2012: Spiritual Goals for the New Year
(Psalm 16)
1. Yesterday I tried making sausage with my new manual sausage stuffer.
2. It was an awful experience – ground pork all over me and the kitchen, after several hours I finally ended up with 3 lbs. of Italian sausage.
3. If I ever make sausage again, it won’t be with that sausage maker! Maybe an electric one, but not that one.
4. In a way, 2011 was like that sausage experience: it was a bad year. I am glad it is over! Yet many good times, even in a rough year. God was developing me.
Main Idea: While secular society is obsessed with losing weight or exercising more faithfully, the New Year is an opportunity for us to make some spiritual strides.
I. Goal One: I Will REALIGN Myself With God and the Godly (1-4)
A. I will take REFUGE in the Lord through prayer
B. I will recognize that GOODNESS comes from God, not from within
The idea of “good” here in this context is not necessarily merely moral good, but also good things. God is the only ultimate source of good things, any blessings we have.
James 1:17 may be a Midrash on this, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
C. My peer group will be the actively GODLY
We enjoy fellowshipping with those like us; if we are serious about walking with God, we enjoy others who are; if not, we prefer the company of the compromised. When the football team we root for, our political views, or social status are most important, that determines who we associate with.
D. Matthew Levi had fallen away from his faith; the money bug…
II. Goal Two: I Will CULTIVATE Contentment and Seriously Enjoy Life (5-6)
A. I will view my blessings as ALLOTMENTS from God
1. God Himself is the greatest allotment meted out to we who know Him
2. I will cultivate the habit of giving thanks and blessing his Name
B. I will ENJOY what God has given me
1. Being content, happy, positive: this should be our norm
2. God has portioned out many blessings for us, yet we are tempted to negate them through cynicism, negativism, and a thankless spirit.
3. The joke about the man whose dog played poker; a friend was amazed, but the man only saw the negative side: he’s not good because he wags his tail when he gets a good hand…
C. Somehow we have missed it: we glorify God when we enjoy his blessings with an appreciative heart.
1. Religious legalism that requires us to justify everything we do for some sort of constructive purpose dampens this important teaching
2. We glorify God when we appreciate the person he has blessed us with in marriage, when we smell the roses, when we look at a sunset or savor a beautiful melody. This idea is all but lost.
3. We may be too concerned about removing the secular from the spiritual that we also remove the spiritual from the secular…
4. Christians should have a lust for life, a spirit of joy and freedom within God’s boundaries rather than being bound and allowed an occasional dispensation for wholesome recreation or fun…
III. Goal Three: I Will LEARN to Listen to God’s Voice (7-8)
A. He COUNSELS objectively (7a)
Derek Kidner writes of God’s guidance, “…on God’s side it is counsel rather than coercion, and on man’s side the kind of heart-searching that may drive away sleep.”
B. He gives us wisdom to THINK (7b)
1. The word for “instructs” implies chastening, meaning we stop denying reality and face what actually is…
2. Two theologies out there: the Martha theology and the Mary theology
C. The prerequisite: putting the Lord FIRST (8a)
D. When we prioritize God, we are not easily SHAKEN (8b)
• For God to be at our “right hand” means he is ready to help us
IV. Goal Four: I Will REJOICE in God Now and Savor What is to Come (9-11)
A. God makes our hearts GLAD (9)
B. God will not abandon us to the GRAVE (10)
Prophetic of Jesus’ Resurrection (Acts 2:25-27)
In fact, David Kimchi, interpreted David’s words in verse 9 (“my body rests secure,” my translation) to mean that “when the Psalmist dies his body will not decompose.” As Rosenberg and Zlotowitz explain:
The Talmud points out that seven biblical heroes were preserved whole in the earth: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Miriam, and Benjamin. Regarding David this is a difference of opinion as to whether the expression, “my body” includes David among the others, which would make eight or that David’s prayer was wishful thinking (B.B. 17A). 225 – Brown, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, Volume 3, Messianic Prophecy Objections, p. 115-116
Jesus was not abandoned to the grave; in him, we too are delivered…
Our God resurrects the dead; this is relevant to everyone of us!
C. Joy INCREASES the closer we draw to Him (11)
• Biblical Christianity is joy-filled; a lack of joy signifies a problem
• Drawing near to the true God in a true way increases joy
CONCLUSION
Seeking God’s face in 2012 is not a tedious task, but the source of joy.
How about this goal for 2012: to let the joy of the Lord break out in our lives?
