It’s a New Year and with New Year comes what we call New
Year’s resolutions. Resolutions to change something in our lives to better
ourselves. Never have I heard a New Year’s resolution that is bad, it’s usually
something good that you want to implement in your life. You don’t hear someone
saying “Oh, this new year I’m going to try and get drunk more. “ or “This new
year I’m going to try and kill someone.” That is just unheard of. Instead you hear people say, “I’m going to
try and eat more healthy.” Or “I’m going to manage my money better.”
A Resolution is “a firm decision
to do or not to do something.” Also a little down the page in the dictionary as
a synonym it says courage. Courage to change. Courage to be different, to make
a stand to try something different with your life.
With the New Year that is upon us,
I think of a new start. A time to start over fresh, and as a Christian what
better way to try and renew my relationship with God. To start over, to make a change to try and
draw closer to God.
Ezekiel 36: 26 – “
God likes new things. Especially
new Hearts that love the lord with an unfailing undying love.
Lamentations 3:21-23 “This I
recall to my mind. Therefore I have hope. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not
consumed. Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning Great is
Your faithfulness.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 – “This means
that anyone who is in Christ is a new Person.
The Old is gone my friends, you
have accepted God, and maybe you haven’t accepted God. We all have sinned, and
will continue to sin until Jesus comes and takes us to our new home without
sin. In Revelation 21:5 it says about Jesus 2nd coming, “Behold, I
make all things new.”
God wants to make you new. He
wants to take that stoney heart out of you and give you a heart that beats with
Him. That beats with his love, a heart of flesh. I think the best New Years
Resolution would be to give God your heart 100%, no holding anything back. The
things you do in the secret God sees. He knows your sins. He knows if your
heart is devoted to Him.
Jesus gave his life for you,
despite the sinful human beings we are. He looked at you, and said, “I love you
too much to not try and save you.”
A Mother and a teenage girl got
into an agreement and as the teenage girl stormed out of the room she yelled at
her mom, “Your hands, and face are ugly. That’s why you hate me!” The mother
sat down in tears and looked at her hands, they were scarred, and yes, they
were very ugly.
The mother composed herself and
walked into her daughter’s room to find her daughter still upset. She sat down
on her daughter’s bed and looked at her wall. The mother began with a story.
Once upon a time there was a
mother with a little baby. It was a beautiful baby girl. With bright blue eyes,
and a smile that would melt your heart. One day, the baby girl was napping so
the mother decided to go over to her neighbor’s house down the street. She sat
down with her neighbor, and talked about everything. But about 20 minutes into
their talking she heard a siren going down the road. She looked out the window
and saw a fire truck going down their road, again 5 minutes later she heard
another one go down their road, and they didn’t stop. The mother then began to
worry, and when outside. When she walked outside she became paralyzed. The
sirens were at her house that was now engulfed with flames. The mother ran to
her home, where the fire fighters had just begun to try and put the flames out.
She ran right past them and into the house. She could barely see from all the smoke,
but she ran down the fire filled hallway to her baby’s room. She reached the
door and opened it, and ran to the crib. She picked up her baby, and covered
her with the bottom of her shirt. She ran back through the fire again and
collapsed outside. She looked at her baby, still peacefully sleeping. Then she
looked down at her hands. They were burned badly. She felt a stabbing pain on
her face as she realized that her face was charred too.
The story ended and with tears in
the mother’s eyes as she looked at her teenage daughter, and said, “I would
have done it again. I would have saved you! Because I love you!”
The daughter looked at her mom and
with tears in her eyes said, “Mom, you have the most beautiful hands I have
ever seen!”
Friends, Someone a long long time
ago came to this earth to save us. He died a gruesome death on a cross to save
us, to make us new. He didn’t have to come, but He loved us so much that He
would have done it again, just to know that we are safe. And my friends I would
like to say that he has the most beautiful hands, because they were scarred for
you. They were scarred for you, to save you!
Give your whole life to him. Resolve
this New Year to give God your best.
What things are holding you back
from a full relationship with God? What things do you need to give up? Is there
something that is holding you back? My friend God has already died for you, he
died for the sins you are harboring even now. God wants to make you new. He
wants to give you a new heart.
We have a cross. Symbolizing where
Jesus made the first step in making you new. The 2nd step is up to
you. All you have to do is accept the gift He is already offering.
Tonight, I want you to think of
the things you want to give up for God, to become a new you. I want you to ask
God what you need to give up. Ask him what is keeping you from total surrender.
And as you are doing this, I would like you to come up to the front and take a
sheet of paper write on it the things you are going to surrender to God. And
when you are done, I invite you to come up and nail it to the cross. God has
already died for it, put it where it belongs, come lay it down at the foot of
the cross. What you write down will be between you and God. No one will read
them. After you are done nailing it to the cross, find a quiet place where you
can talk personally with God. Tell him that you want to become new.
Will you stand with me and be men
and women of courage and integrity. Will you look your sin boldly in the face
and tell it that God has died for it, and that you will give it to him.
I resolve this year to become a
new creation. I resolve to give God everything to hold nothing back.
How about you? What is your
choice?
Please come up and show the world
that you will live for God. Nail your sin to the cross.
