Four Goals for the New Year

7. Help kids stay safe by not texting on my cell phone while eating McDonald’s and speeding through crosswalks in school zones with a frost covered windshield

8. Avoid fingertip soreness by learning to play “Rock Band,” instead of a real guitar

9. Start a blog about how I would write more often if I had something important to write. Only make one blog entry and leave it published for years

10. Talk with a robot voice all the time

Funny New Years Resolutions about Weight Management

I will...

1. Lose weight by hiding it someone you'll never find it.

2. Gain enough weight to get on The Biggest Loser.

3. Buy new clothes big enough to account for next year's holidays.

4. Start smoking to lose weight

5. Lose weight by inventing an anti-gravity machine

6. Lose weight by living on the moon

7. Find a more accurate scale

8. Build biceps by increasing reps of Ding Dong curls to 3 sets of 15

9. Stop buttering my doughnuts

10. Eat more fruit... snacks

At this stage of our lives, new years’ resolutions are somewhat of a joke (at least in mine – I stopped making them years ago).

We all have heard the jokes and laughed at the resolutions that have already failed by the end of January (If not before).

Frankly, I barely even acknowledge them anymore.

And with them, comes the insinuation that you can only ever begin anew at the turn of a year.

So, rather than jumping on the New Year’s Resolution band wagon, I prefer to approach each new day, each new moment of it’s own.

I get that it is helpful to periodically sit down and evaluation lessons learned from the past year and to consider goals for the new year. I think this is healthy and wise, but this should be happening on a regular basis as well as this one point in time every year.

My challenge to myself, and to use as a church body this year is consider often what our goals should be. I pray that as we start fresh once more with a brand new year, we would develop the pattern and habit of regular assessment and evaluation of life and goals and that we are constantly having an eye to how things are going.

I want to suggest FOUR GOALS for NEW YEAR this morning. They will be nothing new but perhaps they will serve as a reminder in a year that has be ripe with distractions and detours taking our eyes of the things we must regularly keep before us.

Hag 1:1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

Hag 1:2 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD."

Hag 1:3 Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet,

Hag 1:4 "Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?

Hag 1:5 Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.

Hag 1:6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

Hag 1:7 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.

God, through the prophet Haggai, challenges the people of Israel to consider their ways. To take a serious, hard, honest look at their lives, at their work to evaluate what they are actually accomplishing. They seem busy, but not much is coming of it.

The same can be true of us. We can be very busy without accomplishing anything, or at least anything of value. We need to evaluate our own lives and activities every once in a while to see if that things that we are investing our lives into are accomplishing anything of value and/or that which it was intended to accomplish.

In a year when it is entirely possible we have gotten too comfortable in the restrictions and different way of life that has been imposed upon us, I suggest we need to reevaluate four primary goals in our daily lives.

Sermon Body

Four Goals for the New year

Love God - Increase love for and enjoyment of God

Mar 12:30

There is great misconception about this world “love.”

It is seen as an emotion, a feeling, something one cannot control.

I didn’t mean to fall in love with your wife/husband.

I can’t help how I feel….

While it is true that it is hard to control our emotions and we do not always have sovereign power over them, WE DO HAVE THE CHOICE HOW WE WILL ACT UPON THOSE EMOTIONS.

Certainly LOVE is an emotion and a feeling, BUT IT IS NOT PRIMARILY SO.

If it were only an emotion, it could not be commanded.

It is also a choice, a decision, action. Sometimes one that PRECEEDS the feeling or emotion.

Sometimes LOVE ACTS AGAINST a feeling, an emotion because the emotion/feeling is sinfully orientated and love rejects the sin to embrace truth and that is often MORE LOVING than following the passion which is able to deceive.

The greatest commandment in all the bible has to do with the object of our greatest value and worth. What do we desire most, cherish most, value most, honor most?

The object that holds the position of greatest worth in our lives will also determine the actions we take, the motives we yield too, and the passions we allow to control us.

This greatest commandment, the highest and #1 priority given to us is to make GOD the pursuit of our highest, deepest passion, desire, and the object of greatest worth, value, and honor in our lives.

And there are many things worthy of honor, value, and worth in our lives…one of the greatest is that of family and loved ones.

But even they, even they are not to be in the place of highest value in our lives.

Matthew 10:37-39

As incredible a gift as family is, as important as they are, they should never become more important than God. Family should never be put ahead of our love for God.

Our lives, our families, our relationships are (or should be) at the top of our priority pyramid, the most valuable things we possess.

If that is so, what does that say that God is supposed to be greater…by far!

And if these are true, what does that say about how much more should our love for God be than that of mere money, trinkets, and things?

If love for our own lives and love for our own families don’t trump our love for God, our love of money and possessions and things most certainly should not.

We are to love the Lord with all our HEART, SOUL, MIND, and STRENGTH. There is nothing left out. We are to love Him with all our being, with every fiber of who we are.

Our HEART, our dreams, our desires, our goals, our ambitions should seek Him.

Our SOUL, the very essence of who we are needs to find its purpose, its identity, its fulfillment, its satisfaction in Him and in Him alone.

Our MIND should be always on Him. Every thought should be to please Him, to think upon Him, to know Him, to advance His kingdom.

2Co 10:5

Every thought must be taken captive to fight against being turned from God to other pleasures, other idols.

This is really where the battle is fought.

Every thought is a potential battle, a potential enemy. Every thought that threatens to demean or dethrone God must be battled and fought with a vengeance.

Everything about us should seek to love God. It should seek to desire Him, to place and keep Him as the greatest passion of our lives.

Every decision; every action; every reaction we make in this life is supposed to be about LOVE FOR GOD.

DONE FOR GOD

DONE OUT OF LOVE FOR GOD

DONE because HE is our highest value and worth and every decision is therefore altered due to that.

Some questions:

How has your love for God and your value for God been diminished this year? How has it strengthened?

What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your love for and enjoyment of God?

Set aside an unhurried, undistracted time with God.

Spend more time in His word, getting to know him. The more you know him and see him, the more your love for Him will increase because there is no one like him.

Journal, meditate, and prioritize the Word of God.

How will you deepen and develop your love for God?

Quality time with God

Quantity time with God

Reduce distractions

Remove lesser passions that conflict

Surround self with people who have a passion for God

How do your priorities, values, use of time, money, and talent evidence that God is the great value and worth of your life?

Love Others

Mar 12:31

The second greatest commandment is love for others.

I would submit to you, the second command is not possible without the first.

The second is an outflow of the first. The second command is the fruit of the first. As we learn to the first, the second begins to naturally happen.

If we try to force the second without the first, we lose our way into legalism.

All 600+ commands are summed up in two. The rest of the commands (OT Law) were further explanations of what these two commands looked it.

This is how critical and important these two commands are. The entire law and prophets hang on these two commands.

Something so essential and foundation merits our regular reflection, meditation, and attention.

So foundational it is that he tells us how to love others..he says “as yourself.”

The point is, how much do you love yourself? (in the flesh) How much time, attention, and care is given to your own wants and interests?

Do you take the big slice of pizza and give the smaller one to others?

Do you take control of the tv remote and make others watch your shows?

Are you careful to build yourself up and make yourself look good in front of others without doing the same for those you love around you?

Do you spend money on your wants and interests but become stingy on spending money if it does not benefit you?

Do you accomplish the tasks your to do list, the things that benefit and please you and push what others have requested of you off until your list is done? (I have done and probably still do, this at times)

Do you choose the best seat in the living room and get angry when you don’t get it?

Do you GET THE POINT?

Look at all the tiny little ways that we feed and fuel our own interests and desires without giving thought to others.

We fight, manipulate, and vie for our own personal wants and interests and get angry, disappointed, and moody when we do not get what we want.

It is common on tv today to hear about people who have been givers for so many years and finally come to a point where they allow themselves to be convinced by others that they need to put themselves first, it is their time now. Stop serving and putting others first and do what is right for yourself, do what you want, and put your interests first.

How pagan is this? And yet, how many of Christians think that this is a good idea?

Now, I am not saying we don’t need to get away and be alone for a while and give attention to prayer and rest because even Christ did this.

But we should be encouraging servant hearted in others and a deeper love for others, a considering of others needs and interested above our own.

Philippians 2:2-4

Phil 2 reminds us to consider others as more important than ourselves. It tells us to not only think of our own interests but also of the interests of others.

In the same way that we care for our own concerns, we are to considers others the same and more so. That is what these passages are communicating to us.

Will we sacrifice, go out of our way, get uncomfortable, and dirty at times to love others and to put other’s interests first?

Will we love others enough to guard what we say and who we say it to?

Gossip is a prevalent problem.

The spreading and sharing of information that we have no right to share.

Information that slanders, defames, or smears others.

Information that is not ours to share.

Information that even unintentionally casts another in a negative light.

Information that reveals personal details for situations that should have been protected.

Are we guarded and protective in our speech.

1 Corinthians 12:22-26

Our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.

I believe this to mean that the parts of the body struggling, bound up in sin, fighting the flesh.

Not every situation needs to be shared in explicit details.

Sometimes prayer can be sought WITHOUT the specifics of the situation.

Are we too quick to spread the juicy details or are we quick to protect the less presentable parts of the body and support them, aiding them, helping them until they no longer require that level of protection?

Gossip does not consider the other person.

Love others means putting them before yourself and loving them in the same way YOU would love yourself; that you would want to be loved.

And at times this means loving them by NOT giving them what their flesh desires, but giving them what is best for them.

It is not loving to just simply give everything a person wants so that they never experience disappointment or learn contentment.

It is not loving to withhold discipline and correction so that they will never experience shame, guilt, remorse.

It is not loving to shield from all harm so that they never learn how to biblically view and respond to hardship.

It is not loving to let them find their own way in the world without guidance and assistance. Too many harms and dangers exist to be given total freedom.

Sometimes to confront somebody in sin, we have to give up our comfort, our rest, our time to go and talk with them. This is not a conversation any of us desire or enjoy right? But if we are going to love each other and consider others as more important than ourselves, putting their needs and interests first, guess what? This is what we must do.

Would you not want someone to protect you and be watching out for you in the same way? Protecting you from dangers you find yourself facing?

At times, it also means that we must treat people living in sin very seriously and at times we must step back and away from them, separating ourselves from them, even though we love them dearly and deeply, in order for them to understand the deep cost of their sin and in hopes that they will come to repentance.

The context of Phil 2 goes on to say that we should be like of Jesus who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but took the form of man and become obedient to death for us.

We who were enemies of God, who mocked, spit upon, and killed Him, God considered us more important, putting our needs of forgiveness and salvation above His own interests in order to die for us and give us a salvation that none of us wanted or would have chosen apart from his meddling.

We must love others to the extent and point that we will do anything necessary to save their soul, to bring them to repentance and salvation, to right relationship with God, and if that means an uncomfortable conversation that ruins your relationship or that if means stepping back and distancing the relationship in order for them to see the cost of their sin and their need of repentance, are we willing to do it for the good of their soul, for their best interest?

1 Corinthians 13 is a good prescription for what it means to love others, to love like Christ loves.

Loving others gives preference to others and gives them the best of what is available and taking what is left for ourselves.

Loving others does not seek to get our own way, but makes sure that others get what they desire or need if at all possible.

Loving others means sacrificing to serve others, to give to, help and provide for others.

Loving others means confronting sin and having a no tolerance policy.

Loving others means not encouraging, enabling, supporting another’s sin and perhaps means distancing oneself from another who is living with unrepentant sin.

Loving others means caring for a person’s soul and doing whatever necessary to seek its salvation (esp if they are unsaved.)

Some Questions:

How is our love for others a litmus test for the depth of our love for God?

Love for others flows from our love for God.

If we are not loving others, serving others, etc…it may be an indicator that we are not truly loving God despite the profession we make.

Conversely, a life of humble servanthood, gracious forgiveness, and genuine love for others display that a genuine love for God exists and is producing the fruit of others in our lives.

This is especially true when difficult and mean people are the object of that love.

Why can we not love others without first loving God?

Because true love, Godly love cannot happen from those who are dead spiritually. An internal change must take place before we can love like that.

A love for others is not possible if we have not known, experienced, and seen truly love from God.

Read 1 Corinthians 13. What does this “love your neighbor as yourself” look like?

What does your love towards others reveal about your love for God?

What must you do to strengthen your love for God?

What will you do to show the love of God to others in your life? Be specific.

Serve with Joy

Galatians 5:1-14

Vs. 13 - We were called to freedom in our salvation. Freedom from sin, from judgment, from death.

This freedom is not a freedom that permits us to do whatever we want!

We are to live as FREE AS SERVANTS.

Doesn’t this seem like an oxymoron? A contradiction?

How are we free if we live as servants?

We are free because we serve WILLINGLY and JOYFULLY as a result of the great gift of grace that God has given us.

1 Peter 2:13-17 – Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a coverup for evil but living as servants of God.

You see, we are set free to be servants! We are set free from sin and death and the devil to be willing, joyful, humble servants of God.

1 Peter 2 goes on to say, “honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor.”

Our freedom is to be used to in loving others, serving others, and doing the will of God.

We talked about how loving others means putting them first and serving them. This act of serving will be a direct outflow, a direct outpouring of our love for God and others.

When we love God and others as we are commanded to biblically, we WILL serve and not under compulsion, but joyfully and happily!

Service, servant heartedness that pleases the Lord is a matter of a humble heart serving out of love and grace that has been lavished upon us by God.

We serve BECAUSE we are loved and because we love. Our service SHOWS our love. The acts of service can be done without love but love cannot be without service. True love, will result in service.

In the same way that works are evidence of faith and not the cause for faith, love is the evidence of love not the cause for it.

We are to love and serve each other.

Look at the example He gave to us:

John 13:1-20

God also wants us to serve His church. A good question to ask is:

Christ served the disciples. I have pointed it out before and I will do so again, Judas the betrayer was still in the room when Christ washed His feet. We read in the first few verses, BEFORE Christ washes their feet that Christ knew that Satan had already led Judas to betray him. He knew this BEFORE he washed their feet and He still washed EVEN JUDAS’ feet.

Christ left us a powerful example of what it looks like to serve others.

Look also at the church in Macedonia.

2 Corinthians 8:1-5

They gave abundantly, out of their poverty and lack for the sake of others and for the sake of the ministry of the gospel.

They gave beyond their means, suffering themselves, leaving themselves in want in order to meet the needs of others.

This kind of love and serving, both the example of Christ, and the example of Macedonia, we should seek to emulate.

God wants us to love and serve others, including our enemies. One of the greatest ways we can serve Him is by serving and building His church.

Some Questions

Reread Galatians 5:1-14. What is the freedom that this text is referring to really talking about? How is that different from our cultural view of freedom?

We have freedom from the penalty and power of sin.

We have freedom from the demands of sin. We are not BOUND by his impulses and demands any longer. Eph 2.

This freedom enables us to love and serve God and others willingly and freely because we WANT to as a result of the inward change that has been wrought.

This is true freedom.

We also have freedom from the law and its demands since it has been fulfilled in Christ and the payment made to make us right with God. We are then free to serve and give others rather than focusing on our condition and standing before God.

How is enjoying freedom in Christ not in contradiction to living as servants to others?

We are not FORCED to serve others. We do so because of this very freedom given to us and because our hearts are changed giving us the desire to serve; both God and others.

What’s the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?

When was the last time you BEGGED to serve another even to the detriment of yourself?

Evangelize – Boldly share Gospel in Prayer

What is our main purpose in life?

The glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

What task brings God most glory? The salvation of sinners.

The death of His son on the behalf of sinful, wretched, depraved beings is the apex of the glory of God. The salvation of undeserving sinners through the grace of God magnifies the glory and name of God more than anything else could ever hope to.

As such, we have been given the task of making disciples, of preaching the gospel, of leading people to Christ and teaching them to become God followers.

Matthew 28:19-20

Our love for God and our love for others should naturally drive us to serving them (as we saw moments ago) and especially to preaching the gospel in order to save sinners from an eternal torment under the wrath of God.

If we love God the way we should, we will in turn love people deeply, and will in turn evidence that love for God and others by serving and by witnessing.

When we balk in the face of sharing the gospel out of fear for what people will say or think or even that we will forget what to say or not know what to say, we are declaring that we do not love God enough to be uncomfortable in order to obey Him and to make Him look glorious to others.

When we balk at sharing the gospel out of fear, we are saying that God does not mean enough to us to be uncomfortable for Him for a while AND we are saying that is not enough for us. We also want comfort, ease of life, and comfortable enjoyable earthly relationships MORE than we want a deep and abiding relationship to God.

To avoid evangelism is to deny love for God and others.

Take Penn from Penn and Teller, the magician. I have shown this once before in our biblical priorities sermon series, but watch it again and be reminded (if you were here, if not, it may be new to you)

Show video - Penn Jillette - Proselytizing

How much must you hate someone NOT to warn them of coming danger?

I sat down with neighbor once, when we lived in NY, and talked with him about life, death, sin, and such. And one of the comments I made to him was that I loved him enough to tell him these things and I encouraged Him to think about them.

Laziness is no excuse.

Fear is no excuse.

Lack of “the gift” is no excuse.

Some are more naturally gifted at evangelism, but the mandate exists FOR US ALL.

Discomfort is no excuse.

“I don’t know what to say” is no excuse. You are saved aren’t you? You have experienced the love and grace of God haven’t you? Then you are qualified. You start there if need be. Read, study, ask, learn.

We have no excuses that will hold water or stand up before a holy God.

Some Questions

How is NOT sharing the gospel with one in need the most UNLOVING thing you can do?

If you do not care enough about their soul to warn them of the eternal danger they face, you are not loving them. To know someone is headed to the brink of destruction and beyond and NOT try to protect them…that is unloving.

It is not putting their welfare and best interests at the forefront of our focus and actions.

Why is sharing the gospel the most “Christian” thing we can do? Why is it central to our salvation and faith?

We were saved for this very purpose!

Salvation of sinners is THE thing that makes Heaven rejoice and that glorifies God

We live for His glory and to make his glory known.

The greatest way to do that is to see sinners repent and be reconciled to God.

This mandates sharing of the good news.

Why does sharing the gospel so often get pushed aside in our lives?

Busyness

Fear

Lack of knowledge

Discomfort

Our own idols and roadblocks.

Lack of spiritual growth and discipleship. But truth is, new believers do not often need to be coached. They may not know how to articulate it well, but the excitement of new life compels them to want to share.

For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?

How will you be deliberate in sharing the gospel with the unsaved?

Conclusion

As we enter this year new, my prayer for myself, my prayer for each of you is that we would honest evaluate our lives. What is it that we are living for? What is it that we are pursuing? What do we truly and honestly love most?

My prayer is that we would develop and foster (intentionally) a deeper love for God that results in deeper and more sacrificial love for others which in turn will evidence and prove itself through our joyful and sacrificial serving of others and the church and through bold, passionate evangelism.

Will you make your life count in 2021 and forever more? Will you live out the vision of Growing together to become more like Jesus for the glory of God.

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