Two By Four (A New Years Message)

Two By Four

New Years Message 2016

The year is about 700 BC. AND – God’s people were not doing so good. YEAH - things are pretty tough for the nation.

A large part of Judah and all of the northern kingdom of Israel were in exile in various parts of the Assyrian Empire.

YOU SEE – because God’s people had sinned and turned their backs on Him… BECAUSE - they had bowed down and worshipped foreign gods GOD - removed His protection (in case you are wondering that is never a good thing) allowing their enemies to invade and conquer them.

YES – things were bad…

AND - they would only get worse.

IN – about 100 years (give or take) Babylon would come riding in to finish the job that Assyria had started in Judah. King Nebuchadnezzar and his army would: level the city, tear down the walls, reduce the Temple to rubble, kill thousands of men, woman and children, and take even more into captivity.

Understand

It was to a people who:

• Had seen better days

• Experienced great suffering

• Lost hope

• In many ways had no one to blame for their pain but themselves

• Wondered where God was

• Longed for better days

Ever been there?

IT WAS – to such a people that God through His prophet Isaiah spoke the following words… (some of the most powerful and hopeful words in all of Scripture)

I am the LORD, your Holy One, Israel's Creator, your King."

This is what the LORD says—

He who made a way through the sea,

a path through the mighty waters,

who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together,

and they lay there, never to rise again,

extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, 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. to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise. - Isaiah 43:15-19

Prayer

MGCC… The year 2016 is off and running…

AND LISTEN – I am convinced that it is going to be an extremely HUGE year (a breakout year) for some people in this very room… Why? BECAUSE - God is doing a new thing.

HE – always is, always will and always is.

EVEN NOW - it springs up…

UNDERSTAND - in 2016 God is going to make a way in the desert. HE – is going to flood the dry desert wastelands with streams of living water… for those who seek and search for Him as we in Jeremiah 29, with all their heart.

YES – today, day 3 of the year 2016…

God is handing every single person in this room 363 blank pages of life… AND HE – is inviting each of us to write a new future on them in the coming days, weeks and months.

B/S UNDERSTAND – God is ready for things to be so much different, so much better for you in the year 2016.

QUESTION…

Do you believe that? Do you want that?

Do you want 2016 to be a different year, a year the is more positive, more fulfilling and God honoring? A year where your life more closely aligns with the life God created you to live?

Raise your hands if you want that in 2016.

Do you believe that God the maker of heaven and earth can deliver it?

LISTEN – if you want a new and better 2016, I encourage you to lean in this morning.

AND – for those who do not want 2016 to be any new or better than 2015, feel free to check out…

NOW – I am calling this (our first conversation in 2016) ‘Two by Four.’

UNDERSTAND – this morning we are going to look at TWO great, powerful and well known passages of Scripture and from them pull out 4 ‘2016 life-transforming truths.’

The first passage is from Philippians chapter 3

NOW PAUL – is writing to challenge some false teaching that was trying to add human effort to the grace found only in Christ.

We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, 4 though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. 7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ