Question before we get started: How many of you have your year all planned out already? You got everything lined out in your calendar as to what you're gonna get done this year? No, that's probably a good thing. Things like that don't always go the way that we might want them to go.
I would invite you to turn to Colossians chapter 3.
What we're gonna do this evening is look at five things to do this year. So if you already had your calendar planned out, I was gonna ask you to make five substitutions, but since nobody has their calendar already planned out for the year, you can just fill these in wherever you need to and it'll be just great.
Top Thing To Do
Prioritize Daily Bible Reading
Before we actually get into the five things, there's one that should be at the very top of our list all the time. It's not something that we should have to consider whether or not we're going to have on our list. It should already be there, like the lines on the paper are already there when you buy it.
This should already be on your page when you open your calendar, and that is to read the Bible every day. There are so many plans that can help you, whether it's reading the entire Bible in a year or reading it two times in a year. Or you can do, like some folks I know have done, and take the number of chapters in the New Testament and break it down by 12 or 31 in the days of the month, and figure out how many chapters you need to read in order to read the entire New Testament once every month.
There's a preacher that I know who did that. He died a few years back. You all would recognize his name, Robert Taylor Jr. Most of you would know who that individual is, and he read the New Testament every month and he went through the Old Testament at least twice in a year. People were always amazed at how well he could quote Scripture.
Now some people have minds and have the ability to recall things that they've memorized a lot easier and better than others of us do. I can't come anywhere close to Brother Taylor, but can you imagine how much more familiar, how much more comfortable you would be in having a discussion with somebody about the contents of the Bible if you read through the New Testament 12 times in a year?
I can tell you right now, all it takes is eight and a half chapters a day. If you'll read eight and a half chapters in the New Testament every day, you'll read through the New Testament once in a month.
I know individuals that are sitting in this room that will stay up later than everybody else and read hundreds of pages of books. They love it. I don't necessarily love it. I couldn't do that. I couldn't sit down and read a 250-page book from beginning to end all in one sitting. I know some that can, and I'm happy for them. But if you give me enough time and you break it down in small enough pieces, then I'll be able to get through it.
And so we should be interested in doing things like that. There are so many plans that are available. I know that if you're a part of our Facebook page and all that kind of stuff, we have those posted every day. If you want to keep up with the readings and you want to get notified of what is taking place on which day.
GBN also has something, and just as a side note, I'll mention this: on their mobile app, if you have GBN's app, then you can go to your profile and into the options and you can turn on daily Bible reading. Eight o'clock every single day it will send you a notification with that day's Bible reading on it. You click the link and it will give you the audio, and all you have to do is listen to it. It's great. It's wonderful.
But it's something that we should do to familiarize ourselves and get our minds flowing in the word of God.
Five Things to Do This Year
- Walk in the Light
But here's five things that we should do this year. First of all, we should walk in the light.
I would encourage you to turn to 1 John chapter 1. We're gonna be in 1 John through most of this evening.
- 1 John 1:3-7
We've talked about this passage several times. The premise of 1 John, especially 1 John chapter 1, is identifying what it means to be in fellowship with God.
What John did through inspiration is he was able to record the things concerning Jesus that he saw when he walked around with Jesus and the things that he heard directly from the mouth of Jesus, those three and a half years that Jesus was on the earth in his ministry.
He did that for a reason: so that you and I could share in the same hope and in the same faith that he had in Jesus, even now, 2000 years later. You and I should want to strive to walk in the light as he is in the light.
Notice the reasons why that are listed in verse 7. We would have fellowship one with another—all of the other people throughout all of the ages that walked with God, going all the way back to the patriarchs. When this life is over, they're going to be in heaven with the Father. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 says they're gonna be forever with the Lord, and you can be there with them. I can be there with them. We don't have to wonder where our soul is going to end up when we die. All we have to do is walk in the light and we will have fellowship one with another.
Verse 7 also says that the blood of Jesus Christ his Son will continually cleanse us from all sin. If we're New Testament Christians and we're walking in the light of Jesus—meaning we're striving each and every day to live according to the pattern that Jesus has displayed for us—we can read about the life of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I would encourage you to do that just as often as you can, because if you don't know what Jesus did while he was here on this earth, how are you going to be expected to live like he lived? How are you going to be expected to mimic the things that Jesus portrayed in his life, whether it was mercy, graciousness, truthfulness, trustworthiness in God the Father, and his submission and obedience to his Father?
If you and I don't know about his submission and obedience to the Father, if we walk in the same way that Jesus walked, his blood will always be there to cleanse us, and all of our sins will be gone. That's a promise that he makes.
We should therefore be interested this year in walking in the light, and hopefully that's a decision that you made already. But if you have not made that decision as of right now, now is your time to make that decision moving forward from this day through the rest of the year to be walking in the light as Jesus is the light.
- Recognize When Sin Takes Place
Secondly, we should recognize when sin takes place. We need to be able to recognize when sin takes place in our lives.
- 1 John 1:8-10
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
I want you to understand and appreciate with me the idea that after verse 7, where it talks about if we're willing to walk in the light as Jesus is in the light, there are certain guarantees that you and I are gonna have. We're gonna have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ is going to cleanse us from all of our sins.
And then he talks about three different hearts. In verse 8, there's a heart that says that I have no sin. Now that I'm a New Testament Christian, it's impossible for me to sin again. That's the idea that John is bringing out. A heart that says, I am not gonna sin from this day forward. Well, of course, to John, we deceive ourselves if that's the attitude that we have.
Now, if we're walking in the light as we're supposed to be, then we're going to hopefully mitigate or limit the number of times where we actually do commit sin. We're not going to be walking in a lifestyle of sin, though we may stumble from time to time and we may sidestep where we should have been on the straight and narrow path, but we could do that. But that's not what he's talking about.
Don't be the one that says, I'm not ever going to sin. It's impossible. I'm a New Testament Christian. My sins are washed away and I just can't sin anymore. You have deceived yourself. And verse 8 says that the truth is not in us.
In verse 10, similarly, if we say that we have never sinned, then we make God a liar and his word is not in us. We can't say, I don't have any need of the blood of Jesus Christ. I don't have any need to be in the kingdom of God. I don't have any need to submit myself to the Savior because I've never done anything worthy of death. I've never committed a sin. Well, very simply, John says through inspiration that you make God out to be a liar.
Well, how do we know that?
- Romans 3:23
If you're not a part of that “all,” then I don't know how to reconcile you with the rest of humanity.
- 1 John 1:9
If you and I can have the humbleness in our heart to recognize about ourselves as mankind what God already knows about us as created beings—that sometimes we do slip and fall, that sometimes we do make a wrong step, sometimes we do a thing that we should not do, and sometimes we don't do a thing that we should do—then we confess our sins and he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
If we can come to agreement with God that we are simply human, and that from time to time we might fall short, even as New Testament Christians, then we're still walking in the light because we've acknowledged what God already knows: that we are frail. We are fragile as human beings, and we have the ability to sin. But you and I are walking in the light, which means we're not gonna allow that sin to go unnoticed. We're not gonna allow that sin to go unrepented of. We're gonna take care of that.
So we need to be watchful. We need to know when sin is in our life so that we can do something about it.
Notice some other passages.
- Matthew 18:15
We need to listen to those, and this is hard. Sometimes we need to listen to those that come to us and say, I think you've done something, or I know you've done something against me. We need to listen to those brethren because odds are they're not saying those things to humiliate you. Odds are they're not coming to you to try and tear you down as a Christian or an individual or a brother or sister in Christ. Odds are they've come to you because they love you and they know that a sin has been committed.
Now, there's a small percentage of individuals that will come to you and accuse you of sin even when there is no sin and they don't have pure intentions or motives in their hearts at all. And that's a reality. It's sad, but it is a reality and it's one that we will most likely face. And if you don't have to, then consider yourself blessed.
But on the whole, if someone comes to you and says, do you realize what you've done? It's not to make you feel this big—though if you have the right attitude concerning sin and salvation in your soul, you're gonna feel this big all on your own. But it is because of love that they come to you.
We need to listen to those that come to us.
“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” — Romans 3:23
It's not going to be some new revelation that you and I stumble and fall as New Testament Christians as we walk in the light of Jesus. We're not perfect like he is. But we can be faithful like he is. We can be humble like he is, and we can do what is necessary to receive the forgiveness of those sins.
- 1 John 2:1
From this point on and throughout all the rest of our time here on earth, we have an advocate with the Father. That's never going to change. We have an advocate and we are always going to have an advocate, and as long as this world stands, it's going to be Jesus Christ. We can take care of our sins because you and I have someone sitting next to the Almighty God advocating for you and me so that we don't have to suffer hell separated from God.
You and I need to recognize when sin takes place.
- Keep God's Commandments
Thirdly, we need to keep God's commandments.
- 1 John 2:2-5
The amount of security that John records for us in these three verses alone is monumental. It's really that we shouldn't overlook the satisfaction that we can get from reading these verses: that if we're willing to keep the commandments of God, we can know that we know that we know God. We can have total confidence in the fact that we are right with God.
There's some people in this world that you have conversations with and they are just so full of doubts. They don't have any certainty whatsoever that they can do anything whereby they can know who God is, let alone that they can know that their sins are forgiven and they receive salvation when this life is over. They have no confidence in that at all, but John says you and I can have that kind of confidence, and we have that confidence through obeying the commands of Jesus.
Jesus put it this way. If you back up into the gospel of John, John chapter 14, there's three verses here that I really like to put together and they're spread out through the chapter, but that's great because what is it that helps us learn the best? It's spaced repetition. So if he says the same thing in the same chapter three times, but there's other verses in between that should help us remember these verses.
- John 14:15, 21 & 23
We've been accused of being commandment keepers. And normally that phrase is thrown out in a very derogatory way, as if to say that you and I, through the keeping of the commandments that we find in the New Testament, are working or earning our salvation from God, when that is absolutely false according to what the New Testament teaches.
But if we want to prove that we love Jesus, Jesus says what we have to do. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. If you love the Father, if you keep my commandments, then I will dwell with you, and if you keep my commandments, then the Father will love you and the Father and I will both dwell in you.
He says this isn't about commandment keeping. This is about obedience to what the master has instructed us to do. If we're willing to keep his commandments, then we can have total confidence based off of the promises that he's given that we will receive heaven as an eternal reward.
So the third thing: if we're willing to keep God's commandments—hopefully we can commit to doing that this year. Hopefully you will be willing to commit to doing that this year. Keep the commandments of God.
And we're not talking about—I should probably point this out—there are some who believe even today that all we have to do is follow the 10 commandments of the Old Testament and that's what it means to keep the commandments of God. That's not what we're talking about at all.
The old law, the ceremonial law, is over and done with. The 10 Commandments were just a picture of that law. The entire law is done away with as well. That was done away with when the new covenant entered into the picture, when Jesus died on the cross, Acts chapter 2, when the church came into existence. We're now not under the Old Testament law. We're not under the 10 Commandments anymore.
You and I cannot be judged against those 10 commandments either when we reach the end of this life and the eventual judgment day that will be present. God's not going to be quoting the 10 Commandments and asking you and I whether or not we kept them, because it's not a law that we're under. But we're under the law of the New Testament. We're under the law of Christ, as Paul would put it to the Romans.
- Love the Brethren More and More Each Day
Fourthly, we should love the brethren more and more each day.
- 1 John 2:9-11
He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
We have to treat one another as New Testament Christians the way that Jesus would have us treat one another, the way that he treated the people that were close to him and faithful to him when he was alive and on this earth.
Notice also this mirrors very well with what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount.
- Matthew 5:21-24
We need to be those that demonstrate this love—this sacrificial love, the agape love that we read about in 1 Corinthians 13:4 - 8, really the entire chapter. But those characteristics of love, we need to have that as a part of our daily lives.
We should be wanting to be around the brethren, but if we don't have the proper attitude of treating our brethren the way we should be treating our brethren, how many do you think are gonna wanna be around us? Probably not very many.
- Romans 13:8-10
When we sin against our brother, what we do is we demonstrate that we don't love our brother. We can say that we love our brethren, but if we commit any of these offenses and the various other offenses that are named in the New Testament.
- 1 Corinthians 6,
- Galatians 5,
There's several other passages that have lists of sins, things that if we are guilty of them, if they're named among us, then we're not going to inherit the kingdom of heaven. But if we're guilty of these towards our brother and sister in Christ, then we don't really love them. Paul is very clear on that particular idea.
So we need to be those that love the brethren. Commit to that this year.
- Do Not Love the World
And finally, determine not to love the world.
- 1 John 2:15-17
We have to commit to ourselves that we're going to be faithful to God and not love the ways of the world.
If we had time, we could go to Matthew chapter 4 and we could look at the way that Jesus dealt with these very same temptations when he went into the wilderness. He'd fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. He'd had nothing to eat and nothing to drink, and Satan comes to him tempting him and says, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Jesus says, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Jesus knew what the Scriptures said. James records for us in James chapter 1 that you and I are drawn away first from the word of God. Notice we first have to forsake the word of God before we're ever going to give in to the temptation that comes our way. But if we hold on to the word of God, we have the power to withstand even the very temptation that is put in front of our path.
- 1 Corinthians 10:13
So the question comes to us this evening: What are the things that we are planning to do in this year for the Kingdom? Hopefully we're doing these things already. That'd be great if these were already the things that we've been doing for many years, and this is just a formality. It's good to be reminded of these things.
Where are you this evening in your walk, in your relationship with Jesus Christ? Are you walking in his footsteps? Are you walking in a way that when this life is over, if it were to end tonight, that you would stand before Jesus in Abraham's bosom, in the place of paradise where there is rest, where there is comfort?
Or will you be like the rich man in Luke chapter 16, and you open your eyes in torment, having heard the word?
Are you willing to believe it? Are you willing to repent of your sins and confess your faith in Jesus as deity, submitting to a watery grave of baptism and having your sins washed away by the blood of Jesus?
If we can encourage you, we hope that you would contact us, we would love to pray with and study with you.
