New Year, New Life

i'm going to read just one portion of scripture and i'll let you be seated paul says in first corinthians 1 18-21 it says for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved that is the power of god for it is written i will destroy the wisdom of the wise the intelligence of the intelligent i will frustrate where is the wise person where is the teacher of the law where is the philosopher of this age has not god made foolish the wisdom of the world for since in the wisdom of god the world through its wisdom did not know him god was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe

from this text we find out that the message of the cross even the apostle was willing to admit that it seems silly to many who look on and say how is it that a man giving his life under roman capital punishment has anything to do with me paul simply acknowledges the world has a lot of wisdom and a lot of opinions and a lot of ideas and he was well aware of them he was a well-read and well-learned man he says but none of that stuff could ever reach god no human being could ever know god through any of those means any of those measures and so it pleased god through the foolishness of the message preached meaning the gospel the moment in which god reached down to humanity it pleased god through that way to save those who would believe

lord thank you for this moment that we have thank you for your word we know that it challenges both heart spirit and mind all of those things jesus i pray god that you would challenge us today pray that you would prick our hearts and convict our spirits lord that we'd be drawn closer to you that we would know more of you lord that we would avail more of ourselves to you today thank you jesus everybody said amen you can go ahead and be seated

i want to preach from this title this morning and yes i'm doing what all preachers have done i think through the ages playing on the different holidays of our culture my title this morning is new year new life new year new life new year's is a wonderful time for certain things that i find annoying that i have not done since maybe middle school because i realized i didn't have the willpower to keep with them and that is make new year's resolutions who has made new year's resolutions already wow all right i'm not going to have any trouble this morning my next question was going to be who has already not kept those resolutions but since we didn't have any hands the first question i think we're safe on the second one but for normal folk outside of this wonderful church that doesn't participate in such pagan ideas um for normal people we they like to set new year's resolutions to uh ask the question themselves how can i make this next year better than the last year was and well based on the last few years there's a couple things maybe that we could do uh maybe there's not such a high bar for how wonderful the previous years have been for some of us but we like to do that and there's many different ideas of what constitutes the good life there's many ideas in our world and our culture and globally of what it means to make a life better or how to make a life better and this is really just a human instinct isn't it if something isn't going well we would like to change it we would like to make it better if we keep failing at a task well we want to not fail again there's very few people that i would think that would say yeah i'd rather enjoy failing i rather enjoy living in mediocrity i rather enjoy not improving if you are one of those people i'm sorry the altar will be open at the end of the sermon but i i think it is human instinct to want to get better am i right we want to do better we may not always want to put the time in and the work in to be better but we want to be better human instinct how can i questions like how can i cure the hurt of the previous year may run through a mind or how do i heal from that hurt how do i grow how do i go past it how do i become effective in the different areas of my life the big question boiled all the way down i think could be stated like this what can i change this year to make my life better what can i change this year to make my life better i think that is the the most boiled down way of of speaking of new year's resolutions but can i suggest this morning that your answer is not another resolution but that it is an encounter with this jesus that gave his life so that you could experience true life and if this seems silly to anyone in the room or anyone that is listening online or watching later if this seems silly as it has too many over the centuries even all the way back in that original proclamation it seems silly if it seems too simplistic or seems overly cliche just please hear me out a moment i think by the time that i'm done today i think by the end of it all god will meet you and he'll offer you the change that you've been looking for

i want to pray here at the outset because not because we haven't prayed enough we've we've prayed quite a bit but i'd like to pray a special prayer because i feel like the lord wants to meet somebody this morning i feel like he wants to meet them and he wants them to experience his presence fresh anew for the very first time maybe so let's pray together as a church father you have plans for today you have plans for the service god you have plans for each and every individual in this room plans for each and every individual who may be watching online plans for each and every individual that may watch later at a later date lord you have plans for them god i pray that your will would be unobstructed i pray that you would move freely in the lives of your people and the lives of everyone that is hearing this message this morning god i pray that your will your purpose would be accomplished in their lives god that you would meet them lord that you would cover them with your presence and your spirit and you would grant them new life abundant life that only comes from you jesus and we know that you want to and we know that you will lord ready our hearts open our hearts and our minds and our spirits till up the ground in our hearts lord that we receive your word in jesus name amen

there's a famous feast in judaism it's called the feast of tabernacles this was an eight-day celebration i like that this was an eight-day celebration and uh in short it was a feast of hope there was a lot of food there was a lot of singing there was a lot of ritual there was a lot of scripture reading and really what was going on in this this ancient jewish uh festival and actually they still celebrate many of these festivals what was going on here is that they were celebrating the promises of god particularly promises of god that brought hope to the people of israel the belief of the day in jesus day was that god had left how awful is that the belief in jesus day that that god god was gone there was so much sin in his people they had made so many mistakes that his presence had left and because god had left the world itself had become a barren and a desert place because when the author of life leaves no life can be found and so for those ancient jews life was bleak it was dark it didn't really have much hope circulating in the air they're occupied by rome and all sorts of stuff they're all it's everything's going wrong for them and so life wasn't so pretty in that day but there were still promises that they believed in that are found in the old testament that they believe laid unfulfilled promises like isaiah 44 3 when the lord said i will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground i will pour out of my spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants they still believed in these sorts of promises even though the day seemed like a barren place a desert place god was gone god promised a day in which he would bring new life to this dead people he would bring and restore abundant life to individuals that felt that they were living in a barren in a deserted place

and one of their favorite texts that they like to read at the celebration comes from ezekiel uh 47. might be 37 now that i no it's 47. i'm right okay it comes from ezekiel 47 this is editing on the fly that's how it's going ezekiel 47 is one of their favorite passages during the feast of tabernacles and many of us are familiar with ezekiel 47 especially if you like the weird stuff of the bible this is a great chapter to read because ezekiel is experiencing a vision he's being led around by an angel and he's being shown israel in this vision he's being shown the temple he's being shown the surrounding area around the temple around the land and and he he's brought to the temple and he's shown the altar of the temple and he notices that water is running from underneath the temple they've sprung a leak in this vision and he follows that water out and he he goes out it goes out of the temple it goes out into the land he goes out a little further and it's at his ankles and it goes out a little further and it's at his knees and again it's at his hips and eventually he's swimming it says it's a river so great that no one can even cross the river because it's raging it's like someone trying to swim across the mississippi first of all that's dirty don't do that second of all that's a pretty raging river i don't think you could do it in fact maybe you have the same experience when i was a kid they're like don't get in the mississippi the undercurrents they'll take you i'm like what's an undercurrent but whatever it is they'll it'll take you and you'll drown in that river but this is the river that ezekiel's talking about in this vision and not only was it this raging river by the time you get out all the way out to the end of it but it also had miraculous properties it said that when this water comes from the temple and it reaches the dead sea now if you're not familiar with the dead sea it's all in the name it's the dead sea there's so much salt it's almost like a saline solution they say you just float when you get in the water that's gross too i don't know why i know it's just salt but that's weird to me you shouldn't float in water you should go down so it's dead no fish can live in it no life can be in it right but when this water from the temple met the dead sea that dead sea became the alive sea and many different kinds of fish many different kinds of life started to flourish and verse nine is what i want to focus on so swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows there will be large numbers of fish because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh so where the river flows we have to catch this last part of the vision so where the river flows everything will live where the river flows everything will live back to our feasts of tabernacles israel may have felt dead in jesus day and in fact uh they were dead when you look at a little bit of how their life was going and the choices that they had made but for them there was coming a day when god was going to bring life back to israel and ezekiel's river is it's not just a river but it was a symbol of the rescuing presence of god that would bring new life it was a symbol of israel's promises that they believed in in fact these promises were for the whole world because the whole world was going to benefit from this river because wherever the river would flow it would bring life but israel longed for god to fulfill these prophecies they long for texts like isaiah 41 17-18 where the lord says the poor and the needy they search for water but there is none and their tongues are parsed with thirst but i the lord i will answer them i the god of israel i will not forsake them i will make rivers flow on barren heights and springs within the valleys i will turn the desert into pools of water and parched ground into springs they long for texts like isaiah 43 19 when the lord says see i am doing a new thing now it springs up do you not perceive it do you not see what i am doing i am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland they loved these texts they loved these promises of god they loved them so much that they would even try to picture what it would be like for god to fulfill these promises

now i'm going to move around a little bit and i wish i had brought a 5 gallon bucket i've got nothing to use pretend i have a bucket they would try to picture these promises particularly ezekiel's message ezekiel's river they would take the priests would take buckets down to the they may have been golden urns but stuff that held water they'd go down to the pool of siloam that was nearby and they would scoop up water from that pool and they'd bring it back to the temple and they would throw it against the temple and they would do that over and over and over and over and over again and just like leaving a hose on in the backyard just like doing that you get enough water thrown at a temple you get enough water flowing in one area what do you think that starts to look like for those jewish people that starts to look an awful lot like ezekiel's river it it starts to look an awful lot like god fulfilling his promise they would even sing songs back and forth from one side of the street to the other that came from isaiah 12 3 which says with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation oh i can't imagine the hope that this image must have inspired i i can't imagine what they must have felt seeing the streams of water flow from that temple it it allowed them just for a moment i think to to maybe experience in their mind's eye what it would look like for god to show up and make a difference when the thirsty and dry people would finally have water to satisfy their thirst

and in the middle of all this imagery in the middle of all this water in the middle of all this scripture reading is it is then and there when jesus stands up and he says let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink whoever believes in me as scripture has said rivers of living water will flow from within them by this he meant the spirit and those who believed in him were later to receive up to that time the spirit had not yet been given since jesus had not yet been glorified in the middle of imagining what it would look like for the presence of god to break into the world jesus stands up and he declares i am that living water i am the source for those that are thirsty but then the writer of the gospel adds an interesting note it says this he spoke of the spirit but spirit had not yet been given because jesus had not yet been glorified and this is sort of an interesting addition to the text and because i want to be quick with my comments this morning i will summarize exactly what it means by jesus was not yet glorified and in short when the gospel of john speaks of jesus being glorified or glorification or glory in most instances the gospel of john is talking about christ's work on calvary both his death and his resurrection

you can see this in john 17 when right before going to the cross jesus says father glorify me now with the glory that i had with you in the beginning speaking of that plan of god from the foundation of the world for that lamb to be slain so it says jesus well the spirit has not yet been given because jesus has not yet been glorified right and the gospel of john even goes a little bit further to drive his point home in john 19 34 the people are the thieves and jesus are being crucified and it says a soldier walks up and instead of of breaking jesus legs it says one of the soldiers pierced jesus's side with a spear bringing a sudden flow of blood and and water i know that's such a subtle detail to many reading the bible that's such a little thing to pay attention to especially considering that the gospel of john has many more words in it has many more things that we could pay attention to we we we could read so many other things and find so much value in them all but i i think the point that is trying to be driven home in john 19 is that calvary is the moment in which the fl the free-flowing presence of god was made available to everyone that was thirsty it was the moment in which ezekiel's river broke into the world and was going to bring life to everyone who was in need of it calvary was the place where the promises of god found their amen calvary was the wellspring of ezekiel's river it was the streams and pools of water in isaiah is the place where christ beckons all those who are thirsty to come and take a drink the it is the place where a flood of god's intimate presence became available for all who were willing to encounter him it was the moment in history in which change and transformation were made available yes to them in ancient days past but also to us in this very room today

the best part of calvary in fact is that it's still in effect today you know we can be just like those individuals celebrating in the the feast of tabernacles we can try to understand what it would look like if our life would be better we can long for the hand of god to work in our life we can set our resolutions we can make those new year's resolutions and hopes of bettering our life and and i'm not so deceived today to think that barren and dry and desert places cannot exist in church pews right here and now i'm not so deceived that we just like them can try to imagine what it would look like if life problems were addressed immediately and drastically by the hand of god i i know that there is stress in this room i i know that there is depression in this room i know that there are bad life choices and the effects thereof in this room i know that there is abuse that has taken place in this room i i know that there are failed relationships that weigh on hearts and spirits and minds in this room i know that there are addictions both past and present in this room i i know that there are individuals that are longing for more of god and feeling hindered by those past mistakes in this very room i am not deceived to think that everyone is just doing well today i know that we're just two days into this year but i am not fooled i i know that there are dry and desert places in our lives this morning and we can wait each and every year every january first we can make our resolutions trying to hope and believe maybe this year will be the year that my life will change maybe finally i'll get everything together maybe finally god will move and act in my life maybe finally things will turn around maybe finally things will go my way maybe finally things will be different we can get there but can i please tell you the only true hope for your life today the only true hope for change in your life today is an encounter with the abundant flowing presence of god that opened up all the way back on calvary's hill where christ gave his life so that you could have life a new life that is filled with and led by his spirit and i am simply here on this january second to reinstate the offer of christ all those years ago is anyone thirsty today if you're sitting there wondering thinking am i only talking about those who have never experienced the presence of god i want you to know that i'm also speaking to you whoever you are you that have tasted of the presence of god maybe you feel like the deserts of life have robbed you from an intimate experience with him maybe you've got caught up in the cares of life maybe struggle trial and suffering have robbed you of that presence that you once felt maybe you're there and and maybe you think because the mistakes that you made were the cause of this feeling that somehow you now have to fix it somehow you now have to make things right well if that's where you're at just hear me today you don't have to fix a thing you just need to step back into the flow of the presence of god you don't have to come to church buttoned up looking nice and wonderful like you have it all together like you belong you don't have to look like that at all in fact you can look like you just came out of a desert and you qualify for christ's offer are you thirsty today are you beating down my life's problems and struggles and tribulations well let me remind you what ezekiel's vision was all about wherever that river flows wherever that spirit of god wherever that presence of god flows there will be life your answer please hear me it's not another program and i'm all four programs don't misunderstand me it's not another program it's not another relationship it's not another job or career it's not another house it's not another church it's not another pastor it's about any of these other things because after all those are fleeting and passing they change with the sands of time they're transient sources of joy you might find joy in a relationship but relationships don't last forever people move on people pass away people change you might find joy in a church well churches change and you might move you might find joy in a job or a career where jobs change careers change all these other things change but oh can i tell you when you encounter the presence of christ in your life it is an eternal and an abiding source of life you don't have to ever wonder when you wake up in the morning oh is it still here so the joy of the lord still with me this morning is is the presence of christ still with me whenever i go to sleep i oh i made mistakes i i wonder if god is still with me and still for me you don't ever have to wonder that you don't have to ever have to be afraid of that the answer is he's still with you oh he's still right there your answer is still that life-giving flow the presence of god and the only requirement today to experience this presence is that you're thirsty do you need them then you can come are you dried out by life just two days in then you can come are you worn out just because life is hard and you can come i love this last passage of scripture that i'm going to leave with you i love this scene the gospel of john it's in chapter four jesus encounters the woman at the well and they have an exchange and jesus is trying to tell her about the spirit of god in a life and what it does he says to her if you knew if you knew the gift of god and who it is that asked you for a drink you would have asked him he would have given you living water mom and dad i don't ever mean to embarrass you by sharing this story but it's just the best one that i have that's all i got both my parents came from rough upbringings there's longer story than that but in general rough upbringings my dad got caught up in drugs and they got married young had children young that's why they had so many got started early relationship maybe even was rocky at times because some of the choices that were made long story short both of them stepped into a river one day ezekiel's river stepped into the flowing presence of god and everything changed for them in that moment in fact mom i remember when you tell this story you say i got something that day that would keep you the rest of your life i never forgot that because here i am the son of an ex-drug addict parents who came from rough upbringings trying to convince you that the most important thing that you could do with your life is get in touch with the spirit of god and let that transforming power make a change in your life that you would you're not even going to recognize yourself when the lord has done it and if this seems silly to you oh it's too simplistic it's it's too easy i feel like i need to work harder is it really any sillier than all of the other things that we have tried that the world has tried that have failed is it really any sillier than trying all the other things that have not worked up to this point to simply say to jesus lord i can't figure it out on my own i don't have the answers i i can't seem to fix my problems i i can't seem to find the life that i'm looking for i've made resolutions i've made choices i i've made decisions but again and again i fail and again and again i fall back and again and again i find myself once again thirsty going to that same well that same place over and over again and it never satisfies my thirst it it never really rescues me from the predicaments that my life has found itself in it it never really brings me the new life that i'm looking for oh if you are there today jesus has an offer that was good then and it's good now are you thirsty for a new kind of life are you thirsty for abundant life are you thirsty for some change in your life well there is a source there is a well that you can draw from there is a place that you can find a drink that will radically transform your life

let's all stand this morning i know it's january 2nd i i know we're tired i i know we've been celebrating the new year i know that family's been in town i i know everything that's been going on it drains on us and i don't mean to call tired people to do a lot i i really don't i'm tired too and i'm the one screaming but what i'm trying to get at this morning is that before you make a resolution to do anything else in your life please please make a resolution this year i'm going to step into that river and i'm going to let it wash over me and i'm going to live a life in the spirit in the presence of god and i promise you that sort of resolution will be the best resolution the best choice that you will ever make and it won't be just good for this year it'd be good for a lifetime the river that they stepped in all those decades ago is the same river that i'm swimming in today it will be good for generations and so i want to open up this altar this morning again i know we're tired but if you're thirsty this morning if you need the lord this morning i i want us to forget about our pride i want us to forget about embarrassing ourselves i want us to forget about being tired i want us to forget about all of that and i simply want us to come this morning and say lord before i need anything else i need your presence and your spirit in my life for myself for my family for our field jesus i need you these altars are open if you want to step into that river if you want to step into that presence this morning and make this the most important resolution of your life you can come this morning jesus is calling are you thirsty

there is nothing like the presence of the lord there is nothing like the presence of the as we seek his face he is here in this place there is nothing like the presence of the lord there is nothing like the presence of the lord there is nothing like the presence of the lord as we seek his face he is here in this place there is nothing like the presence of the lord the salvation in the presence of the lord there's salvation in the presence of the lord as we seek his place he their is is as we seek his face for he is here in this place there is freedom in the presence of the lord there of the lord as we seek his face oh he is healing in the presence of the lord there is nothing like the presence of the lord as we see his face there is nothing like the presence of the oh lord is nothing like the presence of the lord as we seek his face he is here in this place there is nothing like the presence of the lord there is freedom to take the presence of the lord there is freedom in the presence of the lord as we seek his face he is here in this place there is freedom in the presence of the lord salvation there's salvation in the presence of the lord their salvation in the presence of the lord he is here in this place there's salvation in the his in face place there is nothing like the presence of the the lord of the lord thank you for the river of your spirit there is nothing like the presence of the lord and as we seek his face for he is here in this place there is nothing like the presence of the there is freedom in the presence of the lord as we seek his face for he is here in this place there is freedom in the presence of the lord there is nothing like the presence of the lord as we seek his face he is here in this place there is nothing like the presence of the lord as we see his face he is nothing like the presence of his face and there's nothing like the presence of the lord

yes the presence of god is moving right now that river is flowing in this room right now you know what i've learned about water especially when you jump in everything gets wet every cold too you might feel a chill everything is affected when you jump in the river it's not just to put your toe in your toe gets the holy ghost it's not just that it's not just on sundays when you can feel and experience the presence of god it's not just on wednesdays it's not just even when you're in your morning devotions and you're being real spiritual you're reading your bible and praying that's when the lord shows up no the river the water that we experience goes with us each and every single day you know what's funny also i'm just going to continue with this analogy because i'm having fun now you ever mess with people when you're all wet and someone's not and you're like bring it in you always do i like this guy that's great come here you know what i'm talking about i think that there should be some christians that like to be that person you find somebody you're dripping wet from the flowing presence of god you find somebody that might be dry because of the deserts of life give them a spirit hug and let them experience the presence of god as well let them experience the effects that can take place in their life as well so we go from this place yes it's wonderful that we experience right now i love it i love the presence of god i love the feeling that it is right but it's more than just a feeling it's a living hope that travels with us each and every single day and can trickle out to those that are around us so as we venture out into our workplaces our schools our field let's make sure that we're inviting others to come to the river with us and experience the presence of god thank you for your faithfulness to the house of god thank you for your faithfulness and giving thank you for being here thank you for your response to the lord go with god this week and into this new year the lord is with us the river is flowing and wherever it flows there is life amen amen