God loves you and has chosen you as his own special people. So be gentle, kind, humble, meek and patient. Put up with each other and forgive anyone who does you wrong, just as Christ has forgiven you. Love is more important than anything else. It is what ties everything completely together. (Colossians 3:12-14 CEV)
This is a powerful passage of scripture from Colossians. This passage begins and ends with the mention of a very important emotion. It is important to us all. Everyone craves it, we all need it and God supplies it freely to us. That emotion is, Love.
Last Sunday, we ended our Advent season and the subject for that day was Love. We know that God loves each of us unconditionally. We just finished celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who I think you would agree is the greatest testament of God’s love for us. There will never be a stronger act of love than that which Jesus did for us when he came to earth to save us. Love indeed is a blessing, a gift that belongs to us all.
Today is the last day of 2006 and I am sure that we could look back over this year and see many things with which we were blessed. There may also be some things which we wish we could have done differently. I know that this is true for myself. But as we know, we can’t go back in time and undo what has been done. We can only go forward and trust God to lead us and direct us in our paths. Through God’s grace, we can move past our mistakes and look to a brighter future ahead, free of any baggage or anything else that might otherwise hold us down.
What better time than at the beginning of a new year to start over and revitalize ourselves for God’s purpose within our lives? The title of this sermon is Rebirth and Revitalization. The term “rebirth” can also be defined as a new beginning. Each of us, through God’s grace, has the opportunity to have a new beginning.
This opportunity is taken up by literally thousands of Americans every year around this time. This is done through the form of New Year resolutions. I can imagine that some of you might have set a goal for yourself or have made a new year resolution, which you fully intend to keep. I certainly am not excluded from this group as at the beginning of each year, I make a resolution to get more exercise. I get excited about it and do my best to plan a walk within my day. I try not to go overboard with these plans, as I do not go out and buy a home gym or other exercise equipment, which I know will only end up being used as an instrument on which to hang clothes, or as a toy for Sarah. I just generally stick to trying to get in a walk everyday. I figure if I can do that, then I will not only be getting into shape physically, I will be getting into shape emotionally and psychologically because I would be proud of myself for making a goal and sticking to it.
I get inspired by the number of people I see walking around our community each day and I find myself thinking, “you know, I can do that too”.
So I start out at the beginning of the year and things will be going great. I am walking, getting a little exercise and feeling pretty good about myself. But sometimes, I allow other things to take precedent and I do not go for a walk one day. Then, another day comes along and something else comes up and I do not go for a walk that day either. Before I realize it, it has been some time since I have taken a walk and I am a little disappointed in myself for not staying with my original plan.
I wonder if any of you might go through a similar experience. Maybe it is not about exercise, but perhaps another goal that you set for yourself that was not quite completed as you had planned it.
I think for myself, the reason that I often end up not completing my goal of walking each day is simply because I allow other things to take precedent. I allow other events throughout my day to fill that time which I had set aside to dedicate to walking. Looking back on it, even though other events arose that demanded my attention; I see clearly that I still could have gotten in a walk. I could have changed the time of my walk. I could have gotten up 30 minutes earlier and gone for a morning walk. Or, I could have gone for a walk later in the evening. The point I am making is that there were other options I could have chosen other than to just not walk.
I think the same may hold true for the church today. Indeed, we all lead very busy lives and there is always someone or something demanding our attention. But, there is always a way in which we can do something for God each day of our lives.
The goal set at Charge Conference this year for 2007 is renewal and revitalization. It is so easy to just look at our Charge Conference goals at something we set and then don’t worry about until the next Charge Conference. But what if we looked at these goals as “New Year’s Resolutions” for our churches? Can you imagine how wonderful it would be at our next Charge Conference if we embraced these goals today and diligently pursued them until that time? Can you imagine the good we could do not only within our church walls, but as well as within our communities?
This is a great opportunity for us to strengthen bridges and build new ones as we work together in ministry with one another. With the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God gave us the chance for a “new birth”, he also gave us the chance to revitalize our lives when we think all else has failed.
If were to look back at the opening verses of chapter 3 from Colossians it reads: Since you have been raised up to be with Christ, you must look for the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. Let your thoughts be on things above, not on the things that are on the earth,
In other words since we now have Christ in our lives, our thoughts should be focused on letting God lead us in meeting our needs, and know that God is in control of them.
We give control to God and ask Him to dwell here with us and help us make this church be what He wants it to be. This is a part of our rebirth and revitalization. There have been many times in which we ourselves may have failed us, but friends, there has never been a moment, nor will there ever be, when our God has failed us.
Going back to the verse at the beginning of this sermon taken from Colossians 3: 12 which states; God loves you and has chosen you as his own special people. So be gentle, kind, humble, meek and patient. We see clearly here that God not only loves us, but He loves us so much that He has chosen us, you and me, to be his people. Because he loves us, he also trusts us to carry out whatever tasks he may put before us. I know that it is not always easy. I can certainly testify to this. I don’t know that it is truly “easy” for anyone. But, with God, you can do it. We can be reborn. We can be revitalized. We can embrace our goals for Charge Conference 2006 and resolve to do something for God each day of our lives. Because God loves us, we can do this. I am not saying it is easy, I am just saying that it is doable.
I saw a quote yesterday that was spoken by Mother Theresa and it said this… “I know that God will never give me more than I can handle. I just wish He did not trust me so much”.
I laughed a little when I read that quote because I realized that even people whom the world looks upon as saints get stressed a little at some point. I think that is normal.
You may be asking where I am going with this sermon. I have stood here and told you all about my New Year resolution to walk each day, and then how because I allowed other things to take precedent, I did not meet that goal. I have explained that the reason I did not meet that goal is simply because of other distractions in my life and how I felt that I had let myself down when I realized this.
The point I am trying to make is that if we embrace our goals and if we work toward them each day and not allow other distractions to take precedent, then with God’s help, those goals can become a reality. We can be reborn and revitalized. We can make that happen because we have put our trust and faith in God, instead of trying to make it on our own.
Beginning in January, our new committee members will be getting together for their individual committee meetings. It is my hope and prayer that these committees will come together with the common goal of revitalization. I pray that God will allow new ideas to come forth and new traditions to come out of these meetings, which will inspire us all.
As we say good-bye to 2006 and look forward to the promises and blessings of 2007, I pray that we all will remember how much God loves us. I pray that we will remember each day that we have a Savior who loves us unconditionally and wants to be a part of our lives every day of the year.
I do not know what 2007 holds for any of us. I only know that with God, it will be all right because all things come together for the good of those who love the Lord.
So, if you have made any personal New Year resolutions, I sincerely hope that you keep them and that they will serve you well. As far as New Year resolutions for our church, let us keep in mind our goals for rebirth and revitalization and claim those as resolutions or goals for us to work toward. We are in this together and I know that we can do awesome things if we work together and give control to God.
In closing, I want to leave you with these words from Philippians 3: 12-14.
“I have not yet reached my goal, and I am not perfect. But Christ has taken hold of me. So I keep on running and struggling to take hold of the prize. My friends, I don’t feel that I have already arrived. But I forget what is behind, and I struggle for what is ahead. I run toward the goal, so that I can win the prize of being called to heaven. This is the prize that God offers because of what Christ Jesus has done”. Philippians 3: 12-14 CEV
