Calvin Synod Herald, 2014 (115. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2014-01-01 / 1-2. szám
8 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD NEW COMMITMENTS FOR THE NEW YEAR Scripture: Philippians 3:13-3:14 Well it’s that time of year again when many of us make great promises to ourselves about what we are going to do in the New Year that we usually abandon about the second week in January. Today, and through this message, I want to share with you some resolutions, some commitments which I guarantee will make a radical difference in your life if you follow through on them. Here is what I want to suggest to you: if you will make four commitments that God in His Word encourages you to make, I guarantee you that the start of 2014 could become one of the most significant events in your life. New Year instead of being simply about having a few days off, if you will follow God’s advice, could become a way for you the gate way to have a better life. I want to challenge you to make four new commitments for this New Year. Here they are 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 God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.” Phil 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 2014 . God is here that you may not live your life imprisoned by your past. All of us have failed in some way in our lives over the last year. Probably we won’t see our failures recorded for history on TV but they are recorded in our hearts and minds. For many of us our failures are painful memories. Maybe for you it is a memory of how you failed in a relationship. You made the wrong decisions, said and did the wrong things and the relationship ended. Some of you who are parents probably know that you failed your children in some way, many of us are aware that we have failed our parents and it’s more than likely that many of us know that most of all we have failed ourselves in some ways. What God’s Word is saying is that we must not allow ourselves to be bogged down by our past failures. That we not dwell on our past so that it stops us moving forward into the future that God has for us. I think that the start of New Year is a good time for you to rise to that challenge. To say to yourself I am going to, with help of God, forget my past. I am going to stop torturing myself about what I did or didn’t do. This New Year is a good time to stop being chained to your past failures. God is saying here in His Word that he doesn’t want you to go through your life branding yourself as a failure. God let His son to die on the Cross died so that he could forgive. 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 2014 a significant turning point in your life . “Bear with each other and forgive each other whatever grievances you may have against one another. Frgive as the Lord forgave you” Col 3:13 Did you catch that challenge? God in those words 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. Harboring a grudge is about nursing a dislike for someone. What you need to know is that grudges are dangerous because they are destructive. 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 harboring a grudge then it will eventually destroy you, if not physically, certainly emotionally and spiritually. It will make you a bitter and twisted person. The book of Job in chap 21 describes people who “Have no happiness at all, they live and die with bitter hearts.” Do you really want that to be your epitaph? Do you remember that parable that Jesus told about the servant who was forgiven a huge debt by the king and then refused to forgive someone else a tiny amount? Jesus said his unforgiving spirit landed him in prison. According to God’s Word the way to give up a grudge is to forgive a grievance. Notice what God is saying here. He isn’t asking you to ignore whatever the person has done to you. He isn’t asking you to pretend it did happen. He doesn’t ask you to condone it, to pretend it didn’t matter. What God asks you to do is to forgive the grievance. That means to acknowledge how wrong and painful what was done to you was but to decide to forgive person who did the wrong to you. I am absolutely certain that there are people here who need to give up their grudges and forgive the grievance they have against someone else. God says that that deep-seated resentment you have against that person has to go. What better time to make that difficult decision to forgive than the start of a new year? Now don’t tell God you can’t forgive, because what you really mean when you say that is that you won’t forgive. If Christ can forgive you your sin despite it involving the pain of the cross 1
