Sermonette: Jan. 10, 2022

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. – 2 Corinthians 5:17

Happy New Year!

I pray that your Christmas celebrations were filled with comfort and joy – comfort from the one who came to be with us in good times and bad, and joy at the gift of love and peace that is Jesus.

And now, as a new year arrives, it is time for NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS! Did you make any this year? Why or why not? And if you did, how is it going?

Many people find New Year’s resolutions to be a depressing exercise and an act in futility! After all, statistics show that something like only seven percent of people stick to all their resolutions (I actually think that number is too high). The most popular resolutions going into 2019 were to exercise more (59%), eat healthier (54%), save money (51%), and lose weight (48%).

A quick Google search shows that eight percent of recent survey participants fail to ever keep any resolutions, and that many people make the same resolutions year after year.

This is definitely true of me. I’ve had “get healthier” on my list for years. And for the most part, I am about as healthy as I was five years ago.

This might explain why in 2019, 57% of people chose not to make any New Year’s resolutions at all. Why even bother when there is no hope?

So, how about you? What resolutions do you repeat again and again? And is there really no hope?

The Scripture passage above screams loudly- OF COURSE THERE IS HOPE! If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old has passed away and the new has come.

You see God is in the business of transformation. It’s who God is and what God does.

What if my new level of health is changing little by little, year by year? What if sometimes change comes incrementally? What if we trusted that our God was always at work transforming us into people who are thriving and whole?

As children of God, we are challenged to believe there is always hope and that we are never left to fend for ourselves in the changes we hope to make.

In Jesus, we have been and always are being made new. Newness is who God is and we are God's beloved.