God’s Faithfulness offers a New Beginning
Lamentations 3:22-23
1/3/2010
God’s faithfulness offers new beginnings no matter where we are in life
He is faithful to Pursue us when we are lost (John 4)
He is faithful to restore us when we repent(John 21)
He is faithful to strengthen us when we are weak (
He is faithful to Bless us when we walk with Him
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Happy New Year.
The New Year is always a great time for a fresh start, for a new beginning.
It is a great time to reflect and a great time to hope.
We reflect on the year that has passed us and
We hope for the coming year to be a better one than the one we just finished.
And it is hopeful because the beginning of the year seems to offer us a time
to begin again,
to start fresh,
to commence with a clean slate.
Whether you are a Christian or not, no matter where you are in life, the New Year seems to offer a New Beginning.
For students, this new beginning could be the start of a new semester.
The last grading period is over and you get to start fresh for the new semester.
For those who have put on a few extra pounds,
we are offered a new beginning for that diet and those 10 pounds (ok, 20 pounds) that we have been wanting to lose.
For those who have made some mistakes this past year,
The New Year offers a time to turn over that new leaf in our conduct and lifestyle.
We have put the old calendar away with all its past mistakes, and
we have opened up a new calendar with the year holding a clean slate to live our life.
The problem seems to be that we start with good intentions, but by February 1st, many of us can find ourselves back in the same old ruts of the life we were living last year.
Not doing our homework, eating what we shouldn’t, living in the same way that brought regret last year. And life goes on until we come to another new year vowing to make the same changes again.
Well, I have good news for you this morning. It doesn’t have to be this way.
It doesn’t have to be this way because there is a God who doesn’t just wait until the New Year to give us opportunities at a New Beginning. He gives us opportunities every day.
Listen to
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Lamentations 3:22-23 - Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
God’s compassions are new every morning. He doesn’t just offer us a new beginning on January 1st, He has compassion and mercy on us throughout the year and we have opportunity to begin fresh each day.
If this year is going to be different than previous years when we have failed at keeping our commitments and resolutions, we need to be hanging on to God’s faithfulness each and every day, because each one of us will continually be facing new challenges, and all of us will need opportunities for new beginnings throughout the year.
So, this morning, we are going to look at a few examples from the Bible of how God’s faithfulness to us offers us a new beginning no matter where we find ourselves in relationship with God.
I want to start by turning to John 4:4-9
Slide
and look at a women whom God offered a new beginning to in regards to a relationship with Him which led to a new life for her all because
God is faithful to Pursue us when we are Lost
In verse 3, we learn that Jesus is leaving Judea and heading to Galilee.
John 4:4-9
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Pray – Thanks for faithfulness
The text says he had to go through Samaria.
Slide
Judea is in the southern part of Israel, Samaria in the middle and Galilee in the north
Now, the reality is that Jesus didn’t have to go through Samaria.
In fact most Jews, when they travelled north from Judea to Galilee avoided Samaria because the Jews and Samaritans despised one another.
They would go around Samaria
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But not Jesus. It says He had to go through Samaria.
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The reason He had to go through Samaria was not because it was the most direct route. The reason was there was a woman there who was lost.
She was in need of a relationship with the Savior.
So Jesus had to go through Samaria to talk to this woman.
God is faithful to pursue us when we are Lost, no matter where we are.
Slide
He meets us where we are at and offers us the hope of a relationship with Him.
No matter if you are at the end of your rope, Jesus will pursue you and meet you there.
No matter if you find yourself caught up in things that you wish you weren’t, Jesus will meet you there and help you.
Jesus doesn’t wait for you to clean up your life before pursuing you.
He doesn’t come after you because you are good enough.
He pursues you because He loves you and He is faithful.
Samaritan woman not a role model
This Samaritan woman wasn’t someone who was the perfect role model for little girls so Jesus thought he would do her a favor for all the good she had done.
No, she was an outcast. Later in the text we see she had been married 5 times and was now living with another man. She was at this well in the hottest part of the day because this is when she wouldn’t have to run into anybody else.
But the Lord pursued her to a place where, while she didn’t think she would see anybody, the Lord knew she would be there so he met her there.
A day like any other
I am sure this day started out like any other day for this woman. But on this day, she was offered an opportunity for an entirely new beginning because God was faithful to pursue her while she was lost.
Apply
You may have started this year, like you have previous years, telling yourself things will be different. Maybe you are even doing things you have done at the beginning of past years; start going to church, get back to the club, be nicer to people, all the while recognizing that you have done these things before in the past, only to find that after a month or so, nothing has changed.
Well, today truly can be the beginning of an entirely new and different path for those of you who have never entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ, receiving Him as your Savior.
God is pursuing you and offering you a new beginning just like he pursued the Samaritan woman and she received a new beginning.
Slide - Luke 19:10 – “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
If you have not received Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are lost. But fear not. We are all lost at some point in our lives. Jesus Christ is faithful to pursue us and find us, however.
You don’t have to go through this life on your own. Jesus is our guide. He is the way, the truth and the life.
This morning, if you have never received Jesus as your Savior, why not do that and have a whole new beginning this day, even this year.
Slide - 2 Corinthians 5:17 - if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Jesus is here to meet you and shower you with compassion and mercy by giving you a whole new beginning, a whole new direction for life.
The Bible tells us in John 1:12 that, “all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”
And in Romans 10:9 we are told “that 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.”
When we end our service, I am going to give you an opportunity to do exactly that and to have a whole new beginning.
Be thinking about where you are in terms of your relationship with the Lord and if you need a new beginning in life. The Lord has pursued you here today and He offers a new beginning to those who will receive Him as Savior.
God is faithful to pursue us when we are lost. We can praise Him for that.
Transition
Maybe you are here this morning as someone who has already received Jesus as your Savior, but you have found that you have drifted off course and are now living your life in a way that is not honoring the Lord and in fact, it is bringing shame and guilt into your own life.
There is good news for you today as well, because God is not only faithful to pursue us when we are lost, but
God is faithful to Restore us when we Repent
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When we have entered into a relationship with the Lord, and received His forgiveness for our salvation, but have gone off our own way, we need to have our fellowship with the Lord restored. We still have a saving relationship, due solely to the Lord’s faithfulness, but we don’t feel any of the benefits of that relationship, because we have broken fellowship with the Lord by sinning and going off in our own way.
Well the Lord offers us a new beginning, not only today, but everyday. We just need to repent of our sin and be restored.
Now, what is repentance?
There are several things involved in true repentance, and if we are going to have a new beginning and receive restoration from a faithful God, it is important that we understand what repentance is.
I want us to see an example of what this looks like, so we can see what is involved in true repentance.
Slide
Turn with me to Luke 15:11-24. This is the story of the prodigal son. It reads.
Luke 15:11-24
11 Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ’Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 "When he came to his senses, he said, ’How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 "The son said to him, ’Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 "But the father said to his servants, ’Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
Here is an example of what true repentance looks like.
First,
True Repentance involves…
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Recognition of sin
Luke 15:17 says “he came to his senses.” He recognized that he sinned, that what he did was wrong and that is why he was in the spot he was in.
If we are going to be restored, we have to first recognize that we have gone our own way, against what God would have us to do, and agree that we have sinned against Him.
We can’t just think, “well, I really wasn’t wrong to do what I did, but if it will fix things, I will just say that I was.”
We need to recognize in ourselves that we have sinned against God. We need to come to our senses.
But true repentance not only recognizes that we have sinned, true repentance also involves
Confession of sin
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Look at what the prodigal son says in verse 18 and 19.
Luke 15:18-19 - 18I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’
He recognized that He sinned and he was going to confess his sin.
Sometimes people recognize they have done something wrong, but they are unwilling to confess it. They want a new start, but don’t want to take the first steps on the path to that new beginning.
1 John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
If we have sinned against the Lord we need to recognize that sin and confess that sin, but there is one more element involved in true repentance and that is
Turning from sin
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Look at verse 20
Luke 15:20 - So he got up and went to his father.
He didn’t just recognize he was wrong and confess it to the Lord. He actually turned from his lifestyle of sin and turned toward his father and made steps toward Him.
Now this did not mean that he would never do wrong again, but he wasn’t planning to.
I have met people who take God’s forgiveness as a get out of jail free card.
They plan actually plan on committing sin and plan on confessing it after. That isn’t repentance.
Now, I want to say that we may very well commit the same sins again, but we have not truly repented if we are planning to sin in our hearts when we are confessing our sin.
We can see other examples in the Bible of people who recognized that what they did was wrong, but they did not repent of it and turn from it, they were more just sorry for it.
Judas is a good example.
After he betrayed the Lord, he felt bad about it, but he did not truly repent of it.
Esau
In Hebrews, we see that Jacob’s brother Esau felt bad about selling his birth right for a bowl of stew and he wished he did not.
It tells us that “Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.” (Hebrews 12:17).
He was sorry that he couldn’t inherit his birth right, but I bet if we would have talked to Esau, it would have gone something like this:
“I am so sorry that I sold my birth right to my brother. I wish I didn’t do it, BUT I was starving at the time.”
Repentance does not include justifying our sin in the moment.
Hezekiah
In the Old Testament, we see King Hezekiah become prideful over all that the Lord did through Him as if he had done all of it. God revealed his sin to Him and it says, in
2 Chronicles 32:26 - Then Hezekiah repented of the pride of his heart, as did the people of Jerusalem; therefore the LORD’s wrath did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah.
Hezekiah truly repented and God restored him back into relationship with Him.
The prodigal son didn’t just feel bad about the consequences of his sin, he truly repented. He recognized his sin, felt bad about it, and he humbled himself and turns from the sin and to his father and confesses it. That is true repentance.
Humility is a fruit of true repentance.
And what happened to the prodigal son?
His father restored him to his position as a son and there was a great celebration.
If you are a child of God, a believer in Jesus Christ, and you have sinned, we so often can feel hopeless. We are not without hope. When we sin, we need to repent, humble ourselves before a mighty God in repentance and confess our sin and turn from it and be cleansed.
A new beginning awaits all who confess and repent.
And know this. Not only is God faithful to pursue us and restore us, but in those times of temptation and weakness,
God is faithful to…
strengthen us when we are tempted
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1 Corinthians 10:13 - No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
God is faithful to make ways for us to be able to stand up under the pressure of temptation.
It is when we are weak, that we can glorify the Lord by relying on His strength.
Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that God’s grace is sufficient for us because His power is made perfect in our weakness. Paul goes on to say that when he is weak, that is when he is really strong, because he has to rely on God’s power which is available.
God is always ready to strengthen us when we are tempted because He is faithful. He offers us a beginning that we don’t have to continually face disappointment over our life. We can overcome by his strength and power and His faithfulness.
And when we are in that relationship or when we are restored into fellowship and are overcoming, and walking with Him,
God is faithful to Bless us when we Walk with Him
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Psalm 89:15-16
15 Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you,
who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD.
16 They rejoice in your name all day long;
they exult in your righteousness.
A life of joy is not just about receiving salvation and being cleansed from our sins.
We praise the Lord that He does that, but He wants to do so much more for us.
He wants us to overcome sin and truly live. It is Satan who wants us to sin and steal our joy. He is the “thief” that “comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” But Jesus comes so that we “may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
As you trust the Sovereign Lord in every circumstance of life, you will live a blessed life, a life free from worry and dread,
a life where we can rejoice even as we suffer,
a life where we can sing songs even when held captive,
a life where we can be content amid chaos and at peace in the face of death.
Oh, how the Lord wants to bless us.
“Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence.”
Conclusion
As we receive Christ as Savior in response to the Lord’s faithful pursuit of us,
as the Lord faithfully restores us as we repent of sins,
we can be strengthened by Him to overcome temptation and
as we learn to walk in the light of His presence, in the power of his compassion that never fails and is in fact new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23),
we will experience a life of blessedness that only comes being with Him.
Praise the Lord for His faithfulness at truly offering us a new beginning no matter where we are at today.
Are you ready to receive God’s compassion and mercy and a new beginning to your life this morning?
Whether you need to receive Jesus as your Savior so you will be found and not lost,
Whether you need to repent of sin and be restored into fellowship,
Whether you need to be strengthened in the face of weakness and temptation,
God offers you a new beginning this morning and every morning because his compassions never fail, they are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness.
I am going to encourage you to do something this morning as a response to God that I don’t often do, but as we start this New Year, this seems appropriate.
Nancy and Shari are going to come up and close us in a song, but as they do that,
I am going to encourage you to respond God’s offer of a new beginning by come up to the altar this morning and kneel before God and receiving that new beginning he is offering.
Whether that is for
entering into relationship
being restored in relationship or
being strengthened in your relationship, or even
to rejoice in the blessing you have been experiencing as He has strengthened you to walk with Him,
If you would like to pray with someone or know more about receiving Christ as your Savior, we will have some people at the sides ready to pray with you or help you. If not, I encourage you to take an action to receive a the Lord’s compassion and mercy and new beginning today.
