SLIDES

How to Have a Successful New Year

After 60, 70, or 80 years of experiencing a New Year, are you still making new year resolutions? Did you make a new year’s resolution to lose weight, to get organized, to clean out, etc.so that you can consider your having a successful year? If so, have many new year’s resolutions have you already broken? Is the key to having a successful year making and keeping a new year’s resolutions?

The word success is a very biblical word. Before Joshua and Israel entered the land by crossing the Jordan River, God told Joshua the following in Joshua 1:7-8.

7 “Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.

8 “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

So, we see that the word success not a bad word. God wanted Joshua and Israel to have success. The problem with the word success is how one defines success. To the world defines success in a different way than what the Bible defines. To the world success is measured by.

Prosperity - one who is flourishing and thriving in the area of finances.

Position - ones’ status in relation to employment or a job.

Prominence – refers to one’s status in life.

Power – the capability of doing or accomplishing something.

However, we know people who are prosperous, who have important position, have prominence, and who have power who are not successful. Prosperity, position, prominence, and/or power does not guarantee or equals success.

If success is a God word and the word that God told Joshua to pursue, then what is success from God’s perspective. Success is fulfilling ones God designed reason for being. Israel’s God ordained reason for being was to bring glory God by being the instrument to bring the Messiah into the world, seizing the land God promised to them, for being a witness and light to the nations and to each other and to minister to other Israelites in need. Their first order of business at hand was to occupy the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and to the nation of Israel.

Today success for a believer has nothing to do with how prosperous one is, what position one holds in the work force or in politics, how prominent one is in this life, or how much power one has. If a believer is not doing the will that God has ordained for their lives, then they are not a success but a failure.

If we are to also be as success today as a believer, we too are to glorify God by using our spiritual gifts, natural talents, time, and treasure to be subjective and an objective witness to minister to those in need wheather believers or not. A subjective witness is when you are the subject of sharing the gospel with others. An objective is when you are the object that others are observing to see if your words match your behavior as a believer in Jesus. It really come down to what Jesus said in Matthews 22:37-39.

37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God

with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your

mind.’

38 “This is the great and foremost commandment.

39 “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as

yourself.’

The word like here is means the same as or equal to. The second commandment to love one’s neighbor is as great as and as important as the first commandment to live the Lord will all one’s being.

The world wants to define the word success for us and tell us how to be successful. I know that many of you are retired, but if someone sought your advice on how to make their life successful what, would you tell him or her? Would you use the definition of success that the world uses or would you tell them about how to be a successful Christian? Paul was clear in Romans 12:2.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Now that we have defined the word success, let’s look at a few suggestions on how to be successful in 2023.

1. Leave yesterday behind.

Let’s look at Joshua 1:2 - “Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.

God reminded Joshua that Moses was dead, and he was not the leader of Israel any longer. Joshua was the leader. Moses was dead so God was telling Joshua not to worry about Moses any longer. Leave him behind and press ahead and cross the Jordan River.

Don’t carry last year’s problems into this year. Last year was filled with things to celebrate but also things that were disappointing and even heart wrenching. Don’t carry these things into this year. 2022 is over so press ahead in 2023.

If you have unforgiveness in your heart, don’t drag it into this year. Leave it behind by forgiving the one who has offended you. You cannot press ahead with unforgiveness in your heart. Leave it behind and press ahead. If you have a debt to pay, pay the debt and do not drag that problem in to this year. If you have made a promise that had not been fulfilled, do not drag int into this year. Fulfill the promise. Leave regrets behind and things you cannot change behind. Don’t carry last year’s problems in to this year. Take care of them and bury them. Leave them behind. You cannot be successful if you live in the past.

A car has several pieces of glass that surround it. Two of the important pieces of glass include a small piece that is called a rearview mirror and the large piece that is called a windshield. You glance into the rearview mirror only occasionally. Most of the time you a looking at what ahead through the windshield. Pressing ahead this year where God is leading you is done through the large windshield not the rearview mirror. You cannot drive a car successfully by trying to drive it by looking at the rearview mirror most of the time. Glace at 2022 on occasion, but put most of you focus on 2023 not 2022. Paul certainly knew that as we see in Philippians 3:13-14.

13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God

in Christ Jesus.

2. Seize your inheritance.

Let look at Joshua 1:3-4.

3 “Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to

you, just as I spoke to Moses.

4 “From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great

river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the

Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory.

Inheritance is in the earthly, physical sense is an estate that is passed from one generation to another. God owns the land He gave to Israel as an inheritance. They did not just walk in the land to possess it. They had to seize it by fighting those living in the land. The had to trust God to help them fight their battles to possess it. They sought God before they went to Jericho. The next city they tried to seize was Ai. 36,000 Israelites were slaughtered by the men of Ai. In 7:11 God told Joshua they were defeated because items were kept that were to be destroyed. After an investigation, Aachen was found to be the culprit. Sadly, they never seized all the land God promised them. As Israel was defeated at Ai because there was sin in the camp. Believers in Jesus can also be defeated in their efforts for God because of sin their lives.

Believers in Jesus also have an inheritance from God. Each believer has an allotted portion to include spiritual gifts, human talents, time, and treasure that God has given each of us for the purpose as we see in Ephesians 2:10.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for (purpose) good works, which God prepared beforehand so that (purpose) we would walk in them.

As Israel was to appropriate their inheritance of the land promised by God by trusting God to lead them and give them power over the ones who occupied the land, believers also have to appropriate their inheritance by trusting God. Our inheritance is there, but to receive it, it must be appropriated by faith.

3. Focus on God, not people.

In Joshua 1:5 God told Joshua as they crossed the Jordan River that they would never be defeated and that He would never fail them nor forsake them. The key to this was found in a command that God gave three times in three verses. In verses 6 and 9 God commanded them to be strong and courageous as they took the land from the those who were living in the land. In verse 7 He commanded them to be strong and very courageous. Again, this strength and courage came from trusting God. They were never to look at the enemy’s number nor the amount and type of implements of war they had, but they were to focus on and trust God to help them defeat the enemy and to seize the land promised. God told David not to number the people so that David as King would trust instead of his army.

As Israel faced resistance from the unbelievers who occupied their land, believers in Jesus are also going to face daily resistance from our enemy, Satan and his cohorts who includes unbelieving humans. As God gave Israel strength and courage to defeat their enemies, God has given to us spiritual armor to stand firm against our enemies so that they will be thwarted as each of us does the work the LORD has preordained us to accomplish.

Israel was preordained to seize the land God had promised. If they were obedient, His ‘presence and power would be with them. As we seek to do the works God has preordained for us to do, let us remember that we must be in the Lord’s will doing what He wants us to do at that particular time in our lives. We must also do these good works in God’s power. There are times when people try to do the works that God want them to do without His power and/or they want God power but they do not want to do His will for their lives. If we are going to succeed in what God wants us to accomplish, we must do it God way with God’s power. If not, it will be like Israel at Ai, there will be failure.

4. Be bound to the Word

We see this in Joshua 1:7.

… be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that (purpose) you may have success wherever you go.

Israel was to be obedient to all of the Law of Moses and we are supposed to be obedient to all of the New Covenant. In verse 7 we see three very important responsibilities that Israel had toward the Word of God if they were going to be successful. Today we as believers in Jesus should follow the same pattern.

A. Proclaim it – We are talk continually talk about it to others. It is God’s we are proclaiming, not man’s.

B. Possess it – We are to study the Word and also meditate on it. The Hebrew word translated mediate means much more than just think about something. The Hebrew word translated meditate is translated several ways in the Old Testament - moan, growl, utter, speak, muse. An animal chews the cud or ruminates continually chews on its food. It has four stomachs. They chew it, swallow it, and the food goes into one of the stomachs. They regurgitate it and begin to chew it again. and swallow it to go to another stomach. From this we see that meditation is more than just ponder or reflect although that is part of meditation. This sounds a little strange today, but we are to talk to ourselves when we meditate. I know some of you talk to yourself sometimes.

C. Practice it – God instructed Israel to obey the commandments found in the Torah in Joshua 1:7.

“… be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.

This pattern was followed by Ezra.

7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.

The best way to possess the Word after one studies it and meditates on it is to practice it. Obey all of it. Go turn to the left or right. When you drive, you are supposed to stay between the lines. When one veers off from the middle in an automobile, there may be serious consequences.

Today we have learned that to have biblical success in the New Year one should:

1. Leave yesterday behind. 3. Focus on God, not people.

2. Seize your inheritance. 4. Be bound to the Word.