31 WAYS TO MAKE 2019 YOUR BEST YEAR EVER!

I believe that no matter what your 2018 was like that this next year can be your best year ever! I have learned the power of the words that I speak.

Proverbs 18:21, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”(NIV)

What you say about yourself will impact your life and your future. How you finish this sentence has a tremendous impact on your life, I am ___________.

If you say over and over that:

I’m tired

I’m sick

I’m depressed

I’m discouraged

I’m frustrated

I’m stupid

I’m an idiot

I can’t do anything right

I’m a failure

There’s nothing wrong with be honest with God and others about how you feel. But if you declare those words over and over you will start to believe them and it will impact your attitude and your actions.

Don’t listen to the lies from the devil. He is a liar and the father of lies. That’s the only...

CHRISTMAS EVE - Living a Wonderful Life

We are right in the middle of our Christmas Eve services today, and if you want to join us we have 3 more today at 12:00pm, 2:00pm, and 4:00pm. Join us online at C3Church.com!

There's always that one guy (or girl) in the family on Christmas with the best one-liners, so I'm gonna help you out... Ha!

Christmas One-Liners:

Q: Why can't the Christmas tree stand up?

A: It doesn’t have legs.

Q: What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?

A: Frostbite.

Q: What do snowmen eat for breakfast?

A: Snowflakes.

Q: Where does a snowman keep his money?

A: In a snowbank.

Q: What do you get if you cross mistletoe and a Uncle Si from duck dynasty?

A: A Christmas Quacker.

Q: How do you know when Santa's in the room?

A: You can sense his presents.

But Christmas is more than gifts and presents its about the GIFT of HIS PRESENCE!

He’s Immanuel – God with Us.

Isaiah 9:6, “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us....

How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a movie about a change of heart. 

How many of you love Christmas?! Everything from the decorations, the lights, the gifts, the songs, etc. 

In the story of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas the Who’s love Christmas.

(Click the image to play the movie clip)

I love the sheer abandon with which the Who's celebrate Christmas. They put everything, body and soul, into celebrating it  - they are singing (worship) and laughing, and enjoying one another. Fun.

Isn't that how Christmas should be? Fun! It's a celebration, but we let Satan steal our joy with all the things that should make it fun and joyous.  

Sometimes we start getting critical: why are they decorating so early, did you see how they decorated their house - who cares and why have an opinion? We are stressed from decorating,  Stressed over buying presents. 

If this is the happiest time of the year we should look more like The Who's, unfortunately we...

Are you ready for Christmas?

We are having our Christmas Eve services this year on Dec. 23, 10am & 6pm; Dec. 24, 12pm, 2pm, & 4pm

I love history and fun facts, so here's a list of top Christmas Gifts from 1980 to today:

1980 Rubiks Cube

1983 Cabbage Patch Kids

1984 Transformer Action Figures

1985 Care Bears

1989 Game Boy

1992 WWF Action Figures

1996 Tickle Me Elmo

2005 Xbox 360

2007 Ipod Touch

2009 Nintendo Wii

2010 Apple Ipad

We’ve gone from Rubiks cubes to Ipads. But…

The greatest gift that you can receive this Christmas is Jesus!

One of my favorite Christmas Movies is The Polar Express. In this movie, a doubting boy boards a magical train on Christmas Eve, which is headed for the North Pole. He and a little girl who become friends as they are guided along by the conductor.

A magical train shows up and takes them on a magical ride to the north pole.

The boy learns how to overcome his doubts and believe.

Conductor: “Sometimes seeing is...

This month our core value we're diving into is "We Are Generous." 

Before we go further into this topic, I want to invite you all to our Christmas Eve services on December 23rd at 10:00am and 6:00pm and December 24th at 12:00pm, 2:00pm, and 4:00pm! Mark your calendars and start inviting your friends and family!

When we first started C3, I would drive down the Johnston County roads and see homemade signs that would say something like $8 chicken plate for sale, which made the church look like we are needy.

God’s plan is for His church to give tithes and offerings is to support the vision and mission of the church so that we can give things away to the community.

We are here to bless our community through acts of kindness, which is why we are participating in Angel Tree and providing gifts to families in need right here in Johnston County. If you want to be a part of that just go to c3church.com or grab a tag off of a Christmas tree in our lobby.

Matthew 5:38-42, ...

HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF THIS SEASON

Check out these hilarious church signs!

This is a great time of year but it can also be stressful. How can we get the most out of this season?

No matter what season you are in every season looks different. Not only are there seasons of the year but there are seasons of life.

Life is filled with unexpected twists and turns and the devil would love to steal our joy, but we can have Victory over him!

Philippians 4:4-9, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever...

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! 

I want to encourage you to have an Attitude of Gratitude. Being grateful is an attitude. Life can be challenging and it takes the right attitude to live the life that God has for you and to live life to the fullest!

What do you do when you are in the midst of a challenge?

What do you do when you aren’t where you used to be but you aren’t where you want to be?

What do you do when you are IN a crisis?

Have you noticed that most of life is lived in between?

We actually never get to a place of complete perfection with perfect conditions and circumstances. Most of life is lived in the dash. We live in the middle of something.

For example, on our tombstone there will be a birth date and a death date and in between there is a dash. That dash represents our life. How we live it. What we make of our life.

God never promised us a perfect life with no problems. But He did give us a promise when we encounter problems.

John 16:33...

Paul began with the End in Mind in Philippians 3.

²⁰ But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. ²¹ He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.”(NLT)

This helps me make daily decisions. Yes, we live day by day, but we should live day by day with the end in mind.

One way that I live with the end in mind is I have made a decision to have certain boundaries in my life to protect my marriage. For example, I have committed to not ride in a vehicle alone with another woman, unless it's my wife or daughters.

Another way that I live with the end in mind is trying to be healthy by exercising and cutting out sugar and breads from my diet.

It’s not what I WANT to do, it’s what I NEED to do, because I want to live a long full life and I want to have energy and...

The church doesn’t do missions. The church is the mission. The church doesn’t exist to just do Sunday services but we exist to impact our community and culture throughout the week. When I was growing up in church you had different categories of missions. You had the local church that supported “home missions” which involved church planting in the United States and there was “foreign missions” which involved supporting missionaries in other countries. I can remember when we first started C3 and people would ask what are we doing for missions I would often say, “We are the mission!” What they were asking was are we going to support missionaries and take mission trips as they did in their former church. I didn’t mean that we shouldn’t think about having an impact globally I just felt like we needed to see what we are doing as a mission.

When you first start a church everyone is on mission. It is obvious that we are doing...

We lead the way, meaning leaders go first! The whole month of November we are focusing on our core value "We Lead the Way."

John C. Maxwell, "Leaders know the way, go the way, and show the way."

Leaders are the lid. The people that serve on our team are not going to get any more passionate for God than we are. They aren’t going to get any more excited about reaching our community than you are. They aren’t going to honor others more than you. They aren’t going to serve more than you are.

Martha and I wouldn’t ask anyone a part of C3 Church to do something that we aren’t willing to do.

Paul said, Follow me as I follow Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:1, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”

We lead the way in 6 different areas:

• We lead the way in serving
• We lead the way in giving
• We lead the way in passion
• We lead the way in compassion
• We lead the way in handling conflict
• We lead the way in reaching our ...