Making The Right New Year's Resolutions

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with me in prayer. Our Father in heaven, your word is more precious than gold.
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And as David said, through your spirit, they than much pure gold, sweeter than honey, than the honey from the honeycomb.
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And Lord, you said by your word, your servant is warned. And Lord, you also said in keeping them, there is great reward.
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Father, my prayer this morning is made these words of my mouth as I speak your word.
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This meditation in my heart be pleasing in your sight, my Lord, my rock and my
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Redeemer. We ask this for your glory in Jesus name. Amen. I titled this message,
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Making the Right New Year's Resolutions. This is a New Year's 2025 message and I do this annually and I believe it's a good tradition.
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All traditions are not good, if you notice in Scripture. Even the reading of Scripture is a tradition.
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It's the traditions of men that are false. But if they're appointed by God, I believe they could be good things for us.
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But I titled this, Making the New Year's Resolution or better yet,
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I should say, maybe I should have titled it, Setting the Right Biblical Goals for 2025 and Keeping Them.
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Because really, as a Christian, that's what we do. We set goals, especially when we go into a new fresh year.
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As you well know, a resolution is defined as a firm decision to do, and that's not bad, or not to do something.
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Whereas, setting a goal would be the end toward which the effort in which we put into it is directed.
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I have selected Scriptures this morning, so I'm going to go quickly, so stay with me. You can follow with me in the
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Scriptures or you can jot these down in your notes to remember you, to remember what is being said.
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Let me begin by saying, and beginning with this Launching Pad Scripture from Psalm 63a.
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My soul followeth hard after thee, thy right hand upholdeth me.
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I believe as we set many goals before us, I believe that one great goal, and that we may all keep by God's grace, in which
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David, a man after God's own heart, followed hard after God, that we would do the same.
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That in response to God's repeated invitation, that we would hold fast to God.
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Now we know that He holds fast to us, right? But by God's grace we should hold fast to God.
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Deuteronomy 4 .4, but you who hold fast to the
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Lord your God are alive today. Every one of you. We must hold fast to God.
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Paul even said it in his last will in testament in 2
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Timothy chapter 4, hold on. Grab a hold of eternal life.
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It's almost like don't let it go. Analogy would be like Jacob wrestling with the angel of the
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Lord, which was really before the incarnate of Jesus Christ, he wrestled with Him all night.
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May we hold on tightly to God. But you who hold fast to the
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Lord your God are alive today. Every one of you. Deuteronomy 10 .20, you shall fear the
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Lord your God, you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast. Take oaths in His name.
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Deuteronomy 13 .4, you shall walk, or another word, to follow after the
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Lord your God and fear Him. Keep His commandments and obey
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His voice and you shall serve Him. Notice what He says, and hold fast to Him.
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Hold fast. Hold fast. It's not how you start that's important, but it's how you finish.
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Throughout this year, may we pray and be in prayer before the
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Lord, but also to keep the commandments of the Lord and that we would hold fast to the Lord and obey
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His commandments. The apostle Paul says it best in Philippians chapter 3 verse 13 and 14, forgetting what is behind.
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20 -24 is over with. Yesterday is gone, right? Last year is gone. We forget what is behind.
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And then he said this, and straining, that's another word for that, agonizing, striving, striving toward what is ahead,
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I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus my
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Lord. So our focus and our goal is verse 14, it should be as Paul's, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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This, beloved, is our goal as a believer in Jesus Christ. And what is that goal?
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Who is that goal? I would say God Himself. Chapter and verse, sure,
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I got plenty of them. I think one of my favorite is Genesis 15 -1.
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Moses writes of Abraham through the Spirit of God, and he says, after these things, the word of the
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Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, and this is God speaking to Abram, do not be afraid,
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Abram. Do not be afraid. What a word of encouragement God gives
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Abram. I am. That's God's name really.
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I am. That I am, He revealed to Moses, but He says, I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward.
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You see this? God Himself is our great reward, just as it was our father
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Abraham, the father of our faith. Great, exceedingly reward.
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Our goal is God Himself as the shield and the, I believe Owen put it, it was put in hymn, there's a full hymn on this.
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My goal is God, not blessing, not joy, but God Himself by any cause, by any road.
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God Himself, our goal. But there's also another goal that goes along with the person of God, and that is being like Jesus Christ, is
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Christ -likeness. It is the here and now that we are to be like Christ until we come into heaven.
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And by the way, here is something else that we should be praying for the new year, for redeeming grace church is, as the
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Lord would see fit to add to us, just not numerically, but believers, converts, as we reach out to the
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Lord, as we reach out to evangelize the lost, we desire to see converts come to Jesus Christ. And this is how the kingdom, this is, how's
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God's kingdom come? It's through the church. The church is being built, and it's built by one soul at a time.
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We pray, thy will be done, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.
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God's will, God's kingdom is always done in heaven, but we pray that it be done on earth, and that is done as God, Christ builds the church.
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Another scripture I think of is Romans 8, 28 -30. Romans 8, 28 is a great scripture, we almost can cite it by heart, and we know, believers, we know the elect, that all things, not some things, but all things, work together for good.
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Now who is this for? To those who love God. That's who the promise is for, is to those who love
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God. All the promises of God are yes and amen. So, keep this in mind, no matter what you're going through at the moment, and at present, we know, we know that all things work together for good to those who love
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God. We may not be able to see how it's working together for the good, but God sees it, because God is orchestrated,
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God has ordained it, God has planned it for our good, because He's a good
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God. He does nothing bad. If there's something that's bad, it's on our part.
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It's to those who love God, to those who are the called, according to His purpose.
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It's God's purpose. Keep this before the forefronts of your eyes, that it's
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God's purpose. And here it is, what is God's purpose? Verse 29, for whom
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He fored you, He also predestined, that means He marked out, to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
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Verse 30, here's the golden chain of redemption, folks. Moreover, whom
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He predestined, whom He marked out, these He also called, whom
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He called, these He also justified, and whom He justified, these
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He also glorified. In other words, it's going to happen. Your sanctification in Jesus Christ will happen.
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If you're a born again believer today, sanctification will happen. If you're justified by God, if you're called by God, sanctification will happen in your life and in my life.
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Now God has many means to sanctify us, and He's planned it. And that's why it begins,
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Paul says, we know that all things work together for the good. And He's talking about crosses and losses and affliction and sufferings as we follow
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Jesus Christ. Those things that keep us humble. You know,
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God kept the Apostle Paul humble, so that he would not boast in what he was doing in Jesus Christ and all that he labored in for Christ.
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The labor was good, but God knew he had to keep him humble, so he was called to suffer.
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And God allowed affliction upon him to keep him humble. A thorn in the flesh, the
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Scripture says. Now there's a lot of debate what that thorn of flesh is. Some people think it was an affliction, some people think it was just poor eyesight, some people think, commentators say, it was maybe a person within the church, maybe it was an enemy.
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But nevertheless, it was a thorn in the flesh, it was something painful in Paul's life, and it kept him humble.
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And we're talking about the Apostle Paul. To be, is this your goal for 2025, is to be more like Jesus?
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There's a simple song, I love it, and it's a prayer, Jesus be Jesus in me. No longer me, but thee.
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Resurrection power, fill me this hour, Jesus be Jesus in me.
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May we pray that daily, may this be our goal daily, until we reach heaven as our home.
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Romans 8, 29, to be conformed to the image of his son. That is God's goal, by the way.
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That God has predestined his purpose for his very own, and that they would be made like Jesus Christ, they would be more like Jesus Christ.
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May this be our goal daily as we follow Christ. This is the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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That's the prize. I don't think there's any greater prize. Someone once came to Hudson Taylor, and when he was a missionary in China, by the way, he was in China as a missionary for 54 years, and someone said of him, many of the people that has come to Christ, and as you have reached out to them, and they've been converted to Jesus Christ, they said, you are so much like the
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Apostle Paul. What do you think about that? What if somebody said that you are like the
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Apostle Paul? You know what Hudson Taylor said? He said, that really disappoints me. He said,
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I would hope and pray that they would see Jesus. That I would be more like Jesus. Wow.
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Somebody was thinking they were complimenting him like the Apostle Paul? And you know
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Paul, he was valiant in the faith, and a godly man. But Hudson Taylor took that very personal, he says,
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I want them to see Jesus in me. Jesus said, let your light so shine before men, that they may see what?
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Your good works. You know what those works are? Our obedience. As we obey the
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Lord, love the Lord, Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments.
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And doesn't that sum everything up in the Christian life? How much do we love
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Jesus? How much do you love Jesus? You know how that's shown? By how we serve.
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How we love one another. Unfeigned love. Love that's demonstrated.
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And you notice Jesus demonstrated this. His great love to others.
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He loved his own to the very end. Unfeigned love.
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May this be our goal, to be more like Jesus. And beloved, this should be our primary goal.
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May this be our goal every day. Now, there are three words for us, and I'm going to break this down in sections.
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I would like to set before you for this upcoming year of 2025. That's my introduction.
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So we're getting to the meat of the text now. By and far, this is not an exhaustive, these three words.
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I'd like to keep them all in R's, but I failed to do this. But I do have some
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R's here to help us remember. And I'd like to set three before you and stir you up to love and good works as fellow believers in Jesus Christ.
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Now, the first word is, speaking of remember, is remember. Remember.
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That's our first word I'd like for us to look at. There's many scriptures, and many more, by the way, that you can look at and look up in scripture.
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But there's many there. Let's remember the word remember. Amen? Deuteronomy 8, 18, and 20.
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Listen to the word of the Lord. Don't you love Deuteronomy? Jesus quoted probably more from Deuteronomy than any other book of the
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Old Testament. And you shall remember. Notice, the first thing it says, you shall remember the
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Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish
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His covenant, which He swore to your fathers as it is this day. Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the
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Lord your God, and follow other gods and serve them and worship them,
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I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.
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As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the
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Lord your God. What a powerful warning for us. Faithfulness on God's part in the covenant here to Israel was to be met by corresponding faithfulness on the part of Israel.
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Makes me think also that God is always faithful. He never fails to be faithful, right?
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It is the failure on our part. Paul said it. He says even when
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God is faithful, even when we're not faithful, God is faithful.
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God is always a covenant keeping God. And he shows this to the patriarchs in verse 18.
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Now the people needed to keep their word to God in return. If the people forgot
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God's mighty axe on their behalf and attributed their wealth to their own power, in other words all that I get is something that I have done and forget
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God, God would destroy them as he destroyed the Gentile nations of Canaan.
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And he brought judgment. So how important it is to remember the Lord our God, to remember
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God and not to forget our Lord. Ecclesiastes 12 .1.
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So exciting to see these young youths here taking notes, listening attentively.
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But this is a real good one for you girls here that's taking notes.
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Listen to Ecclesiastes 12 .1. Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days, before the evil days come, and that the years draw near when you say,
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I have no pleasure in them. Did you hear that? God desires you to give all of your life to Him.
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He wants you to give all of your life, especially when you're young. You know why? Because God loves you and He doesn't want you to waste your life.
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Don't waste your time and your life on vanity and foolishness.
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Give it all to the Lord because there will be a rich reward for you in heaven as you come to believe
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Him. Remember you are
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God's own children. You are God's property. You and I have been bought with a price.
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He has ransomed us. Beloved, He has redeemed us by the precious blood of His Son.
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So beloved, serve Him from the start of all of your years, from your youth to the very end of your days until you get gray and gray -headed and old, if God so wills that.
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In other words, give God your best. Give God your all. Give God everything you have because we actually owe it all to Him.
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And I say this quite often to folks in my family, really everything that we have is on loan to us.
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Just not only the possessions that we have, but our wives and our husbands and our children are gifts from God.
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Let us remember the Lord in that. It's on loan to us as stewards of His that He has graciously given and everything that God has given, whether it's talents, may we not bury those talents, but be faithful in being stewards to Him.
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Let us remember that the jobs He gave us, we are to be stewards to Him and we owe it to Him to do our very best to Him, giving glory.
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Paul even says, even if you drink water, I need you to drink a water, do it to the glory of God.
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Even to the smallest and the menial task, do it to the glory of God. Well, we are to remember the
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Lord our God. Second, we are to remember what God has done for you. Remember what God has done for you.
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Psalm 77, 10, and 12 says, and I said, and this is
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David, but this is my anguish, my infirmity, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the
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Most High. Even in infirmity, even in anguish, I will remember the years of the right hand of the
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Most High. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember.
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Notice how many times he says, remember. I will remember your wonders of old. I will also meditate.
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He wants you to meditate. Think about it. Think about how good He is on all your work and talk of your deeds.
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That's to tell others about it. Tell others about Christ, what He's done for you.
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And after introspection had plunged him into the depths of despondency, Asaph, actually the psalmist here,
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I said David earlier, that's my fault, that was Asaph. He turns his eyes heavenward and he determines to reflect on God's past interventions for His people when they were in hard times.
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In the hardest of times, he turned to the Lord God. This is what
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Jeremiah did in Lamentations. He says, the wormwood, the gall, the bitter times, the hard times.
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And by the way, that was after devastation of judgment and Jerusalem was demolished and buildings everywhere.
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And yet he looks up to God and says, God is my hope. Great is His faithfulness. His mercies are new each and every morning.
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Hallelujah. Even in the hardest of times, we can praise
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God for who He is. Meditate. Meditate.
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Meditate. Think about it. Dwell on it. As Brother Keith has said, chew the cud like the cows.
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Chew it and think about it and meditate on it. I think about, you know, something you like to eat, something that really is tasty.
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Don't you like to chew on that and taste the sweetness of it? And the Bible says, taste and see that the
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Lord's good. Taste and see. Meditate on who God is and what
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He's done for you. The meditation on God's power, on His mercy, on His works, leads him.
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Asaph here wants to the acknowledgement. Where does it lead him? It leads him to God's holiness.
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It leads everything that He does in His perfections, His aseity, His righteousness,
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His goodness, all of His attributes of who He is. And God is sovereign.
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He's in control. Make no mistake about that because He makes no mistakes. Psalm 105 verse 5, remember
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His marvelous works, which He has done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth.
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Remember those things. I think about Psalm 103.
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Don't you love Psalm 103? Bless the Lord, O my soul.
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Bless the Lord, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.
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Bless the Lord, O my soul. Notice what He's doing. He's blessing God. He's praising God. He's worshipping
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God. And then He says, and forget not all His benefits.
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Look at what He's done for you. Don't forget that. What did He do? Verse 3, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.
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The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known
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His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, and He's slow to anger and abounding in mercy.
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Notice what He says. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever.
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He has not dealt with us according to our sins. Aren't you glad? We'd all be in hell.
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Don't you think about that. We would all be perished right now, in which we do deserve, by the way.
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But because of God's mercy, His compassion, and His grace, He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.
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For as the heavens are high above the earth, listen to this folks, so great is
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His mercy, His compassion toward those who fear Him. Do you fear the
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Lord? As far as the east is from the west, so far has
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He removed our transgressions from us. Aren't you glad? He's done this through Jesus Christ, His one and only
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Son, that took the wrath, His wrath upon Himself, and He that knew no sin became a sin, offering for us that we might be the righteousness of God in Him.
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So when He looks down, He doesn't see us and our dirtiness. He sees Jesus. He sees a clean robe of righteousness.
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Well, we're to remember the Lord, remember what God has done for us. We also need to remember
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God's commandments. Don't forget His commandments, Numbers 15, 39 -41.
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And you shall have the tassel, the tassel, that you may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the
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Lord, and do them, and that you may not follow the oratory to which your own heart, listen to this, to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined.
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We are inclined to sin, aren't we? And to forget God, and to forget His commandments.
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And that you may remember to do. God wants you to be obedient.
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Not partially, but fully obedient. All to do all my commandments, and be holy.
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What does that mean? Be set apart. You are to be different. It's okay to be different from the world.
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As a matter of fact, if you're not different from the world, there's questions there. That whether you have the world or you have
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God. You're to be holy. You're to be set apart for your
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God. We're to be set apart for God. Why are we to be holy?
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Because God's holy. God desires, as the creator, and you the creature, and me the creature, and as His children, to reflect
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His image. That's how we know we're part of the family of God. We reflect the image of God.
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Now everybody's made in the image of God. We know this. But we're talking about family resemblance here.
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As a believer in Jesus Christ, that we are to be like Christ. And when people see us, they should see
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Jesus. Just like Hudson Taylor said, I don't want them to see the apostle Paul. I want them to see
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Jesus. I am the
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Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. That's why
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God brought us out of the land of Egypt. Egypt is the world, okay? Because He is the
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Lord our God, and we belong to Him. He brought us out by His mercy, by His love, by His compassion, to be
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His. To serve Him, to love Him, to worship Him. Don't forget that tassel here.
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Let's look at that tassel. You shall have the tassel, he says. That's a blue tassel that was a form of a flower, like a petal.
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And they were attached to the garments of the Israelites. And why were they attached?
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To help them to remember. To help them to remember and to remind them of God's mercies.
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To remind them of who God is. To remind them of their trust and that they need to obey the
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Lord. We're to remember the Lord. We're to remember His great works,
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His mighty acts. We're also to remember next what you were before God saved you.
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God desires for us to remember who we were before we saved Him. Exodus 13 .3,
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Moses said to the people, remember this day in which you went out of Egypt and out of the house of bondage of slaves, for by strength of hand the
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Lord brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.
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No leavened bread shall be eaten. And Deuteronomy 5 .15, and remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.
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And the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
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Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath. Isn't that interesting? He mentions about keeping the
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Sabbath there. Deuteronomy 15 .15, you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and that the
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Lord your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this day, this thing today.
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Now keep in mind here in this context of verse 12 and 15 of Deuteronomy 15, a
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Hebrew slave was also to be released during the seventh year. Verse 12 and through 18 if you study that.
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But he was not to be sent away without provisions. He was to be released with provisions for him liberally.
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You know what that says? God loves, God loves them so much. And keep this in mind, we were all slaves to sin in our latter days when we did not serve the
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Lord and before our conversion. That's, we were enslaved and bondage to sin, practicing sin, loving our sin and Jesus set us free.
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He redeemed us as the Lord brought out the children of Israel out of Egypt.
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The Lord brought us out of the world, out of the slavery, the hardness of a hard taskmaster and yet now he has redeemed us that we're now changed slaves in a sense.
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We're a slave to righteousness as Paul says. We're not a slave to sin, we're a slave to righteousness.
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So God provided abundantly for his people when he brought them out of slavery in Egypt.
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So here he's saying when you free a slave and you let them go, they are not to go empty handed.
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Because, if you remember when God brought out Israel from the land of Egypt, they went with loot, they went with all the belongings
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God provided for them. God will provide for us.
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God's desire is for his people, in other words, to follow his example to rephrase the golden rule, do unto your brother as the
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Lord has done unto you. In other words, we Christians should behave like Christians.
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Amen? Where is that in the Bible? Well, it's all over the
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Bible, but specifically I'd like for you to see this in Romans chapter 12.
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It's very plain how Paul the apostle brings this out in chapter 12 and now he's bringing out the practical side, the practical application of all that doctrine from Romans 1 to Romans 11.
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Now chapter 12 is a transition of practical application to the believers in Romans.
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And he starts off by saying in verse 1, therefore I urge you brothers and sisters in the view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
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This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind.
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Then you will be able to test, to prove what is God's will, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
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Then, if you notice, love is in action.
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Love is in practical application. This is the way the Christian is to behave. Here it is. He is to behave.
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In verse 9 to verse 21, love must be sincere, hate what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted to one another in love, honor one another above yourselves, never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor,
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I say that right, serving the Lord, be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer, share with the
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Lord's people who are in need, practice hospitality, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse, you see what he gets that from, the
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Sermon on the Mount, Jesus our Lord, rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn, live in harmony with one another, do not be proud, but be willing to associate with the people of low position, do not be conceited, do not repay anyone evil for evil, be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone, if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone, do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, it is mine to avenge,
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I will repay, says the Lord, on the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he's thirsty, give him something to drink, in doing this you will heap burning coals on his head, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
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There you have it, the how to, practical, very simple practicality of how we are to behave as a
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Christian. Remember these things, beloved, remember. Well, I'm going to change gears a little bit here and go to the next word, it's very important.
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The word is look, let us look at look. Malachi, look,
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Malachi chapter 7 verse 7, therefore I will look to the Lord and I will wait for the
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God of my salvation, my God will hear me, my
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God will hear me. Why do we look to the Lord? Because He alone is our salvation.
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Isn't that wonderful? Salvation is a wonderful word here. You know what that means? It means deliverance.
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God, aren't you so glad in your heart today that God is a
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God of deliverance? He delivers us. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but God delivers them out of them all.
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God is our salvation. He has become our salvation. Not only does He provide salvation,
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God alone is our salvation, the person of God. He is a
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God of deliverance. Isaiah 45, 22, and this is the scripture, by the way
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Charles Spurgeon was converted by hearing a simple layman preaching in a little small church.
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Look to me and be saved in all you ends of the earth for I am God and there is no other.
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Look to God, look to God, be saved, look to Him in the eyes of faith, look to Him in faith.
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John the Baptist told it to people, he told it to the disciples of Jesus, his own disciples as well.
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In John 1, 29, what did he say? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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S -I -N, not sins, plural, but the sin of the world. Jesus said it in John 3, 14, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
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Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
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For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
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That's the good news. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
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Condemnation is already abiding on everyone. Christ comes to lift that. He comes to take it off us because He brings eternal salvation.
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But the point here is Jesus is basically telling this to Nicodemus, a very religious
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Pharisee. He says, you are to look to Him. Jesus is saying basically, you look to Me.
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You look to Jesus Christ. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness that was bitten by snakes, the murmuring, hard -hearted children of Israel that tested
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God for 40 years going in circles in the desert. Jesus says, as Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
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Son of Man be lifted up on a cross. And Jesus is saying you look to Him.
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There's another look we need to take, the look of faith. The look of faith.
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Hebrews 12, 1 -3, Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us, let us lay every side, every weight in the sin which so easily besets us, that so easily trips us up, that so easily ensnares us.
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Isn't that so true? Sin so easily trips us up and ensnares us, besets us.
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And let us run with endurance like an athlete. We're to run with endurance, with patience, the race that is set before us.
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We are in the race of life to the other side, folks. We're in a race.
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Again, it's not how well you and I start. It's how well we finish, how faithful we are to the other end.
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Looking unto Jesus. That's who we're to look unto. Not a deacon, not a preacher, not even a godly person, even though they are to set examples, but Jesus is the great example, folks.
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Looking unto Jesus. I see many a people backslide in my days because they did not look unto
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Jesus. And by the way, you and I are not exempt from it. If we do not look unto Jesus, we will backslide too.
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It is only by God's grace that holds us fast, but we must hold fast as well. Paul says, if you believe, if you continue into faith.
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So a lot of people would say, yeah, but that means good works. Well, our good works should show something that we're saved.
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J .C. Rowe said, the only evidence that people could see that we are saved is by our fruit of obedience.
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Our obedience does not save us. It's believing in Jesus Christ and it's repentance afterwards, but the obedience is the fruit that says something about us.
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Jesus is the author, he's the originator, he's the finisher, he's the perfecter of our faith.
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And listen to this, this is how Jesus made it, folks. And this is our example how we can make it.
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For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. He saw on the other side the glories of heaven because he came from there.
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He knew what was on the other side, he created it. But he took upon himself flesh and as the son of man, as he endured the cross physically, but he also took the wrath of God, he knew the glories on the other end.
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He endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. That's how he endured the cross.
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He saw the joy, despising the shame. And now he has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God and the
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Bible says, for consider him who endured such hostility, contradiction, in other words, from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
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So if we're not looking unto Jesus, what's going to happen? We're going to get discouraged. If we look at everything else that's passing away and then we see somebody that was a giant in the faith and that was an example not long ago by Stephen Lawson, right?
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And yeah, it should grieve us, but here's a man, supposedly a preacher of the gospel, he preaches.
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But what kind of man is he behind the scene? That's what I want to know. Everybody in the church at large is seeing this man, then he falls by improper relationship.
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Let's call it adultery, which the Bible calls it, with another woman, bam, he's disqualified.
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I use him as an example. None of us is exempt from falling.
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May this search our own hearts, right? But what I'm saying is, it's so easy to become discouraged when we see a man in the faith that so many people admired and bam, they fall and backslide too.
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And I'm thinking, who are you following, folks? We follow Jesus. Can I tell you all something about Jesus, young people?
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Jesus will never let you down. Men will let you down. Preachers will let you down.
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Parents will let you down sometimes. You know that? My parents let me down many times.
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Scripture says, when my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.
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But God will never let you down. God never lets you down.
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Well, I got so many other points I'd like to bring out here. I don't know if I'm going to be able to get to all of them because I got an application that I need to get to.
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Let me bring out a couple more. Look to the Lord your God when you're in trouble. When you get in trouble, trouble's going to come, right?
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Job says, as the sparks fly upward, so is man's day full of trouble. You ever see sparks fly upward in a bonfire?
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Choo! There they go. Psalm 121, 1 and 2.
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I love this verse. Brother Ben and Brother Keith and myself, when
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I went out to California, I'm sorry, Ben didn't go. He was on the other side of the continent.
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Brother Keith was out there and he met me. I love California in one sense.
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I know it's kind of dry and desolate out there, but there's one thing I do like about it. You go to a lot of these cities and they're surrounded by majestic mountains.
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And I can't help but think every time visually, and God has given us visual creation that He created to show
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His glories, amen? And it's to remind us of something. It's to remind us of Him.
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The Bible says the mountains are like the righteousness of God. The great mountains is like His majestic righteousness.
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And Scripture says, I will lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence come my help?
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That's a question mark. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Look to the mountains.
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Do you ever see a majestic mountain? God's higher than the mountains. Yeah, I was thinking as I was flying across the country in a plane, and the plane goes 32 ,000 feet pretty much, and you see all these clouds and it looks like cotton everywhere.
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Brother Stephen's getting ready to take one to Costa Rica. We'll be praying for you, Brother Stephen. And going in that flight, and I believe
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Felicity and Claire just came back from a plane trip, didn't you? And the clouds, did you see the clouds? Are you above the clouds?
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Yeah, isn't that cool? And you know what the Bible says about the clouds? They're the dust of God's feet.
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Think of that. And to us, we're looking, wow, we're high up, and you get so high, you can't even see the people.
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They're so small. You think about ants, they're small, but you can't even see the people. The cars, you can't even see.
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And then you start seeing the vastness of God's creation, and you see the clouds everywhere, and I think about it, that's the dust of His feet.
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How big is our God? If we look at it in that perspective, God is so big and awesome and large and magnified, we should never get discouraged.
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Isaiah 51 .1, listen to me, he says, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the
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Lord, look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug.
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Look to God, Isaiah 17, seven and eight, and the day a man will look to his maker, and his eyes will have respect for the
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Holy One of Israel. He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, he will not respect that his fingers have made, nor the wooden images, nor the incense altars.
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And Jesus said, come unto me, all you labor heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, learn of me, for I'm gentle, meek, lowly in heart, you will find rest for your souls.
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My yoke is easy, my burden's light. There's one more look I'd like to give you, there's so many things.
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Look to the fields, for they are white and ready for harvest. Should not we be not only looking to God, we look to God, but we also ought to look at the fields, we look into the fields.
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They are white and ready for harvest. You know what Jesus is talking about this in the context to his disciples?
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He's talking about, get out there and tell these people about the gospel, tell them about me. Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work.
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Do you not say that there is still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, look,
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I say to you, lift up your eyes and look to the fields, for they are already white for harvest.
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The great invitation is to come to Jesus, but we also to go to the people, go to them.
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They're not gonna come here. We go, go to them, that's the mission field. One day we're gonna get the sign out there, you enter the worship, and then you go to the mission field, you exit to the mission field.
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That's where we serve. I thank God I had a opportunity by the providence of God yesterday at a barbershop,
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I went to get my ears lowered, cut. Old fashioned barber, he's 87 years old, he's always been faithful for over 60 something years cutting hair.
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I was praying as I was in that chair, I said, Lord, help me to speak to him about the gospel.
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You know, if you pray, God will help you. He will. And I got to thinking about hair, this man's a haircut, this is all he knows, 60 something years of cutting hair.
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And I started to tell him about what Jesus said in scripture about, did you know my, cause
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I don't know where he is with the Lord. I said, Mike, did you know the hairs of everybody's head are numbered?
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I said, could you imagine all the heads that you have cut? Some fewer than others, some more than others, but God knows the count of every hair of your head.
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Now, what does that say about God? His wisdom, that he knows everything.
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But in context, you know what Jesus is really saying? That God cares for you.
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God loves you. God loves you with an everlasting love.
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And I told him a little bit about the love of God. And I said, and it crossed my mind,
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I said, you know, I need to also tell him about the holiness of God, because it's really not the full gospel unless we begin with the holiness of God, just not get the love of God.
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Ravenhill says, if you give people just the love of God, you've given them sloppy evangelism. So tell him about the holiness of God.
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Did you know God opened up that opportunity too? Now, as I was telling him that, here comes an older man and he's 80 years old, by the way, this is a lot of older people go here.
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I'm getting old, I know. So here I am sitting in the chair telling about the love of God. So what happens?
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Here comes this big guy. He's weighing about close to 300 pounds. He looks grouchy.
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He looks like a bulldog in the face. I said, oh boy, Mike was whispering in my ear, the barber, he says, here comes a good one.
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He said, he's got a mouth on him. And I said, oh, wow. I'm ready to give this guy the gospel now.
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So this guy walks in and here I'm in the chair talking to Mike and this guy begins to talk and he begins somehow we enter into the conversation.
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And before you knew, before I knew it, the conversation was about Christianity and he said he's been reading a lot from our daily bread, devotions from daily bread.
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And I said, okay, that's good. It's fine. Pretty good. And then he says this.
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Well, he said, they're kind of straying away from God. He said, they give me these devotions and then they start asking for money all the time.
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He says, and you know, he said, my old pastor, he said, an old pastor, 96 years old now, he said, is in a wheelchair, still preaching faithfully in the house.
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And I said, praise God. I don't know who he is, but I said, you know, I think of him being a servant of the Lord. He's still being faithful, even at 96 years old.
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And this guy begins to really knock the church real hard and I understand what's going on.
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These people, this guy's outside of the church. Okay, he's a non -believer. And he says, well, shouldn't people in the church not beg for money?
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Should not they not merchandise? And Jesus turned over the money changers tables in the temple and he was fired up and zealous and he had a rope and he ran them out.
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And I said, absolutely. I said, Jesus was zealous. I said, and keep in mind, look at the text very closely.
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He didn't take the rope. A lot of people said this, by the way, misinterpreted. He didn't take the rope and beat people with a rope, folks.
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He ran them out. He drove them out. And the zeal of the
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Lord was behind Jesus that fueled him passionately. He said, this is my father's house should not be a house, a den of thieves, but a house of prayer.
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And he brought that out to me and I said, amen, okay. Then as we talked about that,
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I was about to walk out the door and here I am standing up and now he's getting his hair cut. He said,
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I got one question. He knew I was a minister and cause Mike told him, he said, this is a pastor and he can help you out.
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And I said, okay. I said, I know there's a lot of things I don't know. I said, I'll tell you what the word of God says. Really, outside of God's word,
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I got, we got nothing to say, right? I'll give him chapter and verse. He said,
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I got one question for you. And this is how God answered that prayer. As I was telling
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Mike about the love of God, now we go to the holiness of God. And this old gentleman sitting there looking real crabby and mean in the face.
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And that he says, I got a question. The question is this. I want to ask you about the fear of God.
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He says, really, I don't fear God. And then he said, your mouth kind of gives you away, doesn't it?
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Okay. Okay, you don't fear God. He says, the Bible says I'm not to fear.
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He says, explain to me about fear there. I said, well, there are kind of two different ways of looking at fear here.
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The scripture says time and time again, to those that belong to the Lord, to fear not.
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It made me think about what John Newton said in his wonderful hymn, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
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I once was lost, now I'm found. I was blind, now I see. And what does he say in that next text?
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What does he say about fear? Amen. Did you see that?
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That the fear, in other words, God takes away our fear. I said, there is a fear of torment when you're a non -believer.
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Non -believers has got a fear of torment. Jesus says to fear not. Now this guy is saying he doesn't fear
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God. I said, well, hold on now. Fear has torment. That kind of fear is not for believers.
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But I'm here to tell you, I said, my friend, I want to give you a warning. And I said,
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I don't know where you are with the Lord. But I said, there is scripture after scripture after scripture that we are to fear the
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Lord. I said, I quote in that verse, Brother Keith has been going through from Matthew. Jesus said, don't fear
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Him that can destroy your body, but fear Him that's able to destroy body and soul into hell.
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And boy, when I quoted in that, His eyes got big. Next thing
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I knew, there was a tear coming down from that verse. I said, it's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living
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God. I said, do you fear God? He already said he doesn't fear
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God. I said, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you've got no fear, no condemnation from all that.
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But there is a fear of God. We need to hate evil and run from it and hate sin.
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There's a reverential fear of God. May God help us.
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A while, I never got to my application. What'd I do? I was going to go to chapter 24 and 25, talk about the wicked servant and the faithful servant.
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We've got communion. Can we preach another 30 minutes?
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I'm kidding. I know I got to close this. May this be our application.
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David said it in Psalm 139, search me, oh God, know my thoughts.
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See if there'd be any wicked way in me. Then he says, lead me into the way of everlasting.
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Search me, try me. Search me, try me. Not my neighbor. You notice how people are without the
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Lord, like that older man that was 80 years old up in his years. And he was basically saying, look at the sin of that person.
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Look at the sin of the church. Look at that sin. And I basically said, what about your own sin?
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I thank God before I left that yesterday, I had the opportunity to give him the gospel and I give
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God the praise for it. There was no decision made. I just pray that,
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Lord, let the word, let your word fall. Give me opportunity. God answered that prayer.
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I give him glory. But I also want to look at it like this. We need to stop looking at the sins of others.
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So what about my own sin? Do I confess it? Do I forsake it? Do I obey?
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Do I have a willingness to obey God? How does your obedience look like?
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How does your faithfulness looks like in your daily life, in your daily walk with the Lord and being faithful in the mundane things, in the little things?
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God sees and it's unto God that we're going to give an account to. It's going to be good and faithful servant enter into the joy of the
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Lord or is it going to be, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Wicked and slothful, lazy servant.
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May it not be the latter. Amy Carmichael put it this way.
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And may this be our prayers as well as I close with this. From prayer that asks that I may be sheltered from the winds that beat on thee, from fearing when
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I should inspire, from faltering when I should climb higher, from silken self, oh captain free, thy soldier who would follow thee, from subtle love of softening things, from easy choices, weakenings.
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Not thus are the spirits fortified. Not this way went the crucified.
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And from all that dims thy calvary, oh Lamb of God, deliver me.
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And I love this last stanza. Give me the love that leads the way. The faith that nothing can dismay.
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The hope no disappointments tire. The passion that will burn like fire.
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Let me not sink to be a clod. Make me thy fuel, oh flame of God.
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May this be our prayer as well for the glory of God.
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May we resolve to live a life of the Lord Jesus Christ. May we resolve to live a life of faith.
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And may we resolve to live a life that's obedient to our
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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because one day we will give an account for what we do for Him.
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Amen? Let's pray. Our Father and our
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Lord, and Lord we pray, help us to prepare our hearts as we come to remember the
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Lord Jesus' sufferings and death. And at such a great cost of our salvation, may we search our own hearts.
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Try us. Search us. You know our thoughts. Know our thoughts.
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Know my thoughts. And see, oh God, as David said, oh God, if there be any wicked way in me,
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Lord, lead us to the way of everlasting. And that is through Jesus Christ and the way that He is the way.
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We thank you, Lord, for Christ, your Son, who came and died for us.
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Prepare us now as we partake in communion and remember the sufferings and death of Him who loved us with an everlasting love.