New Year, New Self | Ephesians 4:17-5:2 | Brett Jackson | 28 December 2025

·32 min·3 clips

Why do 88% of New Year's resolutions fail, and what's a better alternative according to Ephesians?

The episode is a sermon by Brett Jackson titled 'New Year, New Self,' based on Ephesians 4:17-5:2. It opens with a list of popular New Year's resolutions in Australia, highlighting their high failure rate of 88% due to reliance on self-will. Jackson introduces the idea of a 'new self resolution' grounded in biblical teaching. He provides context on Paul's letter to the Ephesians, written to Gentile Christians in modern-day Turkey, urging them to stop living like non-Christians. The sermon explores the futility of sinful thinking, using a story about a year 8 student who stole cash to buy iTunes vouchers and threw them from a balcony to gain friends, illustrating how desires drive poor decisions. Jackson references Ephesians 2:1-10 to explain humanity's state of being 'dead in transgressions' and saved by God's grace through faith, not works. He then focuses on Ephesians 4:20-24, using a fashion analogy of a teenage boy changing clothes for a date to explain 'putting off the old self' and 'putting on the new self.' The sermon details seven practical applications from Ephesians 4:25-32, including replacing falsehood with truth, anger with forgiveness, stealing with giving, unwholesome talk with helpful talk, and malice with forgiveness. Jackson emphasizes refraining from grieving the Holy Spirit, sharing his own screen time data to critique time management. He discusses how social media reflects identity, citing Australian influencer Jamie Zhu's conversion in 2021 and how his content shifted from pranks to Christian themes. The sermon concludes by reimagining popular resolutions with Christian alternatives, such as consuming more Christian podcasts or volunteering at church, and ends with a prayer for God's help in achieving these changes.

As heard by us

A New Year's resolution sermon that moves the work of change from self-effort to the Holy Spirit.

New Year's resolutions open into a sermon on Ephesians, where the wish to become a new self is framed first as a spiritual question, not a productivity challenge.

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Why you'd press play

If your resolutions usually collapse under willpower, this Ephesians episode offers a different way to begin 2026.

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