If you are one of my personal friends, then the chances are high that you are old enough to remember this huge hit song from 1974 - "You Make Me Feel Brand New." Being a young and naive teenager at the time this song hit the charts, I enjoyed the tune's melody, but I had absolutely no idea what the lyrics meant! Here are the lyrics:
You Make Me Feel Brand New
as sung by The StylisticsMy love,
I'll never find the words my love, to tell you how I feel my love. Mere words, could not explain.
Precious love,
You held my life within your hands, created everything I am, taught me how to live again.
Only you,
came when I needed a friend, believed in me through thick and thin, this song is for you, filled with gratitude and love...
(Chorus) God bless you, you make me feel brand new, for God blessed me with you, you make me feel brand new, I sing this song 'cause you, you make me feel brand new.
My love,
When ever I was insecure, you built me up and made me sure, you gave, my pride, back to me.
Precious friend,
with you I'll always have a friend, your someone who I can depend, to walk a path that sometimes bends.
Without you,
Life has no meaning or rhyme, like notes to a song out of time, how can I repay, you'll find heaven, faith and me...
(Chorus) God bless you, you make me feel brand new, for God blessed me with you, you make me feel brand new, I sing this song for you.
==============================================================
Like most people, when I hear a song from the past, I am immediately transported to another place and time when that song was memorable in my life in some way...the memory could be as insignificant as listening to it on the radio, but in my mind's eye, I can "see" myself sprawled on the carpet, listening to my little transistor radio while doing my homework, or listening to the song blaring from the school bus speakers with my girlfriends while bouncing along on seats on the way home in the afternoons....all of us listening to the music, wistfully wishing that we had boyfriends. Hahaha!
But it's funny....now as a more spiritually minded adult I find it interesting how my brain likes to re-associate some of these memorable songs of the past with new memories and new associations. As was thinking of how to convey Pastor's message to you about Ressurection Day, this particular song, "You Make Me Feel Brand New" came to mind. To me, it seemed like a natural fit.
As you know, when we open our hearts and "spiritual ears" when hearing a message coming forth, we allow the Holy Spirit to minister to us in ways that are important to our own individual lives personally. How
I "receive" the message may be completely different from how
you "receive" the message. I try to do my best to curtail what I feel are the personalized portions of the message I receive, and only share the generalized message given. Anyway, just be open to allow the Spirit to speak to you, and be blessed!
Lyric: God bless you, you make me feel brand new, for God blessed me with you, you make me feel brand new
Scriptural Truth: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Corinthians 5:17
Lyric: You held my life within your hands, created everything I am, taught me how to live again.
Scriptural Truth: For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10
Scriptural Truth: Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1-2
Scriptural Truth: But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." I Peter 1:15-17
Scriptural Truth: Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15-16
Lyric: Only you, came when I needed a friend, believed in me through thick and thin
Scriptural Truth: Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:13-15
Lyric: Whenever I was insecure, you built me up and made me sure, you gave my pride, back to me. Precious friend
Scriptural Truth: If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load. Galatians 6:3-5
Lyric: Without you, Life has no meaning or rhyme, like notes to a song out of time, how can I repay, you'll find heaven, faith and me...
Scriptural Truth: But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. Exodus 9:16
Scriptural Truth: The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever— do not abandon the works of your hands. Psams 138:8
Scriptural Truth: For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Phillipians 2:13
What hyperbole!! Isn't amazing when you examine those types of lyrics that we like to attribute to the one that we loved at that particular time of the song's popularity, that those memorable lyrics really could only be completely true of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ... our "first love?"
Only the blood shed by our Savior for our sins can make you not only feel brand new, but make you actually be brand new, Halleluyah!" Remember this scripture?
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Corinthians 5:17
This is the whole story about the ressurection....making us brand new creatures in Christ. As part of God's divine plan to save man from himself, God sacrificed His only Son for us! He turned His back to the cries of His Son pleading,"Father, why have You forsaken Me?" in order to fulfill the perfect plan for atonement for us!
It was only the precious blood of Jesus Christ that could have bridged the gap for me and you. Without the sacrifice of the only perfect Lamb without spot or blemish, (God's Son, Jesus) there could not be a means for our atonement and reconciliation. It is through God that we are made brand new, and our sins are washed as white as snow!
To understand the extent of His sacrifice, you must also understand that God is one, yet, He is three persons existing in the Trinity. The Trinity consists of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Understanding this, you see that God sacrificed a part of Himself in sending His Son to earth to be born of a woman, to become subjected to all temptations common to man, yet remaining sinless, to share Word of God the Father and sharing the good news of our coming salvation, to ultimately becoming the fulfillment of supreme sacrifice for our salvation. What love!
"But with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." I Peter 1:19-23
"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6
As Pastor Doolin explained, the resurrection of Christ symbolizes even more than the wonderful gift of salvation, but a whole new beginning to a new life.
Christ Wants to Set You Free From:
1. The Pain From Your Past
Pain from your past can manifest itself in your life as resentment and regret, from mental, physical or sexual abuse, abortion, a failed marriage, failed business ventures etc....We are to stop looking at the past, but look ahead at what God wants to do in our lives.
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19
"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." John 8:32, 36
2. Freedom From the Negativity of Tomorrow.
Don't live in the prison of regrets and shoulda, coulda, wouldas. God specializes in new beginnings and complete recoveries. Focusing on circumstances such as the condition of your marriage, your kids' disobedience or insolence, your financial situation, declining health of family members, especially aging parents, and lastly but certainly not least, not knowing the purpose of God in your life can wreak havoc in your life. Dwelling on any type of negativity is the opposite of what God instructs us to do.
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
Father God, we thank You that Your Holy Word is true...there is absolutely no hyperbole concerning Your love for us, and Your awesome sacrifice for us. We thank You for Your unconditional love...You first loved us so much, that You shed your precious blood covering our sins to make way for us to accept salvation, and have kinship, with You, becoming Your sons and daughters. We thank You O Lord for this wonderful fellowship that we now enjoy in Your Holy presence. As brand new creatures in Christ, we thank You that Your Holy Spirit continues to dwell in us, leading us, and guiding us into all truths on the path of righteousness. In Your Holy name, we praise You, for it is in You that we live and move and have our being! We thank You Lord, and praise You forever more! In Jesus' name we pray, Halleluyah! Amen.
Amen! Be Blessed! \0/
So the man yelled "God, speak to me." And the thunder rolled across the sky. But the man did not listen.
And, the man shouted, "God show me a miracle." And a life was born. But the man did not know.
