Courage for the New Year

Happy New Year! The Lord has decided to allow another turn of the calendar. The first Sunday in January is always an interesting one. It fits between two annual themes.

• Next week Pastor Viars will share the theme as part of his annual message about why we are here and where we are going.

• That means today is a message all to its own.

We have often used it as a “get your house in order” type message.

• Write out what you believe God wants to do in and through you in the coming year.

• Organize your budget and establish a couple financial goals.

• Evaluate your insurance policies and retirement plans to ensure they fit your current situation.

• Update your death file so that should the Lord take you suddenly, your family could take the initial steps.

We hope that you have either done that, or that you are in process of doing those things. This year we decided to discuss Courage for the New Year.

Many of us have heard the saying, “Fortune favors the brave.” It is a reminder that success often requires risk.

• Those of you like me, who tend to have a more cautious disposition, add a little phrase. We say, “Fortune favors the brave and so does death.” Those who rock climb without ropes are more likely to have movie made about them, but they are also more likely to die at 27.

• For us, our addition is a reason not to be bold or courageous. But that can be bad as well. Maybe there is a way to redeem it.

• What if we focus more on the “favors the brave” part, and minimize the “fortune” part.

If we restrict fortune or success to money, then it is not worth the risk.

Proverbs 30:8-9 is a prayer to the Lord that he would provide sufficiently but not exorbitantly. He says, give me neither poverty nor riches.

• He does not want poverty because he knows that he will be tempted to steal.

• He does not riches because he knows he will be tempted to depend on his riches and not on God.

But what if “fortune” were something bigger, better, and more permanent than financial wealth? What if the “fortune” had something to do with Christ? What if “fortune” had something to do with eternity?

• Would bravery or courage be worth it then?

With that in mind please turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 5:1-10. That is on page XXX of the back section of the Bible under the chair in front of you.

Paul wrote during a difficult time of life. He says that he does not lose heart even though his outer man is decaying because his inner man is renewed day by day.

• When he compares the challenges of today with the blessings of eternity, his heart rejoices. But there is something else … he lives each day with courage / bravery!

• Let’s see why.

Please follow along as I read. This is the Word of the Lord. [Read 2 Cor 5:1-10]

While admitting the challenges and difficulties of life, he says “being always of good courage” and “we are of good courage.” Paul lives courageously and invites us to join him. I would like to share 4 steps toward living courageously in 2022 from 2 Corinthians 5:1-10.

I. Rejoice that God plans to give us a body designed for eternal life (vv. 1-5)

Paul wrote the church earlier (1 Corinthians) and told them all about the new eternal body in chapter 15 when we are changed and we exchange the mortal for the immortal and the perishable for the imperishable.

• I have a hard time imagining the immortal or the imperishable.

• Marvel movies show us people who live despite falling into outer space or being struck with the 1 ton hammer.

• But even that does not seem entirely satisfying.

God’s plans are incredible and immeasurable. It is hard to imagine a world without tears, dying, pain, grief, or time. Yet, God has set eternity in our hearts. He has made us aware of human frailty and given us a longing for something more.

We can live with courage when we rejoice at the body that is still to come.

Knowing that our present body is not fully satisfying

We are all too aware of how unsatisfying our bodies are today. Here are just a few examples:

• With the new year, many will have a weight loss goal. Losing weight is hard! All too often it is unsuccessful.

• Then, you go to the doctor’s office and you see the BMI chart and you realize that “normal” has not happened since you were 12.

• Which is why you immediately leave the office and head to the donut shop only making the weight loss problem worse.

• When we talk about athletic people we think of coordinated, quick, fast, strong, balanced, and flexible.

• Some of us wish we had that. If we had more, we could do more things.

• People die of heart disease, cancer, COVID, and countless other diseases every day.

• Things too small to see produce destruction in our body.

We groan under the weight of this reality. We long to clothed with immortality and imperishability. 2 Cor 5:2 “For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven”

I think it is particularly interesting that Paul uses the analogy of clothing and nakedness. Since the fall we want to be properly clothed.

• We conceal our nakedness with clothing. Paul says that living on earth in these weak and mortal bodies is equivalent to being naked.

• We long to put on the clothing of immortality.

I think Paul is addressing a very human issue here. God has set eternity in our hearts. He makes us long for what is to come.

• Some, to be sure, have so filled their lives and schedules with busyness that the eternal voice is quiet, but it remains.

We, who know Christ, should rejoice that the Lord will satisfy that longing. He will provide a new body without the same weaknesses of the old.

• He will give us exactly what our hearts want – a body that lives forever. Or as v. 4 says it, “so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.”

I want to speak to those who do not have a saving relationship with Jesus for a moment. You still have the eternal longing in your heart to want to live forever.

• The Bible teaches that you will. You will either enjoy the blessing of the immortal, imperishable body designed for heaven or the suffer the challenge of the immortal, imperishable body designed for hell.

• The difference is whether you will repent of your sin and believe in the D/B/R of Jesus Christ as your only means of rescue.

• The Bible clearly teaches that you have offended God in your thoughts, wants, and behavior. You are a sinner. God demands a righteous payment for that sin. One that you could never give yourself. That is why Christ came – to obey the Father’s plan of dying in your place. Now that the Father has made that offer, he wants you to respond with repentance and faith.

• This is something you can do in the quietness of your own heart. But if you would like to speak with someone about it, then we would be happy to meet with you.

The passage continues…

Knowing that God gave us his Spirit as a pledge of the glory to come

2 Corinthians 5:5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.

We do not have time to explain all the ways the Spirit works in us, but here we find one of them. If you know Christ in a saving way, God did not make a promise and say, “trust me.”

• He also decided to give us his Spirit so that we would know for sure that he would keep his future commitment.

Part of God’s plan from the beginning was to put eternity in our hearts and have us exchange the immortal and imperishable for a body designed to live forever. To prove it, God gave his Spirit as a pledge.

That is better than cash money. I can live courageously in 2022 because the Lord has already provided for my future. I have nothing to lose!

Although Paul felt (as we do) the weight of our body’s weakness, we also rejoice because a body that will satisfy our eternal desires is coming.

• Knowing the future gives us courage.

A second step is to…

II. Enjoy your relationship with God through faith (vv. 6-8)

Because we know the future, we can live with confidence. That is God’s point in vv. 6-8. We live with courage knowing that the result of our dying and decaying body is eternal life with Jesus.

• It is from this section (Live with courage twice) that we took our title of the message.

• So, what is the point of v. 7? Why tell us that we walk by faith and not by sight?

First, there will be a day when we walk by sight.

• We shall become like Jesus for we shall see him as he is. It carries through the same idea from vv. 1-5.

• We do not live in an ideal world.

When I have ministered to a person who is suffering and has suffered for a long time, they often say something like “I want to see Jesus with skin on.”

• They understand there is grace, comfort, and presence from God, but they also want to see the physical blessings.

• Paul acknowledges that there are times when it seems as if God is far away --- we do not walk by sight.

• That is an honest admission of where we are in God’s plan of salvation history. Heaven is ours and all of its blessings, but we have yet to experience it in fullness.

That is why is it okay to hurt and to hurt for someone. This passage reminds us that courage for a new year is not that I will lose a certain amount of weight, gain a certain amount of wealth, or accomplish a set of tasks. We live in a broken world where our bodies fail.

• Thus, hurting is normal.

• Sometimes we should work harder at supporting people in their hurt than assuming they will always get relief.

This is also one really good reason why ABFs are an important part of our strategy here at Faith East. It applies when you are hurting.

• The ABF provides a natural group to especially love you and care for you during the difficulty. But it is more than that.

• The ABF provide a natural group for you to serve and love others.

• We share the burdens of life by faith in community.

• There are other ways to accomplish this as well … ladies Bible studies and Point man groups. If you need help connecting, contact me and I will make the connections happen.

• We want everyone to live by faith in community because life will have challenges. Our world is broken and our bodies are decaying.

However, that admission does not mean life is hopeless. It means that while we live in this state we live by faith.

• While not as good as sight, it is still good.

• Christ is still accessible and even near. Consider prayer…

Hebrews 4:15-16 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

That is a life of faith. We cannot go to Jesus like we go to a trusted companion, but we go by faith.

• We believe by faith that God will give mercy and grace to help in time of need.

• Consider …

Hebrews 11:1-2 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old gained approval.

What follows is a list of God’s servants who lived faithful lives based on the promises they received. Abraham’s faith involved much less content than ours today. Yet, it was living consistent with that belief that resulted in God’s approval.

Every year we have Bible reading plans available at the Welcome Center although there are scores of them online. Part of living by faith is a consistent diet of his Word.

• Especially for those who would say that they have stagnated in their Christian walk … my first guess would be diet of spiritual potato chips.

• You can survive on them, but you will not be as healthy as you could be. Your mind needs filled with the truths of Scripture that can guard your heart and mind.

I used the word enjoy on the outline because I did not want us to see living by faith as a drudgery. It can be an enjoyable life. We can live trusting the Lord’s promises and the ways (like he gave us in v. 5) that he guarantees his promises. In fact, as we enjoy our life by faith, we can live with courage.

Living with courage will also require that we

III. Focus on Pleasing God with your life (v. 9)

2 Corinthians 5:9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

Our Men of Faith studies focused on a man’s work. We learned that work is good and every aspect of work is important. Our city is built on certain utilities like water, gas, power, and all the workers who keep those systems running.

The issue is not first what we do, it is how we do it. The Lord tells us to focus on pleasing him. The formula is simple. Every single day I can ask myself simple questions:

1. Was my effort at work consistent with what would please Jesus?
2. Did I interact with people today in a way that would honor Jesus? This includes co-workers, spouse, children, others in the community.
3. Did I allow the truth of God’s Word to control what I thought about and how I thought about it?

You have all seen the Lafayette Citizens for Freedom where many of us, as citizens, have engaged in seeking to defeat WL ordinance 31-21. The more you think about it the more angry you become.

• It is easy to allow the anger to move from righteous (God would not approve of this ordinance) to sinful anger (where you want revenge for some aspect of the ordinance or process that you find particularly egregious).

• I hope everyone who engages in the discussion wants to do so from the perspective of pleasing Jesus.

The same holds true for what our congregation decides to do with the strategic ministry plan. There is no plan already done, waiting to be unveiled. This is our plan, as a church and congregation. We are together asking how the Lord wants to use us in the next 3 years to please Christ.

• This involves what I think and how I would be willing to invest with time and/or financial resources.

• That is why the survey is so important. That is the phase we are in right now, so if you missed Pastor Viars 8 am deadline yesterday, the good news is that the survey is still open.

God genuinely cares about everything. Because everything we do either honors him or doesn’t. The text is clear … “we make it our aim/goal/ambition.” That phrase has at least two implications.

With all our might and energy

I suggest and I hope you agree that all three of these statements are slightly different, but only one represents the proper biblical approach. Here we go …

1. I only do one thing so that I can devote all my might and energy to it and I neglect all other priorities.
2. I do things to the point where they are good enough because I have other things that I want to do.
3. I give the best effort I can with the time I have to accomplish it as I seek to honor Christ with all my responsibilities.

Practically speaking here is what that means. On a given day at a given time I must decide what would honor Christ most.

• This past Monday the answer was write this sermon for today. There were other things I could do, but many others were dependent on my work this week. I needed to write the message.

• Here is what else it meant. I could not give 40 hours to it, because that would not have allowed the team to do their work in a timely fashion. I did what I could do in the time I had to accomplish it. Hopefully, the effort and final product honors Christ.

There are other days and times when the answer is different.

• I try every day to push away from my desk and get some exercise. It helps me be more productive the rest of the day. It helps my health. It helps me have strength for other responsibilities.

• Other times I am grading or teaching our seminary students.

• Other times are meetings.

• Still other times are calls to church members to see how they are doing.

We must approach each day with a fresh set of eyes and a fresh humility on what would honor Christ most in a given moment.

I realize when I say all this that some people begin to get overwhelmed at the very thought of this.

• Let me encourage you that physical rest is a part of the equation.

• Sometimes what honors Jesus most is a good night’s rest or a Sunday afternoon nap.

Other times you need spiritual rest and renewal. You need an hour of silence with your Bible.

• At times I have found spiritual and physical rest sometimes go together. Thirty minutes with my Bible sometimes leads to 60 more minutes of sleep.

Friends, biblical courage is not just taking mountains and slaying dragons. Biblical courage is accomplishing what God has given you to do when God wants you to do it with the might and energy we have at the time.

Not allowing circumstances to change the goal

Paul also says, “whether at home or absent.” A lot of things change, but the central goal remains. If we lose our job because it is not needed, then we can safely assume that God wants us to please him in a different way.

If we lose a parent or our children grow up and leave the home, life is different. Pleasing the Lord looks different, but the goal never changes.

I find that so helpful and encouraging. God graciously gave us something stable.

Through all the seasons of life, both planned and unplanned, in seasons of strength and weakness, seasons of lots of responsibilities and seasons of few; we can always remind ourselves that pleasing Jesus is the goal.

I have tried to show this morning that we can have courage for a new year. We rejoice that an eternal body is coming, enjoy the opportunity to walk by faith today, focus on pleasing the Lord in every area of life and finally …

IV. Remember eternal rewards go to the faithful (v. 10)

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

I started this message saying that financial wealth was not necessarily worth all this effort. But other things are worth the effort. Jesus is. Eternity is. Paul explains to the church something he told them in a letter a year before …

1 Corinthians 3:11-15 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

The Lord wants us to know that at the end, we all stand before Christ – even believers. For Christians, our sin is paid, fully covered by Christ.

• Those who do not know Christ experience a different judgment. For them, it is their sin that stands before them and accuses them.

• Without a saving relationship with Christ they are given an immortal, imperishable body designed for suffering.

• That is why the decision for you is so important. We encourage you to make that decision today.

• It is why the decision for your loved ones is so important. It is why we encourage you to invite them if they live here and share the truth with them.

Back to believers … not everyone lives equally faithful. Therefore, the Lord tells us that everyone stands before Christ alone and we give an account for what we have done. The Bible reminds us that we will give an account for every careless word for example.

• I don’t know how to balance the general patterns of my life with specific instances. In other words, I am not sure how many times Jesus will bring up specific instances from my life, but here is what I know.

• Jesus knows everything, including the attitude of my heart. I know that he is a righteous judge. I know that I want to hear well done.

Part of the job of a pastor (all our pastors) is to help you be ready for that day too.

• We think about it for our own lives, attempt to set a good example, and encourage you to let it motivate you to action.

While we cannot change the past, we can change how we function in the future.

• If you believe this morning that you have built with way too much wood, hay, and stubble, then let’s start using different materials.

• If you believe you have been building with quality materials, then we encourage you to keep going. What does that look like?

Pursuing what is good

What makes a work “good.” I suppose one element is the nature of the work itself.

• There are some things that we do that our kind, helpful, and encouraging.

• There are other things that are harmful, rude, and difficult to take.

• But the Bible tells us that God also looks at the heart. People can only see the outer expression, but God sees inside into our motivation.

What God calls good is not just something that is qualitatively good, but also that it is done from the right heart … a heart that loves the Lord first and then neighbor as oneself.

That is a high standard to meet. The opposite is bad or worthless

Avoiding what is worthless

I used the word worthless to point out that what we are discussing here is not the choice between righteous and sinful. The choice is between good and worthless.

• It is possible that we spend our lives pursuing the wrong things … either because they are worthless inherently or they are made worthless by our poor attitude.

• Let’s not be people who pursue worthless things or make good things worthless due to our attitude.

I might not care much about fortune, but what if stewardship, pleasing Jesus, and giving a good account favors the brave? We ought to sign up for that.

• Courage for a new year is not necessarily facing some particular fear and overcoming it.

• Instead, courage flows from a belief that we win today and in the future.

• Even if our body fails, we get an immortal one.

• Although we do not walk by sight, we still walk by faith. Walking by faith is good.

• While life in a broken world is hard, we can please him and we can be motivated by the reward coming to all who build properly.

Happy New Year church family. Let’s make it a great one!

Pray … Rejoice … Enjoy … Focus … and Remember