New Year: New Me
2 Corinthians 5:11-21
Good Morning Everyone- very glad that you have joined us on this last day of 2023-
I have been in prayer as we come to the very last day of one year and tomorrow move into a new year.
Most people going out of one year and into another take at least a moment of time and reflect on last year and what they would like to see happen in the new year. We get an opportunity to look at the last year and make arrangements and changes for the incoming year.
Most people believe that happens strictly by starting some things and stopping some things.
Yes, physically there are some things to start and stop but what about the spiritual side of your life?
What are you doing in that area of your life?
Most stop at only the physically… you can lose a lot of weight but if you don’t change how you eat and what you eat, the weight will quickly come back on you with a vengeance as many of us know.
Many have quit addictions only to find out we lapse a few times and then just give up and say that we cannot do it.
The spiritual side which we usually only address after we have exhausted all other avenues is to see what God has to say about the things we would like to change-
Most agree that a new years resolution is only a to-do list for the first two weeks of the new year…because they give up or forget what they wanted to change and go back to the same old same old thing.
Have you sat down quietly between you and the Lord and discussed the things that you would like to see changed going into the new year?
If you have not, why not? Do you think God is not interested in the smaller things in your life?
Only the big things?
Do you have pride in your life where you know that you cannot do what is right and needs to happen because you are afraid to allow God into that situation because you don’t want to ask for help?
Are you not in a right relationship with Him and to ask Him to help would be to admit that you would have to change some things that He has already told you need to be changed but as of yet, you are not willing to do?
It can get complicated and it can get messy
But if you take away nothing else this morning, realize that the Lord does not want you to have to do it alone and He is wanting to step in and help you do whatever it is.
Our text is 2 Corinthians 5:11-17 and it Paul speaking to us about reconciliation. Think about it, as a believer, no matter what you want to add or subject from your life if the Lord is not a part of it, you need to reconcile that with the Lord before you can get His help and perspective on it.
Addictions- you have tried and now you need to ask the Lord into that addiction.
Relationship or lack of a relationship- you need His help.
Personal job, finances, entertainment, things going on in the government that you like or dislike- you need to hear from the Lord and look into His word to find out some answers you are looking for.
Instead of the Lord being the last one you talk too about these things, about making Him the first one you talk too about it?
2 Corinthians 5:11-18 Read from the Bible clearly
Straight up- Paul tells us that we need the Lord’s help in our lives when it comes to personal and relational things-
As we live our lives for Christ, this is what we want you to follow and do!
We are not trying to brag on ourselves but giving you an opportunity to take part in what God does through us and in us.
If we are out of our minds, as some say, it is for God-(We love the Lord) it is because He is first and foremost in our lives.
He says that if He is in his right mind, it is for you and I. (Believers)
If we have a right perspective of what the Lord wants in our lives, we will live first for him and then when we are in a right relationship with Him, we can be in a right relationship with others.
WHEN THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN, EVERYTHING IS OUT OF WACK AND WE SUFFER FOR IT. IF THE LORD IS NOT NUMBER ONE, YOU WILL HAVE TROUBLE LIVING OUT YOUR LIFE AS A BELIEVER WHO IS SUPPOSE TO BE FOLLOWING THE THINGS OF THE LORD.
THINK ABOUT THIS FOR A MINUTE-
The Jews in exile in Egypt- the Lord sends Moses to get them out and they are leaving and God provides the crossing of the Red sea on dry ground and then the Red Sea gobbles up their enemy by same ground and raging waters and they forgot what God had done.
Because they forgot the miracle and they forgot that God was with them.
God speaks to the leaders of Israel (Numbers 13) to go take the promised land that the Lord God is giving them. They were to send 12 spies into that promised land to see what God is giving them. 10 of the twelve spies saw the giants, the obstacles and troubles in the midst of all the blessings- only two people saw it for what it is-Joshua and Caleb saw the land as what God was giving them instead of what they had to do to get it-
PERSPECTIVE- are you listening to what God is saying or doing what you want?
Listening only to what you want to hear him say instead of what He said?
Are you even giving Him a chance to speak into your life or situation?
It wasn’t about taking the land by power- it was about seeing the land that God was giving you.
How about David and Goliath- (1 Samuel 17) we like that story because David wasn’t perfect and God still used him- it was a God thing that David was to be anointed the king and though their was other choices to be made God had already made up his mind. It was David.
David went to see how his brothers were doing as told to him by his father. When he got there, he saw what was happening and he wanted to do something about it.
He saw a bully intimated the people of God and no one was stepping up to do anything about it.
David decided by what had already gone on in his live and how God had been with him before to do something different than what the world was doing- he was going to stand up and trust God.
“Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.”
Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel,
Goliath was saying your God is not big enough to handle this obstacle!
They were thinking: we can’t handle this, it too big for us. We are too small. Our God is not that big.
David thought and responded that was a lie, because His God had been doing great things.
We do the same thing, when a God promises us something and we begin to see what he has in store for us we often look and see the hidden problems that are really no problem for God.
David remembered what God did in the past for him. He defeated the lion and the bear.
“Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.
Caleb said “Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
B. David said “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
This new year that is coming I don’t know what it will hold, I don’t know what lies ahead.
But I do know that My God is in control of 2024.
He is the one who will bring the people of Rosedale Church of the Nazarene through 2024.
What perspective are you looking at 2024?
Same old thing? Let’s just try to do better? Don’t land on the landmines? Be a good person?
Or are you going to allow the Lord to change you and in turn change your circumstances and situations.
Here is the right perspective and it goes back to our text-
(15) And he died for all, that those that live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.(17) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here.”
THAT SOUNDS LIKE A NEW YEARS RESOLUTION THAT WOULD WORK AND BRING BLESSING IN OUR LIFE!
What plans are you making to change in 2024? And is God included in the planning?
The real need is not a new year, but rather the transformation into a new person.
“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” Romans 7:18-19
“So, we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”
2 Corinthians 4:16 ESV
Paul says, there is a struggle that is going on within me…and each of us.
The will to do is present within me! I want to lose weight! I want to come to Sunday School every Sunday! I want to become more active in my church! I want to be more than just a bench-member at my local church! I really want to; the willingness is there, but the how to and the actual doing of it, is absent!
Not only do I struggle to do the things I want to do, but the things I don’t want to do seem to over-power me! I eat too much! I eat too much! I don’t exercise enough! I talk about folks instead of praying for them!
Sometimes I don’t even like myself, because the things I really want to do, I don’t do them and the things I really don’t want to do; I end up doing them!
That’s why I’m not really very excited about this New Year!
Not a New Year…A new you!
When we say Happy New Year what are we saying to someone?
We are saying that we hope this New Year is better than the year before.
We verbally give them a blessing that their problems are behind them and blessings are in the future.
Every year people stay up later than usual to see the old year go out and the New Year come in.
You can stay up late and watch the ball drop on Times Square in New York…but if nothing changes all you will lose is sleep!
New years are doors to new beginnings.
Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards (Many but read a few)
Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humble entreat Him, by His grace, to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to His will, for Christ’s sake. [I will] remember to read over these Resolutions once a week.
Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.
Resolved, Never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.
Resolved, Never to do anything out of revenge.
Resolved, Never to speak evil of any one, so that it shall tend to his dishonor.
Resolved, To study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive, myself to grow in the knowledge of the Lord.
Closing-
What perspective and attitude are you looking into the new year- are you going to allow the Lord to make the changes needed?
What planning are you going to make? Do nothing and nothing changes- Are you going to include the Lord in planning your new year?
Illustration
The late 60’s and 70’s and on reruns today was a show called “Tell the Truth” 3 people would say they were someone and you had to figure out who the one was telling the truth. Two could lie and the real one had to answer all questions truthfully. At the end, they would say… will the real please stand up!
A divided heart is a distracted heart
Will the real believer please stand up?
