New Year New Me! | Rev. Joshua Thomas

And not only do we find it a struggle with our New Year's resolutions, not only do we see it as difficult with the things we wanna improve in our lives, But if we could even be honest today, we're sharing in the virtual sanctuary so we can be honest this this afternoon. We know that sometimes in our spiritual walk, it's hard to live a new life. It's hard to let go of the old ways. We sing and shout and holler. Thank you Jesus on moving forward. But yet when the time comes to actually take those steps forward, it becomes exceedingly more difficult and many of us know that we found ourselves stuck in the same place or even moving in the wrong direction [00:38:12] (42 seconds)  #NewnessTakesEffort

And one of the most dangerous things the adversary does to us is make us think that our thoughts belong on the same level as god's thoughts. Make us think that we should take what god says and put that on one side and take what we believe on the other side and allow them to battle on an equal playing field because the sooner whenever we bring down god's thoughts to the level of our thoughts, we're treading on dangerous territory and we're leading ourselves straight on a path of destruction. [00:42:20] (34 seconds)  #HonorGodsThoughts

my brothers and my sisters, the devil will wait till someone critical leaves to expose that he's got a handle and can guide you in the wrong direction and that's why you have to be careful of who you kick out your life and who stays in your life because sometimes we kick out the wrong people and let the wrong people stay but Paul has left Corinth and now, they're going down the wrong path. He's gotten the word. He hears about what's happening and he takes out his pen and he writes this letter and he says, I have to remind y'all of who you are and every now and then, you need a reminder. [00:43:23] (39 seconds)  #GuardYourCircle

You've gone down the wrong path. You've been struggling with your faith, trying to figure out how to work it out, how to stand up against other tasks. Doesn't make sense how to live it. You've been hitting on obstacle after obstacle. Challenges have been coming your way. You've been doubting and wondering what it's like to be a believer in a world where others who carry the same title as Christian seemingly are reading a different bible than you, where Christian nationalists are rising up, and everything they're saying that god stands for doesn't match what you believe and you're trying to reconcile all of it and Paul says, let me remind you that if you are in Christ, you are a new creation. [00:45:09] (44 seconds)  #MyIdentityInChrist

What's that mean, preacher? Well, he says, if you're in Christ, you're new and when you're new, that means what you used to be is no longer powerful over your life. He said, I have to remind y'all, you are in Christ and he has already made you new. Oh, somebody missed that. Let me bring that again. You're in Christ and this is not waiting to become new because of the finished work of Jesus on Calvary. You have already been made new. Therefore, stop allowing the old things to hold you back anymore. [00:45:54] (44 seconds)  #AlreadyMadeNew

But when we look in the mirror, we have to be honest that we see it all the time. If you know about that, I want you to just drop an emoji and say, I've been there. That you've tried to put on a good front, but when you look in the mirror, you see all your mistakes. You see all the scars of the thing you've done wrong. You know every bad thoughts you've had. You know every time you backslid when nobody saw you and you thought god may have forgotten about it, but you still remember it. And it's hard sometimes to see yourself as new. [00:47:55] (30 seconds)  #HonestMirrorMoment

you are new. So, see yourself as new and this is the key and when you see yourself as new, it changes what you accept from other people. That's right. One of the challenges that the Corinthians were facing was that they were allowing other people to lead them astray. They were allowing other people to come to them saying, this is what you should believe. They were allowing others who had different thought to stand before them saying, this is the right way to serve the lord, to work out your salvation and understanding of who the lord is, that you don't just take what you've been taught but you add in other schools of thoughts, other wisdom, sources of knowledge, and understanding and put that all together and make a smorgasbord and that's how you grow in faith and Paul says, no. When you see yourself as new, it changes how you let people talk to you. [00:51:24] (61 seconds)  #DontAcceptOldLabels

Now, Paul tells them, you have to see yourself different. You're new because you're in Christ. Change the vision of yourself. Change what you receive from folk but finally, you have to change what you believe is your future. When you are new in the lord, it takes you off of one path and puts you on another path. [00:55:54] (31 seconds)  #NewPathNewFuture