Sermon Tone Analysis

Has there been anytime over the last year where you thought that you need a do over?

…A new start?

Maybe you feel like you need a new start in your career, or with your credit cards.

Maybe you could use a new start with a project, a relationship, or a diet.

Maybe you even feel like you need a new start in your relationship with God.

I don’t know exactly where you might need a new start, but my guess is that most of us have some area of our lives where we wish we could start over.

This morning we are starting a new series I am calling, “It’s Never Too Late…” And I have really good news for you this morning because when God is involved in your life it’s never too late for a new start.

Our God is the author, the Creator and the provider of the “do-over”.

Now what I want you to know is that new starts are not limited to those who are already Christians.

I mean if you are here this morning and you’re maybe visiting the church or checking God out or on the outside looking in because you’re curious, there’s a new start God wants to give you and it’s just waiting for you to receive it.

New starts are also for those who are already Christ-followers.

Maybe you feel like your spiritual life is sort of like being on a tread mill where you know you’re moving but you don’t seem to be getting anywhere.

You’re a follower of Christ, but your relationship feels a little dry and parched and you’re desperate for something deeper and more meaningful with God.

Maybe you arrived at church this morning hoping that you would experience something, get caught up in worship or a message that is just for you.

Basically, you’re looking for some external motivation to jump-start your relationship with God.

If that is you, I am glad you are here.

If you are part of the human race then either right now or in the future you’re going to need a new start, a do-over.

That’s what all people who live in a fallen world need.

We’re always looking for new starts.

Advertisers know how powerful this need is in people’s lives.

They have learned that the word “new” can be a very powerful advertising tool.

I was walking around the grocery store this week and I saw a bottle of Tide.

On the bottle of Tide it says “New and Improved.”

It said “new and improved” when I was a kid!  How many times can it be new and improved?

How much improvement can you really make in soap?

It’s not all that new.

It’s just new marketing.

I mean somebody probably spit in it or something and then said, “Ok, it’s new!” manufacturers are very good at taping into our desire for new things, new starts.

Microsoft has made a fortune off this.

They create software; sell it to you at a high price.

Then fix the bugs that were in version one and make one or two improvements and turn around and sell it to you again.

The allure of “new” is very powerful.

I think it’s powerful because deep down we all want a new start, a do-over in some area of life.

We all have experienced the marketing hype of “new”.

We bought into something hoping that it would be new and discovered it is just the same old thing in a new package.

So I know the struggle with saying that with God it’s not too late for a new start.

I want you to know that I am not talking about repackaging the church; I am referring to God’s desire to give you a genuine, power-filled new start.

That is an important truth.

The good news is that the God of the Bible loves ‘new” too and He’s not just about the packaging, but real life transformation.

Here’s the deal.

No matter what kind of new start you need God sees the “new” you need before you do.

In fact God’s dream for you is to bring life transformation, real, genuine and positive change.

He wants to replace the old dead stuff in your life and give you new fresh life.

God sees what could be different for you and He wants you to get there.

He wants you to get too a new, fresh and exciting place.

Now let me also say that if it was easy, everyone would be getting it.

But as in most areas of life, you have a part to play in this new start.

Let me show you this in the Bible.

Our key passage this morning is found in Isaiah 43.

This chapter contains a conversation that God has with the prophet Isaiah.

/"//For I am about to do something new.//

//See, I have already begun!

Do you not see it?//

//I will make a pathway through the wilderness.//

//I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.//"

/*(Isaiah 43:19, NLT) *

 

    These are powerful, hope-filled words from God. God says, Isaiah, I am working on something new and it involves you.

This new thing that God was telling Isaiah that He was doing was He was working on brining Jesus Christ into the world; that the long awaited Messiah is coming, and He will defeat Satan, sin and death.

That is the big picture.

But I want you to notice that God is in the business of creating new starts for people.

With God you don’t have to stay in that dry, desert place.

I know that it might seem impossible for you right now; you might feel that it is impossible for you to change and arrive at a new place, to really experience life transformation.

But, what you need to know is that God is at work.

Notice God tells Isaiah that He is the one who can make a pathway where there was no path.

He can create rivers to flow in the midst of deserts.

Friends, I want you to know that the same God who promised Isaiah, the promise to take him somewhere new, to provide him a pathway out of the desert, the promise that God will provide for him crisp clean water in the midst of the dry land, is the same God that desires to give you a new start today.

My hope is to be very practical today.

So I want to show you how this is a fresh start for Isaiah and then we’ll examine what we can learn from this and how can we go after a fresh start as well.

Let’s draw the context.

Look at Isaiah 6:1-8:

/"//It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord.

He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.//

//Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings.

With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.//

//They were calling out to each other,// //“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!// //The whole earth is filled with his glory!”// //Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.//

/

/    Then I said, “It’s all over!

I am doomed, for I am a sinful man.

I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips.

Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”//

/

/     //Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.//

//He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips.

Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”//

/

/    //Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people?

Who will go for us?”// //I said, “Here I am.

Send me.”/ *(Isaiah 6:1-8, NLT)*

 

    Based upon this passage and how Isaiah responded we can learn some things that we can do right now, today, to prepare ourselves for a new start.

There are some things that only God can do.

God will provide and He will lead you to new pathway.

In fact He will make pathways that don’t exist right now.

Only God can do that.

You might be in a dry desert place that seems impossible to escape.

By yourself you are trapped and stuck.

But The God of the Bible is a God who can make new paths where there was no path.

So what you need to know is that there are some things that only God can do but there is also some things that only you can do, things that Gods will not do for you; things that you must do for yourself in cooperation with God.

If you truly want a new start then you must do your part.

Too make this very practical.

Please take out your Talk Notes in your program and find a space under the heading, *“My Vision for a New Start.”*

What area of your life right now feels a little dry and you need a new start?

Don’t write an autobiography, maybe just a word, maybe a name, a relationship that you need a new start.

No one else needs to know what you write.