Wretched and by as could be, I faced disappointment for tomorrow, no hope could I see. I went to the master, he took me just as I was, with love and compassion, he put my sins under the blood. Under the blood my sins are hidden, washed by the blood of the crimson river to the depths of the sea. Never to be remembered my sins are under the blood.
Satan tries to remind me of the man I used to be. He brings up my past and all those dark memories. That's when I remind him I'm not the man that I was. Praise God, I'm forgiven and my sins they're all under the blood.
Under the blood my sins are hidden, washed by the blood of the crimson river to the depths of the sea. Never to be remembered my sins are under the blood. Under the blood my sins are hidden, washed by the blood of the crimson river to the depths of the sea. Never to be remembered my sins are under the blood.
My sins are under the blood. I'm Bobby Mullins and I want to welcome you to a Fresh Start TV program where the premise behind our program is that at some time we all need a fresh start. I've needed fresh starts in my life and I know people who've needed fresh starts and just about all of us need one or more at some time and I'm thankful that our Lord is the God of the Second Chance, Third Chance, Fourth Chance and so on and always takes us. When we're at those points in our lives we need that fresh start and he'll help us to start a night.
So on the program tonight I'm going to go back to a passage. One of the first verses I learned when I was a child is that the Bible says that we are ambassadors for Christ from Second Corinthians chapter 5. When I was growing up our church had missions programs. The girls had GAs, girls in action and then the boys had RA's, Royal Ambassadors and we could start when we were like seven or eight years old and you became a page and then a night and so on and it was a pretty neat thing but the one thing we learned this passage I'm going to read tonight was one of the key passages that we learned and then we also learned the Great Commission Romans 28, 19 and 20.
Before I get into the scripture passage in the reading tonight I just want to mention that I have a website www.dopterbobbymullens.com and they'll put it there on the screen. You have to spell out d-r-b-o-b-b-y-m-u-l-l-i-n-s.com but that has a lot of information about the ministry that I have and also I've written two books and there are links on the website where you can click on several links to order divine disciplines, God's Training Ground for Spiritual Growth and Maturity and then also if you go to the bottom of the page there's a picture of the cover of Channel of Blessing how to identify and apply your spiritual gift and I'll guarantee if you don't know your spiritual gift you will after you read that but click on that and you can order it. Also there's a fresh start on YouTube where you can click on that link and it will have all 184 programs of a fresh start available to you plus we have all the special music separately each song and then some sermon vignettes we also have my sermon series on spiritual gifts that I preached at a pastor and then I actually covered the seven main divine disciplines on seven different programs of a fresh start. I've also written some songs over the years and about 20 of those are available at sheet musicplus.com and there's a link there where you can click on here but that's just a way that I'm able to stay in touch with the people who view the program and thank you so much for your support.
We're a non-profit ministry but donations too back to the basics ministries are tax deductible and you can go to my website too and there's a donate link if you would like to help support us. Well first of all tonight I want to begin reading from the fifth chapter 2 Corinthians with verse 17. Therefore if any man and we could say here if any man woman boy or girl is in Christ you're a new creature you're a new creation. All things have passed away and all things are becoming a fresh start and all things are of God who have reconciled us to himself by through Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation to it that God was in Christ reconciling the world not imputing their trespasses unto them and it's committed to us the word reconciliation.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as through Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray to you in Christ dead to be reconciled to God for he hath made him Jesus who knew no sin to be sinned for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Now many times in my life I've seen a sign on a billboard or an advertisement somewhere where it says under new management. Now when we see that sign there are a couple of reasons why they want you to know this restaurant or this business or whatever is under new management. It's to let us know that positive changes have been made to a place where they need to be made things have not been positive maybe the service wasn't as good and wasn't kept up as clean as it should be things had happened that had caused people really not to go to that restaurant or that business so they want you to know it's under new management and then it's to let us know that they're planning for success to be restored to a place where there was success in the past but where most recently there's been a decline in business.
I tell you what I like to see that I remember places I've grown up you know eating establishments and then they kind of went down and you sort of missed them and you did and then they opened up and they're close to what they used to be and that's just a real pleasure you know people will come back who used to see there all the time so under new management. Many people are familiar with the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. It's a national landmark and treasure it's known for the ducks that come down off the roof and they march into a fountain swim around that all day then at night they have the march where they come back from that they walk to an elevator and get on head and go back to where they stay for the night. Well when I was a young person the Peabody Hotel was something we had high school formals and things like that were held in the grand ballroom and it was something to get to go to the Peabody Hotel but then went down and you know for years it was closed and you know I thought I'd have said grand Peabody Hotel then it got under new management and opened up again one of the things that was interesting to me they did a picture in the newspaper and they showed the hotel like it looked before it had reopened and then showed it after it opened and after it had been steam cleaned and all that and my it was amazing the difference when you got all that dirt and sit off of it but the title said under new management and I want us to think about that tonight.
When you get saved when I got saved we're under new management you know God controls everything but until we put our faith and trust in Jesus you know a lot of times we make decisions on our own and we live our own life and so when we get saved we are to come under the new management of the Lord God Himself through Jesus Christ. I'm going to go on and give you the four main characteristics that I see from this passage because on this program a lot of time I have good intentions to cover a whole sermon but don't but I want you to hear this because if you're recently saved you may have been saved a long time and really haven't been let in the Lord be totally in control of all of your life. Here's what should be characteristic of you. First of all there's new life in Christ.
Secondly you have a new look in Christ. Thirdly you have a new lease on life and then fourthly you have a new lot in life. You know what I like it says there if I don't get to this but it says that we're ministers of reconciliation. We ought to be ambassadors for Christ.
Isn't that wonderful to think you're a minister. You're an ambassador that after we get saved you know really the Lord could bring us on to heaven but you know why he leaves us here on earth to represent him as his ministers of reconciliation and then as ambassadors for Christ. Let's break this down. First of all what about your new life in Christ.
I have a new manager over your life and one of that is in your conscience. I tell you there are some things today as I look at our world and the evil in the world and things going on and I don't try to argue with people who want to argue with about the faith and about Jesus and so on. I do try to share Christ and why I'm saved and my testimony I encourage them to try to read the Bible and let the Bible speak to them. But one thing that does happen I tell folks if they get saved truly saved things are going to change in their life.
They're going to have the right kind of thoughts about anything and everything because there's a new life in Christ in your conscience. Conscience is distinguishing between right and wrong with the sense that one should act accordingly. Well I've got a lot of people say they're Christians but one thing about it if they are they sure don't act like it. When you get saved and you're truly saved and you put your faith in trusting Christ you're a new creation.
There's new life in Christ and your life will change. The Holy Spirit is in you and there are things that even you may not know all the verses in the Bible that relate to a particular subject and if something's okay to do or not do but the Holy Spirit will prompt you and let you know when it's not the right thing. So you have new life in Christ and your conscience and your convictions. A conviction is a basic scriptural principle which you purpose to follow without compromise.
I guess there are some questions when people ask me I really don't have to think much about it and I'll tell them no I can't do that. I'll say why not? Everybody else is doing it and I'll say well I've given my life to Christ and because I've given my life to Christ and seek to be like Him as much as possible that's something that I just cannot participate in. So there's new life in Christ and your conscience and your convictions and in your character.
Character is what you are. You know it's that even a child is known by his action and it's important to teach children the right thing but character is that combination of qualities that distinguishes you morally and ethically from others. I'll try to be a person of character to have the kind of character that the Lord Jesus would have and let me tell you when you get saved that doesn't mean that you isolate yourself from the world and you're just doing things separately. Jesus went in the world.
He was criticized for being around sinners and tax collectors and so on. The thing about it is this Jesus was in the world but he was not of the world and he stood apart from others. So you're under new management therefore if anyone being Christ you're a new creation. There's new life in Christ.
Secondly you have a new look in Christ. You know a new model of what a Christian ought to be in the way I used to be very legalistic and you know you couldn't wear long hair and you know that kind of stuff. Certain clothes you wouldn't wear and that sort of thing and I think we can all be pretty reasonable and balanced in that I used to when I preach I always wore a tie and coat and all that and I still do for the proper occasions but you know that's not the thing to look at the Bible says that man looks at the outward appearance but Jesus looks at the heart and the main thing is to have the right kind of heart. So when you get a new look in Christ this is what I mean.
In your conversation. Boy you ought to talk differently if you've been a person who uses a lot of profanity and you're always criticizing and cutting down people. I remember one of the things that I will hear about people who've been in the world and boy been pretty hardcore is people will talk about they just don't say things they used to say or you know they're just they've got a kinder spirit and that's how it ought to be. The Bible says let your conversation be as it becomes of heaven.
There's a new look in Christ in your conduct. If you're the kind of you know kids in school and I tell them yes when a child gets saved they ought to know you act differently. If you're the kind of kid who's always cutting up in class and being disrespectful to your teacher and causing trouble and that sort of thing when you get saved you ought to change. You ought to be different.
You ought to be is the best kid in class one of the most helpful kids who would be in that class and in your occupation where you are it means you're not the one who's telling the dirty jokes or criticizing another employee and so on. There's a way to have that new looking Christ in your conversation and conduct but do so with humility don't put other people down in the process and then in your countenance. I had a friend a great guy but he had a picture made when he was a rebel rouser as we called him and in our state convention if something went right he wrote letters to that. It's just all the time about what they weren't doing right but he was a good man I prayed with him many times and well that was a wonderful experience and influence on me but he had a picture made for something and he had a hat only really one a cowboy hat or a baseball hat he has a different kind of hat and then he wasn't smiling very much and we had a lot of fun with that I remember one guy who he and this pastor would go at it back and forth good naturely and that other fellas said you look like a poster child for the joyless Christian society.
Hey friends when you get saved don't look like a sour puss all the time now we do get angry about things and all we can learn don't let it affect you so much and especially toward other people may have the joy of the Lord on your heart. I remember I had a seminary professor who was going to be with the Lord now same age as me but in blonde hair and he said that they went to one of the at that time Soviet block countries and that had recently you know been freed and and they went out there and they began to witness to people and he was sitting to the side and one of the couple of the folks in that country and came up to him they were dark-haired people and all and they looked at him and said you're from America aren't you and he said yeah could you tell because of my blonde hair and they said no because of the hope that is on your face wow there's just something folks when you're at peace and you get at peace with God it kind of affects even your countenance and he was able to witness to them saying no yes I have a hope because I live in America but let me tell you about the one we all hope in and can trust in any witness doing so when you get saved your new creation under new management new life in Christ a new looking Christ and you have a new lease on life you know there's security and stability your whole scope of life changes I know some men I met who served time in prison and had done some pretty hardcore things but I tell you what I had the privilege at times to go to a federal prison in Memphis and one and I would sing and play and I would speak sometimes I went to the state prison I went to the local jail and all but I remember in federal prison I met a couple of guys and one had been a hell's angel and tattoos and all before tattoos became you know people wear them like they do today and he just had a smile about him and a piece and I got to know him and this was in 1980 or 81 he wasn't even to be able to be perold until 1992 and they had offered it before then but he would not give some information that would incriminate some of the guys he rode with you know as a hell's angel but I just remembered that the piece that was on his countenance and all even with 12 more years or so in prison I'd love to know what happened with him but he would come to those chapel services and you could just tell something was a lot different I'm going to tell you those hell's angels with a man he's a heaven's angel now is what he is so there's security you know that God's going to protect you on your new lease in life there's storms around us at times but Jesus can speak peace over the storms that are in our life their stability says in first Peter 5 10 the Lord has come to establish us and strengthen us and settle us I guess there are times in my life I just say Lord I'm just not settled right now help me to get settled we'll see he's manager of my life and the Lord wants us to be settled and he'll just help to bring some calm there's there's a song that says sometimes he calms the storm and sometimes he calms me so you're under new management if anyone be in Christ you have new life in Christ a new manager a new looking Christ a new model a new lease on life you've got a new motivation to get up and get going every day because there's something about every day you may not be the best day as far as weather or other things but you have just as much Jesus and you on those days as you do any other day of the week one other thing that happens to characteristic when you come under new management you have a new lot in life and you know what a new life is now we all I've been a full-time minister since 1981 not everyone's called to be a full-time minister I've passed your churches I've had not dinner ministry I've been a music evangelist you know things like that but your new lot in life is this we all have a ministry it says here I just love this that you are ministers of reconciliation reconciliation is to help people get reconciled to God to help people get right with God folks there are all sorts of ways that you can have a witness and be an ambassador for Christ the ministry there are all sorts of ministries the methods of difference I saw a story the other day that a pastor put up there on Facebook and he said that he had gone to a restaurant one day with some fellow ministers and said they would get together regularly at that restaurant bring their bibles and they'd have a Bible study and I said of course a lot of public people it was a public place a lot of people were there but he said he noticed one day an old man just kind of unkempt but then he came to a table and he sat down at that table and he put out a sign that said free prayers he said it took a little bit but then somebody came over there and that man sat down and prayed and then somebody else came over and they sat down and they prayed and he said for the time that those preachers said they were there with their Bible study said there was someone who came over to pray with that elderly gentleman the entire time said some would leave groups they were with folks that's a minister reconciliation that man was being an ambassador for Christ that day those preachers and I'd probably been put to shame a little bit too you know it just really spoke to them so remember one of the reason God leaves you here on this earth after you get saved if you're saved is that you'll be a minister of reconciliation a new lot in life with a new message you can be that minister reconciliation right where you are you know Jesus said to take the message to the whole world well you know where the world is right out your front door sometimes it's right at the back door I remember when the neighborhood I grew up and four back yards would come together you could sit at the fences we only have fences in the backyard at the front you could sit there and talk to your neighbor so folks it can happen anywhere you know therefore if any man be in Christ he's in the creation I want to ask you today are you saved and you become a new creation it's as simple as this the Bible says all of sin and becomes short of the glory of God but the free gift of God is eternal like the Jesus Christ our Lord and that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God is raised him from the dead you will be saved that's how we all get saved tell Billy Graham got saved he responded at a brush arbeth a revival meeting with folks you can do it right there in the hotel room in the hospital bed and just pray something like this dear God I admit I'm a sinner I confess of my sins I want to turn from my sins I ask you to come into my heart and my life right now to be my Lord and Savior believing that you died on a cross for my sins and you rose again and I want to serve you and be a minister of reconciliation as the new creation that you have made in me and folks if you pray that simple prayer welcome to God's family of faith and you'll be able to say with me as I close this program every week thanks be to you oh God who gives us the victory through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen.