Friends, I want to start with a question that I've been pondering this week, and I believe it's one that touches every single person here today. How many of you have ever looked up at the night sky—I mean really looked up at it—away from the city lights, where the stars shine so bright they take your breath away? There's something about a starry night that puts everything into perspective, isn't there? The vastness. The beauty. The sense that we're part of something so much bigger than ourselves.

But here's what strikes me most about the night sky: Every single night is different. The stars may seem fixed, but they're constantly moving. The earth is rotating. Everything is in motion. And when the sun rises in the morning, you're greeted with a brand new day. Yesterday's darkness is gone. Yesterday's worries are past. You have a fresh start, a new beginning, a chance to walk in a completely different direction than you did yesterday.

This is exactly what God offers you today. Not just a new day on the calendar, but a transformed walk with Him. A complete renewal of your steps. A total change in your direction. And I'm not talking about minor adjustments or slight improvements. I'm talking about the kind of transformation that only God can accomplish—the kind that takes your old life and makes it completely new.

Let me read to you from Romans 6:4, a verse that has shaped my understanding of Christian transformation for twenty-five years of ministry: "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." Or as some translations put it, we too may "walk in newness of life."

Walk in newness of life. Those five words contain a promise so powerful, so revolutionary, so absolutely life-changing that if you truly grasp them, you will never be the same again. You were buried with Christ. The old you—with all its failures, all its habits, all its bondage—was buried. And just as Christ rose from the dead, you rose too. But you didn't rise to continue the same old patterns. You didn't rise to repeat the same old mistakes. You didn't rise to walk the same old path. No! You rose to walk in newness of life.

Now, I've been in ministry for a quarter of a century, and for twenty of those years, I've specialized in restoration work—walking with people who are trying to rebuild their lives after devastating setbacks, crushing failures, and debilitating addictions. And I can tell you from experience: The number one obstacle that prevents people from walking in newness of life is not their past. It's not their circumstances. It's not even their temptations. The biggest obstacle is their unwillingness to truly leave the old habits behind.

Let me paint you a picture. Imagine you're hiking through a forest, and you come to a river you need to cross. But the bridge that used to be there has collapsed. It's broken, unstable, dangerous. You can see the other side—it's beautiful, lush, full of promise. But to get there, you have to let go of the broken bridge and trust the new bridge that's been built just upstream. Some people spend their entire lives standing at that broken bridge, holding onto it, convinced that somehow it will magically repair itself if they just hold on long enough. They can see the new bridge. They know it's there. But they won't let go of the old one.

This is what I see happening in people's spiritual lives all the time. God has provided a new bridge—a transformed walk, a renewed path, a fresh start. But they're clinging to old habits, old patterns, old ways of thinking that have already proven to be broken and unstable. And they wonder why they're not experiencing the abundant life Jesus promised.

Here's a truth I need you to hear today, and I say this with all the compassion and conviction of someone who has walked with hundreds of people through their darkest valleys: You cannot walk in newness of life while dragging your old life behind you. You cannot experience transformation while refusing to leave behind what needs to be transformed. You cannot move forward while constantly looking backward.

Jesus put it this way in Luke 9:62: "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Why? Because when you're plowing a field, if you keep looking back, your rows will be crooked. You'll wander off course. You'll never accomplish what you set out to do. The only way to plow a straight furrow is to fix your eyes on a point ahead of you and move steadily toward it.

Your spiritual walk requires the same focus. You must fix your eyes on Jesus, on the path ahead, on the new life He's calling you into. And you must—you absolutely must—stop constantly looking back at what you're leaving behind.

But here's where it gets challenging, where the rubber meets the road, where many people stumble. Leaving old habits behind isn't just about willpower or determination or trying harder. If it were that simple, we'd all be transformed by now. No, the key to leaving old habits behind and walking in newness of life is found in something that our culture has largely forgotten and our modern church has often neglected: humility.

Listen to what the apostle Paul writes in Philippians 2:3-4: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." Now, you might be thinking, "Pastor, what does humility have to do with leaving my old habits behind?" Everything. Absolutely everything.

You see, most of our destructive habits—whether they're addiction patterns, relational habits, thought patterns, or behavioral cycles—are rooted in pride. Now, before you dismiss this, hear me out. Pride isn't just thinking you're better than others. Pride is also the stubborn insistence on handling things your own way. Pride is the refusal to admit you need help. Pride is the belief that you can fix yourself if you just try hard enough. Pride is resisting God's way because it requires you to humble yourself and acknowledge your own insufficiency.

I've sat across from people who have destroyed their marriages, ruined their careers, and alienated their children through addiction. And when I ask them, "Are you ready to humble yourself and get the help you need?" do you know what many of them say? "I can handle this myself." That's pride. I've counseled individuals who are trapped in patterns of unforgiveness, bitterness, and resentment. And when I challenge them to forgive, to release the offense, to let go of their right to revenge, they say, "You don't understand what they did to me." That's pride.

The path to transformation—to truly walking in newness of life—requires profound humility. It requires saying, "God, I cannot do this on my own. I've tried my way and it hasn't worked. I need Your power. I need Your grace. I need Your transformation." It requires acknowledging that you are not sufficient in yourself, but He is more than sufficient for you.

First Peter 5:5-6 drives this home with crystal clarity: "God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time." Did you catch that? God doesn't just ignore the proud—He actively opposes them. But He shows favor to the humble. He lifts them up. He transforms them. He enables them to walk in newness of life.

This is what I've witnessed over and over again in two decades of restoration ministry. The people who experience genuine, lasting transformation are not the ones who think they have it all figured out. They're not the ones who come to counseling or support groups with all the answers. They're the ones who come broken, humble, desperate, saying, "I need help. I need God. I can't do this alone."

Now, let me connect this to something else that's absolutely essential for transformation: forgiveness. You cannot walk in newness of life while harboring unforgiveness in your heart. It's impossible. Unforgiveness is like walking with a ball and chain attached to your ankle. You might be able to shuffle forward a few steps, but you'll never experience the freedom of running in the wide-open spaces of God's grace.

Jesus makes this abundantly clear in Matthew 6:14-15: "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." Those are sobering words, aren't they? Jesus isn't suggesting that forgiveness is a nice option for spiritually mature people. He's saying it's a non-negotiable requirement for experiencing God's forgiveness in your own life.

Think about this carefully. How can you walk in the newness of resurrection life while simultaneously holding onto the death grip of unforgiveness? How can you experience the transforming power of God's grace while refusing to extend that same grace to others? It's contradictory. It's impossible. It's like trying to walk north and south at the same time.

I remember a woman I counseled several years ago—let me call her Sarah. Sarah had been deeply wounded by her father. The betrayal, the abandonment, the emotional damage was real and devastating. She came to our restoration ministry broken, angry, unable to trust anyone. And for months, we worked together on her healing. But every time we got close to the issue of forgiveness, she would shut down. "I can't forgive him," she'd say. "You don't know what he did."

And I would gently respond, "You're right, Sarah. I don't know the full extent of your pain. But I do know this: As long as you hold onto your unforgiveness, you're allowing your father to continue controlling your life. You're giving him power over your present and your future because of what he did in your past. The only way to break that chain is to forgive—not because he deserves it, but because you deserve to be free."

It took time. It took prayer. It took a lot of tears and courageous choices. But the day Sarah finally chose to forgive her father—truly forgive him, release him, let go of her right to revenge—was the day her transformation accelerated exponentially. Within months, I watched her go from a bitter, wounded, defensive woman to someone radiant with joy, peace, and freedom. She didn't just change her circumstances. She transformed her walk with God.

That's what forgiveness does. It doesn't excuse what was done to you. It doesn't minimize the pain. It doesn't pretend the injury never happened. But it releases you from the prison of resentment and opens the door to transformation. Ephesians 4:32 puts it this way: "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

Just as in Christ God forgave you. That's the model. That's the standard. That's the motivation. You forgive others not because they deserve it, not because they've earned it, not because they've apologized sufficiently. You forgive them because God forgave you when you didn't deserve it, hadn't earned it, and couldn't possibly apologize sufficiently for your sins against Him.

This is humility in action. Recognizing that you are a forgiven sinner enables you to extend forgiveness to other sinners. Understanding how much you've been forgiven makes it possible to forgive others. Grasping the magnitude of God's grace toward you empowers you to show grace to those who've hurt you.

And when you do this—when you humble yourself, when you forgive, when you release the old habits and old grudges and old patterns—you create space for God's transformative power to work in your life. You open yourself up to walking in genuine newness of life.

But let me be clear about something: This transformation isn't instantaneous. It's not a one-time decision that magically fixes everything. Walking in newness of life is exactly that—a walk. It's a journey. It's a process. It's daily steps in the right direction, powered by God's grace and enabled by His Spirit.

Colossians 3:13 acknowledges this reality: "Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Notice it says "bear with each other." This implies an ongoing process. Transformation doesn't happen overnight. There will be setbacks. There will be moments of weakness. There will be times when you stumble. But you bear with one another. You forgive one another. You keep walking forward together.

This is why community is so essential for transformation. You cannot walk this path alone. You need other believers alongside you, encouraging you, holding you accountable, picking you up when you fall, celebrating with you when you make progress. At The Restoration Point, this is the foundation of everything we do. We don't just preach transformation—we walk with people through it. We create community where people can be honest about their struggles, receive grace for their failures, and find support for their journey toward newness of life.

I've been doing this long enough to know that the people who succeed in transformation are not the ones with the most willpower or the strongest determination. They're the ones who humble themselves enough to admit they need help, who forgive others as they've been forgiven, and who commit to walking in community with fellow travelers on the journey of faith.

Proverbs 11:2 says it perfectly: "When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." Wisdom. That's what you need for this journey. Not just knowledge. Not just information. Wisdom—the ability to apply God's truth to your specific situation, to make decisions that honor Him, to navigate the challenges of leaving old habits behind and embracing new patterns.

And that wisdom comes through humility. When you humble yourself before God, when you acknowledge your need for Him, when you stop pretending you have it all together and start admitting you desperately need His help, that's when His wisdom begins to flow into your life. That's when you start making better choices. That's when you begin to see the path clearly. That's when transformation accelerates.

Let me bring this all together and make it intensely practical. If you want to transform your walk with God, if you want to experience the newness of life that Christ offers, if you want to leave your old habits behind and step into the abundant life Jesus promised, here's what you need to do:

First, humble yourself before God. Stop trying to manage your own transformation. Stop thinking you can fix yourself if you just try harder. Acknowledge your complete dependence on Him. Say out loud, "God, I need You. I cannot do this without You. I surrender my life, my habits, my struggles, my everything to You."

Second, forgive everyone who has hurt you. I don't care how deep the wound is. I don't care how unjust the offense was. I don't care if they've never apologized. Choose to forgive anyway—not for their sake, but for yours. Release them. Let go of your bitterness. Break the chains that are holding you back from transformation.

Third, find community. Connect with a church, a small group, a restoration ministry like The Restoration Point where you can be honest about your struggles and receive support for your journey. Don't try to walk this path alone. God designed transformation to happen in community, not in isolation.

Fourth, take one step forward today. Don't wait until you feel ready. Don't wait until circumstances are perfect. Don't wait until you have everything figured out. Take one step—just one—in the direction of newness of life. Maybe it's getting rid of something that's causing you to stumble. Maybe it's reaching out for help. Maybe it's having a difficult conversation. Maybe it's choosing to forgive. Whatever that one step is for you, take it today.

As I close, I want to speak directly to those of you who feel stuck, who've tried to change countless times and failed, who've given up hope that transformation is possible for you. I've walked with hundreds of people through this journey, and I can tell you with absolute certainty: God's transformative power is real. It works. It's available to you right now. But you must humble yourself. You must forgive. You must take that first step.

The starry night sky reminds us that God is constantly doing something new. Each night is different. Each morning brings fresh possibilities. And God is offering you the same thing in your spiritual life. He's not asking you to repair the broken bridge of your old life. He's inviting you to cross over to the new bridge He's already built—the bridge of His grace, His forgiveness, His transforming power.

Will you cross over today? Will you humble yourself, forgive others, and take that first step toward newness of life? The choice is yours. But I can promise you this: If you will take that step in faith, God will meet you there. He will transform you. He will renew you. He will enable you to walk in a newness of life that you never thought possible.

Twenty years of restoration ministry has taught me that God specializes in impossible transformations. He takes the most broken lives and makes them whole. He takes the most stubborn habits and breaks their power. He takes the most wounded hearts and heals them completely. And He wants to do the same for you.

Let me pray for you:

Father God, I lift up every person reading these words right now. You know their struggles. You know their habits. You know the wounds they carry and the chains that bind them. Lord, I pray that Your Spirit would fill them with the courage to humble themselves, the grace to forgive others, and the faith to take that first step toward transformation. Do in them what only You can do. Break the power of old habits. Heal old wounds. Renew their minds. Transform their walk. Enable them to experience the newness of life that Christ purchased for them on the cross. We ask this in the powerful name of Jesus, who conquered death and offers us resurrection life. Amen.

Your transformation starts today, my friend. Not tomorrow. Not when you feel ready. Today. Right now. With one humble step of faith. And we're here to walk that journey with you at The Restoration Point. Visit www.therestorationpoint.com to find resources, community, and support for your transformation journey. And if this message has touched your heart, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. Forward it to a friend, a family member, a colleague who's struggling. Together, we can see lives transformed by the power of God's amazing grace.

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