It’s A New Year-What Am I Going To Become
NLAC 1-19-14 Joshua 24:11- Ephesians 4:17-32
How many of you can think of at least one area in your life that you would like to see changed in 2014? In our Marriage Sensation class last Sunday, one of the things that stuck out was the speaker saying “I guarantee you this, you will not be the same person in five years as you are today”. How many of you can be look back and see, that you are not who you were five years ago? Was there any one thing that got you to where you are today or was it more of a series of choices that you made?
What you are and where you re on December 31st, 2014 is being determined by what you are doing and choosing to do with your life right now. How many of you think of yourself as being pretty smart? You don’t really need people telling you what to do. The problem is is that most of us are pretty smart.
As a matter of fact, we are so smart, we have the ability to deceive even ourselves. Have you ever tricked yourself? You convinced yourself, you could do something and not get caught, or you could do something and not face a consequence, or you could do something that other people did and messed themselves up, but it wasn’t’going to happen to you like that but it did.
One thing about us as Americans is that we got our rights. We all have our own opinion. Why is your opinion better than mine. I have my freedom. How many of you enjoy having freedom? Have you ever thought what is necessary for you to have freedom? Can you think of a decision you made that cost your freedom, all because you did what you wanted to do.
A couple of months ago I had a phrase in one of my sermons that said many people believe that being free is being able to say I can do what I want, when I want, with whom I want, as long as I don’t hurt anyone.
Although many of us won’t actually say this, there is a part of us that believes this. The only problem is, if you actually live like this you are eventually going to hurt you. If you hurt you will hurt those who care and love you. You will eventually hurt those who hang out with you. You will even hurt those who are coming after you. How many of our kids start out a disadvantage simply because their parents had this philosophy. How many times does a whole family suffer because one member of the family tries to live like this?
I can do what I want, when I want with whom , I want as long as I don’t hurt anyone. If you live like this in January, there will be a list of people hurting in December. You may not even like the person you will have become. One of the interesting books in the bible is the book of Judges. It is the book which describes the time period after Joshua had led the people into the promise land that God wanted them to have, and before there were kings.
God was suppose to be the people’s king and God had given them the law to obey so that they could be free to enjoy their lives. God only gives us laws to protect us. But we are smart enough to believe that no, this law is really holding me back from a good time. How many of you know a good time is not defined by how something feels at the moment, but what were the consequences that followed.
Going out with the most popular guy may feel great, but then he when he posts on facebook on how he won the $20 bet that he could get you to have sex with him and now you’re history does not feel so good does it. But you got to do what you wanted to do, when you wanted to do it, with whom you wanted, but you couldn’t stop somebody from getting hurt.
We misunderstood the connection between our freedom and God’s love for us. God’s people had been slaves in Egypt for over 430 years. They suffered every kind of abuse imaginable, even to the point of being forced to throw their baby boys into the River. They cried out to God and in his great compassion, he delivered them and told them. Look as long as you will follow me, you will not have to suffer abuse and beatings like you did under the king Pharoah.
When Joshua was their leader, they followed the Lord and they won victory after victory and overcame the people in the land. When Joshua was getting old and thinking it was about time to die he called the people together to give them one final public speech. In that speech Joshua told them all that God had done for them. How he delieverd them out of Egypt. How he fed them in the wilderness. How they had defeated nations, they never should have been able to defeat. He then says to them :
Joshua 24:14-15 (NIV)
14 "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
Now even with all that God had done for them, Joshua knew that the people were not being totally honest with God. He told them, some of you still have in your possessions, some of the gods your fathers worshipped. How many of you know that there are some things you are holding in your life now, that can and will have a negative effect on what you will become in 2014.
Joshua is saying some of you have some phone numbers you need to get rid of. Some of you are involved in some relationships you need to get out of. Some of you have jobs that are going to lead you to do wrong. Some of you have some friends you need to let go of. Joshua says you need to make up your mind who you are going to serve.
The people told Joshua, we’ve made up our minds. We promise we are going to serve the Lord Joshua knew the people we just being emotional because it was a big meeting and they thought he was about to die and so they made this incredible commitment. God is our witness, we are going to obey the Lord. Joshua, says,” no you won’t. When I’m gone, you’re not going to be willing to pay the price to follow the Lord. You will run after other gods and follow them.”
Have any of you ever made promises to God at the end or a worship service, at the end of a camp session, at the end of a retreat of a conference that from now on no matter what you will follow the Lord. But once you got away from the setting, you started to drift.
Joshua knew something about all of us. Joshua knew that God created us all. Since we are created, there is a Creator. We were all created to be ruled. Not controlled but ruled. For instance, if you’re on the playground and you decided to play baseball or kickball, what’s one of the first things you do. You choose a captain. Every team from kids to professionals choose a captain, a leader, because we know in order to get what we want there has to be a leader. A good leader leads us in the right direction. A bad leader leads us to disaster.
God created us with the idea that He would love us, and we would love Him back. God never wanted robots, so he gave us the freedom to walk away from him, if we thought we had found a leader that loved us more and cared more about us than he did. Now God was suppose to be the king of His people. But after Joshua died, they looked around at people who did not serve the Lord and decided to do what they were doing.
The people around them served a god call Baal. When you worshipped Baal, man church was like a wild party. They ate, they drank, sex the temple prostitutes was all part of the deal. Baal promised to bless you financially with good weather for your crops. You were kind of free to do what you wanted to do with whom you wanted to do it with.
But when times got bad, people would start to sacrifice people to Baal to get it to rain. If that didn’t work, they would start sacrificing children. If things didn’t change, they would require the richer people to sacrifice their firstborn child to Baal.
God’s people ran after Baal, and God said, okay if you want Baal, you can have him. God removed his anointing and the nations they had conquered now conquered them and put them into slavery. It was as bad as it was under the King in Egypt. The people thought they were gaining their freedom by going after Baal’s promises of blessing and do as you please, when in reality they lost their freedom and gained a lot of misery in their lives.
They cried out to God, please deliver us. After they had suffered a lot of pain and misery, God in God’s mercy, would send a judge to deliver them and they would come back to God. After a few good years of walking with God, the temptation came back to want to do what the other people around them was doing.
They didn’t recognize it, but all they were doing was trading the one true King, for the privilege of choosing a new little king. Remember, if we do not serve the king, we will find some little kings to worship. The king we choose to worship is going to determine what it is we are going to become.
Here’s five kings and queens. Which of them are you tempted to trade for Jesus in your life.
Which of the five kings has the greatest pull on your life right now. Is it Queen I’m in Charge. She will lead you to saying I Won’t Won’t I Won’t. You can’t make me. But you will find yourself saying I Can’t, I Can’t, I Can’t Stop.
You want to stop taking cocaine but you can’t. You want to stop stealing but you can’t. There is a verse in proverbs in which a guy says, I would not listen to anybody and now I am in complete ruins. Now I’m doing what I want to do and I don’t like it, and I can’t quit. I don’t even like me.
What about queen lust. Does she have you chasing after something that’s not going to satisfy you. You thought if I just did it this one time, ti would be okay. But each time, you find yourself going back. Lust has taken a hold of your life and its ruling you. You never thought you could become addicted but you have. Did you really believe you can trust her to let you have a good time, and then allow you to simply walk away anytime that you choose to do it. It was not easy for God’s people to get away from the Gods they had chosen for themselves.
What about queen greed. Are you buying things you don’t need trying to fill a void that belongs to God. Are you abusing money and things by getting in a mountain of debt.? Do you think you really have to have it now? Is that what God really wants you to do with your money. Just because you can afford it, does not mean that you should buy it. Is God asking you to help out someone else out. Is God asking you to sponsor a child? Is God asking you to start giving stuff away so that you can have more freedom. Things can control us if we don’t think things all the way through. What we do with our money determines what we are going to be become.
What about Queen peer pressure. If you want to be what God wants you to be, you have to accept that you’re not going to fit in. Jesus has a call on your life. He called you out of darkness into his light. It takes courage to follow Jesus. Everybody’s doing it is never a good reason to give up your integrity because everybody’s going to answer to God.
There are more people going to hell than going to heaven, but that’s not a good reason to go to hell. Are you dressing to please God, or to get attention? Are you filling your minds with the lyrics of this world, or with the praises of God. Just because your friends moved in with their boyfriends doesn’t mean that you should.
What about King Envy. Will you trade who God is calling you to be to being jealous of somebody else. Some of the very people you are envious of, wish they had what you had. Envy makes us compare ourselves to others. It’s a trap that leads to resentment and anger. Bitterness sets in along with high blood pressure and ulcers. It’s okay for others to succeed. Their success does not mean that you are a failure. Allow 2014 to be the year, you receive what God wants you to receive and to become.
When we reject God, we choose to become a servant to something else or to somebody else. These other kings and queens have one thing in common. They do not love us. Why is it easier to walk away from God than it is to walk away from these kings and queens.
You know how you said, “God I know I should not do this, and I know this is going to against all I was taught, but now I’m moving in with this person.” Now that the relationship has gone bad, and you want out, but you can’t just walk away from it, in the same way you just walked away from God into it.
When God is our king, we have freedom to do lots of things. When we leave God and go pursue other things, we do so at the cost of our freedom. We will find ourselves crying out to God for help. Even though God will come back and rescue us, we can’t get back the time we wasted, or the time we threw away, or the beatings we endured while serving the little kings and queens. I know you think it will be able to walk away, but the Scriptures says of the people in Judges, “and they were no longer able to resist.”
What we will become in 2014 is dependent on which King or queen are we going to serve. Don’t simply ask the question, what can this King or Queen do for me now, ask where will it take me five years from now.
Wouldn’t it be kind of stupid to want to end up at Golden Gate shopping center by taking a bus from public square and choosing the bus based on it being the first one to arrive, or the one with the nicest advertising on the side, or the one with the cutest driver. What should be the determining factor before you get on the bus? What you become is going to be determined by the ride you take?
Jesus said, come follow me. That means, we have to let go of the other gods that we want to serve. I had decided to become a Christian at age 17. I was doing pretty good in a number of areas. Then my sophomore year in college, I accidentally discovered my room mate had a large stash of pornography in the closet. I looked at some, and put it back. Over that semester it was a struggle between going to the green army bag to get one last look.
My roommate invited me to go home with him to NYC for Thanksgiving. I went knowing that NYC had a famous section called 42nd street. That was sort of like the sex sin capital area. I had decided I would see just one x-rated movie. After all, no one but me would know about it. I went into this theater. It was dark and the movie had started. I went to sit down. The seat was not empty though and this old man said, hey.
I was about to get another seat, but the movie theater lit up for a moment and all I saw were some old tattered looking old men. It was as though God said, if this is how you want to end up, then go ahead and do it. In that moment, I turned and I headed for the door and never looked back. I realized that one of the little kings was about ready to make me an addict.
But in looking toward Jesus, I found a strength that was greater than the pull of the little king. It is when we choose to turn to Jesus, and are willing to confess and to let go of the gods around us, that the resurrection power of Jesus Christ enables us to be.
Don’t trade away your freedom for sin. The book of Judges tells the story of people who forsake their God, follow the people around them, and surrender their freedom. Israel simply traded one king for another. They were no longer able to resist. The substitute kings are not merciful. They do not love you. They will control you. They will take away your freedom.
Maximum freedom is always found by doing the will of God for your life. That’s why its easier to say no to God.
A. Think Of One Area You Need To Change
• Five Year Change
• How Did You Get Where You Are
• Where Will You Be 12/31/2014
B. How Many Of Us Think We Are Pretty Smart
• The Ability To Deceive Ourselves
• We Were Going To Outfox Sin & Circumstances
• Americans We Have Our Opinion On Freedom
• Made A Decision That Cost You Your Freedom
C. Sermon On The Message
• I can do what I want, when I want, with whom I want, as long as I don’t hurt anyone.
• Hurt You, Those Love You, Those Hang, Those Coming After
• Book Of Judges—Between Promise & Kings
• God Gave Us Laws To Be Our King
• What Defines A Good Time
• Consequences Mess Up A Good Time
• Guy On FaceBook
D. Connection Between Freedom & God’s Love
• History In Egypt—Abuse & Pain
• God Promise To End The Abuse If They Serve
• Joshua & His Speech
• Joshua 24:14-15 (NIV)
14 "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
• Joshua Knew The People Were Not Honest
• The Gods, Phone Numbers, Friends, Relationships, Plans, Fall Back System
• People Swore Not So—We Will Worship
• Joshua Taunts & Says Not So
• People Swear Again Not So
E. There Is A Creator Who Created Us
• Created To Be Ruled Not Controlled
• Kids Choosing Teams On The Playground
• Leaders Take Us Places
• God Created Us To Love Us & Have Us Love Us Back—Freedom To Walk Away
• After Joshua Died, The People Looked Around
F. The People Went After Baal
• Wild Religious Services, Singing, Dancing, Sex
• Promise Of Financial Blessing & Prosperity
• Sacrifice People, Kids, Firstborn
• God Gave Them What They Wanted
• Conquered By The Nations & Made Slaves
• Pleasure, Pain, Prayer
• Trading One King For Another
G. Five Kings & Queens
• Queen I’m In Charge—I Won’t , Nobody Can Make Me
• I Can’t, I Can’t Stop, Cocaine, Stealing
• Proverbs I would Not Listen & Came To Ruin
• Queen Lust—They Are Good Feelings, Desires
• Just Do It, Will Take Over Your Life
• Will You Really Trust Your Lust To Let You You Go
• Queen Greed---Buy It Now
• Abusing Money, Getting Debt, God Wants You To Give It Away, Get Your Freedom
• Queen Peer Pressure---Everybody’s Doing It
• Takes Courage To Follow Jesus
• You Have A Calling On Your Life
• Don’t Have To Do What Others Are Doing
• More Going To Hell Than To Heaven
• King Envy—Jealousy Is Not Okay
• They Want What You Have
• Comparisons- Lead To Bitterness, Resentment, Ulcers, Blood Pressure
• Others Success Does Not Mean You Are A Failure
• Become What God Wants You To Be In 2014
H. Comparison Of King & The Little Ones
• They Do Not Love You—God Does
• They Will Not Let You Walk—God Will
• They Will Seek To Rule You—Unable To Resist
• Maximum Freedom Is Found In God
• God Allows Us To Choose Everyday Whom We Will Serve
• Choosing A Bus For Golden Gate Shopping Center From Public Square
• Don’t Ask What Will The King Do For Me Now. Where Will It Take Me Inn Five Years
• My Attempt To Follow The Little Kings With Pornography
• The Power Of Jesus Christ When I Turned To Him
• Are You Willing To Put Away The Little Gods To Become What God Wants You To Be In 2013.
**Some of the ideas I have in this series come from Andy Stanley’s Series “Right In The Eye” which can be found at www.rightintheeye.org
