THE GIFT OF NEW LIFE (4 OF 4)
by Jeff Strite
Scripture: Romans 5:6-21, Romans 6:1-14
This content is part of a series.
The Gift Of New Life (4 of 4)
Series: Celebrating God's Gifts
Jeff Strite
Romans 5:6-6:14
OPEN: With Jan. 1st just around the corner, many people are thinking about New Year's resolutions. An article a couple of years ago listed the top 5 New Year's Resolutions:
#5: stop smoking
#4: make more money,
#3: improve relationships
#2: exercise more
#1 most popular New Years resolution… losing weight.
All these resolutions are saying one thing: I want to be different than I am. I want to gain control of an area of my life. And, if I could just get control of this one part of my life… I could be truly happy. I could be a new person.
The problem, of course with New Year's resolutions… they are rarely effective. Somewhere along the line, our resolve to keep those resolutions gets buried under the press of time and our own lack of will power.
APPLY: Now Jesus has something to say about change - about becoming new inside.
Jesus said: "Behold, I make all things new…." Revelation 21:5
And Paul agreed with that "…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17
I. What the Bible teaches us is: Jesus gives us the power to change.
The power to become a new creation. AND that power of change begins when we first become Christians.
Look again with me at Romans 5:6 -
"You see, at just the right time, when we were still POWERLESS, Christ died for the ungodly."
What does Paul mean - we were powerless?
Before we became Christians, didn't we have the power and the inner strength to change and improve our lives???
Well… yeah!
The problem was… all of the improvements we made to our lives were like putting new windows and doors on a derelict house. The improvements were great ideas… but they didn't increase the value of who we were.
When Jesus saved us… He didn't want to rearrange the furniture of our lives and repaint the walls… No! When Jesus saved us, He wanted to start from scratch.
...
Series: Celebrating God's Gifts
Jeff Strite
Romans 5:6-6:14
OPEN: With Jan. 1st just around the corner, many people are thinking about New Year's resolutions. An article a couple of years ago listed the top 5 New Year's Resolutions:
#5: stop smoking
#4: make more money,
#3: improve relationships
#2: exercise more
#1 most popular New Years resolution… losing weight.
All these resolutions are saying one thing: I want to be different than I am. I want to gain control of an area of my life. And, if I could just get control of this one part of my life… I could be truly happy. I could be a new person.
The problem, of course with New Year's resolutions… they are rarely effective. Somewhere along the line, our resolve to keep those resolutions gets buried under the press of time and our own lack of will power.
APPLY: Now Jesus has something to say about change - about becoming new inside.
Jesus said: "Behold, I make all things new…." Revelation 21:5
And Paul agreed with that "…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17
I. What the Bible teaches us is: Jesus gives us the power to change.
The power to become a new creation. AND that power of change begins when we first become Christians.
Look again with me at Romans 5:6 -
"You see, at just the right time, when we were still POWERLESS, Christ died for the ungodly."
What does Paul mean - we were powerless?
Before we became Christians, didn't we have the power and the inner strength to change and improve our lives???
Well… yeah!
The problem was… all of the improvements we made to our lives were like putting new windows and doors on a derelict house. The improvements were great ideas… but they didn't increase the value of who we were.
When Jesus saved us… He didn't want to rearrange the furniture of our lives and repaint the walls… No! When Jesus saved us, He wanted to start from scratch.
...
There are 12838 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
