God's Goals in 2023
I’ve never been much of a goal setter. Don’t get me wrong - I set goals for myself each week, work to fulfill them, and then let God do the rest. I’ve got no time for laziness, apathy, or outright disobedience. My DNA as a pastor is set to doing my best at all times regardless of how I feel in a certain situation. Over the last few months, God is teaching me to trust Him and let Him set my schedule. For me, it’s a constant struggle - an every-day battle - to continually yield my own desires to His will. With this in mind, I will give you the biblical basis for setting goals and then the individual goals that our church can work towards for 2023.
God is a goal-setter. Proverbs 21:5 reads, “The plans for the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty.” David echoes this refrain of Solomon’s as he writes in Psalm 37:4-5, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. “Committing” and “trusting” are crucial ways we can set goals. Goal-setting seems to be important to Solomon, too!
Further on in Proverbs we come to two other guiding Scriptures. The most appropriate to our discussion is Proverbs 3:5-6, which encourages believers to “trust,” and “lean not on your own understanding,” and “acknowledge Him.” Once Believers are obedient, God promises to “direct” our paths! Simple, right? Well, not so much! As we all know, where humankind struggles is in seeing the future. It’s impossible! Proverbs 29:18, however, reminds us “Where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” It seems there is a correlation here! For all you mathematicians, it can be noted as a formula: Searching for God + Keeping God’s Laws = Finding God’s Goals for Our Lives.
God told Habakkuk to “write the vision.” In other words, He told him to “write his goals on a tablet.” Then, God gives him prophecy - some has not yet been fulfilled even today! Habakkuk knew the importance of goal setting. You say, “Yeah, Jeff, but that was a long time ago in the Old Testament. Goals? That’s a thing of the ancient past!” Jesus challenged His people in Matthew 17:20 to, “Have the faith as a mustard seed.” Jesus said, in other words, “Have the smallest faith you can possibly have, and watch ME work!” Goals and Faith suddenly have become intermixed!
Paul, in Philippians 3:12, encourages his readers to set godliness as their goal, and to “press on,” but not in man’s strength. He clarifies, “that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” In other words, Paul is expressing his “goal” of sharing Christ with every person in the world. Continuing, he encourages us to “reach forward” and “press toward the goal,” for the prize for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14). If goal-setting was the plan of Paul, it should be in our plans as well.
Hebrews 12:1-2 challenges us to “lay aside” every weight and sin, and look “to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” The author’s heart is the proliferation of the gospel at any cost. This is the writer of Hebrew’s goal, as well as it should be ours!
With the Bible’s salvation and edification thrust as our “sails,” let us look to three ambitious, yet reachable, goals for 2023.
1. 10 baptisms - In 2021, we had four. In 2022, we had 8. Let us aim high in faith.
2. 100 in Sunday school with an average of 80. That would be an increase of 15 from which we currently average.
3. 1,000 Gospel presentations - Gulp, yes 1,000. As a church of over 100 people, this is less than 1 a week. (Actually, it’s .8333 for all your mathematicians) As a help, we will be putting a box in the foyer for your to drop a note (see form below and samples on the back of the sheet) recounting evangelistic outreach and as an encouragement to keep striving towards our goal.
These goals, granted, are ambitious! Some might say, “God will have to do a miracle if we can reach these!” Yes, exactly! God will need to work in ways we have not see Him work at Oakley. But I’d rather be working for God than for man.
How can we do this? 3 ways - 1. Prayer 2. Action 3. Faith. These are the necessary ingredients to God working and moving. I like our chances! Do you? Will you commit towards working to these goals? I pray you will!