New Year, New Focus: 2024 Edition

MY HOPE FOR 2024 IS THAT WHATEVER RESOLUTIONS OR COMMITMENTS WE MAKE, WE WILL ALLOW GOD TO GUIDE US, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS COMMUNITY OF BELIEVERS HERE AT TLC, TO BE EXACTLY WHERE GOD WANTS TO MOVE US THIS NEW YEAR, AND TO SEE US ALL IN 2024 CONTINUE TO GLORIFY GOD, SHARE JESUS, AND HELP PEOPLE WHO NEED JESUS AROUND US TO SEE AND EXPERIENCE HIM THROUGH OUR LIVES, AND IN TURN EXPERIENCE JESUS IN THIER LIVES.

LET US PRAY.

It is Indeed Resolution season.

Question: How many have a New Years Resolution for 2024?

How many have a resolution that keeps coming back each year?

WE ARE NOT ALONE IN MAKING RESOLUTIONS, OR REVISITING RESOLUTIONS YEAR AFTER YEAR.

Here are some resolutions that are most commonly broken:

Lose Weight and Get Fit

Quit Smoking

Learn Something New

Eat Healthier and Diet

Get Out of Debt and Save Money

Spend More Time with Family

Travel to New Places

Be Less Stressed

Volunteer

Drink Less

One common question I hear in the Christian circles… Should Christians make Resolutions?

Some say YES! It is good for us to make goals, to renew our resolutions and to finish what we started.

Some say no! They are just shallow goals, that are meaningless, and lead to more disappointment.

Well I have found a unique answer to some of this from one very new, but effective speaker. Take a listen:

Play YouTube Video “A 4-Year old explains the problem with New Year’s Resolutions.mp4

- What an intelligent little girl! She was adorably spot on.

We have plans, goals dreams… things to fix, and we desperately want to start the new year with healthy, beneficial goals.

We hear positive phrases to help pump us up to start our goals and resolutions, phrases such as:

New Year, New Opportunities

New Year, New Focus

New Year New Me.

Before we tackle our goals, let us focus for the next couple minutes, pushing these resolutions and goals aside to focus on one important step as believers in Jesus.

It starts with Jesus, and a moment in which he shares what is important not just in the new year, but every day of our lives.

I invite you this morning, if you have your bible to open it up with us. How many of us this morning are grateful for His word?

We read in Matthew 22:36-39

Matthew 22:36–39 ESV

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Our first big reminder for setting goals and for setting ourselves up the right way, it to put God first in everything we do.

- Remember, in this verse, the teachers of the law here, are testing Jesus, hoping to trap Jesus through his answer.

Little do they know that in front of them is the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us.

- They send in a top dog to tackle this question. Someone who knows the law, and could literally attack depending on the answer Jesus Gives.

Jesus’s answer comes from tradition. First, we see that Jesus uses a verse that the Jewish people know all too well:

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 ESV

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

This verse is one of three old testament verses that is used in the Jewish faith for something known as the “Shema” or “Shema Yisrael”

(Verses are Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:13-21, Numbers 15:37-41)

The Shema is not just a prayer that declares faith that God exists, it is an AFFIRMATION that God is the only true existence.

This verse, as well as Deuteronomy 11:13-21 are verses that declare the oneness of God and our duty as God’s people to love him, study his word, and to teach our children.

Before anything, and at least twice a day, the Shema is recited.

Point 1: What is important: Before any Resolution or Goal for 2024, Let’s focus our attention to God first.

Let us Seek God First.

Let us also use this time to focus our agenda, our goals, our resolutions, our entire life in the perspective that God is in control. Let’s put our trust and faith into action.

We are reminded about this focus through Jesus in His sermon on the mount:

Matthew 6:25 ESV

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Matthew 6:33 ESV

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Let’s not forget the second part of Matthew 22: Love your neighbor as yourself!

This part is sometimes VERY difficult to accomplish.

My older sister’s husband has a saying that he has expressed for the past 35 years, and that is:

PEOPLE ARE THE WORST!

We live in a very self-centered, self-focused, and selfish society.

a recent study in Psychological science suggests that people across the globe have become more individualistic over time. Individualism, as opposed to collectivism, relates to how independent and self-reliant (and self centered) people are.

As believers, this can be difficult as well, because when we cannot open ourselves to fulfilling Matthew 22 and Jesus’ reminder to love your neighbor just like yourself, you miss out on an opportunity to see God in, and through you.

In God’s word, we get insight on loving others as Jesus says,

John 15:12 ““This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

This was not a suggestion to the disciples as Jesus was talking to them. Jesus expresses that the love he displays and expresses comes from the same love the Father shows Jesus through his life, and we do the same.

Jesus expressed this love previously in John 13 to the disciples in a moment of washing their feet.

This moment shows us that we love, serve, give and help, as Christ’s examples here on earth.

We must beware of judgement. Luke 6:37-38

Luke 6:37–38 ESV

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

The forgiven are open-hearted and open-heartedness has consequences. Jesus commands his hearers to keep giving and reminds them that when they do this people respond in kind. And not only in kind, for he speaks of good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. The metaphor is from measuring out grain in such a way as to ensure that full volume is given. Your lap is really your ‘bosom’ (kolpon) and refers to a fold in the outer garment made as it hung over the girdle. It was used as a kind of pocket. Jesus concludes here with a reminder that there is a reciprocity in the affairs of life. We get back what we put into life.

Point #2: Take time in 2024 to focus on loving others

How do we do this?

Be obedient to God. Listen to where he leads you.

Be God’s light in a dark world, even if they complain about the glare.

be patient. Be kind. Find ways to express God’s love to them.

We have taken a little focus on Loving God, and loving others, So… what are next steps in our personal lives?

HERE ARE SOME THINGS I HAVE LEARNED, AND WANT TO SHARE WITH YOU AS A LOVING REMINDER THIS MORNING

First, take time to know what to put off, and to put on.

In Ephesians chapter 4, verses 20-24, we see a moment in which Paul is warning the new believers not to follow the unbelieving gentiles, who do their own thing, as they live with hardened hearts, but he does say to them regarding trusting God with their lives saying:

Ephesians 4:20–24 (ESV)

assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Paul reminds us to walk and live like Jesus. In our actions, in our planning, in our goals and in our resolutions, be sure to bring in the love, humility, patience and peace that comes from God into it.

Our actions matter. Instead of being envious, be grateful and give more

instead being angry, be loving and patient, seeing other through the eyes of Jesus. Start living in God’s Joy!

Next is to develop Spiritual Muscle Memory

As you work through your goals and resolutions, as well as your walk with God, you are going to have moments in which you will think, “This doesn’t Feel Right”

If you are working on personal change, remember, this is not a chance to be perfect, but a chance to learn to walk in the process, and the progress.

PUT. ON. CHRIST. Just like we change our clothes every day, we must daily focus on our faith, our walk, and our commitment to the declaration of intent we’ve made in our lives.

Romans 13:14 “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

Galatians 3:27 “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

Do you remember your baptism? It was an amazing symbol of our faith, declaring that we deny our own self, and give our lives to God. We are submerged into the water one way, and came out new.

Just like this, we must remember daily, that we put on Christ. How do we do this?

We commit to him daily. Die of self.

We know his Word!

We know who we are in him.

THIS IS A DAILY DECISION. OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW!

Don’t be worried if it doesn’t feel right. You will go through challenges, and you will go through trials. You will learn as you lean on God, and trust Jesus enough to put Christ on, and in the forefront of everything in your life.

Know what doors are closed, and what doors are open

1 Corinthians 16:9 “for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”

Revelation 3:8 ““ ‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”

Know that when a door opens, be prepared to walk this door in faith, and sometimes alone.

When God opens a door to you, nobody and nothing can close it.

Sometimes the door you are trying to open, is actually closed.

WHY IS THIS? I DON’T KNOW! This is where your walk and trust in God is Crucial.

Trust in God, and move forward.

God will be faithful to show you the open doors in your life. Closed doors lead to open doors.

Let’s look at those resolutions we talked about one last time:

Lose Weight and Get Fit

Quit Smoking

Learn Something New

Eat Healthier and Diet

Get Out of Debt and Save Money

Spend More Time with Family

Travel to New Places

Be Less Stressed

Volunteer

We know that these are all good things, and very important. My question for you before you start tackling these type of goals this year is, from what God is showing us today, How can these fit in with the goals and plans God has for you?

Maybe focusing on your health will lead to more energy, focus, and joy in your life to fulfill your commitments in the ministry you are in?

Maybe spending more time with family means opening up God’s word together, and learning more about Christ, and helping your family to know God better this year.

As the Worship team comes up, I want to give you some time for just a few minutes, as we end today, to do two things:

Thank God for this year

Begin to ask God to help you to see what God has in store for you this year in your life; family, work, school, and in you time in church.

Right now take a moment with your eyes closed, and heads bowed, to thank God for this past year. Through the good, the bad, the easy, the hard, God has been and still is working a plan for your life, that benefits the kingdom of God.

TAKE JUST A BRIEF MINUTE

Now take a moment to ask the Lord to guide you in your life. He just doesn’t want to be a part of some things, not just church things, he wants to be a part of all things. May this year, we learn more about who God is through knowing his word. May we learn more about how to love others through being his hands and feet, as well as his joy to a world that desperately needs it, and may we allow God to move through every area, yes, even our goals and resolutions, to allow his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control be in our lives, as the evidence of his leading, teaching, guiding and molding our lives, for the benefit and glory of the Kingdom of God, for this world we live in, and for us.