Resolving To Know Christ

“Resolving to Know Christ”

INTRODUCTION

Good morning and Happy New Year. This is a time of year when we anticipate what the next year will bring. We have traditions of celebrating the previous year with family and friends. We also have traditions of setting expectations and hopes for the coming year. One way we do that is by making resolutions for ourselves that many times are forgotten after a short period of time all though they were well meaning. Here are some examples of resolutions made by a Mother:

ILLUSTRATION

A Mother’s Resolutions

1. When I forget to go to the grocery store, I will not boil the macaroni necklaces my children made for me in preschool.

2. I will pack the kids’ lunch boxes the night before so I don’t throw in a slab of frozen lasagna as they’re running for the bus. "It’ll defrost by lunch. If not, you can suck it like an ice pop."

3. I will resist the urge to explain to strangers why my son is wearing winter boots, a bathing suit bottom, and an inside-out and backward pajama top. I will be grateful that he is able to dress himself.

4. I will not tell my children that the Play-Doh dried up just because I don’t feel like cleaning up after they use it, even though I know it means I’ll spend the evening harvesting the colored stuff from the carpet fibers, chair cushions and the dog’s fur.

5. I will always protect the rights of my children, especially their right to remain silent.

6. I will learn to accept the outbursts and tantrums as a part of life. After all, I promised to love my husband for better or worse.

7. When my husband and I go to a restaurant without the kids, I will not roll up his sleeves or move the knives from his reach. I will not accompany him to the bathroom and remind him to wash his hands with soap. If my husband wants dessert at the end of the meal, I will not tell him it depends on his behavior.

10. I will develop an ability to have a conversation with an adult that doesn’t revolve around labor pains or children’s toilet habits. I will feel comfortable in the silence that ensues when neither of us can think of any other topic to discuss or remember we can always discuss the weather.

8. I will be more flexible about children’s nutritional requirements by counting the ketchup and green crayon as vegetables.

9. I will be a good, fair and loving parent to my children. I will provide them with enriching experiences and opportunities. I will give them a solid foundation on which to build a useful life. After all, they may eventually be responsible for choosing a nursing home for me to live out my final days.

Making a resolution requires:

I. Examination of ourselves and our priorities

II. Exertion

III. Expectation

IV. Encouragement

Today I encourage each of us to resolve as Paul did to Know Christ more personally and intimately than ever before. Then the Holy Spirit will guide us in changing the things in our life that the Lord wants us to change.

I. PAUL’S EXAMINATION Vs 4-11

A. OF HIMSELF vs 4-7

Paul starts by examining himself and he had every reason to boast in himself, his abilities and his accomplishments.

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

1. He was a Jew by birth. He was not a proselyte.

2. He was born into the chosen race.

3. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. It was the same tribe Saul had come from.

4. He was a ’Hebrew of the Hebrews.’ Hebrew was Paul’s native tongue. Unlike some of the Israelites, he did not adopt Greek customs. He knew thoroughly both the language and customs of the people of God. He was a Hebrew son of Hebrew parents.

5. He was a Pharisee. It was the most orthodox party in Jerusalem.

6. He was zealous. What greater zeal for the Jewish religion could anyone boast of than that he persecuted the church? Paul did this relentlessly before his conversion to Christ (Acts 9:1-2). No Judaizer could match such zeal.

7. He was blameless regarding the law. That word means ’free from fault’. No one could find law-breaking behaviors in his life.

But, guess what? None of it mattered.

B. OF HIS PRIORITIES vs 8-11

7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.