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Ingleside Presbyterian Church A Congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America |
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Ingleside Presbyterian Church A Congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America |
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We heard numerous reports about our recent holiday shopping season, saying that people didn’t spend as much as usual due to the downturn in the economy. And a lot of the gifts were practical…you know, like the stuff that Ronco makes and chia trees and pets. Perhaps the economic picture is causing Americans to become less materialistic and less self-absorbed. If so, then some good things can truly emerge from a difficult situation. I won’t ask for a show of hands but I bet that a number of you made resolutions for the New Year. A new year always gives us the opportunity to start fresh and to better ourselves. Advice columnist Ann Landers wrote a column for the New Year some time back. She writes, "Call up a forgotten friend. Drop an old grudge and replace it with some pleasant memories. Free yourself from envy. Resolve to stop magnifying small problems and shooting from the lip. Lighten up. When you feel like blowing your top, ask yourself, ‘Will it matter in a week from today?’ Bet optimistic. Read something uplifting. Don’t be afraid to say, ‘I love you.’" I’ve seen some less serious resolutions. "I have resolved not to do drugs anymore, because I get the same effect just standing up real fast." "I have resolved to live in my own little world, because at least they know me there." "I have resolved to stay married, because it is great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life." "I have resolved to not make any resolutions, because nobody is perfect. I am a nobody, therefore, I’m perfect!" We know that resolutions don’t always last. An elderly man moved into a retirement community and before long, he had made friends among the other residents. There was one lady he was attracted to and she appeared to be attracted to him too. They spent a lot of time together, and finally, one evening he proposed, asking her to marry him. The next morning he woke up remembering his proposal but he couldn’t remember her answer. So he went to her and said, "I am really embarrassed. I proposed to you last night, but I can’t remember if you said ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ She responded, "Oh, thank goodness. I remembered saying ‘Yes’ but I couldn’t remember who asked me." It’s easy to forget the commitments and resolutions we make at New Year’s. How can we move beyond just making resolutions and begin creating solutions for our lives? I believe we should do it by working on the core issues of our lives instead of just making cosmetic changes. You see, losing weight may only be a symptom of the core issue of lack of self-control in your life. Controlling your drinking may only be a symptom of the fact that you are looking for something to deaden the pain and disappointment in your life, instead of finding your strength and comfort in God. Controlling your anger may only be a symptom of a deeper need that you have to control life and the people in it through your rage. We should focus on core issues rather than the surface problem. Ephesians 4:10-16 "He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors & teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith & of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to & fro by the waves & carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined & held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." I simply want to use this passage as a springboard to get us thinking about "Goals for the New Year." Here Paul wants believers to grow up, to learn to discern instead of swallowing things "hook, line and sinker." He encourages them to "grow up" into mature believers…to remove their spiritual Pampers and graduate to wearing "Pull-Ups" at least. ("I’m a big kid now!") And the goal of individual Christians doing this is you get a growing, flourishing church. 3 Areas of Focus: 1. Focus on Personal Development. I am talking about more than running out and buying an "abs" exerciser so you can get ripped or joining the gym. You can be the perfect weight and have a perfect body and still miss the point of what it means to be a human being. You can read all the self-help books at Barnes & Noble and still be out of control. You can be the best educated person around and still be clueless about life. You may know a lot about a broad range of subjects and still be ignorant when it comes to things that are ultimately and eternally important. You may have dodged the bullet with your investments and be set financially for the rest of your life, but you could be spiritually bankrupt. On the other hand, you may be broke, unattractive, out of shape and in poor health, but you are in touch with the things that have ultimate meaning. You have joy because you understand the importance of God in your life. You have learned to forgive. You have learned how to love imperfect people and to live in an imperfect world. You have grown in your knowledge of God through the reading of His Word. You talk to Him every day. There is a peace in your life that cannot be eroded away by the daily circumstances of life. Your life is eternally linked to God through Jesus Christ, who holds your life in His hands. You trust Him and you’re conscious of His presence everyday. You want to do His will because of a love for Him that has taken over your heart and your life. How do you develop yourself personally? First of all, see if there is any unsurrendered area of your life. Is there an area you are holding back from God? You cannot resist God and expect His blessing upon your life. If you say, "I will obey God in everything except this…" you are blocking God’s work in your life. What I’m talking about is NOT so much personal development as it is allowing God to do a work in you. Truth is, you cannot develop yourself, which is why most of our resolutions fail. This is the work of God. Paul understood this in Rom. 7:21-25 "So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind & making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin." Folks, it is through Christ that we are delivered from our own wickedness, not through our own efforts. Some of you are looking at your "batting average." You’ve failed so many times before that you’ve given up on even trying. We talked about that last week with Philippians 3:12-14 about "forgetting what lies behind" and pressing on toward what is ahead. We need to forget the past with its failures and move the future where God has called you. Future failure can be avoided by building holy habits into your life. Make sure you make time to be in God’s Word everyday and to talk to Him through prayer. You won’t always feel like doing it, but if you do it faithfully, regardless of how you feel, your life will take on a new power. Get rid of mindless magazines and trash TV and fill your mind with positive things. Set goals for yourself. Don’t merely exist from day to day, letting life simply "happen" to you. Don’t let your life be an accident. Don’t avoid life by sinking into your recliner. Don’t let others be in charge of your life. Instead, commit your life to God and have Him be in charge. Let Him develop you. Jewish author Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He survived the atrocities of the Auschwitz Prison Camp during WWII. He tells this story: "A just man comes to Sodom, hoping to save the city. He pickets. What else can he do? He goes from street to street and marketplace to marketplace, shouting, ‘Men and women, repent. What you are doing is wrong. It will kill you. It will destroy you.’ They laugh, but he goes on shouting, until one day a child stops him. ‘Poor stranger, don’t you see it’s useless?’ ‘Yes,’ the just man replies. ‘Then, why do you go on?’ the child asks. ‘In the beginning,’ he says, ‘I was convinced that I would change them. Now I go on shouting because I don’t want them to change me.’" Are you easily influenced by others? Folks, we need to build purpose into our lives or someone else will try to do it for us. If we do, as our Ephesians passage today tells us, we won’t be infants tossed back and forth by the waves.
As I often say, we were not created to live in isolation. There is no such thing as an army of one. The only folks who can change the world single-handedly star in the movies, like Rambo. To think that you don’t need other Christians supporting and helping you is a mere fantasy. To think you can survive separated from your family and friends is a destructive illusion. Rom. 14:7 "For none of us lives to himself, & none of us dies to himself." We need to build relationships and that is what the church is about. The church is not an organization, it is an organism. Ingleside Church is not a building…it is people. When we are together, God meets us in ways that are different than the way He meets us when we are alone. That is why Jesus said, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I with them." (Matt. 18:20) We are created to be part of the body of Christ. Imagine a hand or eye trying to manage apart from the body. That would be silly. Not only do you need the body, but the body needs you. What happens when the body is robbed of the eyes? What happens when an arm is lost? The whole body suffers. By thinking you have nothing to contribute, you rob the body of something really important. We were put here to serve God and to help others. I believe that the most miserable people around are those who live only for themselves. Their whole world centers around them and everything is measured on how it affects them. The only effort they ever expend is on things that will benefit them. Their focus is on getting instead of giving. They want to be served rather than serve. Disciples of Jesus Christ have another call on their lives. They are people who want God to use their lives. They want to serve God by serving others. They have an outward rather than an inward focus. They want to express God’s love to the world around them. They want their lives to make a difference. Our key text this morning tells us that the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers’ job were not to do the work of the ministry all by themselves. They were charged and called to "equip the saints for the work of ministry." And the saints are not merely part of a football team in New Orleans. Who are the saints? If you know and love Jesus, go look in the mirror. You are! Who is supposed to do the work of the ministry, according to Paul? Again, go look in the mirror and (whoop) there he is! Or she is! J.H. Newman was a catholic priest and later a cardinal, who left the Roman Church for the Anglican Church in 1845. He wrote: "God has created me, to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission—I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for nothing. I shall do good, I shall do His work. Therefore, I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am. I cannot be thrown away." We are in uncertain times economically and politically. But our future is not uncertain. Our salvation has been purchased through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. And our God is still reigning on the throne, as Scripture says, "forever." And the last time I checked, forever was still in play. It’s not over and never will be. As a result, we have the opportunity to live our lives differently this year. We will come in contact with folks daily who are living lives under the uncertainty of our times. But we are the people of hope who bring the best news anyone could ever hear. People of God, we have a part to play in God’s plan for the world. Please don’t miss it! Let’s pray. Please visit us at our next worship service.
In Christ,
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