Bouncy New Year
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INTRO
INTRO
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I want this for you, for me, for all of us.
In fact, before we go further I want you to take a moment and think of one bit of happiness from the past year and tell the persons on your right and left what you thought of.
(PAUSE)
I understand that we represent a variety of 2022’s in their quality and quantity of happiness.
But we’ve all had happy elements of the past year and I’m confident that 2023 will be no different.
Now if the quantity and quality of your happiness last year was low, again, I sincerely wish for you to have a happy new year.
But today we’re going to turn to God’s word in light of the fact that we really know very little in terms of what’s in store for the coming year.
We all have wishes, hopes, perhaps even plans.
But since we don’t really know what’s in store, I thought it appropriate as we step into 2023 to take a look at a key aspect of what it means to know and walk with God and will have far more impact on the happiness of this new year than what happens in this year.
Our 2023, like every year that has come before and will come after, will actually be marked far more by how we respond to the events of the year than the actual events themselves.
This year could be filled with more good things than you could possibly imagine (lottery) and yet it’s not at all uncommon for people to be miserable in just that kind of situation.
We have very little control of what happens to us
But we have a lot to say about how we respond to what happens to us.
So with that in mind I want us to understand what God wants for us in 2023 and beyond.
Very simply, it’s this:
BODY
BODY
More than your happiness, God wants your wholeness.
More than your happiness, God wants your wholeness.
Turn to Matthew 5
1 When he saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to teach them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 11 “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me.
Let’s go through and replace every “blessed” with “flourishing”
12 Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
This is what Christianity is all about.
You and I are not the point of this whole world, God is. Jesus is the hero.
He’s the one who is, always was and forever will be holy (set apart) and whole (perfect).
But the point of making us in the first place and of Jesus coming to earth, as we’ve been celebrating this advent and Christmas season, is to make us whole so that we can know and enjoy God now and forever - because he is infinitely worthy of knowing and enjoying.
This is the gospel, the good news upon which our faith is built and around which our lives are lived.
So as we consider how we’ll respond to the events of the coming year it’s good for us to rehearse the promise and power of this gospel.
The promise of the gospel is that God will:
The promise of the gospel is that God will:
Fix what’s broken in you.
12 There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.
This is true for every person on the planet.
But the promise of the gospel is that we are made new:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
Each of us is either an old creation or a new creation.
But all of us are creations - we are created by God to be made whole, to flourish.
And part of flourishing is the ability to deal with hard things.
What happens when this ping pong ball hits the hard thing that is the floor?
It bounces.
It’s able to absorb the hard thing and bounce back
What happens when this egg hits the floor?
It breaks.
While there is a brokenness in each of us that only God can fix, God made every one of us to be bouncy, not breaky.
The difference between and Old Creation and a New Creation is another promise of the gospel:
The promise of the gospel is that God will:
The promise of the gospel is that God will:
Use what’s broken around you to make you bouncy.
If we have put our trust in Jesus then we can rest assured that the hard things have a point.
God will personally use these things to make you more and more bouncy.
He did it with Jesus, making it possible for us to be made new:
8 Although he was the Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. 9 After he was perfected, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,
Because of Jesus we can do as we’re told in James 1:
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
See? God uses the broken things to make us more and more bouncy, more and mkore whole (mature and complete)
And this isn’t just one fanatic early Jesus follower.
Peter writes the same kind of thing:
12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you, as if something unusual were happening to you. 13 Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are ridiculed for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
Paul, writing about all the hard things he’s going through, says the same kind of thing as well:
16 Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. 18 So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
All of this leads us from the promise of the gospel to the power of the gospel.
The power of the gospel means that, for God’s sake, we can pursue resilience.
The power of the gospel means that, for God’s sake, we can pursue resilience.
Resilience is the big, fancy word for being bouncy.
And God not only makes us new, and uses what we go through to keep making us whole, he enables and expects us to put effort into this wholeness making project.
We don’t earn this gift of new life and we could never accomplish this project on our own.
(All the kings horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put humpty dumpty together again.)
But we do get to participate in a certain way, in God’s good work.
So Paul says
27 God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
He is playing his part in helping people become whole in Jesus.
We get to play a part in helping others and we get to be a part of our own growth.
And so Peter says:
3 His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 6 knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, 7 godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
See it?
If we’re new creations God has given us everything we need, we don’t supply the materials for wholeness.
But we get to use these materials, in his power, for his name’s sake, so that people see how great he is, and develop our wholeness, including endurance or resilience - bounciness
That said, we are made to bounce, but we get deflated. (basketballs)
We all need some pumping up.
How to pursue?
Scientists have found 4 key aspects of resilience for all people - physical, social, mental and spiritual and these align very well with Biblical priorities for our growth.
So I want to encourage you in 2023 to trust God’s promises and power to grow bouncy by doing these four things:
Get moving.
19 Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.
8 For the training of the body has limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
Hard things come and we stop moving (shutdown)
God made it good for us to be moving.
Show love.
We need healthy friendships
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.
Hard when friendships aren’t what we want them to be
And hard when you mess up friendships (shaking fist)
Love in this case means asking for forgiveness and giving forgiveness
13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.
Give thanks.
Hard thing is stuff you don’t like and tend to just think about that
Instead, find something to be thankful for
1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
18 give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Seek help.
When hard things happen we forget God
Bring your cares to him
17 pray constantly,
We’re told this because we can - we have the ability to come to God and seek him all the time.
And we’re told this because we need help when hard things come
5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
God made you bouncy
And in Jesus he remakes you so that your bounciness leads to flourishing.
May you trust him in 2023 and grow bouncier than ever.
The Bouncy Song
Body - Move, Move, Move
Stand Up and practice being bouncy - MoveX3, JumpX3, DanceX3
Hands (Friends and Family) - Love, Love, Love
Practice: Is there someone to ask forgiveness? (hi five)
Mind (Thinking)- Thank, Thank, Thank
Practice: say what you’re thankful for out loud
Heart (Worship God) - Pray, Pray, Pray
Practice: Ask God to help you love him and help you with whatever is hard for you.
Benediction:
Announce - Groups
Prayer - Vocation: Students and Teachers