A New Year's Promise

Text: Psa 40:1-3

Theme: God’s has a promise for us and His promises are always true.

I. INTRODUCTION.

A. Someone once told a teenager that the greatest problem he faced was complacency. He responded, "Who cares?"

1. God is not complacent.

B. What to do when blue?

1. Don't weigh yourself. Don't watch Old Yeller. Don't go near a chocolate shop. Don't open your credit-card bill. Don't go shopping for a new bathing suit.

2. Are you discouraged or blue or depressed now? Christmas got you down? New Year depressing?

C. Let’s turn to His word.

1. Read from NIV

2. Read from Message. Psalm 40:1-3 A David psalm

 

I waited and waited and waited for God.

At last he looked; finally he listened.

[2] He lifted me out of the ditch,

pulled me from deep mud.

He stood me up on a solid rock

to make sure I wouldn't slip.

[3] He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,

a praise-song to our God.

More and more people are seeing this:

they enter the mystery,

abandoning themselves to God.

II. BODY.

A. Be patient

B. Wait for Him

C. Results? He will bring you

1. Out of the pit

a. Describe the pits (cisterns, wells, etc. In Palestine

b. Today we are more acquainted with ditches

c. Imagery of physical but really means out of despair

2. Out of Mud

a. Water made cisterns, wells slippery and almost impossible to get out of without help. River crossing the Upitow at Ft Benning. Getting up the other side

b. Imagery that tells us we cannot do it on our own. We need help!

D. He will:

1. Set your feet upon a rock

2. Give you a firm place to stand

3. Put a song of praise in your heart

E. Then you will:

1. Praise God

2. You will be changed.

3. You will be able to radiate His grace to others and witness to the power of God.

III. CLOSE.

A. Often blessings cannot be gained until we go through a time of waiting.

B. Act upon this promise to begin the year on a positive note.

C. A man fell into a pit and couldn't get himself out.

A SUBJECTIVE person came along and said:

"I FEEL for you, down there."

An OBJECTIVE person came along and said:

"It's logical that someone would fall, down there."

A CHRISTIAN SCIENTIST came along:

"You only THINK that you are in a pit."

A PHARISEE said:

"Only BAD people fall into a pit."

A MATHEMATICIAN

calculated HOW he fell into the pit.

A NEWS REPORTER

wanted the exclusive story on his pit.

A FUNDAMENTALIST said:

"You DESERVE your pit."

CONFUCIUS said;

"If you would have listened to me, you would not be

in that pit."

BUDDHA said:

"Your pit is only a state of mind."

A REALIST said:

"That's a PIT."

A SCIENTIST

calculated the pressure necessary (lbs./sq.in.) to get

him out of the pit.

A GEOLOGIST

told him to appreciate the rock strata in the pit.

AN EVOLUTIONIST said:

"You are a rejected mutant destined to be removed from

the evolutionary cycle." In other words, he is going to

DIE in the pit, so that he cannot produce any "pit-falling

offspring."

The COUNTY INSPECTOR asked

if he had a permit to dig a pit.

A PROFESSOR gave him a lecture on:

"The Elementary Principles of the Pit."

An EVASIVE person

came along and avoided the subject of his pit altogether

A SELF-PITYING person said:

"You haven't seen anything until you've seen MY PIT!!"

A CHARISMATIC said:

"Just CONFESS that you're not in a pit."

An OPTIMIST said:

"Things COULD be worse."

A PESSIMIST said:

"Things WILL get worse!!"

JESUS, seeing the man, took him by the hand and LIFTED HIM OUT of the pit.

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