It was early Sunday morning. I was at my desk with my Bible wide open and my eyes half-closed. I could feel myself slipping into a trance, or was it a nap, as I put the finishing touches on my first sermon of the new year.

Suddenly the door flung open and my eleven-year-old son charged into my sleepy study, victoriously waving an index card in the air.

"Hey Dad, wanna hear my goals for the new year?"

"Sure William, I'd love to hear them." I closed my Bible, opened my ears and eyes as he read his list.

"I have two kinds of goals this year. Spiritual goals and physical goals." I felt like I was hearing my first sermon of the year. William continued to preach to me: "My spiritual goals are to read the New Testament, to control my tongue, and to put God first in all I do. And, my physical goals are to make straight A's, to make the basketball all-star team, and be the fastest runner in the 6th grade."

As I thought about my son's goals for the year, I wondered if I should follow his lead and set some goals for a change. I've never been much of a goal-setter. One January, a few years ago, I did set church goals, but I forgot about them until the following year.

This year would be different. Inspired by my goal-setting son, I decided to present some really spiritual goals to the congregation for 1998.

Being a Bible teacher, the first step had to be a word study on goals. What did the Bible say about goal-setting anyway? As I typed the word "goal" into my Bible software program, I sensed I was on to something big. Angels hovered around my computer. After my hard drive did its thing, one scripture jumped off my screen and into my sermon, and into my soul. I had found it, the ultimate goal scripture.

But first, a little bit about goals in general. Paul often used athletic metaphors, like racing, boxing, and wrestling to make spiritual truths understandable. So what is a “goal” to modern people?

In basketball, a goal is an orange circular steel ring, eighteen inches in diameter, ten feet from the floor. In soccer, a goal is a rectangular net that is twenty-four feet wide. In ice hockey, a goal is a rectangular net that is six feet wide. And, in American football, the goal is a two-inch thick chalk line stretching 120 feet.

Whether your goal is to read the whole Bible, to make straight A's, or to make fifty percent of your three pointers you must understand that reaching your goal will require you to overcome opposition. In basketball, there are five opponents dedicated to keeping you from getting the ball in the goal. Soccer and hockey provide opposing goal keepers who are personally committed to keeping the ball or puck out of the goal. In football there are eleven opponents you must overcome in order to get the ball across the goal line.

Picture this. You and four buddies head to the gym to play basketball. The five of you play, but there is not an opposing team. Five on zero. That's no fun. How about a soccer game, eleven on zero? Boring. It's no fun unless there is an opponent.

God didn't want us to be bored, so He gave us an adversary. In order to reach our goals this year, we will have to overcome some adversaries including self, circumstances, and satanic opposition.

Now for the ultimate goal I discovered that Sunday morning. When writing to the Corinthian church, Paul didn't say our goal is to double our offerings this year. He didn't say our goal is to have 3000 in Sunday school this year. What was Paul's goal? Here it is: "so we make it our goal to please him..." (2 Cor. 5:9)

That's it, profoundly simple. Our ultimate goal every new year: TO PLEASE GOD.

It is easy to live to please self, to please the crowd, to please Mom and Dad, to please our culture. Paul made it his goal to please God.

I recently received an e-mail from a pastor in Costa Rica asking if we set growth goals for our small group leaders. I wrote back saying we set only one goal for all our leaders: "We make it our goal to please Him."

Let's say our goal is to double our attendance this year. We could double or even triple and still not please God. But, on the other hand, if we live to please Him, then fruit is inevitable and unavoidable. If we abide in the vine, we will bear much fruit.

This year let's make it our goal to please Him. Ultimately, that's all that really matters.