Bayside Baptist Church

Jason King: Officially welcome to this new year. It's a new year and oftentimes at the beginning of a new year we pause and just start to think, "Okay, so what could this new year be like that last year wasn't?" Whether it was an amazing year, whether it was a tough year, maybe you wish it was still here or you're glad it's over with, a new year is upon us. For me, this time of year comes with a time to reflect and to think about what could be different.

According to statista.com, the most common New Year's resolutions for Americans this year are to exercise more, save more money, eat healthier, spend more time with family and friends, lose weight, improve performance at their job, and to reduce stress. But let me just say that was among the gung-ho folks because that study was done of people who made New Year's resolutions from October to November. If you're that far ahead in making New Year's resolutions, we have counseling afterwards for you.

Based on the data from online grocer FreshDirect, many customers fail to keep their New Year's resolutions with food. The retailer reported that customers' liquor and wine consumption picked up by about 40% after the first two weeks of February, while juice cleanse sales dropped by 25%. Shoppers also bought 15% more ice cream and desserts and 35% more pizza in early February than during the first two weeks of January.

Another study by Foursquare and Swarm shows that February 4th, 37 days after the new year started, is the day that you're going to fall off the wagon with your New Year's resolution. The apps analyzed users' check-ins and they found that that day marks an uptick in visits to fast food joints and a downturn in trips to the gym. Strava, the exercise app, is a little bit less optimistic, showing that it's actually the third Thursday in January when it all comes crashing to the ground. I did see that the Babylon Bee has noted that Planet Fitness is now offering a two-week membership that starts January 1st and you don't even have to go any further than that because once that's done, it's over with.

In all seriousness, you've been thinking about what could 2026 be that 2025 was not. Maybe you haven't nailed down exactly what that is for you. Maybe me talking about it in this moment is the first time you thought, "Oh yeah, it's a new year. What could be different?" For me, I spend a good part of the Christmas holidays just trying to slow down and enjoy being present with family, doing the things that we're doing and having a little bit different pace to each day.

It's about right now into the first couple of weeks of the year that I really begin to think about what could this year be. What is God doing? What are the goals or what are the plans or what are the things that are ahead? I begin to process that. While your resolutions may be destined to fail sometime between next week and February 4th, goals can come with a plan, which can be followed throughout the year and will help you move the ball down the field in your life.

Whether your intentions in the new year are to lose weight or to save money or invest in relationships or reduce stress, let's be real that there's one area of our lives that can easily be neglected or overlooked because it doesn't scream at you like the scale does or your savings account or your stress level or blood pressure. It's your spiritual life. I would say to us that on this day, as we look into 2026, looking at your spiritual life in this way can make the biggest impact in how 2026 goes for you. I believe it'll affect everything about your life.

As you nail down or think through or maybe begin to think through what the new year holds for you or what could be in store in the new year, start with your spiritual life. I want you to think about this question as we talk today and I want to ask you this question: What's the new work God wants to do in you in this new year? What's the new work that God wants to do in you in this new year?

In Luke chapter 5, which is where we're going to be in just a minute, it is in the middle of Jesus teaching on the Kingdom of God. He's brought the kingdom to bear and invited people to experience the kingdom and he's demonstrated that he is legit, that the power of God is at work in him and through him and he's performing miracles. But there's one day that he meets this guy named Levi. We know him as Matthew and Matthew is a tax collector. Tax collectors were not exactly the most upstanding folks in their day. They were not very well respected. They were often dishonest. They did whatever they could to make a buck and took advantage of people.

But Jesus invited Matthew, invited this guy named Levi, to follow him and he did. He dropped everything. He left behind his career. He left behind all the bank he's making. He left behind everything that he had and he decided to follow Jesus. Matthew had come from his group of people who had been doing the same things he had been doing. It was a circle he ran with and he was excited that he had come to faith, so he decided to throw a party.

He threw a party and gathered all of his people together that he'd been hanging out with and he wanted to celebrate his new decision to follow Jesus. But there was a problem. Matthew didn't know how things were supposed to work once you come to faith. He didn't know that if you were a good saint that you didn't drink, smoke, chew, or date girls that do. He didn't know those things. He threw a party to celebrate in the only way that he knew how. It was a blowout.

That's the picture of what's going on. Matthew's gotten all of his buddies together to celebrate what's going on in his life. He just did what he knew and what was normal to him. It's kind of like the kid a few years ago. A friend of mine was a youth pastor at the time and he said he had befriended this kid who had a rough background, far from God, didn't want anything to do with God. He was just in a bad space. But he befriended him. He started coming to church. He found faith in Christ and he became a believer. God started to work in his life.

My buddy, who was a youth pastor, called on him to pray at the end of a small group meeting one night and the guy didn't know. He just starts blowing out cuss words in his prayer. Everybody's giggling, some of the people are like, "Oh my gosh, what's happening?" That's the idea here. Matthew had come from this place. He didn't know anything different. He threw a party and that's what's going on right here. Jesus was right in the middle of them, eating and drinking with the tax collectors.

But the religious leaders, the Pharisees of the day, didn't really take too kindly to this. I believe most of the time they were well-intentioned, but they were extremely legalistic. They had reduced knowing God and a relationship with God to a list of do's and don'ts. They couldn't understand how someone could associate themselves with people like this like Jesus was if they were serious about their faith, much less claiming to be the Messiah as Jesus had done.

The religious leaders took an extremely spiritual approach. They became critical. They said, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" You may remember these lines that Jesus said earlier in Luke chapter 5 before our passage today. He said, "It's not the healthy that need a physician, it's the sick. I hadn't come to call the people that think that they're righteous. I've come to call those who are sinners who need God's grace." He said, "That's why I'm here."

Jesus' point throughout Luke chapter 5, but especially in the passage we're going to look at today in verse 33, is that God is making clear through Jesus that he sent him to save his people, to offer them new life. For people to find the life that Jesus offered to them, they had to accept a new work that Jesus was doing. It's familiar to us now. We read it in the pages of scripture. We talk about this new work that God is doing all the time through Jesus. It's not as new to us because we're familiar with it, but in this day, it was a brand new work.

For these folks in this day, the religious people, every day was Groundhog Day. Do you remember that movie? Every day is just a repeat of the last one. Spiritually speaking, that's where a lot of the religious folks in the day had found themselves. The same thing each day, over and over and over. Nothing new, same stuff, no fresh work of God, just maintaining what they'd done before. Yesterday was the same as the day before that, as the week before that, as the month before that, as the year before that, as the decade before that. It was just a repetition of all of these activities maintaining what had come before.

Let me pause right here before we even jump into this passage. I think all of us need to be honest that we can find ourselves in this place, living in spiritual Groundhog Day, doing the same things that we've done in the past, the same ways that we've done in the past, and expecting different results. Today what I want you to hear, and what I believe God has for you, is he's speaking a new word into your life, a new work. He's inviting you into what he wants to do in your life and through your life in this new year.

What's the new work God wants to do in your life this year? The first thing this passage is going to show us is that God is inviting you to fill your life with faith, not more stuff. Fill your life with faith, not more stuff. Look in Luke chapter 5 beginning in verse 33. It says one day some people said to Jesus, "John the Baptist's disciples fast and pray regularly and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why are your disciples always eating and drinking?"

Jesus responded, "Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not! But someday the groom will be taken away from them and then they will fast." What's he saying here? I think the truth, the principle in this, is that God wants to grow fresh faith in you, not simply repeat what happened last year. I want you to hear this, church. God's not into rinsing and repeating your spiritual life or mine. But often, isn't that how we treat our spiritual lives?

Jesus' point here is that filling your life with faith doesn't come from doing more religious stuff. It doesn't come by doing different religious practices or adding certain things to your life on top of what you're doing now. Jesus' message was he's bringing the kingdom, the new covenant, a relationship with God by faith. What he was teaching them, what he came to bring them, was not just another layer to add as icing on top of whatever they were already doing.

That's why he healed the paralytic right before this. Do you remember this? He told the paralytic as he healed him, "Your sins are forgiven." The religious leaders about had a heart attack when he said that. Who can do that? Who does this guy think he is? Jesus ate and drank with sinners. He didn't fast on Mondays and Thursdays like the good Pharisees did, like the religious leaders did and said you were supposed to do. The religious leaders are looking at him. "Hey man, your guys are not fasting like you're supposed to. What gives? What's the deal? Who do you think you are?"

In other words, "You're not worshipping how we've always done it, how it's been familiar to us, and so this can't be right." But Jesus was telling them that you don't experience a fresh work of God by just adding more stuff to what you've been doing. Now there's a lot of theological significance in this conversation. Jesus is telling the Pharisees, "Look, I am bringing a new way of doing things, a new way of knowing and relating to God. What you guys have been doing, this is not just one little thing to add on top of that. This is a totally new way of relating to God."

These guys were trying to earn favor with God at the worst, but to maintain their faith through doing religious stuff. Fast forward that to today, to you and I right now in this moment. That may be where you need to start. Deep down, maybe you're frustrated with your faith. You're doing the right things, you go to the right places, you say the right stuff, you have the right T-shirts or bumper stickers or whatever it is, but it feels lifeless. As you think about this idea of what God wants to do in your life in this new year, all you can think is about repeating what has happened in the past.

Maybe that's just what makes the best sense to you, or maybe that's what somebody told you along the way, or what somebody showed you it meant to be in the faith. But I would say to you that the best thing that could happen to you in this new year is for you to experience a fresh wind and a fresh fire in your faith. It starts with faith, not with doing more stuff. God is not inviting you to add extra things to your life. Jesus brought a message of grace by faith, not by doing, not by saying, not by going.

It starts with understanding what he's saying. The Pharisees missed Jesus' message. He was inviting them to the Kingdom of God. But they were convinced that whatever new thing God was going to do, it was going to fit very nicely in the old thing that they had been doing for forever. Yet Jesus said, "I'm making all things new." Don't fast-forward through this. Because right now, if your spiritual life feels like you're stuck or you feel like you're just slogging through the mud, or you're just stuck in first gear and you just can't get going spiritually, start here.

Are you trying to do a bunch of stuff? Are you trying to make sure that you come to church and that you try to read your Bible, you try to do these things, you try to not do those things, you try to say this or don't say that? Are you doing that instead of recognizing that God is calling you to faith? To receive his grace and his favor by faith. A New Year's resolution isn't going to get you to where you want to go. God's power and his presence in your life is what ultimately will result in a new you this year.

Oswald Chambers, in the book "My Utmost for His Highest," has this devotional book. In this, he says there is a sense in which when we try to do all the stuff, it's just a self-improvement plan. You can go put that in ChatGPT and come up with that on your own. Or you can seek the Lord's face and seek his vision and his direction for your future that comes by faith. Look at what he says in this quote.

He says, "We simply begin to act on our own initiative." I got that. It's Groundhog Day. I have done this before. I've been there, I got the T-shirt. I did it in high school, I did it last year, whatever. We rely on our own initiative. If we're eating only out of our own hand and doing things solely on our own initiative without expecting God to come in, we are on a downward path. If you're feeling stuck, if you're flatline spiritually, you're still in the same place. You're not just staying there, you're going downward. You're spiraling even if it is slow. He says here's what happened: "We've lost the vision." Is our attitude today an attitude that flows from our vision of God? Is that your sense of expectation for the new year, that it's a vision of God at work?

Are you expecting whatever happened last year or the year before to repeat? Or are we expecting God to do greater things than he has ever done before? Look at this quote right here, this last sentence: "Is there a freshness and a vitality in our spiritual outlook?" Is there a freshness? Is there a vitality in your heart that's flowing out of your heart and in how you're looking at this year? None of us know what's coming in 2026. I can't tell you what's going to happen when we wrap up this service. You can't either. You don't know what's going to come your way.

But what you can know is that when you put your eyes upon the Lord in faith, when you're expecting a fresh work of God in your life that doesn't come from stuff but comes from faith, you can experience the power of God, that freshness, that vitality that God wants to fill you with. He wants to fill you with faith this year, not more stuff. He wants you to lean towards him to see the new thing that he's doing in your world.

The second principle and truth that Jesus teaches in this is that God invites you to see the new work that he's doing right now. The new work that he's doing right now. Look in verse 36 of Luke chapter 5. It says then Jesus gave them this illustration. He's trying to explain what he's talking about here and he says this: "No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined and the new patch wouldn't even match the old garment. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins."

What's he saying? Imagine this. Let's say you got a brand new jacket for Christmas this year. But you've got this old one that's your favorite, but the problem with it is it's got a big gash across the front of it. The old jacket's ripped, something happened and it tore. He said you wouldn't take that brand new jacket you just got for Christmas, get you a pair of your mom's scissors and cut a square out of it to sew onto the old jacket, would you? It would look ridiculous. You'd have this brand new patch of stuff, this old tattered jacket, and you would have just ruined the brand new jacket that you got for Christmas.

He's saying that's not how it works. You don't just try to patch new stuff onto what's old. There's a new work that God is doing and he wants you to see what he's doing right now. If you're trying to fit the new in with the old, it tears apart the new and it doesn't fit. It just doesn't work. But then he says it another way. He uses illustration of a wineskin. He said nobody would take an old wineskin which was most likely made of goat skin. It was leather and when it was brand new before it was used, it would be fresh, just like a nice new piece of leather.

It would be sewn together and the ingredients to make wine would be put into the skin and it would be left in there for a period of time to ferment and to become wine. So it would expand as all the fermentation took place and the gases created. He's like, "You could not take a wineskin that had been used in the past and expect to put new ingredients to make new wine in that because the wineskin from the past would be brittle and it would break and you would lose it all." He said you don't want to do that. You end up with a mess.

What's his point? The Pharisees in this moment, the religious folks of the day, they just couldn't or wouldn't accept the fact that God was doing a new work in that moment. So they began to exercise the spiritual gift of negativity and criticism towards Jesus and his ministry. That's really not a spiritual gift. I don't want to surprise any of you today. But in some ways, we can kind of understand. The Pharisees were frustrated. They had been the religious people, led the people, they had instructed the people how to live a life in the faith of the Old Covenant. We look at it and we're looking at scripture and we're like, "These boys just don't get it."

But I would guess Jesus has included this in scripture for us because there's a part of us that's a lot like the Pharisees as well. Jesus never tells them to throw out their old ways, but he says you need to see them differently and he's challenging them to recognize that he is the Messiah. Jesus didn't come to patch up their way of faith and give them something else to do to be the next new thing, the next new fad. No, he came to bring a new way, a new covenant, a new way of having a relationship with God. But the religious people of the day, they weren't open to something new because they missed it completely.

Throughout scripture, God is doing a new work. Do you remember the first couple of chapters in the Bible? Genesis 1 and 2, God did a new work. He spoke into being all of the universe including humanity. Throughout the rest of scripture, God is doing something with nothing. Even in Isaiah chapter 43, I love this verse, you've probably heard this before. He says, "For I am about to do something new. There's a new thing that is happening. See, I've already begun. Do you not see it?" He says, "I will make a pathway through the wilderness, I will create rivers in the dry wasteland." God's people were living in the wilderness. They were living in the wasteland and God said, "I am doing something new in your midst."

Beginning of chapter 43 in Isaiah, God told them, "Look, I'm going to be with you whether you go through the waters, they're not going to overtake you, the fire is not going to burn you. I got you. I'm doing something new even when you can't see it. Don't worry about the past because I'm doing something new." Throughout scripture, over and over and over, God is at work doing something new. But let's be real, we often miss it because we want it to fit in what's old.

What's God wanting to do? What is he doing in your life that's new right now? Maybe you've been trying to fit what you sense God is speaking to you, maybe through the Word or maybe through something else you've heard or something you've just been praying or just a sense that you have in your life, "Man, this is what God has for me this year," and it's hard to make it fit in the way you've been doing things. You're taking a square peg and trying to drive it into a round hole and no matter how big of a hammer you get, how hard you hit it, it's just not fitting. It's not going to work.

Think back on the last year. Is God wanting to do something new that he's not done before in your marriage? Your finances? Maybe your habits? What you do on the weekends, what you do with the guys or what you do with the girls, what you look at on your phone? In some other relationship. Maybe you've been labeling it as frustration. You just feel like your wife doesn't understand you or your husband just doesn't get it, he's just not paying attention to you or your kids are whatever. Or this is happening at work or there's frustration that's bubbling up with your finances.

Maybe you've been stuck or uncertain about the future. But could it be that God is trying to speak a new word, a new work into your life and you're just taking the hammer with that square peg trying to pound it into that hole saying, "God, this is what you've done before. Why isn't it what you're doing right now? It's got to fit, it's got to fit. I'm just going to keep pounding it." You're frustrated. I wonder: could it be that God is speaking a new word, a fresh word to you? Don't keep trying to make it fit in what's familiar. Ask God this question: "Lord, what are you wanting to do in my life that's new right now? Can you help me see it? Can you help me see what you're doing?"

Think about this upcoming year, as we're just a couple of days into this new year, and ask that same question. "Lord, are there some new things that you want to do in my life? Would you help me see where you're at work?" You see, God's continually doing something new and oftentimes, myself included, we keep trying to pound that square peg into that round hole hoping that somehow, someway it's going to work. But we miss what God is doing right now. He's inviting you to join him. It's an invitation.

But let me give you a warning and that's really the last part of what Jesus is saying here is that when you say yes, Lord, I'm going to do that, yes, Lord, I'm going to walk by faith, yes, Lord, I want you to see me, I want you to show me what's going on, I want to see what you're doing, when you choose to live by faith, here's what's going to happen: God is going to stretch you in this new year. Some of you still believe that by coming to faith in Christ, by coming to church, being around the things of God, that life is guaranteed to get easier for you.

"Hey, everything's going to work out. God's got to answer my prayer. I'm coming to church. God's got to do this for me. God's got to make this happen. This is what's going to happen. Everything's going to get easy. It's going to be up and to the right in every such way." But that's not always the case. Look at what Jesus said in verse 39 of Luke chapter 5. He said, "But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. They say the old is just fine."

Jesus knew that there was a tendency then and our tendency now would be to reject anything that was new and unfamiliar. That truth was found in the way that people interacted with Jesus, the way that they responded to Jesus even as he taught, as he brought the kingdom. They thought, "Well, I don't know how this fits in what I understand. I don't know how to understand this. My mind is thinking this way, you're saying this, so I'm going to try to make them fit together." But Jesus is saying look, this truth is found in every one of us today too.

No one who drinks old wine seems to want the new. There's a part of us, isn't there, that clings to the past so tightly that we can become closed off to what God might want to do in the present. We say, "The old is just fine. The old is good." Did you catch that? Think about the people of Israel in Egypt. What did they say? "Yes, Lord, take us to the promised land." Until when? Until they got stretched. And then what did they say? "The old was just fine, let's go back to Egypt."

Over and over and over in scripture, when we get stretched, when God's people get stretched, we ultimately want to go back to what's comfortable. That's why Jesus is saying that. He's like, "But you can't stay where you are and go with God." Here's the guarantee of living a life of faith: the old is never fine. It is the foundation, maybe it's the building block upon which your life is continuing to move forward and grow. But the old work, the past work that God has done, his goal is not to repeat that in the new year and move you forward in faith. His goal for you, his purpose for you, is to stretch you through trusting him.

If you decide to go with God, he's going to stretch you in this new year. He's going to stretch me in this new year. The only thing that we know about stretching is that it feels like stress or uncertainty or difficulty or adversity. Aren't moments of stretching in your life filled with missteps or mistakes or maybe you have a lack of certainty and comfort and so your stress level's through the roof and you lash out at people? You're not sure what to do. We cling to what's familiar simply because it's familiar.

We don't always want something new, even when things are difficult, but especially when things have been good. And so for some of us today, maybe you're content to just stay where you are and let spiritual Groundhog Day continue to repeat itself. But you'll miss what God offers you today. Could you ask God this question in your prayer: "Lord, how do you want to stretch me this year? What new thing do you want to do to stretch me? Where am I stuck? Am I stuck in my marriage, am I stuck with my kids or my finances or my work or in some other area of life? Can I not get a handle on that habit or that addiction? God, where do you want to stretch me this year?"

Do you have room for a fresh work and a fresh touch of the spirit in your life? Or have you become rigid or entrenched in the things that you've been doing, believing that's the only way God can work in the future? Church, I'm not talking about a New Year's resolution here. I'm talking about a new work of God that becomes part of your life. Resolutions will be done by the middle of next week or February 4th. A work of God becomes a part of who you are that continues to shape who you are going forward.

Last weekend, I heard a message from my pastor, Chip Henderson, and in that message he was talking a lot about the new year and setting goals. It was a really encouraging and challenging message. But there were four areas in particular that he challenged us who were sitting in the congregation hearing these words to lean into in this new year and I want to share some of those with you. For me, as I said, now is the time where I'm thinking and praying through what I'm working towards in the new year. I want to challenge you to do the same, even if you set your New Year's resolutions back in July.

There are four areas that I would encourage you to really lean into as you pray about, "God, what's the new thing you want to do in my life this year?" You may want to write these down. The first one is to grow. How are you planning to grow this year? I think you need to set some goals in areas of growth, but the most foundational and the most important area that you could grow is in your goals with the Bible, with the Word. Next weekend as a church, as a faith family, we start 21 days in the Word.

Really what that is is a journey for our faith family to together, as a faith family, lean in and hear God speak to us through the Word. That's the most important step that you can take in the new year. I'm not talking about checking boxes and reading verses. I'm talking about learning to hear God speak to you through his Word. We're going to do it for the next four weeks together. It's the foundation I believe of all that God wants to do in your life in this new year. So grab a Life Journal when you came in. Hopefully you got one. If you didn't, you can as you go out. Grab one, they're free. We want to put it in your hand. Get started this week even listening to God speak to you through the Word, even if you've never done it before. Even if you tried other things, try the Life Journal and see if God's Word doesn't come alive. And then next week when we gather back together and start 21 days in the Word, find a small group because you need to be in a circle with other people and learn and grow in the Word.

The second one is to pray. I know you pray. We all pray. We prayed a few minutes ago together. You pray when somebody pulls out in front of you leaving church here in just a few minutes. You pray that you're going to get a parking spot at the restaurant. You pray that God's going to work out a circumstance, provide financially. We all pray. But how are you going to grow in prayer this year? Maybe you need to ask for prayer. You've never done that and you're holding back and you've got a need.

Maybe you need to join the prayer team or start praying for somebody in your family that you've quit praying for. Don't wait until we do 21 days of prayer in the fall. Go ahead and set an alarm now each day that reminds you to pause and to pray and to seek God's face. Write down your prayers. Choose a day each week to fast to pray. The third one is to connect. You need other people in your life. You may not want other people in your life, but you need other people in your life. Here at our church, we call that a small group.

You need to be in a circle of people to stay in touch with other people and to help one another grow. Do you have people in your life that really know you? Start at home. Find a small group at church. If you've never done that, nobody's asking you to do anything weird, but to simply find a circle of people who are going to encourage you in your faith and challenge you to help you grow. To connect.

The last one is to share. To share what you have, to be generous. I'm talking about beyond your tithes and your offerings. I'm talking about way beyond that. Thinking about how can you help someone who's in need? How can you share what you have with other people who may have a need of something? How can you share of your time by serving or other talents that you have to help other people? Invite other people to church. Share what God is doing in our faith family and invite other people to come with you. Don't just be a consumer coming for what you can get. Be a contributor spiritually. Share with other people what God has done in your life.

I want to challenge you with growing, praying, connecting, and sharing. Maybe you need to take a few minutes over the next couple of weeks and just write down some simple goals in each of those areas asking God, "What's the new thing that you want to do in my life?" Now here's where the crossroads is for us in this moment because on this first Sunday of the year, it's easy to hear this, to think about this for a little bit, and then go right back to Groundhog Day.

As a matter of fact, I read a study this week that said that's what most Americans do at work each day. I want to share with you this information. More than half of US employees now admit to regularly "ghost working." Have you ever heard of ghost working before? You may not have heard that term, but you know what it is. It's according to the report, results show that 58% of employees admit to regularly pretending to work. We've been doing that for years, we didn't even have a name for it.

It says another 34% claim they do so from time to time. What's most striking, though, are the elaborate methods that workers often use to actually act like they're being productive. Apparently, 15% of US employees have faked a phone call for a supervisor's benefit. 12% have scheduled fake meetings on their calendar to make it look like it's full. 22% have used their computer keyboards as pianos to make the music of office ambiance. If you've done that, I'd love to hear how you did that.

But as for what most employees are actually doing, 92% of them are searching for other jobs. 55% of them said they're doing it regularly. So as people are coming back to the office, no longer is it pretending to work while you're hacking on the keyboard when the boss comes by typing nonsense. No longer is it carrying a pad of papers to the water cooler to visit. It's more elaborate ways to give the impression that work is actually being done.

I can't help but think that if we just simply rinse and repeat what God has done in the past and miss the fresh work that God offers in the present, we're just ghost working in our spiritual lives as well. But God wants so much more for you than that. He invites you to experience his power, his presence, his work within you, his spirit creating the fruit of the spirit, a whole new life in you. And his invitation to you today is to simply say, "Yes, Lord, would you do a new thing in me today?" Let's pray together.