Gilbert Thurston

Random Thoughts About Life, Ministry and Whatever Else Happens to be on my Mind

Inside Today’s Experiences

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  • Typing this on my phone in the back of Dianna’s van as she, Gene and I are on our way to OH for a week’s worth of classes.
  • Rough day today especially in the first Experience.
  • When I plugged the cables in the back wall this morning things seemed weird but then everything booted up fine so it appeared we were ok.
  • Everything worked fine through practice but then the computer locked up 2 minutes before we were to start.
  • In the midst of fixing that we realized the lights were not responding either…
  • aaahhhh! We were at least 5 minutes late getting started which it figured was on a week we were doing really long music.
  • Had 6 children total get dedicated today.
  • Really cool seeing parents step up in that way for their kids.
  • At 9:15 the wrong phone number to text in questions was on the screen.
  • As I said…can you imagine what the poor guy who’s phone it was was thinking when all these questions about divorce and sex kept flooding his inbox.
  • 10:45 went much better.
  • The two live text questions are each on the podcast. They were…
  •  …Will I know my spouse in heave and at 10:45…If you get pregnant outside of marriage do you then have to marry that person.
  • I can’t wait for next week…the new series called HOSTAGE may end up being the best yet.
  • Pray for us this week as we travel and for us to pass our class.

Things I’m Excited About…

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  • Going to the Caps game tonight with Andy.
  • That God has promised never again to flood the entire earth (it’s pouring rain outside as I type this).
  • That I’ve had about a half-dozen couples approach me during the Re:married series saying they want to get married instead of continuing to live together in sin.
  • That other testimonies are coming in of broken marriages being restored.
  • That Lisa and I practice what I preach.  :)
  • That John Winebrenner, the founder of our denomination and whom I’m reading about in a biography right now, was such a rebel.  He was criticized for his methods but yet he was passionate about reaching people for Christ no matter what, even when it meant he got kicked out of his church.
  • That the same Holy Spirit who inspired such faith in men like Winebrenner resides in us.
  • That even more of the questions you wanted answers to about marriage, dating, relationships and sex will be answered this week as we wrap up our Re:married series.
  • That our next series, entitled, HOSTAGE will most likely be one of the most life-changing series that we’ve done yet.
  • That vacation is now less than 1 month away!
  • That I get to pastor such an awesome group of people who are more concerned with making a difference for eternity than money and material possessions!

    • Inside Today’s Experiences

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  • What an ugly day…I think I hate rain as much as I do the snow and cold.
  • From a set-up and technical stand point it was a pretty good morning…nice and relaxing.
  • That helped because of some last minute changes we had made.
  • One of our core values at United is to be culturally relevant while remaining doctrinally pure.
  • To be honest for this week’s Experience we were flirting with the line…but I felt confident that in it’s proper context the creative elements were going to making some lasting impressions that would ultimately advance the Kingdom.
  • Friday night we decided to pull two things much to my disappointment…
  • So I went from an excited nervous to just plain nervous because it meant trying to go back and make the message make sense.
  • At 9:15 I just wasn’t in to it so I apologize to that crowd.
  • By 10:45 it was a little better and so that’s what we posted if you 9:15’ers want to hear a better version.
  • I’m trusting though that God still spoke to people even through the confusion.
  • Other than that, I felt it was a great day…
  • …the band did great and the crowds (especially 10:45) was lively.
  • Met some great people today…I love the wide variety of people that God is bringing to us.
  • Next week is nothing but Q&A so if you have any questions about marriage, dating, relationships or sex, text us at 301-991-5746 or e-mail me at gilbert@unitedworshipexperience.org
  • Time now for my nap…I need it…then off to friends house.
  • This week will be really busy becuase I’ll be travellling next Monday-Friday so I’ve got to get 2 weeks worth of stuff done this week.
  • One highlight though will be tomorrow night’s trip to DC with Andy for the Caps and Penguins play-off game.

    • Sex, Sex, Sex

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    Mmmm…got your attention didn’t it?  Just even seeing the word sex so intrigues us.  In fact, I’m guessing that some of you are reading this that don’t normally read my stuff…why is that?  Well it’s simple, God put a desire in each of us to not only love and be loved, but to also express that love to another through the gift of sex. This weekend at the United Worship Experience that is going to be our topic.  Now let me give a couple of disclaimers:

    • If you’re are highly offendable, don’t show up. 
    • We are going to take a humorous, thought provoking, biblical look at what God says about intimacy.
    • I’ve given PG-13 warnings before, but this will be about as close to an R-rated message and Experience that you can get, so if you have children, make sure they are in children’s church, or make sure you are ready to process this information with them afterwards. 
    • Let’s face it, your 10 year olds and up are hearing about sex from their friends and Hollywood already, so hearing about it from their pastor can only be a good thing if you’re prepared to talk to them about it afterwards.
    • Alright with those warnings out of the way, let me encourage you to not only be there but to invite your friends with you as well. 
    • In fact, you probably don’t even have to ask them to come, you could probably just say, “I can’t wait for this Sunday, my pastor is going to be preaching about sex and he’s promised that they are going to some wild and crazy stuff”.
    • At this point you can shut up and they will probably beg you to tell them where there is a church where the pastor isn’t afraid to talk about sex.
    • In case your reading this and wondering will this really live up to the hype, here is a sneak peek at words that I guarantee will show up in the Experience through either the spoken word, video or song. 
    • Sex.  Masturbation.  Adultery.  Lust.  Pornography.  Ecstasy.  Oral sex.  Cleavage.  Homosexuality.  Condom.  Lap Dance.  Aborton.  Foreplay.

    I truly believe that God is going to use this message to challenge your thinking in some areas and to ensure that going forward you have the red hot sex life that not only you want, but that He desires for you as well.

    See you Sunday!

    Other Weekend Thoughts…and Beyond

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    First Baptist Orlando

  • Wow sorry I haven’t been able to blog as much this past week or so…things have been crazy.
  • Many of you were following me on Facebook last week, so you’re at least partially in the loop.
  • If you haven’t yet signed-up for a Facebook account it’s easy to do and an awesome way to keep up with all of your friends at United.
  • Had a great trip to Orlando for the Exponential Conference at the First Baptist Church of Orlando.
  • Got to spend time with a few other guys from our region, including Mike Schooley who started United back in 2005 before heading to New York to start his own church.
  • Mike and I roomed together and every night after we’d turn the lights out we’d talk and dream about church stuff for a long time.
  • I told him the last night I was going to miss our “Walton’s Family” chats.
  • The worst part of the trip was when my good friend Chuck Frank had to fly home early because his wife, Tammy, fell and broke her ankle.
  • Please keep them in prayer…it’s going to be a long recovery process and may still require more surgery.
  • I got a ton of great ideas at the conference and can’t wait to try some of them out.
  • The pic above is of their sanctuary.  To try to give you some perspective, there were 3000 people at the conference and almost everyone sat on the floor level.
  • Perhaps the highlight of week was the very last thing.  Not only did Francis Chan deliever a great talk, but the intro that was given for him left everyone…including Francis saying wow!
  • Got to meet Francis then at the airport that day and he was still talking about it.
  • Was finally able to get the interview with Satan video online from the “Finding the One” message.  To watch it, click here.
  • Satan will be making another appearance this week as a part of the message about sex called, “It’s Business Time”.
  • Seriously the entire Experience is something that is going to be talked about for a long time…
  • …we have things in store for you that you just simply will have to be there to believe.
  • For those that can’t make it, the number of downloads I’m sure is going to not just break but shatter every record we have.
  • Tomorrow (Tuesday) I’m speaking for our denomination on how to reach the 18-35 crowd.
  • Please say a quick prayer for me.
  • Night!