Week #43

Notes from October 28th Elements Service

A Funeral for Self

·         Tonight we have gathered to lie to rest a dear friend.

·         This person has been with us since the day we were born.

·         It has shaped us into who we are, but not necessarily into who we want to be.

·         Tonight we are saying goodbye to our old selves.

·         When Christ entered into our lives He replaces our old desires and passions.

·         In 2 Cor. 5:17, Paul the Apostle writes, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

·         In Christ we are new creations living our lives for Him, not ourselves.

·         Still often when we turn our lives over to Christ we still struggle with the same sins or issues that control us.

·         Our desires are still more important to us than Christ’s.

·         Tonight we gather in this place to bury our old ways in their final resting place.

·         Once they are dead and gone we no longer can bring them to life.

·         When we experience this new freedom in Christ we are freed to worship Him.

·         Not just in this life but for eternity.

·         Ec. 3:11 states, “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”

·         Eternity was placed within us from our creation.

·         Through Christ we have the ability, when we put away our old lives, to live and worship Him for all of eternity.

·         What things do you need to bury tonight?

·         What part of you keeps coming back?

·         Die to self tonight and live for Christ!