Personal Resurrection Series

Hope renews us in Christ Jesus. Hope that tells us “joy comes in the morning.”

I mentioned in my Easter message what Paul said, “If we had hope in this life only we were of all men, most miserable.”

We experience renewed faith as we begin to contemplate the hope we have in Christ.

This past week I conducted the celebration of the life of Mary Jackson. Some of you here remember her though her health has kept her away from us for several years. At her service I told the family that if Mary could come back, she wouldn’t. She has come to realize that hope she had for so many years – that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

When you begin to shrink in your faith and joy, take time to think about the hope you have that the world does not possess.

3. The third thing we need to make a fresh start in our faith, is power.

I remember playing a football game when I was a senior in High school. We only had 22 players on the entire team and most of us played offense and defense. We were playing against West High school. It was a tight game and we had a chance to win against a much larger team if we could just last long enough to finish strong. I remember in the third quarter asking the coach to take me out of the game because I was completely exhausted. I had played every down and I just didn’t have any energy left. My legs were weak, my head was spinning, I could barely go from the huddle to the line of scrimmage. I sat out a couple plays, got some water and took some deep breaths on the sidelines. I was able to go back in with a new sense of energy and power. We eventually won that game with five seconds to go in the game and I was able to snap the ball for the winning field goal on the last play of the game.

Sometimes life beats us up a bit and we feel like we don’t have any faith left. We need a new infusion of power before we can go on. Look at what it says in Acts 1:8:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

When we get weak, we must depend on the Holy Spirit to renew and refresh us.

Paul wrote to the Romans, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

The Holy Spirit is our source of power. He is the one that fills us with joy and peace until it is overflowing. We will grow weary and faint if we try and live this Christian life in our own strength and might.

It is that power that enables us to be witnesses to the world of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is that power that we need to take the Good News to all nations and to make disciples for Jesus.

It is not by personal might and not by personal power, “but by My Spirit, says the Lord.”

4. Lastly, if we want to experience a personal resurrection of our faith, we need to see it through the eyes of a new believer.

There is no greater feeling for a Christian than to show someone else how they can be a Christian also. (Tell the “Randy” story preaching on the street corner)