Renewed Spirit

Dr. Tim Rivers | August 3rd, 2025

Listen

Transcription

Psalm 51:10, here it is. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew. Somebody say renew. Renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. I really want to take my topic from verse number 10, create in me a clean heart, O God. Here it is, and renew a right spirit. Somebody say spirit. Spirit within me. So the topic for today, we're in a series called Renew, and the day's topic is Renewed Spirit. Renewed Spirit. Lord, we are so grateful, so thankful to be in your house. I pray that in the next few moments and minutes as we get into your word, you will let the logos give us rhema. Let the word of God come alive to us in our situation. Change us from the inside out. We're quick to give your name the praise and the glory because you're worthy of it. In Jesus' name, everybody say amen. Before you see it, turn to somebody near you and tell them it's time for a renewed spirit.

You may be seated. God bless you. From about the age of, I don't know, probably nine until young adulthood, early '20, it's interesting that now I can say early '20, and I feel like that was a long ways away. I had this need for adventure. I was a daredevil, you know, key word, was, but I loved doing daring things. I had this desire for an adrenaline rush. And so there's a lot of things that I would do, whether it's parachute or surf or whatever. I've done a lot of things, and every time I've walked away unscathed. But there was one particular moment, there's only been really one of these moments where I thought, okay, this may be the real end. And that was when I went to Ozark, Arkansas, to be with a friend of mine. I was actually preaching for a friend of mine's dad, and it was the first revival that I preached as an evangelist. And I decided to go there a little earlier. I went there on a Friday just to hang out a little bit before service on Sunday. And so on Saturday, we were getting ready to go out to the Arkansas River, which flowed through Ozark, Arkansas. And my friend had a boat.

I remember the first time I saw that boat, I said, I don't know. I think y'all got a pretty good deal on this one. Like one of those, hey, we haven't serviced it in years, but the last time we rode it, it ran, that kind of situation. So I was like, oh, you know what? I'm young. I like adrenaline, so let's do this thing. So y'all know where this is going, right?So we get in this boat, we get on the Arkansas River, and we're going tubing. So everyone has their turn. Now it's my turn. And if you've ever been tubing, you know that the goal of tubing for the driver of the boat is to knock the person on the tube off. And the goal of the person on the tube is to hang on for dear life so that you can get on the boat and say, yeah, you couldn't get me off. So it was my turn. I was on the tube, and we were going all through the river. They never knocked me off. I was, you know, faster, that kind of thing. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, while we're in the middle of this river quite a ways away from the dock, I hear thunder. I'm saying, this ain't good, right? Then I see lightning. Next thing you know, it starts to rain. So in my head, I'm thinking, this is the moment where you stop the boat, you reel in the tube, you let me get in the boat, and we make our way back to the dock. Instead, they say, hang on!

And they take off toward the dock, and I'm really trying to hang on. But by this time, it is pouring rain, so all of the rain feels like needles that are just piercing me in the face. And they're still trying to knock me off. I'm like, let's just get to the dock at this point. So I'm on the back of this boat, and we get close to the dock, and they do one final swoop, and I saw it happening in slow motion. The rope gets real tight. It starts fraying, and next thing you know, it pops. The tube flips over. I get knocked into the river. I've got my life jacket on, and now I'm thinking, okay, they're going to come back around, pick me up, and then we'll live happily ever after. But I hear the boat going this way. It's pouring so much rain that I can't really see the boat, but all of a sudden, as I see the boat turn, I hear, and I think, this ain't good because the boat's not working anymore. And I'm in the middle of the Arkansas River being swept quickly toward what I look up ahead is a dam. And I'm thinking, uh-oh, this ain't a good situation.

And in that moment, I tried to swim to shore, but the current was so strong that I was getting nowhere. So finally, I just got on my back and said, take me, Lord. It was the only moment in my life where I thought, this may be the real end. And I'm thinking, God, all I was trying to do was preach. I should have known better. And so I'm floating in the middle of this river. I'm heading toward this dam. And I'm thinking, if they don't come pick me up, I'm about to drown. And I can't hear them. I kind of could see through the distance him working on the engine. I said, my God, have mercy. This ain't it. Like, it should have been a different way that I go out. Not like this. And so finally, I'm floating down. I'm getting close to the dam. And I hear the boat crank back up. And I think, oh, yes. But I'm going, wait a minute. They don't see me. And I don't see them. So I hear the boat go the opposite direction. And I'm like this. God, I need you to intervene right now. Clear up the skies. Do whatever you got to do. Then I hear them going this way all the way around me and not close to me. Finally, I hear them coming. And they're coming right toward me. So I'm thinking in this moment, all right, I need divine strategy. So I made up in my mind, okay, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to let them actually come run over me.

And then I'm going to hit the side of the boat so they know it's me. And I did it. And it worked. They stopped. They got me in the boat. I said, I will never ride in a boat with you guys again. And from that point on, if your boat ain't brand new, I'm not getting in it. Don't come to me with no pontoon boat from 1980. I ain't doing it. But what's interesting, I tell you that story because here was the reality. I was having a good time. I was having a lot of fun as long as I was tethered to the boat. At the moment when I felt disconnected is the moment where fear crept in. And I thought I would die. And I'm telling you this story because in a real way, in a spiritual sense, all of us at some point will feel disconnected from God. It doesn't matter if you've been living for God for 60 years or three minutes. At some point in your walk with God, you're going to feel as if the rope has snapped. You're in the middle of nowhere and you're heading toward destruction. And you're wondering, where is God? Has anybody ever been there where  you feel like you're having a good time with God?

Everything's going right. You're like, ah, this is fun. This is awesome. And then all of a sudden, something hits you. The storm comes. The wind starts blowing. The waves are crashing. You can't see 10 feet from you. And you feel like God is no longer there. And you feel like, I've done everything I can to get to shore, but it ain't working. This may be the real end. Has anybody ever been there? This is what David was dealing with in Psalm 51. Because David, let me give you some context, is writing here. And he is pleading God for restoration. He's pleading with God for renewal. He's pleading with God to be reconnected. Now, at this moment in Psalm 51, this is after David has found Himself in an entanglement with Bathsheba. Now, this story is very interesting because we love to talk about David and his grandeur. The fact that he was a king for 40 years, that there was peace in Israel. The fact that he was chosen by God. The fact that he was a man after God's own heart. We have all of these accolades that we give to David. But David has also some deep-rooted problems, some issues he never dealt with. And one of them was he had a lust problem. And we know this to be true because he's on the rooftop of his house. The Bible says he is there at a time when kings went to war. Meaning that he wasn't where he was supposed to be.

When you're not where you're supposed to be, it is very hard to fight the temptations that play on your emotions and on your inner lust by yourself. So he's not where he's supposed to be. He looks out and he sees a woman bathing on her rooftop named Bathsheba. And at that moment, he has an opportunity to escape the temptation, which is just go back in the house, bro. Right? But instead, he entertains his thoughts and then makes his thoughts a reality by inviting her to come over. Just come over, have some grapes and some wine. Here's a charcuterie board ready. Right? So she comes over. One thing leads to another. They sleep together. He doesn't think anything about it. A couple months later, he gets news. Hey, guess what? Bathsheba is pregnant. And he's like this. Uh-oh. So instead of admitting to his wrong and dealing with the consequences, he figures I'm going to try to cover this up. So he happens to know this woman's husband, whose name is Uriah, who is actually out on the battlefield where David is supposed to be. So he calls for Uriah to come home. Everybody else is still at war. He calls Uriah home, and Uriah is like, why am I being called home? And David goes, listen, man, you've done such a phenomenal job. I would like for you to go sleep with your wife.

And David's strategy is, if Uriah goes and sleeps with his wife, then when she says, I'm pregnant, which by the way, she already knows, isn't Uriah, so he's trying to put the onus on Bathsheba to live in discomfort. You take the responsibility, and then what? She's going to have a child that she knows is King David's, and then got to act like it's Uriah's? Right? So he puts her in this awkward position, but because Uriah is such a man of integrity, he goes, listen, I'm not even supposed to be here. Let me go back and be in battle with my guys. David says, no, no, no, no, no. I'd like for you to go have relations with your wife. Uriah says, I'm not doing it. David says, no problem. Drink some more wine. The Bible says that he literally gets Uriah intoxicated, then sends him home thinking that he's so intoxicated he won't know what's happening, but Uriah has such a deep sense of integrity that even intoxicated, stumbling to his home, he sleeps outside of the house because he refuses to go sleep with his wife and be in comfort while his soldiers are out in battle. He has way more integrity than David ever had in that moment, right? So this is what David says, man, there's only one way to handle this. I got to murder him. So he sends him back out to battle, and this is what he commands the other soldiers. Hey, listen, send Uriah to the front of the battle. When it starts getting hot, I want you all to back up and just leave him by himself. Did y'all know this? So he leaves him. He ends up getting killed. And then David's like, oh, no, my friend Uriah. And here's what's interesting about Uriah. Uriah is actually listed in the 37 mighty men of David, meaning that he was one of 37 of tens of thousands of soldiers who gave their life to the preservation of David's life.

So a person who's given everything to make sure that David's taken care of has now been murdered by David, all to cover up his sin, right? And then we know the end of the story, how finally the man of God comes to him and says, listen, there's a person that stole a sheep and blah, blah, blah. And David's like, who's that person? Let's go take care of him. Nathan says, you're the guy. And David says, oh, no. And then there's judgment. Just because you repent doesn't mean you don't have to deal with some consequences of your choices. David said, I'm sorry. And God says, you're forgiven, but the boy ain't going to make it. And he has to live with the consequence. And at the end of David's life, this was the story. This is what the Bible says, that David did everything that was right in the sight of  God, except for the case of Uriah the Hittite.

Isn't it interesting that it wasn't the adultery? It was the cover up. So I want to give you some truths about a renewed spirit because we're going to look at David and how he navigated in Psalm chapter 51. But I want you to notice something. First of all, we all need spiritual renewal. When David comes, when David finally gets to this place, after all the stuff that he's done, he's coming to God. And this is what he starts off saying in Psalm 51:10.  He says, created me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. David wasn't just asking God to fix his behavior. He wasn't asking God for a quick fix. He wasn't asking God to get him out of a situation. He wasn't coming to God and saying, God, I just need you to change my behavior to help me stop doing this. David acknowledged that the reason why he got led into this situation is because he got disconnected in his spirit. He knew that because his spirit was disconnected, his behavior followed. Let me tell you something. Your behavior is not the problem. It's your spirit. Because here's the thing.

The word spirit in the Hebrew word is ruach. It means breath, wind, or inner life force. The spirit is the source of your motivations. It's your moral compass. It's our capacity for devotion. It represents the core of a person's inner being. In other words, everything that you do flows out of your spirit. And if your spirit is off, then your behavior will be off. Now, I want you to recognize this about David. David didn't just commit adultery. He lied. He cheated. He committed adultery. Then he lied again. He committed murder. He did a cover-up on that. There's a lot of stuff that went on in this situation with David. And guess what? Over a period of time. It wasn't just one instant and all of a sudden. No. It took months. So David was living in this for months. And you know all the people around him that knew the situation. The servant that went and got Bathsheba. The person that was standing by the door.

The person that sent the news for Uriah. Everybody felt awkward. What got David to the spot that he could not only participate in this sin, but involve other people? His spirit was off. This is why David says, created me a new heart and renew a right spirit in me. A right spirit means a steadfast, faithful, and upright inner life. One that consistently aligns with God's will. Check this out. Even in private. You want to know what true integrity is? Integrity is when you can have the right spirit even in private. You say, well, everyone sees I'm doing well. Yeah, in public. What's your private life look like? What are you watching in private? What are you saying in private? What are you listening to in private? Because what you do in private is the true sense of who you are internally. Clock it. Clock it. Some of y'all are like, what does that mean? Lock it in. Note it. Who you are in private is really who you are. Why does this matter? Because you can be externally active in church and in ministry and in good deeds, but if your spirit is off, your whole life can be misaligned. So what do you do when you feel disconnected? First, you got to go to the source.

What's your spirit doing? Isaiah chapter 59:2, it says, your iniquities have separated you from your God. Where iniquities originate? In the heart. Right? Ephesians 4:23 says to be made new in the spirit of your minds. So number one, we have to recognize that all of us need renewal in our spirit. Number two is renewal comes from God's presence. Psalm chapter 51:11, it says, cast me not away from your what? Presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. So David again is speaking. He says, listen, without God's presence, I tend to do my own thing. You cannot be unholy in the holy presence of God. God has designed his atmosphere in such a way that even if you walk into his presence with dirty sandals, you got to take them off. Why? Because in the presence of God is the holiness of God. And where the holiness of God is, unholiness cannot dwell.

Meaning that when you're in the presence of God, the more you're in the presence of God, the more you become like him. He influences you. This is why when you sin or you mess up, the natural reaction is for us to move away from the presence of God. Remember when Eve sinned against God and God comes to the garden, he says, Adam and Eve, what do they do? They hide from God. Why? Because the holiness of God exposes you. So the tendency for a human when we've sinned against God is to get away from God. That's why if you've messed up, it's the job of the enemy to convince you not to come to church. Stay away from the presence of God. But you need the presence of God if you want to be realigned in your spirit. Check this out. David knew what it was like to have the presence of God. The presence of God was on him when he fought a bear, when he fought a lion. The presence of God was on him when he fought Goliath.

But he also knew what it was like to be outside of the presence of God. Psalm chapter 22. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer and by night, but I find no rest. David knew exactly what it felt like to be separated from the presence of God. And he also saw firsthand what ends up happening to a person when the presence of God is not near them. Saul. So when David is praying this prayer, he says, cast me not away from your presence. Renewal is not just about fixing your situation. It's about reconnecting with the source. It's about staying in the presence of God. Listen, sin will make you stay away from the presence of God. Because the job of sin, one of the consequences of sin is shame. Shame and guilt and condemnation. The job of the Holy Spirit is conviction. So when you have sinned against God and you feel that disconnect, the natural tendency for humans is to stay away from the presence of God. And God, however, says you need to be in my presence because that's where you're going to be renewed.

You cannot have the peace that surpasses understanding outside of the presence of God. You cannot have joy that transcends circumstances without the presence of God. You cannot have the power to be an overcomer outside of the presence of God. You need the presence of God. Exodus chapter 33:15, the children of Israel are trying to move forward and this is the prayer. If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. I don't want to go anywhere where the presence of God is not. I need the presence of God at all times. Now here's another thing about the presence of God. The reason why some of us stay away from the presence of God is because sin feels better when you're not in the presence of God. But sin separates you even further from God. And the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life. Acts chapter 3:19 says, times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Listen, don't just settle for spiritual numbness, but develop a habit to be in the presence of God. How do you have the presence of God?

You invite it into your life. You are intentional about getting to the presence of God. Wherever the presence of God is, that's where I want to be. An amazing thing is this, God is everywhere. So no matter where I am, I can be in the presence of God if I just invite and create a space for him to dwell. Point number three, the Holy Spirit renews us. I know this seems very elementary to hear, but check out verse number 11 of Psalm 51, cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. The Holy Spirit is not just a force that we feel at a moment where we need to have superpowers. I know that some of us have been taught that if you need to climb this, get the power of the Holy Ghost. And we sometimes will treat the Holy Spirit as a momentary empowerment, as if a beam comes down from heaven and we get endued with supernatural power, and then we can go do all these amazing things. But the Holy Spirit is God dwelling inside of you, motivating your life, meaning that he convicts you at the moment when sin is a temptation.

He shows you the way of escape. And when you're dealing with some kind of temptation to go here or there, he comforts you. He helps you. He renews your mind. He leads you to repentance. He orchestrates your life. He tells you what's coming around the corner. If you can just engage the Holy Spirit within you, if you can say, Holy Spirit, help me have wisdom as I go take this test. Give me the right words to speak as I go have this interview. God, help me to see this contract. Help me see the fine print. There are times where I have just had the Holy Spirit. Give me a check. Check it again. Don't say that. Don't do that. But you have to be submitted to the Holy Spirit. Here's what we know about the Holy Spirit. He reminds us of truth. John 14:26. He brings us back to repentance. John 16:8. He fills us with strength. Acts 1:8. Let me tell you, renewal is not about being power driven. It's about being Holy Spirit driven. And in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come on someone. It would come on Samson, and he would kill a thousand Philistines. It would come on Samson. He'd carry the gates to the city on his back. It would come on Saul as he's leading the children of Israel. It would come on David as he's fighting a bear and a lion and Goliath. The Holy Spirit would come on you, but the Holy Spirit could also be released from you. Remember Saul? Saul had the Holy Spirit on him, and there comes a time for an offering. He doesn't want to wait for the man of God. He's like, I'm gonna do it myself.

He circumvents the plan of God, and when he does, the Bible says that God withdrew the Spirit from him, and an evil spirit came to dwell in him. And what happened when that evil spirit came? He started going and seeing witches, doing seances, speaking to the dead. This is what happens when we are not full of the Holy Spirit. But today, the Holy Spirit indwells the believer, meaning then that you have access to be renewed in your spirit daily. Check this out. This is what the Scripture says, Ephesians chapter 4:30, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. What does that mean? It means when you're disconnected spiritually from God by behaviors and sin that do not please God, you're grieving the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit is saddened, and you can feel it. Renewal comes when we invite the Holy Spirit to lead, correct, fill, and empower us. We love to talk about the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, but what about the correction of the Holy Spirit? What about when the Holy Spirit is like this? And we're like, God, we want you to be a gentle parenting. And God's like, no, I'm gonna use the rod because you ain't listening to the still, small voice.

So I'm gonna get you with this situation. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens. Some of y'all are like, he's running after me? That's the old way of saying, spanks. The Lord will let you feel a sting. Why? To remind you of the aftermath of sinful behavior. That's why it's called the sting of death. So how do you receive a renewed spirit? Number one, you repent with honesty. This is what I love about David. David, it would have been better for him to confess it, right? Confess your faults one to another that you may be healed. It would have been better for him to come forward and say, listen, I done made a huge, huge mistake. Not a mistake, I made some bad choices. Here's what I did. Instead, he got caught. But when he got caught, he didn't try to cover it up. He actually admitted, yep, I did it. And then he had to deal with the consequences of it. We have to be willing to repent with honesty. We have to be willing to tell the Lord exactly what we're stepping away from. Repentance means to turn about face. It means to turn and go the opposite direction, right?

Sometimes we go, Lord, I'm just, I'm so sorry. And God's like, for what? Have you ever had somebody say, listen, I just wanted to apologize and hopefully we're good. And you're like, apologize for what? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Just that, no, no, no. Is anybody petty like me? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. What did you do? Right? We want people to confess. Tell me exactly what you did. And with God, God already knows. So we go to God and go, God, I'm sorry. And he's like, for what? Because here's what Adam and Eve did. They ran away from the presence of God. And God's like, where are you at? And they're like, oh, we're here. And then what did God ask them next? Even though God knew what they did, what did he say? What did you do? Did you eat from the tree that I told you not to eat of? God, you already know my thoughts.

And yet God calls us to overt repentance. God, this is what I did at 10 o'clock on Friday night. Some of y'all are like, oh, Lord, how did you know? Because nothing good happens at 10 o'clock. Renewal involves wrestling with our sinfulness and inviting God into the dark places of our hearts and allowing his spirit to reshape us. Can I tell you, walking in obedience means aligning our habits, our decisions, our desires with God's truth every day. Now, a lot of people want to be saved. Very few people want to walk in discipleship. Can I say it again? A lot of people want to be saved. Not very many people want to walk in discipleship. What does discipleship mean? It means total surrender to the will of God in your private life, which will manifest itself in your public life. And we can go through the motions of coming to church, but so many are in danger of getting before Jesus and Jesus saying, what's up? And you go, I'm ready. And he's like, depart from me, I never knew you. Well, have we not done this and this? He goes, yeah, you went through the motions, but I never had your heart.

Okay. Number two, so number one is repent honestly. Number two is pray for transformation. Ask God to do a deep work in you. Every day, ask God to do a deep work with you. Within you, let your heart be changed. Let your spirit be changed. Ezekiel chapter 36:26. This is what God says, I will give you a new heart and put in you a new spirit. That is called heart surgery. The only reason you need heart surgery is if your heart ain't functioning correctly, right? My dad, he had a heart attack. This was, I think a year ago. And he was out mowing the yard, said his chest got tight. And he went inside to take a nap, try to sleep it off. He couldn't because he was in such discomfort. So in my, in true dad fashion, he gets on his bike and rides his bike like a mile and a half to my brother's house, chest still tight. And my brother, you know, he says, hey, I need to go in, but we can take our time. So they come over to our house and they're just chilling, relaxing.

And my dad's like, yeah, I said, man, what's going on? He's like, man, my chest is tight. I said, bro, you better go to the ER now. So they rushed to the ER. He gets in the ER. And as soon as they take him in, they come back out and they're saying, we're going to emergency surgery. He's got to put stents in. He's having an active heart attack right now. So he goes, he gets through surgery, put a couple of stents in, and he's better. Thank God. Amen. But his life completely changed after having heart surgery. He couldn't eat the same stuff that he had been eating before. He couldn't do some of the same activities that he was doing before. When you allow God to transform your spirit and your heart, you can't snack on the same stuff that clogged your spirit in the first place. You can't go to the same places, listen to the same stuff, hang out with the same people. When God starts to renew you, you have to live now with a new transformed heart. You have been heart transplanted.

Point number three, walk in obedience and surrender. Renewal is maintained through daily surrender. Romans chapter 12:2, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Let me ask you, how often should you be renewed in your spirit? Daily. This is good, just solid food. This is grilled chicken breast, green beans, some cornbread. Because often for us as Christians, I'm guilty of it too. I like this like ecstasy, this moment of just being in the clouds. But if you're going to live a daily life with Christ and be sanctified, you have to every day submit not just your body, but your spirit to the Lord. Meaning that before you take off from your house, you invite the Holy Spirit to renew your spirit. Why? Because you leak. You spend enough time outside the presence of the Lord, you pick up some bad habits, right? You need the Holy Spirit to renew you on the inside. How does he do it? He does it by leading you through prayer and his word. He's washing you. You've got to be in community with other believers. You've got to be in the process of sanctification.

Let me tell you something, people are like, man, I want to go out here and I want to wall out. But I still have the chance. You ain't living in glory with people that have rejected Christ. Who cares what they are calling you to do? You've been called out. You've been separated. Stop playing with sin. Stop ignoring what God is telling you to do. If I need excitement in my life, get excited for Jesus. Right? I need a turn up. Turn up in the presence of God. So that you can turn up. Clock it. Last passage, 2 Corinthians 4:16. So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed. Check this out. Day by day. Let me ask you this. Are you running on empty spiritually? Do you feel frustrated? Do you feel out of sync? Do you feel like you're going through the motions of church, but you're disconnected from God? Do you feel like you're praying, but it seems empty? Do you feel like the line has been snapped and you're floating in the middle of a river? Then God is calling you to spiritual renewal. God is calling you for your spirit to be renewed so that you don't live for Christ just Sunday to Sunday. Needing an injection, a B12 shot. It's okay to get a B12 shot, but you can't live off of B12 shots. You can't just go get hooked up on the IV every week. It's not good for you.

At some point, you're going to have to eat the broccoli. You're going to have to switch from the chicken wings. Oh, you know, the chicken wings. Right? At some point, your life as a Christian has to be daily renewal in the spirit. I think some people are afraid of becoming a weirdo. Like, what if I get so spiritual that I'm disconnected from the world? Isn't that what's going to happen when you get to heaven? Right? And you can be spiritually renewed and be normal. But I would much rather be led by the spirit so that I can live with joy and peace in my inner man where I can have not complacency, but contentment. Right? Close your eyes about yet if you would. Let me ask you this. How many in this place would be so bold as to admit, maybe online or in the overflow room, you'd be so bold to admit that you feel like you're going through a season of feeling disconnected from God? Just throw your hand up. Let me see who I'm talking to.

Raise it up high. Here's the thing. You're not alone. This message is to help you realize that we all will go through seasons of being disconnected, and when that happens, God is calling us. He's throwing out a lifeline, a lifesaver, for you to reattach yourself so he can pull you back in the boat. And I don't know what may have snapped a line for you. Maybe it's the wind and the waves and the storm, and maybe it's some kind of traumatic event, or maybe you feel like someone said something to you, or you're dealing with stress at work or at your house, or whatever it may be that makes you feel disconnected. And let me just speak to some men in here, because we're really good at acting like everything is okay and our heart is hurting.

I just feel I need to speak to some guys right now. You've been carrying the weight of your family and your job on your shoulder, and you've been muscling through, but you feel spiritually disconnected from God. If it was up to you, you'd send your family to church and you'd stay home. And God has sent me here to call you to spiritual renewal. Because when your spirit is renewed, your life will reflect it. You'll find joy in your work again. You'll find joy in your family. You'll find joy in your spouse. You'll find joy in your children. And for some of you, you're not experiencing joy because your spirit is disconnected. It's time for renewal of your spirit. Would you stand on your feet? Hands lifted, if you would. Lord, make me over again. I want us just to take a moment, maybe just a minute, open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is going to highlight some things for you that you are connected to that is disconnecting you spiritually. He's going to highlight it for you so that you can disconnect from that and reconnect to the Holy Spirit. So just for the next 60 seconds, 90 seconds, let's create a space between you and the Lord. Let's just have  a little bit of this worship.

We invite you here, God. Come feel this place for the Lord in our hearts. We say, Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere. Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for, to be overcome by your presence.  Lord, Hallelujah. Your presence, Lord. Oh, yes. Your presence, Lord. Your presence, Lord.

Hallelujah. One of the ways that we're reminded of reconnection and renewal is through communion. 1 Corinthians 11:26, Paul is writing to the church. He says, For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Now, why is it important to remember the sacrifice of Jesus? Why do we take communion? It's to recognize that Jesus died for us. Then you have to ask the question, why did Jesus die for us? Why did he come, die, get buried, and raise again? For one reason. Are you ready? Reconciliation. What is reconciliation? It's renewal. It's restoration. It's reclaiming. It's revitalizing. It's restoring. All those things are indicators that what was is now being put back into a right alignment. In other words, the separation that happened at the garden, Christ came to restore Adam and Eve or mankind back to God. So when we take communion, it is a sign. We do this as a symbol of being restored back to the body of Christ.

Not just physically, that will happen when the dead in Christ shall rise and we'll be caught up to meet him. But right now, your spirit is what needs to be reconciled to Christ. So when you take communion, it is an actual representation that I'm reconnecting to Christ. That's why we do it once a month. Why? Because as often as you, you need to be reminded of reconciliation every day.

And if we do it corporately once a month. Now, here's one of the things that you have to realize about being reconciled to God. If you're going to be reconciled to God, you have got to offer Him your life because He offered you His life. It's called the Great Exchange. You can't be reconciled to God if you don't give yourself to God. So what we're going to do, we've done this the last couple of times, we're going to do it again today, is we're going to represent what that looks like. The early church practiced it this way. We're going to practice it this way. So I'd like for the ushers to come. We're going to have a moment of offering. What does that mean? What does offering mean? Offer-ing. You're giving something, but you're not just going to give something, you're going to receive something. And here's why we do that. We don't just want to be partakers of the body of Christ without giving ourselves to the body of Christ. And one of the ways that we do that is we do this with our resources. Now, here's why. You see this container with this amazing gluten-free bread and this fruit of the vine?

 This was purchased with actual dollars. This doesn't just drop from the sky like manna. This was purchased with finances that were given by you, by online, by those that... You have given your $100, your dollar, your $1,000, your million dollars, your $10 million. Where are you? Whatever you bring, the Bible says that everyone should bring something. This is what the Scripture says. Everyone should decide in their heart what to give, not reluctantly or out of compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. What's a cheerful giver? A cheerful giver is someone that recognizes, I'm not giving God anything. He hasn't given me first. It's not like I'm doing God a favor. God's given to me consistently. And so that's what we're doing right now. So if you want to give a physical offering, you can bring it. If you want to do it online, you can do it. The QR code is here. But I would encourage everyone to let the Holy Spirit move on you and then respond to that. We're going to give in this offering and then we're going to have a time. We're going to pause, reflect, and take communion. Lord, we're giving to you in this moment, not reluctantly or out of compulsion, but out of cheerfulness, recognizing that whatever we give right now in this offering, whether physically or online, we're giving you a portion of the whole that you've given us.

And so we don't do that out of resistance. We do that out of thankfulness. And it also represents that we give into your body so we can partake of the body. I pray that you would take our offering, multiply it, meet every need according to your will. Help us to fund the enterprise of the kingdom in the earth. In Jesus' name, amen. If you have to give, you can come give. You can give online. Let's worship.

 My heart is an open space for you to come and have your way. I'm open, I'm open. My heart is an open space for you to come and have your way. I'm open, I'm open. Say my heart. My heart is an open space for you to come and have your way. I'm open, I'm open. Say my heart. My heart is an open space for you to come and have your way. I'm open, I'm open. My heart is an open space for you to come and have your way. I'm open, I'm open.

 Can you stretch your hand toward this offering? Lord, I pray that you would take everything that we've given, Lord. Whether we give it online or physically, I pray that you would take it and utilize it for the enterprise of your kingdom. I pray that you would bless us to give constantly, to reflect the generosity that you've shown us. Help us to be good stewards, to continue to be good stewards of what you've blessed us with, so that we can further the kingdom of God, the message of the gospel, and that many, many, many people would hear the gospel, be transformed in their life, and be renewed in their spirit. We give you the praise, the glory, and the honor in Jesus' name. Everybody say amen. Amen. When you came in, you would have received one of these little containers. At this moment, we're going to have a time of communion. So if you would just peel it back and reveal the bread. So if you could just get the bread real quick. And this is what I want you to know, first and foremost. The scripture says that let everyone examine themselves. Let everyone examine themselves. Why?

So that we would not take communion unworthily. What does it mean to take communion unworthily? It means to not put the emphasis on communion that it deserves. The seriousness of communion is that Christ gave His life for us. And when we take communion, we're saying we're joined to the body of Christ. And let me just encourage you, if you are not serious about living for God, maybe you're still exploring Christianity, then I would say hold off on communion. Because communion is for those who are all in with Christ, who are submitted to the sanctification process and discipleship and all the things that come along with being a devoted follower of Christ. Same thing with baptism. Don't get baptized if you ain't serious about Christ.

And it doesn't mean that you can't come here, that you can't enjoy being around the people. But this takes it up a notch. This is about commitment. So let's just take about 30 seconds, close our eyes, just check your heart, check your spirit, check your motives. If you're at home, grab bread, grab something. Lord, if there's unforgiveness in my heart, help me to forgive. If there is, if I'm odd against a brother or sister, help me to make it right. If I'm caught up in deliberate, active sin, convict me, help me to repent with honesty. In Jesus' name. If you would take the bread, here's what Jesus said, Matthew 26:26. Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing it, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body. Let's take the bread in recognition of the body of Christ. If you would just flip that element over and peel back, revealing the fruit of the vine. Verse 26 says, And he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Let's take. Could you just lift your hands and thank the Lord right now? Thank you, Lord, for your broken body. Thank you, Lord, for your shed blood. Thank you, Lord, for reconciliation, for the renewal that's offered to us. We give you name, the praise, the glory and the honor because you're worthy of it. In Jesus' name. Everybody shout amen. Amen.

Let me tell you something. This is a reminder to be renewed in your inner man day by day. So here's my encouragement to you. Here's your homework. I know some of y'all thought you were done with school. No, here's your homework. When you wake up tomorrow, before you go to bed tonight, simple prayer, Lord, renew me in my spirit. Renew me in my spirit. Take over my thoughts. Lead me, guide me, and be directed by the spirit. Amen. Take the little container that you have, and as you are on your way out, there'll be a receptacle. You can dump it in there. Prayer team, if you would come, as the prayer team is coming, if you need prayer for anything, maybe you are struggling in your spirit, you feel disconnected, come and get prayer. Let somebody pray over you. Let somebody pray with you. If you don't need prayer, make sure you share the love of Jesus with somebody. We love you so much. We'll see you here next week. God bless.