I Make All Things New

Revelation 21:1-6 “1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

I love this passage!

I am so excited for this day!

Won’t it be an indescribably glorious day when this is fulfilled

Having an earth that is brand new…

Untouched by sin

Untouched by corruption and death, and mismanagement

back to the way that God created it in the first place. A world that is God’s ideal world!

With new bodies

Not dealing with pain and death as

Not only that, but the very dwelling place of God will be on that new world.

John saw the city of God, the New Jerusalem, coming down like a bride adorned for her husband on their wedding day.

And God Himself will dwell, will live with us

In the Garden of Eden, the Bible says that God came walking in the Garden in the cool of the day.

I wonder if that was a regular thing. That God came and walked and talked with Adam and Eve. They had fellowship together daily

And that intimate fellowship was something that was lost

This relationship between God and we His people will be new one day

I’m looking forward to this day

But until then, here’s the encouraging thing. God is still actively at work in His world

And especially in the hearts and lives of His people.

And He is doing new things!

He is in the work of transformation, recreating that which is damaged by sin

Giving life that is new and abundant

He is leading His people into new things

We see this in Scripture

He created a new earth and a new universe

He created new animals, plants, and He created mankind

And throughout all of Scripture, we read of Him constantly on the move, creating newness, transforming, restoring

Calling a chosen people

Calling and changing the lives of men and women who were available to be used by Him. Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, David, Esther, Ruth, and many many more

Restoring His people back to their homeland after captivity

Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem

Rebuilding the temple

Sending the Messiah, God in the flesh

Sending the Holy Spirit who transforms hearts and lives

And in the future, He will make new again that which has been marred and distorted by sin

Our God is the God of the NEW

The You Version verse of the day yesterday was

Isaiah 43:18-19 “18 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

God says, “Don’t think about the old things. Don’t dwell on what used to be. Rather, expect and believe that I am doing a new work

Our God is the God of NEW THINGS

And one of the key marks of being a Believer is that Jesus will continue His work of “newness” in the life of that person 2Cor. 5:16-17

English Standard Version Chapter 5

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Paul says to the Corinthian church and to us.

“If someone is in Christ, if someone has been born again, we don’t have the option of looking at that person in a fleshly way and saying, ‘oh, he’s just the same old person as he always was. Man, he just doesn’t change’.

On the contrary! If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. It has been done away with. And now, the new is here

And I would like to think that this is not just a one-time thing.

You’re new. There. Done it

No, it’s continual. Or at least it should be, for those who are in Christ

For those who abide in Christ

And the question for us today is

As you look back over this past year, what is something new that God has done in your life? How are you different than you were before 2022 started?

And as you look ahead to the rest of 2023, what do you expect that God will do in your life.

Do you long for Him to do something new.

As you think about our fellowship here, are you praying, Lord do something brand new in our lives!

As I look ahead at 2023, I am expecting God to do new work among us

New Things

A new theme: Image Bearers

When Darren was here, he talked to us a little bit about what does it mean to be an image bearer of God

And as Heidi and I were talking later, we thought, what if we would make this our theme for this year..to give us something to grab hold of and focus on

In Genesis 1, we read of how God created everything that we see by the word of His mouth

But then, as His crowning achievement, He said, “Let us”, us being the Trinity, the perfect God, three in one. “Let us make man in our own image.”

And He reached down, maybe even knelt down, and took a handful of earth, and carefully and lovingly formed a man in His own image. in the image of the perfect God, three in one

And into this man’s nostrils, into his lungs, God breathed into him, the breath of life, and man became a living soul

And later, carefully, and lovingly, God took a rib from the man’s side and formed a woman, and (the Bible doesn’t say this explicitly, but I image that it’s true), I imagine that God breathed into her lungs the breath of life, and she became a living soul

Now why did God create a man? Why did he create a woman?

Why did he so carefully knit together you and me in the womb as Pslam 139 says?

It’s because he wanted a special creature to bear His image

His very first words when He brings up the idea of creating a man are “Let us create man in our image”.

So, Our mission from the very beginning is to bear the image of the perfect, three in one God. And what an amazing mission that is!

What does it mean to be created in the image of God and to bear that image?

It means that we have the capacity to

To do good

To love each other

To show mercy to one another

To exercise justice and to act justly

To show compassion

Even to be holy with the help of the Holy Spirit (just as God is holy, we are to be holy as well)

To make choices

All of these are ways that we bear the image of God. There are no other creatures in all taht God has created that have these abilities

The sad thing is that the image of God in all of us has been badly marred by sin. And in some folks, sin has taken such a toll on them that

Kind of like mirrors. They used to be commonly made of metal. They were cheaper

but metal mirrors had a problem. They would get tarnished, corroded

And the more tarnished they became, the harder it was to see your reflection in the mirror

And that’s what I think of sometimes when you look around and you see people so badly tarnished and scarred by sin.

Are they image bearers? Well, yes! God still spoke over them, I believe, let us make this man, this woman in our image.

God still knit that person together in the womb carefully and lovingly

Even for me and you. If you are like me, there are days when I feel the weight of my brokenness and my sinful desires that I still battle

But that doesn’t change the reality for you and for me.

What would it be like if every day we would wake up and say, “Today, as I get up, I bear the image of God. It is my mission to bear the image of God today!

Would it change the way that you approach your work

Would it change the way that you interact with

What would it be like if when we meet someone, be it here at church, or in town, or where ever it is, we say, “This person bears the image of God.” How would that change our relationships

How would it change the way that we think about people and treat them?

How does it look to bear the image of God? There are all kinds of things that we can talk about

New Mission

Let’s be people who are reminded daily of how God wants to direct us. What is important to our God? What is important to Jesus?

Let’s prayerfully consider what are God’s priorities and what are our priorities

And really, God’s priorities are not new. His commands are ancient. But every day, every moment comes a new opportunity to live them out.

Love God

This is something that we just can’t talk enough about. Because love should compel everything that we do

As Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:14-15, the love of Christ compels us in all that we do

The question is, do you truly love God

Sure I love God

I’m here, aren’t I?

I read my Bible, don’t I?

I give my offerings, don’t I?

Of course I love God.

These are good things. But I’m not talking about this “heady” kind of loving God

Kind of like, I’ll be the one to decide whether I love God or not. This is the way I’ll show him that I love Him

I’m talking about delighting in God. Finding pleasure in walking with Him

Knowing that His face is shining toward you

Being connected to Him and drawing your life from Him, as Jesus describes the vine and the branches

A love that goes far beyond the head and gets into your heart

Love each other

This isn’t something separate. Rather it goes hand in hand with loving God

1 John says that you can’t say “I love God” yet hate your brother

He says, “Love one another because love is of God and if you are born of God, then you love God and you love each other.

The same love that you express and feel toward God, must be expressed to your brother and sister

And it’s out of this love that we

Love our world

jesus commanded us to go into all the world

And this command brings all these reqirements together. Loving God, first and foremost. Love for the brotherhood that brings us together in unity. A love for all the nations that compels us to go with the message of the gospel

We go to our communities and the nations

We actively go

So as I think about the mission of Fairview. I have two things that always come to mind

International Student Ministry

Jesus said “Go into all the world”

And I would love to see more of our folks from this community going into ALL the world

But until then, again, God is bringing the world to our door

You’ve heard me say this before, but the vast majority of international students never make it past the front door of an American home.

The never form close friendships with American

Much less, are they engaged by the Gospel

This year we are planning at least one, and possibly two, hayride events for international students

The Town of Hills

Here is a town close to us that does not have an church established in it

How can we as the Church at Fairview be a part of bringing the Gospel to this community?

And what has God laid on your heart? How can we as a church be the people of God, doing ALL that He has commanded us to do