New Year, Same God
Notes
Transcript
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10 Those who know Your name trust in You, for You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.
PRAY
Introduction: New Year’s Resolutions
Some of you may set new years resolutions like I do.
Maybe you want to read a certain number of books.
You want to read through the whole Bible this year.
You want to hit a certain goal in your health.
Goals can often help us change or improve our lives in many different areas, such as relationships with God or other people, mental capacity, finances or other things.
But our hope for the New Year is not in our own faithfulness or ability to improve our lives. We may set goals and have expectations, but our hope must not be in those things. Our hope must be set on an unshakeable foundation.
Our hope is in the God who never changes. The God who has been our hope until now will be the same God in the new year. Many other things will change, but God will not change. Many other things will be unpredictable. But here’s one thing we can count on. God is the same.
So this is what I want to remind us all of as we prepare to enter a new year.
2024 will be a New Year. But we will still have the same God.
God Doesn’t Change
God Is Unchanging in His Nature (being/character)
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
6 “Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.
25 In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. 26 They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing You will change them, and they will be passed on. 27 But You remain the same, and Your years will never end.
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.
22 Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!
God Is Unchanging in His Purposes (Plans)
11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the purposes of His heart to all generations.
17 So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath.
18 Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.
9 Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.
10 I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’
11 I summon a bird of prey from the east, a man for My purpose from a far-off land. Truly I have spoken, and truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, and I will surely do it.
11 In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will,
God Is Unchanging in His Promises (Faithful to His Word)
19 God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
29 Moreover, the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind, for He is not a man, that He should change His mind.”
89 Your word, O LORD, is everlasting; it is firmly fixed in the heavens.
90 Your faithfulness continues through all generations; You established the earth, and it endures.
91 Your ordinances stand to this day, for all things are servants to You.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”
9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.
23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your entire spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The One who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.
14 Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know with all your heart and soul that not one of the good promises the LORD your God made to you has failed. Everything was fulfilled for you; not one promise has failed.
Because God Doesn’t Change, We Must Trust Him
An example of faith: Abraham
18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”
19 Without weakening in his faith, he acknowledged the decrepitness of his body (since he was about a hundred years old) and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb.
20 Yet he did not waver through disbelief in the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,
21 being fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised.
22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”
A command to keep trusting
23 Let us hold resolutely to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.
14 For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even till death.
10 Those who know Your name trust in You, for You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.
Conclusion:
As we prepare to enter a New Year, remember that even though the year is new, our God is the same.
Though many other things may change, the Lord will not.
And since we have come to know Him, let’s keep trusting Him and keep our focus on Him in this coming year.
Whatever this next year brings, our hope is secure, because our God doesn’t change. He is always the same.
So keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep trusting Him. He is faithful.
PRAY
