A FREST START
2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
Oh how many times have I wished, with all my heart, that things could have been different!
Lord, why has there been so much suffering and heartache in the past years? Could not things have been different?
Why, Lord, did we have to face such terrible trials and tests in the past year alone? Some have lost their loved ones. Did it have to be so? I know that you never intended for death to be a part of our experience in this life? Why must those we love leave this earthly realm, sometimes after suffering long illnesses and so much pain?
Many more have had to suffer through physical pain, emotional stress, problems in family relationships, and financial difficulties. I know that it was never in your plan for mankind to suffer such things.
Oh how I desire to see the end of pain, suffering and death!
Then Lord, there are families who have turned against one another. Children who refuse to speak to their parents and parents who once felt such love for their new baby have lost that love and now they want nothing to do with their children anymore. Our society is unraveling at the seams and the ideals that held us together as people are quickly disappearing.
Respect for other people has given way to cold-heartedness and utter disregard. No one gives a thought to what the things that they are doing, or may do, will affect other people. Self-centeredness has become the overwhelming condition of the hearts of men and women. It’s all about me, myself and I. The attitude of the day is, “You only matter as far as you are able to make me happy.”
Lord, I wish it could be different. I long for the days when people really were courteous and when respect for others made us consider whether we should do what we wanted to or not.
Care and concern for the hurting, the elderly and the shut-in are almost non-existent. Oh we have our programs, our government entitlements and our benevolence foundations, but most are far more concerned with balancing the books and making money than they are about real needs of real people. It’s all a money game. If there was no money to be made, I doubt that anyone would ever see a doctor or receive any kind of aid anymore.
I know that this is a cynical view of society, but it faces the cold, hard reality of our times.
The fact is that we are living in the last days of time, as we know it. Jesus said these words concerning our generation in Matthew 24:12, "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."
Those words, spoken nearly 2000 years ago still ring true. True love, is a scarce commodity in our world today. There is love but not the love of God that gives without expecting anything or demanding anything in return.
The kind of love that mankind exhibits today, always comes with a price tag that determines whether that love will be given or not. I will love you, but only if you love me in return. I will love you, but only if you satisfy my needs and desires and make me happy. I will love you, until you don’t fulfill my expectations. Then my love will turn into disgust, and even into hate, and we will go our separate ways. The commitment to love one another hangs on a thread of happiness. When the thread of happiness is broken, love goes out the door and the commitment is broken.
Oh how I wish things could be different! I long for the day when true love will reign in the hearts of men, but that day seems to be so very far away.
And what of the wars and fighting that are rampant in our world? One of the greatest desires of mankind is that there is peace and safety.
The Apostle Paul spoke concerning this desire and what it would be like for those who would live in these days.
1 Thessalonians 5:2-3, "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape."
Lord, I know that all of these things must come to pass. I know that your Word cannot fail. But, God, why does it have to be so? Can’t things be different? Can’t we have peace again?
Every day there are American lives being lost on foreign fields as we do our best to maintain and protect what little peace we have, but that peace still doesn’t exist in our nation.
Every year drunk drivers kill more people on the highways, than were killed in every war that we have fought since World War II combined. Not only that but there are many more people who are dying from self-induced cancers and diseases, brought on by indulging in alcohol, drugs, illicit sex, and inhaling the smoke of burning grass and tobacco in an effort to ease their loneliness and pain.
No one can board an airplane anymore without remembering those poor, unfortunate souls who met their doom in terrorist attacks.
No one can go to work in a high-rise building anymore without remembering the sight of those jets crashing into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York.
We can’t even stop to fuel the car without thinking of the snipers who murdered so many around our nation’s capitol for no apparent reason other to see them die.
We can’t walk our streets in some areas of our cities in daylight and we don’t feel safe walking anywhere at night.
We have to live behind locked doors and barred windows, as though we were criminals, in order to feel safe, and we dare not leave them unlocked. We might not call it fear. We might call it taking precautions to protect ourselves from thieves, murderers, rapists and robbers. We can call it what we like but the truth is that there is a total lack of peace in our world and that lack of peace brings a certain amount of fear to us all.
Oh how I wish things could be different! Why Lord, has it become so bad that we can’t even allow our little children to play in their own back yard without maintaining a constant watch over their every move because of the child predators that live in just about every community?
Then Lord, there is the battle that goes on within my own heart and the heart of every one of us who is here this morning. Inside the heart of every man, woman and child, there is a war raging. It is a war that never ceases to bring us heartache and grief. It is a battle for the very soul of man between good and evil.
Why must it be so God? Is there any hope for us? Will this battle ever cease within me?
I remember the words of Paul in Romans 7:18-19, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do."
That’s me God! That’s each of us God!
Paul continues this vein of thought in Romans 7:22-23, "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."
There is no doubt that down deep in the heart of each of us there is a desire to serve God. There is a desire to delight in his Law. We want to live for the Lord more than anything in this world.
But the war in our heart continues on in spite of all that we can do to stop it. No matter how much I try to obey God, I fail him. No matter how much I desire to love God, I find myself constantly turning away from Him. No matter how hard I try, I am unable to be the obedient servant that I know I must be to please Jesus.
I can fully understand why Paul cries out in Romans 7:24, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
Paul is crying out, with the same thoughts that I have this morning, and with the same thoughts that each us have in those moments when we realize just how far from perfection in Christ that we really are.
We, like Paul, are crying out, Dear Lord, my Jesus, I wish things could be different? How can I change? How can I overcome the powers of Hell that surround me? How can I live a victorious life in the midst of a world that is filled with sin, shame, crime and death? Is there any hope? Can things really be different for me?
Then I read the next verse in Romans 7:25, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
Paul found his answer and it the same answer that we have for our desire for things to be different in our lives?
Have you suffered this year from depression? THERE IS AN ANSWER!
Have you suffered this year from sickness and disease? THERE IS AN ANSWER!
Have you suffered from the loss of a loved one? THERE IS AN ANSWER!
There is an answer for all of your desires for you life to be different.
That answer is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ!
IT IS THE GRACE OF GOD, FOUND ONLY IN THE SACRIFICE OF JESUS AND IN THE POWER OF HIS BLOOD, THAT IS OUR ANSWER.
Though I must live in this body of flesh that is held under the power of sin and death for the time of my life upon this earth, yet my spirit and my heart is free – set free by the Blood of the Lamb and the Grace of God.
I cannot stop the effects of sin upon this body. I cannot escape the pain, the death or the suffering that every human being must face in this body, but my spirit is forever alive, forever strong and forever free.
That’s when I realized that all of the desires for things to be different in my life have been met and things really are different.
I am not bound by fear – I can live above fear – because of the Grace of God that has given me a love that is different from the world. It is a love that comes only from God and it is a perfect love.
1 John 4:18 says that, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."
Did you hear that? I am made perfect, you are made perfect, and we are all made perfect in the Love of God by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ!
I might live in a world of sin, I might even fall or falter, but if I hold on to God’s Word and live by His Grace, and don’t depend upon my own power to do what’s right, that’s when His Love makes me perfect, not by my own actions, but by His Own Blood.
For those who Love the Lord and put their full trust in God’s Grace, and in the Lord Jesus Christ as their only hope of deliverance, life is much better, much more bearable, much more peaceful, much more fulfilled and much more meaningful.
Even though we may face some dark days, we are not ruled or tormented by fear. We are not overwhelmed and overcome by fear and doubt because we know the Master of all things. We have the Grace of God that lifts us up above the shadows and lets us know that we are standing on the Solid Rock.
How wonderful it is to know that things are different from what they appear on the surface. If we only look upon circumstances, through eyes of doubt and fear, and eyes of a disobedient sinner, we will never see the victory that is before us. All we will see is hopelessness and death. Life will lose its meaning. Life won’t seem worth the pain and suffering that we must endure.
But, if we look through eyes of faith; if we trust in the Grace of God; and if we rely only in the power of the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; we will live a different life.
We know that God’s Grace is sufficient to answer our prayer. We know that the Blood of Christ has all power to heal our sicknesses and diseases, deliver us from the bondage of sin, bring our children home, and to bring us through all the troubles and trials of this life.
Thank God for the Difference that the Grace of God makes for us all!
Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."
You can’t earn it. There is nothing you can do to deliver yourself, no matter how hard you try or how much will power you might have.
Salvation, eternal life and a different life come only one way – THROUGH THE GRACE OF GOD THAT IS FREELY GIVEN TO ALL WHO WILL COME TO JESUS AND ACCEPT HIM, SURRENDERING THEIR WILL TO HIS.
As we approach the end of this year, and we see the New Year coming quickly, let us forget those things that are behind and look forward to a new day in Christ. His Grace is sufficient for what lies ahead. His Grace will see you through.
Have you experienced that Grace of God in your life this morning? Have you surrendered your heart to Him?
Do you want things to be different in your life?
Real Hope does not live outside of God’s hope.
True Love is not found without God’s love in your heart.
Your Life has no meaning like the Giver of Life can give it.
HAVING JESUS IN YOUR HEART, AND GIVING HIM THE CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE, MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE.
GOD’S GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU TOO. ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS RECEIVE IT FOR YOURSELF.
Give your life a fresh start right now. Give your life to Jesus. Give your heart to Jesus.
Come this morning, as we close this message, and let Jesus give you a fresh start!
Look with me again at 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
Do you want to be a new man, or a new woman? Do you want your life to be different? Do you want a FRESH START?
If you will come to Jesus, believing that he is the Risen Son of God, who gave his blood for your sin, and surrender your life to him, then trust in his Grace to set you free – all things will become new. You will have your FRESH START!
Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording, including sermon titles, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these sermons. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and/or quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
