Peace in the New Year

Intro

Christmas is over and the new year is right around the corner, and as we all know when the new year comes around so does new years resolutions.

So here are the top 10 most popular new year resolutions as of this past year. and maybe some of these will seem familiar.

Exercise more

Eat healthier

Spend more time with family & friends

Lose weight

Live more economically

Spend less time on social media

Improve performance on the job

Reduce stress on the job

Quit smoking

Cut down on alcohol

Any guess on what percentage of Americans actually go through with all of their New year resolutions?

about 35%, which personally seems high in my opinion.

You know sometimes we create New Years Resolutions and it’s like we are just asking to fail. for example…

There was a man who called his parents to wish them a happy new year, and when he called his dad answered the phone. “Well, Dad, what’s your New Year’s resolution?” the man asked him. “To make your mother as happy as I can all year,” his Dad answered. and so the boy said that’s great, and asked to talk to his mom.

When his mom got on the phone, the man asked her the same question, “What’s your resolution, Mom?”

She answered, “To see that your dad keeps his New Year’s resolution.”

Talk about setting yourself up for failure… But you know as I was reading through some of the most popular new years resolutions I stopped to ask myself, why do we even make new years resolutions in the first place?

I think people worldwide make New Year’s resolutions every year in an attempt to improve their lives. Is that a fair assumption to make? and we do this because we are unsure of what the new year is actually going to bring.

The Difficulties We Face

The new year can be scary. We don’t know what’s going to happen. I mean look at how much the world has changed since January last year. and not just in your own personal lives but everywhere. and we can get really caught up in the future allowing ourselves to become anxious.

We begin wondering, am i still going to have a job this coming year, will i have another year to spend with this person or that person, how am I going to afford things if gas prices keep going up, Who’s going to win this election or that election, will the Clevland Browns make it to next years super bowl (Well I think we may know the answer to that one). But we have these things that we let worry us and we dwell on it.

If you follow my wife or I on Facebook you may have seen that Sierra is Pregnant, if you aren’t friends with either of us on Facebook, then surprise she’s pregnant! But along with that comes a lot of worrying, now we have to figure out a good name, we think about how we are going to discipline our child, we have to think about what kind of world our kid is going to grow up in, we have to figure out our finances, the list goes on. You parents who are here know what I’m talking about.

But regardless of what the new year brings we need to remember to take a step back and breath.

When I think about the uncertainty that the new year brings I tend to think about the time that Isreal spent in the wilderness after they were led out of Egypt. Isreal had a hard time trusting in God and often began worrying about their fate and tested him. go ahead and open up to Ex 17:1-7

Exodus 17:1–7 ESV

1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

some of us are like Isreal and when things start to look bad we immediately start question God’s plan and we start to doubt his intentions for us. Sometimes just like Isreal we ask “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Thankfully we know that we serve a God who is active and is not going to leave us stranded without water, even when things seem hopeless. When Isreal questioned God for bringing them into this land with no water he did the unthinkable and brought water from a rock. Sometimes God does the things that we least expect him to do.

Peace in Christ

Growing up I used to get really nervous about my grades. I would finish a test or an assignment and I would stress about it until I got my grade back. Did any of you have that same problem in school?

You know that you have a big test coming up that you have to pass, so you study and study and you take the test but you have no idea how you actually did. and so you wait and wait, and eventually the test comes back. When you look at the test and see that you passed it’s like someone removes a weight from our shoulders and we’re free from that worry.

When we decide to put our trust in God the same thing happens. Let’s flip to Luke 8:22-25

Luke 8:22–25 ESV

22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”

Do you ever feel like that? Like you are on a boat surrounded by a storm and water is rushing into the boat. maybe that’s how you feel going into the new year. we get so busy, or we get so caught up in what might happen, and we struggle to look past our struggles. to look past them and towards the God who calms the storm.

What do we know about God? Is our God a God who is unprepared? Is our God a God who hates us? Does our God desire to see us in torment? Does our God sit on the sideline and watch as we suffer?

We serve a God with a plan to prosper us, we serve a God who loves us, we serve a God who wants the best for us, we serve an active God who is always interceding for us, and who is always thinking about us. That is the God that we serve!

Do you know what the word Hallelujah means? It’s a greek word, and you’ve probably heard it a few times in your life, and what it means is “Praise Yahweh” or it could also be said, “Praise the Lord”.

So when I say we can have peace in Christ because he will calm our storm can I please here you say “Hallelujah”… Our Christ calms the storm...

It’s so easy to forget how big and how awesome our God is, and how he understands the things that go beyond our reality.

The apostles became overwhelmed by the storm and became fearful, But when they saw that Christ calmed the Storm what did they say? Lk 8:25

Luke 8:25 ESV

25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”

Why should we fear the storm when we serve the God that can make it as though it never came in the first place. So let’s find peace in knowing that whatever your storm is, whatever may worry you about the new year, you can find peace knowing that it’s not bigger than God.

Trusting in The Lord This New Year

Now me telling you to find peace in God, or to trust in God is one of those things that is far easier said than done. Because once we are actually in that situation everything changes. Now sometimes it’s easier than other times,

for example when I was in High School I worked at the McDonalds in Lamar, and right next to the McDonalds was Pilot, the gas station. And I had a bad habit of waiting until the last second to get gas, and this day driving to work I was already late, and so I decided that even though my gas light was on from the day before I would wait until after work to get gas, and i was really worried and i knew that i just had to trust God that somehow it would workout so that I wouldn’t be stranded at work. Well thankfully after work I pulled out of McDonalds and my car actually ran out of gas as I was pulling into Pilot and I had just enough momentum to make it to the pump.

Now that obviously is a pretty small example that we face everyday to trust in God. But I remember other times also when I had to put a lot more trust in him.

One of the most important times I’ve ever had to trust in God was when I felt his call to ministry. I was in 8th grade and I decided that I wanted to Preach, and so I took some public speaking classes and some creative writing classes, and I made sure to go to as many church events as possible. and you know what I learned? I was awful at public speaking, and I was a horrible writer. But I loved God and his calling was clear to me, so I went to Geneva College.

And you know what I learned my first couple of weeks at Geneva? I didn’t know much of anything about the Bible either.

It can be really scary to step back and put your trust in God and to say, “God I trust you, and i know that you have a plan”

Now as time went on at Geneva, I noticed that God began to lay the foundational work of a pastor in me, I started to get better at preaching, I became quite a good writer, and I learned that I had a bunch of other gifts like counseling, and encouraging, and listening that I never realized I had. And none of that would have happened if it wasn’t for the trust that I put in God.

This makes me think of the time that Peter was called to come out to Jesus on the water, open up to Matthew 14:22-33

Matthew 14:22–33 ESV

22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. 25 And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

The water was already getting rough when the apostles saw Jesus, and when Jesus assured them that it was him, Peter then ask God to call him out onto the water, and Jesus did. In that moment, regardless of the impossibility that it is to be able to walk on water, or the fact that the waters were rough, all of Peters focus was on Christ, but when the wind came he took his focus off Christ and he became afraid and sank.

When we follow God we step out onto the water, every single one of us. we step away from the safety of the boat, because we know that there is so much more in following Christ. But when we do that the only thing that holds us up is our trust and faith in him. and as soon as we loose that we sink.

Now here comes another Hallelujah moment, be ready. what happened when Peter lost focus and sank?… “Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him” How great is it that when we begin to doubt our Christ reaches out and takes our hand. *Hallelujah* Praise the Lord.

So when we look towards the storm of the new year, remember that you serve a God who calms the storm, that when you come to Christ you step out of that boat and you must rely on your trust in him in order to stay afloat.

So take a moment to think about the things in your life that may seem overwhelming that may scare you. The things that make you doubt if you will make it through, think about the new year. and commit yourself to putting it in God’s hands, because without him we are nothing and he is the God who calms the storm!

Thank you!