Renewed Vision

Not Giving Up

As I was preparing for today, I just want to share with you where my heart was yesterday as I was preparing for this morning: we had a hundred opportunities this year to quit. We had a hundred opportunities to quit on Jesus. Maybe you were disappointed and you clung to him. Maybe you were let down and you didn't abandon Him. Maybe you were betrayed by someone near and you clung to Him, rather than push Him away.

It’s no small thing to be able to say that you held on to something these days. It’s no small thing to not grow jaded, it's no small thing to not grow cynical, it's no small thing not to start to look around at other saviors that might be easier to worship and follow.

So, I just want to take a moment this morning to just thank God that here we are. The last day of 2023, you clung to Him.

Overcoming

Today we’re going to be in a few different places in our Bibles. First, I wanted to lay in front of you that the Book of Revelation has this beautiful and really amazing refrain in ch. 2 & 3, when the Apostle John is writing to the churches in the ancient world, he gives this idea of reward to those who overcome.

There’s seven letters to seven churches, and in each letter he'll say “to he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches” but he also says seven times:

to he who overcomes

to he who overcomes

to he who overcomes

to he who overcomes

to he who overcomes

to he who overcomes

to he who overcomes

Now, in the ESV, they translated that Greek word into: “to he who conquers” but the words are the same. Overcoming and conquering are the same word and here's what he says:

To he who overcomes: I will allow you to eat the Tree of Life in The Paradise of God.

To he who overcomes: you will not be hurt by the second death.

To he who overcomes: I will give some hidden Manna and a white stone with a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.

Do you have a nickname by a spouse, loved one, family member, friend that you'd rather not be shared publicly? I shared mine in a different sermon already and if you missed it, good. But it's just this sign of intimacy - that's what's in view here is this kind of playful name which man I don't think many people think about God like he's playful. If you don’t think so, then you're not checking out creation. What's the Platypus? God's sense of humor. All those leftover animal bits he just throws into one animal. It’s awesome. Plus it’s venomous? Sick. Anyway, back on track.

To he who overcomes: I will give authority over the Nations.

To he who overcomes: You’ll be clothed in white garments and your name will never be blotted out of The Book of Life.

To he who overcomes: I will make a pillar in the temple of God and I will write on him the name of my God and on the city of my God.

To he who overcomes: he will sit with me on my Throne.

Do you hear the refrain? To he who overcomes. To he who conquers. To he who hangs in there - rewards are coming. To he who overcomes: don't let go! To he who overcomes.

Goal-Making

Now I don't know if you’re like me – if you are, then my guess is you've already started thinking through your goals for 2024. Or maybe your resolution?

I’ve heard some people talk about not being fans of resolutions, because they typically fail. So I’ll just say this: I make goals. I make goals all the time, and if the start of a new year prompts me to think about what I want to accomplish, things I want to change/ or maybe need to change (if you ask my wife) then you better believe I’m making some goals. I’ve got physical goals. I've got financial goals. I've got spiritual goals. I’ve got goals for my family. I’ve got goals as a pastor. And at this ripe old age of 32, nearly 33, I've lived long enough now to know maybe I'll hit those goals andmaybe I won't. And I don't say that because I lack discipline. I say that because I don't control life, I don’t control everyone else around me, and sometimes my best laid goals (that I think might even be pleasing to God) are derailed for one reason or another.

Things happen that are outside of our control, all the time, right?