April 2025
Section 1 News
Pastors,
Please feel free to submit a teacher from your local assembly receive the Fl District teacher of the month award. Submit photo and short bio to the CM Email: Fldistrictcm@gmail.com
Please submit any upcoming events you would like announced by emailing kherbst@firstpent.org
Youth Events
5/9 – FPC Pensacola, Pastor Kinsey – Rev. Nathanial White
8/8 – FAC Milton, Pastor Webb - Back to School Rally – Rev. Josh Carson
9/26 – FAC DeFuniak, Pastor King – Rev. Noah Currie
2025 District Dates
June 23 - 27: Junior High Camp
Jul 14 – 18: Senior High Camp
Aug 17: MTM Offering Date
Dec. 29 – 30: HYC
Camp Registration is Live
Junior High (Ages 13-15) Click HERE
Senior High (Ages 15-17) Click HERE
Early registration (due by 5/31): $150 after 5/31- $175
Camp worker application and more information can be found on the FL Youth Ministries page. http://www.flupciyouth.com/flym-camps.html
2025 District Dates
June 23 - 27: Junior High Camp
Jul 14 – 18: Senior High Camp
Aug 17: MTM Offering Date
Dec. 29 – 30: HYC
Ladies Ministry Update
Early registration is open for the Florida Ladies Conference at https://www.flupciladies.com/
Children’s Ministry Update
Announcing the Theme & Open Registration for Children’s Camps!
We are pleased to announce that early registration for children’s camps is open now. To secure your spot, please visit our website at www.fldistrictchildrensministry.com
Hey Pastor!
The Save Our Children deadline is Easter Sunday, and we’re believing for a another record-breaking Florida offering of $156,000!
Thank you for your incredible support of the Florida Children’s Ministry Department—your giving is impacting lives across our district!
Let’s finish strong! Every church, daughter work, and preaching point matters as we reach the next generation.
Give today:
https://flupci.breezechms.com/form/26cac549
I am truly grateful for you, and we believe Florida can set another record this year!
Visit https://www.fldistrictchildrensministry.com/save-our-children-2025 to print and download resources to use in your assembly.
Repair the Altar
Things can get old quickly. They can spoil and grow stale; especially spiritual things.
1 Kings 18:30 “And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down.”
2 Chronicles 15:8 “And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the LORD, that was before the porch of the LORD.”
2 Chronicles 15:1-2 “And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded: And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.”
To really know God is a passion that should consume us.
There’s a difference between knowing about someone and knowing that person personally!
It’s one thing to have facts in your head about “who” God is. It is another thing altogether “to know God” in an intimate relationship!
The person who “knows” God has a relationship with him!
A. W. Tozer wrote long ago-
“The history of mankind will probably show that no people ever rose above their religion, and a man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its knowledge of God!”
Knowing God is the supreme test.
The apostle Paul’s burning desire and the main spring of his life was that I may know him.
Philippians 3:10: “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”
Paul Sacrificed Everything!
Philippians 3:7-8 “What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8 Yea doubtless (there’s no doubt about it!) I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,”
That’s my burning desire and my consuming passion! That’s my magnificent obsession!
That I may know him!
I count all things but loss, but to really know him!
Moses
God’s great lawgiver used the fact that “he knew God” (as an argument) … for knowing him better!
He said, “Now, therefore I pray thee If I have found favor in thy sight … I beseech thee (fervent/passionate) show me thy glory!” (Exodus 33:13, 18)
God was so pleased by Moses’ fervent desire the next day that He called Moses into the mount and in a solemn, holy procession made all his glory pass before him!
King David
His life was a life of spiritual desire to know god better!
• Always running to God ;to his house.
• Always meditating on the word of God.
• Always singing songs and writing new songs -songs of degrees to magnify and glorify and to exalt his name on high. “Just to know him means everything to me!”
• He took me from the sheepcote from following the sheep to be ruler over his people over Israel” (2 Samuel 7:8).
“I'm in a passionate pursuit to know God! (Isaiah)”
Isaiah 6:1-4 says
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, holy, holy, holy, is the lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.”
Then Isaiah cried out:
Woe is me since I’ve had “a revelation of who god is.
I need a divine visitation!
I need a new encounter with the Lord!
I need a cleansing!
I need a new anointing!
I need to do what i’ve been called to do!
I’m in a passionate pursuit to really know my God!
Here am I! Use me and send me!
That’s the cry of the holy prophets! That’s the desire of all the holy men and women of the past! That’s the call of the holy apostles!
It’s what the world needs now.
It’s what the church needs now and what you and I need as well; to know the one true almighty God.
We need to know the all present, all knowing, all powerful King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
C. S. Lewis wrote:
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in the world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I am made for another world!
That’s why “life” will never make sense until you know God! To know God requires
1) a passionate search
2) exposure to truth
3) a decision to submit to god’s commands, and
4) to be born again of water and the spirit according to Acts 2:38.
But for too many this is where their journey ends. They feel they have found god in a vital experience and the search is completed. Now they can go on with life!
Let me quote to you from Larry Crabb’s Book: Moving through your problems towards finding God-
“But for most of us, Christ is in the shadow and something else shines more brightly! That despicable fallen structure within (our tendency to doubt God’s goodness) has dulled our appetite for what is good! The energy of self-reliant spirit … has cut the deepest nerve-endings of our souls. Leaving us bored with those things … that could bring the richest joys. Caught up with the lesser and often sinful pleasures! We are more flattered by invitations to exclusive gatherings than we are by the opportunity of going to God’s house for worship. We find more delight in being wanted by certain people than in being accepted by God.
The loss of friends hurts more than loss of fellowship with Jesus Christ. He says, “somehow we have killed the passion that should be strongest … and are ruled by weaker passions.”
I’ve come today to beseech you; to plead with you.
Renew your passionate pursuit to know God in a personal, intimate way!
Seek Him and find Him when you seek Him with all your heart!
He will be found of you!”
Knowing God- really knowing God is the most important thing in life!
It has eternal consequences. It means life or death!
Jesus said, “Now this is eternal life; that you may know the only true God Jesus Christ, the Lord!”
Why did Paul consider knowing God the most valuable thing in this life and pursue Him with such intensity? Paul knew the power that knowing God brings to this life!
He desired fellowship in resurrection power!
For when we really know God in a personal, intimate way
we know that he is good,
that he is powerful,
he is in control,
we can trust him with our life,
he wants only the best for us, and
that he is actively working in our lives to bring that about!
Our future is only good and full of hope! We can, with confidence and boldness, face life’s tragedy and chaos. We know him, and he is much bigger and more powerful than the chaos!
His goodness overwhelms our tragedies and we know he cares about us. Knowing God in a personal, intimate way frees us to live our lives- depending on him and not on ourselves!
Scripture records countless stories of ordinary people who were weak, stumbling, and sinful. They found a path to knowing God and stayed on it.
Hosea proclaimed God’s compassion even though his own heart was shattered by an unfaithful wife.
Habakkuk skipped through mountains while trembling with terror over his country’s imminent destruction.
The hatred of friends couldn’t drown god’s fire in Jeremiah’s heart.
Peter was thrilled with the memory of JesusChrist’s sacrifice and he didn’t feel worthy to die in the same upright position as his Lord, so he requested his executioner to crucify him upside down.
They know that knowing God is the most important thing in life. It is why we are here. It is our purpose and finding him is to find a priceless treasure!
Are you ready to make the number one pursuit in your life by knowing God in a personal and intimate way? Do you want Him more than anything else?
“You will seek me and find me … when you seek me with all your heart! I will be found of you!”
Let’s seek him together!
Yours for the Kingdom,
Pastor Kinsey
