New Year. New You.

A New Year. A New You. 2023

Acts 20:26-27  26 I declare today that I have been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault, 27 for I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know. (NLT)

Personal Note:  I’ve been asked what Bible I’ll be reading this year…I’ll be reading the NLT through at least once…I’ll be starting in the Gospels and Psalms…

Praise Him Seven Times a Day for this First Week:

Ps 119:164  164 Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules. ESV

Ps 119:165. 165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. KJV

The Third Thing the Lord spoke to me about that’ll share with you is the subject of my message today…

Introduction:  My prayer is that you have had an amazing Holiday Season…and that your New Year be one that is Richly Blessed…

As many of you know this is my favorite time of the year…because I take the past few days and the coming week to truly Reflect.  Without Reflection, experience can’t be turned into insight, wisdom and foresight.

So, without reflection, how are adjustments made and which adjustments do you make.

Reflection:  It is always good and beneficial to pause and reflect.  We so often set new goals or resolutions for a New Year without reflecting on the ones that have just passed by.

Now these questions are Growth Questions, not Goal Questions…I think it wrong to not have both…Growth and Goal Questions…the Growth Questions will serve you for a lifetime.

Personal reflection Questions:

  • What is my biggest asset?
  • What is my biggest liability?
  • My Highest High?
  • My Lowest Low?
  • My most worthwhile emotion?
  • My least worthwhile emotion?
  • My best habit?
  • My worst habit?
  • Most fulfilling to me?
  • What do I value most highly?

Another question you may ask yourself is:  Where do I need to grow the most right now in my life?

I’ll sit down with my journals for the year…my calendar for 2022…and I’ll reflect back over sermons and podcasts I took notes on, and I’ll process it all…I’ll see what served me and what didn’t…

Transition:  So, I was praying into today…I mean come on…this is January 1st, 2023…and we are all in Church worshiping the Lord together…what an Opportunity!

I asked several people how they begin their New Year…

  • Some said by sleeping in late on the First
  • Another said, they’d spend all day watching football
  • Set New Goals
  • Clean and Declutter
  • Set a Budget with Savings Goals
  • Another person told me: “I’ll pick out the books I’ll read this year…”
  • I’m starting my year with a Fast…
  • Start my diet and exercise program again…
  • I’ll begin by doing a Cleanse.

Jude 3-4

3 Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people. (NLT)

  • I understand the plight of Jude in this text …
  • He longs to write about all the great things pertaining to our salvation that we all share:
    • Grace
    • Mercy
    • Healing
    • Freedom
    • Prosperity
    • Preservation
    • Joy
    • Peace…
    • Miracles
    • Man, that is what I was hoping to preach on this morning…all these incredible things about our Salvation…
  • But I feel as if I must “Speak” about something else…but as I have thought about it…it is a GOOD word…an Encouraging Word…a Helping Word…

Transition:  When I heard the person tell me they were starting their New Year with a Cleanse…I thought what a terrible way to begin a year…then the Holy Spirit began to speak to me…and say…that is precisely how I want you to begin Your Year…but not a cleansing of the body…but a cleansing of the heart through REPENTANCE.

  1. Repentance
    1. Both John the Baptist and Jesus began their ministries with the same message…the message of repentance…

Matt 3:1-3 3 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” ESV

Matt 4:17 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” ESV

Matt 3:8-9 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. ESV

  1. What is Repentance
    1. Seven Original Words for Repent (Matt 4:17)
    2. Hebrew: nacham

(OT:5162), to sigh, breathe strongly, to be sorry(Gen 6:6; Ex 13:17; Job 42:6; Jonah 3:10)

  1. Hebrew: shuwb

(OT:7725), to turn back (1 Kings 8:47; Ezek 14:6)

  1. Hebrew: nocham

      (OT:5164), regret (Hos 13:14)

  1. Hebrew: nichuwm

      (OT:5150), compassion (Hos 11:8)

  1. Greek: metanoeo

(NT:3340), to change the mind for the better morally, to change the attitude toward sin(note, Luke 13:3)

  1. Greek: metamellomai

(NT:3338), to regret consequences of sin, not the cause (Matt 27:3; 2 Cor 7:8)

  1. Greek: metanoia

(NT:3341), a real change of mind and attitude toward sin and its cause, not merely the consequences of it (Matt 3:8,11; 9:13; Luke 24:47)

  1. Now, don’t get nervous. I know repentance has been preached in a way that produces bondage, but that isn’t biblical repentance. The truth is we need repentance, because without it we can’t experience the life God has for us.

If we look at what the Bible says, we find that nearly every voice of the New Testament clearly and specifically says repentance is a necessary part of our life in Christ. The list of people who directly say this includes Peter, Paul, John, James, other disciples, Jesus Himself, and even God the Father. It is a major and unmistakably clear truth.

What this means is there can be no true faith in Jesus Christ without repentance from known sin. And what is sin? Sin is the antithesis of God’s best for us.

This means we cannot turn to Christ if we refuse to walk away from things like sexual immorality, gossip, and unforgiveness.

How can you say you’re a Christian and willfully hang on to these things? The fact is, there are over five hundred behavioral commands in the New Testament. God gives us these commands because He will never tolerate what can destroy you—He loves you too much.

But if we hold on to the sins Christ died to deliver us from, we have created a knockoff Jesus, and our faith is only imagined.

Biblical repentance is the ultimate act of humility, opening our lives to the wonder of God’s grace. In fact, God promises to give us grace when we humble ourselves (James 4, 1 Peter 5). That is why repentance is so important . . . we cannot be ashamed of it. Seekers and professing believers alike must know this. It is essential to our faith and salvation!

Repentance means changing our mind so deeply that it changes our personality from the core of our being. When we turn to Christ, He makes us brand new, giving us the grace to live like Him. 

This is biblical repentance—it is the process of being recreated in Christ, reflecting God’s nature and goodness to our world. Is there any greater invitation?

  1. Fruits of Repentance
    1. John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:8 “Bear fruit in keeping with Repentance”
    2. What are the Fruits of Repentance
      1. “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” This is true repentance, not just to turn from sin, only to turn back to sin. That misses the whole point of repentance. Turn from sin and keep turning from sin, and experience the fruit of righteousness, of freedom from sin.
    3. Now I love the fact John says “Bear the Fruit…” he is staying with the tree analogy…a healthy tree will bear fruit…just like a healthy repented life will bear fruit of repentance…
      1. Godly sorrow
      2. Love, Patients, Peace, Joy…the fruit of the spirit
  • A hatred for sin…even when you commit it…you hate it…
  1. I could go through a list…
  1. But the Ultimate Fruit of Repentance is we begin to think Differently about God…
    1. We change our thoughts, and they begin to line up with the way God thinks…
    2. His values become our values
  • His priorities become our Priorities
  1. What he calls wrong we call wrong and what He calls right, we deem as right…
  • A False Jesus

Ex 32:1-6 32 When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods (Elohim) who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.”

2 So Aaron (the Priesthood did this) said, “Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”

3 All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”

5 Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord!” (Yaweh)

6 The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry. (NLT)

  1. Gods (Elohim) and changed his name to (Yaweh)
  2. They ascribed to this false god all the things the true God of Israel did…
    1. Healed them
    2. Delivered them
  • Provided for them
  1. Defeated their enemies
  2. They brought sacrifice and worship to this calf…
    1. Worship means they crawls close to it so they could kiss and lick it…
  3. They created a god…that required nothing of them…no change necessary!!!!
  4. Rom 1:18-23

18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. (NLT)

Transition:  I am scared to death we have created a God, a Jesus…that doesn’t require from us the fruits of keeping with repentance…

  1. God the Healer
    1. Let me conclude by letting you know God is a Healer…
      1. I have seen Him heal…so many diseases, sicknesses, and maladies…
      2. Cancer to Colds
  • I’ve seen him heal marriages…while they were driving to meet the lawyers to sign the final documents…
  1. But the Lord told me He is about to do mass healings in the earth…and it will be His greatest Healing…before He releases Healings….
    1. Hos 14:4

4 “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from him. NKJV

  1. Closing
    1. As I prayed over the past couple of weeks…I so wanted to share, and I will, how to set your year up for success…but the Lord spoke this Word to Me so strongly…The Lord told me…
      1. Get in my Word
      2. Worship me Seven times a Day for the Next 7 Days
  • Repent – let me change your mind about some things concerning the Heart of the Father…
  1. I am Going to Heal Your Backsliding…
  1. 2 Cor 13:5  5 Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it (MSG)

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