A Fresh Start

INTRODUCTION

Do you feel unhappy with the way things are going in your life and wished they change? Do you wish you could start all over again? Everyone loves to see miraculous transformation in life, but anytime we want to have a change, it requires on our part a faith that it can happen and a mindset that is bold to change things in our life. I believe no matter how dark things look, God can turn things around if you decide to change.

Today we are going to see how we can have a fresh start in God.

God called us with an eternal purpose that we may be saved and glorify his name forever. As much as God has the same purpose for every man, yet he leads every person differently and uniquely. I do not have the same challenges as many of you do; no two families go through circumstances that are exactly the same in life. Listen, if everyone’s life the same things would have become monotonous we could have just copied each other and lived our lives successfully. Then life would not be interesting at all. The beauty of life is that God leads us through unique challenges, yet he leads us to one final goal, eternity with him.

Through this process of life we face success and failure. It feels great to be successful but many a person when they come across crisis and failure easily give up on life, not trusting and believing that God can change things around. Therefore every body needs a fresh start from time to time.

Proverbs 24:16 For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.

It is natural that people sometimes stumble and fall in life. It is one thing for us Christians to fall down, but it takes a man of faith to rise up from his fall and continue in life. Whatever happens in life we need an attitude that says, “I’ll never give up, I will rise again and go forward.”

The problem is that the devil never wants us to rise up when we fall. He wants us to stay in the same condition. Such people dwell on sympathy and empathy. They remember how it used to be with them and God, and how they used to go to church and live their life, how they used to be involved in God’s work; but somewhere along the way they fell and didn’t get back up.

One of the biggest factors that keeps many from serving God like they should is not peer pressure or lack of desire, but guilt. I have talked to many people who had been tremendously zealous for God but failure kept them from going forward. Then there are other Christians who have done something in their past that they are totally ashamed of and now they are cold and living a defeated lifestyle.

The problem is we are looking backward instead of forward. God does not want anyone to look backward. Yes, our past has been shameful, full of defeat but God is promising a good future for us. See what Jesus said in Luke 9:62 No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. Here Jesus is telling the example of a plowman. A plowman looks straight ahead when he is at work. He can look back to see how good his furrow is or how back his job is. If he looks back his future will get affected. Jesus is telling likewise a Christian marches on looking forward. So God does not want us to look back and stay where you are but he wants us to get up and pursue the righteousness of God.

Philippians 3:13-14 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Apostle Paul is writing this towards the end of his life. Remember Apostle Paul had a successful ministry, established churches and mentored a lot of people. On the other hand Apostle Paul had his own failures in life if I would call it. Once he said to Romans, “What I do not want to do I do, but what I hate I do.” Apostle Paul had success as well as failure in life. God is telling us through this passage not to look at our good work and be boastful neither look at your failure and be pitiful; forget whatever is behind and strain toward what is ahead.

You may have fallen, you may have been defeated, you may think you are a failure, you may have gone into sin, but I have good news for you: You can get up, you can be successful, you can achieve your dreams! And God says you must now go forward in life.

Just do this—tell God you are sorry and then start over. Once you have received His forgiveness – get back up and serve Him with all your heart. God does not condemn anyone but He does give fresh starts to people.

ILLUSTRATION

When our kids do wrong they are obviously punished; either spanked or verbally corrected. It does not mean that if they are punished they continue in that state forever. Once they are punished they get forgiveness and after that we all move on and strive to do better. We all become one, there is joy back again.

I remember the times when I get into the kitchen to help Glory, but most of the times when I get in I do more harm than good. She is very clean, particular, systematic in what she does and sometimes I really mess things up. Then I do the hurried cleaning but never back to the way she left the kitchen and her look says it all. Then I tell Glory, “I’m sorry.” I of course do get a sentence or two from her then but then she bails me out and we are together happy again.

Don’t let Satan keep you from living the Christian life because he keeps bringing up your past. Just respond to God in the present and change your future. The past has passed and can’t be changed, but your future is unwritten.

Proverbs 24:16 For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.

You are not a failure because you fall, you are only a failure if you don’t get back up. If you get up just once more than you fall then you’re a success! However that does not guarantee us to fall again and again. But if you are sitting here with a mind block that you have fallen, you have sinned, you are a failure, you made mistakes let me tell you God loves you no matter who you are. God loves you just as you are – and he loves you too much to leave you that way!

Psalms 103:14 “For he knows we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”

God still wants you! He loves you. God is not through with you. He has not given up on you. He’s there all the time, waiting patiently for you! No matter what happened to you God wants you to get up and continue in Him. Get back up. Make a fresh start.

HOW CAN WE MAKE A FRESH START?

1. HAVE A CLEAN HEART

We cannot keep our old baggage of rejection, failure, sin etc., in our heart and expect to start fresh. To start fresh we need a clean heart.

We all know about the sins of David, yet he is called as a man after God’s own heart. What did King David do? He hid his sins for almost a year but finally when he was convicted of his sins through the Lord’s prophet Nathan he asked God for mercy and decided to make a fresh start.

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. He is crying out, “Lord, I want a fresh start so please give me a clean heart and the right spirit. Remember God is willing to give you a new start.

I want to bring to your notice some scripture to show you how much God is willing to give you wipe away your past and give you a new start.

Colossians 1:21-22 21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.

Colossians 2:13-14 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Hebrews 8:12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.

Proverbs 28:13 Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

A fresh start without a clean heart won’t last. A fresh start without repentance will not last.

How do we get a clean heart? Take responsibility. No matter what has happened, tell God, “I am sorry, forgive me from my sins.”

Once our heart is clean, we need to decide to have a new walk with God.

2. WALK THE NEW WALK

Have a changed direction. We need to realize that what we did before did not work. The way we walked before has led us to sin. It is what we have done in the past that has brought us to this condition. We need to take a new path, path of holiness, righteousness. Stop walking the path of sinners.

Proverbs 3:1-2 1 My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, 2 for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity.

How do we walk the new walk? Walk according to his Word. The guideline for the new way or path is God’s commandments, his Words. See what God told Joshua when he had a fresh start as the leader of Israel. Joshua 1:8Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

All the time walk by the Manual. All the time based on the Word.

Proverbs 3:5-6 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Trust in the Lord. Lean not in your own understanding. Maybe last time we did this mistake, did not trust in the Lord and had our own understanding, we thought our ways were right. We finally fell down and now we cannot go ahead. Let us trust in the Lord, submit our ways to him; he will give us success.

A fresh start without a new game plan always produces the same old results.

Now you may be telling me pastor, I have taken many decisions in life, I have had many fresh starts but I could sustain nothing. That is where the next point of this sermon is important.

3. DEPEND ON GOD’S POWER

Do not depend on your power, depend on God’s power.

Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

You can only have a fresh start by His Power. Previously we have tried it in our power and we failed; now we are depending on His power.

Ephesians 1:18-19 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength.

We need to open our eyes and understand the great power that is in store for us through Jesus Christ. God is more than willing to give us his power, so do not live the Christian life on your own power, live by his power and strength.

Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
God who has started the good work in you will give you the power to complete your good work in him.

When I think about a fresh start my thought goes to Christ Jesus on earth. Jesus came into this world as a man yet He was God. Jesus was rejected by the people, betrayed by a friend, deserted by his disciples and followers, tortured and killed. At that point, Satan thought that the future of Jesus was sealed and the hope of man was gone because Jesus died and is buried. It was a dark Friday in heaven and for the entire mankind because the Son of God, Jesus Christ died.

It became Saturday and nothing changed. Then it became Sunday morning and the tomb stone began to roll. Suddenly everything changed, Jesus is alive again! Satan tried to defeat Jesus and put him down to death but Jesus rose again. Instead of a dead martyr, we have a living Lord. Instead of curse and shame for dying on the cross, the cross becomes our greatest source of pride. Suddenly the dark Friday became a Good Friday. God gave Jesus a fresh start and through Jesus you can I can have a fresh start.

Looking at your life today Satan may tell you, you are defeated and you may not have any hope in life but Jesus can give you a fresh start today.

ILLUSTRATION

In 1815 England engaged in the Battle of Waterloo with Napoleon Buonaparte. The whole city of London was anxious to know how things were going on in the battlefield. All were wondering if England could defeat Napoleon and there was no way of knowing the news. Anxious to know the outcome, one man climbed on top of a great London cathedral with interceptors to catch the battle signals. When he received a message he waved his flags accordingly to give the people of London a report on the battle. Finally he got the outcome of the battle and he sat there on the roof and inscribed the message into the flag. The people were anxious to read the result. When the people of London looked up to see the writings on the big flag they could barely see through the fog. The message they were able to see was, “England defeated.” They could not believe it. Their hearts sank. But then there was a break in the fog and they saw the rest of the message which said, “England defeated Napoleon.” The entire nation of England rejoiced.

When Jesus died the message that came to the disciples heart was, “Jesus defeated.” When you fall down the message that Satan puts in your mind is that ‘You are defeated.’ But 3 days later, the fog cleared, and the message they received was, “Jesus defeated Satan.” See the entire message that God has for you. Many of you are seeing through the fog – I am defeated, I am a failure, I have no one etc. See what Jesus has to tell you today. Romans 8:37 Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.

CONCLUSION: JESUS IS TELLING YOU, “YOU ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS, YOU ARE VICTORIOUS.”

You may have fallen or you may have failed, but the victory that God has purchased for you still applies, and you don’t have to feel defeated…you can get back up and have a fresh start!