Well, it’s New Years Day 2006. Isn’t it hard to believe that six years have now passed since we welcomed the year 2000 and wondered if our computer systems were going to crash because of Y2K? But here we are, by God’s grace and love, entering another new year.
What kind of a year do you want 2006 to be for you? What kind of a year do you want 2006 to be for your family and friends? What kind of a year do you want it to be for your church?
A year ago, we began 2005 with a series on experiencing spiritual breakthroughs and I trust that you had some important spiritual breakthroughs in your life this past year. Not because I did a sermon series but because you sought God and can now look back and see progress and growth and change that has come from the Lord.
This year we begin our time together with a series that I pray will truly help each one of us grow in our faith and relationship with the Lord and in our relationships with others as well as with ourselves.
It is a Bible based (and I want to make that clear upfront) series using the 12 Steps, developed by Alcoholics Anonymous, as a set of guides for dealing with the ‘ruts’ in our lives. I am calling the series, ’12 Steps to a Better Life.’ Now (and I will remind us again next week) this is not a series about addiction to any one thing, but about how the pain, frustration, and powerlessness in those ‘ruts’ we all deal with from time to time can be dealt with through the power of God in our lives.
This morning, however, I want to prepare us for communion by reviewing our main text, which will also be a part of next week’s sermon. But first, some interesting items related to New Year’s resolutions.
Kimberly and Albrecht Powell recently listed the following top ten New Year’s resolutions on the website about.pittsburgh.com. (Overhead 1)
Spend More Time with Family & Friends
Fit in Fitness
Tame the Bulge
Quit Smoking
Enjoy Life More
Quit Drinking
Get Out of Debt
Learn Something New
Help Others
Get Organized
Then at the website, goalsguy.com (I’m serious! There is a website by that name!) there is this list of the following New Year’s Resolutions: (Overhead 2)
1. Lose weight
2. Stop smoking
3. Stick to a budget
4. Save or earn more money
5. Find a better job
6. Become more organized
7. Exercise more
8. Be more patient at work/with others
9. Eat better
10. Become a better person
Did you notice some similarities between the two lists?
Heath issues are present on both – weight loss, giving up smoking, etc.
Financial issues as well – debt reduction, budgeting one’s money
Personal enrichment also appears on both lists – become a better person, be more patient, help others, and learn something new.
These are great goals for 2006. In achieving them life can be better! Ah, the work of achievement – now there’s a challenge to our resolutions and the resolve to achieve our resolutions. I also found out some interesting things on the web about the resolve to achieve our New Year’s resolutions.
On the American Psychological Association website, an article by Sadie Dingfelder, in the January 2004 issue of the APA publication, Monitor, addresses the work of Dr. John Norcross from the University of Scranton, regarding the issue of what people do to successfully achieve New Year’s Resolutions and here are a few excerpts from the article of Norcross’ findings:
(I have to read the opening paragraph, first) ‘Lose weight, quit smoking and exercise regularly--these are America’s top three New Year’s resolutions, accounting for nearly three-fourths of the goals adults undertake Jan. 1, according to University of Scranton psychology professor John Norcross, PhD. "However, ’Get along with my mother-in-law’ comes up more often than you would expect," he muses.’
The study goes onto say, ‘While type of resolution, age and gender did not predict success, the successful resolution-makers employed strategies such as stimulus control--for example, avoiding a smoky bar after resolving to quit smoking--and reinforcement, or behaviorally contingent rewards. Unsuccessful participants tended to use what Norcross terms "consciousness-raising strategies." Some, for example, might have taped pictures of tar-blackened lungs to their office walls in an effort to kick the smoking habit. Additionally, Norcross found that self-efficacy, or the belief that one can effect and maintain change, also predicted resolution success.
So what have you resolved to do differently this year? Is it an achievable goal? Does it deal with character issues? Does it deal with spiritual issues?
Our main text for this morning may seem at first glance a downer of a text for New Year’s Day, but the human condition is the same this year as it was at 11:59:59 last night.
We need to remember that Paul wrote a great deal of what we now call the New Testament. We also need to remember that his missionary work brought the good news of Jesus Christ to places that took it to other places, that took it other places, and on and on to us.
So, here is the leader of the Christian faith bearing his soul to the believers in Rome that he struggles with sin and the power of sin in his life. We should be encouraged and challenged, not discouraged, by his honesty because it is this kind of honesty that can, and has, produced tremendous change in our lives (and the lives of others) as we have allowed God’s power to work in us.
The sin that Paul speaks of is both a particular act as well as an attitude that we constantly do battle with. We may not call it ‘sin.’ We may call it a ‘problem,’ or ‘a personality quirk,’ or a ‘vice.’ But it whatever we call it, there are these ‘ruts’ we face in life that give us problems – in our work, in our relationships, and in ourselves.
Now Paul is not specific about his ‘ruts.’ But, in the context of this passage, we see that he is addressing the issue of the religious law that had been an important part of his life. This law included parts of what we now call the Old Testament that included the Ten Commandments. This law dealt with both your relationship with God and your relationship with people.
Let’s hear the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20: (Overhead 3)
Do not worship any other gods besides me.
Do not make idols of any kind, whether in the shape of birds or animals or fish.
Do not misuse the name of the LORD your God.
Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Honor your father and mother.
Do not murder.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal.
Do not testify falsely against your neighbor.
Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else your neighbor owns.
Talk about some New Year’s Resolutions! Here are some great (and yes, challenging ones) for us to resolve to do this year!
And talk about some of the ‘ruts’ we find ourselves in when these important commandments are not kept! Whoa!
Do your resolutions for 2006 include some important, and even eternal, ones that are about faith and God? Do they address the ‘ruts’ that you find yourself in? ‘Ruts’ that find you looking up for help and not just answers to?
That is why we are going to have this opening series for 2006 because I believe that God wants to help us get out of our ruts and live the life that He has created us to live. A life that is possible because of communion that celebrates and remembers in the great affirmation of faith and confidence in the Lord that Paul shares in our text for this morning:
Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
As we begin 2006, we do not know what lies ahead. We take this year, as we did 2005, one day at a time. Let’s take it one day at a time with the Lord beside us and within us. I can think of no greater way to begin a new year than with a time of confession to, communion with, and resolution to the Lord. Bring your ‘ruts’ and bring yourself to the Lord this morning. He wants both and wants to change both. That’s His New Year’s Resolution. That’s His eternal resolution. Amen.
Sources:
http://pittsburgh.about.com/
www.apa.org/monitor/jan04/solutions.html
www.goalsguy.com
PowerPoint overheads for this message are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for 010106svgs.
