The Light is Green

Have you ever thought about why we make NY resolutions? We make them so that we can change things as we head into a New Year. The problem is that only about 5% of people actually keep any of their resolutions.

We believe that God wants you to go on a spiritual journey.

Know God

Find Freedom

Discover Your Purpose

Make a Difference

You are somewhere on the spiritual process. We all have a next step to take.

That’s why this series is called it’s time.

Talk about me in traffic… beep beep…. later BEEP…

When someone sits at a light it can drive me crazy. I want to go HONK but the proper thing to do is beep beep.

I want to see you move toward the life that God has for you so I want to HONK but instead, I will beep beep. The light is green and it’s time to get going in our lives.

It’s time for some of you to attend a class / for some of you to take a class /

Message

Luke 9:57–62 MSG

57 On the road someone asked if he could go along. “I’ll go with you, wherever,” he said. 58 Jesus was curt: “Are you ready to rough it? We’re not staying in the best inns, you know.” Jesus said to another, “Follow me.” 59 He said, “Certainly, but first excuse me for a couple of days, please. I have to make arrangements for my father’s funeral.” 60 Jesus refused. “First things first. Your business is life, not death. And life is urgent: Announce God’s kingdom!” 61 Then another said, “I’m ready to follow you, Master, but first excuse me while I get things straightened out at home.” 62 Jesus said, “No procrastination. No backward looks. You can’t put God’s kingdom off till tomorrow. Seize the day.”

Jesus didn’t beep beep, he HONKED.

Some of you have not experienced the best version of you because you keep looking for the easy route. If living the best life possible was easy, we would already be doing it. Jesus didn’t say it would be easy.

Jesus said if you want to come with me, buckle up because it’s time to go.

Next one - They guy had things he wanted to take care of first.

Next one - Stuff that was in the way of following. I have to straightened some things out… kids raised etc.

The New Year gives us a fresh start, a restart.

Tonight people will sing Auld Lang Syne and they have no idea what they are saying.

Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind.

Robert Burns was actually saying was Auld Lang Syne which means days gone by.

The song is challenging us to think about what should stay in 2023 and never come into 2024 with us. And what should we bring with us.

IOW, should old hurts, habits and history come with us… what should come and what should stay?

Here are three things we need to move on from.

It’s time to move on from History

Some of you need to go to settings and press clear history. You need to delete some things out of your life.

I’m talking about the offenses, the divorces, the financial problems, the health issues, and THAT event that seems to still define you. These things define how you view yourself.

It doesn’t have to be. The bible says this.

Isaiah 43:18–19 NIV84

18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 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.

Don’t you see it? God wants to grow each of us into mature followers so that we can make a difference in those around us.

It’s time to move on from old habits

Addictions: phones, computers, foods, language, porn, alcohol, Bad habits.

What do you do with a bad habit? One of the most powerful things you can do is to Fast from it.

We always do 21 days of Prayer and Fasting at the beginning of the year. (Jan 7-28) Fasting doesn’t have to be around food. You may need to FAST Alcohol / TV /Social Media / a hobby / Sweets /

Fasting is not punishing yourself to please God. It’s separating yourself from the world or something in the world to move closer to God.

For me - sweets /

Fasting can be powerful.

Isaiah 58:6 NLT

6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people.

It’s time to get free from some things, and FASTING can help do that.

It’s time to move on from old hurts

Some of you have been wounded and it hurts, but beep beep. It’s time to move on.

It may take some counseling. I believe in counseling. I am teaching some Psy classes in Bible College.

But you need to make the page clean for 2024.

2 Corinthians 5:17–18 NIV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

Reconcile - brings the balance back to zero. Start with a ZERO balance or a clean slate.

I can’t start the next chapter of my life if I keep re-reading the last one.

Too many of us are still focused on the last chapter. We have to move on. It’s time to move on.

It’s Time to Make a Change

John the Baptist and Jesus were cousins and they had the same message. Jesus lived 30 years while he prepared for ministry.

When Jesus began preaching, He preached this message -

Matthew 4:17 NLT

17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

Repent - change your mind.

Your thinking is bad so change your mind. Repent gets a bad rap because of the way people have used it, but it’s really a positive word. The idea that you can repent or change your mind.

What do we need to change our minds about?

Our sins - we often rationalize our sins or try to focus on other peoples sins instead of our own.

Turn to God - we have to see God differently. God is not an angry rule filled God. He is a loving Father who did everything possible for us to live an abundant and eternal life.

He says the KOH is near. Today people think they are their own king. We need to get a new king. That means we are going to follow God’s way no matter what it is.

NEAR - He is closer than you think He is. Some of you think that going all in with God is hard. It’s not as hard as you think it is because he is near.

It’s time to make a change in 4 areas.

1. It’s time to get closer to God

You may say, Robert, I already love God. Great! Get closer to Him. I love God as much or more than I ever have, but You are looking at someone that needs to be closer to God in 2024. We all do.

We live in difficult days. I grew up in the Cold War days. We would do bomb drills so we would know what to do in case of a Nuclear Bomb. I am not sure what good getting under our desk would do in that case.

Today, we have a different threat. We have Terrorism knocking at our doors, with an ideology that has been spread through our own universities. When you see people celebrating what Hamas did here in the USA, It saddens me but lets me know we have to get to work of making a difference.

In these 21 Days of prayer and fasting, we need to run after God like we never have. Don’t miss the light… it’s green.

James 4:8 NLT

8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

Come close to God. God hasn’t moved. He is just like the Father in the Prodigal Son story. He is waiting for us to change our minds and move towards him.

Wash Your hands you sinners. He is saying God wants to do a purifying work in us. We have not prioritized this in our culture today, but God has a set of morals that he expects us to live by.

We need to be all In. We can’t have divided loyalty. We have to ask ourselves, has our loyalty been divided? One of the problems in living the life God wants us to live is the idea that it’s supposed to be so easy. It’s not. We all have difficulties in our lives.

Try for 21 Days to chase after the Lord.

If I want something I’ve never had, then I need to do something I’ve never done.

I don’t know what that means for you. Fast something. Check with your doctor if you need to if you are fasting food.

Some people don’t even attend church regularly. Maybe this year you resolve to regularly attend church. What would happen if you came to all 52 weeks? Your life would change.

What would your life look like if you fasted and prayed for 21 days? Your life would change.

2. It’s time to get honest with a friend

We do things to build relationships that you can trust. We have had some groups, but we want to do better. We have ministry teams where relationships are built. Wednesday dinners are a place where friendships begin and are nurtured.

You need people you can trust and speak to about what’s going on in your life. You need someone in your life that is taking the journey with you. Some of that is for accountability. Maybe knowing someone will ask you how things are will keep you from doing something you will regret.

It’s like working out. If you pay money to the gym and you are like me, you don’t want to waste the money so you drag yourself out to go work out.

Some of you need to be willing to be trained to lead a group. If you are interested in learning, check it on the Connection Card and we will let you know when we will do some training. Maybe you need to lead a group just for the accountability of knowing people are coming to your house so you better be prayed up. When you lead, you learn like never before.

Kids Min - when you prepare the kids lesson, which we give you, you grow.

Faithful Feeders -

Greeters

Tech

But be part of something. Look at what James said,

James 5:16 NLT

16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

We are forgiven when we confess our sins to God. We are healed when we have a friend we can talk to and pray with.

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.

3. It’s time to get in tune with my purpose and passions

Some of you have pursued your passions but it hasn’t satisfied you. You want to know why? Because you haven’t pursued your real purpose.

Galatians 6:3–4 NIV84

3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else,

3 that’s where frustration comes from.

Test your actions - look deep inside at how God made you and see who you really are and then you can take pride in yourself with out comparing yourself to others.

The route isn’t easy, but it’s rewarding.

Don’t go through life, grow through life.

If you choose to grow, life will be better.

4. It’s time to get on doing something greater than myself.

It’s time to do something that matters. We all want to experience joy in our lives. Joy comes when we do something that matters.

Ephesians 2:10 MSG

10 No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

God asks us to join him in the work he does. But it’s a good work.

If I’ll dedicate my life to something greater than myself, God will fill my life with passion and adventure.

That’s where real joy comes from.

I can’t go back and change the beginning but I can start where I am and change the ending.

God is the only one who can change the ending. You just need to say yes it’s time.

Prayer

Pray for people to be healed to those grieving, hurting, holding on to the past. give them the power and strength to step out and let the days of the past be in the past.

Thank you God that reconciled us to you.

Maybe you have been the king of your on kingdom. But today, you are ready to get a new king. It that’s you, raise your hand up so I can pray for you.

Salvation prayer.

Turn in Connection Cards with prayer needs.

Sing a song - don’t leave it’s time to sing. We will dismiss you when it’s time.

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