New Year’s Morning, 2024

Good morning, and welcome to the second New Years Day Service. The first was held at The Palms in 2019 at the request of dear friends who were not going to be on island for Easter, and now, at the request of dear friends who are not going to be on island for Easter 2024, I am blessed and delighted to be here with you.

Before going further, my name is John Rains, and I operate a ministry named Hope House VI, and that is also the website and the Facebook page.

Last year I opened the Easter service stating my age and my awareness that each time I come before you might be the last time. Next Easter (2024) is on March 31, eight days after my birthday, and assuming I am here, I will be 75 years old.

When I accepted the request for a New Year’s Day service, I wondered what the topic would be, and that wonder lasted only a few moments. Would it be about making New Year’s Resolutions – you know, those promises that last a week or so. No. When we ask, God speaks to us – when we listen, we hear God. What I heard was “Renewal”. I honestly cannot claim to have come up with the topic and sincerely believe that God spoke it into my heart, and the more I thought about it the more I understood it, and as I mentioned it to others, it seemed to resonate with them too.

Renewal suggest some pre-existence, like renewing an insurance policy, or renewing a drivers license, so if you, yourself, are open to being renewed, you must know that there is, was or has been, a previous version of you: I know that is the case for me, and I look at me and realize that while there are still many things that need improvement, I am a so much better person today than I was before.

Renewal also suggests the concept of expiration – if I don’t renew it, it will expire. I can say that about me – if I don’t renew myself, I will expire. Dare I say, Heaven forbid? When I take a critical look at me, there is a version of me that I want to be, but I haven’t got there yet – but I will keep trying. I will also ignore others who don’t want to let go of the old version of me. I will touch on that later. So I share with you, this critical look at myself.

I use the New American Standard Bible [NASB] as my reference, so the readings here are mostly NASB, but I also reference other translations and would recommend Biblegateway.com for the wealth of resources it provides. I’m going use a scripture that is critical of behavior but uplifting in its message.

But first, an introduction of the characters in this story.

Paul: is probably the most significant character in the creation of the early Christian church. He was a Jew and a Roman citizen, originally named Saul and was a persecutor of Christians before his conversion to Christianity when he became a devoted follower of Jesus Christ.

Titus: was a companion to Paul as he journeyed through the Roman Empire, establishing the Christian faith. He was a Gentile who was led to faith in Christ by Paul, and he played a significant role in the early church and the spread of the gospel. He also led a church in Crete and Paul wrote a letter to Titus that we have in the New Testament as the book of Titus.

Just a fun FYI, Paul is known as a master of the run-on sentence, but in this message, he uses what is known as a “cumulative sentence”. He writes:

Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to slander no one, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing every consideration for all people.

For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.

But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness, but in accordance with His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He richly poured out upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3: 1-7)

I have divided this passage into three groupings: obedience, confession, and acceptance.

Obedience:

Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to slander no one, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing every consideration for all people.

I believe mankind today is inherently arrogant and proud, and the idea of being “subject to” anything is deemed objectionable, but we must overcome this wrong thinking. The topic of being “subject to”, occurs many times in the Bible, such as in the book of Romans (13:1-2), where Paul writes:

Every person is to be subject to the governing authorities.
For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

Most importantly, Jesus Himself addressed the point when He was asked if people should be subservient in paying taxes. This attempt to trick Jesus, staged by the Pharisees, is reported in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Here I’ll present from the book of Luke (20:22-26).

Spies, sent by the Pharisees ask:

Is It permissible for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But He saw through their trickery and said to them, “Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Then pay to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were unable to catch Him in a statement in the presence of the people; and they were amazed at His answer, and said nothing.

There is a clear message here regarding the separation between man and God. As members of society, we have established methods, laws by which we live as a society; laws that govern our relationships with each other in this society, and these laws are to be respected so that social order is maintained.

God gave mankind His laws to live by; laws that we know as The Ten Commandments. They were given to help mankind, but mankind, by pride and arrogance, perverted them. They added more laws – laws of man and of the Prophets; they corrupted the meaning of the law by interpretation.

I will come back to the Ten Commandments in a moment, but for right now let me say that since Adam, mankind has had an arrogant problem with obedience. As a weak attempt at humor, I wonder how different things might have been if the fruit of the tree of knowledge had been lemons?

I want to turn this around a bit because there is an alternative to obedience that overcomes the problem of arrogance. Arrogance says, “I don’t want that!” But there’s something that says, “I do want that”. It’s called Faith.

• Faith is believing that through Jesus there can be redemption from sin and reconciliation with God.
• Faith in Jesus is to receive the blessings of salvation and eternal life.
• Faith in Jesus is living as He did, emphasizing love, compassion, and forgiveness.
• Faith in Jesus requires a personal relationship with Him.

Paul consistently emphasizes the importance of Faith, separate from the law. For example:

“For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.” (Romans 3:28)

I have a sister in England who is not only my sister by birth but my sister in Christ, and we try to talk every other week, and often the discussions drift into theology. I have to say that, in my mind, there is an aspect of theology, (exegesis and hermeneutics,) that is a destroyer of Faith. To sit around, nit picking scripture, or even worse, to be a preacher who bends scripture to fit the message they want to give instead of accepting by Faith the love that God has for us; acceptance by Faith that He does guide us; acceptance by Faith that He does forgive us; acceptance by Faith that we are saved.

In the book of Matthew (18:1-6), Jesus tells us to accept by Faith, like children. His disciples were arguing among themselves as to which of them would be the greatest in Heaven.

He called a child to Himself and set him among them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you change and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

So whoever will humble himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name, receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depths of the sea.

The example of a child is of one who has not been corrupted by knowledge as Adam and Eve were – the innocence of a child.

In Genesis, God says “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness;”

Notice it says “Us”; meaning the Trinity; God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. I believe what Jesus meant about the child’s innocence is that we are born in the image of God, but then something happens. I believe I was born into Faith but as I got older, the World stole that Faith away from me – and I want it back.

Confession:

Let me remind you of the text I am referring to.

For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.

Does this describe me? Was I foolish; was I disobedient; did I ever deceive anyone; have I ever been a slave to lust and pleasure; did I ever hate anyone or do hateful things to others?

Yes, I did – and I have been ashamed of myself for the things I have done; but when I came to Jesus, and this is truthfully what happened, when I realized God had interceded and saved my life – I confessed to Him “Lord; this life is no longer mine. I tried to throw it away, but you took it. Now it belongs to you. Use me.” Everything changed – and I mean, EVERYTHING.

I recently wrote to a friend “When I came to Jesus, late in life, He took away all of the things that were causing me pain, so it’s difficult when someone rebirths them.”

Another aspect of pride and arrogance is what I call “wearing badges”. I am guilty of this, but by being aware of it I can avoid it. We are used to getting badges for achievements, but continually confessing my sins, past and present, is in effect wearing them as a badge. I must work hard at avoiding this.

I must keep in mind, always, that there are others who don’t want me to be the person that I am now; and there will be those who will behave the same toward you; accept it in Jesus’ name. He will protect you.

Proverbs (28:13 [NIV]) – “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

1 John (1:9) – “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

James (5:16) – “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.”

And Matthew (10:32 [ESV]) – “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven.”

Acceptance:

Again, a reminder of the passage:

But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness, but in accordance with His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He richly poured out upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 

When I speak of Faith, capital “F”, I am speaking of faith in Jesus Christ.

Throughout my life, the rejection I have heard levied against Faith is “I am not good enough”, mostly from my own mouth. This is the biggest lie, ever. I have said to you that we are born into Faith, but the rulers of the World steal it away. But Faith is powerful, Faith has Authority. I know this because Jesus tells me.

In Matthew (28:18), Jesus says “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.”

His authority is total, complete authority, capital “A”.

“But I am not good enough”. Not good enough for what? Not good enough to receive God’s Grace; God’s love; given with the Authority of Jesus Christ? Do you see the lie in that?

Believing that I am not good enough is believing in rulers of the World who “take” from me. But the one with Authority “gives” to me and that overcomes the World. God gives to us what we need; “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6)

But you say, “the ten commandments are too difficult”. There it is again, rulers of the World taking away from you. So, what does Jesus, the one with Authority say in this regard? We know because he is asked directly “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied with a two for one (and this is critically important to receive)

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40 [ESV])

The two true vectors of relationships. Love God, Love neighbor – that’s you, and you, and you …

That love, in the Greek language, it is Agape.

Agape is considered the highest form of love. It is unconditional, sacrificial, and selfless love. It is the type of love that God has for His creation and that Jesus is encouraging us to have for God, and for one another.

This is the love I want you to “renew”, because you had it once when you were a child but the thief of the World stole it away from you, but by the Authority of Jesus Christ, the Authority to take away all of the things that are causing you pain, because you are able, through Faith to confess your pain to others and receive what is given to you – A New Creation.

Therefore from now on we recognize no one by the flesh; even though we have known Christ by the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.  Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their wrongdoings against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 16-19)

Now that you know these things, now that you are equipped, armed with Truth, and Faith in His Authority, you are ready to make your everlasting Resolution.

I wondered what an appropriate closing prayer would be, and it came to me that it has already been written over 3000 years ago by King David, and I am going to use the King James translation as I think it is the most reverent for this passage.

So please, close your eyes and say this prayer in your minds as I speak the words.

Psalm23

1. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Amen.

God bless you all.