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[ Pause ] ♪ And thy help light ♪ ♪ In ♪ ♪ Light ♪

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♪ And thy help light ♪ ♪ In ♪ ♪ Light ♪ Amen. Let us all say amen again.

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Amen. I want to lift up this word, which is recorded in the eighth chapter of Acts, the first four verses, and describes an event which occurred in the early life of the church. And Saul was consenting unto Stephen's death.

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And at that time, there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles and devout men carried Stephen to his barrel and made great lamentation over him as for Saul he made havoc of the church entering into every house

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forcing men and women to go to prison Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. The subject of the message, a new start. A new start. Here's a clean year, a new year. Reach out your hand and take it. You are the

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builder and no one else can make it. See what it is that waits here whole and new. It's not a year only, but a world for you. We are given a new year which presents to us a new world. George Oswald in 1984 gave a description of what was to happen. We all know that

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much of what he described in his novel 1984 did not occur last year. Aldous Huxley wrote his Brave New World in which he described the kind of technology and the kind of scientific inventions that would prevail. John Naisbitt in his Megatrends speaks of what is going to happen in this decade and what we need to do in order to be prepared

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for it. He says we need to be able to speak three languages in this country, to be able to speak the English language and to be able to use the computer language and to be able to speak Spanish and those who are not able to do those three or make use of those three languages are not prepared for this decade.

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Well if we were to use those standards many of us would not be prepared for the future But I wish to submit to us what is in the Word of God that will enable us to be ready for whatever we may face in this new year, in this new world, with its new opportunities, challenges and new ventures. The church is the new people of God, called and

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commissioned to go forth into this world and proclaim the good news of God's salvation. This is not an easy task. The record of the life of the early Christian community is that according to the best evidence that we have, they had a great deal of difficulty, a great deal of opposition.

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If we observe closely what is presented here by Luke the historian at this particular period in the life of the church. The people of God are surrounded by persecution. Stephen, a deacon, was the first victim of open, blatant hostility to the church, which

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culminated in his death. The servants of God in our time are called upon to travel the road of persecution. And so if we would be ready for what the new year brings, we have a lesson to learn from the life of the early church that travel this road of persecution.

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To be a victim of persecution is to be harassed. It is to be oppressed. It is to be mistreated. It is to be hurt.

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And those who seek to live the good life are persecuted. If we would make a fresh start, if we would engage in new beginnings, we must be prepared to endure persecution. This is the life of the church.

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It's not just for the first century, it's for every century. There is harassment by contrary forces. There are certain forces that we are up against. There are forces that seek to hurt, who not only inflict bodily injury but seek to injure

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the mind and spirit. There are forces that engage in a relentless campaign to destroy us, to keep us from being ourselves, forces that annoy, that seek to not only hurt but to exterminate. So for us to really understand the life of the church, to understand what it means to

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be the people of God in our time, to understand what it really means to be a pilgrim of the way, is to recognize that in this road that we travel, in the path that we are to take in 1985 that there are hellhounds on the road. If we would make a new start,

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if we would make a new beginning, if we would enter a new world, with the new year we must be prepared for the hazards of the road.

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Stephen is a lay leader of a new movement And he makes a fresh start, a new beginning. He not only meets with persecution, but with death. But his death is not the end, but a new beginning.

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So the death of 1984 is not the end, but it is the gift of a new beginning and a new year, 1985. We're given a clean slate, a new leaf, an open door to a new world.

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The pressures we face are there. We don't make this journey without pressures. We have certain stress with which we must deal. We

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suffer from the distress of stress because of the pressures that we face along the journey, the hellenists, whether Greek speaking Jews,

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And they gave a new expression of the Christian faith. It was expressed in a new form of freedom. And when they made this new expression of their faith, this new manifestation of what it means to be free in Jesus Christ, they came under persecution.

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And this is not an experience that we cherish. The idea that the church, God's people, suffer persecution. The good people, we like to think, are always given an easy time. We'd like to think that.

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We'd like to think that the good people are going to have a very pleasant road on which to travel, that they're not going to have a great deal of difficulty, but the good people are constantly harassed. And here we find that in the life of the early church that these who are proclaimers, who are determined to express the

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goodness of God in their life to shed forth before others the fact that they are channels of His grace. These who are the proclaimers are hurt and as Paul says it is the case that we are troubled on every side. We are persecuted but not forsaken. We are cast down but not destroyed. Those who persecute the people

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of God usually believe that they're doing the right thing. Those who were the members of the Sanhedrin court were the persons who were entrusted with carrying out God's law, seeing to it that justice was done according to the law of God. They thought they were doing the right thing. Saul, who stands by and

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holds the coats of those who stoned Stephen, certainly thought he was doing the right thing. And we find that Saul, this man who is committed to keeping God's law makes havoc of the church. People are disturbed, there is disorder, there is confusion. He makes havoc of the church. In fact, he goes about in every

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house in Jerusalem. Where there are those who are supposed to know Jesus Christ, he goes in has them arrested and dragged and put into prison both men and women he commits them to prison well if we would make a new start let us look at what happens here that here is a new start for the church but this new start

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involves being put into prison. Oh as we face a new year there are many of us in many ways will be put into prison. There will be experiences where there are those of us who will be suffering from some physical ailments and we will no doubt be confined to beds whether it be at home or in the hospital it'll be a prison

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of sickness and we'll have to make a new start of adjusting to a new experience a a new start. This was a new start for the church. It was a new start because here in large numbers, wholesale numbers if you please, those who are committed to the worship and to the proclamation of the gospel are committed to prison. To prison. In so many ways, life

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commits us to prison. And if we would make a new start, we must be prepared to undergo prison experiences and to make the best of those prison experiences.

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Now, that's rather strange. That's not the kind of message we like to hear. We like to think about old health, happiness, and prosperity all during the year.

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But if we would be ready to travel, we must be ready for the hazards of the road. And that means we must be ready for prison experiences. A few days ago, a few weeks now, we were in Mexico

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for a few days of vacation. And you meet a lot of people, different experiences when you travel about. And I remember one lady from San Antonio.

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She was rather plump. And she moved about in the group with a great deal of zest, great deal of vigor. But if you notice a little closer, or more closely,

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she had a cane. She looked like she was middle-aged. But she was getting so much joy out of what she was doing with the group, and she had a spirit of pleasantness.

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And when we got to talk with her, it came out that she was involved in a terrible auto accident in which she lost a leg. And that what she really had there was an artificial limb. But that lady moved about with that limb with such grace and so smoothly and quickly that

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you hardly recognized that she had an artificial limb. Well, you didn't unless she told you. But here was a person who had really been put into prison, so to speak, and yet she had adjusted to that prison experience that she made the most of it.

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And she learned to live a new life. She made a new start for herself through that prison experience of losing a leg. Well, that's a good message for many of us. That when that prison experience comes, Paul goes to the prison and he somehow takes them

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out. Here is an experience that's designed not only to harass and to hurt, but to destroy the spirit of the church. But the church adjusts to it.

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And in fact, because they were put in prison, the church grows. The church prospers. The church becomes stronger. They are dispersed.

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They go everywhere preaching the word. Another wonderful thing about the church, and you can find, people can find so much wrong with the church, and that's right. great deal wrong because we're in it.

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There's a great deal wrong with the church. The church really suffers from ill health. It suffers from ill health. But the most wonderful thing about it

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is God causes the church to prosper in ill health. Now, that's the wonderful thing. The church prospers in ill health. It prospers through the prison experience.

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They went everywhere, everywhere. Oh, before they had just been congregating in Jerusalem. And they were like we are at Ebenezer. We come to church, we read our Bibles, we pray,

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and we talk about the goodness of God. And we rejoice and celebrate our salvation. And that's what they were doing. But when the persecution broke out in the church,

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church scattered and when it scattered the church became more effective because it was reaching out. They went everywhere. They had been just in Jerusalem, but now they go everywhere. And the first place that's mentioned is Judea. The church makes a fresh start by leaving Judea, leaving Jerusalem and going to Judea. We

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We need to make that start ourselves, a fresh start. We need to make that start as a church. To become more involved in leaving Jerusalem and reaching out into the community and touching people and lifting people and by so doing the church really becomes a church.

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Jerusalem, making a fresh start in Judea. Well that's not only true for church, it's true for us individually. Because you see, Judea is largely a wilderness area, and it's a lonely, it's a lonely experience. And many of us are called upon to live in the wilderness and to undergo certain lonely experiences and

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we are called upon to make a fresh start. Sometimes it may be living alone for the first time but to be able to live alone and to use that opportunity as an occasion to make a more effective witness for Jesus Christ. It may be beginning a new life as as the head of a family for the first time and in Judea

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there are certain experiences that come to us in the midst of it all and we need the assurance of the eternal companion to make a fresh start in Judea. Or a woman who is a divorcee, who has children, and she's in the wilderness alone in Judea and a man comes along and says now if you really want to relate you need

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to join me in partaking of drugs and if you really don't do this you really don't know what it's all about and she finds herself in in Judea and in the midst of it has to make a decision and a determination and a fresh start and in working and testing God under those circumstances in Judea. Samaria, Samaria

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has its strange temptations. They go from Judea to Samaria. They're in Samaria where they have a new code of morality in Samaria. In fact, they have a different Bible in Samaria. It's different from what they've been accustomed to in Jerusalem. They are a mixed breed in Samaria, and yet they go to

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Samaria, and in Samaria they proclaim the good news of God's saving grace. Oh, prior to that time, they'd gathered in Jerusalem, but now the church is not only the gathered community, but it's the scattered community. They are scattered.

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The Scripture does say, "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together." The psalmist says, "I was glad when they said unto me, 'Let us go into the house of the Lord.'" together, but it's also important that we scatter. That as we scatter, we will make

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our witness as a scattered community, scattered abroad preaching the gospel of the kingdom. That's a fresh start, that's a new beginning. And the wonderful thing about it, when the church makes this fresh start, this new start, Tertullian says that we multiply whenever we are mown down by you. The

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blood of the Christians is seed. To put it another way, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. They went everywhere spreading the seed of the gospel. They scattered good seed. Frederick Polak, a renowned Dutch sociologist, says in his book "Images of the Future" that the transformation of

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our civilization waits upon the sowing of good seed. One of the problems we have is being able to distribute the food in the world to the people who need it in the world and to provide housing for all the people who need it in the world. The resources are here but we've got to learn how to distribute them and when

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you really look at it a disproportionate share of the good things of this world are consumed by the more prosperous nations, that includes America, while the others are without. So if our world is to be transformed, some new seeds must be sown. You know the story of Johnny Appleseed, Johnny Chapman, nicknamed Johnny Appleseed.

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He was born in 1775 up in the state of Massachusetts and he somehow made his way down to western Pennsylvania and there he got a boat and he navigated his way down to the Ohio, put ahead on that boat apple seeds, loaded with apple seeds, and wherever he went he planted apple seeds.

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Hundreds and hundreds of miles, wherever he went, apple seeds. Well, what kind of seeds will we sow? What kind of fresh start will we have? What kind of new beginning? Well, it's a good thing, wherever you go to scatter, good seed. Good seed. Because you know what? It's coming up after a while, and it bears fruit.

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There were apple trees all along the way where Johnny Appleseed had gone and people remember him today because of the seeds that were sown. God says here in his word that his people

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went everywhere and God wants us today to go everywhere. Jerusalem, yes, but Judea and also to Samaria and not only Samaria, but everywhere Sowing good seed, and that good seed must be planted in times of suffering, in times of affliction,

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in times of sickness, in times of disappointment, in times of discouragement, and even in times of death. Yes, accept whatever God sends our way, but scatter the seed of love to face persecution,

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to face harassment, to face being hounded by the forces of opposition, but scatter good seed for the seed that is sown will certainly produce fruit. It happened then and so it is to happen now by the people who are possessed by the Holy Spirit.

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That's the difference. You can't do this. You can't be harassed and hounded and make progress. can't suffer and make progress and make suffering redemptive unless you are

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possessed by the Spirit of God. And that's what made the church so effective. That's why the church was able to make a fresh start, a new beginning in the midst of all of these changes, and that's the way it is to be with us to begin again. That's because the church somehow was made up of people who had their hand

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in the hand of God. That's what's necessary as we stand at the threshold of the year. I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, "Give me light that I might tread safely into the unknown." And he said to me, "Put your hand in the hand of God and that will be to you better than light and safer than a

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known way. As we come to the time of invitation we extend the privilege of the church and we ask that those who have accepted Jesus Christ who may be living in this city without a church home that you will unite with Ebenezer God's family here. We ask that if you have not accepted Jesus Christ that you

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make that decision today. There's no better way to begin the new year on this the first Sunday in 1985 than to begin it with Jesus Christ accepting him as Lord of your life. We invite you to come to put your hand in the hand of God to To make this your prayer, we invite you to come now.

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You come now and take the front seat. The invitation is extended. ♪ Precious Lord ♪ ♪ Take my hand ♪

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♪ Lead me on ♪ ♪ Let me stand ♪ ♪ I am tired ♪ ♪ I am weak ♪

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♪ I am worn ♪ ♪ Through the storms ♪ ♪ Thro' the night ♪ ♪ Lead me on ♪

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♪ To the light ♪ ♪ Take my hand ♪ ♪ And precious Lord lead me home ♪ ♪ When my way grows dreary ♪

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♪ Grows gray ♪ ♪ Precious Lord ♪ ♪ Linga ne ♪ ♪ When my life ♪

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♪ Is all ♪ ♪ Ghost gone ♪ ♪ Hear my cry ♪ ♪ Hear my call ♪

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♪ Hold my hand ♪ ♪ Lest I fall ♪ ♪ Take my hand ♪ ♪ Precious Lord ♪

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♪ Lead me home ♪ ♪ Jesus Lord, I am Thee ♪ ♪ Oh take me then ♪ ♪ I am Thine, I am Thee ♪

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I am warm Through the storm Through the night Lead me on

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Through the light Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home. [BLANK_AUDIO]