A New Life?

Col 3:1-4

I have struggled with getting my topic or my idea captured

- In words on paper

- It seems I have had a restlessness

- About what to talk about today

- I have a desire, a deep desire

- To encourage you to look heavenward

- In every day, in every situation, in every moment

Let me read you a story told by Bruce Thielemann:

Imagine a colony of grubs living on the bottom of a swamp. And every once in a while, one of these grubs is inclined to climb a leaf stem to the surface. Then he disappears above the surface and never returns. All the grubs wonder why this is so and what it must be like up there, so they counsel among themselves and agree that the next one who goes up will come back and tell the others.

Not long after that, one of the grubs feels the urge and climbs that leaf stem and goes out above the surface onto a lily pad. And there in the warmth of the sun, he falls asleep. While he sleeps, the carapace of the tiny creature breaks open, and out of the inside of the grub comes a magnificent dragonfly with beautiful, wide, rainbow-hued, iridescent wings. And he spreads those wings and flies, soaring out over those waters. But then he remembers the commitment he has made to those behind, yet now he knows he cannot return. They would not recognize him in the first place, and beyond that, he could not live again in such a place. But one thought is his that takes away all the distress: they, too, shall climb the stem and they, too, shall know the glory.

Now let’s look at a Scripture and see what we can discover

2 Cor. 5:17-18 (ESV)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

- All of us who have come to Christ

- Who have placed our faith in His salvation

- Are a new creation

- Brand new creatures in Christ

- The old has passed away

- It has been set aside, put away

- It was destined to remain in the grave

- And we have become new

- By the work of God

- Who has brought us to Himself in Christ

I know many say that you were new creatures

- But that new birth

- Occurred many years ago

- The new creature has added some years

- Been through a lot since then

- It is a bit ragged and frayed around the edges

- By the struggles of life and by sin

- Yet others are still looking and feeling fresh and new

- Well, what is the reality

- Look back to 2 Cor 4:16

2 Cor. 4:16 (ESV)

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

- The truth is we are new creations in Christ

- And are being renewed day by day

- Christ renews, repairs and restores

- Our newness in Him constantly and continually

- As we walk with Him and follow Him.

- No matter if you have been a Christian for years or only days

- You can be new every day

- Your relationship with the Father

- Can be ever fresh and vital

- As you are renewed in Christ

The truth again here is that the old has passed away

- It no longer is to influence our behavior

- It is not supposed to shape our thinking anymore

- We are to have a new perspective

- Shaped by the reality of Christ’s work in our lives

- The old is gone

- That means its power over us has been broken

- We have a new dynamic of life in Christ

- He has brought us into a transforming freedom

- The freedom to become all we were intended to become

- The freedom to allow Him

- To make us all we can be

- To make us in His image

All very well, you say

- But I somehow don’t seem to be very new or renewed

- I don’t seem to be going very far with this freedom

- I seem to be bogged down in the same old stuff

- Where is the freedom you talk about?

Well, the reality and the truth remain

- You are new creatures in Christ

- And are free from all the habits, sins and thoughts

- Of your old live before you came to Christ