A New Way for a New Year

Everyone likes a new year, a new you, a new opportunity, a new car, a new challenge, a new discipline, a new goal, a new toy … until … it’s not new anymore, life happens, gets in the way, the unexpected happens and all your good intentions and discipline you began with evaporate under the heat and friction of disappointment and discouragement.

The truth is new is just for a moment and then it is just what we have, who we are, what we did or what we do. But it’s not new it’s just now!

We’re seven days into the new year and it doesn’t feel new anymore. It was new for a day and then it is now, 2024. It’s already scratched for some of us. You’ve already had a fight with your spouse or friend, you had to go back to work or school and all of sudden what was new seems like the same old stuff. Research says it takes about 66 days for a new habit to form. It’s the first week of 2024 and some of us have already put back a goal back on the shelf where it will get dusty for another year until we feel motivated to pull it back off the shelf and try again.

And yet, every moment, every day, week, month, year, decade, century, millennium is new … What if your now could become new every moment, day, week, month and year of your life. What if you didn’t wait for a new year to experience a new way of living?

The prophet Isaiah recorded these words from God …

Slide 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. Isaiah 43:19

God is doing a new thing!

What if God were challenging you, cheering you on … no commanding you, to choose His way in 2024. To trust Him to lead you to greener pastures, living waters, cool shade, peace, hope, faith, love. Could you, would you embrace a new way or just say no way?

Slide New Way or NoWay?

You might be thinking, why would I say, or anyone say, No Way to God? Well, I don’t think we start out that way, we just find ourselves going back to the old way. The way we know, the way that makes us feel in charge, or secure, or familiar.

Benjamin Franklin said …

Old habits die hard. Benjamin Franklin

it is difficult to stop habits that have been done for a long time.

For example, if you grew up always biting your nails, it can be hard to stop now that you’re an adult.

Habits are self-reinforcing. They can only be broken by removing the stimulus, such as a craving or reward. Because breaking such repetitive actions is difficult, we can say that “old habits die hard.”

Old habits die hard and we all tussle with forming virtuous habits. Every New Year, we pick resolutions: losing weight, eating healthy, waking up early, start exercising, daily bible reading, prayer, etc. only to find the gravitational pull of the old way of being pulling us …

Habit Formation 101

Passive Habits – habits that don’t take any effort and that are hard to break. Looking at Social Media, biting your nails, eating and drinking when you’re anxious or bored, and lots of other just bad habits that die hard.

Active Habits – are those habits that take effort to make them part of who you are. Eating healthy, exercise, reading, journaling, worship, prayer, bible study and reading, drinking enough water

Now I know that you might be thinking, I want to that but there is no way from me to live God’s way for my life. It’s too hard, too much, too overwhelming.

Are you saying no way to God’s new way? Or are you saying yes Lord, make a way where there is no way!

One often-cited study (Lally, van Jaarsveld, Potts, & Wardle, 2010) indicated an average of 66 days to establish a new pro-health habit, such as exercising for at least 30 minutes per day.

Think in decades and act in days. – Matt Griswold

Listen, God is doing a new thing in your life as a matter of fact that is what God does … He takes what is broken, burdened, bloody, bad and gives it healing, wholeness, health and holiness … John writes in Revelation.

Slide 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.” Revelation 21:5

Scripture says you and I are new on many levels, in many ways.

Slide We are new creations!

Slide Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

God tells the prophet Ezekiel …

Slide And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, Ezekiel 11:19

We are new creations with a new life.

Slide We have a new life!

Who are you trying to become this year? Which actions will reinforce that identity? Who are you? Child of God, beloved, brother, sister, friend … Paul writes in Romans that

Slide We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4

Newness of life. From death to life. From hell to heaven. From desperate to hopeful. From fear to faith. From worry to peace!

Why because we are new creations with a new life who have a new experience of God’s presence and provision every day!

Slide We have a new experience of God’s presence and provision daily!

the holy spirit in you, grace, mercy, faith, love, hope, peace, joy,

The prophet Jeremiah wrote in his book of Lamentations.

Slide The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22–23

You and I are no longer enemies of God, but we are his family. Jesus says he will never leave us nor forsake us.

God is faithful, even when we are not. Even when we fall, stumble, backslide into old habits or ways of being that are selfish, self-centered or self-serving.

Why because we are new creations with a new life who have a new experience of God’s presence and provision every day serving in a new way …

Slide We have a new way to serve!

This is serving out of gratitude not obligation. Out love not fear. Serving because others are in need of God’s love and grace through my words, actions and generosity.

Slide But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. Romans 7:6

Because …

Why because we are new creations with a new life who have a new experience of God’s presence and provision every day serving in a new way motivated by a new commandment that governs our lives.

Slide We have a new commandment to live by!

Slide A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. John 13:34

But how can we embrace this new life in a way that allows us to experience God’s love and leading in our lives?

Slide Put your pastsin in the past!

Everything didn’t go as planned this past year for any of us. We failed, we stubbled, we sinned. But God …

Slide Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? Ezekiel 18:31

This year our theme is “The Best is Yet to Come” and our verse is …

Slide I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13–14

We are instructed to stop allowing past mistakes, sins we have committed, and sins committed against us to cycle over and over in our minds. They tend to rule us and drag us back to the life and actions of our former, unsaved selves. But rather to seek forgiveness and lay our cares, burdens, faults and sins at the foot of the cross.

The problem is …

Slide You can’t take off what you can’t see!

Slide Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! Psalm 139:23–24

Slide and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:24

In Colossians 3 we read what we need to take off and what we need to put on in 2024.

Slide The power to change is found in our desire for Jesus!

Slide If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Colossians 3:1

This will take time, discipline, new habits ……

Slide The New Life we live … is in the discipline of death!

Slide Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:2-4

Slide I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

Paul goes on to say …

Slide Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices … Colossians 3:5-9

What do you need to die to?

It begs the question …

Slide Can we see our earthly self and are we willing for it to die?

Slide The New Life we live is determined by the love we give.

God is love and when you are being changed, renewed in the image of the creator in whose image had once been marred … you are living a life of love.

Slide and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Colossians 3:10-11

Slide Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Colossians 3:12-13

Slide And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Colossians 3:14

Slide The New Life we live is a life of passing the peace!

Passing the peace is a tradition rooted in Scripture that embodies our identity as peacemakers (Matt. 5:9; 2 Cor. 5:20) and it was practiced as way to train hearts, hands, and tongues in the ways of peace.

Paul writes …

Slide And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Colossians 3:15

From the beginning Christians have exercised this practice. “Peace be with you” is a greeting Jesus himself used with his disciples and the apostle Paul opened his letters with the words …

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today in many churches the practice of passing the peace is in turning to another person saying, “The peace of the Lord be with you” and after receiving those words the other person says,“And also with you.” But Paul is saying more than a greeting … he says let the peace of Christ rule your heats …

First, you can’t have the peace of Christ without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ Himself.

Second, you might say that when peace rules … it’s the umpire. The presence of peace is security, confidence that we possess when are lives are in line with God’s will and purposes. Without peace ruling our hearts we are more prone to be filled with worry, fear, insecurity, doubt, and a whole host of other emotions that will try to take control of us.

Let the word dwell …

Slide Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Colossians 3:16

Slide And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17

What do we need to do to embrace a new way in the new year?

Seek the Lord!

Confess our sin!

Acknowledge our need!

Express our desires!

Invite accountability!

Don’t quit!

Slide There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1

Slide 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting beginning January 22nd and going through February 11th.

Slide And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Luke 22:20

In the end we are waiting for a new heaven and a new earth!