In Revelation 21, the part that I wanted to preach on, just a little statement where I
take the title of my sermon, is found in verse number 5 where it says,
And he even sat upon the throne and said, Behold, I make all things new.
And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful.
The title of my sermon tonight is this, Behold, I make all things new.
Now turn if you would to Genesis chapter 1, and of course this is the creation account
right at the very beginning of the Bible, and we're just going to read one portion.
Of course this world was created in six literal days according to the Bible, despite modern
day theologians try to twist this and try to second guess what the Bible is saying.
But of course it's very clear that evening and the morning were the first day,
the evening and the morning were the second day, and on the fourth day is what I want
to focus on.
Look at verse number 14.
The Bible says,
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night,
and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be for
lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, and it was so.
And God made two great lights, the greater lights were ruled a day, and the lesser lights
were ruled a night, and He made the stars also.
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to
rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness, and
God saw that it was good, and the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
So the reason that God created the sun and the moon and the stars was two reasons.
Number one was to give light on the earth so that we could see what we were doing, to
provide warmth and light.
But number two, He said it was to divide days, seasons, months, and years.
You see, all throughout the Bible, starting in Genesis 1 all the way to Revelation 21,
there's a principle that keeps coming up repeated again and again of starting over, of God giving
a new start.
He said, Behold, I make all things new.
And all throughout the Bible, you'll find God pushing a reset button or starting things
over.
And this is the way our life is.
Every day is a new start.
Every week is a new start.
Every month is a brand new start.
And every year, who has ever heard of making a New Year's resolution?
Of course, the big thing, women decide they're going to lose weight or something, and people
decide they're going to start coming to church more often, and people decide that they're
going to...
I don't know.
What do people decide?
I don't know.
But they make these...
They're going to read through the Bible in a year, right?
They get the charm.
They start to read.
On the first day, they read Genesis 1-3 and Matthew 1, and they're going to read through
the Bible in a year.
That's great, because the year provides a new start.
It's exciting at the beginning of the year to say, I'm going to read through my Bible
this year.
I'm going to be in church this year.
Every time, you know, 52 weeks, I'm going to be in church.
I'm going to be at all three services, or whatever the case may be.
Sometimes, you might have a really crummy day.
It's great when that day is over.
And sometimes you just want to go to bed, and you've had such a terrible day.
I mean, I can remember getting home from work sometimes.
It's been a bad day.
I just said, this day is so bad.
I just want to go to bed, because nothing good can come of this day.
You know, have you ever felt that way?
And you just say, no matter what I do, I mean, I better just quit now.
I'm going to bed early, because tomorrow is going to be a better day.
That's what's great about having these divisions of days, weeks, months, years.
The Bible says, turn to Lamentations Step 3.
And I'm going to show you tonight several people in the Bible who made mistakes, and
yet God gave them a new start.
I'm going to show you some stories from the Bible.
But first, let me just finish my introduction here.
Look at Lamentations Chapter 3.
Lamentations Chapter 3, the Bible reads in verse number 22,
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed,
because His compassion's fatal knot, they are new every morning.
Great is Thy faithfulness.
So God's mercies and God's compassion's are new every morning.
Every day, you can wake up, and God will give you a new start.
God will give you a clean slate.
God will let you start from scratch, as it were,
and not have to worry about the failings of yesterday, the problems of yesterday.
He gives you a chance to start over and do things right today.
You say, oh man, you don't know what my past is like.
The Bible says, forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth under those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul said, I'm not going to let my past cause me to strive for a lesser calling.
Well, you know, other people may be able to do great things for God,
but I've had this horrible past, and so therefore,
I can't do as much as so and so are.
He was raised in a Christian home.
I was raised in a worldly home, and therefore,
I can't go as far for God as He can.
That's not true.
Paul said, I want to forget the past,
and press for the highest mark I can,
because I can do all things through Christ with strength and ability.
And so don't let the past hold you back.
Don't say, well, yesterday I did this,
but today I can't.
Hey, today you can serve God no matter what happened yesterday.
You can move forward and move on,
and you ought not be hung up on the past.
Take the new start that God offers.
Let's start with Paul.
Look at 1 Timothy 1.
I'm going to show you a few people in the Bible who got a new start from God.
1 Timothy 1.
1 Timothy 1, and look at verse 12.
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord,
who hath enabled me,
for that He counteth me faithful,
putting me into the ministry,
who was before a blasphemer,
and a persecutor.
I mean, He persecuted the church of God,
He said, He persecuted God's people.
And in juries, He's saying, I hurt other people.
Remember, He had people dragged and thrown into prison.
He was fighting against the truth.
But I obtained mercy,
because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant,
with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
of whom I have achieved.
Now watch this verse.
Howbeit, for this cause I obtained mercy,
that in me first, Jesus Christ might show forth
all longsuffering for a pattern
to them which should hereafter believe on Him,
the life everlasting.
He's saying, this is a pattern.
God didn't just do it for me, He'll do it for you too.
He said, first to me, He showed this mercy,
who was a blasphemer, a persecutor, in juries.
He's saying, that's a pattern to everybody else
who will ever come after me, who will believe on Jesus Christ.
Hey, God's going to give them a new start too.
God will also give them a chance to serve Him,
and to preach the gospel, and to win people to Christ,
no matter who they are, not just me.
He's saying, God's going to do this for anybody.
It's a pattern with God to give you a new start
if you decide that you want to live for God.
He'll let you have that new start.
But look at Judges 16.
I'll show you somebody else who's got a new start.
And that's Samson.
Look at Judges 23.
Judges chapter 23.
I'm sorry, Judges 16.
Did I say Judges chapter 23?
Judges chapter 16 verse 23.
Sorry about that.
There is no Judges 23.
Now, many modern Bibles are leaping out.
Judges 23.
If your Bible has Judges 23, then you've got the wrong Bible.
It's probably a Catholic Bible or something.
Okay, Judges 16, 23.
This is Samson's new start.
Look at this.
They're praising this false god, Dagon.
They were delivered into our hands, our enemy,
and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us.
Verse 24.
Then verse 25, it says,
They said, let's bring Samson and make fun of him.
Now, you remember, what happened to Samson?
Well, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.
He was a mighty warrior for God.
But what happened?
He had a weakness.
What was it?
Women.
And if you remember, he desired these strange women.
He got mixed up with a Philistine girl.
That caused him problems.
Then, later on, he went to a prostitute in Gaza,
which almost got unbusted by the Philistines again.
And then, thirdly, he gets involved with Delilah.
And Delilah deceives him for money's sake.
She was offered 1,100 pieces of silver.
If she would betray Samson into the hands of his enemies,
she extorted from him the secret of his great strength,
that if his head would be shorn,
that would break the final straw of his vow to God,
and he would lose his strength and be like any other man.
Of course, while he's asleep in her lap,
she shaves off his head with a razor, his hair off with a razor.
And when he wakes up, he doesn't even realize that he'd lost God's power.
He went to fight, and he was beaten before the enemies.
They tied him up, and they stuck hot irons into his eyes and blamed him.
They actually burned out his eyes to where he was completely blind,
and they made him grind like an animal at a millstone,
pushing a wheel to grind wheat, just all day working like an animal,
being treated like an awful slave.
Well, at this great celebration,
they said, yeah, let's bring him in and make fun of him for a while.
You know, they're probably going to spit on him and kick him,
because he can't even see what's happening.
He's lost all his strength.
This is the guy who used to terrorize them.
Now they've got him at their mercy.
Now, it's interesting here.
Well, let's keep reading, and I'll go into the application.
But it says that their hearts were merry.
They're having a good time.
They're partying down.
Call for Samson that he may make a sport.
Verse 25.
And they called for Samson out of the prison house,
and he made them sport.
And they set him between the pillars.
And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand,
Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth,
that I may lean upon them.
Now the house was full of men and women,
and all the lords of the Philistines were there,
and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women
that beheld while Samson made sport.
And Samson called unto the Lord and said,
O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee,
and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God,
that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.
And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars
upon which the house stood and on which it was born,
of the one with his right hand and the other with his left.
And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines.
And he bowed himself with all his might,
and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were therein.
So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.
Now if you remember at the end of the story where he got his eyes put out,
I'm trying to find the verse, it wasn't in my notes,
but oh yeah, verse 22, look down at verse 22.
Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaded.
You know, that's symbolic.
Obviously his hair wasn't what was giving him the strength of his God,
but that's symbolic.
Even though he'd messed up, even though he'd been a fool,
even though he'd sacrificed everything for the love of pleasure
and the love of strange women,
God was saying in that verse 22 that he's going to give him another chance.
He said, Hey, his hair began to grow again.
That's symbolic of the fact that God was not through with him yet.
God was going to use him once again.
Now it's interesting because, believe it or not,
Samson in this story pictures Jesus Christ.
Say what? Give me a break. Literally.
He pictures Jesus Christ in this story,
because Samson was acting out a lot of what Jesus was going to go through.
First of all, he was mocked, the Bible says.
Jesus was blinded when he was beaten, if you remember.
They covered his head and they beat him.
His head prophesied us who smote thee.
You remember that?
And he was beaten.
Samson was beaten like Jesus was beaten.
Samson was mocked and made fun of like Jesus was made fun of.
And if you remember, think about this.
What position was Samson in while he was breaking down those pillows?
Just like this, which is exactly the position that Jesus would die
with his hands stretched out on a cross, dying for our sins.
And Samson freed the nation of Israel from the Philistines' oppression
in that moment when he crushed in those pillars.
He wasn't just avenging himself.
When he pushed down those pillars and brought down the house
and killed all the lords of the Philistines
and thousands of their top men and generals and leaders,
that freed the nation of Israel from their oppression.
He set his nation free in one moment by killing those people,
by destroying the Philistines,
just as Jesus Christ one day would die on the cross
to free us from our bondage of sin and our damnation and hell.
And so it's interesting.
You can find Jesus throughout the Old Testament.
I mean, if you look in these stories,
you'll find foreshadowings of Jesus Christ all throughout the Bible.
It's uncanny. Think about Joseph in the prison.
Remember the book of Genesis when Joseph is in prison.
He's in prison and he's between two other criminals.
One of them is set free.
The other one is condemned.
Just as Jesus Christ would die between the two thieves
and one would be pardoned by God, the other would be condemned.
So many different things.
There are all these parallels with Joseph and Jesus.
I mean, it's amazing. You study the Bible.
It's not written by man. It's written by God.
And so you can find all these interesting parallels
and foreshadowings of the Gospel and Jesus Christ.
But Samson here got another chance from God.
He was given a chance.
I mean, even to his last breath, God was still using him.
I mean, he messed up. He messed up.
But even with his last breath,
God used him to set the nation of Israel free.
Even with his last breath, he did the will of God
by bringing in the tower and smashing it on himself
in the house of Dagon under God.
And so God will give you a new start.
Don't ever think, well, God is through with me
or I don't feel like God can use me because of my wicked past.
If God could use Samson with his wicked past,
if God could use Paul with his wicked past,
God will give you a new start.
Now, look at the book of Matthew, chapter 18.
Look at Matthew 18.
And while you're turning there,
let me tell you about somebody else who got a new start in the Bible.
John Mark.
If you remember, John Mark was the man
Paul and Barnabas took with them on a missionary trip.
They went traveling around, preaching the gospel,
and they took this man John Mark with them.
Well, along the way, he was a young man,
and along the way, he quit.
He couldn't take the schedule.
He couldn't handle the workload.
He couldn't handle the pressure and the persecution.
And so John Mark went home.
And Paul and Barnabas had to finish up alone.
Well, later on, Paul said to Barnabas,
hey, let's go on another missionary trip.
And Barnabas said, let's take Mark, who was his nephew.
And Paul said, we're not taking Mark
because Mark quit last time.
He bailed on us.
We're not bringing this guy with us,
you know, this pansy who bailed.
He's going to bail again.
We don't want to take him.
And they got in a big fight tonight.
Remember Paul and Barnabas?
The contention with them was so sharp,
they decided, we're not even going to go together.
And they split off, and who'd Paul take?
Silas.
Paul took Silas.
Barnabas took Mark.
And they went out in their separate ways.
And maybe God used that to just get twice as much work done,
you know, send them in two different directions,
to preach to all these different cities,
and to confirm the souls of some of the churches that they started,
some of the people that they'd won in Christ
and all these different towns and villages.
But later on, at the very end of his life,
1 and 2 Timothy are some of the last books that Paul ever wrote.
He talks about the fact that his death is at hand.
Paul says, take Mark and bring him with you,
for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
So Paul, who'd been so upset with Mark
and he got in this sharp contention with Barnabas,
later on, we can read from that,
that Mark must have been with Barnabas.
He must have been in it for the long haul.
He redeemed himself.
He showed that he was going to serve God
without turning back, without putting...
And even Paul, the one who'd been his sharpest critic,
said, hey, Mark is profitable for me to...
I want you to bring Mark.
Hey, I want to bring Mark's soul with me.
I want him to be my soul-winning partner.
God gave him another chance.
Paul gave him another chance.
God, even the quitter, even the person who quits on God,
God will give him another chance.
God will give the wicked, vile sinner,
who gets saved, another chance to live for God,
even no matter what they're passing.
And that'd be Paul.
God will give a man like Samson,
who was a Christian, who'd been backslid.
I mean, it's not like Samson just got saved or something.
Samson had been saved all along,
but he was a wicked Christian.
I mean, he was a Christian who was going out.
He'd be, oh, man, I didn't...
I just believe that a person's really saved.
You know, they wouldn't...
Well, Samson was saved, but he was with a prostitute.
It doesn't get much worse than that, my friend.
He's with a prostitute.
He's doing all these wicked things,
and yet he was saved.
He was a Christian, but he was the worldly Christian.
So God will give the worldly Christian another chance.
God will give the backslidden, wicked Christian
another chance to live for God.
God will give the quitter and the lazy Christian
and the John Marks of this world
another chance to live for God.
God will give you another chance,
for I'm trying to say,
He said, I make all things new.
I always give you a new start every day, every week,
every month, every year to start over and do things right.
Now, are there consequences?
Samson had consequences.
Paul reaped what he showed,
but yet God will still use you and give you another chance.
I'm not saying to go out and do whatever you want.
If you want to pay the price that Samson paid,
go out and sin.
You want to pay the price that Paul paid,
then go out and sin.
You want to pay the price that these people paid,
then go ahead,
but the point is that you can still be used by God
even while you're being chased by God.
That's the point.
But look at Matthew 18.
Let me turn to myself.
Matthew chapter 18.
And we ought to give other people a new start.
Matthew chapter 18 and it says in verse 21,
Then came Peter to him and said,
Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me
and I forgive him?
Until seven times?
He said, well, how many times do I have to forgive somebody
who does me wrong?
He's seven.
And he's talking about a, you know, a Christian,
a brother, a believer that does wrong to you.
Jesus said unto him,
I say not unto thee until seven times,
but until seventy times seven.
He said, how about four hundred and ninety times?
Now if somebody in this church burns you four hundred and ninety times,
then after that, just, you know, it's over.
Four hundred and ninety times is a lot.
Listen to this from the book of Luke.
You don't have to turn there.
Take heed to yourselves.
If thy brother trespass against thee, review him.
And if you repent, forgive him.
He said, look, if somebody does you wrong,
go to them and rebuke them.
And he says, if you repent, forgive him.
And if you trespass against thee seven times in a day,
did you hear that?
And seven times in a day, turn again to thee,
saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him.
So these are two very extreme statements that Jesus made.
Yeah, if somebody does the same thing to you four hundred and ninety times,
that's your brother in Christ, forgive him every single time.
And then even a step further, if somebody seven times in a day,
you know, oh hey, sorry about that.
And then a little while later, you're going to be stupid.
I mean, forgive, he said.
I mean, these are pretty extreme statements.
And yet, sometimes we will not forgive people
that are our brother in Christ
for the most petty little nothings that they do wrong.
Everybody's going to make mistakes.
Everybody's going to, I mean, there will be times I'm sure
when I do you wrong, or you do me wrong,
or you do each other wrong.
The answer is not that we all be perfect
and never do anything wrong, never offend anybody,
because that's not possible.
The answer is that you learn to let things go.
Let it go.
And you know what, tonight when you go to bed,
if you have anything against your brother or sister in Christ,
let it go when you go to bed.
The Bible says,
Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
And when you go to bed tonight,
you ought to have a mind that is not having any ill will
toward any brother or sister in Christ.
You ought to go to bed with forgiveness in your heart
and wake up in the morning and it's like it never even happened.
That's the way you ought to be in your marriage.
Let things go.
Don't hang on to things from the past and,
Oh man, I can't believe two years ago when you said that to me.
I'm still mad about it.
That's not what Jesus Christ said here.
He said forgive, and when God says forgive,
He means forgive.
That's what He does.
When He forgives us, He forgives.
And so look, there are going to be people in this church,
look, sometimes people, they start coming to this church,
and obviously they're going to think like,
Man, this church is great, because it is great.
Everybody's so friendly, everybody's so nice,
and there's no cliques and no groups,
and everybody's in one accord, everybody loves soul winning,
and those things are all very true about our church.
Everybody loves soul winning, everybody's on fire for God.
True.
But then the longer you're here,
there will be a time, as you get close to people,
and as you get to know people well,
where the company manners may drop a little bit,
and somebody maybe have a bad day,
and say something offensive to you.
Because it's human beings.
You understand what I'm saying?
I mean, there are going to be times
when people get familiar with each other.
Think about it.
Do you, the more you know somebody,
the more comfortable you get with people.
Have you ever heard the statement,
familiarity breeds contempt?
Has anybody ever heard that before?
You heard it now.
Familiarity breeds contempt.
Sometimes if you're around somebody,
all the time, all the time, all the time,
they can begin to get on your nerves a little bit.
Now here's the thing.
This is why it's so silly when young people,
you know, they want to get away from mom and dad,
and instead of doing what the Bible says
you want to get away from mom and dad,
what are you supposed to do?
You leave father and mother and cleave under your wife.
Right?
That's how you get away from mom and dad.
A lot of times they say,
I want to get away from mom and dad,
so me and my buddy are going to go get an apartment.
You know, two girls will get an apartment,
or two guys will get an apartment.
Right?
And I always say, whenever somebody says,
oh yeah, I'm going to get an apartment with Salsa,
we're moving in roommates, you know,
a couple of young guys, a couple of young girls,
I always say to the same guy,
I say, in six months, you're going to hate that person.
I said, if you want to lose your friend,
then go ahead and do that.
That's what I say.
I just kind of laugh because I know it's true.
Six months later, they hate each other.
Every time.
Why?
Because two people living together,
it's not the right arrangement.
You see, me and my wife, we live together,
but we're in love with each other.
We married each other.
We chose to be with each other for life, okay?
And some guy that I'm living with, though,
good night is going to get on my nerves.
Think about it.
I mean, it's just me and some guy.
I don't love this guy that way.
Good night.
I'm going to be sick of him.
It's going to be irritating
when you just live with some roommate or something.
Now, thank God I've never had a roommate.
But, you know, I went from mom and dad to be married, thank God.
But the point is that when you're around somebody,
all the time, somebody who used to be your friend
can become your enemy
because you're just irritated by them from being around them
all the time, all the time, all the time.
So let me tell you something.
In a church, you start being around people a lot.
Sometimes people can get on your nerves.
Or sometimes people can have a bad day
and say something hurtful to you,
say something negative to you,
and the only way that we're going to keep harmony,
and we don't have a problem with this or anything.
Everybody's like, man, what's going on?
Everybody's like, who's he talking about?
I don't know if I'm talking about anybody.
I'm just saying this preventative maintenance here,
that the only way we're going to have unity and harmony
in this church is for you to let things go.
You say, well, they need to stop being like that.
No, you need to let things go
because you can't control them.
You can control yourself.
So if somebody does wrong to you, you can't say,
well, baby, I'm going to straighten them out.
You're not going to straighten them out.
I know them.
No, I'm just kidding.
You're not going to change the people
that you don't get along with.
Their parents raised them, and that's how they raised them
or didn't raise them or whatever.
But the point that I'm trying to make is
instead of trying to change other people
and trying to straighten everybody out,
why don't you just learn to let things go
seven times a day, 490 times a year,
or I guess 490 times for life.
So let it go.
That's how you're going to get along with people.
You know, I can get along with a lot of people
because I just ignore them when they say mean things to me
and root mouth off to me.
I mean, half this church mouths off to me
and I consistently raise their daughters.
I'm just kidding.
They don't. I'm making that up.
But if they did, hey, I don't care.
It wouldn't bother you.
As long as you're out soul winning, I like you.
I like you.
Seriously.
Amen.
I mean that.
I mean, that's my wife.
I mean that.
She knows me. She lives with me.
If you go out soul winning, I like you.
Now, I love everybody in this church.
Some people I like more than others.
You know who I like?
The people who go out and win the souls.
That's who I like, all right?
Because I like somebody who's out serving God
because that's the purpose of this church.
You understand that?
This church is where we all get together and hug each other.
This church is where we get together to learn how to serve God
and to win people to Christ
and to live a life that's pleasing to God.
And so you could come up to me and call me whatever names you want,
mouth off to me, slap me in the face.
If you go out soul winning, I like you.
You're my friend.
I mean, there have been times in the history of this church
where somebody said something negative to me about someone else
and I just said, you know what?
I like that person.
I like them because they go soul winning.
That's why I like them.
And everybody in this church goes soul winning, so I like everybody.
You say, well, I don't go soul winning.
I don't think anybody's even here tonight because I'm soul winning.
But that's the great thing about our church.
Everybody who goes soul winning, that's why I like everybody.
And I don't care if everything about you rubs me the wrong way
and flies in my face.
If you're out soul winning, if you're out serving God,
I will overlook your faults.
And you ought to do the same thing in the pew there.
You ought to decide, hey, if somebody in this church is serving God,
I like them.
That ought to be your philosophy.
I mean, I don't care what they say to you.
I don't care what they've done to you.
I don't care how rude they've been to you.
Ask yourself this question.
Does that person serve God?
Does that person love God?
Does that person go out soul winning?
Does that person do anything for God?
Hey, they are our friend if they're serving God.
If they're gathering with us, they're with us.
They're on our part, Jesus said.
They're on our side.
And so, look at the people around you.
You're looking at people who love God and serve God.
Don't let some personality conflict fester in your heart.
Just decide, hey, I'm going to let it go,
what I don't like about that person.
Because Jesus loves them and they love Jesus
and they're serving God and I'm in church, not for me,
and my feelings and my ego, I'm here for Jesus.
And so it doesn't matter whether somebody doesn't like me.
What matters is, do they like Jesus?
Do I like them?
That's what you ought to decide.
Because there will come a time, if it hasn't come already,
some day that some person will say something to you that's offended you.
Now look, I'm not saying that they're the one who's wrong.
It's wrong to say something offensive to somebody else, isn't it?
Yeah, it is wrong to just offend people.
It is wrong to say mean things to people, to be rude to people.
But the problem is, when we think that it's our responsibility,
what other people do wrong, that's their problem.
You understand?
Your responsibility is to forgive.
Your responsibility is to let it go, to move on.
And that's how this church will continue to have the harmony
and the unity we have, is when you die to self, die to the flesh.
I mean, imagine if I walked up to a dead body today.
If I walked into a funeral and there was a dead body laying in the casket
and I began to insult that dead body, call it every kind of name under the sun,
would that person care?
They don't care, okay?
Because they're dead.
It would not matter to them at all.
And that's how you ought to be.
Die to self.
Isn't that an interesting illustration for you?
Die to self.
You can't offend me because I'm dead.
Jesus Christ is living through me.
You know, I'm dead to self, I'm walking in the Spirit.
Great peace hath they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them, the Bible says.
So you shouldn't be wearing your feelings on your sleeve.
You're not dead to self.
That's the flesh that's getting offended.
I mean, Jesus Christ could be mocked and spat upon and say,
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
That's when you're walking in the Spirit, when you have that kind of attitude.
When somebody says something rude to you,
and I'm sure that nobody in this church has ever beaten you or spat in your face,
I hope not, you know.
I'm sure nobody's ever done that, and yet, when they did it to Jesus,
he said, Father, forgive them.
So when somebody walks up to you and mounts off to you,
just say, God, forgive them.
They know not what they do.
Don't hold that against them, God.
Look at Stephen.
Stephen was being stoned to death, and he said,
Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
He said, don't hold against them what they're doing to me right now.
As they stoned me, do you know how painful it would be to be stoned to death?
Somebody throwing stones at you, throwing rocks at you until you die?
That would be a brutal way to die. That would be a painful way to die.
And yet, while Stephen was being stoned to death, he said,
Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
That's forgiveness.
There's a man who was in the Spirit, and that's how we ought to be.
If God can give us a new start, can't we give other people a new start?
You say, how often? Every day.
That's how often God gives people a new start.
Now, if somebody sins against you at the morning service,
let them have it that night, and then let it go.
You've got the rest of the day to be mad.
I'm kidding, of course.
But the point is, on Wednesday night, today's grievances should be gone.
And if you're still thinking about them, and if you're still bringing them up,
then you're not right with God, because you're disobeying Jesus
when he told you to forgive and let it go every day.
And next Sunday, find something new to get mad about,
because you ought not be mad about what happened last week, or last month.
That kind of thing will ruin your marriage, by the way, holding on to grievances.
It'll ruin a church when people begin to develop bitterness and anger.
That's where factions develop, because this group is angry at this group.
That doesn't happen overnight.
It happens over time, building up anger, bitterness, clamor, strife.
We ought to put it off.
Put off anger, the Bible says.
Put off wrath.
Put off malice.
Put on the new man, which is like Jesus Christ and like Stephen's attitude of forgiveness.
But turn to one more place, Romans 12.
I'm almost done with Romans 12.
And, lawyer, turn to the other one.
I'll read you this verse from Proverbs.
For a just man falls seven times and rises up again,
but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
Did you hear that?
A just man falls seven times?
I mean, everybody's going to fall and make mistakes.
Everybody's going to commit sin.
But when you fall, the righteous man gets back up, and he starts over again.
A fresh start, a clean start.
The people around you are going to fall.
Give them a chance to get back up.
In fact, help them get back up.
Don't sit there and bite and devour one another.
If somebody falls, help them to get back up.
If somebody quits the church, help them get back into church.
Don't condemn them for, oh, I can't believe they quit the church.
What a fleshly, carnal, worldly, sinful, wicked person.
Look at verse number 1 of chapter 15 of Romans.
The Bible says,
We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak,
and not to please ourselves.
Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification.
For even Christ pleased not himself.
But as it is written,
The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that we through patience and the comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another,
according to Christ Jesus,
that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God,
even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And here's the great verse, right here, verse 7.
Wherefore, receive ye one another,
as Christ also received us to the glory of God.
You see that?
He's saying, there were approaches of them that reproached thee, fell on me.
Jesus was mocked, Jesus was afflicted, Jesus bore our sins.
He suffered for our sins.
He's saying, you need to suffer for your fellow Christian sins.
You need to bear their infirmity, bear their reproaches,
and just as Jesus Christ received you,
just as Jesus Christ would receive you just to come as you are,
just like the Psalm says,
just as I am, without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me.
And that thou vittest me,
come to the old land of God I come,
just as I am.
Well, first you've got to repent of all your sins and clean up your life,
then you'll know it's just as I am.
Just as you are, God will receive you.
So can you receive others just as they are?
With their faults, with their weakness?
Maybe you've been saved for five years, ten years, fifteen years.
Somebody who's been saved for a couple weeks or a couple months, receive them.
Understand that they're not as fully grown maybe as you are or as someone else is.
Receive them the way they are.
Dress the way they are. Receive them.
Now, is it right for them to dress wrong? No.
But you ought to still receive them as they are,
give them a chance to grow, give them a chance to learn,
and not expect somebody who got saved last week
to be a Christian like somebody who's been saved for ten years.
It took me...
Do you respect Pastor Anderson?
It took me years and years to get rid of my Bach music.
You wouldn't have proved it the way that I was dressed
for the first ten, twelve years that I was saved.
You wouldn't have proved it the way I... I wouldn't have proved it the way I dressed.
You wouldn't have proved the things I watched,
and yet today God's using me today.
I thank God that there were people along the way who received me
and took me out solely, even when I was a worldly Christian.
Even when I didn't look the part,
they weren't ashamed to have me by their side
and take me to the door and show me how to win souls
so that God could change me and God could use me.
Thank God somebody received me.
Thank God somebody took me under their wing
and didn't just judge me or condemn me and say,
God's never going to use this guy.
And there were many people who did have that attitude toward me.
God's never going to use him.
Rebellious punk.
And yet God is using me because somebody took me out
and won souls with me and they...