A fresh start
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1. goal
We will learn how to make a fresh start.
2. Introduction
We tend to look at each New Year as another opportunity for a fresh start - and it is! Of course, making a fresh start means making a change! The new birth is the greatest "new beginning" we will ever have. However, it is only the beginning. After our spirit is born again, our soul - composed of our mind, will and emotions - also needs a fresh start. This is the point where much change begins to take place inside of us.
Throughout our lives, we often come to places where we need to make a fresh start. And with God, each new day can bring us to that place. WE can put yesterday's mistakes behind us and wake up to a brand new day - a fresh start!
God has instilled in each of us the desire for change. We need fresh vision and passion in our lives as we grow in the things of God. To grow is to change. So, as we begin to focus our desire on more intimacy with, or growing closer to, our Father, He begins to focus His attention on conforming us into His image, provoking change within us. That is the exciting, and yet, challenging part!
Matthew 9:17 Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." (NIV)
The only way to become all that Jesus wants us to be is to let Him change us! That means starting over from time to time.
3. QUESTIONS
Do you sense that you need to forget the past and make a fresh start? What will you do to make it happen?
- CONTENT
There are many ways to make a fresh start.
Repent of our sins
We make a fresh start when we sincerely repent of our sins. We are promised forgiveness and a thorough cleansing.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Put our past behind
We make a fresh start when we put our past behind us; it is called the past because it has passed.
Philippians 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
Continuously renew our minds
We also make fresh starts quite regularly as we continuously renew our minds in the Word of God.
Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Let the fire of the Holy Spirit empower us
A fresh start requires change, and change requires hard work and power. The good news is that we don't have to do it alone! The Holy Spirit works in our inner man to give us the desire and the power to do what is right. Our part is simply to be hungry for the touch of the Spirit (the fire of God), cooperate with His leading and prompting and obey His commands.
Philippians 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (NKJV)
Acts 2:1-4 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
After the 120 disciples were touched by the fire of God, their lives were transformed. After Paul was filled with the Spirit, he began to preach the gospel.
There is a tendency for us to resist change. Why? It is because change is sometimes difficult to accept. It forces us out of our "comfort zone." We naturally resist things that are unfamiliar to us - at least at first. But we can ask the Holy Spirit to prepare us to be like a "new wine skin" so that He can pour the "new wine" of His anointing into our lives. The bottom line is, as long as God is the One prompting the changes, change is good.
5. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What will you do in order to continually be filled with the Spirit? Are you hungry for the fire of God who can burn all the dross and hindrances and change you to be a new wineskin?
2. Share the practical ways of how you allow your mind to be renewed by the Word of God.
6. Memorized Scripture
Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
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