A NEW YEAR - A NEW LIFE!
INTRO.- We all could use a new year and some people could use a new life! Or at least a better life.
ILL.- A lady by the name of Cherise Wyneken from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, said, “My husband and I were young parents of three on a tight budget. After surviving measles, mumps, and chicken pox—times three—my nerves were frayed. Wonderfully for us, Pop and Mom agreed to babysit so we could get away.
"’Why are we going to stay with Grandma and Grandpa?’" four-year-old Nick, our oldest, asked his father.
"’Because your mother needs a rest. I’m taking her away someplace to rest.’"
“We packed up their things and took them to south San Francisco where their grandfather pastored. Of course, they were fussed over after the service on Sunday morning.
"’What darling children. Where are your parents?’" one person asked Nick.
“Nick looked for help, but Granddad was shaking hands, and Grandmom was in the choir loft pumping out the postlude.
“Finally, he said earnestly, "’They went to their resting place.’"
Brethren, the truth is we all could use a little rest now and then. Especially, after all the negative and
nasty stuff that we are faced with in life.
ILL.- Did you read or hear the headline news this last week? Death, crime, murder, hunger, high home-heating bills, etc
- A gunman named Michael McDermott went berserk and shot and killed 7 people at an Internet consulting company last Tuesday in Wakefield, MASS. He went crazy after the IRS requested that he pay his back taxes.
- Another headline. Seven jail escapees are being sought in Texas after gunning down a police officer
during a Christmas Eve robbery. The men had been serving sentences anywhere from 30 years to life
for crimes such as rape, murder, child abuse, etc.
- Another bad headline. Four masked gunmen killed six men and a woman in Philadelphia last Thursday night. And Philadelphia is supposed to be the city of “brotherly love.” What’s the world coming to? I’ll
tell you in one word: JUDGMENT!
- Another sad headline. "American Second Harvest” is a national network that provides food for working
poor families and the elderly. They estimate that 31 million Americans face hunger every day. 38% of
those served by the organization are children.
- Then there is the “high cost of heating,” which is making the news, AND HITTING OUR CHECKBOOKS!
ILL.- After paying a $37 gas bill in November, 84-year-old Catherine Jury of Belvidere, IL, thought her
December bill for $142.87 was a mistake. But it wasn’t a mistake. She has lived in her house since
1945 and was never so surprised by a bill.
Some people’s heating bills have already gone up two and three times what they were last year! It’s not funny! It’s somewhat frightening!
Brethren, why are all these bad or negative things happening? Why do bad things like the ones I’ve
mentioned happen to good people?
Let me remind you why. They happen for several reasons and we need to remember them.
1- Bad things happen to good people because the devil is real. He is alive. He is powerful. He is evil. He is a murderer. He is a liar. He is a deceiver.
He went after Jesus as recorded in Matthew 4 and tried to do a number on him. He tempted Jesus in three ways: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. HE THREW THE BOOK AT HIM, so to speak. He threw everything he had at him. But, of course, we know it didn’t work. Jesus knew his enemy. Jesus was prepared.
If Satan went after Jesus what makes us think he won’t go after us?
ILL.- It is said that Teddy Roosevelt had a little dog that was always getting in fights and was always
getting beat up. Somebody said to him, “Colonel, he’s not much of a fighter, is he?” Roosevelt replied,
“Oh, yes, he’s a good fighter. He’s just a poor judge of dogs.”
Brethren, you may be a good fighter, but don’t be a poor judge of the dogs you choose to fight with.
THE DEVIL IS A BIG, BAD DOG! And he’s a lot tougher and meaner and smarter than you.
But take hope in the promises of God’s Word.
James 4:7-8 “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near (or submit yourselves) to God and he will come near to you...”
ILL.- Several boys were trying to learn James 4:7 during children’s church. The teacher wanted the
boys to read the verse on their own but agreed to assist them with the harder words. Brennan accepted
the challenge and tackled the first word. But instead of "submit," Brennan said "sidewalk."
"Think of another word, Brennan," the teacher prompted.
And Brennan said, "Cement!" "’Cement’ yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee." Not a bad rendering.
The only way to overcome the evil one is to cement yourself to God in praise and worship and surrender.
2- Bad things happen to good people because we live in an imperfect world where imperfect things happen all the time.
We live in a world of imperfection: imperfect cars, imperfect bodies, imperfect weather and so on.
ILL.- Can you believe this weather? I read last week where nearly 600,000 people in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas were without power! In Texas last week near Abilene, 1,000 people were stranded in their cars overnight on a 10-mile stretch of I-20.
Why are we having such crazy, extreme cold and nasty weather? Because we live in an imperfect world, that’s why!
ILL.- In the last several weeks, both of my twin sister’s grandchildren have been in the hospital. Her
grandson is only about 6 weeks old and was born with some kind of breathing problem. Every time he took a breath of air his voice box would close the size of a pinhole. He was in the hospital for 12 days.
He has to wear a monitor at all times. His mother and father have had to learn baby CPR. Little William’s older sister, Emily, is four-years-old. While William was Cook’s Children Medical Center in Ft. Worth, TX, Emily got pneumonia and it developed into spinal meningitis. Little Emily is still there with a feeding tube in her nose and oxygen. They are giving her large doses of antibiotics and breathing treatments. They don’t know when she will get out of the hospital. She spent days in the ICU.
Brethren, why do little children suffer with health problems like these? Why do all of us do? BECAUSE
WE LIVE IN AN IMPERFECT WORLD.
3- Bad things also happen to people because of sin. Because we sin and other people sin.
Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
Our sin affects us. Our sin comes back to haunt us. We pay for our sins.
ILL.- My daddy smoked all his life. He used to smoke those old unfiltered Camels and he somehow seemed to derive pleasure from smoking. So one day when I was pretty young, I decided I would find out about the pleasure from smoking.
What did I do? I took a brown paper sack, cut a rectangular portion from it, rolled it up in the form of a cigar, put one end in my mouth and lit the other end! Took a big puff and Yowee!!
Boy, did I get burnt! DUMB MOVE. I REAPED WHAT I SOWED.
But guess what? I’ve been burnt a lot worse in life by some other dumb moves I have made! We always reap what we sow! We always reap bad stuff from sowing bad stuff!
And we also are affected by the sins of others.
ILL.- Many years ago the First Christian Church of Anna, IL, had a preacher by the name of Bill Reece.
Did you ever hear of him? He has one son named Jonathan who is a missionary to Puerto Rico. He has
another son named David who is a professor at Johnson Bible College in Knoxville, TN. BUT BROTHER BILL REECE IS NO MORE!
You see, when his Jonathan and David were just small children their daddy Bill and their mother were
driving somewhere in Southern Illinois and were hit by a drunken driver in a head-on collision and killed.
The sins of others affect us.
Sin is a devastating thing. All sin is devastating. Bad things happen to good people because of sin.
4- Bad things may also happen to us for another reason. Some bad things may happen to us because of God’s discipline.
Hebrews 12:4-6 “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, BECAUSE THE LORD DISCIPLINES THOSE HE LOVES, AND HE PUNISHES EVERYONE HE ACCEPTS AS A SON.”
The Lord’s discipline is something that we don’t like to think about, but it’s very real.
ILL.- One time when I was probably 8 or 9 years old, my older brother and a friend of his talked me into stealing a watermelon from the neighbor’s garden. I thought no one was watching, but I didn’t fool my neighbor. He caught me in the act! And he promptly marched me right across the street and into my house to talk to my dad.
Needless to say, my dad was not very happy with me. I did not snitch or tattle on my brother, but I almost wished I had. BECAUSE YOU SEE, I GOT ALL THE PUNISHMENT!
I don’t know what my dad said to me, but I do know that he disciplined me and HE DID IT FOR MY GOOD. HE DID IT BECAUSE HE LOVED ME! Why do we think the Lord would be any different? Or any less loving than our earthly parents?
God sometimes disciplines us by allowing some bad things to happen to us in order for us to learn
and/or wake up. His discipline is for our instruction and correction.
Sometimes bad things happen to us because the Lord is trying to discipline us. BUT YOU SHOULD ALWAYS REMEMBER THIS: He doesn’t hate us. He loves us and this is why He disciplines us!
Bless His name! Bad things do happen to us in life.
ILL.- Cavett Robert said, “You can be on TIME MAGAZINE one week and be doing time the next week!” We can ask actor Robert Downey Jr. about that, can’t we? He’s in the news all the time for one reason or another.
BAD THINGS DO HAPPEN TO US, TO ALL OF US! But what we want to know is this: Can life get better? Can our lives get any better? Is there some hope for a new life in the new year? YES!!!
Psalm 1:1-3 “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. WHATEVER HE DOES
PROSPERS.”
I like the sound of those words. Whatever he does prospers. We can prosper in the Lord.
Proverbs 16:3 “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” We can succeed in the Lord.
Psalm 40:1-3 “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth....”
The Lord can lift us out of the mire of a bad life and set us down into a choir of rejoicing! OUT OF THE
MIRE AND INTO THE CHOIR. I love it! He can give us a better life!
PROP.- Please allow me to give you some guidelines for a better life in the new year.
1- Learn from your past
2- Love the people
3- Lean on the Person
I. LEARN FROM YOUR PAST
Phil. 3:4 “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more.”
In this text, the apostle Paul goes on to talk about his good past as a Jewish Pharisee. Paul had both a
good past and a bad past.
It was good in the sense that he was completely devoted to his form of religion. It was bad in the
sense that he was wrong. He persecuted the one who came to save Him and bless Him.
Paul persecuted the Lord Jesus by persecuting Christian people.
Any time you persecute people, you are persecuting Jesus. Please don’t be guilty of that!
The apostle Paul finally learned from his past mistakes, repented of his sin and allowed the true Lord to get a hold on his life. AND WE NEED TO DO THE SAME.
Brethren, we must not rest on our laurels nor rot from our past! We must learn from these things and get on with living for the Lord!
ILL.- Elaine came into my office last week to let me “have it” for including her in my sermon last
Sunday. No, she didn’t. She loved it. While she was there she looked over my old pictures which I
have displayed there. She laughed when she looked my old weightlifting pictures taken in 1972 when I was 28 and strong and wore black horn-rimmed glasses.
I think she asked, “Do you ever think about these times?” And yes, I do, but not often. Those were
some good times because I enjoyed weightlifting very much. And my running days were some good times, because I enjoyed running and the energy and vitality that I got from it.
BUT I DON’T STAY THERE IN MY MEMORY VERY LONG. Thinking about the past, good or bad, doesn’t always help with the present.
I thank God for those “good” times and thank Him for the good health and energy He gave me. Beyond that, I don’t stay there very long, because it won’t help me here and now.
Brethren, we should learn from our past but not linger there for long periods of time.
ILL.- Tom Billings was a fellow Safeway employee in Joplin, MO, back in the 1960’s. Tom and I were
both young and restless like most young people our age. Several times after work at night we drove
over to Galena, KS, to drink a few beers at Nina’s Green Parrot.
I remember one time that Tom went one night by himself. And am I ever glad I didn’t go! At work the next day, Tom was all bruised and beat up. He went back to Nina’s Green Parrot the night before, got all liquored up and got into a fight. And some guy knocked Tom clear across a pool table.
TOM NEVER WENT BACK TO NINA’S GREEN PARROT AGAIN!
Smart guy. He learned from his past. And we all should.
Brethren, learn from your past and your past mistakes if you want to have a better life in the new year.
Don’t make the same mistakes you did in 2000.
1- Learn from your past
II. LOVE THE PEOPLE
John 15:17 Jesus said, “This is my command: LOVE EACH OTHER.”
Romans 12:10 “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
Galatians 5:13b “Serve one another in love.”
Ephesians 5:1-2 “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love...”
Brethren, I have discovered that we will never regret loving people, but we will regret not loving them.
And the Christian way of life is loving others, if it is anything at all.
Christ loved people. That’s why He ministered to them, talked to them, did good to them, blessed
them, healed them, etc. WE SHOULD LEARN FROM HIM.
ILL.- My dad, Leo Shepherd, died two days after my 38th birthday in 1982. I hadn’t seen my dad for
about 4 months. We lived about 200 miles away and just hadn’t been back to visit mom and dad. When he died I felt so bad that I never said to him, “I love you, dad.” As a grown man I don’t know if I ever said, “Dad, I love you.”
I tried to show dad that I loved him, but I don’t ever remember telling him that I loved him. I regret not saying those words to this very day. I will always regret it. BUT I DO NOT REGRET SAYING “I LOVE YOU” TO MY WIFE, TO MY CHILDREN, MY MOM, OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS AND TO YOU!
I love you, brothers and sisters.
Brethren, we should always love the people. We should always love the people around us...family, friends, fellow workers, etc. The more we love the people around us, the better life will be in the new year.
ILL.- Some construction workers were building a high rise across the street from a hospital. As they
were working on the 3rd floor they noticed a little girl standing in the 3rd floor window of the hospital
watching them work.
One day they looked across and saw the little girl hold up a poster that read, "My name is Lisa. What
are your names?" So the next day the construction workers came back with some poster board and magic markers, and they all wrote down their names. "My name is Bob. My name is Bill. My name is Harry. How old are you?"
The next day the little girl held up a sign that read, "I am 7 years old. How old are you?"
Well, this went on for several days. But one day they noticed that Lisa wasn’t at her usual place in the
window.
So at break time one of the workers called the hospital and asked for a third floor nurse. He asked if
she could tell him anything at all about Lisa.
The nurse said that Lisa had taken a turn for the worse and was now in Intensive Care. So the workers
pooled their money and bought some flowers and a card and wrote a note on it, and sent it to Lisa in Intensive Care.
Several days passed by and then another sign appeared at the window, "Lisa passed away. Thank you for caring!"
And that sign could have read: THANK YOU FOR LOVING! And loving others is the only way to live! It’s the right way to live!
If you want your life to be better in the new year, you need to love the people around you. ALL THE
PEOPLE AROUND YOU. Love them anyway you can and tell them you love them.
1- Learn from the past
2- Love the people
III. LEAN ON THE PERSON
Lean on the person of Christ! He is the one on whom to lean!
Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”
Psalm 121:1-2 “I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”
Brethren, I’ve had a lot of help given to me in life: my mom and dad, my brother and sister, my friends,
etc. When it comes down to the nitty, gritty of life, our finest and best help comes from the Lord! He
is the one who knows all about us and still loves us. He knows all our aches and pains. He knows all our headaches and heartaches. And He longs to help us. To bless us. To care for us. To provide for us.
ILL. Max Lucado in his book "In the Eye of a Storm" talks about traveling from one speaking
engagement to another. He had traveled from San Antonio to Boston and had spoken at a gathering in
Boston. Then he was flying on to Edmonton, Canada to fulfill a speaking engagement there.
When his plane landed in Minneapolis and he had to change airplanes, he was thinking about how tired
and hungry he was, and how crowded the airplane had been, and how his back was aching, and his mind was hurting. Try as he might, he couldn’t even remember who was supposed to meet him at his destination in Canada.
As he was heading to the gate to catch his next airplane he saw a McDonald’s in the distance and
thought, "That looks good. Maybe I’ll run over there and buy a hamburger and that will at least satisfy
my hunger pains."
Then he writes, "I passed something better. I passed a telephone and decided to call home. “I called and my wife answered the phone. I’m convinced that when my wife gets to heaven she’s going to be at the reception desk welcoming everyone in because when she answers the phone it makes you feel so good."
He continued, "I just talked with her. We settled earth shaking issues. We talked about the weather in
San Antonio vs. the weather in New England. We talked about what the girls did when they went to school that day and that one of them was going to have a friend over to spend the evening."
"We talked about earth shaking things like that," he said. "And after I had finished talking with her I
really felt good. Then she passed the receiver over to one of my daughters who told me about her day. When she finished she said, `I love you, Dad.’"
And he said, "It felt good to be loved." Then the phone was passed over to the next daughter and she
talked to him for a while and she said, "I miss you, Dad." And he said, "It felt good to be missed."
Then he said, "They passed the phone over to the little six month old baby, and I talked to my baby
over the phone. I cooed and I talked baby talk, and the people passing by looked at me in strange ways. But it felt good to be cooed at. Then we hung up and I made my way on to the next gate."
He recalled, "I forgot how hungry I was. I forgot how tired I was because I had called home, and that made all the difference in the world." Then he adds, "Maybe we all ought to call home more often. If you do, you will find the listening ear of God so anxious to talk to you, and He will make you feel good from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. And as you grow in your love you’ll find your fears disappear."
Brethren, if you want your new year to be better than in the past then you need to lean heavily on the
Lord. Call home often. Call home every chance you get. You’ll receive some love.
CONCLUSION---------------------------------------------
ILL.- There was an article a few years ago in which a man gave his idea of a perfect world. He said, "In
a perfect world you would feel as good at 60 as you did at 17. And you would be as smart at 60 as you
thought you were at 17."
"In a perfect world professional basketball and baseball and football players would be complaining
because schoolteachers were signing multi-million dollar contracts. In a perfect world potato chips
would have calories, but if eaten with dip, the calories would be neutralized."
"In a perfect world, mail would always be early, and the check in the mail would always be for more
than you expected it to be."
Brethren, the truth is: this is not a perfect world and it never will be! But it can become a lot better forall of us. If we will:
1- Learn from the past
2- Love the people around us
3- Lean heavily on the Lord
Commit yourself to the Lord. That’s the way to have a better life in the new year.
