Author: pastortoney

Excuses Excuse. We all have them don’t we? May be your excuse for not gathering with people to worship is that someone was mean to you. Maybe you don’t like the music. Maybe you don’t like the preacher. Maybe you don’t like the fact that they have chairs and not pews or pews and not chairs. The list could go on and on. I could list hundreds of reasons I don’t want to go places. God began a work on me a long time ago to show me that my way is not His way. That just because I don’t like things doesn’t mean that I get to be disobedient. Let me put it this way. When I was younger and just a teenage boy, my parents set a curfew. Remember what that was. Now I didn’t like the fact that my sister who was the same age as me could stay out an hour longer than I could. So I decided that I would just stay out like she did. Well there we consequences to that decision. You guessed it. I got punished. You see God has instructed us to gather with His family in corporate worship. When we chose not to, don’t expect your father in Heaven to act like everything is Okie dokie. God will take you behind the woodshed and tear up your spiritual backside. So remember that next time you think about an excuse to give about being disobedient.

In today’s society it is so easy to get off track. To run of the road so to speak. After all with cell phones everyone is either watching their phones or watching out for the other person on their phone. Don’t let an accident happen off the side of the road. It seems like everyone who has nothing to do with the accident has to slow down or stop so they can figure out what is happening. It seems like just about anything could cause us to run off the road or get off the path we are on. Our walk with Jesus is a lot like that. You see Jesus said to follow me and when we take our eyes off of Him and begin to watch the ditches or other distractions we lose sight of him. The devil will use any and everything to distract us or even make us crash. You see the more that we can be slowed down or even taken off course the more the devil wins. We are talking about Remembering God is on your side. Depression or lack of self worth will cause us to wreck in our lives. God will be the one there to encourage you even when no one else says a word. Just keep your eyes on the road and out of the ditches.

Yesterday was the day!! It is the day that I waited for my whole life. What is that you might ask? Father’s Day!!! All I ever wanted was to be a dad. I was going to do a much better job then all the guys who tried to wear that hat in my life. My kids and I would have the perfect relationships and they would be the perfect children. Well I guess if you know me at all then you have met my kids. I haven’t always been a good dad much less a perfect dad. You see we parent the same way that our parents did us, or we tend to go the drastic opposite. I have done both. It wasn’t until I got saved that I truly understood what it meant to have a dad that would love me regardless of anything that I would or have done. Now when the day comes around I am not trying to be anything that I am not, nor do I expect my kids to be anything that they are not. I love them for who they are and what they will become, just like God loves me. Happy Father’s Day

The week after the resurrection was no doubt an interesting week for the followers of Christ. For those of us who walk the Earth today, it is just as interesting. As we see the world unfold, we remember the things Jesus has said and wonder how they are going to all work out. The disciples were no different than we are. Often times we read about these men and begin to attribute super powers to them. Surely they all had great Faith and Trust in what Jesus had said. They couldn’t have been afraid of what man would do to them, could they? We always think that they just set the world on fire with no fear. What they had to do no doubt was have complete reliance upon God. They had to constantly be reminded by each other and the Holy Spirit that if God was on their side they could accomplish what they were being sent out to accomplish. As we begin this new series we are going to see that God is on our side. With that said it doesn’t mean that you won’t doubt or even be scared sometimes. What it does mean is that if we approach everything that we do with the understanding that God has prepared us and given us everything we need to do what He has asked. Leave the results up to Him and just be obedient.

What are you going to do with it? That is a powerful question to stop and think about. We are all given things by God, and we must answer the question what are you going to do with it? This week we were smacked in the face with a completely different culture. We saw poverty like we have never dreamed of. Now we must ask ourselves the question what are you going to do with it? Our experience may not be yours. Maybe you were given the Gospel for the first time. Now you are faced answering the question what are you going to do with it? Maybe you have had God lay something on your heart to help people. Now you have to answer the question what are going to do with it? We all have times in our lives that God will speak to our hearts and impress different truths on us. Then we all have that time of decision, when we have to answer the question what am I going to do with it? We make decisions everyday that answer that question, we just don’t think about it. We all have had to answer the question when it comes to Jesus. You have heard that He is the Son of God and that He died for you. You have heard it said that if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that you will be saved. Then the question comes. So what are you going to do with what God has given to you?

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.

I grew up as a child in and out of foster care for about twelve years and often felt that know one should or even would love me. Might I say that I was not the easiest child to get close to or to actually love? As I grew up, I did things that would make you really think about weather or not you really wanted to love me. As I got into adulthood I never wanted anyone to know about me, because then how could they love me? I am sure that everyone reading this has felt that way a some point in his or her lives or relationships. Do you ever feel like I do that God shouldn’t love you? I know that sounds like a weird question to ask yourself. The fact is we all know what we are and what we have done. We all feel that if God really knew everything about us that He wouldn’t want to love us. I want you to know today that God does know everything that you have done and what you will do. Yet He sent His son to die for you. You see Christmas is really all about love. Not just the birth of a child, but the greatest show of love that mankind has every seen. You see should God really love people who want nothing to do with Him? Well the answer to that question is no, but God choses to love us in spite of us. This Christmas why don’t you find that person that your not suppose to love and love them anyways.