Sermon Archive
Starting Over

STARTING OVER

 
Each and every day, we have a chance to start over, to move beyond our past mistakes and choose a better future for doing life with God. If you’re a golfer you might want to think of life as a game of golf. When you hit a lousy shot, you take a mulligan; it’s your chance to do the shot again without penalty. And if you play golf like I do, you need as many mulligan’s as you can get.
 
Hear this wonderful news: God allows us to move beyond our past sins and start again with a renewed hope for the future. God’s nature is NOT to count our sins against us. Even the great leaders in the Bible such as Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Peter, and Paul -- each sinned, they made wrong choices, but they were given a second chance. In Heb 10:17 God says: “I will not remember their sins and evil deeds any longer.”
 
Too many people allow their past sins and mistakes or the sins and mistakes of others to determine their present choices. Remember this reality: HOLDING ONTO OUR PAST CLOUDS OUR PERCEPTIONS OF THE PRESENT. (repeat)
 
Focusing on our past can distort the present. You can either focus on the past or on the truth of God’s forgiveness of the past and the hope for a meaningful future. Don’t allow yourself to dwell in the past for in doing so, we are allowing Satan a foothold in your present.  
 
 How then, do we practically deal with of the sins and mistakes of our past? The Bible shares three truths for moving beyond our past: 1 - We must expose the reality of our past; 2 - Accept the responsibility for our future;  3 - Live by the truth of God. 
  
1. EXPOSE THE REALITY OF OUR PAST.
 
We must be willing to expose and acknowledge the truth of our past so that we can move on into the future God has planned for us. Our past is not, as we sometimes wish, out of sight, out of mind. To ensure that our past does not harmfully influence our present or our future, we must look honestly at it and ask for God’s help. Let David’s example guide you as you pray: “Examine me, O Lord, and try me, test my mind and my heart. (Ps. 26:2)
 
In other words, ask God to expose, reveal the sins of the past so they can be dealt with. Then, after you’ve taken the time to list them down, present them to God. You may pray something like: “To those who have hurt me Father, help me to give forgiveness. And, to those whom I have hurt, help me to seek for their forgiveness.
 
Then, there is one more person from whom you must seek forgiveness, Yourself. Too many times, we are not willing to forgive ourselves, as God has forgiven us. The Bible reminds us: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful & just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (I Jn 1:9)
 
Before the Lord could use him, David had to expose his own sin and ask God for forgiveness. And if God can forgive us our sins, we must also forgive ourselves? 
 
Once we have acknowledged our past and received God’s forgiveness we can gain the freedom to move on. Then our second step is to accept responsibility for your future. 
  
2. ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR FUTURE.
 
We have the responsibility for our own future. Yet how often do we blame others? It is so much easier to put the responsibility for our feelings and attitudes onto someone else rather than to accept the responsibility for ourselves. We will not be held accountable for the feelings, attitudes and actions of others, but for our own. Notice what the Bible says in 2 Cor 2:10…….
“For WE MUST ALL stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil WE HAVE DONE in our bodies.” (2 Cor. 5:10 NLT)
 
In other words, it is our responsibility. We can recognize the tragedies, difficulties, and mistakes of our past, but: OUR PAST DOES NOT DETERMINE OUR FUTURE, OUR CHOICES DO!   (repeat)
 
Our present and our future is up to God and us. We are responsible for the life God has given us. We are responsible for our future and what we choose to do with each moment we are given. God told his people: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live. (Deut. 30:19)
 
Choose life. We have to choose, with God’s help, to make our own present and our futures better. If you want a better marriage, better family or work or school or church relationship, you must make good choices. Things in our past have impacted us, some of which, we have had little or no control of. While we may not have had the ability to control those events, we do have the ability to choose how we respond to those events. Accept the fact that God has given us the ability to choice.
 
So, how do we make the correct choices? We make the right choices by living be His truth.
 
3. LIVE BY HIS TRUTH.
 
When I was studying for this message I came across five words repeated again and again by Jesus in the Gospels. The words are “I tell you the truth…” These four words are repeated again and again, over 80 times. Jesus says he came to tell us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!
 
What’s the point? The point is you cannot know God’s truth apart from the Bible! The Bible says in 2 Tim. 3……
“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” (2 Tim 3:16-17 NLT)
 
The source of the truth is so important. As an example, think of it this way…Say you’re thirsty and you go to buy a bottle of water. On the shelf you see two bottles: a bottle of Aquafina (purified drinking water) and a bottle of dirty unfiltered Ottertail River water. Which would you choose to drink? Why? Because the source is so important!
 
Hear this: There are two main and distinct sources that claim to give you truth to base your life upon: society’s statements and trends OR God’s Word. It’s either God’s eternal truth or societies every changing opinion. For example:  
 
The 2009 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America churchwide assembly recently adopted, by a two-thirds majority, a social statement that, among other things, approved a resolution to allow practicing homosexuals to be ordained within their church.
 
Jaynan Clark, a leading Lutheran who voted with the minority said this: “It is appropriate that we call this a ‘social statement for we have just swapped society’s statements and trends for God’s Word and teaching.”
 
The Reverend Gerald Kieshnick, president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod said: “This grieves my heart and the hearts of Lutheran’s and other Christian church bodies throughout the world who DO NOT see these decisions as compatible with the Word of God, or in agreement with the consensus of 2,000 years of Christian theological affirmation regarding what Scripture teaches about human sexuality.
 
 
When “society’s statements and trends” are exchanged for the “Word of God“ you are headed for disaster. The history of the Nation of Israel, in the OT, is a prime example. Whenever they turned away from God’s truth they began to self-destruct.
 
That’s why the Apostle Paul gave us these words: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed & who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Tim 2:15)  The Bible is God’s “word of truth” to be read, believed and lived out in our daily lives. Live by His truth!
 
We all, at times need to start over. To start over follow God’s principles by: First – by exposing and acknowledging the truth of our past. Second, - by accepting responsibility for our own future, and Third - by choosing to live by God’s truth.  
 
Let me close with this word: In John 14:6 Jesus said: ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:6)  Jesus is the way to the Father. Jesus died on a cross and rose from the grave. He paid the penalty for our sin. For those who don’t know God personally, I want to give you an opportunity to put your trust in Jesus as your Savior and to receive Him by personal invitation. “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”Romans 10:9    Pray this prayer with me as we close today’s service: “Heavenly Father, Thank you for Jesus. Thank you that you came and died on the cross for my sins. I want to accept your gift of forgiveness and grace. Change me. Make me the person you want me to be.  
 
For those who have personally trusted in Jesus, I would ask you to examine yourselves, as the Bible states, and make sure there is no unconfessed sin in your lives, so that you can take communion in a worthy manner.