Life Verses 2 Corinthians 5:17 RUMC 5/28/17

Life Verses 2 Corinthians 5:17

RUMC 5/28/17

 Who likes change? Who looks forward to change? How many of us really seek out changer in our lives? What is the famous battle cry of the church? “WE’VE NEVER DONE IT THAT WAY BEFORE!”

Statistics show how resistant people are to change.

A study at Johns Hopkins University studied patients whose heart disease was so severe that they had to undergo bypass surgery. They discovered that 90 % of the bypass patients who were told, “Change your lifestyle, or die,” had made no lasting changes in their diets or lifestyle 2 years after their surgery.

When Paul wrote, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new,” I think he intended it to be encouraging but for some people, maybe even some of us… the idea of change just makes us nervous.

Jim Buskohl is not one of those people. He chose 2 Corinthians 5:17 as his life verse exactly because it fits his experience and it gives him hope. He tells of being invited to this church and shortly after their first visit talking to Pastor Dick Boatman. He tells of how Pastor Boatman helped him to claim that new life in Christ and helped him to change the trajectory of his life toward Christ.

Like many of us, Jim is a new creation in Christ. He owns that and seeks to live into that new life. Also like many of us, he doesn’t do that perfectly. I don’t think any of us do. Nevertheless, he wakes up in the morning, looks at the new day God has given him, and sets his sights on living as a new creature in Christ.

How about you?

Do you know Isaac Newton’s first law of Physics? “An object at rest will stay at rest unless acted up on by an outside force.” In other words, nothing changes unless it has to. Maybe it isn’t so strange that most people seem to have a bent toward avoiding change unless acted up on by outside forces.

Paul says Jesus Christ is the outside force that affects change in our lives. Anyone who is “in Christ,” Paul says, “is a new creation.” To be IN CHRIST is to have faith in him and place our lives in Christ’s hands. We are born again to participate in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

•           IN CHRIST, we are offered salvation.

•           IN CHRIST, the old life is left behind and a new life begins.

•           IN CHRIST, we have an opportunity to leave the old behind.

•           IN CHRIST, we have an opportunity to start over in the image of God.

•           If you are listening carefully, you will realize that what I am so delicately dancing around is that word we dislike so much… CHANGE.

•           Being IN CHRIST means our lives CHANGE.

Given that 9 of 10 the people refuse to CHANGE when they are told “change of die of a heart attack,” we might be unlikely or even unable to choose change for ourselves. Being IN CHRIST, however, means CHANGE.

 If you have to ask why we would change, just look at our old lives.

•           In our old lives, prejudice, hatred, fear, and unforgiveness keep us from loving others and therefore loving God.

•           In our old lives, depression, anger, worry, scars from past relationships, and self-centeredness take the joy right out of our hearts.

•           In our old lives, anxiety, hopelessness, stress, family discord, terrorism, fighting, and frustration obscure any hope of peace.

•           In our old lives, instant gratification, guilt, mistrust, rushing-rushing all the time, lack of confidence, and being beaten down emotionally strain our patience

•           In our old lives, rudeness, being judgmental, inconsiderate, or indifferent; being merciless, lacking any compassion, or caring all make us rather unkind.

•           In our old lives, bitterness, greed, our egos, our need to be the best, and come out on top suck the generosity right out of us.

•           In our old lives, abuse, bullying, being the target of gossip, intolerance, and seeking revenge all compromise our ability to have faith.

•           In our old lives, violence, yelling, name-calling, road rage, being forgotten, or ignored, or cheated, or violated make it hard to be gentle.

•           In our old lives, drugs and alcohol-- or addictions of any kind (or for that matter-- habits,) feeling victimized can take away out self-control.

Did I hit everyone in there somewhere at least once? If I didn’t find the thing that robs you of life, you can add it in right now because the list seems endless.

Paul wants us to know… and Jim Buskohl and I want you to know that there is hope because in Jesus Christ, your past doesn't have to be your future… Your past doesn't have to be your future.

 MOTION SLIDE

In Jesus Christ, by the power of Jesus Christ, in the strength of Jesus Christ, by the grace of Jesus Christ, you are no longer that old creature. You are God’s next project for an extreme makeover.

I am not talking about a fixer upper. Jesus doesn’t want to freshen up the paint and carpet. Jesus wants you to give him your whole life, so he can demolish the old life and work in you’re the extreme makeover of becoming a new creation.

  MOTION SLIDE

Scottish Theologian, Carl Bard said, "No one can go back and make a new beginning -- but anyone can start from now and make a brand new end.”

He took the words right out of Paul’s mouth starting in verse 16. “ From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view;” When God looks at you he does not see angry, mentally ill, abused, sick, down and out, old, or young, purple or green! He doesn’t see you as you were… but as you will be. When God looks at God doesn’t see us as homosexual, or black, or poor, or disabled, or old, or stubborn, or greedy, or losers. God doesn’t see us for what we are able or aren’t able to do, or what we look like on the outside, and neither should we. “From now on, therefore, (let us) regard no one from a human point of view.”

Paul continues, “if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation: everything old has passed away.”

In Christ, we die to our old selves, and we begin our brand new life in Christ. A brand new today and brand new future. …

Buuuuut… theeeeeen…. We go back and roll in the mud and muck of who we were. We think we can live with one foot in our new life in Christ and one foot in our old life in the world.

•           Or we fall to temptation, or old habits creep back in, or the excitement wears off when we get back from camp and we forget that we are no longer that person.

•           Or we fall back into the same social circles and live into the expectations of those who only knew us before we became a new creation in Christ.

•           My experience is that becoming a new creation doesn’t happen just once, it happens over and over, and if you want me to be real honest it happens to me every single day because in some little or not so little way I keep falling back to the old creature every day.

Fortunately, every morning (actually every minute, if you want to be precise) we have the opportunity to wake up and realize who we are… a new creation… and claim the power of Christ to lift us up from the old mud in which are so comfortable, and help us on our way of being new creatures with a new future. Our old creature does not define who we are. Our old creature does not determine our future.

 “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation: everything old has passed away.”

Finally, Paul declares, “everything has become new!”

There is that word new which requires change… and most of us don’t like change... so let’s try the word TRANSFORMATION. Paul writes in Romans 12:2. “Be ye not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  To be honest, transformation is just a fancy word for change, but if it helps you to swallow that pill, we’ll call it transformation.

From the Greek word translated as “transformed” in Romans 12:2 we get the word metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is a relatively rapid change from one state of being to another… caterpillar to butterfly for instance… or, in our case, old creature to new creature.

The old has passed away and the new creature has been transformed from all that is sinful and ugly to one that bears the fruit of the spirit, which Paul lifts up in Galatians 5 as a picture of new life in Christ. The fruit of living as new creatures is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

 That is who we are as new creatures in Christ. …listen again.

•           The new creature is loving,

•           The new creature is joyful,

•           The new creature is peaceful,

•           The new creature is patient,

•           The new creature is kind,

•           The new creature is generous,

•           The new creature is faithful,

•           The new creature is gentle, and

•           The new creature is self-controlled.

Now that is a kind of change I can embrace. 

Maybe 90 % of people are resistant to change…

But I suspect that 90% of us would change if we could be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled.

And 100% of us would say we would rather be around people like that.

People will try all sorts of things to change. Crash diets, plastic surgery, new hairdos, new clothes. In truth, they just want to change the outside covering. Jesus offers a metamorphosis that changes us form one creature to another. Old creature to new creature.

Like the butterfly, the Christian says - once I was that way… now I am a new creature.

Sadly, hanging out with new creatures does not make you one.

Being a member of the church does not make you a new creature.

Coming to worship does not make you a new creature.

It is not hard. But Jesus is very clear "You must be born again. "

“IF ANYONE IS IN CHRIST, THERE IS A NEW CREATION:

EVERYTHING OLD HAS PASSED AWAY;

SEE, EVERYTHING HAS BECOME NEW!”

LET US PRAY