**Chapter 1: The Daily Renewal**
Notice the implications of this word *renewed*. We are being renewed every day. If you are being renewed every day, what does that imply? It implies hope fades. Encouragement wanes. Your bucket leaks.
I find that unbelievably encouraging, that the Apostle Paul says, "I've got a secret" and it isn't a secret of how never to need renewal. You can have an experience where you don't need renewal anymore. That's not the message. In fact, the message is unbelievably realistic: day by day renewed. Which means every day you leak, every day you fade, every day you get depleted. That's what it says.
You wouldn't need to be renewed day by day if you could run your car on yesterday's gas, if your metabolism could function on yesterday's meal, if the pain in your head could be relieved on yesterday's dosage. You can't run today's life on yesterday's newness. This is just huge.
**Chapter 2: Avoiding Spiritual Burnout**
Those of you who've been Christians a while just know this. You think, "Oh yeah, I know." If you're a new believer, this is one of the most important things you can learn in your life, because it's so easy to think on the highs that come with Jesus moving into your life, "I've found it. I've risen. I'm there. I'm flying on eagle's wings." You will be.
So you gotta find ways to put the air under your wings every day. And he says, "I know how to do that. That's the secret I'm after here. I don't want to lose heart. Not a day. I want the secret of being renewed every day. Not a week, not a month. I want every day. I want to figure this out so that I can walk like this."
I know life is going to be a battle. That's the implication of renewed.
So, Paul, I really, really want what you say you have. And you say it takes renewing.
**Chapter 3: The Battle of Daily Life**
This is what Jesus meant when he said in Matthew 6:34, "Each day has enough trouble of its own. Don't be anxious about tomorrow because tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is its own trouble."
Have you ever thought about that phrase, "its own trouble"? Like, what is today? Friday? Okay, there's Friday trouble. Guess what? There's Saturday trouble. That's what Jesus said. That's not like me being a prophet. Each day has its trouble. It's appointed. There's going to be Sunday trouble. I'm getting on a plane tomorrow, maybe the front wheel will fall off. I don't know.
**Chapter 4: New Mercies Each Morning**
Jesus said so, but you know what else Lamentations 3 said: "Sufficient for the day, the mercies of the Lord are new every morning."
Those two texts, I don't know how many years I've been using them for my soul, a lot. Every day has its own trouble. Every day has its own mercies. This is Lamentations 3:21-23 and this is Matthew 6:34. God has matched them. That's part of the secret.
Tomorrow will have its Saturday troubles and tomorrow will have its Saturday mercies. And those Saturday mercies must be tapped into by the secret here of renewing. Because I had some mercies this morning and they're not designed for tomorrow. They were designed for the day right now. I'm feeling them now. Tomorrow there's going to be new mercies.
And the secret that he's got here is, how do you get under those? How do you get in those? How do you experience those?
And I paused right here in my preparation. I asked myself the question, since this conference is under the banner of *Soli Deo Gloria* - To God alone be the glory - and I asked God, I said to Him:
**Chapter 5: God's Purpose In Weakness**
God, is there something in this text that would just give me a clue why did You set it up this way that I have to be renewed every day? I mean, You could have just bumped me up to maximum sanctification and kept me there.
You know how I know He could? Because He's gonna do it when Jesus comes back. I'll never sin again after Jesus comes back. So why am I sinning now? I mean, Lord, just do that. You're gonna do it then, just do it now.
And He says, not the plan. And just go back and borrow the text from this morning: "We have this treasure in jars of clay" for a reason. Clay that needs to be renewed every day. Clay that can't stand on its own longer than 24 hours or on yesterday's grace for 24 hours, so that the surpassing power will belong to God.
And you can get in God's face about this and say, "I don't like the plan. I don't like the plan that You leave me unsanctified and battling every day with depletion, having to be renewed on grace every day. I don't like the plan. I'd just like to be done with the battle."
And you say, "Well, that's the plan. And the reason it's the plan, I've given you some clues. I'm gonna get some glory in your life if you didn't do it this way. You know what you'd get? Pity about it. You'd think you had it made. You'd think it would start coming from you."
The fact that you can run out of gas every day puts you in the station. That's Me.
So God has His reasons for why He saves us in stages, sanctifies us slowly, makes us fill up every day at His pump, lest we forget where the gas comes from.