So...we had a baby

Last night at this time, I had just gotten finished preaching on Philippians 1. Super cool night with lots of new faces. We ate at Chili's afterward and slept in this morning. Today, we had a baby. We were at Sam's Club when Jenn felt a good strong contraction, and then after we paid out and headed to the car, her water broke. We sped back to the house, Nate & Jenn came and picked Emery up, and we were off to the hospital. With Emery, Jenn labored for about 21 hours, but with this one, it was about 3!

We enjoy the surprise of not knowing the gender beforehand, so we didn't know it was another girl till we met her in the delivery room. When her head came out, the doctor said, "That's a boy head." We won't tell her he said that. We quickly found out that he was wrong and were introduced to Adalyn Micah. She born at 5:56pm at a healthy 8 pounds, 3 ounces and 21.5 inches long. She has finger-toes like her dad and is already getting compliments about her height. I guess it runs in the family. She has barely any hair, but I'm sure she'll have plenty very soon.

I'm sitting here in the recovery room now getting down with technology. She's already the star of Twitter, Facebook, and her very own website, adalynmicah.com. Make sure to swing by and stay updated with pics of the newest Miller chica.

I'm stoked to be a dad again. I've been praying for this little one for a long time now - I'm glad she's finally here!

A Sermon That Packed a Punch

Zechariah 4:6 - ...‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts. 

What a relief! Ministry isn't something we have do on our own strength - it's by HIS Spirit alone! That sure takes a weight off of my shoulders! Tonight, we continue through Acts 2 in our "To the End of the Earth" series through Acts. It's been incredible to see the exit of Christ and the entrance of the Holy Spirit. Last week we saw the Holy Spirit appear in a very powerful way and tonight we look at Peter, now supercharged by this new presence in his life. No longer is he the sword-wielding, ear-chopping, Christ-denying, foot-in-mouth disciple that he is so well known to be. Instead, he is bold, direct, and Christ-centered. He delivers a sermon that packs a punch...such a powerful punch, that thousands of devout Jews (some who live hundreds of miles away from Jerusalem and are just in town for the feast of Pentecost) accept Christ after hearing Peter's words (Acts 1:41). Incredible!

It's a great reminder to all of us that when God is given control of someone’s life, you’d better either get on board or get out of the way! A life surrendered to Christ is a very powerful thing. The disciples prayed for the gift of the Spirit and when He showed up, things changed…quickly and powerfully. That same Spirit is available for us today. It’s as simple as a prayer – confessing your sin and inviting Him in as your Savior. At that point, the Holy Spirit dwells inside of you, making you capable of the unthinkable!

To illustrate the power of the simplicity of the Gospel, check out the Holy Spirit doing His work of conviction through this chick...while she's getting robbed!

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Oh, and if you're reading this before 6:30pm, it's not too late to join us for church tonight at Awaken! If you missed it, all the messages are available in our message archive on our website or also in our podcast in iTunes. Enjoy!

WAKE UP!

awakenchurch.org now features a WAKE UP! page designed to get people to do just that: WAKE UP! Using the video below, I lay out the simplicity of the Gospel message and give people a sample prayer to pray. I hope this can be used as a tool for people to come to Christ or maybe even a reference for someone who doesn't have a lot of experience with leading others to Christ. This page sums up what we're all about at Awaken: Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's it.

Spiritual Meat and Potatoes

I'm a meat and potatoes kind of guy - I love a good steak, a big burger, some BBQ ribs, or something hot off the grill. I'm the same way spiritually - I love the meat of God's Word. At one point in my life, I used to settle for spiritual Happy Meals - they were fun, entertaining, and they even filled me up for a little while. I liked those because I didn't know what else was out there. Then, I tasted a filet mignon and I was hooked. I couldn't go back.

Paul, writing to the Corinthian church, said "I fed you with ​milk and not with solid food; ​for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able;" (1 Corinthians 3:2). The milk was a great place to start, but eventually you have to move on to the solid food. Unfortunately, I'd say most Christians spend most of their lives surviving on short little sermonettes. I've heard it well said that "Sermonettes make Christianettes," and I would agree. The less you take in, the less you'll grow - it's logical. So, what do your spiritual meals look like?

Tonight after service, a guy gave me a huge compliment. It was said kind of in passing and probably didn't seem like too big of a deal to him, but it was huge for me. He said, "Kevin, I like your style. There's no fluff. It's just straight from the Bible. It's deep." That's it! Finally someone got it! I needed to hear that so bad! I've faced my fair share of doubt and discouragement since I've been here - all on the heels of criticism. I'm not a milk man, I'm a steak man - I try to serve up good, hearty portions of God's Word, but obviously, not everyone is into that. One guy told me that I should fashion my sermons more like a TV show - 22 minutes is a good length. My thought is that just because the bar is already embarrassingly low, should I lower my standards to match in order to get more people to come or should I endeavor to raise the bar of Biblical literacy by going deeper and hitting it harder? I prefer the latter.

I'm not at all saying that I'm the best at what I do. I sure have a blast doing it thought. I feel like I'm the waiter delivering the filet that the Master Chef (God) has spent thousand of years preparing thorugh the lives of faithful men and women. I'm just stoked to get the chance to bring it to people and see the joy on their faces when they're spiritually nourished. Any compliments that are given are obviously referred back to the Master Chef, who did the prep.

I hope you're not settling for sitcom sermons or milky, watered down messages. Go for the solid food - the deep truths of God's Word. That's where the true nourishment comes from.

Skulls, the Grim Reaper, & Other Non-Churchy Things

Last night was a great night at Awaken! I love getting together the people each week, plus, on Wednesdays, we serve FREE Lasater's coffee. Free coffee makes everything better. Seriously.

Every service so far, we've seen new faces  - some come back, some don't, but that's to be expected. I talked to one guy last night who is new to the whole Christianity thing - a co-worker of his recently led him to the Lord! He wasn't attending a church, and his mom happened to pick up an are you awake? card with the skull on the front (pictured). He told me, "I have a few Grim Reaper shirts, but I never thought that was ok for church." He was pretty intrigued when he saw that we were advertising with a skull, so he thought he'd come check it out. He said the message last night was exactly what his friend had been telling him - God knows and is in control of the future, so our lives should reflect that. I'm glad he came and I hope to see him back. I told him to wear a Grim Reaper shirt next time.

On another somewhat morbid subject, Halloween is just a few weeks away. While the world celebrates death, we will celebrate death at church as well...in a much different way, of course. We will celebrate the only death that can offer us true life - Jesus Christ. If it weren't for His death, we'd all have to die eternally for our sins. There would be no hope and nothing to look forward to. I don't think I've ever been to a church service on Halloween and I know I've never taught on Halloween, but this time, I'll do both - kill two birds with one stone (since we're on the subject of death and all). It will be our first ever Communion service and we will end service about 30 minutes early for a few games for the kids. Plus, every kid who comes get a FREE bag of candy. This isn't just any bag of candy, either. It's not the orange marshmallow shaped like a peanut or the generic white-wrapper candy - it's the goods. Bring a friend and we hope to see you there!

Awaken Kids Ministry

Quick plug for our Kids Ministry:
We love kids at Awaken...and it's a good thing, because we have plenty
of them! Jenn Witiuk is our Kids Ministry Director and she does a
fantastic job coordinating the lessons, snacks, and other volunteers.
We have a full Bible curriculum for them and lately they've been
learning about Adam and Eve.

Emery has never told me about Adam and Eve till I asked her to tell me
a Bible story the other day. Here's how it went:

"Adam and Eve in the garden. Disobeyed God. The snake made Eve eat
fruit. And she took a big bite like this (chomp!). Adam ate the fruit
too. Then Eve died."

It was a bit of an abrupt ending but pretty accurate nonetheless. I
was so proud of her for telling me that and so proud of our kids
ministry that is teaching those kids about Jesus from such a young
age! Super cool. If you have kids, bring them- they'll love it!

Awaken Kids is available at both weekely services: Wednesday and
Saturday at 6:30pm. Sign-in starts 15 minutes before service with
classes available for kids 8 weeks to 10 years!

Extramarital Affairs Are Now Extracurricular Activities

I took a break after a few hours of study in Philippians this morning to catch up on the news. I read headlines all the time that are saddening, tragic, etc. - the news is filled with those. However, a headline on CNN jumped out at me this morning: "Letterman reveals affairs with staff, extortion try". "No way," I thought. "Another affair goes public?" Yes, another one goes public, but in a very light-hearted, joking manner. After I read the story, I immediately went to YouTube to see if I could see for myself. I found the video below and as I watched, my heart sank. As he admitted his guilt to the audience, they cheered, laughed, and clapped.

This video seems to be a pretty accurate commentary on the American culture where extramarital affairs have simply become extracurricular activities - it's just what people do. He never once mentioned that this was an affair, that he had cheated on his wife, or even what his wife's reaction to all of this was. God often has to take drastic measures in people's lives to get their attention, and although Letterman seems pretty indifferent to this, maybe this will be what wakes him up to his need for Christ - we should pray that it does.

People wonder why God sets up boundaries and rules. Many people think it's simply because God is God and He does what He wants simply to make our lives hard. Wrong. God does things for our good. He knows that if we live fully devoted to Him, our lives will be the best they can possibly be!
That's why he has put these boundaries up:

Hebrews 13:4 - Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 - For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

It saddens me to think of the message this gives to kids and even to adults. This was not the was not the way God intended things to be. Maybe this hits home to me because I've been on both sides of the fence when it comes to this topic: indulging in it, not living for Christ, but eventually recognizing His plan and reaping the rewards of following His plan for sex and purity within marriage. Although sexual sin has become so commonplace, it's NOT ok and it never will be. God's plan is FAR better!