When I was serving another church, the church had an opportunity to build a 300,000 dollar playground in 2019. This playground was complete with a sand volleyball court, a basketball goal, a slide and swings, and a massive fence around the area with one gate to come in or out. After about a year of efforts, it was finally open in 2020! We then had to pray and ask what the Lord wanted to do with the playground. I remember an August morning when I was sitting with a couple of leaders in the church and I said “I want to call churches and ask them if we can host a 5th quarter after football games starting in the 2021 school year. The school is 3 blocks away, you can walk there, and it’s easy to get to.” We went on to lay out a vision of what we wanted out of the 5th quarter, including working with other churches to bring food and preach the word while we host the event, church members would be needed to watch and monitor while the kids played volleyball and basketball. Now, you would think that all Christians in the church would favor such a change, who doesn’t want to pour the love of Jesus into kids?! A few members were skeptical. These weren’t just laity, they were pillars in the church, who gave a lot of money to the ministries of the church. As far as they were concerned, a playground that size could only be used for the 5 church kids we had, two of whom were my own. After prayer, and some conversation, I went ahead and opened the park to the community anyway and in preparation for Friday night’s football game and 5th quarter afterwards. The Gospel Barn, a local church, had ordered food for the night and was our first church that would feed and preach a devotional while kids were playing basketball. When the football game was over, I raced over with our leaders, including 3 strong husbands in the faith in the church I was serving. The students came in droves, and boy did they eat and play! The moment of the night was when our pillars in the church who objected to to opening the playground, showed up. Completely ready for a conflict, my jaw about hit the floor when one of them came up and said “Pastor, my late Mamma who died last year would have loved this.” The other critic, began giving money to the church specifically for the 5th quarter at the church! What happened? Both of them experienced renewal, and changed! Here me clearly friends, if you can change, than renewal in Christ is possible! I want to talk about Paul’s prayer for us, to be “renewed” in our minds, and what we can learn from that as we follow the Risen Christ.

To be renewed in Christ is to change: “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”-Titus 3:3-7. The word for renewal is the same word Paul used in our text in Romans 12:2 and it is the only other time the word appears in the New Testament. The theme of renewal brings up an interesting question: What are you open to? We often want abundant life from Jesus and all the blessings that come with that. But we also often don’t want the change that is needed for abundant life to happen. To be open to renewal in Christ is to say you are open to any changes necessary so that you can be closer to Him, and be shaped in His likeness. Let me be clear. The changes I am talking about are not our preferences as we follow Jesus. I respond to liturgy and contemporary music as gifts in my walk with Christ. Some of you may prefer the NIV Bible, others like the KJV Bible, or even full traditional worship in your weekly walk with Jesus. The change I am talking about is not in what we own or prefer, but transformation. To be transformed, is to change into the likeness of Jesus and live more like Him.

You would think, that all followers of Jesus would be open to any kind of changes needed to continue to be more like Him, but the pattern of scripture does not always fit that description. In Matthew’s Gospel chapter 19:16-22, Jesus invites the rich young ruler to follow Him. The ruler, instead of joyfully giving up everything, gave an answer that we are pretty familiar with: “When the young man heard he had to sell everything he had and give it to the poor to follow Jesus, he walked away sad, because he had great wealth.”-Matthew 19:22. In John’s Gopsel chapter 6, over 4,888 people left Jesus because His teaching as “the bread of life” was to hard to accept and adapt to. Jesus was crucified because the Pharisees and Romans refused to change and realize the Son of God was among them.

That said, there are moments when people change their plans and who they are for Jesus. The Samaritan woman in John 4, after being told by Jesus exactly what kind of woman she was, and that Jesus was the Messiah who loved her and could redeem her, went back and told her entire town “Come, and see the man who told me everything about myself!”- John 4:39. She proceeded to be the first Evangelist in John’s Gospel! Mary Magdelene, who according to Luke’s Gospel was a faithful supporter of the ministry of Jesus, changed who she was for Jesus after Jesus expelled 7 demons out of her. The Gospels record the first apostles as having left their nets immediately and followed Jesus. To be renewed in Christ, is to change. A change that always comes with a cost, but the cost can lead to something greater.

To be renewed in Christ is to be His plan: “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”-Romans 12:2. Remember, renewal is a “renovation” or a “complete change for the better” in one’s mind and soul. Friends, renewal in Christ is the greater thing when we change as a Christian! We often think that God’s will is something we wish for. But, the biblical definition of God’s will is that God has plans for you, His will is not to satisfy your plans! Do you see the difference? Romans 8:28 tells us “All things work for the good for those who love God, and are called according to His plans.” What are God’s plans for my life? “To be conformed to the image of His Son Jesus.”-Romans 8:29. There is a lesson there: Doing life the way life has always been done after deciding to follow Jesus is not the pathway to holiness. The more we change to the image of Christ, the more we can flourish in a way that God wants for us. I trust we all want to be like Jesus. How can we get started? Let me tell you a story.

. Do you remember the Asbury outpouring that made national news In Febuary 2023? For sixteen days, thousands of people from all over the country and the world descended upon the small town of Wilmore, KY to witness firsthand the hope, promise, and healing God was doing in Hughes Auditorium on Asbury University’s campus. Stories abound about the renewed life in Christ that multitudes experienced during those two weeks. There are many, but one in particular fits our theme today in a profound way. When asked about a characteristic about the revival, Billy Coppedge writes “I have come to the point now that I believe the story of the 2023 Asbury Revival is a story that began with 19 hungry hearts asking God to fill them with himself and the remarkable reality of God doing just that… What is apparent is that a question runs right from the garden of Eden through all human reality: To whom will I look to satisfy my hunger? The truth is that all of us hunger for God, and as Jesus reminded us in his desert experience, bread without God will not satisfy.” He went on to say incredible stories of change. People who were Christians their entire lives were repenting and pledging to change their lives. Billy told a couple from the country of Chile sold their vehicle, bought plane tickets, and flew to Lexington, Kentucky to come to a small university’s auditorium to pray. He told of a basketball player who drove an hour and half from Louisville to kneel at the altar in front of fourteen hundred people and ask that God would purify his heart. An interesting story he also told was over a thirty-year-old man drove ten hours from New Jersey, fasting and praying, and even lied about his age so that he could sneak into the ‘twenty-five and younger’ session to seek guidance. People travelled from as nearby as Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee as well as from as far away as Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii. Friends, this is what renewal and change looks like! These were genuine followers of Jesus who realized the secret of life: God’s plan for your life and mine is to repent and transform into the likeness of Christ, no matter the circumstances.

Where do you need change and renewal? What or who do you need to give up to be shaped and formed in the likeness of Jesus? Let me encourage you: Change is hard, but, change is also where Jesus can do His greatest work of renewal and transformation: “ “Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”-Isaiah‬ ‭40‬:‭27‬-‭31. ‬‬

May the Risen Jesus pour out His Spirit on you generously, and change your life today! In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the