Ever thought how wonderful it would be to have a second chance, a new start? God’s offer for new beginnings is better than any executive offer of clemency, better than any absolute pardon available here on earth! Find out how, as we explore how we can start 2013 with a clean slate – and make the most of its opportunities!

<p>Ever thought how wonderful it would be to have a second chance, a new start? God’s offer for new beginnings is better than any executive offer of clemency, better than any absolute pardon available here on earth! Find out how, as we explore how we can start 2013 with a clean slate – and make the most of its opportunities!</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Dalton SDA Church

Chester Clark

A Clean Slate

Isn't it wonderful when we've already had a blessing before the sermon?

It sort of takes the pressure off of me, doesn't it?

So I appreciate the testimonies and the blessings that have been shared already.

I was thinking, as I hope each of you were, of how God has blessed me this year and this past year.

Jane and I are so thankful to be here in Dalton.

And I know I've heard you all say, and Dr.

White expressed again today, that you all are glad we're here, but I just want to say, we want to say we feel like we're the blessed ones.

And so we're just very, very thankful to have seen God's hand leading so clearly and to be where He wants us to be.

It's a wonderful, wonderful thing to be where God wants us to be.

Well, you know, it's that time of year, a time of year when we do make New Year's resolutions, we do think about the year ahead, and at times we think also upon the year behind us, right?

We reflect upon 2012 even as we are thinking about 2013.

And you know, 1 of the things that I've thought about as I've thought about the new year, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just begin with a clean slate.

Just begin without any baggage, without any mistakes, without any biases, with just a clean slate.

And as I was thinking about that, I read the story of 1 woman.

This came into the news in the last week or 2.

Joyce Holman had been in jail for, well, she had a life of crime for nearly 3 decades.

She found herself at the age of about 39 years old, she found herself going into jail again and she said, why am I here?

Again, I'm a grandmother, why am I in jail?

Once again, she had had a drug habit that had led to small crimes and thefts and so forth, and she found herself with a record.

When she got out of jail in 1995, she determined she would do something different, and she began to change her life.

She enrolled in classes at community college.

She became, I think, an x-ray tech and began to hold a job.

And she has been involved in a church ministry, involved in helping others to find hope at the end of a life of crime, hope for change and hope through Jesus Christ.

But you know, there was 1 thing that still remained.

And as you know, when you have a record that includes felonies, you lose some of your citizens' rights.

You lose, for example, your right to vote, your right to bear arms, your right to sit on a jury, to serve in that way.

There are certain things you write, we call them citizen disabilities, that if you have that kind of a record, you will have for the rest of your life, unless something happens.

Now there are certain things, we call them clemency, right?

There are certain things that the executives of our states can do, whether it's the local state governments or the United States.

Clemency allows the executive to offer certain mitigations for those records.

1 of those things they can do, they can offer, for example, commutation of a sentence, where they can be either given a reduced sentence, or they can be released from serving their sentence.

We're more familiar with the term pardon, right?

And pardon is something that also executives can offer for a criminal.

And a pardon, an absolute pardon, expunges the record of that person so that it's just as if they had not committed those crimes.

So last week, maybe it's 2 weeks ago now, there was a governor of this woman's state, Governor Chris Christie, decided that she had lived a life demonstrating a real change of heart.

And he pardoned her, restoring her as a full citizen of the state, restoring her civil liberties, restoring her as a law-keeping citizen instead of as a law-breaking citizen.

And you know, as I was thinking about that, I was thinking, you know, it's a wonderful thing for pardon to come.

I can just imagine what this woman must have been thinking about, how she must have felt as she realized her life had been changed.

It's interesting because this woman's pardon was based upon her performance.

The pardon that I want to talk about today is much better.

It's not based upon our staying clean for 20 years.

It's not based upon what we can do or the activities that we can engage ourselves in, although I promise you those will happen too.

It's based upon the free grace and the love of Jesus.

Let's talk this morning about having a clean slate in 2013.

Before we open the Word of God, I just invite you to bow your heads with me for an additional word of prayer.

Father in heaven, thank you for being willing to pardon us.

When Governor Christie pardoned this woman, it cost him very little.

But to pardon us, you gave the life of your only Son.

Lord, as we consider this this morning, I just pray that your Spirit would guide our hearts and minds as we look forward to 2013.

May it begin with a clean slate for each of us.

This is our prayer and our desire, in Jesus' name, Amen.

You'll turn with me in your Bibles first of all.

We're going to look at a couple of Bible writers who talk about this clean slate experience.

First of all, we have the man David, and David was 1 who had made mistakes.

In fact, as he writes this psalm, Psalm 51, he is very much aware of the fact that he does not deserve to have a clean slate, and it's amazing to me to read what he says.

Psalm 51, and verse 7, he says, "'Purge me with hyssop.'" What is hyssop, Do you know?

It's an herb, it's a bitter herb, and sometimes when we think about this bitter herb, we recognize that the purging process, God purging us from our sins is sometimes a painful experience, isn't it?

It's a pain that we want to have, sort of like no pain, no gain.

You see these people going to the gym and working out and they say, you know, I want to feel it, I want to feel it because that's when I know I'm benefiting from it.

Well somewhat similar in our Christian experience, when God purges us from sin, when we ask God to cleanse our hearts from sin, when we give permission to God to cleanse our hearts from sin, He sometimes puts us through some trials, some tribulations, some troubles, but it's all for the outcome we ask for.

It's all because it's for his name's honor and glory.

There's another thing about hyssop we should know as we think about David's words here.

Hyssop was the herb that was used on the Passover to sprinkle the blood on the doorposts.

So David may not be just referring to this idea of, you know, cleansing from sin is at times a painful process.

He's referring to the process that includes the blood of Jesus.

Purge me with hyssop, he says, and I shall be clean.

Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

And then the verses that we're most familiar with, verse 10, "'Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous Spirit, then I will teach transgressors their ways, and sinners will be converted to You." How does it begin?

And David said there's something marvelous about the God I serve.

Yes, I've done things I regret, but there's a God in heaven who can purge me with hyssop.

That blood of Jesus is sufficient for even my sins, not only to forgive me for my sins, but to restore me as a child of God.

Not only to restore me as a child of God, but to restore me as a worker to tell others about the good news of Jesus Christ.

Are you thankful that there is such a thing as beginning anew?

David was thankful for it, David prayed for it, and I believe David received it.

Isaiah joins David's chorus and he says in these first few verses of Isaiah, he describes a very despicable condition, the spiritual condition of God's people, corporately, and he's describing it as some sort of a leprosy, a disease that's rotting the flesh from the bottom of the feet to the crown of the head, and he says in verse 18, there is hope.

Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 18, this is God's word speaking to a sick nation of Israel.

He says, Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as what?

Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Is that good news, brothers and sisters?

Listen, you don't have to have a criminal record, you don't have to have felonies on your record to appreciate the good news of Scripture.

Because no matter who we are, we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, amen?

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A Clean Slate

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