Enjoy the video of OLD to NEW here:
http://urbana.thevineyardchurch.us/sermon/journey-from-old-to-new/
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Monday, April 08, 2013
NOTES from April 6-7, 2013 - Old to New
INTRODUCTION
·
Introduce myself
·
My privilege to conclude our series on The Bible: Join The Journey.
·
We’ve been preaching on the stories of the Bible
on Sunday mornings.
·
We’ve been watching episodes on the History
channel on Sunday night.
·
It’s been a great experience.
·
We hope it’s stirred up a passion and a hunger
for more of God’s word.
·
We hope it’s stirred up a passion and a hunger
to get to know the author, Jesus Christ, that much better.
PRAYER
Most
people like to get something “new.” Favorites include:
·
A new car à
we want to drive it all the time… errands to run, “sure, let’s take my new
car.” Someone needs a ride, “sure, let’s take my new car.” It’s exciting. It
still gets good gas mileage and there’s no “clunky” noises. We like to show it
off.
·
A new job à
we want to celebrate out to eat with our friends… maybe its got better benefits
OR it came with a raise… every day on a new job is exciting as we try new
things, meet new people & tackle new challenges.
The
problem with the story of the Bible is that when we sum it up we realize it’s a
story of… OLD to NEW… When we encounter God
·
First, He shows us His Love.
·
Then, as we hunger for His righteousness, we
encounter Holy Spirit.
·
He begins to change our life.
·
Finally, we hunger for even more of Him and begin
to crave to worship & devour the Bible & we find the change continues.
So,
why’s it a problem that this thing (BIBLE) is a story from OLD TO NEW?
D: We want to
encounter God, but we don’t want anything to change.
A
lot of us like to keep the “old.”
·
You got a favorite pair of jeans? (bring mine up
& explain)
·
We like to be comfortable.
·
We like our life and our routine just the way it
is.
The story of the Bible is that your life is
not your own. The story of the Bible is that He loves you, but He doesn’t want
you to stay in your old life. He comes and wants everything in your life to
become BRAND NEW!
In
the last book of the Bible (Revelation), Jesus appears to John to tell him
this:
Revelation 21:5 “Look, I am making
everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you
is trustworthy and true.”
The
words of Jesus were so powerful, that He told John, “Hey get out the notepad
and put this one down, cuz you’re gonna want to read this later! DON’T MISS
THIS.”
God
makes everything new… it doesn’t matter the person’s life, He WILL make it new!
Think about some of the stories we’ve encountered through the Bible series:
·
When God encountered Noah, I’m sure he wanted to
remain a farmer with a vineyard. But, God made him a boat-builder in order to
save him along with his family from the flood.
·
When God encountered Abraham, I’m sure he wanted
to remain where he was and not pick up everything to move to a new land.
·
When God encountered Peter, I’m sure he would
have been happy as a fisherman. But, God used him as an instrument of salvation
for 1,000’s.
·
When God encountered Paul, he didn’t want anything
to do with Jesus. But God called him to be a missionary of the Kingdom &
through Paul’s voice the world was saved.
(1) Many of us want to encounter God,
but say…. I
don’t need to change
·
You are not the first person to ever struggle
with this.
·
Listen to the story of Nicodemus, a Pharisee who
was hungry for more of God, hungry for more of what Jesus had, but didn’t know
what to do about it.
·
He thought this whole change thing was just
crazy.
John 3:1 Now there was a
man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to
Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come
from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he
cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born
when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and
the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel
that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes,
and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it
goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
Born
again
·
God will always be able to move us from Old to
New when we cooperate with Him. This journey begins with a new birth.
·
Complete and total transformation.
o
Coffee
illustration OR chocolate milk? (still deciding)
·
An experience unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
Born
of water and the Spirit.
·
Could allude to baptism, but I don’t think so.
·
Jeremiah 17 calls God, the Father the “fountain
of living water.”
·
John 7:38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has
said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said
about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive,
When
Living Water/the Spirit flows from our hearts…
·
Filled with love for God.
·
Filled with love for others.
·
Empowered with love FROM God.
·
Empowered with grace for others.
I’d
like to share with you the story of my
college friend who experienced being born-again, who experienced this
journey from OLD to NEW. Now, she wasn’t interested in change at all & in
fact, was running away from God when she had her life changing moment:
·
high school volleyball star…
·
parents were church people, her mom worked for
one (HS charismaniacs)…
·
kicked out of private Lutheran school for doing
drugs before big state match…
·
stripped of her college scholarships
·
only 2 places she could play college ball was
community or a private school …
·
sent her tapes to Lincoln Community (LCC) but
got dropped off at LCC (Lincoln Christian)…
·
mad at parents and God went because she wanted
to play...
·
came to LCU still addicted to sex, drugs,
cigarettes and alcohol…
·
at LCU made to go to chapel, small group and
Bible classes…
·
Got invited to a Wednesday night student led
worship FOCUS…
·
In an instant… tears… total transformation…
·
She was “born again” in one step… not 12…
·
She moved from OLD to NEW …to the place where
emotionally, spiritually, and mentally everything changed.
·
(wait to show picture until end)
·
this story mean a lot to me, because it’s my
wife Corrie’s story.
If
you’ve never experienced life-change like that because of the love of Jesus and
the power of Holy Spirit… if you’ve never seen your life go from “old” to BRAND
NEW in the blink of an eye, then we want to pray with you at the end of today’s
service. And I believe with all of my heart that God will encounter you today.
(2) Many of us want to encounter God,
but say…. I am
incapable of change
This
is the great thing about the life God offers us: Our journey continues with a
new righteousness… His righteousness… we now can walk in Jesus’ new life!
·
Listen again to Jesus ‘conversation with Nic.
·
John 3: 16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so
that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God
sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world
through him.
·
This is a famous passage, but sometimes we fail
to see what Jesus is saying.
·
The journey from old to new is a journey from
condemned to righteous.
·
Those who place their faith in Jesus suddenly
are given a new identity as children of light… righteous sons and daughters of
the living God.
·
God’s grace provided a way for relationship with
Him.
·
The life, death and resurrection of Jesus
o
Fulfilled the law.
o
Removed our sin once for all
o
And, restored us completely into right
relationship with the Father.
But,
we need to BELIEVE and RECEIVE this truth when we encounter God.
·
Let’s keep reading Jesus and Nic’s conversation.
·
18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone
who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s
one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s
light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light,
for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and
refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But
those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are
doing what God wants.”
·
So, you see that our “judgment” is finished if
we believe.
·
The problem when we say “I am incapable of
change” is that it shows our heart. It shows that our choice is darkness over
light. We choose the old rather than the amazing NEW life that God is offering
us.
If
you’ve been here for our series, hopefully you’ve begun to realize that “Yes,
you are incapable of change,” BUT he is
very capable to…
·
Bring us from death to life.
·
Move us from slaves to free people.
·
Make victims into the victorious ones.
·
Conquer darkness, so we can walk in the light.
·
This is amazing. The love our Father has for us
changes EVERYTHING!
·
This might seem crazy, but it’s true.
You
may be sitting there today saying, I like what I’m hearing but my life is
different. Which leads to our 3rd argument…
(3) Many of us want to encounter God,
but say God
isn’t big enough to change my situation!
The
Father knew beforehand that this would be in our hearts. He knew that we’d
struggle because ultimately we’d come to the conclusion that meeting God was
great, but what happens to me on Monday morning?
·
So God seals our encounter with Himself!
·
John3
(The Message) 34-36 “The One that God sent speaks God’s words. And don’t think he rations
out the Spirit in bits and pieces. The Father loves the Son extravagantly. He
turned everything over to him so he could give it away—a lavish distribution of
gifts. That is why whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything,
life complete and forever! And that is also why the person who avoids and
distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn’t see life. All he experiences of
God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that.”
·
Once God’s love has become real to us and we’ve
placed our faith in him, God deposits himself into our lives.
·
Holy Spirit takes residence in us. The same
power that raised Jesus from the dead daily interacts with us to renew us. It’s
just amazing.
·
We are no longer powerless, but powerful!
·
And what’s even more amazing, we can be filled
again and again! Since life doesn’t stop at the new birth… in fact, we are in
great need of His power and presence to continue His mission… God keeps
renewing us.
·
Even after we are believers, God still honors it
when we want to encounter Him! Look at some of my stories of filling.
o
Not only did I have a new-birth experience in a
cornfield in 1994.
o
But I also had a few powerful experiences in my
early years of youth ministry. I was hanging out a lot at prayer meetings with
some former members of the Jesus people movement. During that time, the Spirit
filled me with new life and power. I received the gift of tongues, my
understanding of grace grew, and I was freshly empowered to have favor when I
preached to youth.
o
God hasn’t stop there. During our “Empowered to
Heal” conference last Fall, Mike Hutchings pulled me aside and began
prophesying about a certain anointing he saw in Corrie and I’s lives. He then
grabbed Randy Clark and they both began praying and speaking into my life. All
day long I’d had pressure in my stomach as the Holy Spirit was working on me.
During that prayer time, the pressure in my stomach shot into my heart &
knocked me over. Since then I’ve seen increase in many areas. I’d describe it
as the most powerful encounter with God I’ve had since my born-again
experience.
·
Isn’t it amazing to think that the God of the
Universe, the Creator of all things, lives inside of those who believe? And
He’s there with us every day to help us work through our stuff and empower us
to change!
Let
me conclude with a quote from Empowered Evangelicals (a book by Rich Nathan the
Columbus Vineyard Pastor):
‘The new birth is an event of such
magnitude that it requires a lifelong journey to incorporate, a journey marked
by numerous watershed experiences of the Spirit’s power, given for the purpose
of revealing God’s love to us personally and empowering us to share his love
with others.”
When
we encounter the Living God,…
He changes us
from old to new FOR something.
·
He doesn’t make us spirit so that we can just
blow around and not effect the world we’re blowing through.
·
He doesn’t make us righteous so that we can be
confident in our own identity and not share the grace & righteousness
message with others.
·
He doesn’t make us powerful so that we can pray
for ourselves and not be naturally supernatural in praying for change for
everyone.
·
When our life changes from old to new, we are
given a story.
·
This story is a powerful reminder to ourselves
of God’s reality.
·
This story is also a powerful testimony to
others of His presence.
We
need to embrace the “new” & be the
change agent that stirs up a hunger in others for an encounter of the Living
God.
SUMMARY
SHEET
IDEA:
Encountering God will always change us from old to new.
Dilemma:
We are comfortable and don’t really want things to change.
Action:
Embrace the “new” & be the change agent that stirs up
hunger in others.
Offering HAPPY
doing this
BAPTISM
Description
·
When we are baptized, we symbolize that the old
life is gone & a new life has come!
·
Romans 6:4 For we died and were buried
with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the
glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
·
Colossians
2:11 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical
procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your
sinful nature. 12 For you were buried with Christ when you were
baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the
mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
·
The group today has placed there faith in Jesus.
Now, they are publically declaring through the symbol of baptism their union
with Jesus.
·
GIVE INSTRUCTIONS: families & small groups +
stay away from the camera.
MINISTRY IDEAS
1.
Born again
2.
Fresh empowerment
3.
Living a life that it looks like God can’t
change (Corrie/Myself)
(Prayer
Slide)
Lord Jesus,
I’ve tried and failed to do life by my own efforts… It didn’t work.
I couldn’t earn your forgiveness.
I couldn’t achieve righteousness.
I have no power in myself to live the kind of life I want,…
The kind of life You call me to.
I’m hungry for more of You. I run to You and claim Your sacrifice on the
cross as payment for all the wrongs I’ve done.
I ask You to come into me and take up residence in me Holy Spirit.
I ask You to empower me that I may know forgiveness, righteousness and
joy that come only through relationship with You.
Amen.
CLOSING
Announcement – NEWCOMER
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