A Simple New Year’s Resolution

Have you heard about the elderly man who moved into a retirement community to

spend the rest of his life there?

It wasn't long until he had made a number of friends among the other residents

of the nursing home, the retirement community.

There was one lady he was especially attracted to.

It seemed that she was attracted to him also, so they spent a lot of time together. other.

Finally, one evening, he proposed, asking her to marry him.

The next morning, he woke up remembering his proposal, but he couldn't remember her answer.

So he went to her door and said, I'm sorry, I'm really embarrassed.

I proposed to you last night, but I can't remember if you said yes or no.

She said, oh, thank goodness.

I remembered saying yes, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember who asked.

So we're going to ask, I believe Dave's going to be reading Philippians chapter 3, verses 7 through 14.

Philippians 3:7–14

But whatever were gains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the the surpassing worth

of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ and be found in him,

not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law,

but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from

God on the basis of faith.

I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation

in the sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow attaining

to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal,

but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brother and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do.

Sometimes I feel the way that gentleman did about New Year's resolutions.

I tell myself, this year I'm going to turn over a new leaf, I'm going to exercise regularly,

lose weight, I'm going to do all those kind of things to improve myself physically

and spiritually, and then I forget about those things or fail to carry through. You ever been there?

So this year, I have a suggestion for a New Year's resolution that we ought to be able to remember.

It's kind of a broad and very general, but here it is.

Let's promise ourselves and God that we will make a change for the better.

Sounds simple enough. Let's make a positive change for the better.

This year, as God's people in this church, His church, let's make this one simple resolution.

We're going to make a change for the better this year. it may

involve actually a series of changes but it will be

a change to move forward and be better and

more positive with christ and so help us do that

there are some suggestions of some ways that we can make a change for the better

the first one is this develop a positive outlook toward life how many of you

know those people that love misery if you ask them is the the glass half half

full or half empty, they say, what glass?

Right? There's just some of those that seem to have this negative outlook about everything.

Somebody took my glass away. I don't even know if it's half full or half empty.

A few years ago, a lady committed suicide, leaving behind this note.

She said, I decided that unless life was worth living, I would just quit living.

Pretty sad when when you think about it, for somebody to get to that point in

their life that they realize that life is just not even worth living, so they quit life.

I think some people are like that. They quit living a life that is positive and healthy and whole.

I wonder how you feel about life. How are you living your life?

What are you looking forward to?

I love going into the bank every week when I go in there. I love to interact

with people there. I love to go to school and interact with the other teachers and students.

It's always something to try to lift somebody else's day up. We need to do that.

We need to have a positive outlook on life.

So let's change the question. What would it take for you to feel that your life is worthwhile?

What would have to happen to make you feel more positive about your life?

Well, Saturday night, last night, nobody won the $768 million from Powerball.

Sorry, you weren't there. Some people think that if they won the lottery, they'd have it all.

Or if your marriage was suddenly patched up, would that fix everything?

If your kids began to make you proud or if you got a promotion, would that do it?

What would it take for you to feel really positive about your life?

Now, if that's the way you're looking at things, then you probably never feel

really positive about your life. You're always looking for something else.

You're always looking that things just aren't fitting up to what you expect them to be.

Because all of the little situations or events in your life that seem to come

take away from the joy of living.

We need to have a positive outlook about everything.

Just as I said to the kids, we don't know what tomorrow is going to bring.

We can have a negative outlook on what tomorrow is going to be,

or we can understand that we can have a positive outlook on what's going to

happen because we know God is holding our hand and helping us in that future.

Yet despite all this, there's a writing, this writing in Philippians chapter 3,

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

understanding that during the time that Paul wrote this message to the Philippians,

he was in prison he had been

beaten he had been changed to chained to a roman guard

he was under horrible conditions and yet despite

all that he writes these positive words not that i have already obtained all

this or already have been made perfect but i press on to take hold of that for

which christ jesus took hold of me brothers i do not consider myself yet to

have taken hold But everything I do,

one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Does that sound like a guy who's in prison, chained to a Roman guard?

Does that sound like a guy who doesn't think he has any kind of future?

This is a guy who knows he's there for the purpose of Christ,

and he goes on. In another part, he says, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain.

It really would be better for me if I were to die and go to heaven.

But my purpose, it's a positive outlook on life.

I am here to serve God and to glorify Christ.

Now stop for a minute. What's Paul trying to take hold of?

In verse 10, Paul tells us, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection

and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

What's he reaching for? What's his goal?

Paul's goal is resurrection from the dead, but he's already alive.

Why should he want resurrection from the dead? the goal

is eternal life with christ the goal is the fact that

he is being resurrected from the dead life of

sin into a new life with christ and he's going on toward that heavenly goal

of there now here's the point if our goal is heaven and if our goal is eternal

life with jesus christ then all these little setbacks in life are only stepping

stones getting us closer closer to the time when we will be with him.

I had a Presbyterian pastor when I lived in Minnesota that used to say this,

what good is heavenly thought if it's not of earthly value?

What good is thinking about positive things and the things of the earth to come

if they're not affecting my life here and now?

What good is positive heavenly thought if it's not positive earthly value?

There are disappointments in our life, and every day, as every day passes,

we're one day closer to the time when we will be able to be with Jesus.

And if that's our goal, then Romans 8.28 is true for us.

All things do work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

The world says that the way to feel good about yourself is by climbing the ladder of success,

by having influential friends, by making a lot of money, by having a big house and lots of possession,

by receiving a lot of awards, by belonging to the right circles,

according to the world around us in the media, those are the things that make

us feel good about ourselves.

And yet, when we look at Hollywood...

When we look at politics, the elite in power, we have more divorces,

more sad lives, more drug addictions, and even some suicides.

So even when they have all those things, they aren't positive about the outlook of their life.

The world says that the way to feel good about yourself is to achieve more, to get more.

But the Bible teaches us that if we are to feel good about ourselves,

we should do so because God loves us. That's simple enough.

We should be glad that God loves us and that satisfies everything.

You're such a treasured person in God's sight that he gave his one and only son for you.

If there was nobody else in the world, God would have done it for you.

It makes you valuable and you can feel good about yourself.

Frank Peretti, I don't know if you know who Frank Peretti is,

the author of the books Piercing the Darkness and This Precedent Darkness,

and there's a few others like that.

Frank Peretti said this, It's no wonder that our young people today have poor

self-images when they go to school and read books that tell them that they are

the products of blind chance,

that they are just accidents of nature, unplanned, unloved, and unwanted.

And now they go to school and they have people tell them that your gender is

not correct. You're supposed to be something else.

Let's change you, make you better.

Man, I'm sorry, folks, but we got a really weird world.

But the Bible tells us that we are wanted, and we are loved,

and we are cared for by God, the creator of all things.

Jim Valvano, who was the coach of North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team,

rose to fame when his team started winning championships.

And it seemed like forever in a row they were winning championships.

When you talked about the North Carolina Tar Heels, you knew that they were

the number one team going into things.

Everybody liked Jim Valvano. He was always cracking jokes and had a winning

way of dealing with people.

But in 1991, Coach Valvano learned that he had inoperable bone cancer.

During Christmastime 1992, he said this, It's difficult to be thankful this

Christmas because I'm not sure if I'll be here next Christmas.

And he wasn't because he died in 1993.

Coach Valvano went on to say, though, but this Christmas, I'm getting down on

my knees and thanking God for every day of the 46 years of my life that he's given me.

He was positive enough about life

because he realized that life is a very precious gift God has given us.

It must sadden the Lord that sometimes we take this gift of life that he has

given and don't treasure it for the precious thing that it is.

I was at the bank just the other day and I was talking to, I won't tell you

her name, but anyway, I was talking to her and she said, are you ready for the

new year? I said, oh, I'm so anxious for it.

She said, really? Was this year bad? I said, no, but I said,

I know next year is going to be really great. and she goes, really?

I said, yeah, I plan on starting it on this side of the ground.

But anyway, so the second thing

we learn is we need to develop a positive attitude toward the church.

I don't say this in a self-serving way at all,

because one thing that is right about a church is that our desire is and should

be simply to lift up Jesus and to reach out to a lost and and dying world with

the message of salvation.

So often we hear contrary things about the church.

We hear people criticizing the church. One of the things that we,

the infamous things that people say is all the church ever does is ask for more money.

We are always worrying about how much something costs.

Well, I'm glad to say that we don't beg you for your money. You give it freely. really.

No, we understand that the tithing is what God operates his kingdom on.

And we are being obedient people in doing that. And thank you for serving the Lord in that way.

In John 12, there's an interesting account of something that happened as Jesus ate with his disciples.

As you remember, a woman brought a jar filled with perfume, a very expensive

perfume, and broke it and anointed Jesus' feet with the perfume.

Normally, they would pour perfume or oils on a person's head and on their hair,

but she poured it on his feet, and immediately Judas Iscariot and some of the

disciples criticized the way, saying that perfume could have been sold and the

money given to the poor, but Jesus defended her, saying, she has done what she could for my burial,

and he also said this will be remembered of her for the rest of time.

And it's recorded in our scripture. You see, we have a different value system than the world.

The world would consider something waste that we consider valuable.

The world thinks you're wasting your time going to church. You want to hear

about God and Jesus Christ and to worship together.

And the world thinks that's a tremendous waste of time.

And yet, how much time does the world waste in arguing back at the people on

the political talk shows on TV?

Or listening to the radio when we know that our arguing to the box or listening

to them is not going to change the talking heads in the boob tube.

Or how much money and time is wasted drinking in the bars, putting down the

drugs, doing whatever we do that's a waste of time in my books.

How much time is wasted watching trash television, which serves absolutely no good for humanity.

And how much time is wasted serving their own pleasures in this world?

Here's another point of separation between us and the world.

When the world looks at your tax return and sees that you gave away 10 to 15

to 20 percent of your income to build the kingdom of God, they would call it a waste.

And yet how much money is wasted, as I said, in bars or on cars or in hobbies or drugs and tobacco?

Just think about this. this. God asked for 10% a tithe on your income.

When you go to a restaurant, you're asked to give 20% tip.

God's not even wanting a tip. He's just wanting a tithe to show that you're

faithful and and you're dependable.

I can assure you that the things of this world that are called wasteful today

are the only things that will last for eternity.

Remember when the woman poured the perfume on Jesus' feet, he said,

whenever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will

always be told in memory of her.

Now we understand, we need to understand that when we risk something for God, we could lose.

We've won the big battle already because Jesus went to the cross,

died for us, but we might lose some skirmishes along the way because Satan is

still very present and he's the prince of this world.

And there are a lot of things going on that are not God's will.

Satan does not want God to win, even though he knows what the outcome is going to be.

He's trying to change the future history, if that makes sense.

He knows his days are numbered.

But I would rather be trying something great for God and fail fail than playing

it safe by doing nothing and succeed.

We had a similar statement in cross-country.

If you reach for the stars, you'll make the top of the mountains.

If we keep climbing upward, focusing upwards, and moving upwards,

and moving ahead, and moving on, we're going to gain ground that we never anticipated gaining before.

I remember running running one cross-country race. It was a,

I don't remember, it was some kind of championship, one regional or something.

And there's, in a cross-country race, you get about into the middle of it and

you're like dying, you know?

And then you get a second wind and you go on. But anyway, I'd gotten to the

point where I was just like totally exhausted and felt like I needed to go.

So I remember making the prayer, Lord, you lift up my feet and I'll put them back down. It worked.

But anyway, there's sometimes that we just need to keep reaching ahead and going

going forward and just putting one foot in front of the other and keep going

and having a positive outlook on what's going to happen.

John Wesley was a great English preacher of the 1700s. He was the founder of

what we now know as the Methodist movement.

He was considered a rather spiffy dresser in his time.

One Sunday morning, he wore a bow tie that had long ribbons that hung downward.

After the sermon was over, a lady walked up to him and said,

Brother Wesley, are you open to some criticism?

He says, well, I guess so. What would you like to criticize?

Size she said well the ribbons on your tire are

entirely too long and inappropriate for a

man of god and she immediately took out

her scissors and cut them off a hush

fell over the crowd standing there as wesley calmly asked ma'am may i may i

borrow the scissors for a moment and as she handed them to him he asked her

ma'am are you open to some criticism she answered well i suppose i am he said,

good, stick out your tongue.

In Ephesians 4, verse 15, Paul says, we need to speak the truth in love.

Ephesians 4:15

We need to make sure it is the truth that we always need to be sure that we

are speaking in the spirit of love.

So we need to have a positive attitude toward the church.

And then the third thing, we need to display a positive attitude toward others.

Robert Shuler wrote this, It would amaze us how many people we could influence

for Christ if we would just treat people nicely.

Let me read that again.

It would amaze us how many people we could influence for Christ if we would

just treat people nicely.

I think he's right. In fact, I think we should even go further and look at how

we might be treating people negatively and condescendingly or critically and

make a change for the good.

One New Year's Day, one New Year's Day morning, I took Nancy to Denny's for breakfast.

Well, we ate breakfast, but it was almost noon.

Anyway, Denny's was very busy. While we were sitting there, we noticed some

tables where families were eating.

More than one child was acting up and causing a scene in the restaurant.

We discovered and discussed this between ourselves that Mallory and Bethany,

our daughters, would never have gotten away with such poor behavior.

It would not be expected of them, and they would not do it. They simply would know.

While Nancy was away from the table for a moment, I noticed that the children

at the table right next to us were very well behaved, and the family was having

a wonderful time laughing and enjoying each other's company.

I went over to the table and I complimented the parents on how well their children

behaved and that it was a pleasure to watch them.

They were shocked at having someone tell them that they believed that their

kids were doing well, and yet I believed that it pleased them too.

Why is it that people are shocked by positive things,

especially when positive things are said

to them or about them why is it

that people feel uncomfortable receiving compliments or

why is it that the world is even bored by positive news on television you don't

hear the positive things on television anymore it's all the negative stuff the

explosions the fires the terrorism

is it maybe because we don't speak positively enough up to each other?

Or is it maybe because we enjoy sharing negative things because of the negative

things about other person make us feel better about ourselves?

The saying is still true, a rising tide carries all ships.

When we speak highly of others, when we treat others well, when we respect each

other, when we exalt each other above ourselves, they will rise even higher,

and that will lift us up as well.

Have you ever noticed in the psychology of raising children that they will meet

whatever expectations you have on them?

Expect your children to misbehave and

they will reward you with misbehavior expect

them to throw a tantrum in public and they will

do so expect them to misbehave well

and treat them with respect and love and they will make you proud donnie as

you came in this morning i was thinking about you when i was thinking this message

a story from our life i remember traveling from oklahoma to Minnesota to visit

my in-laws over Christmas time when our girls were young.

Bethany was probably only about three or four years old at the time.

We stopped at a truck stop in the middle of the night for something to eat and

to take a break from traveling in the blizzard of snow.

When we received our meals, Bethany volunteered to pray, a three-year-old,

four-year-old, something like that.

In her own simple childlike faith, she thanked Jesus for the food and asked

him to keep all the truck drivers safe on the roads that were really bad.

Well, the simple faith in her prayer touched her father's heart.

It was simple enough. She was just talking to Jesus, but it also touched the

heart of a road-worthy, weary trucker.

As we prepared to leave, the cashier informed us that this man had paid for our meal.

He responded by saying that he had overheard Bethany's prayer,

and he asked her to never quit praying for others like him.

I can assure you that she hasn't.

I can also assure you that her father was looking for every road-weary trucker

he could find at the next truck stops wherever they stopped.

This is a hard world, a world that doesn't always exercise courtesy.

Sometimes it's a dog-eat-dog world. world. In fact, everything about our world

teaches us to go for the gusto or chew them up and spit them out or look out for number one.

People are jockeying for position on the freeway and in the boardrooms,

and they're filled with all kinds of stress and anxiety,

but the church must be a place where anyone can come and be accepted and loved

and encouraged and built up, a place where there are people who can help carry their burdens.

And my friends, your home is also your church.

May it be a place where people can come and feel the presence of Christ and

the love of Christ and the care of Christ through us.

It pleases me to no end when I see visitors come in and watch as you greet them after the service.

Trust that we can carry that out in the days to come and follow up on those

initial visits to welcome them into the fellowship of our family here at this church. church.

When the church is operating at its best, the way that Christ intended for her

to operate, there is no other force for good like it.

And I can assure you, it pleases the Father in heaven to no end.

When the church operates the way Jesus wanted it to operate,

he said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not withstand it.

The church, the people of God, not the building, the people of God,

will bombard the gates of hell with the love of Christ, and people will come

to know Jesus, maybe almost automatically,

when we show them the love of Christ.

When Terry Bradshaw was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame,

he mentioned other players who had played with him and said,

the honor, this honor would mean nothing to me at all if I didn't have people like that who loved me.

And it's true, people do need the Lord, but people also need people.

There's a song that goes like this, people, people who need people are the luckiest people in the world.

Yet more than the fact that people need other people is the fact that people need positive people.

People need a constant positive influence in their life.

Maybe that resolution more than any other ought to be your New Year's resolution

to make a change for the better.

I'm going to be positive as I look at my life. I'm going to be positive as I

look at the church, and I'm going to be positive as I look at others.

I'm going to look at what I can do to lift others up and to to lift up the church

and to lift up the reputation of Christ in this community, in my family,

in my neighborhood, in my schools, in my workplaces, by the things I do,

the way I talk, and the way I live.

Later in Philippians chapter 4, Paul writes these words, Let your gentleness

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

be evident to all. The Lord is near.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is is true.

Whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,

whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy,

think about such things.

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me,

put it into practice, and the God of peace will be with you.

Nothing negative in that.

May I suggest to you that as we take this this resolution seriously.

And as we begin a new year, as it filters down into every segment of our life,

that this year will be one of the best years you've ever had.

2024 is going to be awesome because you are in God and God is in you.

We're a year closer to heaven than we were this time last year.

That's pretty profound. I wouldn't think about it.

You know, it seems like the years are going faster and faster.

Maybe that's just because I have 66 years of perspective to reflect on.

We need to place the past, the present, and the future of our lives in God's

hands and allow him to use us to glorify him in the future.

Many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand, but I know who holds

tomorrow, and I know who holds my hand.

Man, folks, life doesn't get any better than when we're with Jesus.

Heavenly Father, as we close out this year, 2023,

in church, in worship, in praise, we thank you that we can and open a new year

in the same way, in worship and praise, wherever we are. In Jesus' name, amen.