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Ithaca SDA Church

Taylor Hinkle

How to Have a Newstart- Part 2

How many of you remember what we talked about last week?

If not, I can go ahead and preach that sermon again and save this 1 for next week.

But if you don't remember, for those of you who weren't here, we actually studied Luke chapter 15.

And looking at the question, does God desire to give us a second chance?

How many of you have ever been tempted to think that God does not desire to give you a second chance?

Maybe I'm too bad, maybe I'm excluded from the grace of God.

But what we saw last week is that God is a God who longs to give us second chances and God is a God of also transformation.

We looked at some of the powerful stories, the prodigal son being 1 of them, of his coming back to the Father.

We also looked at the story of David, where David, even though he'd fallen so deep in the depths of sin, that God was able to bring him back.

We looked at the story of Saul who became Paul, and how God changed his life not only to save him from his sin, but to use him as a powerful instrument for his kingdom.

And this Sabbath, we wanna look at the question, once again, how is it possible to have a new start?

You see, there's a lot of things that God has always desired, but I wanna ask you a question.

Just because God desires to give us a new start more than anything else, does that mean in and of itself that we have a new beginning?

There's a man at Frost Church who's a car salesman.

And he has many cars on his lot that he longs for you to own.

Does that mean that those cars are moved off of his lot and into your possession now?

No, desire of God does not necessarily mean that that's already fulfilled, but my question this morning is what is it that we're supposed to do when we realize that God is such a good God, so merciful, long-suffering, that He's forbearance?

What is it that God is calling us to do when we see the goodness of God?

Go with me to Romans chapter 2, and I won't give you my own opinion.

In Romans chapter 2 Paul is describing what happens as we see the goodness and the faithfulness and the mercy of Jesus.

What is it that happens to the human heart?

Now it says, "...or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering?

Not knowing that the goodness of God does what?

Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and love?

Could it be that we're despising and making the goodness of God of no effect by not allowing the goodness of God to lead us to what?

Now, Paul's not the only 1 who talks about the importance of repentance.

After you see the goodness of God, you need to be led to repentance.

Is that something that Paul just exclusively says right here?

Turn in your Bibles with me to Revelation 2 and 3, And we're not gonna do a study, but we'll do a quick reading of a few passages, just trying to understand if repentance is important to Jesus.

If it's not important to Jesus, the sermon is useless.

And so we'll preach about something else.

But if it is, what is it that God has to tell us?

Now, Revelation chapter 2 and 3, what is happening in these chapters?

The 7 churches of age and minor and throughout Christian history.

And notice with me Revelation chapter 2 and verse 5.

You'll notice in every 1 of the churches, God gives the positive things they're doing, rebukes them for what's going wrong, and then charges them with what they're supposed to do to correct those things.

Now there's only 2 churches that receive no rebuke and in them there's no correction given.

But notice what happens in the 5 churches where God is calling for an action to be taken.

Revelation chapter 2 and verse 5 and notice the pattern.

Remember therefore from whence you have fallen and do what?

Repent and do the first works and it continues on.

Now notice jump down to verse 16 Revelation chapter 2 and verse 16 what's the first word that we find there?

Repent or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against you with the sword of my mouth.

Revelation chapter 2 verse 22 says, indeed I will cast her into a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent.

We are told, it says, "'Remember therefore how you have received and heard, "'hold fast and repent.'" now this is the last 1 we'll look at Revelation chapter 3 in verse 19 to the church of the Laodiceans Jesus tells us as many as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and do what repent Now do you guys notice a common theme?

What do you think God wants each 1 of these churches to do?

You think that's a possibility, that God might be calling these people repeatedly to repentance, right?

Now, how is it that we're led to repentance?

That it's the goodness of God, or it's God through His goodness, that leads us to repentance.

Now, if repentance is such an important issue in the book of Revelation and all throughout the Bible, the 1 who speaks the most about repentance, do you know who that is?

Described more than any other Bible character as calling people to repentance.

You guys remember the person who came before Jesus?

He said, repent therefore the kingdom of God is at hand.

It was actually Jesus himself was the person more than any other throughout all of Bible history who was calling people to repent.

Now why is it that Jesus is calling people to repentance?

In all of these passages that we've read, we realize that it's impossible for people to have a new life in God or to experience salvation unless they see the goodness of God and they're called to an experience of repentance.

It's very clear, and we'll look at passages that talk about it.

Now, what we're gonna look at this morning, if repentance is so important, how many of you think we should understand it?

If repentance is this important, do you think Satan's doing everything he can to give a little confusion on the topic.

Well, this morning we're gonna be looking at what is repentance, what is not repentance, and I pray that the Lord will lead us to repentance by seeing the goodness of God through it, okay?

Now someone in the last church pointed out that different translations actually translate the word repent differently.

And you might have noticed that as we were reading through even the passages from Revelation.

The word repent, I want you to turn to Genesis 6 and notice how the Bible uses the word repent and how it is that it should apply to our lives today.

Repentance, Genesis 6 beginning in verse 5.

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How to Have a Newstart- Part 2

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