Ephesians 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. The Greek word for renewed or new means that the whole course of life now flows in a different direction. The word for “put on” means to be clothed with. The new nature is put on and manifests righteousness and true holiness.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. This is the Bible verse that I think Satan hates the worst. He doesn’t want you to forget your past. He wants to constantly remind Christians how wicked they were before they came to Christ and therefore discourage them and depress them. He uses every means he can to discourage and defeat Christians by reminding us of what we were before. All of us have flashbacks of our past sins and it immediately makes us cringe. We don’t forget what we were anyway but we don’t have to BE that person anymore because we are NOT that person anymore. Paul tackles this in this passage several instructions on how we should live as a new man. We are not the same as we were before and therefore Paul guides us in this new life and this new creation that we are.

God’s purpose for man’s work. It would be fruitful and rewarding and not a burden. It can still be a blessing even though we are under the Adamic curse.

The lion is supposedly the king of the Jungle. Well the lion may think he’s king but the Hippo knows he is king. I am told that the roar of a lion is the most frightening thing you will ever hear. A lion is majestic, quick, sleek and feroscious. Hippo’s don’t really attack prey they just can’t be attacked. A hippo just fends off attackers while minding his own business. But a lion seeks to devour you and is sneaking and prowling and stalking you until the moment he attacks. A lion only attacks at the exact moment when he has the advantage.

That’s the way the enemies of God’s people are. They are not Hippo’s they are lions. Even Jesus told Peter that Satan is like a roaring lion seeking to devour him. Our enemies are sneaky. They are prowling about our lives. They are stalking us waiting for that one weak moment, that one time when you are not paying attention, that one moment of weakness.

Daniel was thrown into a hopeless situation. Not only was he stalked by the enemies of God but they caught him not at his weakness but the strength.

The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth. He does not lie. He teaches us the truth for that’s all He knows. God is a Spirit John 4:24. God is a Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is.

It’s not the rich that are the happiest people. We already know that. Yet still there are many who seem to think that those who are rich equals happiness.

As for me, my personal day of independence is July 18th, 1970. My personal Independence Hall was at the Inez FBC VBS at Where Tomahawk Freewill Baptist church is today. My personal Declaration of Independence is this old book that I hold in my hand-the blessed Word of God

America's only hope is not in better government, new political leadership, end of Islam, Closed borders, balanced budgets, more defense, or recovered stock market. America's only hope is for each person to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!

I want you to see that this verse was not written just for the nation of Israel in the Old Testament. It was written for God's people at any time in any place. It begins by saying, "If ………..MY PEOPLE who are CALLED by My name..." It all begins with IF……and…….The people of God. How can we heal our land? Some “ifs” have to be answered.

The devil knows his time is short. He can read the scriptures and he can see the signs. He knows that Israel is in it’s place and that God plans for Israel to be saved and lead the way for the Messiah the Lord Jesus to rule and reign for a thousand years. So he is busy creating a form of godliness 2 Timothy 3:5. Satan deceives people. Jesus warned us not to be deceived and mentioned deception 4 times in Matthew 24. Eight times in the New Testament in seven books by Jesus and four other apostles we are warned about being deceived.

Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Seven times in the book of Revelation it is pointed out that Satan has deceived the nations and the people of the world.

We are changing all the time. We get old. We lose our hair. We lose our minds. We lose our keys. Everything you have in your possession will wear out and be rendered useless in time. I was looking at rocks the other day. You know even the rocks changed at the flood and since the flood rocks are changing but very little since the flood.

The rocks you see in the hills, I’m talking about the big rocks that stick out of the ground—have been around since the flood and even before in some mineral fashion. The oldest things on earth are rocks. The oldest living things on earth are trees. But even rocks change because of erosion and trees change because of time and weathering.

This is because we live in a fallen, sinful world devoid of our eternal bodies that we lost when Adam sinned therefore everything wears out over time because the earth and the heavens are not eternal. Only God is eternal. So we are fallen out of fellowship with God therefore we are no longer technically eternal in our bodies and in our physical sense. Including the earth and the heavens.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a car that parts never break or wear out. Wouldn’t it be great to have your favorites pair of jeans never fade or wear out? Wouldn’t it be great if your favorite chair didn’t wear out? Well these things do wear out and fade away. Wouldn’t it be great if we could never die?

You say immediately yes… but do you really want to live in these bodies forever and be an old person for ever? Not me. I would rather be like the butterfly and shed these imperfect bodies and soar into heave where I will never get sick, never get old and nothing will ever wear out and everything is eternal.

You may have had a wonderful father. Maybe you didn’t. But If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior I am telling you today that you have the ideal Father and He is our God. He has a Son. His name is Jesus.