“All things new”
New Years day 2017
Ya’ll know I love western movies
So it should be no surprise to anyone when I quote one in a Sunday Sermon
In the movie Young Guns
“ Doc” Scurlock played by Kiefer Sutherland is talking to Yen Sun a young oriental girl who has found herself in less than perfect life circumstances
He is trying to get her to run away with him
Ashamed of her past she says
I am Unclean that is not for a young man
Doc replies
“ I used to ride with the dirty underwear gang out of Liberty Missouri
And then John Tunstel taught me that
Our pasts are like an old yellowed novel
When you are finished with it
You toss it away and start a new one”
It is very fitting to talk of new things on this brand new day of a brand new year
A new day
A new start
Of a brand new year
------Pause----
Often times in my life I can identify with the young woman Yen Sun from the movie
I often feel ashamed of my past
Ashamed of my bad decisions
Ashamed of my disobedience
My lack of self discipline
My selfishness
My pride and arrogance
I have no doubt that many of you struggle with the same problems
But
Today on this brand New Year
A year that is like a fresh blanket of snow on an early morning
One with no tracks
And when I want to beat myself up
I remember and remind myself
That Jesus paid my debt
And he made it possible for me to throw away my old life
Like that yellowed novel
And start a new one
------------------------------------
It is my desire and my prayer to help us
You and I
Learn though God’s word
How to throw out our old lives
Our old sins
Our old habits
And throw out our old shame
By looking at the Newness that Christ brings
I would like to start out this morning at the ending
Instead of the beginning
You know I am serious about context
So Bear with me
I will explain why I felt lead to start at the ending instead of the beginning
But
First
Please open your bibles to the book of Revelation
The last book of God’s word
Chapter 21
And let’s read verses 1-7 together
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.[a] 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” 6 And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. 7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.
The Apostle John is writing the words that are being revealed to him by our Lord Jesus
And in the context of this verse he is writing about the newness that will begin
Following Jesus’ second coming
John shows us
That we win
The believers of Christ
Will win in the end
He shows us that
Satan has already been defeated
Jesus’ is already victorious
This is assurance of the outcome
But I can tell you
A revelation of things to come
------Pause---
But
Hang with me
I started at the ending
This verse has application for our lives today
Right here
Right now
January 1 2017
In Grand saline Texas
Look at verse 5
“Look, I am making everything new!”
Jesus says he is making everything new
New heaven
New Earth
You may say
I get that
But how does that apply to me, right now
Today
He says he will make all things new
And
It is my desire to show you how Jesus can also make
A NEW YOU
Look at verses 6-7 again
“It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. 7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.”
You see
Jesus is restating what he said on the cross
It is finished
What that means is the work of salvation has been completed
The payment for sin has been made
No more are needed
For all who have accepted
Your debt is paid
All means all
He says
All you are thirsty
Spiritually thirsty
I will give freely from the springs of the water of life
Eternal life
And
He says all who are victorious
Those who have conquered death through the redemption that is given freely from our Lord
He says
Will be his children and he will be our God
So how does this newness
From the end of the story apply to the newness for today?
Jesus’ promises us in his word
A NEW LIFE
A NEW NATURE
A NEW FREEDOM
Let’s look at the new life first
Back to basics
John 3
John 3:16-17
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave[g] his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
Eternal life
New life
Salvation
Heaven
More basics
Romans 10:9-13
9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. 11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”[e] 12 Jew and Gentile[f] are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. 13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”[g]
New Life
When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior
Not maybe
Not hopefully
Promised
All who believe!!!
As Paul says in
2 Corinthians 5:17
“17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
God’s word promises new life for everyone who believes
And all means all
And all means you
New life
Through Christ
But it does not stop there
Jesus’ not only promises new life
But he promises
A NEW Nature as well
Romans 12:2
Says that we can change the way we act by changing the way we think
Romans 12:2
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
You see one of the coolest things about salvation
Apart from the obvious of not going to hell when we die
Is that we don’t have to be like we once were
Jesus
Though his sacrifice
And our acceptance of that sacrifice
Offers us a new nature
We can though the power of God change the way we think about
God and our relationship with him
Ourselves and our pasts
And our desire to walk faithfully with the Lord
God gives us a new heart
Our own unrepentant
Unsaved hearts
Are sinful
Our old heart’s desire what we selfishly want
But God changes us from the inside
And as our insides change
Our outsides will change as well
Ezekiel 36:26
“And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.
When we receive the New Life promised for accepting Christ
And we change the way we think
God gives us a new heart
A soft and moldable heart
A heart that is usable for him and his kingdom
He takes out our old bitter
Selfish heart
He gives us this heart but
We must work hard to maintain it
Psalm 51:10
“ Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.
David was crying out to God to help him be more faithful
Be more pure
Be more obedient
He had sinned with Bathsheba
He knew it
And he was truly repentant
He was sick in his stomach and in his heart
When we have been given new life
And have received a new spirit
Sin in our lives should make us just as sick
And we must do as David did
Cry out
And
Ask God to keep improving our new heart
Our new nature
And then we must learn to use and wear our new nature
Colossians 3:10
“Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.”
And we must continue to grow in the Lord
And this growth will help us continue in our new nature
Continue helping us to live a life pleasing to God
Help keep us from going back to where we once were
Colossians 2:6-7
“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
You see as we mature in Christ
We become more like him
Our nature becomes more like his nature
And our hearts become more receptive to the changes that God desires
And as we change
We become more and more pleasing to God
First Christ gives us new life
Then he gives us a New Nature
And then
We find New Freedom
When we receive new life
We no longer have to worry about our eternity
When we receive a new nature
We begin to focus on Christ and the things of Christ
Our wants and needs become less important as we grow in him
“ I” takes a back seat to Him
And
We find this freedom
John 8:36
Tells us about this freedom
“So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.”
Listen
We can only be freed from the power of sin by Jesus Christ
There is no other path to this freedom
There is no other way
Jesus is the way
And
The truth and the life
And
When he sets us free
The power of sin is broken
The chains and hobbles of sin are removed
And we can walk
No run in the joy of the freedom we have received
No longer bound by our sins
Our pasts
Our mistakes
Romans 6:5-11
5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.”
Colossians 2:13-15
You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed[a] the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
Romans 8:1-17
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power[a] of the life-giving Spirit has freed you[b] from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature.[c] So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) 10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life[d] because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters,[e] you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature,[f] you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children[g] of God.
15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.[h] Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”[i] 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
Romans 3:24-26
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
1 Corinthians 1:30
God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.
Ephesians 1:7
“He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.”
God in his mercy
Sent his best
His one and only Son
Jesus Christ
To earth to become a man
To give us new life
In His love
Jesus willing died in our place
And it was his death
His sacrifice
And his power to overcome the grave
That gave us the chance at new life
Eternal life
Life everlasting
No longer do we need to fear death
Death had no hold on Jesus
And as a result
If
If
We have accepted his gift death has no hold on us
NEW LIFE
And then he gives us the tools to become more and more like him’
Growing in goodness
Growing in righteousness
Growing in Knowledge
Finding Joy in our relationship with him
Finding joy in our new nature
Acting different
Talking different
Living different
And Thinking different
Becoming heaven minded
Kingdom minded
And finding a new freedom that has eluded us before
No longer salves to our sin
Let me read Colossians 2:13-15 for you again
Then we are going to do something just a bit different this morning
Colossians 2:13-15
You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed[a] the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
On this New Years day
Let’s think New
From the heart
Nail troubles and sins to the cross (Wooden cross lying at front on sawhorses, index cards and cap nails)
Have L.P. And Elders available
Pray
