Last night as we were winding down, I watched some videos on social experiments. Although they were all a little different the main theme was the same. They took a well-dressed man and another that looked like a homeless man; they both used crutches and would fall in front of people. I bet you can guess which of the two men were helped to his feet. Yes, not the homeless man. That brought tears to my eyes. I began to think about what I would do if I were placed in that situation. I hope I would do the right thing and assist both men back to their feet. The sad thing is we are placed in that situation everyday. Okay maybe not with the physical falling of someone in front of us, but there is more to falling than just physical. Have you ever passed a homeless person walking down the highway? I know what you’re thinking; you don’t know if that person might hurt me if I picked them up. True, but have you ever passed a broken down car and then come up on its driver down the road and picked them up? Yes, I have done the same thing. The Apostle James says something about that type of action. If you look with favor on the man wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor man, “Stand over there,” or, “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,” James 2:3 HCSB Don’t you see how when we treat people based upon outward appearance that we are doing exactly what the Pharisees did in the time of Jesus. Jesus called those types of people hypocrites because they professed to love God with their mouths but their actions never showed the same fruit. It is not just about picking somebody up off the ground or giving somebody a ride. The real issue is not making snap judgments based upon what we see on the outside. Mankind has been plagued with this problem since before any of you that read this were ever born. In the Bible we find that when God was picking King David even the Prophet thought he was an unlikely candidate. Jesus himself was not one that people would have picked to be the Messiah. After all he was poor and from a family of no importance to society. Jesus would draw people to him based upon what he was doing not based upon how he looked. I find another situation to be true a lot of times. We generally only want to witness to a certain kind of person. We may make a snap judgment based upon what they look like or how we think they will respond. Thereby deciding for them if they are really worthy to hear the Gospel of Christ. Our churches today do the same thing as we go out visiting and inviting people to worship with us. Many churches have the us four and no more mentality. If they don’t look like us act like us or come from the same social circle, they need to find somewhere else to worship. Let me share an illustration I have used a number of times while preaching. One Sunday morning an old cowboy put on his best pair of jeans and shirt and decided today was the day to go to church. So off he headed and marched right in as proud as he could be. The service had already begun so the preacher saw the guy walk in. The service was a good one and the cowboy really enjoyed himself. The end came and it was time to go home and the preacher was in the back shaking hands. The cowboy got to him and the preacher was friendly, he stepped to the side with the cowboy and said he was glad that he was here, but asked him to go home and pray and ask God what he should wear when coming to that church. So the week passed and the cowboy got dressed and headed off to church again. Same jeans and shirt. The preacher saw him come in and began to get furious. The sermon was preached songs were sung and the service concluded. The preacher caught the cowboy and began to unload upon him. The preacher asked the man if he had done as he was asked and prayed to God to find out what he was suppose to wear to that church. The cowboy replied God said He didn’t know He hadn’t ever been here. You see we have churches today that are just going through the motions of a church but really don’t even let God come in. The church was established to be a hospital for the hurting not a country club for the self-righteous. I read a quote, but not sure who it comes from, but here it is anyway. A man’s character can be told by how he treats somebody he can gain nothing from. How true that statement really is. But if you are a follower of Christ, you understand that it is not the Earthly stuff you are after. My Challenge to you today is look past the outward appearance and do the right thing when it comes to helping people.
Author: pastortoney
I am a follower of Christ. I have the privilege to pastor a group of followers at That Church. We believe Restoration is for Everybody.
If it is a Good New Journey, why won’t they listen?
Why won’t people listen to me when I try to share the Gospel? I have found that all the excuses can be lumped into just a few. They are as follows; there are many ways to God, I do not believe or have always believed in God, how can a loving God condemn someone to hell, and why does God allow evil and pain to take place? All of these raise valid concern in an unbelievers mind and I a will attempt to answer these with both practical answers and biblical references.
First let us address the comment there are many ways to God. I will often agree with this statement and then clarify what I mean. I will say there are many ways to God, because at some point everyone will stand before Him for judgment. But John 14:6 says “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. In this verse we see that God is referred to, as Father and that will show the loving aspect of God. He has given us the chance to be one of His children through accepting the work of Christ on the cross. John 1:12-13 says But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. You see thinking there are many ways to God and Believing in the One true way to the Father are completely different things.
Second we will address whether or not you believe in God. Let us tackle when someone says I don’t believe in God. I sometimes will say you can stand out in the middle of the road and say I don’t believe in big trucks, but if one hits you that doesn’t change the fact that it really existed. Or if you say I don’t believe in gravity and jump out of a plane without a parachute, it won’t change the fact that you will be picked up in pieces will it. See God doesn’t exist because we believe in Him or not, He has always existed as shown in Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,”* says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.” Next let us deal with the person who says I have always believed in God. Often times I say that is awesome so it should not be a stretch for you to believe in His son Jesus Christ and what He has done for you. I will even goes as far as giving them James 2:19-20 that says you say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. * Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. 20 How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?
Third let us talk about if you face the question how can a loving God condemn someone to hell? I will often times just say off the cuff the it is not God that condemns people to hell, we take care of that all by ourselves. Then I will share John 3:16-18 that says 16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.
Fourth let us deal with the question of why does God allow evil and pain to take place? I will instantly say that is not Gods fault that evil or hurt takes place. I will often times try and take them all the way back to the garden and walk through what sin has done to the world. Therefore explaining that it is not really allowing bad things to happen, but sin causing bad things to happen. Make sense?
Now to attempt to provide some comfort and assurance to people who have made a decision to follow Jesus Christ. We have all heard the parable of the farmer and the seeds, just in case here is a small part to illustrate what could happen “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. 4 As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. 5 Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. 6 But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. I believe personally that after decisions to follow our sin nature automatically tries to make us believe that we really didn’t do what we thought. People will always doubt if you make Salvation out to be something it was not intended to be. I first want people to realize that Jesus simply says to follow Him first, He knows that you still have hang ups and your not perfect. He will change you from the inside out, just give Him time to work. I am also quick to share with them stories of the disciples Peter mostly and even Paul had struggles after he got saved. The most important thing I believe you can tell somebody is that Salvation is a one and done, you can’t lose it couldn’t give it back if you wanted to. Whom Jesus saves He seals and holds in His hands where nothing can ever remove you. You might have times that you need to check your salvation that is good that means the Holy Spirit is working in you to remove some impurities. Just stop and pray for guidance and trust in the finished work of the cross. If none of the above stuff seems to comfort them at all, I sometimes ask if they are sure they got saved or were they just following the crowd at the time. I then share my story of just following the crowd in third grade and show how dangerous that really is. People it is ok to pray with somebody again so that they know for sure they are saved. You would want somebody to do that for you.
Are you Sharing????????
What would you do to see someone you love accept Jesus? What about someone that you just know? What about someone you have never met? Here is one for you, what about someone you don’t like? We all know what the Bible says that we are to share Jesus. You see we all want our family to know Jesus. Or that is what we say. The way we act is will far out way what we tell them about Jesus. I heard tonight to words that made a lot of sense. Live It!!!!!! You see we don’t tell our loved ones about Jesus near enough. Things just tend to get harder with the people that we know. After all we don’t want to offend our friends. What we are really saying when we don’t share Christ, is that they can just go to Hell. Then we come to those people that we don’t like, we are Christians so we don’t say hate. Truth be told it would be easier on you if would quit lying to yourself. Everybody else knows the truth, just open your eyes and do what Jesus commanded you to do. When we don’t share Jesus what we are really telling people is that we hate them enough to send them to Hell for eternity. You see we as Christians have one assignment here on Earth. We are commanded to share Christ with the world and teach the new believers how to duplicate themselves. Not the hardest job in the world. When we are saved and God transforms your life we should get excited about it. We should want to tell other people what has happened in our lives. Jesus gave His life for ours and all he asks us in return is to share the Good news with other people. So let me ask Are you Sharing Christ?
Death at 6PM
What would you do if you knew you would die at 6pm tonight? I know what you are thinking not another one of these. I have had to think more about this question in the last week. On Friday last week, I was speaking at one of our local nursing homes. The subject that day was the unchanging Jesus, great topic. Well at the close of the message I asked the same question that I have opened up with here. We prayed and then sang Jesus Loves Me. I looked at one of the residents there, assuming that they had fallen asleep due to my preaching. We tried to wake the resident to no avail, and then we began to panic. There was no pulse, they were not breathing, and all the while I am thinking about that question. Turns out the resident had what they believed was a heart attack, but for all of us who were in that room it became a wake up call. You see we have all made the statement that if I knew I was going to die I would be busy about sharing Jesus or fixing broken relationships. The Bible tells us that we are all going to die and then we will face the judgment. You might say well I don’t believe the Bible. That is fine, what about this? Statistics prove that 5 out of 5 people die. You can’t argue with that, can you? Have you ever known someone younger than you that died? Maybe you have seen it on the news or read about it in the paper. You see we all have to face the same end. The scary thing I guess is, you don’t know when it is coming. The Bible says our lives are like a vapor of water, here and then gone that quickly. Yes I admit it would be great to know exactly when you were going to die, so that you could make sure that there were no lose strings left. But we don’t know. So why not live our lives like today is the last. Share Jesus with the ones you love, share Jesus with those you come into contact with. Maybe you don’t even know Jesus, well now is a good time to meet Him. Remember you may not make it to 6pm.
What if or Why not?
Ever been posed with the question, What if this Jesus stuff isn’t real? Or maybe you have thought about that yourself. For me this is a question that plagued me for many years. What if? I would pretend to be a follower of Jesus with my Sunday mornings or even some of my money. But as soon as I got out of there it was back to life as normal. I would ask myself the question what if it isn’t real? Why would I want to devote myself to something that may or may not be real? I had seen the power of God in other people’s lives, but never in my own. After all why would God allow my grandpa and dad to die within a year? Why would He allow my mom to get messed up and lose her children into foster care? Why would we be bounced around from here to there without the slightest show of affection? If God were real why would all of this happen to me? I have to say that based upon my past, my future didn’t look too bright. I had to make it on my own, because nobody was going to hand me anything. I kept pushing on, even after what seemed like mistake after mistake. All the while believing that I was doing it on my own. After all in my mind why would I devote myself to a God who didn’t care about me? Well then it happened! The answer to my question was given to me. I was able to discover that this Jesus thing was real. I understood why people devoted their lives to Him. You might be saying right now, how? Well, in christianese I got saved. In plain man’s talk, I began a one on one relationship with Jesus the Son of God. I finally realized that everything that had happened in my life and been carefully planned out by the very Creator of the Universe. You see as a 6-year-old kid when life falls apart you don’t understand anything. God spoke to me through His Word and explained that everything that had happened in my life had to happen to make me who He wanted me to be. So have I ever asked the question What If? Yes. Now I know that the answer is yes Jesus is real and I want to devote my entire life to Him, because He gave His life for me. You know He will do it for you also. All you have to do is Admit that you are a sinner (that means you have broken the ten commandments), Believe Jesus really paid the price for your sins (Hung on a cross and died not because He deserved to but for you), and Confess that you want to be saved (start a one on one relationship with Jesus). See it really is that easy. So why ask what if? Why not ask Why not?
Are you a Negative Nancy?
Ever feel like the world is winning this race? Like everything that you try to do for the Lord is beat by the world. I sometimes feel like when I try to do something that is Kingdom focused, that I get smacked in the face by the world. People question me about my motives or even the purpose. We do a food give away in our town. It isn’t much but the people in our town are grateful. There are people in our community that think this is crazy. They make statements like let them get out and work for their food. I agree, people should be willing to work to provide for themselves and families. The Bible tells us that we as Christians should be willing to do whatever we can for the poor and needy. I am not talking about giving them money. I am talking about some of the basics to life. You can find people all over that are takers and not givers. The sad thing is that most of our churches today are made up of takers. They want to know what the church can do for them. When you begin to do things for the community they get upset because you are taking things away from them. We are told many times to focus on Kingdom things and to lay up treasures in Heaven. I have come to the point that people are going to talk and that is fine. I don’t have to worry about the negative stuff. God has already won the war. Battles may be fought daily here on earth, but rest assured we are more than victors when Jesus is in charge. So are you one of those people that complain or always try to hinder something God is doing? I know you say how do I know God is doing it? Well if it lines up with the Word, then it is God. Do you feel that the world or people are always smacking you? Just remember that we work for the Master and His approval. People will always be upset about things that may not be their idea, or is taking something they feel away from them. So don’t be a taker, but be a giver. Don’t be the negative Nancy about things, but jump in and work for the Kingdom.
Show them or Tell Him
Did you do anything today for Jesus? You said that you are a follower of Jesus, right. Don’t you want to go to Heaven? Don’t you have any faith? Why aren’t you working for the King? You see in these questions lie some of the problems in the modern day follower of Christ. Jesus said if you love Him that you would obey His commands. That means at the very least you will at least tell somebody about Him. Then you begin to run into the problem where people think you have to work your way to Heaven. You see Jesus’ brother James talks about this for us. He tells us that if we aren’t working that we must not have very much faith. Let me ask you why in the world would we work? Well Jesus died for us so why wouldn’t we work for Him? We don’t work for His benefit. We are working as a witness to other people that we really believe in Jesus. Nothing gripes me more than when I hear people tell me how much they love Jesus and do nothing to show Him. Or when they say that they would die for Jesus, but can’t even get them to live for Him. Don’t you think that we are just talkers? You see we can show the world that we really do believe in Jesus by doing what He tells us. We can also show Jesus that we love Him by doing what Jesus said. So allow me to say this, why don’t you get up and do something for Jesus? James says show me your faith without works and I will show you my faith through works. Your call. It is show and tell time.
Why aren’t you dressed like I said?
Have you ever felt that you have to change to meet the expectations others have for you? People have set the rules for us, instead of God. Shouldn’t we be more concerned about what God says we should be, instead of what so and so says? When we get saved we tend to get put into the Christian mold. People tell us what should be in our lives or what shouldn’t be in them. Why do we try to impose our will upon new converts? Don’t we tell people how to dress and what they should do? We even expect people to quit everything that they were doing right away. I would submit that we have missed the boat. Our churches should be filled with people that look just like the world. I am not saying that they should continue to be like the world. They should give up sin lifestyles. But, who are we to tell people how they should look or what they should wear. Yeah I am one of those preachers that wear jeans and a button up shirt. I used to wear a suit and tie. I realize that God saved Toney, because He wanted Toney. I have tried to impose what I thought a Christian was supposed to look like. I realized that God wanted me to be me. That is why He saved me. Are you following? God new that who He made me to be was what He wanted to use. We all can’t be the hands; some of us have to be the feet. The Bible says we are all different parts of the same body. You see we aren’t supposed to look the same. So if that is really true, why do we have a dress code for the people joining our churches? God understands that we are all different, why can’t we? So if you have a three-piece suit or a pair of blue jeans it doesn’t really matter. God doesn’t look at the outside, but looks directly to the heart. So what is your heart dressed in? Quit imposing your standards on people and let God do what God can only do.
Keep your nose in my buisness!!!!
Have you ever said I will pray for you? Or maybe you have thought well that is your problem, take care of it yourself. Hey I think that we are all guilty of that. We live in a society where we are trained to mind your own business. Maybe you have heard it said this way, Mind your own business or don’t put your nose where it doesn’t belong. After all we don’t want to offend anyone by putting our nose where it doesn’t belong. The Bible says something different from what the world says. The Bible actually tells us to bare each other’s burdens. If we see a fellow believer in trouble to step in and help them out. So, if we believe the Bible is God’s Word and is the mandate for the way we are to live our life. Why don’t we do what it says? Instead of just saying oh I will pray for you. See I think that all to often we try to get off the hook by offering a small prayer for the person in need. After all we don’t want to put our noses where they don’t belong. Most of the time we pray for people we are asking God to help them. We don’t even realize that God has already sent the help in the form of the people in His church. I am not saying that we shouldn’t pray to God on the behalf of others. What we need to realize is God is not a genie in bottle. He choses to work through us to help His people. God has instructed us to bare each other’s burdens. To help each other out. So next time don’t just say I will pray for you, but offer to be the helping hand of God to that person.
What have you sown?
Have you ever heard, what you sow you will reap? Do we really understand what that means? I mean we understand that it has a physical meaning right. After all if you spend your life drinking and drugging, we all know how that ends up. Or say we over eat, and then we know what happens after that. Well you know this has a spiritual meaning to it also. God says to us what we sow we will reap because He is not mocked. What does all that really mean? Well let’s start at the end. God is not mocked. You can’t expect to live a life wide open doing what you want and never have to answer for it to God. He sees all and knows all, so it isn’t like you are doing anything in the dark. Did you realize that even though you go into your house and close the door, God could still see you? So you will have to pay the piper so to speak at some point. So let’s look at the first part, what you sow you will reap. I always think of this as a big savings account. If I sow or do good things I will have good things come my way down the road. If I sow or do bad things, I can expect to have bad things come my way down the road. This doesn’t have anything to do with going to Heaven, as Heaven is the gift of God and we do nothing to earn it. When we do things not expecting to gain anything here on earth, we will reap the benefits later in heaven. That is a lot of what making the decision to trust Jesus is. We chose to sow that decision into our life and then we reap the benefits of it. Have you sown Jesus into your life?
Thoughts from Pastor Toney 