Pastoral Letter 145
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace and Peace to you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
By God’s grace and mercy, we have come to the end of the year 2022 and started the New Year 2023 with great hopes and anticipations. The year is new, the journey is new, but our loving and caring God is the same. He has kept us safe and blessed us in so many ways, for which we have to be grateful. Christ, our Saviour and the Light of the world has come to enlighten the dark world and our lives and give us hope, not only for this world and the life we have but hope for a better life in eternity with Him in His everlasting Kingdom.
As we continue in a mood of celebration, let us remember those who are facing so many challenges, including the terror of war, like the people of Ukraine, poverty, sickness, hunger, like the people in Yemen, Jordan, Zimbabwe and Seri Lanka, lack of daily necessary resource to live a decent life, like the people of Artsakh, who are in a dire situation and facing catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Let us continue to pray for them seeking God’s help and protection.
Let us remember those members of our congregation who are overseas or on holidays and pray for their time with family and friends and safe return.
If you will not be able to join us for worship tomorrow, please light a candle, have a small roll of bread and a cup of wine or juice and worship with us from home following the attached Order of Christmas Service.
Have a Happy New Year. May God’s blessing be with you and remain with you.
Be safe and well, continue to pray, remembering those who need care, support and love and let me know if any member of the congregation that you know of needs our help and prayers.
Here are some prayer points for this week:
- Pray for the New Year to be a good year for all and ask God to be with us, as He was in the past.
- Pray for the 120,000 people of Artsakh as they face a humanitarian crisis, with the blockade continuing for the 3rd consecutive week by Azerbaijan.
- Pray for the poor, the sick, the vulnerable, the struggling and the stressed.
- Pray for those who are unwell and struggling with different kinds of medical issues.
- Pray for world peace and ask for God’s blessings.
Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Best Regards,
Krikor
MESSAGE
New Year, New Life, New Hopes
2 Corinthians 5:11-17
Happy New Year!
When we say Happy New Year what are we saying to someone?
We are saying that we hope this New Year is better than the year before.
We verbally give them a blessing that their problems are behind them, and blessings are in the future.
Every year people stay up later than usual to see the old year go out and the New Year come in.
You can stay up late and watch the fireworks in the Harbour. In other places people drop things, such as: The ball in New York. Drop a strawberry, pickle, a piece of cheese or sausage. Watermelon drop in Indiana, Pinecone drop in Arizona, Beach Ball drop in Florida, Peach drop in Georgia, with the expectation that the New Year would be better than the year that has gone.
An American columnist has said:
“Optimist stays up till midnight to see the New Year in”.
“A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves”.
Oprah Winfrey says: “Cheers to the New Year and another chance for us to get it right.”
Interesting! But here are 3 things to think about going into the New Year.
1. What is our attitude going into the New Year.
2. What/who are we putting our trust in.
3. What part do we play in the process.
Let’s see what the apostle Paul has to say to us.
In 2 Corinthians 5:11- 5:17 Paul is telling us that if we are in Christ that the old is gone, the new has come.
All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself.
He is telling us that we are Christ’s ambassadors.
A. What is our attitude toward the New Year?
Are we looking at 2023 as an unbeliever with no hope or as Christ Ambassador with all the resources of heaven available to us to have an amazing New Year.
Every year offers us a chance at a new beginning and offers us new hope. But how many of us really believe that, or put ourselves in a position to receive it from the Lord?
Most people look forward to a new year for a new start but carry the same old habits and hang ups with them.
Little boy asked his father what his new year’s resolution was. “He was going to do everything possible in this new year to make his mother very happy.” The little boy then asked his mother the same question. She said: “To do everything possible to make sure your father keeps his resolution.”
Our attitude will have everything to do with whether 2023 ends up the way we desire it to.
If we do not believe anything will change in 2023, it won’t.
If we need to be reminded that we need to keep close to God in 2023, we are headed in the wrong direction and if we are trying to fix ourselves or try to find who we can blame for all that is going wrong in our life, we are headed in the wrong direction.
2023 will have renewed purpose when we understand that without the Lord, 2023 will just be another year, another resolution, another goal, but it won’t be a new life!
Looking for joy in this life? Look to the right place.
Joy without the Lord is circumstantial.
Looking for peace? Peace comes from God and is not based upon no trouble.
Looking for hope? Make sure that it is based upon God’s wisdom and strength, that God will guide us through this journey to his promises.
Attitude is a whole sermon, but 2023 coming in without an attitude change, without Christ being first in our life offers little hope. Our hope is in Jesus Christ.
B. What part do we play in the change?
Here is where we dig into the text: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he [she] is a new creation.”
The key words are in Christ. He does not say people that know Christ. He says those that are in Christ.
In Christ is an intimate and personal relationship with the risen Christ.
Because of Christ death and resurrection, He offers to us a new life a new creation in Him.
The problem with most Christians is that they know of Christ, but they are not willing to live in Christ.
One is according to the flesh, and one is according to the Spirit of God.
Just like the ending of one year and the start of a new year.
Those that are in Christ should be leaving some of their old ways behind with the hope of the redemptive change that God wants to make in us.
When we pray, we ask God to take things away that we know are harmful, yet instead of leaving them, we pick them back up by the time we are done praying.
In this New Year let us leave resentment worries failures behind and reconcile with God and allow Him to be active in our life.
Change the things that we can change, and trust God in those unavoidable times to see us through.
In Ephesians 5:15 Paul wrote:
“Be very careful then, how you live- not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.”
Conclusion:
1. Our attitude determines what kind of year we will have.
2. Change the things that we can change.
3. Finding God’s will for 2023.
God promises to allow us to know His will for our life as we seek Him and listen to what He has for us.
Let’s establish our priorities – God must be first. God must be a part of our decision making. If we are a Christian, we must be asking God for direction in our life.
We like to see new things to happen for us in 2023.
Do we have the right attitude to see it happen?
God should be first in our life; we should live in Christ, and we should let Him to control our lives.
Let’s welcome the New Year with renewed life and hope for the best to come.
Amen!