Happy New Year:
Today we begin a New Year. In many ways in it just like any other day, and yet we set it aside as special. Here comes 2019, a time for beginnings, for New Years Resolutions, for a passionate renewal of our first love devotion to Jesus!
Christianity begins every morning with a new opportunity to pursue the good works which He has prepared for us that day. Our lives in 2018 have been filled with successes and failures. Some of what we have gone through hurts, some fills us with joy, and yet it is now all in the past. What is coming is a part of the plan of God for us, and we have the opportunity to look at the New Year as a new start.
Some love to make New Years resolutions, some hate it. I love setting them, like you I have problems keeping them over the long term, but the steps I take towards the goals in the grace of God make me a different person from when the year started. This year I have four goals for our church, that I would like to include you in.
1. Holiness:
By the end of 2019, if Jesus hasn't returned, we make it our goal to be more like Jesus than we are today in our pursuit of purity. We will seek to know His Word and obey it. To live lives of repentance, being willing to root out any sin and renew our first love devotion to God in every area of our lives. Here we are talking about practical holiness, about a willingness to turn our backs on sin that Jesus brings to mind, and our faces towards the beauty of His Holiness. Today, evaluate your life through the lens of God's Word and be willing to repent of any known sin. Commit this year to starting every day in repentance and renewal of first love devotion. We do this monthly at communion, however for 2019 let us begin this as a daily experience and a grace filled pursuit. We are HOLY in Jesus, and we pursue HOLINESS because of what He has done for us!
2. Truth:
This is a desire to be Word Saturated. I am not sure how much time you spent in God's Word in 2018, but know we can spend more in 2019. If each of us makes a commitment to the priority of the intake of God's Word we will be a different place. My longing is that the Word of God would dwell in us richly, and that we would obey it in every area of our lives. This year commit to reading the Bible with us, from Genesis to Revelation. This year commit to spending time in God's Word every day, to memorize one verse a month (at a minimum) and to meditate on the verses being preached on at CBC. Word saturation is a constant pursuit of those who want to glorify God, and if each of us does this, we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds individually and corporately!
3. Mission:
We Often talk about wanting to build a CULTURE OF EVANGELISM. Living on mission for God means looking for the good works He has prepared in advance for you to do, and the people He has placed in your path to talk about Him to. This year, make it your commitment to share with at least one person a month (12 total) the content of the Gospel. I don't mean by this a dump of information, but the sharing of a person. So this goal will include learning the Gospel well and being able to share it with others. Pray for the opportunity, courage and grace needed to do this effectively. One a month is not a lot, but if we each do this and God chooses to bring light through us, we will see many moved closer to Him and salvation in Him. We will give you opportunities to invite your friends to hear about Jesus at our church, but what we are really after is to have each person who calls this church home to be so full of love for Jesus that we talk about Him every chance we get and share His Gospel with our lives and lips everywhere we go.
4. Love:
Those who experience God's love, love others by following His example (Ephesians 5:1-2). The key mark of those who truly know Jesus will be love, and as we live this out it will be an active, self sacrificial choosing of God's best for those around us. To sustain this we must experience His love, keep our eyes on Him, and die to self. To love those around us means to be a unifier. To be an encourager. To live our lives in His grace so profoundly that we are proactively looking for people to be a blessing to with what God has entrusted to us. You will have many opportunities in 2019 to be selfish, and many to be selfless, God centred and loving. My longing is that each of us would commit to be more loving than we were in 2018, and that we would pursue this life that God desires for us individually and as a church. That we would seek to come Sunday's looking for someone to bless, and each week we would choose to actively love someone in Jesus name.
If we commit to these four things, our of our love for God and His Bride, we will be used powerfully by Him to change eternity together.
This will lead us to a deeper and richer relationship with Jesus, and nothing else really matters in comparison.
Holiness: Root out any known sin, daily renew my desire to live my life in purity and holiness. When I fail to fall on His grace, and get back up again and seek His face and renewed purity.
Mission: To share the Gospel with one person a month. To be willing to pray for opportunities, to look for them, and to live in light of them. To learn the Gospel, to experience the Gospel, and to express it as much as possible.
Truth: To seek Word Saturation, to read through the Bible this year, to memorize one verse a month, to meditate on God's Word being preached the coming Sunday.
Love: To experience God's love afresh, and to live as a person who chooses to love like Him. To look for people to love every week on Sunday's (at least one), and to express this love at least once during each week as God brings people to mind.
Will you commit with me today,
As we enter 2019 I will make it my goal, with my brothers and sisters at Cloverdale Baptist Church to pursue Holiness, Word Saturation, Life on Mission, and Lavish Love. I will do this in God's grace, and by His strength, for His glory:
Signed: ___________________________
I am excited about 2019, and anticipate a fruit filled year serving Him with you, dependent upon Him for strength, delighted in Him for rest, and desirous with you for an amazing year of experiencing and expressing His love. If each of us, as an overflow of our relationship with Him makes this commitment, 2019 will be a year of fruit production, of full devotion and of fellowship that supersedes any and all that we have had as a church before this.
Join me! Join us! In the power of God, live 2019 for His glory.
Happy New Year!
Joyfully serving you in 2019
Pastor Rob