Be It Resolved…
1st Corinthians 6:8-12, 10:16-24
December 31, 2006
Last Monday we celebrated the birth of Jesus our Lord and Savior. This was a day to celebrate and recognize what God is doing in our lives. However, for many people Christmas marks the day when depression and anxiety begin. Studies report that many people are overcome with a loss of hope after Christmas. Some people, of which the majority claim to be Christians, experience an intense emptiness in their souls. The excitement of Christmas comes and goes leaving yearning for something more. They ask themselves, “What could it be?” only to miss once again the significance of Christ’s birth. Sadly, for some, the Christ child is simply like buying gas. We simply want three dollars worth of God. We go about our days thinking, …
“I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please. (SOURCE: Wilbur Rees, from "When I Relax I Feel Guilty" by Tim Hansel.)
How are you doing today? Has the excitement of Christmas come and gone for you? For Christians, Christmas should represent so much more. Christmas is a time to remember that with the birth of Christ came the opportunity for each of us to receive a new birth. The joy of Christmas should be an every day occurrence for you. For Christmas is a reminder that God longs for each of us. Christmas is the reminder of what God has done for us through the gift of His Son. It is the new birth received in Christ that makes all things new.
Paul spends a lot of time reminding the early church about this fact throughout his Epistles. For us the epistles serves as a reminder that the loneliness, the loss of joy is due to not having our priorities in order.
First, For Paul, Christmas points us toward the new birth. The new birth, the salvation freely given by professing Christ as Lord and Savior. Christmas causes us to examine ourselves and become aware of our sins. To draw closer to Christ we must be willing to look inwardly at ourselves. For sin, especially, unrepented sin keeps us away from the joyful abundance found in a personal relationship with God. We begin to realize that not only does God pursue us but the emptiness we have is our longing for God.
Secondly, the new birth in Christ reminds us of God’s love for us. It is so easy for us to take God for granted when things are going well in our lives. But what happens to us when storms come. Do we still know and feel God’s love? or do we blame God?
Thirdly, the new birth in Christ allows us to respond to God’s call on our lives with the strength and power found in the Holy Spirit. With God all things become possible.
Tomorrow is the first day of 2007, may I ask: Where are you headed?
Do you know how to please the Lord in your daily living? Do you need to make some changes? Do you need to Draw the line on some questionable things in your life?
The new year is always full of resolutions. Resolutions have become a part of our lives. However, so many times, we fall short because we lack the commitment.
- Jonathan Edwards, the 18th-century revivalist, sat down at age 17 and penned 21 resolutions by which he would live his life. Throughout his lifetime he would add to this list until, by his death, he had 70 resolutions.
He put at the top of his list: "Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat Him by His grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions…. Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week."
Edwards didn’t casually make New’s Year’s resolutions with an expectation of eventually breaking them. Each week he did a "self-check." He regularly summed up how he was doing and sought God’s help in the process.
Christ calls us to commit to actively work at becoming conformed to His image. This coming year resolve to be come a person committed to a godly transformation. If you faithfully do this, you will see your life begin to focus on the spiritual rather than on the passing, material world. (SOURCE: Jan Brown in ChristianityToday.com. Connection. Citation: http://www.christianitytoday.com/moi/9k6/dec/9k6024.html Contributed by: SermonCentral PRO)
John Wesley said: “Whatever cools my affection towards Christ is of this world.”
For resolutions to bring about the new birth found in Christ, we must draw the line on anything that does not point us to Christ. We must draw the line on anything that cools our affection for Jesus. Are you on fire for Jesus?
Paul reminds us in verse 12 that while all things are permissible, not everything is beneficial. While it may be permissible to over eat, it is not beneficial. While it is okay to watch TV, it may not be beneficial to spend all our free time in this manner. While it is permissible to lie around and do nothing, it is not good for the body to not do some form of exercise. You get the jest of what Paul is saying. Some basic questions to ask when we look when examining our activities and priorities include:
Will this make me love Christ more?
Will this enable me to serve Christ more effectively?
Will Christ be glorified in my actions?
Remember, God desires a relationship with us. While it may be permissible for us to do things, all things will not necessarily draw us closer to God. Resolve to draw the line on anything that does not point to Christ.
Continuing in verse 12, Paul reminds us draw the line on anything that enslaves us. The principle of Christian liberty and the idea that everything is permissible is something that we really need to be investigate and understand. It is not permission to do whatever we please. The permissiveness rather points to the fact that as God’s creation, we have be given the ability to choose. While there is wonderful freedom and liberation found in Christ, we need to remember not to let the things we do or choose become our god. Throughout scripture we read about the personal freedom that is found it God and how as God’s creation we have been given dominion over the things of the earth. The danger for us is when we over indulge in the freedom, thereby losing the very freedom we have.
In other words, all things are permitted but do not let it become your master. Money in and of itself is good, but when it becomes our main motivation for living, it has mastered us. Recreation is good, but when it keeps us from worshipping our Lord, it has mastered us. Maintaining order in the church is necessary, unless it overcomes our mission to Make Disciples. Political power is permissible but not to rule over us. Paul exclaims, “Let nothing of this world become your master”.
Finally, Paul reminds us in the scripture from chapter 10 of 1st Corinthians that at the new birth we become part of one Body. Therefore, we need to resolve to draw the line on anything that does not edify the Body of Christ. We do lots of things in our daily lives. Some things we do are necessary while others simply create a controlling spirit.
A controlling spirit tears down.
A Compassionate spirit builds up.
A controlling spirit offends.
A Loving spirit strengthens.
God is ultimately in control. Yielding to the Holy Spirit creates peace and joy. Yielding to the Holy Spirit moves us beyond ourselves. Therefore, we need to ask ourselves, Are my actions nurturing the Body of Christ or are they stifling the Body? Does what I do build up others in the family of God or is it my attempt to be in control? If our actions, thoughts, or words do not build up the Body, we need to resolve to draw the line and change.
Drawing closer to God in the new year is not that difficult. God has already done all the work. Let me make it plain.
There once was a brier growing in a ditch when a gardener came along with his spade and dug it up. He dug around it and gently lifted it out of the ground, bringing the brier to ask itself, “What is he doing? Doesn’t he know I’m a worthless brier?” But the gardener took it and placed it in his garden anyway. He planted it among his most prized and beautiful roses, prompting the brier to think once more, “What is this guy doing? What a mistake he’s made.” But then the gardener did an even more unusual thing in the brier’s mind. He came once more and made a slit in the brier with his knife. He grafted it with a rose and when the summer came to close there were lovely flowers blooming from the brier that previously had none. Then the gardener said, “Your beauty is not due to what came out of you, but to what I put in.”
The brier reflected on the words, “Your beauty is not due to what came out of you, but to what I put in.” Now everyone knows, of course, that plants don’t speak or have minds of their own; but this personified account of a well-known, readily accepted and often practiced procedure called grafting is quite apropos for us to reflect on today as we broach the subject of conversion, regeneration, new birth. It’s especially applicable when one considers how many speak of this conversion to Christ or this “being born again” as “their” coming to Christ, “their” decision to follow him. For the new birth is an inner recreation of our fallen human nature by the Holy Spirit. It changes us from lawless, godless self-seekers into those who love and trust. It moves us to repentance for past rebelliousness and unbelief. It works a loving compliance with God’s law and enlightens, liberates and energizes us to serve the Lord. The regenerate man has forever ceased to be the man he was; his old life is over and a new life has begun; he is a new creature in Christ, buried with him out of reach of condemnation and raised with him into a new life of righteousness.(Contributed by:Karl Eckhoff)
Remember when we accept Jesus, God has grafted Jesus into our lives through the birth, death, and resurrection. Therefore, Be it resolved to
First, to be involved in activities that point you toward Christ.
Second, not let actions, or things become your master.
Third, build up the Body of Christ.
Finally, remember whose you are.
