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Introduction
Well it’s a new year and like most of you, it is always a fresh way to set some new boundaries, goals, re- alignments in your life.
This year, one could say, that I was forced to set new ways of doing things.
The flood forced me to look at life differently.
I entered this year into a different house, the yard is not ready for winter, and the garage wasn’t workable, the neighborhood has changed.
much different that I had in the beginning of November.
Life has Changed, our circumstance has changed, but as we enter into this new year, I want to leave you with a few words of encouragement as we venture into this new year with God.
To do this, I have taken a few insights from one of my favourite author, speaker and pastor, Max Lucado,
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to prepare my own words, but this message is one that many need to hear.
I needed to hear and my hope and prayer is that as we look together into God’s Word that we come away ready to face the year whatever it may bring.
Excerpted with permission from Begin Again by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado
Some of these words that you will hear this morning are taken from a devotional by Max Lucado and his book.
If you would like a copy of this book, Begin Again it can be found on most of your regular book suppliers.
Begin Again,
Appropriate, as some of us are entering this new year full of hope in God,
yet as we are well aware there may be some approaching this new year with hesitancy.
Begin again,
The title pulls us to realize that we are to start something again.
Something that we know, we have done before, and yet it’s a starting point.
Let me read you some of His thoughts.
He tells a story of
Nadin Khoury was thirteen years old, five foot two, and weighed, soaking wet, probably a hundred pounds.
His attackers were teenagers, larger than Nadin, and outnumbered him seven to one.
For thirty minutes they hit, kicked, and beat him.
He never stood a chance.
Khoury’s mom had recently moved the family to Philadelphia from Minnesota.
She had lost her job as a hotel maid and was looking for work.
In 2000 she’d escaped war-torn Liberia.
Nadin Khoury, then, was the new kid in a rough neighborhood with a mom who was an unemployed immigrant — everything a wolf pack of bullies needed to justify an attack.
The hazing began weeks earlier.
They picked on him.
They called his mother names.
They routinely pushed, shoved, and ambushed him.
Then came the all-out assault on a January day.
They dragged him through the snow, stuffed him into a tree, and suspended him on a seven-foot wrought-iron fence.
Khoury survived the attack and would have likely faced a few more except for the folly of one of the bullies.
He filmed the pile-on and posted it on YouTube.
A passerby saw the violence and chased away the bullies.
Police saw it and got involved.
The troublemakers landed in jail, and the story reached the papers.
A staffer at the nationwide morning show The View read the account and invited Khoury to appear on the broadcast.
He did.
As the video of the assault played on the screen behind him, he tried to appear brave, but his lower lip quivered.
“Next time maybe it could be somebody smaller than me,” he said.
Unbeknown to him the producer had invited some other Philadelphians to appear on the show as well.
As the YouTube video ended, the curtain opened, and three huge men walked out, members of the Philadelphia Eagles football team.
Khoury, a rabid fan, turned and smiled.
One was All-Pro receiver DeSean Jackson.
Jackson took a seat on the couch as close to the boy as possible and promised him, “Anytime you need us, I got two linemen right here.”
Khoury’s eyes widened saucer-like as Jackson signed a football jersey and handed it to him.
Then, in full view of every bully in America, he gave the boy his cell phone number.1-
1. Sean Alfano, “Teens Arrested after Posting YouTube Video of Beating 13-Year-Old Boy and Hanging Him from a Tree,” New York Daily News, February 1, 2011.
See also Rick Reilly, “Eagles over Wolves in a Rout,” ESPN.
com, last modified February 14, 2011.
From that day forward Khoury has been only a call away from his personal bodyguards.
Thugs think twice before they harass the kid who has an NFL football player’s number on speed dial.
Pretty good offer.
Who wouldn’t want that type of protection?
As we enter this year,
We have something many people don’t
We have a God who not a phone call away, but is only a prayer away.
Let me outline a few ways that we know this to be true
God gives you the same promise
In fact, the writer of Hebrews quoted the words in his epistle:
Hebrews 13:5–6 (ESV)
5 ...... be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
Be content with what you have
These maybe be troubling words as we enter this new year.
I had a great time on New Year’s Eve walking around to my neighbors and hearing their stories and their current situation.
We talked, shared, and even cried for the way things have happened, but I can tell you there was hope.
I had the chance to say, God has provided, I also had the chance to say, I’m there for them as well as each of their stories holds a different path for them this coming year.
Be content...
Why, because God is with us.
The writer of Hebrews leaves us with a question.
That last question is a troubling one.
What Can man do to me
What can anyone do to me?
You know the answers.
“Lie to me.” “Deceive me.” “Injure me.” “Terrorize me.” “Bully me.”
But the Scripture asks a different question.
If the Lord is your helper, what can anyone do to you?
The Greek word for helper in this passage is boēthos, (BOY THOS) from boē, which means “a shout,” and theō, which means “to run.”
2. W. E. Vine, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words: A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Original Greek Words with Their Precise Meanings for English Readers (McLean, VA: MacDonald Publishing, n.d.), 554.
When you need help, God runs with a shout, “I’m coming!”
He never leaves you.
Ever!
He never takes a break, takes a nap, or takes time off for vacation.
He never leaves your side.
No matter what we will face this coming year.
God has promised to be there for us.
No matter how you feel, God will comfort our soul.
These last 6 weeks i have experienced that very thing.
In the midst of all what is happening, God has been my strength, my hope.
My Start Again.
Has there been times of despair, concern, worry,
You bet, but God has been faithful.
Here is another thought,
What about the well known passage in Philippians,
A little while ago, Heather has written a thought about this verse, and I would like her to come up and share here words, I could speak them, but I thought it would be good to hear them from the writer.
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