What type of year was this for you?

What type of year was this for you?

As we come to the close of the year there is a tendency for us to reflect on what type of year it was for us. Some events might jump out at us that lead us to classifying the year in one way or another. This event or maybe a series of events paints a picture of the year that helps to shape our current mood. The past has a way of turning up in the present and indeed in the future.

What was this year like for you? Is it a year that you would like to bottle and take with you and savour for the rest of your life? Or is it a year that you wish never happened and would like to delete from history? Maybe your year did not represent either end of the spectrum and you experienced a mixed bag of bitter and sweet.

The Apostle Paul (as Saul) was enjoying a phenomenal year when he was struck blind on the road to Damascus and literally brought to his knees. His future took a dramatic turn from that time forward. Paul’s past did not determine what his future would be.

Moses was cast in the role of a fugitive when he was called to lead his people out of bondage. Moses’ past did not determine what his future would be.

Joseph was cruelly separated from his loved ones, sold into slavery and later cast into prison when he was called to guide the fate of a nation. Joseph’s past did not determine what his future would be.

My friends the past need not be a determinant of the future. No matter what your year has been like, outstanding results can be yours in the future. And if you achieved great results this year, even better results can be yours going into 2009.

I want to share 3 points with you. The first is hopefully already clear. Our past need not decide what our future will be. Our fortunes can be turned around quickly and with markedly different results.

One implication of this is that we should avoid limiting our vision of the future on the basis of our past experience. We have to lift our eyes above our current circumstances as we ponder the future. The great things that lay in store for you might not now be evident from how you see yourself at this point in time. But I challenge you to dare…dare to allow yourself to see a better and brighter future. Your past need not determine what your future will be.

As a congregation, our vision of what we can achieve should not be limited by our past achievements. We too can have a greatly expanded role in the service of God. We can get to the point where it will be hard to believe where we are coming from. Persecutor to Apostle; fugitive to leader; prisoner to top level official.

What is store for us going forward?

Phil 3: 12 - 21 Pressing on Toward the Goal
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
17 Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

The 2nd point is that God has a plan for our lives.

God stopped Saul in his tracks as a persecutor of Christians to become Apostle Paul - a standard bearer of the Christian faith. Saul’s despicable role in presiding over the murder of Christians did not deter God from redirecting him to useful service in bringing people to Christ.

God has a role for your life. Are you going to wait to be stopped in your tracks and brought to your knees before you stop kicking against the pricks?

I encourage you now to spend the next days in prayerful searching for what it is that God would have you do. Examine where you have been placed and see if there are not missed opportunities for you to do work for God.

Look at the skills that you have and see if there are any that could be redirected to effective service to God.

Re-visit the pain or hurt that you now feel and explore whether there is a message there that could be of value to someone in need of solace and who would benefit from being guided to God – the true source of peace and comfort.

Moses and Joseph might have been justified in thinking that their lives were going nowhere. They could have become despondent at their marked lack of success. They might not have had high expectations with respect to the future. Yet, God had a plan for their lives…..in just the same way that He has a plan for your life today.

I invite you to go into deep, prayerful introspection with the Bible as your guide to see if there is any aspect of your life that God would have you redirect to His service.

This is a call to stop kicking against the pricks; to avoid despondency; to resist accepting failure and channel our energies into achieving great results in the service of God!


My 3rd and final point is that what you are called to do for God takes precedence over everything else.

Peter and the other disciples dropped everything to follow the call of Christ.

Devout Saul was challenged to give up that role and carry out an assignment for Christ as the Apostle Paul.

I cannot say whether God is expecting you to change your occupation or your pre-occupation. However, whatever He is calling you to do must take precedence over what you are doing now.

There might be someone who is being called to follow the plan of salvation. One reason after the other is being trotted out as to why this call is being resisted. Do not wait for God to put you through a painful experience like Saul for you to stop kicking against the pricks. You may not be as fortunate and end losing your soul for eternity.

The call to come to Christ must be given top priority. What you are called to do for God always takes precedence over everything else.

Luke 10: 38 – 42 At the Home of Martha and Mary
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed.[Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Pressures and distractions of one sort or another might be drawing you away from delivering the service that God has in mind for you. You put things off that ought to be done now. You fail to commit the right amount of energy and enthusiasm in those things that you finally getting around to doing. You skilfully avoid putting yourself in the way of opportunities to serve.

You develop nice sounding arguments as to why right here, right now is not the ideal time or place for YOU to serve. Your calling is for another time and place.

God has a plan for your life and that plan must be given precedence over everything else.

Do not allow the past to cloud your vision of the future. Your past need not determine what your future will be. Consider Saul, Moses, Joseph.

Understand that God has plan for each and every life…including yours. Be diligent in prayerful reflection with the support of the Bible as you seek to find out what God would have you do.

What God wants of you takes precedence over everything else. Do not wait to be stopped in your tracks to put yourself in God’s service.

To be in God’s service you need to be a baptized follower of Christ…why are you holding back? Get up and be baptised for the remission of your sins and become eligible to be in full service to God.

A review of all the conversions in the New Testament and supporting passages point to the following plan of salvation:

We must hear the good news of Jesus, His atoning sacrifice for our sins and His resurrection. Rom 10:14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

You must also believe the good news.
Heb 11: 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Faith is not enough. We are called to act on our belief and to make a decision to no longer let sin reign in our lives but to seek to live in obedience to God. This is the very important act of repentance.

Luke 13: 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

You then have to confess Jesus as Lord of your life. This is a public declaration of your belief that Jesus is the Son of the Living God:

Rom 10: 8-10 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

Another major step is that you must be baptized for the removal of our sins. This is a step that is either left out completely or is comprised in attempts to make salvation more convenient.

Gal 3:26 For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus. 27For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ.