What if you woke up tomorrow and realized you had amnesia? You had no clue who you are! You wouldn’t know how to act or what you should be doing. Knowing your identity, who you are, is vital to knowing what you should be doing and how you should be living.

I’m beginning a brand new series tomorrow called “Who Are You?” I believe one of the biggest problems for many Christ followers is not knowing who they are in Christ. So, they don’t really no how they should live or what they should be doing.

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Someone recently asked why we weren’t having worship services on Christmas morning. That’s a great question. So, I wanted to take this opportunity to make sure you know & understand why we’re not having worship services on Christmas morning.

First, we’ve celebrated the birth of our Savior for years on two different weekends each December. The first is a Christmas celebration produced by our Worship Arts Ministry. This year, our Christmas celebration is different than anything we’ve done in years. We’re calling this celebration “Christmas at LifePoint.”

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One God, One Vision, One Day to change the word. To say that missions is important to LifePoint is like saying a quarterback is important to football. We exist to Point people to a Christ centered life. Missions is at the heart of why we exist.

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My heart was saddened & my anger stirred this week when a Kentucky church grabbed headlines by voting to ban interracial marriages from their church. Racism has plagued society since Adam & Eve couldn’t resist the fruit in the Garden of Eden. Even though much progress has been made, stories like this clearly remind us that the sin of racism still runs strong.

It doesn’t surprise me when I see racism from people who don’t love or follow Christ. Sin separates! It separates people from God & people from people. We see this truth in the opening pages of the Bible. Sin caused spiritual death that separated Adam & Eve from God. It also separated them from each other by destroying the unhindered intimacy they had experienced in their pre-sin existence. So, it really doesn’t surprise me to see the pathetically ignorant sin of racism exhibited in those who are separated from the one who reconciles. But, to see the sickening sin of racism from a group of people who claim to know Jesus is mind boggling, inconsistent, shameful, sinful just plain ignorant.

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I’m often asked by people visiting LifePoint who’ve come from a “church culture” why we don’t give an invitation or altar call at the end of each service. For years, in most evangelical churches, the invitation at the end of the service was as customary as having thrones on the stage for the pastor & a few staff members to sit & watch over the congregation. The pastor would beckon the people to step out & “walk the aisle” as the choir would sing “Just as I Am” until at least one person walked down & took a staff member by the hand & received salvation by praying a simple prayer. This scene is still played out every Sunday in most evangelical churches today.

I want to state up front, I have absolutely no problem with churches who do an invitation or Altar Call each week. It was during such an altar call in Vacation Bible School that I surrendered my life to the Lordship of King Jesus. There are many pastors, missionaries & devoted Christian men & women today who were saved during such an altar call. So, please don’t misunderstand or misquote me as saying altar calls are bad.

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Obedience is always costly. Make no mistake! When I surrendered my life to Christ it cost me the right to dream my own dreams & plan my own future. When I moved to seminary, it cost me proximity to my family and lifelong friends and the comfort of a familiar world. The many changes that have been made over the last 18 years at FBC Smyrna/LifePoint, have cost me the color of my hair, many nights of sleep & some good friends who didn’t really want to make the changes necessary to go where God was calling us to go. LifePoint’s obedience to passionately pursue God’s heart for the nations by becoming a Sending Church has cost us Kyle Goen, our Executive Pastor, Brittany Kahmin, our Director of Preschool Ministries and some of the best leaders in our church. Now, it has cost us David McCaman, our Lead Student Pastor as he & his wife Jennifer will move their family to Bangkok to be our Bangkok Campus Pastor.

I’ve known since the day we hired David that he’d one day serve as a pastor. With each passing year, I’ve seen this desire grow in David along with his preaching skill. I knew he was getting restless as he waited for his opportunity to move to this next step of leadership in his life. So, I called David at camp & asked him if he’d consider praying about going to Bangkok to be the Campus Pastor for LP Bangkok. I didn’t know it at the time, but David & Jennifer had already decided to come & talk with me when they returned from camp about the next step in his dynamic calling. Obviously, we were beginning to see God’s sovereign plan unfold. After spending a few weeks in prayer & discussion, David & Jennifer felt it was God’s plan for them to take this next step to bring glory to God.

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My tasks as pastor are many & diverse but none are more important than preaching. I really don’t have the words to rattle people’s cage & make a lasting difference in their life. I’m just not that smart. I talk fast & I have a rather pronounced East Tennessee accent. No one has ever approached me after a sermon and said, “never was a grammatical masterpiece. Sometimes, people actually think I’m smarter than I really am because I use words they’ve never heard…they just don’t realize, I’ve never heard it either.

I fear too many preachers think their words are far more powerful than they really are. Now, many preachers have an amazing command of the language, a gift to dazzle with words. Some can compete with champion storyteller. Some can stir hearts & emotions to take action. Some can even motive football players to run through a brick wall…without a helmet. Some are good enough to change people’s minds. But, our words, no matter how good they are, don’t have the power to change what really matter & what really lasts, the heart. But, when you combine prepared words with the power of The Word, supernatural things happen.

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A little over 17 years ago, Amy & pulled into Smyrna with a loaded down Uhaul truck a dog & two boys. Seth was 7 and Zac was 9 months old. Amy & I have seen God do some amazing things in those 17 years. We seen Him save many marriages that had one foot in the grave. We’ve seen many people receive the promise of new life after being redeemed by the grace of God. We’ve been privileged to watch God bless LifePoint with amazing growth, both numerical & spiritual. We’ve been privileged to see many people give up everything & move to a different culture to give their life to serving the purpose of God in bringing people from every nation into His kingdom. Amy & I are so grateful & blessed by the growth that we’ve seen God bring in so many ways. And, one the greatest blessings has been watching God grow up our two boys, Seth & Zac.

Seth is now 24 years old, married & serving God as a missionary in Bangkok, Thailand. His doctrinal integrity & biblical insight is amazing for a 24 year old. His passion for the glory of God among the nations is inspiring. And, his love of his wife & the Thai people make a dad’s heart proud. Amy & I have been blessed to watch God grow him up in so many ways.

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The last 48 hours have produced a lot of emotions over the death of OBL…along with a lot of Tweets & FaceBook status updates.  I totally understand the euphoric feeling we get over the planet being a safer place without one of the world’s most notorious murders…I really do.

I’m also glad that thousands of moms who’ve lost sons & thousands of wives who’ve lost husbands at the hands of OBL now at least have the opportunity to have some sense of closure.

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Amy & I got a new daughter for Christmas.  I know that doesn't surprise you. We've adopted 3 children in the last 3 years (two from China & one from Ethiopia).  Obviously, we love orphans & our passion is to help people understand our scriptural mandate to care for orphans.  So, to hear that we have another daughter probably doesn't shock you.  But, this daughter didn't come through adoption, although we are adopting her as our own.  This daughter will come through marriage.  

Seth Skyped us tonight to inform us that he is officially engaged.  He moved to Bangkok in June because he has a passion to make God famous among the Thai people.  Witt Kaminh, who grew up in Thailand, went with Seth, Brett & Susie when they moved & spent about a month in Bangkok helping them get situated & oriented to thier new home.  Witt wanted to visit the small church he attended while living in Bangkok & Seth decided to tag along with him to make some new friends in his new country.  Obviously, he got more than a friend.

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