All Things New: Preparing for God’s Best in 2008

Matthew 9:1-17

December 30, 2007

Pastor Stu Streeter

Manuscript

Good Morning
Welcome to Re:new

What a year…You survived the year. And boy what a year it has been huh? Steroids in sports. Changes in Pakistan and the rest of the Middle East. War continues. Presidential hopefuls emerge.

Top movie of 2007:

$336,530,303

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

TIME’s top news stories of 2007:

Transition in Pakistan
Mortgage Crisis, the housing bubble bursts

Top scientific discoveries

Continued breakthroughs in Stem Cell research and the new ability to map a person’s entire genetic content

From droughts here in the US to floods in Mexico and from cyclones in Bangladesh to Hurricane Felix which slammed Nicaragua and Honduras this has indeed been quite a year…2007 even saw Paris Hilton sentenced to 45 days in jail for driving on a suspended license…then she got out as a result of claustrophobia, then back in jail…Quite a year it has been, and that is no different here in the Church of the Foothills community…

COTF Milestones: New ministry launches – MOPS, Celebrate Recovery. New building and expanded ministry space.

>>FRANK MOLINARI interview>>

Frank leads Celebrate Recovery, one of the newest ministries here at Church of the Foothills…

Remind us all what CR is and what it’s focus is for those who take part.How have you seen yourself and others changed by God this past year as a result of the Holy Spirit’s work through CR and the CR community?What was one (or a few) of the most unexpected obstacles you faced in this past year?

How can we pray specifically for you in the coming year?

If you have your Bible with you open up to Matthew 9…Bibles under the chair in front of you too….

<<TRANSITION>>

We take this brief look back at 2007 because it is in looking back that we prepare for what is to come. Even though we can never know for sure what God will throw at us in the future I am convinced that God’s faithfulness is at work in our past and present preparing us for our future.Early in the ministry of Christ he was doing much of the same. As he began to preach the Kingdom of God and heal the sick and do all of the things he did, he was always pointing people to what was NEW and FRESH in their midst.This man before them was so much more than just a young up and coming rabbi, teaching in the synagogues. He was so much more than a prophet of the living God.As our advent series illuminated for us this past month, Jesus was more than all this….HE WAS GOD.And the new that he was doing was often overlooked, misunderstood or just plain rejected because folks had not properly prepared for the messiah in their midst.Let’s begin then…

>>READ MATT 9:1-7>>

Jesus was not just talking about God as the other rabbi’s and even prophets did, he was talking about BEING God, he was the embodiment of all that had been said. It was reality TV in the person!! No more dramas about what life WOULD BE LIKE with a messiah, it was now time to EXPERIENCE life with the messiah.

>>READ MATT 9:9-13>>

<<ILLUSTRATION>>

Willingness trumps Competence
a few weeks ago as I was enjoying some vacation time I got a call from my older brother, Scott, who owns a busy fabrication business. They weld, machine, and fabricate impressive items. He was desperate for a few extra hands to help out around the shop and asked if I would be interested in working for a day……after I was done laughing at him, I explained that my gifts lie in areas light years away from welding, drilling, and fabricating.I was amazed at his response and non-concern. He said all he needed from me was a commitment to hard work, in a sense he just wanted WILLINGNESS.…Jesus is much the same in his expectation of our followership, I believe…

As author NT Wright describes the futility of trying to be a “good christian” in his book “Simply Christian” he says on pg 91:

As I made the trip last Friday morning to my brothers shop I found myself whispering a mantra inside my own head, “don’t try and get competent, just be available and willing for whatever he asks of you…I was envisioning running machines that take up a space half the size of this room and I was imagining metal shapes coming out that had never been intended.I feared I would hurt my brothers wallet and reputation with his employees if his kid brother came in there and messed everything up…And yet in all of that I whispered my mantra…”just be available and willing” I listened closely to his instructions and I focused intently on each project in front of me and I think those things got me through much better than anything else could have….WHAT WILL BE YOUR NEW ADVENTURE THIS YEAR??As you have looked back over your own 2006 I encourage you to use the space provided on your worship guide to make a list of things that God could be asking you to join him on an adventure into as we enter 2008…

And finally,

WHAT JOURNEY WILL GOD TAKE YOU ON THIS YEAR THAT WILL DEMAND DEEPER LEVELS OF DEPENDENCE ON HIM??It’s impossible to know for sure, but certainly you can look back, as I have done too, at this past year and seen the areas God has grown you, Challenged you, and stirred you up inside.For we have not been redeemed by corruptible things, not silver or gold, nor any other created thing. Only by the power of Jesus. And it is this redemption that we walk in as followers of Jesus as we enter 2008.

<<PRAY>>