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.
When you enter into a personal relationship with Christ, “Anyone is in Christ”, all things have become new. What this is saying is, no matter what your past may have been. No matter how many times you messed up or failed. Your slate is whipped clean. “old things have passed away”.
Now this is not to say that you still will not have to suffer the consequences of your past failures. If you are in jail for something that you have done wrong, then just because you enter into that personal relationship with Him, does not get you a “Get out of jail Free card”.
It simply means that God does not hold your past against you. No matter how good your past is or how bad it is, you have a new beginning. Remember it only takes one sin to separate us from spending an eternity in heaven with Jesus Christ. So you can have a new beginning by entering into a personal relationship with Him.
You need a new beginning and when you do you become a…
New Person
When you receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior then you become a new person. Now this is not to say that you walk in the phone booth as Clark Kent and step out as Superman, but your change will be just as powerful.
Now I have seen people who accept Christ as their Savior and there was a visible change in their appearance. Some who were very reserved before Christ and now who are out going and have a smile on their face.
Then you have those who had addictions of drugs or alcohol who leave it all, without craving it again. I’ve seen people who were bad spouses, bad parents, just bad people who after receiving Christ, became a new person. People have came home to new husbands and wives. Kids have gotten new mommies and daddies.
You become a new person.
Now it is not always an outward change. I have shared with you before; I was saved at the age of 5. There was no recovery from drugs or alcohol. I was not a serial killer or did any other serious crimes. My change, and many like me experience, was an inward change that reflects on the outside.
I no longer could do things and not feel guilty about it. The Holy Spirit now dwells in my heart. I was a new person and anyone who accepts Jesus as there Savior will become a new person as well.
And even though we are not saved by works, our works should be prove of that change. We read about the things we should avoid in our new person in…
Colossians 3:5-10 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
Then you have a few verses down, what the new person should look like.
Colossians 3:12-14 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
It sums it all up for you at the end of verse 14. If you want to be this new person; you need to have love, because love will cover a multitude of sins.
Then it goes on to give you some helps in living as a new person in…
Colossians 3:15-17 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Simply put… let God rule your hearts. Be thankful. Get into God’s word by reading it and applying what you have heard from someone’s teaching or preaching. Encourage one another. It talks about singing songs, not to each other but to the Lord. But then it sums it all up in verse 17. We should commit everything we do or say to Jesus and continually thank God for all His good gifts. That’s how we live as this new person.
But God knows our hearts and our nature so He also gives us my last point.
New Starts
I heard about a son who called his parents to wish them a happy New Year. The dad answered the phone was asked, “Well dad, what’s your New Year’s resolution?” He answered proudly, “To make your mother as happy as I can all year”. Then his mom got on the phone and he asked her the same question, “What’s you resolution, Mom?” She replied, “To see that your dad keeps his New Year’s resolution.
Like I said at the beginning. Have you ever wished that you could have a new start, a clean start? Even after you enter into that new beginning with Christ and become that new person does not mean that you will lose that sin nature that haunts us all. But God in His grace and glory knows that too. So He made a way so that when we stumble and fall, we can have a new start.
1 John 1:4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.
In order to experience the true joy, not having guilt, God made a way to have a new start and have forgiveness when we stumble and fall.
1 John 1:5-9 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (When we sin, we loose fellowship with Christ)
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (We all sin and we all will continue to sin even after we receive Christ. But God tells us how to have that clean start) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
All unrighteousness, a new start. But first we need that new beginning, and become that new person and when we stumble and fall we need that new start.
