New Year’s Resolution
“Putting Christ in the Center of our Lives”
(A sermon outline)
Galatians 2:20
“I am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me, and gave himself for me.”
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What would happen in the New Year if we put Christ as the center of our
lives and most of all “our thinking?”
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In our work we have come to believe that the meaning we
give any internal or external event determines how we live our lives for as
a man thinketh so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7) The word meaning is a
German word which means “to hold in mind.” That is exactly what Proverbs 23:7
is talking about.
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If we get the meaning right, all other areas of our life
will be right. The Bible teaches us that when Christ is center, all is
well. John 10:10 Jesus said, “I have come that they may
have life, and have it to the full.”
When “He” is at the
Center, all of our thinking becomes Christ centered:
- In Galatians 2:20 Paul is asserting that Christ is
the center of his life for “Christ lives in him” and the purpose (#7
Purpose) of his life is to live it “crucified unto Christ.”
When the meaning of our life is to
be “crucified with Him” that will determine the remaining components of
the circle which we believe sums up all thinking/behaving.
- By
letting Christ be at the center, we create a “new Self” (#2 Self) for in 2
Cor 5:17 Paul
says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come!” Knowing our position in Christ
solves all identity issues. I know who I am because I know Whose I
am. And, that is good enough!
- By letting Christ be center of our lives the gives me the Power
and Resources (#3 Power) to live in this world successfully for Phil
4:13 “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
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By letting Christ be the center of our lives, we have
a dynamic relationship with this concept called Time (#4 Time). He has given me eternal life (John 3:16). “For
whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto
the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans
14:8)
Paul says, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in
us.” (Romans 8:18) That tells me that being crucified with
Christ, having our meaning from Him makes time irrelevant for we
are in Him the timeless one.
- By letting Christ be the center of our lives, we will live in
obedience to the Greatest Commandment which calls upon us to love God and
to love our neighbor
(#5 Others).
Matthew 22:37-40 “37Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with thy entire mind. 38This is the first
and great commandment. 39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself. 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets.
- By letting Christ be the center of our lives, we will accept the
world as a place that we can live in without fear but with confidence and
joy (#6 World). 1 John 4:4 says, “…dear children, are
from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater
than the one who is in the world.”
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By letting Christ be the center of our lives, He is
our purpose, period (#7 Purpose).
2 Timothy 4:6-9 “For I am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I
have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them
also that love his appearing.