Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
December 29, 1985
Goals
Philippians 3:12-14
In three days it will be New Years Day. Two things happen every year at this time, not counting wild parties: we take inventory, and we set goals.
First you take inventory. You have to do a final accounting to see how you really did this year. This weekend Walt Rice and his family have been taking inventory of their store. Just picture Pauline counting the M&M's (...4,031...4,032...4,033....)
The government helps us do a financial inventory by giving us the opportunity to fill out tax forms. They were sent to the postal system this week and I am sure I will get my forms much faster than I got my refund.
New Years is also a time for taking personal inventory. What have you accomplished in your life to this point? This year I reached a milestone - I turned thirty. At thirty you enter that great wasteland called "middle-age." It seems kind of old till you consider that I spent twenty-two years in school.
As we move through jobs and promotions we take stock of ourselves. At each stage you ask yourself if you are happier or better off. And then you retire and look back at your whole career. For some people this can be very painful. They hated their job but they stuck to it because they were afraid to try anything else.
The danger of taking an inventory is that you may find something is missing. You may have thought it was there but when you check it out you can't find it. The most painful inventory can be of your personal affairs. A couple has children, watches them grow up and sees them leave one by one. Then that couple is all alone. They look at each other and discover there's really nothing there. People can blame the transitions for causing the problems but it has nothing to do with that. The problems are there all along, waiting to be recognized.
The inventory most people neglect is the spiritual one. A lot of people don't care about spiritual things to begin with. But even those who do, take it for granted. Chances are you grew up in a family that believed in church. You went to Sunday school, whether you wanted to or not. At summer camp you may have raised your hand with a lot of other kids to make a deeper commitment but those emotional experiences are few and far between. For the most part you go to church out of upbringing and habit.
But where do you really stand with God? In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul says,
"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves."
This is a drastic inventory. Are you really a Christian or just religious? There is a world of difference. Religious people feel good after going to church. They believe in God and pray and maybe even encourage their friends to have faith. But they lack one essential thing - a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This only comes when you acknowledge your desperate need for a Savior. And when you make a spiritual inventory, don't' stop at salvation. What have you done since then? Have you experienced a steady growth in your knowledge and love of God? Do other people notice it?
It is easy to become stationary as a Christian because the essential elements like faith are invisible to other people. No one is going to make out a grade card on you.
Until God does.
When we die we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and whatever we have done, good and bad, will be examined. That's straight out of 2 Corinthians 5:10. If something is lacking in your Christian life find out what it is. If you have something going on that you shouldn't have examine that as well. On the day God does an inventory of your life it will be too late to fudge the books.
Taking an inventory of your spirituality is just the first step. Inventories are useless unless they prepare you for the future. Once you know where you've come from you have to decide where you want to go. So after we take our inventory on New Years we make our resolutions.
We set goals.
Goals are very important. Without them you just meander in circles, or drift with the current. By having goals we are saying we believe our life has meaning and is going somewhere. Liberalism has real problems with this. They see no divine plan or finish line for the world. God may exist but he is not in control. If you accept this it is difficult to have faith in the future. The only thing liberals have faith in is the present. Their philosophy is called "existentialism." You don't worry about the past or the future, just the present. You make each day count. That's not a bad thing in itself. Everyone should make the most out of each day God gives them. But we do have a future. Each day we live determines what that future will be like.
If you run a business you set goals about what kind of profits you want to achieve. How many M&M's will be sold? At New Years we tend to set personal goals for the coming year. Last winter I decided I was going to exercise and lose weight. I did it - I ran two miles a day and lost weight just in time for Christmas. We would really like to thank those who have given us all the cookies and fudge.
I had formulated a realistic goal. I decided I would do something about it. Then I did it. The same principles apply spiritually. If you are a Christian you need to assess your strengths and weaknesses and then decide to do something about it. I am convinced that being a productive, growing Christian requires a lot of work; which is why our churches are full of flabby, unmotivated believers. We are lazy and our churches are dead as a result. Thousands of people in Evangelical churches are lured away by aggressive cults because they did not take the opportunity to grow spiritually.
There are many goals a Christian can set that will equip them for doing God's work. One of the most basic is to read the Bible. Not just reading a verse here and there when nature calls. How about setting a goal of reading through the whole Bible this year? It takes fifteen minutes a day. With a study guide like the Daily Walk from Navigators, each day's portion is both explained and applied. If you don't read God's word, you won't understand his way of dealing with you. Everyone from Paul to Jesus says that the Bible is one of the most basic ways God speaks to us.
Another goal should be to expand your level of commitment to the body of Christ. You've already done a good thing - you've come to Sunday morning worship. Many others have not. But studies show that a person who only attends one worship service will soon drop out. This service can only meet a few of your spiritual needs. But fortunately it's only a small part of what we have to offer.
For a better understanding of the Bible to provide Sunday school and an evening service, one even has a question and answer time. One of the best ways to deepen as a Christian is to become involved in a small group. The best-kept secret in this church is the Wednesday morning Bible study. Each week I hear about how someone in the group was able to open up and share a deep burden with the others. At the Wednesday night prayer meeting we have been studying 1 Peter verse by verse. Thursday night is looking at Spirituality.
Each group has something to offer yet only a small percentage take advantage of any of them. Don't think of it as a way to support the church - you need it to grow.
In verse 12 Paul says he wants to apprehend or grab hold of everything God has planned for him because Christ has a hold on him. Do you feel Christ really has control over your life? It requires a conscious effort on your part. Some people just assume God is in control and don't give it much thought. The results can be disastrous.
Recently a study was done on the response people had toward tornadoes. The researchers compared towns that had been hit by tornadoes all over the U.S. and what the casualties were. One trend that stood out was that tornadoes hitting towns in the southern states caused more casualties than those hitting towns in the Midwest. The difference was not in the tornadoes. It was in the people.
The researchers found that the Southerners were very religious and believed when their time was up there was nothing they could do to change it. Tornadoes are part of God's plan so they ignored the storm warnings. When Midwesterners heard the warnings they hid in the basement.
If this study is accurate about Southerners, they have a thing or two to learn about God's will. God does not want us to accept his will passively. He wants us to heed the warnings. We should assess our lives, make goals and work to meet them. We can shape our lives to meet God's will.
Don't wait for New Years to make a change in you. Do it now.
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Typed on April 10, 2005, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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