It's a Brand New
Year, Is It the Same Old You? Romans
7:14-24
Now that Christmas is over, have you noticed how the
commercials have changed? They are no
longer hawking kids toys and the latest stuff that men and women absolutely
must have for Christmas. Now we are
seeing more ads on weight loss programs, exercise equipment, and even the
infomercials have geared up with the latest tricks to get rich quick. Oh, and I almost forgot—all the parties that
were held last night. Many restaurants,
watering holes, and hotels planned a special evening with food, drink, music
and dancing. Oh, and there was the grand
event at Times Square in New York City, with the dropping of the ball. And if you happened to be asleep at midnight,
your sleep may have been disturbed by all those fireworks that we set off at
midnight.
Why all the fascination and emphasis on a New Year? We have a new day, new week, new month that
comes more frequently. Yet, no one asks,
“Well, a new week starts tomorrow, are you planning a new week party?” There are no invitations to new month
parties. Yet, here we are in a New Year
and while many celebrated this event last night with hope that this year, YES,
this year will be different, deep down for a lot of people, there is that
nagging feeling that nothing will be different.
Yet we try to make this year different. We make our resolutions, subscribe to those
diet programs, some even sign up for gym membership, or even start using the
membership they’ve had. But as another
day, another week, another month passes, and the reality smacks them right in
the face, that they are still the same old person. This feeling is nothing new. Solomon wrote about it in his personal
journal we call Ecclesiastes. We read in
Ecclesiastes 1:9. “What was will be
again, what happened will happen again. There's
nothing new on this earth. Year after
year it's the same old thing.” Can
you hear Solomon sighing in regret as he writes?
But still, there persists in the human heart the longing for
something more, something that is better.
We don’t like the same old thing.
The heart, your heart and my heart, knows there has to be something
other than the same old thing. A few
hundred years after Solomon wrote those words, another man brought this feeling
back into focus. His name was Paul. Paul wrote what we have all felt, but were
afraid to say. It’s found in Romans 7:14-24 and I want to share it with
you from The Message Translation.
I can anticipate the response that is coming: “I know that all God's commands are spiritual,
but I'm not. Isn't this also your experience?” Yes. I'm full of myself—after all, I've spent
a long time in sin's prison. What I
don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another,
doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what
is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is
necessary.
But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it,
and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I
obviously need help! I realize that I
don't have what it takes. I can will it,
but I can't do it. I decide to do good,
but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result
in actions. Something has gone wrong
deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there
to trip me up. I truly delight in God's
commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I
least expect it, they take charge. I've
tried everything and nothing helps. I'm
at the end of my rope. Is there no one
who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?
I think the reason we put so much emphasis on the New Year
is found in verse 17: But I need something more! And in our culture, when we want something,
when do we usually want it? Now! Immediately!
Pronto! And if it is really,
really important, we wanted it YESTERDAY!
Now I am going to say something that none of us want to hear: finding that “something more” rarely, if
ever, happens immediately, unless we know where to find it.
It is not found in information. We live in a world that is loaded to the gill
with information. One of the nicknames
of the Internet is “the Information Superhighway”. But information alone isn’t enough. In fact, too much information is more
frustrating that too little. Solomon
wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:12, “There's no
end to the publishing of books, and constant study wears you out so you're no
good for anything else.”
This “something more” isn’t found in reformation. We can try to do better, and be better
people. And for a time it helps. But sooner or later, we find us slipping back
into the old patterns and the bad habits.
As Paul says, we try to do good, but we don’t. We strive to avoid the bad habits and
attitudes, but we end up doing them anyway.
It’s frustrating to keep falling back, falling down when we genuinely
want to become better people and in doing so, hopefully to find that something
more.
But the something more will never be found solely through
information and it will never be experienced by our best efforts at
reformation. What it takes is
transformation—to become an entirely different person. I know all those infomercials are out there
about how to transform your face, your body and your bank accounts. And even if they actually did work, it would
not satisfy the cry of the heart, the cry that says, “I need something more.”
God doesn’t give us information alone, and He does not
expect self-reformation. What offer
offers us is transformation that lasts a life time. God offers us the opportunity to start all
over by forgiving us of our sins, replacing our old heart with a new heart by
giving us the New Birth. Better than the
start of a new day, week, month or even year, God offers to transform us and
this transformation isn’t just in a moment or for a moment—but for a
lifetime. If we are going to find that
something more, then follow the path to transformation. It’s a path that offers us multiple, even
daily moments to keep this transformation at work in us. The path to transformation is marked by
several signs.
1. Having The Right Values
We choose our own values.
Let’s define the term values.
Values Are Those Morals And Principles That Shape Our Thoughts And Those
Thoughts Form Our Attitudes, Words And Actions.
Without a doubt, our values are the deciding factor in the priorities of
our life. Look at your own life’s
priorities and behind them are your values.
For example, you may say that one of your values is family. But, if other things have a higher priority,
such as work, then work has more value than your family. It’s not just what you say, but what you do.
Our values can be influenced by family, friends, or
culture. And as parents and
grandparents, we have to instill in those children the best and highest of
values—but the choice is still and always our own. We can’t blame video games or unfairness or
stress or pressure. Each person shapes
and forms their own values. Problems in
our values happen when we don’t spend enough time choosing them. To have the right values requires that we
spend time with God and lots of it. We
spend time with God when we worship with others, make the time for private
worship, through prayer, through the Bible, in small groups and with other
Christians.
2. Committing To A Deeper Purpose
Transformation continues to grow our lives when we accept
that we can live a God-Sized Dream. It’s
about realizing there is more to our personal inventories that what we can
touch, count, see or measure. It is
about opening our lives to more than a possibility that God could use us for
His glory—it is accepting that through His grace and mercy, that God WILL use
us for His glory. What I’m talking about
is living with a God-Sized purpose.
A God-Sized Purpose Is One Where We Cannot Succeed Unless He
Provides All That Is Necessary To Do It.
It is so big, that unless God is in it and with us we know we will fall
flat on our faces. We will tackle our
personal dreams if we think we have the personal strength and resources to
accomplish it. I was reading an article
in American Hunter about a couple who decided to move from St. Louis to
Alaska after their children left home.
His name is Peter Mathiesen and what he wrote has stuck with me. Here it is:
“We all know that the line between fantasy and reality is a bridge of
dreams that for some may never be crossed.”
To become a new person means we cross the bridge that traverses the
divide between what we can do and what God can do. It can be done, though, no matter how
frightening it may seem, when we have faith—faith in God’s love, mercy and
grace.
3. Living With A Higher Power
The path to transformation cannot be followed with human
strength nor with human will. This is
what Paul is talking about. The harder
we try, the more frustrated we become.
So what can we do? How can we
become a different person, not just at the beginning of a New Year, but for the
rest of our life? You may have noticed,
I left off one verse, and I did it on purpose.
Without this next verse, there is never any hope for a different you. It’s verse
25:
The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He
acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve
God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do
something totally different.
It is about living with a power so strong, that it held
Jesus securely on that Cross; a power so dynamic that even death could not hold
Him. Jesus desires with all His heart,
to live in our heart. His death was more
than enough to erase every sin of every person.
And His Resurrection was for us to know, that the same power that
overcame death’s strong grip is the one and the same power that can conquer
sin’s power over us. No amount of
information or resolve can ever do in us and for us as the power of the Holy
Spirit living in the heart of every believer.
I’ll let you in on a big secret—all of hell, even Satan himself,
trembles at the heart that is inhabited with God’s Holy Spirit.
You can know that you can be a different person by these
Holy Sacraments. This bread reminds us
that His body was broken for us. And
this cup is God’s personal message to us, that the blood of Jesus can take away
our sins. In this moment, God is telling
us, we can have a fresh start as a different person—a person transformed by the
incalculable and infinite grace—Grace that comes from His love—love that loves
me and you. These signs here on this
Table are the Something More that we all need.
