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Asa-Ministries
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Bringing The Good News Of Jesus Christ
To All Nations
Making
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CAN ALL THINGS BE NEW?
Luke 5:36-39
I. The need for renewal.
A. New Year's resolutions remind us
of need to change.
1) Weight loss, quit smoking, read Bible more.
B. Is dramatic change possible?
1) People tend to resist it.
a) Scientists don't adapt to
new theories - the old
generation
dies off.
2) When people claim to change,
most others are skeptical.
a) David Duke and being
"born again."
A very sarcastic article by
columnist Mike Royko casts
doubt
on David Duke's professed conversion.
Many public figures have
claimed spiritual rebirth and it's
usually
a gimmick.
"This transformation
often happens while they are awaiting
sentence
or seeking parole.
Theologians might consider
studying the relationship between
loving
God and fearing a judge."
"When the going gets
tough, the tough get religion."
C. Often, dramatic change isn't a
wish, but an absolute necessity.
1) Gorbachev overthrown in what
used to be Soviet Union.
a) Couldn't change fast
enough for the times.
b) His dramatic changes soon
became old hat.
D. The Bible says people can, and
must, change.
1) "Except you are born
again, you won't enter kingdom of God."
John 3:3
A Chinese general put it this
way:
"If the world is to be
brought to order, my nation must first
be
changed.
If my nation is to be changed,
my hometown must be made over.
If my hometown is to be
reordered, my family must first be
set
right.
If my family is to be
regenerated, I myself must first be."
2) Conversion may start small,
but has a big impact.
a) Don't set limits on what
God can do.
b) Don't set limits on what
God may want you to do.
A woman lived next door to a
private zoo.
She informed the police
that she had a skunk in her cellar.
"Open the cellar
door," the officer advised, "make a trail
of bread
crumbs from the cellar to the garden.
Then wait for the skunk to
follow it outside."
Half an hour later the woman
called a second time.
"I did what you
said--now I have two skunks in my cellar."
It is not enough to try to
reform one or two bad habits.
What we need is a change
of heart.
What we need is a new
orientation.
3) Analogies from self-help
groups.
Overeaters Anonymous, OA,
seeks to break compulsive eating.
9,000 meetings weekly.
Based on a belief that
compulsive overeating is a progressive
disease that can be
arrested, though not cured, by turning
one's
will over to a higher power.
Often it is God.
One member said, "It's
not about weight, exercise or recipes;
it's
a process, a lifestyle.
It is also about 'core'
changes in who I am and how I live."
4) Don't just believe in Jesus -
do what he says.
a) Practical and moral
teaching of the New Testament.
II. Old vs. new. (The reason for resistance)
A. We feel safe with what is old and
tried-and-true.
Ecclesiastes 1:9-10
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done
again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one
can say,
"Look! This is something
new"?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
1) New is not necessarily better,
and is always suspect.
Luke 5:39
"And no one after drinking old wine wants the
new, for he says, 'The old is better.'"
2) According to Jesus, the old
and new don't mix - and shouldn't.
Luke 5:37-38
"And no one pours new
wine into old wineskins.
If he does, the new wine
will burst the skins, the wine will
run
out and the wineskins will be ruined.
No, new wine must be poured
into new wineskins."
B. Jesus brought something totally
new and exciting.
Romans 7:6
But now, by dying to what once
bound us, we have been
released from the law so that
we serve in the new way of
the
Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creation;
the
old has gone, the new has come!
1) Main theme of Revelation: Jesus brings in the new.
2) Therefore people must make a
decision for or against him.
III. Being open to newness.
A. Churches certainly resist it.
1) Tend to be hide-bound
organizations.
a) Just like religious
establishment in Jesus' day.
b) "We tried it, and it
didn't work."
2) Archeology - temples occupy
same site for thousands of years.
a) Old style of our church.
b) Victorian hymns.
c) Resistance to change.
3) Our rituals date back to the
beginning.
a) Restoration is key to Baptist polity.
b) Should old be abandoned
and new embraced?
B. Churches can change.
1) Reach out to broken people and
non-traditional families.
2) New neighborhoods - behind Ledgewood Mall?
IV. What will we change about
ourselves? Our church?
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