Let’s look for the last time at biblical New Year’s Resolutions. So far we have seen…
1> Commit yourself to forget your failures
2> Commit yourself to give up your grudges
3> COMMIT YOURSELF TO RESTORE YOUR RELATIONSHIPS

So, today let’s look at a fourth and last biblical resolution for this series of blogs…

4>COMMIT YOURSELF TO TURN YOUR BACK ON PAST SINS

Just after the Civil War in what is now the United States of America the president signed a proclamation that set the slaves free. If you have read about the Civil War then you know that many of the slaves that had been set free decided to stay with their former master and continue to do what they were told. They were set free but they chose to live as slaves.

The New Testament says that is exactly how many Christian choose to live.

Christ died to set them free, the Holy Spirit has given them the power to be free, but just like those former slaves they still choose to obey their old master, sin. Listen to these words from Romans 6:2 …“Do not let sin control the way you live, do not give in to its lustful desires … we are no longer slaves to sin.”

This is the last challenge I’m issuing as we enter into 2015 late tonight… If we will rise to meet this challenge – then the New Year will be truly significant for you.

When God says: “Do not let sin control the way you live, do not give in to its lustful desires…” He is issuing the challenge to turn your back on your past sins. That is a spiritual principle that is as true today as it was 2000 years ago… It’s called “besetting sins”

Christian writers used to talk about besetting sins:
Besetting sins – – a specific sin that a Christian was prone to do time and time again.
Besetting sins – – sins that we simply won’t let go and thus repeat time and again

For most of us when we are saved we give up certain sins easily but there are other things that we know are wrong that we really battle with. Those are our besetting sins. Many of us end up choosing to give into our besetting sins and end up living double lives. We do nothing about it – we just learn to live with it

I have to ask you is your spiritual life crippled because you have learned to live with a besetting sin?

Unforgiveness
Resentment
Gossip
Stealing
Lying

Do you have a quick temper that you constantly give into?
Or a caustic tongue that assassinates other people’s characters or wound their feelings?
Have you learned to live with that critical judgmental attitude you know is wrong?
Is there a sexual sin that you keep on giving in to?
Have you been going too far with your boyfriend or girl friend?
Have you been secretly logging on to pornography sites on the Internet time and time again?

God, here in his Word, challenges you to turn your back on that sin whatever it is. To stop letting it control the way you live. To stop giving in to it. He wants you to stop obeying your old master.

Let’s be clear about this: Jesus death broke the power of sin. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to resist sin. That means that you don’t have to go into the new year still being defeated by the same old sin. You can have the victory over it.

God says you are no longer a slave to sin so don’t live like one or act like one. If you will ask for God’s forgiveness for your sin – He will forgive and He will enable you to resist that sin

Then this new year can be, for you, a new ball game in your life – including your personal relationship with God. Don’t miss this opportunity.

Happy New Year!!

We started to look at biblical New Year’s Resolutions. We saw that:

1> COMMIT YOURSELF TO FORGET YOUR FAILURES
2000 years ago one the first Christian leaders, Paul, gave this advice: “Forgetting what is behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for which 1 God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14

That advice from God’s Word has stood the test of time. I don’t know of any more relevant and practical advice for us at the start of 2015

Let’s continue this look…

2> COMMIT YOURSELF TO GIVE UP YOUR GRUDGES

I want you to listen to these words from the book of Colossians because in them you’ll hear the second challenge I believe God wants you to rise to if you want to make 2015 a significant turning point in your life

“Bear with each other and forgive each other whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” Colossians 3:13

Did you catch that challenge?

God is challenging you directly and personally to give up your grudges.

That is what He means when He says forgive each other whatever grievances you may have against one another.

What’s a grudge?
A grudge is a deep ongoing resentment that we cultivate in our hearts against someone else.
A grudge is an unforgiving spirit that leads to unforgiving attitudes and unforgiving actions.

Now I know you know what I am talking about.
Harbouring a grudge is about nursing a dislike for someone.

What you need to know is that grudges are dangerous because they are destructive.
Grudges destroy marriages.
Grudges break up families.
Grudges ruin friendships.
Grudges split churches.

Let’s be honest enough to admit that one of the scandals of the Church is the grudges that Christians hold against one another.

Today if you know you are holding a grudge against someone then God has something to say to you.
He says “give it up.”

I want to remind you that grudges are not just destructive – – they are also self-destructive.

When you hold a grudge against someone you will hurt yourself as much and perhaps more than you will hurt the person you are holding it against. Make no mistake about it, if you keep harbouring a grudge then it will eventually destroy you, if not physically, certainly emotionally and spiritually.

It will make you a bitter and twisted person.

So, resolution #2 biblically is to commit yourself, with God’s help, to give up your grudges.

It is now the time when we look at our life and make some decisions that will allow us to say that next year things will be different. They are called resolutions, New Year’s resolutions. Decisions we make that we hope will bring about a new reality – one that is different than they one that we are facing at the end of the old year, 2014. You know, lose weight, go to the gym three or four times a week, live within your means and thus retire your credit cards by such-and-such a date, go to Hawaii for a holiday, drink and smoke less, and find a different job or career.

For those who are Christian – read three chapters of the Bible every day, spend time in prayer daily, make it to small group and the worship assembly each week except when out of town; learn how to share the gospel with others and share it with someone once a week; tithe faithfully, and journal your journey as inadequate as it may appear to you on an average day. For those who are more enthusiastic – add a mission trip overseas to a foreign nation and the adoption of a child through one of the Christian “save a child” funds.

The problem with both of these sets of New Year’s resolutions is that they are simply “wishes” that will never come true. Statistics and surveys show that people’s good intentions at this time of the year (between over eating and over drinking / between Christmas and New Years) simply don’t pan out because their resolution to change is only skin deep – it is a surface desire that does not come from the heart. And all permanent and beneficial change comes from the heart, the inside. The Bible states that this is the centre of life.

So, as we approach the start of a new year we need to be looking a little deeper than some external niceties that would make life easier, better, more comfortable, convenient, and more enjoyable. We need to look at the root issues of life – our thoughts, our motives, our desires (lusts), our character. Why? Because these are foundational to who we are. These are issues of our “being” and not our “doing” or “getting.”

But, we often avoid looking in this direction because we know we will not like what we see. We tend to avoid dealing with inside issues because they are hard work with little immediate results. We go for the surface things because we believe and really think that if we successfully change these things we will be happy, safe, secure, and comfortable. This may be true – but you won’t be satisfied and fulfilled on the inside. This only comes to the brave who take the plunge and look at who they have become. It is only the adventurous who look at the “be” and stop changing all the “do’s.”

This year – this week – as we approach the turn of the calendar into the new year of the Lord 2015 take some time and begin to look deep inside. With God’s help – no matter the condition of your heart and soul – you can change and see substantial progress during 2015 towards being a caring, compassionate Christian who is making a sincere and deep difference in your world. A world-changer.

But remember, if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have aways gotten. Poor English but true nonetheless.

Maybe instead of running ragged attempting to put more into the day than even God could accomplish – it might be a good time to slow down – try stopping – and to give some thought to what this special season is all about and why you are running faster now than normal and thus not experiencing the ‘peace that passes all understanding’ given to us by Jesus, the Prince of Peace, whose birthday we are suppose to be celebrating.

Time to be still – both on the inside (that’s really hard) and on the outside (not that easy either)

Try meditating on Psalm 46:10 – and doing it in a slightly different way. If you take the verse and subtract one word at a time it will truly help you to come to rest:

Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know that I.
Be still and know that.
Be still and know.
Be still and.
Be still.
Be.

This way you might slow down and realize that “being” is much more important than “doing” and there is an excess and over abundance of one and not enough of the other. In fact, I believe we stay extra busy “doing” so we don’t have to do the harder work of sorting through what it means to truly be a human “being.”

But then that is just my thought arising out of years of watching the mad, frantic, stupidity that passes for Christmas celebrations year-after-year.

Reviewing the benefits of a “house church” we have seen…
1> We will start being the church rather than doing church
2> Church will be holistic, touching all of life
3> Churches will be financially secure
4> Churches will have plenty of good leaders
5> Churches will meet in ready-made buildings
6> We will see a new quality of conversions
7> We will eat and drink together

Let’s continue our look at the practical changes that come about when we begin to think of churches meeting in homes instead of “church” buildings or rented facilities…

8> Missions will be redefined. At the heart of both traditional and contemporary missions is the congregational understanding of church. From this static centre we reach out to others in proximity of the church building, trying to get them to come to church – and we call it evangelism. If we reach out abroad or across significant social and ethnolinguistic barriers, we call it missions. If the house church, however, is the centre of our evangelistic understanding, the static church can stop identifying and sending mobile specialist – missionaries – and instead send itself by simply acting apostolically as a whole. The church, in the best sense of the word, again becomes the mission, the sender, as well as the sent ones.

By sending forth multipliable units of itself, the church with its spiritual DNA, changes everything it touches and deposits its spiritual message into every culture and language. This type of missions spreads much like an infection, where the virus introduces its own genetic code into every host cell that it touches, transforming the cells into its own image. Or to consider another example, ‘mission’ regains the dynamics of yeast, which reproduces itself. Instead of bringing more people to the church, we bring the church to more people.

9> There will be more authenticity. The congregational type of church is geared toward a stage performance. The emphasis is on conducting the meeting, delivering the message, performing the functions, and celebrating the rites. But with so many spectators involved, it is not a structure for discipleship at all. This type of church lends itself to acting – going through the motions without emotions and performing the outward form without content, while the spectators remain empty and void behind a smoke screen of nods, hallelujahs, and amens. By returning the church to normal life – away from artificially conducted meetings – authenticity and authority would be restored locally, right in the neighbourhoods. This leads to less acting and more significant action.

10> Church will become part of a larger network. When computers are linked to other computers, we differentiate between a Local Area Network (LAN), and a Wider Area Network (WAN). The LAN could be a part of the WAN, which is exactly the way house churches develop.

A local network of independent house churches (LAN) interlinks with a wider network of house churches (WAN) in the district, city, or the regional area; they exchange ministries and work together in a strategic partnership towards a goal of saturation church planting.

More next time…