Read: 2 Corinthians 5:12-21
Think: One of the aha’s I experienced in Pastor Nick’s message last weekend was the idea of us - you and me - need the “new wine” that only God can make available. If you were at church to hear the message about Jesus changing the water into wine at the wedding in Cana, you know I don’t mean we literally need wine (though some days we might feel like we do). But more accurately, we need God to do something new in our lives. As Jesus transformed the ordinary water into extraordinary wine, the parallel is easy to see – He does the same amazing, miraculous, tranformation in the lives of those who trust His Son as Lord and Savior and walk according to His Holy Spirit.
How many of us have heard the stories like my friend who, as an alcoholic, making a terrible mess of his life, cried out to Jesus in desperation. He asked the Lord into his heart and begged for rescue. As he began his walk with Christ the Lord began working a miracle. Through the power of Christ he stopped drinking. His old friends kind of laughed and even dismissed his transformation, his “getting Jesus” was just a passing phase. “Give him a month,” they said, “and he’ll be back belly-ed up to the bar.” But time went by and he stayed sober… So they tried to ridicule his new faith. But the evidence of a changed heart and a changed life was just too evident to discount any longer.
The Lord is in the business of taking something ordinary and making it into something extraordinary. Life transformation – much more amazing than water to wine – occurred in the form of a changed heart and a changed life! And if you hang around Timberlake much, we see videos of real people, right here at our church that undergo the same kind of life change. It’s real, it’s possible! God says:
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. —2 Corinthians 5:17
When we put our faith in Christ, a radical change of heart that transforms behavior occurs. As we are guided by the power of the Holy Spirit, evil habits drop off. New desires replace old ones. A life is changed. If you want the “new wine” (the transformed life) it begins by giving your heart to Jesus. Then as we grow and yield control of our lives to the power of the Holy Spirit, the miraculous can become our reality.
Do: Let God be in the driver’s seat of your life. Give Him your heart if you haven’t yet done so. If you have taken that step, give Him full control – don’t hold any area of your life back. Ask the Holy Spirit to empower you and change anything that needs changing.
Pray: Lord, You know the places I need to be transformed. I know that can happen only through You working in my life. So today I give You control. Fill me with your Holy Spirit so that I can have the power to change, and the internal guidance of Your voice every step of the day, in every choice I make. Amen.