New And Improved

New and Improved—various verses

There are so many products that are constantly advertised as "new and improved," We are bombarded daily by advertisements for products that are suppose to be new and improved. Buy this, buy that, it will change your life. We are bombarded so much through magazines, newspapers, radio, and television that we hardly blink sometimes when we hear these words. They almost don’t register. Everything is new and improved.

There are diet pills, weight loss plans, money making schemes all that say they will make us new and improved.

However everything that is new and improved today will again have to be new and more improved tomorrow. Everything changes, everything except the word of God!

You and I can be new and improved! Do you know that when you came to Christ that you were new and improved? Anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior becomes new and improved.

What are some benefits of being a new and improved child of God? Just what do we receive? Let’s look at God’s word to see 5 benefits that come from being a child of God.

We have:

1. A New hope: Turn to Ephesians 2:4-5, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),”

2. A New standing before God: Look at Romans 5:1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”

3. A New identity: We have been united forever with Christ

• Turn to Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

• Now turn to Colossians 3:3-4, “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

• In John 1:12 we are called “children of God” (John 1:12),

• In Philippians 3:20 we are known as “Citizens of heaven.”

• And we are called “Aliens and strangers on earth” in Hebrews 11:13 and 1 Peter 2:11.

4. New desires: “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

• Psalm 38:9 says, “All my desires is before You and my sighing is not hidden from You”

• Psalm 42:1, “As the deer pants for water brooks, so my soul pans for you O God

• 2 Corinthians 3:6 says, “We are servants of a new covenant”

5. A new power: "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3).

• Romans 1:8 says we have a “power to witness”

This is a mind-boggling list. It seems too good to be true, doesn’t it? But it is true - all this and more.

Being a new creation means you can’t go on living the way you used to live! You’re no longer the person you used to be! As a child of God, you have a brand new heart (David said in Psalm 51:10, “…Create in me a clean heart…” This means the desire to do right is within you (whether you feel it or not).

You’ve been utterly, absolutely, and completely transformed! A new creature!

Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Do you believe this? Well you should! When you accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and accepted the work He accomplished on the cross then you know it is true.

St. Augustine says, “We are told to sing to the Lord a new song. A new man knows a new song. A song is a thing of joy, and, if we think of it, a thing to love. So the man who has learned to love a new life has learned to sing a new song. For a new man, a new song, and the new Testament all belong to the same kingdom.”

Are you singing a new song to the Lord? Have you been transformed by the renewing of the Spirit? Are you new and improve? Do you have: