Your Second Chance

-our first Drink Deep in 2010. Woo. Just think, only ten years ago everyone thought the world was going to end because computers were too dumb to know what year it was. Crazy.

-but this is a time of year that’s full of snow, shortest days of the year, it’s cold and most people are sick, yet people love it. Why?

1. EVERYONE GETS A NEW START

-it’s a new year. Back in about 150 BC the Romans moved their new year to what is on or around our January 1st (the name January comes from the Roman goddess Janis who had two faces, one looking back and one looking forward).

-then, 1500 years late Pope Gregory took a calendar a monk had created and decreed that all Christian people should use that calendar (which is why almost every country on earth uses it now). And it started on January 1st.

-so think about it for a second. Because some monk decided to start where the Romans did, because some Roman picked a day out of nowhere, suddenly we all get a new start, the last year is gone and people look at the new year with new possibilities.

-why else do we make New Year’s resolutions? Really, do we have to wait until a day on a calendar to stop smoking, to start exercising, to get a better job? (those are some of the top resolutions made).

-we don’t need that day, but most people make it on that day. Why? Because we have this idea that a new year means new possibilities and all the things that were stopping us before don’t seem that big. We can become new because the year is new.

-but we get this chance even without a calendar date. What about school. You’ve all been back for a week. What happens every year (and sometimes every semester)? You get a new chance, a fresh start.

-think back to 8th grade. You had a D+ in math. It’s okay, you can admit it. But what happened when you started 9th grade math? You got a fresh start. You didn’t carry that old grade over with you. Imagine what would happen if you did that!

-businesses do the same thing, which I think is really, really funny. They start a new fiscal year (in my old store it was April Fool’s Day, I thought that was fitting), but when they start a new fiscal year, what happens. They start with a balance of 0. Even if they lost $3 million last year and are in debt, on a new piece of paper for the year, they look at it as a 0 and start fresh. They get a second chance.

-our whole culture is based on this! The American Dream, no matter who you are or where you were born with enough hard work and right connections and whatever else you can make it, you can be rich and live out the dream.

-do you have any idea how many people in the world have no idea what you think, how they have no hope in their situation because they don’t know they get a second chance?

-In India they live in what is known as the Caste System. It’s kind of like our class system, most people are middle class, but there are the rich upper class and the poor lower class. The difference in India is there are five castes, and whatever caste you are born into, you cannot escape. If you are born a lowly peasant, you must be a lowly peasant for the rest of your life. The only possible way to get out is reincarnation, be a good peasant and maybe in your next life you will be in the next caste up.

-can you imagine living your life never ever thinking that you have a chance? That your one shot you were dealt at birth, that’s it. There are no second chances, no matter how hard you work or do, you stay where you are.

-we are lucky that we live in a place, in a time that believes in hope. We talked about it last year, hope lives, we can change the world, but we can also change ourselves. We have hope that we can make mistakes and God will give us a second chance.

-so for today, I want us to see what god thinks of this.

2. NOT A NEW IDEA

-this is not a new idea. God started it 3000 years ago. First we have the idea that we can be forgiven, and much like our new year’s, it happened once a year.

**Lev. 16:32-34a -> “32In future generations, the purification ceremony will be performed by the priest who has been anointed and ordained to serve as high priest in place of his ancestor Aaron. He will put on the holy linen garments 33and purify the Most Holy Place, the Tabernacle, the altar, the priests, and the entire congregation. 34This is a permanent law for you, to purify the people of Israel from their sins, making them right with the Lord once each year.” (NLT)