SINGLE SERMON SERIES
RESOLUTIONS TO GOD
DR. JIM DIXON
2 CORINTHIANS 3:18
DECEMBER 29, 1991
On May 19th, 1777, Button Gwinnett was killed in a duel with a brigadier general. Most people probably think, who cares about Button Gwinnett? He was simply a man from Georgia who was out of the public eye and spent his time as a farmer and merchant. On October 18th, 1979, someone paid $110,000 to purchase a letter because that letter had the signature of Button Gwinnett on it. Indeed, the signature of Button Gwinnett is one of the most valuable signatures in the world today. Why is that? Well, Button Gwinnett was one of the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence. And of those men who signed the Declaration of Independence, his signature is perhaps the rarest and the hardest to acquire.
There are wealthy people all over the world who want to acquire the signatures of all fifty-six men who sign the Declaration of Independence. The signature of Button Gwinnett is the hardest to find. For Button Gwinnett, his signature had little importance. What was important to Button Gwinnett was a resolution that he had affirmed on July 2nd, 1776. This resolution was the Richard Henry Lee Resolution Solution. It stated, “These United colonies are and by rights ought to be free in independent states.” This was a resolution affirmed by the second continental Congress of which Button Gwinnett was a part. The Declaration of Independence is merely a beautifully written public declaration that had already been resolved by way of the Richard Henry Lee Resolution on July 2nd, 1776.
All of us make resolutions. You’ve already made a number of resolutions in your life and in the future you will make more. Most of us do not declare openly or in writing the resolutions we have made. Neither are our resolutions nearly as important or risky as the resolution that Button Gwinnett made on July 2nd, 1776. This morning I would like to suggest that God wants you to make two resolutions as you enter the year 1992. These two resolutions are more important than the resolution affirmed by the second Continental Congress on July 2nd, 1776. These two resolutions are more important than any resolutions you could ever make. The first resolution to seek the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Everybody in life lives for something. Davey Moore held the featherweight boxing championship of the world for almost five years. He lost his title in a match with Sugar Ramos. Sugar Ramos caught him with a solid right to the jaw. Davey Moore staggered backwards and fell into the lower rope ring. He got up before the count of ten and was dazed. Sugar Ramos finished him off with a flurry of punches. Davey Moore fell unconscious in the center of the ring for a full minute. When he came to, he was dazed and confused, he went to the corner of Sugar Ramos, he found the trainer of Sugar Ramos, a man named Angelo Dundee. Davey Moore said, Angie, you’re going to give me a rematch, aren’t you? Those were the last words that Davey Moore ever spoke. He fell to the canvas, went into a coma and he died three days later. A sad story. There’s a lot of sad stories in the world of boxing. And yet in that true story, you see a piece of the fire that motivated and drove Davey Moore.
At some point in Davey Moore’s life, he decided that above all else, he wanted to be the featherweight boxing champion of the world. That’s what drove him and became the thing he would live and die. Everything he did the workouts, training, running, boxing, dieting and thinking was aimed at that goal to become the boxing champion of the world. Everybody lives for something.
Most people don’t live with such a singularity of purpose. Most of us have a variety of goals in life, a multiplicity of purposes and don’t take the time to evaluate how we prioritize the things we live for, the things we seek and the goals we pursue. If you’re a Christian, the message of the Bible is absolutely clear. Your highest priority, goal, and purpose is to seek the kingdom of Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter six, Jesus Christ says, “Above all us, first seek the kingdom of God.” As you sit here this morning, at the end of this year, 1991, God wants you to evaluate whether you truly seek first his kingdom.
Tuesday morning I had breakfast with Tori Olson. Tori and his wife Kim, are missionaries working with World Vision in a remote city of Mali. For World Vision staff there’s no tougher assignment than trying to minister in Mali. In the city where Tori and Kim work, there are only 70 Christians and they’re excited to minister in that Muslim nation because they can see that by the grace of God, people are beginning to consider the claims of Jesus Christ and there’s a growing, developing Christian community.
The work is hard where they live. There’s only one street that’s paved. The home they live in is made of mud. They sleep each night on the roof of their mud house. The temperatures nine months of the year are 120 degrees and up. In the dead of winter, the daytime temperatures are still 90 to 95 degrees. There is disease and rampant infection. The work is hard. Just this last year, two of Tori’s staff were murdered by rebel forces, and two others of his staff have been taken hostage. Tori and Kim are here for a few weeks and return January 4th. They can’t wait to go back and serve the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Does the kingdom of Christ come first in the life of Tori and Kim Olson? It does. They live to serve the kingdom of Jesus Christ and we should too. Tori told me Tuesday morning, “I’m really concerned about America. I’ve been gone for 18 months and I can’t believe how fast this nation is sliding.”
Maybe you haven’t noticed that this nation is sliding. Sometimes when you’re in the midst of it, it’s hard to recognize. Tori said as they have watched television, read newspapers or gone to the movies that they have seen a change. The separation of church and state is becoming a massive gap as a result of the secularization of public schools and the erosion of Judeo-Christian values. Yet I must say honestly, I think part of the blame must fall into the lap of Christians because of the sin of silence. I think as Christians, we’ve just kind of acquiesced and we’ve watched the slide. It’s tragic.
God wants us to make a New Year’s resolution. One where we’re going to seek first the kingdom of Christ and seek to be salt and light in the world. We’re not going to only curse the darkness, but we’re going to light a candle. I greatly disagree with the platform of the gay lobby. I believe with all my heart that God loves all people. God loves gays. God loves lesbians and homosexuals. I also believe the Bible clearly states that the practice of homosexuality is sin. The gay lobby consists of men and women who are willing to take a stand and they’re taking a stand, I would say for that, which is wrong, but they’re willing to take a stand despite the mockery, no matter what the cost. The tragic thing about evangelical Christians is that so many of us are not willing to take a stand. God has called us to ministry in our culture, at this time and in this community, to seek first His kingdom. As we approach the dawning of a new millennium the challenge is so great.
I don’t know how long the national economy is going to suffer, and I’m sure most of you don’t know either. But it’s only if we make Christ first that we’re going to have enough funds to do the work that Christ has set before us. In the Wall Street Journal there was an article about the attitudes of modern Americas. Most people in our country, according to this article, say that the most important thing in their life is their relationship with God. Second most important thing is health. Third most important thing is a happy marriage. This wall, this Wall Street Journal article, said that they think that’s phony. They think most Americans are hypocrites. Most Americans claim God is most important but their behavior in the way they use their time and money, all shows that God really isn’t most important for those families that make $50,000 to $75,000 a year. According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, the average annual gift is only one and a half percent of income to charitable causes. Churches get some percentage of that one and a half percent.
From 1965 to 1985, income among this group of people increased more than 100% and giving to charitable causes only increased 3%. More important than anything else, our church faces critical times. We approached the end of this calendar year, $350,000 behind in our general operating budget. I hope you know that’s really serious.
Now it is true we are in the midst of a building program and we’re all seeking to be faithful to the pledges we’ve made. That puts an inordinate stress on our general operating budget and some of the special gifts that perhaps people would’ve given have been given to the building instead. And yet, I have to believe if we’re really seeking first the kingdom of Christ, the money’s going to be there. Of course, seeking first the kingdom of Christ has to do with much more than money, it has to do with the way we use our time, abilities, and gifts. You see, the drama we just saw this morning was all about gifts unused. It’s a tragic thing when somebody gives you a gift and you don’t use it. A gift unused is, a gift rejected. God has given gifts to those of us who believe in his Son, the gifts of the spirit.
He’s given us special talents and abilities. He’s given us financial resources. He’s given us time. He’s saying to us, “Use these gifts to seek first, seek first my kingdom.” Some of us are going to need to change our lifestyles. Is anything harder than changing lifestyle? The reason many people can’t give is because they really just don’t have the money. The reason they don’t have the money is because of their lifestyle. Their lifestyle absorbs all their income. They hope that maybe they can just make more and more so that they can give. However, lifestyle choices often absorb it. Most of us have monthly bills and obligations that it’s all we can do to meet them. And the only way we’re going to get out of the rut is to maybe live in a cheaper house, drive a less expensive car, take more humble vacations so that we can begin to use our money, what God intended in the way in which God intended us to use our money. And that’s to seek first the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
The second resolution God would have us make as we approach the year 1992 is to seek Christ’s character. When we stand before the judgment seat of Christ these two things Christ will look for more than anything else in the life of the Christian. Did you seek my kingdom? And did you seek my character? I shared with the deacons and the elders this past month about the importance of character. The English word character comes from the Greek word character meaning imprint or image. The signet ring of the king, when pressed against the paper, produced an image, a character, which was on the face of the ring. In Hebrews chapter one, it says, “In various ways, God spoke of all to our fathers by the prophets. In these last days, God has spoken through a son, through whom also he created the worlds. He reflects the glory of God. He bears the very character of his nature.” Jesus Christ is the imprint of the Father. He has the character of his father’s nature. He is the character, the image of the father’s nature. Now our call is Christians. If we really believe in Jesus Christ, it is to seek that same character, that same imprint, that same image, that the image of God through Christ might begin to be manifested in us. So that when people see you and when people see me, they might see in some measure something of Jesus Christ.
In the world’s eyes, character isn’t very important. In God’s eyes, it’s critical. Peter the Great came to sit on the throne of Russia in 1682. He was 10 years old. Now obviously at age 10, he was not ready to run the nation. His half-sister Sophia took the reins of government. Seven years later in 1689 Peter the first retook the reign from his half-sister Sophia. People loved Peter the Great because they found him physically attractive and tall. Historians tell us that he was at least six feet, nine inches tall. That is tall in any century and particularly in the 17th century. Peter the Great was also able to take a horseshoe and bend it with his bare hands. He was skilled in knowledge, battle, music, architecture, and building. He was a veritable genius that had an insatiable thirst for knowledge. He traveled the known world learning all that he could and brought what he learned back to Russia. He cultivated the scientific community and educational system in Russia. As a great warrior he led Russian armies in battle defeating foreign nations. He westernized Russia and made it great. He was everything the world requires for greatness.
In the sight of God, will Peter the first be deemed great? When his soul and spirit stand before the throne of judgment described in the Book of Revelation what will God say to him? Peter the Great was a nominal Christian. He tended to give God public recognition. He closed most of his statements with the phrase, “If God wills.” He performed certain ecclesiastical rituals on a regular basis but he didn’t seem to have a genuine heart for Christ. In fact, he was cruel. He was a tyrant. He executed his own son, he put away his first wife, he butchered his enemies, and he had an insatiable thirst for sex and pleasure, a hedonist to the core. Though his second wife bore him many children, she was not enough for him. He had a countless sequence of affairs. He threw parties that lasted two and three days in length and were drunken orgies. And is he going to stand before Christ? And is Christ going to call him great? I doubt it. See, the world looks at looks and appearance. The world looks at talent and ability. The world looks at accomplishments. And if you have all these things, you’re great in the eyes of the world.
God is looking for character. Today Christians are adopting the philosophy of the world and it is tragic. They live for looks and appearance and their greatest pursuit is giftedness and accomplishment. God is looking for character. I’m reminded of a type of orange tree that was outside of my parents house in California. This tree grew many citrus fruits however they were bitter to taste. The tree was often laden with fruit and we ignored it. The fruit just fell to the ground. The only thing my brother and I used them for was as objects to throw. They were neglected fruit.
I suppose there’s a lot of neglected fruit in the world. Biblically, the fruit that is most neglected and ignored is what the Bible calls the fruit of the Spirit. I think most Christians give lip service to the fruit of the spirit but don’t really care about the fruit. To our Father and Lord nothing is more important than the fruits of the spirit. These fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
2 Corinthians chapter three verse eighteen says, “We all with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another. All of this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” This is the goal of our Father, that we might be transformed evermore into his likeness, but it only happens as we behold Him. What does it mean to behold Him? The Greek word that’s used there doesn’t mean to simply look. It’s a word that’s used for a quest or earnest desire. You’ve got to really want to be like him in order for the power of the Holy Spirit to be released in your life for transformation. This year, as we come to the end of the year and we approach the dawn of a new year, may we let these two resolutions be our earnest desire. That we might seek His kingdom and His character. If we do these things, we will never be sorry. Let’s close with a word of prayer.