In the old movie, City Slickers, there is a scene in which three friends are together, and one of them is telling the others about how he has messed up his entire life. He’s lost his wife. He’s lost his child. He’s lost his job. He’s lost his self respect. He’s lost everything. He is basically telling his friends, “It’s all over. I’ve lost everything.”
To this the character played by Billy Crystal says, “No, that’s not true. You have everything to live for. It’s a fresh start. It’s a ‘do-over’.” Then Crystal reminds his friend that when they were children, playing baseball in the old neighborhood, occasionally one of them would hit the ball toward an old tree and it would get caught up in the tree and interfere with the play. All the kids would yell ‘Do over’ and they would do the play all over again.
“Your life is a do-over,” Crystal tells his friend.
How many of us here today would love to have a “do-over” in our life?
How many of you here this morning would like to have a fresh start in your life?
Many of us here this morning have made many mistakes in our lives.
We have experienced many setbacks and failures throughout our lives. Sometimes we allow these mistakes, these setbacks and failures to enslave us to the point that we never enjoy the full Christian life that God has given us to enjoy.
We have a dead-end job, and we feel stuck thinking, “I went into the wrong career and now there is nothing I can do about it.”
We get married, only to find the marriage is a failure. It may end in divorce, or it may survive as a tragic, unending chain of arguments and fights.
We say something to a loved one or friend, and then we are ostracized from them for the rest of our lives.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus said, “I am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
The good news is, God says, “I want you to have a fresh start in life, I want you to have a new beginning, I want to do something new in your life.”
That is a major element of what our Christian faith is all about – the opportunity to start fresh. To do something new with our life. To have a ‘do-over.’
This is a constant theme in the Scriptures.
St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans (Rom 6:4) that through baptism, our old life is buried, in order that we “we may live a new life.”
St. Paul also wrote in his letter to the Corinthians, (II Cor 5:17), “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
We just finished our 40 Days of Purpose program. What a great program we had here! And many of you used this as a time to have a fresh new start for your spiritual life. But don’t worry! Even if you let the 40 Days of Purpose go past you without letting it impact your life, you always have the opportunity to begin anew!
In our Old Testament lesson, Isaiah (43:18) says that the Lord tells us, “Forget about what has happened before. Do not think about the past. Instead, look at the new things I’m going to do.”
We need to understand that God is far more interested in our future than He is in our past. Some people think that God is stuck on their past. That all He wants to do is remind them of the things that they have done wrong. God is more interested in your future than He is with your past. That’s where you’re going to spend the rest of your life. He says, “Forget about your past. Forget about the former things. Don’t think about it. Look at the new thing I’m going to do.”
Israel was being punished for their sins and rebellion against God. God wanted to give hope and encouragement to His people. He wanted them to know that even though they were being punished they were not being forsaken. God wanted His people to understand that the punishment that they were experiencing would not be the end of them. The fact is that God want to give them a fresh start in life, a new Beginning in life.
In the Old Testament lesson, Israel no doubt was discouraged because they thought this was the end of them. They had gone to far, they had sinned and rebelled against God to he point that He would no longer be their God. Maybe they thought God would not deliver them again, it’s over. That is when they begin to remember the former things or past deliverances. Israel could remember past victories. They could remember when they were trapped by the Red Sea and had nowhere to go, how God made a way for them. They could remember that when the enemy was about to overtake them how He provided protection for them. They could remember the former things, but they couldn’t see their future. That is why God said; “I am going to do something new.
Maybe that is where you are this morning!
You feel that you have made so many mistakes.
You’ve squandered all of your opportunities.
You’ve failed yourself, your family, God.
And it is easy to think that it’s over, but God says, that it’s not over, that He can make all things new.
So how do you go about making a fresh start?
The first step is to stop making excuses.
If I want a fresh start in life, I have to stop making excuses for my failures. I’ve got to stop blaming other people. I’ve got to stop seeing myself as the victim of my circumstances.
Other people can hurt us, other people can harm us, and other people can scar us. But the only person that can ruin your life is you. Nobody can ruin your life without your permission. You have a choice and that is you can choose how you’re going to respond to those hurts and set backs. The Bible says that the starting point is to just be honest and accept responsibility for your part in the problem.
Proverbs 28:13 says, “A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confess and forsakes them he gets another chance.”
He gets a fresh start.
It is hard to get people to admit when they are wrong. People do not like to admit, “I made a mistake, and I blew it. ” God says, “That if we admit the mistake, if we admit our failures, and if we admit our sin, then we get another chance in life.
Many people blame others for all of their troubles. They make excuses for their problems. And they give up. But we can’t give up. A fresh start is available to us right now.
Proverbs 24:10 says, "If you give up when troubles come, it just shows that you are weak."
It’s always too soon to quit. The Bible says we need to stop making excuses, admit when it’s our fault and get on with life. I’ve discovered that people who are very good at making excuses are rarely good at anything else. They spend all their energy thinking up reasons why they can’t do what they’re supposed to do.
The next step is to Act In Faith!
You have to launch out into new territory. The Bible says that the key to changing anything is faith. If you want to change your circumstance, it takes faith. If you want to change your personality, it takes faith. If you want to change anything in your life, you have to have faith.
Jesus says this in Matthew 9. “According to your faith it will be done to you.” That is a very simple statement but it’s very powerful. “According to your faith it will be done to you.” That means we tend to get out of life what we expect. “According to your faith it will be done to you."
What are you expecting in life? Are things going to be better or worse? Are they going to be the same? If you act in faith then you will do something positive to ensure that you don’t repeat the same mistakes over.
The faith that I am talking about is not a dead-hope-faith. It is an affirmative faith that takes positive action coupled with the help of God to change your life.
In order to start acting in faith that means you’ve got to stop feeling sorry for yourself.
“Poor me! I’m such a victim. Life is unfair.”
Of course life is unfair! Whoever said it was fair? God never said that. This is a world filled with sin and evil and tragedy and because of that, life is unfair. But you have to go on with life anyway. You have to stop rehearsing the past, regretting the past, and you get on with the present and the future. The more time we spend regretting our past, the more of our future is wasted. The more time you spend thinking, "I wish that hadn’t happened! I wish I could change that. If only I could go back, reverse the clock and redo history," and you’re rehearsing and regretting, you’ll not only make yourself miserable right now, you’re setting yourself up for more of the same thing in the future. The way you set yourself up for more failure is by focusing on past failures. Whatever you focus on, you tend to reproduce in your life. "According to your faith it will be done unto you."
What you need to do is learn from those failures. Let me give you the real secret of success. Every successful entrepreneur knows this. Real success is built on failure. Failure is the way you become a success. You figure out what doesn’t work. When Edison figured out on the 200th or so time, what would make a light bulb stay lit, he did that because he knew 199 ways that didn’t work. You never call it a failure in your life. Call it an education. You learn from past failures and mistakes and act in faith for the future. Some people will never act in faith because they have been paralyzed by the fear of past failures and mistakes.
What we need to do is learn from the past, act in faith for the future and look to God for guidance.
How do you get rid of fear of failure? Faith. That’s why the second step in starting over is act in faith. Faith is not so much the absence of fear, as it is moving ahead in spite of your fear. Sometimes faith is doing the thing you fear the most.
The third step is to Focus.
Athletes often talk about the importance of being focused. Arnold Palmer once shared a story about the importance of being focused. He was in a golf tournament and as he walked up to the green to make an easy shot, he saw one of his old friends. He took a moment to go over and to shake his hand, and then walked onto the green to make the easy putt.
He missed.
Because he had allowed himself to be distracted.
He lost his focus.
I need to focus my thoughts if I want to change my life. If I want to get going again, if I want a fresh start, I need to rethink the way that I think. I need to change my mind about a number of issues.
Proverbs 4:23 says, "Be careful how you think. Your life is shaped by your thoughts."
Focus your thoughts!
The way you think, determines the way you feel. And the way you feel determines the way you act. If you want to change your actions, just change the way you think and it will inevitably change the way you act. If you are depressed, discouraged and distressed it may be because you’re thinking depressed, discouraged and distressing thoughts. That’s your choice. You don’t have to think those thoughts. If you’re acting in fearful, worried ways it’s because you’re thinking fearful, worried thoughts.
St Paul talked about being focused in Romans 12:2, when he said, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
If I have to focus my thoughts to start over to get a fresh start, that means I have to stop thinking some old patterns.
One of the things we need to be focused on is the Word of God.
Psalm 1 says, “Happy are those who are always meditating on God’s word. They’re like trees along a river that do not dry up. They succeed in everything they do. ”
Everyone wants to be successful.
It’s interesting that the Bible does not say, "If you read this book, you’ll be happy and successful."
It does not say, "If you listen to this book, like through a sermon, you’ll be happy and successful."
It says, "If you meditate on it you’ll be happy and successful." In meditating it means “I think on it over and over and what it means in my life. I consider it and consider its implications for my life.”
As we fill our mind with God’s word, it begins to change our mind. We stop seeing ourselves as other people see us or as we have seen ourselves and we begin to see ourselves as God does. That’s where the change takes place. That’s the power to start over.
The final step in starting over and getting a fresh start in life is to Trust in God.
Trust God to help us succeed. Depend on Him. We don’t need depend on ourselves. We’ve already proven that we can’t do it on our own. That’s why we’ve failed. Some people just don’t get it. They stumble and fall and then they get up and say, “I’ll just try harder!” It’s like you go up to a wall and bang your head against it and the wall doesn’t fall down. You try it again and Bang! Again. You keep doing it thinking, “Maybe it will fall over this time.” That’s the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting different results. If we keep doing the same thing then we will keep getting the same result. We can’t change who we are, only God can do that. I am not speaking about the outward person but the inner person. The real person is the hidden person of the heart. Success in the Christian life is not trying harder, but living smarter. Giving God control of my life.
Zechariah 4:6 says, “You will not succeed by your own strength or power but by My Spirit, says the Lord.”
Will you have a fresh start in life? Will you have a new beginning? It’s your choice. The New Year comes once each year, but a new start in life is offered to us anytime we are willing to accept it from God.
Copyright 2004, Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved.
www.Pittendreigh.com
