3 Keys for 2012

We are just a few days into the New Year. I hope you are moving forward and have not broken too many of your resolutions,  if you actually made any.

This past Sunday was a great way to start the New Year for us. While some stayed away from church, or stayed up too late on New Years Eve to make it to church, others came out. Actually we have a great showing at our two services and Caleb Quaye and Cory Hunter joining the LFC worship team was a great blessing. Caleb is not only one of the best guitar players in the world, but his love for Jesus and his great heart are world-class also. We enjoyed communion and it really was a great site to behold, as our four communion stations were filled with people receiving communion and prayer over their lives. I want to thank our prayer team who really stepped up and made it a great morning.

I am not big on slogans or a word for the New Year.  Some pastors are really into it and rather great at it.  Each year they come up with a new focus or emphasis for the year. Here are some that I have read about 2012:  Focus, Purpose, Joy, Destiny, Grace, Service, Love, Year of Growth, Year of Power, Year of Hope, Year of Generosity, The Year to Choose Joy. The list goes on for sure and includes some great stuff.

This year I sensed a stirring in my heart concerning a focus or purpose for us.  Rather than a word or two, I have chosen instead to give you three simple keys to your spiritual growth. This Sunday we will focus on one that is very important, but you will have to come to find out.

Here are the three keys:

“Love God wholly, Walk with Him daily, Obey Him fully”  

If you are wondering what to focus on for the year, I submit to you that these three things will make all the difference in the world and in the lives of others.
These three keys are really a singular focus that flows out of Deuteronomy 6:5:

And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.  (NIV).

Then Deuteronomy 6:6

And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. (NIV)

This year can be our best one ever if we live out God’s principles and truth and not just know them. It will take discipline on our part, but we can do it, especially when our doing flows out of our loving Him and being with Him daily.

John 13:17 says, “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” 

It’s easy to come to church where there is a lot of information, but if it just goes into your head and stays there it’s called information.  If it drops down to your heart that is inspiration – it can inspire you, fire you up, even make you feel good about yourself and life. However, it won’t really change you deeply and certainly not change the world. When we love God wholly with all we are and are becoming and spend time with Him daily, the next thing is to obey Him fully. This is when truth flows into your heart and through your body, flowing into the soles of your feet and soon it becomes incarnation.  That’s when things begin to change.

Deuteronomy 4:1

And now, Israel, listen carefully to these decrees and regulations that I am about to teach you. Obey them so that you may live…  (NIV)

‘Do this and live – Obey God fully and live.’  Transformation does not come through knowing but through doing.  Otherwise we’ll know all the things about love and sing all the songs there are of love and quote all the lines from love movies, but we won’t love when it is hard to love.  We’ll know everything about joy and sing songs of joy, and have joyous stories to tell, but we won’t have joy in our souls that will flow to others. We’ll know everything about forgiveness, even Hebrew and Greek words for forgiveness and historical and doctrinal views on forgiveness and even sing all the songs in the key of forgiveness, but out in the world we can’t forgive.  Edgar Guest has a poem that goes like this, “I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day, I’d rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way.  The eye’s a better pupil and more willing than the ear, fine counsel is confusing but example is always clear.  The lecture you deliver may be very wise and true, but I’d rather get my lessons by observing what you do.  For I might misunderstand you and the high advice you give, but there’s no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.”

Let’s love God, be with God and obey God so that others can see a great sermon lived out in us in 2012.

Now that is really living,

Pastor Bernie 

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