Two By Four
New Years Message 2016
The year is about 700 BC. AND – God’s people were not doing so good. YEAH - things are pretty tough for the nation.
A large part of Judah and all of the northern kingdom of Israel were in exile in various parts of the Assyrian Empire.
YOU SEE – because God’s people had sinned and turned their backs on Him… BECAUSE - they had bowed down and worshipped foreign gods GOD - removed His protection (in case you are wondering that is never a good thing) allowing their enemies to invade and conquer them.
YES – things were bad…
AND - they would only get worse.
IN – about 100 years (give or take) Babylon would come riding in to finish the job that Assyria had started in Judah. King Nebuchadnezzar and his army would: level the city, tear down the walls, reduce the Temple to rubble, kill thousands of men, woman and children, and take even more into captivity.
Understand
It was to a people who:
• Had seen better days
• Experienced great suffering
• Lost hope
• In many ways had no one to blame for their pain but themselves
• Wondered where God was
• Longed for better days
Ever been there?
IT WAS – to such a people that God through His prophet Isaiah spoke the following words… (some of the most powerful and hopeful words in all of Scripture)
I am the LORD, your Holy One, Israel's Creator, your King."
This is what the LORD says—
He who made a way through the sea,
a path through the mighty waters,
who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together,
and they lay there, never to rise again,
extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise. - Isaiah 43:15-19
Prayer
MGCC… The year 2016 is off and running…
AND LISTEN – I am convinced that it is going to be an extremely HUGE year (a breakout year) for some people in this very room… Why? BECAUSE - God is doing a new thing.
HE – always is, always will and always is.
EVEN NOW - it springs up…
UNDERSTAND - in 2016 God is going to make a way in the desert. HE – is going to flood the dry desert wastelands with streams of living water… for those who seek and search for Him as we in Jeremiah 29, with all their heart.
YES – today, day 3 of the year 2016…
God is handing every single person in this room 363 blank pages of life… AND HE – is inviting each of us to write a new future on them in the coming days, weeks and months.
B/S UNDERSTAND – God is ready for things to be so much different, so much better for you in the year 2016.
QUESTION…
Do you believe that? Do you want that?
Do you want 2016 to be a different year, a year the is more positive, more fulfilling and God honoring? A year where your life more closely aligns with the life God created you to live?
Raise your hands if you want that in 2016.
Do you believe that God the maker of heaven and earth can deliver it?
LISTEN – if you want a new and better 2016, I encourage you to lean in this morning.
AND – for those who do not want 2016 to be any new or better than 2015, feel free to check out…
NOW – I am calling this (our first conversation in 2016) ‘Two by Four.’
UNDERSTAND – this morning we are going to look at TWO great, powerful and well known passages of Scripture and from them pull out 4 ‘2016 life-transforming truths.’
The first passage is from Philippians chapter 3
NOW PAUL – is writing to challenge some false teaching that was trying to add human effort to the grace found only in Christ.
We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, 4 though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. 7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
(“unless I DIE like He did,
I will never rise to LIVE like He lived”)
I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15 Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. – Philippians 3:3-15
IF – want a new and better 2016
You will build one by
I. Forgetting What Is Behind
"No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind"
Notice that Paul said forgetting what is behind, not forget what is behind. Which means that this forgetting is not a one time deal, but an ongoing continuous process.
QUESTION
IS THERE - anything in the past that you need to forget?
IS THERE – anything that you need to leave behind, in order to build a better, different, more fulfilling, positive and God-honoring 2016?
QUESTION – when Paul in that prison cell in Rome penned those powerful words… but one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind…
WHAT – do you think he was referring to?
I MEAN WHAT – do you think Paul felt that he needed to leave behind in order to move forward?
WHAT – did he know he must not try to carry into his future?
NOW - I can think of a few things
Paul needed to leave behind…
#1 – His past sin and failures.
And listen Paul had some serious sin and failures in his past (his behind)
as for zeal, persecuting the church
AND – let me unpack just a little what those 3 words ‘persecuting the church’ mean.
IT MEANS – that Paul had countless men and women arrested for following Jesus (creating a massive wake of homeless children and orphans… and it also meant that many like Stephen died at the hands or orders of Paul…
UNDERSTAND B/S – Paul knew that there was no way for him to have a new and better future if he brought with the sins and failures of his past and the guilt and shame that cane with them.
Got any sins? Failures? Guilt? Shame?
A second thing Paul had to leave behind was…
#2 – Trying to earn or deserve his own righteousness
QUESTION – have you ever tried to do that?
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.
I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
#3 – letting go of the pain of betrayal
UNDERSTAND – Paul endured a lot of mistreatment from other people. I MEAN - even in this letter to the church in Philippi, he tells how some people in the church did not like him and whose motives were false and not genuine… who by their words and actions against Paul were – “intending to make my chains more painful to me…” – Phil 1:17
YEAH – those are 3 things that I am sure were in Paul’s mind as he penned those words, “But one thing I do – forgetting what is behind.”
UNDERSTAND – if we really want to build a better 2016
We - will have to leave some stuff behind (which btw is what God’s people have always had to do.
• Abraham had to leave his family and homeland behind
• Moses had to leave the comfort and security of playing it safe in the desert tending sheep behind
• Peter and John had to leave their nets and fishing business behind.
• Timothy had to leave his fear and timidity behind
• The early church had to leave a bunch of ‘old habits and issues’ that kept creeping into their lives behind.
OKAY - here is what usually happens to us.
WE – watch the ball drop in Times Square, we see this new year coming and with good reason it excites us…
“hey, this new year really could be different”
HOWEVER – the problem is that we many times derail ourselves right out of the gate by beginning the new year with the old ways… we wind up bringing a bunch of the same old things with us…
I MEAN – it’s like we are trying to pour new wine into old wineskins. Which says is a really bad idea.
And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. – Luke 5:37
QUESTION…
Is anything you must leave behind in order to build a new and better 2016?
MAYBE - you need to leave behind…
• Sins and failures and the guilt and shame that goes with it
• Trying to make yourself right with God by your won efforts
• The pain and hurt of betrayal
• Doubt, fear, pride, guilt, envy, jealousy
• insecurity, selfish ambition,
• anger, resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness
• some sin, an attitude, a way of thinking, believing or acting…
UNDERSTAND - I am certain that there is something each one of us needs to leave behind…
SO – the question is do (you, I) do we want to build a great 2016, bad enough that we are willing ask God right now what we need to leave behind…
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
– Psalm 139:23,24
There is no future in your past. And because of Christ your past does not have to be your future or your present.
B/S – you will build a great 2016 by…
• Forgetting what is behind)
AND – by…
II. Straining Toward And Pressing On
And straining toward what is ahead 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus….
I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. – Phil 3:12
The word for perfection – means fullness, maturity, completeness, reaching the desired goal.
Paul is like - I know Jesus took a hold of me for a reason,
That He died a brutal death on a cross not merely to save me from my sins (as awesome and needed as that is)
BUT ALSO – to restore to who I was created to be
For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. – Romans 8:29
THEREFORE – Paul says that He was staring toward
- Knowing Christ
- Knowing the power of the resurrection
- Knowing what it means to suffer for Him and die with Him, so that somehow he could obtain the resurrection from the dead
QUESTION – do you think that your 2016 would be better, different, more positive, more fulfilling and more God-honoring
IF – becoming more like Jesus was the goal you were straingin toward?
QUESTION – what can we do to help make that happen?
By - taping into…
• Word and Prayer
• Having a regular QT/FCFH
• Community
We (you and I) will build…
• An awesome, positive, new, better
• Jesus filled
• God honoring
• Holy Spirit flowing 2016
By…
1. Forgetting what is behind
2. Straining toward and pressing on
AND BY….
III. Trusting In And Leaning Not
NOW – God breathed this next passage through mind and pen of Solomon, David’s son, Israel 3rd king and the wisest dude who ever lived…
“smarter than you”
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. – Pr 3:5,6
NOW – in this passage, breathed by God and written by Solomon… we are told that we need to trust in and lean not… and then we are given an amazing promise…
and he will make your paths straight.
Would anyone like straighter paths in 2016?
A) Trust In…
You need to what?
Trust in the LORD with all your heart…
OKAY FIRST – let’s note what this is not saying…
IT – is not saying… TRUST – your heart.
IT’S – is saying TRUST the Lord.
QUESTION – how many times have you been told the opposite… “now honey all you need to do is trust your heart, follow your heart and you’ll be fine…”
QUESTION - is the heart/is your heart/my heart/anyone’s heart really all that trust worthy? What do you think?
I MEAN, TODAY - your heart says… “he’s the one.”
3 years later your heart says,
“he’s not the one…
maybe he was the one,
maybe I should look for another one…”
TODAY - your heart says, “this is the right thing to do” – and next week it says “no, this is the right thing to do…”
OKAY – let me put it another way…
RAISE – your hands if you have ever known someone who trusted their heart… who, trusted what they felt was the right thing to do – someone who took a path singing these words from the 1977 song by Debbie Boone - ‘You Light Up My Life”
“It can’t be wrong when it feels so right”
AND THEN - ended up in a really bad place…not all the destination they were shooting for?
AND IF – that person was you… keep your hand up…
YEAH - we’ve all done that… maybe we are even doing that now, trusting our heart… “It can’t be wrong when it feels so right” BUT LISTEN – before we head to far down that path of trusting our own heart - it might be a good idea for us to check out what God says about your heart, my heart – every heart…
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? - Jeremiah 17:9
WOW… That’s a pretty broad stroke. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Christian T Shirt with that verse on it… have you?
B/S - the heart, as in every heart is deceitful. And beyond all cure. Beyond all what? Beyond all cure…
AND LISTEN – there is a big difference between being dishonest and being deceitful… I’m sure that everyone of us have run into people who were totally dishonest (I mean, they lie so much, even when there is no need – such that they made Pinocchio’s nose look like a grain of sand)… BUT – you now can see them from a mile away… they are not even close to being shrewd enough to get you to buy what they are selling… You see right through them – you don’t fall for it anymore…
HOWEVER
DECEITFULNESS – is different.
YOU SEE – it’s one thing to be lied to. It is quite another to be tricked and led astray.
UNDERSTAND – Jeremiah is being very intentional here, he is choosing his words very carefully…
Our hearts, my heart, your heart – doesn’t simply lie…
Our hearts are deceitful –
they have the ability to convince us that what is false (about other people, our choices, our actions, about ourselves and who we really are) – is true and to lead us astray…
BOTTOM LINE - the heart (your heart) is according to God’s word… beyond all cure, incurably deceitful. It’s untrustworthy. Dishonest. Corrupt.
AND – as a result, you and I will always have the ability (even the propensity) to lie to ourselves – to act on those lies – and then to become the greatest defense attorney of all time as we skillfully craft and shape ‘evidence’ to defend and support those lies…
I MEAN – we can be so wrong, we can do such wrong things, act in such wrong ways… but at the end of the day we have convinced ourselves and anyone else that will listen that what we are doing the actually the right thing to do… that our heart is good – when it is so far from it...
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
NOW IF – all this is true (and it is because God said it) it really does explain a lot, doesn’t it?
BUT – it doesn’t leave us with many options.
BUT LISTEN – though we are powerless to fix our hearts we do not need to be enslaved by them.
YOU SEE – once you know that you can’t trust someone it easier to ignore their pitch no matter how convincing it sounds…
AND LISTEN ONCE – you settle on, once you accept the fact that your heart can’t be trusted – it becomes easier for you to pause and evaluate (your choices and your action)
BEFORE heading down whatever path your little heart urges you to follow.
As long as we are lying to ourselves, it is impossible to get to where we want to be. Here’s why. You will never get to where you want to be if you don’t know where you are to begin with. When we deceive ourselves, we blind ourselves to our current location. Maps are useless if you don’t know where you are.
- Andy Stanley
NOW
ONE OF – Jesus most often quoted statements is found in John 8:32
And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free…
AND B/S
THE TRUTH IS - your heart can’t be trusted.
THE TRUTH IS - there are better decision making strategies than simply following your heart.
THE TRUTH IS - if you let it, your heart will direct you down a path that leads to the very spot you most want to avoid…
No matter how often or loud you sing…
“It can’t be wrong when it feels so right”
BUT LISTEN
NOW – that we know this truth about our heart –
We don’t have to be deceived…
We can live free of self-deception.
We don’t have to spend the year 2016 trying to untangle ourselves from the decisions we made guided by a deceived heart…
We won’t have to spend another sleepless night trying to understand why we did what we did…
BECAUSE NOW – we know something we didn’t know before… THAT – our heart should not be our guide…
THAT – our heart can’t be trusted…
NOW – there are three questions that we should ask ourselves in order to keep our heart in check…
And we need to try to answer them as if we will not be held accountable for the answer and that not even God can hear our thoughts.
1. Why am I doing this, really?
2. If someone in my circumstances came to me for advice, what course of action would I recommend?
3. In light of my past experiences, my future hopes, and my dreams, what is the wise thing/the right thing to do?
AGAIN – the wisest guy who ever lived… said when it comes to choosing paths and making decisions
do not trust your heart… TRUST IN… the Lord
• Trust in the One who is before all things
• Trust in the One who is over all things
• Trust in the One who holds all things together
NEXT – he says
B) Lean Not…
and lean not on your own understanding…
The term translated ‘lean’ literally means to prop something up against something else; to be supported by it.
UNDERSTAND – what Solomon is telling us, is that when it comes to choosing paths and directions in life… we are not to lean on our own understanding, experience, insight, knowledge, worldview… etc
BUT INSTEAD - we are to lean on and trust in the Lord…
MGCC
WHEN – the way we view and see things conflicts with the way God view things we need to lean in his direction rather than our own…
WHEN – what makes sense to us doesn’t line up with His revealed will – we are to lean towards him and ignore the whispers of our heart.
BUT – the problem is we think…
• That we know what is best for us
• We think we know what will make us happy, WHAT – will fulfill us, satisfy us.
• We think we know had to predict and determine the outcomes in our lives.
• We think we what the best way to behave and act is in a given situation…
BUT – do we? There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. – Proverbs 14:12
LOOK UP
GOD KNOWS BETTER than you what will fulfill you, what will satisfy the deep hunger in your souls, what will make you happy.
GOD KNOWS BETTER- knows than you how to have the outcomes, how to have the life that you have always dreamed about.
UNDERSTAND - Solomon is telling you that in spite of all you know and all you have experienced, don’t make the mistake of thinking that you are: wise enough, smart enough, experienced enough, good enough or spiritual enough to lean on (to trust in) your own understanding…
LISTEN – when it comes to your own reasoning, your own opinions and God’s commands… God wins!
WHEN – it comes to your own reasoning;
• this how I think relationships should work,
• this how I understand the handling of money…
WHEN – it comes to your reasoning and God’s commands… God wins. This book wins!
Because He says so…
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.” 5 “Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.”
But if you say so
What an amazing way to live our lives…
LORD – I do not get it, like it or understand it,
BUT - if you say so…
Everything Jesus taught goes against how ‘normal’ people see and function in the world. Turning the other cheek, going the second mile, giving the spare coat, washing the underlings’ feet, heaping blessing on those who curse you, living without anger, laying down your life – all these things ‘normal’ people have a hard time understanding, much less thinking and living… Christianity invites us to live an intuitively counterintuitive life.
Leonard Sweet – Jesus Drives Me Crazy
UNDERSTAND - nearly everything that Jesus said and did is unpredictable – you never really see it coming…. It’s the antithesis of conventional thinking… Jesus said that…
• The way up is down
• The way in is out
• The way first is last
• The way of success is service
• The way of attainment is relinquishment
• The way of strength is weakness
• The way of security is vulnerability & openness
• The way of protection is forgiveness (even to 7 x 70)
• The way of life is death – death to self, society, family
• Know your strengths. Why? Because that’s the only way that you can lay them down.
• God’s power is made perfect…where? In our weakness.
• Want to get the most? Go to where the least are.
• Want to be free? Give complete control to God.
• Want to become great? Become least.
• Want to find yourself? Forget yourself.
• Want honor? Think of others more then yourself
• Want to ‘get even’ with your enemies? Bless, love and pray for them
Because you say so
It’s not about me. It’s not about you either. It’s all about Him. The gospel is not just for you. The cross is not a big plus sign for your life. God didn’t send Jesus to please you; God sent Jesus to help you please God. – Leonard Sweet
If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party.
The world says, mind your own business
Jesus says, there is no such thing as your own business.
The world says, follow the wisest course and be a success,
And Jesus says, follow me and be crucified.
The world says, drive carefully the live you save may be your own.
And Jesus says, whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
The world says, law and order
And Jesus says, love.
The world says, get
And Jesus says, give
In terms of the world’s sanity, Jesus is as crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without being a little crazy too, is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion.
- Fredrick Buechner
Because you say so…
6 And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear! 7 A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking. – Luke 5:4-7
We will build…
• An awesome
• Jesus filled
• God honoring
• Holy Spirit flowing 2016
By…
1. Forgetting what is behind
2. Straining Toward and pressing on
3. Trusting in and leaning not
AND BY…
IV. Rejoicing In The Lord Always
NOW – this final point is comes from Philippians 4
Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!
- Philippians 4:4
QUESTION – who would like the year 2016 to full of joy?
WELL – here are 3 things and we need to hit them quickly…
The first 2 come from Psalm 1 – which many of us read yesterday as we begin the new year…
Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. – Psalm 1:1,2
1. Stop hanging around the wrong people
2. Start becoming obsessed with the Word
3. Choose to be gratefulness as a way of life
Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus… - 1 Thess 5:18
The root of joy is gratefulness… It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful. – Ruthless Trust
We will build… An awesome, Jesus filled, God honoring Holy Spirit flowing 2016
By…
• Forgetting what is behind
• Straining Toward and pressing on
• Trusting in and leaning not
• Rejoicing in the Lord always
