Renewal Through Grace: A Journey of Faith

I've just never had that feeling I just I right now I just it's been the best 14 years of my life and it's really been the best five years of my life the last five years here at Westside and I want to thank a few people along the way the first person that I want to thank isn't with us any longer and he has passed away but his name was a pastor Harvey Pullman it was the first the first person I ever approached to say hey I think the Lord's calling me to ministry and he was I think he was a doctor I think he had a doctorate in biblical degree or something and so I'm just I'm thinking he's just gonna laugh at me like this is gonna actually be the best part because I'm gonna go tell him and he's just gonna laugh it off and then I don't have to do it no more he was actually excited when I approached him like like he'd been waiting for me to come talk to him for for years and so his beginning that he'd shared with me some some knowledge about the Bible I appreciate him I also want to thank Pastor Han who's with us this morning and I invited him and his wife beautiful wife they came in to mentor us just at the right time and so your your name is actually on the notes so I'm not making that up so thank you for being here this morning [00:34:44] (79 seconds)


Here's the thing. I encourage, each and every one of us is in this room to make a new year's resolution this year. Not a physical resolution. Not a, let's lose 50 pounds or let's run on the treadmill every day for the next 365 days. But I challenge everyone in this room to have a spiritual resolution this year. [00:42:31] (22 seconds)


And we have to restore a relationship with God through his son, Jesus Christ. And here's the truth. And here's what I want to tell you. If you're saved today, if you're a Christian today, the Bible actually says in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, new has come. [00:43:17] (20 seconds)


And when we become new, when we become a new creation in Christ, sometimes we start to neglect that. And we start to fall apart. We start to get rust into areas of our spiritual life. And we start to get rust into our spiritual life. It's usually we stop reading our Bibles, and then it starts to, well, I'll pray later. [00:44:32] (25 seconds)


The Bible says that David was a man that chased after God's own heart. And David in 51, 12 through 19, he says, restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a calling spirit. What David is saying is, take me back to that first salvation, that first time, Lord, that I knew that you were real. [00:48:58] (19 seconds)


And the willing spirit was in verse 13. And he says, if you give me that willing spirit, then I will go teach transgressors your way and sinners will return to you. David's saying, get me back to that point and give me that excitement again. Restore me back to the excitement that I had when I first come to know you. [00:49:28] (19 seconds)


A revival starts right here in our heart. A revival starts in us, goes to our family, and then goes to our neighborhood. Then from the neighborhood, it goes to the community. And then it's like, it's like fire, and it just keeps going and going and going. But it starts right here. What that means is that you and I have to put the work in to start a revival. [00:52:56] (31 seconds)


And so I had to start, I had to start thinking about the broken. And I had to think about that God so loved the world that he sent his son to die. That God so loved everybody. And they weren't living perfectly, by the way, when Jesus came to earth. They were doing some things that were just as bad as we're doing today. But God loved them so much that he sent his son to die. [00:54:37] (26 seconds)


But the only way that we can become imitators of God is if we go back and restore ourselves back to when we were made new again. To go back and remember that first feeling that David was crying for. Let me go back. And in Revelations, talking to the church here, Revelations 2, 2 through 4. [00:57:14] (28 seconds)


I think that working and doing the works that we do is for me, for me anyways, I love doing it. Is it a salvation thing? No. Works isn't a salvation thing. But you have to change your perspective to this. I don't have to work for God. I get to work for God. [01:00:33] (24 seconds)