Grow

As I said last week, 2018 was an especially hard year for a lot of us. I remember standing before you last year on the first Sunday of 2018 and preaching a message titled Reset. I opened with "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.

I spoke about the newness of life and how God wants to do new things in us. I warned us by saying:

New may be better but it’s not always more pleasant. I came from Luke 5:37-39 where Jesus told the parable of the wine skins

New may be better but not always more pleasant

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. (38) But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. (39) And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.' "

I spoke about being Renewed day by day

Renewed day by day

NKJV Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

I ended that sermon with the Newness of Life

NKJV Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Now with that being said is there anyone here who would like to hit the reset button and god back in time to when you were a child with no responsibilities?

How about anyone who would like to go back to your early twenties and know what you know now?

Would you do it all the same or would you do things differently.

Now what if we could hit that reset button and go back to the way things were exactly one year ago today?

It would be nice to go back and hold those things which we lost this past year in our hands again but sadly we can’t. It’s gone, time has taken it’s toll on our lives and we can never again undo what has been done. This is a sad revelation that haunts us and will try to still all our hopes of a brighter tomorrow.

I know this is out there but what if all this bad stuff that has happened this past year was meant to destroy our hope?

Don’t lose hope

Job 14:7–9 NKJV

7 “For there is hope for a tree, If it is cut down, that it will sprout again, And that its tender shoots will not cease. 8 Though its root may grow old in the earth, And its stump may die in the ground, 9 Yet at the scent of water it will bud And bring forth branches like a plant.

I know this is out there but what if all this bad stuff that has happened this past year was meant to destroy our hope?

Job 14:14-19

Job 14:14–19 NKJV

14 If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, Till my change comes. 15 You shall call, and I will answer You; You shall desire the work of Your hands. 16 For now You number my steps, But do not watch over my sin. 17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag, And You cover my iniquity. 18 “But as a mountain falls and crumbles away, And as a rock is moved from its place; 19 As water wears away stones, And as torrents wash away the soil of the earth; So You destroy the hope of man.

Today we begin 21 days of Prayer and Fasting

We need to focus our prayers together during this time. We need to pray for:

Rain (spiritual)

Courage

Faith

Resources to win the lost