All Things Can Become New
Sunday, January 02, 2011 AM
By Pastor James May
Welcome to a brand new day – the first day of the rest of your life; and a great opportunity to make your life really count in the grand scheme of human history. That may seem like a statement that is a little over the top for some of us but let me remind you that if you are serving the Living God, and your steps are ordered by the Lord, then you can be assured that God is going to make your life count and that everything you do will make a difference that will last for eternity.
As I look around the congregation here this morning I see a lot of people are enjoying the presence of the Lord because at some point there was a stirring in your heart brought on by the Spirit of God. For that to some to past, somewhere in your path of life, God put a preacher. Maybe it was a preacher who does most of his preaching from behind this sacred desk called a pulpit. Or perhaps it was preacher that sat across from you at the table, one-on-one. But for that preacher to be there, God had orchestrated a whole series of events to occur.
I’m convinced that God loves you and I so much, that he does not leave our salvation to chance or fate, but that every move that we make is designed to bring us to that point in life where we will come face to face with the Cross of Christ; and there we are put in a position to change our eternal destiny.
Some of you may be way ahead of me concerning what I have just said, but just in case you don’t grasp what I’m saying, let me say it this way. Regardless of how you came to be in this service this morning, whether you live close or far away, whether you knew this day was coming, or it came seemingly by coincidence, you are here today by divine design from a Loving Father in Heaven who has directed your path.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Let me give you a little scenario here. As a very small child of preschool age, I was sent to church by my parents, who at the time, weren’t attending church. Life has a way of making us busy, or distracting us from always being faithful and its easy to slip into the everyday order of business and just neglect being faithful to church or to serving the Lord. It’s not something we always intend to do; and in fact, most of the people I talk to always have the best of intentions to serve God.
I have to tell you that intentions alone aren’t good enough. You can intend to change the oil in your car, but if you put it off long enough, in time it just won’t matter. The engine will be wasted. You can intend to get your education, but put it off long enough and the day will come when you realize that it will never happen. We can intend to lose weight but if we don’t get it under some control, pretty soon the damage to our body is permanent. We can intend to serve the Lord, but there may also come a day when the Holy Spirit no longer deals with our hearts and then there is no hope. God’s patience with a man or woman, who continually rejects his offer of salvation, does have its limitations and I have known a few people who have stepped over the line and no longer feel the Holy Spirit moving in their hearts. Now don’t worry; if you were one of those, you probably wouldn’t be here this morning; and you wouldn’t care whether God spoke to you anymore or not.
Genesis 6:3, "And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years."
God created us all to live forever in this body, but because the heart of man is inherently evil, having gained a sinful nature at the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, God had to, formulate a plan to redeem the soul of man from the sentence of death that hangs over every human being born into this world since Adam’s fall.
It was our God the Father that determined to build a bridge that man could use to regain eternal life; and that bridge was built by the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, who gave his life for our sin, shed his blood to cleanse us from sin; and then rose from the grave to become our intercessor in Heaven.
The way back to God is complete in Christ but each of us must make our own choice to surrender our hearts and accept Christ as Lord and Savior. And so, inside of every one of us, there is a spiritual war going on. It is a war between what the earthly part of us wants and what the spiritual part of us wants. This war never ends as long as we live.
This earthly nature is called the “Desires of the flesh” and those desires are diametrically opposed to what the Holy Spirit wants to do with us through our spiritual nature.
The Apostle Paul gives us a perfect picture of this inward battle; spiritual war, that is being waged inside each us every day. Paul’s complete discourse can be found in the 7th Chapter of Romans, but let me just give you a few of the verses so you’ll get the picture.
Romans 7:18, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not."
Romans 7:19, "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do."
Can you see the inward struggle that is going on with Paul? It’s the same struggle that you and I face every day. But there is an answer, and there is a way to win this war with ourselves. It’s found only in Jesus Christ.
Romans 7:24, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
Romans 7:25, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord…"
But just because Jesus has made a way for us to win the battle doesn’t mean that every man wins. In order to win the battle, we must choose to follow Christ and live according to the Word of God; and not the desires of the flesh. This calls for a separation between what is of this world; and what is the will of God for our lives. And this separation, and dedication to the will of God, is where the root of the struggle is found.
God’s Spirit works with us, battles within us to help us win over the flesh, but God will not do for us what we must do for ourselves. Everything about serving the Lord and doing his will must be our own decision, and our own free will. God will never stop us from doing what we want to do.
Thus, we return to the idea that if we decide to not obey God; not accept his will; not be faithful in his service; then the time would come that God backs off and lets us go our way. This is never in God’s will. His plan is for all men to be saved; but sadly, the vast majority of mankind has not, and will not, accept God’s plan, and so they live and die without God, and then God’s only recourse is to judge their sin and condemn their souls to eternal punishment.
Looking back now at Romans 8:28 we saw that God said that all things would work out for the good of those who are called, or should we say, living their lives in agreement with the will of God. Exactly what does that mean?
Getting back to the scenario:
In the story of my own life, beginning as a child, not everything seemed to work to my good at the time it was happening. But, I was sent to God’s House and there I learned of Jesus. At the age of 12 I remember receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, having already accepted Jesus as my Savior. All through those years, I struggled with myself to serve the Lord, but somehow, God helped me to overcome the flesh. Then came Vietnam and I just couldn’t see how that could work to my good – but it did. It made me grow up and quit acting like a kid and realize that life is really a battle that I had to win; and it made me appreciate the things and the people in my life so much more. There was my wife and my children, and many of the things that happened along the way haven’t always seemed to be working to my good. But I’ve learned through the years to just trust in the Lord, put it his hands, and I’ve never been forsaken. All things, whether they seemed good or not, have brought me to this point where I am right now, and I can say that God’s Word is true and everything has worked to my good.
So even though your life isn’t all peaches and cream, and you aren’t walking on a flower filled path, if you serve the Lord, you can trust in God to bring it all around to be a blessing in the end. That’s God’s promise to each of us.
So what does all of this have to do with all things becoming new?
The fact is that our God is a God that loves new things. He created a new creation that we all are a part of. He created a new man from the dust of the earth and gave him life so that a new bond of love could exist between man and God. He created a new nation called Israel that would be destined to carry the knowledge of the true God to a world lost in sin. He created a new testament through the blood of Jesus that would bring about the birth of a new church that would be destined to bring a new hope to all of mankind. God desires to bring new life to every soul that is dead in sin today. And God has promised to create a new Heaven and a New Earth for all who will serve him to the end.
God wants all of us to share in his new things by becoming his own adopted children. He wants us to be called sons and daughters of God, and to be joint heirs with Jesus of all of the wonderful things of Heaven. That’s God plan for you and for me.
Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Romans 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Can you see the wonderful Love of God reaching out to all men? God knew whether your heart would be open to hearing his message of salvation before your were even born. He knows already whether you will accept or reject. He doesn’t predetermine who will be saved and who won’t, but he does know who will and who won’t because he is omniscient. The choice is still ours to make.
God loves all men, even those who will reject him, but God’s promises of good things are going to ultimately be fulfilled only in those who will serve him. He calls us individually to make our choice to either accept or reject his plan for our lives. If we accept the call and serve him, then we are justified, or made right with God through Jesus Christ. Ultimately God’s plan is to bring us to Heaven and there to enjoy the glory of God forever.
Now we come to the conclusion of the matter. Everything can become new for you, not only on this second day of the new year, but with the rising of the sun on every day for the rest of your life. Every day can bring new blessings, new hope, new life and a new heart. All things can truly become new!
2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
Do you seek a new hope? Do you seek a new joy in life? Do you seek a new purpose for living? Do you want all of the new things that God has prepared for those who will serve him? God will give you a new heart, a new nature and a new way of looking at life, through the eyes of the Spirit that pierce the confusion and the darkness, push aside the uncertainty, blows away the clouds of doubt and fear and gives you a clearer vision than you’ve ever known.
I’m not here to promise you a life that is a bed of roses, but I am here to promise you that no matter where you walk, God will walk there with you, and he will bring you through it all victoriously. God will never leave you or forsake you and he will always be there, closer than a brother, only a whisper away.
Yes, the struggle with the flesh will go on; and sometimes the battle may seem lost; but as long as we serve the Lord and do our best to live in obedience to his Word, we can be assured that the war will be won. Jesus is ever interceding for us and God is fighting on our behalf. It’s a war we can’t lose.
Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Have you given your heart and life to Jesus? Have you given God the opportunity to make all things become new in your life?
As we begin this new year, what a wonderful opportunity we have to make a brand new start in life; and what better new start can we have than to step out into the rest of our lives with Jesus in our heart, the Holy Spirit to guide us, the Word of God to teach us, and our Heavenly Father fighting for us? That’s the ultimate in new beginnings.
Claim this new beginning for yourself by giving your heart to Jesus today. Accept him as your Lord and Savior. Surrender your will to his will. Let God be God in you! Allow the Holy Spirit to guide your steps. Find a church that teaches the truth, get involved and be faithful to the end. That’s the path to a new life that you will never regret you took. Amen
