Pmkyker’s Weblog

Growth. Spiritual or Numerical….either way….growth brings about challenges.

If, you start growing spiritually…then it will cause tension within your relationships. “What do you mean you don’t want to go out to the bar tonight?” or you give your heart to the Lord and you hear from your family “But, I don’t want to go to church…I would rather go the beach.” It will cause challenges within your lifestyle. You will have to make time to read the word, to pray, or to serve in an area of ministry. It will cause challenges in our church. You will hear people say things like “I didn’t hear about that.” or “I didn’t know that everyone was getting together!” As a leader in the church the demand for my time increases, but also the time with the Lord is also has to increase. As the pastor of a growing church the increased need for more room and staff because of growth has caused tension to mount on our income. So I have come to this conclusion….

Growth takes alot of work! No wonder churches opt to stay small. Am I complaining. No way! I am just pointing out to you that we don’t need to shrink back in our faith because of a few challenges. Check out what Joshua and Caleb had to face.

They had giants facing them down, but they also had everything they needed. Food and water, an unlimited supply of clothing, and leadership that was watching over them. They were comfortable. Another words….it was going to be a challenge to grow! Are you facing some challenges in your walk with God? Are you being challenged to grow? Or, has growth caused you to have to face some challenges? Either way as a church body…we need to be ready to grow. We need to be ready to move forward no matter the cost! It’s about the gospel. It’s about moving forward in Him! If, we can do that then God will touch us and lives will be touched by the power of God.

So, great men’s meeting last night. I challenged the men pretty hard to let this past weekend be a turning point for their lives and not just a really good memory or a really good weekend that they have had. I used the passage of scripture out of Matthew that says this:

Matt 13:1-9
13:1 On that day Jesus went out of the house, and was sitting by the sea. 2 And great multitudes gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole multitude was standing on the beach. 3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 “And others fell upon the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 “But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 “And others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. 8 “And others fell on the good soil, and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 9 “He who has ears, let him hear.”
I challenged the men to read their Bible for ten minutes a day until the first of November. All of the men responded very positively and we are going for it! I can’t wait to see the power of God do something really big in our men!

The question that I have for you is this…….are you good soil? Or do you let the cares of life choke out what God is doing in you? Or is it hard ground where nothing can grow? Let God move in your life and in your spirit and you will see some big things happen. Become good soil for Him to plant into!

So, a few weeks back Pastor John (what an awesome man of God) calls me and asks me if I recieved an e-mail that he had forwarded to me earlier in the day. I could tell by the way he sounded…I was not going to enjoy this e-mail. But, never one to run from a fight or anything that might be confrontational, I logged in to my account. Pastor John sat on the phone patiently waiting for me to read what had been sent to me.

We had a random guy in the city drive by our sign and ask….”If, your church signs says that No Perfect People are Allowed…I guess that means you won’t let Jesus in?” Now, heh…I have to admit…I was flippin out. I couldn’t believe my eyes to tell you the truth. We don’t let Jesus in the building because he is perfect and we are not? So, instead of responding to the guy (I wanted to so bad, but PJ kept me in check) I decided to push the gas and keep moving on.

I do want to share with you my heart for why our church has taken such a unique stand with our community.

First of all, Jesus isn’t here anymore.

Eph 1:19-21 says this:

9 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

And Colossians 3:1 says this
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Jesus Himself said in John 16:7-8
7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
8 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;

My point is this…Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father, and according to Hebrews 7:25, is now making intercession for us as the ultimate high priest. He said, I have to go…I need to go…I must go…so that I can send my Holy Spirit to convict the world concerning sin. Now, if you are perfect you don’t need conviction because you have no sin…BUT…if you are imperfect, as we all are, then wouldn’t the best place for imperfect people to go would be where the Holy Spirit resides?

Secondly, Eph 4:11-12 says this:
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

If, we were perfect, once again, why would we need to be perfected? What would be the point?

The church is a place of perfecting those who are not perfect, and the last time I checked none of us are perfect!

Our churches have become a huge cess pool of judgement, negativity, and hopelessness…. without any real power of conviction or change. But, if we gather those who are imperfect then we desperately need the Holy Spirit all the more, so that He can bring about life change in people’s heart and spirit.

The next time Jesus comes back to this Earth it will be for His bride. Until then, our goal is to work on perfecting the saints and guess what….the saints aren’t perfect!

This weekend I am starting a two week series on what college football has taught me. **Warning****….it will be hard hitting and controversial. You want to move forward in God, make sure and be a part of God’s team. You want to move forward in God, make sure and be at church Sunday!

Sneak peek point-

1. If a team ignores the offensive plays being called in the team will not score.

Think about that point for one minute. God is trying to talk to us, but if we ignore him…then we will fail in life. He is talking to us but are we hearing the plays? How can I hear the plays that God is calling in?

Think about it..are you ignoring God’s word, but yet you still want God to bless you? Are you doing things your own way and not God’s? Are you having sex outside of marriage and expecting blessings on your life, are you refusing to bring your tithe and offering into the storehouse and expect God to honor you in your finances, or are you looking at your brother or sister with hatred in your heart and want God to still bless your relationships? Then STOP! Listen to the plays being called in…the Word of God…is speaking to you! Listen!

So….ok…Wow! I can’t tell you how good God is. I mean his love is so awesome and his power just makes mountains fall before Him. We have had so many good weekends in the past couple of years, but nothing compares to what has happened this weekend. First of all, we had our men’s retreat and let me just say…wow! Men were weeping at the foot of the cross all weekend long…it was amazing! Absolutely amazing! Then we came home and God touched our church in our anniversary services and it too was amazing!

• Great message on the door by Pastor Kent Davis. It was powerful. It’s time to move to a new place as a church body.
• Donnie brought his Bible up front and started to share awesome things from it. It’s amazing to see people break bad in God’s word.
• I am really really tired and drained. I haven’t felt poured out like this in a looong time.
• My wife looked so gorgeous today. (You know…its all about her! )
• Praise and worship team once again knocked it out of the park!
• The door almost killed people! I was nervous the whole time.
• Josh in a cheerleading outfit. Need I say more?
• We had 2 people re-dedicate their lives to the Lord and 1 of them gave their life to Jesus for the first time!
•  Some men who were being up and down about the retreat…came…and ended up being changed by the power of God!
• This week I’m going to start reading some new books!
• Prayer and Praise…we will talk more about these later!