New Years 2022

Introduction

So we have made it to another New Year. It always amazes me how as a society we are like a broken record. After finishing a season of Thanksgiving and family and then moving to Christmas time where we eat more than some African countries combined and open more presents then some will ever see, we come to New Years Eve on December 31st and we say, “Man I am glad this year was over! It was so horrible. Heres to hoping 2022 is better” What a bunch of whiners ha.

You Say “TJ, we are in a pandemic, we have the right to complain and want a better year”..... dont give me that line either. Look, you may have had a rough 2021 and I am not trying to belittle or make lite of that, but I went back through more older New Years Sermons and looked through Social Media timelines to verify my claim and I was right. We say the same thing every year.

There is nothing magic about when the clock clicks from 11:59-12:00 AM on January first. We often will say New Year New Me or something catchy like that, but year after year the truth is the slogan that has always been is New Year Same God.

Its easy to feel as if we are beginning things as a new church or even as believers and new believers that we are beginning things, but the truth is and what I want us to grasp onto as KCC this is that we are not starting or creating a new movement this year but we are trying to get in on what God has been doing from the beginning.

Henry Blackaby, author of Experiencing God says it best this, “ Watch where God is working and join Him”.

HEALING AT THE GATE

The New International Version Chapter 5

12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

The Authority of the Son

16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

So there is an implication here when we think about 2022. God is already at work. He isnt flipping His heavenly callendar and trying to do better, but He is continuing the work that was begun before the foundation of the earth. The pharisees did not understand this and we often forget it as well.

Jesus respinds this way. My Father is always at work

If God is always working, We must also be.

I could probably tell several stories like this but I rememeber once when dad and I were working outside and I got done before Him........... When someone is working find something to do, you look pathetic taking a nap when others are working.

Matthew 9:35-38

Matthew 9:35–38 NASB95

35 Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. 36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

Lets make no mistake about what is coming for KCC this year. It is a year of work. I can guarantee you that there will be times this year where you feel exhausted in this journey. You will doubt your work. You might even shed a few tears. but let me encourage you, those are the workers Jesus is looking for.

Let me define what this work looks like. It means loving people to the point you are wide open and it hurts. It means loving and discipling your own family to the place that you have no patience left. It looks like finding opportunities to mourn with those who are mourning and rejoice with those rejoicing. It means giving of time and money until you feel like there is nothing left. It looks like resting. Yes “working” in the kingdom of God also means resting in God. Each week find a time to rest. God Himself rested the seventh day and you will not be a good laborer if you dont do the same.

Locking arms together we are joining the working labor force of God and make disciples in this community.

Lets continue in John 5

The New International Version Chapter 5

19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed

I love this. Jesus looks at his accusers and says basically this, “ If you have a problem with what I am doing, take it up with God because His orders are what I am following, oh and by the way, if you think this is big what I did back at the sheep gate then YOU HAVENT SEEN NOTHING YET”!

All the work we talked about earlier is great, but if we work yet have no faith then it means nothing

If you work your tail off this year and you dont believe in the power of God then you will miss out.

But if we continue to work and tell all those around us “you havenst seen nothing yet then that is faith that knows the work of God

WHEN YOU PLACE YOUR FAITH IN GOD AND JOIN THE WORK OF GOD YOU WILL SEE THE HAND OF GOD