Sermon: Where are we headed?
A More Worthy Walk…in 2005
Scripture: John 2 vss. 1-11
Good Morning…
Here we are in the New Year and we’re all probably still trying to remember to write 2005 on our checks. And as this New Year begins, it reminds us that time marches on. As we turned the page of our calendars to January, it seemed that we all might have been stimulated to think that it’s time for making changes in our lives…it’s time to make some resolutions.
The topic for this sermon today came to my mind after hearing a song on the radio. The lyrics to this song spoke to me about becoming more worthy in the sight of those around us and also being more worthy in the sight of our Lord. You might have heard this song by Billy Currington…the words go like this…
I remember looking up to look up to him
An’ I remember most the time he wasn’t there
I’d be waiting at the door, when he got home at night
He’d pass me by to go pass out in his chair
And I’d sing
Walk a little straighter Daddy your swayin’ side to side
Your footsteps make me dizzy an’ no matter how hard I try
I keep trippin’ and stumbling, if you’d look down here you’d see
Walk a little straighter Daddy, you’re leading me.
He stumbled in the gym on graduation day
And I couldn’t help but feel so ashamed
An’ I wasn’t surprised a bit when he didn’t stay,
He stumbled out before they called my name
And I thought,
Walk a little straighter daddy your swayin’ side to side,
It’s not just me whose watching you’ve caught everybody’s eye
And you’re trippin’ and stumbling and even though I’ve turned 18
Walk a little straighter daddy, you’re still leading me.
The old man’s still like he always was, but I love him anyway
If I’ve learned one thing from him its my kids will never have to sing
Walk a little straighter daddy, you’re swayin’ side to side
Your footsteps make me dizzy and no matter how hard I try,
I keep trippin’ and stumbling, if you’d look down here you’d see
Walk a little straighter daddy, you’re leading me
Yea walk a little straighter daddy, you’re leading me.
This song reminded me that we all need to ‘walk a little straighter’…we all need to know that “everybody’s watchin’…we all need to know that no matter who we are, we might be ‘leading’ someone.
And that’s why I titled this sermon, ‘A More Worthy Walk In 2005’. Do we need to think about some changes in our lives…some changes that might help us ‘walk a little straighter’?
This last week I read an article by a Mr. Daryl Wingerd. His article was written about making resolutions and was entitled, “A Few Thoughts About Personal Resolutions”. I would like to share today some of what Mr. Wingerd had to say, as he writes about how we as Christians need to understand how to walk a more worthy walk…a walk that is straighter…a walk that will glorify our Lord and Savior.
We all know that the traditional time for making resolutions in January 1st. It might mean that we resolve to stop smoking, or over-eating, or watching so much TV. It might be the day that someone resolves to start walking, running, or lifting weights. For the Christian, it might be the day to increase Bible reading, to begin to pray regularly, or to begin the regular practice of family worship. Many of these are noble pursuits, but do these New Year’s resolutions really work? Do we find that we are frequently successful in making significant and lasting changes by means of this annual form of sincere commitment?
I had to admit that I could not think of even one significant or lasting change in my life that had come as the result of such calendar-driven resolutions. I couldn’t even think of a person that I knew who had made a significant change in their lives from a new year’s resolution. It seems that these New Year’s resolutions are almost universally unsuccessful. I’ve heard that the health club memberships soar at the beginning of each new year, but by February, attendance has always dropped significantly. Statistically, the batting average for success would be near zero!
As Christians, such a poor ratio of success should cause us to examine the whole concept of the New Year’s resolution from a biblical perspective. As we do this, we find some obvious problems. Let’s take a look and see what these problems are.
First, for the Christian to be motivated toward personal change by the turning of a calendar page seems a little superstitious. The Romans are the ones who established our current calendar, and they were considered a pagan nation, worshipping pagan gods.
The actual tradition of making New Year’s resolutions is said to date back four thousand years to the Babylonians. Since they believed that whatever you did on the first day of the year would establish your pattern of behavior for the whole year, they began the practice of making positive resolutions on that day. Even today, some of the Asian countries must finish up any and all of the old year’s business before the new year begins, or they believe that the old problems will follow them throughout the new year.
We all know that there is nothing wrong with using the established calendar, no matter who developed it. It is a necessary tool in ordering our lives. But as Christians, to say that January 1st is somehow the best day to make personal resolutions is to pattern ourselves after two societies that were completely steeped in paganism.
Secondly, we know that when we are convicted of sin…in other words…when we come to realize through prayer and our study of the Bible that a particular area of our life is out of step with God’s revealed will, the conviction we feel is the working of the Holy Spirit in us. For us to then say that we will wait until January 1st to make any changes, we are restraining the Holy Spirit from leading us in new ways, just because the Romans and the Babylonians did it that way. The Bible tells us in John 3:8 that the Holy Spirit is like the wind…working where, when and in whom He pleases. He is not bound or controlled by anything human calendar.
Thirdly, as Christians we know Christ told us to repent of our sins, always being ready to change our lives to follow Him more closely…always pursuing perfection, and always seeking to obey Him. To wait until January 1st to make changes in our lives is to say that we aren’t ready to accept Him until then. If, in our lives, we need Him to come into our hearts, we need to be ready any day of the year.
So, What does the Bible say about personal resolutions? As I was studying, what I found was really kind of interesting.
The English word ‘resolution’ is the noun form of the verb ‘resolve’. When you resolve to do something, you have made a resolution. The word ‘resolve’ can also be a noun. A person who makes firm resolutions, and keeps them, is a person who possesses a good deal of resolve. The adjective form of the word is ‘resolute’. A person who has resolve…one who makes and keeps firm resolutions…is a resolute person.
These three English words have a very limited use in the Bible. No form of this English word group is used at all in the New American Standard Bible. The various forms are used four times in the New King James Version, and only once in the King James Version. Clearly, the translators of these three respected versions of the Bible did not find that these words were the best words to use. Although, the places where these words could have been used, they translated as words with similar meaning, like the words, ‘to know’, ‘judge’ or ‘determine’.
But just because the forms of the word ‘resolution’ is not used in the Bible, does not mean that Bible doesn’t speak to the idea of making resolutions…
The best example of this is Peter. The night before Jesus was crucified He said to His disciples, ‘All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night…” (Matt. 26.31). Peter’s determined, resolute response was, ‘Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble’. As we all know, Peter stumbled, denying Jesus three times despite his personal resolution.
Another example is found in Romans chapter 7, where Paul seems to be struggling with being resolute, he admits, ‘For what I will to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do’. Even Paul had problems keeping his resolutions…he spoke of his human weakness.
But these examples of failure do not mean that we should never make personal resolutions. In fact, in Romans 14: 13, Paul instructs Christians to make just such a resolution…’Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.’ In other words, Paul is saying to us to not tell our brother how to live, but he’s telling us to make a strong determination as to how we will behave. He is telling us to try to, ‘walk a little straighter’…to improve how we behave toward our brothers.
As I read the Bible, I become more and more aware of what it is telling me over and over. It is saying the since the Christian life is a life lived in faith, there must be a strong resolve to, first ‘Believe’, second ‘Be active in claiming your own Salvation’, thirdly, ‘Become determined and self-disciplined’…do all of this in order to become ‘perfect as your Lord is perfect’. That’s what Paul told his followers. Perfection is the standard that has been set for the Christian and it will take everything you’ve got to try to reach it…it will take all your Heart…all your Soul…and all your Mind.
Who said that being a Christian was going to be easy. As you can see, even Jesus’ Disciples had a problem with being resolute.
It’s comforting to me as a new man in Christ, to know that God can take my failings, as He did the Disciple’s, and turn them around to serve Him. He took Matthew, a hated tax collector, considered a traitor to his countrymen for collecting taxes for the Roman government, and made him an apostle. He took Paul, a murderer of the Christians, and made him a revealer of the truth.
I can look back over my life and actually see God’s hand at work…Bringing me up in a Christian home…my falling away…my coming back…my growing in faith…my discovery of the Bible and His Word…leading me into service in the church and for the church…leading me to become His Disciple. He has truly revealed Himself to me.
Carol Kuykendall wrote in the Daily Guidepost about Epiphany. Epiphany is the Church Season that we are presently celebrating and she says:
“Epiphany is a Greek word meaning a disclosure or unveiling, and in the history of the Christian church, it has been used to refer to those occasions when the incarnate Lord Jesus was revealed to various groups of people…at His birth…at His Baptism and at the wedding at Cana. For centuries, the feast of the Epiphany on January 6th commemorated the arrival of the Wise Men at the stable in Bethlehem, when Baby Jesus was revealed to them as the gift of God’s presence.
Carol says, Over the last several years, I’ve given my own personal tweak to this celebration. I sit down with a paper and pencil and think about the times that something about Jesus was revealed to me in the last year. Usually, I start with memorable events and then ask myself what I learned about Jesus in each event. I plot them on a timeline graph, showing both the highs and lows. At each event place on the graph, I draw a small footprint. When I finish, I have my ‘Footprints of Faith” for the past year, which I fold and then tuck in the front of my Bible. On those down days when I need a visual aid to remind me of God’s faithful presence, I reach for my “Footprints of Faith.” Sometimes I sit down and write how Jesus was reveal to me in the last twenty-four hours…or the last twenty-four seconds.”
Carol Kuykendall’s “Footprints of Faith” is a tool for her to become more resolute in her Faith. As I said earlier we must:
First, be resolute in our Faith – because the Christian’s life is a life lived in faith. As Christians, we must first and always be resolute in our Belief. There is a hymn in our hymnal on page 714 that speaks to this idea of being resolute in our Belief. It’s titled, “I Know Whom I Have Believed…listen to the words of this hymn…
I know not why God’s wondrous grace to me he hath made known,
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love redeemed me for his own.
I know not how this saving faith to me he did impart
Nor how believing in his word wrought peace within my heart.
I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing us of sin,
Revealing Jesus through the word, creating faith in him
But I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able
To keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day.
‘To keep that which I’ve committed’…these words written by Mr. Daniel Whittle in 1883 speak of a resolute mind…one that believes.
Secondly, We must be active in claiming our own Salvation. In Philippians 2: 12-13, Paul tells his followers to ‘work out’ their salvation. Paul is telling them to resolve to live the way Christians should live. He also tells them that God’s strength and power will be behind them. For us today, as Christians, having His Word and resolving to read it and trying to understand it becomes our duty. Resolving to ‘work out’ our Salvation through prayer and having a relationship with Him is also part of claiming our own Salvation.
Thirdly, It does require effort…self-discipline…it becomes our work to find God and Jesus revealed through the Bible. Jesus said to his Disciples, ‘What more can I tell you that I have not already said’. Jesus tells us everything we need to know…and it’s all in our Bibles. Charles Spugeon, a well-known preacher in the nineteenth century said, “We all have Bibles at home that have gathered enough dust on them, that you can take your finger and write the word Damnation”. If we don’t pick up our Bibles and read them, how are we to know how to find our Salvation? How are we to know right from wrong? Through, self-discipline and determination, we begin to reveal Christ through our lives. People begin to see that we are different in this world…that we have been separated out in the service of the one true God, His Son, Jesus Christ and the Comforter, Guide and Teacher, the Holy Ghost.
By being a resolute Christian…by resolving to follow Christ more closely, the Epiphany that we celebrate this season becomes the revealing of the Glory of God and then it is realized in and through us.
Walk a little straighter daddy your swayin’ side to side,
It’s not just me whose watching you’ve caught everybody’s eye
Everybody’s watching…if we Christians can’t resolutely show that we Believe, that we have been Saved and that we are working to reveal God’s Kingdom here on earth…well our family might forgive us, but the unbelieving world will not be so kind. Through our example Christ will either be Glorified… or mocked again, like at Calvary.
Walk a little straighter daddy, you’re swayin’ side to side
Your footsteps make me dizzy and no matter how hard I try,
I keep trippin’ and stumbling, if you’d look down here you’d see
Walk a little straighter daddy, you’re leading me.
Yea walk a little straighter daddy, you’re leading me.
Are you swayin’ side to side? Are your footsteps making someone dizzy? Do you keep someone tripping and stumbling? Are you looking around at who you’re affecting.
Yea, Walk a little straighter daddy…you’re leading!
Amen.
