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2 Chronicles 15, basically Asa has become king and he's followed some very wicked kings just to bring you up to speed in the story here. Solomon was the king over Israel and he was the righteous and god of the king but if you remember at the end of his life because he had married all these multiple wives, they turned his heart away from god and he started to follow other gods and so forth. And so the kingdom was in a more wicked condition at the end of Solomon's reign. Well then Solomon's son Rehoboam took over the kingdom and five years into his reign he totally forsook god and basically did that which was evil in the sight of the lord. Turn back to 2 Chronicles 12 just to bring you up to speed in the story here. 2 Chronicles 12 verse 3, the Bible says, so king Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reign. This is the son of Solomon. For Rehoboam was one and forty years old when he began to reign and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there and his mother's name was Naaman and Ammonitis and he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the lord. We get a little more detail in the book of Kings where it talks about the fact and earlier in this book, you know for five years he somewhat served the lord and then the last twelve years of his reign he just completely forsook god. Well then his son took over. Turn to 1 Kings chapter 15, keep your finger in Chronicles, but go to 1 Kings chapter 15 and I'll show you that just to show you Rehoboam's son Abiadjem. It says in 1 Kings 15 one, on the 18th year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat raided Abiadjem over Judah. Three years reigned he in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom and he walked in all the sins of his father which he had done before him and his heart was not perfect with the lord his god as the heart of David his father. So turn back to 2 Chronicles where we were and we see that Asa is basically following Solomon who had gotten bad in his old age and then these two wicked kings Rehoboam and Abiadjem both of which the bible says did evil in the sight of the lord. Well he comes on the scene and he wants to do the right thing. He wants to serve god and do what's right. Well this preacher comes to him in 2 Chronicles chapter 15 and starts to preach unto him the word of the lord. In verse 3 he says now for a long season Israel hath been without the true god and without a teaching priest and without law but when they were in trouble did they turn unto the lord god of Israel and sought him he was found of them and in those times there was no peace to him that went out nor to him that came in but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries and nation was destroyed of nation and city of city for god did vex them with all adversity be ye strong therefore and let not your hands be weak for your work shall be rewarded and when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet he took courage and put away the abominable idols out of the land of Judah and Benjamin and out of the cities which he had taken from Mount Ephraim and renewed the altar of the lord that was before the porch of the lord. So he comes on the scene and he hears his preaching and this prophet says to him look your country is in a wicked situation he said it's been a long time since there's been a real preacher who's really preached god's word it's been a long time since there's been a righteous king it's been a long time since this nation even resembled what god expected it to be but he said nevertheless you know if you will get your heart right with god if you will lead these people he said if you will put away all these abominations and idols and wickedness out of the land he said you know god is going to bless you renew the altar of the lord have a fresh start here clean things up and that's exactly what Asa did and let me tell you something things were bad I don't know if we have time to turn there but in 1 Kings chapter 14 just to show you how bad it was because you say well things weren't as bad as they are now well it's pretty bad though because look at 1 Kings chapter 14 verse 24 well let's start in 22 while you're turning there 1 Kings 14 22 and Judah did evil on the side of the lord and then provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed above all that their fathers had done so they're more wicked than any previous generation for they also built them high places and images and groves on every high hill and under every green tree and there were also sodomites in the land now that's when you know things are bad when it's filled with homosexuality that's what sodomites are you know and we just take that for granted today because it's just around us everywhere we go but let me tell you something not in this church we don't to me it's still vile it's still wicked it's still horrible and just because it's being crammed down our throat on tv constantly god says it's wicked he says look one of the signs of how bad they were is that they had sodomites in their land and he said and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the lord cast out before the children of israel and uh and on and on he goes on to talk about how you know asa took over and he got rid of all the sodomites out of the land and break down their houses and threw them out and everything like that now asa came on the scene with an attitude that said you know i'm going to he said i'm going to renew the altar of the lord i'm going to start things over here the word renew comes from the word new you know obviously and then re meaning again like he's going to start over again a fresh start and that's what i want to preach about tonight you know starting over a fresh start in your life look at psalm 51 because no matter how bad things have gotten in your life it's never too late to just push that reset button and just start over you know our country's wicked and if you grew up living in america following the culture that's the norm today you've probably lived a wicked life in the eyes of god but it's never too late for you to say you know what from here on out i'm going to clean things up i was telling the guy outshone him a couple days ago i was giving him the gospel and uh we got off on some other subjects after i'd given him the gospel and he was saying oh it's kind of too late for me i've already lived a wicked life and i told him i said no it's not too late you know today you can start over and start living a clean and godly and righteous life from here on out i mean i know that there are probably a lot of people in this room who've lived a wicked life in the past committed a lot of really bad sins and we don't want to let that ever become an excuse in our life to say well you know you grew up in a christian home or you grew up living a pretty clean life you don't know my background this is just kind of how i am i'm kind of going to struggle with this for the rest of my life no it's never too late for you to clean up the altar of your life clean out the temple that is your body as a christian and start over and have a fresh start in your life and live a clean and righteous life you know it's you don't want to just throw up your hands and say well i've already bloated in life no you haven't the bible says that a good man that falls seven times and rises up again but look at psalm 51 here's david a righteous man but a man who got away from god got backslidden and committed a wicked sin now this guy committed a sin that's probably worse than anything you've done hopefully you know basically here's what he did he looked out his window he went up on the roof actually he was walking around and he looked through the window of a house that was that was near his house and basically he saw a woman bathing through the window he basically saw a woman without any clothes on and instead of doing what he ought to have done he should have just immediately just looked away you know if he accidentally saw something he couldn't really help that he should have just instantly looked away went back into his house and just pushed it out of his mind you know he's a married man but instead he began to to just keep looking at that image of what he saw of this woman and to lust after that woman in his heart well then the next thing you know he basically because he's the king he has all power he sends his servants to go bring that woman to him and he commits adultery with that woman who was also married herself now that's pretty bad you know we might make light of adultery but god considers adultery a very wicked sin in fact in the old testament people were given the death penalty for committing adultery they were stoned to death for committing adultery so it's a bad sin i mean when you're married you're supposed to keep yourself only to that person for the rest of your life and be pure about it so he commits this horrible sin of adultery well what happens is the woman that he commits adultery with becomes pregnant so now he's in real trouble because he's about to get found out for the horrible sin that he committed he's about to get busted well then instead of just you know admitting he was wrong you know which would have been hard confessing it and just you know moving on with it getting forgiveness instead he makes it worse by trying to cover it up so basically he takes her husband and puts him in the hottest part of a battle because he was in his army puts him in the hottest part of the battle and tells the troops you know put him in this really hot part of the battle and then just kind of withdraw from him that way i you know i didn't kill him but at least he's just gonna die and then he'll be out of the way and then that's what happened and then of course david married his wife well god was extremely angry david went through all kinds of punishments for that for the rest of his life he really suffered for that in a lot of ways but look what david wrote in psalm 51 after this event after he's done this horrible sin with basheba here's what it says here of david getting right with god it says in verse one have mercy upon me oh god according to thy loving kindness according under the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for i acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever performing the first step to getting a fresh start you've got to just acknowledge what you've done you got to acknowledge your sin the people that i find who can't let go of their past and it's just weighing them down all the mistakes they've made in the past all the sins they've done are the people who can't come to grips with it and just admit that they've done wrong you know people who are constantly trying to justify the sins that they've done in the past are the ones who keep hanging on to it but it seems like if you can just come to a point where you can say look i'm not going to blame anybody else i'm gonna take responsibility god i've sinned it's my fault i'm sorry i did wrong there's no excuse for it and just i'm sorry god you know that's the type of person that can just let it go and move on because you know thank god jesus christ died on the cross for all our sins and him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness but if we confess our sins you know are we going to be able to move on and that's what david is doing here he's finally making it right he's saying he's sorry he's admitting that he did wrong against thee verse four the only have i sinned and done this evil in thy sight notice he's not trying to justify himself at all he's just saying look i am completely wrong here he said that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judges behold i was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me behold thou desirous truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom purge me with hyssop and i shall be clean wash me and i shall be wider than snow make my make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou has broken may rejoice hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities now before i get to the next verse verse number 10 it's amazing how a lot of people try to make this passage about salvation come on david was saved as a child i mean david had been saved way long before this decades before this okay this is not about david's salvation david had already been saved and that's proved in verse 10 because look what it says in verse 10 created me a clean heart oh god and renew a right spirit with him he noticed the word renew a right spirit he had once had a right spirit but he'd become vaccinated he becomes spiritually wicked and so he says renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me not talking about the indwelling of the holy spirit which did not exist in the old testament but rather that the holy spirit was upon him ever since he was anointed by saul to be king as a boy tending the sheep he said restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit so notice here he's not saying restore to me by his salvation he'd never lost his salvation because you can't lose your salvation salvation's eternal it's a gift of god right and the gifts of calling of god are without repentance okay so basically the gift of god's eternal life that's given unto david long before when he was a child when he believed on the lord and called upon the name of the lord as he described in psalm 116 but here we see a man who's been saved for years but he's back sudden he got away from god he committed a horrible wicked sin he didn't lose his salvation but he did lose the joy of his salvation there's no joy in living a wicked back sudden life you know there's no enjoyment there the christian can't enjoy living a wicked sinful life you know there are probably a lot of unsaved people out there who enjoy living their wicked sinful life and they're going to eat and drink and be married tomorrow they're going to die and go to hell but those that are saved those who are believers you know we have the holy spirit living inside of us it's hard for us to enjoy once we've tasted you know what it is to live the godly righteous christian life you know to go back into the cesspool that is this world and live that sinful life it's not going to be bring joy to us and david lost the joy of his salvation he lost his joy not his salvation he just lost his joy so he just said restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit then will i teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee here's what i want to point out about psalm 51 mainly is in verse 13 notice david's looking to the future i mean he's down to sin that's so bad you'd pretty much say you know david's all washed up i mean it's over for him and in many ways you know he did suffer for the rest of his life and his life did go downhill from here and he did and whenever you commit those kind of awful sins obviously it will destroy your life permanently in many ways but notice that david is still looking toward the future he can still be renewed and he can still serve god because he's saying look after i get this straightened out once i get through this he said once i've been restored the joy of my salvation once i've confessed it unto god then i will teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee he's looking toward hey i can still get people saved i can still do something for god with my life i'm not just going to throw in the towel and quit because i've messed up here i'm going to get back up and start over and have a fresh start yes sin has irreparable consequences for the rest of your life but you can still be restored i mean you could still get back up and do something for god you can still have a fresh start no matter where you are in life if you're saved tonight if you're a christian if you're a believer on jesus christ and no matter what you've done if you're still alive on this earth god can still use you don't throw in the towel he says in verse 14 deliver me from blood guiltiness oh god because remember he'd been involved in the death of uriah oh god thou god of my salvation so first he called it god's salvation he's calling my salvation i mean he was saved and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness oh lord open now my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise without desire it's not sacrifice else would i give it thou delight is not a burnt offering the sacrifices of god are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart oh god thou will not despise do good in thy good pleasure unto zion build out the walls of jerusalem then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness with burnt offering and whole burnt offering then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar you see he said look i'm going to confess this he said i'm going to have a broken spirit a contrite heart i'm going to feel sorry for my sins here i'm going to turn from these sins and i'm not going to make light of it i'm not going to make excuses for it i'm going to admit it i'm going to confess it and god is going to deliver me from that guilt and i'm going to move on and do something great for god and serve god see god can give us a fresh start we can still start over from here on out and say you know what whatever sins i did yesterday that was yesterday you know i'm done with it if it's alcohol you know i'm done with alcohol or whatever whatever it is that you're involved in you know because there are all kinds of sins that are taking grip of almost everybody in america today in 2010 i mean we look around alcohol is almost universal you know watching the filth and smut that's on tv is almost universal i mean almost every household is invaded by the one-eyed demon from hell pumping their mind full of whatever garbage satan wants to serve up for today you know through tv whether it be adultery and fornication half-naked women paraded across the screen blasphemy of god hey look you said well this is what we did no get rid of it today just start over with it it's never too late to clean it up and if asa can come on the scene in a sodomite filthy society that would have been a succession of wicked government for the last 20 years and even really a little bit into solomon's reign and he said no we're going to push the reset button here we're going to clean things up we're going to start over hey it's never too late for that fresh start is what i'm saying tonight look if you would at uh uh ephesians chapter four so i'm preaching tonight on a fresh start on a new start here we're not talking about salvation you know salvation is just believe on the lord jesus christ and thou shalt be saved i've said it many times being saved is not turning over a new leaf right but let me say this it's good to turn over a new leaf isn't it you know turning over a new leaf doesn't save you but you know what you ought to turn over a new leaf tonight you ought to decide tonight you know we often preach and say hey you don't have to repent of your sins to be saved because you don't because that would be a workspace salvation if you have to somehow you know follow god's commandments in order to be saved and keep his laws no it's not of works thus any man should both therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight but hey just because that doesn't save you i'm already saved i've already been saved for over 20 years but hey we ought to repent of our sins we ought to turn over that new leaf we ought to have a new fresh start we ought to clean up our life no cleaning up your life doesn't save you but once you're saved you ought to be continually over and over again cleaning up your life starting over uh clearing things out having a fresh start pushing that reset button and that's what i'm preaching about tonight starting over moving on from past sins and past uh afflictions look at ephesians 4 22 the bible says this that you put off concerning the former conversation the old man he said yo get rid of the junk that you used to do in your life before you were safe he said put up concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which after god is created in righteousness and true holiness you see in philippians 3 he said forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before i press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of god in christ jesus he said forget what's behind and press forward he said in the next chapter i can do all things through christ which strengtheneth me and so we can live the righteous life that god wants us to live he said if we put on the new man that new man is created in righteousness and true holiness he says in verse number 25 wherefore for this reason he says there put away putting away lying speak every man truth with his neighbor for we are members one of them maybe you've been in the habit of being a liar you know there are people who have a habit of telling lies it just becomes a way of life to them i've known a lot of people like this you know a lot of times we'll call it you'll get them the fancy title of a pathological liar you know but you know it's just really just a liar and you know i've known a lot of people who were liars and and you know everybody's you know has lied at some point i mean i've lied but everybody's lied but you know some people take it to a whole new level you know what i mean and they just lie through their teeth every time their lips are moving you know that they're lying okay you know if you're if you've grown up like that or that's a habit that you got into of being a habitual liar you know put that on speak the truth that's the old man he says in verse number uh 26 be ye angry and sin not let not the sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to the devil let him that stole steal no more but rather let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needed now notice something here what is the solution he says what is the opposite of stealing here what's he telling you to do instead of stealing do what work work and you know many people are stealing because they go to their job and they don't work like they should and yet they take a paycheck i mean isn't that stealing i mean if you go and you take a paycheck for eight hours of work and you only really worked about six and a half after you subtract all your little smoke breaks and sitting around and extra breaks and and and you know messing around on your phone or something you know when you're supposed to be being paid to work and you're horsing around talking chit-chatting and so forth you know everybody's job has different rules but you know you know whether you put in an honest eight hours when you get that paycheck you know whether you work the 40 hours that's on your paycheck you know don't be a thief and go to work and go through the motions or go slow or sit around and you know milk the clock as they say or you know milk the job or whatever if you're in construction you know what that means you go and you put in an honest work you labor the bible says and by the way labor means hard work that's what labor means when you think of a laborer you picture somebody doing some manual labor doing something hard it says here let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth and so the bible is teaching us here don't be a thief don't steal work hard you know pay your own bills and make money and don't be a thief he says uh let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace on the earth maybe you have a habit of corrupt things coming out of your mouth maybe uh to tell them dirty stories or talking about uh unclean subject matter or uh basically tearing down other people with your tongue because he said here what comes out of your mouth should be the good use of edifying or building up you know saying things that tear other people down talking bad about other people behind their back you know backbiting and criticizing people behind their back when they're not even there to defend themselves you know he said you need to put that off you need to go forward from it he says and grieve not the holy spirit of god whereby ye are sealed under the day of redemption let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tenderhearted forgiving one another even as god for christ's sake hath forgiven you now look at that last verse in verse 32 forgiving one another isn't that giving people a fresh start i mean isn't that giving them a new start he says back in uh verse 26 be ye angry at sin not let not the sun go down upon your wrath so what the bible is saying here when it says let not the sun go down upon your wrath that if i'm angry at somebody today i shouldn't go to bed angry at that person and wake up the next morning and i'm still mad and then i go to bed that night and i'm still mad and i wake up the next morning and i'm mad about the same thing and you know especially in a marriage could this be important here i mean it could be in a church too here he's talking to the church at emphasis saying forgive one another and so we don't have grudges developed between people at church especially but even in your marriage in your family you know these fights that would just last for days and days you know it's not right because you should be letting things go you should move on you know and i think part of the reason why god set us up on a system here where we have day and night is so that you can you know you ever have just a really bad day where everything's going bad and sometimes i've literally come to the point where i just know this is that day this is that bad day and i'll literally like just go home early like like if i had plans to go do something that night or so i'm just like no i'm just going to bed you know what i mean this is a bad day like it's only worse and tomorrow's going to be a good day you know so i better just be careful not to cause any more damage today you know you know you have really bad days like that but isn't it great how at the end of the day the sun goes down you go to bed you go to sleep you have all kinds of crazy dreams that straighten your mind out and then you wake up in the morning and it's all over you know you can start over and that's the way we ought to live our lives every day should be looked at as a separate unit that's why god gave us days and weeks and months and years so that we can keep starting over you know september is over now we're in october you know don't worry about september get into october you know be in church in october be soul winning in october serve god work hard at your job in october tell the truth in october you know let the past go but it should be the same way in the way that you treat other people i mean i shouldn't be mad at my wife for what she did yesterday i'm mad at her for what she did today no i'm just kidding but if i were mad it would be about today's offenses not yesterday you know it isn't right to have some fight that just goes on and on and on and on you know that isn't right and then you say wait do you ever have a fight with your wife yes i do have a fight with my wife but you know what not right now not present tense there but i'm just saying in general but let me tell you something i don't have a fight with my wife that just goes on and on day after day you know my wife and i are going to have disagreements obviously we're human beings neither one of us is perfect but you know what we shouldn't have the same fight that's just like you know well day 11 you know what i mean day 11 you know still you know still fighting no you gotta let it go you cannot gotta not let the sun go down on your rack don't be angry when you go to bed you should go to bed at peace with everyone you know you might have you know anger and strife and and things throughout the day that happen that's life but at the end of the day you should put it all the rest and have a fresh start when you wake up in the morning start over read your bible do what's right and live that make that day be a righteous day let me put it to you in this way look at colossians chapter uh colossians chapter three because this is kind of a parallel passage with ephesians phesians and colossians are really parallel in a lot of ways look in colossians chapter three verse 18 it says right here wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the lord you say what does that have nothing i just like to read it anyway verse 19 verse 19 says this husbands this is the verse i really wanted to preach about verse 19 husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them you know bitterness is when you're basically harboring anger harboring uh strife and from the past and you begin to be bitter and it begins to just canker in you and sour and and just fester you know just the anger and god is warning husbands he's saying first of all you need to love your wife and second of all you know don't be bitter against your wife you can't get mad at your wife about something from the past and just let that eat you up let it go right i'll put it to you in this way let people live things down you know if somebody's done wrong if your wife has done wrong in the past just i'm just saying it from that perspective obviously can go either way wives shouldn't be bitter against their husband either but you know here's the way it's written husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them if your wife has done you wrong in some way you know you need to forgive your wife and not be bitter against her but rather wake up give her a fresh start love her and and be nicer that day and you know obviously it's a two-way street women should treat their husbands the same way neither me nor my wife should be harboring bitterness toward each other you know we should have a clean start every day and so whatever fight was today or yesterday or a week ago or a month ago is irrelevant because tomorrow is a brand new day and we ought to just move forward in our life but also let's get off husbands and wife just in the church you know if you're in a church for a long time and some people they're constantly just bouncing around churches and bouncing here and there and everywhere and that's not a good way to live your life by the way you know you ought to find somewhere that you want to just get plugged into and you know if this isn't it then you know i'll you know i'll help you find the door and and open it for you you know but you know find somewhere where you can get plugged into you know where you can actually be in it for the long haul don't be a church hopper you know don't be like pain and just wander around for the rest of your life you know get plugged in get planted somewhere but here's the thing when you are planted somewhere though and you develop friendships and you've been there for a while you know over time you know somebody's gonna do you dirty at some point or somebody's gonna say something that you didn't like or somebody's gonna look at you wrong or something you know what i mean are they they're not gonna say hi to you when they should have or something or they're you know or they're gonna or they're gonna beat you in the chili cook off or whatever no i'm still you know people are bitter about that not you know they're gonna they're gonna do this and they're gonna say this and they're gonna do that and whatever look everybody is a sinner nobody's perfect and i guarantee you that at some point everybody in the church is gonna say something to you that you don't like or do something that you don't like or act a certain way that you don't like but you know what why don't you just let it go why don't you just forgive one another even as god for christ sake has forgiven you you know if christ jesus christ has forgiven you of all your sins can't you forgive your brother i mean that wrongs you that you know probably it's anything that you would get upset about is probably so minor you know what i mean if i thought back about everything that anybody in this church has ever done me wrong or said wrong or looked at me wrong you know in fact i don't like the way some people are looking at me right now but you know if i went back and looked through it you know it wouldn't be anything major i mean if i thought down the list of everybody in this room i'm sure i could think of some little petty thing where somebody said or looked or did something i didn't like so what right you think i'm just gonna hang on to that and just you know what was that about three years ago you know what i mean here we go and we as christians need to just develop an attitude and a habit of just living in the present not living in the past letting go of past grievances letting things go that people have said or done to us letting things go that our children have done that are that our wife has done and just giving her a fresh start you know if we've lived a simple life in the past let's change that let's be like king asa let's clean things up and let's have a clean start right now and if other people have done wrong guys hey we'll let that go to and give them a clean start hey let's live in the present and let's press toward the future instead of just beating ourselves or others up about the past god gives us a new start don't worry about it you know there are some mistakes that you've made in your life that will probably maybe you've damaged your life irreparably and you know there are a lot of ways you can damage your life permanently right you know things like divorce they can just cause permanent damage in your life you know there are there are other things that you can you know you know maybe you've uh you know i mean there's there's many different things that you've done that are permanent right but you know what if you can't fix it you can't change it you know what just move on just move forward just start over don't beat yourself up about it just live your life you know just start over and just don't do it again you know and just you know if you're on your fifth husband you know just stay with stay with this one you know what i mean so that does too part you know and i'm not condoning that kind of lifestyle but if that you know the sad thing is that's where some people are at today literally i have met people that were on their fifth husband before literally you know many people are on their third spouse or second spouse you know am i condoning that no it's it's it's ungodly the bible calls it adultery right but let me tell you something you know you've got to just wherever you're at in life just decide hey from here on out i'm going to be as godly and clean and righteous as i can i'm going to forget the things that are behind and reach forth under those things which are before i'm not going to let it be an excuse to hold me back and i'm not going to hold other people back and basically hold things against them mistakes that they've made we've all done dumb things in the past i can look back at decisions i've made that were done you know i can look at dumb things i've done that just cost me a ton of money financially just just things that i did where i just wasted like 500 bucks or wasted a thousand bucks you know so what i just look at it as a learning experience you know what i mean i learned from my mistakes i learned from from my stupidity in the past and i can be wise in the future because of that you know i look at things as a learning experience you know i can learn from those things and do better next time and live from here on out correctly look at second corinthians chapter four you're in ephesians just go a few pages to the left in your bible to uh second corinthians chapter four second corinthians 4 16 says this for which cause we faint not fainting would be passing out but he's basically talking about pressing forward without quitting without stopping he says for which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet our inward yet the inward man is renewed day by day so basically what he's saying is that our body might be worn out our body might be sick i mean our body might be suffering he said you know we don't fade and and really if you get the context here what the apostle paul is talking about he's living a life of just serving god to the maximum and so he's physically worn out he's literally been beaten and thrown in jail i mean he's literally working his fingers to the bone just you know making tents preaching the gospel just giving it everything he's got and you know his outward man's fainting but he said the inward man is renewed day by day every day he starts out with a new lease on you know every day is a new day for him is what he's saying every day he gets in this bible every day his spirit is renewed within him that's how we ought to be in our life not living off of past glories either not defeated because of past failures and not writing on oh man you should have seen the soul any i did three years ago man let me tell you about it so what you know what are you doing three days ago you know what are you doing right now what did you do three hours ago is what we should be asking not three days ago three weeks ago three months ago and so he says our inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal he says we are going through bad times right now you know and we may have afflictions upon us maybe thorns in our flesh from some past mistakes that we've done you know and it could be anything i mean there are people who have disease in their body you know because of living a wicked lifestyle in the past you know there are people out there like that right there are people out there whose finances are messed up because of uh things that they've done there are people who've messed up their marriage right there are people who've been divorced and they've messed up their family and their children you know but you know what whatever it is eventually it's going to be over thank god whatever you're going through in your life right now whatever pain is there from the past one day it's going to be over this life's going to be over and when you get to heaven that light affliction whatever it was is not going to seem to be as big of a deal when you're in heaven perfect place and it'll be eternal so the moral the story is that now today we need to not let those things drag us down but forget the past start over and say you know what this week i'm going to serve god i'm going to push myself to the limit physically like paul did and i'm going to give it everything i've got i'm going to forget what's behind and i'm going to press for the high calling of god in christ jesus and he's saying here hey that's the eternal blessing it's more than any setback that you're going through right now so don't get hung up on the present right now and don't get hung up on other people's failures or your own failures just forgive yourself forgive other people confess it to god and whatever sins you've been involved in just clean it up from here on out you know whatever the sin is in your life and i could go through a big litany of sins right now in fact i think i might know too but anyway you know i could go through and just list a bunch of stuff that you probably need to clean up in your life but you know if the shoe fits i'll just put it i'll put it right there you know you know what what you've done in the past that you need to get over and so you know let it go move on cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded draw an eye to god and he'll draw an eye to you be like a king asa who said hey it doesn't matter how wicked the nation that i'm living in is i can clean things up in my life i can clean i can start right here in my house and he started with his own mom you know because basically he was he was an authority there he wasn't a child living at home he was a grown man and he had his mother living in his house and his mother was actually considered the queen you know because he was the king and so forth and you know the first thing he had to do was was get rid of that snake that that brazen serpent you know that they're worshiping and then he had to get rid of his mom's idols and he told her she couldn't even be the queen you remember that because he said you know she's worshiping false gods and we're not going to have this in any position of prominence in our country and so he had to get rid of his uh his mother that had been worshiping a false god not get rid of her as in uh get rid of her you know what i mean but basically just take her out of being the queen you know take her out of that position that she was filling it doesn't matter how wicked it is around you you can do what's right and you can clean things up if asa could do it in the sodomite filthy perverted society that he lived in he was able to push that reset button and we ought to be able to push it too as far as another word of prayer father please just help us tonight wherever we're at in life and everybody in here is in a different place in life help us to be able to move on to god forgive others forgive ourselves let things go and help us to move forward and to decide right now that our greatest soul winning and our greatest service for god and the greatest days of our life are ahead of us and not behind us we can still see sinners converted unto thee as david said in psalm 51 we can still do something for god no matter who we are and help those that are old not to think well i'm too old you know i've pretty much had it i'm just waiting until you know my ticket's called no help all of us to give it everything we've got all the way to the finish line dear god in jesus name we pray amen