New Year 2016
Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV)
18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?[1]
Happy New Year. Some of us here this morning have made many mistakes in our lives as Christians. We have experienced many setbacks and failures throughout our lives. So, a new year is a good time for us to put the past behind us, and set our eyes upon new things. We should never allow these mistakes, setbacks, failures to enslave us to the point that we are captive to the past.
In John 10:10 Jesus said, 10 …I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. [2] He says that there is an adversary, the Devil, which seeks to still, kill and destroy that life. The Devil will continuously remind us of our past in order to keep us from enjoying the life that God gave us to live. The Devil does not want you to have a fresh start in life, he wants to keep us captive to our old life.
The good news is, God says, Wants us to have a fresh start in life, He wants us to have a new beginning, He wants us to do something new in your life. God wants to have a new beginning in life. That’s something that all of us here need this morning is a fresh start with God. Last year some of you said, “I am going to grow in my relationship with God. I am going to get closer to The Lord this year, I’m going to spend more quality time with my family.” The list goes on from there. The fact that all of us here made some mistakes or we made some decisions that hindered us from doing those things that we really wanted to do.
Well this morning the good news is, according to Isaiah 43:18, “The Lord says, 18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! [3]
Listen to what God is saying in this verse. Forget about what’s happened before. Don’t think about the past. It’s over. That chapter is finished, and a new chapter starts.
We need to understand that God is far more interested in our future than He is in our past. Some people think that God is stuck on their past. That all He wants to do is remind them of the things that they have done wrong. God is more interested in your future than He is with your past. That’s where you’re going to spend the rest of your life. He says, “Forget about your past. Forget about the former things. Don’t think about it. Put it behind you. Look at the new thing I’m going to do.”
Israel was being punished for their sins and rebellion against God. God wanted to give hope and encouragement to His people. He wanted them to know that even though they were being punished they were not being forsaken. God wanted His people to understand that the punishment that they were experiencing would not be the end of them. It was to get their attention to the reality that their former behavior was unacceptable, they needed to repent of that behavior. That is, they needed to turn from it, put it behind them, and move on to new things. The fact is that God want to give them a fresh start in life, a new beginning in life, by putting the old things behind them, and heading in a new direction.
Israel no doubt was discouraged because they thought this was the end of them. They had gone too far, they had sinned and rebelled against God to the point that He would no longer be their God. Maybe they thought God would not deliver them again, it’s over. That is when they begin to remember the former things or past deliverances. Israel could remember past deliverances and past victories. They could remember when they were trapped by the Red Sea and had nowhere to go, how God made away for them. They could remember that when the enemy was about to overtake them how He provided protection for them. And they knew their sin. They could remember the former things, but they couldn’t see their future. That is why God said; “I am going to do something new.
Maybe that is where you are this morning! You feel that you have made so many mistakes, you have failed God so many times and you have sinned it all away. Now God doesn’t want anything to do with you. You feel and believe that you have no future with God. The good news is, God’s message is that it’s not over. He has plans for your life this year. He’s about to do something new for you.
This morning I want to share with you some ideas on how you can make a fresh start in 2016.
Regardless of what kind of failure you had in the past year, you can start new this year. The first things is to stop making excuses.
If I want a fresh start in life, I have to stop making excuses for my failures. I’ve got to stop blaming other people. I’ve got to stop seeing myself as the victim of my circumstances. We do have choices in our life.
Other people can hurt us, do us harm. But the only person that can ruin our life is ourselves. Nobody can ruin your life without your permission. You have a choice and that is you can choose how you’re going to respond to those hurts. The Bible says that the starting point is to just be honest and accept responsibility for my part in the problem.
Proverbs 28:13 13 Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.[4] Another version says: “A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confess and forsakes them he gets another chance.”
He gets a fresh start. He says the starting point to starting over is to be honest and face up to the problems, that most of the problems in my life, most of the failures, are my because of my own choices.
It is hard to get people to admit when they are wrong. People do not like to admit, they made a mistake, and blew it. God says, that if we admit the mistake, if we admit our failures, and if we admit our sin, then we get another chance.
The number one reason we fail in life is we don’t prepare ourselves for the problems that we will face in life. God prepares us for the unexpected by strengthening us in our relationship with Him. If we will listen to what he has to say through His word we will be prepared. God prepared Noah for what was to come, and it didn’t come for 120 years. It wasn’t raining when Noah started building the ark. But that’s how long it took him to get the thing built.
Sometimes we don’t listen to good advice. Proverbs 15 tells us that our plans fail without good council. We will benefit from good advice, from people you know you can trust. People will always give you their opinion on something, but it isn’t always good advice. People with good advice have done their homework, they know what they are talking about, and have sought the Lord on the subject.
Sometimes people don’t want advice, they know what they want and don’t want to hear anything that would change their mind. "Pride always leads to destruction."
Don’t give up too soon.
Proverbs 24:10 10 If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength! [5]
That is, if you give up when troubles come, it is because of weakness.
The problem is that often during trying times we stop trying. We give up, we take the path of least resistance.
If at first you don’t succeed, welcome to the human race. If at first you don’t succeed, you’re normal. I’m talking about your relationship with the Lord, not the acquisition of your new home and Bentley.
So, "S" in START the New Year, stands for Stop making excuses.
T - Take An Inventory Of My Life
I need to take an inventory of my life. That means I need to evaluate all my assets, abilities, and experiences. What’s left over after I’ve discarded everything that needs to be left behind. Take an inventory of my life’s achievement in regards to my life with God.
Galatians 3:4 4 Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain?[6] Another version is, "You have experienced many things. Were all those experiences wasted? I hope not."
Another version is, “ You have suffered so much for the gospel. Now are you going to throw it all over board.” I can hardly believe it. (TLB)
Let’s learn from your mistakes. Someone said, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. Failure can be your friend or your foe. You determine if failure will be your friend or foe by the way you react to it. You can choose to learn from it, and move on, or choose to repeat it. If you learn from it then it can be your friend. However, if you don’t learn from it is your foe.
There are four kinds of experiences that God uses to shape our lives.
· He uses personal experiences with others. Your family, people in your daily life, your husband or your wife, people in your church family.
A - Act in faith
This is the third step in getting a fresh start. Act in faith. We need to look up, and look out. We need to launch out into new territory. If we don’t grow and move ahead, we get stagnant and moldy. The Bible says that the key to changing anything is faith. If we want to change our circumstances it will take faith. If we want to change who we are, it takes faith.
Jesus says this in Matthew 9. “ According to your faith it will be done to you. ” That is a very simple statement but it’s very powerful. “According to your faith it will be done to you.” That means we tend to get out of life what we expect. What are you expecting in our walk with our Lord? Are we going to grow in our relationship with Him, or are they going to be the same, or perhaps worse?
Acts 3:1-5 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.
6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.[7]
This man asked for something and expected to get it, but in reality he got more than he expected. The point that I want to make is he acted in some faith and was greatly rewarded. Not with what he expected, but actually more than he expected. Sometimes, we ask for something and expect to get nothing and we get exactly what we expected, nothing.
In order to start acting in faith that means you’ve got to stop having a pity party. You’ve got to stop feeling sorry for yourself. Of course life is unfair. Whoever said it was fair? God never said that. This is a world filled with sin and because of that, life is unfair. But you have to go on with life anyway. We need to stop rehearsing the past, regretting the past, and get on with the present and the future. The more time we spend regretting our past, the more of our future is wasted. The more time you spend thinking, "I wish that hadn’t happened! I wish I could change that. If only I could go back, reverse the clock and redo history," and you’re rehearsing and regretting, you’ll not only make yourself miserable right now, you’re setting yourself up for more of the same thing in the future. The way you set yourself up for more failure is by focusing on past failures. Whatever you focus on you tend to reproduce in your life. "According to your faith it will be done unto you."
We need to do is learn from failures. Growth is built on failure. Failure is the way we learn. We figure out what doesn’t work. When Edison learned 200th or so time, what would make a light bulb stay lit, he did that because he knew 199 ways that didn’t work. You never call it a failure in your life. Call it an education. You learn from past failures and mistakes and act in faith for the future. Some people will never act in faith because they have been paralyzed by the fear of past failures and mistakes.
What we need to do is look to God for guidance. Learn from the past, leave it behind, and act in faith for the future.
How do you get rid of fear of failure? Faith. That’s why the third step in starting over is act in faith. Faith is not so much the absence of fear, as it is moving ahead in spite of your fear. The greatest faith is doing the thing you fear the most.
Stop worrying about what others say or think. Proverbs 29:25 tells us that being afraid of people can get you into trouble.
R - Refocus
I need to refocus my thoughts if I want to change my life. Proverbs 4:23 tells us to be careful how we think. Our life is shaped by your thoughts.
The reality is that the way you think, determines the way you feel. And the way you feel determines the way you act. If you want to change your actions, just change the way you think and it will inevitably change the way you act. If you are depressed, discouraged and distressed it may be because you’re thinking depressed, discouraged and distressing thoughts. That’s a choice that we have. You don’t have to think those thoughts. If you’re acting in fearful, worried ways it’s because you’re thinking fearful, worried thoughts.
Romans 12:2 tells us to “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
If I have to refocus my thoughts to start over to get a fresh start, that means I have to stop thinking some old patterns. Which memories are you still rehearsing that keep you from having a fresh start in life? The Bible says let go. Let go of those things. The more we hold on to that memory, the more you rehearse it, it continues to hurt you today. But, it cannot hurt you without your permission. You have to change your mind and let go and get rid of those painful, hurtful memories of shame and guilt and other things.
How do you do that?
· First, confession. You say, "I’ve confessed to God but I still feel guilty. How do I get rid of a painful memory?" Not by resisting it but by replacing it. Not saying, I’m not going to think about it! I’m not going to think about the elephant in the room! Start focusing on what’s to come, today and the future. Get your attention onto something else. Refocus. Replace those memories by, every time they come up, start thinking about something else. What’s the best thing to focus on? God’s word.
Psalm 1 1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. 3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. [8]
Another version says, “Happy are those who are always meditating on God’s word. They’re like trees along a river that do not dry up. They succeed in everything they do. ”
Those are the two things that everybody wants in life. We all want to be happy and we all want to succeed. The antidote, the answer, the way we get those is the phrase right in the middle “meditating on God’s word.” That’s the answer to the other two. The more you meditate on God’s word, the happier and more successful you’ll be in Your Christian life. It’s a promise from God.
Meditating on God’s word simply means rehearsing God’s word in our minds. It does not say, "If you read this book, you’ll be happy and successful." It does not say, "If you listen to this book, like through a sermon, you’ll be happy and successful." It says, "If you meditate on it you’ll be happy and successful." In meditating it means I think on it over and over and what it means in my life. I consider it and consider its implications for my life. As we fill our mind with God’s word, it begins to change our mind. We stop seeing ourselves as other people see us or as we have seen ourselves and we begin to see ourselves as God does. That’s where the change takes place. That’s the power to start over.
T – Trust
Trust God to help us succeed. Depend on Him. We don’t need depend on ourselves. We’ve already proven that we can’t do it on our own. That’s why we’ve failed. Some people just don’t get it. They stumble and fall and then they get up and say, “I’ll just try harder!” It’s like you go up to a wall and bang your head against it and the wall doesn’t fall down. You try it again and Bang! Again. You keep doing it thinking, “Maybe it will fall over this time.” That’s the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting different results. If we keep doing the same thing then we will keep getting the same result. We can’t change who we are, only God can do that. I am not speaking about the outward man but the inner man. The real person is the hidden person of the heart. Success in the Christian life is not trying harder, but living smarter. Giving God control of my life.
Psalm 1 tells us that we do not succeed by your own strength or power but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Through Christ we become a brand new person inside. We are not the same anymore. We are a new life, daily! Not just once, but daily! A new life has begun!” God specializes in new beginnings. Jesus Christ has the power to do that. We are born again. We have the chance to start over. We can have fresh start with a new life as we begin this New Year. God doesn’t want us to just turn over a new leaf, He wants us to have a whole new life.”
[1] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Is 43:18–19.
[2] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Jn 10:10.
[3] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Is 43:18–19.
[4] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Pr 28:13.
[5] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Pr 24:10.
[6] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Ga 3:4.
[7] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Ac 3:1–11.
[8] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Ps 1:1–3.
