Happy New Year, Ginghamsburg! My name is Dave Hood. I'm the campus pastor at Fort McKinley. You might remember about a year and a half ago Ginghamsburg and Fort McKinley merged to become one church in two locations. We've gotten to see the little, 40-person, dying church begin to explode with new life. Are you ready for an update? Christmas Eve … if you weren't there, you missed a part-ay! It was incredible. There were about 400 people who came on Christmas Eve. Four hundred people showed up! And there was this spirit in the room, this celebration and this expectation of what's coming next, what's going to happen. It was the greatest place to be. But I've got to tell you - my favorite part was the choir. We had this 35-40 member choir that was just incredible! A year and a half ago, our choir was six people over the age of 75. Now, this choir was just incredible to look at them, because in this choir we had long time Ginghamsburg folks, we had urban missionaries from Ginghamsburg, and we had brand new folks from the neighborhood ... and they were all singing together. There was this incredible diversity, where there were black folks singing next to white folks; old folks singing next to young folks; poor folks singing next to rich folks; and people who could sing next to people who could ... make a joyful noise! It was incredible! And I looked at the choir that night and thought, "That's what heaven's going to look like." Then they started to sing, and I thought, "That's what heaven's going to sound like!" I brought a little clip, we only had a little video camera there, but you can get the feel for what it was like Christmas Eve at Fort McKinley. Check this out.

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It was absolutely incredible, it really was. Every time I preach here, I have people who come up to me and say, "I've been meaning to get to Fort McKinley, but I just haven't had the opportunity yet." I want to invite you with a special opportunity, this spring, every fourth Saturday of the month, we're going to be doing Project Neighborhood. That is our mission emphasis there in our neighborhood, and it's in your Ignite mission brochure. Every fourth Saturday of the month, we're going to be out in the neighborhood being the hands and feet of Jesus, doing anything and everything we can with our neighbors, just to say, "We love you because God loves you." And I want you to know that you're invited. Will you pray with me as we begin? "God, we are so looking forward to what You have in store for us this year, and I thank You for the gift it is to be in Your house, worshipping with Your favorite people. In Jesus' name, Amen."

Remember when we were kids we lived by a different set of rules? Do you remember the "re-do rule"? You know what I'm talking about. You'd be in the back yard, playing kickball with your friends and somebody would kick the ball and it would bounce off of two rooftops, hit a telephone pole and go in the dumpster! Uh-oh, we don't have a rule for that. We don't know what to do. Is that a homerun, or a foul ball? What is that? So you'd call a timeout, gather everybody together and you'd come up with this new rule that if that ever happens again, here's what that means. Then in order to get back into the game, you would call a "re-do." Everybody would go back to the spots where they were, and start over like it never happened. How many of us would love to have the "re-do" rule in effect in our lives? Wouldn't you love that, like it never happened?

These last several years have been really hard for many of us. As a matter of fact, TIME magazine just came out with their annual article that called this decade "The Decade from Hell" because it has been such a hard decade. For a second, think about where you were ten years ago. Remember, it would have been absolutely impossible for us to dream about somebody flying a plane into a building. It would never have dawned on us that that could happen. Everyone knew that the best investment you could make was buying a home, because homes will always appreciate in value, and everybody ought to own one. Remember, we got so upset and so angry when we were paying $1.89 for a gallon of gas? We believed that the American economy was going to get better every day, that it was going to keep going up and up. Do you remember, right about this time ten years ago, our biggest fear was computers crashing from Y2K? We were all worried about it, and the worst thing that happened was that 500 slot machines in New Jersey stopped working. How many would love for Y2K to be our country's biggest problem right now? Wouldn't that be great, if that was our biggest worry? In the year 2000, statistics tell us that 11.3% of Americans lived below the poverty line. Today, that number is closer to 14% nationwide, and if you live in Dayton, in my neighborhood, that number is closer to 18.2% below the poverty line. In an economy, where over the last ten years, we have experienced a 27% cost of living increase, and the average family income has actually dropped by 5%. That is if you were able to keep your job. As unemployment remains in double digits, it's getting harder and harder and harder for a family to make it. Statistics also tell us that if we bought a house in the last decade, it's lost 25% of it's value. That is if you have been able to keep it out of foreclosure. Folks, how many of us need a "re-do"? To pretend it never happened and start over again.

Here is what I would like you to do: name some things you would like to say "good riddance" to and you would like to put into a giant shredder or smash with a sledgehammer. I think there are a lot of us who are ready to say "good riddance" to some of that stuff that's been holding us back, and ready to move forward into something new. Maybe you are thinking that this last ten years hadn't been so bad for you. I know for me personally, this past decade has been one of the most exciting in my life. This decade, we completed our family. This decade, I finished school. It took me almost the whole decade, but I finished. This decade, I got the job of my dreams. I'm doing ministry and mission that is changing the world, and I couldn't be more excited about that. But I've got to be honest with you, along the way there have been some things that I would never in a million years want a "re-do." There have been challenges and hardships, so I guess here is where I am. Whether this last decade has been the toughest for you ever or maybe it's been the greatest for you, I think we can all agree that what we need to do is come up with a strategy to help us move from this decade into the better one that God has planned in the coming years. And so, we need a strategy, and since the "re-do" rule only works until you are fifteen, we need to come up with another plan.

I found a strategy in 2 Chronicles 34:29-32. Turn there with me. It's in the Old Testament. While you're looking for it, let me set this up for you a little bit. During this time, the people of Israel were going through a tough time. It was really hard, the economy was failing, there was crime everywhere, people were frustrated and depressed … are you connecting with some of these people? The more things change, the more they stay the same. And they were in this mindset that something had to change. The Bible tells us their pain came not so much from economies or depression, but their pain really came from the fact that they had forgotten God. They had been neglecting and ignoring God, and they were living the consequences of trying to live life without God. So, they were ready for change, but they didn't know how to do it. This young King Josiah came along - a 20-something, full-of-energy, big-vision, nothing-in-the-world-is-gonna-stop-us type of guy. He said, "We are going to do something different. What we have been doing hasn't been working. So we are going to do something different!" The Bible tells us that Josiah reopened the temple. Remember that they had ignored and forgotten God. Folks, it was so bad that there hadn't been anybody in church in years! They unlocked the doors, walked in, and after years, you can imagine the way it looked. There were cobwebs and dust all over the place. The chairs were turned crooked and upside down, and there was one light still burning in the room. As they were walking through this temple, they were remembering the stories that Grandma used to tell them about when they worshipped in this room. They walked into one particular room and came across this book; the Bible describes it as the Book of the Law. Most of us think that it is probably the Book of Deuteronomy. They took it to King Josiah.

Some of you might know what this is like. Maybe you've made a resolution this year, "This year, I'm going to read my Bible every day, if I could only remember where I put that darn thing! When was the last time I had it? Oh yeah, sixth grade Bible camp!" So you get your Bible, dust it off and open it as it squeaks, and you are thinking, "Maybe I ought to read this thing a little more often." That is what happened to Josiah, they gave him this book and he started reading it. The Bible says it blew his mind! It absolutely astounded him! He began to read all the promises that God had made and the Bible says it broke his heart … so much so that he actually tore his clothes and said, "Something has to change, we can no longer do this. I need a new strategy." In 2 Chronicles 34:29, listen to what his new strategy was, "Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites - all the people from the least to the greatest. (Do you see it wasn't just the religious folks or the rich folks or the educated folks, it was all the people.) He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord. The king stood by his pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord - to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees, with all his heart and all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in this book. Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves to it, the people of Jerusalem did this in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors. Josiah removed all the detestable idols from all the territory belonging to the Israelites, and he had all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God. As long as he lived, they did not fail to follow the Lord, the God of their ancestors."

This was Josiah's strategy for moving forward and it can be ours as well. It begins with recalling God's promises. As Josiah was reading that book, he was remembering all the promises that God had made, and all the ways that God had been faithful, even when they had not been faithful. Even in the midst of their unfaithfulness, God had kept his promises. I want to ask you to tell me what are some of the promises that God has made to us? Just shout them out: eternal life; he will never leave us; he will supply all our needs, provision; he will lead us; we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. These are the promises, and as Josiah was reading through some of these, his mind was being blown because he realized that not only had God kept his promises, but what a poor job they had done of keeping theirs. Can you connect a little bit with that feeling, like you made all these promises to God and you don't always follow through? That you mean it when you say you're going to follow God, but always end up going your own way instead? Or you really mean it when you say that you are God's and you make that promise to him, but inevitably, you end up holding back some for yourself? Josiah said that something had to change; it was time for a fresh start, time for us to do something new.

It begins for us by remembering and recalling the promises that God has made to each of us. At Ginghamsburg, we have this saying we use all the time: "All new day, all new chances." I really like that, because whenever someone comes into my office and says that to me, here is what that usually means, "Hey, Dave, we saw how bad you screwed up yesterday, but you get another shot today. We know yesterday was a royal mess up, you totally missed it, you missed the mark altogether. But you've got another shot." I love that. I think that maybe that's not just a Ginghamsburg thing, that's the heart of the Gospel, isn't it? The Bible tells us that when we are in Christ we are new creations. The old has gone and the new has come.

Lamentations 3:22 says, "Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed." It's really easy to be consumed, isn't it? Consumed with stress, with schedules, with finances, with family and relationships. It's easy to be consumed. But the Bible tells us, that because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed. "For his compassions never fail, they are new every morning! Great is your faithfulness." I like it that in this passage, Josiah didn't stop there. It is important to remember God's promises, but if we don't allow those promises to change us, to help us do something different in our lives, then we are going to end up right back where we started. So, Josiah remembered God's promises, and resolved to do something about it. He came up with a plan. Isn't that what a New Year's resolution really is - a plan? Here is how I am going to go about doing this.

Josiah's resolution is in 2 Chronicles 31, "… to follow the Lord, and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and with all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in this book." If this was New Year's for Josiah, this was his New Year's Resolution. This was his plan. I think too many of us fail in our resolutions because we don't have a plan. We know something has to change, but we don't give ourselves a plan to change it. This guy named John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, would gather together the pastors and the people of the churches every year and do a renewal commitment service, and really challenge them to do something new in the new year. And for all of those who were really serious about making changes in their life, John Wesley would say, "I've got three rules that are going to be your plan for making those changes." He did not make up those three rules; they came right out of the words of Jesus, right out of the Gospels. 1) Do no harm. 2) Do good. 3) Stay in love with God. If you haven't given yourself a gift yet this year, I've got a great one for you. The bookstore is going to be ordering them this week and you can put in an order for this. This is a little book that will take you about 45 minutes to read the whole thing, by Bishop Reuben Job, called "Three Simple Rules." It is this great, modern-day explanation of how these three rules really can change everything about who we are, and give us a plan to move forward in the new year. I want to encourage you to pick it up.

The first rule that Wesley said was "do no harm" and the way he would describe that is to avoid evil. There is a lot of evil and a lot of pain in the world - and I can't fix it all. But here is what I do know: I don't have to add to it. I might not have all the answers, but I don't have to add to the problem. I can avoid evil - do no harm. Romans 13:10 tells us, "Love does no harm to its neighbor." If I want to get serious about doing no harm, I'm going to have to really examine the way that I live my life. For instance, if I wanted to "do no harm" to the environment, then I have to look at how I live and what I consume and what I throw away; how do I recycle; what do I drive; examining my life to find out where I'm doing harm, and how I can do that less. If I'm going to get serious about doing no harm in my relationships, then I have to take a serious look at the relationships that I have and ask myself where am I allowing pride or selfishness to sneak in where love and grace ought to be? When I allow those things to sneak in, it harms those people. If I'm serious about doing no harm, I have to quit gossiping. God help us all quit, because gossip hurts people. I have to really get serious about how I spend my money. I have to get serious about how I get involved in the things of this world. Earlier, you heard Pastor Sue talk about this new sermon series that is coming next week with Pastor Mike. It's going to be Angels & Demons about this battle going on in our lives. There is this pull where God is pulling me this way, but something else is pulling me that way, where I want to do the things God is calling me to do, but I tend not to do those things. This sermon series, if you are really serious about doing no harm, is going to be a great first step, for you and for all the friends that you'll bring, to really be able to hear that voice of God over all the other voices that are going on. Angels & Demons starts next week, and I want to encourage you to be there.

The second rule is "do good." I want to read right out of John Wesley, exactly how he puts this, because it is so good. "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you can." That's doing good. It sounds to me a lot like Jesus, where Jesus said, "Love your enemies, and do good even to those who hate you." This isn't just "random acts of kindness" to those who are easy to love. We're good at that kind of "doing good." This is a different level of doing good, where we are intentionally, purposefully and consistently living a lifestyle of justice and mercy that makes a difference in the world. Maybe this year, your commitment to doing good starts with a commitment to go on a mission trip, to bring a little good somewhere in the world. Or maybe it's right here in this church to serve in some way that brings good to the world around you. Or maybe it's just looking at the folks with whom you spend every day, and saying, "How can I, through my commitment to doing good, make your life a little better because I was in it? And because I made a promise to God." Whatever that looks like to you, here is my challenge: wherever you set a footprint, wherever you go, that part of the world becomes a little better because you made a commitment to God to do good.

The last rule that John Wesley set into place was "stay in love with God." Do you remember the gospel story where Jesus was on his way to the cross, and there was a mob around him? They came to Jesus' best friend, Peter, and said, "Don't you know this Jesus?" And he said, "Not me! I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know him." Peter betrayed his best friend - and this happened three times. A couple of days later, he was at the fishing hole, feeling as low as he could feel. "I have blown it forever … I have done the worst thing imaginable … there is no coming back from this" … and Jesus showed up. In John 21, Jesus asked Peter one question three different times. He asked Peter, "Do you love me?" This was Jesus way of saying, "Peter, I forgive you. I still love you and I want you to stay in love with me. Don't give up just because you failed. Stay in love with me." For John Wesley, the way we stay in love with God is through our spiritual disciplines, and practicing those things that keep us connected with the very heart of God. For many of us, that is worship, either privately or coming together and worshipping publicly as a church family. It also includes prayer, with our families and by ourselves. It includes things like fasting and setting aside things for God that we might want for ourselves. It also includes Bible study. I am really excited about this year's new Transformation Journal. This thing is really neat! Did any of you read all the way through the Bible last year with the Transformation Journal? I am proud of you guys, great job! This year is going to be a new, exciting challenge. Rather than going step-by-step through the Bible, we are going to be looking at Bible characters, their personalities, their quirks and flaws, how God loved them, how they loved God, and what that means about how God knows us. This year, I want to challenge you to make this Transformation Journal your every day best friend. Spend time with it. Come on Wednesday nights to Bible With Brian. Brian is going to walk us through these intimate relationships that God has and how it connects us with God. This is the way we stay in love with God.

For John Wesley, the most important way to stay in love with God was through practicing the Lord's Supper. He recognized that this time Jesus spent with his disciples was the last time he was going to spend with them. "Jesus said, 'This is my body, and it's broken for you - for the forgiveness of your sins. This is how much I love you.' And after they had eaten, he took the cup and passed it around and said, 'This cup represents forgiveness. It represents new hope for you. This cup is for all the days where you are not going to get it right, you're going to fail in your promises and in your commitments. This cup is for you. I want you to do it often, so that you will remember me.'" Our first step in moving forward is to remember and recall the promises of God. Every year, when John Wesley would do this covenant service, at the end of the service, he would have everyone say a prayer together. I ask that you read it with me. This is a commitment prayer, this is a promise we make to God. Let's read this together as a church family, as our new year's promise and commitment to God: "I am no longer my own, but Yours. Put me to what You will, rank me with whoever You will. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for You, or laid aside for You, exalted for You, or brought low for You. Let me be full, let me be empty, let me have all things, let me have nothing! I freely and heartily yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal. And now, Oh Father, You are mine and I am Yours. So be it. And the covenant I am making on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen."

Here is what I want us to do before we leave. Will you look over your right shoulder? Look way back. Now look over your left shoulder, look way back behind there, see all that? Now, eyes here (front). That's the last time we look back this year. We are moving forward.

God bless you.