Leader’s Manual – Fresh Start With God

Forgiveness & Relationship

Encouragement – Handling Failure Scripture – Understanding God’s Word Help – Following God’s Guidance

Our theme verse for this study is Psalm 32:11 (MSG), let’s read it together: Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be – you get a fresh start, your slate’s wiped clean.

Last week we looked at the F and the R in Fresh Start. The F stands for Forgiveness—Accepting God’s Grace, and the R stands for Relationship – Worshipping.

Tonight we’ll be taking a close look at the rest of Fresh – E for encouragement, S for scripture, and H for help. It’s important for us to take a close look at so much of life. I read a report of an elderly lady who did her shopping, and when she returned to her car she found four men sitting in it. She dropped her shopping bags and drew a large hidden handgun from her purse and started to scream at them at the top of her voice. She assured them that she knew how to use it and that she would if she needed to. The four men didn’t wait around for a second invitation, but got out and ran like mad. Satisfied, the lady loaded her shopping bags into the back of the car, and climbed into the driver’s seat. Small problem though, her key wouldn’t fit in the ignition. Taking a closer look, she discovered her car, which was identical, parked four or five spaces farther down.   Terribly embarrassed, she loaded her bags into her car and being unable to find any of the young men she pointed her gun at, she drove to the police station. She told the sergeant the story, and he laughed so hard his side was splitting…as he pointed to the other end of the counter where four males, white as ghosts, were reporting a car-jacking by a mad elderly woman with a large handgun. No charges were filed. Let’s get started, by taking a look at the gift of encouragement that God gives to every believer.  

Shape – Being You Togetherness – Living in Community Authority – Serving Others   Our theme verse for this study is Psalm 32:11 (MSG), let’s read it together: Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be – you get a fresh start, your slate’s wiped clean. Our first week we looked at the F and the R in Fresh Start. The F stands for Forgiveness—Accepting God’s Grace, and the R stands for Relationship – Worshipping. Then last week we took a look at the rest of Fresh – E for encouragement, S for scripture, and H for help. Tonight we’re going to begin the word Start by taking a look at the S – your shape, don’t let that bother you, I’m talking about your spiritual shape, being you. Then we’ll look at the T that stands for togetherness, what it means to be part of a faith community, and then the A, the authority Jesus has given you to serve Him by serving others. Let’s get started.

Recognition– Being Baptized Testimony – Sharing Your Story Our theme verse for this study is Psalm 32:11 (MSG), let’s read it together: Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be – you get a fresh start, your slate’s wiped clean. Our first week we looked at the F and the R in Fresh Start. The F stands for Forgiveness—Accepting God’s Grace, and the R stands for Relationship – Worshipping. Then we took a look at the rest of Fresh – E for encouragement, S for scripture, and H for help. Last week we began the word Start by taking a look at the S – your shape, at the T that stands for togetherness, what it means to be part of a faith community, and then the A, the authority Jesus has given you to serve Him by serving others. Tonight, we’ll finish the word Start by exploring the R for recognition, demonstrating your faith by being baptized and the T for testimony, beginning to think about telling your story to the people you’ll know. Here we go.