Pastoral Letter 245
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace and peace to you all.
By God’s grace we have farewelled the year 2024 and commenced the New Year, the year 2025, and we look forward with great eagerness and hope. We pray to the Almighty to be with us as we are sure that we will face many challenges, obstacles, pains, sorrows and hardships, but we will continue to receive God’s blessings and heavenly gifts, which He has prepared for us. So, let us be grateful for what we had, what we have and what will be given and trust Him always in any situation.
As a hard-working small congregation, once again let’s put our hands together and as we have done in the past for many years, let us rededicate ourselves to do our best and utmost for God’s glory as we move forward in the year ahead and rest assured that He is with us, though we are not sure what will happen after 31 May.
This Sunday it will be our privilege to have with us musician Dorian West, the Son of Bruce and Ruth West. As you know Dorian is the Music Director of many TV Musical Shows and we are grateful that he is in Sydney this weekend and is happy to join us with his music. He will accompany our singing and play a special musical piece for us during the Sunday Service.
If you are not able to join us tomorrow, please light a candle, have a small roll of bread and a small cup of wine or juice for communion and join us following the attached Orders of Services.
Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Here are some prayer points for this week:
- Pray for the New Year and ask God to be with us in the year as we move through unchartered territory.
- Pray for people of Middle East and Armenia, as well as the region, where the situation is uncertain.
- Pray for the displaced people, the homeless who need shelter.
- Pray for the poor, the sick, the hungry, the struggling, the stressed and those who are less fortunate.
- Pray for our church and our future plans as we seek God’s guidance.
In Christ
Krikor
MESSAGE
A New Year a New Day!
Revelation 21:1-7 Ecclesiastes 3:12-14
As we enter the New Year like many people, we have made plans to make a new start. Probably we have made new resolutions for the New Year. Resolutions of different kinds which have to do with our plans for the year, our physical well-being, having a different attitude towards things in our daily life, make new friends, being more patient, kind and loving. And the list goes on and on.
The New Year is the start of new beginnings … the old is gone!
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to start all over again?
A new start, with a clean slate; all the mistakes from the past, gone. Sounds good doesn’t it. But that is exactly what God gives us when we enter into a personal relationship with Him.
2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. “
When we enter into a personal relationship with Christ, “anyone is in Christ”, all things have become new. What this is saying is, no matter what our past may have been. No matter how many times we have messed up or failed, our tab is whipped clean. “Old things have passed away”.
Let’s take a look into God’s Word and see how we can look at the New Year with a different and a new attitude. Today we will look briefly at 5 new things that we can have and experience in the New Year.
1- A New Song
David in Psalm 96:1 says: “O, sing unto the Lord a new song“.
Let us decide that 2025 is going to be the year for the church to sing a new song, regardless of our uncertain future. It’s time for us to sing a new song about God’s love, goodness, mercy, forgiveness, joy and grace. We need to change our attitude in life, the attitude of defeat, loss, depression and negativity. And as we sing our hymns let us put in a spirit of joy and happiness. All the hymns that we sing should tell the people around us about the greatness of God, the love of God and the great things that He does in our lives.
Let’s enter 2025 with a new song in our hearts and on our lips.
2- A New Heart
Ezekiel in 36:26 says: “I will give you a new heart “.
A new heart! What a wonderful gift for the New Year; a gift that only God can give.
Thousands of people over the world have their names on a list waiting for a new heart. Sadly, few of them will receive a new heart to have the joy of sustaining their life for a longer period.
That’s not the case with this new heart that God has promised to us. Everyone that asks for this new heart will receive it, free of charge, no strings attached, no waiting list. All we have to do is to ask in faith and we will receive it!
We need to have a new heart at this new stage of life.
We can all receive a new Spiritual heart in 2025; a heart full of love, compassion and kindness toward our fellow man; the heart of Christ.
3- A New Spirit
Again Ezekiel 36:26 says: “I will put a new spirit in you “.
God has promised to put a new spirit within us. I like that idea because there are times when we don’t have the right spirit within us. There are times when we have a wrong attitude and a wrong spirit. Sometimes we are short tempered and grumpy. But, thanks to God that with the new spirit we can have a totally different attitude in life and the way we treat people.
God has promised to put in us a new spirit; a Spirit of love, righteousness and mercy.
A new spirit; His own Spirit!
4- A New Covenant
Jeremiah 31:31 says: “The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah“.
God is a Covenant God. He is a God of Promises. He has made a new covenant with us! Not just for 2025 but, for all the days of our lives. We are no longer bound by the Old Covenant.
The Old Covenant demanded a sacrificial lamb for the atonement of our sins but, through this new covenant, Jesus Christ himself became that sacrificial Lamb and paid the debt for our sins once and for all. The Old Covenant said that we could only approach God at certain times and even then, we had to go through the high priest.
This new covenant says that we can approach the Throne of God boldly.
This new covenant has made us Heirs and Joint Heirs with Jesus!
5- A New Name
Revelation 2:17 says: “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give a white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it“.
When we receive a new name, we are no longer known by our old name. If someone calls us by our old name, we are under no obligation to respond or even acknowledge them. When we accept the Blood of Christ that was shed at Calvary we receive a new name. We are no longer the sinner that we once were. We are now the righteousness of God in Christ.
The sad truth is that many people in the Body of Christ are still going by their old names. They are hung up in the past or bound by their family history.
I have good news friends, sisters and brothers, you can enter the New Year, 2025, with a new name which is worthy and presents us as a child of God.
I challenge you to enter the New Year with a new song, a new heart, a new spirit, a new covenant and a new name.
We pray and hope that God be with us in the New Year.
Amen!