New Years - It Time for Change

INTRODUCTION—NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

-The majority of people have a tendency to scoff at New Year’s resolutions. Primarily because we find that we have been in that condition before. You know about the condition, the one that says “I am going to change!” by willpower and by modifying my behavior.

-On December 21, 2008, the New York Times had an article about our inability to keep New Year’s resolutions. Alan Deutschman who wrote the book, Change or Die, discovered that even though most people have the ability to change, most never do. He said, “It’s exceptionally hard to make life changes and our efforts are usually doomed to failure when we try to do it on our own.”

-Research shows that most people who make New Year’s resolutions on January 1 have fallen off the proverbial wagon by February 14. That isn’t very encouraging for any of us to be hearing on this first day in January, this first Sunday in January.

-The New York Times article went on to say concerning health issues some disturbing facts: Dr. Edward D. Miller, the dean of the medical faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said more than 70 percent of coronary artery bypass patients revert to unhealthy habits within two years of their operation.

-Dr. Dean Ornish, the cardiologist and diet author, frequently cites a conclusion by a panel of nutritional experts convened in 1992 by the National Institutes of Health that two-thirds of dieters gain back any lost weight within a year.

-All of this is pretty discouraging to most of us. However, there is an upside to all of this information. Psychologists and psychoanalysts discovered that there were people who did change but they were in a very small minority. However there were some ways that brought lasting change to their lives. Dr. Deutschman gave these some tips to changing.

-It fell primarily in four little steps that they gave themselves to:

· First, start with big changes, not small ones. This strategy was likely to yield immediate and noticeable benefits that would inspire you to change.

· Second, act like the kind of person you are trying to become. He said even if you hit the jogging trail with 30 pounds of flab, think of yourself as a runner that you want to be.

· Third, instead of seeing the failure in the past, go to the point before that failure, whatever it may be and look at the success of that former place in your life.

· Fourth, with this being the most crucial, he said you can never do it alone. You must find someone who is a partner that will help you to accomplish the change.

-There was one more piece of advice given by one of the doctors, “Don’t believe your feelings! Feelings will lie to you every time!”

That was just a little background on New Year’s Resolutions…

So, in this sermon… We’re going to be all over scripture. Making resolutions for our New Year.

I hope at the end of this, it makes sense… If not, well, at least you earned a star in heaven for showing up.

First point: Today, lets return to God.

If you have been in a perpetual state of backsliding, today is the day of repentance.

You can’t live a Christian life when you are backsliding… When you are returning to the things of old.

We’ve all been there..

We’ve been to the point where we want to do the old things of life, because its more fun.

We’d rather spend our time doing other things rather than spending time in the word, prayer, and serving.

Charles Spurgeon—The Christian life is very much like climbing a hill of ice. You cannot slide up. You have to cut every step with an ice axe. Only with incessant labor in cutting and chipping can you make any progress. If you want to know how to backslide, leave off going forward. Cease going upward and you will go downward of necessity. You can never stand still.

Charles Spurgeon—The Christian life is very much like climbing a hill of ice. You cannot slide up. You have to cut every step with an ice axe. Only with incessant labor in cutting and chipping can you make any progress. If you want to know how to backslide, leave off going forward. Cease going upward and you will go downward of necessity. You can never stand still

J. C. Ryle—Backsliding generally first begins with neglect of private prayer. . . Men fall in private long before they fall in public

We are built for worship, we all worship something...

You have the choice, you press forward and worship our God or you slip back and worship yourself, or the enemy.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

The galatians started strong! They started with the Spirit, but as time went on, they started walking away and started following their flesh.

They started relying on their flesh instead of the Spirit… This is a sign of backsliding… What are you relying on? Jesus or yourself?

You can rely on yourself all you want, but you’ll fail. You will always fail.

Here’s some advice for you who are backsliding, you know who you are.

STOP IT!!

You need to decide to stop.

No one makes you choose to backslide or not… It’s your own choice!

Why did you backslide in the first place? Because you chose to.

Just like you have the choice to backslide, you have the choice to stop and return to God.

It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it!

Here is what God says to Israel,

Isa. 1:16-18

The New King James Version Chapter 1

16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;

Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.

Cease to do evil,

17 Learn to do good;

Seek justice,

Rebuke the oppressor;

Defend the fatherless,

Plead for the widow.

18 “Come now, and let us reason together,”

Says the LORD,

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

They shall be as white as snow;

Though they are red like crimson,

They shall be as wool.

Courson’s Application Commentary, Old Testament Volume 2 (Psalms–Malachi) Isaiah 1:16–18

The people were full of blood and sin, apathy and iniquity—and yet God says, “My blood will wash you clean if you’ll just come before Me and admit your need of My work and mercy in your life.”

That’s what we’re to do, gang, for if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). All He asks from you and me is to be honest before Him and say, “I know this isn’t right, Father. I need Your mercy. Deal with me. Help me. Change me.”

Once you decide to change, you repent, and ask God for help… Because He’s the only one who is able.

The New King James Version Chapter 2

So rend your heart, and not your garments;

Return to the LORD your God,

For He is gracious and merciful,

Slow to anger, and of great kindness;

And He relents from doing harm.

New Year’s Resolution 1: Stop backsliding, return to God.

Next one:

Get To Know Your Savior

Being a christian is more than just knowing Jesus...

Being a Christian means to have a relationship with Jesus.

This year, lets have a deeper intimacy with Jesus...

Intimacy is knowing and being known on a deep level.

It’s not a surface level thing, but it’s deep. It’s where you can share your heart with someone.

What is something that it takes to have intimacy with someone?

Trust

It’s the same with our relationships with people and God… It takes trust.

Let’s start trusting God, taking Him at His word, because He will never fail.

John Piper says in His article:

How We Draw Near to God

The secret to drawing near to God and having him draw near to us is revealed clearly in the Bible: we draw near to God through faith in Christ who alone gives us access to him (; ; ), and we put our trust in all of “his precious and very great promises” which find their Yes to us in Christ (; ).

God is impressed with our faith, not our feats. Where faith is lacking, he is not pleased with the quantity of our knowledge or the quality of our aesthetic events.

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. ()

When God sees someone whose heart fully trusts his promises and lives by them, God comes to strongly support that saint () and manifests himself to him:

“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” ().

In life, I think most of our problems and failings happen because we lose our trust in God… We don’t believe Him and we don’t trust Him.

This year, if we want that real intimate relationship with Him, we must have our faith and trust in Him.

Let’s trust God for all He has… No matter how bad life looks.

Third Point: This year, lets serve more

Romans 12:1 NKJV

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

So, now that we have returned to Christ, and are developing intimacy with Him.. now lets show it outwardly.

This year, lets serve God more… Serve each other… and Serve others.

As believers, we are called to be servants.

Luke 4:8 NKJV

And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

The christian walk is not a lazy one for sure.. We are to be living sacrifices for God..

This year, let’s give ourselves over to Christ completely!

When we are walking through life, do we really give ourselves over to God completely? Or, are we holding some part of our life for ourselves?

Relationship, College, Job, etc...

Jesus gave His all for us, the least we can do is give all of ourselves over to Him and let Him have our way in our lives.

The Bible offers several motivations for our service. We want to serve God because “we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (), because our service supplies “the needs of the Lord’s people” (), because our service proves our faith and causes others to praise God (), and because God sees and rewards our labor of love (). Each of these is a good reason to serve God.

Why should we want to serve?

The Bible offers several motivations for our service. We want to serve God because “we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (), because our service supplies “the needs of the Lord’s people” (), because our service proves our faith and causes others to praise God (), and because God sees and rewards our labor of love (). Each of these is a good reason to serve God.

We should want to help teach children’s church...

We should want to help keep our place of worship clean and orderly.

We should want to serve in ministries...

We should want to serve our neighbors...

We should want to serve… period…

Because God served us, the least we can do is serve Him and His people.

Lastly, probably the most important resolution we can make...

Let’s Bring Glory to God

We always here “glory” or “glorify” but do we know what they mean?

I read this and it stated. “The word glory as related to God in the Old Testament bears with it the idea of greatness of splendor. In the New Testament, the word translated “glory” means "dignity, honor, praise and worship." Putting the two together, we find that glorifying God means to acknowledge His greatness and give Him honor by praising and worshiping Him, primarily because He, and He alone, deserves to be praised, honored and worshipped. God’s glory is the essence of His nature, and we give glory to Him by recognizing that essence.”

Question is, how can we bring glory to God?

1 Chronicles 16:28–29 NKJV

Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!

1 Chronicles

We see 2 parts to this:

Ascribing

Give Him glory because it is due to Him.

Isaiah 42:8 NKJV

I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.

Isaiah 42:

We are to “bring and offering”

It’s part of worship that glorifies Him.

What sort of offering can we bring?

- The offering we bring to God as we come before Him in the splendor or beauty of His holiness involves agreement, obedience, submission, and rehearsing His attributes or extolling Him. Glorifying God begins with agreeing with everything He says, especially about Himself. In , God declares, “I am the Lord God. I created the heavens like an open tent above. I made the earth and everything that grows on it. I am the source of life for all who live on this earth, so listen to what I say.” Because of who He is, holy and perfect and true, His proclamations and statutes are holy and perfect and true (), and we glorify Him by listening to and agreeing with them. God’s Word, the Bible, is His Word to us, all that we need for life in Him. Listening to and agreeing with Him, though, will not glorify Him unless we also submit to Him and obey the commands contained in His Word. “But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children—with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts” (). Jesus reiterated the idea that glorifying and loving God are one and the same in : “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

Conclusion:

A new year is awesome for a new fresh start.

Today would be a great day to stop backsliding.

This year lets grow more intimate with God.

Let’s serve God and each more.

and with all everything that we do, lets bring glory to God, because He is the only one who deserves it.