HOW TO SURVIVE THE NEW YEAR

Introduction:

Happy Sabbath and happy new year, everyone! Indeed, this is a very momentous occasion because of this is the first Sabbath of the year! We now face the new year!

The year 2021 was challenging but at the same time fulfilling for me. Challenging because our Dad, who always desire to be a winner, lost his battle against cancer that was discovered on its late stage. Dad lost his fight on a Sabbath morning, April 3, after battling it for a year and nine months since the cancer was discovered. On the week of the wake of our late Dad, my whole family stayed in the home of my younger brother. During that time, most of us who stayed with my brother got ill. I suspected that the illness was due to the stress of losing a beloved man in the family. A week later on a Saturday night, while conducting the memorial night for Dad, I got the tragic news from my younger brother that he lost his mother-in-law, who tested positive with COVID-19, while she was on the dialysis table.

Sadly, early the next morning, I and my family had to leave my mom, my sister, and my brother and his family, who were grieving and who needed my emotional and physical support at the most inopportune time. Yet, I and my family needed to seek medical attention because of our worsening illness that would be discovered later as COVID-19 infection. On a Saturday, a week after our medical admission, my wife’s physical condition worsened fearing she would lose the battle against COVID-19. During our hospital stay, I received the news that everyone who got ill during Dad’s wake tested positive with COVID-19. Yet in the midst of the challenges, I realized that God’s divine providence exists. All of us who tested positive COVID-19 during Dad’s wake survived the onslaught of COVID-19. After exactly three weeks of hospital quarantine, I and my family were joyful to be home alive and well!

Year 2021 is fulfilling for me, too! At the beginning of the year, I got to defend my dissertation after struggling and working on it for years, eventually finishing my doctorate degree. My personal fulfillment in my studies is not without the support of my dear wife and kids, family, mentors, and friends! Also, I and my family got to experience traveling by land back to our home institution, MVC! Most of all, I had the privilege to continue serving God by working with young people to restore God’s lost image in man and to bring people to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ! To God be the Glory!

I pray that the year 2022 may be more fulfilling in the sense of my service for God and humanity! I pray that it will be yours, too!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you! – from me, my wife, and our kids!

22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. 23 From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord. – Isaiah 66:22-23

HOW TO CELEBRATE THE NEW YEAR

1 John 1:9; Joshua 1:8; 1 John 5:14, 15

Subject: Celebration of New Year 2021

Complement: Celebrate the New Year by making a right relationship with God

Idea: Confession of sins, ask God’s blessings, and recognize him as the creator are ways to celebrate the New Year.

Explain:

The Babylonian empire, in the 2ndand 1st millennium BCE celebrated new year called Akitu. Unlike other Mesopotamian cities, they celebrated it once a year, in the month of Nisan (Jewish month Aviv), which is sometime between March/April. The month Nisan, from the word nitzan which means blossoming, coincides with the blossoming, or Spring Time.

The celebration was done with pomp and rejoicing, during the first eleven days of Nisan. The climax of the celebration was the procession to the akitu temple and the celebration of the akituritual there. A text from the Seleucid period (3rd century BCE) contains the instruction as to the cultic activities to be performed in the temple. The participation of the king was obligatory. The king declares his innocence before Marduk. During these days, prayers and incantations are recited to Marduk, beseeching him to calm his anger and bless the king and the people for the coming year. The priest would also utter a favorable oracle, assuring the king that Marduk listened to his prayer and will bless his kingship and destroy his enemies.

Interestingly, on the tenth of Nisan, they also celebrate the establishment of the Babylonian empire or its reunification, in the guise of a primordial cosmic battle (Marduk’s victory over Tiamat and the creation of the world by him). It also notes the association of the New Year with the creation of the world survived in the rabbinic interpretation of the Jewish New Year festival.[1]

If the Babylonians celebrate the New Year in spiritual devotion, may I also propose that each one will do the same. Let’s celebrate the New Year by making a right relationship with God and ask his blessings for the coming New Year.

Body:

1. Confess sins. 1 John 1:9

a. Let’s acknowledge that we have sinned.

Sin means “missing the mark.” In many ways, each one had missed the mark. The mark may be morally, spiritually, mentally, or socially. At the beginning of the year, each one did make his/her new year’s resolution. But he/she had not worked it out.

b. To confess sins means to “avow/acknowledge one’s sin.”

It means “saying good-by” to the sins. It is saying, “It is true, I have done evil.” Also, it is being sorry and not doing it again.

Illustration: Prussian king Frederick the Great was once touring a Berlin prison. The prisoners fell on their knees before him to proclaim their innocence -- except for one man, who remained silent. Frederick called to him, "Why are you here?" "Armed robbery, Your Majesty," was the reply. "And are you guilty?" "Yes indeed, Your Majesty, I deserve my punishment." Frederick then summoned the jailer and ordered him, "Release this guilty wretch at once. I will not have him kept in this prison where he will corrupt all the fine innocent people who occupy it." Today in the Word, December 4, 1992.

This means that acknowledging mistakes sets us free. In other words, I should say, “Right. I have not done my New Year’s resolution 2020. Let me do my 2021 New Year’s resolution and with God’s help and power, I will do it.”

c. God’s promise: Cleanse and forgive sins

Just like the Prussian King who sets the robber free, Jesus sets us free from all our deeds that are not right. He is giving everyone a clean slate to begin the New year. He is giving everyone a chance to rewrite his/her new year’s resolution, to work on it, and fulfil God’s desire in one’s life.

2. Spend time in meditation and prayer. Joshua 1:8

Illustration: The story goes that Henry Ford once hired an efficiency expert to evaluate his company. After a few weeks, the expert made his report, which was highly favorable except for one thing. "It's that man down the hall," said the expert. "Every time I go by his office he's just sitting there with his feet on his deck. He's wasting your money." "That man," replied Mr. Ford, "once had an idea that saved us millions of dollars. At the time, I believe his feet were planted right where they are now." Reader's Digest, August, 1981.

If any one wants to be successful this year 2021, he/she must know where his/her feet are planted. It must be planted upon the Word of God. Joshua 1:8 states, “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

a. Meditate on the Word of God

The Hebrew word translated "meditate" speaks of what a cow does after grazing all day. As she chews the cud over and over again, she extracts every nutrient. In other words, to meditate means to ponder a section of the Word day and night, extracting more from its inexhaustible supply each time (Jon Cursor).

We are to memorize God’s word for the transformation of our minds. These verses are telling us to read it, teach it, speak it, and live it. We are to do this in the morning, night, through our day. The way to do this is have the Word stored in your heart. When you are presented with certain situations through your day, the Holy Spirit will pull these words out of your memory bank for you to help you asses the options.

b. The Key to success is spiritual.

It is not dependent on the abilities one has. Rather, it is directly related to the degree of obedience to God.

c. Pray.

Prayer is the way in which we communicate with God, and he wants to get to know us better. The Bible tells us in 1 John 5:14, 15 “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” ESV

The passage indicates the Christian’s confidence that God exists. His existence is manifested in Jesus Christ who “all things came into being, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3). Jesus promised that “13Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it” (14:13). Indeed, he will do everything for our benefit and for the glory of God.

Illustration: Have you ever heard of George Mueller? It began one day when he was moved with concern as he looked down the streets of Bristol, England and saw hundreds of homeless children. With only 2 pence (about 3 cents) in his pocket, he prayed, and in obedience to God, started an orphanage. Over the next 60 years, George Mueller cared for and raised more than 10,000 orphans. Mueller told amazing stories of answered prayers. He kept a daily prayer record that filled more than 3,000 pages and recorded more than 30,000 specific answered prayers. One of the best known was the night there was no food in the orphanage to give to the children for breakfast. But at 3:00 in the morning, a baker called and said, “I just can’t sleep. I’m going down to the bakery to bake some bread. Would it be all right for me to bring some over to you this morning?” A milk truck just happened to break down in front of the orphanage on a day when they had no milk. The truck driver came to the door and said, “This milk is all going to spoil. Could you use some?” Over and over again, 30,000 times, in 60 years, God answered George Mueller’s prayers. Prayers do get results: “This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him; / And saved him out of all his troubles” (Psalm 34:6).

3. Go and preach the Word!

Do you know the song, “Read your Bible pray everyday?”

There’s a revise version to this: Read your Bible pray everyday, sing everyday, witness everyday, and you grow, glow, go!

Jesus appeal to his disciples: Matth 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Our responsibility:

a. Reach people where they are

People are lost.

b. Restore God’s image in man

Man is marred because of sin.

c. Right relationship with God

Man is broken. Has to be right with God again.

Illustration: "A Dream for God" Many years ago a young man had a dream of telling the story of Jesus everywhere in the world. When he suggested taking that good news to people, an older man said, "Sit down, young man. If God wants to save the heathen, he will do it without your help or mine." This young man, William Carey, was a cobbler. As he worked day after day making shoes, he thought about this exciting dream of his. He preached a sermon, "Attempt Great Things for God; Expect Great Things from God." Because he believed this with all his heart, he left his own country, England, and went to India. There he spent the rest of his life teaching and preaching about Jesus who said, "Go into all the world and tell the good news." It was several yeas before even one person accepted this message. But one, then another, and then many believed the good news of Jesus, until thousands upon thousands came to know Jesus because a young man with a dream opened a door. --The Ministers Manual 1986

Appeal:

We are about to celebrate the New Year of 2022. May I appeal to everyone of us to confess our sins and ask God to give us a new and clean slate of life. Also, let us resolve in ourselves to be grounded firmly on the word of God by meditation and prayer. Let us acknowledge that he is the creator of all things and the provider of all our needs. Let us request God to provide our needs in life. We may want to ask God to resolve our problems, to give us work and success in our endeavors, or whatever requests we have in our hearts. It is time to lay all our plans to God for the coming year. Bad/sad/evil/wicked things may touch our lives, but let God use them to ultimately bring about good, both in our life and in the world (Rom 8:28). Let’s ask him to bless us in ways beyond our capacities and capabilities to give him glory throughout the year by reaching out to people and telling them about the love of Jesus. May the Lord and his holy Spirit be with us as we celebrate the new year in a right relationship with God.

Let us pray.

[1]Jacob Klein, “Akitu,” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 13