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New Beginnings
Last Saturday night over at Casa De Oro Baptist church we talked about Philippians 4 and our need to … 1. Resolve to pursue like-mindedness 4:2-3 2. Resolve Always to rejoice in the Lord 4:4 3. Resolve to be known for Gentleness 4:5 4. Resolve to not be anxious about Anything, but learn instead to pray 4:6-7 5. Resolve to Think Holy Thoughts 4:8-9 6. Resolve to learn the secret of contentment 4:10-13 7. Resolve to Grow in the Grace of Christian Gratitude and Courtesy 4:14-23 Over the 7 weeks that follow this Sunday we are going to talk about these things, radical resolutions that can change your life... But resolutions don't really take hold without a New Beginning. New beginnings can be very hard and/or very good. Being back here at Highlands is sort of a strange new beginning, because in a sense it’s an old new beginning. We have come back to where we started, to our beginning, and strangely that’s a very good place to start… to begin again. Human life is about New Beginnings! As we travel through time we have the opportunity to make a new beginning each moment. We get to choose New Beginnings all the time! That’s an incredible thought! Many of us think that we are trapped in our lives, that our past mistakes and actions are meant to determine our futures. We could say that Highlands Community Church coming back to Highlands for six weeks at the end of the school year is crazy, that it makes no sense, that not knowing where we will meet on June 18th is irresponsible and bad. That we couldn’t make it out there… But I see this as an incredible New Beginning. Crazy, sure, Uncertain, a bit, but more than anything, this is a New Beginning. God is the God of New Beginnings and He wants us to get caught up in Him and the excitement of living out New Life each day! Now doing this might seem a bit crazy, a bit uncertain, but with God we have the power to live new lives each day, to live lives to the full no matter the circumstance, to really live! We’ll start with two “In the beginnings…” and then finish with a new beginning! So let’s begin! 1) Genesis 1 — God is in Charge of all New Beginnings. The Bible starts with an incredible beginning. The beginning of it all, listen… Read Genesis 1. a) The main point of this story is that God made this world, everything in it. God was the cause of the first beginning. (Padres recent big innings…) b) In Genesis 1 there are some cool words that keep being repeated: i) “And God said, ‘Let there be…’” “And it was so.” ii) “And God saw that it was good.” iii) And on the day he made the first human beings, He “saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” c) God calls the creation of Human Beings His “very good” achievement. At that moment God set in to motion all the new beginnings for each of us. i) As we read further in the Bible and look around at the world today we have to wonder what our New Beginnings would have been like if we had never sinned… but that’s what heaven will be like. ii) But even in the midst of a fallen world, God continues to offer us New Beginnings. (1) We see it in the world around us, each moment is new, each day is new, each season is new, and each year is new. (2) We saw it in the Old Testament. People are continually given New Beginnings. New opportunities. The OT is filled with messed up people being offered New Beginnings. (3) And we see it wonderfully offered in the NT. The incredible New Beginning. 2) John 1 — Jesus Makes all New Beginnings Possible a) Jesus is God! Verse 1 In the Beginning was the Word and the word was with God and was God. The overall sense of this passage really leaves no question as to the nature of Jesus. i) And that's a good thing, because he is able to always work for us.... and he knows what's going all the time. ii) The book of John was originally written in Greek… and in the Greek verb system the word that is translated as “was” is in the Greek Imperfect Tense. This means that this first verse could be translated as “In the beginning was continuing the Word, and the Word was continuing with God, and the Word was continually God.” The prologue of the Gospel of John leaves no doubt that Jesus is continually being God in your lives! God is always working around you, creating opportunities for New Beginnings… because b) Jesus is the God of new beginnings. Verse 2 and 3 :2 He was with God in the beginning. 1:3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. i) Look at this world! Every day is a new beginning! Jesus… He was with God in the Beginning… and He desires to be with you in a beginning… the beginning of a new or deeper relationship with God. There is time for a new beginning with Jesus! ii) And Jesus is the one who made all this, through Him all this was made… Do you think you’re life might look different if you actually let Jesus take over and run the day to day operations? He knows what He is doing! And He won’t leave you in the dark… iii) 4 In him was life… (1) Our need for life! So many of us take life for granted… we are just going through the motions, just trying to get from day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute and that isn’t life! (2) Unfortunately for some of us the first time we really realize that is when we are confronted with the face of death. (a) Each moment we are on the doorstep of eternity… sometimes we can see it coming….Sometimes it takes us by surprise. (b) But those who face death all have one thing in common… a desire for life. But this desire is not limited to those facing death… all of us desire life… we desire a full life… c) In Him was life and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. Jesus is Life & Light. But sadly we often live in the dark… i) John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (1) The world has its idea of a full life… it consists of things and experiences… (2) God’s idea, and the idea of abundant life that is presented in the Bible… speaks of abundance in the sense of eternity… of true and lasting abundance! In Him is Life! True life is found in no other place! ii) Life needs Light! We need true relationship! We need to see! (1) Without light we would be in a mess. If the sun were to suddenly burn out, we would have eight minutes of light and heat left, and then Planet Earth would slip into a permanent deep-freeze. We can’t survive without it. (2) We are not made for darkness! Have you ever had a relationship with darkness? It looks pretty foolish when you look back on it! (Pantomime a relationship with the light switch in a dark room.) 3) 2nd Corinthians 5:14-21 — We are Made New in Christ! a) Our motivation for Ministry i) 5:14 For Christ's love compels us, Why??? ii) because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. Christ’s death should bring us face to face with death. His death reminds us that we all deserve to die, but remember, Jesus is the God of New Beginnings! iii) 5:15 And he died for all, that those who live (those who choose to accept death of Christ for us payment for our sins) should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. We are called to live out this New Beginning each day! b) Our perspective for Ministry i) A changed view of people 5:16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ii) A changed view of ourselves 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! iii) Our new life and purpose 5:18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 5:19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 5:20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. This is amazing. Our new live, our new purpose is to be Christ's ambassadors! iv) And He has given us the Power to do it. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin° for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. We simply need to let Christ do His work in us, to let Him make us righteous. To live the New Beginning Lives that Christ has given us! c) Will you take God up on his offer? i) Will you allow Christ’s love to compel you? ii) Will you realize what His love really means to you? iii) Will you take steps each day to allow Christ to make His New Beginnings in your life, to allow the old to pass away and the New to come? iv) Will you live for Him and be His Ambassadors to this lost, dark and lonely world?
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