Happy "DO" Year!

Happy New Year! Or maybe after today we can call this the “DO Year!” Cheesy, I know, but it will make sense in a few minutes. I am excited to kick off 2023 with the best group of people in the world on day one! I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and got to spend time with your families as we celebrated the greatest gift that has ever been given, God’s son, Jesus.

Since we all probably stayed up too late last night I will try to keep it short today. I promise to have you out of here by 12:30. No later than 1, anyway. How many of you stayed up to ring in the new year last night? Did anyone watch the ball drop in Times Square? I have never just sat and watched that, but I love this one person’s perspective. They said, “I love when they drop t he ball in Times Square. It’s a nice reminder of what I did all year.”

When it comes to “New Year’s” celebrations, I have never been the type of person that gets into it as a holiday. When I was a kid it was just a great excuse to stay up late. However, there is one thing that I do really like about this holiday. I love that we celebrate it right after Christmas. We celebrate Christmas at the end of the year and it becomes the capstone for the year, then we immediately move into a brand new year and that Christmas spirit carries us across the line.

It gives us a high note to start on and helps us reset and put God first for the year. It makes us want to make the next year better than the last so we set goals and raise expectations. Being in better health, getting out of debt, helping others, spending more time with the family, spending more time with God, and on and on and on. One guy said that his goal for the new year was to read more, so he turned on the subtitles on his TV.

That is the one thing that I like about New Year’s as a holiday. That being said, I read an article the other day from desiringgod.org that was written by Matt Bradner, who loves entering a new year. He claims that he “can’t fathom entering a new year and viewing it as just another day.” In that article he had an interesting perspective that I wanted to share with you today.

When the new year comes around we commonly think of it as a loop. Another trip around the sun. Throw away the old calendar and get a new one that STARTS OVER at January. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, then we do it again. A new year, new goals, another chance. We are riding this circle of time, but meanwhile we are also waking up in a place we have never been. 2023. Not just another year, but a completely new one. Not just another trip on this loop around the sun, but the first day of a moment that has never existed in history.

My calendar may be on a loop, but all of history resides on a line. A line that began with God creating the universe, bringing order to the chaos on Earth and creating life. And then that line continues, revealing new, never before seen events along its way and leading up to this moment. And the line continues beyond this moment to places that have not yet been revealed, until it’s culminating point where God’s dwelling place is with man, and there will be no more death or sorrow. (Revelation 21)

We can look back at where we have been. God has told us where we are headed. We have no idea what will happen between now and then. For us, it is a blank canvas. When you think about your life and what God is doing in your life, what do you want written on the line in 2023? What does God want you to write on your line? Once it’s written, it becomes a part of history. We are literally making history with every moment. As cheesy as it sounds, the only way to change history is to change the future.

These are all very big questions. In terms of implication, they are huge. What does God want for me? How can I change my life? How can I change history? It’s time to set some BIG goals! I can’t make big changes without being successful at big goals? That is actually not true. In fact, the opposite is true. When it comes to setting goals, one of the best examples is in bicycling.

Every year in August, in one day, we ride 100 miles on our bikes. It’s always hot and windy and 100 miles. The first time Barry told me he did that ride every year I thought he was absolutely insane. 10 miles sounded like too much. And at the time, it was. If I had have jumped on a bike that day and tried to ride 100 miles I might have died. No joke. So, what we do is start small. We ride a few miles a few days per week and gradually increase the mileage until we are ready for the big one.

No matter what big destination is on your journey, that truth remains the same. If you are taking notes, this is the take-away for today...

Consistently embracing that which is small will lead to achieving something big

Jesus regularly taught this truth. In one well known parable He even described the Kingdom of Heaven using the same principal.

Matthew 13:31–32 NLT

31 Here is another illustration Jesus used: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.”

In the very next verse, still talking about the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus used another illustration to describe how things can be small to the point that we don’t see them and don’t notice them working, however they spread throughout and affect every part of what they touch.

Matthew 13:33 NLT

33 Jesus also used this illustration: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.”

Today, we have trained ourselves to seek instant gratification to the point that we often don’t acknowledge the small progress that leads toward greatness, and we allow the hidden progress to remain hidden. In a world of same day shipping, drive through eateries, on-demand movies, and instant mashed potatoes, we have grown to overlook anything that takes time to achieve victory and embrace the promises that appear to instantly gratify.

That type of mentality is exactly where the enemy wants us to be. He wants us to live in this imaginary world of comfort and happiness. It is the same play he made at Jesus. Instant gratification. Jesus was hungry in the wilderness, so Satan offered Him some bread. I like to think they were probably those Hawaiian rolls!

Matthew 4:3 NLT

3 During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

Jesus’ response to this first temptation is pretty amazing when you think about it. He could have done any number of things. He could have cast Satan out of His presence. He could have hit him with a 2 hour sermon explaining how He is the bread of life. He could have hit Satan with a rock. Who would deserve being stoned more than Satan? He could have even just ignored him. Instead, what Jesus does is pretty amazing. He simply quotes a scripture.

Matthew 4:4 NLT

4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

He was face to face with God’s enemy, and He did what He taught others to do. Embrace the small steps to victory. One small act. He quoted scripture.

I believe that it isn’t the big things that have the most impact on our lives, but the small things. It is the small things that we either do or do not do that determine success. Sticking with the theme of rocks for a second, one of my favorite movie quotes comes from Star Wars Episode V. In this specific scene, Yoda was trying to teach Luke to start small by moving around rocks with “the force.” Focusing on the small, hidden things would permeate every part of the dough, if you will, and have an impact on the big things as well.

Finally Yoda tells Luke to move something bigger, but Luke says it is totally different than moving the small stones, but finally agrees to try. That’s when Yoda tells him not to just try. He says, “Do… or do not. There is not try.” I love that quote because of the truth behind it. When it comes to the small things, you and I will either do them or we won’t. There is no in between. We will either take the small steps to success or we will take small steps to destruction.

We can see both of these examples played out in David’s life in the books of 1st & 2nd Samuel. “Do or do not.” Let’s start with the latter.

DO NOT: A SMALL STEP TO DESTRUCTION

At this point in David’s life, he had been pretty successful. Of all of his victories, this failure stands out at least as much if not more. To sum the failure up in one sentence, David slept with a married woman, Bathsheba, then tried to cover it up by giving her husband an assignment on the battlefield that would guarantee his death.

When David was setting his goals, I doubt he decided to find the most beautiful woman in town, kill her husband, and then claim her as his own. That path to destruction started with a small decision that David made. A decision to “do not.” What was that decision?

2 Samuel 11:1 NLT

1 In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem.

He decided to send somebody else to do his job. It seems like such a small, insignificant decision, but it lead him down a path of destruction that would end in destroying a family and murdering someone in an attempt to cover it up. Small decisions lead to great destruction. They also lead to great success.

DO: A SMALL STEP TO SUCCESS

Another of David’s small decisions actually lead him to great success. As you can guess, this time David decided to “do.” This happened much earlier in his life and is one of his most famous victories. It is the time he defeated Goliath. If this was turned into a movie in the last 5 years the opening scene would be a close up shot of David’s eyes as they squint in the sunlight. Then a shot from behind Goliath as he laughs and smashes things, showing the small David fearlessly staring him down.

But what brought David here? How did this boy end up face to face with a man that was over 9 feet tall? Just as David didn’t wake up and decide to destroy a family later in life, he didn’t wake up one morning as a boy and decide to be Israel’s hero. He didn’t decide to give it a try and see what would happen. God brought victory to him as a result of the small decisions that he made. Decisions to “do.”

Every day prior to this he went to work taking care of his father’s sheep and goats. He would protect them from predators, growing and developing hidden strength, ability, and confidence. He had a faith in God that could only come from consistently spending time with Him and trusting Him. On this specific day, He didn’t go to the battlefield seeking victory and fame. When his dad asked him to take food to his brothers and their captain, David simply said “yes.”

1 Samuel 17:17–18 NLT

17 One day Jesse said to David, “Take this basket of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread, and carry them quickly to your brothers. 18 And give these ten cuts of cheese to their captain. See how your brothers are getting along, and bring back a report on how they are doing.”

Think about that from David’s prospective for a minute. At this point in his life, David knew he would be the future king. Samuel, the prophet, had already come to him by God’s leading to anoint him. David could have made the decision to stay away from the battlefield to protect himself. He could have thought delivering MRE’s to his brothers was beneath him. He might have even preferred to fight in the battle and be known as a warrior from childhood, just as Goliath was known.

Instead, I imagine he carried himself with honor as he made the small decision to embrace this seemingly insignificant act of service. This small decision lead to great success.

As we kick off a brand new, never before seen moment on this timeline, I would encourage you to make small decisions. Don’t get bogged down with the big things like Luke did in Star Wars. There may be a bunch of massive things in your life that need to be moved, but you can’t move them by trying. Yoda told Luke that there is no difference between the big things and the small things. The only difference was in his head and he had to unlearn what he had learned.

In a sense, Yoda was right. The big things will only move when we focus on the small things. The small decisions have the power to permeate the big obstacles, just like the yeast permeates the entire loaf. So as you set goals and make plans for this new year, start small. Come up with one small decision that you can do consistently. If that sounds too easy, come up with two or three. Then write them down somewhere as a reminder.

Find a marker and write “devotion” on the bathroom mirror to remind you to devote each day to God by spending some time with Him in prayer before going to work. Put a sticky note on the microwave that reminds you to do something kind for someone today. Put your car keys under your bible as a reminder to start the day off with scripture. Write out encouraging verses on note cards every week and let God transform your mind into the mind of Christ who was always ready to quote scripture in any occasion.

Welcome to 2023. As you make history this year the most important thing to remember is who’s story it is. God wants our lives to tell His story to a lost and dying world that needs His love, His mercy, and His forgiveness.

Related Media

Related Sermons