P. Schaller

This is a message for our hearts tonight and help us out, Rev. 21:5. Listen to this (reading the Scripture). Behold, I make all things new. How new? More new than you can ever imagine. The newest world without death, no sorrow, no crying, neither shall there be any more pain. Anyone in pain here tonight? Say to your neighbor, I’m in pain tonight. Are you in pain tonight? Halleluiah. I make all things new. No more pain, no more death, no more police cars, no more hospitals, EKG’s, PET scans, MRI’s, no more cancer medications, no more institutions for correction and delinquency. Most of us came out of those places!

vs. 4. The former things are passed away. Come on. Is this real? Is it coming? Is it real? Look at these three words:

1) Creation. My brother-in-law Phil Norman – it’s great to have my mom here tonight. 96 years old ready to take on the world. P. Phil and I and a group of guys went out 33 miles off the shore of Maryland tuna fishing. We caught 4 or 5 tuna fish. One was 90 pounds. It was laying on the deck of the boat and I got down and laid next to it and studied it. It was a torpedo with fins on it. It was beautiful. 1) Creation. Creation, creation. Did God make it? Who is God? Ps. 19 speaks to us. These messages in creation: fish, animals, insects, cosmos, creation. Look at your hand. Look in the mirror. Look at a child, a new born baby. Put its little foot against your face. And the face and their skin is so soft. Creation. Is it real? Is it real? Is this reality? It’s creation.

2) Incarnation. I studied it last night for two hours. I didn’t move. I read and studied it and thought about it and it’s not a long time but my heart is burning. The Incarnation. That God Almighty would become a man, 100% God and 100% man. I know the topic because we have been studying it all the years of our Christian life. I can’t get over it. A tuna fish is amazing. The Incarnation is more amazing. A human being is amazing. The incarnation is incredible. That Gabriel said to Mary that holy thing that shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God.

3) Resurrection. Christ died and was cold, dead, 100% gone, finished, dead man, a man dead, tortured, murdered and hung on a cross. Dead. 100% raised from the dead. 100%. Christ raised from the dead. These are things we know and understand in our confession and in our creed and Bible and study but they are profound. So is that verse in 21:5. The day is coming. I make all things new. I think

4) All of the universe is new and there is no more laws that we see now. There is something transcendental, something beyond us in the Spirit where the cosmos becomes glorified like Jesus’ human body is glorified. So the universe will be changed. No more death, pain, and sorrow. The former things are passed away. I love it if you and I could rejoice in it. And say that is real. That is reality. That is something we look forward to. How do we know because the babe born in Bethlehem was truly the Son of God. The one that lived and moved here and walked in and out of people’s lives with love and compassion was truly the Son of God and seated today on the right hand of God.

The second point I want to make. I want P. Steve to come up here with a chair and I have something to surprise him with, with this can. He’s taking his time. He’s slow moving! Remember the sermon Sunday night about sticky stuff? Remember? Here it is. (He’s spraying P. Steve with sticky stuff). Can you put that verse back up there? He that sat on a throne. Is it a real throne? It’s a real throne. I make all things new. Right now we have the sticky stuff. We have life like we know it. I’m so much, – I love the church and what we think and do. We are coming to a new year. I am concerned Christians live like this. They have problems and troubles in their lives and feel burdened and buried by the sticky stuff you can’t get off.

What do you think? Talk to your neighbor about it. What’s P. Schaller saying? What’s he talking about?

Let’s go to some Bible stories. Remember when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and ran away from God. Do you think there were parents or relatives sitting here in the play tonight running away hiding? They are afraid of church, a message, the people in the church, could be afraid of God. This is what happens. I am not as good as you are. I have this stuff all over you. Let’s bury him! I’m not like you people. I am afraid of God. I’m afraid of this Christianity. I’m afraid of commitment. I’m afraid of the Bible. I love it my kids are up here and in a school like this and I hope they become godly people but I don’t know about me. I don’t want to talk about it. We say like Samson, like Adam and Eve hiding from God, and Samson with Delilah losing his strength and he said I’ll shake myself like I’ve done before. But he couldn’t get free.

This is the world we live in. We go to this verse. Not only is the day coming when there will be no more of this stuff, it will be powerful. It will be free, joyful, purpose, clean, no lie, no deception, no pain, no broken heart. Now we have a life we have to manage. This is the closing part. We have to learn how to live because these roots, this silly string or whatever it’s called, it’s on me and it gets in me and gets rooted in me and my disappointment becomes my life. The hatred I feel in my emotions becomes the roots in my life. I have hatred in my life. I talk from a heart bitter and angry because of what has happened in my life. We’ll say God did this to me. I want to say, no, you cannot let that outside stuff affect you internally and get the roots of hatred or disappointment or failure or deep things that become your life. That’s why you come here. That’s our prayer. We come into the New Year and you know what the world does in the New Year? The world does its best to clean this up. They say I’m going to press the reset button but the roots are – you can cut it down and get cleaned up but the roots bring it back. Behold, I make all things new. Not only is that day coming in the universe but has come already in your life through Christ. I’m not afraid of God anymore. Where is God? I want to be with God. I must be with God. Those are the new roots in my life. This happens to everybody, doesn’t it? It happens to everybody. My wife just bought me this new shirt! It can’t get ahold of you and me. If we organize our schedule so I show up in the church, I organize the priorities of my life so I realize what is important. I make decisions about friends and who I can hang out with who will edify me in my inner man. This world is filled with stuff like this, isn’t it? That’s all that I wanted to say. I think you got the message. It’s awesome. The Spirit will teach you. The word speaks to you and is able to build you up in your inner man. These things happens and we are able to walk through them. I leap over a troop. I run through a troop. I leap over a wall.

We’re going to have a great New Years’ service here from 8 to midnight. We’ll do the count down and have a good time. Bring friends and relatives. Some are on the border. I will go and drink with my friends or go to Greater Grace New Years. I will party or stay home or I will be with people who are talking about deep things and important things and having a good time together. That will be fun. Plan on it. Put it in your schedule.

This guy, we love him (Pastor Steve). We hope he’s going to be okay! (From the sticky stuff). The warning is – what is this stuff, anyway? Gossip, speech, losing a job, broken heart, some kind of addiction. It’s who I am. It’s all internalized into my root system and this is who I am. It’s got to change and it has because Christ came into your life. Feed it. Grow in it. Make disciples based on it. Learn about prayer and worship. Have new friends.

Our theme for New Years is the Lord is my keeper and he does not slumber nor sleep. We can be keepers of our families, keepers of our future, keepers of our lives and keepers of life as God wants us to live it by his grace. Amen.