A New Year’s Day Sermon for 2017

A Vision for 2016 “… may we be a church full of people who are immeasurably more like Barnabas than we are of people like Ananias and Sapphira. May we be a church that exhibits sacrificial generosity in all that we do” (January 3, 2016). We’ve become a church that exhibits sacrificial generosity in 2016. Outside of our regular giving, we’ve given well in excess of $5,000 to those in need throughout 2016.

To prepare us for 2017, I feel quite strongly that God has three very key commitments that He’d like us to make with one another this year. Over the past year, your leadership has sensed that God is preparing to do something new and grand through us as a church. We expect that we will face some opposition this year because our enemy is not happy about some of the incredible things God is developing in and through us as a body of believers. “To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue. All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.  Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” (Proverbs 16:1-3)

The first thing that our scripture encourages us to do is to commit our tongue to the Lord. “Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire … With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be!” (James 3:5-6, 9-10) James is actually referring to any speech that would disparage or be destructive towards another person. Consider of the 11,000,000 words you spoke in 2016, how many of them would have fallen into the “curses” category?

Why is considering this important? “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.” (James 1:26). James would suggest that there are many of us who have deceived ourselves into thinking that as long as we perform the right religious acts, it doesn’t matter how we speak of others. The problem according to James is that living this way makes all we do “religiously” – the active outworking of our faith – completely worthless.

How do we ensure that we keep a tight rein on our tongues? We do this by committing one’s heart to the Lord. We can quite easily convince ourselves that our ways are pure, when in reality our motives prove otherwise. We are all imperfect creatures, with areas of weakness that lead to tension, where repentance and forgiveness are necessary. God has put us together to be of support and encouragement of one another – where one is weak, another is strong.

Before you speak, ask whether these are words designed to support and encourage another’s areas of weakness or if they are words designed to disparage another. When we ask if the words we are speaking are supportive and encouraging of growth in others, then we’ve performed a vital motive check that can help us eliminate improper words from our tongues.

Solomon also writes in Proverbs 4:23 that we ought to “guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it”, which not only reminds me of Indiana Jones, but also brings us to our final commitment for 2017. We ought to commit our activities to the Lord. When we’ve committed our hearts to the Lord, the activities that flow from it will also be of the Lord. Most often Christians make a plan and then ask God to bless it. The mistake is that we presume God is going to bless whatever we’ve planned, even though our plans are the product of a deceptive heart. Rather than asking God to bless the plans we’ve already made, we ought to ask God to establish our plans, so that they are the product of His leading, instead of the desires of our deceptive hearts.

My hope for 2017 is that we would together commit our tongues, our hearts, and our plans to God, so that what develops within and through this church is of God. A Vision for 2017: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” (Colossians 3:12-15) May these verses describe and define us in 2017 and beyond. May Christ’s love in us create a unity that permits the peace of Christ to rule in us.