A Fresh Start
A Fresh Start
May 29th and May 30th, 2004
Acts 9
1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered.
11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
/17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength. [1]/
(Paul’s name was never changed. It is like Rebecca. In Hebrew it is Rivka.)
1. God has the Power to give you a fresh start into new life
-This is Paul the apostle who was going around persecuting Christians.
-He was very zealous but completely wrong.
-Paul had a dramatic light over darkness encounter with God.
-He experienced the supernatural power of a living God transforming him.
-We love before/after stories.
-We love testimonies of gangsters and prostitutes being changed forever.
-What about your testimony?
-Where you changed?
-Was there a time when the grass was greener, the sky was bluer and you were aware of God?
-God can do that. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead can transform you from the Kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of light.
-This is a supernatural salvation, a supernatural change.
2 Corinthians 7
2 /Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one.[2] /
London businessman Lindsay Clegg told the story of a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash around the interior.
As he showed a prospective buyer the property, Clegg took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage.
"Forget about the repairs," the buyer said. "When I buy this place, I'm going to build something completely different. I don't want the building; I want the site."
2 Corinthians 5
/ 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: [3] /
-If you committed a crime you may have to go to jail, but God forgives you when you ask Him.
-You may call someone a name and get beat up but God forgives you when you ask Him.
2. God has the power to give you a fresh start over the past
Philippians 3
3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
[4]
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
/15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. [5]/
-The journey’s end never changes but the road there often does.
-We plan our lives out and try to figure out every bend in the road. The problem is, we can’t presume on the future.
-We are headed to the presence of God where we will be with Him forever.
-In the meantime we have all experienced some turns on the journey that we wouldn’t have chosen or expected.
-Some bad, some good, and some ugly.
-But in the words of the great philosopher, Elton John, “I’m still standing”.
-We can hold on to the past if it was bad or sometimes if it was good.
-Some people are still hanging on the fact that they were the Homecoming Queen.
-Some people are hanging on to the fact that they weren’t the Homecoming Queen.
Over 2,000 years ago a young Greek artist named Timanthes studied under a respected tutor. After several years the teacher's efforts seemed to have paid off when Timanthes painted an exquisite work of art. Unfortunately, he became so enraptured with the painting that he spent days gazing at it. One morning when he arrived to admire his work, he was shocked to find it blotted out with paint. Angry, Timanthes ran to his teacher, who admitted he had destroyed the painting. "I did it for your own good. That painting was retarding your progress. Start again and see if you can do better." Timanthes took his teacher's advice and produced Sacrifice of Iphigenia, which is regarded as one of the finest paintings of antiquity.
Today in the Word, September 2, 1992.
-Paul had a pretty impressive pedigree. He was a Pharisee who was climbing the corporate ladder. He was from a very influential and probably very wealthy family.
-He was probably disowned by his family when he accepted Jesus as the Messiah.
-Yet he said he counted that as rubbish compared to knowing God.
-In the original language rubbish was dung or “offscouring”.
-As I said I was in Turkey following the footsteps of Paul. It was very enlightening.
-What are you hanging on to from your past that is keeping you from your future?
3. God is able to use every circumstance for Good
Romans 8 - Message
That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
“They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.”
/None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.[6]/
Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.
Corrie Ten Boom.
-I have been thinking anew about the power of the gospel.
-It is God’s power to change us, give us a future, and a hope.
-Because of its transforming power we are like those clowns who bounce back up when you hit them.
-The harder you hit them the faster they come back up.
-When Jesus died it got even better when He was raised.
-When the church is persecuted it grows.
-We are created so that every pore oozes victory!
Romans 1
16 /I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, a just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” b [7]/
(salvation)- soteria
1 deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation. 1a deliverance from the molestation of enemies.[8]
Pray for deliverance/safety/healing etc.
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[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ac 9:10). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[2]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (2 Co 7:2). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[3]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (2 Co 5:16). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[4]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Php 3:3). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[5]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Php 3:12). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[6]Peterson, E. H. (1995). The message : New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs (Ro 8:1). Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress.
a Or is from faith to faith
b Hab. 2:4
[7]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ro 1:16). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[8]Strong, J. (1996). The exhaustive concordance of the Bible : Showing every word of the test of the common English version of the canonical books, and every occurence of each word in regular order. (electronic ed.) (G4991). Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship.
