Scripture: Psalms 95:1-7; Psalm 150; 1 Peter 2:9; Philippians 3:12-16
Theme: Old Year/New Year
Title: Notes, Wastebaskets/Shredders and Planners
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Today, we say goodbye to another year – in just a few hours we will be saying goodbye to the old year (2023) and hello to the new year (2024).
This morning, I would like for us to look at some things before we tuck the old year away and bring out the new year. I would like for us to do some things that I believe will help us make this new calendar year a year that we can experience victory, abundant living and continued growth. A year that when we look back at it some 366 (2024 is a leap year – 29 days in February) days from now we will rejoice and give thanks.
Let’s look at some things that can help us:
1. Step One – Make a List of some Praise Notes for this current year (2023)
Before we go into the new year it would be good for us to take a moment – to be still and put the old year into perspective. And one of the ways we can do that is to make a list of praises for what has happened in our lives over these last 12 months.
Now, there are all kinds of lists that we can find in books, in articles and on different websites. Lists that can help us think of things that we need to be thankful for this past year.
For example, here are some things that we can be thankful for:
1. Our relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
2. God’s Holy Word – the Bible. God’s love letter to all of us.
3. Our ability to grow physically, mentally and spiritually each year of our lives.
4. Our Uniqueness – The reality that all of us are one of God’s Masterpieces and we were created a little lower than the angels with all kinds of different gifts and talents.
5. This amazing body that God has given us; the ability to breathe, to communicate, to smell, to see, to hear and to move around.
6. Our Hearts – Both our physical heart and our emotional heart. The ability to care and to love.
7. Our parents, our grandparents, our families, and our friends.
8. Our Pets – God’s gifts to all of us; our dogs, cats, birds, horses, hamsters, farm animals and the list can go on and on.
9. God’s Good Creation – The Weather (Sunshine, the Rain, the Wind, and the Snow), the mountains, the oceans, the sky and all of God’s amazing creatures and other creations.
10. Books, Music, Art, Hobbies and Sports – Things to read and to watch that can take us to new places, help us learn new things and open our minds. Things that stir our emotions and enable us to share life with others.
11. Our Resources – What God has placed in our hands for us to take care of ourselves. Being thankful for a place to live, food to eat and clothes to wear. Being able to go out for a meal or buy something that makes us happy or brings happiness to someone.
12. Our Personal Journey with God – Taking some time and reflecting back on the year and thinking how God has been working with us on a day-to-day basis.
It’s important that we take the time to do this. It allows us to reflect on the year and see just how many good things happened to us. It enables us to give God the praise and glory that He is due for walking with us every day.
II. Step Two - We need to grab a waste basket or a shredder.
The Apostle Paul lived such an amazing life. It was a life that had its highs and its lows. It was a life that at times brought great honor and glory to the LORD and at times it was life that needed to hit the pause button because it found itself at odds against the LORD.
Paul wrote these words in Philippians 3:12-16
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
There are some things that happened in our lives this past year I am sure that we would like to forget. Some things that did not bring God honor and praise. Some things that we could never put in our Thanksgiving Box of Praise.
I am so glad that the Apostle Paul reminds us that as important as it is to remember some things it is also good to leave some things behind.
There are some things that need to be put into the wastebasket of the past or put through the Shredder of the Holy Spirit. There are some things that need to receive God’s forgiveness and then be forgotten about forever.
We all make mistakes. We all do things that we wish we had not done. We all need some forgiveness, mercy and grace.
There are some things that we need to let stay in the past year. It could be things that we did or things that someone else did to us.
In the book of Acts we read a story concerning St. Paul and John Mark. The Apostle Paul was quite upset with John Mark. There had been some problems on a recent mission trip and instead of John Mark standing his ground, he recused himself and went back home. He wasn’t ready to face the heat of persecution.
As a result, when he wanted to travel with Barnabas and Paul later, Paul refused to let the young man go with them. He didn’t want John Mark to be a part of his team if all he was going to do was to run and hide when things got rough. And Paul knew that there was a great chance that things would get rough.
Barnabas disagreed with Paul. He believed that John Mark could be trusted and that in time he would grow deeper in the faith and become a great leader in the Church.
Their disagreement became so intense that Paul and Barnabas decided that it would be best for them to part ways. Barnabas would travel with John Mark while Paul would travel with Silas and Luke.
It was not the best of times in the Early Church with two of its greatest leaders not only disagreeing but willing to go their own separate ways.
Years later when Paul was writing his letters to Timothy (2 Timothy 40) he asked Timothy to bring his cloak and to also bring John Mark. It seems like over the years that John Mark did grow up and became a great leader in the Early Church. In fact, it was John Mark that wrote the First Gospel – The Gospel of Mark.
We don’t know all that transpired between Paul and Barnabas along with John Mark. But it does seem like Barnabas was correct about John Mark.
And it seems like the Apostle Paul learned how to let some things in the past just fade away.
We need to do the same this morning. No doubt there were some conversations that we had in 2023 that looking back we wish we had said something differently or handled something differently. No doubt there may have been a text, an email or a post that we later wished we either hadn’t sent or hadn’t responded to as well.
There are just some things that we need to either put into our spiritual wastebaskets or shredders and allow the Holy Spirit to deal with them. There are some things that we need to let go of and not speak of again or mention again.
III. Step Three - We need to grab a Planner.
We need some post it notes to remind us of some things we need to be thankful for this past year.
We need a wastebasket or a shredder to get rid of some things that we need to leave behind.
And finally, we need a planner to help us sit down with God and for us to see where we are going and what we want to do and accomplish this next year.
366 days from now where do we want to be physically, financially, mentally, emotionally and spiritually?
There are several scriptures in the Bible that reminds us that it is important for us to plan:
Luke 14:28
“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he or she has enough to complete it?”
Proverbs 15:22
Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
One of the reasons for us to plan is to understand that our God is a planner.
When you read the first chapters of the Bible you can see that God is a planner and you see God’s plan in action:
Each period of creation there is a plan emerging. Light emerging from darkness, the sea and the sky being divided, the earth being filled with life and humankind being formed from the dirt of the earth and God breathing life into Adam. God creating and planning for the Sabbath.
Creation did not happen haphazardly. Creation involved a detailed plan and a purpose and as you read Genesis 1-2 you can see God’s plan in action.
As you read through the Bible you see God giving detailed instructions to individuals like Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David and others.
When we read the book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, we read all types of detailed instructions for the Temple, for the sacrifices and offerings along with how to live out a holy life. All these are listed there for Moses and the people of God to read, understand and follow.
When you read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, you find God’s plan on how to live a holy life.
There is nothing wrong with planning. In fact, some of the greatest people to ever live understood the importance of planning.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
? Warren Buffett
“Without goals and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” Fitzhugh Dodson
“Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.” Thomas Edison
We all have heard of stores like K-Mart, Eckerd’s, K B Toys, Western Auto and Steak & Ale. All those stores just a few years ago were bringing in millions of dollars each year in profits.
But all of them failed to plan. They failed to plan for the changes that were happening all around them. They refused to shift their market to take advantage of a new age. As a result, all of them are now gone. They have either been taken over by another company or they have disappeared through bankruptcy.
The same has been true in other markets as well and even in churches. Some denominations are no longer seeing growth but shrinkage and drawbacks. Since 2016 the Presbyterian Church of America has lost over 700 congregations and over 300,000 members.
At the same time there are other churches like Compassion Church that 20 years ago did not exist. Now there are over 15 churches with one of those churches averaging over 1,000 on Sunday morning.
None of that happened by accident. Some of the shrinkage happens because of poor planning or no planning. Some of it happens because no one is putting together a sustainability plan, an evangelism plan or an outreach plan.
As we look towards 2024 and beyond, one of the things that we can all do is to put down some goals – personal, family, and congregational goals that we want to see happen.
If we want to have more money at the end of the year personally then we must have a plan and then execute that plan.
If we want to do certain things before the 2024 is in the rear-view mirror then we have to plan and then execute that plan.
So, this week while you are taking some time to rest from all the activity of Thanksgiving, Christmas and now New Year’s Eve, it wouldn’t be bad for any of us to sit down with some paper and pencil and write down some goals that we want to accomplish this upcoming year.
So, this morning as we say goodbye to the old year and hello to the new year, I want to challenge you to:
+Take some time and write down a list of some of the things you are thankful for that happened last year.
+Take some time and throw away some mistakes, some wrongs that you did and that were done to you. Don’t take resentment, vengeance, malice and hatred into the new year. Don’t allow the Devil to have you live in the sins of yesterday. Let some things be put into the shredder or wastebasket of the Holy Spirit.
+Sit down with God and work with Him on planning out this new year. What would you like to do? In what areas would you like to grow? What would you like to enjoy this upcoming year with God’s help.
Three simple steps:
A thank-you list, a wastebasket and a planner – with God’s help all of those things will help us enjoy 2024!
Invitation to Holy Communion
Prayer/Blessing
