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Content type: Sermon Poem / Prayer Service / Tribute Incomplete Biography
Body: Let us pray: Father, Give us a new year. Not just a new number, but a truly new year. Give us a year full of new things, new adventures, new attitudes, and visions. Lord, give us a new year full of new ideas and refresh some of our old ideas. Give us new relationships and renew old relationships and restore relationships that have been broken. Father, give us a new year. Give us a new song. Give us a new memory. Give us a new image of Your Son and help us to show His image to those who are new to You. Give us new thoughts, new friends, and new things that replace the old worn-out things. Father, give us a new year. The year that has just ended was difficult for some of us. There were struggles and frustrations and disappointments that we did not handle so well. Give us a better mentality and better spiritual insight that will help us deal with the struggles, frustrations and disappointments that will come in this New Year. Father, give us a new year. Give us a year filled with new ministries, new opportunities, new voices, and new messages. Help us hold on to the old things that are worth holding and help us let go of the old things that have served their purpose. Father, give us a new year. Give us a year that is not controlled by fear. A year in which we are not afraid of people who are different. A year when we are not afraid of ideas that are new, of plans that are new, and places that are new. Father, give us a new year. Give us a year filled with new love. A new love for You. A new love for each other. A new love for Your Kingdom. A new love for strangers. A new love for the helpless. A new love for the needy. A new love for the poor. A new love for the rich. A new love for all people. Amen! **Summary:** We can look back to what God did for us in 2022, or ahead to what He wants to do for us in 2023. We can look both ways, but we can only step out one way ... and that should be in faith. Top of Form Bottom of Form Something happened a few hours ago. Something I believe each of us must come to terms with. What was it? The clock struck midnight, and in so doing, we had to say good-bye to one year, but we got to say hello to a brand-new year. We go through this each year, but I am not sure just how much thought we give to the position this puts us in. We are standing in a doorway this morning, looking both ways; back through the year 2022, and ahead to the glory that awaits us in the year 2023. Let’s look at this unique perspective we are given on this day. 1. LOOKING BACK A book has many chapters and each one is meant to be read, but not ‘unduly’ re-read. So, when we finish a chapter, even though it may have been a very good one, do not keep going back to re-read it, but flip the page and eagerly anticipate the adventure that awaits you in the next chapter. If we really look at all that has happened to us in 2022, we will see many instances of God’s love in our lives. We don’t have to look very far in the past to see God’s love either, do we? In fact, we just need to look back one week. Last Sunday was Christmas. Just last Sunday we saw that God loved us so much that He gave us His Son as a human sacrifice to pay for our sins. And even though that is more than we deserve, God continues to do many things for us, because He loves us. There is a story of a thunderstorm that started to develop just as a little girl was getting out of school. Her mother was concerned about the 7-year-old girl walking home in the rain. Just about the time she started to go out and find her daughter, the little girl came into the house. Her mother told her she was very worried about her, but the little girl said God protected her. She said He loved her so much that He kept taking pictures of her all the way home! That little girl did something all of us are supposed to do, and that is to see God’s hand in every single thing that happens to us or around us. And as we look back through this past year, I pray that we see many instances of God doing things in our lives because of His great and undeserved love He has for us. And as we stand in this doorway and look backwards, we must quickly come to terms and look forward. 2. LOOKING AHEAD We should look ahead with eager wonder to the unknown adventures that lie ahead. We must cast our focus on the future; on the New Year; on what God has planned for us. Out of His love for us, God gave us something that we should all use for His glory, and that is something called the ‘future’. That is what we should gaze upon as we stand in this doorway and begin to step through. This future is full of adventures, and every single one of them can bring us closer to the Lord if we will only let it. One of the most important blessings in this New Year will be when we are once again reminded that Christ arose from the dead and that gives us the hope of something else in the future; the 2nd Coming of Christ to gather His followers up to go with Him. And speaking about looking ahead, we must live with a Godly focus. We are reminded of this in EPHESIANS 5:15-17 – ‘Be careful, then, how you live – not as unwise people, but as wise – making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is.’ We should all make the most of our time in God, shouldn’t we? We should also be focused on doing what God wants us to do, and not just concentrate on what we would like to do. Too many people make plans for their future without even thinking about what part God plays in them. It is okay to make plans, but we need to make those plans while trying to keep the Lord at the center of them. JAMES 4:13-15 warns us; ‘Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money. Yet, we do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.’ We know that our time on this earth is short. As James said, we are nothing but a temporary mist that is here one second and gone the next. Even though this life is so short, we are held to full accountability to how we live it, so it becomes all the more important to live our lives as carefully as we can. So, let’s be cautious. Remember, in EPHESIANS 5, it reminds us to be wise in how we live; to make the most of every situation we find ourselves in; and to understand what God’s will is regarding us. To make the most of our daily lives, we need to remember that Jesus was named ‘Immanuel’; and that literally means “God with us”. And, if we are always in the presence of God because He is with us, then we must be wise enough to make the most of that and to do those things that is within His will, not do those things we would normally do. When the focus is on us, it is on the world. 3. THE FUTURE FOR THIS CHURCH This morning, I want us to make a different type of New Year’s resolution. This one is not about us. It is about a partnership; a partnership between us and God. I want us to resolve to focus more on God this year than ever before. Can we do that? Can you do that for yourself? Will you do that for God? I want us to forget about what we might, or might not, want other people to do. Instead, I want us to focus for a moment on nothing else but on what God has for us today. Each of us has an ever-increasing load of commitments to different things. We find ourselves coming and going so fast that if we aren’t careful; we are going to end up meeting ourselves someday coming back from the other direction. We are pulled in so many directions that sometimes we don’t have the time to pay attention to the more important things in our lives, like loving one another or helping somebody else. We can only make the most of every opportunity when we keep God in the center of that opportunity. My dream for you is to not get so busy that you don’t have time to spend with Jesus on a daily basis. In so doing, you will become more acquainted with what the Lord’s will is for your life. God doesn’t want us to be so over-burdened with worldly issues that we have anxiety attacks; worries; nervous breakdowns, and so on. God wants us to be healthy in our hearts, minds, and bodies. In JOHN 14:27, we are told – ‘Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.’ My prayer for you this coming year is to establish some very real priorities in your life. Stop paying quite as much attention to your social obligations or your worldly desires, so that you can give more time in to God. We all have social obligations, and we all have things we like to do in this world, but none of them are nearly as important in the final analysis as growing our personal relationship with the Lord. JAMES 4:8 gives us a promise. ‘Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.’ My prayer for us is that we develop a habit of thinking, and even saying out loud, “I put God, through Jesus Christ, as the most important thing in my life. He will affect every decision I make, and I willingly let Him control my life.” Another prayer for us is to develop a habit of prayer in this church, just like God wants us to. In ISAIAH 56:7, the Lord says, ‘….. for My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.’ This means not only having all people come into this church for worship and prayer, but to have a church that prays for all people, too. ILL.- A lady named Jean McMahon from Dyer, IN, said, “Attending church in Kentucky, we watched an especially verbal and boisterous child being hurried out, slung under his irate father’s arm. No one in the congregation so much as raised an eyebrow -- until the child captured everyone’s attention by crying out in a charming Southern accent, ‘Ya’ll pray for me now!’” For this church we need involvement from all of us. Involvement in Godly issues such as prayers, actively seeking God, and then actually putting God first in your life. If we do these things as a congregation, this church will thrive; I promise you. A church that is content to only do those things next year that it did last year are non-moving, and God never told us to “stay”, but He did tell us to “go”. My desire for this church is to grow in God, and as we truly grow in God, we shall grow in strength, in impact, and in numbers of serious Christians. Too many times, we become content to put things off until another time. The trouble with doing that is we become complacent and then forget the need to do those things at all. Worshiping is one of them. Praying is one of them. Being involved in some way in church is also one of them. My hope is that Cane Creek Friends Meeting becomes such a house of prayer and worship that other churches in this community sit up and take notice. We have been talking this morning about seeing each of you and this church become stronger in the Lord, more productive in the Lord, and more mature in His Word this coming year. But, to give you an idea of what we are up against, here are some statistics. I don’t know how accurate they are, but they do tell a story. In 2023: · Percentage wise, more Mosques will be built than churches · 85% of Christians will believe there are no absolute truths · There will be more people who choose crime than God Whether these are true or not, these are sad statistics, and they serve to show where America is headed. It becomes even more imperative that each of us become more devoted to the Lord than ever before. 1 CORINTHIANS 10:31 tells us, ‘So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.’ Let me read you a poem from an unknown pastor. I think that I shall never see - A church that’s all it ought to be; A church whose members never stray - Beyond the strait and narrow way. A church that has no empty pews – or whose Pastor never has the blues; A church where all the members seek - and none is proud, and all are meek. Where gossips never lie - or try to hurt others when they criticize, Where all are sweet, and all are kind - not seeing other’s faults because they’re blind. Such perfect churches there may be - but none of them are known to me, But still, we’ll work and play and plan - to make our own the best we can. The coming year is the same as any other. It has 12 months, 52 weeks 365 days 8,760 hours 525,600 minutes 31,536,000 seconds Now, just how do we spend all that time? 3 ½ months will be spent sleeping [seven hours a night], 16 days will be spent eating, 9 days will be spent in church, 50 – 80 days will be spent working [75 for average 8-hours a day, with normal holidays.] 5-10 days will be spent traveling to work, to the bathroom, to the kitchen, to the store, etc. 9-15 days will be spent in the bathroom. With all that moving, working, eating, sleeping, etc., the average person still has at least 100 days that are unaccounted for and that can be used by God to improve us, if we will let God do that. We must step out in faith, and let God use us, improve us, and His Kingdom. The job of the church is not to impact the church, but to impact the world. It’s like a huddle in a football game. 67,000 people don’t pay $50 to $200 a ticket to watch the huddle. What if you went to a Panthers game and for 2 ½ hours you watched 11 men stand in a circle and talk? That’s not what you pay for! People want to see what difference the huddle makes. What they want to know is, having called the play in secret, does it work in public? The challenge for the church is not what we do when we call our Sunday morning huddle, but what we do when we break our huddle and head to our assignment. When Satan lines up against us, what a difference it makes that we are Christians? As we remain faithful to God and keep doing what he has called us to do, then he will be faithful to us. Here we are at the beginning of a new year. What does this year hold? I do not know. We have not passed this way before. But I know that the God I serve has passed this way because he made the way. The greatest thing that he did for us was to provide a way for us to have eternal life with Him. Maybe you would like to go back to 2022 and undo or redo some things that you messed up. Impossible! But God can turn things around in your life in 2023. If you do not know Christ as your Savior, this is the day for you. This first Sunday in 2023 is the day for you to put your trust in Christ as your Savior.
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