Most people on planet earth will look at things and ask themselves … so what’s in it for me? That’s the way we tend to evaluate our options. There’s just one small problem with living life that way; it simply doesn’t work.  

It’s true isn’t it? The world is full of options for us. I mean I look at the career options that kids seem to have before them today, there are so many of them. It just didn’t seem that way when I was making those decisions forty years ago.

Look at the entertainment options that we have – the whole smartphone and tablet computer revolution, the way the internet has put everything in the palm of our hands. So often, when I’m out say at a café, I see parents with young children. Now, back in my day, keeping the kids entertained and quiet was a challenge. These days though, these tiny tots are sitting there playing their favourite game on mum or dad’s phone or tablet.

There are travel options, options about where we live, how we live, where we work, how we work. I’m trying to think of my grandfather who was born in Romania back in 1889. He lived in a house that didn’t have glass on the windows, but animal skins. And I think back to his grandfather who was born in the late 1700’s not long after Australia was first colonised.

I don’t know, but I’m imagining that they had far fewer options than we do today. They had far fewer choices to make, than we have to make today. So … here you and I are, with all these options and choices, and our primary measure, our primary assessment tool is – what’s in it for me? Which one of these is best for me?

Will we go to the movies this Saturday afternoon, or will we go out to dinner? Or would you rather stay home and watch something on Netflix on the 55 inch HDTV in the living room?

We don’t think about it – but that’s what’s going on, day after day after day, right? In your life and in my life. And the more choices we’re given, the more focussed we become on deciding – which one is best for me? And so without even thinking about it, we’re on our way down a slippery slope:

Matthew 7:13–14 You can enter true life only through the narrow gate. The gate to hell is very wide, and there is plenty of room on the road that leads there. Many people go that way. But the gate that opens the way to true life is narrow. And the road that leads there is hard to follow. Only a few people find it.

It’s a wide road, it’s an apparently easy road, this road to self–gratification and there are many today who unwittingly find themselves on this road. The problem is that it leads to pain along the way, and destruction in the end.

1 Timothy 6:9,10 People who want to be rich bring temptations to themselves. They are caught in a trap. They begin to want many foolish things that will hurt them. These things ruin and destroy people. The love of money causes all kinds of evil. Some people have turned away from what we believe because they want to get more and more money. But they have caused themselves a lot of pain and sorrow.

It’s true, it ends up in a lot of pain and sorrow, and as we’ve stepped over the threshold of this new year, there are all too many people living in that pain and that sorrow. Maybe you’re one of them. Maybe someone close to you is one of them. The question is, what’s the answer? What’s the solution? How do we get a fresh start this year, and get our lives heading in the right direction?

And one of the answers to those questions is to do a 180 degree turn, from being inward focussed, to being outward focussed. So instead of asking … which option is best for me, we’re asking – which is the option that God wants me to choose. The Israelites found themselves in this very position, something we read about it in the last book of the Old Testament.

Malachi 3:6–9: I am the LORD, and I don’t change. You are Jacob’s children, and you have not been completely destroyed. But you never obeyed my laws. Even your ancestors stopped following me. Come back to me, and I will come back to you.” This is what the LORD All- Powerful said. “You say, ‘How can we come back?’” People should not steal things from God, but you stole things from me. “You say, ‘What did we steal from you?’” You should have given me one- tenth of your things. You should have given me special gifts. In this way your whole nation has stolen things from me, so bad things are happening to you. “This is what the LORD All- Powerful said.

In other words, they had stopped honouring God with their first fruits, with the offering that the law commanded them to make, their tithe – one tenth of their income – and the other special offerings under the law. Now you and I, we’re no longer under that law, but nevertheless God still calls us to give to Him first, of our best, our very best. Not just of our money, but of all that we have and all that we are.

Here God’s people had strayed away from putting Him first, and they were putting themselves first and things weren’t going well for them. That’s what the whole book of Malachi is all about.

Malachi 1:6: The LORD All- Powerful said, “Children honour their fathers. Servants honour their masters. I am your Father, so why don’t you honour me? I am your master, so why don’t you respect me? You priests don’t respect my name.” But you say, ‘What have we done that shows we don’t respect your name.

So, God is pouring out the truth to them, the truth that they’ve headed down that wide, easy road that leads to destruction. That’s why things aren’t going well for them. That’s why they’ve brought much pain and sorrow on themselves. I wonder how much you relate to their story in your own life right now.

So, what was God’s answer? How did He provide a way back for them?

Malachi 3:10–12: The LORD All- Powerful says, “Try this test. Bring one- tenth of your things to me. Put them in the treasury. Bring food to my house. Test me! If you do these things, I will surely bless you. Good things will come to you like rain falling from the sky. You will have more than enough of everything. I will not let pests destroy your crops. All your grapevines will produce grapes.” This is what the LORD All- Powerful said. “People from other nations will be good to you. You will have a wonderful country.” This is what the LORD All- Powerful said.

So, He gave them a way back into is blessing, by giving them a tangible way in which to put Him first in their lives, by going back to tithing their incomes which is what was required under the Old Testament law, a law that you and I are no longer under.

So let’s get back to your life? Are you looking for a fresh start in this new year? Are you looking to get rid of some of the pain and sorrow that you’ve brought upon yourself by wandering down the wide road of “what’s in it for me?” Then decide to put God first in your life.

Maybe you’ve made some lifestyle choices that you know don’t honour God. Perhaps you’re not married and you’re sleeping with someone. Perhaps you’ve so buried yourself in your career and earning money and all that stuff, there’s no room left for God. Perhaps you’re so busy juggling work and family and running the kids here and there for this and that, you’ve simply stopped praying and reading God’s Word.

Perhaps you’ve taken some big decisions in life, even small decisions, without involving God and asking Him which one He wants for you. There are so many different ways to honour God, by making a new offering of your life to Him. Give it over to Him. Give it back to Him. Do it with all your heart.

2 Corinthians 9:7,8: Each one of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give. You should not give if it makes you unhappy or if you feel forced to give. God loves those who are happy to give. And God can give you more blessings than you need, and you will always have plenty of everything. You will have enough to give to every good work.

This early part of the new year is a time when we look for new beginnings, a fresh start, a different way of living. In fact, as far as the multi–billion dollar self–improvement industry goes, this time of year is boom time for them. I wonder what new things you’re trying to make happen in your life this year.  

According to Lindsay Meyers on BrainBlogger, the self–help, self–improvement industry helps itself to $10 billion dollars of people’s money each year, and that’s just in the US. Worldwide, you’d have to imagine it’s somewhere between a $50 and $100 billion dollar a year industry. So how effective is the whole self–improvement thing?

Well, have a listen to what Meyers writes:

In addition to high revenues, self-help also has a high recidivism rate, with the most likely purchaser of a self-help book being the same person who purchased one already in the last 18 months. This begs the question of how much good these self-help books and seminars are doing for consumers. If they are so effective at solving our problems, why do they usually result in a continuing stream of self-help purchases?

Self-help books are frequently followed by a train of formulaic subsequent manuals for happiness, weight loss, success, money, or spirituality by the very same authors, fuelling the 6.1% average annual growth rate projected by Marketdata Enterprise Inc

Most of us have tried some sort of self–help kick to make ourselves happy. And you know as well as I do, it almost always never lasts. People almost always fall back into their old ways, and those who get through the hype and actually lay hold of the promises that the self–help gurus are making, are few and far between.

I once read a quote, can’t remember whose it is, that went something like this:

This self–made man simply demonstrates the horror of unskilled labour.

So if you and I want to grow, if we want to live a better life this year than last year, if we want to master some of our inherent weaknesses, and learn to develop some of our natural strengths, if we want to grow and mature as people, to be better able to cope with the conflict and the trials and the temptations that are sure to come our way this year, what is the answer, where do we turn?

Because let me tell you, self–help doesn’t help and self–improvement doesn’t improve anything. In fact, they’re nothing but hard work, and they rarely if ever deliver a dividend that justifies the sacrifice. I’ve tried – I’m highly intelligent, I’m a hard worker and I have a very strong and determined personality type. Okay, compassion and empathy aren’t my strong suit, but I guess you’d expect that from someone who has it in their makeup to be strong and determined, an achiever personality type. And even with my personality type I can’t make it work.

So how is someone who’s gentler and more mellow than me going to find success. And in any case, if you’re going to tackle a large, complex job like transformation, surely you want to involve someone with the love, the power and the expertise to really make a difference and that … that is where God steps in.

With all my heart I believe in God–help, not self–help. With all my heart I believe in Holy Spirit transformation, not self–improvement. With all my heart I believe that God wants to get involved in your life with His love and His power and His expertise to transform it every bit as much as he transforms that caterpillar into a stunning butterfly.

Have a listen to what the Apostle Paul writes to his friends at the church in Corinth, in the second half of the first century AD. He goes back to when Moses went to the top of mount Sinai to receive the ten commandments and how his face glowed with God’s glory and what that means for you and me here and now. Have a listen:

2 Corinthians 3:7–18: The old agreement (or the old covenant between God and His people, as you may know it)that brought death, written with words on stone, came with God’s glory. In fact, the face of Moses was so bright with glory (a glory that was ending) that the people of Israel could not continue looking at his face. So surely the new agreement that comes from the life- giving Spirit has even more glory. This is what I mean: That old agreement judged people guilty of sin, but it had glory. So surely the new agreement that makes people right with God has much greater glory. That old agreement had glory. But it really loses its glory when it is compared to the much greater glory of the new agreement. If the agreement that was brought to an end came with glory, then the agreement that never ends has much greater glory. We are so sure of this hope that we can speak very openly. We are not like Moses, who put a covering over his face. He covered his face so that the people of Israel would not see it. The glory was disappearing, and Moses did not want them to see it end. But their minds were closed. And even today, when those people read the writings of the old agreement, that same covering hides the meaning. That covering has not been removed for them. It is taken away only through Christ. Yes, even today, when they read the Law of Moses, there is a covering over their minds. But when someone changes and follows the Lord, that covering is taken away. The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And our faces are not covered. We all show the Lord’s glory, and we are being changed to be like him. This change in us brings more and more glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

What Paul’s talking about here is that the old covenant, the old testament law, whilst it came in glory, clearly, I mean Moses glowed with the radiance of God’s glory, that glory faded. But the new covenant, the new agreement, the new deal we have with God through the grace and the mercy that was poured out on that Cross by Jesus – that brings a glory that never fades, a glory that never leaves us. Because Jesus, when we believe in Him, the moment we believe in Him, puts His Holy Spirit in us and so His glory changes us from the inside out.

One of the reasons that superpowers like America and China and Russia put nuclear power plants in their ships and their submarines, is that the power doesn’t run out. They don’t have to stop to refuel, because the ongoing nuclear reaction gives more than enough power – power that doesn’t run out.

That’s the picture here. You and I might be able to fire up a tiny engine within us – our will, our strength, our drive, our determination – and yes, human beings are capable of some truly amazing feats of endurance, but compared to the nuclear power plant which is the Holy Spirit, our efforts are puny, their ineffectual and pretty soon, they run out of power.

What would you rather do, pedal away on your own, in your own strength, burning energy needlessly, or let God provide the power. Here’s what I’ve discovered. Transformation on my own is incredibly hard work and near to impossible to achieve in a sustained way.

But when I draw close to God, when I spend time in prayer in His Presence, when I open the Bible, read it, receive it, believe it, I have power to burn, more than enough power, power that comes from the joy of the Lord, power that comes from the Presence of the Lord by His Holy Spirit in me, power that words simply cannot describe – power that brings real, lasting, loving change in me. Power that helps me to deal with the many trials and temptations in my life. Power to go through the narrow gate, to walk the hard narrow path with Jesus, the path that leads to life. Power that changes me from the inside out, as God’s glory gets a hold of me and leaks out through me. Jesus said this to His disciples:

Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Holy Spirit power. Power to be His witness even unto the ends of the earth. So … if you’re interested in a new start, a fresh start this year, do yourself a favour. Ditch the self–help gurus, and go to the one place where you will find the power to change. The power to grow. The power to be the you that God made you to be.

None of us knows how many years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds that we have left before we breathe our last breath here on this earth. But let’s assume that it’s a finite period (because it is!). So … here’s a question for you today. How are you going to spend that finite time? What’s your purpose in being, for the rest of your days here on earth?  

It’s a sobering thought isn’t it? The time that you and I have left on planet earth is finite. It will come to an end one day, no doubt at a time when we least expect it. I run a busy diary in my life – I use an electronic one, that’s available on my computer, my tablet and my smartphone so that no matter where I am, I can check my diary, add in tasks and appointments, move things around.

In fact, I really don’t know how I managed my life, before I had this diary that replicates itself instantly and automatically across all my devices. This week and next week are pretty much all taken. You certainly wouldn’t get a meeting with me this week, a couple of slots left next week for emergencies, and even the week after next is starting to fill up.

And there are diary entries for speaking engagements and all sorts of other things that reach out over the next 18 months. All in my diary. All colour coded – board stuff, broadcasting stuff, admin stuff, meetings, personal stuff, even the odd holiday – put in my diary way ahead of time so I don’t book anything else. All good stuff.

But think about this, the Lord could demand my life of me today, or maybe tonight, or tomorrow morning. I mean, I don’t know. I’m planning and working as though I have a long time left on planet earth. I feel like I have … but really, none of us knows. I don’t and you don’t.

I remember once a few years back, with an equally busy diary, I fell quite ill and ended up in hospital. I was really very sick. Do you have any idea how irrelevant that diary was to me as I was lying there in that hospital bed with tubes sticking out of me? All the things I thought were important became unimportant. All the things I thought I had to get done this week, next week, were left undone as I recovered and – I know this is going to shock you – NO, the world didn’t come to an end, there wasn’t a rupture in the space–time continuum because Berni didn’t get done the things he planned to do. And I’m imagining one day, the Lord will take me hind, and that diary, with all its appointments and tasks that were oh, so important – well, it’ll just get deleted off the computer, off the tablet, off the mobile phone, out of the cloud. And that … will be that.

And it’s going to be exactly the same for you. All the things you thought were so important … won’t get done, will be no more and will be forgotten. So now I want you to think about … what really is important? In the time that you have left, what is your purpose for being here on this earth? What is your principal purpose?

Because it’s that purpose that will start to guide the things that you put into your diary. It’s your purpose that’ll tell you which tasks and meetings are important, and which ones really aren’t. It’s your purpose that will decide how exactly you spend your years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds … between now … and when you breathe your last.

Now it seems to me, if our purpose is just to live this life, to get the stuff done here and now that we need to get done, to make money, put food on the table and enjoy life then … well, it’s a pretty myopic, short–sighted view, it’s a recipe for a short term life, a life that stops dead, when your heart stops.

When Jesus was asked, which of the commandment (all 613 of them in the Old Testament) was the most important, this is what He said:

Mark 12:29–31: The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. ’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself. ’ There is no other commandment greater than these.

Now let’s imagine for a moment that you were to take that to heart. Let’s imagine that you decided, if you haven’t already, that with every breath that you take between now and then, you decide to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, with every fibre of your being. And similarly to love others as you love yourself.

Might I ask you, if that were true, if that became your purpose for living, how would it change the things that you put in your diary? How would it change your priorities? How would it change what you spend your time on?

What I’ve always found in my life, and I’m pretty sure it’s true in your life as well, is that nothing changes in what I say or do, until something changes in my heart. The reason I know it to be true is not just that it’s true in my experience, but because it’s precisely what Jesus said:

Luke 6:45: The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

There are many people today whose life isn’t going in the right direction. Often we don’t know why, we just know it’s not right. There’s a lack of joy and fulfilment. Or perhaps there’s the pain of regret. And often we don’t know what the right direction even looks like.

And if perhaps you sense that that’s what’s going on in your life today, and you’re looking for a fresh start in this new year, then I want to encourage you with all that I am, I want to implore you, to have a change of heart, to establish YOUR purpose based on what Jesus said was the most important thing. And that is … to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength and to love your neighbour as yourself. ’

Because if that truly becomes your purpose in living, then God will set a new life before you. A life that, whilst hard some days, you’ll know is heading … in the right direction.

God’s Word says (in Proverbs 16:9) that: whilst we, in our minds, plan our way, the Lord orders or directs our steps. That’s an interesting symbiosis. That’s God giving you and me a clear role in choosing the direction in which our life heads.

You can choose today, to make Jesus most important things your most important things. Or, you can choose today, not to do that, but instead, to make your most important things, your most important things.

Which one of those two do you think is going to work better for you, in the long run. Just a few verses earlier, God says this:

Proverbs 6:7: When the ways of people please the Lord, he causes even their enemies to be at peace with them.

Would you rather have peace or strife? Would you rather have the Lord ordering each step, or be tripping over yourself as you head in the wrong direction? This is why so many people’s lives are such a mess. We can’t go off and do it our way, and expect God to come along and dance to our tune and clean up our mess.

No, God loves us more than that. If we head off in our own direction, according to our own priorities, He’ll let us suffer the consequences, to bring us to our senses.

So, back to your choice. What will it be? What will you make the guiding purpose of the things that go into your diary, the things that you sacrifice your time for, the things that you will spend the rest of your life doing. Because make no mistake about it. Time is short. Time is running out. I don’t care how far you’ve planned ahead, one day, as you lie in a box in a funeral home somewhere, those tasks in your diary will be gathering cobwebs.

Want a new start this year? Then perhaps its time to head in a new direction.

If there’s one thing that I learned from my ten years in the military, it’s that if you want to hit the target, you have to aim at it. Shooting in the general direction just doesn’t do it. Hmm. I wonder if that’s why so many people’s lives are simply missing the mark.  

Back when I was in the Army, we used a 7.62 mm SLR – now, that’s not a camera, it’s a riffle. A fairly large 7.62 mm standard NATO round, in a self loading rifle, which means you didn’t have to cock it each time. When you fired it, it had a mechanism in it that would harness the power of the gas in the muzzle as the bullet was flying out, as a back force to automatically re–cock the rifle, putting the next round in the chamber, ready to fire it again.

Pretty clever stuff. We spend hours, and hours and hours in the hot sun out on the firing range, practicing hitting the target. Now the target was 1 metre square, with obviously the concentric circles and the bullseye. At the 25 metre mound, you couldn’t help but hit it dead centre. That became a bit harder at 50 metres and then 100 metres.

But let me tell you, once you got back to the 300 metre range, it was the easiest thing in the world, to completely miss the square metre altogether. Just the slightest movement and you’d miss, which is not all that good, since you’re practicing to take out the other guy who, in a war situation, would be shooting back to you.

We didn’t have telescopic sights back then. So you practiced your breathing, you practiced shifting your focus from the target to the front sight and back again, and then squeezing – not jerking – off the round. Mind you, when you squeezed the trigger, percussion of the bullet firing would fair rip your shoulder off. A lot of that was to do with the physics around a large bullet, these days most armies use a 5.56 mm round so it’s not as bad.

After hours of practice and firing on the range, we’d go back to barracks with chafed and aching elbows from supporting the rifle on the hard ground, and bruised shoulders from the impact of the rifle. Point is, we practiced and practiced and practiced. I wasn’t a brilliant shot, but I was good enough to cause the enemy more than a few problems.

One of the things I learned from that was the importance of focus. Keeping your eye focussed on the target, coming back to look at the sight, back to the target, breathing properly. All those things made a huge difference in your success rate.

That’s something I’ve been blessed to learn and something that I’ve carried forward into my everyday life. Focus is so important. When other people are flapping and running around in ever decreasing circles under the pressure, the person who maintains their focus is the one who hits the mark.

Yesterday on the program / before the break, we were chatting about the purpose of your life. So many people’s lives are a mess, because they’re living with the wrong purpose. Jesus was pretty clear about priorities and purpose:

Mark 12:29–31: The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. ’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself. ’ There is no other commandment greater than these.

Put God first and all of a sudden the things that you choose to do with your life, with your time, the things you put in your diary, the things you consider important are going to change. And when they change, your life starts to head in a whole new direction. But once we decide on the right direction, we need to keep heading that way.

It’s amazing, I mean, really it is, the moment we decide to put God first, the moment we decide, enough is enough, I’m not living this mess anymore – stuff just seems to start happening. People come against us. The devil comes against us – and we get all disheartened, thinking – maybe this Jesus thing isn’t really for me after all.

Hey, get a revelation today. That’s exactly why the devil is doing what he’s doing. That’s exactly what he wants you to think, because he wants you to turn back to your old ways. He doesn’t want you to persevere, because, he knows, as Jesus said, those who persevere to the end are the ones who will be saved.

Now, the Apostle Paul was a guy who had more than his fair share of trouble. It all started when he gave his life to Jesus – sound familiar. They tried to kill him, he was beaten, locked up, shipwrecked, mocked, you name it, it happened to him. And so far as I can see, it’s pretty much par for the course when you’re following hard after Jesus.

So, how does he react? Does he grumble, complain, cower, turn back? Have a listen to this guy:

Philippians 3:10–14: I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus

So no matter what suffering he’s going through, Paul wants to stay focussed on the prize, on his calling to proclaim the resurrection power of Jesus, even though for a time he has to share in the suffering of Jesus.

You know, it takes time, it takes practice, just like being on that firing mound, to maintain your focus while you’re hurting. It really does. But as you choose to do that, you’ll be amazed, how stable and focused your life becomes, how much more reliably you’ll navigate your way through those difficult patches. Look at the target, the prize, focus on that, focus on your calling and God will get you through.

It’s interesting that the original Greek word used most commonly for sin in the New Testament, literally means, to miss the mark. For example …

James 4:17: Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.

Let’s read that a slightly different way then, to draw out the meaning: Anyone then who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, is missing the mark, missing the whole point of what God is up to.

And the easiest way I know how to miss the mark, is to lose focus. That’ll do it every time. Let’s take this and apply it to your life right now. I know that you’re going through “stuff” – some trial, some temptation, some opposition, some struggle something that’s hurting right at the moment. Something you wouldn’t have chosen for yourself. Truth is we all are.

So let me ask you, how are you going to practice staying focussed, today, tomorrow, the next day as this thing plays itself out, on the prize that lies ahead, on the calling that God has on your life? What are you actually going to do to get focussed? Well, in case you’re coming up short on answers, here’s what I do. Two very simple things.

I pray and I read my Bible. Every morning. Sometimes it’s a half hour, sometimes it’s longer – but in a quiet, unhurried way I spend time with God. And I hear Him speak, I experience His Presence, I enjoy Him. And man, talk about sharpening my focus. Talk about getting all that stuff out there in its right perspective. Yeah it takes a bit of practice, but there is nothing, absolutely nothing like time with God every morning, in His Word, hearing His powerful truth, sharing our hearts with Him in prayer – there’s absolutely nothing like it, to help you stay focussed. In any case, what do you have to lose?

There’s a big difference, between the self–improvement programs that this world has to offer, and the powerful, life transformation that God has to offer. It’s chalk and cheese. And today, I’m believing that God wants you to have a whole, new, life.  

Over the last few weeks on the program, in this series called “New Year, Fresh Start” we’ve been taking a bit of a look at the new life that God wants each one of us to live – it’s a new year so it’s time for a fresh start.

God is the God of new beginnings. God is the God who makes the past irrelevant, who forgives everything, who heals everything to give us a new life to walk in. He wants you to have a fresh start. That’s not just some vague promise from some joker on the radio. That’s a promise from God that comes direct from His Word:

Romans 6:4: So when we were baptised, we were buried with Christ and took part in his death. And just as Christ was raised from death by the wonderful power of the Father, so we can now live a new life.

Did you hear that, a new life. But it’s not a life that comes on our terms. It’s not a life that we conjure up out of nothing so that we can head back again to the old life. That old life was all about pleasing ourselves. That old life was all about doing it my way, being healthy, wealthy and wise, being comfortable, being happy and that is not the new life that God is talking about here.

Too many people start the new year off wanting some change. They’ll grab onto anything that’s on offer, go with it for a while, realise here’s sacrifice involved and then head back to their old life. Sound familiar? It’s a pattern that has repeated itself over and over again in countless people’s lives since time immemorial. In fact, the Israelites tried it too.

They’ve been in slavery in Egypt for something like 450 years. Finally God hears the cry of His people. He raises up a leader, Moses, gives the man extraordinary powers, sends 10 plagues on the Egyptians and leads His people miraculously out of slavery. Woohoo! Have a listen to how the Israelites react at the first sign of trouble:

Exodus 14:8–12: The Israelites were leaving with their arms raised in victory. But the LORD caused Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to become brave. And Pharaoh chased the Israelites. The Egyptian army had many horse soldiers and chariots. They chased the Israelites and caught up with them while they were camped near the Red Sea at Pi Hahiroth, east of Baal Zephon. When the Israelites saw Pharaoh and his army coming toward them, they were very frightened and cried to the LORD for help. They said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Did you bring us out here in the desert to die? We could have died peacefully in Egypt; there were plenty of graves in Egypt. We told you this would happen! In Egypt we said, ‘Please don’t bother us. Let us stay and serve the Egyptians.’ It would have been better for us to stay and be slaves than to come out here and die in the desert.

Go figure! God’s done all these amazing things, these miracles, the plagues on Egypt and the moment the going gets tough, they want to run back to the safety of their old lives in slavery. And this isn’t the only time. After God takes them miraculously through the Red Sea, destroying Pharaoh’s army in the process, all of a sudden they realise there’s no food out here in the wilderness.

Exodus 16:1–3: Then the people left Elim and came to the desert of Zin, between Elim and Sinai. They arrived at that place on the 15th day of the second month after leaving Egypt. Then the whole community of Israelites began complaining again. They complained to Moses and Aaron in the desert. They said, “It would have been better if the LORD had just killed us in the land of Egypt. At least there we had plenty to eat. We had all the food we needed. But now you have brought us out here into this desert to make us all die from hunger.

So, because they’re under pressure, because they’re uncomfortable and uncertain and outside the comfort zone of their slavery – despite all the miracles to date, despite the whole parting the Red Sea and the miraculous destruction of Pharaoh’s army, what, they figure God’s not in this?

Exodus 16:4–5: Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will cause food to fall from the sky. This food will be for you to eat. Every day the people should go out and gather the food they need that day. I will do this to see if they will do what I tell them. Every day the people will gather only enough food for one day. But on Friday, when the people prepare their food, they will see that they have enough food for two days.

And so it was, exactly as God had said. Do you see my point here? This is exactly how we want to behave. We want a new life. We want the power of the Holy Spirit in us. We want to see miracles and transformation in our lives. But the moment the going gets tough, we want to run back to Egypt. It’s a pattern that repeats itself millions of times over as new years resolutions are abandoned. And it’s a pattern that repeats itself millions of times as people realise that taking hold of this new life, battle by battle, ain’t all that easy.

My exhortation to you today is don’t turn back. Don’t be like the Israelites here. Know that your purpose is to love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and to love your neighbour as yourself. Know that God has a plan, He has the power, He has the will to bring His plans to fruition, no matter how daunting the opposition appears.

James 1:12: Great blessings belong to those who are tempted and remain faithful! After they have proved their faith, God will give them the crown of eternal life. God promised this to all people who love him.

That right there is the Word of God for you today. That’s God speaking perseverance and hope and resolve into your heart today. Not my words, God’s Word. In my heart I know that there are many listening in today, who had resolved to turn back, to give up. But today God has visited you by His Spirit and by His Word, to show you the way forward.

And may you indeed be blessed as you receive His Word into your heart.

Right now in the couple of minutes that we have left together, it’s time to pray, because your enemy the devil wants to steal God’s Word away for you, just as Jesus said he would. So let’s engage the power of God to protect you by praying:

Father God, what an amazing tragedy it is that so many people hear your Word, even receive your Word, and yet the enemy comes along and steals it away from them. We pray today for every person who is with us, every person around the globe who has received your Word through today’s program. Lord we ask that by your divine grace and power you would protect us from evil, protect us from the devil. We pray that the seed that has been planted in our hearts by you today, would be protected by you, preserved by you, watered by you and through your grace would sprout forward, a new shoot, a new life. In Jesus’ mighty name was ask. Amen.

It is no coincidence that we’ve had this time together you and I. No coincidence at all. God has a plan for you, a plan not to harm you, but a plan for good. A plan for the rest of your life here on earth and a plan for the rest of your eternity.

If you believe in Jesus, if you have put all your trust in Jesus, that plan will unfold itself in your life, just as God’s amazing plans unfolded for Israel, after they were set free from slavery. He was with His people back then, in power and in might.

He is with you today, in the same way, with the same power, the same might and the same tender–hearted love. Don’t let go of that. And whatever you do, don’t let the devil plant his weeds around God’s seed – trying to convince you to turn back.

As the days, weeks, months and years slip by, I know that you’ll be able to look back and see the mighty things that God has done for you.