Embracing Change: A Year of Spiritual Growth

"New year is one of those, it's kind of like Christmas, we build up to holidays and you, I don't know if, like with Christmas we have this long build up and then the day after it's like, let's get all this stuff down, let's just move on to the next holiday. And then for me, new year's is kind of the same. I spend the week, what's this next year going to be like? What am I going to go after? What are we going to do? And then it comes and goes. And so we're two or three days now, four days into our new year's goals, resolutions, whatever you want to call them. How many of you set a new year's goal or resolution or some had some idea that you were going to make a change this year? If not, hey, what better time? You should, I think everyone should always change, okay? So how many of you have already failed at whatever you were going to try to do? Not failed, but had to. I've already done a reset. I'm going to keep my hand up. I quickly realized, you know, this is going to be a year of grace for me. I'm going to give myself a lot of grace when I go back and do a reset. I was talking to my wife last night and I said, this is a great reminder of repentance, of I'm not going to feel guilty. I'm just going to restart because I might be restarting every single day when I screw up on these diets and whatever I'm going after." [00:05:43]

"I think that most of us, when we set goals, we, or when we, we decide we want to change, we kind of start with what we've always done. And we begin to lose kind of the reasoning of why do we do what we do? And so, um, when I boil down and I think about most of the goals that I hear, most people that are making changes, it's probably not as superficial as we make it sound, but it can be very superficial if we lose something. So this year, I have to give all these goals, because I'm just, I'm just going to be more awesome. That's basically what many of us would say. We wouldn't say it like that. Um, if you were to put it in church lingo, you would try to say this year is about leading me from where I am." [00:05:54]

"where I want to be, right? But the truth is the mission of this church is not to lead you from where you are to where you want to be. It's to lead you from where you are to where God wants you to be. And that to me is a crucial change that most of us never consider when we talk about our goals, when we think about how do I want to change? Some of us may love where we are physically, where we love where we are professionally or with our family. But when we think about this as God is taking me on a journey, I think that is where we really can dig deep into what does God have in store for me this year. I read this quote from J .I. Packer in his book, Knowing God. He said this, Christian minds have been conformed to the modern spirit." [00:06:39]

"The spirit, that is, that spawns great thoughts of man and leaves room for only small thoughts of God. And I thought, man, as much as I love God, I love God. I love God. I love God. I love God. I love God. I love setting personal goals and becoming awesome and improving myself, what I don't want to do is make this year about how am I going to change for my sake. And instead, I really want this year to be where is God calling me to make changes? Where is God calling me to be? And I think that if I come from that perspective, it is going to influence everything I do. Because I really believe that any life change starts spiritually." [00:07:26]

"It starts with what God is going to do in our lives before it starts physically. How many of us, when we sit down and write our goals, think, you know what, all I really want this year is I want to be in the presence of God more. I want to grow and become like Jesus more. My main goal for this year is I just want to spend and encounter Jesus daily. That's my goal. Because I'm going to find a way to encounter the risen Christ daily. And so I really want to challenge us this year. I want us to be victorious. I want you to be walking in victory. But more than having a church with six -pack abs and muscles walking around, I want us to be" [00:08:08]

"and victory over the struggles that have plagued us for years, over the challenges that have caused us to give up on some of the things God really wants to do and move in our life. And so I want to talk today just about how we change. And then I want to talk about what we can do to make some of these changes corporately. But the first thing is, because some of you have already admitted that you're not into resolutions or goals, and I don't care what you call them, call them anything. I just call them forming my life this year, just doing something to form who God wants me to be. But I wrote down some reasons why every single one in this church needs to set some spiritual goals of how we encounter God this year. Okay, so the first one, if you're struggling with the same sins to the same degree as you were last year, I think this is a good year, a good time to for us to say, you know what, I'm going to try to encounter God in a new way. I might make some changes this year. If you're running to food, alcohol, prescriptions, pornography, or any other fix when you feel anxious or in need of comfort, this might be the year that we say, you know what, I'm going to make some changes and I'm going to see what God can do in my life. If you're worried about the example that you're setting for your family, not just for you, but also the habits and the things that you're doing, how is it building up your family?" [00:08:38]

"This may be the year. If life currently seems to be overwhelming, or as the ladies say, life is a lot, it's a lot. I don't know, guys say that? I don't, I think that's a girl thing. So, but if you feel overwhelmed all the time, and I'm not just saying one, you know, you've got a big project. I'm saying if you're always, life is always a lot, it's always overwhelming, this might be the time that you say, you know what, I need to set some spiritual goals. And not just, I'm going to read more, but I'm going to encounter, how am I going to go into the presence of Christ more? If you lack joy or peace, if you find yourself growing bitter around the people that you've been around for a while, maybe at work." [00:10:21]

"just watching the news, whatever, if you find your heart going more negative, it might be time that we make a change. For some of us, if you feel like life depends on you, you're carrying around this weight that you've got to control everything, you've got to hold everything together, that is a weight you cannot carry. And if that is where you are coming into this year, I encourage you, this might be the year you say, you know what, rather than just the physical goals, rather than just the professional goals or the time goals, I'm going to set some spiritual goals. I'm going to make some changes. Maybe things are going good. And if things are going good, another good reason. If you love Jesus now, man, how much more?" [00:11:04]

"I want to spend more time with the people I love. Maybe your marriage is going great. I want to love my spouse even closer. That's a great reason. Maybe you love your friends and family and you want to draw them into the presence of Christ and that's it. And have their lives change the way that Christ has changed your life. These are all good reasons. In fact, I think if we really all dig down into it, we'll find that every single one of us probably has an area that God is calling us to take some steps of faith and become a deeper and a more dedicated disciple, not so that we can say, look how holy I am, but so that we can truly be the type of people who say, man, look at them. They've been in the presence of Jesus. Look how they carry. They carry themselves as if they're just living life to the fullest because God is active in their life." [00:11:41]

"How we go through these things. is a dangerous, dangerous thing to do unintentionally. We need to recognize as we go through life this year, every single thing, the people you're going to hang out with, the places you're going to go, the things you're going to watch on TV, the TV is this thing on the wall. It's basically a bigger version of the screen that you look at at your hand. Okay, I forget that now. None of my kids watch TV. Nobody I know watch TV. We're being formed all the time unintentionally. And my goal, the second thing I would say is decide I'm going to give and commit my life to Jesus. And I'm going to decide this year, I'm going to spiritually form myself. I'm going to spiritually be intentional about my growth in the Lord. But here's the twist. Here's what I want you to understand about this." [00:19:51]

"There is only one way that you can make these commitments. There is only one way to grow in Christ. This might be the most controversial thing some of you hear all year, and we're just starting out. But this is something I believe to my core. I believe I can show it to you scripturally. The only way you can be a growing, practicing disciple of Jesus is by committing to your local church. The only way. There is only one way that we can grow spiritually as a disciple of Jesus, by committing to a local church. Now, some of us hear this and they're like, I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true. You need to show me, you need to prove that. And I'll just say, scripturally, it's all over, okay? Ephesians 5 .25, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Who did he die for? He says, I'm doing this for the church, the church universal. That's what Jesus, that's where he is. That's what he's doing this for. And the church is not just you. The church is a body. And if you sever part of the body, the hand that's lying on the ground is not the body anymore. The body is the body. You've got to be connected to it. Hebrews 10 .25, do not neglect, meeting together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near. That over and over again, there are scriptures all over that when we are formed spiritually, we do it intentionally." [00:20:43]

"in the church, specifically through a commitment to church. Now, let me explain to you, give you some things to chew on, because I know a lot of people disagree, especially in this day and age. There's a lot of, I'm spiritual, but I don't believe in a church. I don't go to a specific church. I can be, I don't have to have a church to be spiritual. The Bible disagrees. Jesus disagrees with this, okay? There is really only one way a Christian can grow spiritually. Let me give you some things to chew on. I can grow in knowledge alone, right? I read books. I can do a lot of things to become more knowledgeable, to have more information. But I would argue that I cannot become wiser alone. I have to have other people, because knowledge applied, that's wisdom. Wisdom is when I use my knowledge most of the time in my reactions, in my relationships with other people." [00:22:06]

"So wisdom is something that needs other people to actually understand. Think about it this way. I can be very knowledgeable on parenting. In fact, how many of you have ever sat before you had kids and you were at a table in the restaurant and right next to you was some parents that had kids and you were like, these people don't know what they're talking about. I know how I would do it and I know how to do this. You can read books on parenting and you can become very knowledgeable. But I'll tell you, you can't become wise as a parent from reading a book. You can't have your child say, I hate you. I wish you were never my parent. And know in that moment, they are not mad at you, that they are hurting. And what they really mean is I need you. I need you, but I don't know how to express it. I don't even know how. I just want you to feel how I'm feeling. So I'm going to yell at you. That's wisdom. And the only way you get there is you got to go through it. You got to be around. And some of y 'all, you got to be around preteens. That's how you do it. You got to be around teenagers." [00:22:50]