What i Learned in 2025

In this episode, Kevin Toomer reflects on the lessons learned throughout 2025, emphasizing the importance of a deeper relationship with the Bible, recognizing God's emotions, and understanding the unpredictability of God's provisions. He encourages listeners to approach the new year with a renewed commitment to faith and personal growth.

Transcript

Kevin Toomer (00:02.158)
What's up everyone? It's been a long time. It's been quite a few months since I've done an episode and just wanted to let you guys know I have forgotten you. I'm still around, just been really busy with work and things of that nature. And just honestly, I think I mentioned it before in other episodes. I don't like to do these unless I feel like there's something where I feel compelled, where there's something I feel like the Lord wants me to talk about or something he wants me to say. And this is kind of...

why I'm doing the episode now, because now I feel like I actually have something to say. And it's going to be as you probably see on their marketing. This is just my wrap up of 2025. It's a lot of things that happened, even though obviously I didn't do an episode for a few months now. A lot has happened in 2025, some good, some bad. And I guess if you were to do an episode, you have a similar perspective as well. In your 2025, hopefully more good than bad, but I'm sure you had some travails, you had some...

ups, some downs, some highs, some lows, some victories, and even you took some L's to some areas. That's no different with me. So, but it's not going to be very long. I mean, again, it's not going to be very detailed. I may do some editing just to put, because I have scriptures, of course. I may do some editing just to put the scriptures on the screen. But other than that, I really just want to come off the cuff, just really kind of come from the heart and just talk about what I learned in 2025.

The last time I did one of these was two years ago. And again, I didn't want to just make it some kind of obligatory why I just do every year I do an end of the year wrap up, so to speak. But I just want, I felt this year was different because there was a lot of things that I did learn. And again, I can't tell you everything I learned because this episode would be very long. But I did kind of narrowed it down or pared it down to three particular things that I think were just the most impactful.

for me that I think I learned. And maybe this is something if you didn't have the same experiences, maybe you can learn a glean from them, even though you didn't experience something like that. So the first thing that I learned in 2025 was the Bible is a lot more awesome than I even imagined. Because obviously, you guys know I'm a preacher, I'm a teacher, I do podcasts and classes that work.

Kevin Toomer (02:25.358)
I teach sermons, I teach at my school, school, I teach at work, which is at a church. I'm employed at a church. And even that was something great. It started at the beginning of the year. That was a blessing that God allowed for me to happen, allowed to happen for me. But this year was different because it was more than just me reading to prepare for a lesson or for a sermon or even for a podcast. Like I got to the point where I just got a version of the Bible.

And I just had in my car and I would make more efforts to just go places and just sit and read it again. Not trying to prepare, not trying to get millions to share with people just for me, just for me. it turned out to be a way for me to spend more quality time we got. And it was so great. And the thing is, the more I read, the more I saw in the Bible. And again, I had read

Basically the whole thing already was before, you know, some books here and there that maybe I kind of overlooked. But for the most part, I had read the whole thing before, invariably you always see something different. And that was definitely the case. I saw so many scriptures and so many things I brought. I had my highlighter and I was just highlighting all through the scriptures. But it was not just again, just information. I felt like I was learning about.

I felt like I was really getting insight to his personality. I felt like I was really developing more of a relationship, a more intimate relationship with him because of the Word. Because as I was reading it, I felt like God was giving me insight, like letting me behind that curtain so I could see more of him. And that's something I hope that you do as you go into this next year of 2026. Obviously, we all go into it with optimism.

You want God to do great things that hopefully he does for you, for me, and for everyone of all that's in the church, basically. But I also hope that we have a desire for him and a desire for his word, because this word has been preserved for a reason. There's a scripture that says that these things were written long ago for our instruction so we can grow. But it's not just to grow. The scripture does say to grow to do God's

Kevin Toomer (04:52.014)
which is important and is vital. But it's also to grow to be more like God in the sense that you know his character. You know how he feels about certain things. I had this perspective that God gave me. The New Testament is about God's plan being revealed or unveiled. The Old Testament is about God's personality being unveiled.

Because you see so much of who he is in the Old Testament versus the New. And of course, in Revelation, I'm actually doing a Bible study on Revelation in my church. And that's something I never thought I would do. It's been amazing. Again, just the Bible is just so awesome and how deep it is. And I got a scripture I want to share. This is scripture related, obviously, to this particular point. Luke chapter 24.

starting at verses 44 and 45. And it says, then he said, Jesus, when I was with you before, I told you about everything that was written in the law of Moses, and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. So that was a part in the scripture when Jesus had already resurrected. He went to the cross, died, and he was walking along the path with these two of his disciples. They didn't know who he was. And then finally, when he revealed who he was,

The scripture says he explained to them about all the things the scripture said about him. But then it says the key. He opened their eyes to see more of the scriptures. I think that's what God did for me in 2025. The Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see so many great things. Like it got to the point where I was so excited just to read. And it was like, OK, there were books of the Bible. know, some books of the Bible are a lot longer than others.

Like Isaiah is 66 chapters, Jeremiah is 52. And guess what? I read through Jeremiah quickly, relatively quickly. And not because I just breeze through it, because it was actually engaging. And in 2025, that was something that was new to me. Like a lot of us, yes, Kevin, the preacher, the teacher, but you you look at a a book of the Bible is 55, 56, 66 chapters. The first thing, oh my gosh, it's a long book. But now when I was reading it,

Kevin Toomer (07:17.462)
It didn't seem long at all. I was encouraged to read and I was excited to read. And even though there are points in scripture where it may initially used to seem like, okay, it seemed repetitive, I didn't see it as repetitive.

I saw it as God was really showing different things. I saw the nuances in some things that were said differently. I saw the poetry in the book. saw God's emotion, I want to talk about it in a minute, coming out. And it's just like, wow, this is so exciting. It got me to the point where I would read things and I would be somewhere. Like, for example, I would go somewhere and sit and eat and have my Bible. And that was always interesting, too. I would go to a restaurant. People always give me these slips like, oh my God, he's reading the Bible.

A couple of times people would be like, okay, I like you your Bible. That's a good book you read there, little comments or whatever. But it was always funny. I'm sitting at a table, my little fool, people always kind of the waiter, the waitstaff always kind of look at me like, okay, he's reading the Bible. They always give me my respect and let me read it, right? But it was always one of those things where I'd be sitting there reading it and I see something that was so great. I'm like looking around, I wish I had somebody I could share this with.

Like I want to pull the waiter, the waitress, hey, come here. Look at this verse. What do you think this verse says? It was just so exciting to read. So yeah, it was just one of the things where I learned in 2025 that the Bible is so much more awesome than I ever realized or thought. And as I read it, it became even more convincing to me that that Bible, that is God's Word. Like you can't convince me otherwise at this point. It's just the way it came together.

way it speaks, way the Holy Spirit brings these things to me, that's not just some book. That's not just some people who wrote down some stuff. That is the Word of God. And if you embark on the journey like I did, I guarantee you, if you do so, and you do so with faith and prayer and ask for the help of the Holy Spirit, you will hopefully have the same journey and the same conclusion I did that the Bible is a lot more awesome than we even think. So yes, my thing is

Kevin Toomer (09:25.452)
Get into it. you find a Bible plan, do something, but just read it. And there's so many things that happen when our Christian walk and just in church in general that result on us not reading it. And that's how we have so many issues because we're not actually reading the Bible itself. We may hear a scripture here or a verse here, but you got to get the whole context. So my first thing is I learned that the Bible is a lot more awesome.

Now you can imagine a thought. Second thing that I learned this year, and this is interesting too, and it goes right in line with the first one about the Bible. Is the Bible, let me see, that God has feelings to. Now some of y'all may be, okay, well duh, right? But we don't look at God as having feelings. We look at God as being a father. We look at God as being a creator. We look at Jesus as down on the cross for our sins. But we don't see God being

angry. We don't see God being sad. We don't see him as even having these emotions. But think about it. We are made in his image, meaning that God doesn't have flesh and blood. So when this has made his image, the reason why we have emotions is because our creator has emotions. He cares. I believe he laughs. He emotes. He gets angry. He gets upset. And as I was reading, more specifically the Old Testament, I saw that.

And the part that struck me the most was I saw a lot of him being hurt. I saw a lot of him really being saddened and a lot of him being angry and justifiably so because he was angry at his people. He was angry at his creation, the people, the creation that he made in his image to worship him, to have a family. And could you put yourself in his shoes? You've given them everything and they time.

time after time after time turn away from you deny you disobey you disavow even knowing you matter of fact I'm gonna share scripture in a minute basically we all have committed adultery against our God remember we're of the bride Easter groom and there's a wedding ceremony at the end of Revelation but all of us in our lives have been a runaway bride can you imagine that God and he keeps

Kevin Toomer (11:51.732)
Stay in patrol to us. We keep cheating. He never leaves. But that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. Doesn't mean it doesn't bother him. And I think sometimes we lose sight of that, especially when all of us, included, when we sin. Do we, before we sin, do we ever consider how God's going to feel about this? You know what? This might be good to me. It might feel good to me. It may make me think that I'm actually getting over or getting by if I do this sin.

But am I thinking about the damage it's actually doing to God? Not just my relationship, that we know that sin is obviously a damage to our relationship, camaraderie, our fellowship. It puts a barrier there. But the fact that we're actually hurting God, that it bothers him to say, my children are straying from the path that I have set for them, that they're choosing another route. They're choosing someone else other than me. I have a script I want to share.

And this is Ezekiel chapter 16 is very vivid. And again, this talks about how God has feelings. And we again, sometimes we lose sight of that. Ezekiel chapter 16, verses 42 and 43. And it says, then at last my fear against you will be spent and my jealous anger will subside. I will be calm and not be angry with you anymore. But first, because you have not remembered your youth and anger me by doing all these evil things, I will fully repay you for all your sins.

YouTube fans.

Kevin Toomer (13:29.656)
Ezekiel chapter 16, verses 42 and 43. Then at last my fear against you will be spent and my jealous anger will subside. I will be calm and not be angry with you anymore. But first, because you have not remembered your youth and have angered me by doing all these evil things, I will fully repay you for all your sins, says the sovereign Lord. For you have added lewd acts.

to all your detestable sins. Look at the word choices there. He says, my jealous anger, my fury. It's obvious he's angry. He's angry because he's hurt. I mean, any spouse would be angry and hurt because the other spouse has committed adultery. And then what it says, it's not just because we sinned. Obviously Ezekiel was talking to Israel, but that's us too.

We do the same things. And he's mad because not only are we people sin, they add lewd acts to their sins. Now in that particular context, he's talking about worshiping false gods and the lewd acts was they were killing their own children and sacrificing their babies to these gods on top of that. So just imagine how God must feel. know, the scripture says in Zechariah that God is going to rejoice over us with singing.

So even in a good sense of God has for you to sing over someone, you don't do that if there's no feelings involved. You don't get angry if there's no feelings involved. You don't have jealous anger. Jealousy is a feeling. You're jealous because he's saying you should be giving me this love. You should be giving me this devotion. I've earned the right to be called God. I'm your father. And you're going to other routes or other things or just check test.

or trusting in your own abilities or letting the flesh determine what you want to do. So I learned this year that God really does have feelings. And unfortunately, present company included, I've done a lot of things that I believe that have hurt God's feelings. I believe I've done a lot of things that have offended him. See, because we like to think because God knows it, that it doesn't hurt.

Kevin Toomer (15:51.758)
Just because you know what's going to happen doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. As parents, you can see your children about to go down a path. They get grown and you tell them, you give them advice. Okay, son, daughter, don't do this, don't do that. And they tell you what? Mom and daddy, I'm grown, I'm going do what I want. And you know the outcome. Just because you know the outcome, that doesn't mean it hurts less. hurts less. As a matter of fact, you can make the case it hurts more because you know it could be avoided.

And that's God. Knowing that we don't have to go through the things we go through, but we of our own volition, we choose to go a different route. And that's something I learned that God has feelings. And hopefully in 2026, as they say for me, I want to be more cognizant of how my actions, my thoughts, my words, my beliefs, my lack of faith, whatever it is that I'm doing, that it actually impacts him.

How he feels should matter to me That I don't just look at God as just some some some cold Calculated spiritual being who's just up there waiting to either bless or curse. No if we say we have a personal Relationship, you don't have a relationship with someone if there's no there's no emotion involved and if one party has been unfaithful and that's us You can't convince me that there's not gonna be some hurt feelings

So for me again, I learned that God really does have feelings and unfortunately we've all hurt them.

Not just in 2026, but every year we've been here. That's the second thing. The last thing, I only got three. Like I said, it's not going to be very long. And this was a good thing for me. Last thing I learned is that you can't predict God's provisions. By that, mean, we know that God can do great things. And we know, you know, we have our moments, President Kemp included, where we're waiting on God to do something. We hope he's going to do something for us. We may have faith.

Kevin Toomer (18:00.91)
But we have our minds kind of made up on how we think God's going to do it, or what vehicle, or what method he's going to do it. Because in our minds, it makes sense for God to do it like this. Because if I'm going through this situation, this is where I want to go, this route seems the most advantageous. It seems like the path of least resistance. It seems the easiest one. It seems like it'll be the best route for everyone involved. But what I learned is that

is that God will give you what you need, but it will not come the way you anticipate or expect. Not only that, not only will he use a route you're not expecting, he will give you more than what you're expecting. Now, that is something I lived in 2026 because I was, especially in the beginning of the year, I was in a really difficult place financially.

in what I tell you guys.

When I say 180, I mean 180. I never had to worry about how I was going to take care of myself. I never had to worry about bills, any of stuff. God always made a way. And when I say He made a way, He always did. And He did it in a way that I'm like, where did this come from? I did not expect you to do it this way. This is not a cliche. This is not something I just heard from someone else's testimony. I'm telling you what I experienced.

There were resources that came from places and people that I was just scratching my head. I still scratch my head. There were times, you get a little bit of insight, but God would give me a dream about something. And it was kind of more of a, it would be like about money or something like that. And then like a couple of days later it would happen. And he would come from where you like, where did that come from? Like he wouldn't come, okay, you know, at through the job or through.

Kevin Toomer (20:02.126)
they have a rich uncle who died and gave me inheritance. No, it would be some price person I never knew. Some avenue that I didn't suspect. Some way that I just never entered into my imagination and God used those methods to provide. Now, I thought about it. said, you know, it's interesting how God would do that. And what came to my mind was the reason why God doesn't use the proverbial or the usual methods.

because I think two reasons. One, because now if you use the usual methods, the blessing becomes cavalier. We kind of look at it as like, I know God going to it. And it doesn't get the same level of authority or same level of power because we kind of get used to, okay, I know it's like we get paid. When you work at your job, you get paid every two weeks. You know what you get every two weeks. Every two weeks, by week on Friday, you go get that direct deposit. I know I'm getting paid every two weeks, which is great.

No surprise, no, it's the thing that's special about it. But if you were to get paid every two weeks and then one week, you got a bonus. Oh, man, man, man, bless it. I got extra 200, 300, 500, whatever it is, man. That's a blessing, right? So I think God doesn't want us to get too cavalier in how we view his blessings. That's first thing, But then the second thing I think is he wants us to see that there are no limitations with that. You and I can pigeonhole.

how he can do what he does. So he wants us to have the viewpoint that God can do anything. That there is no bridge he can't cross. There is no mountain that can't be brought down. There is no need that he can't meet, regardless of how dire the situation looks or how bad, how you could be on the 11th hour and you just figure, don't know how I'm gonna make it. God can make a way out of nowhere, literally.

And I think that's why he keeps it so unpredictable. So then that way our faith doesn't become predictable in the sense of, God always gives me this. No, believe God can. And not on that. Not just that a prayer becomes, doesn't become predictable. Our faith can grow. Because if I believe God can do anything, that means he can do anything not just through a method, but also on a different scope.

Kevin Toomer (22:29.198)
Because that means God doesn't have limits on how much he can bless you. And that's something else I lived this year. Because it wasn't just the methods. There were moments this year I was just totally flummoxed. And I was literally living in overflow. Like, God, you really outdid yourself. Like, I don't know how you did this. But man, I was good with this. Psalm 23, my cup was overflowed on a couple of occasions this year. And I was like,

scared almost like I can't believe this this is insane like how much you're giving me your blessing how much you're providing for me and I know that God is no respective person so my experience is not just for Kevin that could be for you too but just know that don't try to put God in the box and think that God can only work through these channels or through these methods open your mind to say God however you do it

whenever you do it and how much you wanna do it, I'm leaving it to you, because you're a big God and there's nothing small about how you can do it. So that's what I wanna say. Now I have a scripture, last one. And this is a scripture that we've all heard before multiple times. But this is a version that's in the Living Bible. Now the Living Bible has a version that's...

different, slightly worded differently than you've heard before. You know the scripture, but this version, I like the way it's worded. So it's Ephesians chapter three, verse 20, and this is how it's written in the living Bible.

This says, now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes. Wow. Think about that. Now, it's just we use the hand that exceedingly and abundantly, but it's above our greatest desires, our hopes, our dreams. We lose sight of that, that God.

Kevin Toomer (24:38.914)
doesn't have any limitations. He doesn't have any shortages. There's no, well, I blessed Kevin this amount, so I don't got enough for you. So I gave Kevin all the blessings. we'll see if I got something laid on down the line. And he does more than we even asked for, more than we imagined, more than we can fathom. And that is definitely something that I experienced this year, just that level of...

just extraordinary, exuberant, exceedingly. Like I said, I was moments, I was like, is this really for real? Like just amazingly. I had this thought, I may share it on social media just as a side little thing that God can take you from one moment to, I can't believe I'm in this place to, I can't believe I'm in this place.

See, when I'm going with this, you do it again, I'm seeing. Man, I cannot believe I'm in this place. Two, I can't believe I'm in this place. He can do that just as fast. And that is something that I absolutely experienced in 2025. So that's it.

Like I said, it wasn't going to be a long one. I just wanted to kind of share. 2026, I don't know. I'm not giving up on the channel, so don't worry. There be other episodes coming soon. But this is something I just feel like I to do. feel like I wanted to share. And hopefully, it'll be some encouragement to you as well. And let's go into 2026, not just with the typical New Year's resolutions. Let's be resolved.

It was all ourselves to being more Christ-like, to believe in God for more, for trusting God for more, for doing more and seeking more. The things I see, know, getting into that word, believing in God that he can provide however he wants to provide. But also, like I said, to remember that God has feelings and he does care. We think we talk about God caring about what happens with us. Do we care about what we do?

Kevin Toomer (26:58.542)
how it affects him. So those three things, I just hope that maybe you can take away with you. And in part, you use in 2026. All right. Thank you for watching and listening. As always, I pray this episode bless you, happy new year. And I will see you later on in 2026 with some great things. Hopefully God has great things in store for us, I believe he does. And we'll see you soon. All right, as always.

Make sure your light shines brightest for the Lord Jesus Christ beyond the benediction. Until next year, we'll see you soon.