New Year New Me | Ps Ben Moir

It is a new year and with new years

comes new resolutions, new goals, new

rhythms, new possibilities.

And there's this phrase, this four-word

phrase that Jay has already said that

I've already heard many times this

morning. The title of my message,

new year, new me. Amen. Someone's like,

I do want I need a new me,

right? And we we we love a new you. We

never we love a new year, new me because

we get to come into new rhythms. We get

to come into to goals. We we get to have

new possibilities. Gym memberships go

up. Whether you go is another question.

Diets start. Vision boards get collated

and stuck on walls.

But the tension is this. What if God

isn't primarily interested in changing

the outside of your life, but the

inside?

We come into New Year's ready for God to

do amazing works in the outside of our

lives. But what if he first wants to

change the inside of your life? And we

see that in in uh throughout the life of

Paul, the Apostle Paul. Some call him

the apostle because he did amazing works

throughout the book of Acts and he wrote

most of the New Testament. So if you got

your Bibles with you, turn to Acts 9.

Many of us will know this story. It's

the conversion of Saul. So from verse

one it says, "But Saul, still breathing

threats and murder against the disciples

of the Lord, went to the high priest and

asked him for letters to the synagogues

of Damascus, so that if he found any

belonging to the way, that's what they

called Christianity, people that

followed Jesus, men or women, he might

bring them bound to Jerusalem." Now as

he went on his way, he approached

Damascus, and suddenly a light from

heaven shone around him. And falling to

the ground, he heard a voice saying to

him, "Saul, Saul, why are you

persecuting me?" And he said, "Who are

you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus,

whom you are persecuting. But rise and

enter the city, and you will be told

what you are to do." The men who were

traveling with him stood speechless,

hearing the voice, but seeing no one.

Saul rose from the ground, and although

his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So

they led him by the hand and brought him

to Damascus. And for three days he was

without sight, and neither ate nor

drank.

As I said, the title of my message is

new year, new me. Let's pray.

Lord, I just pray as we stand on the

start of this new year, as I preach this

morning, Lord, I pray that it is not my

words, Lord, but it is your words. You

tell me what to say. Stop what needs to

be stopped and translate that needs to

be translated. Lord, I pray that no word

falls upon deaf ears.

That it cuts bone and marrow, that it

enters into the heart and people leave

this room changed not because of fancy

words, but because by your power, Lord,

I pray you fill this place. Speak to us.

Your servants are listening. And all the

saints said, "Amen."

Well, if there's anyone that understands

this idea of a new me, it's the Apostle

Paul, right? In one instance, he was

raving ravaging the church. He was

imprisoning people, imprisoning

Christians like you and I. Anyone that

said they followed Jesus, he wanted to

put in jail. He even stood by in Acts 7

and saw the stoning, the execution of

Steven. He was not a good person.

He wanted to see the church destroyed.

And then all of a sudden, in one moment,

he went from persecuting the church to

planting churches. In one moment, in one

ch one encounter with the living God, he

had a radical transformation. If anyone

can say new year, new me, it was the

Apostle Paul. But one thing about Paul's

story that often gets misunderstood

is that a lot of people think that this

is a moment where Jesus came down and

changed his name from Saul to Paul. So

if this is your first time hearing this

story and you're thinking he's talking

about this guy called Paul, but the

scripture said Saul, who is he talking

about? You're not going crazy. It's

okay.

But the truth is not that Jesus changed

his name. It's that he actually had two

names.

To Jews, he was Saul and to Greeks, he

was Paul. God didn't in this moment

actually change his name. He was always

Saul and he was always Paul. Kind of

just like my wife.

I know that's a strange segue, but bear

with me. Everyone's like, "It's the

first week of January. you got to buy a

second bed. Um,

jokes. Anyway, most people who know my

wife, they know her as Anna. Anna,

right? That's her name. But fun fact,

her actual full first name is Anna

Victoria.

Fun fact for you all. You can all call

her Pastor Victoria now. She'll hate it.

So, don't do that. Great.

So, but when I met all of uh her school

friends, everyone called her Anna or

Anna because they're all from Penri. So,

so everyone was calling her Anna. We the

university that we met at, everyone was

calling her Anna. I was like, "Cool.

This girl I'm dating's name is Anna.

Great." And then I went to her church.

The she's half Filipino, half Spanish.

So, she went to a Filipino church. and

she forgot to tell me that no one

actually at the church called her Anna.

So, I went there and when I was

separated from her, people were saying

things like, "Oh, you're the one that's

dating Vicki, right?" And I was like,

"Don't think so.

Pretty sure I'm dating a girl named

Dana." And they're like, "No, no, no. I

don't know who Ada is. You're dating

Vicki." And I'm like, "I don't know

about you, but I don't think I'm dating

two girls right now."

And it took me a little while to work

out that at church they all called her

Vicki. They all called her by her second

first name.

Outside of her church, everyone called

her Anna. Inside her church, everyone

called her Vicki. And it took me a

little second to work this out. I wasn't

dating two girls. I was dating one.

Praise the Lord.

But just like that,

Paul had two names. But it was dependent

on who he was talking to. the name that

was being used. So to the Jews he was

called Saul just like Anna with her

Filipino friends she was called Vicki

but to the Greeks he was Paul. God did

not change his name. God changed his

heart.

In that moment it was not his name that

changed who he was. It was who he was

living for changed who he was. And we

can kind of like deep down this idea of

God coming down and changing something

external, giving us a a rebrand, a

refresh, a a new thing, right? A new

external.

But what if God was far more focused on

the inside?

If we're honest, we want God to change

our situation more than we want him to

change our soul. Our

prayers are if God just fixed this, if

God just gave me this, if God just

changed them, then I'd be happy. Then my

life would be better. Then I could do

what I needed to do.

But often while we're praying for God to

change our outside, he wants to

transform our inside. Awtoer in his book

uh the pursuit of Christian maturity

says too often we interfere with God's

work in us. We're so focused on the

outside we're so focused on the external

we actually stand in the way of what God

wants to do in our life.

We're so focused on what we can see and

what we can grab onto that we stand in

the way of true transformation, true

life change. Because inside we can't see

but outside we can.

But God doesn't work that way. We see in

1 Samuel 16, God says

the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks

at the outward appearance but the Lord

looks at the heart. God does not work

outside in. God works inside out. He

works from the inside. And as he works

inside, it will flow to the outside.

And I get it. It's hard to stay focused

on this. It's hard to feel like we're

getting transformed because when he

works on the inside, if we're honest, it

feels like nothing. It feels like we're

not moving forward because we can

visibly see outside. We can't see

inside. And it kind of reminds me of um

the West Connects, the M8, that while

that thing was being built, you could

see nothing going on. It was just more

chaos, more traffic,

more money,

more of just things we didn't want to

give. And I just felt like, what is

actually the point of this road? They're

doing all of this, it's noisier, there's

more traffic. But it wasn't until the

road opened that I realized how good the

road was.

from my house to the airport is so easy

now, almost too easy that a couple of

weeks ago when I went on a a trip

overseas, it was my first international

flight in six years. I was prepared. I

was like, "It's the start of school

holidays. There's going to be traffic.

It's the start of Christmas time.

There's going to be traffic. It's the

middle of the week. It's the early

morning. This is when people are going

to go to the airport." I remember one

time sitting uh on the main strip of uh

the airport from the McDonald's to the

domestic drop off. I spent an hour just

there. It was crazy. So I was like, I

got to get in early because there's

nothing going to stand in the way of me

and my holiday.

I'm getting on that plane. Okay.

>> So I was prepared. I left early. I was

like4 to 5 out of the house. You know

what? What if it takes me an hour and a

half? We're all good because of the M8.

Took me 45 minutes to get there, which

was amazing except for the fact that I

had two little kids with me. So, my

4-hour flight now became 7 hours.

Was awesome for those with little kids.

You know what I'm talking about. But

this is a strange tangent, but it

actually illustrates how God works. He

works underground. who works in the

unseen, hidden, quietly. And it can

sometimes be frustrating. It can

sometimes be like, why is God doing

this? But then once the work on the

inside comes outside, we can actually

truly see what he was mean meaning to do

in our life because God doesn't just

work on the inside, he works inside out.

So as we align with the will of God, not

God aligning with our will. When we

align with the will of God, we will see

true transformation in our life both

internally and externally.

When we align with the will of God, we

will see God working in our lives like

no other. If we want to have a new year,

if we want to have a new me, it's not

what can God do in in my world. It's

what does God want to do in my life.

inside of me because as he works inside

it will always always always flow out.

So in the life of Paul, we see three

ways or Paul models three things that

allows God to work in our life.

Because here's the thing, goals,

resolutions, they're not bad.

They're just incomplete if we never

invite God into the situation. If we

never ask the question, "What does God

want from my life?"

That's why I love having a word of the

year because it's asking God, "What do

you want in my life?" And last year, my

word for the year was tend.

And man, did God tend my life. He turned

my life upside down and he did a work in

me. But a word for the year is not just

this fun word we get to put on our wall

and say, "Yep, that's what God spoke to

me." And then come back in 12 months.

No. What the word of the year does, it

helps us realign our priorities. It

helps us refocus what we're doing in the

year. What that word did for me last

year is it re uh rewrote my prayers.

God, I can now pray into something. What

am I believing for you to do in my life?

It helped me understand if I came to a

difficult situation, was God trying to

work in me or did I make a bad choice

and I need to fix it? Right? What this

word of the year gets to do for you, it

gets to realign our focus to to to keep

our eyes fixed on God as we go through

the year. Not just what do we want out

of our lives, but what does God want out

of our lives? Because maybe we've been

praying for provision, but what God

wants to do is help you with your

stewardship.

>> Maybe we've been asking for peace, but

God's trying to help you realign your

priorities. We're asking for

breakthrough, but God's saying, "No, no,

you should just be more obedient."

See, when we invite God into what we

what our year could look like, that's

where we'll see true life change. And

the first way Paul models this

is fix your focus.

In Acts 9:5,

Acts 9:5

when when the light came upon Paul, the

first thing he said was, "Who are you,

Lord?"

The first thing when he encountered

Jesus was his eyes redirected to focus

on Jesus.

One encounter changed his focus for the

entirety of his life. In one Corinthians

2:2, he goes on to say, "For I decided

to know nothing among you except Jesus

Christ and him crucified."

That's all Paul wanted from this moment

on. He's like, I just need to fix my

focus on Jesus. If I'm looking to Jesus,

if I'm living for Jesus, everything else

in my life will follow through. Because

here's the thing. When what you focus on

will dictate what your life looks like.

What you focus on forms you.

For Christmas, my my son, he he's been

loving sport. He he just loves every

sport like you can think of. if it has a

ball or if it has a a bat, he wants to

play it, right? And for Christmas, one

of the presents that he got was a

baseball mitt. Yes, I know we live in

Australia, but he loves baseball. And

when he like first put it on, the the

thing that he was trying to do was throw

the ball. He was trying to pitch. And if

everyone anyone knows that has thrown a

ball before, wherever you look, that's

where the ball's going. So every now and

again his eyes would wander to the side

and he would just start throwing like

this.

But the ball was still going where his

eyes were going because wherever he was

looking was where the ball was going to

go. So I had to remind him, Luca, you

need to look at me. Look at my m if you

want to throw this way, you need to look

this way. And he then understood that

where he his focus was was where the

outcome was going to be. And just like

uh in Christianity in our world whatever

we focus on that will dictate our

outcome. Whatever we focus on that is

where we will go. It will form us. See

when Jesus is central to everything

else will find its place. When you place

Jesus truly in the center of your life

everything else will flow on from there.

But when other things start coming in,

start taking the place of where Jesus is

meant to be, you'll find yourself

drifting.

When your focus drifts, your life also

drifts.

So, we need to make sure that we fix our

focus. Fix our focus on Jesus. The

second thing that we see or Paul doing

is making room for the Holy Spirit. In

Acts 9:17,

Acts 9:17

when Paul has made it to Damascus, he's

waiting. A man by the name of Ananas

comes, he comes and it says he lays his

hands on Paul and says, "Brother Saul,

the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on

the road by which you came, has sent me

so that you may regain your sight and be

filled with the Holy Spirit." And

immediately something like scales fell

from his eyes and he regained his sight.

Then he rose and was baptized.

From this moment on,

this shifted how he did everything. He

didn't just consult the Holy Spirit when

it suited him, when he felt like he

couldn't do it anymore. No, in every

decision, in every situation, in every

circumstance, in every suffering, every

time he was in prison, whatever was

going on, he went to Holy Spirit first.

He didn't go, "Can I do this or can or

do I need God?" He goes, "No, no, no. I

need God. I need the Holy Spirit to

guide me whether I can do it or not."

Because Paul also knew that if he

created a habit when things did get

really tough, he didn't try and do it by

himself. He was able to just go straight

to the Holy Spirit because that was the

habit that he had built in of himself.

So, we need to make room for the Holy

Spirit. See, Paul partnered with Holy

Spirit in everything. And I get it. Paul

is the apostle, the apostle to the

Gentiles. He planted multitudes of

churches. And we can sometimes feel a

little bit overwhelmed, right? When we

go, well, how do I shape up to trying

being like Paul? How do I be like Paul?

I haven't had my Damascus road moment. I

haven't had a moment like this where my

life flipped upside down.

Well, I want to give you I feel like I'm

going to relieve a couple people this

morning. Firstly,

we have something that Paul never had.

That's the Bible. The permanent

residence of the Holy Spirit, the

permanent residence of the voice of God

is in the Bible. If you want to hear God

speak, read your Bible. If you want to

hear him speak out loud, read it out

loud.

That is where God will speak to you

from. And the second thing is

you don't need a new revelation every

day.

Some people feel like if they don't get

a revelation, they've never truly

encountered God. But that's just not

true. Because we can't control we can't

control our our Damascus road

encounters. We can't control our

lifechanging encounters. But what we can

change what we can control is our daily

encounter. Are we praying every day? Are

we reading the Bible every day? Are we

stepping into the presence of God every

day? Are we consistent in what God is

calling us to do? We can't change our

life changing encounters. But we can

control our daily encounters. Are we

daily, every day, morning, night,

whenever it suits you. Are we carving

out time in our day to spend with God,

to spend with Holy Spirit? because that

will also dictate where you go.

If we don't give him room, we won't hear

him. It's simple as that.

Cuz many of us, me included, sometimes I

I I pray like I'm reading from a

shopping list. I come into my prayers, I

I I I talk, I ask, I finish, and I

leave.

I don't give God time to speak back.

Many of us don't give God time to speak

back. And we ask why. And we wonder why.

God, why aren't you speaking to me? And

the answer is because we're not letting

him speak. We're not making room for him

to speak. We're not giving him the space

to think. Because if we don't make room,

we won't be able to hear him clearly.

But when we do make room, we will be

able to hear him clearly.

So, we need to fix our focus. We need to

make room for the Holy Spirit.

And lastly, what we see with Paul is we

need to continue to move forward. Paul

didn't stay stuck, good or bad. He

didn't look back. He moved forward. Even

with scales on his eyes, he went to

Damascus. I feel like if I went halfway

somewhere and then I became blind, I'm

going back. I'm like, this is too hard.

I can't even see. But Paul said, "No,

no. I need to move on because God told

me to move on. So, I'm going to move on.

I'm going to go to Damascus. And we see

that in Philippians,

Philippians 3. He says, "Brothers, I do

not consider that I have made it my own,

but one thing I do, forgetting what lies

behind and straining forward to what

lies ahead. I press on towards the goal

for the prize of the upward call of God

in Christ Jesus."

With scales on upon Paul's eyes, he

walked to Damascus.

Yet some of us, healthy, whole,

we're still stuck in 2025.

We're still thinking about what went

right, what went wrong, what we missed,

what we regret doing. We're still stuck

in 2025.

But you can't walk into what God has

prepared while staring at what's behind

you. You can't move forward while trying

to look back.

And the thing is, why worry what is

behind us? Why worry about things we

can't change when God is already in our

future? God is already in our 2026. He's

already in our 2027.

He is the same yesterday, today, and

forever more.

And when we align ourselves with the

will of God, when we realign ourselves

with what God wants to do in our life,

we won't just see transformation

inside of us, we'll see transformation

in our world. Because time and time

again, there's testimonies of people in

this room that when we align ourselves

with God, we will see him move in our

life.

Goals aren't bad. Resolutions aren't

bad. just invite God into them and see

what he could do. Because God is the God

of more. God is the God of exceedingly

abundantly more than we could possibly

think or imagine.

There is nothing that we can think of

that is outside of God's control or

outside of God's power. There is nothing

impossible

without God. But we need to make sure

that we position ourselves right to

receive from God

because it doesn't mean that we need to

do more. It doesn't mean that we need to

pray harder. This is not what we see

with Paul. No. No. It was one encounter.

One encounter with the living God. One

encounter with Jesus Christ that changed

his life forever.

And today, one encounter could change

your entire life. One encounter could

change your entirety of 2026. What you

thought 2026 may have looked like. One

encounter could flip it upside down.

Could change it forever. What could God

do with 2026 if we stop asking from God

and we start walking with God?

What could God do with our year?

Because God is able. He is exceedingly

abundantly more than able to more than

we could possibly think or imagine.

But it starts with Jesus. It starts with

an encounter with the living God. The

God that

the God that came down from heaven, put

on flesh, lived a perfect life, then

died upon the cross

to pay the debt that we could not pay to

wash us clean. Because all of us, every

single person in this room, we all have

fallen short of the glory of God. We

have all sinned.

If you're wondering, how many sins does

it take to separate myself from God? The

answer is found in Genesis 3 1.

And when we separate ourselves from God,

we can't find our way back ourselves.

We need God to come to us.

We can't find our way. He needs to come

to us.

So, I don't know where you are this

morning, what your what your situation

looks like this morning. I don't know

where your relationship with God is this

morning. But this morning, I want to I

want to give an opportunity.

If you don't know God, if you've never

heard of this person called Jesus, or

maybe you have heard of Jesus before,

but

you just kind of walked away.

This is your moment. This is your

opportunity to respond and realign

yourself with the will of God. Realign

yourself with Jesus Christ in heaven

because he is able to transform your

life in one moment. One encounter

[music] can change your life. One

encounter can shift everything in your

life. You may be looking at your life

and go, there's nothing possible in the

world that could change what is going on

in my life. But the answer is Jesus. The

answer is always Jesus.

So, with eyes closed across the room,

if that's you this morning, if you've

walked into this place just unknowing,

just feeling a little bit, man, is 2026

going to be the same as 2025? Cuz if I'm

honest, 2025 sucked and I don't know if

I can do another year of that.

If that's you this morning, in a moment,

I'm going to give you an opportunity to

respond. I'm going to ask you to raise

your hand with eyes closed across the

room. No one's looking, just me and some

team. And this is not a moment for me to

point you out. This is a moment for us

to for me to see who who does want to

respond. So, we can do this journey

together because we don't do this by

ourselves. We do it in community. We do

it together. This is not a journey we do

alone.

So, if that's you,

if you need a a new year, if you need a

new me,

this morning, God is calling you home.

This morning, God is calling you to

respond to his presence, to respond to

to this gift, this free gift that he

bought upon the cross.

There is no God like our Jesus. There is

no gift greater than the gift of

salvation.

because it's free.

If that's you this morning,

on the count of three, I'm going to ask

you to boldly raise your hands if you

want to respond maybe for the first time

or maybe maybe you have responded

before, but you just feel like today,

the first Sunday of 2026, I need to

respond and say yes to Jesus. On the

count of three, I'm going to ask you to

raise your hands. One, God so loved the

world that he sent his only son. Two,

Jesus, for the joy that was set before

him, he went to the cross and that joy

was you. Three, if that's you in the

room today, I'm going to ask you to

boldly raise your hand wherever you are

in this room. Yeah, I see that hand. I

see that hand at the front as well.

Yeah, I see that hand over to the side.

Come on.

Yeah, I see that hand in the middle.

Amazing. If there's any more people

around this room.

Yeah, I see their hand in the back as

well. Come on. [applause]

If anyone wants to join these five

amazing people, just going to give you a

couple more moments.

So good.

Amazing.

Well, church, we're going to pray. We're

going to pray this prayer together. So,

I'm going to pray and repeat after me.

Jesus, I give you my life.

Thank you for dying for me. I pray you

come into my life and make me new

because I'm believing that you are the

God who's able to do more.

And all the saints said, "Amen." Man,

come on.