Our God is a God of New Beginnings
By: Ben Fronczek
Here’s a true Story:
He was a young, poor, country boy who
had some talent as a football player in high school. He ended up with a
foot ball scholarship to a technical university after high school, but
before going he married his 16 year old girl friend. His wife later
wrote. “We were so poor, So in love, but so poor.”
At the age of 18 this young man had
his first son. His wife later said, that her husband had never drank
alcohol before, but started to party with the football team once he got
to college. She said, “It was scary to me,” as a young girl. She had
never been exposed to that kind of life style. They soon had their
second son, and she reported that her husband’s drinking habits
worsened. She also suspected that he was also doing other drugs and was
committing adultery. He started to become very angry, and was rarely
with the family.
She went on to say that one day, a
man went into the beer joint that her husband was working at with a
Bible and tried to tell him about Jesus. She said her husband ran him
off, and later got in a bar fight so bad that he got in trouble with the
law. He came home that evening and told her that he was going to hide
in the woods and probably wouldn’t “surface” for 2 or 3 months.
She said when he eventually turned
up, the drinking continued – She said, “He became more and more mean,
and mean-spirited,”. He eventually told her and their three children to
get out leave their home.
Later he told others, ‘I would say
the low point in his life was when he ran his wife and the kids off. He
was all alone, with no hope, and miserable.’
He began to seriously wonder if there
was a way out of all of his troubles, and his faithful wife suggested
that he talk with the man who had once approached him about the Lord.
And so he decided to talk to him
Later he said, “I didn’t even know
what the Gospel of Jesus was,” “I was blown away when I heard that
Jesus died for me, was buried, and raised from the dead – something so …
simple, but profound…”
One day his wife came home and found a
note which said that he was at the church. She and their three boys
went to the church and saw him standing in the baptistery. She rejoiced.
She said, “I heard him say, ‘I want to make Jesus the Lord of my life.
I want to follow Him from this day forward.’ Her three boys were so
excited that tears streamed down their faces. She said “The boys started
hollering and singing, jumping all over the place … they were so
happy,” she said. He told her that he was turning away from his
sinful past, and it was in that moment that their family felt complete.
As a young Christian, he was put to
the test when he caught men stealing fish from him down on the river. He
said, In the past he would have confronted them with his shotgun – He
said, “I was fishing for a living – it was my livelihood. I was working
my tail off,” he explains.
But he had been reading Romans 12, which says –
“Bless
those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them … Repay no one
evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of
all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for
it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ To the
contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him
something to drink … Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with
good” (English Standard Version, from Romans 12:14-21).
He was puzzled, but felt convicted
–He called out to the Lord and said, “They’re stealing my fish here,
Lord, and You want me to do what?” Even though he felt that it made no
“earthly sense,” He determined to do good to the men. Just as they
were about to pull his fishing net on-board their boat he caught them
stealing from him again red-handed. Seeing this he told them “Here’s the
good news – I’m going to raise the net, and whatever is in there, I’m
going to give them to you,”. The men were suspicious but from that day
forward, they quit stealing his fish. “I took that to mean God was right
all along,” he said.
Being the outdoorsman that he was,
soon after he became a Christian he made a unique duck call and named it
the Duck Commander. He made and sold some earning $8,000 in sales his
first year. The family-operated company has now grown to a multimillion
dollar business. This man now in his 60’s, and Phil Robertson does not
hesitate to give credit where credit is due. He says, ”I am giving the
credit to God Almighty and Heaven for the duck call sales, the fish
that were in the nets way back, [and] for my life.”
If you haven’t guessed it already I am talking about the father and patriarch of what is now known as Duck Dynasty.
Here we have just one example of a man being what we now call… reborn
or born again; going from someone who was vile, corrupt, and mean to
becoming a sweet and loving husband and father, and now someone who
stands up and professes Christ and his Lord and preaches his word. It
has been said that Phil has baptized over 300 people into Christ in the
river just outside his home in Louisiana.
I wanted to tell you this story today
because as we begin a New Year many of us look at it as a new beginning.
Some of us make New Year resolutions. Some of us go on diets, start an
exercise regimen, many of us even start a Bible reading program or do
other things we’ve put off doing.
What I want to do is remind us all that Our
God is a God of New Beginnings. Just like with Phil Robertson becoming
quite literally a new man, we hear and read about how God has enabled
people to experience new beginnings over and over in big and small ways
ever since the beginning.
For example..
● The creation itself was a new beginning.
● Eve coming on the scene in Adam’s life was the start of a new beginning for him.
● Noah and his family experienced a new
beginning. Like the sin in Phil’s life and ours when we were baptized,
God washed away the sin of the world in the flood waters of Noah’s time
and they all began a new life as they exited the ark.
1 Peter 3
says,
“In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and
this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal
of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God.
It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.”
● At the Tower of Babel when God gave people different languages it was a new beginning for those people.
● When God interacted with Abram and make a
covenant with him it was new beginning for Abram and his descendants.
His family would become the Hebrew nation and the first Jews.
● Joseph interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh
led to a new beginning for him and the people of Israel. His small
family later moved to Egypt and grew in a nation of people there.
● After 400 years in Egypt God would have
Moses lead the Jews out to start a new life again. We see this happening
over and over again throughout Bible history, from entering the
promised land to being swept away to Babylon and then being led back
again to rebuild.
But the greatest change that God brings
about are the changes that happen in individual’s lives because of what
Jesus did for us. Stories like Phil Robertson's have been taking place
since Jesus came on the scene 2000 years ago. Lives have been changed,
renewed, and there have been countless new beginning. Fisherman and tax
collector became Apostles. Thieves, prostitutes, murders, drug addicts,
and still worst alike have been given a new beginning, having been born
again because of Jesus.
Most all of us know about the Jewish
Pharisee that hated Jesus and his followers and what they stood for.
Saul of Tarsus hunted Christians down, imprisoned them, and even
approved of their death. But then the God of new beginnings opened his
eyes by blinding him on the road to Damascus. He did a 180 and
eventually became one of those Christians that he use to persecute. He
was a new man and often wrote about it.
In Phil. 3 he writes,
“If someone else thinks they have 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; as for zeal,
persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law,
faultless.
7 But
whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing
worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all
things. I consider them garbage, 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 on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know
Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in
his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not
that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my
goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took
hold of me. Brothers and sisters, 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, then, who are mature should take such a view of things.”
As we enter a new year I want you to remember this. Our God is a God of new beginnings.
Eph 3:20 says that God,
“is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us”
You may know that you have something in your life that you need to change. I say, ask God to help you make that change.
Paul said that He ‘is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or
imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. ‘
In this text Paul tells us what helped him. He “consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord.” And so he
‘pressed
on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of him,
forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 He press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God had called him heavenward in Christ Jesus.’
God will give you that new beginning, a new
start, a new life, but sometime you have to set a goal and ask God to
help you. If God was willing to send His Son to suffer and then die on
that cruel cross, if He loves you that much don’t you think He will help
you with some of these other things in your life you want to change?
You know what the problem is? We do without
a lot because we are not bold enough to ask God with conviction for his
help and favor.
James 4 says,
“You do not have because you do not ask God.”
We have to trust Him and remember how much
He loves us and who we are to Him. We are His redeemed ones, those He
saved. We are those He justified. We are co-heirs with Christ Jesus, we
are His children.
Why should we think He wouldn’t want to
help us? There is no excuse for not becoming victorious in all things if
Jesus is your Lord and if God is our Father
In Closing I want to mention a special ‘new beginning’ that God has in store for us.
It is the prize that Paul wrote about.
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.
The Apostle John wrote about this in Revelation 21, he wrote,
“21 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And
I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling
place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be
His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 He
said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning
and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the
spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But
the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually
immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they
will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the
second death.”
Our God is a God of new beginnings. I
encourage you to look to God for new beginnings. He has your very best
in mind. I also encourage you to make an extra effort like Paul, forget
the past and all the ways you messed up and start straining toward what is ahead, press on toward that prize for which God has called you heavenward. With Jesus’ help you can do anything.
For more lessons click on the following link:
http://granvillenychurchofchrist.org/?page_id=566
