In life “Do-overs” are not the norm… In “No Wonder They Call Him Savior.” Max Lucado writes:
I. “Not many second chances exist in the world today.. Just ask the kid who didn’t make the little league team or the fellow who got the pink slip or the mother of three who dumped for a ‘pretty little thing.’ Not many second chances. Nowadays it’s more like, “It’s now or never,” “Around here we don’t tolerate incompetence” Gotta get tough to get along.” “Not much room at the top.” “Three strikes and your out..” BUT wouldn’t it be great if there was something called “Do-overs”?
”A policeman stops you for speeding, you just tear up the ticket and say – Thanks officer but I’ll be taking a “Do over” today… The bank says you bounced a check. “Do over”, you say, “No problem” they say back” (“We will even waive your service charges!”)…. “You get in an argument with a friend and you say something mean & cruel – I think I’ll be taking that “Do over” now – “Sure thing”,” comes their reply… “Fail a test, blow a presentation at work, invest in the wrong company, forget to send in your taxes…” “All right Mr. I.R.S. man, – I’ll be taking a “Do over” this year!” (3) Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? To have a shot at second chances?
Over the last couple of weeks I have spoken about “Drawing Near to God”. First, I challenged you to “Walk with God”, like Enoch walked. Then in the second week, I called upon you to “Draw Near in the Temple” rooting out the sin in your life and making a holy dwelling place for God. The response to both sermons has been overwhelming, though several of you commented that during the second one, I stepped on a few toes and that “I should have warned you to wear your steal toed boots”. Believe me, I don’t apologize if “The Word of God put a little weight on your toes”, but I did feel lead to follow that up with a call to “Draw near to Grace”.
Gen 6:8 tells us “That Noah found grace in the Lord’s sight”. In fact if I count correctly the first 26 references to “grace” in the Old Testament refer to someone who “found grace” either in “The Lord’s sight” or “the Lord’s eyes”. Another way to say it, is that Noah found “favor”. The favor of the Lord was upon Noah, and has Noah drew nearer, and nearer to God, the grace of God abounded. Recently, Lewis Nowlin pointed out in the men’s Bible study that Noah was about 500 years old when he was instructed to build the ark, and he was about 600 years old when the first rains began to fall. One hundred years to build the ark, and he was by any standards already a very old man. Can you imagine spending 100 years doing something that all your neighbors thought was crazy? We are not sure they had even ever seen rain up to this point! But in faithfulness Noah drew near to God, and the grace of God abounded more and more.
BUT, grace isn’t really something you can work for, is it? And grace isn’t something you can just be faithful and receive, is it? Grace isn’t something you can buy, when you need an extra measure of it, really, is it? BUT rather grace is something that comes, not only when we don’t deserve it, but especially when we don’t deserve it.
Paul writes about it in this fifth Chapter of Romans. “For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit, to fill our hearts with love. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” (5:5b-6) Can you imagine that for just a good person, no one is likely to die? O’ old Joe was a good person, but I wasn’t running in to that fire to save him! Now for a really good person, for someone who is especially good, I might be willing to die! Now lets see, who here is a really, really, really good person that would be worth dieing for? Well, if we find one, I’m certain that someone would be willing to risk their life for them!
But what about for a sinner? Would someone be willing to die for someone who is living a life of sin? “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were yet sinners.” (5:8). Don’t you just love that part of the communion liturgy that proclaims “Hear the good news, Christ died for you while you were yet sinners (still sinners), that proves God’s love for you. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.”
Grace abounds all the more, and more while you are still in sin. “As people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant”. (5:20b), but “Are we to remain in sin?”, Paul asks (6:1). If grace abounds when we sin, then should we not continue in sin, to that grace may abound? “Certainly not!”, “But because we have died to sin, we cannot continue to live in it!”. (6:2) But grace continues to abound, and so we should draw near to grace.
II. I understand that the “Microsoft” … “operating system for PCs has the version called “Windows "Me"— short for Windows Millennial Edition.” And that “one feature of Windows Me that has caused a stir is its new "system restore" feature. How does it work? Suppose you suffer a system crash on your computer this Thursday. You’re not a computer expert, and you don’t know how to recover the last two weeks of financial information you entered Wednesday, your daughter’s history report she started writing Monday, or your favorite game. All you have to do is select "system restore" and specify the date to which you want your machine reset. Voila! Problem solved. All the things you somehow messed up are put back in their configuration as of that earlier day.
Wouldn’t you like to market that feature for human lives? (A “Do over” button) Do you think you could supply it fast enough to keep up with the demand? Rob would "system restore" to the day before he began the affair. Myrtle would go back to the day before she tampered with payroll data. Ivan would choose the day before the big fight that caused his son to run away from home.
Maybe you can remember the day when things crashed for you—and you’d give anything you own to restore things to the way they were. God won’t erase all the consequences of our actions, but he promises things far better: to forgive us, to work for the highest good even through what is bad, and one day to make all things new. What Windows Me calls "system restore" God calls redemption. (1) It is to me drawing near and living in a life of grace, but if you truly receive the grace of God in your life, then your life must be different. Paul says it in that very next Chapter (6:6-7) “Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.” We sang it “What can was away our sin?, What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!”. In Christ we have a “Do-over”. Not that we can go back in our lives and make everything from our past better. That is why they call it the “past”, because it is past and gone. But we can make the “present”, that is why they call it the present, because it is a “present” (a gift) from God, that you can take today and live a life of grace.
The story is told about “New Year’s Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played UCLA in the Rose Bowl. In that game a young man named Roy Riegels, Team Captain, recovered a fumble for UCLA, that had been fumbled by Stumpy Thomason from Georgia Tech. Picking up the loose ball, he lost his direction and ran sixty-five yards toward the wrong goal line. One of his teammates, Beeny Lom, ran him down and tackled him just before he scored for the opposing team.” He was dubbed “Wrong Way Riegels”
“Several plays later the Bruins had to punt. Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety, demoralizing the UCLA team. The strange play came in the first half. At halftime the UCLA players filed off the field and into the dressing room. As others sat down on the benches and the floor, Riegels put a blanket around his shoulders, sat down in a corner, and put his face in his hands.
A football coach usually has a great deal to say to his team during halftime. That day Coach Price was quiet. No doubt he was trying to decide what to do with Riegels.
When the timekeeper came in and announced that there were three minutes before playing time, Coach Price looked at the team and said, "Men, the same team that played the first half will start the second." The players got up and started out, all but Riegels. He didn’t budge. The coach looked back and called to him. Riegels sat and said, "Roy, didn’t you hear me? The same team that played the first half will start the second. "Roy Riegels looked up, his cheeks wet with tears. "Coach," he said, "I can’t do it. I’ve ruined you. I’ve ruined the university’s reputation. I’ve ruined myself. I can’t face the crowd out there."
Coach Price reached out, put his hand on Riegels’ shoulder, and said, "Roy, get up and go back. The game is only half over." …
All of us have run a long way in the wrong direction. Because of the forgiveness offered in Jesus Christ, however, the game is not over.” Draw near to God – draw near to grace, and you will find, that grace is drawing near to you. (2)
(1) Ryan Johnson, www.sermoncentral.com
(2) Mike Leiter, www.sermoncentral.com also www.jobsnorthwest.com/Stories/Story_950815.htm
(3) Steve Malone, www.sermoncentral.com
