these instructions by Samuel who anointed him with the holy anointing oil
which was figurative or representative of the Holy Spirit's power and when he poured
this oil upon him
he tells him that when he leaves there and goes down the road
when he comes to a company of prophets that the Spirit of the Lord will come
upon him
and he will prophesy with them and that he will be turned into
another man. He says in verse 7 and let it be
when these signs are come unto thee that thou doest occasion serve thee for God is
with thee
and thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal and behold I will come down unto thee to
offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings
seven days shalt thou tarry till I come to thee and show thee
what thou shalt do and it was so that when he had turned his back to go from
Samuel
God gave him another heart and all those signs came to pass
that day. Now what I want to preach about just a short sermon tonight because
brother Dave has already preached
but I'm going to preach about becoming another man and I think that we should
become another man in 2011 and that's what I want to preach about tonight or if you're a
lady of course it would be become another woman
you see in the next 12 days before the end of the year I think that all of us
should do some soul searching and thinking. I think that God gave us years
and months and days for a reason
those things were instituted by God in Genesis chapter 1. He divided
the time that we have into days, nights,
weeks, months, years. The Bible says that that's why the sun, moon and stars were
put in place to divide these
periods of time and we need to stop
at the end of the year and look at ourselves and see where we've been and see
where we're going
and what I want to really emphasize to you tonight is that
if the Spirit of the Lord God is upon you, you can become
the person that God wants you to be. Now in the flesh
you know just you and your mortal flesh, you without the Spirit of God resting
upon you in mighty power
you know you have a lot of limitations and the Bible says they that are in the
flesh
cannot please God and I think a lot of people because they spent so much time in
the flesh
they basically look at themselves and say well
you know I think this is about as much as I could ever do for God
I don't think I could really ever grow to this level or I think I've pretty much
maxed out
what I know he over there he's doing all kinds of great stuff for God or she's doing all
kinds of stuff for God
but really what I want you to see is that the sky is the limit
when the Spirit of God is upon you. The Bible says I can do
all things through Christ which strengthens me
the Bible says that if we'll put on the new man, if we'll put on the Lord Jesus
Christ, if the Spirit of the Lord is upon us
we can become another man, we can become another person, we can become a
a new creature in Christ. The Bible says if any man be in Christ he's a new
creature
old things are passed away behold all things are become new
now at salvation God creates that new creature but we still have the flesh we're
still walking in the flesh many times
and if we walk in the flesh we're not going to please God but what I want you to do
and what I'm gonna be doing the next 12 days and what I always do this time of year is I
stop and look at myself
and I decide not you know who I am but
who do I want to be? What do I want to accomplish in 2011?
Where do I want to be as a person? What kind of soul winning do I want to do? What kind of
Bible reading and Bible memorization
and I don't want to have an attitude that says well that's impossible or I can't
you know I'm always getting on my children every time they say well I can't do this
I always tell them
I can makes a great man. We should have an attitude that says I can do all things
and you need to decide right now to take your personal
Christianity, your walk with God, your soul winning, your Bible reading and your prayer
life to the next level in 2011
you need to grow, you need to move forward and you need to decide
that with the power of God's Spirit you can become
another person. You don't have to be the same, you don't have to do the same failures
you know you don't have to keep skipping Bible reading or whatever it is that you
struggle with prayer, soul winning, whatever it is
you say well I can never go soul winning. Well right here is a shy man
King Saul so shy that when he was chosen to be king
he went and hid among the stuff. He was embarrassed to even go up there and
receive the accolades
of being the king. He was a very shy man and he went and hid himself among the stuff
but yet when the Spirit of the Lord
came upon him he began to preach and he began to prophesy with the prophets
and people were shocked because they knew him and they knew what he was like
and they'd never seen him do any kind of preaching or prophesy and when they saw that
they were shocked and said is Saul also among the prophets?
and then they kind of said well you know who's their father I mean you know
I guess nobody's born a prophet right and so basically it became a proverb
hey Saul also among the prophets. Saul preached and prophesied
because it wasn't the old Saul it was the new Saul. It was the soul
with the Spirit of God upon him that preached in boldness
that had the power to lead a nation to victory
and to throw off the oppression that the Philistines had put them under
because he'd become another man and so I want to say to you tonight
become another man in 2011. In 2011
decide that maybe you're going to stop playing around with church and you're going to stop
just
living half in and half out but that you're just going to sell out for God and give it
everything you've got
and make 2011 the greatest year of your life and the greatest year of our
church's life
the greatest year of our existence. I like what brother Dave said where he said
hey this is just the beginning you know that the past five years of our church
it's not where we stop and say wow look everything that we've done
you know we're just getting started we're just getting warmed up you know we're
just still living in those early days
and we need to push for more more
we need to increase more and more and that's going to happen when we
each personally make the changes necessary in each of our lives
that's how the church grows. I mean the church is nothing more than an assembly
of people of individuals and when we personally take our lives to the next level
you say boy I really want Faithful Word Baptist Church to grow you know I want to see this church really grow
well then you've got to grow. If the church is going to grow then you need to grow
I need to grow. We need to grow on the inside
that's what's going to make the church grow because the church is us
and so it's based on us and it's not going to be done in the flesh
it's going to be done in the power of the Holy Spirit. It's going to be done
when we are walking in the new man and when we put on the Lord Jesus Christ
and when we walk in the Spirit and we can be
who God wants us to be. There's no limit to what we can do for God
we can be like the people in the book of Acts. We can be like King Saul
we can be like David. We can be like the great men in the Bible
there's nothing stopping us but ourselves and so we need to decide in 2011 to
become another
here are just some sample goals and I'm not going to take a lot of time but I just want to give you some sample
goals that I think you should have for 2011 for yourself
number one first of all if you've never read your Bible cover to cover you need
to decide that in 2011
will be the year that you read that Bible cover to cover and we've got charts out
there on the table
that explain to you how to do it that just shows you how much you read each day
and it's really just three or four chapters a day it's not a big deal
you ought to decide that you're going to make 2011 the year that you read it cover to cover
you say well I've already read it, read it twice in 2011. You know take it to the next level
read it twice, read it again. Make this a year of Bible reading in 2011
even if it's something that you failed at in the past you know start working on it now
start gearing up
so that by January 1st you'll be in the habit of reading that Bible every day
you know don't start on January 1st start now so that you can start
warming up and start getting into the habit so that starting January 1st
you could say in 2011 I'm going to read my Bible
every single day I'm going to get through it one time or
two times or four times you know whatever level you're at or beyond that
you want to just decide that you're going to do some serious Bible reading in 2011
you're going to become another man
maybe you're not a big Bible reader right now but you're going to become one next year
that's what you have to decide in your heart. Prayer is another area
that you could grow in and decide that you're going to have a prayer time and pray
every single day in 2011. Church attendance
why not decide I'm going to be at church you know maybe you're a
one who comes to church maybe once a week or twice a week
why not just decide that in 2011 make it a goal I'm going to be at
every service in 2011 I don't want to miss any services
I'm going to be there Sunday morning Sunday night Wednesday I'm going to make the church
a priority in my life and be there maybe
soul winning is where you need to grow maybe you've been a silent partner for a while
you want to start doing the talking
you say well I could never do that well that's what they said about Saul
you know maybe is brother Dave also among the prophets
you know brother Dave's out soul winning you know but I bet you a lot of his friends
probably were shocked when they found out he's out soul winning
because they had known the old Dave not the new
Dave that was walking in the spirit they knew the Dave that was walking in the flesh
and there's so many people in this room that have dramatically changed as a
result of being in a Bible believing church not just brother Dave
all kinds of people and I'm sure that anybody from their past
would be shocked to see them among the prophets among the soul winners among
Bible believing Christians that are going out serving God and preaching the Word of God
and doing God's work because it's not them
it's the new them and that's a powerful truth because I used to struggle when I was
a younger person
wondering how I could grow and thinking to myself you know I could never give up my music
or I could never give up
you know these movies or I could never give up this or I could never do this
you know and that attitude is just a failing attitude
the Bible says I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me
you can become another man you could you can make a goal about soul winning
maybe your goal is to win somebody to Christ in 2011 do it
do it it's a guaranteed thing he to go forth and weep at
bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing the
sheep with them just do it
don't, I'll try, no just do it 2011 is the year
where you're gonna read your Bible every day you're gonna pray every day you're gonna be at
church three times a week you're gonna win souls to Christ
why? because this world needs
a church like Faith for Baptist Church and Phoenix Arizona needs a church
like Faith for Baptist Church to be going on all four cylinders
to be moving ahead full speed and there's so much we can accomplish
there's so much the Bible says one of you shall chase a thousand
and two of you shall put 10,000 to fight God can use
people and maybe even those who are not talented or don't have everything yet
he can use people to do marvelous things and powerful things
that we can't even imagine if we'll just surrender ourselves to him
if we'll just let him use us if we'll just show up and be there
and do what we're supposed to do and do what God's commanded us to do
so I want to encourage you not to let this time pass you by and a lot of people make fun
of New Year's resolutions and everything
but you know to me I think it's great and you know usually
the goals that I end up setting at the beginning of the year I usually don't
end up fully accomplishing all those goals because I'm a human being because
I'm not perfect
and people make fun of it oh you're not going to keep these resolutions
but you know what I can look back and usually it seems like January's are some
of the greatest months in my life
seems like that's a lot of the greatest things I do because
I'm fired up about a new start, a new chance, a new beginning and that's what January is
it's a time where we can decide to throw off some of the old baggage and lay aside
every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and get on that starting block
and at the beginning of the year January 1st is ready to just run
full speed ahead the next lap, the next phase
and to be greater than we've ever been in the year 2011
and that's my challenge to you tonight and I'm talking about it now because I
want you to think about it for the next 12 days
I want you to start, because it takes time to think it over and decide
you know what your goals are, you don't want to set your goals too low
you don't want to have some crazy goal that you're never going to do
you know you go from not reading your Bible at all to
I'm going to complete the entire Bible once per month, you've never even read it one time
you want to have a goal that's an achievable goal, that's a reasonable goal
but you want it to be a challenge, you want to challenge yourself
you want to set that goal high enough to where you're going to have to push yourself
and God's going to have to help you move to the next level
don't get complacent, don't get too comfortable
I mean do you really think that you've arrived at just the pinnacle of Christianity right now?
I mean who in this room would just tell me, Pastor Anderson, I'm there
I mean I am just, you know
I mean I'm not Jesus but I'm close
nobody can say that because no one is even close
we all need to grow, we all need to do better and we are not
waste this, it only happens once a year that we have that reset button
that starting point where we can really stop and say you know what
2011 is going to be the year where I do this and so and you know if you don't make any goals
if you don't set any mark for yourself
you're probably not going to do much
people who you talk to who have read the Bible through cover to cover it is because they decided to do it
they set a goal, they marked it off, they checked it off, they had that calendar out
you know those are the people who have memorized huge portions of the Bible
it's because they set a goal and said I'm going to do this many verses per day
and you can accomplish a lot more than you think even if you just do one verse per day
one verse per day in 2011, crazy goal right?
memorizing one Bible verse a day but yet if you did it
you can memorize the whole book of Hebrews and you'd still have two months to spare
see how that works? Hebrews is a pretty long book, right? Pretty solid book
one verse a day, you got it
you know if you just do one verse a day you could have ninety percent of the book of Revelation done
if you're willing to spill a month into 2012 you're pretty much done with the whole book of Revelation
one verse a day
and so
we need to decide
to use this opportunity of a turn of the year here
to really become another man
to really decide
that you're going to change
that's the purpose of coming to church, to change
not to just come here and hear something and walk out the same
to change
to do something new
let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer, Father we thank you so much
for the great year that you've given us, the great five years that you've given us
and thank you for the wonderful people that go to our church dear God that make it what it is
and Father I just pray that you'd help every single one of us to
to grow and move forward
and to love you with more fervency than we ever have in the past, dear God
and just help us to move forward in a powerful way and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen