(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

The title of the sermon this morning is Begin Again, Begin Again. And if you look there in Genesis chapter 12 verse 1, notice it says there that the Lord had said to Abraham, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. And he goes on and talks about how you'll make him a great nation and bless them that bless him and so on and so forth. But I want to look at verse 1 where it says, Now the Lord had said unto Abraham. That's past tense. This is referring back to something that the Lord had already said to Abraham, or Abram rather at this point in the story. And that's of course referring back to the previous chapter, Genesis chapter 11. If you turn back there real quick, Genesis chapter 11, the Bible is showing us that the Lord had given a commandment unto Abram and that though Abram had obeyed it, he'd only obeyed it kind of partially. He didn't obey it full heartedly. If you look there in Genesis chapter 11 verse 27, it says, Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begat Abram, Nahor and Haran and Haran begat Lot and Haran died before his father and Terah in the land of his nativity and Ur of the Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives and the name of Abram's wife was Sarai and the name of Nahor's wife Milcah and the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren and had no child and Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran's son's son and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan and they came into Haran and dwelt there. So you notice in Genesis chapter 12 that said the Lord had said unto Abram to get thee out of the country, to leave Ur of the Chaldees. But in chapter 11, who is it that's leaning them out? It's Terah, his father. He's the one that's going with them. Now God's commandment was not to Abram or to Terah, but it was to Abram. So Abram here, he was supposed to obey this all on his own. Now I don't know exactly what took place in the story. Maybe Abraham's sharing them, hey, God told me to do this. You know, the Lord's telling me to leave and Terah's just saying, hey, we'll go right along with you. Or maybe Abram's a little hesitant to do it and Terah decides to go ahead and actually lead him out of the land. In any case, it's very clear that the Bible is showing us that the Lord had spoken unto Abram and told him to get thee out of thy country and what else did he tell him to do? And from thy kindred. He's saying not only leave the place that you live, but leave the people that you're related to. He's telling them to actually leave his family and he says from thy kindred and from thy father's house. You know, can you say you're really leaving your father's house when you're taking, you know, your nephew and your brother and your dad and their families with them? You can't really say he's obeying his commandment here when all these other people are tagging along with him. Abram was to be separated from Terah, his father, before the Lord would bless him. That was the, you know, the stipulation. He said, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house into a land that I will show thee and I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee. He's saying, look, when you leave this land and when you leave your dad and your father's house and your kindred, then I'll bless you. So, of course, chapter 12 is taking place after the death of Terah in chapter 11. He passes away in verse 32. It says in the days of Terah were 205 years old and Terah died inherent. So now there's one less guy with him. And what we can learn from this is that, you know, often we can let other people hold us back from serving the Lord. Sometimes we can let other people keep us from doing what it is that God would have us to do. Other people in our lives, it might even be our family. In many cases it is. It's even our own familial bonds that'll keep us, hold us back and keep us from serving God the way we ought to. And you say, well, that sounds harsh. Well, if you would, you know, actually just stay where you are. But I'll remind you of what Jesus said in Luke chapter 14. It says, if any man will come to me and hate not his father and his mother and his wife and his children and his brethren and his sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Now he's saying there, you know, if any man come to me and hate not his father, he's not saying that you need to go home after the service this morning and put your parents' picture on a dart board and start hating them, throwing darts at it or to treat them poorly or be, you know, despise them in your heart. But what he's saying in comparison to the love that you have for me, it should be as if you hate these people, that you would prefer the Lord over your own family, over even the closest bonds that we have on this earth. You say, well, that doesn't sound very nice. That doesn't sound like a lot of fun. That's why he follows it up and says, and whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. I mean, it is a cross. It is a burden that we have to bear, that if we have, you know, oftentimes our unsaved family members are going to be the people that want to hold us back and we have to sever those relationships. Now I'm not saying you have to completely shun them or whatever, but you know, sometimes, you know, just practically speaking, it just might mean, hey, we're not going to be at that event because it's on Sunday. We're going to be in church. Sorry, I can't make it to that event with the family because it's on a church day. Say, well, that's a little extreme. Well, it's just showing you, you know, where your priorities are. You know, it's little things like that, you know, the family will notice. They'll start to, you know, and eventually what they'll do, hopefully, if they have any, you know, considerations, they'll start to schedule things on a different day. Say, well, let's do that on Saturday. But if I'm just saying, hey, if it comes down to one or the other, we ought to choose the Lord every time. You know, I can't go to this event because you're all going to be there just drinking and partying and living it up. And I just don't do that anymore. You say, I'm going to be the, that's going to make me the odd one out. I know. And they're going to think it odd. They're going to think it's strange that you run not to the same excess of riot. They can say, what's wrong with you? You used to do this. You used to be this way. And now you got religion and you've changed. It's like you hate us. It's not that I hate you. It's that I love the Lord. And sometimes those, you know, people get, their whole Christian life gets derailed because of family members, often even unsaved family members. They're more worried about not offending them, keeping them happy than they are God. And we see it in Abram's life. So I want God to bless me. I want to go into this land and have him bless me. But you know, I'm not going to, and I'll go, but I'm going to bring my dad with me, my nephew with me, my brother with me. I'm going to bring all these other people that God said to leave behind with me. But don't be surprised even when you get there, if you run into trouble, don't be surprised even when you get there that God doesn't bless you the way he wants to. And even a man like Abram, you know, who, who is the father of our faith, you know, even he made mistakes and you'll see that in every great character of the Bible's life, excuse me, every great character of the Bible's life. He, they make mistakes, mistakes all the time. Abram's no exception. The Bible says, I'll continue reading from Luke chapter 14. He says, For which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he hath sufficient to finish it, lest happily he hath laid the foundation, is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and he was not able to finish. I mean, Christians today, they don't count the cost, or they don't, they want a Christianity that's not going to cost them something. They want to walk with God, that's not going to put them in any kind of an awkward position. They want to walk with God, but that's not going to cost them anything. And it might even be, you know, having several relationships with certain people, bad influences. They don't want them, they don't want that to pay that price. But Jesus is saying, look, you can't come after me, you can't be my disciple unless you're willing to do this. So if you say you're going to be my disciple, if you say you're going to live for me, you better sit down now and count the cost and see if it's a price you're willing to pay. Otherwise, people are going to mock. And I remember hearing that, people saying, oh, he's just on a trip, he's just on a bandwagon, give it a year, he'll be done. And what if I had proved them right? When I say, yeah, I used to go to church, you know, but you know how they are. And I got out of church. Then it would be a point, hey, remember when you used to go to church and used to believe that, used to say this and do this and do that and you quit hanging out and everything? Yeah, I remember that. Boy, that was stupid, wasn't it? Yeah, I guess so. They begin to mock. It'd be funny to them. They won't take it seriously because you didn't. It goes on and says, or what king goeth to make a war against another king? And sit if not down first. Notice the order. He sits down first, it counts the cost. And consulteth whether he should be with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000. Say, am I going to be able to fight this guy? Am I actually going to be able to complete the task that I'm setting out to do? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambisage and desired conditions of peace. And he ends by saying, so likewise, in the same manner, whosoever he be of you, that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. And we like to just think about that in material terms, don't we? Forsaketh all the worldly possessions. Ah, you know, I'm just going to give up on being rich. I'm not worried about that. I'm following Jesus. That's great. That's part of it. You can't serve God and mammon. No man can serve two masters. I understand that. You know, I'm going to forsake all these worldly pleasures, all this sinful pleasure. That's great too. You cannot drink of the cup of devils and the cup of the Lord. You can't drink of the cup of devils at the Lord's table. You can't have two masters. That's great. You've decided that. But you know what goes even beyond that? Just beyond just giving up some worldly things, or beyond just giving up worldly possessions. It actually can even come down to relationships. Relationships that you might even hold dear. I mean, those are dear relationships. Moms, dads, brothers, sisters. They're very unique to us. We grew up with these people. They raised us. But that's what Jesus is saying here, isn't He? That you have to be willing to count that cost. Some people, they want to, they'll count the cost after the fact. They don't sit down first, like He's saying here. Look, do it first. I'm not saying you can't be saved if you don't do these things, obviously. But if you want to be my disciple, you want to follow me, you want to be in my discipline, you want me to teach you, you want to follow me, then you need to count the cost. What it's really going to cost you to follow me. It's going to cost you everything, potentially. But a lot of people, they don't do that first. They say, I got saved. I like the Bible. I found this church. There's some things I really like about this. I'm going to start being a Christian. I'm going to start living for the Lord. I'm going to clean up my life. I'm going to do this and that. But then when the bill comes due, then when it really starts to cost them something, when it starts to cost you relationships, friends, family, things that maybe aren't so easy to let go and move on from, then they want to sit down and count the cost. You know what happens a lot of times in that instance? They count the cost and they say, it's not worth it. Sorry. And then they're not in church. I'm not saying they're not saved anymore. They're still on their way to heaven, but they're not living for God. Why? Because they counted the cost after the fact, when the bill came due. And that's what's happening with Abram here. I believe that's what's going on. Are you still in Genesis chapter 12, right? Begin in verse 4, he says, so Abram departed. As the Lord had spoken to him, Lot went with him. And Abram took Sarah his wife, verse 5, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance to them they gathered and the souls that they had gotten in Haran. And they went forth into the land of Canaan. So this is after chapter 11, the death of Terah. And it says in verse 6, and Abram passed through land under the place of Sychem and in the plain of Mori. And the Canaanite was then in the land and the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said unto thy seed, will I give this land? And there builded he an altar unto the Lord. So now he's gotten away from Terah, but he's still got some other people with him that God said to leave behind. Some family members he didn't want to let go of. And he builds an altar. He gets down there and God's being patient. God's merciful. And he builds an altar under the Lord who appeared on him. And he removed from thence into a mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent having Bethel in the west and Haai on the east. And there he builded an altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord and journeyed there, a journey going on still toward the south. So now he's just kind of wandering. Now in verse 10 it says, and there was a famine in the land. Does that sound like God's coming through in his promise? Saying, hey, if you get into this land, I'm going to bless you. Does it sound like God's delivering on that promise right now? And we understand there's a greater promise, you know, of the, you know, that he's going to make his seed as the sand of the sea and the stars of the sky. That's, you know, in through Christ that through his siege, all nations be blessed. We understand that. But even in the meantime, God, it seems like is holding back his blessing a little bit. And he's letting this famine come into land. And what's that cause Abram to do? Cause him to wander. You know, people that aren't sold out for God, when times get tough, this is what they do. They wander. It's real easy to be a Christian when everything's going great. When life's going good. When, you know, the preachings, you know, I'm right with the preachers not getting after me. I'm right with my parents. All my relationships are great. The job's going good. The boss is pleased. The spouse is pleased. Everyone's happy. I'm not having to take any tough stance, but you know what? When things get tough, the people that aren't sold out, the people that haven't sat down to count the cost or aren't willing to pay that price, that's when they begin to wander. They start to be like Abram here. They're not completely committed. And they start to wander when times are tough. That's what we see in Matthew chapter 13. If you want to turn over to Matthew chapter 13. Familiar passage. Matthew chapter 13 verse 19. It says, when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one and catch the way that was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside. But he that received seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it. Oh, that sounds great. Yeah, I want to be a disciple of Christ. Oh, you want me to go into that land so you can bless me? Sounds good. Yeah, but there's a price to pay. It sounds good. But when the price, when the bill comes due, verse 21, yet he hath no root in himself, but doeth for a while for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. I mean, Abram probably is wondering, what's going on? Why am I building these altars? What am I doing in this land? Why did I leave everybody I know behind? Why did I leave Ur of the Chaldees? It was better over there. I'm offended. I thought the Christian life was just going to be smooth sailing. I thought I was going to get saved and life was just going to be a bed of roses all the way through. Why is this costing me something? Because, yea, all they that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If they hated me, they shall also hate you. That's what Jesus told us. And notice what Abraham does here. He flees into Egypt. He goes on towards the south, and then in verse 11, and said, It came to pass when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, behold now I know thou art a fair woman. So he says, you know what? I'm going back. And Egypt in the Bible, of course, is a picture of the world. Isn't that what so many Christians do today? They get tired of the fight. They get tired of the battle. Oh, it started out real exciting a couple years ago when faith word rolled into town. We didn't mind the plastic chairs. We didn't mind the cramped space. And that guy who hardly knew how to preach. Not much has changed. Right? The acapella singing. Oh, it was exciting. The soul winning. Smokey Moses right next door. We loved it. But now, two years later, the excitement wears off, doesn't it? The Christian life actually becomes real work. Now it's going to require duty. It's going to require character. It's going to require discipline to go to church, to read my Bible, and actually do the work to be a Christian. That's not to say that excitement doesn't come back. But there's seasons of the Christian life, and you know what? Every once in a while, God might just send a famine. Maybe the church gets a little smaller. Maybe it's not as exciting as it once was. My question is this. Are you willing to pay that price, or are you going to wander back in Egypt? And that comes after what? After Abrams built that altar. I mean, he's already there. He's already built an altar in the Lord. God's already spoken to him. But next thing you know, he's back in Egypt. Because there's a famine. Because times are tough. You know what that tells me? That talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. It's easy to say, oh, I'm going to serve God for the rest of my life. Well, let's just see how the rest of your life goes. Because that's a long time. I love God. The Bible says if any man loved God, the same is known of him. You know the people that I know that love God? You know how I know that they love God? It's not because they tell me. It's because I know that about them. I can see it in their life. Because Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. People would say, I love God, I love God, I love God. You're not going to convince me until I see you keep his commandments. Obey him. Be willing to pay that price to follow God, no matter what. That's how you know if someone really loves God. And the thing about wandering, but you say, well, what's so bad about what Abraham is doing here? Just wandering back in Egypt for a little while. I mean, times are tough. The problem with that is that one sin leads to another. People have this idea that, well, you know, I'm just going to start sitting out of church a little bit. I'm just going to draw back. I'm not going to read my Bible as much. I'm going to quit the soul wedding or whatever. They start to draw back. They start to backslide. And what happens is one sin leads to another. I mean, look what happens to Abraham. He says in verse 11, behold, now thou art a fair woman to look upon. He's saying, you know, you're good looking. Therefore it shall come to pass and the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, this is his wife and they will kill me. But they will save thee alive. So he's afraid for his own neck here. He's trying to save his skin. And who knows if that's even true. In fact, nothing might have happened at all. I mean, God could have protected him. This is a lapse of faith. Look, when you go back into the world, when you forsake God, when you're not going to follow through all the way with God, don't be surprised if you end up not having any confidence. Don't be surprised if the world starts to scare you. If you have no peace in your life. I'm afraid what's going to happen in the world. Look, why? God's in control. Well, I'm afraid what's going to happen with, you know, coronavirus. I'm afraid what's going to happen in this election. I'm afraid what's going to happen, you know, with the, you know, potential war with whoever. Afraid of another shutdown. What's going to happen to the economy? Who cares? Honestly, I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but look, are we God's children or not? Is God going to protect us or isn't he? Is God real to you or is it just a figment of your imagination? It's just something you decided to do. And people, you know, they want to say they have faith, but then that faith has to get tested. Don't be surprised, like Abram, if you'd go back in the world, if you just are biting your nails at night. If you're not sold out for God and trusting in the Lord, that you're just going to be worried about every little thing that comes down the pike. You'll be saying, the Egyptians are going to kill me. And look, one sin leads to another. It says in verse 14, it came to pass when Abram was coming to Egypt, the Egyptians beheld her that she was very fair. So he wasn't just, you know, bragging on his wife. It's true. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her and commanded her before Pharaoh, and the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house. Another man's got his wife. Can you imagine being a husband and watching that take place? No way, buddy. You'd say, not in a million years. It's a sin. I mean, watching your wife go off, and thankfully God protects her, because God had plans for her to give Isaac the child of the promise, and so on and so forth. We understand all that. But look, it didn't look good, does it? Things could have gone really bad if God wasn't involved here. And why did this happen? How did Abraham get to the point where Pharaoh is taking his wife from him? He's lying and saying, oh, she's not my wife. She's my sister. Go ahead. And just letting another man come and take his wife away from him. Well, it all started when he decided to not be committed to God, not to be all in for the Lord. One sin leads to another when you begin to wander back in Egypt. And of course, we know how the story goes. The Lord plagued Pharaoh's house, verse 17, in his house with great plagues because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. So God says, Abraham, you idiot, and he just steps right in and starts to fix it back up for him. And Pharaoh called Abraham and said, what is it thou had done unto me? Why did not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidest thou, she is my sister, so I'm going to take her to my wife? Now therefore, behold thy wife, take her and go thy way. Wait a minute, Abraham, I thought you said they were going to kill you if they found out she was your wife. I thought you said the Egyptians were going to slay you. It's an unfounded fear that he had because he wasn't right with God. And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had. Now again, the title of the sermon is Begin Again. This is a pretty low point in Abraham's life. I'm sure you all agree with that. Abraham didn't exactly start out with the Lord putting his best foot forward. And that's the way it is with a lot of us when we start the Christian life, especially if you've never seen it done before. But we all stumble to some degree or another. And Abraham, he's stepping out, okay, I'll go into the land, but I'm going to bring everybody you told me not to with me. Well, that's not exactly what I said, Abraham. Well, I got rid of Tyra. I still got, you know, lots with me. You know, now there's this famine. God's not blessing me like he said he would. I guess I'll go back in Egypt. This isn't exactly a great start for him, is it? But here's the message I want to get across. You know, that might be us to some degree or another this morning. You know, maybe we've kind of started out in the Christian life. We've stumbled. We got out of sorts with the Lord, got a little backslidden, whatever. And whether it's early on in your Christian life or any stage in your Christian life, it's never too late to begin again. It's never too late to start over with God. This is an important message because sometimes people get so backslidden and so out of sorts with God, they just think to themselves, I might as well just give up completely. There's no way God will ever use me again. It's not true. Or people will make mistakes in their life and they think, well, that's it. My life's over. I can't serve God. Not true. I mean, if I were to come to you this morning and say, hey, bad news, guys. You know, we ran out of food in my house. So, you know, I went into this other land, this other town. I moved to try and find food over there. And then I remembered how good looking my wife was. So I told everyone she was my sister and now she's actually in another man's house. Wouldn't have this job any longer. But that's exactly what happened in Abram's life. And God didn't write him off. God didn't just say, well, let me just find another guy. God said, no, let me fix this. Let me help you. To show us what? That it's never too late to begin again. Look at Genesis chapter 13. It says in verse one, and Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and lot with him into the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle. So God actually worked it to good. And in gold, in silver and in gold, verse three, and he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai. And unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first, and Abram called on the name Lord. So when Abram's finally gets his wife back and decides, well, that was a bad idea. That was sure stupid. Maybe I'll just go back to where I was supposed to be and start over. Where does he go? He goes right back to where he left off. He goes right back where he left off before he started to wander or wander and get out of sorts with God and worry about the famine and go down into Egypt. And that's the way it is the Christian life. Sometimes we'll be living for the Lord, going along, going along. Everything's going great. And then we backslide. We get out of God's will. We stop living for the Lord. And then we come to our senses hopefully and say, well, I want to try again. You know where God takes you? Right where you left off. He says, well, just start right back here. Let me just make some real practical application with this. That's a great principle when it comes to Bible reading. People that are trying to get their Bible read, they're real excited at the beginning of the year. They're reading their Bible, reading their Bible, and then it becomes work and it's hard and it's difficult and it's not exciting anymore. They're getting some long chapter that there are a lot of just difficult passages understand so on and so forth. And then they stop reading. And then they sit around and they get inspired again and they say, oh, I'm going to start reading again. So what do they do? I'm going to start over. And they go right back to the beginning. It's like, don't do that. Just start where you left off and finish it. Otherwise you're going to hit to that same spot again and the same thing's going to happen. You can apply that to so many other areas, in so many other ways. It's a principle in scripture that when God takes you back where you left off and says, this is where you stopped. Let's start over here and move forward. And the point being that it's never too late to begin again. It's never too late to begin again. We're looking at an example of of Abram this morning. But what about David and Bathsheba, King David? That was pretty bad. Remember that story? Where he goes out and he sees Bathsheba. He takes her. Another man's wife commits adultery, impregnates her, has her husband murdered. I think, well, it's over for David. But when he got called on the carpet by Nathan the prophet, what did he say? I have sinned. I have sinned. And Nathan says, thou will not die. God's going to put this away from you. Nevertheless, you're going to have some problems. What about Peter denying Christ? Don't you think if anybody was going to just say, you know what? I totally failed as a Christian. I don't have any business serving God. It would be Peter. Peter who walked on the water with Jesus, saw all these great miracles, and then finds himself denying Christ three times. But what did Jesus say after he was resurrected? Go tell my disciples and Peter. He singles out Peter because he knew Peter was probably just down in the dumps, kicking himself, feeling terrible. I mean, he went out and wept bitterly right after he'd done that. I'm sure he didn't just blow his nose and get over it. He's probably pretty down for a while about that. So Jesus has to say, go find my disciples and tell Peter too that I'm risen again and to come meet me. Why? Because God knows that we're going to fail. We're going to make mistakes. We're going to stumble. We might even get severely backslidden. We pray it doesn't happen. But even if that does happen, it's never too late to begin again. You know, God doesn't quit on us, does he? God doesn't quit on us. He said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Even when we quit on him, God hasn't quit on us. And we'll quit on God. We'll quit on church. We'll quit on the brethren. We'll quit on all of it. And God just patiently waits, tries to bring us back around and get us restored. If you would, go over to Exodus chapter 34. Keep something in Genesis, but go to Exodus 34. The Bible says in Lamentations chapter 3, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. And say, well, I know I made God mad. Yeah, you did. Abram's going, I made God mad. Uh-huh, sure did. You did the exact opposite of what he told you. I'm sure God's disappointed, even mad with us sometimes, like a father with his children. I mean, sometimes you see the kids do things and you just go, we're just perplexed. Like, how did you even think of that? We're almost, we're almost so astonished we don't have time to be angry. But sometimes we're just angry. Sometimes we just see him doing, I told you specifically not to do that and you're doing it. I've said over and over and over again not to do that. And here you are again, doing it again. I don't know how many times I've chastened you and instructed you and told you and taught you, but you're still doing that. And it makes us mad. Don't you think the same thing happens with God and us? God looks down and say, what are you doing? Did you not hear the preaching? Have you not read the word? How many times have we gone over this? And there you are doing it again. That's why it says it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Because God does get angry and God is righteous and God has indignation and God has wrath and all that we understand, but he also has mercy. Sometimes we forget that. That's an important thing to remember when you're in Abram's case, when you're pulling a Peter, right? You say, oh, I'm messed up. God's never going to forgive me. No, he will. Because he has mercy. Because his compassion fails not, the Bible says. It says they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. We can't say that about ourselves often, that great is our faithfulness. We can say that about him. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy mercy. Great is thy compassion. It's new every morning. That's a great thought that it's new every morning. You say, man, today was a bad day. I messed up. I did something I shouldn't have. I failed God. What am I going to do? Try again tomorrow. Oh, but you don't understand. It's been months. It's been years. It's been weeks. It's been a long time. Whatever. I'm so backslidden. I don't know what to do. Start tomorrow. Try again tomorrow in the morning. That should be an encouraging thought that inspires hope. And I'm telling you, you might not need it this morning, but you live the Christian life long enough, one day you will. You'll need this. When you get serious about living for the Lord, and you mess up, and you make a mistake, and you just feel like there's no way you're ever going to be able to go on, just remember his mercy is our new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. That should inspire us. And look, people, they beat themselves up over things, don't they? And that's not always a bad thing. We should feel bad about letting God down and failing and getting into sin or getting backslidden or whatever. We probably deserve to beat ourselves up a little bit, but here's the thing. If you're confessing that sin, if you're forsaking it, that's what 1 John 1 says. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There's an if there though, right? If we confess our sins. If you get to the point where you've just said, you know what? I've messed up. I'm sorry, God. I failed you. Forgive me. You know he will. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us. He will forgive you. Of course, you've got to get to the place where you confess it. But look, if you've done that, if you've confessed that sin and you've forsaken that sin, you have mercy. He that whosoever confesseth his sin and confesseth that forsaketh his sin shall have mercy, the Bible says. It's guaranteed. It's a promise that if you'll confess it and forsake it, it's twofold there. I know I shouldn't do this. I'm sorry about it. I'm going to do it again. That's not forsaking it. Confessing it, forsaking it, then you can count on the fact that God has forgiven it and it's forgotten. So don't beat yourself up over it because God is merciful. Did you know why God's so merciful? Are you in Exodus 34? Think about this. God's holy nature requires him to be merciful. It requires him to be merciful. God is so high. God is so holy that without mercy, none of us would make it. He has to be merciful. It's in his nature to be merciful. It's who he is. It's not just something he feels like doing. It's who he is. It's merciful. Look at Exodus 34. It says Moses is going up into the mountain and receiving the law. It says in verse 4, he hewed two tables of stone like kind of the first. Remember, it was like kind of the first. This is after Moses had gone down and saw what the children in Israel worshiping an idol in the presence of God. Moses has to plead for their case. What does God do? He shows mercy. Another great example of God in the face of just idolatry and rebellion, giving people a second chance. It's never too late to begin again. Israel is a great example of that. You could take that to the bank because God's holy nature requires him to be merciful. That's why it says here in verse 4, he hewed two tables of stone like in the first and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up unto Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him and took in his hand the two tables of stone and the Lord descended in a cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord and the Lord passed before him before by before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious. That's what God, I mean God's describing himself, the first things that come out of his mouth, merciful and gracious and long-suffering, forgiving iniquity and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands and abundant in goodness, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and that by will no means clear the guilty. You say, well that sounds like a paradox. Why is he saying he has mercy for thousands but by no means clears the guilty? Well here's the thing, he keeps mercy for thousands because everybody's guilty because all are guilty for all have come short of, we've all sinned to come short of the glory of God. There's none that do with good, no not one, where all is an unclean thing before him. So therefore God has to have mercy for thousands. That's why God has to start out by saying look, I'm long-suffering, I'm merciful, I'm compassionate, I'm gracious, I'm abundant in goodness and truth because you know why God's that way? Because we all need it. Because God's so holy that it's required of him to be merciful just to be able to have fellowship with us. The Bible says in Psalms 103, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. You know sometimes we are going to make God upset and we will be chastened by him but like it says, if we confess that sin, if we forsake it, we will have mercy. It's never too late to begin again. Now I want to end this morning by giving you a warning though, giving you a warning. Go to Proverbs chapter 19, Proverbs chapter 19. Say well I appreciate the message, you know I need that. Everything's going great but maybe I need to just make sure I'm ready to count the cost, to pay the price, and if needs be even call upon God for mercy. Maybe I'm out of sorts with God this morning. I need to get right. Well it's a great message that you know God's long-suffering, God's merciful, God's compassionate, that it's never too late to begin again. That's a great message that we all need. But here's the danger. People have become this understanding. They begin to understand, wow God really is merciful. God really is long-suffering. God really does forgive iniquity. God will allow me to start again. He'll allow me to be like Abram, to just go back to where I left off, got out of sorts with God, and just pick up where I left off and start. And that's true isn't it? And people understand that and then they go to a very dangerous place. They think well that being the case with God, I guess I'll just go ahead and sin anyway. And then that is where you're making a huge mistake. That is a surefire way to kindle God's wrath. You know God's mercy is not a pass for sin. Well I'm just going to go commit sin because I know God's merciful. That's called presumptuous sin. Just presuming that because God's merciful it's in his nature that I can just do whatever I want and get away with it. That God will forgive me. And you know what? God does forgive. But that's not to say that he's not going to take it out of your hide in the meantime. Look at Proverbs 19 verse 12. Who can understand his errors? Look we all have so many faults. We sin every day and we don't even know it. And we always think about sin like all the bad things I do. What about all the good things you didn't do today? To him that knoweth to do good and doeth not to him it is sin. What about all the people that are sitting at a church today? They're at home watching tv, or sleeping in, or going to the lake. You say well is church not going to church of sin? Yes. I'm not saying you got to be here three times a week but can you drag your carcass in once and be the place that Christ died for? Who can understand his errors? Look we've all got so many sins we probably don't even know about. He says cleanse thou me from secret faults. Cleanse me from the things that I don't even realize I'm doing that are wrong. Cleanse me from the faults and the sins that I don't even know to confess. Does that sound like a presumptuous sin? No. Sometimes we'll be doing something and someone will point something out and say hey do you know what the Bible says? Maybe we're going through our life just trying to do the best we can. Then we go to a church one day the preacher gets up preaches on something go whoa I didn't realize that was a sin. A lot of people start out that way. A lot of people start out you know just trying to do the best they can. Then they learn something from the Bible and they realize they've been living in sin for years. They've been doing something for years that makes God mad. They didn't even know it. Is that an excuse? You think that no of course not. They're still accountable. There's no excuse for not knowing. Ignorance is not an excuse but I will say this you're probably going to get a little bit more mercy from God that way. God's going to be a little bit more merciful to you if he knows like look he wasn't doing this on purpose. He didn't know. It's still a sin. Maybe you'll say you know maybe he clicks with people oh that's why it seems like God's mad at me or that's why God has been dealing with me over this. That's why I feel convicted. It's because I'm in the sin. I didn't know it and then when they realize it they get rid of it. He said cleanse out me from secret faults. Then he says in verse 13 keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Look we all have errors. We all have secret faults. But woe unto us that have presumptuous sins. Sins that are just going to say I'm going to say well God has to forgive me. I'll confess and forsake it later. I'm just going to go ahead and do this. Well don't be surprised if God just doesn't you know let you have it over that. Let them not have dominion over me. Maybe that sin God's just going to say oh you like that sin so much you're just going to assume on me. Maybe I'll just let that have dominion over you. Maybe I'll just let that sin just run rampant in your life and ruin you. So that's the warning that hey it's never too late to begin again but don't presume on God that you're not going to pay the consequences. If you just say well God's just going to be merciful no matter what. And a lot of times you know those sins they're their own punishment. They're their own punishment. They have dominion over us. We get involved in some sin and you know what we even we sin presumptuously. We get into some sin and then we try to then we get right with God and say oh I shouldn't have done that. But you're still going to pay the consequences. I'm not saying that this morning. I'm not saying that you could just get involved in sin and then just not have to pay the consequences. There's always a price for sin. You know there's pleasure or sins for a season. But what does it end in? Death. It brings forth death. There's always a price to pay. Go ask David. And I don't think that was a presumption with sin by David. That adultery and murder. I think he just got caught up in the flesh. He was idle. He wasn't doing what he's supposed to be doing. The flesh took over. He got carnal and was a sin. He was a sin. He was a sin. He was weak. I'm not saying he wasn't. He certainly opened up a lot of doors to allow that to happen. He made provision for the flesh. So maybe it's a little presumptuous in that way. But did he get mercy from God? Yeah. God said you're not going to die. You know that was a sin worthy of death. Both of them. The adultery and the murder. God could have said well put him to death. But God said I'll spare you. But does that mean David didn't have any consequences when his son, his own son, rose up against him and you know ran him out of the throne? Started killing his other kids? David had serious trouble from there on out the rest of his days. There were still consequences for that sin. What I'm trying to say this morning is this. Is that your life isn't over if you make a mistake. Your life isn't over if you make a mistake. It's never too late to begin again. Go to Psalms chapter 37. Psalms chapter 37 and we'll finish there. In Psalms chapter 37 I'll read you from Proverbs 24. It says this, for a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again but the wicked fall into mischief. Look a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again. You know it's a it'd be great if we could and obviously it's ideal that we could just start living the Christian life and never stumble again. You know that's possible. You know if we just walked in the spirit every moment of the day that if we you know because the Bible says you know if we walk in the spirit you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh and the problem is is that we don't always walk in the spirit. A lot of times we get out of sorts with God and we we stumble we fall don't we? But look if you're saved if you're born again if you're God's child you can rise up again even if you fall seven times. God is going to be merciful. God is gonna be long suffering. God can it's never too late to begin again. Look at Psalms chapter 37 verse 23. The Bible says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way. You know if you if you're if you're honest and sincere with God and you're really trying to live for the Lord and you're really trying to do what's best and be pleasing him look you're not going to be perfect because we still have this old man we still have this flesh. We still have to fight this battle every day. Some days we're going to lose but let's not lose the war. We might lose a battle here and there. Don't lose the war with the flesh. Do your best but understand this you know your steps are but understand this you know your steps are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down. We're gonna fall. It's gonna happen. I mean I'd be real stupid to get up here this morning and think well I'm gonna preach to somebody. There's gonna be a few people out there. We're gonna walk out this morning and never sin again. Never stumble. Never fall. Never disappoint the Lord ever again. That'd be really foolish to think that. In fact I bet it'd be more realistic to say everyone in this room is going to walk out of here and at some point sooner or later is going to stumble. Is going to fall. Is going to commit some kind of sin. Probably even today. They're going to fall. Does that mean we should just let them be utterly cast down? I told you so. I just kick them. Kick them while they're down. Is that what God does? Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord doth uphold with him with his hand. You know it's just a great picture of God. We stumble. We fall. We're trying to live the Christian life. It's an uphill battle. It's a struggle. The devil puts things in our path. You know the sin which does so easily beset us. It causes us to stumble. It causes us to fall. But it's such a great picture that God's just right there like, hey you want to get back up? You want to try it again? He's not just like, oh look at you. You're pathetic. Look at you laying on the ground. What are you doing? Get yourself up. That's not God. God's like, oh yeah that must have hurt. Want to try it again? Like trying to teach a kid to ride a bike. You take the training wheels off. You know it's not very easy at first is it? You're trying to encourage them. Well you've got to go faster. Like the scariest thing you could do on a bike when you're trying to learn how to ride it. Go faster. It's easier. Try to convince a kid of that. Sometimes it comes more naturally. But what kind of father would I be if my kid tried to learn a bike. You know handle wheel. The handle bars go sideways. They flip over. Skin an elbow and a knee. And I just said, you're pathetic. You'll never learn how to ride this bike. Put the training. Let's get you a tricycle you loser. I think sometimes that's the image people have of God. That's what he's like. Like he's just some guy with a bat just waiting for you to step out of line so he can club you. Is that how he described himself to Moses? Even after what Israel did in their idolatry? He said, no I'm merciful, gracious, long-suffering, slow to anger. He said, Dad was like, well that must have hurt. Let's clean you up. Let's get you back on the bike and we'll try it again. Your life's not over if you make mistakes. It's never too late to begin again. Just the trap you need to look out for is just assuming that that means it's okay to go out and just live a life of sin and that God will forgive you. You know God will forgive you and God will also let you suffer the consequences along the way if that's the way you're going to live. But hopefully there's nobody in the room that needs this right now. There very well might be. Maybe that's us this morning. Maybe we feel like we've let God down. We've disappointed the Lord. We've failed in some area. We've backslidden in some way and we're just thinking we're never going to be able to pick ourselves up. We might as well just quit. You know what? Don't quit. Don't quit. Confess that sin. Forsake that sin. Let God pick you back up. Let God put you back on your feet and dust you off and start over because life is long. Especially for young people. Especially for the young people in the room. You've got so much more life ahead of you. It'd be silly to let some sin or something get you out of the Christian life completely for the rest of your life. That'd be a total waste. And sometimes that's how people think. They forget that they make some mistake today and they don't realize that in 10 years they'll have totally forgotten about that. They think, I'll never be able to live this down. Yes you will. But you have to live it down. It takes time. But the message I'm trying to get across this morning is that it's never too late to begin again. That if we've made mistakes with the Lord, His nature is to forgive us and to pick us back up and to help us start over. Let's go ahead and pray.