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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