Faithbase

Good morning, we're here thinking about the Bible and I know it's not the new year yet still in the Christmas season and that's okay though because I want to talk a little bit about New Year's not resolutions. I don't like New Year's resolutions personally. What I look more at is New Year's objectives, New Year's goals. I like to say objectives and like most of us who want to walk with Jesus Christ, our objective every day, not just in the new year, but every day throughout the year is to become more like Jesus Christ. What I like to do, what I suggest folks do, is to choose a particular passage for the year that you can focus on as you try to express Christ to others through your actions, your thoughts, your words. Some years I've looked at one of my favorite that I have looked at before is what Paul says the church in Philippi to work hard to show the results of your salvation or work hard to express that salvation that we have. That's in Philippians 2 and then 12 and 13, that whole section there. And then of course in Ephesians, and I'm using a new app here so you got to bear with me, but I really like it by the way. It's a Bible app and I'm always trying out a new Bible app here and there. But of course God saved you by his grace when you believe and you can't take credit for this. It is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. And Titus talks about the same thing. Paul talks about it there in Titus I should say. And that's been another verse that I've, or passage that I've used for to keep my focus on my New Year objective to be more like Jesus Christ. Well this year I'm going back to a standby that I've always enjoyed. Romans 12 1 and 2 And so dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way that you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. So our body is a living sacrifice. We often think about that as maybe just not giving ourselves essential pursuits and what-have-you. But to have the body as a living sacrifice is full-orbed you might say. It's not just one area. I'm trying to control passions or something. Of course that's part of it. But our body is a tool, should be a tool for the Lord, by which the means by which he's able to, and he can do this any way he wants, but he wants to express Christ's presence through our presence. So when we do things that are Christ-like, when we are expressing Jesus' love to people, when we are expressing his rule in our lives, in our arena of activity, by the way that we do things, the way we do business, the way that we vote, the way that we participate in social issues and so forth, everything that we do that we do express physically is part of that sacrifice. Don't copy the behavior of the world. So in other words, don't act that way. Instead, let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. The way we think, that's how we're gonna act. So if we think as God thinks, if we think according to God's Word, that's gonna change the way we act obviously. So then you'll learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. I first learned this passage when I was in my youth. Read this in the King James and it's just for old times' sake. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and do not be conformed to this world. But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Regardless of the translation, it's the same thing. Our bodies are used for God's purposes to do the things that God would have us to do here on this earth, and our our actions are controlled by our thoughts. Our thoughts need to be conformed to the way that God thinks, and we know how he thinks because we have his Bible, we have his written scripture, and that guides us in our thinking. So thinking about the Bible today would be to be thinking about what it is that you want to do in the new year, your new year objective, which is always to be like Jesus Christ, but think about the verse that you might choose between now and the new year that you will use as kind of your guiding light throughout the year ahead. God bless you, we'll see you next time.