Great message for the new year…
How many of you make New Year’s resolutions? People make them because they feel like the new year is a new start, a fresh beginning to start over again.
But with God everything and every day is new!
Read Titus 3:3-7
‘Washing of Rebirth’ – NEW CREATION
Humans are a 3 part being…spirit, soul, and body.
Let’s examine this through the eyes of a computer geek. I’ll explain it in computer terms…
The outer case of the computer is the body.
The hard drive is our soul.
The operating system is our spirit.
When we are born again (rebirth, new creation), we still have the same case (body) we still have the same hard drive (soul) with all the mess on it, but God wipes out the old operating system and gives us a new one. This new operating system works far better than the old one. If we follow the manual that comes with our new operating system (the Bible) we can start to clean up our messy hard drive and get things straightened out. And the cool part is that we have 24-hour, on-site tech support!
Read Ezekiel 36:26 and 2 Corinthians 5:17
The word in the Greek that is used here for ‘new’ does not mean ‘new’ as in something new in time like, “I bought a new car, it’s a ’95.” The word means new as in new in nature, something completely different and far better. Like a caterpillar becomes something new when it becomes a butterfly. Before the metamorphosis, it was a slow moving caterpillar that was bound by gravity to walk on the ground. If it wanted to travel 1 mile it could take weeks, even months for it to get to it’s destination. But after its ‘rebirth’, it comes out a completely new creature. No longer bound to walk on the ground. It has a new freedom like it’s never had before. It can fly! It can soar high about the ground that once held it captive. If it wants to travel that same mile, it can probably do it in less than an hour. Its whole life has completely changed.
‘Renewal’ – NEW THINGS EACH DAY
God is not like a video game that you buy for your computer, play it for a while, beat the game and then just kinda get bored with it. He has a new expansion pack ready for you to download every day! He has new things to share with you every day to help you face whatever may be ahead.
Read Matthew 13:52 and Romans 12:2
The important thing to remember about this expansion pack is that you don’t just wake up with the expansion pack ready to play. You have to be willing to set aside the time to go on to the Internet and download the expansion pack.
Well, the same thing with God, you don’t just wake up renewed everyday. It takes some work and discipline on your part. You need to set aside that time with God every day to read, pray and just talk with God, and as you do that, He will show you new things, teach you new things, and help you in whatever way you need.
Mercy – NEW MERCIES EACH DAY
Another cool thing is that God has given us a reset button. If our computer crashes because of all the junk on our hard drive, God has shown us how to reboot our computer, run a scan disk to find the problem and then he’ll tell us how to fix it.
Read 1 John 1:9 and Lamentations 3:22-23
End by giving an invitation for salvation, rededication, or just a general renewed commitment…