Happy ReNew Year
TCF Sermon
January 2, 2004
Rev. 21:5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."
I trust that this morning, on this first Sunday of the New Year, the words we hear will also be trustworthy and true, not because it’s me speaking them, but because they’re founded on the Word of God, and because they explain important truths about the great and mighty God we serve.
This passage proclaims an important part of God’s working in time and history, in the here and now, in the past, in the future, as well as in creation, and in human hearts.
The apostle John, in this great revelation from God, saw God seated on the throne, near the end of the book. God said something that is important in the context of John’s vision, but I really believe it’s also important to us as we begin this new year.
God told John, “I am making everything new.” The NAS says, “Behold, I am making all things new.” This year, and every year, can and should be a year of renewal in our lives....In our life together as a fellowship, as well as in our lives as individual believers.
Specifically this morning, in this message I’m calling Happy ReNew Year, I want to first look at the idea that God is in the business of renewing, of making all things new.
Then I believe the Lord would have us look at three specific ways in which He would make us new this year.
1. in attitude
2. in devotion
3. in service
Now, the context of this passage is the new heavens and the new earth, that new heavenly Kingdom where those of us who are followers, of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, will live for all eternity.
This is John’s picture, given to him by revelation of the Holy Spirit, of the end of time, and the beginning of eternity, John notes a few verses earlier, that this is the time when the first heaven and earth pass away....and God reveals a new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem.
This will be a place where God Himself will be with us, where we won’t do things such as we did this past year, mourn over the loss of three loved ones from our church family. God will wipe every tear from our eyes.
Rev. 21:4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
So, that’s the context in which we hear God say, “I am making everything, all things, new.” But I believe that, even though this is describing a specific time and place in the future, the end of time as we know it, God’s statement: “I am making all things new,” is also a picture of His work throughout history, throughout recorded time, throughout scripture.
It says something about our great God that’s not just true in the future, not just true in the context of the end of the age, but is true today, in the here and now. Our God is a God of new things. He’s a God of renewal. He’s a God of restoration. He’s a God of refreshing.
The passage we just read is a picture of the end of time. But, the “new” things we see in this life, I believe, are a foretaste of what the old hymn said, “a foretaste of glory divine.” The new things God does in this life, are a hint of what it will be like when God says what John heard in his revelation.
We’re living in the foreshadow of the things that God will ultimately make new. The Word of God is full of this theme of newness. In eternal life, we’ll have a unique newness of life, a new body, living in the new creation of a new heaven and earth. But God’s work of making all things new is ongoing, throughout history.
I also believe He’s built into our makeup a need for newness, as well as an innate understanding that new things are important, somehow. Now, I’m not excusing those who don’t persevere in something difficult just because they want something new and easier.
There’s a place for persevering through old things in Kingdom service, as well as our relationship with the Lord as individuals, and our relationships with each other.
In many cases like this, where things are tough and we want something new, God will give us something new.... He’ll give us new strength, new determination, new attitudes, rather than new circumstances.
Isaiah 40:31 but those who hope in (or wait on) the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
But, I believe that there’s a cycle of life that includes new things, refreshing, and that this cycle includes our human hearts, and many things associated with our lives.
The concept of newness is a central theme in the New Testament:
There, we read about:
new birth
new teaching
new wine, new wineskins
new commandment
new covenant
new creation
new self
new heaven and new earth
new name
new Jerusalem
newness of life
and then what we just read: all things new. Newness is also seen in His creation:
There’s the daily newness of night turning into day – a daily newness of darkness to light. There’s the annual turning of winter into spring, spring to summer, summer to fall, fall to winter...endlessly repeating throughout time.
There’s a clear cycle of newness and renewal in creation. And there’s a cycle of newness and renewal in life. God is a God of renewal, restoration, redemption, refreshing. I think we inherently recognize that renewal and refreshing and restoration are an important part of our human experience. For years, I never understood the reveling, the celebrating at New Years, and I’m usually in bed before midnight most years now. I’ve watched the mania in Times Square on New Years Eve, and wondered what all the fuss is about.
But now, though you couldn’t pay me to get into that mess, I think I understand it more. I think that it’s a reflection of what everyone seems to know about life....whether we realize this reality and can articulate it this way or not.
We have this innate sense that new things are important. Because of this, we have this emotional need to mark seasons, and renewal, and things that are new. So, at first blush, you might think using this passage from Revelation is lifting a passage out of context for what we’re looking at this morning. Yes, it is about the new heavens and new earth that God will create at the end of time, for His saints to live in for eternity.
But God’s words here, “I am making everything new” define an important part of His work among us even today. We’ve looked at some examples already, new life, new covenant, new birth, etc.
But let me cite just a few of the dozens of scriptures we could look at this morning, to help illustrate this idea today. For example, here’s God speaking to the people of Israel through the prophet Isaiah:
Isaiah 43:18-19 "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
This was a theme in the Old Testament. God’s constant renewal of His people. The constant cycle of blessing, followed by straying from God, followed by rebellion, followed by judgment and correction, followed by repentance, and then God doing a new thing for His people, once more.
And when He did a new thing for His people, He didn’t just change their circumstances – sometimes He didn’t. But He always changed them.
Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
A new heart.... a new spirit. God does new things because we need newness. We need refreshing. We need this new heart and new spirit He speaks of in Ezekiel.
2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
What old stuff has gone? Our old hearts. Our old spirits. Our old self. In Christ...and that’s certainly a key phrase here, because it’s critical to remember who does this for us, but in Christ, believers in Him are a new creation.
Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
This renewal, this newness, this transformation, doesn’t just include our hearts, but it includes our minds. Now, even though we sometimes make too large a separation between hearts and minds, in this case, it doesn’t seem to matter. That’s because when God renews us, when He makes all things new, it includes both our hearts and our minds.
And that reflects in the kind of people we are.
Ephes. 4:21-24 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Here, once more, we see God doing a work of newness. Just as He said in the opening passage we read from Revelation, “I am making all things new. Here, the thing He’s making new is our attitude of mind.
And that leads me to the first thing I believe God would say to us about the new things He wants to do in us this year. God is a God who makes all things new.
And this year, what He wants to do in me, and I believe what He wants to do in many of you, is to make us new in our attitudes. In this passage from Ephesians,
the word attitude is literally spirit. In this context, it means mental disposition, that is, what we’re inclined to think, to believe, to act on. Our attitudes towards the things of life and faith are a critical component in how we respond to all of life.
Here’s an example.
Philip. 2:3-8 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!
In this passage, selfish ambition is an attitude. Vain conceit is an attitude. Humility is the opposite of those attitudes.... the Godly attitude. Looking out for the interests of others is the result of an attitude. Obedience is the result of an attitude. And clearly, Jesus here is the model of the attitude we should have, as it says in verse 5 – your attitude should be the same as Jesus’ attitude.
I believe in 2005, God wants to renew our attitudes in these and other areas of life. Some of the “all things” He wants to make new, include the many attitudes that shape our lives. How about gratitude? It’s a key attitude in a life of faith.
Col. 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;
How about grumbling and complaining? The presence or absence of grumbling reflects our attitude about many things.
Philip. 2:14 Do everything without complaining or arguing,
God has been dealing with me about having an attitude of faith.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
There are many things in my life I’m hoping for, but I often don’t hope for those things in an attitude of faith. The key words here are sure and certain.
One commentary noted:
These two qualities need a secure beginning and ending point. The beginning point of faith is believing in God’s character—he is who he says. The end point is believing in God’s promises—he will do what he says. When we believe that God will fulfill his promises even though we don’t see those promises materializing yet, we demonstrate true faith.
When our faith is in Christ, and not in a circumstance, not in a person, not even in the free will of a loved one to choose rightly or wrongly, but our faith is in Christ, then we can be sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see.
I’m not talking about a name it and claim it sort of faith, an unbalanced faith, that ignores reality. But I also don’t want to let the abuses of faith in so much of the church today, cause me to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I’m talking about a faith that’s rooted and grounded in who God is, the things His Word clearly proclaims about Him. I’m talking about relying on the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
I’m talking about placing our dependence on the One who made the universe. I’m talking about:
Hebrews 11:6 It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.
I want to approach God daily, how about you? I believe God exists, and I do seek Him – how about you? But then there’s that nagging doubt. I think most of the time, if we’re honest with ourselves and others, we’re exactly where the father of the demon-possessed boy was when Jesus told him in:
Mark 9:23-24 "Everything is possible for him who believes."
Well, I believe this, don’t you. Everything is possible for him who believes. But part of me struggles, and my faith is weak. Yet this boy’s father said: "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
This year, I’m praying that prayer for myself. I want to approach all the things in my life with an attitude of faith. That leads me to the next thing I believe God wants to make new in 2005. Faith comes through the spiritual disciplines of life, and our devotion to the Lord is a key component in building the kind of faith attitudes I believe God wants all of us to have. How much of your heart does God have?
Those of you who’ve been here for a long time have heard me, and I’m sure many of the other elders, say things like this before. But if you are not in the Word of God daily, faith is not the only thing missing from your Christian life. What’s more, you may be in a precarious place. We should be devoted to Christ,
and that means we should be devoted to devotions.
Devotions, or quiet time, or daily time in the Word and in prayer, or whatever we want to call it, may not be all there is to the Christian life.... but it’s a critical component. I know people who didn’t exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in their lives, and weren’t exemplary Christians, even though they were constant in their daily devotions. But let me tell you this. If you’re not spending time with the Lord daily, you’re in a dangerous place.
I know Andy Obrochta wouldn’t mind me telling you these things, but most of you know at least some of his story. Here’s a man who drifted from the church, and then drifted from the Lord. He had little of the spiritual disciplines in his life. Because of that, at least in part, he fell into sin. His sin led to a crime, and his crime now has him serving five years in prison. One of the first things that changed in Andy once he repented, is that spending time in the Word of God, and daily time in prayer, and in worship, became a high priority in His life.
It’s probably the single most important factor in the changed man he is today. And I can tell you, after visiting him in prison a couple of weeks ago, God continues to work in his life, to change him, mold him and shape him, because Andy continues to be devoted to the Lord.
One mark, and again, I want to be clear, that this is not the only mark, but one mark, of devotion to the Lord, is how we spend our time. What we invest in, what we spend our time and money and efforts on, is a key indicator of our devotion to the Lord.
How much time do you spend with the Lord? Is time with Jesus a key element of your day? Is it a priority? It’s an easy thing to cast aside. And I don’t want to be legalistic about it.
But it relates to what we spoke about a moment ago... that is, attitude.
Our attitude should be such that time with the Lord is a priority, the priority in our lives.
2 Tim. 2:22 Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
The word pursue here implies effort, it implies devotion. I want to pursue righteousness, don’t you? That means to follow hard after righteousness. I want to pursue faith, love and peace, don’t you?
There are protective benefits to devotion to the Lord, but that’s a sort of negative way to look it, even though it’s valid. A positive benefit to our devotion to the Lord, is that He will build our faith.
Romans 10:17 ... faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
God wants us to be made new in our devotion to Him in 2005. He wants that, at least in part, for the sake of His love relationship with us, but there’s more, and that brings me to my final point.
God wants to make us new in our service to Him, too. One of the key things we must note about our opening passage of scripture, is that God says these words: I make.
These are God’s words, His declaration. God makes. God makes all things new. You don’t make. I don’t make. God makes. He’s the author and perfecter of our faith. He’s the one who makes all things new. All we must do is cooperate. But if we respond to His grace at work in us as He desires, we can only respond in gratitude by walking in the things, by doing the things that He desires of us.
Ephes. 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
The idea here is clear. We are made new....we are created in Christ Jesus. But His love for us is not the only reason He makes us new, even though His love for us is demonstrated in the choice of words here. We’re not just His work, His product. We’re His workmanship. The Greek here for workmanship is poiema...it’s the word from which we get our English word poem. A poem is a work of art. It’s not just built. It’s crafted, with great care and love. But though He does love us, though we are His workmanship, we’re made for a reason, for a purpose. And He’s already set in place the things we’re to do.
He’s paved the way, laid the groundwork, blazed the trail. We only have to walk it. I’m not going to spend much time on this point, because we’re ready to close, and because I’ll develop this last point further next time I preach. But let’s suffice it to say that in 2005, I believe God would remind us of Ephesians 2:10, remind us that we were created for service, for good works, that He’s already prepared those things for us to do, and that He wants to make this new in us, too.
Let’s review this, because I believe God would encourage us be made new in these areas in the coming year.
He’s a God of renewal, and He wants us to be renewed in attitude... whatever attitudes He’s impressing on you this year.
He wants to make us new in devotion... that we’d be wholehearted in our approach to our relationship with Him... not shallow in our devotion in any way.
And He wants to make us new in service, that we’d be faithful to seek the works that He’s already put in place for us to do in 2005.
pray... response... close
