Out of the Chaos

Main Point: When Jesus speaks and I listen, good things happen.

WE: This is the time of year when we all look forward to the new - especially this year.

Why do we celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of a new...

We bring in the new year with parties and celebrations — but why? There really isn’t anything to celebrate

Another year gone and we are just another year older — time just keeps moving — trust me time isn’t good to all of us (LOL) — why celebrate that?

I think we celebrate New Year’s because deep down inside we all want just that — NEW! Especially this year!

We want to leave the past behind us — with all our mistakes — disappointments — struggles

We all have things that we wish we could just do over — go back and do it different

One thing is true about a previous year for all of us — we want it to be over and the new to come with all of its possibilities

But new isn’t easy

We carry the same baggage into the next year as we carried around in the last

We are the same people as we were last year — same habits, behaviors, thoughts, temptations — Same old job — old bank account — problems

Just because a calendar changes doesn’t mean we do

ME: I have a good friend who is almost at the end of his struggle with ALS

I remember when I started to notice the change — started with a slight slur in his speaking — tease him “Rod, you been drinking?”

He thought it was his asthma — but Ta’Mara and I saw a gradual decline and slur got worse — we knew it was something else

Then he began having trouble with his foot — walking was becoming difficult

I remember when the call came — I have ALS and they are giving me 3-5 years. — our hearts sank as we thought of his wife and three daughters still teenagers

It has been hard to watch this disease take almost everything from him — he is bed ridden and cannot move even his fingers now — he is being kept alive with a machine

When I look at my friend lying there in the bed — a man I played golf with — games — went on vacations with — raised our daughters with — road a giant inter-tube in the dells called the Toilet Bowl with — I don’t recognize his physical body but when you look into my friend's eyes — He is there — his body has been struck down, but he has not been destroyed

Do you think he would want a whole new world right now? One without suffering — one with a body that works

Do you think he looks everyday into the darkness and the chaos that this disease brings — crowding in around him every day

Do you think he would want a new beginning?

And do I dare do it? Do I pray that he gets a whole new world? Is that even possible?

What about for us?

Is it possible for us today? New — to see a new beginning — a new creation spring up where there was nothing before

Can there be new after divorce — loss — disease — financial hardship — betrayal — suffering?

Can there be anything good come out of our chaos?

The Apostle John thought so...

GOD: John’s gospel in the Bible teaches us that Jesus is more than a good teacher or prophet but the creator of whole new worlds

John 1:1–2 TNIV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Sound familiar? It should — sounds like the creation story out of Genesis 1

John takes us back even before creation — when there was nothing that existed but God

John calls Jesus simply “The Word”

The Word was before creation

John wants us to know he was there in the beginning and everything that became new was made through Him

John 1:3 TNIV

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

The Word is a world-initiating — all creating force — when the Word speaks new worlds come into existence

Where there was nothing — something comes into existence when God speaks

God spoke to the world when the Word became flesh and dwelled among us — Jesus coming into this world was the beginning of a whole new world

John 1:4–5 TNIV

In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John is saying that the coming of Jesus is Genesis all over again…

Creation of new worlds continued in Abraham...

ABRAHAM: With a word God created a people when He called Abram out in the wilderness — something out of nothing — two old barren people

When those people became numerous God created free nation out of slaves...

EXODUS: With a word from a burning bush that was not consumed — God created a nation — he spoke from the bush to a none-too-talented — untrained speaker and murderer Moses to tell Pharoah — “Let my people go”

And when the time was right God created a way when there was no other way...

This is John’s Jesus — the Word who creates...

A God who creates something out of nothing

Creates a new people out of nobodies

Creates free people from out of the chaos of slavery

Jesus is the creator of new worlds — He is the God who opens doors that were shut and gives us new possibilities

John 1:11–13 TNIV

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

And Jesus is still speaking into dark void of human hearts where new is birthed...

And then there was Nicodemus — a religious leader — an older man who came at night (didn’t want to be seen) — and Jesus tells him unless you are “born from above” — “born a new” — “born again” a new creation you cannot see all the amazing new creation God is doing on earth — that is the Kingdom of God — Nick — God is actively creating the Kingdom on earth and you must be born again to see it — What does this mean? John goes back to the creation — it is a spirit thing — like the spirit (wind) of God hovered (brooded) over the chaos of a forming creation and out of that came life — the spirit hovers over you and me to form out of our chaos life

John’s Jesus is the Word who from the beginning creates new life where there was no life...

Jesus creates relationships where there was nothing or where there was but is broken and gone

Jesus creates beauty out of ashes — as the song says “graves into gardens”

Jesus creates the kingdom of God all around us — through us

YOU: So, when you don’t see good springing up in your life, ask yourself, “Am I giving Jesus access to my life?”

When Jesus speaks and I listen, good things happen

Here is something I know — when Jesus speaks and you don’t listen…He cannot create anything new in my life

Jesus — the creator of everything — new worlds — light — life

When we say no to Jesus — the creator of everything — creator of new worlds — light and life — I am saying no the new life wants to create

The creator of life wants to speak into your chaos — he wants to say let there be light in the darkness of your soul — he want to create something new in all of us

This Jesus — who John says is life and light — desires to create new in you and around you

Perhaps you are here and you are like Nicodemus

Maybe you are here and you just need Jesus to do a new thing in your life

You might be here and you have just been telling him no and the area of life he want to speak into is dying

Back to my friend...

My friend along with all of us have prayed for healing — that God would do a new thing in his body — God hasn’t. His body is going to give out one day like most of us — but I know his heart. He loves Jesus and while his body is wasting away his spirit is being renewed every day. One day Jesus is coming back and this creator of all things will create a new heaven and earth — he will create new bodies for us — we will all go out to meet Jesus and come back to the new earth and inherit all of it

And just like the first creation — Jesus speaks and out of the chaos comes something new — something not there before — the impossible made possible — something good

CONCLUSION

Here at the beginning of a new year — I don’t know what new birth — new life — new world you need

Maybe your world has fallen or is falling apart

Maybe things have grown chaotic and dark

I know this: Jesus — God who first spoke the world into existence — the God who comes to us as “the Word” — He continues to create

This is really good news!

Main Point: When Jesus speaks and I listen, good things happen.

WE: Imagine what might happen if we would all just give Jesus access to every area of our lives.