Dear Saddleback Family,
I am SO eager to see you this weekend for three reasons:
1. Our NEW Decade of Destiny High-Definition Screens will go live this weekend at our Lake Forest campus! Everything will be so much clearer and sharper! Last weekend we did beta-tests of the screens in a couple of services, then made some tune-ups, and everything went so smooth that we are able to turn them on a full month ahead of our timetable.
We can now use the screens for Sector 5, our children's ministry summer extravaganza, and our Celebrate Recovery Summit, both of which will take place in August. This is the first step, and the cornerstone, of our strategy together to reach more people for Jesus and help fulfill Jesus' Great Commission around the world!
2. Our NEW series begins this weekend. During the Crazymaker series, I received a note that included these lines:
"Pastor Rick, I've realized that the reason I let crazymakers walk all over me and control me is because I often feel insecure about who I am and what I am. Could you teach some messages on how to be more self-confident in God? What does the Bible say about how to be more secure in who I am? I've feared the disapproval of others for so long; I sometimes don't feel I know my real identity."
What would you like to change about you? You cannot live a new life until you get a new identity! Here's the good news:
"When anyone is in Christ, he becomes a brand new person inside. He gets a new identity. He is not the same person anymore. The old is gone and new life begins!" 2 Corinthians 5:17
So this week, I begin a series that deals with your confused identity, mistaken identity, shattered identity, or stolen identity. We'll look at who you really are in Jesus. We'll start with the life of Moses and see how your identity determines your destiny.
3. I'm writing several NEW chapters for The Purpose Driven Life (10th Anniversary Edition) and I need your prayers this weekend! The final drafts are due at the first of next week, so I'm going to be investing long days and late nights for the next several days. You know that it is not an exaggeration that PDL has impacted millions of lives and it continues to do so. These new chapters are things I've learned about the barriers to living a life of purpose sinceI wrote PDL. Will you please pray that God gives me clarity, wisdom, and energy as I write during this weekend and the next few days? THANKS! Here's the new cover:
This past week, 60 Saddleback members represented you as delegates to the International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC. They showed love to those attending, shared the good news of Jesus, manned our Saddleback booth, and taught other churches how to start an HIV&AIDS ministry. I was SO proud of them, and you should be too. Thank God for our loving church!