New Beginnings

Introduction

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 43:18-19

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

Room Set-Up

Arrange tables and chairs forward-facing for worship. Have a microphone and lectern available for the speaker at the front of the room. At each table, have a small container filled with pens and notecards (activity 1). Set up another table to the side with supplies for making a promise board (activity 2). Add another for refreshments if desired. Decorate the room in black, silver, and gold. Print a number of God’s promises and post them around the room.

Activities

Out with the Old, In with the New

• Out with the Old
  • Supplies: Pens, Note cards, small container

Use the supplies to reflect on this past year. Think about the ups and downs, the joy and sadness, the good and the bad. Using the note cards and pens provided, write down the struggles, pain, sorrows, and regrets you’ve experienced this past year. Once you have written down those things, put your note card in the trash can as a symbolic act of throwing away the things of the past, the moments and choices you would like to forget.

• In with the new
  • Supplies:

White 11”x14” poster board or cardstock

11”x14” picture frames (optional)

Old magazines (The War Cry and Peer have lots of good graphics, logos,

and content for this project)

Markers and pens

Glue or double-sided tape

Print out of God’s promises (available for free here at: https://garmentsofsplendor.com/promises-of-god/ )

Everyone should have creative freedom to design their own board. Some suggestions of what to do: Write down a promise from God that you want to hold onto this year. Cut out pictures or sayings that inspire you and glue them on your board. Draw a picture of a dream God has given you for the New Year. Write out Isaiah 43:18-19 as a reminder that God is doing a new thing.

Worship Outline

Opening Prayer

Praise and Worship

Suggested Music (Available on YouTube)

You are Holy (Michael W. Smith)

Build my Life (Pat Barrett)

Be Thou my Vision (Salvation Worship or SASB #573)

Take my Life (Chris Tomlin or SASB #623)

Testimony

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 43:14-21

Devotional Thought

Reflection Song – Promises (Maverick City Music)

New Year, New Beginnings

Raise your hand if you feel you have ever had a new beginning in life. Maybe it happened when you moved to a new city, started a relationship (or ended one), or maybe a new beginning happened when you began a new career. Most of us have had at least one of these experiences in our lives.

Isaiah 43 was written to people who were on the cusp of a new beginning. According to The Bible Project, this entire section of Isaiah’s book (chapters 40-48) was written to offer comfort and hope to the Israelites who, in the distant future, would be released from exile. God gave this message to Isaiah so that it would encourage the people of God as they entered a new era.

As we begin this new year, it’s important for us to think about how we want to enter it. You can start this year by relying on your own strength, setting your own plans, and chasing your own dreams. Or you can start this year by resting in God’s strength, trusting in God’s plans, and chasing the dreams God has for you.

It has become the norm in our culture to make New Year’s resolutions, but it has also become the norm to break them. No one is surprised when a New Year’s resolution doesn’t last through the end of the first month. Goal setting is a great practice to develop, but the reality is that we need to take a hard look at what foundation we are building our goals upon. Resolutions may get broken, but God’s promises never will. Let me share a true story with you.

Russell Kelso Carter (1849-1928) was man of many talents. He was a star student at Pennsylvania Military Academy, and he went on to become a successful teacher and coach at the same academy. In addition to being an athlete and an academic, Carter was a musician and a songwriter. Though he had professed Christian faith most of his life, it wasn’t until a crisis occurred that he began to understand the power of God’s promises. By age 30, his health was in critical condition due to a heart defect. Physicians said there was no more that could be done. Carter’s faith in God brought him to his knees, where he prayed for help and healing. It is said that he made a promise that day: whatever happened, his life would be fully and forever devoted to service. Carter was confident that God heard his prayer. Over the course of the next several months, his strength returned, and his heart was healed![1] Carter went onto become an ordained Methodist minister and later a Doctor of Medicine. He lived another 49 healthy years! During that time, he wrote and published a song that we still sing around the world today. Listen to the words of the first verse:

Standing on the promises of Christ my King,

Thru eternal ages let His raises ring;

Glory in the highest I will shout and sing,

Standing on the promises of God.

In the book of Isaiah, God promised to lead the Israelites out of the spiritual wasteland they had been experiencing while in exile. Today, ask yourself where God is leading you and what dreams He has for you this year. Stop believing that you can face the future by yourself. Let standing on God’s promises be your New Year’s resolution. God’s promises never fail.