Perspectives For The New Year (And For Every Year)

A. Happy New Year!! Welcome to 20-23!

B. Let’s start with a little New Year’s humor:

1. What do cows say on Jan. 1? "Happy Moo Year!"

2. What was Dr. Frankenstein’s new year’s resolution? To make new friends.

3. What new year’s resolution should a basketball player never make? To travel more.

4. What’s the easiest way to keep your New Year’s resolution to read more? Watch TV with subtitles.

5. Where can you practice multiplication tables on New Year's Eve? Times Square.

6. Why should you stand on just your right foot during the New Year's Eve countdown? So you start the New Year on the right foot.

C. Let’s start the new year on the right foot with a biblical perspective about time.

1. Let’s read some Scripture passages and consider the important truths they contain.

2. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

Verse 11: He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human

heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

a. From these verses, we learn that God is in control of time and that there is a time and season for all things associated with our lives.

b. We also learn that God has set eternity in our hearts and that means that we have a sense that we have been made for something more than earthly life – we have a longing for God and for eternal life.

c. Sadly, far too many people try to fill that God-shaped hole with the things of this earthly life, but those things just don’t satisfy that longing.

3. James 4:13-15 says: Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

a. These verses teach us not to be presumptuous about how much time we have in the future.

b. In reality, our lives are brief and fragile, like the midst that appears one minute and vanishes the next.

c. Our attitude and perspective must always express our humble dependance on God in whose hands is our very life.

4. Ephesians 5:15-16 says: Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

a. Wisdom should cause us to value every moment and every day, and to seek to do good with every opportunity we are given.

5. Our perspective should be like Jesus’ perspective on time: Jesus said: As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. (John 9:4)

6. Another important truth about time that comes to us from Scripture is the need to be ready to meet the Lord, because His coming may happen at any moment.

a. When speaking of His second coming, Jesus said: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. (Mk. 13:32-33)

b. The apostle Paul wrote: Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. (1 Thess. 5:1-3)

c. The apostle Peter wrote something similar: But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Pet. 3:8-9)