Brand NEW

How NEW are we?

• When was the last time you were renewed and refreshed by God?
• God's wants to renew us regularly so we don't become stale, so we that we can continue to grow.
• Revelation 21 v 1-27
• God gives John the picture of how the New Jerusalem will come down from heaven.
• This magnificent city is made to perfection and the highest standard.
• God wants to regularly renew us to a high standard because he created us for a purpose and He wants us to succeed and fulfil it.
• The city has specific measurements and design specifications because wants it to be perfect.
• God created us with specific measurements and design specification but we messed up. But God wants to continually renew us back to be holy in His sight.
• 1 Peter 2 v 9-10 - "⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."
• We are chosen by God to be His leaders, His ambassadors and the head not the tail.
• To be His priest and do a great job for Him we need to be renewed by God regularly.
• Where are we a leader? When can we be a leader?
• I remembered every school day what school I went because I wore the uniform.
• God wants us to remember that we are repping Him wearing the armour and uniform he gives us.
• I know we don't wear a 'Christian Uniform' but we should be easily identifiable as Christian's.
• If we live our lives out of a love for what God loves and chase after the fathers heart then he will bless us, not because we said, "Hey God, this is what I'm doing please bless it." But because we said, "Hey God, what is your will for my life?" 
• When we follow the will of God for our lives it automatically carries blessing.
• Deuteronomy 28 v 12-14 - "¹² The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. ¹³ The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. ¹⁴ Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them."
• God isn't calling us just to follow a set of rules but to follow His hearts desires.
• God wants us to be generous with the blessings He gives us.
• What has God blessed you with?
• To do all this we need God to renew us regularly, otherwise how will we stay close to His hearts and His will.
• How can God renew you today?

The Book That Inspires Us To Reach Out

Who do you know who isn't in the book?

• Who you know who isn't yet a Christian or on the journey towards making a commitment?
• God is going to judge the earth through the - scrolls, trumpets and bowls judgments. But he will finally come to judge each person individually and the main question is - Is your name in the Book of Life?
• Revelation 20 11-15
• God will judge us all fairly. 
• But we all know some people who aren't in the book of life.
• Matthew 28 v 16-20 - "¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”"
• Jesus calls us to make disciples, discipleship is a process. So I am encouraged when I know I am on a journey with someone rather than just an event where I never see them again.
• Be encouraged if you are on a journey with someone. 
• It's not just about how many hands get raised in a meeting to make a commitment it is about find people who can help you continue to build the Kingdom of God.
• I not going to get depressed or feel like a failure just because there are still so many non-Christians around me who need saving I am just going to keep relationship with them and model something of who God is.
• God loves His creation and wants to be in relationship with everyone but not everyone wants to be in relationship with Him.
• God has given us power to do His work and proclaim His word.
• Mark 16 v 15-18 - "¹⁵ He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. ¹⁶ Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷ And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”"
• Jesus promises the power of the Holy Spirit to help us with the commission he has given us.
• The Holy Spirit isn't just an empty promise; He is at work in the world today just as much as he was in Acts.
• I think we need two key things to be able to reach more people...

1. A love for what God Loves - if we love God we love what He loves.
2. The power of the Holy Spirit - not just for an event but to do the process/journey.

• Who are you reaching?

The Battle That Never Happens

I think change is great, but why in society and the church do some people like to keep jumping from camp to camp or group to group? How dangerous can this be?

• The devil (Satan) is pretty doomed from starts out doing evil. But he wants to fight until the bitter end.
• Revelation 20 v 7-10
• He has been in captivity for 1,000 years and yet he still wants to fight one last battle, to try and destroy God and His people.
• Yet the battle never happens. God puts a stop to it.
• Satan is very good at recruiting people to something they don't fully understand.
• It says is army was as in number like the sand on the seashore. 
• I don't think this is just a coincidence this terminology is used. 
• Hebrews 11 v 8-12 - "⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ¹¹ And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹² And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore."
• The father of faith was promised by God and God followed through, that he would have children as numerous as the sand on the seashore (v12). 
• Abraham fathered a great nation; he was instrumental in the whole story of the bible and the salvation of the world.
• Yet some of his children eventually become a part of Satan's army.
• John writes Satan's army was as many as sand on the seashore; some of Abraham's promise has been corrupted by us and Satan. The promise is still at work as more descendants are born but how they choose to live is a different matter.
• How we choose to live is our choice. Who we choose to live for is our choice. I know I have made an informed decision to follow God with all I am. 
• People like choice and change, change is great because we constantly need to adapt and grow but never compromise which is what some choices can bring.
• If people jump from camp to camp and reject God they will end up on the losing side.
• We need to pray and be proactive in showing people God and allowing them to make a decision for Him.
• Satan and his army were defeated.
• We have victory in God.
• Help to save people from the dangers of not committing or focusing on God by modelling something real - a relationship with God that is well connected and a life worth living.

Locking Up The Sinful Nature

How can we lock away our sinful nature?

• We regular fight off the sinful nature and yet we always fail at some point, are we focusing too much on stopping the sin rather than focusing on the living in the nature of Christ.
• How can we defeat the dragon?
• Revelation 20 v 1-6
• There are three different views on the 1,000 years that the dragon was bound for...

1. Postmillennialism - There will be 1,000 years of peace which is brought in by the Church. At the end of the time Satan (the Dragon) will be released but Jesus will come and defeat him, this will be the second coming.
2. Premillennialism - There will be 1,000 literal years, but Christ comes at the start to begin His reign. His reign occurs before the final defeat of Satan.
3. Amillennialism - The reign is a millennium between the ascension of Christ to His return and it is the reign of Christ in our hearts. This period will end with the second coming of Christ.

• These are 3 different views may happen during the 1,000 years. But how can fight off the Dragon now and lock up the sinful nature.
• Romans 7 v 14-20 - "¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it."
• Paul was struggling with his sinful nature; he wanted to do good yet kept slipping up on sin.
• The key to fighting the sinful nature and the dragon isn't just not thinking and storing up evil we have to work on the good.
• Matthew 12 v 35 - "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him."
• Here are some thinks which stop us from fighting properly and effectively::

1. We try and do it in our own strength.
2. We have the wrong standard of holiness.
3. We have the wrong motive for fighting the sinful nature.
4. We focus too much on not sinning instead of focusing on God.
5. We compare ourselves to others and try to do things there way.

• The way in which we can best fight the sinful nature is understand that God doesn't want us to sin at all but we are imperfect humans who slip up time to time. But if we are focused on God and not stopping sinning then it is easier to continue on the journey with Him.
• Paul knew he would end up sinning but he says he continues to strive to do what is right.
• What will you focus on?