“Millions of people make New Year’s resolutions each year but after a few months lapse back into their old habit patterns. Why? They are attempting to place the new wine of the gospel of grace into the old wine skins of their old lifestyle. There is a better way. New hearts open to the changes Christ’ calls us to make, filled with the Holy Spirit, produce lasting lifestyle change.

<p>“Millions of people make New Year’s resolutions each year but after a few months lapse back into their old habit patterns. Why? They are attempting to place the new wine of the gospel of grace into the old wine skins of their old lifestyle. There is a better way. New hearts open to the changes Christ’ calls us to make, filled with the Holy Spirit, produce lasting lifestyle change.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

HopeLives365

Mark Finley

Why Christians Fail

Father in heaven, we are so thankful that in the new year we can have a new view of Jesus.

Open our minds so that we can understand.

Open our hearts so we can receive your message for us today.

Did you make a New Year's resolution this year?

How many of you thought about making a New Year's resolution?

Come on, more of you than that thought about making a New Year's resolution.

You know, each year, millions of people make New Year's resolutions.

And year after year, the polls indicate that the resolutions are pretty much the same.

I was looking at some of the polls of New Year's resolutions that people made, and here's what they were.

In 2018, though, the pollsters were shocked because at the beginning of 2018 and it carried over into 2019, although it was not the number 1 choice.

In 2018, the number 1 choice for a New Year's resolution was this, I want to become a better person.

Now, the pollsters were pretty shocked at that because previously the polls had said you know I want to lose weight, I want to quit smoking, but this 1 I want to become a better person.

Now the resolution is certainly a noble 1 but here is 1 of the big problems.

Most people who make New Year's resolutions never have a revolution.

They don't find either the motivation or the inner strength to achieve their goals.

Now Jesus puts his finger exactly on the reason for this and he presents a radical solution.

And if you understand the solution of Christ, it can make a dramatic, powerful difference in your life.

Understanding Jesus' teachings on what it makes to make lasting changes in your life will make a difference this new year for you.

If you want permanent, lasting change, Jesus points the way.

As we look at the new year, it's a clean slate.

And we ask ourself the question, how can I be a new person in the new year?

How can some of the undesirable traits of my character be transformed by the grace of God?

How can my gossip become positive statements about others?

How can my selfish desires become an unselfish passion?

How can my exaggeration of the truth always become honesty?

How can I become the person I really desire to be, the person I really want to be, the person I really long to be, but that person that never seems to have the strength to achieve it?

Now take your Bible and turn to Matthew the ninth chapter because we're going to look at Jesus' solution to the new life.

Matthew the ninth chapter and we begin there with the ninth verse.

Matthew chapter 9 and we're beginning with the ninth verse.

Then as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office and he said to him, follow me and he arose and followed him.

And so it was as Jesus sat at the table in the house that behold many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.

And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

Now for Jesus to call Matthew was astounding for the Jewish mind.

They considered tax collectors as the lowest of the low.

In the Jewish mind, the tax collectors had sold out to Rome.

They betrayed the Jewish ideals for self-aggrandizement.

See, they were merely employed by the enemy.

In the Jewish mind, a tax collector was someone that you didn't even talk to, because the tax collector was working for the Roman government to squeeze as much money as he could out of the Jewish population.

So for Jesus to even think of, for Jesus even to consider, for Jesus even to call Matthew as 1 of his closest followers and disciples really riled up the anger of the Jewish population and particularly the Pharisees.

Now for Jesus to go to the house of a tax collector and for Jesus to fellowship and eat with other tax collectors was worse even yet.

Now it was in this context that Jesus gave 2 parables.

It was in the context of the feast at Matthew's house with all these other tax collectors.

Now it's in that context that we come to verse 14 and you're looking at Matthew the ninth chapter.

And in these 2 stories Jesus contrasts the old way of thinking with the new way of thinking.

He contrasts the old way of frustrated defeat with the new way of glorious victory.

He contrasts the old way of struggle with the new way of triumph.

We begin with Matthew the 9th chapter, verse 14 and 15.

We start with verse 14, Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?

And Jesus said to them, can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?

But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and then they will fast.

So in the context of this Pharisee discussion, in the context of Jesus eating with the Pharisees and having that great feast, rather Jesus eating with the tax collectors, the Pharisees say, well why aren't your disciples fasting?

You see to the Pharisees religion was the sum of duty.

It focused around obligation and Jesus had to change that old way of thinking.

He had to change it into dynamic new way of thought.

You see there were about 6, 000 Pharisees in Israel and they spent their lives trying to rigorously observe the commands of the Torah.

Now according to 1 Jewish scholar, There were 613 commands that had to be followed.

There were 365 negative commands, 1 for every day of the year.

And there were 248 positive commands that were supposed to correspond to the bones and the main organs of the body.

They usually fasted on Monday and Thursday.

They did this as a matter of superior piety and holiness, and their whole life was trying to keep these 613 commands.

So the whole life of the Pharisee was this effort, This battle, this struggle, and for them, religion was this attempt of being defeated again and again and again because they could not possibly keep these 613 commands.

So their life was 1 of failure, it was 1 of frustration, but then it was 1 of a so-called pride, arrogance, and superior holiness for what they were doing.

So they were depressed over what they couldn't do, but arrogant over what they were doing based on the general population.

Jesus knew that there needed to be a radical change in the thinking of New Testament believers if they were going to live the joyful, positive, affirming Christian life that he desired.

Now Jesus uses this illustration and you notice it in Matthew 9, verse 15.

He says, the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away.

And he says, can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?

There's a time to fast, but there's a time to rejoice.

What was Jesus saying here when he used the bridegroom illustration?

And the parable will begin making sense to you.

Every 1 of the Pharisees would have understood Isaiah's statement in Isaiah 61 10.

Jesus had said he was the bridegroom And the prophet Isaiah said, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.

Does your religion make you depressed or does your religion make you joyful in God?

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Why Christians Fail

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