Shall we turn together this morning to Colossians chapter 2? Just a couple of verses. Verses 6 and 7 of Colossians 2. Colossians 2, 6 and 7. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him. rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. The word of the Lord to us now here from this text in Colossians 2. You may be wondering, Pastor, are you gonna try to get me to make a New Year's resolution? No. I'm going to try to get you to make three of them. Say, well, pastor, come on now. I've done this in the past. I've been around that block, and I fail miserably year after year. Well, let's give it a go again, all right? Come on now. Let's go for three resolutions. What are the top New Year resolutions I checked online? What's the top 10? Well, you can guess the first one after all the food we just ate. Yeah. Exercise more and lose weight. Those are the first two. Get organized. Learn a new skill or hobby. Live life to the fullest. Save more money or at least stop spending so much money. Quit smoking. I guess there's still a lot of us smoking. Okay. Spend more time with family and friends. Travel more. Read more. Those are the top 10. It's kind of sad, isn't it? You know, it is. There isn't anything online about making New Year's resolutions about how you ought to get to know the Lord God Almighty, huh? That ought to be the top one. To walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, to Strive to live a life pleasing to him. Oh, that would be the list, but it's not. But those are the top 10. Do you know a guy by the name of Jonathan Edwards? Of course you do, many of you do. He lived during the early 1700s. He was born in 1703, died in 1758. He was an American Congregationalist pastor and philosophical theologian. He was a monumental figure in the history of the Great Awakening that swept through the Americas, 1730, 1740. He's a giant of a guy. He's probably one of the best theologians coming out of America ever. So I don't know if you, want to get to know a great theologian, get to know Jonathan Edwards. And it's worth your time as well to get to know his wife, Sarah. He was an extremely serious-minded guy. And he was a prolific writer. He wrote on everything. And as he would ride his horse from one church to go to another church to preach there. He'd grab bark off birch trees and he'd be writing with some kind of pencil made out from the fire and he'd have notes stuck to himself and he'd have birch bark stuck in his coat. He was always writing. Anyways, Jonathan Edwards. He made 70 resolutions over his life. Go online, just look up Jonathan Edwards, 70 resolutions. I'm just going to mention a few of them. I'm not going to keep you all 70. But here's a few of his resolutions. And just as I read these, you're going to get a taste of this guy's personality. He was very intense. Here's one. He starts each one, resolved. Resolved, to live with all my might while I do live. Tells you something about him. Resolved, never to do anything but duty, and then according to Ephesians 6, to do it willingly and cheerfully as unto the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good thing any man doth, the same shall he receive of the Lord. Resolved, to inquire every night as I'm going to bed wherein I have been negligent. What sin have I committed? And wherein I have denied myself also at the end of every week, month, and year, I'm resolved to do this." So he evaluated himself every night before he went to bed. That's what he was resolved to do. Resolved that I will not give way to listlessness, which I find unbends and relaxes my mind from being fully and fixedly set on religion. He uses the word religion. It's the word they used back then of seeking after God. Whatever excuse I may have for it, that what my listlessness inclines me to do is best to be done. So if he found himself listless, lazy to do something, then he focused on it all the more to get it done. No wonder Sarah loved him. He got the list done or something. Resolved never to do anything out of revenge. Resolved never to say anything at all against anybody. but when it is perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of Christian honor." So he was careful how he talked about other people. Resolved always to do what I can towards making, maintaining, establishing, and preserving peace. He wanted there to be peace, even though his church often did not have peace. In his suffering, he was resolved not to waste any of his suffering. He said, when I feel pain, I am resolved to think of the pains of martyrdom and the pain of hell. Resolved after afflictions to inquire what I am the better for them, what good have I got by them, and what I might have got by them. Whenever I hear anything spoken in conversation of any person, if I think it would be praiseworthy in me, then I am resolved to endeavor to imitate it. So when he heard somebody talking about someone else and they were doing it in a praiseworthy way, they said, boy, that guy is so whatever, he would go, ha, and I'm resolved to try to improve in that arena. So you see how intense of a guy he was. Oh, I could go on. I got 20 more. That's all right. Our text this morning has one resolution. Just one. But your pastor is going to try to take it and make three out of it. That's what pastors do. Here's one. What's the resolution found in the text? Shall I read it again? Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Here's the one resolution. Walk in Christ Jesus. I like the fact that Paul just has one. He keeps it simple for guys like me. I don't have a Jonathan Edwards mind, and I don't know that any of us do. But we'll finish the sermon this morning trying to get our arms around three resolutions from this text. But here there's just the one. Oh, that this would be our resolution. that this would be young or old, all of us here today, that we would walk in Christ Jesus. This verse does not ask Jesus to walk with us. It says for us to walk in Christ Jesus. So where he goes, we go. How he acts, we act. He is Lord. I walk with Him. He sets the pace. He directs my steps. He decides my decisions. Let's walk through the verse. Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, this is simply a statement of what occurred in the past, right? Let's look back. As you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, maybe that occurred in 2024. I don't know. When did you begin to walk in Christ Jesus? Maybe it was 2024. Maybe like me, it was, you know, 45, 46 years ago. Some of you have been walking in Christ Jesus a long time, and we really appreciate the fact that we can look out and see so many going ahead of us, encouraging us, and calling us to pursue that same walk in Christ Jesus. So thank you. Those of you who have been walking in Christ for a long time, keep going, would you? Because we're right behind you, and we need you to set the pace. For some of you that have just started out, look to these people and follow them as they follow Christ Jesus. But there was a moment in time, there was for Paul, there was a time in Paul's life he didn't follow the Lord Jesus Christ, that's for sure, but then there was a change. And now today he's able to say, look, remember how it was? As you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, which is by faith, by obedience, by submission, by repentance, all of those things. Previous to this, you didn't know Christ Jesus, but now you do. This is Christ Jesus we are following, do you see that? His position and His name, do you see that? It's not Jesus Christ in this text, it's Christ Jesus. You're following the anointed one, you're following the Messiah, you're following the one appointed by God to be the leader. So follow Him, Christ Jesus. This is a statement of grace, if you will notice. What's about to follow is a command, but he's setting up the command by reminding us of his grace. Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus Lord, how did you receive him? You received him because he received you, right? Go back and remember how it was. Who drew you to him? Was it your idea to follow the Lord Jesus Christ in the past? No, he drew you. He took you, He put His hand upon you, He turned your heart to love Him. You remember that, don't you? So now as you received Him by grace, so now walking Him by grace. And remember that He is for you and not against you in your pursuit of Him. So, now we have the command, now we have the one resolution for all of us to make, all of us to be committed to, so walk in Him. That's the main imperative of these two verses, the main verb. This is the New Year's resolution of the Bible. One single yet great command. Grace before imperative, but now there is an imperative. Walk. Aren't you glad it doesn't say run? Isn't it great? He's not calling you to get all wore out. No, he's calling you to get strong. Don't sit on the couch and get rusty. Walk. Let's go to Mark 2, 9, let me just read it for you. Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Jesus asked, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise, take up your bed, and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home. And so the man rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all so that they all amazed and glorified God saying, we never saw anything like this. What did they see? They saw a paralytic man who could not walk, walk. That's what Jesus Christ does to us spiritually. He brings us to life so we get moving. When healed, they got up and walked. It's what you do. When someone is unable to walk, something's wrong. We've had it, haven't we, where we've known someone that's had a child, a baby, and the baby grew and crawled, but wouldn't walk. Well, what do you do? You take the baby to the doctor to find out what's wrong, because clearly something's wrong. When God brings us to life, he wants us to walk. When someone is unable to walk, something's wrong. They're less free, they're less able to go forward. They're not healthy for some reason. People in a wheelchair want to walk. If they are healed, they love to go for a walk. When we are made right, we ought to walk in Christ Jesus. Enoch walked with God, Noah walked with God. Girls, what's your verse in Gems? Micah 6, what, verse 8, that's right. He has told you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to what? And to walk humbly with your God. So what does it mean to walk in Christ Jesus? All right, that's the command. What does that mean? So walk in him. Well, it becomes our heart's greatest desire to walk with Him, knowing Him, hearing His voice, sharing our hearts with Him, seeking to please Him. That's what becomes our all-consuming focus, our desire. He becomes everything to us. Meeting with Him is not an activity reserved for Sunday morning. We live to fellowship with Him. A.W. Tozer states that the goal of every Christian should be to live in a state of unbroken worship. That's what it is to walk with Him, to live with Him as you worship Him, constantly speaking with Him. This is only possible when we walk with God. In an article on the webpage, got questions. In the New Testament, walking with God is called walking in the Spirit. To walk with God means we choose to glorify Him in every way we can, regardless of personal cost. And there is a cost. Walking with God also means we cannot also walk with evil people and companions. Think of Psalm 1, verse 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night." Well, you can't be doing that. You can't hold hands with Satan and hold hands with God and go for a walk. So to walk with God means we choose to glorify him in every way we can, regardless of personal costs. We choose the narrow road over the broad way that leads to destruction. We don't live to please our sinful flesh. We seek to eliminate from our lives everything that does not enhance our walk with him. Well, how do we walk with God? The verse gives us some real encouraging words. First of all, it says rooted. A little hard to pick up in the English what's going on in the original language there, but what's being said there is that there was a point in time when you were picked up and planted. You were You were put in the ground. Some of you greenhouse people know all about that. Are you flower-loving people? You know what it is. You get that new tuber or the new bulbs from the store and you get home, right? You put those things in the ground. That's what happened to you, Christian. God took a hold of you and planted you in Christ Jesus to grow. So having been rooted in Him, You were passive in this, but it's the idea of something happening to you that's now finished. You were rooted. Now you're being built up. Note the word being. You're being built up. Built up in him. This is what's happening to you. Once again, we're passive in this. God's doing this. He not only planted us, but he's helping us now grow by giving us all that we stand in need of, the nutrients and the water that a plant needs, and being strengthened in your faith, or established in your faith, as the text says. Established. You know how it is when a plant starts to bust out and start to grow. You can see it. At first you plant it and there it sits. Come on. But then all of a sudden you can tell it's taken root. It's become established. Look at what's happening. It's growing. And this is when we prune and we develop and we shape until we finally abound in our faith. I love the word abounding in thanksgiving. Now this participle has the idea of exploding up and growing. So what's the resolutions for us to consider this morning? There's three of them. Did you jot them down? Consider making all three of these. Number one, walk with humility. Walk with humility. How are we to walk in Christ Jesus? First of all, with humility. Always remembering that we're walking because he has placed us in this position. The Hebrew word for humility or to be humble always suggests modesty. There's no place here for bragging. As one of God's followers, you are to walk modestly or meekly with him, not proudly, not arrogantly. You know, we don't strut around the barnyard like a rooster here. You are not to exalt yourself over others, treating them as though they are of less worth than you. Instead, you're modest. To have a humble estimate of your own abilities and importance. To be free from vanity, egotism, boastfulness, and pretension. I remember one time, just a personal illustration, I had been working in a factory, I was in leadership there, and I decided to take another job. And I thought to myself, boy, they're going to miss me. Boy, this place will fall apart when I leave. A couple months later, I had an opportunity to visit the factory again, and I was struck by how well it was flourishing. I was rather humbled, and that was good. To be free from vanity like all of life centered around you, no. to trust the Lord and acknowledge him as a source of your life as you walk through each day, constantly seeking his mercy and forgiveness. Walk with humility. James 4, 6. A verse often quoted from this pulpit. But he gives more grace, therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. James 4, 6. walk, but walk with humility. Second resolution for this morning, walk with God in a God-glorifying purpose, or just to put it simply, walk with a purpose. Walk with a purpose. Don't enter into 2025 without a purpose. Walk with God in a God-glorifying purpose. Jonathan Edwards was driven by that. He wanted to be a man that lived for the glory of God. Boy, there's a thing to put on your mirror. I want to live for the glory of God. The purpose is to joyfully surrender to and eagerly support God's will for your life. God wants you to be healthy, and to be healthy is to live a God-glorifying life. Position yourself to be healthy with the right attitude and the right actions. Here we're reminded that we were taught these things, just as you were taught. Where were we taught to walk in a God-glorifying way? at home around the table having devotions with our parents or to come to church and to worship. How can I be seeking a God-glorifying life if I don't attend fellowship with other believers, if I'm not plugged into healthy Bible study, if I'm not plugged into meaningful good books to read, if I've got a Bible-reading plan, or I'm not studying the Bible, or I'm not memorizing the Bible, not hearing the Bible. You can't. So, along with this walking with a God-glorifying purpose is those good decisions to have a Bible-reading plan. What's your plan? Is your plan to read the Bible this year? Is your plan to read some of the Bible this year? Great, good. Get a plan. Without a plan, I'm like a guy in a boat with no oars. The boat just drifts all over. Get a plan. And there are all kinds of good Bible reading plans out there. Do you have a plan to memorize any verses this year? Again, don't let that overwhelm you. Just take one verse and get a verse memorized. Roll it over in your mind, meditate on it, chew on it, so that you can live it. Okay, walk with a God-glorifying purpose. I know it's your heart to glorify God. I know it's your heart to magnify the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ who died for you there on Calvary. I know that's your heart. So let's be careful that we don't waste any day in 2025 remembering our good Savior. All right, number three. So the first one, walk with humility. Second one, walk with a purpose. Third, walk with confident joy. Here from the text, abounding in thanksgiving. And in the previous, there was the call to be rejoicing. And so we're called to have confident joy. Not pessimistic complaining, but confident joy. Abound, surpass, explode. These would be synonyms to this thought, this word. Luke 9, 17, and they all ate and they were satisfied. God would have us be satisfied with all that he would feed us so that we would leave the house of worship rejoicing. Enjoy yourself in Christ Jesus. Advance your faith with thanksgiving this year. So again, some synonyms. Flourish. Prosper. Bloom. Blossom. Mushroom. Do well. Advance. Succeed. Explode in your growth with Christ this year. Don't be satisfied with where you're at today in your walk with Christ. Seek Him. that you might walk better with him. And to walk with confident joy means you'll have to battle your enemies because your enemies always want to take your confident joy. Right? You're going to have to, you're going to have to battle your enemies. You're going to have to fight for joy in 2025. You did in 2024. There's nothing different this year. Are you ready to battle your enemies that you might better grasp the joy the Lord would have you live in? Number two, to walk with confident joy means I celebrate the victories. My humble walk with the Lord confesses my sin, but the balance is to also celebrate victories. Have you seen yourself swearing less, almost non-existent from your mouth? Celebrate that. That glorifies God. He's the one that's helped you do it. Have you changed in your attitude that you're a man or a woman of more joy? Are you more of a pleasant child to be around? Celebrate that. I used to go out onto the factory floor looking for things that were wrong. That was good, good to do. Then it dawned on me one day that I ought to walk around the factory and look for things that are right. Parents, look for things that are right in your kids so that you can praise them specifically for it, which gives glory to God. Because what I find is that the more you praise something, the more you get of that same thing. You want your child to be happy? Say, hey, wow, I'm noticing this morning, you're really happy, good for you. You know what I'm saying? Celebrate victories. Another way to walk with confident joy is to serve others. There's just no getting around it that God blesses us with joy when we serve others, when we put others first, not myself. Right? To serve others, to walk with confident joy. May the Lord bless us here in 2025 with a humble walk with Jesus, a purposeful walk with Jesus, and a joy-filled walk with Jesus. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, We thank you for this text challenging us here at the beginning of 2025 to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, Father, that no greater resolution can be made today. So if anyone's been listening, maybe online, maybe even seated here this morning, doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ, what a great resolution. to confess their sins and to walk with Jesus Christ. And for the Christians that are listening to my voice this morning that are quite new to the faith, may they keep walking, keep walking with Jesus. And for those that have been walking a long time, In point of fact, they're very close to beholding you face to face. Lord, would you help them walk across the finish line, even with a new sense of energy. Lord, strengthen our faith and help us to love you and follow Christ. For we pray it in Jesus.