RENEWAL 2026: The Renewed Self 1-18-26

RENEWAL 2026: The Renewed Self 1-18-26

INTRODUCTION

Renewal 2026!

We have hope of renewed strength, spirit, and joy. We have that promise! God is the source of our renewed strength, spirit, and joy.

What have you done with your renewed self?

THE CANE RIDGE REVIVAL

One of the great revivals of the American past took place in the late spring and early summer of 1801 at Cane Ridge in central Kentucky. A pastor named Barton Stone, who had been called to serve this little Methodist church by Daniel Boone, decided to call a four-day meeting for personal renewal and revival.

The members of the Cane Ridge church and most of the people around them were farmers and since the crops had been planted and they were waiting on the harvest at the end of the summer willingly laid down their plows for this meeting. At that May meeting there were many in that local church that begin to experience what was called "the fullness of the Spirit" or as later Methodist and holiness preachers would call it "perfect love." We can read accounts of what took place and understand it as they were receiving the Holy Ghost evidenced by speaking with tongues.

Since the May meeting had gone so well, Barton Stone and his small church decided that they would host another meeting in August that would be just before the harvesting of their crops. The only difference this time was that this little church had now spent about 2 ½ months in revival and the word begin to leak out about what was taking place. As the word spread in the surrounding communities, people came from everywhere. So many came that the United States Army had to come in to help with managing the crowds. The U.S. Army did their own count and said there were 20,000 who came to this Cane Ridge revival meeting.

The little church could seat at its maximum capacity only about 250 people and so the overflow spilled out into several pastures and pulpits were put up so that people could hear the Word and then respond in the old-fashioned altars.

James Finley, who was converted and would later become a circuit-riding Methodist preacher, described the scene in his personal journal:

“The noise was like the roar of Niagara. The vast sea of human beings seemed to be agitated as if by a storm. I counted seven ministers, all preaching at one time, some on stumps, some on wagons, and one was standing on a tree which had, in falling, lodged against another. . . Some of the people were singing, others praying, some crying for mercy in the most piteous accents, while others were shouting most vociferously. While witnessing these scenes, a peculiarly-strange sensation, such as I had never felt before, came over me. My heart beat tumultuously, my knees trembled, my lips quivered, and I felt as though I must fall to the ground. A strange supernatural power seemed to pervade the entire mass of mind collected there. . . I stepped up on to the log, where I could have a better view of the surging sea of humanity. At one time I saw at least five hundred swept down in a moment, as if a battery of a thousand guns had been opened upon them, and then immediately followed shrieks and shouts that rent the very heavens.” (From James Boles, The Great Revival, 1787-1805.)

It was not too long after this that the entire American frontier blazed with revival. Peter Cartwright, another Methodist circuit-rider, came to the fore-front of the revival scene and God was pouring out His Spirit on those 'shoutin' Methodist and holiness preachers and people. It was during this time that the camp meetings began their ascent in the history of the American churches.

Philip Harrelson, from the sermon, “The Battlefield of Prayer”, 8/6/2010.

God is ready to change you. Are you ready to change?

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭28‬-‭30‬ ‭NIV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

““Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.””

‭‭ Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭28‬-‭30‬ ‭NIV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

I. THE RENEWED CREATION

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

‭‭ 2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

A. “In Christ”

B. The new creation has come.

C. The old has gone.

You are not a Christian until you receive a new nature and if you receive a new nature there will be evidence.

You can educate a pig to stay out of the mud and eat differently but on a hot day with fellow pigs he will resort to his normal nature and dive happily into the mud. If you could give him a new nature, say, the nature of a cat, when the test of a hot day and welcome mud came, he would not be happy in the mudhole even if his friends persuade him to join them again, he has a new nature, new desires. He does not think he is better than them, he just does not enjoy those things anymore.

Anonymous, Sermon Central, September 2, 2005.

II. THE RENEWED INNER SELF

A woman puts a spoonful of dirt into a cup of water, muddying it. She initially tries to remove the dirt with a spoon but realizes it's ineffective. Instead, she starts pouring fresh, clean water into the cup continuously. As the cup overflows, the dirty water is gradually replaced by clean water, until finally, the water in the cup becomes pure again. This demonstrates how positive, spiritual practices can cleanse and renew our lives.

Just like the continuous pouring of clean water cleanses the cup, continuously immersing ourselves in positive, Godly thoughts and actions can cleanse our lives of negativity and sin. The process of renewal doesn't always mean directly removing each impurity; instead, it involves filling our lives with so much of God's goodness that there's no room left for the negative. This approach transforms and purifies us from the inside out.

Jung Lee, Sermon Central, January 16, 2024.

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4‬:‭17‬-‭24‬ ‭NIV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

‭‭ Ephesians‬ ‭4‬:‭17‬-‭24‬ ‭NIV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

A. Put off old self

B. Live with a new attitude

C. Put on the new self

We must put on the new self and live a new life.

An old sailor repeatedly got lost at sea, so his friends gave him a compass and urged him to use it. The next time he went out in his boat, he followed their advice and took the compass with him. But as usual he became hopelessly confused and was unable to find land.

Finally he was rescued by his friends. Disgusted and impatient with him, they asked, "Why didn’t you use that compass we gave you? You could have saved us a lot of trouble!" The sailor responded, "I didn’t dare to! I wanted to go north, but as hard as I tried to make the needle aim in that direction, it just kept on pointing southeast."

Bobby Scobey, Sermon Central, September 29, 2009.

III. THE RENEWED PERSPECTIVE

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭4‬:‭5‬-‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

“For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. 

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. 

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

‭‭ 2 Corinthians‬ ‭4‬:‭5‬-‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Thomas a Kempis wrote: 

Jesus today has many who love his heavenly kingdom, but few who carry his cross; many who yearn for comfort, few who long for distress.

Plenty of people he finds to share his banquet, few to share his fast.

Everyone desires to take part in his rejoicing, but few are willing to suffer anything for his sake.

There are many that follow Jesus as far as the breaking of bread, few as far as drinking the cup of suffering; many that revere his morality, few that follow him in the indignity of his cross; many that love Jesus as long as nothing runs counter to them; many that praise and bless him, as long as they receive comfort from him; but should Jesus hide from them and leave them for a while, they fall into complaining or become deeply depressed.

Those who love Jesus for his own sake, not for the sake of their own comfort, bless him in times of trouble and heartache as much as when they are full of consolation.

Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book 2 Chapter 36.

A. Life is hard.

B. God will raise us up.

C. God will continue to renew us inwardly.

We must look to the unseen for help with the seen.

CONCLUSION

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭4‬:‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

‭‭ 2 Corinthians‬ ‭4‬:‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

In Christ, we have are a renewed creation. In Christ, we have a renewed inner spirit. In Christ, we have a renewed perspective.

We have it within ourselves to do all God has planned for us.

The Monarch Mystery.

The ability to find home evokes legends of Rover or Fido who, when owners have moved from one coast to the other, have made a 3,000-mile trek to find their owners in a location to which they’ve never been before. At least the dogs make it back home.

But not the monarch butterfly. These insects somehow know how to migrate thousands of miles every autumn, from the Eastern United States to a handful of sites in Mexico. There, they rest over the winter for the return trip home. But here’s the amazing part: No individual butterfly ever goes to Mexico and back, yet thousands converge on the same few sites year after year. These insects know where to go. But none of them has ever been there before. Let’s explain.

"Monarchs are not guided by memory, since no single butterfly ever makes the round trip. Three or four generations separate those that spend one winter in Mexico from those that go there the next." A monarch butterfly born in August in New York state, for instance, will fly all the way to Mexico, spend the winter there, and leave in March. Then it will fly north, laying eggs on milkweed along the Gulf Coast in Texas and Florida before dying.

The butterflies born of those eggs will continue northward, breeding and laying more eggs along the way. By August another monarch, four generations or so removed from the monarch that left New York for Mexico the previous summer, will emerge from its chrysalis and do the same thing. It will head south, aiming for a place it’s never been, an acre or two of forest on the steep slopes of a particular mountain range.

Michael Elmore, Sermon Central, January 17, 2002.

If a butterfly can fulfill its purpose, certainly we can accomplish all that God has for our new creation with the help of His Holy Spirit.

INVITATION

It is our custom to offer an "invitation" following the preaching of the Word.  You may want to follow Jesus.  You may want to proclaim your faith.  You may want to repent (stop doing ungodly things and start doing Godly things).  Perhaps you want to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins     and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Possibly, if you have already responded to God’s call in these ways, you would like to become a member of Kenwood Church.  If you have been moved by the Holy Spirit to make a decision in your life, you can come forward now.  If you would like, I would be honored to speak with you following the service about what God is doing in your life.