3 Things for the New Year Part 3
In the new year of 2021 we are looking at 3 things to begin this year. The first was the peace of God and how we must walk in his peace in spite of the world around us. Number two is to keep our focus is on Jesus. This focus allows us to move toward our target, our purpose, without distractions. Our focus becomes the launching point for the third thing this year.
So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” John 20:21
We must GO! Jesus said to the disciples I am sending you just as the Father sent me. Go and do what I have done, you just spent 3 years with me, go and do what you have seen. Now is the time where we must be focused on God's plan for humanity, we must focus on taking the gospel to the world. This isn't just the nations around the world in a macro sense, this is the gas station behind your house, or the Albertson's down the street. We have a command from the Lord to go.
One of the scriptures we looked at about the plan of God was John 3:16, and it talked about how God sent his Son because he loved the world. The love of God in our lives is the driving force of our call to go. It is the undeniable force of the love of God in our hearts that compels us to go. The thing about love is that it is not just something that is for us, it requires expression. True love is given, not just received. It governs our responses and interactions with others. John said in one of his epistles to the church that if we love one another then the love of God is perfected in us.
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:12
By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 1 John 4:17
Can we see the evidence of love working in our relationships? It's seen by how we respond to our wife when we she is upset that we haven't taken out the garbage yet after she asked us 5 times. Do we yell and get mad that she is nagging? Or do we realize taking out the trash is something that helps make her house work easier? So instead of waiting to be asked we take out the trash, that is an expression of love. Others see how we treat those around us, our kids watch how we treat our spouse, people at the store are watching how we respond to our kids when they ask for the fourteenth time to get some chocolate. Love is a mark that we carry where ever we go. The Bible says that they will know we are Christians by our love. It is something that the world gravitates towards.
Our call this year is to go forth in the love of God. I love that passage that says as he is so are we in this world. That means we have the opportunity to walk in all the fullness of Christ! It was the love of God that lead him to heal blind eyes, to forgive sins, to raise the dead, and to set people free. When we go out into our everyday lives we carry that same power. It's the power of the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. We don't go out in our own strength, we go out empowered by His Spirit and walking in his love.
Above all else let's put on love and go forth in it.