Happy New Year!
John 3:3; Romans 6:4; Philippians 3:13-14
- Introduction
- The greeting of the season
- Countless greeting cards sent through mails
- Salutations and celebrations
- The New Year is not really new
- While thousands will shout "Happy New Year!" they will awaken to the same old burdens as before
- Instead of a happy new year, for many it will be a terrible hangover
- There is no magic hour at midnight that suddenly ushers in utopia
- What makes a new year happy?
- Body
- The new birth (John 3:3-5)
- Necessity of the new birth
- Many have dreamed of the opportunity of starting over again.
- What the new birth is not:
- It is not baptism
- It is not reformation
- The new birth takes place upon receiving Christ by faith (John 1:12; 3:16)
- The new walk (Romans 6:14)
- There is no one more miserable than the believer who doesn’t live right
- Let us see the contrast between the old walk and the new
- The flesh and the spirit (Galatians 5:16-23)
- The walk before and after for the Ephesian Christians (Ephesians 5:1-16)
- The difference between day and night (Romans 13:11-14)
- To practice the new walk, you must feed the new man (II Peter 2:1-3)
- To practice the new walk, you must reckon yourself dead with Christ and alive with him (Romans 6)
- The new goal (Phil. 3:13-14)
- Paul’s past goals
- Your past goals
- Paul’s past sins and failures
- Paul’s past victories
- Paul willing to forget all that may hinder him in his life for Christ
- Do you have a new goal since becoming a Christian?
- Does that God have priority in your life?
- Are you willing to forget the past in order to reach your goal?
- Conclusion
- Awful results of neglecting this truth
- No new birth – soul lost
- No new walk – testimony lost
- No new goal – rewards lost
- Practical results of acting on this truth
- Salvation, separation, dedication
- The joy of living in the center of God’s will