Looking To 2011

Looking to 2011

Matthew 14:22-14:32

Wow! Where did this Christmas go?

Most people are done opening presents and most will get back to normal routine. Unless… you are like the Zibolski’s. we are going today to finish Christmas with some family today.

Like I said last week, the lights will come down. The tree put away. Diets begin next week.

In a few days over one billion people will watch the ball drop in New York City’s Times Square. They will celebrate the coming of a New Year.

(Don’t raise your hands)

How many liked 2010? It was a good year for you.

How many cannot push 2010 out fast enough? Hoping that this New Year will bring new changes for the good.

New York City has celebrated the New Year since 1904, but it wasn’t until 1907 that they began dropping a ball. The ball was made of iron and wood and weighed 700 pounds.

I’m not sure but I think dick Clark was at the first celebration. (just kidding)

The name of the ball is “The star of hope.”

Each year is an opportunity for us to grasp hold of our future and destiny.

It is kind of like making our New Years resolutions’.

We all make them and break them every year.

Mainly because we rely on our strengths to repair our weaknesses, and we forget every year that it is going to Have to be a God thing to help us in some areas of our lives.

Each year we approach the New Year with the hope that “this is going to be the year”! The one that we have been waiting for!

Each year I do the same thing. (creature of habit) I look at my life, my family, the life of the church and I look to see what changes need to be made to move forward. (Too much of a thinker)

But, it cannot stop there- thinking about it, even knowing what to do is not the end result. The end result is doing something about it.

If it is something that you can change- you change it.

If it is something that needs God’s help, then for heaven’s sake, make sure God is involved in it.

2010 was a challenging year for me and the church that God has called me to pastor.

Watching some of you go through some of the things you went through was tough and wishing that I had a magic wand to be able to fix it.

I watched some of you make the same mistakes over and over again and assume unless God is involved that 2011 will not be different.

There are standard principals that we must understand before we can possibly think some of the circumstances will change.

No- where in the Bible does it say that when the economy gets bad, cut down or eliminate your tithes and offerings to the storehouse of God.

No- where in the Bible does it say that we should stay so busy that we forget about God and God’s people.

No- where does it say that we can be disobedient and expect the blessings of God to fall on our lives.

That seems harsh, but the principals of God and being obedient to God’s Word doesn’t change because we are in a situation we do not like.

This is not a tithing message and I am not trying to solicit extra money from you this morning.

What I am saying is as we go into the New Year with high hopes and high expectations, we must do what we know to do.

DO- What Gods Word tells us.

Relying and calling out to God for the things that we cannot do for ourselves.

We cannot do the same thing, the same way and expect a different outcome.

Matthew 14;22-32- not normally a New Years passage, but I want you to see the principal Jesus taught, because it is a good one to learn for the New Year.

Matthew 14:22-32- (read the Scripture).

There are some words that immediately stick out in this passage.

(V23)- Jesus dismissed the disciples, he went up to the mountainside by himself to pray.

If Jesus needed time alone to pray, time to get alone with God. What does that say for each one of us and how much more do we need it .

Jesus said to the disciples- “Take courage” Don’t be afraid. When they were right in the middle of the storm. Jesus walked to them and told them to take courage and then told Peter to “Come to Him”

Jesus reached out- met their needs, while holding Peter’s hand says – “Why do you doubt”?

I want you to see something here!

New Year- old problems- we usually carry them with us to the next year.