INTRO.- End of year stuff.
ILL.- A young wife said to her husband, "Don’t forget to bring home another mousetrap." Her husband said, "What’s the matter with the one I bought yesterday?" She said, "IT’S FULL."
End of year stuff. Get rid of full mousetraps. No, end of year stuff deals with more than mousetraps.
For many it’s a matter of taking down Christmas decorations and Christmas lights and packing them away. End of year stuff deals with taking down, packing away, and cleaning up. And perhaps some other things.
ILL.- A woman walked into her bathroom at home. As she did, she saw her husband weighing himself on the bathroom scales, sucking in his stomach. The woman thought to herself, "He thinks that he will weigh less by sucking in his stomach." So, the woman rather sarcastically said to her husband, "That’s not going to help." Her husband said, "Sure it will. It’s the only way I can see the numbers."
End of year stuff. It could mean making a commitment to shape up the old bod. Most of us realize that we’ve lost some ground in regard to our health, gained weight, and we’d like to regain that ground and lose that weight!
End of year stuff. Take down. Pack up. Clean house. Shape up. Eat better. Exercise more. Do better. Be better.
Prov. 23:7 KJV "As a man thinketh, so is he."
Our first line of action is thinking. If we don’t think, we won’t do. We must think in the right direction in order to do in the right direction.
Think about what you would like to do in order to improve your life. Make a list. Sit down and think about it. Make a plan of action and go for it.
Clean your house. Shape up your body. These things will make you feel better about yourself and you’ll be better for doing them.
End of year stuff should also deal with the spiritual side of life. We are not just flesh and blood beings. We are also spirit. The eternal part of man and woman is spirit. Spirit lives forever. This means we should attend to our spirits. We should attend to the spiritual side of life even more than the physical.
I Tim. 4:8 "For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."
Attending to spiritual matters will do more for us than any exercise program or diet! Godliness can help us in this life and give us the promise of the life to come!
The healthiest people in the world can’t go to heaven without Christ! The richest people in the world can’t go to heaven without Christ! The cleanest people in the world can’t go to heaven without Christ! The neatest people in the world can’t go to heaven without Christ! THEREFORE, WE MUST ATTEND TO THE SPIRITUAL SIDE OF LIFE MORE THAN THE PHYSICAL!
ILL.- A marriage counselor asked a housewife, "Do you feel that your role as a mother and homemaker is beneath you?" "No," she replied, "I FEEL IT’S BEYOND ME."
Sometimes we feel like certain things are beyond us in life. We feel like they are unobtainable, like spiritual progress.
Somehow we need to forge ahead! We need to make some spiritual progress! We need to climb the mountain and stop sliding downhill!
Phil. 3:14 "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." I press on. Isn’t this what you want in your Christian life?
PROP.- Let me give you some spiritual end of year stuff to do.
1- Clean up
2- Shape up
3- Spruce up
I. CLEAN UP
Rom. 13:11 "And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed."
ILL.- A blonde woman went to an appliance store sale and found a real bargain. She told the salesman, "I would like to buy this TV that’s on sale." He replied, "Sorry, we don’t sell to blondes."
She hurried home and dyed her hair, went back to the store and again told the salesman, "I would like to buy this TV that’s on sale." He replied, "Sorry, maam, but we don’t sell to blondes."
She thought, "How in the world did he know that I was a blonde?" She went back home and disguised herself completely. This time she wore a brown curly wig, big baggy clothes, and big sunglasses.
She waited a day and then went back to that store. She said to the salesman, "I would like to buy this TV that’s on sale."
He replied, "I’m sorry, but we don’t sell to blondes." In utter frustration, she exclaimed, "How do you know that I’m a blonde?" He said, "BECAUSE THIS IS A MICROWAVE, NOT A TV!"
Brothers and sisters, I am not against blondes, besides this story could apply to a brunette or a man or even a gray-haired man like me. What I am against is spiritual ignorance and spiritual blindness.
Rom. 13:11 "…The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed."
Our salvation is nearer now. I thought we were already saved. We are, but Paul is talking about the grand finale of salvation in heaven. The big party. The grand slam. It’s getting closer and closer for all of us. This is why he is saying, "Wake up."
We’re all ignorant or asleep about some things, but when it comes to spiritual matters we need to awake and alert.
Rom. 13:12 "The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. SO LET US PUT ASIDE THE DEEDS OF DARKNESS."
ILL.- "What’s wrong with the world?" a newspaper editor once asked in his paper. The British writer, G.K. Chesterton wrote in reply (what’s wrong with the world?), "I am."
What is wrong with the world is the deeds of darkness and we’re all infected with that virus or bug! All of us struggle with the deeds of darkness. Make no mistake about it.
Put aside the deeds of darkness.
ILL.- A tribal chief once came to David Livingstone with this request. He said: “Please give me some medicine to change my heart; it’s so proud and often angry.” He had seen what the missionary had done for those who were sick in body and had mistakenly concluded that medication would do the same thing for his soul. Livingstone then tried to explain that the Lord Jesus alone could bring about the needed transformation in his life. But the man refused to listen, saying, “No, no, I want medicine!”
People’s hearts do need to change. The people of the world are angry, depressed, anxious, upset, unsettled, etc.
ILL.- One Friday afternoon I was getting ready to pull out of Kinkos on Nettleton and head back to the church. The traffic was heavy, coming both ways. Finally, there was a letup in the traffic so I pulled out and into the middle lane, the turn lane. As soon as I did, a small pickup truck coming from Caraway started honking at me, as though he thought I was going to pull into his truck. I waited for him to get by and then I pulled in behind him and HE WAVED AT ME! And it was not the kind of wave that you would want to give someone! HE WAS AN ANGRY DRIVER!
I have discovered that people are upset and angry in general. Everywhere you go, it appears that people are unhappy and unsettled. People need some medicine.
Livingstone was exactly right. Jesus is the great physician! He can cure our ills if we will let Him! And some people need the medicine of uniting with Christ in baptism.
Acts 2:38 The apostle Peter said "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
Obey Christ in baptism if you want to be clean. That’s an initial step that some people need to take.
ILL.- Someone told of a church that believed in sinless perfection once you trusted Jesus Christ into your life and were baptized. A visitor to that church heard this teaching and asked to be baptized. He was tired of dealing with his habitual sin without any success. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of winter and the river was near frozen. That’s where the baptisms took place.
The man with much persistence got the Elders to baptize him in the river. After the man and two Elders came out of the freezing cold water, the man was so excited, he said, "I feel so good, I’m not even cold." One Elder turned to the other and said, "He’s lying, we’ll have to do it again."
In Christ, we are forgiven, but we are not kept from all sin. We all struggle daily with sin.
Romans 7:15 “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Even Paul, as great as he was in our eyes, struggled with sin.
Do we still need to be cleaned up after we have been baptized? Yes, occasionally. The sad truth is: we don’t stay clean after we’ve been washed clean! We need a continual cleansing, a continual baptism of God’s gracious forgiveness!
I John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
For continual cleansing we need to confess our sins to the Lord and ask for mercy and forgiveness. But what if we’ve been baptized and we’ve confessed our sins over and over and we still have a battle with certain things, certain sins? What are we to do?
ILL.- Billy Sunday, the great baseball evangelist and preacher, thundered against evil from the Gay Nineties through the Great Depression. He preached Christ as the only answer to man’s needs until his death in 1935.
“I’m against sin,” he said. “I’ll kick it as long as I’ve got a foot, and I’ll fight it as long as I’ve got a fist. I’ll butt it as long as I’ve got a head. I’ll bite it as long as I’ve got a tooth. When I’m old and fistless and footless and toothless, I’ll gum it till I go home to Glory and it goes home to perdition.”
That’s what we have to do daily. Fight against sin with the Lord’s help and Spirit. It’s ongoing battle that we all fight.
End of year stuff. Clean up. Do whatever it takes to get clean: be baptized into Christ. Repent. Confess your sins to the Lord. Keep fighting the struggle against sin.
II. SHAPE UP
Even though we may be "cleaned up" we still need to "shape up" the old body. That generally means some kind of exercise program.
ILL.- One man said, "I always do my exercises regularly in the morning. As soon as I wake up I say sternly to myself, ‘Ready now. Up. Down. Up. Down!’ And after two strenuous minutes I tell myself, ‘Okay, boy, now try the other eyelid.’”
That’s about all the exercise some people get and about all some people want. Sometimes we don’t want to do much in order to shape up.
ILL.- One time I lost 25 lbs. in only two months. The weight just seemed to melt away. Want to know how I did it? I’m going to tell you anyway. I ran 5 miles a day for 5 days a week. It took that much work to lose weight and shape up.
I don’t necessarily encourage people to run, but it worked for me. The point is: it takes hard work to shape up both physically and spiritually.
ILL.- One time a little girl was asked why she went to church. She replied, "I go to church every Sunday so that when they carry me in one day, the Lord won’t ask, ‘Who is it?’"
Many people don’t go to church every Sunday. The percentage of people who go to church every Sunday is small.
Acts 20:7 "On the first day of the week, we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people...."
The early Christians gathered every first day of the week to remember the Lord in the breaking of the bread or the Lord’s Supper. It was their regular, common practice. And it should be ours.
The Lord’s Day fellowship and worship is something we should never miss! People do miss, but they are the losers. We will never "shape up" spiritually when we are spasmodic in our attendance!
Matt. 6:33 "Seek first the kingdom of God..." Many people "seek first the kingdom" only if it fits into their plans.
And the same principle applies to other spiritual matters such as: going to Bible study groups, personal Bible reading and prayer time. When we miss them, we miss out in many ways. When we participate, we gain in many ways. We gain spiritually. We shape up spiritually.
ILL.- The news article was entitled, "Giuliani Delivers Farewell Address." It went on to read: From a church altar a block away from the World Trade Center ruins, Rudolph Giuliani bid farewell as mayor, saying New Yorkers gave him the courage to lead the city beyond the fear and anguish of Sept. 11.
He said, "My strength and energy comes entirely from the people of the city of New York."
Brothers and sisters, I have a great deal of respect for Rudy Giuliani after what he did for the people of New York City. And I admit that I, too, get some strength from positive, spiritual-minded people. But I get my greatest strength and spiritual gain from the Lord himself! From His Word!
II Tim. 3:16-17 "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
Acts 20:32 "Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up...."
The Word of God can train us, equip us and build is up if we will let it. IT CAN SHAPE US UP!
Col. 4:2 "Devote yourselves to prayer...." Devoting ourselves to prayer will make a difference in us spiritually.
ILL.- Preacher Henry Ward Beecher once said, "I pray on the principle that wine knocks the cork out of the bottle. If there is an inward fermentation, there must be a vent."
That inward fermentation is time spent in private prayer. When this takes place there will be a vent. That venting will be a change in our lives.
ILL.- Do you know what is the quickest way to lose weight and become healthier? It is by drinking more water and eating more fiber. This is almost too simple to be true, but it is true. LIKEWISE, CHURCH, PERSONAL BIBLE STUDY AND PRAYER WILL SHAPE YOU UP QUICKER THAN ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN DO. Simple but true.
III. SPRUCE UP
We’re clean and we look good, but isn’t there something else? We could do a little sprucing up. Like putting frosting on the cake. You need some frosting and so do I!
ILL.- One husband said, "My wife is just as beautiful today as when I married her twenty years ago. Of course, it takes her longer."
Most of us do certain things to spruce up our looks: comb, shape or style our hair. Use makeup, eye shadow, hair color. Buy stylish clothing. Some add a dash of cologne or perfume.
Let’s face it. WE ALL COULD USE SOME SPRUCING UP NOW AND THEN.
Rom. 13:14 “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ…”
II Cor. 2:14-15 “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ AND THROUGH US SPREADS EVERYWHERE THE FRAGRANCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM. For we are to God the aroma of Christ….”
We are the aroma of Christ to our Heavenly Father, but we should also be the aroma of Christ, the sweet fragrance of Christ to the world!
We need to spruce up our lives with the sweet fragrance of Christ! The frosting on the cake in a Christian....the shine in a Christian’s life is the sweet aroma of Christ in us, which manifests itself in kindness and witnessing.
ILL.- Mamie Adams always went to a branch post office in her town because the postal employees there were friendly. She went there to buy stamps just before Christmas one year and the lines were particularly long. Someone pointed out that there was no need to wait in line because there was a stamp machine in the lobby. "I know," said Mamie, ’but the machine won’t ask me about my arthritis."
That’s kindness and we of all people need to show it, spread it around, and lavish it on people.
ILL.- Alexander Maclaren said, “Kindness makes a person attractive. If you would win the world, melt it, do not hammer it.”
ILL.- A man opened a delicatessen in a block that boasted two other salami stores. One promoted his line of bologna with this line of baloney: “Finest in the world!” The other delicatessen declared, “Best in the Universe.” However, the third man put up a sign reading: “Nicest in the neighborhood!”
We may not be the biggest, the finest, but we need to be the nicest. As someone said, “It’s nice to be great, but it’s greater to be nice.”
Another way that we all need to “spruce up” our lives is by witnessing. WE NEED TO LET OUR LIGHT SHINE!
ILL.- Howard Hendricks said, “In the midst of a generation screaming for answers, Christians are stuttering.”
ILL.- Britain’s King George V was to give the opening address at a special disarmament conference, with the speech relayed by radio to the U.S. As the broadcast was about to begin, a cable broke in the New York radio station, and more than a million listeners were left without sound.
A junior mechanic in the station, Harold Vivien, solved the problem by picking up both ends of the cable and allowing 250 volts of electricity to pass through him. He was the living link that allowed the king’s message to get through.
We need to let the message of Christ flow through us to others! That’s the way to spruce up your Christian life! Be quick to speak for the Lord!
CONCLUSION------------------------------------
ILL.- It is said that the Greeks had a race in their Olympic games that was unique. The winner was not the runner who finished first. It was the runner who finished with his torch still lit.
Brothers and sisters, some day life will end. We will hit the finish line, but will our torch be lit for Christ?
End of year stuff. End of life stuff. Clean up. Shape up. Spruce up.
