I have an important question for you. "Would you like to have a fresh start in your Christian life? ” Many of us have made many mistakes in our lives as Christians. We have experienced many setbacks and failures. Sometimes we allow these mistakes, these setbacks and failures to enslave us to the point that we never enjoy the full Christian life that God has given us to enjoy. And for some, the failures of our lives have kept us from fully taking Jesus into our lives.
In John 10:10 Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Friends, many of us have been stolen by a thief called Satan. I want to paint a picture for each of us with the hope of understanding that God still Loves us no matter where we have been, no matter how long we’ve been there, no matter what we have filled our lives with; God, always has and always will Love us and He is ready to take us in and clean us up to be used for His glory.
This message is a story really. I want to share you the life story of a cup. It's not any ordinary cup but a special cup and by the end of today's story, I do hope you will be able to realize just how very special this cup truly is.
Many years ago there was a Master Potter that produced drinking cups. He spent hours upon hours creating each cup, making each one with Love and close attention to detail. He poured His heart and soul into each one. Some were big, some were small, some were thick and some were thin. There weren't t two alike, each one was made special but each one was made for the same purpose; to hold a very special refreshing water that this particular potter also produced in the highest mountains on earth.
You see, this potter was the only one that had the knowledge and the resources to obtain the best drinking water the world had ever known. The cups he formed were made to only house this perfect life giving water.
The potter distributed the cups he made all throughout the world. They were literally everywhere. You could find them in Wal-mart, Cabella’s, the Dollar Store, and even in remote villages on the other side of the world. Shelves were stocked with them in every store you could think of.
One cup was sent to a nice department store. This cup that was formed with patience and love from the potter was unpacked by the stores professional un-packer, dusted off, inspected and placed on a shelf of its family of cups.
This cup sat in store for many years and it saw many things but it never saw the cash register, it never was purchased. It only sat there to see its fellow cups picked up buy adoring customers as they left the store and started their lives in homes all across the city.
Until one night. Some drunken teens, probably from a near by High School, came stumbling into the store. They were extremely disruptive all throughout the store. They had no regard to any of the merchandise, they knocked items off of the racks, and they were even loud and rude to employees.
One of them came upon the famous cups and his eyes locked onto the cup that had been sitting there for so many years waiting and hoping to be purchased. The drunken teen grabbed the cup and slipped it into his coat. He snuck out of the store, stealing the cup.
The teen painted the cup with black paint and decorated it with skulls and scenes of death and destruction. He filled it with whiskey one night at a party in and drank so much the he became sick and vomited into it. Another night he decided to use it at a keg party and drank beer until he passed out.
The young man cared nothing about the worth of the cup and one day he smoked and put the ashes in the cup in his car and the car caught fire. The young man was okay but everything was charred in the car. The car was donated to Goodwill in hopes parts could be salvaged.
The Goodwill workers went through all of the items and found the cup. At first sight it looked extremely beat up, used and abused. Most people would see it as garbage and useless. But one lady saw something special in it. She was a huge collector of the special cups and she thought that it just need a good cleaning and that maybe it someone could use it.
The other workers thought she was nuts and told her that the cup was useless and that it would never amount to anything; it was just trash and had been through too much destruction. They told her to toss it but she had faith in the cup and took it home.
She had at home, an owner’s manual for the special cups that the Master Potter had written about how to care for the cups. She searched the manual and did just as the manual stated and would you believe that she was able to get that cup back to it’s original condition? It took some time but it was well worth it. She took it back into the Goodwill and all the other workers were amazed at the progress, they could hardly recognize the change.
They placed it on their shelves and a family from Leon came in the same day and bought wanted to buy it! The Goodwill Store felt that they couldn't sell it to them and that the right thing was to give it to them freely. The family took it home and decorated it with bright and lively paints and filled it with the special Water that was meant for it to house.
The cup had a total transformation that no one could ever believe. It flourished with many, many years until it just became too old to really be used anymore. The family in Leon loved the cup so much and wrote a letter to the Master Potter about the life of the cup and how it was once stolen and abused and how it was transformed back into a work of art.
The Master Potter was touched by the story and traveled to Leon to visit the family. He arrived and asked if he could take the cup back to his home high in the mountains and keep it for himself to place in his “Hall of Fame The family said yes and the cup went back home where it was formed out of Love with the Potter.
How many of us can relate our own live to that of the cup? Each of us we’re formed with Love and detail, even though we are all the same, we’re still different. Some of us are big, some are small, some are thin, and yes, some of us are even thick.
Our Master Potter created each one of us high in Heaven and each one of us are to house the life given water only found in Jesus Christ and when our bodies wear out, He will take us back home with Him in Heaven. But for many of us, we have been stolen and abused by Satan. We have filled our lives up with the things of the world rather than what we are meant to be filled with. Some of us may feel so beaten up by the world, so abused. We may feel that there is no chance for us to ever go back to what it is we were created to be because we have been through too much and we cannot be cleaned up.
We have the Potter’s owner’s manual, the Bible, and it has the answers we need to get back to what it is that God wants us to be.
The good news is, God says, “ I want you to have a fresh start in life, I want you to have a new beginning, I want to do something new in your life. ” Aren't you glad that God wants to do something new in your life? Doesn't it make you excited to know that God desires to give you a fresh start, a new beginning in life. What all of us here need this morning is a Fresh Start, a New Beginning with God.
The God tells us in Isaiah 43:18 Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past ” Listen to what God is saying in this verse. Forget about what’s happened before. He says don’t think about the past. It’s over. The book’s closed on it. We need to understand that God is far more interested in our future than He is in our past. Some people think that God is stuck on their past. That all He wants to do is remind them of the things that they have done wrong. God is more interested in your future than He is with your past. That’s where you’re going to spend the rest of your life. He says, “Forget about your past. Forget about the former things. Don’t think about it. Look at the new thing I’m going to do.” Maybe that is where you are this morning! You feel that you have made so many mistakes, you have failed God so many times and you have sinned it all away. Now God doesn't want anything to do with you. You feel and believe that you have no future with God. The good news is, God is saying, “It’s not over; I have plans for your life. I am about to do something new for you. ”
Listen, regardless of what kind of failure you had in the past. You may have had a financial failure, or maybe a relational failure, a failure in your marriage. You may have had a moral failure. You may have really blown it and you may have made some decisions you’re so ashamed of and hope nobody ever finds out about. Regardless of the failure you've had in your life, and regardless of how others view you, God still loves you no matter what you have been through and no matter what you’re going through.
Some of us may have noticed someone that seems like life is really beating them up, someone that seems like there is no chance they will ever get cleaned up and be used by God. That is a lie from the thief. Satan has stolen their life and is filling it full of things that God can clean up. Maybe they need someone in their life to pick them up and not discard them as useless but see something special in them and share with them the Love of Jesus.
Maybe you can be the one that can help a lost soul this year to be transformed back into who created them to be.
The truth is, we give up on ourselves and on others way too easy but God will never give up on us.
Conclusion: Here we are in a New Year. Let our focus be on the transformation into what we are truly meant to be. And let us all have the compassion for others that need the Love of Jesus to be filled into their lives.
Last weekend when I was helping out at church by selling olive wood figures in the foyer. They were beautiful in all different shapes of Biblical scenes like Jesus washing the feet of John the Baptist, The woman at the well, Shepherd boy, Jesus and there were also wooden goblets with the words Jerusalem on them with a cross. I purchased one of the goblets for my 20 year old son Zach for Christmas . As I placed it in my bag I felt a tinge of sorrow in my heart because I would not be with my son on Christmas but after. The foyer was full of people, going to and fro wishing each other Merry wishes,I sold many wood figures. I watched as a young man about the age of my son walked back and forth to and fro among all the people. He had on a rain suit and a blanket over his shoulder. He came to my table and looked at the figures. I told him the story of how the figures were made by a family in Bethlehem who are very poor and the church sends them the money. The young man looked up at me and said," Oh I don't want to buy anything, I was just looking". He said he wanted to know more about Jesus and wanted to get involved some how. I asked him if he had accepted Jesus into his heart. He said he knew there was a scripture to say but he could not remember it. I told him it was John 3 :16. For God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son that who so ever believes on Him will not perish but have eternal life. " I explained how Jesus died on the cross and took all our sin upon Him and saved us. But, we had to accept Him as our Savior and make him Lord of our lives. The young man said, "Yeah, that's the one, that's the scripture." I said, "Would you like to pray right now and repeat after me the prayer of salvation?" He said , Yes! So I took his hand and he placed his hand upon mine. We prayed this prayer together: Heavenly Father, I come to You through Your Son Jesus.Please forgive me for all my sin. I believe Jesus is Your Son and he died for my sins. I accept Him as my Lord and Savior. Please help me to live life as a new creature in You. I will never be the same again. In Jesus name I pray, Amen. The young man looked up and this time he had hope in his eyes. He said that he had been sleeping in his car and had been on the streets. He had run into voodoo people and others and no one would give him hope except Christians. He said he could see something was different about them. I told him it was Jesus. I directed him to groups he could be involved like the young mens group my pastor leads and a home group by another kind man in church. Then I told him about the church food pantry and also about some affordable apartments according to income. I told him to try the Christian book store for work. He wrote all this down and was very appreciative. Most of the time, it is what we do that shows Gods love more than what we say. Even though I could not be with my own son on Christmas Day this year, I was still able to lead a young man about the same age to Jesus. God works in mysterious ways. We never know in what way He will choose to use us for His glory and for eternity. But, we will always be blessed when He does use us.Our cup will always be full. Take every opportunity to tell others of Jesus.Let your cup overflow into theirs. You may be the only or last hope they have.  |
