Transition to a New Beginning

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV)

¹ There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
² a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³ a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
⁶ a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸ a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

Introduction: As we look in the rearview mirror on 2011, I must say I am not sad to see it go. The number 11 according to Biblical Numerology stands for "disorder and judgment." And now we enter a whole New Year 2012. Twelve stands for "Governmental Perfection" and that is what we hope to attain as we go forward in this New Year and so my message today is "Transition to a New Beginning."

What does transition mean?

1. Dictionary: The act of passing one state or place to the next.
2. An event that results in a transformation.
3. It means changeover or passage.
4. Transition to a New Beginning means that we are in the process of passing from a time of disorder and judgment (2011) to a New Beginning of transformation to "Governmental Perfection" (2012).

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
1. Hebrew: Time, et, now/when.
2. Hebrew: Season, zeman, an appointed occasion.
3. A time to put behind old things and a time for a new beginning.

Isaiah 42:9 (NKJV)
⁹ Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them."

Isaiah 43:18-19 (NKJV)
¹⁸ "Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.
¹⁹ Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Matthew 9:16-17 (NKJV)

¹⁶ No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse.
¹⁷ Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."
1. The new way does not fit with the old way.
2. New forms would have to accompany the Kingdom of God that Jesus was now inaugurating. To try to make it fit traditional Judaism would only succeed in ruining both the old and the new.
3. There is always a danger of becoming an "old wineskin." We must become a "new wineskin" in order to hold the "new wine of the Spirit" that I believe that God desires to do in and with this body.

Conclusion: 2011 was a year of disorder and judgment. It's over and past. We are in "transition to a new beginning." God is telling us and preparing us for the new "governmental perfection" that is to come. We can't go back and we can't stay here. We must move forward being thankful for our past and those that have served and enriched our lives. But the best is yet to come. New leaders and at some point a new Pastor will invigorate this body in a way that has happened for a long time. Do not long for the past but hope and expect for the future that God is bringing with "transition for a new beginning."

Close: Revelation 21:5 (NKJV)

⁵ Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new."
1. Am making- something He is doing, it is a process.
2. Wuest's: Make things new in quality. (New & improved)