From a message by Pastor Randy Thornton
The Rev. Harold Camping, 89, predicted that a huge earthquake, beginning around 6:00 p.m. on May 21, 2011, would precede the Rapture.
Pastor Randy Thornton said he fell asleep as he rested on a couch in his home around 5:30 p.m., Saturday, May 21, 2011. He woke up after 6:00 p.m. and realized the Rapture hadn’t happened.
During a sermon titled “How to Face Your Future,” Thornton, 53, senior pastor of Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C., referred to Jesus’ words about the “Rapture” in Matthew 24:26: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:26 NIV).
In Christian eschatology (the study of “last things”), the “Rapture” is a reference to the “being caught up” referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:17: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
Camping predicted that on May 21, 2011, Christians would exit the earth. His nonprofit Christian organization, Family Radio, took in $80 million in contributions between 2005 and 2009 and advertised “Judgment Day.” According to “Wikipedia,” Camping applied numerology to his interpretations of Bible passages to predict dates for the “End Times.” He calculated the Rapture would occur on May 21 and God would destroy the Earth and the universe on October 21. “When May 21 passed without incident, Camping stated he now believes a ‘spiritual’ judgment occurred on that date and that the physical Rapture would occur on October 21, 2011, simultaneously with the destruction of the universe by God,” “Wikipedia” reports. Camping previously predicted “judgment days” on May 21, 1988, and September 7, 1994.
Thornton, who says he believes the Rapture will occur someday (at an unknown time), asked his church, “How do believers in Jesus Christ prepare for what’s ahead?”
He listed two things NOT to do:
1. Do not make the mistake of planning without God.
“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city…carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil” (James 4:13-16).
“I challenge the men of this church, heads of households, to prepare for the future,” Thornton said. “Pray that we would hear what’s on the heart of God. I believe the Holy Spirit is beginning to call people back into prayer in a new way.”
2. Do not presume about tomorrow (James 4:14, 16). “You need to be able to hear a storm coming,” Thornton said. “Are you going to walk with God, if you lose your job? If you put God first, he will provide. In this nation, we are going to have some great opportunities to follow God.”
He gave four points to consider in preparing to face the future:
1. Have a God-relationship. “God desires a relationship with his people,” Thornton said. “This is no time for namby-pamby, double-marshmallow Christians.”
2. Have faith. “If you’ve given your life to Jesus Christ, it won’t matter what happens in the future,” he said.
3. Obey God’s Word. “Shallow Christianity won’t last very long…where you come to church and then live like hell all week long.”
“Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:21-22).
4. Put God first in your finances (Malachi 3:6-12). Don’t break covenant with God by withholding tithes. “Tithing teaches us to put God first,” Thornton said. “When you choose to take from God…what a man sows, he will reap.”
In conclusion, Thornton asked, “How do you prepare for the future?” and referred to this verse: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you” (Jeremiah 29:11).
Sunday, September 18, 2011
How to Stay Refreshed
From a message by Pastor Randy Thornton
“I like working,” the Rev. Randy Thornton said, as he began a recent sermon called “How to Stay Refreshed” at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C. He admitted he has a difficult time taking a vacation.
Thornton, 53, who has served as Grace’s senior pastor for 23 years, began,” as I understand, a 6-week “sabbatical,” the day after his recent “refreshing” sermon ended. Grace Church leaders asked “Pastor Randy” to take six weeks off from his ministerial duties. They said he had preformed well and deserved time to “get alone with God.”
A “sabbatical” (with a lower case “s”) is defined as “any extended period of leave from one's customary work, especially for rest, to acquire new skills or training, etc.” The word “Sabbatical” (with a capital “S”) refers to the “Sabbath,” a “day of rest and religious observance.”
Note: “Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy” (Exodus 20:8 (NIV). Old Testament Jews observed the Sabbath, or seventh day of the week (Saturday) as holy. Most professing Christians accept Sunday as the New Testament “Lord’s Day” (Acts 20:7).
Pastor Thornton said he is taking a sabbatical to renew his relationship with God; he said all Christians should spend time with God and avoid “burnout.”
“God wants you just to ‘chill’ and hang out with him. God didn’t create you to run like an Eveready battery,” he said.
He read John 15:15: (Jesus said) “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
We need to spend time with God in order to sense what God wants to “make known to us.”
“God is not like you and me,” Thornton said. “Problems, life and stresses begin to wear us out. We are human, and God is not.”
He gave some guidelines on “How to Win”:
“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:25).
“We all want to hear at the end of our lives: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’” Thornton said. “Sometimes we’re motivated out of a desire to feel important, and that wears us out. God made you, and you’re born of the Spirit (if you have accepted Christ) and of the flesh.”
Thornton said God created the earth and its inhabitants (Genesis 1:27-31), and he “rested”:
“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done” (Genesis 2:1-3).
Perhaps God rested to provide an example for mankind, Thornton suggested. “Why would God take a break, if he wasn’t tired? Man is created with a need for rest.”
Thornton said God deems your relationship with him and your family as important.
“Sunday should be a time to refresh yourself and spend time with God and family,” he said, adding that George Barna says the average father spends only 37 seconds per day with each of his children. “At the end of life, will you say you’d rather have spent more time with your job or your family? God says work six days. Sitting on the couch on Sunday is not being lazy. You can ‘do things for Christ’ and neglect your relationship with him.”
“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:9-11 NIV).
Thornton mentioned S. Truett Cathy, founder of the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain. Chick-fil-A stores close on Sundays. A member of the First Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Georgia, Cathy has taught Sunday school there for over 50 years. “God has truly blessed that company, because he (Cathy) took a stand,” Thornton said.
Thornton concluded by saying, “You want to learn how to put God first? Then learn how to rest in God, We have made too much of recreation. Sports, hobbies and activities are sucking the life out of us. Create priorities that are going to be successful. I am going on a sabbatical to spend time with God.”
“I like working,” the Rev. Randy Thornton said, as he began a recent sermon called “How to Stay Refreshed” at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C. He admitted he has a difficult time taking a vacation.
Thornton, 53, who has served as Grace’s senior pastor for 23 years, began,” as I understand, a 6-week “sabbatical,” the day after his recent “refreshing” sermon ended. Grace Church leaders asked “Pastor Randy” to take six weeks off from his ministerial duties. They said he had preformed well and deserved time to “get alone with God.”
A “sabbatical” (with a lower case “s”) is defined as “any extended period of leave from one's customary work, especially for rest, to acquire new skills or training, etc.” The word “Sabbatical” (with a capital “S”) refers to the “Sabbath,” a “day of rest and religious observance.”
Note: “Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy” (Exodus 20:8 (NIV). Old Testament Jews observed the Sabbath, or seventh day of the week (Saturday) as holy. Most professing Christians accept Sunday as the New Testament “Lord’s Day” (Acts 20:7).
Pastor Thornton said he is taking a sabbatical to renew his relationship with God; he said all Christians should spend time with God and avoid “burnout.”
“God wants you just to ‘chill’ and hang out with him. God didn’t create you to run like an Eveready battery,” he said.
He read John 15:15: (Jesus said) “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
We need to spend time with God in order to sense what God wants to “make known to us.”
“God is not like you and me,” Thornton said. “Problems, life and stresses begin to wear us out. We are human, and God is not.”
He gave some guidelines on “How to Win”:
“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:25).
“We all want to hear at the end of our lives: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’” Thornton said. “Sometimes we’re motivated out of a desire to feel important, and that wears us out. God made you, and you’re born of the Spirit (if you have accepted Christ) and of the flesh.”
Thornton said God created the earth and its inhabitants (Genesis 1:27-31), and he “rested”:
“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done” (Genesis 2:1-3).
Perhaps God rested to provide an example for mankind, Thornton suggested. “Why would God take a break, if he wasn’t tired? Man is created with a need for rest.”
Thornton said God deems your relationship with him and your family as important.
“Sunday should be a time to refresh yourself and spend time with God and family,” he said, adding that George Barna says the average father spends only 37 seconds per day with each of his children. “At the end of life, will you say you’d rather have spent more time with your job or your family? God says work six days. Sitting on the couch on Sunday is not being lazy. You can ‘do things for Christ’ and neglect your relationship with him.”
“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:9-11 NIV).
Thornton mentioned S. Truett Cathy, founder of the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain. Chick-fil-A stores close on Sundays. A member of the First Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Georgia, Cathy has taught Sunday school there for over 50 years. “God has truly blessed that company, because he (Cathy) took a stand,” Thornton said.
Thornton concluded by saying, “You want to learn how to put God first? Then learn how to rest in God, We have made too much of recreation. Sports, hobbies and activities are sucking the life out of us. Create priorities that are going to be successful. I am going on a sabbatical to spend time with God.”
The Foundation of a Strong Family
During a sermon, “The Foundation of a Strong Family,” the Rev. Randy Thornton, senior pastor of Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C., read this:
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people” (2 Timothy 3:1-5 NIV).
“Is this not a picture of our day?” Thornton asked.
He read Genesis 2:18-24: “The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. … So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, … he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib …, and he brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.’ That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”
“God’s design for the future is ‘family,’” Thornton said. “Jesus talks about the church as a family. You have your physical family, but you also have your church family.”
We will answer to God for how we live our lives, Thornton said. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).
“God is a loving God, but the other side is this: God is a just and holy God, and he must judge sin; all believers will one day stand before Christ,” Thornton said. “We will have no defense. I would-a, could-a, should-a is not going to work in heaven.”
He said God will consider three issues: 1. How much truth did you know? 2. How many opportunities did he give to you? 3. What did you do with all he entrusted to you?
“What a man sows, he reaps,” Thornton said. “How many have done something stupid and had to pay for your actions? God wants us to live a life of holiness and obedience. He desires us to live in family.”
1. A family exists to shelter one from storms: “Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge” (Proverbs 14:6).
2. A family helps one deal with change: The culture changes every three to five years. A family helps one deal with failure. “It’s a place where change and failure can be embraced, and they (family members) still love you,” Thornton said.
3. A family helps you deal with rejection: “Life hurts,” he said, “but family is a safe place, a secure place. Family doesn’t end; it’s a life-time endeavor.”
Thornton said some of the unhappiest people living in Moore County, N.C., are those who worked hard, neglected their families, retired and now feel their children are just waiting to collect an inheritance when they die.
“The family is a learning center for life,” he said. “Don’t provoke your children.”
“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).
“Some things are learned in the context of family and community; Lone Rangers always get shot down,” Thornton said. “And a lot of childrearing is learning which end of the child to pat.”
There are three stages of training: parental control, self-control, and God control (the greatest control). Relationships are learned in “family.”
“Your children are going to struggle a little bit,” Thornton said. “There may be a time when they slip and fall. Parents, don’t give up. A family is a place to have fun and enjoy life. Make family events fun. … You can’t change where you’ve been in the past, but you can change what your family becomes. Family is a place for life and ministry. If you want to build a strong family, you need to know the Lord and help everyone in your family know the Lord.”
“They (Paul and Silas) replied (to their jailor), ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household’” (Acts 16:31).
“I believe we have to be committed to God’s design for the family,” Thornton said. “Cultivate a relationship with God. Fight for your family. Failure is only a failure if you stay down and wallow in your failure. Let’s live according to the holy will of God.”
Saturday, September 17, 2011
How to Affair-Proof Your Marriage
Pastor Randy Thornton spoke recently on “How to Affair-Proof Your Marriage: First Loves Need Second Chances” at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C.
“We have a lot of people in different stages (of life), and we want to address staying morally pure,” said Thornton, Grace’s senior pastor.
He married Sarah in 1980 and took her to see some places where avalanches had occurred in Colorado, his home state. He noticed his wife, from the Sandhills of N.C., shied away from some of his beloved high-altitude scenery. He asked what was wrong. Sarah said, “Randy, there are no guard rails. We could die!”
“People in marriage are being taken down by avalanches, because there are no guardrails,” Thornton said. “They find themselves in wrong relationships – either emotionally or physically.”
He said trouble brews and deception reigns when one steps out from under the “umbrella of authority” and that rebellion is “as the sin of witchcraft” (1 Samuel 15:23 NIV: “For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry…).
“There are people in this room who are close to the guardrails, maybe even close to going over,” he said. “It’s best to be under authority where God can bless.”
He warned of “the sins of the fathers,” saying, “What a parent does in moderation, a child will do in excess.” He said it’s better to stick with a difficult marriage and work at it, so the children have a chance at success in life. “Who suffers in an adulterous affair? It’s the children. Marriage is crumbling, and it’s what holds this society together.”
“Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” (Hebrews 13:4 NIV).
“I could tell, as a pastor, hundreds of stories of betrayal,” he said. “If emotional needs are met outside of marriage, physical needs are not far behind. There are no reasons anyone should have an affair, but some people do.”
He gave 15 ways to affair-proof your marriage:
1. Make your relationship with God your top priority in life.
2. Make your relationship with your spouse your top priority outside of your relationship with God.
3. Nurture the emotional intimacy in your marriage.
4. Show appreciation on a regular basis.
5. Spend time together doing fun things and just “hanging out.”
6. Keep your intimate sexual life passionate and active.
7. Discuss and resolve issues as they come up. “…In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:25-27).
8. Share your goals for the present and the future; support each other’s goals.
9. Talk about the problem of infidelity and know that it can strike any marriage.
10. Make wise decisions about contacts with the opposite sex at work and other settings, including church. Reportedly, 18-year-old men think of sex every 32 seconds. “If men are subject to sexual desires, let me challenge ladies to not come to church in sexual array,” Thornton said. “Dress in a way that ‘puts on the Lord Jesus Christ.’” Be careful with workplace relationships and avoid casual hugs and kisses. He warned of inappropriate Internet relationships, which begin with emotional attachments for “cyber-space soul mates.” He said, “They are becoming an increasing problem. Infidelity does not always include sex. Don’t play with fire. Don’t get close to the
guardrails. Who’s going to pay the price? The children and the children’s children.”
11. Evaluate your vulnerabilities.
12. Watch for three danger signals that you’ve crossed the line: emotional intimacy, sexual tension and secrecy.
13. Establish boundaries.
14. Have a sense of honor and duty.
15. WWJD? – What Would Jesus Do? Jesus said, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).
“Witnessing to your high school girl friend is no good,” Thornton said. “Have your wife witness to her, or call a pastor in her city. What would Jesus do? He’d pray and ask God to give him strength!”
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Worship as Waiting
From a 2011 02 04 message by the Rev. Randy Thornton
“God wants to know you personally and intimately in a deep way,” said the Rev. Randy Thornton, preaching recently at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C. “What does it mean to worship God while you’re waiting?”
Thornton, a husband and a father of four adult children, serves as Grace Church’s senior pastor. He said a Christian can fall into a routine and neglect his relationship with God.
“One of the key things in life is learning how to put ‘margin’ in your life,” he said.
Our culture is fast-paced. Men and women work hard. They need time for recuperation or exhaustion comes.
“Soon, you’re two strangers in a house,” Thornton said.
He read Genesis 2:2-3: “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
“Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest” (Exodus 34:21).
Thornton said, “On the seventh day, he (God) said, ‘It’s chill time.’ We need a day to ‘connect. Sometime my wife just says, ‘Talk.” And I’ll say, What about?’ And she’ll say, ‘I don’t know. Just talk.’”
Our culture is doing everything it can to keep us from spending time with God and with the family, he observed.
“It’s hard for Americans to slow down,” he said. “We can’t sit still. Why are the kids on Ritalin? We can’t sit still.”
Thornton gave these warning signs that indicate a person is too busy and on the edge of burnout:
A sense of hopelessness
Frequent tears
Difficulty concentrating
Decision-making comes hard
Irritability
Insomnia
Lowered activity levels
Lack of mental attentiveness
Eating disorders
Aches and pains
You have to make this decision: Getting healthy is a top priority.
“I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand” (Psalm 40:1-2 NIV).
Sometimes our prayers are “whining,” Thornton said. “Some of us are bogged down in our lives. We have lost perspective. When they waited patiently, he lifted them out of the slimy pit. We need God to fill our emotional tanks. Some people seem to be in one life crisis after another.”
God wants to fill us on a daily basis, Thornton said. He then asked, “How many could spend 20 minutes with God? Say, ‘God, I want to come before you and wait patiently.’ Tell God, ‘I’m here. Speak.’ Invite him to come and be with you. His manifest presence becomes almost tangible.”
“He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the LORD and put their trust in him. Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods” (Psalm 40:3-4 NIV).
Thornton noted, “God says, ‘Let me give you my love to love others.’ Rearrange your schedule. It has to be intentional…if we want to win the race in the long run.”
He said “Chick-fil-A” honors God by not opening its restaurant on Sundays.
“Chick-fil-A is one of the most successful businesses in the fast-food industry,” Thornton said.
He noted that God wants us full of his Spirit and that if we are full of God, when someone asks us to ‘talk,’ we’ll have something to say.
“Turn off the electronics and talk, connect,” Thornton said. Making an appeal particularly to men, he said, “Can you spend 20 minutes (with God)…could I extend that to one hour? Take one hour and spend time with God, without an agenda.”
He concluded by praying, “God, I know you want everyone here to know how to wait upon the Lord.”
“…They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).
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