Happy New Year! I pray everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Praise God that Jesus came to deliver us from our sins! Praise God for Immanuel, God with us, who will never leave us or forsake us.
2021 was a year of blessing and heartbreak. Through it all, God was with us, as His grace was the source of the blessings, and at the same time, the comfort in our grief. We thank God for the living hope we have in Jesus who defeated death for us. And we thank Him for the blessings we received from His gracious hand, which included new babies, new families who joined with us in covenant membership, a new elder, and two new deacons.
It is a great joy to begin another year with my church family. I’m so thankful to be alive, even more thankful to be alive in Christ, and to be sharing my re-born life with you. May God be honored in our lives in 2022 - individually, in our relationships with each other, in our marriages, in our families, and in our corporate life as a local body of believers gathered together in worship and in everyday life. May God move to save our children and grandchildren, and may they love Him with all their hearts. May this coming year be our most Christ-exalting, God-honoring, Scripture-obeying year as a local church – all for God’s glory alone and our continuing sanctification.
I’m not real big on resolutions, but they can be a very good thing. The Bible speaks of them like this in 2 Thessalonians 1:11–12 -
To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to mention three things that jump out from this text:
1. Our resolutions (“every resolve”) must be for good. In the Biblical sense “good” is anything that is done for God’s glory and/or the good of others. In other words, these resolutions must flow from the 2 great commandments – to love God with all we are and to love others as ourselves. They are not selfish resolutions. A resolution to lose 20 pounds may not count, unless it’s because you want to live longer than your wife so that you will always be there to take care of her.
2. God is the fulfiller of resolutions “by His power.” Even with resolutions, it’s not us “pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps.” It’s God “working in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). As verse 12 says, it is “according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
3. Our resolutions should glorify the name or our Lord Jesus. Note the beginning of verse 12 – “so that” the name of the Lord Jesus may be glorified in His people. This is the ultimate goal of Paul’s prayer – the glory of Jesus.
So, if you want to make some resolutions, go right ahead. It’s a good thing to do. It’s not a required thing. But it’s a good thing. Ask God for wisdom and pray that He will fulfill them for the good of others and the glory of Jesus.
I’ll share with you this resolution that I made a few years ago. I want to dust it off and renew it for 2022. Here it is:
Resolved: To be more joyfully intentional, especially in a verbal way, in linking all that occurs in my life to the sovereign working of my gracious and merciful God; and to consciously and openly display gratitude to Him at every opportunity He affords me.
In other words:
· I make no apologies for being a biblical Christian!
· I will not hide who I am and who God is making me by His sovereign design.
· There will no hesitation in living out my confession of faith for the glory of God, even if it makes others uncomfortable or moves anyone to attempt to “cancel” me.
Church family, I urge you to join with me in:
· Fighting the good fight.
· Proclaiming Jesus as the only way of salvation.
· Unashamedly and unapologetically bowing to Scripture alone as our ultimate authority.
· Intentionally looking for ways to glorify and honor God before our friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors.
· Being diligent to present ourselves approved of God, people who love His Word and correctly handle it and teach it and share it.
I’ll close with these words by J. R. Miller:
“The new year on which we are about to enter is unopened, and we know not what shall befall us; but if we follow Christ, we need have no fear. So let us leave the old year with gratitude to God for its mercies, and with penitence for its failures and sins; and let us enter the new year with earnest resolve in Christ's name to make it the holiest and most beautiful year we have ever lived.”
Amen!
Pressing on with you, with our eyes on Jesus,
Pastor Butch