New Year 2023

So many people are looking at what type of year we will have in 2023. Many people are speculating how the year will be. WIll it better 2022 or not? Let me tell you something, I am expecting this year to be the best year that I’ve ever had. Full of Love, Joy, Peace, Prosperity, Health, and all of the good things that God has for His children.

Why....that’s what I’ve been sowing!!!

Galatians 6:7 ESV

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

whatever a man sows that will he reap! If you are getting negativity, fear, doubt, lack, etc.....guess what.....make sure what you’re sowing

The next thing I want you to know as we start a new year is this...

A New Chapter in your Life will ALWAYS Require Some Change

I think that this is something that is supremely important for us to understand.....2023 will not automatically be any better than 2022 unless we as individuals make some changes as well.

Turn with me if you will to the book of Genesis chapter 12. and I will be reading out of the ESV

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So let’s While I don’t want to belabor the point a great deal, I do want to point out that in this case Abram was being led by God into a new chapter in his life, and it required that he leave some things in his life in order to receive what God had for him. He had to be willing to step out on faith and make a change. All of us have come into 2023 with the hope that it will involve some change. And that is the way it is supposed to be when God brings us into a new chapter.

While our service this Sunday does not permit us time to look at all the things that happened to Abram as he followed the commands of God, I do want to skip ahead a bit to chapter 17. Here in Gen 17, Abram has been following God, we have had an issue where his brother was captured and rescued, and Abram has decided to help God’s promise of an heir by with Hagar, and after all of this. When Abram was 99, God appeared to him.

Genesis 17:1–5 ESV

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

So here we see God moving Abram to the next chapter in his life and forming a covenant with him. and in honor of that covenant he changes his identity a bit. The Lord tells him that he will be known in the future as Abraham. See, while it is not always the case, often God changes some things about us as we enter a new chapter.

The word of God tell us in 2 Cor 5:17

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

See when we started our chapter as children of Christ, we had to let the old things pass away so that we could become new. And in Abram’s case, he had to let go of his old life in order to focus on the new covenant that God had set for him. I want you to understand that as we enter 2023, but more generally, as you enter the next season or chapter in your walk with God, and as we enter the next chapter of our identity as a ministry....some things are going to pass away so that we can become who God has called us to be in this season.

What I want us to focus on is the future. See as God changed things for Abram and he became Abraham....as God called him to leave his comfortable place to move into a new chapter.

The plan of God as we see it here in Genesis 17 is that God had a plan to bless Abraham, to make him the father of many nations. God had a plan that was so large that Abraham couldn’t even imagine it, but it required that he be willing to follow God.

The first thing we said this morning is that A new chapter will always require some change. The second thing I want you to understand is this:

God’s Plan is ALWAYS for Your Benefit

Often as we go through the plan of God and walk through our day to day lives, we fail to see how the struggle or trial is for our good. We see the valley. We see the trial, we see the hardship. But we don’t see the fullness of God’s plan. Abram couldn’t see the fullness of God’s plan for Abraham. All he could see was the now. As humans we live in the now, how does this affect me now, what do I feel like now? God doesn't see just the now, he sees a future that we can't see.

Ephesians 3:20 says this and you’ve heard me use this verse before

Ephesians 3:20 ESV

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

Abram couldn’t imagine the fullness of God’s plan because God is amazing! What did Ephesians just tell us, that it was more than we can ask or think.

What we have to remember is that God’s plan is ALWAYS perfect and ALWAYS for our benefit. I know that there have been some moments as we have started walking this journey that I didn’t understand God’s plan, and you may be in the same position, but what I want us to focus on today is that the plan of God for this ministry, the plan that God has for you in this community is wonderful. So what is the plan of God for us in 2023. I want to turn to one of my favorite scriptures:

Habakkuk 2:2 ESV

And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.

I love this verse, and I use this consistently in my life......make the plan, write it down.

A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action becomes reality.

See I believe that we have to do more than just dream in this new year. We serve a God of Action. I believe that God is telling us that it’s time for action. Faith withou works is..... dead

I want to come back to one final point and let’s go back to Habakkuk

Habakkuk 2:2–3 ESV

And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.