Now the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is in Luke 4, verse 16,
where Jesus comes to his hometown, Nazareth, where he'd been brought up,
and it says in verse 16,
And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day,
and stood up for to read.
Verse 17,
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaias.
And when he had opened the book, he found a place where it was written,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty then their bruise,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book and gave it again to the minister,
and sat down,
and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
And he began to say unto them,
This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Of course, they didn't like his sermon.
He begins to preach further.
God doesn't give us every word of it,
but he preaches some things about Elijah the prophet,
healing a woman, of Sarepta, a foreigner.
He makes them angry.
They end up getting so mad that they're going to push him off of a cliff,
and literally they try to kill him,
and he barely escapes out of their midst.
But I want to preach a subject this morning.
Verse 19,
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And that's what I want to preach on this morning,
the acceptable year of the Lord.
Now, if you want to go back to Isaiah chapter 61,
we're going to see where this quote actually comes from.
Isaiah chapter 61.
And of course, when Jesus went into that synagogue in his hometown and read,
he opened up to Isaiah chapter 61,
and he read where the Bible reads,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to send at liberty them that are bruised,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
That same quote is found in Isaiah 61.1 if you look down at your Bible.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings other than me.
He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound,
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all that mourn.
Now flip back just a few pages in your Bible to chapter 49.
You're in chapter 61.
Go back to chapter 49.
What did he mean by the fact
that he was there to preach the acceptable year of the Lord?
What did that mean?
Well if you'll notice in chapter 49 verse 8 the Bible reads,
Thus saith the Lord,
in an acceptable time,
notice that term,
in an acceptable time have I heard thee,
and in a day of salvation have I helped thee,
and I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of the people,
to establish the earth,
to cause to inherit the desolate heritages,
that thou mayest say to the prisoners,
notice how this is the same thing he was talking about in Isaiah 61,
that thou mayest say to the prisoners,
Go forth to them that are in darkness,
show yourselves,
they shall feed in the ways,
and their pastures shall be in all high places.
And now watch this.
He begins to speak what's quoted in Revelation chapter 7.
It says in Isaiah 49 10,
They shall not hunger nor thirst,
neither shall the heat nor sun smite them,
for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them,
even by the springs of water shall he guide them.
Keep looking down at Isaiah 49 10.
Let me quote to you from Revelation 7
about the believers that are assembled in heaven someday.
It says in Revelation 7 16,
They shall hunger no more.
You're looking down at verse 10.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore,
neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat,
for the lamb which is in the midst of the throne
shall feed them and shall lead them
unto living fountains of waters,
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
So what is he talking about in both cases?
He's talking about preaching the gospel in Isaiah 49.
He's talking about it in Isaiah 61.
He's talking about it in Luke chapter 4.
He's talking about preaching salvation to the lost,
preaching the gospel, the good news,
the glad tidings, preaching God's word.
He said it's the acceptable year of the Lord.
In chapter 49, he said in an accepted time.
Notice verse 8.
In an accepted time.
Not necessarily the accepted time,
but an accepted time.
And he says,
In a day of salvation have I helped thee.
Now that's quoted in 2 Corinthians 6 2.
Bear with me.
This is all my way of introduction.
Try to follow what I'm talking about here.
2 Corinthians 6 2 reads,
For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted,
an a time accepted,
and in the day of salvation have I suckered thee.
Behold, now is the accepted time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation.
So do you see a common thread here
in all these four passages we looked at
that are all talking about the same thing?
Jesus read it.
He said, I'm here to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he said, this day, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
He said, in a day of salvation, in an accepted time,
I have heard you.
But he said, now is the accepted time.
Now is the day of salvation.
And that's why I want to preach today, this day,
on the acceptable year of the Lord.
And a year that is acceptable to God in 2012.
A year that can be the acceptable year of the Lord.
An accepted time.
An acceptable time unto the Lord in 2012.
You see, it's only been 2012 for a few hours.
And here we are with a brand new year in front of us.
And we can forget about everything in the past.
We can forget those things which are behind
and reach forth unto those things which are before.
Whether or not we made a lot of mistakes in 2011,
whether or not we failed to reach our goals,
or we failed to attend church faithfully,
or we failed to serve God like we should,
we can start out a brand new year in 2012
and make it a year that is acceptable unto the Lord.
Now that term acceptable, what does it mean?
Well, that's a term that's used a lot in the Bible.
Go to Genesis chapter 4.
It's used frequently in the Bible,
whether it's accepted or acceptable.
One of those words is used a lot.
And it starts out being used in Genesis chapter 4.
And in Genesis chapter 4, this is of course the story of Abel.
Abel offers unto God an offering according to his wishes.
He is asked for sacrifice of a lamb, of a blood sacrifice.
And that of course pictures the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Cain, on the other hand, decides that,
since he's not a shepherd but a farmer,
he decides to bring his best, his own works of his hands.
Instead of bringing what God asked for,
he brought of the fruits and vegetables that he had produced.
And he said, well, this is my best that I have to offer.
So God's going to accept it.
But God did not accept it.
It said in Genesis 4.7, this is what God's saying to Cain.
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted.
And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.
And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
So the Bible is clear here that God does not just accept everything.
You know, when we're talking about preaching the acceptable year of the Lord,
it's not just any old year that God's going to accept.
It's not any time that God will accept.
It's not any works or any offering that we bring him that he'll accept.
He doesn't automatically accept everything.
The first time we see anything about being accepted is when God is rejecting
one and accepting the other.
He accepts Abel's offering and he rejects Cain's offering.
God is not an all-accepting God.
He has certain standards of what is acceptable to him.
What does the word acceptable mean?
Well, think about it.
If I went to a restaurant and the waiter brings out the food,
and let's say it's a pizza, and let's say the cheese is not fully melted on that pizza,
and it's clearly not cooked properly, it's clearly a poor quality pizza,
that would be unacceptable.
What does that mean?
I'm going to send it back.
I'm not going to accept it.
It's brought out to me and offered to me.
Okay, sir, here's your pepperoni pizza.
And I say, wait a minute, this is not acceptable.
That means I'm not able to accept this.
I don't want to accept this.
I'm going to send it back to the kitchen,
and I want you to bring me out something that is acceptable.
That's what the word acceptable means.
It means that you accept it.
God doesn't just accept whatever anybody offers him, okay?
Certain things are acceptable to God, certain things are not.
And this is a theme throughout the Bible.
Most often when the word accepted or acceptable is used,
he's talking about people bringing an offering and him saying it's not acceptable.
Let me just read you just a few, just to give you an example of this.
Leviticus 7 18, you don't have to turn there.
I'm just going to blow through these.
The Bible says,
If any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings
be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted.
Neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it.
It shall be an abomination.
And the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity.
Leviticus 19 7.
And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable.
It shall not be accepted.
Chapter 22 verse 20.
But whatsoever hath the blemish, that shall ye not offer.
For it shall not be acceptable for you.
Verse 21.
Whosoever offerth the sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord
to accomplish his vow, or a free will offering in beads or sheep,
it shall be perfect to be accepted.
There shall be no blemish therein.
Chapter 22 verse 23.
Either a bullock or a lamb that hath anything superfluous or lacking in his parts,
that mayest not offer for a free will offering, but for a vow it shall not be accepted.
Verse 25.
Neither from a stranger's hand shall ye offer the bread of your God of any of these,
because their corruption is in them, and blemishes be in them.
They shall not be accepted for you.
Jeremiah 6 20.
To what purpose cometh there to be incense from Sheba,
and the sweet cane from a far country?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifice is sweet unto me.
Chapter 14 verse 10.
Thus saith the Lord unto this people,
Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet,
therefore the Lord does not accept them.
He will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
Verse 12.
When they fast, I will not hear their cry.
And when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them,
but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestler.
You say, oh, if you pray to God, he'll always hear you.
Every time you call, he always hears you.
And if you bring him an offering, he'll always accept it.
No matter what you bring him, no matter what you offer him,
he just wants your heart to be there.
He's just glad you're offering him anything.
He just knows that your intentions are good, and he'll accept anything.
No, he won't accept anything.
He said over and over again, it's not acceptable, it's not acceptable.
What you're offering me is not acceptable.
It's not good enough.
He said, when you pray to me, I won't hear you, because you're not acceptable to me.
He said in Hosea chapter 8, 13,
they sacrifice flesh for the sacrifice of mine offerings and eat it,
but the Lord accepted them not.
Now will he remember their iniquity and visit their sins.
They shall return to Egypt.
Amos 5, 22, though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings,
I will not accept them.
Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
Malachi 1, 10, who is there even among you that would shut the doors for naught?
Neither do you kindle fire on mine altar for naught.
I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts,
neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
I have a lot more here, just for the sake of time,
you get the idea that God is not just an all-accepting God.
You say, well, what in the world does that have to do with the New Testament?
Turn to 1 Peter chapter 2.
You say, come on, Pastor.
I say, we're in the New Testament.
Why do you preach the Old Testament?
Well, it's all God's word.
Now, do we bring burnt sacrifices anymore?
Absolutely not.
Because Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, slain once for all,
that takes away the sin of the world.
We, unlike Abel, have to bring that lamb.
We're not supposed to bring a lamb for a sacrifice.
We don't do these offerings.
But there is still a spiritual application today in the New Testament.
We don't throw out the Old Testament.
We just apply it to the New Testament.
Look at 1 Peter 2, 5.
You'll see the same thing.
Ye also, talking to us as New Testament believers,
as lively stones are built up a spiritual house,
unholy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices.
So not a physical animal sacrifice, not a meat offering,
you know, bacon in the pan with the oil and the fine flour,
but a spiritual sacrifice, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
So in the New Testament, has God changed to where He just accepts anything now?
No, He said that just like in the Old Testament,
I didn't accept every offering.
He said you in the New Testament are to offer up spiritual sacrifices
that are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
How are we going to be acceptable in the New Year?
I want God to hear my prayers in the New Year.
I want to be acceptable in His sight.
I want Him to look down at me and say that I'm a beloved Son in whom He's well preached.
I want to be an acceptable Saint in His sight.
Look at you in Romans chapter 12.
Here's one way that we can be acceptable.
I've got a lot of scripture on this because it's a word that God uses a lot
about what is acceptable to Him and what is not acceptable.
Now here's the thing.
Don't get mixed up when I'm preaching today about salvation
because here's the way salvation works.
When it comes to salvation, when it comes to getting into heaven,
nobody's acceptable.
That's why we need Jesus.
That's why if we believe on Jesus Christ, we'll be saved
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
But we're talking to those that are already saved this morning.
If you're not saved, you just have to believe on Jesus Christ.
That causes you to be accepted and beloved.
Your sins are washed away in regard to heaven.
But as we live out our life,
there are certain things that are acceptable and not acceptable to God.
For example, in order for my children to be accepted to my family,
they just had to be born into my family.
No matter what my children's behavior is,
they will still be a part of the family.
I'm never going to kick them out of the family.
It's the same thing with God.
We're His children.
We're His sons.
He'll never kick us out of the family.
He'll never leave us nor forsake us.
But do you think that there's a lot of behavior
that my children might engage in that I consider unacceptable?
You think I'm going to accept my children being rebellious
and being disobedient and dishonest in my house?
No.
They're going to be chastened.
They're going to be punished.
I'm not going to throw them out of the family.
But they're going to be punished.
It's not going to be acceptable.
I'm not going to tolerate it.
I'm not going to put up with rebellion in my house.
And God does not want to put up with rebellion from His people either.
And we ought to strive not to just say,
Hey, I'm in the family.
No matter what, I'm going to go out and live a wicked life.
Okay, if my children did that,
they're going to get pretty sore on their rear end
if they think they can just do whatever they want.
Now true, they can do whatever they want,
and they're still my children.
But they're not going to have a very happy time as my children.
What's the same thing with God?
If you want God to bless you,
and if you love God, and if my children love me,
my children are going to obey me if they love me.
They're going to obey their mother if they love their mother.
And if we love God, we're going to obey Him.
If we want to be blessed by Him, we better be acceptable to Him.
And not acceptable by our own standards,
but acceptable by His standards.
Romans 12, 1, the famous scripture,
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.
So again, this ties in with those Old Testament sacrifices.
What was acceptable and what was not?
He said, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service.
How is our body going to be a sacrifice that's acceptable?
He tells us in the next verse.
And be not conformed to this world,
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good.
And again, here's the word, acceptable and perfect will of God.
He says, you need to offer yourself for my service.
You need to volunteer for service and say, here I am, Lord.
Send me.
I'm here to serve you.
I'm offering my body as a living sacrifice to you.
I belong to you.
I'm going to do what you want me to do.
I'm going to act how you want me to act.
But He said, I want you to offer something that's holy.
And that's what's acceptable.
He said, something that's acceptable
is not conformed to this world, but it's transformed.
It's not in accordance with the ways of the world,
but it's different than the world.
Now, it's funny, I looked up on Google.
I typed in, what is the most popular New Year's resolutions?
And all these lists were coming up
of the 10 most popular New Year's resolutions.
And I saw some of them were, quit drinking, quit smoking.
That'd be a great resolution.
I think that'd be wonderful.
Because if you're going to be holy and clean in God's eyes,
you're not going to be drunken.
And you're not going to be destroying
your body with cigarettes.
Those would be great New Year's resolutions.
But I've got another one to add to the list.
And I didn't see this on any list.
How about to stop watching TV in 2004?
I mean, come on.
Get over it.
I preach against this so many times.
And sometimes people let it go in one ear and out the other.
But honestly, you don't need TV to live.
It's an addiction that you need to just give up,
just like drinking or smoking.
And honestly, I would rather, right now,
smoke a cigarette with you than to watch a TV
sitcom with you right now.
I'm not kidding.
You will be much more likely.
And look, you're not going to see me smoke a cigarette.
Let me tell you something.
You're going to be way more likely to catch
me smoking a cigarette than watching
one of these filthy sitcoms.
Because I'll tell you right now, I'd rather poison my body
any day of the week than to poison my mind
and poison my soul.
With the filth and smut that's on television,
I'd rather light up a cigarette and put it in my child's mouth
and say, hey, let's smoke it together, son,
than to sit down and say, son, let's watch Modern Family.
Let's watch How I Met Your Mother.
Let's watch Big Bang Theory.
Let's watch all these sickcoms, is what they should be called.
Not sickcoms, sickcoms.
Promoting alternative lifestyle, promoting filth,
blaspheming Jesus Christ, promoting sodomy,
have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,
but rather reprove them.
For it is a shame even to speak of those things,
which are done of them in secret.
We ought to decide in 2012 that we're
going to be acceptable to God, that this year,
2012, is going to be the acceptable year of the Lord,
that we might preach the gospel to the poor,
that we might send liberty to captives.
And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
And where there is sin and filth,
there is chains and slavery.
Why?
Because sin brings bondage.
And if you want to have a year of freedom,
and if you want to have a year of salvation for the lost,
and a year of powerful soul winning,
you've got to be acceptable to God.
And you've got to get rid of this worldliness out
of your life.
If you love watching a bunch of filthy TV shows,
the love of the Father is not in you.
Get right with God.
You need to start loving the things that God loves,
and shunning this kind of garbage
that's on the TV screen.
I'm telling you today, it's getting worse, and worse,
and worse, and God's people just go along with it.
We need to rebel against this stuff,
and say, I am not going to let this kind of garbage
into my home.
I'm not going to see the Hollywood movies this year.
And look, can you just do it for this year?
Last year, OK, you saw every Hollywood movie last year.
Last year, you sat down in front of the television,
and you watched all the sitcoms, and you watched all the films.
Why don't you say, you know what?
2012, I'm going to try something different.
I'm just going to think my own thoughts, read the Bible,
and I'm not going to let TV brainwash me this year.
I'm just going to do my own thing.
I'm just going to unplug it, put it in the closet,
better yet, throw it out the window.
I think that's a pretty good news resolution.
I agree with some of the ones on the top 10 list.
They said, quit drinking.
Hey, if you're a drinker, and you know what?
It's funny, because a lot of pastors and a lot of church
members, they think in a room like this,
nobody drinks anywhere smoking.
But you'd be surprised.
There are probably people in here who drink something,
and there are people in here who smoke.
And you ought to decide in 2012, you're not going to do it.
That you're done drinking, you're done smoking.
And not only that, you ought to decide to quit watching TV.
And quit going to see Hollywood movies.
That would be a great news resolution.
I like it.
Hey, here's another one.
Go to Hebrews chapter 12.
I saw another one that was really common,
was losing weight.
That's probably number one.
Everybody's like, oh, I'm going to lose weight.
I'm going to go on this diet.
And they gore themselves with all the Christmas foods
and Thanksgiving foods.
And then they say, I'm losing weight in the new year.
I'm not even broke.
And hey, I don't have a problem with that at all.
It's probably good for you or whatever.
But honestly, that's not the most important thing
in your life, is your physical body.
What's more important is your spirit.
Much more important than the physical body.
So if you have a new year's resolution to lose weight,
hey, great.
But you know what is a better one, though?
How about this?
Lay aside every weight.
Instead of losing weight as a resolution,
look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1.
Here's a spiritual resolution for you.
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about
with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lose some weight.
No, that's not what it says.
It says, let us lay aside every weight.
And what did he mean by laying aside every weight?
He said, and the sin which doth so easily beset us,
and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
This is spiritual.
Now, let's face it.
If you're very overweight, you're
probably not running a marathon, right?
Because there's so much weight that you'd
have to carry on that marathon.
If you're going to run a marathon,
you've got to have a lot less weight,
because it's going to be too hard on your legs and your feet.
And you're working twice as hard if you're
carrying twice as much weight.
That's why if you see really long distance runners,
they're not huge, because they are carrying less weight
to be able to run the race.
And that's what he's talking about here, running a race.
He says, if you're physically running a race,
you're going to have to lose some weight in order
to run a really long distance.
Well, it's the same thing spiritually.
The Christian life is a race, OK?
It is hard work.
It's running with patience, running with endurance.
God uses all these terms throughout the Bible
about running with patience the race that is set before us.
How are we going to run the race that's set before us
if we're weighted down with all of our worldliness and sin?
He said we need to lay aside every weight and the sin
which stood so easily to be said.
By the way, you don't see a marathon runner
with a backpack on filled with treats for the road.
Treats and water and juice.
No, you see people, what, hand him a cup of water
as he runs by.
You know, there's a little pit stop
where he can stop and get some food and water if he needs it.
But he's not carrying it with him.
You're not going to see him carrying
a bunch of extra baggage and a bunch of, you know,
oh, I brought some stuff to do for the roads.
I brought my PSP, you know, or whatever.
Is that even?
That's probably so obsolete by now.
Is that what people use?
Nobody even knows what it is.
Good, good.
No, no, no.
What's the new one?
Okay, nobody knows.
All right, I guess we're good.
We're not really into video games.
I think we're more Baptist Church.
You're not going to bring a bunch of gear.
You're not going to bring a bunch of extra stuff.
You know, you're not bringing a backpack.
You're running with as little extra weight as possible.
And honestly, if you're trying to serve God,
everybody who's here is probably trying to serve God
or else you wouldn't be here.
Everybody who's here this morning has a desire to serve God,
has a desire to be acceptable to God,
has a desire to be a godly person,
or else you probably wouldn't even be here.
But you're struggling to get it done
because you're weighted down.
You know, and if you'd lay aside some of the weight,
you'd do a much better job at soul winning.
You'd do a better job of serving God.
You'd say, man, it's just so hard to serve God.
Well, you know what?
When you're living a life of worldliness and sin,
that's going to make it harder.
And the more you get rid of that stuff,
the easier it's going to be to serve God.
Let me give you an example.
Let's say you're a young man and you're trying to stay pure.
You know, and you're trying to keep yourself pure.
Or you're a young lady and you're trying to keep yourself pure
until you get married.
OK, well, do you think it's going to be easier or harder
when you're sitting in front of a TV in Hollywood
that's constantly brainwashing you
to commit fornication all day?
That's putting a bunch of half nude images
in front of you all day and talking about fornication
and joking about fornication and joking about adultery
and showing a bunch of indecently clad women.
Let me ask you, young teenage boy,
let me ask you, young lady, let me ask you, young man,
is it going to be easier or harder to stay pure
when you're filling your mind with the world's fornication
on the television screen?
What's going to be easier?
You see, it's easier to serve God and to run with patience
when you lay aside the weight and the sin
which does so easily beset us.
Because when you're filling your mind with that which is wrong,
it's going to be a lot harder to obey God.
It's going to be harder to stay focused in church
if you're a TV head and a movie head
who's used to things exploding.
So church is a little too boring.
It's funny, I've been getting so many messages lately,
people have sent me emails saying,
hey, I really appreciate your preaching.
I love your preaching, but you preached three times
as long as my pastor or your sermonist.
I mean, I literally get emails that say,
hey, I loved your sermon, but it was really long.
I don't know, why do you preach so long?
And I looked at the sermon, it was 49 minutes long.
And they said, this is more than double what my pastor preaches.
I'm thinking to myself, what?
49 minutes?
But it's because we live in this ADD society
where everybody's got to have a commercial break every five minutes
and something's got to blow up on the screen and switch teams.
You can't stay focused.
And what's going to be easier to stay focused in church?
The person who reads books and lives a normal life
or the person who constantly has their eyes
glued to a TV screen or a movie screen or a video game,
who do you think is going to stay focused more in church
and not be like, get out of here.
Where's the commercial break?
I need to go to the lobby.
Let's go out to the lobby and get ourselves a snack.
No, sit down and shut up and listen to the sermon.
You need an intermission for an hour long sermon.
And my average sermon is like one hour.
But I've preached for an hour and 45 minutes before.
And a 20 minute sermon just means you got nothing to say.
That's all that means.
And I've preached a couple of short sermons like that.
Hey, guess what?
I just didn't have a lot to say that morning.
It was a busy week.
The bottom line is that when you preach,
you got something to say, it's going to be a little longer.
Hey, it's going to be easier to sit through that
if you're not having ADD from watching a bunch of TV
and video games and movies all day
and you're not in real life.
You can't focus on a book and on preaching and on listening
and on sitting still.
That's just a couple of examples
how when you lay aside the sin in your life,
it's easier to serve God.
It's easier to stay pure
when you're not flooding your mind with garbage.
It's easier to be faithful to church
and to not be born in church.
But let's talk about being faithful to church.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, if you would.
2 Corinthians chapter 5.
Acts chapter 20 verse 18 says this.
You don't have to turn there.
But in Acts 20 18, it says,
And when they were come to him, he said to them,
this is Paul speaking under the elders from Ephesus,
you know, from the first day that I came into Asia,
after what manner I've been with you at all seasons.
You know, Paul, when he spoke to the church,
he says, you know that from the first day I got to town,
I was with you at all seasons.
I was always there, always in church,
always faithful to church.
And you say, well, you know,
I haven't really been faithful to church.
But you know what?
In 2012, you can be faithful to church from the first day.
Not the first day you came into Asia,
but the first day of 2012, you said,
you know, I'm going to be faithful to church.
I'm going to be present at all seasons.
I'm going to be instant in season and out of season.
So what are some New Year's resolutions that are biblical?
Hey, first of all, lay aside the sin, lay aside every weight,
get rid of the sin, get rid of drinking, get rid of smoking,
get rid of drugs in your life, get rid of,
hopefully we don't have a lot of drug addicts in our church,
but you know, you never know.
And lay aside things like TV and dirty magazines
or whatever it is that you're polluting your mind with,
that'll help you be a little more lean and trim.
Not physically.
Much more important than the way you look on the outside
is what you look like on the inside.
And you know, you want to lose weight,
so you look good or something.
Hey, why don't you look good in the eyes of God?
You want to be acceptable in your physique unto the world?
Or do you want your physique spiritually
to be acceptable unto God?
What's more important here?
And hey, if you want to go on a diet, go ahead.
But you know what?
You need to get on a spiritual diet.
You need to cut out the junk food spiritually.
The junk food of worldliness.
And get on a healthy, lean diet right here of the Word of God.
But not only that, number two,
have a resolution of being faithful to church at all seasons.
You're already off to a great start.
One down, 155 services to go.
You can do this.
It's all downhill from here.
This was the hardest one to get up until midnight and everything.
This is the hardest church service to go to.
If you can make it today,
the other 155 are going to be a piece of cake for you.
2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 9.
Wherefore we labor.
What does labor mean?
Work hard.
Yeah, it's not a cush job.
It's hard work.
He said, Wherefore we labor that whether present or absent,
we may be what?
Accepted of Him.
God will accept us when we do the work that we're supposed to do.
That's acceptable to God.
It is not acceptable to God when we don't work.
Back to the illustration of my children.
Do you think it's acceptable if my children just lay around all day?
No.
They need to do the dishes.
They need to do the laundry.
We have a big family.
They need to pitch in.
There's a lot of work to do.
And constantly my wife is telling them,
Get your hands out of your pockets.
Quit walking slow.
Get to work.
Get something done.
Do your chores.
Do what you're supposed to do.
Okay, why?
Because lack of work is not acceptable in my house.
And it's not acceptable in God's house either.
So here's another resolution to be accepted with God.
And I've got more scriptures on this.
Go to Acts chapter 10, if you will.
Not only should we lay aside every weight,
the typical New Year's resolution of
Quit this, quit that.
You know, I'm adding some spiritual things to the list.
Not only should we make a New Year's resolution
of being faithful to church,
and maybe you've been a Sunday morning glory,
you know, try to hit the Sunday night service this year.
Try to make it three to thrive.
Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
Try to be faithful to church.
Make that a resolution.
That's the most important thing you can do
is by getting to church,
getting the spiritual meat that you need.
And not only that,
church is a place where we gear up to do work.
It's not just a coffee class.
It's not just a country club.
This isn't the elk's lodge, the moose lodge,
where we just get together and hang out with each other.
No, we're here to be equipped to do work for God.
And so why don't you make your third resolution?
Number one, you're going to lay aside every weight.
That's a great resolution.
Number two, be faithful to church.
But number three, make this a year
where you do something for God.
You do some kind of work for God.
You mean come to church?
No, I mean do some kind of a work for God.
Oh, you mean read my Bible?
That's great, but that's not the work
that we're talking about here.
The Bible said we labor,
that whether present or absent,
we may be accepted of Him.
Romans, where did I get your turn?
Acts 10 35 says,
but in every nation,
He that feareth Him and worketh righteousness
is accepted with Him.
Do you see a little work in that verse?
Labor.
He said in Romans 14 18,
for He that in these things
serveth Christ is acceptable to God
and approved of man.
The Bible says in order to be acceptable,
you got to be a laborer.
You got to be a worker
and you got to be a servant.
Those are the three words that we saw.
Do something for God.
Decide that this year you're going to serve God.
If it's going to be preaching
the acceptable year of the Lord,
you're going to go out and preach
the gospel to the poor.
Because that's what Jesus said
was the acceptable year of the Lord.
He said it's to preach the gospel to the poor.
It's to set at liberty the captives
to relieve them that are bruised.
That is what's acceptable to God.
And you got to decide this year,
maybe in the past you've been on the bench
and on the sidelines
and you've been the water boy, so to speak.
But in 2012,
you're going to get in the game
and you're going to get out there
and be a soul winner this year for 2012.
Now different people are at different levels.
Maybe you've already been a soul winner for years.
Maybe you could just be faithful to it this year.
Just stick with it this year.
Do more.
But maybe you've never been out soul winning.
Why don't you decide that in 2012
you're going to get out there
and at least just be a silent partner.
At least just go along with somebody
and go along for the ride.
Because you know,
being a silent partner is where it starts.
That's how I started soul winning.
I went out with somebody and just listened
and they showed me how to do it.
And not only that,
but you're encouraging that person.
And not only that,
you're part of the team.
You're praying.
You're there helping them get more people to say it.
And if we show up for soul winning
and there's two people,
okay,
and then two silent partners show up.
Now we can break up into two groups of two.
And instead of having one group of two knocking doors,
now we got two groups of two.
We get twice as much soul winning done
if we have more silent partners.
Because I guarantee you
at a typical soul winning time
of faith, word, Baptist, church,
let's say on a Sunday,
20 people show up for soul winning
on the Sunday time.
I guarantee you more than half of those people
can do the talking.
So there's room for more silent partners
to jump on board.
You know, probably out of that 20,
probably 15 of them are doing the talking.
If not, more.
And so you can easily bring in
a lot more silent partners
and have plenty of people
to go out soul winning.
And you could be used by God.
You could start serving God.
You can decide to start giving the gospel.
Being a soul winner also in your daily life.
Your job, your friends, your family, your co-workers.
You can kick it up a notch and say,
this year I'm going to do some labor for God.
I'm going to preach the gospel.
This is going to be the acceptable year to war.
You never know.
This may be your last year.
I mean, the Mayan calendar.
No, I'm just kidding.
Anyway, I don't believe in that stuff.
But you know what?
It's not going to be the last year of the plan.
I know that isn't the world
supposed to end in December of this year.
Isn't that what they say?
What is it?
December 21.
December 21st of this year, man.
You've got less than a year.
What are you doing?
So I don't believe in that.
But I'll tell you something.
It could be your last year.
That's right.
Yeah.
It's not going to be the last year of planet earth,
but it might be your last year.
Why don't you make this the greatest year of your life?
And in fact, why don't you make it
the acceptable year of the Lord, where
he looks down and sees it as the greatest year of your life?
OK?
Because this could be your last.
And even if it's not your last, make it the best that you can.
Make it the greatest year that you've ever lived.
Make it a year that's pleasing unto God.
Not only that, I would say some other things to do.
You know, people say, I saw another thing
on the popular list was exercise.
You know, this year I'm going to exercise and get in shape.
How about this?
Exercising yourself unto godliness.
The Bible says, for bodily exercise,
profit little, exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
OK?
Which is basically profitable for the life that thou is
and of that which is to come.
There's so many other things that we
could go into as far as what is acceptable to the Lord.
The Bible says in verse number, well,
you don't have to turn there, but Philippians 4.18 says,
but I have all in abound.
I am full having received of Epaphroditus
the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell,
a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.
But my God shall supply all your needs
according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.
A lot of people are going into 2012
with a lot of worries and cares because of the condition
that our world is in and the condition
that our country is in.
A lot of people are nervous.
I heard a lot of people coming out at the end of 2011 saying,
hey, 2012 is going to be a bad year.
And they said, you know, the stock market is going to crash,
and the dollar is going to crash.
And there's going to be all this horrible European financial
calamity, and we're going to go into a recession
and a depression and all these things.
And hey, I'm not saying that that stuff isn't true.
We are in a lot of bad positions.
I'm not pretending to be the expert on all the things
that are going on politically and financially in our world.
But there are a lot of things going on politically
and financially and with the debt
and all these different things that are coming upon us
to where 2012 is a pretty uncertain year
would be a way to describe it.
We don't know what's going to happen.
We don't know how things are going to turn out in our nation,
in our world.
But I'll tell you one thing.
God said unto the Philippians that because they
have given him an offering and a sacrifice
that was acceptable and well pleasing to him,
his response to that was that he would supply all their need
according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.
You know what that tells me?
That tells me that if I live my life in 2012 in a way
that is acceptable to God, and I offer up spiritual sacrifices
that are acceptable to him, and my life is acceptable
because I'm laying aside every weight
and I'm not conformed to the world,
and because I'm doing the works and the labors
that I'm supposed to be doing, and I'm faithful to his house,
and I'm seeking first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness, that tells me
that God's going to supply my need in 2012.
No matter what happens with the economy,
no matter what happens financially,
no matter what happens with our government and our nation,
God is going to provide for me if I'm acceptable to him.
That means I need to be faithful to him first and foremost
and be acceptable to him.
By the way, here's another New Year's resolution for you.
Tithe.
Now, it's not something that I preach about a lot,
and part of the reason why is because our church
has never been money-oriented,
nor do I ever want it to be money-oriented.
That's just not a big focus around here,
and at other churches, it is a focus.
Nobody can say that we are money-oriented
or money-focused at this church,
but again, it is a biblical subject,
so we're not just going to shy away from it,
but it's just not the most important thing
or the biggest thing.
I mean, God paved the streets in heaven with gold.
That shows that to him, it's the bottom thing.
What we think is the most important thing, gold,
the most valuable commodity to have.
God says, that's what I walk on.
That's why I make the street.
That's asphalt to me.
To him, that's like we would look at a chunk of asphalt
and determine the value of it.
That's the value of gold unto God.
He's nothing to it.
To us, it's 1,500 bucks an ounce or whatever it is,
but to him, it's nothing.
It's just the street to him.
So that's why I don't think that all of our world's problems
will be solved with money,
and all the gospel will be preached if we just have the money,
and money will get everyone saved,
and money will send missionaries around the world,
and money will get the gospel to every nation
and to every creature.
It won't, because God owns the cattle on a thousand hills
and the wealth in every mine.
He said every beast in the forest is mine.
God has unlimited money, unlimited wealth.
That's why we don't emphasize money here.
That's why we don't have big fundraisers and thermometers
and spin the wheel, donate money,
get your name on a plaque.
We just don't make a big deal about money,
because it's not the most important thing in our church.
Because even if our church had zero dollars,
we could still operate and still exist.
I would just have to just go out and go back
to running my business full-time
and going back to making money through that method,
and we would just have to go back to meeting somewhere
other than this building,
and we'd go meet in the park,
and we'd go meet outside or under a tent,
and we'd go meet at somebody else's house this time.
We'd go out and meet somewhere,
and we'd sing and preach and read our Bible and praise God,
and our church does not require money to exist.
It just doesn't.
And our church has had another philosophy through the years.
If we only spent the money that we had,
and we didn't have the money, we didn't spend it.
And so we just, whatever God has blessed us with,
that's what we've done.
Sometimes we had more coming in,
we were able to buy more things than we needed.
Other times money didn't come in,
we just decided to need less.
We just didn't buy certain things.
But that being said, so it's not all about money,
but I will say this, it is a command of God to tithe
all throughout the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament,
before the law, after the law, even Abraham,
even back to Abel,
he brought the first fruits of his flock unto the Lord.
Cain brought an offering,
Abel brought the first things and the first fruits.
He gave the first, the Bible says,
honor the Lord with thy substance
and with the first fruits of all thine increase.
And so when you increase, when you abound and make money,
you're supposed to give one-tenth of it unto the Lord,
that's what basically finances God's house.
The Bible says we give the tithe
that there may be meat in God's house
because the priests in the Old Testament,
they lived off of the money that came in,
in the Old Testament, that's how they lived,
that was their job to be a priest.
And in the New Testament,
that's how the pastor is supposed to live,
that's how we pay for the food.
The Bible says that there may be meat in my house,
all these activities that we have,
we always make them free,
all the dinners we have and the meals that we have,
it's always free because we use the money
that comes in the plate to pay for the nice building
that we have, to pay for the food
that we all eat as a church,
to pay for all these different needs.
And the bottom line is that God will bless you.
Go to Proverbs chapter three, I'll just close with this.
You say, what's the sermon about, Pastor Anderson?
A year that's acceptable to the Lord
and some New Year's resolutions that you should make
that you might decide to have a year
that's acceptable to the Lord.
Being faithful to church.
And you know what,
maybe you're not just going to turn your whole life around
in one day here,
but you can pick one or two areas to work on.
Maybe you're not going to succeed
in everything I'm preaching about,
but why don't you pick some of the areas
that I'm preaching about,
or maybe you've already got most of these covered,
but maybe there's something in the sermon you can decide,
you know what, that is something I need to work on this year.
You know what, I am going to try to be more faithful.
Or maybe you do have one bad habit or bad sin
that you want to cut out and work on.
You know, make that the year that you do it.
But in Proverbs chapter 3, he says this in verse 9,
honor the Lord with thy substance
and with the firstfruits of all thy increase.
So shall thy barns be filled with plenty,
and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
So what's God saying?
He's saying kind of what he said in Matthew 6,
where he said,
seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be added unto you.
Food, clothing, and so forth.
He says here that if you'll honor the Lord with your substance
and with the firstfruits of all your increase,
he said then your barns will be filled with plenty
and the presses shall burst out with new wine.
He's basically saying that if you put him first,
he'll take care of you financially.
If you seek first the kingdom of God,
all these things will be added unto you.
He's not saying you're going to be rich
and you're going to be a millionaire.
But what he's saying is that in 2012,
a very uncertain year economically.
You know, everybody's forecasting doom and gloom economically.
Hopefully they're wrong, but they're probably right.
This is not the time to start putting self first and God second.
Because if you're acceptable to him,
he said he'll supply all your need according to his riches and glory.
I'd rather have that one verse.
I'd rather have a piece of paper with that verse on it
to know that that verse is true and that that verse applies to me.
When it says, but my God shall supply all your need
according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus,
then any stock certificate or pile of gold
or pot of gold at the end of a rainbow
or any kind of a, you know, a secret money stash
or gun stash or food stash or like Chris Broughton
with his rolls of nickels and so forth.
You know, I'd rather, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, I'd rather have that promise of God
because that is never going to fail.
Gold, silver, thieves break through and steal.
You know, paper money can be devalued.
Your stocks might crash.
They're all different ways of wealth that you can have.
But you know what?
Lay not up for yourself treasures upon earth.
Lay up treasures in heaven.
And the bottom line is if we do what we're supposed to do this year,
if we're faithful to church and we're reading our Bible every day,
that's a great New Year's resolution.
We talked about that during the announcements.
If we read our Bible every day, we get through the whole Bible
cover to cover in a year or twice or however many times.
If we go sowing, if we faithfully pay our tithe
and give the Lord the first fruits of our increase
and we give the tenth unto Him, okay,
and we're faithful to church, faithful to sowing,
you don't have to worry about all this other stuff.
God will take care of all that stuff.
Seek Him first.
Be acceptable to Him.
And He said He'll supply all your need according to His riches and glory
by Christ Jesus.
Here's another resolution you might think of.
Praying every day.
Taking time to pray first thing in the morning and throughout the day.
Pray without ceasing.
That's an important resolution.
Maybe this year you didn't do a lot of praying.
You know, maybe you were pretty good on Bible reading,
but maybe you're pretty weak on your prayer.
You know, pray for me.
Pray for the other people in our church.
Pray for people that are struggling.
Pray for your friends and family.
Pray for all men that they might be saved, okay?
There's so many different things that we can be praying for,
and maybe this year you just need to work on making a resolution
to set aside time to pray every single day consistently.
Maybe it's to memorize a Bible verse every day,
and you learn 365 verses by the end of the year,
which is like the book of Hebrews plus another 62 verses.
I mean, that's a lot of Bible.
If you could just learn one verse a day,
maybe it's to learn a foreign language like Spanish.
That was another thing on the list of most popular.
Learn Spanish.
Learn how to win souls.
There's so many things that you can decide today.
It's a great opportunity.
You say, why do we have years?
Is that a man-made invention of the Gregorian calendar?
No.
In Genesis chapter 1, the Bible says that God gave us
the sun, moon, and stars to mark days and seasons and years.
So God invented the year.
The year is not man's invention.
The year is God's invention.
The sun tells us, you know, based on the earth's rotation
around the sun, when it's a new year,
and God has given us this new year today.
Let's make the best of it.
Let's make it a year acceptable unto the Lord.
And decide today, I'm going to forget about last year.
This year, I'm doing it right.
And I hope I gave you some thoughts on some things
you could do to make it a better year this year
and to make it the year to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord.
And by the way, be out soul winning every week.
That's a great goal.
Just 52 weeks, I'm going soul winning 52 times, minimum.
That'd be a great goal, that.
I would try to get out on Sunday.
Why?
It's the first day of the week.
You get out on Sunday, you get it done,
and you know it's done.
And if you can do more later in the week, great.
But hey, at least you can get it cranked out on Sunday.
Let's say you get busy.
You can't make it out on Sunday.
You got other days to make it up.
Or maybe your regular soul winning time
is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday.
You know, stick with that.
Be consistent.
If Sunday's not a good day for you,
be consistent on those other days.
But just try to be out at least one day each week,
no matter how busy you are.
And man alive, I can tell you,
there have been some times where I was so busy,
Scott can testify and be my witness,
where Scott was with me all day long.
And we worked literally over 100 hours and everything
in weeks where we were just go, go, go, go, go,
doing fire alarm work a couple of years ago.
Scott was with me.
But you know what?
I always just stopped everything for a few hours.
Even when it was just insane.
And I mean, six days of that week,
I was just going crazy.
But I did stop and say, you know what?
Even on the most insane week,
let's just put in a couple hours of soul winning.
Let the world fall apart.
Let the phone ring off the hook.
Let the email inbox go nuts.
And just go out soul winning for a couple hours.
Just to be consistent with it.
Because you know what happens when you start missing?
Because I could have said,
well, I do tons of other soul winning at other times.
You know, I can go a few weeks, get my work done,
and just take a break from it.
And that's true.
But the problem is you get out of the habit of it.
And it's real hard to get back into the habit.
You know, once you get out of the habit,
it's hard to get back out there.
When you go out every week, just keep plugging away at it.
It's a lot easier just to stay consistent with it.
Let's bow our heads and have word of prayer.
Father, please just help something that I said this morning
to sink down into the air.
We had so many scriptures that we read and so many verses.
I just pray that something would resonate.
And please help me to do a better job this year as a pastor.
And help me to be a better Christian.
And help me to do the most soul winning
I've ever done this year.
And to do the most Bible reading,
the most Bible memory, and the most prayer.
And to really clean up my mind and my heart and my spirit.
And you know, my physical body is one thing.
And keeping it in shape.
But Father, help me keep the spirit and soul in shape.
First and foremost.
And to lay aside every weight and help every person who's here
to resolve and decide to do the same thing.
And in Jesus name we pray. Amen.