Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Special Services

New Years 2005

Title:  ‘God Encourages Do-Overs’     Main Text: Isaiah 43:18-20

Introduction: Anyone here this morning like to make a fresh start this new year?
•    Perhaps you’ve made some bad decisions that you would like erased, as if they never happened.
•    Perhaps you’ve experienced some major setbacks that you wish could be removed so you can move on.
•    Perhaps these bad decisions and setbacks have continually been replayed in your minds and you have become enslaved to their.
•    Perhaps you are not enjoying the full Christian life that you read about in the Bible and hear testimony of from those who you see as ‘further along’
      in their spiritual journey.
•    Perhaps, what you really looking for is a ‘do-over’.

ILL: In the movie, City Slickers, there is a scene where one of the three friends tells the others how he has so horribly messed up his life: He lost his wife, He lost his child, He lost his job, He lost his self respect. He tells his friends his life is over, he has lost everything. Then Billy Crystal’s character, Mitch, tells him ‘that’s not true. You have everything to live for. You have a fresh start…a do-over. Your life is a do-over.’

What’s a do-over? Well, let’s talk about golf. One of the most important parts of the game of golf is the mulligan.

    •    A mulligan is a ‘do-over’. It’s when you hit a really bad shot…and you get to take it over, to try again, without loss of a stroke or penalty.
         A mulligan is just like you never took the first shot…it’s a ‘do-over’. Get it?

Wouldn’t you like to get it…life mulligans, life ‘do-overs’? The good news is that
    •    God grants mulligans,
    •    God encourages ‘do-overs’!
    •    He allows fresh starts.
And with each ‘do-over’ the previous attempts are wiped clean, as if they never existed.  Believe it or not, the ‘do-over’, the opportunity for God to do something new with your life is a major theme in Scripture.

Transition: Yes, God wants you to have a fresh start this new year. He wants to do something new in and through you. Are you up to the task? Are you ready for your ‘do-over’? How does it happen?

1. Do-Overs Require Changing Your Focus
Read: Isa. 43:18

Forget the Past
A fresh start, a ‘do-over’ requires that you forget the past, don’t think about it…it’s over, the book is closed on it. That’s what God is telling you.
    •    Key here is the understanding that God is more interested in our future than our past. (repeat)
All of our lives would be so different if we just understood that one truth. God never keeps a record of our sins.

Read: Ps. 130:3 ‘If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?’

Does it get any clearer than that? Perhaps you feel your sin is too great, to persistent and God wants nothing to do with you. Listen…this is God speaking to you, not me, ‘forget the former things, do not dwell on the past.’ What God is saying is take a mulligan, I am giving you a do-over.

Transition: A fresh start, a ‘do-over’ also requires that we refocus our thoughts.

Refocus Your Thoughts
Read: Rom. 12:2 ‘Be transformed by the renewing of your mind’

If you want a fresh start, a ‘do-over’ you need to rethink your thought patterns. What do you think about when you have a free couple of moments?

God’s Word
Read: Ps. 1:2-3 ‘But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.’

Notice the psalmist doesn’t say ‘read God’s Word day and night and you will find success and happiness (delight)…he says meditate on God’s Word.
    •    Meditate means to think about, to ruminate, to dwell on.
Of course to meditate on God’s Word, you do have to read it, but to meditate is so much more than to just read. As you fill your thoughts with God’s Word you begin to refocus your thoughts, and you get a fresh start, a ‘do-over’.

Transition: But, a fresh start, a ‘do-over’ requires that we accept responsibility for our life.

2. Do-Overs Require Accepting Responsibility
Read: Prov. 28:13 ‘He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.’

Another way to translate this would be ‘The one who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confesses and forsakes them he gets another chance.’

A fresh start, a ‘do-over’ requires that we be honest and face up to our problems and take responsibility
    •    for our mistakes,
    •    for our poor judgments and
    •    for our wrong behaviors,

instead of finding blame elsewhere. God is telling us that when we admit our mistakes, our sin, we get mercy…a fresh start, a ‘do-over’.

Transition: Next, a fresh start, a ‘do-over’ requires that we value our time.

3. Do-Overs Require Valuing Your Time
Read: Eph. 5:15-17 ‘Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.’

Well, a new year has begun. A new year full of new opportunities. A new year, what will you do with all that time? Because out time…is limited. God has given you 24 hours in each day, 8760 hours to live and to use in the coming year. Time is our most valuable commodity. How will you live it?

God tells us to live it wisely.
    •    Time in God’s Word, Time in Prayer,
    •    Time in Worship, Time in fellowship,
    •    Time in service, Time with family,
    •    Time providing for your family.

Making the most of every opportunity instead of casually allowing them to slip by unaddressed, unfulfilled. You get a fresh start, a ‘do-over’…when you value your time.

Transition: A fresh start, a ‘do-over’ also requires that we look for God at work.

4. Do-Overs Require Looking for God at Work
Read: Isa. 43:19a ‘See, I am doing a new thing, now it springs up;  do you not perceive it?’

God is saying that while I have done great and mighty things for you in the past, hold on to your seats because I am doing something new for you…now….just watch and see. Key here is the phrase ‘do you not perceive it?’.
    •    First we need to look beyond ourselves and see what God is doing.
    •    Second, to perceive means to know by seeing, to recognize, become aware of. It is an act of intentionality. 
Hearing God’s voice and seeing God at work in the coming year is of utmost important if we want a fresh start, a ‘do-over’.

Read: Isa. 43:19b ‘I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

God is saying I am able to transform your past (the desert areas of your life) into your future (fields of blessing and abundance). But, you have to seek me, you have to want to see me at work…then you need to acknowledge and accept what I am doing.

I can’t think of a better message for God’s church…for this church. The worst thing that a church can do is settle for the same old things done the same old way, and then sit back and bask in the work of God in it’s past, when all the time God has moved on to something new. I am not saying we change for the sake of change. But where the Spirit of God is moving, we need to keep in step with the Spirit as Gal. 5:25 reminds us.

God says He is doing something new. I don’t know about you, but I want to be a part of what He is doing. We get a fresh start, a ‘do-over’ when we look for God at work.

Transition: A fresh start, a ‘do-over’ also requires that we trust God.

5. Do-Overs Require Trusting God
Read: Matt. 9:29b: Jesus said ‘According to your faith will it be done to you’

This is a very simple statement, but very powerful. Perhaps the #1 reason for our past failures is that we truly didn’t trust God enough for the situation at hand.

ILL: I counseled someone who was addicted to alcohol. He got on the wagon to quickly fall off it again and again. He told me all he needed to do was get more consistent with his AA meetings. Even when he was, he still continued to fall. I told him that perhaps since what he was and had continually been doing wasn’t working, it was time to do something new…trust God. He didn’t get it because he was certain he could do it on his own. He has lost his home, his wife, his children, his drivers license, his job and his self respect…but if he would just trust God, he could get a ‘do-over’. He is still trying to make it on his own…and failing.

Listen now to the Word of God

Read: Zec. 4:6 ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.’

Read: Phil 4:13 ‘I can do everything through him who gives me strength.’

I can do all things, even have a fresh start, a ‘do-over’ when I learn to trust God in the coming year.

Transition: Finally, a fresh start, a ‘do-over’ requires that we commit to God…now.

6. Do-Overs Require Committing to God, Now
Read: Ecc. 11:4 ‘Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.’

Strange verse? Perhaps. But what it means is that if we wait for the perfect time to commit to God, we will never get anything done. We say
    •    when things settle down,
    •    when things get better,
    •    when the  kids get older
    •    when…you fill in the blank
Then I’ll commit to God. The problem is, that’s life. And we end up never truly committing to God.

There are so many people, so many churches, who have missed out on life and blessings from God because they have been waiting for an ideal set of circumstances. And while they are waiting… God moves on.

Read: Isa. 43:19a ‘See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up’

God is doing a new thing in your life…in this church, he has set a new direction…and He is doing it…now! And because of this new thing, God demands a response from His children. 

Read: Isa. 43:20b-21 ‘my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.’

God chose us, and is now choosing us, to proclaim his praise, to no longer be ashamed (like the song we sang earlier).
I know it was a bit different, but the words are powerful…

 
I’m not ashamed of your love;  I’m not ashamed of your grace
I’m not ashamed of the cross;  I’m not ashamed of your word
From the highest mountain top to the lowest valley low
I’ll shout your name until the whole earth knows
 

When we unashamedly praise God, we show our commitment to him…NOW, and we get a fresh start, a ‘do-over’ from all the times we have keep quiet and said, …tomorrow, to God.

Conclusion

•    What new things does God want to do in your life in the coming year?
•    What will you do in order to allow God to give you a fresh start, a ‘do-over’ in the new year?
•    Are you willing to keep your hearts and minds open to what God is doing in your life, in your marriage, in your job,
     in your school and in your church in the new year?
•    Are you willing to proclaim God’s praise from grateful hearts in the New Year?

 
People of God, hold on to your seats, because God, is doing a new thing!