A New Years Resolution
A New Years Resolution
12/31/2005 - Saturday Communion Lesson for the Eugene International Church of Christ
Introduction
- Reminder - workshop in Portland next week. Friday night is Bible Talk Leaders, Saturday Morning: Men 9-12, Saturday Afternoon Women 2-5 PM
- This Sunday is our last 4PM service and Sunday the 15th is our 2 year anniversary service! Invitations handed out at midweek this week. (Men, 7:30PM, Grange)
New Years Resolutions: Who has already made theirs? (Share about memorizing James 3, changing the way I talk.)
- Lose weight / Exercise more / Save Money / etc. Usually all about us and what we think we need.
What if we asked people in our lives what they think we need to resolve to change in the new year to make it awesome?
How about a resolution from God?I John 4
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
POINT #1 Got love? Get God!
The Biblical Definition of Love:
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
Patient. (The more patience - the more GOD) With Kids? With Spouse? With roommates? With the lost? With boss, with co-workers?
Love is patient. With brothers and sisters in the church? In dating? On Eggshells = NO GOD. GET MORE GOD. Resolved, if you’re not patient? GET More God.
Kind (The more patience - the more GOD)
- Of a friendly, generous, or warm-hearted nature. (Hacketts - Kind, breakfast/Dan & Dini)
- Showing sympathy or understanding; charitable, Generous (Hogues - Generous)
- Forbearing; tolerant (Amy - my wife is very tolerant)
Envy: (The more Envy - the LESS GOD)
A feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by and in conjunction with desire for the possessions or qualities of another.
Plain english: You want what they got and you don’t think it’s fair they got it. You ain’t happy and you don’t like them ’cause they got what you think you should have.
Love don’t care. No favoritism. (Philippians 4:12-13)
Boast:
The act or an instance of bragging.
To glorify oneself in speech; talk in a self-admiring way.
“I’m just opinionated…” means - I like to talk about how right I am about everything.
Do you want tell the world how much you know about it - or would you rather listen for the opening for the gospel?
If you like to be right, then understand that God is not in you. Out to prove our point instead of consider other’s better than ourselves. (This is GODLESS).
Subtle, cut other’s down. Resolve to GET MORE GOD.
Proud:
“…characterized by an inflated ego and disdain for what one considers inferior.” Proud can suggest justifiable self-satisfaction but often implies conceit. One who is arrogant (another form of proud) is overbearingly proud and demands excessive power or consideration.
Extremely contrary to the heart of Jesus - who considered himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant.
John 13 - Jesus washed feet. Be resolved - GET MORE GOD.
I Corinthians 13:5
5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
(Dictionary says ‘rude’ = “discourteous”. Late to church? Late to bible talk? Late to devotionals? Rude - not just to the body of Christ, but to the LORD Himself!
Rude = Won’t say please. Won’t say thank you. Won’t get off the couch to greet a fellow disicple. Won’t call you back. Won’t find out where and when church events are.
NOT self-seeking.
Let me do what is best for the group. What will benefit the most people here? What will encourage the fellowship? What will build people up? What is going to help service be awesome? What is going to help my family become disciples?
Compromise, lukewarmness, all are a lack of LOVE.
Maybe you think that it is self-seeking to ask for help? Realize what happens when you are independent…pride shuts out love - robbery of the chance to love someone.
Easily Angered Shows me right away - my issue is a lack of God.
Record of Wrongs Bury the hatchet with the handle sticking out? Quick to remind someone of how they hurt you? Try to sound spiritual about it…but remember faults easily.
Having a hard time loving someone? No God. Where there is no love, there is no God. I have to realize, when I am impatient, when I am short-tempered…when I am finding fault with people…the issue is - no God. Got love? No? Get God!
POINT #2 - Got God? Rely On His Love!
I John 4:9
9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
(John 13:34-35) - proof is in the pudding…love one another…as I have loved you…(greater than love for oneself, as we can actually hate ourselves.)
A friend was studying the bible with the brothers. He said himself, “I have never seen anything like this in my whole life. This is totally different.” There is a deep and real love, and it is from GOD.
When you get God - you want to love people. You want to spend time with brothers and sisters.
I John 4
13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
Acts 2:38 - the Holy Spirit is given to us at our baptism!
(See the baptisms on the website. Paula’s and Holly’s and so on.)
1 John 4:14
14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Got God - are not afraid to love. But sometimes we are because…
Past Hurts - “Given my heart to people, time and time again…and they have hurt me. See! They did it again…” How many times have you hurt the LORD? How many times have you wounded his heart? How many times have you done this, and yet, you can rely on his love time and time again? If you got God in you - you love the brothers and sisters in this way - you keep no record of wrongs. Rely on the Love of God.
Quirky and hard to be around - Imagine what you must look like in God’s perfect eyes? And yet he continues to love you deeply and sincerely. (However, Weirdness = make people feel awkward = rudeness = sin). Inside jokes unexplained? (Computer related Conversation isolating people).
I am afraid to give people my whole heart - I’ve been hurt and I don’t know if I can stand to be hurt again…God fearlessly gives his heart to you day in and day out. He loves you that much!
I’m not a people person. Then you are nothing like God. If you rely on his love, and you let him IN you - you’ll be a people person. God died for the sake of giving people a chance at an eternal relationship with him. If you are like God - you’ll die for people just as well - for their eternal salvation. You’ll die to yourself!
There cannot be excuses on this.
POINT #3 - Got Excuse? Get Truth!
1 Peter 1
22Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24For,
“All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25but the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.
Sincere love? Purify it by OBEYING the truth.
Study the bible. Get serious, get truth if you “Got Excuse.”
Why? Why pursue truth so much?
It is impossible to biblically love someone when continuing to sin!
- Immorality in my past life. Hard to love people. Could not imagine a Godly marriage.
- Impurity and sensuality - clouds vision spiritually, turns women into objects. Never would I have imagined that God would have blessed me with a woman like Amy.
- Bitterness robs us of our vision! Faultfinding?
I John 4:17-21
17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.Got excuse? Then you got no reason to be confident! (confidence on the day of judgment) You want confidence in the presence of God on THE day?
RELY on his love, and GET truth.
That is how critical it is to take to heart God’s [suggestion? Consideration? Thoughts? no - COMMAND] for a new years resolution - love each other. What an amazing year it will be, indeed!
