12/29/2019 Christ With us Brings New Beginnings

Are scripture reading for this morning comes from Isaiah chapter 63 verses 7 through 9.

I will tell her the kindness is of the Lord the Deeds for which he is to be praised according to all the Lord has done for us. Yes, the many good things he has done for Israel according to his compassion and many kindnesses. He said surely they are my people children who will be true to me and so he became their savior in all their distress. He too was distressed and the angel of his presence save them in his love and mercy, he redeem them. He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old the word of God for the people of God.

Thank you, sir.

Let us pray.

Lord May the meditations of our hearts in the words of my lips be pleasing in your sight. Iraq and Our Redeemer amen

It is the season of New Year resolutions. An opportunity to begin again. Often these are around Health finances relationships. Hobbies activities vacations, we pick something that we want to work on a place that we want to be a year from now that's different than the place where we are today and we say this is what I want to do. Now some of you all maybe the midnight planners of this like it around 10:30 on New Year's Eve and be like, I really need to think of that New Year resolution or on New Year's Day you wake up and you thought okay now I can think of my New Year's resolution, but in reality or resolution takes preparation and planning often times. If you've ever tried to quit something cold turkey, that's really really really tough.

So much of what we think about for New Years is about changing something like stopping something as opposed to adding something. I want to walk invite you this year to look at adding some new face disciplines to your New Year's resolutions. Here's why?

Anybody in the room have the diabeetus? Pastor Rob does yeah. So there's some rules with with diabetes they give you a little insulin tan one for the evening one for the day. You might be on a different regiment your business. But like you give it for meals before you have a meal, right? But really to to begin to to take it, I really had to change the way that I've thought about meal preparation all together. You just wake up and eat breakfast right makeup and go when I found myself leaving the pen in the refrigerator where it belongs and I forget to put it in my pocket, right or Or sometimes you can do the give more insulin to offset the amount of food that you want to eat trick. My mom told me this one was pretty sweet. Right? Like I'll just get a little extra insulin. I can have the whole piece of pie. That's how she kind of lived she has dementia. Anyway, not really the way to go vascular. Dementia is not what you want. The reality is that what we put into our body is directly connected to what comes out. So this week as I was going to the Star Wars movie standing in line with my bonus Son charlie at the snack bar. And I told him to go ahead and go into the movie. I'll get you something and he pleaded for what he wanted and he left and and I was there aware of this new lifestyle that I'm leading with. No saturated fats. Okay. I like my popcorn with extra butter. I like the like have a bath and butter and not even towel off before it goes in the bucket. And so that's the kind of and I don't like a little bit of it. I like the tub and I don't like to share. I'm 38 years old. I can do what I want. And so if I want to spend $15 on a tub of popcorn, that's what I'll do Sarah wasn't there and so were there right and like I get a small popcorn for the kid and and a drink, right? And so I go there and I'm going into the to get the seat by him and he tries to take the tub of popcorn. movies like off thinks I was like, that's not for you and he's like, well you have to eat healthier, so I should take it and he didn't get it but like he sure tried right but it's completely and it is completely irrational for me to think that if I continue to input into my body, there's going to be a different output of Health, right? But that's the same with all the other areas of Our Lives to we are inundated with negative messages of self-worth or the world is Doom and Gloom. And so all of these things that we consume whether in mind Spirit or in body impact us. And the one thing that I can suggest to you this new year is the change the inputs. To change those things that you allow into your heart. Did the best way? That I can think of to do this is to invite you to consider the study of scripture. now maybe you look at scripture. Thieves like Pastor Rob. I don't really know where to start. Charles Wesley had this this way of doing it. He just didn't believe in gambling but casting lots was a separate deal. So like somebody say stop.

You got a really quick.

David helped at Nob David over in first Samuel David came to Nob where was Priest you'll learn to trust us. Later in the book. Amaya was Dialogue in fear when he met David, why are you alone? Why is no one with you? He asked

I've got no idea where this is going or what it means. And if I was just to open the Bible and in and look at it, I'd be pretty lost. That's why the use of a study Bible or Google will be helpful. But let's say you come across that and you're like, I don't even think that just keep flipping to something that might speak to you in a different way. You don't have to start in the Old Testament and you don't just start in one of the Gospels. You can start wherever you want you could you could well, that's the Apocrypha you guys don't have that in your Bibles. So you could go to Ezekiel right or you could go to. Thessalonians what I'm talking about studying scripture, it's just picking up her ass and going at it and just reading a little bit and then maybe reading a little bit doing a little bit of work on figuring out what that little bit means to you. But there's a right way and a wrong way to study scripture if you're looking to study scripture, so you can beat other people with the holy word of God. It's not the right way to study scripture. If you look to study scriptures to figure out what God is saying to you and your life and how you might be changed by the word of God or for the entirety of God's message in scripture, which is a love letter a history of God reaching out to us, and I was saying well, thanks, but no, thanks. Thanks, but no. Thanks until we get Do our own opportunity to say, thanks or no. Thanks. The study of scripture doesn't have to look so daunting. You can literally just pick out a verse and go with it. Remember what I was talking about when all the kids were on the other room. That's where we ended up at Aetna. Maybe the spirit works for this room for this audience. Right? Like the reality is God has something to say and when we study scripture and we look at what impact it has on our lives then that changes the output of our faith.

I was listening to Amazing Grace on the on the way. And it comes across that verse that saved a Wretch like Me.

In our wretchedness we are saved and it's a lot more fun to focus on other people's wretchedness I get that but that's not the call of our Christian faith. The call of our Christian faith is the focus on our own sin and suffer and inability to meet the mark. You know after we came, and come to faith in Christ, we still send. We still fall. We still sometimes failed to meet the mark, but it doesn't mean that we just give up.

You either saying or going to sing about rebirth? About this idea of Christian regeneration. Okay this idea that Christ does something in us that's not us doing it, but God. And so maybe this morning you're looking at this thinking, you know, I've never really thought of studying scripture that way or maybe maybe I need to improve my prayer life and I just need to decide to pray everyday. That's the Holy Spirit at work in your own regeneration. That's the work of the spirit empowering you to follow where Christ may lead. That's What we're doing here? This is what discipleship looks like. Discipleship looks like calling us to worship together to pray to study scripture together to do Fellowship together to do life together to do giving together and to do Mission together. But that's all empowered by God's love that works through us. Not ours, it's gods. But it's also for us. It's My Hope and prayer is that as you begin to look at New Year's resolutions look at taking something else on Looking at adding an input.

Look at adding an input of faith in your life. Take a year and study scripture. Do you have any questions or you don't understand? I can't promise that I'm going to have some kind of divine answer, but I will gladly help you wrestle with the questions that you have. this book

You know, I just started that you weren't really read and alone. Not very many people had an Uber rating Community from from Pulp Fiction from lecterns. They were letters do a people to be consumed together. So if you read something and you like I don't know how that applies to my life or I'm conflicted by it. Ask a brother or sister in Christ. Cuz that moment might create another holy opportunity for God's love to be shown. And God's word to be lived out.

I hope and prayer for you is that you will engage scripture. This new year that you work to apply it to your lives. And if you think that that's just some little easy Mark of the Christian faith something that's safe. Member is calling me to preach on something that I don't want to preach about. It's going to call you to look at something that you don't want to look at. It's going to call you to see something that maybe even you don't want to see.

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Maybe you're rich. like me

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Lord of new beginnings We asked for you to guide us into the new year. Are you doing?