God's New Thing

SERMON STARTER

 

          How us folks that are over 60 love to reminisce the past. We call them the "good ole' days," and remember fondly when things weren't as bad as they are on today's headlines. In our heart of hearts we actually know the events of the past were just as chaotic as today's events. We also know that the same fear and uncertainty (The Delta Factor) was there then as it is today.

          As age creeps up on us we easily think our lives are over and deeply resent the new things that culture and innovation thrust upon us. Was life really simpler in the past or are we just romanticizing the past because it was a part of our youth when we could cope with life's innovation and uncertainty better?

          There are many factors that make life's realities today more harsh. One shift that is still happening is globalization. We no longer live in a narrow world restricted by our national geographic barriers. The world's economy has come to our doors. Go to Walmart and see how globalization has affected our consumer products and prices. Read the paper or hear the news and become aware of droughts, pestilences, wars and rumors of wars. We have the bad news instantly and at our fingertips.

          This morning's sermon is about God's new thing. We are learning how to exploit culture's innovation to build the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. How can we develop New Things for God from the developing new things of the coming generation? Our culture salivates when Apple or Microsoft announce they are releasing a new product. Everyone, it seems, is anxious to get their hands on the newest product or innovation. God has a different "New Thing" He is doing in our lives.           

 

Pastor Phil  <><<                               

 

 

 

 

January 6, 2012

Sheepfold Ministries - Pastor Phil Roland

 

God's New Thing

Isaiah 43:18-19

"Our culture salivates when Apple or Microsoft announce they are releasing a new product. Everyone, it seems, is anxious to get their hands on the newest product or innovation. God has a different "new thing" He is doing in our lives."                                                                        Pastor Phil  <><<

"Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old.

19 Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert."

I. TO ENTER GOD'S NEW THING, FORGET THE PAST

"Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old."

            A. Leave the past behind - Philippians 3:13.14

"Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,

              forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those

              things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the

              upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

                        1. How do we forget what is behind?

                        2. Leave the unfinished baggage of 1012

                                    a) Give up regrets - "If only. . ."

                                    b) Get rid of guilt - "I should have. . ."

                                    c) Give up Hostility and Grudge Bearing -

                                    d) Refuse to engage in Gossip

                                    e) Cease comparing myself with others

                                    f) Restrain myself from reacting to and being                                                                        influenced by others

                                    g) Resolve old Grief and Sorrow

                                    h) Release myself from the Shame of the Past

            B. Remember only the Past's Important Lessons - Proverbs 23:10
           "Do not remove the ancient landmark, Nor enter the fields of the fatherless"

                        1. Ancient Landmarks were boundaries set by God through his                             promise to Abraham - Genesis 15:18

                          "On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying:

                         "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt

                          to the great river, the River Euphrates--"

                        2. Forget the past, but not God's Promises of the past

                        3. Don't let go of Spiritual Lessons learned from Pain

II. TO ENTER GOD'S NEW THING, GIVE UP WORLDLY VALUES

            A. Give up your Lust for Money, Materialism, Fame

                        1. What do you dream about?

                        2. Cars? One day they'll rust or be crushed and melted

                        3. Houses? They'll be bought, torn down or remodeled

GOD'S NEW THING, cont. p.2

                        4. Land? Deeds are changed, made out to new owners

                        5. Unlimited access to money? Satisfaction usually poor

                        6. Material goods? One day discarded into landfills

            B. Physical Gratification

                        1. Body ages, gets sick and dies

                        2. (Wrong) Food can clog your arteries, cause obesity

            C. Sexual Fulfillment

                        1. Declines with age

                        2. Secular world separates sex from love

                        3. Know everything about the physical act of sex

                        4. Know nothing about the real sources of love

            D. Worldly Fame

                        1. In March of 1966 the Beatles rock group were popular

                        2. John Lennon said in an interview that Christianity is in                                         decline and the Beatles were more popular than Jesus

                        3. Ask any person under forty who the Beatles are today?

            E. Worldly Power

                        1. Like a bar of soap: the more you use, the less you have

                        2. Notorious examples of transitory worldly power

                                    a. Castro - Cuba

                                    b. Chavez - Venezuela

                                    c. Kim Jon Un - North Korea

                        3. Transient, slippery, Never lasts

 

III. TO ENTER GOD'S NEW THING, SURRENDER TO GOD

19 Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert."

            A. Surrender yourself to God

                        1. Must become aware of our own brokenness Luke 15:16-17

                        "And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the

                          swine ate, and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to

                          himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have

                          bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

                                    a. The Prodigal Son became aware of his need

                                    b. He needed his father's mercy, acceptance and love

                        2. "If you aren't broken, no one can fix you."

3. Surrender Pride and Self-Sufficiency

B. Wave the white flag of surrender to Jesus

            1. Humble yourself before God and Man - James 4:10

                        "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up."

                        2. Submit to God and draw near to Him - James 4:7-8

"Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

                        8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse  your                                    hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded."

C. Call upon the Lord, He'll be there for you - Psalm 50:15

      "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me."

GOD'S NEW THING, cont. p.3

                        1. Surrender your control of your life to a personal Savior

                        2. Today's "Y" generation has choices, choices, choices. . .

                        3. Most suffer from Universal Boredom

                                    a. Must have an iPhone or iPad in hand at all times

                                    b. Or, their heads are bowed low texting one another

                        4. All this "amusement" isolates them from one another

            D. We need one another and we need God

 

IV. GOD'S NEW THING HAPPENS IN US

19 Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert."

            A. Life without Christ to guide us is empty and dry

                        1. Aimless Desert, desolate, Wasteland

                        2. Dry riverbeds, thirsty, devoid of water

                        3. Need not just any water, but Living Water

            B. Jesus' Holy Spirit is the water of life that makes a way in the                     wilderness - John 7:38

                "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living

                  water will flow from within him."

            C. God comes with His beautiful Promise - Isaiah 65:17

              "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall

               not be remembered or come to mind."

            D. Here is God's Promise of a New Thing - 2 Corinthians 5:17

            "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have

             passed away; behold, all things have become new."

            1. Have you ever found newness of life in Christ?

                        2. Experienced God's New Thing in you?

                        3. Surrender to Him

                        4. Allow you to fill your life with His Stream in your desert!

                        5. Do it today!

 

 

I had walked life's way with an easy tread,

Had followed where comforts and pleasures led,

Until one day in a quiet place

I met the Master face to face.

With station and rank and wealth as my goal,

Much thought for my body, but none for my soul,

I had entered to win in life's mad race,

When I met the Master face to face.

I met Him and knew Him and blushed to see,

That His Eyes full of sorrow, were fixed on me,

And I faltered and fell at His Feet that day

While my castles melted and vanished away;

Melted and vanished, and in their place

Naught else did I see, but the Master's Face;

And I cried aloud, "Oh, make me meet

To follow the steps of Thy Wounded Feet!"

My thought is now for the souls of men;

I lost my life to find it again,

E'er since that day in a quiet place

I met the Master face to face.

 

 

Author Unknown

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FUNNY: NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

A woman walked into her bathroom at home. As she did, she saw her husband weighing himself on the bathroom scales, sucking in his stomach. The woman thought to herself, "He thinks that he will weigh less by sucking in his stomach." So, the woman rather sarcastically said to her husband, "That’s not going to help." Her husband said, "Sure it will. It’s the only way I can see the numbers."

 

DECIDING TO JUMP

A boy told his father, "Dad, if three frogs were sitting on a limb that hung over a pool, and one frog decided to jump off into the pool, how many frogs would be left on the limb?"

The dad replied, "Two."

"No," the son replied. "There’s three frogs and one decides to jump, how many are left?"

The dad said, "Oh, I get it, if one decides to jump, the others would too. So there are none left."

The boy said, "No dad, the answer is three. The frog only DECIDED to jump."

 

 

SEIZE THE DAY

"Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero," which translates,

 "Seize the day; put no trust in tomorrow!"

 

I may never see tomorrow,
there's no written guarantee
And things that happened yesterday
belong to history.

I cannot predict the future,
I cannot change the past,
I have just the present moments,
I must treat it as my last.

I must use this moment wisely
for it soon will pass away,
and be lost forever, as part of yesterday.
I must exercise compassion,
help the fallen to their feet,
Be a friend unto the friendless,
make an empty life complete.

The unkind things I do today
may never be undone,
And friendships that I fail to win
may nevermore be won.

I may not have another chance
on bended knees to pray,
and I thank God with a humble heart
for giving me this Day.

 

CARPE DIEM

    "Seize the day!"   

 

 

HISTORY

The tradition of the New Year's Resolutions goes all the way back to 153 BC. Janus, a mythical king of early Rome was placed at the head of the calendar.

With two faces, Janus could look back on past events and forward to the future. Janus became the ancient symbol for resolutions and many Romans looked for forgiveness from their enemies and also exchanged gifts before the beginning of each year.

The New Year has not always begun on January 1, and it doesn't begin on that date everywhere today. It begins on that date only for cultures that use a 365-day solar calendar. January 1 became the beginning of the New Year in 46 B.C., when Julius Caesar developed a calendar that would more accurately reflect the seasons than previous calendars had.

The Romans named the first month of the year after Janus, the god of beginnings and the guardian of doors and entrances. He was always depicted with two faces, one on the front of his head and one on the back. Thus he could look backward and forward at the same time. At midnight on December 31, the Romans imagined Janus looking back at the old year and forward to the new. The Romans began a tradition of exchanging gifts on New Year's Eve by giving one another branches from sacred trees for good fortune. Later, nuts or coins imprinted with the god Janus became more common New Year's gifts.

In the Middle Ages, Christians changed New Year's Day to December 25, the birth of Jesus. Then they changed it to March 25, a holiday called the Annunciation. In the sixteenth century, Pope Gregory XIII revised the Julian calendar, and the celebration of the New Year was returned to January 1.

The Julian and Gregorian calendars are solar calendars. Some cultures have lunar calendars, however. A year in a lunar calendar is less than 365 days because the months are based on the phases of the moon. The Chinese use a lunar calendar. Their new year begins at the time of the first full moon (over the Far East) after the sun enters Aquarius- sometime between January 19 and February 21.

Although the date for New Year's Day is not the same in every culture, it is always a time for celebration and for customs to ensure good luck in the coming year.