2013 Aim Low Series

Dakota Community Church

January 13, 2013

2013 - Aim Low

True North: Charting the Direction for 2004

Think about the way you spend your time. Are you ready to give an account? Are you a participant or a spectator in the Body of Christ?

Make Your Move 2005

When it comes to having things happen in our lives most of us would really like it if God would just hurry up and do something. We want Him to light the fire, to send the power, to cause revival. Sometimes however the problem is not that God is not moving – the problem is that we are not moving.

A Fresh Start 2007

I want to begin today by asking you two questions.

Question 1: To what degree are you the person you believe God created you to be?

Question 2: Have you given up on reaching, or on attaining that ideal?

It is another New Year and with it comes that never ending question about resolutions. Did you make any this year? Have you tried and failed at something so many times that you have just quit? Even if making New Years resolutions is not your thing, you know what I mean. Have you been worn down to the point of resignation, to being less than you were created for?

This morning I want to reawaken that desire within you to fulfill Gods dream for your life.

I think you get the idea. It’s January, the first sermon I am preaching in 2013 and if not for a revolutionary reawakening to the gospel, I would be trying to get you to stake stock of your progress. I would be asking you about God’s dream for you, your “special” purpose, your destiny! I would be trying to wind you up, to launch you into another year of “DO MORE” and “TRY HARDER”.

I am not going to do that this morning, as you may have guessed from the title of this sermon.

Instead of pumping your tires about how special you are - I want to do the opposite.

I want to encourage you to abandon entirely the idea that you are special.

I want to encourage you today, at the start of this new year, to totally abandon yourself to nothingness. With John the Baptist I want to encourage you to say “Christ must increase, I must decrease.”

I know you have heard me say it what must seem like thousands of times by now, but; IT”S NOT ABOUT US! This story we have been invited into is about Jesus!

The english word “fulfilled” appears 31 times in the New Testament, 22 of those are references to ways in which Jesus fulfilled the word of God in the Old Testament. A few examples:

In His birth:

Matthew 2:14-15

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

During his ministry:

Matthew 13:34-35

Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. 35 So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:

“I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”

Before the cross:

Luke 22:34-36

Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

35 Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”

“Nothing,” they answered.

36 He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. 37 It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’[b]; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”

On the Cross:

John 19:28-30

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

After the resurrection:

Luke 24:37-47

They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”