S.T.A.R.T. With Christ in 2024

Sermon Title: “S.T.A.R.T. With Christ”

Good News Statement: Christ gives us newness, new beginnings, and renewal

Preached: Sunday, December 31, 2023 at Dogwood Prairie UMC & Seed Chapel UMC

Pastor Daniel G. Skelton, M.Div.

 

Scripture (NKJV): Revelation 21:1-5 Today’s scripture reading comes from the words of John as he describes what he sees at the end of the Book of Revelation in chapter twenty-one verses one thru five.

 

All Things Made New

21 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. ² Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

⁵ Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

 

This is the Word of God for the People of God; And all God’s people said, “Thanks be to God.”

 

Introduction:

How many of you here this morning, would like to have a fresh start in life? Many of us here this morning have made many mistakes in our lives. We have experienced many setbacks and failures throughout our lives. Sometimes we allow these mistakes, these setbacks and failures, to enslave us to the point that we never enjoy the full Christian life that God has given us to enjoy.

In John 10:10 Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Although we are given this abundant life in Christ, Jesus knows that we will still make mistakes, we will falter, we will say or do the wrong thing, and may even fall into the paths of the Devil. The Devil will remind us of our past in order to keep us from enjoying the life that God gave us to live. The Devil does not want you to have a fresh start in life; but God certainly does.

As a matter of fact God says, “I want you to have a fresh start in life, I want you to have a new beginning, I want to do something new in your life by which the Devil can’t take away from you.” Aren’t you glad that God wants to do something new in your life? Doesn’t it make you excited to know that God desires to give you a fresh start, a new beginning in life? What all of us here need this morning is a Fresh Start, a New Beginning with God. Last year some of you said, “I am going to grow in my relationship with God. I am going to pray more, read my bible more, get more involved in my church, invite others to church, I’m going to spend more quality time with my family, I’m going to finish already started projects. ” We all made a list of things we wanted to do better in 2023, and that list could go on and on and on. But the truth of the matter is all of us here, myself included, have made some mistakes or we may have made some bad decisions that hindered us from doing those things that God needed us to do. The good news is, God still wants to give us a fresh start even though we have done wrong, made mistakes, sinned, and wrongfully judged others. And the best part is, He has given us a new year to make things better. But do we want a fresh start? Do we want to be a better disciple, a better person, a better church for God’s people this year or are we complacent with where we are? Similar to how Jesus constantly invites us to “come and eat” with him, God is constantly inviting us to be made new in His image. There is newness in the air!

According to Isaiah 43:18 “The Lord says, `Forget about what has happened before. Do not think about the past. Instead, look at the new things I’m going to do.” The Apostle Paul wrote to the people of Ephesus, “Put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded… and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). Be made new in the likeness of Christ. Set aside the old; use the past to encourage you to live like Christ in the future. God has an abundant life for you, but you must be willing to seek a fresh start and a new beginning. A New Year is just around the corner! The opportunity to seek new ways to be a better disciple in 2024 is an open invite to you from God; but are you willing to accept that invite.

Body:

At the start of every new year, people like to set New Year’s Resolutions: exercise more, read more, pray more, create more family time, work less, eat healthier, you name it and it could become a New Year’s Resolution. Every year, I strive to be more organized and a head of the game…notice that I said “every year,” implying that I usually don’t keep up with my New Year’s Resolutions very well, and I am not alone. According to recent research published by insideoutmastery.com, 59% of young adults—ages 18-34—have New Year’s Resolutions, 48% want to exercise more, 23% quit their resolution in the first week—only 36% make it past the first month—and only 9% successfully keep their New Year’s Resolutions. Needless to say whether you keep your resolution or not, almost every resolution that we set for ourselves seeks us to move away from the past and strive to live in the newness of today and tomorrow. Almost every resolution is a call for a fresh start. So, I ask again, “How many of you could use a FRESH START for 2024?”

Today, I want to share with you all a formula for seeking newness in Christ, and this formula is simply this: S.T.A.R.T. This formula will help us all realize that not matter our past, no matter our failures or faults, no matter if we said or did the wrong thing, no matter if we have done something that we wish nobody finds out about, we can all S.T.A.R.T. over and be granted an abundant life with God in 2024. And from our abundant life, we have the opportunity to experience a “new heaven and new earth.” John is the one who reminds us of this.

After being frightened, terrified, transported, bombarded by angles, hearing devastating news, witnessing death, destruction, and the devil, reading letters to churches, hearing trumpets, and after seeing the victory of Christ as he rode on a horse, John finally hears uplifting news while in heaven: “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:1-2). John saw what we all long to see: the New Jerusalem; a new heaven, a new earth, a new beginning, and a fresh start.

This New Jerusalem is a place where the streets are paved with gold, the river of life flows down the middle, the tree of life straddles the river, and God is seen sitting on His throne. This place is a place of new beginnings, fresh starts. There is newness to this place; a heavenly newness waits for you if you are willing to seek newness in Jesus Christ. In this place, “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). For the former things have passed away. God has made “everything new” (Revelation 21:5).

What John sees is what many of us long to experience at the start of every New Year: the former things have passed away and new life a waits for us in the New Year. What John sees is what we all long for in life: we all long for the day that we are made new in Christ Jesus. And believe it or not, we get this opportunity every day to live in the newness of Christ, but we especially have this desire every year when we flip the calendar over to January. January is our newness, an opportunity for a fresh start: to remove the former things of life. Come January, we seek newness through the idea of fresh starts and New Year’s resolutions. What John witnessed is a promise from God that whatever happened yesterday—whatever caused you pain, sorrow, defeat, and hurting—will be removed when we accept the newness of Christ in your life.

The year 2023 may have been a good year; but 2024 can be a great year when you fully “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding…” (Proverbs 3:5). 2024 is the year of newness, new beginnings, and fresh starts. If John can see this revelation, then certainly we can as well. But we must be willing to follow these simple instructions: we must be willing to S.T.A.R.T.

 

S – Stop making excuses.

If we want a fresh start in life, we have to stop making excuses. The Bible says that the starting point is to just be honest and accept responsibility for your part in the problem. Proverbs 28:13 “A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confesses and forsakes them he gets another chance.” He gets a fresh start. He says the starting point to starting over is to be honest and face up to the problems and realizations that most of the problems in my life, most of the failures, are my fault. But it’s hard to admit to a failure. It is hard to get people to admit when they are wrong. People do not like to admit, “I made a mistake, and I blew it. ” God says, “That if we admit the mistake, if we admit our failures, and if we admit our sin, then we get another chance in life.” If we take more time finding a solution than coming up with excuses, just imagine what life would be like. A life where honesty paved the sidewalks, trust was written on every mailbox, and encouragement was on every street corner. If you want to experience the new heaven and new earth of God, then you must stop making excuses, admit your faults, and listen to what God is telling you.

 

T – Take An Inventory Of Your Life

I need to take an inventory of my life. That means I need to evaluate all my experiences. I need to look at what I have left after the failure. I need to take an inventory of my life’s experiences and learn from them. Galatians 3:4 states, “You have experienced many things. Were all those experiences wasted? I hope not.”

The Living Bible says, “You have suffered so much for the gospel. Now are you going to throw it all overboard?” Learn from your mistakes. Failure can be your friend or your foe. You determine if failure will be your friend or foe by the way you react to it. You can choose to learn from it or choose to repeat it or choose to throw it overboard.

When we take inventory of our life, we find that God shapes our lives based upon four different experiences. First, God uses personal experiences. Second, God uses vocational and educational experiences to shape you—those moments in life where God is calling you to fulfill your gifts and talents. Third, God uses spiritual experiences to shape you, like coming to church, going on a retreat or reading your Bible, and praying to the Lord. And fourth, God uses painful experiences to shape you—those moments that we don’t want to experience ever again but have helped grow our encouragement, strength, and spiritual trust in the Lord . As you take inventory of your life in starting over, you need to take special note of how God is working in your life based upon one or all of these experiences and ask yourself three questions: What have I learned?, What are my assets?, and Who can help me? The Lord Jesus will be there, He will help you to pull your life back together and make sure that you get started on the right foot; but you must be willing to spend the time in taking an inventory of your life—the good and the bad, the sinful and the righteousness, and the painful and the salvation—before you can fully experience the new heaven and new earth of God.

 

A – Act in Faith

This is the third step in getting a fresh start: Act in faith. You have to launch out into new territory and put faith in action. The Bible says that the key to changing anything is faith. If you want to change your circumstance, it takes faith. If you want to change your personality, it takes faith. If you want to overcome sin, it takes faith. If you want to change anything in your life, you have to have some faith. As George Michael famously once sang, “I gotta have faith. I gotta have faith. Because I got to have faith, faith, faith. I gotta have faith.” You have to have faith if you want a new beginning, a fresh start in life. Jesus says this in Matthew 9, “According to your faith it will be done to you. ” That is a very simple statement but it’s very powerful. “According to your faith it will be done to you.” That means we tend to get out of life what we expect. “According to your faith it will be done to you.” According to your faith, there is a new beginning waiting for you, but are you willing to set aside your own endeavors for the wonderful opportunity to obtain the faith of Christ? Are you allowing your faith to fulfill the will of God in your life?

Luke demonstrates Matthew’s logic in Acts 3:1-5: “One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, ‘Look at us.’ And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.” This man asked for something and expected to get it, but in reality he got more than he expected. The point that I want to make is this, the lame man acted in faith and was greatly rewarded. What would your life look like if what you did was always an act of faith instead an act of personal greed and satisfaction?

In order to have a fresh start this year, focus on faith, put your faith into action. Don’t focus on your failures or mistakes. Instead focus on the reality that God is with you and God is going to do everything in His power to turn every mess into a message, every trial into a triumph, every victim into a victor, and every test into a testimony. Every successful entrepreneur knows that real success is built on failure and failure is the way to become a success. You have to have faith if you want to experience the new heaven and new earth of God.

 

R – Refocus

I need to refocus my thoughts if I want to change my life. If I want to get going again, if I want a fresh start, I need to rethink the way that I think. I need to change my mind about a number of issues. Proverbs 4:23 states, “Be careful how you think. Your life is shaped by your thoughts.” The way you think, determines the way you feel. And the way you feel determines the way you act. If you want to change your actions, just change the way you think and it will inevitably change the way you act.

Paul writes in Romans 12:2, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” If I have to refocus my thoughts to start over to get a fresh start, that means I have to stop thinking some old patterns. Which memories are you still rehearsing that keep you from having a fresh start in life? The Bible says let go. Let go of those things. The more you hold on to that memory, the more you rehearse it, it continues to hurt you today. It cannot hurt you without your permission. You have to change your mind and let go and get rid of those painful and hurtful memories of shame and guilt and other things. If you are seeking a fresh start in 2024, then spend some time refocusing your mind on God through prayer, reading scripture more, doing what Jesus would do. Allow your mind to be transformed and renewed by the presence of God in your life. “Happy are those who are always meditating on God’s word…They succeed in everything they do” (Psalm 1:1). Refocus on God in 2024: listen for Him, strive to see Him, want to feel Him, and know that you want to know that He sees and hears you in return. What will you do in 2024 to refocus on God this year so that you can experience a new heaven and new earth.

 

T – Trust

Trust God to help us succeed. Depend on Him. We don’t need to depend on ourselves all the time. We’ve already proven that we can’t do it on our own. That’s why we’ve failed. Some people just don’t get it. They stumble and fall and then they get up and say, “I’ll just try harder!” It’s like you go up to a wall and bang your head against it and the wall doesn’t fall down. You try it again and Bang! Again.” You keep doing it thinking, “Maybe it will fall over this time.” That’s the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting different results. If we keep doing the same thing then we will keep getting the same result. Success in the Christian life is not trying harder, but believing in the One that can tear down any wall. Give God control of our life and witness what is on the other side of that wall.

Zechariah 4:6 says, “You will not succeed by your own strength or power but by My Spirit, says the Lord.” When someone becomes a Christian, they become a brand new person inside. They are not the same anymore: they have been transformed. A new life has begun! God specializes in new beginnings. Jesus Christ has the power to do that. It’s called being born again, the chance to start over. We can have a fresh start with a new life as we begin this New Year. God says, “I don’t want you to turn over a new leaf. I’m going to give you a whole new life.”

The Psalmist states in Psalm 125:1, “Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.” The Prophet Isaiah notes, “Those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint.” And the Prophet Jeremiah, early on in is ministry, tells the people, “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him…” (Jeremiah 17:7).  If you want to start over in 2024, and receive a new life in God, then you must be willing to trust Him, you must be willing to really trust him: to give everything to him and follow his ways every day. The new heaven and new earth are built on trust and nothing less.

 

The Newness:

As you seek a fresh S.T.A.R.T. in 2024, keep in mind that God is seeking to make you new: into his disciple that seeks to obey the words and deeds of Christ. We read about this newness throughout the Bible. Isaiah 43:19 proclaims, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” God already has ordered my steps (Psalm 119:133). He makes the way. In this verse, we can reflect on the fact that Jesus was the new thing. That no longer would God’s people have the same paths to atonement or sacrifice, but that God would do all that was necessary for total atonement and sacrifice. What new things is He doing through Jesus now? How is He leading you in new ways?

John notes in Revelation 21:5, “And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’” As Christians, we can trust that God will keep His promise. In the Book of Revelation we see God’s promise to restore peace and righteousness for all eternity. We see a God who is willing to make not just a few things new, not just what we want him to make new, but he is making ALL THINGS NEW. And in all those things, there is you. God is making you new. Where in your life do you see God making all things new? Where in this church do you see God making all things new? Where in your life do you need Christ to intervene?

The author of Lamentations, reminds us, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23). William and Gloria Gaither once sang, “Weeping only lasts for the night….Joy comes in the morning.” Each morning is a new opportunity to reflect on God’s work in your life. Each and every day, your slate is wiped clean by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. As we look at our lives from the perspective of victory on the cross, we can know that God is faithful to His promise. That His mercy will not run out. That no matter how far we may feel from Him, He is with us for great is his faithfulness. Let the newness of 2024 be your joy in the morning.

Now, Paul tells us in Romans 6:4 to walk in the newness of life. Paul wrote, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Martin Luther famously stated: “When you wash your face, remember your baptism.” In baptism, we know that we are His, we know we belong to him. So, each morning, when we feel water on our face, we can remember that we walk in newness of life. But what does that look like? What does it mean that we’ve already been buried in death by baptism? The Lutheran Study Bible says this about this verse, “As Jesus was covered by the earth in His burial, we are buried in baptismal water… We are united in Christ’s death and burial so that we will be united to His resurrection and life.” As we walk in the newness of life in Christ, we are no longer weighed down by guilt of sin or burdens of this world. And when we feel like we are, we can look to our baptism, the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life, and know we are made new in God’s act of water and washing. Let the Holy Water of Christ wash away your sins today so that 2024 begins a year of newness in Christ.

Lastly, Paul tells us through his letter to the people of Ephesus, “[P]ut off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). Shed the old and put on the new: put on the newness of Christ in 2024: pray more, create opportunities to worship the Lord outside of the church, read a devotion, connect with those within our church and beyond, seek ways to proclaim the good news, look for opportunities to invite people to church, and allow the Word of God to speak to you. God is continually offering us newness and to let go of the past and now is the time to do that as one year ends and a new one begins.

Conclusion:

As you find yourself making or setting a New Year’s Resolution like so many people do every year, strive to encounter a fresh start. Seek to stop making excuses—do what God is calling you to do; take inventory—allow God to show you what is and is not working in your life; act on faith not by sight—allow faith to guide you to newness in Christ; refocus—renew your mind and be transformed for the sake of doing God’s work here on earth for God’s people as it is done in heaven; and trust—learn to trust what God is telling you so that you can experience newness—a new life where the old has been shed and you have been cloaked in the life and love of Christ Jesus.

If you want to experience the new heaven and new earth of God, then you must be willing to see God in the future. You must be willing to do what God needs you to do today. God is willing to make “everything new,” but we must be willing to seek a fresh start. What new thing is God telling you to do in 2024? Where can you seek a fresh start in 2024? Where is this church going and what do you want this church to be doing in 2024? The time has come to allow God to make everything new. The process doesn’t start tomorrow, it starts today. Are you ready for a fresh start?

Let it be so…

 

Closing Prayer:

Let us pray: Dear God of newness, make us new, lead us to newness, fill our life with your new heaven and new earth as we find ways to shed the old and put on the new, trust you more, deepen our faith, and seeking ways to become the disciple and church you need us to be. O Lord, we pray for newness today and every day and we thank you for the newness that you offer us as a gift of your presence. Make us new, O Lord. In your name we pray, Amen.

 

Benediction:

May the Lord make you new in 2024! May the Lord renew your faith and trust in him. And may the Lord fill your heart with uplifting and encouraging ways to be the disciple and church he needs you and us to be for his people. May the Lord bless you and keep you; May the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; and May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26). In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit go seeking a fresh start in 2024. And all God’s people said, Amen. Amen. Amen.