GO BOLDLY: RENEWAL

SERMON SERIES FOR OUR SUNDAY WORSHIP ON THE LORD’S DAY, November 6, 2022: As we continue our series Go Boldly, we hope that you are finding hope, courage, and strength! God’s goal is to infuse our lives with a boldness that enables us to bear witness to a life changing power!  The sermon for this week is Renewal.  Life can be exhausting and filled with burdens that can overwhelm us.  The Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi was fond of saying, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” As we struggle with life,

 we will find ourselves, at times, either worn down or worn out!  We need to find a good source that can fill our tanks and help us to find rest for our souls!  The Apostle Paul seems to have found such a source in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10.  He ends the previous chapter by saying that “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16 (NIV)) This is a bold statement of hope and confidence, especially for someone who was struggling to plant churches in the Roman world.  We know his life had been difficult, and he had endured hardship and suffering, but he had also found a renewing power that helped him to overcome discouragement and despair.  How do we find this source?  He shares these words to help all believers find the strength to overcome the darkness with an amazing light!  You may be worn down or worn out today but let these words lift you heart and life!  This is our prayer for you today that you will sense the powerful renewal that only Jesus Christ can bring into your soul!  

2 Corinthians 5:1-10:

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (NIV)