Text: 2 Cor. 5:14-21 Title: What’s new with you (Part 2)
Introduction:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” (v17)
This verse tells us that God always wants to renew us by taking away the old and replacing it with the new
•We are looking at different areas of our lives God always wants to renew. Last week we looked at verses 11-13 and found our first 3 areas.
1.God is always wanting to renew my CONSCIENCE (v11)
God is always trying to make plain to us what is right and what is wrong.
The Word of God and the Fear of God play huge roles in renewing my conscience
2.God is always wanting to renew my HEART (v12)
God is always trying to replace the wrong kind of pride IN MY HEART with the right kind of pride. The right kind of pride is pride in the things God takes pride in.
3.God is always wanting to renew my MIND (v13)
God wants to replace my old thoughts with His new thoughts
God wants us out of our minds for Him.
4. God always wants to renew my PRIORITIES (v14-15)
“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”
DEFINTION OF PRIORITIES: By priorities we mean “who do I live for!”
Before I became a Christian I lived for myself. Now that I am a Christian I am to live for Christ.What SHOULD compel someone to change their priorities from living for self to living for Christ? “For Christ’s love compels us…”(V14)
Part 1 is Christ’s love for ME. Part 2 is MY love for Christ
According to our text; how did Christ show his love for ME? Christ showed his love for ME by dying for ME on the Cross.
How did the Holy Spirit direct the Apostle Paul to show ME Christ’s love for ME? By having Paul write “THAT ONE DIED FOR ALL”!That’s me and that’s you!
Convinced oF Christ’s love for me I love Christ in return and I now live for him instead of for myself! And unless I am convinced Christ loves me my priorities won’t change.
QUESTION? Why did Christ die for me? Is it only so that I can go to heaven when I die?
(V15) And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”
Why did Christ die for me? So that I could live for Him. And the power to live for Christ comes from Christ. Therefore God wants to renew us with more of Christ’s love.
“And God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:5)
5.God always wants to renew my WORLDVIEW. (v16-17)
“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he was merely a human being. How differently I think about him now!”
Worldview is the lens through which I view life
It doesn’t take a Christian a long time to realize that the world often views things as completely opposite to how God does.
Several times in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said …“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago…but I say to you…
What was he doing? He was correcting their worldview.
•God has much higher standards than the world does
•God has a much different view of success than the world does
•Success is being in Christ
How God corrects my world view? In Christ!
How can you tell if someone has a worldly view of things or is starting to have God’s view of things?
It starts by what they think about Christ!
The challenge for us in the church is in answering the question; “how much of what we do is cultural rather than biblical?”
6.God always wants to renew my Calling. (v18-21)
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God was making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God.”
Calling = what I am on earth to do
Calling has 2 parts
1.My calling to be with God. This is my most important calling.
How can I be with God? Only through Christ!
2.My calling to go into the world
The message always stays the same. The methods often change.
Conclusion
God is always renewing me. There is so much God wants to renew and the only way it can happen is if I stay close to Christ.
