New Year's Resolutions Require More Than Duct Tape

INTRODUCTION

The first week in January, has to be the most depressing week of the year! The holidays are over, all the family and friends are gone, the presents have all been opened, the Christmas candy has dwindled, and now it’s time to go back to work and school! What a drag! While I think that all of those things are very depressing, they are not the most depressing aspect of the first week in January. The most depressing part of the first week in January has to be starting those New Years resolutions! You see up to December 31, you can tell yourself, next year I’m going to getting more active in church, next year I’m going to get my finances in order, next year I’ll start getting in better shape, but after December 31, there are no more excuses! It is next year, this is where the rubber meets the road! Where we find out if we are talking the talk, but are we willing to walk the walk! Well this year, like many others across the country, I decided to make a couple New Year’s resolutions! I was going to lose some weight, and I was going to learn to be a more patient person! I wasn’t going to be depressed, I was just going to start my resolutions and not think about it! So that’s what I did. I woke up on January 1, put on my sweat pants and went over to the exercise room and worked out. For lunch I had a nice big salad and for dinner some steamed vegetables and a grilled chicken breast. The next day I woke up went and worked out, ate a salad for lunch and salmon and veggies for dinner. The next day when I woke up, I hurried into the bathroom stepped on the scale, but I hadn’t lost any weight. How depressing! I was so depressed, that I put my sweat pants, sweatshirt and tennis shoes on got into the car and drove to the United Dairy Farmers and got a large Cappuccino and 3 Krispy Kream Donuts. While I was driving home some eating my donuts and Cappuccino, so jerk driver at Easton pulled out in front of me, I slammed on the breaks and my Cappuccino went sailing onto the seat. I laid on the horn and yelled at the guy something to the effect of “watch where you’re going, your idiot”. Yeah not very nice, is it! So within the span of three days, I had broken both of my New Years Resolutions! And I thought, how depressing! But you know from those broken New Years Resolution, I have learned an important lesson: that “New Year’s Resolutions Require More Than Duct Tape.” But what does that mean? Read Mark 10:17-22

Points:

I. A QUICK FIX Mark 10:17-22

What must I do to inherit eternal life? The man in this story came to Jesus with sincerity. He fell to his knees before Jesus, but this man was only looking for one thing, he was looking for a quick fix. When I was younger, Duct Tape could fix about anything. The cracked seat on a bicycle, a broken tennis racquet, and a leaky pipe. It was good for rolling into a ball when our whiffle ball busted. It was good for putting around our wrists when we were playing WWF wrestling. And it’s especially good for putting over the mouths of Buckeye fans who only want to talk about their teams National Championship! If you could it name, then duct tape could probably fix it! However there was one small problem with Duct Tape, after a while it would start to tare and rip. If it got too wet it would begin to loosen and after a while your bike seat, tennis racquet, leaky pipe, or wiffle ball would be broken again! Duct Tape was only a quick fix! It was only a temporary solution! This morning there are people out there who are living lives covered with Duct Tape! People always looking for the quick fix. You can’t say yes I want to take control over my finances and continue your money on useless stuff, you can’t say yeah I want to have a better relationship with my kids and continue to work 80 hours at the office. You can’t say Yes Lord I want to have a dynamic and growing relationship with you, and continue to give Him an hour out of your week! You can’t say Yes I want to see great and awesome and powerful things happen here at New Albany and continually refuse to get involved. You see New Years Resolutions require more than Duct Tape! It requires more than just a quick fix! The man in the story came to Jesus and said teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said keep the commandments, Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, honor your father and mother! You can almost hear the man can’t you? Yeah, yeah, yeah I’ve done all that! Hurry up and tell me what I can do to inherit eternal life? So what did Jesus say to him? One thing you lack, go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor, then come and follow me! The man went away sad, because he had great wealth. When Jesus challenges us to make a change in our lives, He doesn’t ask us to change things that we are already doing well! Maybe you spend a lot of time with your kids, and maybe you have control over your finances, and maybe you are involved in every activity here at church. Jesus isn’t asking you give Him those areas! Maybe He is asking you give Him your pride, your greed, your envy, your jealousy! When Jesus challenges us to change our lives, He calls us to lay down difficult areas of our lives! Why? Because New Year’s Resolutions require more than Duct Tape! They require more than a quick fix!