Last week Paul unpacked how to live out the Christian life by putting off our old self and putting on our new identity in Christ. Today, we discover together how The New Me should transform our day-to-day relationships.

The Me I am now is not the Me I want to be. How can I get from the "Now Me" to the "New Me"? There can be no “New Me” without “Me . . . IN CHRIST”! Let’s discover from
Paul’s Letter to the Colossians how to understand and live out this "New Life" in Christ.

Free Agent, hands-free, free market, free kick, FREEEEEDOM! What does it mean to be free and experience freedom in Christ? As we continue in the book of Colossians, the Apostle Paul offers a warning to anyone who would take their focus off of Christ and be deceived to follow man-made lists of “do’s” and “don’ts.” Fullness and freedom is brought to us in Jesus. Why add anything else to His liberating good news?

How are you . . . really? Would it be impolite to ask, Who are you . . . really? Strip away all the externals and reveal the core you. Who are you there? Happy with who you see? You’re looking at your “identity.”

The Apostle Paul, writing to Christians in the 1st century town of Colossae, drills down on the question of identity. Your “old identity,” cultivated from birth, is at best incomplete and at worst grotesque. You need a complete and beautiful “new identity.” It’s yours for the taking. Too good to be true? It would be, if not that it’s God who gives it to you, and yours when you place your faith firmly in One who made it possible. The “new me” has a “new identity” . . . “in Christ.”

The “New Me” requires a “New Faith.” Not faith in ourselves, not faith in religion, and not faith in faith. But a faith which leads to maturity. A faith worth proclaiming to others. A faith that is firm because it rests in Christ alone.

To live out the reality of the “New Me,” I must understand who Jesus is, what Jesus has done, and how it applies to me.

Through the Apostle Paul’s thanksgiving and prayer for the Colossian church, we
begin to understand our “New Reality” that is only found in Christ.

The Me I am now is not the Me I want to be. How can I get from the ‘Now Me’ to the ‘New Me’? There can be no “New Me” without “Me . . . IN CHRIST”! Today we begin to discover from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians how to understand and live out this New Life in Christ.

To be Resolute about how we use our time causes us to evaluate our priorities. God wants to make sure we’re focusing on the right things so that we can have the greatest impact possible, while also finding room to breathe and not be maxed out.

Are you RESOLUTE—determined & persistent, steadfast & firm—about the most important things in life? Throughout 2019 we will look at the resolute characteristics of a follower of Jesus. Today, we start the new year with JOY. Paul says, “rejoice in the Lord always!” Is that possible? Let’s see.