4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 2 January 2023
⏱️ 35 minutes
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Trade resolutions for restoration! We're learning to look back–repent, release, and remove–and then look forward and walk with freedom into all that God has ahead.
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0:00.0 | Well, hello, Fresh Life Church. Happy New Year. You made it. You made it to 2023, 2022 is officially over, and I can't tell you how excited I am |
0:12.7 | that almost as an act of solidarity that all of us have gathered together on this very first day of the year to study God's Word and to worship, and I honestly couldn't |
0:25.3 | imagine a better way to get the year started. So y'all are doing so much better than you even realize, and it makes me super pumped. It makes me super excited. One, to jump into God's Word. And so I really don't want to waste any time. I just want to get right into it. So if you have a Bible, you can open up to Philippians chapter three. That's where we're going to be spending the vast majority of our time together this morning. If you don't have a Bible or you forgot one or whatever, don't worry about it because we'll throw everything up on the screens. You can fall along no problem. |
0:55.3 | We're just pumped that you are here. Happy New Year's January 1st. This is the very beginning. What is more synonymous with the beginning of a year than the New Year's resolution, right? We've all done it. We've all set our New Year's resolutions, and we all have had very difficult times maintaining those. I actually read, I saw this meme the other day, a little cartoon and the character was writing down his New Year's resolutions. And so the first one he wrote down was to gain more weight. |
1:23.6 | And for his second one, he wrote down was to save less money. And for the third, he wrote to set more realistic goals. And it's funny, right? Because we've all experienced it. We've all been in that position where we have done everything we can to be better. And yet, sometimes it just falls apart. I think we as just humanity, we have this motivation to experience a better life. |
1:51.1 | Like, that's just a desire that we have. We want to experience more. And a lot of the times it leads to us wanting to change ourselves, right? In order to experience a better life, then we have to change. I want to become a better husband. I want to become, you know, a better employee or a better friend. And so there has to be some sort of change in me, hence the New Year's resolutions. And I was thinking about this the other day. And I was like, why is it? |
2:21.4 | That I fail so bad. Why is it that I just can't get it right? Is it that I lack the discipline? Is it that I I lack the amount of care? Am I just not able to accomplish? Well, why is it that these things always seem to slip through my fingers? And |
2:40.1 | And I genuinely believe, and this is kind of a hot take, that you don't actually have the capability to become better. |
2:53.6 | Kind of flies in the face of any kind of self-help book or anything like that. But I honestly believe that you do not have the capacity. You do not have the power or the ability to become better. |
3:06.8 | Otherwise, what would the point of Christmas be? I mean, last week we celebrated Christmas, right? And here you have God, the creator of the universe, who has stepped into his very creation. |
3:19.9 | He was born as a baby. He lived a perfect life. He died the death of a criminal. And if that's where the story ended, it would be real bummer. |
3:29.9 | But then he rose from the grave three days later, conquering death, why so that you could experience the best life possible. But if you could just get better and better and better, then eventually you would get to the point where you wouldn't really need God. And so I honestly don't believe that you have the capability of the capacity to be better, to change. |
3:55.9 | And it kind of throws us into this age old struggle where you have on one hand God creating the opportunity for you to experience your best life. |
4:06.9 | But then in the other hand, just the internal struggle that every one of us is up against. I think Paul put it as plainly as you possibly could put it when he wrote his letter to the Romans. It says, for I know that nothing good dwells in me. |
4:21.9 | That is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do it is right. But check this out, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good that I want. |
4:34.9 | But the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin who dwells in me. |
4:46.9 | Here you have Paul articulating this in such a way that he says, what I do not have the ability, he wants to be better. He wants to make the good decisions. |
4:56.9 | He wants to change, but he says, but I do not have the ability to carry it out. Paul, one of the most prolific followers of Jesus and the one who the Holy Spirit has used to pen the vast majority of this New Testament scripture. |
5:11.9 | And if that is the way that he is talking, what hope do we have? What possible hope could we possibly have as far as hope when he is speaking in that way? |
5:24.9 | Well, I think we will find in our study this morning we actually have a lot of hope. In fact, so much so that I am very, very excited to get into this word. |
5:35.9 | But before we do, I want to pray for us. So let's pray together. God, thank you so much for new beginnings. Thank you so much for a day like today, the very start of a year where we have this desire, Lord, to just be better. |
5:54.9 | And so God, I pray that in the context of your word and the truths that you speak into our heart today, I pray that you would encourage us, that you do inspire us, and that you would draw us closer to you. |
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