Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, January 19, 2025

Not This Year!

Today, Pastor Michael is comparing our physical and spiritual health, which is very timely given how many are trying to start the New Year on a new foot.

Some ways we can encourage spiritual health are:

1. Start every day with prayer.
2. Engage with the word of God every day.

You can add other items, such as writing down things you are grateful for, scripture memorization, serving people while avoiding recognition, and more.

Let’s start with spiritual junk food.  Spiritual junk food is the empty distractions and missed beliefs that starve our souls.  Anything that fills your hours without filling your soul is an easy way to remember what we shouldn’t be doing! 

Today, our lesson finds us in Ephesus; Paul is speaking to the Ephesians about striving to become what they should / could be as followers of Christ.  And he’s preaching precisely what we just said: if you’ve been set free in Jesus, don’t go back to the spiritual junk food!

What would that be today (spiritual junk food)?  Entertainment and media! They are far more addictive than we think, and we could go down so many rabbit holes here.  We can, however, quickly state areas that, at the start of this new year, are things we ‘should’ do:

1. This year, we will worship in a way that is not just emotion.
2. This year, we will trust that God loves us, even when we’re having a bad day.
3. This year, we will know we are blessed, even when our bank account doesn’t know it.
4. This year, we will move beyond the idea that righteousness is all about rule-following.
5. This year, we will refuse to confuse tradition with truth.
6. This year, we will choose spiritual intimacy over religious busyness.
7. This year, let’s move beyond social media spirituality.
8. This year, let’s move beyond spirituality. That’s all talk.  If you say that you’re saved, live like it.
9. This is your year to live differently!
10. This year, let’s let go of shallow beliefs.

Three actions steps this year:

1. Examine your diet (media).  Is it feeding your soul?
2. Replace the junk with truth.
3. Focus on forever.

(CSB Bible Notes) 4:17-19 This section of the letter provides the practical outworking of v. 1. Paul’s exhortations denounced the readers’ former way of life. The content of the exhortation parallels early Christian baptismal practices of putting off old clothes before putting on new clothes to enter the baptismal water.

Today’s verses can be found in Ephesians 4: 17-18.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.