an undergrad student. It's a weird feeling knowing that in less that 8 months, I will be away from college and out into the "real world" again. My time at Ouachita has been special because it has been used to train me for the ministry God will place me in. I have learned more than I would have ever imagined I would be able to. My profs are amazing and their guidance and push for us to learn is like nothing else. I have been the main one to say that I can't wait to graduate and get away from the Delph, but there will be parts of Ouachita that will always hold a special place in my heart for me.

Enough about that...back to the topic at hand. How often do we sit through the summer vegging out on the couch with either remote or controller in hand for hours on end as our IQ drops quickly with every new game or 30 minute TV show? I know most of my summers during my education career have included that for some amount of time that if I added it up, I would be ashamed.

So what should we do to fix it?

I know for the guys in our Discipleship Group at Ouachita decided to keep a running feed of messages on Facebook so we could send prayer requests, goals, updates, and just have an avenue to encourage and uplift each other. What that might look like for those of you reading this, only you can answer that, but as the summer gets kicked off, I challenge you guys and gals to find something that will have you consistently pressing into the Father throughout the summer so it is not a time to lose brain cells, but rather a time that when August comes, we don't need to have a motivation speech to get us fired up about Jesus again.

Love God. Love People. Live A Camp Life.

-Kyle Sullivan
Acts 5:29

Finding Joy In God

Joy.

That seems to be a word that isn't used a lot today and when it is used, it isn't done so in such a way that seems joyful. You may be happy or excited about something, but pure joy, like the overwhelming joy that comes from something or someone. I don't hear a lot of that these days. I am excited to start reading John Piper's Desiring God and just in the introduction alone, I am floored and blown away by the conviction that of the Holy Spirit speaking to me about my joy in God.

Week in and week out numerous people go to church, sit in Sunday school, talk to the same people, sit in the same spot, (no one better take that spot), then get up say whether it was a good or bad Sunday and go out the same doors they came in with no real life change taken place. Now, let me clarify. I am not saying having a routine or habit of coming to church is inherently bad, a habit of coming together with fellow believers in corporate worship is very good. It is needed, I feel for growth and Scripture is clear on the benefits of it for the growth of the body of Christ. What I am saying is that if you are not joyful about coming and getting brought to the feet of Jesus as you make much of him and less of yourself, there is something that needs to happen.

As I was reading and praying last night, God was speaking to me about my joy in Him. Yes, I have a lot of happiness and what I would call things that bring me joy in my life and I hope that everyone reading this could think of those things as well. But we, as those God has saved and brought into his family, must pursue joy in God if we are to bring God the glory in our lives he commands us to have. Joy is not something that we can turn on and off when we worship our King with our lives. It is essential part of worship.

Worship without joy is heretical and hypocritical. And if our lives are to be constant worship to our King, shouldn't we be living with a joy because we serve a God who is bigger than the junk of this world. A God who is bigger than broken relationships, failed attempts at someone new, our sin, and any other feeling we have. Satan wants nothing more than to rob us of the joy God wants to give us.

When we look to Christ and renew our minds daily, doing the Romans 12 thing, God's commands and his promises will be on our heart, minds, and lips constantly. I will not for a second say there will not be times when life throws you a curveball and things don't pan out as planned. Those times will happen...suffering and loving Jesus go hand and hand. Refer to James for further details on how to deal with that.

The joy of the Lord should sustain us throughout the good, bad, and ugly times of life. We just need to call on the comforter when times are tough. We must call on God when times are great, praising Him for the blessing. We must be in constant community with God so that He can prepare us for things we are coming up on that only He knows.

My prayer as I look ahead to this year and all the changes that will happen this year in my life, I never want to lose sight of the joy that God gives me as His son and I pray that everyone that may read this will remember when pure joy comes from and tap into the source each and every day we are given.

Love God. Love People.

-Kyle 

 

Season for Everything...Transition is Coming For Me.

I haven't been on here in a couple months so I have some feel time from the semester being over so I felt it would be a great time to just update this site and write a bit. 

I am coming to grips with the fact that this time next year I will be a college graduate. It is a long time coming and it fills me with a sense of accomplishment that I have never felt before in my life. Anyone who knows my story can relate and understand why this next year being my last year of school would excite me. I am thankful for God bringing me out of my reckless life and giving me a new life in him through salvation and calling me to be a pastor continues to show me how God's hand has been in my life. 

Life is full of seasons. We have the 4 seasons of the year, but other than that we, as humans, go through seasons of pain, joy, excitement, happiness, sadness, etc. I am thankful that I have a King who fights for me through all of those times. It doesn't matter what we are going through, our God in heaven fights for us and gives us the Holy Spirit to see us through all the seasons of life we go through. 

I know this isn't a lot of just mind-blowing things and it seems relatively elementary, but I just wanted to let those who may come across this that I am thankful for the season God has me in right now and I am excited about the many things I see happening in my future in multiple areas. I just want to praise Him for his faithfulness despite times and seasons I have failed to pursue God with everything in me. 

Love God. Love People. 

-Kyle

Prayer Is Essential

This semester has been my craziest yet so that has been why I haven't been able to write much, but I have time today so here I am to give some thoughts about recent topics of discussion with friends and those in my classes.

The idea of weakness is one that is not very accepted in society today, but I am wrestling with this thought and how God helps us in our weakness. Through my life, weakness has been something that I have not really wanted to be familiar with. Whether it be in sports, friendships, or anything else I've been involved with, weakness has not been something I wanted to be in a description of me. But I am learning to embrace the word in how I am learning God sees it.

Weakness is when God can work most in our life. This one thought has been consuming me as of late. I have heard this numerous times from the pulpit and in small group settings, but in the last couple weeks this thought has been one to prompt me to look into my life and see where I still like to present myself as strong. The saying that "Pride comes before the fall" is brought to mind in times when we like to see ourselves as strong we can easily fall into pride because we don't see the need for a Savior's work in our lives when we feel we got it on our own.

I don't want this to seem like we should just mope around and act like we are strong enough to do anything in life, but I am saying and learning that it comes down to our motives, which is ultimately a heart issue. When we try and do things on our own, we typically fail, or at least I do. It is only when I find my strength in the Lord that things seem to fall as they should. This is the work of the Spirit in our life.

The Spirit of God is where we get our strength and hope to make it through this life because the Spirit "helps us in our weakness" (Romans 8:26a). I find tremendous joy and comfort in that. When we are faced with suffering and temptations, it is God's Spirit living inside of every believer that is at work and through that leads us to live in accordance to God's will.

But how does this happen practically? Is it just some cosmic Miss Cleo that we should blindly follow, absolutely not. Our role and responsibility is to sync up with God and that happens through our prayer life. And Romans shines light on how that happens when we don't get it or don't know how to pray about things in our life.

"...For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hears knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:26b-28


This fills me with so much joy because many times in my life I have had a deep desire to engage God in prayer, but when I try to pray it seems like I just start going through my routine prayer in the same order that it always is, again, maybe I am the only one that struggles with that, but the truth that the Holy Spirit is interceding for me as I prayer on a level that I can't understand is just amazing. I am thankful that we, as believers, are giving the opportunity to pray to God our Creator and Savior so that we can get in line with what his will for our lives.

So practically, it comes down to having the discipline to sit down and talk with our heavenly Father. It is not some crazy formula to bring strength into our life. We will gain true strength through prayer and boasting in the Lord as the Holy Spirit dwells inside of our lives as we are directed and guided to align with the will of God for our life, which is to glorify God in all of our lives.

Rest in that. Find strength in that. Rejoice in that. Live in that.

Love God. Love People.

-Kyle