Are Your New Year’s Resolutions New?
Well, how was your Christmas? I know that I had the absolute best Christmas ever! Not only did I get to spend Christmas day with my wife, daughter and parents but Taylor, the greatest wife a man could ever have pulled the biggest surprise for me.
Of course you know I have kind of been moping around the last couple of weeks because I had no presents under the tree. There was one gift that I really wanted. You can make fun of me all you want and I know that this gift shows my age but even at 26 I love to play video games. Many of you like to hunt and spend money on that stuff I love to play video games.
And Nintendo had just come out with the coolest new video game system in November. I really wanted it. But Taylor kept saying we can’t afford it, wait till your birthday which bummed me more because its still 4 months away. But Christmas day came and I got my stocking out and what did I find a Nintendo. No. I got a nose and ear hair trimmer. I’m thinking alright. I guess that’s it. Then we started to let Paige open presents and about 10 minutes in I set one of Paige’s gifts down in front of her to open. And well, how about instead of telling you, I show you. Do you want to see the video? Alright.
(VIDEO- RYAN’S REACTION)
It was the best surprise ever. Taylor of course started crying she was so nervous and excited for me to open it. She went to 3 different stores and stood in line for over 2 hours with Paige just to buy me one. And we both have been having a lot of fun with it.
I hope your Christmas was full of surprises like mine. And now Christmas is over and tonight at midnight we are celebrating the birth of a new year. A new year to me has always felt like a new beginning, a fresh start on life. The old year is gone. All the good and bad, the mistakes, the embarrassing moments, the arguments, the historical events. Elections, the world series. They are over and its time to begin again.
And of course there is always something about a new beginning that causes us to reevaluate who we are and what we did over the course of the previous year. And for most people we almost always desire for the next year to be better than the last. And to make sure that the next year is better than the last we make promises/resolutions for ourselves in specific areas where we will change.
And of course by the end of 2007 you will realize that the resolutions you made on December 31, 2006 never happened for whatever reason, too busy, not enough time whatever so you vow on December 31, 2007 to make 2008 the year of change in your life. I am pretty cynical when it comes to resolution making because I see them simply as an endless cycle of empty promises that one will be to busy to ever see through to the end. You may start the year out strong but in the end most people quit. They won’t make it.
It seems like most resolutions are all the same anyways. Eat better, lose weight, spend more time with family, work less, quit smoking, quit drinking etc… I ran across a list of resolutions this week that I think are more realistic for people to make. These resolutions are not necessarily endorsed by Pastor Ryan, WWC staff or any elected leadership but maybe one of these will be a more realistic goal for you in 2007.
A CYNICS NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION
Gain weight. At least 30 pounds. Stop exercising. Waste of time. Read less. Makes you think. Watch more TV. You’ve been missing some good stuff. Procrastinate more. Starting tomorrow. Stop bringing lunch from home: Eat out more. Get in a whole NEW rut! Create loose ends. Get more toys. Get further in debt. Don’t believe politicians. Avoid airplanes that spontaneously drop 1000 feet. Associate with even worse business clients. Spread out priorities beyond ability to keep track of them. Wait around for opportunity. Focus on the faults of others. Mope about faults. Never make New Year’s resolutions again.
Those are funny because many times those are true. Our tendancy as people is to do the opposite of what we promise ourselves we will do. We always start with good intentions, but usually we end up short. The reason we end up short is because we are making resolutions that have no substance. They have no lasting effect. They have no eternal reward or benefit.
You can diet all you want. You can exercise, watch less tv, work less and that may feel good for a while, but in light of eternity what did Tae Bo really accomplish? What did eating right accomplish that has any real eternal value? Those resolutions are all me focused. I want to exercise so I look good or can be healthy. I want to work less to ease stress. I want to quit smoking to save my lungs.
Please don’t get me wrong or misinterpret what I’m saying. Eating right, exercise, slowing down are all good things but those things will come naturally when we have the right resolutions, right motivations in place. The truth is that every year millions of people are making the wrong resolutions. They are making me focused resolutions instead of God focused ones.
A God focused resolution is not focused on me but on glorifying Him through the obedience of His Word. When was the last time you took a good look at God’s word and asked yourself am I truly obeying his teaching? Am I living like Christ? How much closer am I to having the character of Christ at the end of 2006 than at the end of 2005?
Have I changed at all? In 2006 you may have lost 20 pounds, found a better job, bought a nicer car, and even won the lottery, but if you have not grown one step closer to taking on the character of Christ was it really a very good year?
My goal this morning is for you to rethink your resolutions for 2007. I desire for each of us to take on the resolutions that are given in the bible. God’s resolutions for us is to be like him. His word is clear. Our main goal every single year, the most important commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Every year that should be our over all main thing that drives us in 2007 and beyond.
I said earlier that we make promises that never seem to come to fuition for whatever reason. That is because we are imperfect. We are not God. And we have to be careful in how we promise and what we promise to ourselves, to others and especially to God.
The only promise or oath or resolution that is guaranteed to happen is God’s.
“Praise the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the wonderful promises he gave through his servant Moses. May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us or abandon us. I Kings 8:56-57
For your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. You rule throughout all generations. The LORD always keeps his promises; he is gracious in all he does. Psalm 145:13
If God’s word is true than we know that what He promises us will be true. So when we follow resolutions he gives us to follow we can know that He will bless us and we will be glorifying Him through our obedience. And when God is glorified and when you are obeying then you and I will begin to take on the character that Christ calls us to develop.
And we will no longer say I want to quit smoking to save my lungs or work less to ease stress, or watch less tv, or exercise to look good. We will say I want to do those things not for me, but to glorify God. God gave me my body so I desire to take care of it for him. God gave me this job so I want to glorify him by spending more time with him thanking him and praising him for his provision than being consumed with a job. We won’t say I want to watch less tv, just because. We will say I want to watch less tv because it give me more time to dig into God’s word and discover more truth that will push me one more step closer to His character.
This morning I want to invite you to grab your outlines and follow with me in the Word as we look at the resolutions that God gives us to follow. These resolutions are bigger than any empty promise we could make for ourselves.
RESOLUTIONS/COMMITMENTS THAT LAST…
1. Commitment to live
Last week I gave a message titled What’s So Great About Christmas?. I said that the reason Christ came was for our benefit. Jesus came to this earth to show us how to live. Right now there are billions of people on this rock called earth who are not living they are just existing. Oh maybe they enjoy life. Maybe they love all their hobbies and games and money and job and have great families, but they are still not alive. They are just existing.
They believe their purpose in life is to develop the same routine of sleep, work, play, sleep some more for the next 80 years and then die. That is not living. That is existing. I see people who do not know Christ and I think of the movie line that says, “Dead man walking.” Money is fleeting, things are fleeting, jobs are fleeting, the only thing that is guaranteed in life is death. We know all this its not anything new but why don’t we change?
Jesus came to show us there is something greater than just existing, there is real living. There is joy, there is a peace and excitement and pleasure about life when Christ is living in us. There is a freshness and newness to each day. There is an adrenaline high every single new day that we are given because when we are existing Mondays are dreaded but when you are living Mondays are exciting because it’s a new day to live for Christ to be more like him to share his love with others.
When you are living you can’t keep it to yourself you just feel like you are busting at the seams all the time with excitement. Yeah you have down days but they don’t last, where the person that exist turns to their fleeting things on their down days, the living person turns to their eternal God for a new jolt of peace and joy.
The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. John 10:10
“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. John 3:16
Christ came to live life and give us life. So in 2007 why not make a resolution that says, “This year I am going to quit existing and I’m going to start living. I’m going to quit going through the motions and quit accepting my life for how it is and I’m going to start really living. I’m going to finally give my life over to Christ and let him control it so that I can start living and sharing His love with others.
2. Commitment to family
Here’s a resolution that many people already make. Many say, “This year I want to spend more time with my family.” Good intention that never comes to fruition. To love God with everything, heart, soul, mind and strength means that we must put Him first and family second before anything else in life.
God says there are two types of families we must commit too.
A. Church Family
There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal. 3:28
I hope you already have a grasp about how important it is to grab hold of a stable church family. We can not do this God thing alone. We must have fellowship with other believers that can come along beside us and us beside them for accountability, corporate worship, and discipleship together. No man is an island and can live disconnected from everyone else. As believers we are connected because of the cross and that connection helps us fight the fight and run the race together.
To do it alone will lead to failure. That is why we must gather together here and in homes. Because you and I are one in Christ Jesus. A major step to being a believer is letting go of pride and admitting that we need help. That is what a church family is for.
And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. Acts 2:44-47
b. Immediate Family
Although I love this church very much you are not the most important part of my life. More important than church family is your immediate family. God is very clear about this.
God speaking through Paul to Timothy speaks about requirements for church leadership. He says, “He must manage his own family well, having children who respect and obey him. For if a man cannot manage his own household; how can he take care of God’s church? I Timothy 3:4-5
Ephesians 5:21-26 says, Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another. Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands. Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They’re really doing themselves a favor—since they’re already "one" in marriage.
Husbands, there is no one more important in your life than your wife and family. Wives there is no one or thing more important than your husband and family.
For those of you that are single you are not exempt. There is nothing in life more important than your relationship with God and relationship with family.
And parents there is nothing more important you could do than to teach your children the importance of God’s word through reading it, praying it with them and most importantly modeling it in your life.
God is clear on this as well.
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 says, “Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.”
God desires for us to teach our children His commandments and to pray for them and that they will accept Christ as savior. This scripture does not say let the church raise your children. It does not say to dump your kids off at KFC or Kiddie Kollege, or Youth, or Sunday School and let somebody else teach your children. God says you as a parent must commit to teach your children my commandments. It is your job.
In order to teach your kids God’s commandments you have to spend time with your kids. To teach a child we have to spend time with that child. How about in 2007 you make a commitment and say God, “This year I truly desire to live for you and I desire to commit to my family. My church family and my immediate family. Lord help me to set right priorities this year and too obey you by putting my family first.
3. Commitment to worship
“Lord in 2007, I desire to really worship.” What do you worship? All of these points could be sermons in themselves and this one imparticular. We all worship something. Show me your checkbook and I will show you what’s most important in your life. If you consume yourself with your job then believe it or not you are worshipping that job. God desires for us to really worship Him.
Worship is why we are here. Giving God glory, living for him. Praying to him, studying his word through sermons, impact groups, Sunday school, tithing these are all forms of worship to God. We sing because the bible calls us to sing, we pray because we are called to pray, we give because God desires for us to give. When we obey God, when we live in obedience to His Word and His commandments then we are worshipping God. Worship is not an 1 hour Sunday Morning event. Worship is a life style. Each day we wake up with a desire to know God a little bit better and to love God a little bit more we are worshipping Him.
God is looking for those that will truly worship him in church and in Wal-Mart. He desires for us to be real, to be authentic and to be consumed with Him everywhere. That is worship.
"Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter. "It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration." John 4:21-24
How about in 2007 you say, “Lord this year I commit my worship to you. Everything I have is yours. My wife is yours, my husband is yours, my children, my job, my hobbies, my house, my money, my business is yours Lord. I desire to worship you through my actions, by being real, being authentic, being honest. By being a man of integrity or a woman of virtue. I desire to worship you on Sunday Mornings in church, when I get up and when I go to bed. I desire to worship you at the doctors or the cereal isle at Wal-Mart. Everything I have everything I am Lord is yours and yours alone.”
Will you commit to really worship Him in 2007. That is a big step. It takes sacrifice. Sacrificing things you love to put God first, to teach your children and family what is most important in life means leading by example and leading by example means giving up things you love or doing them less often in order to please and worship God. No one said God’s resolutions are easy. But to be his child and to have a deep, real, sanctified filled life they are necessary.
4. Commitment to Significance
Whether you want to believe it or not God created you as a unique person. You are not here to just take up space. Every person in here was created with a purpose every Christian has a role to play in the building up of the Kingdom of God. We all have gifts and abilities. They are all different, yet when we come together to use our gifts than anything is possible.
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10.
You and I are God’s workmanship. We are a masterpiece. We have significance. But for some reason we don’t grasp that. Too many people are just existing right now and they think they were created to work 9-5 and die. But God has so much more planned for you. You were created to live for God. You were created on purpose. It doesn’t matter if you were planned or not by human beings. You are not an accident. You were born because God wanted you to be born.
When we accept Christ into our lives as savior, God’s Holy Spirit comes into us and says, “Alright let’s get to work.” And you and I are given spiritual gifts along with natural talent that is used to build His Kingdom.
There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. I Corinthians 12:5,7,27
God desires for us in 2007 to commit to a life of significance. To quit saying I can’t or I won’t or I have nothing to live for. As long as we are alive we have purpose. As long as we are breathing God is not done with us. A person that is seeking God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength is a person that recognizes they are a masterpiece, God created them with purpose, He has given them gifts and they desire to use those gifts for His Glory. Commit 2007 as a year where you stop existing and you start recognizing your significance on this earth. Learn your gifts and use them for God’s glory.
5. Commitment to Grow
In 2007 and beyond God desires for His children to commit to make resolutions to live, to be with family, to worship, to discover their significance and finally to grow.
God desires for each of us to not accept who we are right now, but to always desire to grow a little bit more each and every day.
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2
So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. 2 Corinthians 3:18
God’s desire is for us to grow closer and closer to Christ character each and ever day. To do that we must know and understand what Christ is like. And we can’t know what Christ is like if we don’t read about Him in God’s Word. Spiritual Growth happens when we read God’s word. That’s why its there. The Bible has the answer to all your problems and worries. Whatever you are going through there is a scripture to encourage you.
Sunday School and Impact Groups and Sunday morning worship is a time for help with spiritual growth. Studying the word and praying together is a very powerful way to understand the character of God better. That’s why it is vital that everybody, 100% is a part of some type of discipleship group.
To help with this growth I want to give you a challenge. In 2006 the Wesleyan Church challenged the youth of this nation to read through the Bible in one year. In one year thousands of students were changed for Christ just because they read God’s book. Starting next week I want to challenge us as a church to make 2007 the Year of the Bible at Warrenton Wesleyan Church. I want to challenge all of you to commit to read through the Bible in one year.
Next week I will begin preaching on the significance and power of the word of God in our lives. And everyone in here will be receiving a daily reading schedule for every single day so that on December 31, 2007 you can say that you have read through God’s entire Word. And you can look back and see how God’s Word changed you forever. This is a great challenge. This will take sacrifice and commitment. But God is worth it.
If you want to know how to live, how to be a family, how to worship, how to be significant and how to grow than you must read God’s Word. You won’t be alone. Because we as a church are going to read this book together over 2007.
What is your resolution for 2007? Is it to lose weight? To work less? To watch less tv? I would challenge you to make a resolution that has an eternal impact.
Why not make a resolution, a commitment to God and say, “Lord in 2007 I want to live. I want to put my family first, I want to commit to worshipping you in everything I do, I want to use my gifts and talents for your glory and I want to grow through your word and the accountability of other believers.”
These are resolutions that not only change us, but they bring glory to god. That is a resolution worth committing too.
