EASTER

GOODBYE YESTERDAY

Pastor Hope Flask

April 20, 2025

Main Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, 21

Additional Scriptures: Galatians 5:17, 19-21, 1 Peter 1:23, Romans 8:18-19, 28, 37-39, James 1:21-22, Acts 17:24-28

POINTS:

• We all struggle with a distorted self-image.

• We were all born through a corrupted sinful seed.

• The world takes the seed of sin and nurtures it by telling us that our value is based on how we look and what we do.

• When we give our lives to Christ, the corrupted seed doesn’t just go away. Instead, we are given a new seed and enter into a stage of becoming.

• For a Christian, the external is no longer our point of evaluation.

• We have all prayed for God to change us so that we fit in.

• The world’s language, values, customs, and expectations should feel increasingly foreign to a Christian.

• “Christianity is not out to make nicer people, but to make new people.” CS Lewis

• Nice people don’t grow; NEW people do.

• Nice people have no hope for failure; NEW people do.

• What we believe about ourselves is closely linked to how we view our future.

• There will be a fight for this new way of life.

• This battle for new life is not meant to overwhelm us but to strengthen us for flight.

• Our goal in scripture study is to know God, and by knowing God, we know ourselves.

• “If I get to be me, I belong. If I have to be like you, I fit in.” - Brene Brown