How to Start Over with God

Have you ever felt like you've wandered too far from God? Maybe life got busy, you've made mistakes, or you're carrying regrets that make you wonder if it's even possible to begin again.

The good news is this: it's never too late to come home.

In this message, we explore one of Jesus' most powerful parables—the story of the Prodigal Son—and discover the incredible truth that God is always ready to welcome us with grace, forgiveness, and a fresh start.

Whether you've been away from God for years or simply feel distant today, I pray this teaching reminds you that His love has never stopped pursuing you.

In this video, you'll discover:
• Why God never gives up on you
• How to take the first step back to Him
• What true repentance really means
• How God's grace gives us a brand-new beginning

No matter where you've been or what you've done, your story isn't over. God specializes in new beginnings.

If this message encourages you, I'd love for you to subscribe and join me each week as we learn how to renew our lives one step at a time through God's Word.

🙏 I'd love to hear from you in the comments:
What helped you take your first step back toward God?

Thank you for watching, and may God richly bless you.

#StartOverWithGod #ProdigalSon #Faith #Jesus #Christian #BibleStudy #RenewYourLife #Hope #Grace #Forgiveness #Prayer #ChristianLiving #GodsLove #BibleTeaching #LifeWith

Transcript

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How to start over with God. My name is Max Marcou, and this is Life with Max. Thanks so much for joining in. Have you ever felt that you are nowhere near where you thought you would be? In other words, you had a plan, and now you find yourself in a place, in a situation that is so not what you were dreaming of. Well, the Bible has a story that I think is going to be very helpful to help get you back on track. You're not alone. Many people think that they've gone too far and that there's no hope. There's no way back. Can I really start over with God? The answer is absolutely yes. And so I'm going to do my very best to show you and use a teaching that Jesus, a story rather, that Jesus taught to help. All right, so this is found in the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament, Luke chapter 15, and some people call it the parable of the lost son. Some people call it the um the prop the story of the prodigal son. Either way, same story. Luke chapter 15, verse 11. Uh a man had two sons. The younger son told his father, I want my share of your estate now before you die. So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. That's not a typical thing that uh people do, but this son he wanted to get out of there. And I'm just imagining. The father, from what I know, he has a lot of people at work for him. He's got land, he has livestock, he's probably doing really well. And it's just not the big city life. It's not the kind of life that this young man has been daydreaming of. So he says to his father, I want out of here, but I really want my share, my inheritance, my money now, so I can go do all those things that I'm dreaming of. And the father agrees. Verse 13 A few days later, this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all of his money in wild living. Now, what was wild living? We don't know exactly, but whatever it was, it was not uh working out for him. He spent all of his money on wild living. And about that time his money ran out. About that time that his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. This young man probably had a pretty good life uh living on his father's estate, um, knowing that his father had other employees. And now he's got what is probably known as the lowest uh entry-level job out there. And the young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding to the pigs looked good to him, but no one gave him anything. Now, this is where it turns around, and this is where it could be very useful uh for you. Verse 17. When he finally came to his senses, I know there have been times in my life, key moments when I came to my senses, when I realized that what I was doing wasn't working, and I had to admit that and look for a better path forward. And for you and I, I don't believe there's any better first choice in turning things around than coming to God and coming clean and just saying, God, I need you. I need you more than I did before, but I need you now, and I I I want to do life with you. I want a relationship with you. Let's keep going. The son, he's gonna he's about to rehearse rehearse a speech here. So let's listen to that. He said to himself, at home, even hired servants, even the hired servants, have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger. I will go home to my father and say, Father, I have sinned both against you and heaven, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Please take me as a hired servant. So he returned home to his father with his rehearsed, you know, uh plan of what he's going to say to his father. And this is Jesus is telling the story, and in the story, we're the son, and God is the father. And watch what the father does. And while he was still a long way off, the father, his father saw him coming, filled with love. There it is, that incredible word. Love filled with love and compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. But his father said to the servants, Quick, bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet, and prepare a feast for him. We're about to celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found. So the party began. That is pretty cool for Jesus to tell this story. You think sometimes, uh well, at least I I know a lot of people were raised that, you know, if you if you make bad decisions, you gotta pay for it. And in many cases, you you do end up paying for it. Uh and it's painful. But Jesus is saying here, look at this young man. He went off and he did what he wanted to do, and it was not good stuff, and he's starving out there. And many people get far from God and they say, How do I even start over with God? Jesus is saying, just come back to me, and I will run to you and embrace you and help you. Oh, it's just so beautiful. So the story of the prodigal son, the lost son, has four points that I drew out of it. Number one, God never stops waiting for you. I believe God is waiting for you, and we it's up to us. We have to, we have free will, so we have to make a decision that we are going to turn away from the things that we were doing and turn to him. Um, you may feel distant from God, but he does not feel distant from you. In fact, he really wants to have a relationship with you. Number two, starting over begins with honesty. You know, it was a turning point. You know, he came to his senses, he he was honest with himself. He realized that he had made a lot of poor choices. First John chapter nine, uh, rather, first John chapter one, verse nine. If we confess our sins to God, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. In the message translation, maybe this will make that a little more clear. It's just a different translation. If we admit our sins, simply come clean about them, he won't let us down. He'll be true to himself, he'll forgive our sins and purge us of any wrongdoing. But confession comes before the cleansing, admitting that we are wrong. That's how you you mend a bad relationship, or you know, if you if you have been in a bad relationship with someone, sometimes just not trying to prove your point or but this and and what about that? No, just just coming clean and confess, I'm sorry. Is come to God and say, God, I am sorry. And God is the one in this story, is running to you, embracing you and throwing you a party, saying, Thank you, you were lost, now you're found. You were dead, now you're alive. Let's celebrate. How awesome. Point number three, God gives new beginnings, not second class status. He's not saying that once you're once you've come to him, now now you've really got to, you're on you know, probation. No, no, no, no. No, you are a child of God, and he wants to help you each and every day with whatever it is that you're working on. At work, at school, relationships. He he wants to restore you, and that's grace. Grace is a powerful, powerful thing to think about. You can't earn it, it's just freely given. Many religions, there's there's a lot, and even in Christianity, there could be parts of Christianity that people are like, well, you have to do this and you have to do that. What I'm saying is start by just coming to God and receive his grace. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17. Anyone who belongs to Jesus has become a new person. The old life is gone, a new life has begun. And all of this is a gift from God. Lamentations 323. Great is his faithfulness, his mercies begin afresh each morning. Each day you have a new opportunity to start your day off and continue with connecting with God through prayer and maybe reading a little bit of scripture, reading this story over and over, and seeing yourself in the story and seeing the love of the Father. That's going to help. Last point, point number four, stay close after you come home. In other words, once you've made a decision that you're going to live your life in close connection with your Father God, I encourage you to find a good Bible preaching, teaching church, a nice community where you can grow with other people. Uh, not saying go find a perfect church, because my friend's a pastor, and he said to me once, he goes, Max, I figured it out. I figured I figured out how to find the perfect church. I saw, you know, what'd you figure out? He said, You got to go to a church, show up five minutes late. He said, That's key. And then you got to leave about five minutes early and never talk to anybody that goes there. Of course, he was trying to make a funny point, because he is funny, that there are no perfect churches. So if you're looking for the perfect church, I've never found one. Um, the churches that I love going to, uh, it's a place where people are trying their very best to deliver uh good biblical loving truth and a place where you can have community make friends. Um it's not about how good is the music, although that's always a bonus, but that's that's not the main thing. Um the main thing is are you in a safe place where you're feeling loved and encouraged and growing? The people that I know that uh really thrive in their life as a Christian, they go to a church and they serve in that church. In other words, they find a place to get involved. It might be cleaning the floors, but I've known some pretty incredible, incredible people, very successful people, um, that just that's their ministry. They just love to keep the church clean, but they have a secret, and that secret is that they feed themselves outside of church. In other words, they study the Bible for themselves. And I I tell people on Life with Max here to do that all the time because we need to nourish ourselves daily in order to really be ready for anything and to be at our our best. All right, so John chapter 15, this will be my last verse, then we'll pray. And thank you again for tuning in. John chapter 15, verse 4, Jesus says, Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. When I am challenged in life, I feel that Jesus has, through the power of the Holy Spirit, an ability to remind me what he said. In other words, remind me what he said in this story about the lost son. Remind me the truths that he's taught me through all of the gospels, and I pass that on to you. I hope that you get something out of this, and that you find that coming back to God is is a beautiful thing that's celebrated, and I would just decide enough's enough. Come to your senses and trust God with the rest of today, tomorrow, and each day after that. Let's pray. Father God, thank you that you never stop loving us. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, that no failure is greater than your grace. Lord, give us courage and humility to trust you as we walk with you each day. Thank you, Lord, that your mercies are new every morning. And thank you, Lord, that you're gonna help us. I pray for each person listening to this or watching this, Lord, that give them strength and help them to see that it doesn't matter what happened in the past, that they can come to you and you'll you'll run to them. Amen. Thank you, everyone. Again, I hope you got something out of this. You can go to elevationchapel.org. I pastor a church right outside of Boston. If you're ever in the area, come on by. I'd love to meet you on a Sunday morning. Uh but in the meantime, hope you have a good rest of your day. Thank you so much for tuning in.