Last Wednesday, we had our fall kick-off for Northway UNITED.

It was a remarkable evening as over 250 students worshiped their God unapologetically.

At the end of the evening, Gods presence was simply OVERwhelming.

I shared with our students and leaders that we are going to ride this wave of momentum God is giving us. I called an audible, a quarter back sneak. What was it?

This Wednesday and next Wednesday, we will continue to have UNITED LIVE!

Check out Northway UNITED on Facebook and Twitter.

See you there!

Untitled from Northway Church on Vimeo.

In the ancient book of wisdom, Proverbs instructs us…

“He who walks with the wise will become wise.”

If I tried to communicate that principle in modern day terms, it would go something like this.

Learn from Troy Gramling and you will become wise.

I believe that Troy is one of the most underrated leaders of our day.

In fact, I’ve given him a nick name of… Stealth Leader.

He’s off of your radar, but he will drop a bomb of wisdom on you!

Methodically and humbly, behind the scenes, God is using him to build an amazing church!

Last weekend across six campuses, Flamingo Road Church, had 24 services, and baptized 314 people at 3 beaches and 2 courtyards. For the year? 1535 baptisms! Incredible!

They are running over 10,000 in attendance.

Enjoy the wisdom of Troy on Cremeans Couch!

Cremeans Couch: Troy Gramling 1 from Northway Church on Vimeo.

I am so excited for tomorrow night when I will be at the kick-off of our student ministry’s UNITED LIVE. I’m even more excited to be able to share with our students what God has laid on my heart. I have a huge burden to see these students lead the way in reaching the Northeast!

Parents, please get your middle school and high school students there! Nothing has more of a pay-off in their life down the road then making God a priority while they are young.

Food fight? That should be interesting. What I do know is that this is going to be the biggest food fight in the history of the Capital Region… and the Northeast. Where else can students go and have permission to have a food fight?

Check out the promo:

UNITED LIVE – September 23rd – 6:30 – 8:30pm – Clifton Park Location

UNITED Food Fight Promo from Northway Church on Vimeo.

How would you describe God?

No problem, right?

We can try to take a stab at it with phrases like, “God is love”, “God is mercy”, and “God is grace.”

But let’s face it, finite man’s attempt would be infinite, like an endless buffet.

I do think when we try to describe God in our terms we typically highlight terms we like.

It only makes sense that we do.

However, have you ever run across something about God that you don’t like?

Really? Yes, I am really asking you that question.

I have.

And I think if we are not posing as super spiritual and are brutally honest…

We all have.

I believe at some time in your spiritual journey of faith you will if not multiple times.

The question is… What will you do when that happens? What will you do when God confronts you in love on something you disagree with Him on? What will you do when God is leading you by grace to change something that you have done for years?  What will you do when God prompts you to apologize to someone you really can’t stand? I think the “What will you do questions” are endless as well.

The knee jerk response is to ignore Him, and proceed with life as usual with the self-described choices of our self-described God.

That is where our relationship with God is extremely hazardous and dangerous. When we pick and choose the God we want, like a God buffet. God tells us that it doesn’t work that way. In fact, He is pretty direct. He says, “I will no longer be your God.” We can’t just select the aspects of God that we like and put back the ones that we don’t like.

If we could do that? God stops being God, and we become God.

Why? Because we define Him.

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Cremeans Couch will be back next Monday with an all-new series with Pastor Troy Gramling.

This weekend at Northway, I will tackle one of the most polarizing issues of our day regarding sexuality. Trust me, I’ve been praying for weeks for the wisdom of God on this one.

Now, if you think I’m in the hot seat. Consider my good friend, Ed Young. Ed called the other day and shared some breaking news. What is it? This Thursday night Ed will be a guest on ABC’s NIGHTLINE, where he will be a part of a gripping debate.

By the way, some late night trivia for you, Nightline’s ratings have been beating all of it’s competitors.

My understanding is that Nightline will be shooting their program at Fellowship Church on Thursday night. The debate will be on the subject of adultery. On one side, the Biblical view, and on the other side, a popular website that promotes how to have affairs.

This should be very compelling and interesting.

I’m confident in how God has gifted Ed with wisdom that he will speak with grace and truth. Please join me in praying for Ed and helping me spread the word through blogging, Twittering,  and Facebook.  Tune in this Thursday, 11:30 pm on ABC.

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To clarify… Nightline will be taping this Thursday night, and then airing it next Thursday, September 24th. Thanks Andy!

I have been pushed back at the questions that have come in from you in our series…

You Asked For It.

I have also been overwhelmed to see how God is using this series to minister to so many people. In fact, I don’t know that we have had a series where we have received more positive feedback. Why? Its simple… people have questions and they want answers.

The great news is God has answers!

The success of this has me rethinking our upcoming series…

Relational Rehab. (CLICK HERE to view the series trailer)

Instead of myself, or our creative team, thinking up ideas for this five week series…

I thought I would keep the same premise going and ask you….

What questions would you like answered in this relational series?

What questions do you think the church has dodged when it comes to relationships?

This past weekend, I had to answer a question about betting at the horse track.

I decided to show a clip from one of my favorite movies… Seabiscuit. Have you ever seen it?

If so, do you remember this clip? It’s the best part of the movie!

Proverbs 8:35 For whoever finds me finds life and receives FAVOR from the LORD.

Have you ever noticed someone from a far that you look up to…. and think…

MAN! They sure are talented! They sure have the goods!

Then you think, Oh, that’s it! Now I get it…. That’s the Favor Secret! God must have given them MORE talent than everybody else. That’s why they have more favor than everybody else. Makes total sense right?

Wrong.

Over the last several years, for some reason, God has allowed me to get up close and personal with some of the greatest leaders in our time. I have been blessed as they have become good friends. Consequently, people ask me all the time, ” What’s “so and so” really like?” How did they achieve and accomplish so much for God?

Here is the one secret that I would share with you.

They WORK HARDER than everybody else, PERIOD.

I know it’s not sexy. I know it’s not glamorous. I know it’s not stunning.

It’s simply the truth.

Proverbs 8:35 Tells us if we seek wisdom and find it, we find the favor of God. Many people say they want the favor of God…or say they want the wisdom of God. They just don’t want to work hard to get it.

You have to WORK to get WISDOM.

Let me rephrase that. You have to work harder than you ever have, strap on a work ethic like you never have, challenge every lazy excuse your sorry butt has enabled for years, and get your rear- end going! Then when you think you can’t do any more, You push yourself and break thru. Now, while everybody else is resting…. you are secretly working and improving your game!

Now, some of you maybe offended. Good! That’s what wisdom does…it challenges you. Proverbs tells us a wise person wouldn’t be offended. Here is the deal, remember those people you admire??? They wouldn’t be offended. Their eyes light up when someone challenges their work ethic because they have received the benefits from wisdom.

The FAVOR of God.

Do you want God’s favor in your life?

Let me state the obvious. Of course you do.

Who wouldn’t want the supernatural favor of God on their life? Who wouldn’t want Gods favor on their relationships, on their finances, on their health and on their career? Who wouldn’t want honor, and who wouldn’t want wealth? Just for the record, they both come with the whole “favor thing”.

So how do you get Gods supernatural favor? I don’t know about you but sometimes it’s easy to believe there is a “favor conspiracy.” For years I have observed people who have the favor of God on their life and I have often wondered how they got it? It’s almost as if there is a special secret recipe for God’s favor that they won’t share with the rest of the world.

So again I ask, how do you get it? What’s the secret recipe for God’s favor? Does God only have a selective bunch of favorites that He gives His favor to? Does God have enough favor to go around for someone like you and me?

I’ve got great news for you. God has plenty of favor for you and me and in this blog series we will explore how we can get it.

So don’t leave me hanging… Have you ever felt like God’s favor is for somebody else besides you?

Proverbs 8:35 – “For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the LORD.”

God is calling me to quit.

Quit what, you ask?

I’ve quit believing people’s excuses.

In my previous post, I shared how God has challenged me on every excuse I have lobbed His way.

I’ve got to tell you, I’ve lobbed Him a bunch and I’m pretty convincing!

However, there’s one problem… Gods not buying it. Go figure.

God has shown me that as long as I believe my own excuses, I enable one of two things…

Disbelief or Laziness in my life. Both just happen to be sin.

Well the same principle is true when I believe other’s excuses.

God has called me to LEAD people to be the BEST they can be.

It’s impossible to lead when you believe the excuses of the people you lead.

If you really believe in the people you lead, you won’t believe their excuses.

Leadership is removing excuses.

Here’s the deal…

Until you challenge your own excuses, you will not be able to challenge every excuse of the people you lead.

God is giving me laser discernment on our organization where I’ve enabled excuses.

Those days are gone.

What about you?