The Same Old Body With Lots Of New Choices

The Same Old Body with Lots of New Choices

Luke 10: 41-42, Mark 5:19, Mark 10:21

Well today my message is…The Same Old Body with Lots of New Choices. I don't know why that scale says 232 pounds. I don't know what Ian was trying to say there. But anyway… We have lots of new choices this year. There are millions of Americans who have made resolutions. They've made new choices of how they're going to live in 2010. I don't know if you're a person who makes resolutions, but there are millions of people who have done that.

These are the top 10 resolutions for 2010 by America…stop smoking is the number one. Get rid of that disgusting habit. Get fit. Lose weight. It's interesting that number 10 says that they want to help others as many in our culture are becoming more aware of helping other people. That has crept into the top 10 there. As you look at that list, you'll see that list is very similar to lists in previous years. Those things that people want to change in their lives are somewhat similar. Can I ask you a question? Was 2009 spiritually for you what you wanted? Did you make any resolutions spiritually for 2010?

My friend Dale Kinnear sent me his spiritual journey for 2009…what God took him through in 2009…and what he hopes to see God accomplish in his life in 2010. I would love to read that about you. If you'd like to email me your spiritual journey for 2009, and what you hope God will do for you in 2010 and with your life in 2010, I would love to read that. But I hope also that many of you have made resolutions this year spiritually.

Today, I want to talk about those kinds of resolutions. I want to say that most people think through their Christian life and say, "If I do this, then I'm going to be closer to God." I don't think there is a person in this room who doesn't want to be closer to God. Many times, we say, "If I do these things, I've heard about this, or I've seen my friend do this, if I add that to my life, or I begin doing that, then I'll be closer to God." What I hope to accomplish today and let the Holy Spirit work in our lives is to offer you some other thoughts. I'm not saying that what you resolve to do spiritually in 2010 is the wrong thing to do; I'm just saying today that sometimes how we come to resolutions spiritually may not always be the right way.

In fact, today I'm going to show you through Scripture how… In fact, I could have chosen 50 or 60 Scriptures. I'm going to take three today, where people really in the life of Jesus said, "I'm doing things to try to get closer to You." Jesus says, "That's not what I want from you. In fact, that won't get you any closer at all. I want this to happen in your life. Today, through the end of the message I hope I can present to you and offer to you some thoughts that you would allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you. Maybe it's a different way that God wants to change your life in 2010. Maybe one of the resolutions we could say is we'll all take notes. Everyone at the Grove will take notes this year. That would be a good resolution. They're inside your bulletin, the left-hand side, number one today…

1. To consistently choose discipline is hard. I'd like you to circle the word consistently. There is the key. To consistently choose discipline is hard. You know what? Making New Year's resolutions…that's not very hard for me. Was it hard for you to make resolutions? I find them quite easy. I can make lots of resolutions. It's keeping the resolutions that is hard. That's the hard thing…keeping the resolutions, challenging for us. In order to make change effective, we need to have discipline, and discipline is hard. Even more so, consistent discipline is hard.

When our children were young, we wanted them to go to bed about 7:30. We wanted to have life for ourselves at night, and we were busy people, so we wanted our kids to go to bed early. Some people think that's cruel that we put them to bed so early. I think all parents should put their kids to bed by 7:30. Do I hear an amen to that? There you go. Okay. Kids shouldn't rule our house until 11:00 at night. But there was that training period where we put Mike and Dan to bed and then when we heard them giggling or talking we had to go back and say, "We're serious. We're going to… We don't want this to continue." After a while, they got the idea, but there were times when Carol and I were sitting on the couch and we had been back once or twice and we heard them giggling again and we said, "Aw, should we just let them go?" But we realized we had to be consistent if we wanted that to change.