All Things New
How many of you make New Year’s resolutions?
What are some of your resolutions?
Why do people make them?
People make them because they feel like the New Year is a new start, a fresh beginning to start over again.
Why do we feel like we need to start over?
Maybe there is a little dissatisfaction in our lives, a little restlessness, or a little angst that cries out for something different. There’s just something about “new.” I love the smell of new cars. I love the bells and whistles. You can push a button and talk to your steering wheel and play music or call your peeps or get directions to the skating rink. I love new stuff. We’re getting a TV from my dad’s house so that my kids can be obnoxious in another part of the house while they watch their videos and play their video games. Before we made this decision, we started looking at LCD high-def TVs. I was excited about it. My wife wasn’t excited about the money involved, but my financial concerns were soon overridden by the prospect of a great new picture to watch the Super Bowl with.
Do any of you have any resolutions concerning your spiritual life? Like reading through the Bible in a year, or witnessing to a lost friend or going on a mission trip?
Why do we make resolutions about our spiritual life?
We always have this feeling that we could be doing better. Maybe sin has gotten the better of us and we want to make a fresh break. Many times, it is the work of God in us, pushing us toward holiness.
Read Revelation 21:5.
I did a word study on the word “new” in the NT. There are two words in the Greek that mean “new.” One of them means, “new in time or origin.” We use the word this way when we say that we got the new PS 3. It is really not new in terms of a new gaming system at all. In fact, there was a PS 2 and a PS before there was a PS 3. So, a PS 3 is “new” in this particular sense of the word.
The other word for “new” in the NT means, “new in nature, different from the usual, impressive, better than the old, or superior in value or attraction.”
How many of you watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition?
What Ty Pennington and his crew do is pretty close to this particular meaning of “new.”
On the show what is done with the old house?
Right. It is torn down. It is done away with. With respect to the other meaning of “new”, the manufacturer did not write to you and ask you to send in your machine so that they could demolish it and rebuild it. They simply wanted you to buy their “newer” model. But this particular meaning of new can also be illustrated with a person from our church who recently died. Jerry Reed, our drummer, died just before Christmas due to complications from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Right now, according to the Bible, Jerry has a new body that is different from ours because it is better than his old one and superior in value. Right now, Jerry wants nothing to do with his old body because his new one is better.
Read Romans 7:15-25
This sounds like one big long New Year’s resolution for Paul. At the end of verse 24, Paul is crying out for something new. Can you identify with this personally? Do you wonder if there is really an answer for the problems in your life? Let’s read verse 25. What does Paul mean by that?
Read 2 Corinthians 5:17
What does “in Christ” and “new creation” mean?
I’ll explain it in food terms. Think of a pickle.
The cucumber is our being. It has an inside that we can’t see and a physical outside to it. When a person radically alters the course of their life and follows Jesus, that person is “in Christ.” Keeping with our example, the cucumber of our body goes in the brine and spices of Christ. We’re not talking about a cucumber that only wants to look in the jar, or get in the jar without getting in the brine and spices. We’re talking about the cucumber that has chosen to take the plunge without looking back up at the lid to see if there is a way out.
A complete physical change doesn’t immediately happen to the cucumber. In fact, if you were to pull the cucumber out of the brine soon after dropping it in, it would taste more like a cucumber than a pickle, though you would get some taste of the brine and spices, but not as much as you would if you left it in so the brine and the spices would do their job.
But, if you leave the cucumber in the jar, its purpose has been altered. It is no longer a cucumber. It is a pickle. But is it totally a pickle, yet? No, of course not. There are processes that have to run their course to change both its inside and the outside into something new.
Another way to think about it is with computers. If we think of ourselves as computers, what we need is a new operating system on our hard drive. We need to replace the “old me” operating system with the “new me” operating system. Paul mentions “laying aside the old man with his evil habits and taking on the new man.”
New sounds so good. The bells and whistles appeal to me. As you look back on 2007, you may want to change some things. Something new sounds so good to you. If so, here is a good resolution for you and for all of us in here tonight. Repeat after me: “I will act on spiritual truth.”
What does that mean?
That means that you are going to look for truth and that you are going to do something with it.
That means that you will experience a ‘Renewal’ – NEW THINGS EACH DAY
Read Romans 12:2
You don’t just wake up renewed every day. It takes some work and discipline on your part. You need to set aside that time with God every day to read, pray and just talk with God, and as you do that, He will show you new things, teach you new things, and help you in whatever way you need. In John 17:17, Jesus is praying for us, for you and for me, when he says, “Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.”
Sometimes, new can be scary because it involves change—and change can be uncomfortable. “Well, if I follow Jesus, will I have to brush my teeth and comb my hair and tuck in my shirt tail and go to Africa to tell naked people about Jesus?” Maybe. “Will I have to stand up in front of the whole church and tell everyone all of the bad things I’ve done, like that time I parked in a handicapped spot, actually on a handicapped person?” Probably not, but you will have to deal with what’s driving you to do that. When you do, you will experience ‘Mercy’ – NEW MERCIES EACH DAY
People use the excuse that God just can’t do anything about the things I’ve done. I’m just too bad. God says, “Try me.”
Read Lamentations 3:22-23 and 1 John 1:9
Looking forward to what 2008 brings, do you wonder if it will just be “same old, same old?” Make this your resolution: “I will act on spiritual truth.” When you do, Revelation 21:5 comes alive in you when Jesus says, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And new sounds pretty good to me.