A Second Chance
Psalm 18:6, 16-17 John 8:11b Luke 13:1-9
If someone had asked you…before you just saw that clip, “What do Noah, Moses, Rahab, David, Solomon, Jonah, Peter & Paul all have in common?”….what would you have said? My guess is that many of you would have said, “They are all people in the Bible”. And that would be true…they are. But more importantly, “What do they have in common with you?” (and you, and you and every single person in worship this morning) What they all have in common with one another and with every other character in the Bible, and what they have in common with you is that they all blew it in a big way. They all screwed up. They all disappointed God. They all made bad choices. They all failed at life more than once.
But what they also all have in common is that God gave them a second chance…in fact, God gave them many chances to get life right. He gave them lots of “Do Overs” and lots of grace.
Now, I don’t know where we got the image of God being an angry old man with a long beard, watching our every move, just looking for a chance to smack us down; a mean spirited ogre eager to find a reason to punish us, but it didn’t come from the Bible. Throughout the Bible, its pages shout out to anyone who will listen that, God is all about second chances. God is forever looking for opportunities to bless and forgive and to make something beautiful of the mess people make of their lives…including yours and mine.
That’s what this parable we just read is saying. Jesus is responding to those in the crowd who thought God had punished people; had them killed, in fact, because they had done something wrong. They thought God was out to get sinners every chance He got and so if someone was to commit a sin, it was “game over”. And in response, Jesus told this parable that teaches four important principles every person should know.
1. We are made and meant for good things. In fact, the Bible declares that human beings are the crown of creation, God’s masterpiece, created in God’s own image. You and me, we were not made for mundane or for mediocrity. We were not made for insignificance or failure. God made you and every other human being for greatness because He loves you…He loves us. And somewhere deep down in our spirit, each of us knows that. Every one of us knows that whoever we are, wherever we are in life, and however we are, that we long to be more than we are. We intuitively sense that we are made for more than who, how and where we are.
The tree in the parable is a beautiful tree that was MADE to bear fruit, to do something great, to bear blessings. But up to that point in its life, it had failed to do anything worthwhile. It hadn’t been productive. It hadn’t fulfilled its God-given potential or purpose. Just leaves and branches…no fruit. Its life had been barren and empty. It was made for more than that.
And if you’ll notice, the tree does not belong to itself. It belongs to the One who gave it life…who planted it. Same is true of you and me. I Corinthians says that you and me, we were bought with a price by Jesus. That’s what the cross is about. Jesus paying the price for our sin and offering us life in exchange for the death that sin brings. So in the same way that the tree belongs to the one who planted it and gave IT life, every Believer belongs to Christ, who gives life to everyone who turns to Him.
What about your life? Did you know that you were made for good things? To do good things…even great things? Do you know that God expects us to bear good fruit and to produce blessings for others? What’s the harvest look like in your life? If the Gardner came to you this morning, would He find any fruit in your life? Are you all that God created you to be? Does your life reflect the image of God?
2. No Body’s Perfect That’s not an excuse, but it IS a reality. The Bible says that “Everyone falls short of God’s perfect plan for our lives.” It says that we all screw up. We all make mistakes. We all blow it from time to time. In other words, we are all sinners. That’s easy enough to see in everyone else…their imperfections..their mistakes…their sin. But we know in our hearts that we’re not perfect either, but we sure don’t want to admit it to anyone else, do we? And when we DO recognize that WE aren’t perfect either, that we’ve blown it, that we are sinners just like everyone else, we convince ourselves that other folks are worse sinners than we are OR we think that no one is a bigger sinner than me. That no one has screwed up and made bigger mistakes than they have.
The folks in the crowd that day were trying to figure out what those people, who had died, did to tick God off. They were thinking that these folks must have been terrible people. Big sinners! And Jesus says, “What are you talking about? What happened to those poor folks had nothing to do with the kind of people they were. Bad things happen to all of us. The truth is we’ve all blown it and made choices and done bad things. That’s why we have no right to judge other people. We’re all in the same boat. We’re all sinners.
No one is perfect except Jesus, so He is the standard. It makes no sense to compare ourselves with other people or judge others because we all fall short of being perfect. And it makes no sense to think that someone else is a worse sinner than you are, OR that no one is as bad a sinner as you are. Imperfect is imperfect, big or small. Sin is sin, big or small.
And sometimes when we make a mistake in life it feels so final. When you blow it in a big way or screw up big time, you might think it’s all over for you. But I want you know this morning, that life isn’t a game in which you only have 1 chance to win before it’s over. You need to know that when you make a mistake in this life, with God you get a 2nd chance.
3. God is all about second chances—LOVES to give second chances
The first time I met John Young, he was just 26 years old. I lived in Atlanta and was attending seminary. John lived in McDonough, Georgia, where he had lived for the past nine years. We had been pen pals for nearly a year and in that time we learned a lot about each other. I knew John was a Christian and that he was born in Milledgeville, Georgia, the 4th of six children. He had told me about his mother, and how she had taken him and his brothers and sisters to their little white wooden church anytime the doors were open. Said he gave his life to Jesus at seven years old and that all through elementary school, all his friends were church friends. His mother believed he would do great things for God and he even thought that one day, he would do great things.
So, driving down I-75 from Atlanta to visit John for the very first time, I was trying to remember all the things he had written in his letters. But there was one thing he had written in his last letter to me that had stuck in my mind; something strange but profound. He said, “just when you think that you’ve made such a mess of your life that there is no way to make things right, God shows up and gives you a second chance.” I was not sure what all he meant by that, but that image was still running through my mind as I turned off the highway to where John lived: Jackson State Prison…on death row.
My friend John was a Christian. He went to church and Sunday School and Vacation Bible School faithfully as a little boy. He even gave his heart to Jesus at age seven. But somewhere around middle school, things began to get in the way of his relationship with God. He started hanging out with different friends and started doing the things they were doing. He began to drift away from his church, began partying with the “cool guys” in his high school and eventually dropped out. He really was a good person, but he made some pretty bad choices so that all his dreams turned into nightmares. And on a fateful night in the summer of 1975, intoxicated and high on drugs, John broke into a house he thought was empty to steal a few things to buy more drugs. But the house wasn’t empty, and an elderly couple woke from their sleep and walked in and startled John. And John killed them both. He didn’t mean for it to happen, it just sorta did. And at that moment, even in the fog of drugs, he knew it was over for him. He was arrested, tried, convicted and sent to prison.
But you know what? God is still God, even in prison. No matter how far you may have strayed from God, no matter how big a mistake you’ve made or how many, God is still God and His love never quits. And so it was there in prison that John discovered God’s grace in a new and wonderful way. He wrote letters of apology to the family of his victims, asking for their forgiveness. He apologized to his own family. During his nine years in prison, he finished his high school degree, completed an Associate’s degree, assisted the prison chaplain in worship, led Bible studies and even led a number of other inmates to Christ. John was electrocuted at 12:01am in the spring of 1985. But that little boy who fell in love with Jesus at age seven, and who made so many mistakes and bad choices, who lived too many years producing nothing but misery and heartache, he was given a second chance-- restored, forgiven and at peace. And in the end, John did do great things by bringing blessings in a place where blessings are scarce and to people for whom blessing is a stranger. His life had eternal significance and profound meaning to those men who heard about this God who forgives sins and offers second chances.
The thing that Noah, Moses, Rahab, David, Solomon, Peter, Paul, and John Young have in common is that they all discovered that anyone, at any time is only one prayer away from changing the trajectory of their lives because God is quick to forgive and eager to give second chances.
And you can be next. You may have blown it, made some big mistakes in your life. You may not be the most godly husband or wife, the best mother or father; you may not have squandered opportunities or made choices for which you are ashamed, but what was true to Noah and Moses and David and Peter and Paul and John Young is true for you. You are only one prayer away from changing the trajectory of your life. For years, that tree in the parable bore nothing good, but God gave it a second chance. God wants to give you a second chance today to make something worthwhile of your life. He’s not done with you yet. He hasn’t changed His plans for you. You are still meant to do good things…even great things. And you see, God’s part is to forgive you and give you a second chance and He’s done that through the cross. The prayer of repentance that can change the trajectory of your life; that’s up to you. It’s not complicated and it’s not hard. Simply saying with all your heart, “I’m sorry for my mistakes, Lord. You and I both know that I’ve blown it way too many times, but I want to try again. I want my life to have meaning and significance. Thank you for the cross and Your forgiveness. Will you give me a second chance? AMEN.
