CHANGE YOUR WORLD

Bloggers! Just thought I'd share with you the message I preached last Sunday and pray that you will carefully take heed God's Word as we began the new year a couple days ago... Alot of you (members of Fairfax) were either AWOL ;) or OOT (Out Of Town). I hope you didn't have a "headache" after the New Year's Eve Day but you'll have migraines showing up before God unprepared! ;) So this is an important lesson that many of you have missed. It's time, again, to change our lives: remember, change doesn't happen once, it's continuous!!!

Change Your World

Each New Year's Day, millions of us make made-to-be-broken New Year's resolutions. We say, this year I'm going to lose weight; I'm going to work out more. Or, I'm not going to fall for that same old you-spilled-something-on-your-shirt joke. Ha!

As important as it is to eat right, exercise more and not be naive, we can make commitments that are even bigger. Here are five commitments that will change your world this New Year.

1. Meet God for an extended "State of Your Life" breakfast.
"And it was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God." (Luke 6:12, NASB)

Every year the president goes before congress to report on the State of the Union. Many CEO's go in front of their company's stockholders to report the State of the Company. At the very minimum, we should get away with God for an extended time of prayer each year. The beginning of the year is a good time for your own "State of My Life" encounter with God.
In reality, this is a time to hear God's report on what's going on in your life and what he thinks about it.

We find Jesus doing this in the gospel of Luke; it was an incredibly crucial point in his ministry. He'd just had one of the earliest and most intense conflicts with the Pharisees – our favorite New Testament bad guys – and in the next verses we see him calling the disciples, those who would eventually spread his message around the known world. The moment was critical, and Jesus – even though he was God – needed to get his Heavenly Father's perspective on the matter.

And so do you! God has great plans for you this year. He wants to tell you about them.
So invite God to breakfast. Find a quiet park, go to Starbucks at 5:30 a.m., bring two place settings; grab your Bible, a notebook and a pen; and take stock of your life. Chat with God about where you've been over the past year. Talk with him about where you are going in this next year.

In fact, don't just do breakfast. You might want to clear most of a day on your schedule. There's something about spending quality time with the Lord. You can start with a little, but I guarantee you'll come back for more and more and more.

2. Do something helpful for someone else that you don't want to do.
"Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded." John 13:5

We live in a gratification-orientated culture. If it feels good, do it. Jesus – by his very example – calls us to a different kind of life. Being an other-centered person means choosing to help, whether we would like to or not.

Few spiritual disciplines will help turn your attention off of yourself and onto others like choosing to do things for others that you do not want to do. We live in a gratification-oriented society, culture, “If it feels good, do it.” But Jesus, by His very example, calls us to a different kind of life: “The Other-centered People”.

Jesus' example of washing his disciples' feet is still a remarkable picture of how to serve. Not only was Jesus doing something that was certainly not pleasant (have you ever washed someone's feet after they'd walked all day in sandals?), but he was doing something useful and helping the disciples in a practical way.

Look for someone in your life who has a need that most people – including you – don't want to do. Then do it!

3. Share your story of faith with someone.
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20

I'll come clean with something here; this will be at the top of my commitment list this year. When I moved to Virginia a few years ago and joined the staff at Fairfax, I knew no one here. Two years later, I still know very few people who aren't already Christians. This makes sharing Christ very difficult. Still, today, I know many who haven’t committed their lives to God. I will continue to be contagious among them until the day of either my departure (Lord knows), Christ’s coming or my death!

So let's make this commitment together. Let's commit to sharing our faith with more people this coming year. Remember our theme, “One Soul For Jesus”. Write the person's name down (even if you have to write down "the guy behind the counter at the gas station"), and keep the name somewhere so you'll see it often as reminder. And just do it!

Before we move on to #4, I want to say a prayer asking God for His help with this. This is something that is out of yours and my control. Let’s pray then go on to #4.

4. Seek reconciliation for a broken relationship.
Is there someone from your past that you no longer talk to because you are upset with them? Or do you have a relationship that has lost its vibrancy because of a wrong either you or the other person committed?

If you answered yes to either of these questions, don't hesitate to repair the relationship in this New Year. When God inspired Paul to warn the church at Ephesus about not going to sleep angry, I have to believe that he knew something about human nature that we often miss.
"BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger." (Ephesians 4:26, NASB)

Anger stews; it's never stagnant. When we hold bitterness in our hearts, it takes root and grows.

Take a few moments to write down a name (or several if you have). Make a commitment to call or email that person today! Or, better yet, visit them. You have nothing to apologize for? Break the ice by coming clean with any possible part you could have played in the disagreement. You can't control their reaction, but you can control your response to this biblical command.
And remember, this is a command from God – not some self-help guru! Going to bed tonight without seeking reconciliation is disobeying God.

5. Give God the part of your life that you've never given before.
"If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." (Matthew 19:21, NASB)

If you wonder if you have an area of your life that you need to give to God, then ponder the first area of your life that came to mind when you read the subhead above. Usually, the area of our life that we need to give to God is the one we least want to give up.

In the book of Matthew, a rich man asked Jesus what it took to have eternal life. Jesus didn't tell him to go do a bunch of good things. He didn't say "drop to your knees and worship me." He simply told the rich man to do what God had told him to do. When the rich man pressed him for particulars, he told him to give up all of his riches. Why? Because that's what he held on to the most.

God wants whatever you treasure the most because He wants to BE what you treasure the most.

Find a tangible way this year to show God you are giving up what you treasure. If food is what you treasure the most, then as an act of worship, take all the junk food in your closet and take them to a nearby food bank. If your car or house is what you treasure the most, begin to use them as tools to serve God.

Lord, Have Mercy On Us!!!