2 Cor 5:17-21 What’s New? 2188 words
People crave for new things today
• New phones, new cars, clothes, hairstyles, and even a new face.
• Go for plastic surgery to get a new nose, new ear, new look, new body...
Especially during New Year, we want to set new goals, new resolutions
• For the Chinese, during CNY, we wear new clothes, new shoes…
• New furniture for the home… If we can change everything, we would.
Anything that is external, that is. That’s what we can change. And it’s simple.
• But we cannot CHANGE us – the real me! I can change my clothes but it’s still me.
• I can spot a new hairdo, but it would still be me.
• I carry with me the same old handicaps, worries, fears… same sadness and miseries.
• No amount of new gadgets, clothes, things can really give me what my heart longs for.
WHY? Because what we need are not new things, but a new life.
• We can have many new things but we cannot have a new life, unless we come back to Christ.
The Bible says only in Jesus Christ can we have a NEW LIFE – a new creation.
• It’s not an EXTERNAL change – I still look the same. It is internal.
• I experience God’s love, joy, peace, and hope. These inspire me.
• Man cannot see these things. The man who looks gorgeous on the outside may be a miserable man. The one who looks shabby may be one of the happiest men around.
So before we are too drawn away by the sights and sounds of this world, tell yourself – “I need to hang on to Jesus.” Do you want to be really happy in life, try getting to know Jesus more.
• Listen to Jesus - John 10:10 “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
• I am already living, why give me life? Obviously it not about just living - we can be living without a life, without meaning and purpose, don’t know what you are living for.
• Jesus refers to an abundant life, a full life. In John 17:3 He says, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Man has made great improvements over the Centuries. The speed at which we are gaining knowledge is amazing. Half of all that we learn in the history of mankind was acquired in the last 10 years! We have made great strides in education, science, technology – the new gadgets we have.
• Yet life has not been better. Life is made easy but not better.
• We live with the same worries and fears, probably MORE. We worry about not having enough; we fear being diagnosed with cancer of some kind; we have relationship problems – at school, at home, at work, even among courting friends. We have more broken families today, a growing number of suicides and divorces today than ever. And we see more violence. We need to have anti-terrorism drills.
• Life has not improved. Why? Because man has fallen away from God.
So if you really want a good life – get back to Jesus. Talk to Him, and keep talking to Him.
Jesus will make you NEW.
It’s like an old house – He did not renovate it, He rebuilt it. Jesus describes in John 2:19, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." The life we have in Christ is an entirely NEW creation.
BUYING THE SITE
A man was selling an old warehouse. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Gangs had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and thrown trash everywhere.
As he showed a prospective buyer the property, he took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage.
The buyer smiled and said, “Forget about the repairs. When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want the building; I want the site.”
Jesus puts it this way to Nicodemus, "you must be born again." (John 3:3)
WE HAVE A NEW BOSS
Let me put it to you with the story of a simple, illiterate man who was converted through the work of the Salvation Army. He went regularly to the Salvation Army citadel. One day he came home rather disconsolate.
His wife said, "What’s the matter?"
He said, "I’ve just noticed that all the people in the Salvation Army wear red sweaters, and I don’t have a red sweater."
She said, "I’ll knit one." So she knitted him a red sweater.
The next Sunday after he went to the citadel, he still wasn’t happy.
His wife said, "What’s wrong this time?"
He said, "I just noticed all their red sweaters have yellow writing."
They were both illiterate, but she said, "Don’t worry about it. I’ll embroider some writing on for you." She had no idea what the yellow writing on the red sweater of a Salvation Army man said - Any of you know what it is? The man’s wife had no idea what the letters said, and she couldn’t read anyway. So copying a sign from a store window opposite their home, she embroidered the words of that store sign onto his red sweater.
When he came back the next Sunday, she said, "Did they like your sweater?"
"They loved my sweater. Some of them smile at me when they saw my sweater."
What neither of them knew was that the sign on the store window she had copied read, UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT.
…Stuart Briscoe, "Christmas 365 Days a Year," Preaching Today, Tape 135.
We don’t really need better gadgets, better things, or better programmes. We need JESUS.
Let make this one of your resolution this year – get to know Him better. Spend time with Him.
(1) NEW LIFE - DON’T LOOK ELSEWHERE, LOOK TO JESUS
Heb 10:25 “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
• Not because God is lonely. It is for our sake. We need to stay close to God.
• Don’t neglect YUM and YAM meetings. Social groups are good but they can replace church groups, because there is something here that they do not have. You see, the issue is about friendship, having a good time chatting, eating or having fun.
• It’s about nurturing this NEW LIFE – and only in church can we find this. Outside, you can only nurture your OLD LIFE – which is to eat, sleep and be merry. And then you die.
Don’t look for peace in this world – you are looking at the wrong places.
o We have joy, because the Lord is with us, not because our circumstance is good.
o We have peace, because the Lord lives in my heart, not because there is no trouble.
o We have hope, because the Lord guides us, not because of our wisdom and strength.
We want to remind ourselves to stay close to God, and encourage one another to do so.
(2) NEW PURPOSE - LIVE WITH A RENEWED PURPOSE
Verse 19b-20: And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
Not only do we have a new life, we have a new purpose.
This few days on radio 938LIVE they talked about making resolutions for New Year.
• Some say they will exercise more, stop smoking, eat healthy, and make more friends…
• These are good; but these are temporary goals.
As Christians, we have a lifetime goal. This is a resolution for life!
• The world must know. And now we must tell them.
See it this way:
LIFE WITH A PURPOSE
On rural areas battling floods and river overflow, we see people filling up sandbags with sand and stack it up to prevent waters from entering the village.
If you know that you’re going to save the town, you’re going to work with all your might. There is nothing glamorous about filling bags with sand, but saving the town is something else altogether. You have an honourable goal.
But if you would to ask us to do that here in Singapore, with no apparent purpose, nobody is going to do it. It’s meaningless.
THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE
A man came to a construction site, where stonemasons were working. The man said to one, "What are you doing?"
The stonemason said, "You can see, I’m chipping a stone."
The man walked over to another mason and said, "What are you doing?"
He answered, "I’m building a wall."
The man walked over to a third mason and said, "What are you doing?"
This mason answered, "I am building a church."
All three were doing the same thing, but what a difference perspective makes!
…Gordon Johnson, "Finding Significance in Obscurity," Preaching Today, Tape No. 82.
Day in day out, what are you living for - three meals a day? Or eat, work and sleep?
• We have a God-given purpose! We have to see everything in that light.
• It does not mean we have to be preachy all the time. We have to cultivate a concern for the welfare of the soul of man!
• Wedding dinner – Pastor Simon Neo talks to the waitress about the change in his life. “Jesus changed my life. I was a former drug addict.”
A RESPONSIBLE POSITION
A young man, a skilled mechanic, was driving a visiting pastor from his home town, 50 miles across the country, to another city. En route, they passed a huge factory consisting of perhaps 20 buildings scattered over several hundred acres.
"Do you see that red brick building over there behind this grey stone one?" the mechanic asked. "I work on the second floor on the south side. There are 74 of us in that department, and as far as I know, I am the only one in all that crowd who ever goes to church or tries to live a Christian life.
Sometimes I have to remind myself that, as far as that department is concerned, I am all there is of the Christian church. If I don’t do good work, then the church has failed as far as those men are concerned. If I can’t be relied upon, then the church is undependable. If I am careless, then some poor unfortunate soul may have to pay for the church’s carelessness.
It is pretty serious business being the church in the midst of 74 other people."
’What does Christ’s ambassador do?’ you ask. He...
(a) knows the heart of Christ
(b) stays in constant communication with Christ
(c) keeps his heart set on Christ’s interests alone
(d) in this world represents Christ well
(e) is ready for recall at a moment’s notice.
We are betraying His trust if we live only for the here and now, and only for ourselves.
C. S. Lewis says, "All that is not eternal is eternally useless."
What are you living for?
Every year, during the New Year, we wish that everything will be new and good.
We’ve already pass so many New Year, are we better off today?
What we need – cannot be found in this world. We need a new life, because we’re in sin.
We need a Saviour in Jesus Christ.
Dear friends, the Bible says, you need to be reconciled with God, your Creator.
• The man who is in Christ will experience newness of life!
• You need to put your trust in Jesus. You need to rely upon Him.
Man has been trying - by their own efforts - to do right and live right.
• But the Bible says we’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.
• By our own efforts, we can never be good enough.
• No amount of change can truly improve our lives.
• No amount of education can give us a good life. We need a change of heart.
We need the forgiveness of our sins. We need a new life. Only Jesus Christ can do that. Believe Him today.
