Becoming a New Creation Part 1

Word all right second corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 says.

2 Corinthians 5:17

This says therefore if anyone is

in christ he is a new creation that

word he there's a generic term it's male or female doesn't matter who you are

if you are in christ you are a new creation the old has passed away behold the

new has come this first uh series or the first sermon of this series i want

to preach on this thought The old is gone.

Some of you guys need to hear that right now. The old is gone.

Everybody say it's gone.

All right. That's where we needed to be right there. BJ, I'm so glad you're

better this week. He was sick last week.

BJ's like my amen guy that I got to have right here to my left.

He just now said it's gone. And

I was like, there's my help coming right there. Him and the Holy Spirit.

The old is gone. The new has come.

The old is gone. The new has come. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus,

we just thank you for your Holy Spirit.

We thank you for your presence in this place. God, we thank you for the work

you've already done in our midst.

But our prayer is that, Holy Spirit, you'd speak to us.

Come on, make that personal right now. Say, Holy Spirit, speak to me.

I'm going to say it. Holy Spirit, speak to me. Speak to us in this place today.

We thank you for your word. In the name of Jesus, we pray.

And the church said? Amen. Amen.

My thought for this sermon today, if there's something I want you to take home,

take away from this sermon, would be this, that Jesus doesn't just make you

better, he makes you brand new.

Jesus doesn't just make you better, he makes you brand new.

I started thinking about this after last week's service. This was rolling over

in my mind, and I started thinking about the house that we live in.

We live in a house right now that we've lived in for almost 20 years.

This year makes 20 years that we've lived in this house. We've raised both of our kids in this house.

Actually, we brought Carter home to our old house and decided that those 33

steps leading up to the front door was just too much carrying a baby up those steps.

And so we put a for sale sign in that yard and it sold on the first day. Hallelujah.

So we've lived in this house for 20 years now.

Now we've been in this house. We've remodeled this house a couple of times because you know how it is.

Fashion change, styles change. We've remodeled this house a couple of times.

And, but, but the entire, for the first 15 years we lived in this house until

we redid the entire roof this last time.

There was a portion of roof that would leak, not all the time,

but it would leak whenever there was wind-driven rain, and the rain would blow

up the roof, and it would leak.

It would leak down into Ashley's bathroom and down into her vent fan that was in her bathroom.

There was times that we'd walk in that bathroom, and there's water in the floor.

And listen, we spent money on renovations.

We've renovated that bathroom twice in the time that we've lived there.

There was times that we had just spent thousands of dollars renovating a bathroom

and it would rain very hard.

And we would walk into that newly renovated bathroom and there would be water

in the floor and flakes of a ceiling off the floor in that newly renovated bathroom.

And the problem wasn't that we weren't renovating it.

The problem wasn't that we weren't doing a good job on the appearance of what

we wanted it to look like.

The problem, I started thinking of it this way when I started thinking about

it. The problem was there was no perfect way to connect the new to the old.

And I want to say that to your life right now, because there's times that we

try to go through life and we try to add the things of God to our old life and

our old existence and our old way of thinking.

And the reality is there is no way to add the new life that you're trying to

live in Christ Jesus to the old life that you spent so many years in.

See, we see this in people who have been incarcerated for a number of years.

You start reading the reports and the study on people that are incarcerated,

especially for those who've been incarcerated for decades, they begin to become

what they call institutionalized.

And so the life that they know, that they used to know, they no longer know.

And all they know is the institutionalized life that they live.

And you can read the studies on it. You can take someone that's been in prison

for decades and you can give them, they're out their first day.

They feel the sunlight on their face as they walk outside the prison walls for the first day.

They go into a house for the first time that they sleep in a bedroom that didn't

have bars on the outside of the walls for the first time.

They go to a job that they've secured for the first time, and yet I read in

an article this week that they look at it and say, I don't know this life because

prison was all I've really ever known.

That's what it's like in some believers' lives because we struggled for so many years. We.

But even though we've been set free now, we were bound by the chains of our past for so long.

We lived under the shame of the life that we used to live for so long that when

it comes to this newness of life, we still find ourselves wanting to cling to our failures,

wanting to cling to our sins, wanting to cling to our regrets.

And we look at it and we say, well, it's all that we've ever known.

And so as we get started this morning, here's what I want to say to you from

the very onset of this sermon is that Jesus doesn't just want to re-renovate

you. He wants to recreate you.

See, what I'll realize, and I don't know how many times over the years that,

that, that house, well, thank God we got the whole roof redone.

So they don't leak like that no more.

But I can't tell you how many times over the years we would walk in and there'd

be water in that floor. And I would say if we had just built a house,

if we had just built a whole house, we wouldn't have the problem of where this

old house connects to this new.

I want to say this right now. If you would just let Jesus Christ give you the

newness of life that comes through the Holy Spirit, then you will not have the

dilemma of how do I make this new life fit in to this old life.

And yet still, many people dwell in the mistakes of their past.

Many people struggle with the same sins over and over again.

Many people feel unworthy of the calling that God has in their lives because

they don't realize that when Christ saved you, he didn't just come in to make

your life better. He came in to make your life brand new.

Now, I say that in the midst of reading this passage in 2 Corinthians chapter

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

5, and Paul says that when we are in Christ, we are new creations,

and he says that the old has passed away.

Man, that passed away right there, it's dead, it's buried, it's gone,

it's never to be resurrected again.

When you walk in newness of life, that old you is gone.

I say that, I know for some of you, you're like, well, I wasn't that bad before.

No, no, no. You know what?

Every person in here, you are on a hell-bound train, whether you realize it or not.

You are dead in your trespasses and sins, whether you realize it or not.

And the only hope you had is in Jesus Christ.

I've heard people say, well, you know, they're a good person. All they need is church.

No, they don't need church. They need the Lord Jesus to make them a new creature in Christ Jesus.

There's none of us that are so good that all we need to do is sit in a church

pew, and that's all we're never ever going to need.

We need the power of God in our life. So it beckons me to ask the question,

I think all of us need to answer this question, have you truly let go of the old?

Have you truly, I think that's something personally that all of us have to ask

ourselves, have you truly,

go of the old life that you used to live.

See, there's a doctrine that we forget about. Sometimes we get so caught up

in our Christian ease and we get so caught up in our church performances that

we forget the doctrine of regeneration.

You know what the doctrine of regeneration is? All that is, is the work of the

Holy Spirit that makes every person new again in Christ Jesus.

The doctrine of regeneration is a supernatural transformation.

See, we talk about it. We're our theme this year is come and see.

And we say that come and see, an invitation to come and see is an invitation to transformation.

That's what the doctrine of regeneration does.

Regeneration by the power of the Holy Spirit takes you from what you used to

be, dead in your trespasses and sins, not worthy of the glory of God.

And it causes you to become a new creation in Christ Jesus, where old things

are passed away and all things have become new.

See, the reality is it's not just moral improvement. It's spiritual rebirth.

That's what it is. It's not moral improvement. It's spiritual rebirth.

People would say, well, you know, I became a lot more of a moral person since I've known Christ.

Well, I'm not saying that your morality won't improve. What I'm saying is it's

not about adding good morals.

It's about becoming a new creature in Christ Jesus. We're going to talk about

how to do that in just a moment, but you have to be born again.

The book of John is quoting Jesus here in chapter three and verse three says

that Jesus answered and said, I say to you, unless one is born again,

he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Once again, I want to reiterate the point that it's not about adding good morals.

It's about being born again by the spirit of the living God,

and it's the only way to find spiritual transformation.

Titus chapter 3 and verse 5 says that he saves us, not because of the works

Titus 3 · chapter mention

done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy by the washing of,

what's that word right there?

Regeneration. It's a supernatural work. regeneration, and the renewal of the Holy Spirit.

I was thinking about a way to boil all this down. I think I actually heard Tim

Delaney say it, so I can't take credit for it, but what it all boils down to

is that Jesus didn't come to make bad people good.

Jesus came to make dead people alive. That's what it's about.

He didn't come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive.

I heard one man say that we think...

All that a relationship with Jesus is, is a vitamin and a high five,

make you feel good about yourself.

A relationship with Jesus is not a vitamin and a high five.

A relationship with Jesus is like a blood transfusion and a heart transplant.

It's newness. It's something that is drastic.

It's something that we're in need of that we can't live without.

See, the people that Paul is speaking to, to give this some context,

in Paul's day, when he is writing this, that you're going to be a new creation in Christ Jesus,

this was a radical statement to everybody that Paul was speaking to, to the Jews.

The Jews believed in ritual purification.

They believed that we're going to go on the outside, and we're going to make

a sacrifice, and because of this ritual

sacrifice, then you're going to be cleansed for the next year or so.

It's going to be an outward cleansing that takes place. But Paul is showing

them that this purification that we're talking about, it wasn't an external purification.

It wasn't just a ritual purification. It was something internal and permanent

that it could only be done by Jesus Christ,

where it was one thing to the Jews, but to the Greeks and to the Romans,

they sought to increase themselves intellectually.

They looked at philosophy and they looked at all this other self-improvement.

And Paul told them that God's power was the only thing that could change them.

It wasn't going to be from human effort. Now, don't get me wrong.

I'm not against education.

I'm all for education. But what I will tell you in the midst of all of that

is you can get so many, you can have more degrees than a thermometer,

but it's not going to change your spiritual condition.

There's only one way to become a new creature, and that is in Christ Jesus.

I believe that. There's no way to do that through human effort.

The gospel declared that anyone, regardless of background, regardless of who

you were, where you came from, that you were able to become new again in Christ Jesus.

I think no greater story can illustrate that than the story of Lazarus.

We read about it in John chapter 11, how Lazarus, it was an actual account that

John 11 · chapter mention

happened in the scripture. sure.

But I think it beautifully illustrates this point of newness of life.

When we think about Lazarus, Lazarus was dead for four days,

four days that Lazarus laid in that tomb.

And I know some even criticized Jesus because it took him so long to get to Lazarus.

When they informed Jesus he needed to go, Lazarus was still sick by the time

he got there. He was dead.

And so he He gets there. Lazarus had been dead for four days.

His body had begun to decay at that time. And to the world, there was no hope.

To the world, there was no hope.

See, that's what the world will tell you. The world will tell you there is no hope.

There's only one. There's only one that's going to give you hope,

and that's Jesus Christ.

Everybody around that tomb said there's no hope. Jesus looked at them and said,

oh, he's going to live again.

They said, well, we know he's going to live again in heaven.

No, no. Jesus said no. No, there's life that's getting ready to do.

Life has stepped onto the scene right now.

The Bible says that Jesus cried out with a loud voice and says, Lazarus, come forth.

Immediately the Bible says, and I could debate with you on this,

and I think something I'm going to ask Lazarus when I get to heaven.

You know, it'll probably be like 10,000 years down the road.

I got lots of other questions before this one.

But at some point, I'm going to ask Lazarus, so did you hop out,

or were you like, were you levitated out?

Because he was wrapped in great clothes from head to toe. And so I just got

that question, you know.

So it's somewhere right before, did Adam have a belly button?

Right there are those questions that I'm going to ask when I get to heaven.

But one way or the other, Lazarus, the Bible says that Lazarus came forth.

But Jesus didn't stop there because Lazarus was alive.

But Jesus looked at those around and said, unbind him, loose him, and let him go.

In other words, see, they had wrapped him in grave clothes.

It was dead stuff. It was ritual dead stuff that they had wrapped him in.

And what Jesus was saying was, that old dead stuff that you're wrapped up in don't fit no more.

That old dead stuff that's keeping you bound don't belong on you anymore.

And I'm speaking to somebody in this place right now that you've been struggling with your past.

You've been struggling with the same group and the same mess and the same failure.

And the reason why you're struggling is because that stuff don't fit you anymore.

You're a new creature in Christ Jesus.

You need to just go ahead and let the devil know you've been loose.

You've been let go. And that stuff don't fit any longer.

Jesus realized that he had been risen. He had been raised to new life.

But what was on him was the garments of his past. It was the garments of death.

I'm speaking to somebody because the shame that you walk around with every day,

that's the garment of your past. It don't belong when you're a new man. Amen.

For some of you, the guilt that you carry because of something you've done somewhere

in your life, the guilt that you walk around is, it don't fit on you anymore

because it's not a part of your new nature.

You gotta take those grave clothes off and live that new life in Christ Jesus.

Three things I want you to know about this transformation that I'm talking about

today. The first thing I want you to know is that you got a new identity.

You got a new identity. You are not the person that you used to be.

When I start talking, you have a new identity.

That's what I'm saying is you are not who you used to be.

As a matter of fact, I told the nine o'clock this time, I'm a little bit harder

on the nine o'clock than I am you guys.

All right. Cause I've not had my coffee yet. It's just kind of what it was.

And so I told the nine o'clock, I said, if you don't go back to your high school

reunion 20 years later, and then look at you and say, man, you sure have changed.

And you probably don't have Jesus.

I don't mean that fully, but what I really mean is this. There should be something

that is discernible about your life, a way that you have changed that others

around you could notice.

There should be an attitude about you that when, I know, there should be something

about you that when somebody cuts you off as you're getting ready to merge on

the interstate and you don't give them the Hawaiian blessing out the window,

you don't do that to them.

People should say, man, there's something different about you,

Ashley. A few years ago, you'd really, you know.

I use her because she has the most road rage of anybody that I know.

Anyway, she turns green, right? She really does.

She turns into a 6'8 man when she, anyway, road rage. Anyway,

you are not who you used to be.

See, when you identify with Christ, when you truly identify with Christ,

you cannot, you don't have the ability to identify with your past.

I was talking to somebody the other day. It's been when preachers say the other

day, it's within the last six-month time frame. All right, I want to give you

guys kind of how that works.

So I was talking to somebody, it's been a few months ago, and they said something

to me about, they had discovered kind of the history of my life and kind of

what happened with my parents and some of the struggles of my life.

And they said, you know, we just, you don't really get that when we talk to you.

And I told them, I said, as a matter of fact, when I talk about it,

it's like I'm talking about somebody else. because when you would find your

identity in Christ, you don't even identify with the old you that you lived.

It's almost like you're talking.

See, somebody can relate to me right now. It's almost like you're talking about

somebody different because that's not you anymore. When you're in Christ, you have a new identity.

Galatians chapter two and verse 20 says, I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, who's living.

Christ is living within me. Romans chapter 8 says it this way.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

There is therefore now no condemnation. See, that's that old life.

That's that old identity that tries to tell you that you were this in a past

life, and you did this in a past life, and you shouldn't have done this in that past life.

But the Bible says there is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Jesus Christ.

You know why? Because the old life is gone.

The old man is gone. You are new in Christ Jesus.

But it takes that embrace of a new identity. As a matter of fact,

you can find this, that finally, finally, all this 2,000 years later,

and science is finally catching up a little bit with the word of God.

They'll never get there because the half's never even been told.

But they're starting to catch up with the word of God.

2021, they found out in a study of rehab programs that people that embraced

a new identity, like this, that I am a new person.

Instead of embracing I'm still an addict, they were more likely to be successful in recovery.

See, what that looks like in our lives is this, that we don't see ourselves

as sinners trying to be better.

I admit that my works are as filthy rags. I admit that. I admit that I was dead

in my trespasses and sin.

But I also will tell you the Bible tells us that we are new creations.

I will let you know that the Bible tells us that when we start looking at that

old nature, We are not in that old nature anymore, that there's newness of life on the inside of us.

And so when we start to see ourselves as new creations in Christ Jesus,

we are more likely to walk in victory.

As a matter of fact, me and Pastor Rob, we talk about this guy every once in a while.

We had a man that used to be in our church years ago, and just know it's over the 10 year rule.

And so it's another preacher thing. I'm giving all of you the secrets.

I will not preach about you openly in the pulpit with your stupidity unless

it's over 10 years, all right?

And you can't go here any longer either. But anyway, I'm joking about all that.

Smile, somebody. Anyway, I'm trying to illustrate a point.

But there was a man that used to, years and years ago, used to go here,

and you would hear about somebody. He was a drug addict in his previous life,

but he'd always brag about his ability to do drugs.

He identified himself more in his ability to do drugs than he did his new nature in Christ Jesus.

He would hear about somebody overdosing on drugs, and he would make this statement.

I'd heard him more than once make this statement to me and Pastor Rob.

He said, oh, they didn't know how to do drugs. I knew how to do drugs.

I was good at doing drugs.

And you know where that man is today? He's not in the kingdom of God right now.

He went back to his former life.

The Bible says, as a dog returneth to its vomit, so will a fool return to its folly.

When you identify yourself with your past life, I want to say this right now,

the image, the most dominant image of your mind is what your life is going to gravitate toward.

The most dominant image of your mind is what your life is going to gravitate toward.

And so if you identify with the old life, then everything you think about is

in context of that old life.

But if you identify with a new nature in Christ Jesus, no matter what people

say to you, you're like, I don't even identify with that anymore.

I have a new identity in Christ.

So number one, you got a new identity. But number two, you got a new mind.

You got a new mind. And what I mean by that is transformation, it starts internally.

The Bible talks about the heart, but most of the time when the Bible talks about

the heart, it's talking about your mind.

It's talking about the work that has to be done internally in your mind.

Transformation happens from the inside out. See, we had it wrong for a number

of years. I grew up in the old church. How many people grew up in the old church? Yeah.

Yeah, for those of you who didn't grow up in the old church,

well, that's fine. It's all right.

You probably don't have some of the trauma the rest of us do.

Anyway, I grew up in the old church where, you know, when you got saved, you had to look like it.

And some people weren't saved, but they had to look like it still,

you know. So in the old church, you had to have your hair cut a certain way.

Back in the old days, all the women had PhDs. You know that?

That was Pentecostal hairdos. That's what they were.

You had to have on certain clothes. all the men had to wear certain things and

you had to follow the rules of religion and live and work and look a certain

way but see what what we have to understand by the word of god is it's not just about the way you look

You can look a lot of different ways, but it doesn't mean that you're holy.

Transformation starts on the inside. The book of Romans chapter 12 says it this

Romans 12 · chapter mention

way. Do not be conformed to this world.

In the old church, we'd have said, but put on the right clothes.

You know, don't hang around, don't smoke or chew or hang around those that didn't.

We had all these rules, but it had nothing to do with what was on the inside.

But the Bible says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by

the renewing of your, not your wardrobe.

No, I know I'm doing, I'm doing, it's not anti-clothesline preaching.

I'm preaching on salvation today is what I'm preaching on. It's by the renewing

of your mind. We have to renew our minds.

Ephesians chapter four, verse 22 says, put off your old self and be renewed

in the spirit of your minds.

See, studies now, once again, medical, medicine's finally catching up a little

bit with what the word of God has been teaching us for years.

Scientists have been studying neuroplasticity and they tell us that we can literally

rewire our minds. We create new neural pathways.

I read a book the other day, the other day, I mean like a year and a half ago,

anyway, on developing habits and it talked about neuroplasticity and it talked

about how you can rewire your mind in as little as 21 days and create new neural pathways.

You see, the Bible's been telling this all along because the Bible has told

us that there's ways that we can rewire our mind.

There's ways that we can have a new mind, a renewed mind by meditating on the

word, by realizing that spirituality is a mental renewal and thinking like a new creation.

I got to talk about those. These are just sub points in my second point.

I'm not going to spend a long time on these, but you need to know this about

creating those new neural pathways.

You've got to think on the right things. Amen. See.

We used to say this in the years ago. We used to say that the GIGO principle. Remember the GIGO?

Oh, Ashley does. She was absolutely a youth pastor's wife. Thank you, Ashley.

GIGO back in the old days, for some of you that didn't come to youth group,

we're garbage in, garbage out. That's what we used to talk about.

That if you put garbage into your mind, then you're gonna get garbage out of

your life. It was what you're thinking upon.

And so this first thing is, we got to meditate on the word of God.

Romans chapter 12, we read this. It says, do not be conformed to this world,

Romans 12 · chapter mention

but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern

what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect.

It shows us that if we begin to think on the right things, if we think with

a renewed mind, then our behavior has to follow those things.

Not only that, but spiritual renewal is mental renewal.

You can go to every youth conference trip. You can come to every Bible study.

I'm not anti-Bible study.

Be here. It's one of the ways you're going to create new neural pathways,

and God's going to renew your mind.

You can go to every Bible study, every Wednesday night service,

but if you're not allowing it to get into your mind, then it doesn't become part of your life.

Philippians chapter 4 says this, says, finally, brothers, whatever is true,

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there's any excellence,

if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

See, some of us are thinking about how mad we are at somebody.

Some of us are thinking about who wronged us 20 years ago, right?

Hey, listen, there's some of you guys that you should have been archaeologists

because you were great at digging up the past.

You know, you're in the wrong career right now.

Not this new creature in Christ Jesus, because this new creature in Christ Jesus,

that wasn't my life. That's somebody else's life.

And so what we have to do is we have to have a spiritual renewal of our minds,

And therefore, we got to start thinking like a new creation.

Our lead text was this. If anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation.

Creation, creature is the King James. Creation, the old has passed away.

Behold, all has become new.

See, we struggle with stepping into the reality of being the new creature because

we don't have our minds set on being the new creature in Christ Jesus.

So number one, it takes a new identity. Number two, it takes a new mind.

But I really believe this is important. You got to know you got a new purpose.

You have a new purpose. See, people, here's where people struggle.

People say, well, you know, Scott, I gave my heart to Jesus. I don't fit in anymore.

It's because you're trying to fit in your old purpose. You can't take a new life and fit it.

Ooh, let me say it. you can't

take a new life and fit it in an old purpose right

we we've been trying to fit our new lives in

our old purpose and like Lazarus grave

clothes it don't fit anymore you've got to realize that you've got a new purpose

and in doing that you've got to live out your calling you know we prayed for

Shay a little bit earlier I guarantee you there's probably periods in her life

I'm not saying Shay was ever a bad person I'm just saying there's probably periods of her life,

that she really wasn't concerned with going on mission trips and trying to bring

the gospel and trying to bring help and relief to anybody else.

But when she gave her heart fully to Jesus Christ, then there was something

about her that had to walk in that new purpose, that new nature,

that new calling that she has in her life.

Salvation is not just about leaving behind sin. It's about stepping into your purpose.

Thank God we can leave behind sin. But there's also greater purpose that we have for us.

Ephesians chapter two says this, says, for we are his workmanship created in

Christ Jesus for good works.

There's something that we were created for. Second Timothy, Paul's telling Timothy

that we have a holy calling.

See, what we found is, and we see this in our lives, that when we have a strong

sense of purpose, we have a strong sense a purpose.

It leads us into action. What it boils down to is this.

God didn't just save you from something. He saved you for something.

Somebody needs to hear that. God didn't just save you from something.

He saved you for something.

And the next level of our salvation is knowing that there is something that God has saved us for.

There's purpose that God, every person in this room, you have a purpose in your

life that God has called you and saved you for. There's a calling.

But you've got to walk out that calling. Hope you'll come help me.

We're going to close this right here.

There's a renewed identity, new identity.

There's a new mind and there's a new purpose, but you have to be willing and

able to walk in that purpose.

I thought of it this way. I thought of it this way.

Let's say that there's somebody that they won $50 million in the lottery.

Let's say Brad Hart won $50 million in the lottery. Sounds pretty good, don't it, Brad?

First of all, he would think about who he loves most in this world,

me, he, he would, he would tithe 20% on it because, you know,

it's gambling. So you got to kind of purify it there.

And so what the Mormons give 30, so he can at least do 20 anyway.

So, but, but what if, that's why I got a timer in notes anyway,

but what if Brad won $50 million dollars in the lottery and the next time you

saw Brad he was walking around he had holes in his shoes.

What if you saw him and he went to put something in his pocket and his pants

were so old that it fell at the bottom of his pockets?

What if he looked like he hadn't bathed in days?

What if you drove by and for the third time you saw him broke down on the side

of the road because his car was in such disrepair?

His tires were wore out.

You would say, you'd say, Brad?

You won $50 million in the lottery.

Why are you living like you're living when you have access to so much more?

See, when we're talking about somebody winning the lottery, we would look at them and criticize it.

But there's those of us who are believers, that we've got a new identity,

a new mind, and a new calling, that we live so far below our calling every single day.

I'm talking to those that still struggle with the mistake you made 20 years

ago, even though you've got a new identity and a new mind and a new calling.

I'm talking to some of you that you still feel guilt.

You still feel shame for the life that you used to live, even though you're

a new person in Christ Jesus.

Jesus has done more for you than winning $50 million could do.

He's given you newness of life. and the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us today.

That when He comes into our lives He doesn't do it to make us better,

because making us better might be just giving us a handshake and pat on the

back it might be giving us somewhere to go on Sunday mornings to where we have

a social club all that's fine,

but He didn't come to make us better He came to make us brand new which means

you are so different than you ever were.

You're a new person in Christ Jesus. Old things are passed away.

Behold, all things about you are brand new. Are brand new. Let's all stand out of this building.

The old is gone. Everybody say it's gone. The old is gone. The new has come.

The new has come. That's what we're trying to say today.

When Jesus comes, he doesn't just come to make us better.

He comes to make us brand new. Every head bowed, every eye closed.

There's two calls I have today that I think are very pertinent for this group.

My first one is this. If you don't know Jesus Christ for yourself,

there's only one way to salvation and that's through Jesus Christ.

There's no other way to God but through Jesus. And so if you're here today and

you don't know Jesus, maybe you've never given your heart to the Lord.

Maybe you walked with the Lord but you've turned away and you've been walking

another path and you need to renew that relationship with Jesus.

You can do that today. You can rededicate your heart to the Lord today.

You can do it right where you are.

But here's my first call and nobody's looking around. It's very private.

If you're here today and you'd say I'd like to give my heart to Jesus Or I'd

like to rededicate that relationship with Jesus We're not going to pull you

out I'm not going to embarrass you If that's you, I just want you to raise your

hand and say, that's me That's me, that's me The other's hand, who else?

You say, that's me Thank you, Jesus Who else?

You say, that's me, I want to rededicate my life I want to live that life Thank

you, Jesus Thank you, Jesus You can put those hands down.

Here's my second call. This is for all of us. If you're here today and you'd

say, Pastor Scott, I'm tired of being defined by my failures.

I'm tired of carrying around the shame.

I'm tired of carrying around the guilt.

I'm tired of carrying around the hurt.

I want to be that new creature in Christ Jesus. That's you. There's hands already going up.

Who else? Yes. Yes. That's a lot of us, guys. That's a lot of us. That's us. That's us.

Here's what i want us to do i'm going to open this altar and this is it for

everybody raise your hands this this altar is not a place of shame this

altar is a place of power it's a place of restoration and so

if you raise your hands on any of those calls i want you to step out on the count of

three i want us to come to this altar one two three step

on out that's right come on down come on down amen amen

thank you jesus for what you're doing can we

just pray this together let's pray right now that god would allow us to

be delivered from the shame from the guilt from the hurt from

the sorrow from the weight of sin that

we've been carrying around father in the name of jesus we

come before you we thank you holy spirit for the

work you're doing in our lives right now father we're

praying jesus like this new creature that

we've been talking about this new creation that we've

been hearing about praying about father you would

just make that real in our lives and holy spirit

i pray right now that all of my brothers and sisters in this

house that are praying right now that they can

shake off the old life they can shake off

the grave clothes like Lazarus did

and realize they don't fit anymore they're not the

part of their new life anymore and Jesus just show us the new life in Christ

that you have for us show us the newness in Christ that you have paid for us.

Music.

Not just an improvement not just making our life better but newness of life in Jesus Christ.

We pray it right now. A brand new life. A brand new life in the name of Jesus. A brand new life.

We come against the sorrow. A brand new life. We come against the shame. A brand new life.

We come against the guilt. A brand new life. We come against the regret and

the trauma and the memories.

A brand new life in the name of Jesus.

We forgive right now. A brand new life in the name of Jesus.

Music.

Option i got is to walk into my purpose in jesus

christ i believe that don't you listen for the next two weeks we're going to

talk further on what it means to begin and to be that new creation in christ

jesus i can't wait to see where god takes us be blessed today join us on wednesday

for wednesday night service we're going to have a time amen,

hey we're going to ask if you'll get me a prayer cloth we prayed for him for

the first service but we're going to join a prayer cloth for Danny Miller is he still in Abingdon?

Music.

Okay in Bristol okay so Danny for some of you who's been coming for years you

probably remember Danny Miller,

me and him when I was in college we lived together I won't tell stories.

I had a convertible Mustang, and he had a Camaro SS.

I did the cruising, he did the racing. We switched cars. We'd cruise around

until somebody wanted to race us, then we'd go get his car.

Sorry. Sorry for every occasion. If you'll stretch your hands forward,

we're going to pray for Danny that the Lord would just do a work.

The reason why we do this, just so that we know the theology behind all of this,

the reason we do this is the bible says that paul would

anoint handkerchiefs and aprons and send them and the

sick would be healed just as if paul was there

praying for them and that's why we do this we have scriptural precedence

for this and so we stretch our hands this way let's let's

pray father in the name of jesus we just thank you

there you go thank you jesus for what you're

doing in his life and jesus if if salvation

was all that you gave us it would be enough uh we

if that's all we could ask for it would be enough but

jesus you told us that you bore the stripes for the healing

of our bodies that we could we could prayer the prayer of faith

and it would save the sick and so lord thank you that you still heal and we

speak healing in the name of jesus we just pray god as this goes forth this

anointed prayer cloth goes forth that the same virtue the same power that we

feel in this room right now would go forth healing in the name of jesus and

we thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, Jesus. God bless you guys. We love you guys. We'll see you on Wednesday

night. Shake hands with somebody. Tell them it's good to be in the house of God.