It’s the time of year once again when many will make
resolutions to do this or that, and many of these resolutions won’t make it
through the first week of the new year.
For others, this is “their year,” and we hear the popular phrase “New
Year, New Me.” This is the year that all
those blessings and breakthroughs will supposedly come, and you’ll finally get
that new house, car, or whatever material possession. So let’s decree and declare all these
blessing over our lives, right? Name it
and claim it? Speak it into the
atmosphere? Well you won’t find one
ounce of that nonsense in this blog.
Nothing will change in life just because the calendar year
changed. If a person walked out of 2012
and into 2013 with the same mindset, the same attitude, with the same problems,
the same things will manifest in 2013.
The solution that we need isn’t to declare blessings and
prosperity. The resolution we need to
make is simple: Resolve to REPENT!! You want the blessings of God, but you don’t
live for God? The answer is repentance,
but nobody wants to hear about that right?
How many people were in church last night praising, shouting, and
hollering for New Year’s Eve and then left and went to the club to pop
bottles? Or how many left church last
night saying “this is the year I get right with God,” but went home and
continued in the same sin...sleeping with whomever the wasn’t your husband or
wife, shacked up with a man or woman who wasn’t your spouse, got drunk, got
high, cursing, acting foolish, or whatever?
Let’s get this one thing clear:
walking into a church building on NYE or every Sunday doesn’t make you
saved, just as walking into a grocery store doesn’t make you full. The evidence of salvation is repentance and a
changed lifestyle. To repent means to
turn away from the sin in your life and choose to follow Christ.
Matthew 3:2 – “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
(NASB)
Imagine John the Baptist saying these very words over 2000
years ago. Do you hear the urgency in
these words? John the Baptist was
telling the people to repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and
Jesus Christ Himself was walking around on the earth at that time. Imagine how much more urgency we need to feel and take heed to this warning as over
2000 years have passed since the death, burial, and resurrection of our
Savior. The days are truly evil, and
Jesus Christ will return one day. We all
have a choice to make as to where we will spend our eternities. Heaven and hell are real! The decisions you make daily will show you
where you are headed.
Matthew 7:21-23 – “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is
in heaven will enter. Many will say to
Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name
cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never
knew you; Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ (NASB)
No one wants to hear these words, but many will. “I never knew you.” How can we get to know Christ, if we have yet
to forsake our sins, accept Him as our Savior, and truly live for Him daily? How can we get to know God, but we never
spend time with Him, never pray, and never study the Word? Going to church every Sunday for 1-2 hours
isn’t spending time with God. God
desires to spend time with us DAILY. He
wants us to spend time in prayer talking with Him and He wants us to study His
Word. How can we hear God’s voice if we
don’t spend time with Him? How can we
know how to live our lives to please Him when we don’t know how, even though
the answers are found in His Word?
Don’t waste time with these worthless resolutions, resolving to do this or that, when the only resolution needed is repentance. Do you know where you will spend all of eternity? Heaven or hell? Is your salvation secure? What are you trusting in for your salvation? Is it any of the following: good works, regular church attendance, being raised in the church, having family members who are preachers, b eing a “good” person, the fact that grandmama or mama was a Christian, etc.? None of these things have the power to save anyone from sin, and none of these things can bring you to God.
The only faith and assurance
that I have of my salvation is that Jesus Christ left a perfect heaven to put on a body of flesh, lived a perfect
life, died a criminal’s death, and was resurrected into new life to pay the
punishment for all of our sins. The Gospel isn’t outdated, out of style, or no longer relevant. God STILL hates sin and loves righteousness,
and our sin separates us from Him!!
Our
problem is that we were born sinners and we have a sinful nature (Romans
3:23). The wages of sin is death (Romans
6:23)!! Sin is so serious that the
punishment is death! Sin is such a big
deal to God...there is no big sin or little sin. Sin is sin, and it stinks to Him. He hates it!
We must come to see sin for what it is...we must see sin the way God
sees it. Because He hates sin and loves
righteousness, we must also hate sin and love righteousness. Because of our sinful natures, we all deserve
death and hell. We all deserve to burn
in hell, but Christ loves us all so much that He took on the sins of the world
and took the punishment for our sins to pay the price that we couldn’t pay so
that we might take on His righteousness and have eternal life (John 3:16,
Romans 5:8, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Isaiah 53:6).
Imagine having a debt so large that you would never be able to pay it,
even over the course of your lifetime.
But the debt collector was merciful and compassionate and paid the debt
for you. This is what Jesus Christ has
done for us all!!
The price has already been paid for your salvation, but
every person must decide for themselves if they will accept this gift. You can’t just say you accept this gift, and
then nothing changes in your life.
Remember we must hate sin and pursue righteousness. So the evidence of salvation is seen in the
changed lifestyle. God hates sex outside
of marriage (pre-marital sex which is fornication and extra-marital sex which
is adultery), abortion, murder, hate, greed, covetousness, drunkenness, malice, homosexuality, pride, stealing, lying, etc., so don’t continue on in these things.
Forsake these things and pursue righteousness. Now it is true that you can’t work to earn
your salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9), but your works afterwards will show if you
are truly saved. Your life will show if
you are following God or following the devil (check out 1 John 3:4-10). Accept the gift of salvation, and continue on,
praying to God, begging for Him to change your heart, giving you the desire to
please Him and to study His Word, giving you the desire to want Him more than
anything else, etc. The Christian life
is a journey, and the goal is to like Christ.
Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life (John 14:6), and all other
ways lead to death. Walk through the
narrow gate, and choose Christ daily (Matthew 7:13-14).
