This week, Stephen brought a message to perfectly fit hand-in-glove with our church camping trip.
Often, our English words have very interesting roots. For example, “telephone” comes from the Greek words “tele” (meaning far away) and “phone” (meaning make a sound). So a telephone means to receive/make sounds from far away.
So our camping trip is called “Refresh, Renew, Revive”, and the root of all those words is “re”, which is Latin for “again and again”.
The concept of “again and again” is very applicable to the Christian life.
God refreshes us by the power of the Holy Spirit again and again.
God renews us every day, again and again.
God revives us and makes us more like Christ again and again each day.
But just as God does these things, we also have the responsibility to go to God for those things. We all sin and fall short of God’s glory each day, and we need to go to Him to be refreshed, renewed and revived.
God wants to refresh us
The Bible tells us that we can become spiritually thirsty.
37On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! 38Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”e 39(When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given,f because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)
(John 7:37-39)
We can go to Jesus and we can drink spiritually through time spent with Him. This can be in prayer, in worship or in Bible study, letting Him speak into our lives through the Holy Spirit.
The Bible actually gives us an example of this. Just look at the desperation of King David for the spiritual nourishment that comes from time worshiping the Lord:
1O God, you are my God;
I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water.
2I have seen you in your sanctuary
and gazed upon your power and glory.
3Your unfailing love is better than life itself;
how I praise you!
4I will praise you as long as I live,
lifting up my hands to you in prayer.
5You satisfy me more than the richest feast.
I will praise you with songs of joy.
(Psalm 63:1-5)
We can be made new again
If you’ve ever seen the process of upcycling furniture, it’s fascinating. People take worn down pieces of furniture and restore them so they are like new again, sometimes very much like they originally were, or sometimes modified with a different, more contemporary finish, such as shabby chic.
God does this with us:
17This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
(2 Corinthians 5:17)
Not only are we made into a new creation, but from the day we come to Christ until the day we go to be with the Lord, He is working a restorative process within us called sanctification, where we are being progressively made more like Jesus, more holy and more mature in our faith.
We all have days and times where we feel like an old piece of furniture, threadbare, good for the skip, condemned. We can be plagued with financial issues, family problems, and depression and anxiety to name but a few .
All these things can make us feel disconnected from God.
But just look at how God can empower a Christian:
28Have you never heard?
Have you never understood?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary.
No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
29He gives power to the weak
and strength to the powerless.
30Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.
31But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.
(Isaiah 40:28-31)
God fulfils His promises, and if you feel like you need to return that renewing power of Jesus, know that His mercies are new each morning. His mercies are renewed. His mercies are new “again and again”.
22The faithful love of the LORD never ends!b
His mercies never cease.
23Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
24I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance;
therefore, I will hope in him!”
25The LORD is good to those who depend on him,
to those who search for him.
26So it is good to wait quietly
for salvation from the LORD.
(Lamentations 3:22-26)
Each day, we need to be bringing our struggles and trials to God.
If you are not a Christian, consider giving your life to Jesus and you will no longer be condemned. If you are living in Christ, you are a new creation and need only be reminded of His promises by spending time in the Word.
Jesus came to bring us new life
Question: do you have a close personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Do you know what He did on the cross?
If yes, then that’s brilliant news! Points 1-2 apply and you can seek God and be renewed daily again and again. This applies to you:
8And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
(Romans 6:8-11)
If your answer is “no" or "not sure", then the Gospel could be life changing for you.
God created a world perfect with Adam and Eve. There was no death, no darkness, no depression or anxiety. This didn’t last due to Adam and Eve's decision in the Garden of Eden. Humans are now separate to God, sinful and self-serving, surpassing the truth of God in unrighteousness. We make decisions based on our own selfish nature, we don’t respect life, we lust, we are jealous, we gossip, swear and are not attentive to God.
There are consequences for our actions, however. Sin has consequences. The Bible tells us wages of sin is death. We are broken people living in a broken world.
God, however, plans to one day make the earth perfect again and have His children in relationship forever with Him.
The Old Testament points to the coming of a Saviour, Jesus. Jesus came, lived the sinless life that nobody could ever live, and was nailed to the cross by the Romans to pay for sin that nobody could ever pay for in this life. Jesus could have stepped down from the cross but He remained on the cross, His love for people kept Him on the cross.
Then Jesus rose from the dead, and in doing so, He took the whole of death on so that for those who believe in Him, we can walk out of the tomb one day too.
16“For this is how God loved the world: He gaveg his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
(John 3:16)
We can have life after forgiveness and be revived. It’s about God’s love and grace, and our faith in Christ: not “trying” to keep the rules to earn forgiveness, but “trusting” in the one who kept the rules one our behalf.
Now is the time to be made alive again!