Being Refreshed

Introduction

I don’t know about you, but there are a certain few smells that just put me at ease. Hear me out… we all have them. For instance, how many of you love the smell of fresh laundry?

Right? It’s amazing, there are candles called “clean cotton,” and I would leave one lit around my house 24/7 if I could.

Or how about fresh cut grass… Love it. Sweating it out and cutting the grass, not so much. But smelling the result and kind of the mix in the air with gasoline… It just smells like summer. 

Or how about this one for any baseball or softball players in the room, I love the smell of leather. Whenever I got a new glove growing up there was always a certain process you had to follow to break in a glove. You’d rub it down with glove oil or leather conditioner, put a softball or something in the middle and tie some sort of string around it, then you’d actually put your glove in an oven, and after a bit of time what you pulled out was one of the best smells ever. 

One of my favorite smells that gets my mind racing is that of my grandmother’s house. Now I never got to meet my grandfather on my dad’s side but from what I am told, he was a super loving man and he was a heck of a ball player. 

My family grew up down in Nolensville and that’s generally where I’d spend my weekends growing up. And just about every time I went to my grandmother's (I call her nanny) me and my cousins would play hide and seek or something or another, and we’d sneak off into a closet to hide. And despite not ever meeting him, I could pull one of my pawpaw’s old sweaters into my face and smell the mix of cologne and pipe tobacco and it just got my mind racing to what life might be like if I had gotten to meet my pawpaw. 

Each of these examples dance around the idea of freshness or newness, be it clean laundry, a fresh cut lawn, a new baseball glove, or some other smell that gets your mind racing, there’s just something about the sight and smell of something pleasant that makes us desire something new. 

Over the next few weeks, we are going to look into the word “fresh” and see how it relates to our Christian walk.

Every January there are people who like the idea of making New Year resolutions, where they start fresh and begin to accomplish something new in their lives. Then, there are sports teams who practice and train in the offseason with a game plan of starting fresh and with a strategy for succeeding.

What comes to your mind when you think of the word refresh in the Christian Walk? 

You might think about salvation or how Jesus has washed away all sins. You might have heard of this type language before because that is how the Bible talks about having a relationship with Jesus.

Refreshment. Newness. Rejuvenation. 

That’s where we’re going to be tonight as we open up to . And if you’ve hung around me for any length of time you know that is a life verse for me. I’d tattoo it on my forehead if I could just so everyone who saw me would be forced to read it. But we’re going to zoom out and read the verses around it as well. So in verse 14 it reads:

[Scripture Slides]

(CSB)

14 For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If one died for all, then all died. 15 And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.

16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Read again, verse 17, [Slide]

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

Being in Christ

I hope that if you have come here and you’ve been longing for renewal that you would find a home in this passage. Highlight it, mark it down, write down the reference and run to it. 

Because we are children and followers of Jesus, we are no longer constrained or held by our worldly desires. We are refreshed and able to start over because of our salvation in Jesus.

Tonight, I think we need to look at this passage of Scripture closer. Through reading verses 19-21, we know that Paul, is sharing about the work of Christ and how God has reconciled us and has allowed us to become the righteousness of God. Hearing those words excite me, but I am taken back to verse 17 where I read that I am “in Christ.”

What does that mean? Is that just some Christian-ese saying, being “In Christ?”

Who in here tonight remembers that moment they gave their life over to Christ? Each one of us has different stories, but each of us has gone through the same experience of Jesus working in our lives to give us restoration so that we can be refreshed again in Christ.

I want us to look deeper into the idea of being refreshed this week. Many in this room tonight have probably surrendered your lives to Christ at some point and are now called children of God. I wonder how that moment felt for you to give your life to Christ? I would think that it is one of the happiest days of your life. In my conversations with different students, I have heard that it was refreshing and they felt as if a weight was lifted off their shoulders.

When we give our lives over to God, it can be one of the most refreshing and uplifting moments of our lives because our past, present, and future sins have been washed away and we have been forgiven and our lives have been renewed by Jesus.

The battles and addictions that we face no longer have control over our lives. Our old lives have passed away, and we are not pursuing everything that once controlled our lives every minute of the day.

Popularity, friends, sports, school, and all these performances lose their stranglehold and possession of your life. If we would be honest tonight, I think everyone here would admit that pursuing after momentary pleasure will tire us out quickly.

Instead, Christians, believers in Christ, see the world in a new way and become rejuvenated when they become a child of God. Christians have a purpose and a long-term meaning to their life. Some of you may be worried about the next thing in life, where your going to go to school, what your going to study in college, what you want to do after college. Some of you are probably starting to sweat right now because you just don’t know!

[Slide]

But as Christians we are called to no longer chase the next thing because we found the main thing, Jesus.

Losing the Fire

Some here tonight are still remembering the refreshing moment in your life when you gave your life to Christ, but there are others here who have gotten swallowed up with schedules and “things” in their lives that they have lost the sense of being refreshed and the fire from that salvation moment in their lives.

Tonight, if you’ve lost that sense of being refreshed, I want to challenge you to come back to God and ask Him to refresh you. It is very easy to be a child of God who gets caught up with “distractions” that it causes you to lose excitement and possibly drift back to old habits, while still being a child of God.

The biggest thing for us to remember: A child of God experiences new life, but they also have new behaviors that come with their new life. 

The new actions do not happen overnight, but they are a fruit of your salvation. Don’t believe me?

[Slide: (CSB)]

17 In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit.

To be “in Christ” is to be in relationship with him. Consider what it’s like to be in relationship with someone. You start desiring the things that they are passionate about. I had a friend in high school and she was raised a Tennessee Vol fan, bless her heart. But I see not too long ago she gets married and all of a sudden she rocking Crimson Tide gear… Why? Because her husband is a Tide fan. You hate to see it. 

What are you passionate about? When Jesus himself says the greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbor. Are you passionate about that? When Jesus says that he came to seek and save the lost, are you passionate about seeking the lost and seeing them come to know Jesus? 

Over the next few weeks we are going to be diving deeper into the theme of being refreshed, but I wonder how many here may not know that they are in need of being refreshed.

Now I do want to take a moment and speak to the reality of what it’s like to be your age in this day and age. You see we, people my age and older, have put expectations on teenagers that just are not fair because you are young, full of energy, and have your whole life in front of you. The problem though comes when we push you to be the top student, athlete, family member, and church member. In reality, we need to be pushing you to reach your full potential in Christ. When you reach your potential in Christ, it will pour out in the classroom, athletic field, and within your family.

The time has come for you to think about being refreshed, because how useful is a person if they burn out in their Christian walk before they even begin the journey?

You are a new creation, and your old life and ways have passed away when you gave your life over to Jesus. Now it is time for you come to Christ and find yourself in Him.

Application

Tonight, I want you to take a moment to think about your own life. Are you a child of God? If so, what new behaviors have taken over your life?

How can a child of God feel refreshed again in Christ?

How can a Christian teenager not be controlled or driven by their schedule, but instead driven by Christ?

Next week we will look into and continue to pursue becoming refreshed in Jesus. Over the next week, I want to encourage you to find some time to get alone with Christ and take some time to find yourself in Christ. I know that you are either in two positions tonight: a child of God or someone searching to know more about Jesus.

If you are in Christ, take some time to pray, read God’s Word, and ask God to refresh you. I can promise you that God will refresh you and give you that passion for Him that will remind you of the moments after giving your life to him.

Now, if you are searching to know more about Jesus, I want you to do something very radical and crazy for me. I want you this week to ask God to reveal Himself to you this week. Once you do that, watch and wait for God to reveal Himself and show you He is the King of Kings.

Let’s close in prayer.