This sermon was preached at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, Georgia on Sunday, December 29, 2013 by Pastor Paul Mims. You can hear this sermon at www.csbccl.org
2 Corinthians 5:16-21What will 2014 bring to us? Perhaps you have already wondered what your life will be like in the coming year. What will happen on the world scene? What will be the driving forces in our country?

I checked with the FUTURIST MAGAZINE so see what their predictions are for the New Year and beyond. They study the trends in various areas of our national life. Here are some of their predictions:

Thanks to big data, the environment around you will anticipate your every move.
The forecast: “Computerized sensing and broadcasting abilities are being incorporated into our physical environment, creating what is sometimes called an ‘Internet of things.’ Data flowing from sensor networks, RFID tags, surveillance cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles, and geo-tagged social-media posts will telegraph where we’ve been and where we are going. In the future, these data streams will be integrated into services, platforms, and programs that will provide a window into the lives, and futures, of billions of people.”

Doctors will see brain diseases many years before they arise.
The forecast: “Brain scans can warn doctors if a patient will suffer Alzheimer’s, dementia, Lou Gehrig’s, or a number of other brain disorders as many as 10–15 years ahead of physical symptoms. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are learning to identify distinct chemical biomarkers within patients’ body and brain functions. Doctors could then slow the progression of the diseases if they start administering treatments years earlier.”

Quantum computing could lead the way to true artificial intelligence.
The forecast: “Conventional computers cannot make decisions, as humans do, but quantum computers eventually might, says Geordie Rose, creator of the D-Wave One quantum computer. They use programs based on quantum mechanics to see multiple possible outcomes to any given problem and combine information from each to formulate solutions. With another 10 to 15 years of enhancement, they might cross the threshold to true machine consciousness, Rose predicts.”

Fusion-fueled rockets could significantly reduce the potential time and cost of sending humans to Mars.
The forecast: “Space exploration is limited to how much fuel our vehicles can bring with them and fuel weighs too much to get us very far. That may soon change. A University of Washington team has devised a type of plasma encased in its own magnetic field. The magnetic field causes metal rings around the plasma to implode and converge to create a shell that ignites the fusion reaction.”

Atomically precise manufacturing will make machinery, infrastructure, and other systems more productive and less expensive.

The forecast: What the term “nanotechnology” really refers to, according to K. Eric Drexler—the father of the concept—is atom-by-atom production, which will allow for extraordinary improvements in manufacturing all things. One major benefit could be far cleaner energy, such as liquid hydrocarbon fuels produced using hydrogen from water and carbon.

We truly live in an amazing time. But the heart of man is the same and is in need of the same redemption that the Apostle Paul wrote about in our text.

I. YOU CANNOT LIVE THE NEW LIFE IN THE NEW YEAR WITH THE OLD HEART. (v.16) “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way we do so no longer.”

How you view Christ will determine if you will live in the New Year as a redeemed person or as a person in need of salvation. Paul said that he once viewed Jesus with the understanding he had with the old heart. He viewed him with a carnal mind being offended at Him. He saw Jesus as being opposed to Jewish interests. His pharisaical mind considered Jesus to be a false messiah. In Acts 8:3 we read, “But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.” And in Acts 9:1, “Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.” You see, Paul was religious and even zealous, but he had the old heart. Is it possible that you are religious but still have the old heart?

Life is moving at a fast pace. Our children were born in 1962 and 1964 and they are now both in their early fifties. It hardly seems possible. Look at your life. Bam, bam, bam and you are 50, 60, 70 or 80. To live so long with the old heart is to miss what life is all about.

When we look at Christ with the old heart we also look at people with the old heart. We tend to see people as objects that we put in various categories, as pawns that we can use to our own self advantage, or as obstacles in our path. If we view Christ and people with the old heart, the New Year with be nothing more than adding to our store house of regrets and resentments. If we are to move beyond ourselves we need to hear the Lord speaking to us of His power to help. He says to us “Life is a Journey – you must trust me. Life is a Task – you must be obedient to me. Life is a Mission – you must fulfill your purpose.”

An admirer of Longfellow asked how he sustained his high level of vigor and productivity. Answering, he turned to an apple tree standing in full view, its blossoms beautiful and fragrant. “That apple tree is very old,” said Longfellow, “but I never saw prettier blossoms upon it. I’ve noticed that the tree grows a little new wood each year, and out of that new wood those blossoms come. Like the apple tree I try to grow a little new wood each year.”

II. YOU CAN LIVE A WONDERFUL NEW LIFE IN THE NEW YEAR WITH A NEW HEART. (v.17) “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”

God’s answer to our spiritual dilemma is to take out the old diseased heart and give us a new one. He does this as you come to him like a patient on the operating table. In faith you trust what He has done for you in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. In essence, when He has you open on the operating table he puts Christ in you. The old way of looking at life and people is replaced by a new affection. He really does make all things new. As you grow in Christ through the years, the old gets older and the new gets newer.

The book of Revelation tells of things getting newer for people of faith. We have a new name – (3:12) “I will write on him my new name.” (5:9) We will have a new song – “And they will sing a new song.” (21:5) “We will have a new life – “Behold, I make all things new.”

Perhaps you feel like Paul did when he looked back at his life before the encounter on the Damascus road. His mistakes were many, but he had a new beginning. Do you wish for the place described by Louise Tarkinton?

“So I wish that there were some wonderful place called the Land of Beginning Again where all our mistakes and all our heartaches and all of our poor selfish grief could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door and never be put on again.”

There is a place like that. It is right here and right now. George Bridger in his book THE MAN FROM OUTSIDE tells the story of Jim Vaus, a notorious criminal wire-tapper who was converted under the preaching of Billy Graham. After Vaus had begun to follow Christ, a man came to him willing to pay $10,000 for information that would settle a case of libel. Jim said, “Evidently, you haven’t heard.” “Haven’t heard what?” the man said. “That Jim Vaus is dead.” The man’s eyes bulged, his chin dropped, and he acted like he thought Jim had lost his mind. “That’s right,” Jim said, “the man you are looking for, who used to tap wires, make recordings, and sell them to the highest bidder, is dead. I’m and new man because the Bible says, ‘If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come.’”
Here are some scriptures that proclaim this truth:

Galatians 2:20 – I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Colossians 3:9-10 – Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.
John 6:50-71 – This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.

Isaiah 43:18-19 – Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

1 Peter 3:18-22 – For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.

Philippians 2:5 – Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Acts 2:38-39 – Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Just as heart transplants have become physically possible – through the Cross of Christ they are spiritually possible.

We arrived at Piedmont hospital in Atlanta before 7:00 A.M. I had been wanting to observe Joe in the operating room, so he invited me to be with him. We went first to his office to check the paper work on what he was scheduled to do that day. Then we walked down the hall and over the cross walk to the hospital and into the physicians locker room. There we dressed for the operating room by putting on the green “scrubs” the mask, the hairnet, and the shoe coverings. Joe introduced me to several surgeons preparing for their days work and said, “This is my Dad. He has come to observe surgery today.” One of the surgeons said to me, “See that he does it right!”

Then we walked down the hall to the operating suite where there were twenty operating rooms. We went into room five. The surgical team was busy preparing for the first patient. Joe introduced me and went about his scrub procedure. The patient was brought in right on time. The operation was to begin at 7:30 and last about two hours. It was to be a colon resection where a diseased portion of the colon was to be removed.

Joe talked to the patient briefly and assured him that things would go well for him during the surgery. The patient was then put to sleep. The abdomen was opened and the diseased portion of the colon was identified. About an eight inch section was removed and the colon was reconnected. The abdomen was stapled back together. It was now 9:30.

As I stood there watching all of this I thought that this is how we have to be with God. We are like the patient who knows that there is something wrong with us and we come to the Lord in total submission trusting Him to take out the old and give us new life. God is like the surgeon who can cut out the diseased heart and replace it with a new heart.

Do you have a part of your life that is spiritually diseased and needs to be cut away so that you can life fully in the New Year? You know that unless this is done you will be no different in the coming year than you have been in the past.

Pray this prayer: “O God, I am spiritually diseased and need to become a new person so that I can be better in this New Year than I have been in the past. I need to be cleansed. I need to be forgiven of my sins and failures. I believe with all my heart that Jesus died for me. I now open my life to become His disciple. I now make Him my Lord and Savior. I now submit to His cutting out of my life those things that have driven me from you. I want the old to pass and the new to come. I want to be a new person in Christ. Amen.”

PRAISE BE TO HIS NAME!