Sermon Central
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The Reboot Series
Contributed by Russ Barksdale on Jul 22, 2015 (message contributor)
Summary: God can use our past failures to establish bright futures
2/23 The Reboot Romans 8:28
Four steps to reboot:
1. Accept your failure: There is no such thing as a perfect person, perfect marriage, or perfect family. Romans 3:23
Imperfect people fail.
sinned/sin (amartia): to miss the mark.
2. Receive God’s grace: His glorious grace regenerates what is dead or broken
God’s grace in the life of the believer is the desire and the power to do His will.
3. Cooperate with God’s purpose: He wants to turn your dark failures into bright futures. Romans 8:28
God’s offer: “I’ll make all things new!”
Our response: love and live
People want the healing but they’re not willing to discover the cure
4. Place your hope in Him. Romans 15:13
Technology. Can’t live with it; can’t live without it. Do you ever get exasperated at your technology? Sometimes when your computer is not operating effectively or your smart phone is not acting right, what’s the best thing to do? Do a reboot. When my apps aren’t working properly, when my computer is slow, the best thing to do is turn it off and do a reboot. According to one computer magazine, “Rebooting is sometimes necessary to recover from an error, re-initialize drivers, or hardware devices. A reboot may also (be necessary) if the computer or hardware device encounters an error or is overloaded.” Computer Hope
In your life, in your relationships, in your marriage, ever feel like you need a reboot? Maybe you’re here this morning and you need to recover from an error or adjust to overload. Maybe your life or your marriage is all bungled up and not working right. If so, I think this morning is just for you. I think what you need is a reboot.
Everyone needs to reboot from time to time. But what I’ve discovered is that most people don’t know how to do it. On your phone, it’s easy: just hold down the big button and the little button at the same time…on your computer just turn it off…or throw it against the wall!
But how do you reboot in life? In this room are folks who have tasted the pain of divorce; folks who are in seemingly dead or dying marriages, folks who’ve made bad parenting choices, folks who have been immoral or addicted or bitter or all of the above. How do you reboot a life? How do you reboot a relationship, a marriage, a family? There are Four steps to reboot:
1. Accept your failure: There is no such thing as a perfect person, perfect marriage, or perfect family.
I know this seems obvious to most, but we can’t move to the rest of the steps if we don’t get this one strait.
We are imperfect. And Imperfect people fail. Every pastor, every counselor, every wise person knows that until a person honestly assesses and accepts their personal responsibility and failure, they can’t move forward.
The Bible sets this in perfect context: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23 That word sinned/sin (amartia): to miss the mark. Before gunpowder was invented, the primary weapon used to combat the enemy from a distance was the bow. (need a bow and arrow)
The best marksman can’t hit a bullseye every time. If the distance is too far, if the wind is too strong, he will miss. Guaranteed. Spiritually speaking, our target is not 50 yards off or a mile off; the target is an infinite distance because the distance between God’s moral perfection and our moral imperfection is infitinty. We can NEVER hit perfection; we will always miss the mark with God.
Not only do we miss the mark with God, we miss the mark with other people. Now if I aim this at my ipad, from back here, what are the chances that I’m going to miss the mark? I’d say it’s an absolute certainty. And what would happen? Somebody out there would get hurt. When we miss the mark, somebody always gets hurt.
You know why your life is empty? You miss the mark. You know why your marriage failed? You missed the mark. You know why your marriage or family is struggling? You miss the mark. Accept that. It’s THE 1st step to a reboot.
2. Receive God’s grace: His glorious grace regenerates what is dead or broken
If you know your Bible, you know Ephesians 2:8-9 “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— not from works, so that no one can boast.
We can’t afford to have a narrow, limited view of God’s grace and the salvation it brings. Since we miss the mark, the only way to eternal salvation is by the unmerited favor of God. That’s what grace: unmerited favor.
