The View From My Window Pastor's Weekly Blog

One of the great equalizers to a world that is lost in sin, that God has provided for us, is His church. He gives us the opportunity to belong together. People of like mind, who love God and are striving to please Him gather and do life together. Attending a church is a good thing, becoming a member, even better. But, are you really a part of a church; a functioning, contributing, participating slice of the body of Christ? Are you missed when you are missing? Do you impact others when you are here? I believe there are short seasons where a believer may need to “hide” in a congregation for a while as they heal or rest because of a battle from which they’re recovering. However, that season shouldn’t last for the rest of your life. Find a way to get to know the others in our fellowship better. Make it so we just can’t function without you!

There’s a big difference between the church you attended as a child and the church you grew up in. Some people have attended church all their lives and they still haven’t matured. We’re talking today about the time in your life when you “got it”, when you stopped being a consumer and started becoming a servant. When enough of us step over that threshold, we’ll really see what God intended when He initiated the church.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

If our dog suspects I’m going to be leaving the house he follows me very closely wherever I go. If he suspects both of us are leaving, he goes and hides (he doesn’t like to be locked in his crate). If we don’t lock him in his crate, he’ll still go in there to sleep while we’re gone. Often, when we’re all home, he crawls into his crate to nap.

Lately, he’s been jumping out of our bed in the middle of the night and sleeping in his pen. Still, if we put him in it, lock its door then leave the house we can hear him barking. What’s the difference between him sleeping in his pen while we’re home or away? He feels more secure if he knows we’re home with him. He often likes to cuddle up close to one of us but is also content to just have his own space, unless, of course, we’re not within barking distance.

Too many of us have become content knowing that God is within shouting range. He’s sovereign, He loves us and that’s good enough for us. It’s time to snuggle a little closer. Get close enough to hear Him call you to do things you couldn’t possibly do without Him. Then don’t be content unless you feel Him close by your side.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

Several years ago we had a fellow that was very motivated to pitch a proposal to our church to convert to a geo-thermal heating system. I asked him to give us a ballpark figure of the cost so we’d know if it’s even worth considering. He refused but insisted we needed to hear the whole presentation before making a decision. An hour into his lecture, hearing that it would require the drilling of over 80 wells, I once again asked for a general estimate. He insisted on plowing ahead before revealing the costs. Finally, after two more hours of graphs, pictures, and projections he gave us the final figure: it was north of $300,000. According to his calculations the system would pay for itself in just over fifty years.

As a board we collectively laughed out loud, then we groaned for having lost three hours of our life. The man was lucky to get out of the building in one piece. Some things take a lot longer than they need to. Waiting on a promise from the Lord can take a long time but, in some cases, we’re the ones holding up progress on the project. However, it’s good to know that the Lord always keeps up His end of the bargain.

Pastor Joel Everhart

Lent is a lot like spring cleaning for the soul. The holidays were great but chances are our flesh grew a bit through them. We ate too much, may have some left over negative feelings toward a few people who didn’t act the way we thought they should have, maybe had a difficult time getting back to our normal routine…

It’s time to ask God to take His scrub brush to our soul once again. Scrub away all the accumulated flesh and allow room for more of the Spirit. One of the best tools for that process is fasting. The very fact that we hate to fast makes it a perfect device for the job. Disappoint your flesh until it finds its delight in the Lord.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

I’m not in this position but I know some people who don’t trust members of their own family. A few can’t trust anyone in their family! That’s very sad. Even if they attend a family event, they have to stay guarded, feeling alone, on edge.

Jesus came to His own and His own did not receive Him (John 1:11). Jesus’ own brothers didn’t support His ministry until after the resurrection. He experienced times when large numbers of His followers left. Others were actively working on plans to kill Him. If not for fellowship with the Father and the Spirit, Jesus’ life would have been a very lonely life to have lived.

May we be able to find our worth, our encouragement, our purpose from the primary source of the members of the Godhead. Earthly friends will come and go, they’ll love you one minute and greatly disappoint you the next. Our God Friend will never leave nor forsake us. What a Friend we have in Jesus!

-Pastor Joel Everhart

Not everyone who says to Jesus, “Lord, Lord, did we not [do all kinds of stuff] in Your Name?” will enter into the Kingdom of God. Perhaps there is no viler a use of Jesus’ name in vain than to use it as if He is your Savior yet never serve Him as your Lord. You worship Him, even do some Kingdom work but pick and choose when to be obedient, which commands you will obey, and just how you will spend your hours and years.

There’s an old saying: “If Jesus isn’t Lord of all, He isn’t Lord at all.” A lot of people followed Jesus for a while when He walked this earth. When things got confusing or difficult, they left. The same has been happening ever since. Most people follow Jesus at their convenience. Some are “fair weather” Christians while others only bother with Him when they’re in real trouble. Where are the people who are willing to live and die for Jesus? What about you?

-Pastor Joel Everhart

When I was a boy, I took swimming lessons at the YMCA. We got to the part where they were going to teach me to jump off the diving board. I got to the end of the board, looked down at the water and said, “No thank you.” I turned and walked off the diving board. Apparently, the life guard teaching the lesson was busy talking to someone and didn’t see me exit stage left. He thought I dived and never came up. He was really quite agitated when I was found to be alive, well and dry. Go figure.

Trials we face are actually private lessons from God. Each is designed to school us in an area where we’re week. Just like that life guard who made me “walk the plank”, God doesn’t take “no” for an answer. He’s going to develop our faith or at least put us through experiences designed to do just that. We might as well learn since we’re going to go through the trial anyway.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

God is ever proving Himself to us. That’s pretty gracious of Him to do. Hasn’t He done enough already? Creation, sunrises, sunsets, storms, births, miracles, provisions…all speak of His power, faithfulness, and love. In today’s text, we see Jesus working on both His disciples and a fickle crowd to call all of them into an ever deepening trust in Him. I know He said He is willing to leave the 99 to search for the lost one but He never stops feeding the 99!

As our faith grows, it’s as if we’ve already secured a great treasure but are invited to add to it daily. What we have learned provides a solid foundation for our soul, what we are learning adds excitement to our journey, and what we have yet to learn gives us joy to know this adventure never ends.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

I have a number of friends who love to work. Some people are motivated by money therefore they’re working a lot of overtime, I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about people who enjoy doing things that make life better for themselves and others. They’re not lazy. They’re motivated. They often do difficult tasks that take a long time to complete not only for the joy of the finished project but also for the joy in the process.

Isn’t life odd? There are people who won’t even take care of themselves, let alone others. Then there are people who make it their goal to take care of everyone and everything. What makes one person so productive and another not? There are likely a million correct answers to that question, each as individual as each individual.

One of the keys to working hard is no doubt enjoying what you’re doing. Jesus enjoyed His ministry. It was hard. He was strongly opposed. There were very few personal perks. Yet, He was driven to seek and save the lost much like a first responder on a search and rescue mission. It’s not about how much they’re getting paid or getting their story to go viral. It’s about finding someone before they suffer another moment of fear, loneliness, pain or want. Finding them fills a place in one’s soul like nothing else. Let Jesus work in you, He loves it.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

Liberty Bunker will be bringing the word for today! I remember being so embarrassed after my first sermon that I was ready to give up on my call. That’s when I felt the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “If you’re not willing to be embarrassed for My sake, you are not worthy of the call.” Thus, I’ve been embarrassing myself ever since. Libby has shared the word with hundreds of kids and in front of a youth group a number of times but this is her first sermon to a group of adults on a Sunday morning. If she looks your way, look encouraging, smile, nod your head, maybe even break out an “amen!” Think about it: you and I will have the privilege of listening to the first of hundreds, perhaps thousands of sermons she will preach in her lifetime. Most of them will be a blur but this first experience will be forever in her memory along with those of us who cheered her on. Get ready to make history!

-Pastor Joel Everhart