Turning The Page

Big Idea of the Series:

This standalone message ignites an excitement for the new opportunities a new year or season offers believers who keep their eyes on Jesus. We can develop high-quality habits of turning the pages of Scripture to find our place in the powerful story of God.

Text:

2 Corinthians 5:17; Psalm 40:3

Topic(s): Newness, Starting Over, Renewal, Change

Big Idea of the Message: Believers are given God’s manual on finding hope and are invited to turn the page to unpack its message.

Application Point:

Value the opportunity to receive new life in Jesus, and appreciate the gift of growing in knowledge of the Bible.

Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:

1. Along with the increased motivation for change or growth brought by a new year, a reminder that Jesus offers—even insists on—is that we are a different creature once we have met and established our faith in him. The old is no longer available (2 Corinthians 5:17). As we face a new year in front of us, we are offered the chance to start fresh. “So great is the change the grace of God makes in the soul, that, as it follows, old things are passed away—old thoughts, old principles, and old practices, are passed away; and all these things must become new” (Matthew Henry, commentary on 2 Corinthians 5,

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/2Cr/2Cr_005.cfm?a=1083017).

2. Paul uses the word kainos twice in this 2 Corinthians passage. The word means“ recently made, fresh, recent, unused, unworn, unprecedented, uncommon, novel” and is the same word used to describe the new wineskins Jesus speaks about in Matthew 9:17 (Outline of Biblical Usage, s.v. “G2537, kainos,” https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G2537&t=ESV). Paul refers to his hearers being this new, unprecedented, or uncommon creation, as the old is now gone, and then he declares the arrival of the new creation a second time. Part of being this new creation is learning how to live as the new creation.

3. Regarding Psalm 40:3, Matthew Henry writes, “It should seem that David penned this psalm upon occasion of his deliverance, by the power and goodness of God, from some great pressing trouble, by which he was in danger of being overwhelmed” (Matthew Henry, commentary on Psalm 40,

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Psa/Psa_040.cfm?a=518003). God’s story is never changing, and his offer of new life can be seen throughout the Old and New Testaments. At times, we need to be delivered from a situation, our unbelief, a tough season. God delivered David and promises to deliver us as well.

4. Turning the page to a new calendar doesn’t mean that our previous year’s

concerns or troubles are magically gone, but it does mean that we have a fresh

start on our outlook for what God has for us each day. As we turn the pages of

Scripture, we will find hope and our place in the larger story of God. Committing to turning the pages of the Bible (reading it) will be life changing.

5. Learning new material or a new concept can be tricky when we are entirely

unfamiliar with the content or we have been doing it incorrectly and need to

change. However, Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize–winning physicist, claims

there is a three-step formula to follow when learning something new, which he

calls the Feynman Technique. “Get a notebook out, write the topic you’re

learning at the top of the page, and explain it, from start to finish, as if you were explaining it to a child. If your first response is, ‘Um, how do I explain quantum mechanics to a child?’ remember that xkcd [a web comic] once explained rocket science using only the 1,000 most common words in the English language. That’s the key here—when you’re writing out your explanation for an year-old, you can’t hide behind complicated jargon that you don’t actually understand” (Bec Crew, “3 Simple Steps to Mastering Any New Subject, according to a Nobel Prize–Winning Physicist,” Science Alert, January 3, 2018,https://www.sciencealert.com/3-simple-steps-to-mastering-any-new-subjectNobel-Prize-winner-Richard-Feynman). The article goes on to explain the second two steps: to repeatedly fill any gaps of information until there are no longer any gaps, and to organize your information in a logical way. Living as a new creation requires us to live according to the lifestyle Jesus has called us to, often asking us to learn new patterns, behaviors, and thought habits.

6. As believers, we are gifted the manual on how to know God. Interestingly, user’s manuals “are not an especially modern invention: they have, in fact, been around for at least two centuries. … According to Roger Bridgman, a former curator at London’s Science Museum, ‘instructions are there to compensate for the inabilities of machines by employing the abilities of users, and therefore tell you something about the state of both at the time they were produced’” (Helen Schumacher, “Inside the World of Instruction Manuals,” BBC Future, April 5, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180403-inside-the-world-ofinstruction-manua