We begin or time together this morning sharing with you a story of Christmas. A Friend and I had the wonderful pleasure of going to the Lyric and sharing a Christmas concert in December. They took an intermission in the midst of the concert and several people went out into the lobby. The lights flickered that the concert was getting ready to resume when this couple came down the side aisle obviously confused. Finally the gentleman says to the man who was sitting on the end of the aisle in front of us, he says, "excuse me, sir, but did I step on your feet when we came through?" And the gentleman was kind of angry and said, "yes, you did." And he looked up at him, I think, expecting an apology, but instead, what happened was, the gentleman looked back at his wife and he said, "it's here, hon, this is our row."

"SUCCESS WITHOUT PURPOSE IS EMPTY."

Consideration is the subject of our discourse. We're going to be celebrating in what is called Wesley's covenant service. It is usually done on New Years or new year's day in the church, a time in which we recommit ourselves to God and Jesus Christ, a time at the beginning of a new year that we realign our priorities of what's important in our lives. In this service, there are certain admonitions, certain truths that we claim. These truths I want to make clear and understood.
Number 1, we need to search our hearts to whether we are ready to freely give our lives over to Christ. We also need to make sure we understand what our sins are. In essence, do we recognize our need for Jesus in our lives?
I think that there is a real struggle in people's lives, not only when they reach failure, but I think there are a lot of people who struggle when they reach success as well.
Success without purpose is empty. That's proven by the fact that if you look at how many lottery winners are unhappy and broke after just a matter of a couple of years because there is no purpose in their lives.
When I graduated high school, I had a definite goal. I wanted to be that nuclear family. I want to have a good job, I wanted to have a home, a wife, two kids, a dog. And when I reached all of that, it was like, now what was the reason for this? When you have success and then you begin to look at where is the happiness or the joy in this, it's very empty. See, we need Christ not only for a purpose or reason for our lives, but Christ also then provides for us a way to come to God. It's only through Christ that we find forgiveness for our sins. We are never going to be perfect, but we are perfected in Christ's love. And so this admonition asks very clearly, are we ready to give our lives to Jesus fully and completely? To give our lives to the One who already gave His life to us. To give our lives to the One that, in surrendering our own lives, we don't die for Jesus, we find life in Jesus that we recognize.
I want to share with you a quote from a sermon done by Martin Luther King, Jr., and it speaks truthfully to what I'm trying to say here. He delivered this on November 17th, 1957, at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. This what he said: "One day as Napoleon came towards the end of his career, he looked back across the years. The great Napoleon that, at a very early age, had all but conquered the world. He was not stopped until he moved out to the battle of Leipzig, and then Waterloo. But that same Napoleon one day stood back and looked across the years and said, Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I have built great empires, but upon what did we depend? We depended upon force. But long ago Jesus started an empire that depended on love. And even to this day, millions will surrender their lives to him. It's about surrendering to love because God first loved us.
The other part of that is that it says in surrendering to Christ, consider the laws of Christ. John Wesley believed the laws of Christ were to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love others as ourselves. It is these acts that actually are the surrendering for us.
But the most important part of that first paragraph is at the end where it says: "See that you do not lie to God." More than anything else, don't lie to God.
Among those admonitions, it says to take this very seriously and holy and in great relevance because this is about our lives.
The third law says claim God's covenant. We talk about that when we say we are baptized, not we were, but we are baptized.
The fourth law says resolve to be faithful. Come and see. Come and see the light. It's not about the word, it's but about the life that we're called to.
When I discovered that come and see life, where once I was wondering, what is life all about, Alfy? I discovered that I could love even greater than I ever thought possible. And that life would have more flavor than I ever thought possible. And that there was a joy out there that I could not even fathom that I had found in Jesus. And that's what he offers to us today. That joy. To love God and to love each other means just simply that, to do what Christ has already done for us and with us. And remember, we're not asked to do it alone, that Jesus walks with us every step of the way.
And so, as we share in this covenant service, I want you to think about what kind of life is this that we're committing to again at the beginning of this year? Because that's who we are. The church. We are committing ourselves to this kind of life. Without a commitment to Jesus, we are nothing greater than the Lion's Club or the Rotary. We can do some nice things for nice people, but that's not who we're called to be. We're called to be followers of the one who gave his life for us.
And so, as we again this new year, I want us to remember, it's all about Jesus and nothing else.
I'll close with this story which I think illustratea what kind of life we're called to live. This is a true story which happened during the revolutionary war. A Baptist pastor by the name of Peter Miller was great friends with George Washington, and during the revolutionary war, he had a neighbor. His neighbor was Micah Whitman. Reverend Miller said the whole time he served his ministry in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, during that whole time he was there, Mr. Whitman was his adversary. He did everything he could to harpoon or to sabotage anything that Reverend Miller did. In fact, Mr. Whitman was very bitter towards him. Well, near the end of the revolutionary war, he got caught up in a situation where he was involved in something he shouldn't have been involved with. What I'm trying to say is Mr. Whitman was arrested for treason, for not only betraying his neighbors, but his country. George Washington had him arrested. He was convicted in a trial. And now he was sentenced to death by firing squad. Reverend Miller got word that this was going to happen, and he immediately set out on foot walking 70 miles to Philadelphia where the trial had been held. 70 miles. And when Peter Miller arrived there, he went and looked up his old friends George. He went to see George Washington, and he said, I'm here to ask that you grant me the life of Mr. Whitman. And George said to his friend, he said, Peter, he said, there is nothing I can do. He was found guilty of treason and so his sentence has been given. I can't save your friend. Upon which Peter responded: "Friend? This is not my friend, this is my bitterest enemy." General Washington then responded: "Well, that's a different matter. You mean, you walked 70 miles on foot to seek the life of your enemy?" He said: "Your wish has been granted." And that very afternoon, Peter Miller took Micah Whitman back home, his bitterest enemy. He rescued him and saved him out of the love that he knew was in Jesus Christ. That is the life we are called to live. God help us to answer that call. Amen.