Month: January 2017

Missions. Missions. Missions. That is what we here from everyone all the time. Next week four of our family here, will leave for a mission trip. We will have a missionary here to present the work God has called him too. We ask for special offerings around Christmas and Easter to support extra missions efforts. We talk about being on Mission in our day-to-day lives. Why so much emphasis on missions? Well let me be frank about it. If we don’t tell people about Jesus who is going to do it? Aren’t you glad that a missionary shared the Gospel with the person who shared it with you? You might say to yourself it wasn’t a missionary that shared it. Well if you trace it back far enough you will see that it was. You see Jesus sent the twelve out as missionaries to carry the Gospel to the lost and dying. Jesus went a step further after His resurrection. He commanded us to carry the Gospel out. Now some might think I am not called to be a missionary. Well let me tell you that you have stinking thinking. If your saved you have been called. It is our responsibility to share the Good News with a lost and dying world. So yes Missions, Missions, Missions. Let us get busy.

As I sit here I ponder the question am I doing enough for Jesus? You know I’m sure that we all ask ourselves that same very question. I would like to see people saved every week, watch peoples marriages improve and watch their lives radically change. Often times I will have ideas pop up about how to reach more people or how to get others to listen to the truth and apply it in their lives. Then that question pops up again am I doing enough for Jesus? To be real I have to answer no. I know that may catch some of you by surprise but before you gather the rocks up listen to me. There is always more that I could do for Jesus. Do I share Jesus in my personal life outside of church? Yes. Do I try and speak wisdom into people’s lives concerning their marriages? Yes. Do I tell others that have a relationship with Jesus that they can do more and allow Jesus to radically change their lives? Yes. So maybe you’re saying that you’re doing fine pastor. You see that is what I don’t want to hear. Jesus gave his life for me. Why can’t I give my life for him? The Apostle Paul whom we all know did all he could, made the statement that he hadn’t attained but continued to push for the mark. You see as much as I accomplish I can’t ever be ok with it. I need to always be trying to do more for Jesus. Imagine this for every person I don’t share Jesus with that is one less person I can ever share with. I know that is a little confusing, but I don’t ever want someone to go to hell because I failed to share what Jesus has done for him or her. So let us all keep pushing, don’t sit down, and don’t shut up, let’s work until Jesus returns.

Why be faithful? Doesn’t that seem like a strange question for a pastor to ask? Of course I want you to be faithful. Often times with the New Year come new challenges and new opportunities. We begin to be stretchered in ways physically, mentally and financially. Some of the things look great on the outside but will turn out to be rotten on the inside. Some of the things might look skeptical at the beginning but will turn out wonderful at the end. Some things may look like a waste of money on the front end but the eternal impact will be everlasting. We as followers of Christ are commanded not to give up, not to grow tired in well doing. What does that really mean for you and me? Well I think it means much of what I have already said. When we are doing things for Jesus we should continue to press on regardless of how it may look on the outside. I know that you hear me say a lot about working for Jesus. I know personally it is easy to want to give up or just kind of back off a little bit. Don’t do it. You will fight to ever get started again. I also know from personal experience that it is easy not to give to the local church when things are tight or when there are other things you want to do. Understand that without your giving or your working the ministry of our local church stops. So to answer the why be faithful question? Because people you may know or people you have never met depend upon your faithfulness to hear about Jesus.

You have made it to another year. We will take the time to look back at the many good things that happened and talk about the struggles that occurred. But the fact remains that today you get to set new goals. We start with a clean slate and get to try and reach the stars this year. Maybe some of your goals this year will be to lose weight, or to read the Bible everyday. I am not sure what goals you will set for yourself this year. I would like to offer a word of advice or caution depending on how you take it. When we set goals it will give us something to strive for. We should all want to get better or improve in areas of our lives. Unfortunately we set goal sometimes that don’t make a lot of sense. For instance maybe you are saying that you are going to go to the gym three times a week. But the facts are that you don’t currently go even three times a month. Now I’m not saying that you can’t pull it off, but be realistic with your goals. Try to set goals that are attainable and build upon them. Setting goals that have eternal impacts are always a great idea. The one thing I want you to know is even if you don’t achieve them; you’re not a failure. God loves you so much that when you mess up, He will dust you off and let you try again. We all mess up and don’t achieve everything we think we should. The way we achieve success is not only being able to achieve our goals, but it’s not giving up even when we fail the first time. Let’s make this year different in the terms of not only achieving our goals but not giving up when we don’t make it the first time.