Dec. 01, 2024

New Beginnings II

Primary Text:  Romans 12:2      

Last Teaching:  New Beginnings

1)  New Life

Romans 6:2–4:  We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?  Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 

2)  New Creation

2 Corinthians 5:17:  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  

3)  A New Heart  

Ezekiel 36:26–27:  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.  

This Week’s Teaching:

1)  A New Mind

Ephesians 4:22–24:  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.

Colossians 3:9–10:  Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Romans 12:2:  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  

DQ 1) Do you think as God wants you to think?  

DQ 2) In what way does your mind still need renewal?  

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2)  New Hope

Jeremiah 29:11–13:  “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” 

1 Peter 1:3–5:  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 

Romans 15:13:  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

DQ 3) Has your hope been shattered?  Why?  

DQ 4) In what way does your hope need to be renewed and increased?

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3)  New Desires

Psalm 37:4–6:  Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

2 Corinthains 5:9–10:  So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. 

DQ 5) How has Christ changed your desires?  

DQ 6) What are the deepest unfulfilled desires of your heart?

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