New Year, New You!

New Year, New You!

Revelation 21:5 Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."

This is the time of the year for newness. Lot’s of people wearing the new cloth’s they received as Christmas gifts. Maybe some sporting the new watch or the diamond necklace they received. Maybe you drove in that new car, in your new cloths, to some new destination. Right after Christmas we have a lot of new. We even take back some things that we received as gifts that we didn’t like or we didn’t need, or they just didn’t fit and we get more new things to replace them.

Then you have the New Year where you have people who make the New Years resolutions with new challenges, and new commitments that we seek to change in the up coming year.

A young man was at a New Year’s party. He asks his friend for a cigarette. The friends replied, “I thought you made a New Year’s resolution to quit smoking”. The young man answered, “I’m in the process of quitting; right now, I am in the middle of phase one”. “What’s phase one?” his friend asked. They young man replied, “I quit buying”.

Isn’t that the way it is? We all want change, but for the most part we are not willing to do what is necassary to make that change. They say that over 90% of all New Years resolutions will not last over a month.

I know somehow some pounds have invaded my body and I will be making some adjustments to my diet to get rid of them. I think that all of us if given the opportunity would like to change something about ourselves.

One of the gifts that I received for Christmas was the book that Joel Osteen wrote, “Become a Better You”. As I opened it, I jokingly asked the person who gave it to me; “What’s wrong with me now?” “Are you trying to tell me something here?” But the truth of the matter is that we all can be better. Just for some like me it is just more obvious than others.

So sense this is the time for newness, I wanted to talk to you about ways we all need to change in the coming year. I’ve entitled this sermon, “New Year, New You”.

In our text we read at the beginning, it stated, "Behold, I make all things new."

I make all things new, No matter what state you are in right now in this point and time of your life, God can make it new. And it’s not just one time of the year, but every day God can make it New no matter what.

So let me give you some things we need to be made new. The first thing we need to be new is a …

New Beginnings

I heard something the other day that kind of surprised me. What time of the year do you think there are more wedding proposals given? I would have thought Valentines Day would have been # 1 but they say the #1 time to propose is New Years. I would have thought maybe even Christmas. I mean what woman would not enjoy a ring on her finger, and not to mention that you don’t have to spend the money on any other gifts. Now that’s my thinking. But what a better way to begin a New Year with a person you love to plan a wedding. My question is, of those who go through with the engagement, how many of them would like to have a new beginning again after a few years of marriage.

New things give us an opportunity to start over. A new job means you have a challenge to do better than the last job. In a new job they don’t know your weaknesses, failures and problems. A new job is a second chance.

I always thought the only reason I was promoted with new teachers every school year is that the old ones did not want to put up with me another year. A new year… a second chance.

And at this time of the year you have all kinds of New Year resolutions that happen this time of the year with a hope of a new beginning.

New beginnings… have you ever wondered what it would be like to start all over? A new start, with clean slate. All the mistakes from the past, gone. Sounds good doesn’t it. But that is exactly what God gives us when we enter into a personal relationship with Him.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.