The God of New Beginings
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First I want to give glory and honor to our LORD Jesus Christ and honor to the angel of this House, Pastor Rickey Bowe and his lovely wife Lady Ivory Bowe.
Also to those who with them in various capacities to complete the assignment and purpose that God for this ministry.
Each of you are vital to the Body of Christ
Also, I would like to honor my wife who was also my high school sweetheart for her love and faithfulness,
My beautiful wife Tess and I were delighted to celebrate with you during your 35 anniversary and to see you still standing .
Pastoring a church and faithfully preaching the WORD over 35 years is not for the faith in heart.
In the words of Eugene Peterson it take long obedience in the same direction.
I pray the anointing of longevity and obedience will rub off on as I endeavor to complete God’s assignment
With that being said, Tess and I would to present this gift basket and this card as a token of our appreciation for your kindness, hospitality, and love toward us.
Thank you being a blessing!
Let us pray as we get into the WORD of God this morning
Please turn your Bible to
22 It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
We will title this message today the God of New Beginnings !
By the way Iove the Name of this church. New begining is a fresh start, new begining means we do have to be identified with our past failures, sins, or even our past successes. New begining means we are idenity with Christ ( the annointed one and His annoitining)
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
If someone would ask you what I like the most about your relationship with God. I would say, being in His WORD and His Presence!
His Presence never gets old and stale.
The wordly thing get old stale and leaves one empty on inside.
However, there is always a newness and freshness in the Presence of LORD Jesus Christ.
All things become new!
He will cause things that were meant to harm, defeat, and destroy us to work for our good if we remain in Christ.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
In other words if we seek and remain in His presence we can always have a new beginning.
In the according to Psalm 16:11
11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: In thy presence is fulness of joy; At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
I pray we experience an impartation of His presence everyday!
As we explore the context of the in Lamentation would like to give a little background of and make three points about the God of New Beginnings
Background
Lamentations represents one of the darkest periods in ancient biblical history
Jeremiah saw the death of his nation. (death means separation)
At the same time, there was a living God who was greatly at work behind the scene"
What Jeremiah saw with eyes, hears with each, and smelled with nostril was contradicting the belief he had in heart.
Life sometimes remains me of word from Charles Dickens story “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness" —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
This passage is one of the most significant passages in all Scripture on the faithfulness of God to His people
God had revealed to Jeremiah a new covenant, deliverance, an expected end hope and future.
Yet his current reality was different.
As we go through it seems the hope of a New Begining in Christ oftentimes get eclipsed by the harsh realities of life.
In 586 BC: Israel's experience invasion worse that September 11, pearl harbor, and transatlantic slave trade
Babylonians took over
Thousands of people died in the streets of Jerusalem
The temple was burned
Their starvation was so harsh that people ate their own children.
Their priest and prophet were slain in the sanctuary of the LORD.
20 Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: They were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Jeremiah, like a war correspondent, recorded what he saw in the Books Lamentations
A lament is a strong cry, like a funeral dirge
He wrote five chapter of them
Thousands of people were carted off to Babylon, including Daniel
These verses are an island of hope in an ocean of despair
We live in an uncertain world, but we do have a few certainties
There Is Mercy in the Midst of Mayhem
These verses are like a diamond in a handful of coal
Jeremiah could see through the smoke of judgment, and he focused on God's mercy
He was seeing death and destructionBut he said, "It is not the end"
Every person will face mayhem
Life is a process of getting used to all the things you never planned
Job 5:7 “7 Yet man is born unto trouble, As the sparks fly upward.”
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
You won't be airlifted from mountain peak to mountain peak
Some people think that because they're Christians, God owes them a life free of pain and suffering
There will be mayhem in the next year, but there will be mercy in the midst of it Mercies (v. 22) is a word used about 250 times in the Old Testament
7 Yet man is born unto trouble, As the sparks fly upward.
7 Yet man is born unto trouble, As the sparks fly upward.
Sometimes translated loving-kindnessHebrew checed, which means loyal love or covenant love
God made a covenant with you and will act in love and mercy toward you because of that covenant
Rather than focusing on the great grief you're experiencing, focus on the great God and His great love, mercy, and compassion toward you
Focus on the God of New Beginnings
The nineteen century author and preach, Charles Henry Mackintosh stated,"Ten thousand mercies are forgotten in the presence of a single trifling lack or affliction" —C.H. Mackintosh
Start drowning out the trifling moments with God's triumphant mercy.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
God's Resources Will Match Our Requirements
"Great is Your faithfulness" (v. 23): this is like someone standing at ground zero on September 11, 2001, and saying this
Whatever the day throws at you, God will match it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 “13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
Every day this next year, there will be a fresh supply of God's covenant love
It's like manna, you have to gather it every morning Exodus 16
This next year, give your mornings to God: start in His Word and in prayer
Receive during this time what you will need for the day
“Great is Your faithfulness" was a declaration not based on what Jeremiah saw, heard, or smelled; it was based on what he knew about God
2Timothy 2:13; He's faithful, but we don't always notice it"I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God" —
Thomas Chisholm wrote"Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not; as Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be. Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed Thy hand hath provided—great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!" —Thomas Chisholm, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness"
This year focus on the Promisor and the promises.
There are over 7,000 promises in the Bible that God made to man; that will get you through your tomorrows
It's time we start focusing on and noticing all the times God keeps a promise
Delays Don't Mean Denials
In verses 21-31, two words appear five times: hope and wait
These are the words of a man anticipating an answer from God at some point in the future.
Jeremiah predicted what he saw and wrote about in Lamentations
He spent forty years warning the people, and not a single person listened to him
He also predicted that Jerusalem would be restored after seventy years of captivity in Babylon
Jeremiah expected God to answer and gave room for God to answer in His way and timing
We should start recognizing and looking for God's mercy in the midst of mayhem, grabbing hold of His resources in the midst of our requirements, and waiting and hoping in the Lord when He says, "Not now"
Not now doesn't mean no
We need to learn to let go when we trust the Lord
Closing
This year, let go The best place to look is up, because your outlook is determined by your uplook Say to the Lord, "Great is Your faithfulness"
You are the God of New Beginnings !
If there anyone that does not know this God of new beginning this is your opportunity to start your new year with a God whose mercies are new every morning.
Jesus died , shed His blood, and ROSE on the third day with all POWER
For does who know God I impart the anointing to of 1 Cor 15:58
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
Blessing each of you!