ALL THINGS NEW

Transcript

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Hello everyone. This is Pastor Dean Thompson with the word of hope. All things new. And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Revelation twenty one verse five. In a book full of voices, angels, elders, multitudes, the four living creatures, there are only a few moments when God Himself, seated on the throne, speaks directly. This is one of them, and what he says is one of the most hope filled sentences in all of Scripture. Behold, I am making all things new. The one on the throne breaks his silence to announce the great project of renewal. That is the goal of everything. Pay attention to the tense, because it is full of comfort. He does not say I have made all things new as though it were only a finished past event. Nor does it say I will make all things new as though it were entirely future. The verb is present and ongoing. I am making all things new. The renewal is not merely something God will do at the end, it is something He is doing continuously, even now. The making new is already underway. This means the hope of the new creation is not only a distant promise, but a present reality breaking in. Whenever a broken life is being mended, wherever a hardened heart is being softened, wherever a relationship is being reconciled, or a wound is being healed, or a sinner is being made by grace, is being is remade by grace. The one on the throne is already at work making things new. The end is not just coming, it has begun to arrive. Every act of genuine renewal in your life is a foretaste of the day when all things will be made new. Notice the scope, not all new things, but all things new. God is not announcing that he will discard everything and create unrelated replacements. He is announcing that he will make all things, the very things that have been broken, the very world that has decayed, the very people who have failed, and make them new. Nothing is too far gone to be included in this renewal. The word is not all things replaced, but all things new. Redemption, not mere substitution, is the heart of God's work. And then God adds an instruction that tells us how seriously to take this promise. Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. It is as if God anticipates that He will find this, that we will find this too good to believe. That on our hard days we will doubt whether all things could really be made new. So he commands it written and stamps it with his own reliability. These are trustworthy and true words from the one whose name we have already learned is faithful and true. You may stake everything on this sentence. Perhaps there's a part of your life you have written off as permanently broken, a relationship too damaged, a habit too entrenched, a wound too old, a failure too final. The God on the throne does not specialize in the easy cases. He makes all things new. The very thing you have given up on is not outside the reach of the one who is right now in the business of renewal. So take God at His word today. Behold, look, He is making all things new. Not someday only, but now already in the midst of a world that still groans. Bring him the thing you thought was beyond repair. The one on the throne has interrupted the silence to make you a promise written down and sealed as trustworthy and true. All things, including this, including you, will be made new. O Lord, the one who seats you seated on the throne. You are making all things new. Not someday only, but now. We bring you the thing we had written off as beyond repair. Our relationships, the broken marriages, the broken homes, the habit that we have been struggling with for years. Oh God, our own brokenness. Make it new. Make us new, as you have promised. For your words are trustworthy and true. Amen. God bless you, brothers and sisters.