Note: Please be in prayer for Dorris Williams who had to leave church today at the beginning of prayer time. He had a stroke and is being assessed for severity and course of action now.
WHEN YOU NEED A FRESH START
Hoping For A
Miracle – Part 4
07-29-12
Sermon
I love this verse,
Psalm 145:14 “God gives a fresh start to
those who are ready to quit.” That
is God’s promise. And that is a miracle. The miracle of God giving you a fresh
start is one of his greatest miracles of all.
We’re going to look
together these next few minutes at how God works that miracle in our lives. We’re going to use the example of a man
by the name of Bartimaeus who Jesus healed. As you see how Jesus heals this man you see the steps, that God
does in your life to cause this fresh start to happen.
One day Jesus was walking
through a town by the name of Jericho.
He was on his way to Jerusalem, the capital city. He was just walking through. Everybody heard that he was walking
through so they decided, we’re going to go see Jesus. The crowds lined the streets, they’re watching Jesus walk
by, walk through. One guy in the
crowd, a guy by the name of Bartimaeus, a guy who was blind, hears that Jesus
is walking by. And he calls out
Jesus’ name. He needed help.
Bartimaeus was blind,
and in that culture and in that society it meant he couldn’t work, he couldn’t
read, he couldn’t write. There
were no Seeing Eye dogs in that society, no Braille. He was reduced to begging. He was living his life depending on the pity of others. It was a pretty miserable life in many
ways.
When Jesus walked
by, Bartimaeus realized there’s an opportunity here. So he cries out, and Jesus does a miracle in his life.
The Bible tells us
in Mark 10:46, at the beginning Bartimaeus was “sitting beside the road.”
He was living this life that he did not choose for himself, that he did
not want. By the end of the story
the Bible says that Bartimaeus was “following
Jesus on the road.” That is
the miracle of a fresh start.
The truth is there
are a lot of people who cannot see physically, but they’re on the road. They are full of vibrant life. And there are a lot of people, we all
know people, who can see physically but they’re not on the road. They are stuck on the side of the road. They’re feeling sidelined by life.
All of us feel that
way sometimes. In fact, here’s a
quick list of some of the things that cause us to feel sidelined by life that I
want to take a minute to read to you.
As I walk through this you just think, how about me? How about a good friend that I have? Is this something I’m facing in my life
that’s caused me to feel sidelined?
We
feel sidelined by life when a relationship fails. Maybe you’ve had a relationship fail recently or maybe it
was a long time ago. But it’s made
you feel like, I don’t know how to get
back on the road, back into things again.
We
can feel sidelined by life when someone disappoints us, and you feel like
you’ve been betrayed. You feel on
the side of the road. You feel like,
how do I get back into life?
We
feel sidelined by life when things didn’t work out as we expected. Has that ever happened to you? Some of you, you expected to be in this
great retirement zone right now. Maybe
at thirty, even. You had it all
worked out. Or maybe older than
thirty. “My stocks are going to do this.
They don’t have to even go up at all and I’ll have this great retirement.” And then instead of not even going up
at all they drop by forty or fifty percent. And you’re still sidelined by that. Trying to figure out where am I going
to go in life? What am I going to
do in life?
We
can get sidelined by an uncertain future.
We can get sidelined by an unexpected circumstance. We can get sidelined by even a word of discouragement
that somebody says to us. A lot of
things in life can cause you to feel this way.
If you’ve ever felt
this way you know exactly what I’m talking about. You feel a little stuck, a little sidelined. You feel like I’m down in this pit and I
want to get out. I want to feel
differently. I want to feel better. But as hard as I try, I can’t seem to
get to a different place.
If you feel that
way, you feel exactly like Bartimaeus felt. Oftentimes when we feel that way what we think is this: I wish I could go back, just rewind the life
that I’m living right now, and start over at this point. But you can’t. That will keep you sidelined if you
keep thinking that. You cannot
move ahead by going back. It’s
impossible in a car and it’s impossible in your life.
The question is how
can you get a fresh start? The
miracle is God can give you a fresh start – in your family, in your business,
in your thinking, in your faith, in your life. As we walk through what Jesus did for Bartimaeus, we’re going
to see how. There are five choices
that he made that changed everything in his life. And they can change the things in our lives.
Choice number one: here’s
where you start. By the way, they
spell START.
1. Seize
the moment.
You seize the moment
when it comes. You don’t wait. You don’t delay. You start now. You don’t say, next year I’m going to
make a fresh start or next month.
Or next week I’m going to make a fresh start.
No, you do it now. You realize when it comes to the fresh start
that God wants to give you , it is now or never. There is this now or never moment.
Bartimaeus had this
moment in his life. He had no idea
that Jesus Christ was going to pass by that day. He just heard about it as it was happening. But when he heard about it, he hadn’t
planned for it to happen, he hadn’t prepared for it to happen, he wasn’t
thinking about it going to happen, but when it happened, when the opportunity
arose, he seized the moment… without excuses.
Mark 10:46-47 “As Jesus and his disciples left town, a great
crowd was following. A blind
beggar named Bartimaeus was sitting beside the road as Jesus was going by. When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus from
Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout out, ‘Jesus, son of David, have mercy on
me!’”
He seized the
moment. Jesus comes by. He thinks, I’m never going to get the chance again. He makes the most of it. He takes advantage of it. It’s a now or never moment in his life.
The truth is, when
we talk about seizing the moment of faith, there are opportunities for faith all
around us. They are in people that
are encouraging you. They’re in God’s
Word that encourages us, the Bible.
They’re in church. This is
a place where we talk about moments of faith. But we miss it many times.
One of the main
reasons we miss it is because of one word. We miss it because of procrastination
– that single word. We just put it
off one more day. Then one more
day becomes one more day. Then all
of a sudden it’s months and even years.
Procrastination
becomes months and then it becomes years and then you miss out. That’s why it’s now or never. This is the moment in your life.
The point is what
step of faith, what step of trust in God, what step of recognizing who God is and
what he wants to do in your life can you take in your life right now? What do you need to stop
procrastinating about?
Jesus said in Luke
9:62 “No procrastination, no backward looks. You can’t put God’s kingdom off until tomorrow. You have to seize the day.”
The fact is this: you know the right thing to do. I know the right thing to do. We even know the benefit of doing the
right thing. But you and I miss out
on it because we just put it off one more day. We just think, I’ll do it later.
God brought some of
you here today to say this one thing: stop procrastinating. Stop making excuses. Stop waiting one more day. Do it now. Seize the moment.
That’s the first step in getting a fresh start. You have to seize the moment. You have to do it now.
But that’s not the
only step. Because once you take
that step you’re going to immediately face the second thing. You seize the moment then number two…
2. Tame
your fear.
You’ve got to tame
your fear. Why? Because we’re human beings. We all face fears. In any change, any seizing of the
moment, in any opportunity there’s going to be some fear that goes along with
it. So you tame your fear. You can’t do away with your fear, but
you can choose to not let it control you.
Fear, has the ability
to paralyze our decisions. It can
keep you from launching out. In
fact procrastination which we just talked about, it is often the fear of
success. We procrastinate because
we think, I don’t match up to that success. We procrastinate because we think I don’t want the responsibility
that goes along with that success.
There are a lot of
fears that we face. Probably the
greatest one of all is the one that Bartimaeus faced. We face the fear of the disapproval of others, the rejection
of other people.
Bartimaeus knew
that he was not doing something that was cool that day. Jesus was just passing through town. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. Jesus has more important things to do. He had lots of other people following
him. But Bartimaeus is the one who
calls out in the crowd: “Son of David! Jesus! Stop! Have mercy
on me!” Because he knew it was
his only chance. He was desperate.
He cries out and
then look at what everybody says to him, Mark 10:48 “Many of the people scolded him and told him to be quiet. But he shouted even the more loudly,
‘Son of David! Have mercy on me!’”
He cries out and everybody says, don’t make a scene. Don’t humiliate yourself and embarrass
yourself. Everybody says, Jesus does not have time for you. Jesus would not be interested in somebody
like you. He’s got more important
things to do.
That may be the voice
that some of you hear in your mind.
God doesn’t have time for you.
He wouldn’t be interested in you.
He’s got more important things to do.
When you hear that,
you just think one word in your mind: lie!
That is a lie. That’s a lie from Satan who is a liar. How do I know that? Because of what God tells us. John 6:37, here’s what God says: “I will never turn away anyone who comes to
me.”
So this idea that God’s
going to reject you, that’s just plain baloney. That is a lie.
I know a lot of you
are thinking, I’ve got the God thing figured out. I know that he loves me. It’s other people that I’m worried about. Not all of them love me. Some of them have some negative opinions
about me. It’s the other people that
get me.
Here’s the question
with this one, when it comes to facing your fear, taming your fear: whose disapproval
do you fear the most? Whatever
name just popped into your mind, that person has the potential to be your god. You begin to live your life for their
approval. You begin to live your life
for what they want to have happen.
With our teenagers
we call it peer pressure. As adults
we say, we don’t have peer pressure.
We have fancier names for it, but it’s the same thing. We’re living our life for the approval of
somebody else. We’re living our life
because of what somebody else might be thinking about us.
Proverbs 29:25 “The fear of human opinion disables you: trusting
in God protects you from that.”
Let’s just take a
minute with this one. Let’s just
be honest about this others’ opinion thing. You would not be nearly as concerned about what other people
are thinking about you if you realized how little time other people actually
spend thinking about you. They
aren’t thinking about you. They’re
thinking about themselves. Just like
you. You’re not thinking about
them. You’re thinking about yourself. But we get all caught up in this thing. We’re thinking that this is what
they’re thinking about us. We miss
out because we’re so focused on what somebody else’s opinion might be.
When you live your life
for the opinion of others, you don’t even always know what the opinion of others
is! How do I stop letting the fear
of other people’s opinion control me?
Here’s the way. Would you
write down these three words: put God
first.
You put God first. You put your relationship with him
first. When you recognize the
power of God in your life, you put him first in your life, then you don’t fear other
people nearly so much. That’s what
Bartimaeus did that day. He put
his relationship with Jesus first so he cried out. That’s what you do.
You let the promise of hope drown out the pressure of the crowd. The crowd tried to make Bartimaeus feel
like you’re going to embarrass yourself, you’re bothering Jesus. When the truth is, he was saving himself. He was doing exactly what Jesus wanted
him to do.
In fact, he cries
out and says “Son of David! Have mercy on me!” That’s an interesting
phrase. “Son of David.” That
meant he knew who Jesus was. He’d
studied. He’d learned something
about him. Son of David means promised one. So he knew that Jesus was the promised one from God and he
was putting his hope in him. So he
shouted all the more.
And because he
shouted, he got the opportunity to make a third choice. First you seize the moment then you
tame your fear.
3. The
third choice is you Announce your faith.
You do it publicly. You be specific. You clarify what you really want. Then you say it out loud in faith. You tell everybody.
Listen to what
happened with Jesus and Bartimaeus. Mark 10:51 “Jesus asked
him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’
The blind man answered, ‘Jesus, Teacher, I want to see.’”
Let me ask you a question. Why did Jesus ask him this? Didn’t he know? Didn’t he know what he already wanted? Wasn’t it obvious? Here’s a blind man sitting beside the road
begging. What do you think he
wanted? Everybody knew what he
wanted. Why did Jesus ask?
Jesus didn’t ask
for his sake; he asked for Bartimaeus’ sake. He asked so that Bartimaeus would have a chance to announce
his faith publicly. And he did. Immediately he announced, This is what I’m trusting you to do. He immediately stated his faith goal out
loud. As he’s doing this he’s
saying, I not only believe, Jesus, that
you’re the Messiah, the promised one.
I believe you are God. Because
only God can heal somebody of blindness.
I believe you have power that only God can have. He trusts him in that moment.
Here’s the amazing
thing. Jesus Christ asks every one
of us this same question every day.
He’s asking you right now. What
do you want me to do for you? What’s
your answer? What do you want
Jesus Christ to do in your life right now?
God wants to do
great things in your life but you have to ask in faith. A secret faith is a shallow faith. You have to let other people know. You have to take a stand. The truth is the more people you tell, you
announce it, the more support, the more prayer you’re going to have.
There’s a lot of
ways that we announce our faith about a lot of things. Baptism is a way of letting other people
know that I have faith in God. I
have faith in Christ.
The Bible says in
Galatians 3:27 “Your baptism in Christ
was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe - Christ’s
life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise.”
There are other times
when you announce your faith, you say, this
is what I want Jesus to do for me, I want that job. Once you announce it he sort of diverts
you and says, You don’t want that job. It’s going to be gone in a week and a
half. This is the job over here
that you want. And he gets you
over there. But until you announce
it he can’t start moving in your life.
You announce your faith.
Or, you might
announce your faith by saying, I need a
breakthrough in my life. I need a
breakthrough in my marriage, I need a breakthrough in my relationship with my
child or my parent, I need a breakthrough in my job, I need a breakthrough in
my health,…I need a breakthrough. And
Jesus hears you. And he
stops. And you tell him what you
want. And you trust him. And he puts the process of your
breakthrough into motion.
Then once you’ve done
that, the fourth thing that happens to get a fresh start is you…
4. Receive
God’s grace.
You receive God’s
grace. Mark 10:52 “Jesus said to Bartimaeus, ‘Go your way. Your faith has made you well.’ And
immediately he regained his sight.”
He received the gift of a miracle, new sight, and it got him back on the
road.
I have no doubt
that there are many of you who are facing difficult circumstances. Maybe you are facing some big hurts in life
right now. You don’t know where to
turn sometimes. You’d like to get
out of feeling this way. You can’t
seem to get out of feeling this way.
You need God’s gift
of a fresh start. Regardless of
the circumstances. Regardless of
what someone else has done to you or said about you, or what you have done or
said. You need God’s gift of a
fresh start and he wants to give it to you. Jesus Christ wants to give you a fresh start. With an emphasis on the word give. It is a gift.
You can’t earn a
fresh start. You can’t deserve it. You can’t work for it. You can’t buy it. You can’t do a bunch of religious rituals
to get it. It is a gift that he wants to give you. No matter what your past has been. No matter what you’ve done. No matter what you’ve done and brought
on yourself, he wants to give you this gift.
How does God get
you back on the road? Grace. His gift. The word “grace” and the word “gift” in the Bible are the same
word. They mean the same thing.
How does that work?
This gift, this grace of a fresh
start he wants to put into my life and your life?
Some of my favorite
verses about that are in Ephesians.
Ephesians 2:8-10. Here’s
how grace happens. Here’s how it
works. “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith
-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that
no one can boast. For we are God’s
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in
advance for us to do.”
These verses say
when we’re talking about grace – there are three things to remember. One, it’s a gift. Two, it’s received by faith. Three, once I receive it God has some good
things for me to do.
So where could you
serve? Who could you serve? How could you serve? That is one of the keys to experiencing
God’s grace in your life in a daily way.
But once you have
decided, I’m going to receive God’s grace and get back on the road then you
have to do the final thing.
5. T –
Take the next step.
What’s the next
step for you? Whatever God’s told
you to do and you haven’t done it yet.
For some of you
it’s getting involved in a small group.
For some of you, it’s beginning to get involved in a ministry. Or maybe it’s getting involved in a new
ministry. It’s time to make a
change.
When it comes to
taking this next step, what we always say is, I’m aiming to do that someday. What I’m saying is today
is the day to pull the trigger.
Today is the day to make a decision.
The Bible says in
Mark 10:52 “Bartimaeus regained his sight and he began following
Jesus down the road.” He went
from sitting beside the road to following Jesus down the road.
Two different lives,
two options. Which one do you want
to describe your life? Which of
these two lifestyles do you think is more fulfilling: sitting beside the road or
following Jesus on the road? Which
of these two ways of living do you think has more joy, has more satisfaction, more
meaning: sitting beside the road or following Jesus on the road?
This is the day to
decide, I want to get on the road. I want to get back on that road. The truth of the matter is, Jesus is
passing by right now. As you and I
decide what’s the next step the question isn’t what can’t I do, what am I being prevented from doing? The question is, what can I do? How can I serve? Who
can I serve?
And just to break
this down and make it very practical and real for me and you, there is only one
way to follow Jesus Christ down the road – one step at a time.
So you don’t have to
worry about the tenth step or the twentieth step. Just what’s the next
step that he wants you to take? You
take that step. Then you take the
next step and the next step and the next step. If you do not take that next step of faith you get stuck in a
rut. And the only difference
between a rut and a grave is the length.
You get stuck in a place where there is no life. Where your life shrivels up and dies.
Jesus has the power
to do what you and I can’t do. If
you think, where am I going to get the power to do this? I’d like to get out of this pit. I’d like to feel differently. I’d like to look at life differently. Where am I going to get the power to do
that? Only one person – Jesus
Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:30
says “Everything that we have – right thinking, right living, a clean slate and
a fresh start – comes from God by way of Jesus Christ.” That’s where it’s going to come from. But if it’s going to come in your life,
if it’s going to happen in your life, you’re going to have to do something. You’re going to have to take the next step.
James 2:14 says “If people say they have faith, but do
nothing, their faith is worth nothing.” So my question is what is the next step you’re going to take? Not what are you thinking about faith. Not even what are you believing about
faith. But, what are you going to
do about the next step of faith in your life?
Jesus is passing by. Bartimaeus that day… he had no idea it
was going to happen. He didn’t plan
for it, he didn’t prepare for it. But
the opportunity came and he took it.
He’s passing by right now for me and for you. He does it every day of our lives.
So just for a
moment filter out all the distractions.
Jesus is coming by. He
wants to give you a fresh start. What
can you do? How can you put faith
in him? What dramatic new step could
you take in your life to put faith in him? To trust him with your family like you never have before? To trust him with your job like you
never have before? With your
finances like you never have before? With your life like you never have before?
Let’s pray
together:
As we pray, Whatever step came to your
mind a moment ago, pray I commit myself to
taking the next step of faith.
If you’re not sure what that is yet, just say “The answer in advance is yes.
Now you show me what that next step is.” “I commit myself,
Jesus, to taking the next step of faith because I know you love me. I know you want to give me a fresh start
because I know you have life to give me.
I pray this in your name; I pray this hopefully in your name. Amen.”
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