Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.