New Year . . . New Focus

I think all of us can agree that 2020 is a year that we will be happy to put far behind us!  We have all seen challenges to our “normal” flow of life and how we interact with one another!

For those of us who have traveled overseas (particularly to Asian countries), the sight of people wearing masks because it is part of their cultural ethos to protect others is not unusual.  However, we have seen that the need for Americans to care for others more than we care for ourselves become a strain, and a political talking point.  The simple matter of wearing a mask when in public to care for the health of others (loving each other . . . loving the world) has become one of the most divisive matters of the year (James 3:10 – My brethren, these things ought not so to be – KJV).  There is a sermon there . . .

We have had to endure “hardships” this year.  To be sure, many Americans are facing situations that are unimaginable . . . they don’t have enough food to eat . . . they are genuinely worried that they are going to become homeless by the end of next month.  It is true that over ¼ of our fellowship has contracted, and recovered from, this virus.  I am so thankful that God has been so good to our fellowship!

Now that we have the negative behind us, and causing us to reflect on our own thought processes, let’s move on to something positive.

It is so easy for those who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus to be negative.  Yes, I hear your whispered “amen.”  We, who understand the Bible, look at the world in which we have been placed, and know that this world is not what God intended.  We won’t get into the whole debate about free will here, but I believe all of us have to acknowledge that God absolutely allowed us to “go our own way” and choose whether to do things His way or not . . .

I said that I was going to go positive, and I am.  Let’s begin by acknowledging that this world is not ideal.  It is not what a world submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ should look like.  Isaiah said: “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him” (Isaiah 53:6).

Do you see what Isaiah tells us?  It is not a problem of “us” versus “them.”  It is not Republicans versus Democrats versus Independents.  He says all of us have gone astray.  Each of us has turned to his own way.  Throughout the book of Judges, we see a telling phrase.  It comes up several times:  “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”  Isn’t that the world in which we live, Christian?  Notice, I called out those of us who claim Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  Each of us . . . Wow!  Does that catch you between the eyes the way it does me?

What if in 2021, each of us had a new focus?  What if we focused on the last part of what Isaiah says in the verse above?  What if we chose to focus on the One upon Whom the Lord caused our iniquity to fall?  What if we truly recognized Who Jesus is, and what He came to do in our lives?

Beloved, that is where it starts.  As a beggar in need of food, I cannot tell you where to find food until I have found a food source for myself.  Let me make it clear:  until I have found a Savior for my iniquity, I cannot: a) stand in judgment over your iniquity, and b) cannot tell you how to find a solution for your problem.

At Concord Baptist Church, we are people who recognize that all of us have gone astray from God’s purpose for our lives.  We recognize that we have turned to our own way.  But, glory to God, we recognize that God caused our failings to fall on Him.

Who is Him, you ask?  It is Jesus.  I know that some of you have been terribly hurt by those who claim the name of Jesus.  I am sorry.

At Concord, we are all earnestly trying to live out our motto:  Loving God, Loving Each Other, Loving the World.

We recognize that we cannot do any of what we claim until God is the object of our most passionate desire.  He has to be the absolute center of who we are and hope to be.  We cannot even understand who we are until we understand Who He is!

When our relationship with Him is vibrant, He gives to us a love for the rest of His people.  ALL OF THEM.  God has people whose skin is not the same color as mine.  He has people who do not speak the same language (or accent) as I do.  He has people in places with a different flag flying over where they live.  God calls me to love all of His people . . . from every tribe, every nation, every tongue.  He calls me to love my brother or sister who claims the name of Jesus, no matter what has happened in our relationship.  If there is a problem in our relationship, He calls me to do something that honors Him to fix it.

The Ten Commandments have two “tables.”  One deals with our relationship with God, the other with each other.  Jesus repeatedly points out these two most vital relationships: the “vertical” with God, and the “horizontal” with each other.  He tells us that until our relationship with God is where it needs to be, we have no hope for our relationships with one another to be good.

How about, in 2021, all of us focus on our relationship with God?  What if all who call themselves by the name of Jesus spend time actually in His presence?  What if we began this year going “all in” in our relationship with God?

Some of you, like me, just got goosebumps imagining a world like that.  What if all of us stopped imagining, and did just that?  What if we spent time in God’s Word (a great Bible reading plan is on our website)?  What if we spent time talking with God every single day of 2021?  Not just about what we want, but seeking His wisdom, and how He would have us to respond to the world in which He has placed us?

And then, while we are developing that relationship of love with God (loving God), we began to reach out to our brothers and sisters in the family of God in love (loving each other)?  What if we sought out those we haven’t spoken to in days/weeks/months/years because of . . . whatever it was that caused us to stop speaking to them, and told them that God loved them and so do we?  What if we began to actively cultivate a culture of love in the church of Jesus Christ?  What would that look like?  Goosebumps again?  Yeah, me too!

And THEN . . . what would it look like if a body of Christ that looks like what I just described, moves out into a hurting community . . . (loving the world)?  Yep, goosebumps again!

Can you see that Loving God, Loving Each Other, Loving the World is not just a catchy slogan?  Can you see that it is the very heart of what, and who, God calls us to do and be?

Yes, 2020 was a challenging year.  2021 can be better . . . or it can be just like 2020, and 2019, and 2018, and 2017, and . . ..  It is our choice.  Will all of us, as lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ have a new focus in the new year?

God bless all of you in the new year!  I pray that 2021 is the best year you have ever lived in service of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

If you have never had a relationship with Jesus as your Lord and Savior, please contact our pastor via our contact page.  He would love to talk to you about how 2021 could be the absolute best year of your life!