The God of New Beginnings
Pastor Glenn Newton Feb. 1, 2004 (Kickoff Sunday)
“20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The
life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me.” Gal. 2:20
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has
come! 2 Cor. 5:17
This morning I’m glad your here, we truly have spent many hours in prayer for this
service, and much of that time in prayer was for spent praying that those we invited to
come and worship with us would come, guess what? Your here! Thank You for coming.
There’s a reason that we wanted you to come and be here this morning.... and yes, we did
set a goal to reach 100, but the reason we set the goal was to motivate folks to get out
and invite.... and the reason is this..... We believe with all of our hearts that God is the
God of New Beginnings.... and today, because of His power, His Grace, His Love,
today Can be a New Beginning for You.
You have heard one testimony this morning about the life changing power of God,
how He can take us when were at our lowest, and He can give us New Life... Every
Sunday between today and Easter, we are going to have a testimony of God’s life
changing power in the life of one of our own church family members...
This morning I want to start by telling you a story about Farmer Joe.... maybe this
morning you might be able to relate to Farmer Joe.... Farmer Joe was in an accident....
Farmer Joe decided his injuries from the accident were serious enough to take the trucking
company (responsible for the accident) to court. In court, the trucking company’s fancy lawyer
was questioning farmer Joe. "Didn’t you say, at the scene of the accident, ’I’m fine’?," questioned
the lawyer.
Farmer Joe responded, "Well I’ll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favorite mule
Bessie into the..."
"I didn’t ask for any details," the lawyer interrupted, "just answer the question. Did you not
say, at the scene of the accident, ’I’m fine’!"
Farmer Joe said, "Well I had just got Bessie into the trailer and I was driving down the road..."
The lawyer interrupted again and said, "Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the
scene of the accident, this man told the Highway Patrolman on the scene that he was just
fine. Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a
fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question."
By this time the Judge was fairly interested in Farmer Joe’s answer and said to the lawyer, "I’d
like to hear what he has to say about his favorite mule Bessie."
Joe thanked the Judge and proceeded, "Well as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my
favorite mule, into the trailer and was driving her down the highway when this huge semi-truck
and trailer ran the stop sign and smacked my truck right in the side. I was thrown into one ditch
and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurting real bad and didn’t want to move. However, I
could hear ole Bessie moaning and groaning. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans.
Shortly after the accident a Highway Patrolman came on the scene. He could hear Bessie
moaning and groaning so he went over to her. After he looked at her he took out his gun and
shot her between the eyes. Then the Patrolman came across the road with his gun in his hand
and looked at me. He said, "Your mule was in such bad shape I had to shoot her. How are you
feeling?"
It was then that I said, "I’m fine." (Sermon Central Humor)
There’s times in our life when we are in pain..... in fact we are really hurting... but because
were not sure where to turn for help we don’t admit it.... Or in Farmer’s Joe’s case, He
wasn’t sure if he was going to like the treatment for His Pain.
I think were like that sometimes, we know were hurting, we don’t like our situation, we
have heard that God has something better for us.... but were not sure we will like what He
wants from us in exchange......
This morning I want to talk to you about a God of New Beginnings..... Let’s look
at our Scripture this morning and see what God wants to tell us through His Word.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has
come! 2 Cor. 5:17
Now I want to read that same verse, and a little bit more from “The Message”, it’s God’s
Word in Contemporary Language by Eugene Peterson.... Listen about the God of New
Beginnings.....
“Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for
everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so
that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than
people ever lived on their own.
Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how
they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know.
We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we
see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old
life is gone; a new life burgeons!”
That passage ends with this sentence, “Become friends with God; he’s already a
friend with you.”
Because Jesus Died for you and for me, because he died for all of mankind, because He
died for our sins, past, present and future.... the scripture says, because of what Christ has
done, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has
come!” Or as the Message puts it, “anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start,
is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons!”....
This morning do you feel like your at a point in your life where you need a New Start, a
Fresh Start... a New Beginning?
I think when we live our lives on our own, when we try to make sense out of life apart
from God there’s only one place we will keep ending up, and that’s at a dead end, with no
where to go, seemingly no where to turn.... seemingly out of options.....
Before Nola and I moved to Arkansas, we lived in Illinois, and right before we
moved here I bought my first truck, and I was kind of excited about my truck, and I
remember the first time I took the truck out in the snow..... someone was needing me to
come and pick something up from them and they lived out of town in the middle of
nowhere, but I wasn’t to upset because I wanted to take my truck out in the snow and
have a little fun.
I started by asking for directions to there house...... it’s kind of like Arkansas... the folks
are like, you know... about a quarter mile past the cemetary, you turn right at the big Oak
Tree........ (of coarse, I’m thinking... Mr.... I don’t know an Oak tree from Cherry Tree)
I’m like, I’m not a survivalist, so I don’t know my tree’s that well, can you give me some
other landmark, or you know the name of the road would be really good... Anyway, I was
told thier used to be a sign there, but he wasn’t sure if it was still standing....
So I take off not really knowing if my directions were going to even get me close to where
I was needing to go.... I going down this paved road, then the road turns to gravel road,
not a problem, I’m kind of doing the fishtail down the road in my new truck.... then the
road goes from a two lane dirt road to a one lane dirt road, and still I’m not seeing a
sign.... I’m an optimist so I figure that sign is just over the next hill...... but after another
mile or so on this one lane dirt road.... I figure I’m now lost and it looks like my road has
turned into a cow path.... I have two little ditches on each side with no where to turn
around in sight.... I figure, well I have this truck, I’ll just make a turn around and get out
of here, this truck will get out of the ditch no problem..... the truck is not four wheel drive
by the way.....Of coarse I got stuck, stuck in the ditch, my new truck stuck in two inches
of mud and a little ice....
Life’s alot like that little trip... were feeling pretty good about the direction were going,
were in control... kind of fishtailing through life..... then before we know it, were at a dead
end... we don’t have anywhere to turn around... and were stuck.... Have you felt that way?
Maybe your stuck in a job, in a career that you don’t like... you don’t know what to do,
where to turn... and your frustrated.......
Maybe it’s your marriage..... you feel like you have hit a dead end... all the fun... all the
joy.. has been replaced with pain and confusion..... your not looking for an escape... but
you know it’s suppossed to be better than what it is......
Maybe it’s an addiction... you know what I mean when there seems to be no turnaround,
no way back.... your so sick and tired of feeling helpless, feeling trapped by this addiction..
but you don’t see any hope of getting free.
Maybe it’s your religion..... you come to church every Sunday.... you do all the things you
think your suppossed to do..... you put your tithe in the offering plate, you pray and read
your Bible from time to time when you remember that that’s what your suppossed to do...
but you don’t feel anything... you feel like your just going through the motions..... you
don’t like hearing these testimonies, because you know you don’t have one.......
There’s alot of dead ends in this life. The truth is life is empty when it’s lived without the
One who created it, who created you with a purpose and plan in mind..... If your trying to
live life without Knowing and Serving Christ..... your going to end up stuck, and the end
of a dead end road wondering how did I get here, and how do I get out of here....
Now you may find distractions that keep you occupied, you may find ways to take your
mind off the fact that your at a dead end...you may find someway to medicate the pain for
a time being... but the truth is when you lay your head down every night....... you know
your empty... you know there’s got to be something more to life than what you have....
I’m here to tell you this Morning, Your right, there is... and friends... it’s not a religion.....
there’s alot of religious people that are the most miserable, the most trapped people you’ll
ever find..... When Jesus came to earth 2000 years ago, some of his biggest critics were
the religious people of his day.... Jesus didn’t die on the cross so you could be religious....
He died so you could have a Relationship with Him.... there’s a big difference.
This morning we didn’t invite you here to tell you about New Hope Church of the
Nazarene, and what a great organization we have, and how if you will get involved in this
church your going to feel better..... that’s not why we get together for Worship.... were
here for one reason....Because we are passionate about Jesus Christ in our lives..... Were
here to Worship the One who has saved us from our Dead End lives.... we have prayed for
you... we have invited you this morning because we want you to know that God is a God
of New Beginnings... and that He promises you and Me a New Life, a New Beginning
when we put our Faith and Trust In Christ..... not a religion.... a person... His name is
Jesus.....
Do you know How much Jesus really cares about You?
I’m going to read a passage from a book written by Max Lucado, the title of the
book is “the Gift”.... Max Lucado is one of the most inspired writers I’ve ever read...
listen to what he writes as He talks about Christ and how much Christ Loves you.... even
as He faced the Cross.... He was thinking of you....
READ......
Can I ask you a question this morning? What do you have to lose by giving God a
chance to Prove Himself to you? You don’t have anything to lose, but you have
everything to gain!
You have a heavenly Father who so loved you... It really doesn’t matter what you think of
yourself.... God loves you.... right where your at... you don’t have to clean up your act for
Him before you ask Him into your life..... that’s the irony... Satan tells you that you have
to clean up your act before you come to Christ, or He won’t accept you...... But the truth
is You can’t clean up your act.. your not cabable of cleaning up your act.... if you could, if
I could... We wouldn’t need a Savior would we?
Jesus says come... right where you at.... He’s not surprized by where you at... He’s God!
He knows what sin does to our lives, He understands how it tangles us up, how it brings
us down, how it takes us places we never intended to go.... He knows... He died for those
sins....
Jesus has an answer for your dead end.... Jesus has an answer for your frustration, for
your pain, for your addiction.... Jesus has an answer for your marriage..... Jesus has an
answer for your lonliness....... for your feeling of helplessness....
He is the answer....17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has
gone, the new has come! 2 Cor. 5:17
I can’t explain it to you.... It’s a God thing how He does it.... but I can tell you, I can
testify to you this morning..... that He took a self-centered punk preaches kid who didn’t
think he needed anyone, who thought he had all the answers, who thought he could make
it on his own..... He took me after I crashed and burned... and when I finally came to the
conclusion, I really don’t know what I’m doing.... He gave me New Life, New Purpose, a
Passion and a Love for God and for people that doesn’t go away, in fact, I don’t
understand it, but it keeps getting stronger... and I can tell you this morning........ Jesus
Christ is the Lord of my life.... He’s the reason I stand here today..... he’s the reason you
have hope this morning.... Will you put your hope in Him today?
Are you ready for God to give you a New Beginning? Ask yourself this..... What’s it
going to take before I give God a chance?
Friends, don’t let fear, or you pride keep you from the very thing that can bring you what
your looking for....
Our worship band is going to come, and we are going to sing a chorus...... while we sing I
challenge you to search your heart..... is God talking to you, is He drawing you to Him....
if He is then you need to know, He won’t force you.... He want’s you to choose... it’s got
to be your choice..... Will you choose to accept Him this morning....
When you come to pray.... it’s not as hard as you might think.... I would be glad to pray
with you if you would like, but you just need to pray to God, ask Him to forgive you for
your sins, and tell God that your ready for a New Beginning in your life, tell Him you are
ready to put your Faith in Him, that you want to know Jesus personally.... God’s Word
promises us that He will answer your prayer.....
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify
us from all unrighteousness. 1 JN. 1:9
He already Loves You.... He has New Life... He says He will Make you a new creation...
He doesn’t just put patches on us...... My friends, He creates a New life... Will you say yes
today.... what are you waiting for?
