New beginnings

We are very fortunate to have a God of new beginnings. He is always waiting for us to cry uncle and call out to Him for help. 

email: RuggedTruthGodsWord@gmail.com

God has a super huge plan. We all have to do our part as He assigns to us. 

Transcript

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Hello, brothers and sisters in the Lord. This is Brother Rick, and I am hoping you all are enjoying some springtime weather and still looking up. We've got to continually keep our line of communication open with the Lord. Continual. It's a continual communication, talking, thinking, just because the devil is right there ready to pounce. He wants to pull us away from the Lord as often as he can. But God. That's a good phrase. Just but God. All things happen but God. And since he raised Christ from the dead, and through baptism, we have been raised with Christ to a new life. It is a symbolic gesture, but that is what has happened. We are raised with Christ. This is what it says in Colossians 3.1. And if we keep reading through that chapter, in verse 2, it talks about we set our minds on things above, not on earthly things. For we died to the life, the old life. And then Colossians 3.3 it says, now we're hidden with Christ in God. We're tucked away like a special jewel, each one of us. We're his children. And that being said, every second that we're given from the Lord is a new beginning. And old things are passed away. It's similar to like when Jesus washed the apostles' feet. And because we walk around on this world, this sinful world, and we sin too, but we try not to. And we don't want to, but we struggle against it day by day. But we get our feet dirty and we have to have our feet washed. And we go back to the Lord and say, I'm sorry, Lord. Please forgive me in the name of Jesus. And we're repenting. And our feet are washed. We're ready to go again, just like brand new. And while we're here, we lean on other Christians and we help each other. We teach each other whether we realize it or not. Just by going through being successful with struggles, against being going against struggles and defeating them with the power of Christ. And we share this with other believers and non-believers to help them become believers, knowing that Christ can defeat all less trouble. God doesn't put all the wisdom of the world in one person, no matter how intelligent they are or they think they are. God is the total wisdom, the all-wise one, the all-knowing one, the all-loving and caring one, the all-merciful one. And he loves us and cares for us, not because we're do it or it's owed to us. He loves us because he is merciful. And we won't have a full understanding of God until we get there. And when we do mess up, and we will, it's not a permission slip, it's just a known fact that we're human. No matter how long we've been Christians, how hard we try, we're going to slip up. But we have the advocate of advocates, Christ, sitting right beside God Almighty. And he is the one that has taken all the guilt, shame, and trouble upon himself for us. And God's been patient with us. He has. And uh with our arrogance and our just selfishness. And Christ has uh was used as the sacrifice to help us to be forgiven. He was the bridge between us and God. He was the only bridge that could be built. And he built it with two pieces of wood. And it's a beautiful story, it really is. But in Colossians 3, 5, it says, we put to death a lot of things that are in us. That doesn't mean we just go ahead and keep living our lives. We're saved now, I can live how I want. No, we don't do that. We follow Christ and we're to be holy. Holy, holy. In verse 5, it lists a few things. Sexual immorality of all sorts. Sleeping around, homosexuality, and all that is considered all of that. Any impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. And we do this because we love Christ, because God loved us first, and we return the love that He's given us, and He's shown us the mercy. He didn't have to save us. We're all, and the way I like to describe myself is I'm I'm a ball of dust with the Holy Spirit living in me. And that's pretty much the way it is for all of us. But I claim it for myself. Because truly, if I try to do something for Christ away from him and without his uh permission or authority, it's a failure. So I just say I clear it with him. I pray about it, and when I feel good about it, I start it. And sometimes with best intentions, we get on a bad path. And again, that's what new beginnings are all about. We just apologize to God, and it's easy to do. And a little further in this chapter on Colossians 3.6, it talks about these things I just mentioned that we're to get rid of. That's why the wrath of God is coming. And it's that is the old life. That is our old life. And we've got to help others see that the wrath of God is coming. Tell them. And we tell them about the love of Christ that is the fire escape. Come on, get on board, folks. That's what we tell them. Say, please, please, let's get off that highway to hell, which everybody is on. Everybody's on that crazy highway. And it leads right to hell. And we've got to help them to find the exit, find the exit that leads to Christ. There's all kinds of blinking signs on there, warning signs. The Lord's put signs. And we are some of the signs. We are some of the ones on the side of the road telling people, take this exit, take this exit, please, please. We want them to have a new beginning also. And a little further down the chapter in verse 10, it talks about uh we've put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge of the image of its creator. So we're learning more and more every day about God's goodness and kindness and how he has forgiven us from all the things we've done. Even the slightest sin is enough to get you an exit from his good graces. But from the slightest sin to the greatest sin, they can all be forgiven. All we have to do is want to be forgiven, because the the gift is laid at everybody's feet, and it's right there to be picked up and just accepted. A gift is no good unless you pick it up and accept it, unless you take it in and you accept it. It could be the best gift in the world, uh, but if you don't pick it up and open it and accept it, it's not yours. You haven't you haven't taken hold of it. And we have to do that to ex to have Christ in our hearts. We accept the Holy Spirit and what comes with that is eternal life and a fulfilling life, a really fulfilling life. Life is so empty without Christ. It is just and seriousness upon seriousness, life without Christ is no life at all. For it's death. Life without Christ is empty and temporary. Life with Christ is eternal. And when we stumble, we say, Lord, what happened? And sometimes we get pulled into Satan's traps and we have to watch out. But sometimes we do. Through friends or whatever, we just get tired and we get disillusioned. But if you're the Lord's, he'll stick the hounds of heaven on you. And they'll come and find you and say, Hey, what are you doing, child? Come on, come on back. And there's there's no retributions, there's no spanking. It's just, come on back. Come on back, please, like the prodigal son, when the father came running to the son, when he saw him afar off. And that can be found in Luke 15, uh, verses 11 to 32, and just talks about how the boy did waste his father's money. But you know what? The father loved the son more than he loved money. And when he saw the son coming back, and the son was repentant, the father says, Nonsense, you're my son. And he put another ring on him, and he had a big party for him. His son, who is dead, is back and he's alive. That's the way it is with God. He wants us all to come back to a new beginning. Turn around and come back now, every one of us. It's easy to do. It's done for us. We just have to accept it and we have to just do it and repent. Say, I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry, Lord. And he'll say, all right, no worries. Let's go. Let's get on with it. We've got things to do. We've got people to tell because time is short. And everybody is headed on the highway to hell. They really are, unless we help them find the exit. We can't save them ourselves. We just set up the introduction with Christ. But He can save anyone, no matter what they've done, from murder, lying, stealing, whatever they've done. He can forgive them. They just have to repent of it and ask forgiveness in the name of Jesus. Ask the Father for forgiveness in the name of Jesus, and we're good to go. Every moment, every morning and every moment is a new beginning for us. Every, every moment. And we just have to claim it. And we just talk to the Lord and keep the open line of communication with the Lord. Talking to him continually because Satan is right there ready to pounce. And we have to be prepared. We really do. We can't just be just moving along because Satan doesn't want the people of the world, the people in Hollywood that don't know the Lord, which I keep saying that and I talk about politicians. There are other people do, but they're just the ones that are most popular. They're easy targets, I guess. But Satan truly does have them. And when they drop off the world, just like anybody else that drops off the world through death, through the final sleep, and they don't know the Lord, they're headed to hell. It's that simple. And we've got to help all we can. We've got to help all the people we can. We just tell them about that Christ has come and he's allowed us to have new beginnings. Well, brothers and sisters, I'm going to get off of here. This is uh Brother Rick, and I pray the good Lord save your souls and his face shine upon you. And until next time, I love you in the name of Jesus Christ.