Sermon: "Jesus: Freedom from Your Past" by Randy Roberts 
Part 6 — Jesus: First, Last and Best

Prayer: Rob Mohr

Baptism: Alex Arturo Hernandez - Timothy Gillespie
William Joseph Bickley - Randy Roberts

Pastoral Welcome: Shirley Ponder

Baptism: Maxwell Thomas Schauermann - Jason Calvert

Meditation:

We are certain that there is forgiveness, because there is a gospel, and the very essence of the gospel lies in the proclamation of the pardon of sin. – C. H. Spurgeon

Forgiveness is the answer to the child’s dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean. – Dag Hammarskjold

Responsive Reading: Justification (SDA Hymnal, #762 )- Robert and Lynetta Skoretz

INTRODUCTION TO THE SERMON

What is it that defines you? Is it your ethnicity? Your country of origin? The language you speak? The degrees you have earned? The amount of money you make? The kind of car you drive? The group of people who are your friends? Your name? A name someone called you a long time ago? A bad choice you made? Or … what about your past? Does your past define you?

It is common to be defined by our pasts. “Well, I know her. She’s an adulterer.” “Yeah, I remember him: he’s a cheat.” “Don’t hang around with that person. We were students together. She was a big-time gossip.” Such statements are based on the experience we have had with others in their pasts. Thus it is that for many, the past is always present. It defines them. 

Have you ever wished you could escape your past – wished that you could be defined by something different than your past? If so, you are not alone. My guess, in fact, is that you are a part of a very large group. Many people live life trying to escape their past. If you find yourself in such a situation, what can you do? Is there any hope? 

In our current sermon series – Jesus: First, Last and Best – our focus is on Jesus. Jesus. Period. So we have to ask: How does Jesus define us? Does he define us by our choices, good or bad? Does he define us by our actions, positive or negative? Does he define us by sins we’ve committed, recent or long past? Does he define us by our pasts? Or does he define us in some other way?

Today, we are going to listen to three people answer such questions for us. It just could be that you find yourself in a similar situation to that in which they found themselves. If so, by the time they finish telling us their stories, you may have discovered some very good news!

Due to scheduling issues – Loma Linda University Baccalaureate services being one of them – we won’t return to this sermon series until June 4. That will be the last sermon in this current series. It is titled: “Jesus: The Gift of the Future.”

In Jesus, 

Randy Roberts
Senior Pastor

Note: Baptisms and Child dedications are in the extras section of the DVD

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