I trust that you had a wonderful Christmas celebration on Friday.  Rachel and I were especially excited to have all three of our sons waking up on Friday morning at our house and we were joined later in the day by our grandchildren.  You may have had conversations with out of the area relatives and friends that day.  A lot of Christmas calls may start out with “What did you get?”  It’s amazing that the holiday that proclaimed God’s greatest gift to us in sending Jesus Christ to earth, we tend zero in on what we received under the tree.  Even in a difficult economy, we are a blessed people. 

If you take time to truly count your blessings you will find that you have more than enough in many areas of life.  Some of you may recall the television show twenty years ago entitled, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.  The host, Robin Leach, would tour the estates of Hollywood celebrities, where opulence and gaudy wealth were beyond one’s imagination. 

I referred to this passage a few weeks ago: “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.” (I Tim. 6:17)  Paul instructs the wealthy further to be rich in good works and to be generous and ready to share with others.  I did a little personal research in my closet at home.  I found that I have 9 pairs of khaki slacks of various shades, 8 pairs of blue jeans (3 have paint on them); 10 pair of shoes (but I know many of ladies can beat that number), 15 sweaters and over 50 various styled shirts.  When I looked at that I felt blessed, but somewhat embarrassed because a number of people in the world could look at me and say, “Wow!  You sure are rich!”  And in many ways, I am.   

I say that because we are beginning a new year next Friday.  And as 2010 approaches I want us to think about what the necessities of life are.  Basically, all we need is food, shelter and clothing.  Most of the stuff beyond those three are luxury items.  However, we often feel that almost everything we have or own is a necessity of life.   

We have three major Christmas trees in our house.  The family tree in the great room is my favorite.  It’s a real 8 foot tall tree with family ornaments from our thirty  six plus years of marriage.   Several of our ornaments are in the shape of states where we’ve lived or visited.  Do you know what the greatest state in which to live is?  It’s not Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York, or even Texas.  It’s not even Florida or Hawaii.  It’s the state of contentment.  Phil. 4:11 (KJV)“For I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”   I Tim. 6:8 “If we have food & clothing, with these we will be content.” 

In Romans 12:9-18, Paul lists some of the traits of a true Christian.  I want to look at three from verses 9-11: “Let love be genuine.  Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.  Love one another with brotherly affection.  Outdo one another in showing honor.  Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.” 

New Year’s is next Friday and some of you will be making resolutions.  Let me share “A Cynic’s New Year’s Resolution:” Gain weight…at least 30 pounds.  Stop exercising.  Waste of time.  Read less.  It makes you think.  Watch more TV.  You’ve been missing some good stuff.  Procrastinate more—starting tomorrow.  Stop bringing lunch to work—eat out more.  Get in whole new rut.  Create loose ends.  Get further in debt.  Wait around for opportunity.  Focus on the faults of others.  Mope about faults.  Never make New Year’s resolutions again.” 

As we approach 2010, I want us to look at verses 9-11.  There are three things in these verses that I believe are truly “spiritual necessities” for us as we enter the New Year. 

1. Love Sincerely.  (vs. 9)  “Let love be genuine.”

The letter began: “Dearest Jim:  No words could ever express the great unhappiness I’ve felt since breaking our engagement.  Please say you’ll take me back.  No one could ever take your place in my heart, so please forgive me.  I love you, I love you, I love you!  Yours forever, Marie…P.S.  Congratulations on winning the Georgia Lottery Mega-Millions.”  That is not sincere love.  Sincere love demonstrates love whether there is any money or not. 

1 Cor. 13:13 “So now faith, hope, & love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”  Love is greater than faith and hope.  It is the greatest good.  God put us here to learn to love and the greatest lesson we can learn on earth is the lesson of demonstrating genuine love. 

Col. 3:12-14 “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy & beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, & patience, bearing with one another &, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you, so you also must forgive.  And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”  1 Peter 4:8 tells us that love “covers a multitude of sins.”  These passages are not hard to understand.  Our problem is not understanding.  Our problem is performance of these Scriptures.  We do not always love people deeply. 

The play “Raisin in the Sun” is about an African-American family that inherits $10,000 from their father’s life insurance policy.  The mother sees a chance to escape the ghetto life of Harlem and move into a little house in the country.  The brilliant daughter sees a chance to live out her dream and go to medical school.  The older brother has a business plan.  He begs for the money so that he and his “friend” can buy a liquor store, saying that it would generate steady money for the family.  He says he can make something of himself and make life good for the rest of the family.   Against her better judgment, the mother gives into the son.  She admits that life’s chances have never been good for him and he deserved the chance that this money might give him.  However, his so-called “friend” skips town with the money and the son has to return home and break the news to the family that their hopes for the future had been stolen and their dreams of a better life were gone.

His sister tears into him.  She calls him every name she can think of and her contempt for her brother had no limits.  When she takes a breath in the middle of her rant, the mom interrupts her and says, “I thought I taught you to love him!”  The daughter answered, “Love him?  There’s nothing left to love!”  The mom responded, “There’s always something left to love.  And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing.  Have you cried for that boy today?  I don’t mean for yourself and the family because we love all that money.  I mean for him, for what he’s been through and what it done to him.  Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most; when they done good and make things easy for everybody?  Well then, you ain’t through learning, because that ain’t the time at all.  It’s when he’s at his lowest and can’t believe in himself because the world done whipped him so.  When you start measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right!  Make sure you take into account what hills and valleys he came through before he got to where he is.” 

There is always something left to love!  Demonstrating love when people are at their lowest is genuine love.  Jesus did the same thing.  Remember the Woman at the Well?  The woman caught in adultery?  The outcast lepers who were healed?  In each of these cases, Jesus demonstrated love to people who were at or near their lowest point in life.   

A little boy was overheard asking his playmate: “Wouldn’t you hate to wear glasses all the time?”  “No,” came the answer, “not if I had some like my grandma’s.  She always sees when people are tired and sad, and she knows just what to do to make them feel better.  One day I asked her how she could see that way all the time.  She told me it was the way she learned to look at things as she grew older.”  After thinking a minute, the first boy concluded, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.  It must be her glasses.”  We know that it wasn’t grandma’s glasses that made her love others.  It was her heart that apparently had been touched by God. 

2. Hate Strongly.

In verse 9, we are told to hate what is evil.  Generally, hatred is not a good thing, but hatred for evil is something that is commanded by God and should inspire us to do good.  Jude 22-23 “Have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.”  The stained garment appears to be a metaphor for the contaminating influence of false teachers. Stained and soiled garments are a recurring example in Scripture and I’ve put some cross-references in your sermon notes.  (Is. 64:6; Zech. 3:1-5; Rev. 3:4, 5, & 18)   

I believe that we should love people, even when we have to speak out against their sin.  Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association wrote: “The truth is we are anything but a Christian nation.  Our behavior as a nation makes a mockery of Christianity.  We lead the world in every abomination known to man—abortion, alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling, divorce, child abuse, violent crime, pornography, and yes, even child pornography.  Worse yet, we export our violence and immorality to other countries through our sleazy movies and TV programs.  We have become the moral polluter of planet earth.  We are going out of our way to protect every expression of profanity and obscenity.  America is thumbing its nose at God!  The Supreme Court is in rebellion against God.  Our Congress is hardened against God.  Our bureaucracy could care less about God.  Our educational system has banned God.” 

Romans 12:9 tells us to “abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.”  If we stand for Christ, we must stand against evil.  We know the famous Edmund Burke quote: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”  We can take a strong stand and still be decent and respectful.  1 Pet. 3:15-16a  “In your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness & respect.”  2 Tim. 2:24-25 “The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.  God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth.” 

3. Serve Zealously.

Rom. 12:11 “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit; serve the Lord.”  A great New Year’s Resolution is to serve the Lord.  We should serve more and the best way we can.  A man got his worship times mixed up and hurried to the church door one Sunday about noon and asked, “Is the service over?”  One guy said, “The worship is over, but the service is only beginning.”  Christian service can take place within the confines of the church but it also takes place outside the church.   

It is great when people are willing to serve, any place, any time, regardless of any special gifts or talents they may have.  Some folks may be tempted to say, “I can’t do that” of “That is not my cup of tea” or “I don’t have any ability in that area.”  It is obvious that everyone cannot play an instrument or sing a solo, but we all can serve in various ways. 

The number one complaint my pastor friends have is they can’t get people to serve.  We should know the principle that many hands make light work.  Ministry is not something done “to” the church, but rather it is something done “by” the church. 

Eph. 4:11-12 “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.”  We often have the mindset that someone else is to do the work of ministry…after all, that’s what we pay the preachers to do.  Or, as I’ve said before, we use the old saying and think, “Let George do it.”  To my knowledge, we only have one George here at the church and he’s already doing a lot.   

Please allow me to once more ride my favorite hobby horse.  God has blessed our church with kids!  When I first came to Ingleside you could count all of the children of the church below middle school on one hand.   When we moved to Gwinnett County in 1998, six kids below middle school came with us.  Now I have to remove my shoes and socks and several other people’s shoes and socks just to count the number of young ones we have.  And our children’s ministry needs teachers and volunteers during second worship.  If enough folks would help, you would end up helping two Sundays a quarter and since we have first worship, you wouldn’t even have to miss attending worship when you serve.  A couple of our folks attend first worship on the Sundays that they help with the kids at late worship.   

We have opportunities to serve inside and outside the walls of our church.  Talk to Linda Freund about the Lawrenceville Co-op or check with some of folks who volunteer.  (Co-op volunteers, would you please stand?)  In order for the church to grow spiritually, we all must get involved and do whatever we can to serve. 

A Baptist preacher rushed down to the train station every day to watch the Sunset Limited go by.  He dropped everything in order to fulfill this daily ritual.  Members of his church considered this behavior very juvenile and asked him to stop.  He said, “No, I won’t give it up.  I preach your sermons, teach in Sunday school, bury your dead, marry your young people, run your charities, and chair every drive that pleases you to conduct.  I won’t give up meeting that Southern Pacific train every day.  I love it!  It’s the only thing in this town that I don’t have to push!”  We shouldn’t have to push people to serve. 

The world-renowned French chemist and biologist Louis Pasteur founded the science of microbiology, invented the process of pasteurization and developed vaccines for several diseases, including rabies.  He said, “In what way can I be of service to humanity?  My time and energy belong to mankind.”  Jesus remarked in Matt. 20:26-28 “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, & whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, & to give his life as a ransom for many.”  If anyone should be served and never lift a finger it should be our Lord Jesus.  But He came to serve.  What can we do for the Lord in 2010? 

When a Quaker turned 82 years old he said, “I’m going to live until I die and then I’m going to live forever.”  I hope that God will allow us to live until we die.  Living is about loving.  Living is about standing for Christ.  Living is about serving.  So many folks have that all jumbled up.  They live for themselves and not for Christ or others.  I trust that we will make these resolutions for our New Year.   

This poem, entitled The New Year, came across my desk two weeks ago: 

I am the New Year. I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.

I am your next chance in the art of living.

I am your opportunity to practice what you have learned about life during the past twelve months.

All that you sought & didn’t find is hidden in me, waiting for you to search it but with more determination.

All the good that you tried for & didn’t achieve is mine to grant when you have fewer conflicting desires.

All that you dreamed but didn’t dare to do, all that you hoped but did not will, all the faith that you claimed but did not have—these slumber lightly, waiting to be awakened by the touch of a strong purpose.

I am your opportunity to renew your allegiance to Him, who said, “Behold, I make all things new.”

 
Would you pray with me?