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Ithaca SDA Church

Taylor Hinkle

How to Have a Newstart- Part 1

Father, we just thank You so much for the privilege of the Sabbath and time to set aside all the other cares of the world and just to be able to study Your Word and draw closer to Jesus.

Lord, we thank You for the rest that You offer us, the grace that You so freely give us.

And Lord, I pray that as we study your word this morning that our hearts would be encouraged and that we would see a clearer picture of who Jesus is and be drawn to him.

And Father I just ask that you would speak to each heart and each individual that the message would be applicable for each 1 of us.

Well in 2010 I had the privilege of knocking on doors for 10 weeks in Phoenix, Arizona.

And during that time I was going down 1 street in South Phoenix, and I remember looking to the end of the street.

I had about 4 houses left on 1 side before I crossed over and went to the other 1.

And as I was looking down, I looked across the street and saw 2 gentlemen standing outside of their house.

Now, they both had no shirt on, it's hot in Phoenix in the summer, and they're there tattooed from head to toe, literally, smoking marijuana in the front yard, cursing with 1 another, drinking, and I started to pray, and I didn't pray that the Lord would help me get to them quickly, but I prayed that the Lord would please help someone to be at this house that I'm getting ready to knock on the door so that I can stall time and maybe they could leave and go somewhere.

Well, I've repented since, so don't get any ideas.

But as I was working down the street, I remember I usually knocked on the door twice to make sure people could have time to come.

But this time I made sure to give people extra time.

So I knocked on the door 3 or 4 times and I'd be knocking and I was persistent, just pleading that someone would come to the door.

And no 1 came and so I went to the next house and now there was only 2 houses between me and these gentlemen across the street.

And I knock on this door and I persist there and I pray and I start trying to convert the doorknob and all these different things but nothing was happening and so I go to the next house and now just 1 house between me and these 2 gentlemen.

Well no 1 was there And I remember sending up a prayer to the Lord of repentance slash help as I was getting ready to cross the street of, Lord, please, just work this scenario out.

And I remember as I was getting ready to step off the sidewalk onto the street before I'd even crossed over, 1 of the young men yells out and he says, hey don't worry about coming over here I'm going to hell already.

Now I didn't really know what to do, they didn't teach us how to handle that in witnessing class or anything of that nature And so I went across the street and I started to talk to him.

And he said, no, no, no, really, just don't waste your time.

Well, so I started talking to the other gentleman, and that wasn't really going anywhere.

So that gentleman told me that I should go talk to the people inside the house, and that would be a little more profitable.

So I went to the house, and I started talking to those people in there.

And I knew that as I finished talking to the people inside the house.

The only person who was left to really talk to was the man who told me he was going to hell already.

Well, I didn't know really how to initiate that conversation, but I remember walking out to him, and his name was Robert.

I said, Robert, so you're going to hell, huh?

He said, yep, going to hell, seventh sector, worst place you can go.

Now, I don't know what he meant by that, but I knew it was bad.

And I said, well, Robert, you know, you don't have to go to hell.

And we went back and forth for a little while, and I could just imagine the neighbors looking on what this was looking like.

And he said, I don't think you understand.

You don't know what it's like to go through hard times.

How can you tell me that since I'm a bad person, I'm not going to hell?

Well, I started to share with Robert how just like him all of us have been through bad things in our lives right?

Maybe not some worse than others I fully understand but we all have had sin in our lives and I began to explain to Robert how the Lord had worked in my own heart and transforming us and pulling me out of the world.

And I just told Robert, I said, you know, God can forgive you.

You see, bad people go to hell, good people go to heaven.

You know, that conversation with Robert that day reminded me of 1 of the main tactics that Satan uses to get people to be disinterested in Christianity.

You see, if Satan can get people to believe that God doesn't offer forgiveness, and God doesn't want us to come to Him in repentance.

If Satan can make people think that God just wants to keep us at arm's length and he longs and desires to burn us and torment us in hell, then Satan has won the battle before it ever started.

Now praise the Lord, there was a good ending with Robert, and I'll share with you in closing.

But I wonder how many of us Satan is trying the same tactics with today.

You see, maybe we won't be so outspoken as Robert was and saying, oh, I'm going to hell, you don't have to worry about me.

But how many of us have so much guilt in our Christian life, so much guilt from our past, that we begin to think that it's impossible for God to work in my heart, or work in my life?

We're in the second Sabbath of the new year and this is usually the time where people are making New Year's resolutions, is that right?

Many of you maybe have made a resolution and I don't know what they may be.

I've made resolutions many years prior and I can't remember them because they're usually not that successful and some people might say, well you know I'm gonna I'm gonna exercise 45 minutes a day, that's my New Year's resolution.

And then Monday comes, and nothing happens, right?

Well, tomorrow I'll get to it, you know, and well, maybe next week it'll be less busy and all these things.

And I wonder how many of us are looking at our spiritual life in a similar way.

Maybe 2016 can be a different year for us.

Maybe you look back over the past 2015 and the years prior And you see the ways in which God has worked, but you say, Lord, I really want more.

I wanna know what it's like to experience salvation and grace for myself.

And you're longing for this experience, but at the same time that you have this desire.

Satan's doing everything he can to remind you of your past.

Taylor you can't experience revival because remember what you did at this time with such-and-such?

You can't experience this And Satan begins to persist in our mind that there is no possible way that God can work in our lives.

Well, this morning, we're gonna be looking at a story found in Luke chapter 15, where Jesus reminds us not only of the possibility but of the assurance that God longs to change our hearts and our lives.

You see God is not a God that allows our past to determine our future.

God does not hold us to what we did yesterday to dictate what our future or tomorrow is gonna look like.

But God is a God of grace and God is a God of second chances who is willing to give us another opportunity.

And here's a story that we're gonna be looking at this morning in Luke chapter 15.

Jesus told it so well, the master teacher, really not just the parable of a prodigal son, but really the parable that each and every 1 of us have gone through or are going through at some point of our life or another.

Luke chapter 15, and we're gonna begin in verse 11.

1 of the most common stories in the Bible is what we're gonna be looking at this morning, and I pray that the Lord would speak to us in a deeper way than we've even seen before.

Or remind us of the truths that are in this story so that Satan will not keep us bound by guilt and discouragement, but that we can realize that God is a God of second chances.

Luke 15, verse 11, Jesus is speaking here.

And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of the goods that fall to me.

And so he divided to them his livelihood.

And not many days afterward, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

But when he had spent all, There arose a severe famine in the land, and he began to be unwant.

Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed swine.

And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no 1 gave him what?

Now this is a story we're all very familiar with, but why don't we go ahead and just walk through it together.

A man has 2 sons, and the younger son, what does he ask for?

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How to Have a Newstart- Part 1

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