Big Idea - Do you make New Year's resolutions? The New Year is a time of starting over, a fresh beginning. We should always seek to make the coming year better than the last! But what will make it better? Did you keep the promises you made to yourself last year? Did you achieve the goals you set? Maybe we have given up on making resolutions because nothing ever comes of them. There are many goals we can make that will help us have a better life, but the most important goals that will impact our lives are our goals for spiritual growth. What is your plan to grow spiritually in the next year? And how can we make sure we are successful in reaching these goals so that we really do grow?

Paul warns the saints in Colossae not to let others, those who think they are super spiritual, derail their spiritual growth with a plan that is not from God but is rooted in worldly thinking and the weakness of the flesh. The danger of this "philosophy" for spiritual growth was that it had the opposite effect - by making them more a slave of the flesh rather than setting them free from the desires and cravings of the flesh. Our flesh, sinful nature and desires keep us from reaching our goals for growth and spiritual maturity, so any plan that depends on the flesh is doomed to fail! There were two main problems with their plan. First, they were pursuing the wrong things. They were setting goals about things that were, at best, only a shadow and, at worst, were human teachings that were the very opposite to the truth of God. They appeared to be very good, but they were of no help in overcoming the sinful desires of the flesh.

The second problem was that they had the wrong idea about how to be successful. They thought it was a matter of their own determination and effort. They thought the way to reach your goal and grow spiritually is to just try harder, and you can do it! But you cannot overcome the weakness of the flesh by the weakness of the flesh! Paul has a better growth plan. One that is guaranteed to work. First, we need to pursue the right things. Not meaningless rules made by the world, but the goal of holding fast to Christ, who is the head. We cannot grow ourselves. True growth results from God's hand at work in our lives! This growth comes about as we draw near to Jesus and get connected with His body, the Church. Secondly, our growth plan is not a matter of our own effort or determination to overcome the desires of the flesh. Instead, we trust in the work of Christ on the cross in which we participate when Jesus put the flesh to death. When something has died, it is no longer responsive to the things in this life. We don't overcome the flesh through rigid discipline but by trusting in the power of the cross to kill those desires. Those desires are tempting only because we decide we want to desire the desire. But, if we draw near to Christ and seek His holiness, we will find that those temptations no longer have the power they once had.