Check Your Vitals

First, we reflect. That is, we look back on how this year has gone. We think carefully about our goals, our achievements, our shortcomings. We ask ourselves if we’re in the career place we want to be, if we have the relational statuses we want to be, how we’ve done as a friend/mother/sister/father/brother/etc. We ask if we’re as health as we should be, or have grown in certain qualities as a person. We always want to do better.

If you are a Christian, you might even reflect upon your spiritual walk. You might look at the consistency of your prayers, of your bible reading, of your consistency as a part of the church, the local body of Christ. You might look at your habits, and if you have overcome certain sins that have had a grasp on you.

And then, of course, after we reflect, we t

If I want to lose weight, I resolve to eat healthier and go to the gym. If I want to be more present in my kid’s lives, I resolve to block off a certain amount of time each day that is reserved for them. If I want to be a better spouse, I resolve to hold to a consistent date night. If I want to be a better friend to someone, I resolve to have dinner with them once a week.

And so it goes in our spiritual walks–If I want to grow in Jesus, I resolve to pray for 30 minutes and read the Bible for 30 minutes each day. If I want to grow in my fight against sin, I resolve to meet with an accountability partner every week and be open with them. If I want to grow in my service to others, I resolve to join a ministry team at church.

Now, I’m not saying that these things are bad. I think that time for reflection and resolution is a gift, and that God can use them in our lives to grow us in how we live and honor Him.

I’ve never been much a fan of the doctor’s office. I don’t like the needles. But, I know that periodic visits to the doctor are necessary to monitor and maintain one’s health.

I do, on the other hand, think it important to ask ourselves why we make resolutions? Some of us genuinely do so to honor God-to seek to orient our lives more and more around Him. But other times, we can make resolutions in an effort to ‘prove’ our worth or value–whether to God or to others, to gain our sense of worth.

If you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, then this makes sense. Outside of Jesus, we search for value, validation, and love–which the world only gives through people’s accomplishments. I’m sorry to say, though, that the truth of God is that will never satisfy. It’s a hamster wheel that won’t eternally give you rest. You can never do enough to satisfy self or others, or God.

If you are a Christian, though, our reflection and resolution must be built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is, the truth that, though we fall short of God’s standards, Jesus has paid the price for our sins past, present, and future through His death and resurrection on our behalf, and thus our past is covered and our future has been secured. We look back with the bedrock of grace–that no sin is too great for Him to forgive, and look forward with grace–that we don’t have to resolve to earn HIs love, for He has given it freely to us in Jesus.

With that said, it is important to allow God’s Spirit space to examine our hearts, and if we are living a life worthy of the gospel of Christ. If we are living a life abiding in His grace and leaning on Him in everything. I believe this kind of pause, this kind of reflection and subsequent resolution, takes us deeper than our typical practices as the years come to a close.

I’ve never been much a fan of the doctor’s office. I never liked the needles. But, I know that it is necessary to monitor and maintain one’s health.

One of the basic, ongoing examinations you get at the doctor’s office is a physical exam. This is just an overall assessment of your health as a person, a check-up to see if everything is normal.

What’s interesting is that the first thing that doctor’s check is a patient’s vital signs.

Let me explain–the first thing that doctor’s check in a is their vital signs.

The first thing that doctor’s check in a is their vital signs.

That is, they measure and examine the body’s most basic functions. (Temperature, pulse, breathing rate, and blood pressure.)

Similarly, as we move into the New Year, many of us take this time to measure and examine our lives. We take time to reflect and resolve. We look back and look forward.

We think carefully about our goals, our achievements, our shortcomings this past year. We ask ourselves if we’re in the career place we want to be, if we have the relational statuses we want to be, how we’ve done as a friend/mother/sister/father/brother/etc. We ask if we’re as healthy as we should be, or have grown in certain qualities as a person. We always want to do better.

Then, we resolve. As we are faced with ways in which we fall short of our desired outcomes for ourselves and our lives, so we resolve–we make a firm decision of a course of actions to help us achieve our goals this upcoming year.

We see ‘how we’ve done’ and what we want to change/work on in the new year.

An issue with all of this reflecting and resolving is that we often spend all our time looking at secondary issues while even deeper vital signs are going unexamined.

That’s because oftentimes, in our resolutions, we assume our ‘vitals’ are fine and move on to check everything else in our bodies.

The problem, of course, is that we might fine tune our vision and hearing, but if our pulse is off, that can have life-threatening consequences if it goes unchecked. It doesn’t matter how great your vision and hearing is–if your pulse if off, you will die with 20/20 vision and perfect hearing.

Too often in our resolutions, we focus on practices while neglecting the deeper posture of our heart. Spiritually speaking, great practices with a poor posture leads to spiritual malnourishment at best, and spiritual death at worst. We cannot elevate practices over posture.

So during this time closing out the year and into the new year, I would like us to shift our focus from examining practices to asking God to examine the posture of our heart.

The way to do that is to check your vitals.

The prime vital sign I believe that sheds light onto the state of our souls is our pulse of praise.

So, as we close 2018 and move into 2019, I believe the question God is asking of all of us today is,

What does the pulse of your praise say about the posture of your heart?

I want God to free us all up to praise Him with all that we have – in mind, in soul, in spirit, and body. That we’d trade our posture of dignity for a posture of desperation.

Sarah Brenon put me onto the idea that, just as the last psalm in the book of psalms is a psalm of praise, it would be fitting for our last Sunday in the year to be there as well.

In fact, the last five psalms are psalms of praise. They are known as the hallelujah psalms, since each psalm begins and end with the word “hallelujah,” which means “praise the LORD.” So, may we, just like these last five psalms, seek to end our year and begin our next with a “hallelujah posture.”

So would you turn to with me, our text for today is going to be verse 2 in particular.

So would you turn to with me, our text for today is going to be verses 1 and 2 in particular. (Throughout the sermon we will touch on different parts of the other 4 hallelujah psalms.)

Hear the Word of the Lord

WhT’S AMAZING IS TH

Psalm 150:1 ESV

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!

Psalm 150:2 ESV

Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!

Psalm 150:1–2 ESV

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!

What is Praise?

The Bible is full of praise. It’s full of people praising God, angels praising Him, and His creation praising Him. In the Old Testament, the word ‘praise’ shows up over 200 times. That’s Just the word ‘praise’ – not similar words like ‘bless’, ‘give thanks’, ‘worship’.

The Bible is not just full of praise, but it is about praise. It is a book about praising God for His worth, beauty, and infinite value–this is what we were created for.

The whole aim of the Bible is to show the great lengths God has gone to to make a way for sinful humanity to be forgiven and restored to a love relationship with God and praise His name forever.

One scholar writing on the book of Psalms says

“Praise is creation’s most characteristic mode of existence.”

In other words, the thing that most characterizes humanity is praise. It is what were created for. To be human is to praise.

In our 5 psalms here, we see at least 6 words that characterize praise.

zamar - this word means to sing praises and make music

Psalm 146:2 ESV

I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

ranan - to give a ringing cry, a shout for joy

Psalm 149:5 ESV

Let the godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds.

Psalm

romam - to extol, to lift high

Psalm 149:6 ESV

Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands,

teruah - to give a shout or blast of war, sound an alarm of joy

Psalm 150:5 ESV

Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

halal - Used over 100 times in OT. Means ‘boast’, ‘brag’, ‘express words of excellence.’ Root of word is connected to the word for making a noise, ‘yada’. It’s a bold, all of body word and action that accompany praise. It’s a word of excitement, jubilation, joy, lifting up. It’s a celebratory sports team victory type of praise.

Halal is often combined with ‘Yah’ (from Yahweh), the name of the God of Israel. “Hallelujah.” Always, confident, boastful declaration to God.

Psalm 150:1 ESV

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!

I want us to allow God’s Word to challenge our hearts when it comes to praise. We see two different things here from this quick survey.

First, all the different words associated with praise here have a notion of being a loud declaration. Praise is often loud with words, with cries, with music, with claps.

Secondly, Biblical praise is radically God-centered.

Psalm 150:1 ESV

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!

Here is my definition of praise–

Praise is a jubilant, all-of-person declaration of joy in God’s attributes and achievements.

This is the purpose for which we were created.

One scholar writing on the book of Psalms says

“Praise is creation’s most characteristic mode of existence.”

In other words, the thing that most characterizes humanity is praise. It is what were created for. To be human is to praise.

And here lies the crux of humanity’s brokenness. Our praise is broke. When sin entered the world, our praise, which was a jubilant, all-of-person declaration of joy in God’s attributes and achievements, turned from Creator to creation.

We stopped praising the Creator and began praising His Creation. That is sin.

That is the disease that humanity has that we see in .

Romans 1:21–25 ESV

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

We exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images. For idols. We exchanged the truth of God for a like and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!

We traded pleasing praise for profane praise. We never stopped praising—> we just shifted the object of our praise.

That is what is true of everyone apart from salvation through the grace of Jesus Christ. Humanity is born with a heart that does not beat for the glory of God. That is the curse of sin from which each person needs to be rescued.

The good news of Jesus Christ is that He has done everything necessary to resurrect our dead hearts. He died for our sin, He took the curse of God’s punishment for our disobedience, and He conquered sin and death on our behalf.

And, if we turn to Him in faith, if repent – which is essentially to turn the praise of our lives from everything else, to God for mercy, he promises to give us eternal life in His family.

Titus 3:4–8 ESV

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.

Titus 3:4–7 ESV

Titus 3:4-

This is the only way that your praise will be pleasing to God. This is the only way to true, everlasting joy. This is the only way to escape the wrath of God. By turning to Christ Jesus for mercy and grace.

No amount of good deeds will do it. No amount of New Year’s Resolutions will do it. No amount of moral living will do it. No amount of Bible knowledge will do it. No amount of shouting in church will do it.

The Bible is clear that you must be born again. God is ready and willing to for you to receive that new life.

Who we Praise?

The bottom line question is, ultimately, are you living to find salvation in anything other then the free grace of Jesus Christ.

The foundation of your faith determines whether your praise is pleasing or not.

The foundation of your faith determines whether your praise is pleasing to God or not.

Now, church, when we talk about checking the pulse of our praise, there’s two different aspects that God can use to shed light onto our ‘pulse’ – the why behind our praise, and the manner of our praise. Let’s turn there together.

Checking the Pulse of our Praise

Why do we Praise the Lord?

Remember our definition of praise, because in it lies the answer.

Praise is a jubilant, all-of-person declaration of joy in God’s attributes and achievements.

Psalm 150:2 ESV

Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!

Praise Him for His mighty deeds and praise Him according to His excellent greatness.

In short, we praise God for Who He Is and for What He Has Done.

Here is a survey from the Hallelujah psalms of Who God is and What God has done.

Who He Is - He is the ‘I AM’ – the eternally existent One with no beginning and no end, from which everything else in the world is dependent upon for life and breath and existence | He is Creator, He is faithful, He is eternal, He is great and abundant in power, His understanding is beyond measure (in other words, if we were to give God an IQ test, there wouldn’t be a score that correlates with the breadth of his understanding and intelligence), He is steadfast in love, no enemies can stand against Him, His name is exalted, His majesty is above earth and heaven, He is our Maker, He is our King, He is excellently great.

What He Has Done - He made heaven, earth, sea, and all that is in them, He keeps faith forever (in other words, there is never a moment in all of human history where God loses sight of His purposes or goes back on His promises), He executes justice for the oppressed, He gives food to the hungry, He sets the prisoners free, He opens the eyes of the blind, He lifts up the lowly, He loves the righteous, He watches over the refugees, He upholds the widow and the fatherless, He brings the way of the wicked to ruin, He will reign forever, He builds up His city, He gathers the outcasts of Israel, He heals the brokenhearted, He binds up their wounds, He determines the number of stars, He gives them all their names, He lifts up the humble, He casts down the wicked, He covers the heavens with clouds, He prepares rain for the earth, He makes grass grow, He feeds the animals, He delights in those who fear Him and hope in His steadfast love, He strengthens the gates of the city, He blesses your children, He makes peace, He fills with the finest wheat, He speaks, He brings snow and frost at His word, He melts them at His word, He makes wind blow and waters flow, He speaks to His people, He commanded creation and it was, He established them forever, He raised up a horn of deliverance for His people, He takes pleasure in His people, He adorns the humble with salvation.

He keeps faith forever (in other words, there is never a moment in all of human history where God loses sight of His purposes or goes back on His promises),

When we check the pulse of our praise, what kind of things make our heart beat for the glory of Christ? Do we rejoice in who God is and what He has done? Do we come alive when we think about these things? Or are they ‘old,’ or ‘characteristic,’ or ‘commonplace’ to our souls?

It was convicting to me when I was writing this list even, because I was tempted to think “well, is this too much? Are people going to get bored with these lists?” I must repent. If, when listening to who God is and what He’s done, we’re counting the clock–we need His grace to keep realigning us to the truth of His goodness.

Another challenge when we examine our praise is, what happens to our praise when trails and suffering comes our way? The hope of the good news of Jesus is that God has ensured that ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR THE GOOD OF THOSE WHO LOVE JESUS. God is the truest good, who is infinitely wise, who never loses sight of His plan, who doesn’t allow anything to happen that is outside His purpose.

Remember Job? Job lost everything. And Job was faithful to God. He was doing the ‘right’t things. And God allowed Satan to take everything from him. His family, His possessions, His health. And how did he respond?

Job 13:15 ESV

Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.

says, “Though He slay me, I will hope in him.”

Job 1:21 ESV

And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Later on in life, Job says

says, “Though He slay me, I will hope in him.”

Because Jesus has conquered our greatest enemy on our behalf, sin, death, because He has satisfied God’s wrath against our sin, and brought us into His family, we are called to trust and praise Him even when it seems as if God is slaying us. Our call to praise is not dependent upon our circumstances. It is dependent upon His promises. He has secured them all in Christ.

Our call to praise is not dependent upon our circumstances. It is dependent upon His promises. He has secured them all in Christ.

I am called to praise Him when good things come materially, and I am called to praised Him when all those things are taken away.

I am called to praise Him when I lose my job.

I am called to praise Him when I lose my house.

I am called to praise Him when I lose to person I love dearly.

This is not to mean that praise always looks happy. Praise can be painful. Praise can be full of tears. Praise can be angry. Praise can crying out to God.

The question is, in the midst of pain and hopelessness–where do you turn? Where is your ultimate hope?

So the first thing we should ask God in checking our vitals is, deep down, Why do we praise? Do we leap for joy in who He is and what He has done? When do we stop leaping in joy? The things that, when lost, stop your praise, might shed light into where or who you are hoping in. This is not an occasion to be shamed, but an occasion to repent. To hope again in God.

Secondly, we might look at the manner of our praise.

How do we Praise the Lord?

We see one example of that in our text in verses 3-6

Psalm 150:3–6 ESV

Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

God has given us many forms with which to praise Him, and honestly, this is where many of us struggle. We know that we’re supposed declare the worth of Jesus (in who He is and what He’s done), but we’re unsure how–or perhaps afraid of the answer.

If I’m honest, when I read God’s Word that says “Let them praise His name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!…Let the godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds. Let the HIGH PRAISES of God be in their throats…Praise Him with sounding cymbals; Praise Him with loud clashing cymbals” I immediately tend to think, well, I can dance in my heart, or I shout for joy in my heart, and clash cymbals in my spirit–I don’t need to do it out loud…do I?

Let me be clear–the goal of this sermon isn’t necessarily to get us to ‘shout’ (though, I do think that we hold back on our expressiveness, or are afraid of being expressive, and that could be robbing us of deeper intimacy with Jesus..but we’ll get to that).

The goal of this sermon is that we would be freed up to praise God with all that we have – in mind, in soul, in spirit, and body. That we’d trade our posture of dignity for a posture of desperation.

To free us to praise God in a manner that is fitting for the occasion.

With that said, we must come to terms with the fact that Scripturally, praise involves our whole being.

We praise in Song (), With the Clapping of Hands (), In Loud Shouts (), Standing (), With Musical Instruments (), In Dancing (), Bowing Down (), In Silence and Meditation (), In the Lifting of Hands ().

Praise is about responding to God in a manner fitting for the occasion.

I’m just wanting to make the point that, when we check the pulse of our praise, our bodies have a part to play in that.

In other words, what if God has given us our bodies as a means of experiencing Him more deeply?

If you’re like me, you probably have struggled with the question of, well, should I lift up my hands if I don’t feel like it? Is that disingenuine?

I would challenge us to question,

We let our feelings hinder our expressive praise–but we don’t let our feelings drive other things in the same way…right?

We still pray to God when we feel as if He’s distant. Because we believe that prayer is an act of faith, an act that says God, I might not feel you right now, but I trust that what you say is truer than my feelings at the moment. So I’m going to continue in prayer, even when it feels like I’m talking to the ceiling, because I trust You over my current feelings–I know your truth says You’re here and you’re listening. Prayer is an act of faith in that way.

What if what we do with our bodies in praise can be an act of our faith?

What if we saw the way we posture ourselves physically in praise to be an act of faith towards what we desire God to do in our hearts spiritually.

What if we saw Praise as both a declaration AND a desperation?

We know that physical expressions are linked to deeper experiences of relational intimacy–and what if the same is true of our relationship with God?

Think of someone you love very much. When you see them, you probably give them a hug. Because the hug communicates something internal. It communicates care, love , acceptance, affection.

But beyond communicating–the hug actually DEEPENS the emotional intimacy between me and the other person. You can be told you are loved all day long, but we experience it in a way we can’t otherwise when the physical act is incorporated.

If we are trusting and resting in Christ, then I would challenge us to ask Him to free us to praise Him confidently and expressively, seeing it as an act of faith, trusting He is pleased with our praise and will use it to deepen our relationship with Him. What if we reached beyond our feelings to let the reality of Christ in our lives make its way out in our praise.

The question I keep coming to is,

What if our experience of intimacy with God is cut short when we are hesitant to express it?

In Scripture, God has often used physical postures as an instrument of His mighty work in us.

talks about a woman healed of a discharge of blood.

She had had this affliction for 12 years, had suffered under many physicians, had spent all she had, and was only growing worse.

This affliction meant that she was ceremonially unclean for 12 years – she wasn’t able to have physical contact with people. She was cut off from her family and community. She couldn’t worship in the temple.

This was a life of shame, isolation, and deep loneliness.

But look at what happens – the text says that she had heard reports about Jesus. She had heard about His miracle working power.

She says this – “If I can just touch His garment. If I can just get to the hem of His robe, I will be made well.”

She did. And she was healed!

This was a risky act of faith. She, the unclean woman, was touching Jesus, the clean man – that would mean that she would have made Jesus unclean with her touch.

But don’t you know who Jesus is?

Jesus is the perpetually clean man, who, when touched by those that are dirty, instead of becoming dirty Himself, makes them clean!

And Jesus responded, “Daughter, your faith has made you well (literal translation–your faith has saved you); go in peace, and be healed of your disease.

Think about this – couldn’t Jesus have healed her without her touching Him? The One Who upholds the universe by the Word of His power? He could have said a word and she be cleaned.

But what if her stretching out her had was a demonstration of desperation? Desperate faith in Him. What if it would be a testimony to those around who exactly did the healing?

What if the extension of the hand was the fullness of the expression of faith–it’s consummation?

What if God desires to use our praise in that way?

What if God uses what we do in praise as a means of intimacy with Him? What if He uses our outstretched hand to get us a little closer to His garment? What if our raising of bodies and voices in joy are used to bring us closer?

What if God used our clapping and shouting to Him in victory to help us more fully experience and live in the victory He has bought us? I don’t know about you, but I certainly to experience and live in His victory more and more.

What if God used our bowing down before Him to help us more fully surrender every part of our lives and hearts to Him, for His glory?

What if God used our outstretched arms towards heaven to help us more fully receive the gift of His grace? What if it communicated to our hearts in a way that our father sees all of us–He sees everything bear before Him–no secrets, and because of the sacrificial death of His Son, He DELIGHTS to lavish His love and grace upon your soul?

I don’t want us, as a church, to miss out on any means of intimacy that God has given us – even if it makes us a little uncomfortable. Getting more of Him is worth any discomfort or fear of what people might think of us, or anything.

So when we check the pulse of our praise, we might ask – what do the things we do physically in praise say about the posture of our heart? Are there ways that God might be calling us to move forward in faith in regards to our praise that we need to surrender to and trust Him with?

What characterizes our praise? Dignity or Desperation?

I fear, far too often, my habits of praise fall much closer to the side of dignity then the side of desperation.

We will only be undignified in our pursuit and praise of Jesus if we believe that He is the Only One Who Matters. If He is the King of our Hearts.

What characterizes our praise? Dignity or Desperation?

I think one of the beautiful things about the people of God in the Old Testament is that they had a responsibility to OWN the covenant relationship God had with them INDIVIDUALLY.

, in verse 16, says,

Psalm 66:16 ESV

Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.

If you think back on that time, can you imagine what different people in the Scriptures would have said?

Can you imagine what Abraham would have said God had done for His soul?

Abraham rejoiced that the Lord didn’t force him to sacrifice HIs only Son on the altar, but provided a substitutionary sacrifice.

What about Moses?

In , Moses and his crew sang a song of praise to God because God worked wonders and miracles to free them from slavery in Egypt and deliver them through the parting of the Red Sea, so that they could pass through on Dry Ground to safety.

What about King David?

In , David danced before the Lord with all His might as they carried the ark of the LORD, the symbol of the presence of God, with shouting and the blasting of the horn, because the ark was coming to Jerusalem.

And I’ll I’ve gotta say to you church, today, is these things are shadows of what we have been given in Jesus Christ.

Better than Abraham’s reason, Jesus Himself is the ultimate sacrifice of God, who laid down His life in our place that all who trust in Him we would be forgiven and free.

Better than Moses’ reason, Jesus Himself is the One Who, through His blood shed on the cross, He leads HIs people out of enslavement to sin and delivers them from bondage to walk in newness of life.

Better than David’s reason, Jesus Himself is our conquering King who single-handedly defeated our greatest enemy – sin, death, and condemnation, on our behalf without us having to lift even a finger.

Better than the ark, Jesus Himself is the True Presence of God who has come to dwell with His people forever.

Better than the high priest, Jesus Himself is the True Meeting point between God the Father and man, our High Priest Forever!

So as we close this year and move into the next, the question to all of us today is – What has Jesus done for your soul?

What does the pulse of your praise say about the posture of your heart?

What does your praise say about what Jesus has done for your soul?

Check your vitals.

If you a Christian, consider this space God has granted you to search your heart by His Holy Spirit. Consider it a New Year’s check up. Look at the pulse of your praise–ask Him to root out any fears, any pride, that is keeping you from praising Him with all that you have, in every circumstance. Ask Him to show you the things you’ve put in His place, that you are leaning on for significance. Trust His forgiveness and walk in it. Ask for His grace to reach beyond the feelings and walk in faith, and that He would use your praise to draw you deeper and deeper into trust and surrender.

If you are not in Christ, you don’t need a New Year’s check up– you need emergency first aid. In fact, it’s worse then that. You need resurrection power. No amount of resolutions on your own will give you spiritual life. You need to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ and have resurrection life breathed into you. You need to repent of your sins and receive Christ’s death for you, and the power of His resurrection, which guarantees you new life in Him forever!

In fact, it’s worse then that. You need resurrection power. No amount of resolutions on your own will give you spiritual life. You need to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ and have resurrection life breathed into you. You need to repent of your sins and receive Christ’s death for you, and the power of His resurrection, which guarantees you new life in Him forever!

Amazingly, the first move at a check up and an emergency scene are the same. It’s to checking your vitals. I’m not checking your vision at an emergency scene. I’m checking your pulse. Don’t allow the New Year to come and go without receiving New Life. Without having God remove the pulse-less heart of stone and replacing it with a beating, living, heart of flesh. He and He alone can do it.

And He wants to. He desires for you to receive Him. To let this day be the day where your eternity is changed forever. Where sin is traded for salvation. Where fear is traded for a Heavenly Father. Where pain is overcome by promise. Where Hopelessness is traded with His Holy Spirit. Where grace breaks into your heart.

But in order for this to happen, you’ve got to let God’s Spirit check your vitals.

Let’s take some time to respond in prayer and praise now.

, and look forward with grace–that we don’t have to resolve to earn HIs love, for He has given it freely to us in Jesus.

Now, I’m not saying that these things are bad. I think that time for reflection and resolution is a gift, and that God can use them in our lives to grow us in how we live and honor Him.

I’m not checking your vision at an emergency scene. I’m checking your vitals. Don’t allow the New Year to come and go without receiving New Life. Without having God remove the pulse-less heart of stone and replacing it with a beating, living, heart of flesh. He and He alone can do it.

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