A little boy went out to the ball field by himself, wearing his baseball cap and carrying a bat and ball. In his eye was the look of steely determination. He was so full of confidence that he put his bat on his shoulder, tossed the ball into the air, and said, “I’m the greatest batter in the world!” But he swung and missed. “Strike one,” he said. He picked up the ball, looked it over, and then threw it into the air again. As he watched the ball descend, he repeated, “I’m the greatest batter in the world.” But once more he missed. “Strike two,” he said with a puzzled look on his face, and he stopped to examine his bat to make sure there wasn’t a hole in it. A third time he picked up the ball, adjusted his cap, and tossed the ball into the air. As the ball went up a third time he repeated the refrain: “I’m the greatest batter in the world.” He swung with all his might, but he missed for the third straight time. “Strike three. Y’er out!” he said with the emphasis of an umpire. But instead of being discouraged, the boy began to jump and shout across the ballfield: “Wow! What a pitcher. I’m the greatest pitcher in the world!”
This past year may have gone very well for you. On the other hand, you may feel like you have struck out. We have all struck out in some areas. But the good news is that you don’t have to justify it somehow, or call failure by another name, because even though you may have messed up, there is always another chance to begin anew, especially with God. Anybody here need a another chance; a new beginning; a clean slate? We serve the God of second chances, and I, for one, am enormously grateful. Our sins can never be greater than the grace of God. Our failure can never be greater than the love of God. Our failure in the past does not determine what we will become in the future.
I want to point out three attitudes this morning that lead to three actions we need to take. The first attitude adjustment that God wants to plant in our minds is: Failure is not final. If failure was final none of us would make it. None of the people of the Bible would make it. In fact, the Bible is one story after another of people who messed up repeatedly, and how they were coached along by God until they got it right. Names like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jonah, David, Paul and Peter come to mind — along with many others — including my own. If failures were not included in the Bible there would be no one there. If failures were not included in the church no one would be here either. But the Bible also shows us that failure is not final. The Lord says, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:34). That’s why the Bible says, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
In the movie City Slickers, Billy Crystal plays Mitch, a 40-year-old radio ad salesman who lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children. He feels trapped in the predictability and monotony of his life. His wife encourages him to, “Go and find your smile.” So he joins his best friends, Ed and Phil, for a two-week vacation on a working dude ranch that turns into a full fledged cattle drive. Not only is Mitch going through a mid-life crisis, but his friends are in various stages of crisis as well. One evening it all comes to a head, as Phil collapses in depression over his failed life and marriage. Mitch explains the concept of a “do-over” to Phil. He says, “Hey Phil, now you’ve got a chance to start over. You know. Do you remember when we were kids and we would be playing ball, and the ball would get stuck up in a tree or something? And we would all yell, ‘Do-over!’ Your life is a ‘do-over.’ You’ve got a clean slate.”
It is wonderful that God gives us a chance to do it over. The Bible says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We serve a God of new beginnings.
The second attitude that God wants us to adopt is: Bad results can be redeemed. Bad choices lead to bad consequences. Many of us are living with the results of a wrong decision. It is true that God forgives our past sins, and that he heals the wounds with which sin has injured us. However, there are scars that remain even from a healed wound. But even scars can serve a purpose. They remind us of what happens when we rebel against God and try to go our own way. They also serve to help us relate to other people who have wounds. We can help them to know that wounds can heal and that the consequences of our actions can be redeemed. God uses everything in our lives — even our failures.
Peter was the most confident of Jesus’ disciples. He really believed that even if everyone fell away from Jesus he would still stand. But when it came down to it, he was the one who betrayed Jesus in his most difficult hour. Three times he denied that he even knew Jesus. Immediately after the cock crowed, and red hot shame burned within him, hotter than the fire around which he and the others were standing. He lived with that shame for several days — the day of the crucifixion, the days of Jesus’ burial, even after the resurrection — until one day he and some of the other disciples were fishing out on the Sea of Galilee. The risen Jesus called to them from the shore: “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” They answered in the negative. They were even failures at their old profession. They felt like they couldn’t do anything right. But Jesus called them “friends” — these who had deserted and denied him. Peter jumped out of the boat and swam to the shore, longing to be reconciled with the Savior he loved. When he came to the fire, Jesus looked him in the eye and asked: “Peter, do you love me?” The fire brought back memories of his betrayal and Jesus’ words pierced him like a knife. He said, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.” But a second time the question is thrust into his heart: “Peter, do you love me?” Again, Peter agonizingly answers in the affirmative. Then a third time, Jesus asks the question again. Peter is distraught, but answers what he knows in his heart to be true, in spite of his failure: “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” It seemed to him like Jesus was asking repeatedly because he didn’t believe him, but then the truth dawned on him: Jesus was giving him three times to affirm his love for him, after he had denied him three times. Jesus gave him a chance to redeem himself. He took his denial and turned it into a proclamation of love. And he wants to do the same for you.
John Ortberg has written, “Redeeming is what God is into. He is the finder of directionally-challenged sheep, the searcher of missing coins, the embracer of foolish prodigal children. His favorite department is ‘Lost and Found.’ If there is one way that human beings consistently underestimate God’s love, it is perhaps in His loving longing to forgive.”
The third point is that all of this means: The future is open. The future is as bright as the promises of God. Failure does not mean that you are finished. God can not only forgive your sin, he can redeem what you have done. You are not doomed to repeat your mistakes and relive your lifestyle. Your future is not dictated by your past. Something new awaits you. It is a future designed by God. Jesus said, “I am making everything new” (Revelation 21:5).
The apostle Paul knew how to face the future, for he said, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).
How do we press on toward the goal? It is important to have another chance and a clean slate, but there is something important required on our part. Do you remember what Jesus said happened when an evil spirit came out of a man. The evil spirit found no place to dwell, so he came back to the man to find the house of the his heart swept clean and put in order — but unoccupied. Jesus said, “Then [the unclean spirit] goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first” (Matthew 12:45).
True change comes when, first of all: You have a new occupant. It is not enough to straighten out your act and have things clean and in order. That is a negative condition. We must actively invite God to occupy our lives. We are no longer keeping God in our pocket, or using him when we are in trouble. He is no longer a hobby or a passing interest — he is life itself. He is in control, and we have given up trying to get our way and run life ourselves. He is not just in the guest room — he is invited into every room of the house. And suddenly life begins to work. You are not only swept clean and have things in order, there is a new occupant in the house. Everything is different now. New power comes with a new Presence in your life. When you are full of self, you are empty and there is a malevolent force waiting to fill the void. You may think your house is in order, but without the filling of the Holy Spirit it will not stay that way for long.
This filling was what changed the early church from a band of people who shared a common belief system into a transforming movement that changed the world. The Bible describes them this way: “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (Acts 4:31). When they allowed God to fill them, God used them to change the world. The same thing must happen to you today.
Secondly, true change comes when: You seek truth. Part of the reason that you have had failure and dysfunction in your life is that you have believed the wrong things. Sometimes you have even consciously or unconsciously rejected the truth of God. You wanted to be able to figure things out on your own. You wanted to trust your own thinking rather than submit your mind to the Word of God. So the result was that you believed things that were not true and acted on them. You believed that you did not have to obey God in everything and you could get by with doing what you wanted. But chaos and dysfunction began to come into your life. Things began to fall apart.
The point is this: Wrong thinking results in wrong living. Actions begin as ideas. If your ideas are wrong then the things you do will be full of error. You need to fill your mind with the Word of God, just as you need to fill your life with God. Would you want a mechanic working on your car who was unwilling to take any training because he liked to figure things out for himself? How about a dentist? How about a doctor who was never willing to submit to the authority and knowledge of his instructors, but who still liked to diagnose people’s illnesses and prescribe medicine? Worse yet, how about a surgeon who wields the knife in the operating room without studying surgery, and says to the nurse in the operating room, “I’ve never seen this before! It must not be important, I think I will just cut it out.”
How about a husband or wife who knew something of what the Bible said about life and family, but had their own agenda? How about someone who thinks they can develop their own standard of morality? They determine what is right and wrong for themselves. How about a Christian who thinks that none of the rules apply to him or her, because getting their needs met at this particular time is more important than obeying God? You have to seek the truth and apply it if your new chance is going to end up being a new beginning.
The most dangerous thing in the world is for a Christian to think: “I know enough already. I don’t need anyone to teach me anything. I don’t need anyone else.” When that happens you have stopped growing. It is the beginning of ignorance. It could be your spiritual downfall, especially since the Bible tells us, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). This is why we need each other.
The third thing that brings about true change is when: You change your actions. The most destructive thing you can do is to say: “This is just who I am. I can’t change at this stage in my life. People just have to accept me this way.” That may be true when we are talking about your basic personality type, but when it comes to hurtful and destructive actions, then you have to be humble enough to be willing to change. You cannot expect your life to work when you think that you can love God and do as you please. The Bible says, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2). One of the greatest frustrations to me as a pastor is that there seems to be a great disconnect in our culture between our Christian beliefs and our moral behavior. People want to be Christians, but they want to do what they want to do. And when it comes to being a Christian or giving up something they want, they let their Christian life go out the window. A second chance will not mean much if you are going to continue in some sinful behavior.
During the great Welsh Revivals of the 19th century, the Holy Spirit came upon people in a powerful way. They became so aware of their sin and the need to turn from it that the whole culture was transformed. Conviction was strong, and many people felt a need to make restitution. But it created an unexpected problem for the shipyards along the coast of Wales. Over the years, workers had stolen everything from wheelbarrows to ropes to hammers. As people sought to be right with God, they began to return what they had taken. The result was that the shipyards of Wales were soon overwhelmed with returned property. There were such huge stockpiles of returned tools that several of the yards put up signs that read, “If you have been led by God to return what you have stolen, please know that the management forgives you and wishes you to keep what you have taken.”
Imagine if that kind of conviction and resulting obedience would happen here in this country. Our second chance might actually lead to a new life. And the lives of Christians might actually impact the culture and change the world.
Rodney J. Buchanan
January 1, 2011
Amity United Methodist Church
rodbuchanan2000@yahoo.com
