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I….. Happy New Year! (six days in to 08) Something
struck me, forcibly, at our New Years Eve service about that statement.
For the first time I really noticed the word NEW.
We don't know that Jesus was actually born on December 25th.
But the way our calendar now unfolds is, I think, very good for us. Our
mind at the end of the year is supposed to wrap around the fact that
God loved us so much that he himself became human to take the
punishment for our sins on himself. Then we live a half dozen more days
and we close the book on our past year and we get to open a fresh new
page on a fresh new year.
Usually, by the time the old year ends most of us are, more than,
ready to start with a clean page… Here is one common theme one often
hears during those six final days…
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‘Twas the days after Christmas, and all through the house, nothing
would fit me,
not even a blouse. The cookies I’d nibbled, the fudge I did taste, all
the holiday partying had gone to my waist.
When I got on the scales there arose such a number! As I walked to the
couch
(less a walk than a lumber). I remembered the marvelous meals I did
eat, The pies and the cakes, the bread and the cheese, and the way I'd
not said, "No thank you please."
So away with the last of the sour cream dip, get rid of the fruit
cake, every cracker
and chip. Every last bit of food that I like must be banished, ‘till
all the additional bulging has vanished.
I won’t have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie, I’ll munch on a
carrot and quietly
cry. I’m hungry, I’m lonesome, and life is a bore --- Isn’t that what
the New Year is for?
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Extra weight isn't the only things that tends to "weigh on us" at
the end of the year…
We tend to collectively ponder the things about ourselves that we
wish were different and hope, and pray, that the change of the calendar
year will signal a change of character, or fortune or motivation in us.
Interestingly enough, the idea of making "New years resolutions"
seems to have started just a few years after the death and resurrection
of Jesus and even though it was said to have been started by the
Romans… you wonder how much the spreading Early Church alerted people
to the need for change in their lives
For centuries…countries that were largely Christian, including the
United States, would celebrate New Year Eve with a complete spiritual
focus on changed lives. The idea that New Year Eve was a time to party
and set off fireworks was unheard of until the last century. Until
then…. that was considered the practice of pagan cultures like the
Babylonians and the Chinese.
I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't get together with friends on
New Years Eve or set off fireworks… I am trying to make a point:
As our "New Years" focus, this last century, has become more secular
than spiritual…. More party-ing than praying… American "resolutions"
have changed
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From; "God make my character more like you this next year"
To "I hope to double my investment income next year…
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From: May God's providence (pro-video - to see before) rain on
me…
To: May my luck change in the coming year
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From: Resolute (resolution)- fixed, firm, unwavering, determined,
purpose (Webster) based on God's promises to me
To: The fruit of one's self-will or Lady Luck
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For Example:
WALES - At the first toll of midnight, the back door is opened and
then shut to release the old year and lock out all of its bad luck.
Then at the twelfth stroke of the clock, the front door is opened and
the New Year is welcomed with all of its luck.
SICILY - An old Sicilian tradition says good luck will come to those
who eat lasagna on New Year's Day, but woe if you dine on macaroni, for
any other noodle will bring bad luck.
SPAIN - In Spain, when the clock strikes midnight, the Spanish eat
12 grapes, one with every toll, to bring good luck for the 12 months
ahead.
CHINA - For the Chinese New Year, every front door is painted with a
fresh coat of red paint, red being a symbol of good luck and happiness.
Although the whole family prepares a feast for the New Year, all knives
are put away for 24 hours to keep anyone from cutting themselves, which
is thought to cut the family's good luck for the next year.
NORWAY - Norwegians make rice pudding at New Year's and hide one
whole almond within. Guaranteed wealth goes to the person whose serving
holds the lucky almond.
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Is the success of your New Year supposed to be a product of whether
you happen to get a nut in your pudding or if you have the dexterity to
synchronize your fruit chewing with the tolling of a clock?
The unfortunate by-product of making one's success in the New Year,
a by- product of luck or of one's own self discipline, is that it tends
to reduce everyone's expectations of anyone really changing…
Reuters: Franklin/Covey survey; December 18, 2007: Top Three NYR…
1. Get out of debt or save money
2. Lose weight
3. Develop a healthy habit (e.g., exercise or healthy eating)
I heard a news commentator say this week: "Everybody makes
resolutions… nobody keeps them"… If you've lived through very many New
Years yourself, you know how much you tend to believe that yourself.
T or F "Happy New Year" is more about a change of calendar than a
change of one's life
T or F We should probably call it "Happy Year 2008" and leave off
the word "New" because very little new ever really takes place?
We don't want to answer these questions…do we? If we answer "true"…
we will appear to be fatalistically negative…. and if we answer "false"
we will appear to have our heads firmly planted in the sand!
Is it possible to have a Happy NEW Year? (of course)
But you need to understand what New means… New does not mean… the
"old" re-hashed a second time over. When you reheat your casseroles you
don't call them left-overs for nothing. Something isn't defined as new…
unless it is NEW!
Webster: New =
1) Never existing before
2) Existing before but never discovered or known
3) Recently manifested…different from the familiar
4) Beginning again…making a whole different start
I'd like to spend the next four weeks (or so) wrestling us away from
the idea that any of our lives have to go on, year after
year…unchanged. What if it were possible to experience a spiritual life
in 2008…radiating outward into every other area of your lives that:
1) Never existing before
2) Existing before but never discovered or known
3) Recently manifested…different from the familiar
4) Beginning again…making a whole different start
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Is it Biblically possible to have a Happy NEW Year?...spiritually?
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I began a journey this week through the Bible to discover how
Scripture dealt with the word NEW…and I was astounded. My first pass…I
came up with 497 passages where the word is used… That is huge! If
you've done many word studies you know that many key theologies in
Scripture rest on a couple dozen passages. I culled it down to about
350… then 200 and culled finally to 128.
The next to the last chapter in the Bible caps it all off… it gives
us a taste of something that I hope will intrigue you enough to come
every Sunday this month
Revelation 21:1-6 1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And
the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for
her husband. 3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look,
God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they
will be his people. God himself will be with them.
4. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no
more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone
forever.” 5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am
making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down,
for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” 6 And he also said, “It
is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To
all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of
life. (NLT)
This is the same Jesus who stood outside of time in the beginning
and said "Let their be" and the whole universe appeared. We were
discussing here on Wednesday evening that he made the universe "out of
nothing"…. The classic definition of newness…. Something didn't exist
before… and now it does. He created a cosmic home for mankind in the
beginning… Mankind, of course, rejected their Creator and
fell…..bringing spiritual and even physical destruction to this earth.
At the other end, Revelation says that he's going to create a new
earth and a new universe. And the New Jerusalem (1400 sq. miles) is
going to come down from heaven and sit next to/on the earth.
Here's my question:
Is God's time like an Oreo cookie with a nice chocolate wafer on
each end… of New Beginnings…but instead of the rich creamy filling of
newness in the middle we get the dry tasteless filling of "same
ole…same ole"?
The quick answer is no! From God's beginning of Creation, until he
makes the New Heavens and New Earth, all but the last four references
using the word NEW, (which I just read to you)… All of the rest of the
references are in the "filling" part of the cookie… The period between
the creation of the earth and the creation of the new earth.
A huge part of the "NEW" references in the Bible are God
promising His people, in both the Old and the New Testaments, what He
is getting ready to do in their lives (both present and future) …if
they will let him!
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What If I could prove to you… in the next few weeks that God not
only speaks of new beginnings in every area of our lives, today, but
actually promises them to us individually?
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What if the new life, new way, new nature, new creation, new birth,,
new covenant, new grip, etc… God promises in the New Testament could be
applied directly to your life circumstances this year?
It can…and I'll try to show you why and how…
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We often go back 3000 years and quote King Solomon to explain why
everything in our lives should remain as it is… This provides the
perfect rationale for how you can get out of your New Years Resolutions
this year. How many times have you heard this:
Ecclesiastes 1:8-11 All things are wearisome, more than one
can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of
hearing. 9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done
again; there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there anything of
which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already,
long ago; it was here before our time. (NIV)
There is a certain rationale here…When a politician get up and tells
us that if vote for him he will bring lasting change into the world…we
can quote him Eccl. 1…
But on a more personal level….
1) Did Solomon have times in his life when he saw the mighty hand of
God do things that had never happened before? Yes!
2) Did God bring radical change into Solomon's life and the lives of
the people he led? Yes!
3) Did Solomon blow the advantages God brought into his life and
find himself dissatisfied by all the blessing around him? Yes!
We're hearing, here, the heart-cry of a bone weary Solomon who had
tasted a lot of life, and fallen down a few too many times.
…Not too different, emotionally, than some of us… right now!
Solomon's negative viewpoint at the end of his life was absorbed by
the whole nation and they lived with snowballing negativity… and
spiritual failure… for the next 700 years.
Conclusion:
Finally, in the Prophet Isaiah's time (700 years before the Messiah
would arrive)God started to get a new message through to them… Look at
this progression:
Isaiah 11:1 Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a
shoot—yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.
Isaiah 40:31 But those who trust in the Lord will find
new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run
and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
Isaiah 41:15 You will be a new threshing instrument with many
sharp teeth. You will tear your enemies apart, making chaff of
mountains.
Isaiah 42:16 I will lead blind Israel down a new path, guiding
them along an unfamiliar way. I will brighten the darkness before them
and smooth out the road ahead of them. Yes, I will indeed do these
things; I will not forsake them.
Isaiah 43:19 For I am about to do something new. See, I have
already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the
wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.
Isaiah 48:6-8 You have heard my predictions and seen them
fulfilled, but you refuse to admit it. Now I will tell you new things,
secrets you have not yet heard. They are brand new, not things from the
past. So you cannot say, ‘We knew that all the time!’ “Yes, I
will tell you of things that are entirely new, things you never
heard of before.
Isaiah 62:2,4 The nations will see your righteousness.
World leaders will be blinded by your glory. And you will be given a
new name by the Lord’s own mouth… 4. Never again will you be called
“The Forsaken City” or “The Desolate Land.” Your new name will be “The
City of God’s Delight” and “The Bride of God,” for the Lord delights in
you and will claim you as his bride.
What I'm suggesting to you today is that this is the beginning of an
unfolding of a Divine plan of new beginnings that extended right
through the coming of the Savior to bear the sins of the world…right
through His death and resurrection bring eternal life to all who
believe… right into the giving of the Holy Spirit to indwell believers
and right into your life today with all its curves and hidden boulders.
Would you be willing, this year, to throw off the "Solomonic failure
syndrome" of "everything is always going to be what it now is" and
allow God, this year, to energize you with His "Journey of New
Beginnings?"
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