Resolutions

12/30/01-Resolutions

Intro.-Time of Traditions-Thanksgiving-football

-Christmas-Wisemen, xmas story, lights, xmas CD

-New Years-2 I know of-Black eyed peas (tried once and only once), resolutions

Hook: New Years Resolutions-out of all americans who make NYR 55% will keep them for one month. 40% keep for 6 mo., 19% keep for 2 yrs.

Most of us will end up breaking any NYR we make and We end up feeling bad.

It’s not that we don’t want to keep them, we do.

I’m sure most of us have made resolutions in the past that we’ve had a hard time keeping.

-better husband or wife

-goes well for a while then something happens and we feel like we’ve failed

-commit to more time w/ kids, not be so consumed by work.

-go to more ballgames, read to them more.

-lasts a few weeks and fall back into the same rut.

-commit to know God more in the coming year,

-QT, pray.

Start strong, but soon the excitement goes away and we haven’t lived up to our New Years resolution.

Why? Maybe part of the problem is that we don’t understand what it really means to make a resolution.

Looked up some definitions to better understand it

a resolution is about determination The state or quality of being resolute; firm determination. 2. A resolving to do something.

to resolve is To make a firm decision about

Root word-res·o·lute 1. Firm or determined; unwavering, faithful, loyal

Being resolved is not a sprint. It’s a marathon. Being resolved means hanging in there for the long run.

It’s Not just making a res. For the new year, it’s being resolved for life.

So what does it mean to be resolved for life?

Not just making a res. We’ll keep For a couple of days or weeks, or maybe even months, but what does it mean to be resolved for life?

For my life I want to be a better husband. For life, I want to be a better father. For life, I want to know God. So, What does it mean to be resolved for life?

Dan. 1. If you want to know what it means to be resolved for life, this would be the book to check out. Daniel is a great example of what it means to make a resolution that sticks.

Story-Daniel’s people have been taken over by a foreign country and the king of that country has decided that Daniel’s people,the Israelites, are going to be just like his people, Babalonians.

He’s going to teach the Israelites to dress, eat, live and follow all the religious customs of the Babalonians. In order to accomplish this, he had the best and brightest of the young Jewish men selected to be trained in the Babalonian ways. Their reasoning was that if these select few could be convinced, the rest of the Israelites would follow.

Read Dan. 1:8,12-15

In Dan. 1:8, Daniel makes a resolution (read)

Daniel decided to go against the flow, go against the culture.

When you’re watching TV or reading magazines, do you ever feel consumed by the culture? Our society tells us that we should all look a certain way, dress a certain way, keep our bodies a certain way, drive a certain car, live in a certain house, etc. And honestly sometimes it can be very easy to be completely consumed by culture. But the best thing we can do, especially if we want to know God more, is to make a resolution not to be consumed by all that stuff. It is a distraction from becoming what God really wants us to be. We need to be like Daniel and resolve to go against the flow. Like Paul said In Rom. 12:2 “Don’t let the world squeeze you into it’s mold”

We need to resolve to be different, unique, in order to know God more.

Dan. 1:12, Daniel says “Please test your servants for 10 days.” Let us live this counter cultural lifestyle and see what happens. Watch the results of being resolved. Watch us do more than make a resolution.

Dan. 1:15- “At the end of the 10 days, they looked healthier and better than any of the young men who ate the king’s food.”

If you resolve to go against the flow, you’ll be different,

We’ve got to get past just making resolutions. It’s not about making resolutions, it’s about being resolved for life.

SEMP Ill. Kids come in scared, feeling inad. Go home w/ a purpose, resolved to share the good news w/ their friends and make disciples.

Hopefully we’re beginning to understand that seeing real change in our lives is not about making resolutions, it’s about being resolved for life. But where do we get the power, the strength to stay resolved for life?

In I Cor. 2:2-5 Paul points us to the power source for being resolved for life.