The Greatest Resolution Ever Kept

And then a couple of weeks , that class we'll start financial piece along with many other opportunities for you to get involved to , to grow in the Lord in 2020 and I'll hope you will take advantage of that was January filth . How many of you started your resolutions? How many of you have not started your resolutions? How many of you could care less? Yeah. Okay. Well, it's a new year. Not only that, it's a new decade and wow, a whole year is ahead of us.

So very exciting times are coming for the kingdom of God, particularly here at central church. I'm excited. Are you excited? I'm excited. Two weeks from the day at 10 30, not nine 30. Not one 30 is already on the 19th we will have our installation service for dr Matthew Shackleford, so I want to encourage you to put that on your calendars and be here. Amen. Amen. Okay. I am honored and humbled to have the opportunity to open the word of God with you this morning.

I'm Jean Sauls , I'm the executive pastor here at central church and I am honored to serve of this great church and this wonderful staff and it's a joy for me to be up here this morning to share God's word with you.

We're talking about resolutions and it reminded me of last week I was sitting over here while John Andrew Clayton was, was bringing the word that he came on a particular part at the beginning of his message where he mentioned resolutions and pretty much asked how many of you were were, you know, thinking about that and preparing for that and, and, and John. Andrew luck. It was just now with me, you, you didn't get much response.

People just kind of stared at you like, what are you talking about man resolutions. We make them, we break them. And someone said, we, we make them so that we can break them a survey in January of 2019 show that 60% of Americans make resolutions of some sort going into the new year. And on the screen you'll see that the top 10 new year's resolutions for last year.

And if we were to look at 2020 probably be about saying , notice the top three, they're all about me looking better, feeling better, you know, all those kinds of things. Number four, save more and spend less. That's what Eric and Kelsey were talking about. You know, if you're like me, you need to get in line, sign up for that class financial piece so that you can have peace in your home regarding your finances. That's just one. One new year's resolution.

Quit smoking, read more, find another job. On and on. It goes according to the U S news, about 80% of resolutions. And , and I guess this is where I'm at about 80% of new year resolutions or abandon the second week of February. Now that's about Valentines . Okay. So that's kind of a downer. Written it, you know, we, we plan hard to work hard. We got our list and we're gonna we're gonna do it this year. Whatever it is, we're gonna to do it.

And then Valentine's comes and you know , we're focused on Valentines and we kinda, you know, more chocolate, right? So you know, you kind of get off your diet, get off your exercise and those kinds of things. But here's, here's an encouraging point. According to surveys, 8% of Americans who make new year's resolutions

It's either taking something out of our life or it's adding something to our life that that changes from 2019 to 2020 so we write them down, we make them explicit and as one guy said, you know, we make them explicit so that we can explicitly break them. That was supposed to be funny. That's okay. All right . So if you write them down explicitly, explicitly make guess what? You're 10 times more likely to succeed. So write them now and then have that accountability. Okay?

What's the greatest resolution you've ever made? And kilt . I guess the best example from me is the years that I resolved the read through the Bible. How many of you have done that before in one year? You've read through the Bible also? Awesome . All right . If you've never done that, you're not too late. This is day five so you can catch up on the past four days and you can read through the whole Bible in one year. My dad, when he was about my eyes age, he read it through twice in one year.

I don't know how you did that, but he did it. So what is the greatest resolution that you could make for this year for you, for your family, for the cause of Christ and the kingdom of God? What is it? Whatever it is, of all the new year's resolutions, none can come close to the greatest resolution ever made and kept. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So if you open your Bibles are tap your mobile devices to the ninth chapter of the third gospel, the ninth chapter of Luke.

We're going to be looking at the greatest resolution ever killed . Let's have a word of prayer and would jump in the God and father, we do thank you that you have allowed us to see the dawning of a new year and [inaudible] even a decade. Lord, we thank you for who we are as a church. If a God the future is hopeful, it is bright and Lord, we are full of anticipation for what? 2020 and beyond. We'll bring to the kingdom of God through this body of believers here at central church.

So Lord today as we open the word of God, may the Holy spirit use it to speak to us individually today. Lord, I pray that my voice would just be an estimate for the voice of God into the hearts, into the deep corners of our souls and spirit today. So we committed to your father for your glory and we pray it in Jesus name and all God's children said, Hey man, what could be the greatest resolution ever kept?

If we go into this chapter, chapter nine of Luke, what we see here, the background is Jesus has chosen his toils . He has been in ministry now probably two years, somewhere in there, and you remember that the majority of his ministry took place around the sea of Galilee in the Northern part. He spent some time in Jerusalem and that's where we're going to wind up here today. But in this particular passage, he is sending out the toils. He is feeding the 5,000 he is calling people to discipleship.

That wonderful verse, verse 23 he said to them all, if anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself. Take up his cross daily and follow me and then this chapter is also that just fabulous transfiguration where Moses and Elijah come down and interact with Jesus. Peter, James and John were just blown away by what they saw. They would write about that later in the epistles to the church.

This is also a chapter that shows two times where Jesus predicts his suffering, that he was resolutely going to Jerusalem to experience. Verse 22 and verse 44 speak to this. Let's look at verse 44 take these words to the heart. He says to his disciples, while the son of man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men, but they did not understand this statement. It's meaning had been concealed from them so that they could not grasp it yet they were afraid to ask him about this statement.

Now, later in the gospel didn't chapter 18 Jesus will give his third prediction and declaration of the coming suffering that he will face in Jerusalem. There's an argument between the guys about who's the greatest. Then there's an observation that here's a guy that's not part of our team. He's not in our connect group. He doesn't go to our church.

He doesn't read the ESV , the English standard version, but he's leading people to Christ and he's healing people and casting out demons, which we don't know very much about in our culture. We did a shout him up is basically what they were saying, right? And Jesus said, Hey, Hey , no, no, no. If he's not against us, he's for us. So that was what that was all about. And that brings us to verse 51 verse 51 now when, let me get my notes. I'm sorry.

Now when [inaudible] has at the time, I'm sorry, pardon me as the time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. It's my objective this morning and the time we have together to show that from this particular verse and other passages of scripture that Jesus is making the greatest resolution ever kept. And we're going to look at three possible reasons. One, that that resolution was divinely designed. It was eternally timed and it was humanly displayed.

So let's look at the first one. The greatest resolution ever kept was divinely designed. The motivation of Jesus to resolutely steadfast and steadfastly set out for certain death and humiliation in Jerusalem was was driven by what it was driven by his compelling love for his father and his desire to obey and please him fully think about this possibly and Ian's past . This conversation took place in heaven between the father and the son, the father, son.

We've planned and created this enormous and grand universe with mankind only earth as it center, but we no man will be deceived and this obey our rules and fall under the penalty of death and condemnation. We must have a plan to redeem and restore mankind to his rightful and intended relationship with us. Do you know what that plan might include, son , the son?

Yes. Father, I know, I know mankind will fall and the only way to restore him is for a perfect sacrifice, a perfect lamb to be slain and his blood applied to cleanse and make him right before you. I will be that lamb. I will go to the earth, be born as a child, live among mankind. Show them the father and his great love for them and give my life a ransom for their redemption and salvation. I know this is the only way to once and for all restore the beautiful harmony between you and them.

Yes, father, I will go. So the greatest resolution did not occur in Jesus's life on the earth. It was carried out and fulfill to completion on the earth, but the resolution was set. It was divinely designed in the Ian's past before the of the world. And you can see that. And Ephesians chapter one verses four and 12, before the foundations of the world, this great resolution, this great grand plan of God was put into place. And Jesus resolutely set himself to go to Jerusalem to fulfill that plan.

I'm glad he did, aren't you? I am so glad he did. Now in uh, in cost , his chapter one verses 19 and 20, Paul says, for in him, that's in Jesus. All the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on the earth are in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. The word reconcile means in one way to bring back a former state of harmony to bring back a former state of harmony. Remember in the garden of Eden there was harmony.

It was a utopia. It was a place of sheer peace. That harmony was awesome. And then what happened? Genesis chapter three sin had broken the harmony between God and man. It destroyed all things good and brought about a terrible disharmony. All that God had created very good in one instance became tarnished, broken fettered. How did that happen? That happened and was a consequence of the fall. So sin in the garden ruined both man and his world.

And we can all blame Adam or we could blame Eve, but when we stand before our creator at the end of the time, Oh, we're going to give an account for them. No, we each give an account of ourselves. So sin cripple the heart of man. Listen, the heart of man has been crippled by seeing how, by filling it with all manner of vise and wickedness, sin shackled the heart of the spirit of man by saddling him with guilt, fear, and shame. Think about that. That's how you were before you knew Christ.

Sin twisted the mind of man by distorting his concept of right and wrong, good and bad. It was the prophet Isaiah writing some 800 years before the birth of Christ who said that even at the time of Israel in that century, that man had exchanged the truth for lie. And that's what Paul said in Romans one. In other words, they are taking in what was supposed to be good and right and turned it into bad and wrong and that which was supposed to be bad and wrong, which turned into good and right.

Do you know or that is evident in your world today? We live in a world where truth for goodness, righteousness has been flipped on its head. What was right years ago is now wrong, and what was wrong years ago is now is now in. That's the world we live in. Sin twisted the man, the mind of man by distorting his concept of right and wrong, and that's exactly what the devil loves to do. He wants to distort truth. The prophet also said that truth has died in the streets.

Truth is slaying in the streets. Why did that happen? Because man took his eyes off God and man's mind became twisted. Seeing also doom the soul of man by separating him from the Holy one who created him. See, God is very Holy, Holy beyond our con , our comprehension. So Holy that he can't partnership. He can't fellowship with the sin. So when the Holy spirit convicts us of sin in our own lives, it is our active obedience to confess that sin and ask the Lord to forgive us of that sin.

Confess our sins, and he will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness because that's what God wants to do. He wants us to be in relationship with him, with fellowship, with him in our sin alienates us. Even as followers of Christ. Sin doesn't distort the, the uh, uh, the state of our salvation.

We don't lose our salvation, but we certainly lose the, the presence, the peace, the power, the wisdom that the Holy spirit brings into our lives when we do not obey God and confess our sin and live humbly and repentant, Lee before him and so they're in the garden of Eden, one colossal era will require one colossal effort. That colossal effort was a son of God coming down from heaven to give his life a ransom for many good . That have been another way. I mean, it couldn't.

God just said, okay, Adam, you know, you didn't mean to do that. Eve was, you know, she was just admiring that fruit. It looked delicious. Scrumptious sweet, all of those adjectives, he didn't really mean to do it. She didn't really mean to do it. Let's just let it go. Why couldn't God, why didn't God do that? Because God couldn't do that. Remember in Genesis two verse 17 God told Adam this, you can eat of every tree in the garden, right?

But there's one tree that you shall not eat from because the day that you eat there off , you shall surely die. Now what a God do that? Why did God say, Hey, you can eat every tree, but that one you can't. God always gives us freedom to a certain point because he created us. He knows how far we will go with something. So he establishes a boundary.

Young people, listen, God establishes a boundary for you, not to make you a prisoner, not to prohibit you from having a full life, but because there are dangers there beyond that boundary. And God says, I've put that boundary there for your own good, for your own good. So Jesus came to the earth, Philippians two verse eight and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.

That that total surrender and submission to the father would take him from the glorious grand juror of the throne of heaven down to this earth to accomplish the ultimate centerpiece of God's divine plan. And that was to reconcile you and me to him to reconcile the world to him.

Collagen's one 19 and 20 says for in all this Christ in Jesus, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross. Isn't that one of the things we long for in our , in our hearts and our lives and our relationships and our homes in workplace, wherever we are, we long for peace. Well , Jesus came to make peace.

The first place of peace that you and I'll have to obtain is peace with God and that comes when we acknowledge who he is and who we are and who we're not. We confess our sins and receive him into our hearts and lives as our Lord and our savior and then we have not just peace with God, but we have the peace of God as we walk through this troubled, challenging world that we're in. What does reconcile mean ? It means to bring back a former state of harmony that's key there.

There was a perfect harmony at once in the garden of Eden. It was perfect. God's grand design is to bring us back to that. And it can happen now to a degree. We can be in a good, right, wholesome harmony with God and with each other because that's the way of righteousness. Seeing it broken, the harmony between God and man send a story , all things good and brought about a terrible disharmony. All that God had created, very good in one instance became tarnished.

So the first point of the greatest resolution ever came up was that it was divinely designed. The second point was, or is that it is eternally timed . Look at the verse again. Luke nine 51 the new living translation as the time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

Galatians four, four and five says, but when the set time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship. It was a proper time. Oh, you're a mobile device on your uh , uh , Apple watch. You've got some pretty accurate time. As a matter of fact, it is the most accurate time that that man has ever devised.

It's called atomic time and it is achieved by around 400 atomic clocks that are placed at about 69 different scientific laboratories around the globe. And it is so accurate that it comes within 15 microseconds of accuracy. Now , what's a , what's a micro second? A microsecond is 1000000th of a second. That's pretty accurate, but there's even a thinner slice of that. It's called the Nana second, the nanosecond. Are you with me? Hang on is 1000000000th of a second.

So man is really progressed in his ability to make accurate time. I was looking at my, my wristwatch earlier and I'm glad I looked at it now cause I see my time's about to go. It had stopped. I looked at my phone. It was, it was, it was correct, but my wristwatch battery must be dying. I thought I had gotten sooner, got done sooner in the first service than I actually had. So I'm looking at the clock for you guys. Okay, we're going to wind this up.

So, so God's time, his time is much more precise and accurate than even the atomic time that man has been able to achieve. So it was proper time. It was also ransom time. We'd go back to Matthew 2028 on this for the son of man. That's the Lord Jesus came. Not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life a ransom for many. What does ransom mean?

Is the price for redeeming something, the ransom that's paid for slaves or captives, the ransom of life to liberate those from misery and the penalty of their sins. Again, we go to first Timothy two five and six there is one God. There's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all and it is a testimony given at the proper time. So as our Supreme sacrifice, Jesus would come to die to redeem, rescue and ransom us.

Matthew Henry, the 17th century English theologian said about the , about the cross never was there. Such an example of beneficence and usefulness as there was in the death of Christ who gave his life a ransom. For many, he lived as a servant and went about doing good, but he died as a sacrifice and in that he did the greatest good of all. He came into the world on purpose to give his life a rent . Some you was first in his intention. That's why he came. Mark 10 45 says basically the same thing.

I came not to be served, but I come to serve and give my life as a ransom. So it was proper time. It was ransom time. It was also a session time back to our primary verse, Luke nine 51 as the time drew near for him to do what? To ascend in order for one to a sand, he must have descended . Now middot Jesus descended was born as a babe in the manger and meth in Bethlehem, but he didn't come to the earth to stay. He came to the earth to do what his father sent him to do and he fulfilled.

And how'd he do that? He did it by going to the cross in Jerusalem. He set out for Jerusalem because he was about his father's business on his father's time, the proper time, ransom time in this ancient . And I think about that. I've often thought about that.

And you have to though , I would imagine put myself if it's even possible, which it isn't, you know, cannot even begin to imagine the splendor of heaven and then this miraculous conception and this birth and a manger and and being in a physical body with all its headaches and pains and all of that, and then go into be a man and being ridiculed, spit on, falsely accused, falsely arrested, crucified, and buried.

If , and Hebrews 12 verse two the writer helped us understand why Jesus would do that for the joy that was set before him. There was no joy on the cross. There was no joy there. But the joy that was set before him, when he completed the task, when he said it is finished, the joy that he longed for and waited for was about to happen. So the greatest resolution never kept. It was divinely designed, eternally timed, and third, and finally it was humanly displayed.

If you go back to to the verse again from the new living trans translation as a time dude here for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus, and I want you to stop there for a minute. Jesus. He say he was. He was the God man. He was the word that became flesh and dwelt among us. John one 14 he was the incarnate word, the logos of John's gospel. He was a baby of Bethlehem, became the Christ of the cross. It was personal, it was human.

He bled, he hurt, he ate, and he breathed his last and shed his last drop of blood. It was humanly displayed. Why would Jesus resolve to do that? Why would he leave the slender of heaven, become a man, go to Jerusalem and die on a cruel cross. One word, love, love. He loved his father and he wanted to obey and please his father, but also lock his father. He loved you and he loved me and he loved the whole world so that he was willing to do what had to be done to save the world.

They reconcile the world, redeem the world, and bring back that harmony that was lost . His was the greatest resolution ever kept because it was divinely designed, eternally timed, and humanly displayed. The greatest resolution ever kept was the greatest resolution ever made. They meant, as we come to a close today, what's the greatest resolution you can make and keep this year?

As you notice , the uh, the slide we put on at the beginning of the, of the message was all about nonreligious non-spiritual things, right? As followers of Christ, we needed to focus more on our spiritual growth. Can I hear an amen to that? I know I do. I need more spiritual growth, so I'm going to give you three things that you may possibly need to do or consider. You won't see these on only Googled lists of 2028 resolutions. You won't be there. These are spiritual.

These are a relational with God. The first one is come to Jesus for the first time. Maybe you're sitting here today, maybe you're listening to our live streaming online and you've never really given your heart and life to the Lord Jesus. Maybe this is a day for you. Maybe this year, maybe now give your life to Christ. It's time for you to call on him. He's been calling you. Your life is a mess. You need help. Come to Jesus. Do it this morning.

Maybe for you, you've known Jesus, you've been close to Jesus, but now he seems far away. Your resolution could be, Hey, this year I wanna I wanna I want to get back. I want to get back to my Lord. I want to get closer to my my father. I want to walk with Jesus. It's a new day, a new year. Make that resolution today. We all probably need to make that resolution. I know I do. I'm not as close to the Lord as I needed to be. Are you?

I don't care if you're a Billy Graham, Billy Graham, if he were allowed today's standard, he would say the same thing. I'm not as close to the Lord as I need to be. I certainly am. I have not. So let's resolve to do that in 2020 third and final resolution you could make is share Jesus with someone.

Some of us have known the Lord most of our lives and we really don't make it an intentional practice of sharing the joy and the hope and the excitement that we have in Christ with people who desperately need him. And a step beyond that is to disciple them so you can commit to share the hope of Christ, the love of Christ. Commit to disciple someone to take them along the journey to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ. How are you going to do that? It's a commitment, right? This will resolve.

It's a resolution. Finally, today, William, where before we have a force, the great politician philanthropists and one of the leaders of the movement to end slave trade in the British empire back in the 18th century said this, no one expects to attain to the height of learning our arts , our power, our wealth, our military glory without what? Vigorous resolution, strangeness , diligence, and steady perseverance. Yet we expect to be Christians without labor, without study or without inquiry.

See, God can do all things right, but he can't do anything with the unwilling heart. There are some things God can't do. He can't do anything with an unwilling heart. You have to be willing and you have to make that resolution and resolve to be the clay in the Potter's hand. Will that be a year resolution? This year? Every head bowed, every eyes closed for a moment. We're finishing up. Maybe you're here today and you could not. You don't know Jesus.

You don't know for sure that you know Jesus today. You can know you can come to him right now without people in the prayer booth in the back without people up to your right up front who will look . We'd love to pray with you and help you come to know Jesus today.

If the Lord has convicted you, his spirits convicted you that you are not where you need to be with the Lord, you can go to those same folks and they'll pray and help you and give you some guidance as to help you to stay close to Jesus in 2020

We commit this time of invitation to you. Oh father God, in the name of Jesus. Amen .