Sermon: “A Positive 2010” 3^rd January 2010

1 Thessalonians 5:8…But since we belong to the day (being in Jesus), let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate (in our hearts), and the hope of salvation as a helmet (in our minds).

• We live in this world that is full of negativity and naturally the human mind chooses to respond more negatively than positively;
  • When your pastor says he needs to have some PT (Personal Time) with you, do you straight away think, “Alamak, I am going to be rebuke” or do you think, “Maybe my pastor has a word for me and want to pray with me!”
  • When your phone rings in the middle of the night, do you think, “Oh my, it must be bad news” or do you think, “I wonder what the good news is!”
  • When your teenage son comes to you saying, “Daddy, I need to speak with you”, do you respond, “So what is your problem now?” or do you say, “Sure son, daddy miss being with you alone!”
  • When your boss wants to see you, do you say to your colleague, “Oh boy – this is not good” or do you say, “Could it be a promotion?”
• Romans 12:2…But the moment we become a child of God (through faith in Jesus Christ) – we live our lives no longer “naturally” (like the world does) but we start living our lives SUPERNATURALLY NATURALLY. When we are in Jesus, the bible says supernaturally, our minds will be renewed – thus causing us to be transformed more and more into the image of God!
• Ephesians 6:17… The supernatural way of having a renewed mind is to put on the Helmet of Salvation. A helmet is to be put on the head/mind. Salvation means to be saved by Jesus.

1. Putting on the Helmet of Salvation simply means to have a positive mind meditating on the truth that Jesus the Savior will always come to the rescue! When we go through a challenging moment, putting on the Helmet of Salvation is being positive that good coming our way. Choosing to meditate that the challenging moment we are going through is only temporary. Jesus will see us through. We meditate that this challenging moment will end!
2. We don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. But when we put on the Helmet of Salvation, we can be positive that we are going to have a fantastic day tomorrow, or the next week, or next month or the whole year through! Our unknown tomorrow and our future is going to be bright!

• Psalm 71:14-16… If we claim to have put on the Helmet of Salvation – yet we are so negative, it means that we are in denial and have not put on the Helmet of Salvation. When we hear bad news such as; marriages breaking up, a certain sickness that is spreading, friends experiencing miscarriages, people loosing their jobs / going bankrupt, neighbors getting rob and so on. Do we keep our fingers cross or do we say “touch wood that will not happen to me”?
• 1 John 4:4… Real children of God will seriously put on the Helmet of Salvation – being confident and expecting good to happen because we know, believe and mediate that we are not the same as the people of the world. We know that we have a Savior watching over us. We believe that there are more angels taking care of us than demons against us. We know that greater is Jesus who is in us than Satan who is in the world!