Do you know what I like best about Springtime? The noise! Whether it be the birds singing or the motorcycles humming, Springtime is a wonderful time for renewal and rebirth. As we watch the world around us display the newness of life, let us also renew our life, Spring! Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Look around, life abounds, waking up from its sleeping slumber. We see the hope of life in those things we thought were dead; Spring, life returns to the brown landscape. Winter’s cold melts away in the warmth of Spring yields the sounds of life. Everything is fresh and new in Spring. After a long, cold and snowy winter we see the hope that life is renewed. What have you seen new this year? What does Spring bring to mind?

Springtime reminds me of the new life I received in Christ, once dead with sin, now alive through Him. The spring of living water has given me hope, given me life.

2 Corinthians 5:17; NLT; “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

One of the difficulties with this new life is living like we have really have been given a new start. We somehow don’t believe that God meant what he said. If we did we would live differently. In a song Steven Curtis Chapman sings he says, “This is life I’ve been given. I was a dead man who has been called out of the grave. Wake the neighbors, make some noise!”

You know what’s neat about a spring morning, the noise! You’ve heard it, birds singing, the world waking up, and life springs anew. Have you been given a new lease on life?

EPHESIANS 4:17-24, NLT; With the Lord’s authority let me say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They don’t care anymore about right and wrong, and they have given themselves over to immoral ways. Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed.

But that isn’t what you were taught when you learned about Christ. Since you have heard all about him and have learned the truth that is in Jesus, throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness–righteous, holy, and true.

Think of the comparisons found in these verses. Hopelessly confused, closed minds, full of darkness, hardened hearts, don’t care about right or wrong, surrendered to immoral ways, full of all kinds of impurity and greed. They describe a life without Christ.

Throw that away: It’s rotten through and through, full of lusts and deceptions. Put on a new Spirit; renew your thoughts and attitudes;

Phil. 2:5-8; NLT; You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Our new self is not one of demanding our rights, but one of a humble servant, obedient to God’s direction and will for our lives.

Listen to the contrast in Galatians 5:19-23; NLT;

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

I encourage you to make some noise, sing a new song, this is life we have been given, and we have been called out of the grave.

Demonstrate it in the way we live:

•            Not demanding rights, but humble, with a servant’s heart, obedient to God’s will.

•            Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control

Eph. 4:22b-24a; NLT; … throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God…

Blessings,

Pastor Don