Play

Starting Over: Finding a Fresh Start

Dwayne Gandy
01/26/25 - Praise and Preaching Service

Lesson Summary

Starting Over: Finding a Fresh Start
01-26-25

Summary

Praise God for being a God of second chances—more than that, a God of countless chances. Most of us need more than just two, and He is always willing to give us the opportunity to make things right with Him. Praise God for sending Jesus to pay the price for those second chances. We remembered that earlier today, and we rejoice in it now.

If you are visiting with us, we want you to know that at the Palm Springs Drive Church of Christ, we love to worship God. Not because we have to, but because we want to. We recognize His worthiness, and He has given us His Word—the Bible—which is central to everything we do. We study it, reference it, and live by it. It is our only source of authority.

We love one another. We support each other as a family. And we reach out to those who are not yet part of God’s family, inviting them to experience the love and salvation He offers.

The Need for Second Chances

Life is full of moments when we need a fresh start. In sports, golfers take "mulligans"—a do-over for a bad shot. In video games, there’s often a reset button to start over. But in real life, the need for second chances is much deeper. Marriages struggle, relationships with children grow distant, and financial mistakes pile up. Unlike a game, these situations take real effort to repair. Yet, with God’s help, a fresh start is always possible.

The one area where we absolutely cannot make things right on our own is our spiritual lives. When we sin against God and separate ourselves from Him, there is no “reset button” we can press. But God, in His mercy, offers us something better: redemption through Jesus Christ.

Biblical Examples of Second Chances

Jonah: A Second Chance to Obey

God called Jonah to preach to Nineveh, a wicked city deserving judgment. Instead of obeying, Jonah ran in the opposite direction, boarding a ship to flee from God’s presence. A great storm arose, and when the sailors discovered Jonah was the cause, he told them to throw him overboard. Jonah would rather die than give Nineveh a second chance.

But God wasn’t finished with him. A great fish swallowed Jonah, and in the depths of the sea, he repented. He prayed, “Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple” (Jonah 2:4). God heard him and gave him a second chance.

Jonah finally went to Nineveh, preaching a simple message: “Forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” To Jonah’s dismay, the people repented! God spared them, proving His mercy extends to all who turn to Him. However, Jonah struggled with resentment. He wanted grace for himself but not for others. His story teaches us that no one should begrudge another person’s second chance.

Paul: A Second Chance to Change

Saul, later known as Paul, was a fierce persecutor of the church. He approved of Stephen’s stoning and dragged Christians from their homes to imprison them. Yet, on the road to Damascus, Jesus appeared to him, asking, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). Blinded and humbled, Saul was led to Damascus, where Ananias told him what he must do.

Saul repented, was baptized, and immediately began preaching Christ. He became one of the most passionate defenders of the faith. Unlike Jonah, Paul rejoiced in the opportunity to share God’s mercy with others. He later wrote, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus” (1 Cor. 6:11). He understood that God’s grace could transform anyone.

Principles of Second Chances

1. God offers second chances to everyone – and He wants us to take them. He doesn’t offer forgiveness reluctantly; He desires our restoration. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:12).

2. Acknowledging our failure is the first step – Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” We must admit our mistakes and seek God’s mercy.

3. True repentance is required – A second chance doesn’t mean we simply say, “I’m sorry” and continue as before. It requires a real change of heart and actions. The people of Nineveh turned from their wicked ways; Paul completely reversed his life’s direction.

4. Second chances don’t erase consequences – While God forgives, earthly consequences may still follow. Financial mistakes, broken relationships, and other life choices have lasting effects. But God provides the strength to move forward despite them.

God’s mercy extends far beyond what we deserve. Through examples like Jonah and Paul, we see that He gives second chances freely, but also expects repentance and change. We must be willing to acknowledge our failures, turn back to God, and embrace the new opportunities He gives us. Whether you need a fresh start spiritually, in relationships, or in any other area of life, God is ready to grant it.

Transcribed Sermon

Starting Over: Finding a Fresh Start

01-26-25

All right, if you're visiting with us, if you did not get an outline, if you want to raise your hand, maybe somebody in the back can bring those outlines out and deliver one of those to you. So if you did not get a copy of the outline, raise your hand and Eric's going to bring one around to you. Before we begin, I'm just going to start with some statements of praise going along with our lesson this morning.

Praise God for being a God of second chances. Praise God for being the God of 747 chances. Most of us need more than two chances and God is willing to give us all the chances that we need in order to be right with Him.

And praise God for sending Jesus to pay for those second chances. We remembered that earlier today. We're glad to be here.

I'm glad that all of you are here to have a chance to study God's Word and to look at this incredible God that we have that is willing to offer us those second chances. If you are visiting with us, we want you to know that those of us here at the Palm Springs Drive Church of Christ love to worship God. That's one of the things that we do.

We do it on a regular basis. We don't do it because we have to. We do it because we want to.

We realize that God is worthy of that worship. He has given us a book and this book is very important to us. It is the Bible.

We study this book often. You'll see in the outline, if you got one of those, there will be a lot of verses that we will reference today. Every week we are talking about verses in the Bible.

It is our only source of authority and we study this book on a continual basis. We love one another. We want to give one another a sense of community and love and support.

When we need one another, we are there to help one another out. And then we reach out to those who aren't part of God's family and we want you to be part of God's family.

Now I don't know about you, but there are a lot of times in life that we need a second chance. Anybody here a golfer? Anybody like to golf? Very few people like to golf. All right, that's good.

Maybe this is a terrible analogy here. None of you will understand it at all. I don't golf a lot, but when I do, it's a scramble normally and in those scrambles they're usually some kind of fundraisers and they will offer you the opportunity sometimes to actually purchase mulligans.

A mulligan is just a do-over. It's a redo. You hit the ball and it goes in the woods.

Oh, a mulligan. I want a mulligan. And I never really understood that because usually when I do these golf tournaments, I'm not the one paying for it.

I've just been invited along and you sort of watch all these people go up. They won the contest. They're like, how do all these old guys winning the contest? Like third place, maybe a whole bunch of guys in their 50s and 60s.

And then you got guys in their 60s and then 70s are winning these contests. And then you find out they just purchased a bunch of mulligans. That's how they won.

They just have deeper pockets. They buy the mulligans and they're able to win these particular contests. If you play video games, sometimes there's a button.

It's just a do-over, start over button. If you start losing the game, hit the button. You get to start over.

I'll date myself. When the kids were a little bit younger, we bought the Wii for them. And then we tried to play some of these games.

I could handle the Wii. I can't handle the one with all these buttons you have to press. And one of the things that we did was the bowling.

I like doing the bowling on the Wii. And so one time I scored like a 295 and I had the family record for the bowling on the Wii. And then I went laid down to take my Sunday afternoon nap.

Well, it wasn't long after that, dad, dad, I bowled a 300. I bowled a 300. Oh yeah, son.

And he did what I did. As soon as you don't get a strike, you just hit the redo button. You start over and you keep bowling until you finally bowl 10 perfect frames.

Now, those are light-hearted, minor instances in life where we get a chance to have do-overs. They're not very costly. It's not that important in a golf game or a video game.

But in life, there are a lot more serious occasions where we might need do-overs that are a lot more costly to us and those that we're associated with. It might be that we've lived our life and our marriages in such a way that we've grown apart. We're not close anymore.

Our kids aren't close to us. And you want to hit a button that says do-over. And it's not that easy.

It will come with a lot of work and a lot of effort. But as long as the two of you are willing to start over on this, and with God's help, those particular things can be rewarding experiences. Some people get into huge financial problems and they want a button that just says, I want to do over.

Well, you might be able to make some modifications to your life, but there's going to be some consequences going forward to the problems that you've had in the past. And those are going to be more costly, more time-consuming, and more challenging. Now, the one do-over that you can't do on your own and you can't make happen and that you can't pay for is the do-over in our spiritual life when we have sinned against God and separated ourselves from Him.

Fortunately for us, God is a God that wants to offer those second chances to us. We're going to look at two examples in the Bible of people who got do-overs, got extra chances, got an opportunity to change some things in their life, and to repent and relieve themselves from the wrath of God. One's in the Old Testament, one's in the New Testament.

Both very familiar stories to most of us. One is Jonah, who was swallowed by a big fish. That's what we know about Jonah.

And the other is the Apostle Paul. He was named Saul originally, but then he became known as the Apostle Paul. So, I want to start looking at the story of Jonah with you.

And this is going to be in your outline, if you have your outline with us. So, what happens? The city of Nineveh is an extremely wicked and evil and violent city. And their wickedness has gotten so amazing, so intense, that it has come up to the throne of God Himself, and He is upset with them for the way that they are living their lives apart from Him and devoid of any knowledge of Him or any willingness to do what God wants them to do.

So, God calls down to Jonah, one of His prophets, and He says, Jonah, I want you to go to the city of Nineveh, this wicked city, because their wickedness has reached to Me, and I want you to cry out against them. And Jonah says, I don't want to do that. I mean, here's the prophet of God.

His whole purpose is to be a spokesperson for God, and do what God wants him to do. He says, no, as a matter of fact, he rebels against God. He runs in the opposite of direction of where God wants him to go.

He goes down to Joppa, pays a fare to get on a ship, and he begins this trek across the sea. And because he has rebelled against the Lord, who wanted to give the people of Nineveh a second chance, this great storm comes up on the sea, and it puts everybody on that ship in a great deal of danger, because he does not want to give the people of Nineveh a second chance. I mean, this is a very intense storm that God causes to come on the sea.

These people who have made their lives on the sea, these sailors are scared to death because of the storm, and they're all yelling out as to their own gods, hey, God of Duane, remember me? I am the one that offers sacrifices to you. I'm the one that prays to you. Please stop the storm, and maybe the God of Terry.

Terry's over here. You're my God. Would you please stop the storm? And the God of Herb, and all these others.

We're just all crying out. Well, Jonah's under the ship, in the section under the ship. He's fast asleep.

We've talked about this. God has an incredible ability to put people very deep in sleep, and Jonah is deep in sleep. So the captain of the ship goes down, and he actually calls him Sleeper.

Hey, you sleepyhead, get up. Don't you realize the danger that we are in? Call upon your God. Maybe your God will save us from this terrible, terrible tragedy that we are experiencing.

They're already throwing things overboard, trying to row back to shore, and they're having no positive effect. They think they're all going to die. So it comes to the point where the sailors say, we've got to figure out who's causing this? And so they cast lots.

The best way that I can compare casting lots is to make it something that we would maybe relate to drawing straws. You know, whoever gets the short straw, that is the person who has to do a particular task. If you got the short straw on this particular occasion, you were the guilty one.

And so the lot fell on Jonah. And so they go to Jonah, and they say to Jonah, we just have to know who you are, and what in the world have you done that causes your God to be so mad at you? This great storm is coming upon all of us. And so he tells them where he's from.

He tells them where he's going. And he's already told them, I can imagine this, as he's getting on the ship, where are you going? Anywhere. I'm just trying to get away from my God.

And so they know that he's running from his God. And so he gives them some indication of where he's from and where he's going. But then he says something that really troubles them.

I serve the God who created the sea and the land. And so, uh-oh, we're really, he's serving the God who created the sea? This could be trouble for us. And they ask him, what do we need to do to get this storm to stop? If you're the servant of the one who created this, see, surely you know.

And so Jonah tells them the only way to stop the storm is to throw me overboard. Let's pause for a second. Let's just realize where Jonah is.

Jonah would rather be thrown overboard in the sea than give the people of Nineveh a second chance. He would rather see, die, he would rather die than see this. And I don't know about you, I wouldn't want to die in any way, but die by drowning would be awful.

And this great storm that is there, the people of the boat, the sailors on that boat, realize the God who can cause this is not a God we want to mess with. And so they don't want to throw him overboard. Well, what happens is God is giving them more and more reason to throw Jonah overboard.

He sort of turns up the waves, turns up the wind, makes that boat start going like this more and more and more. And the sailors probably, maybe some of them are getting sick at this point, but they're just really don't know what to do. And so they realize the only solution here is to throw this man overboard, even though it goes against their principles.

It just, as people, not God believers, just, hey, we don't want to kill an innocent man. So they cry out to the God of heaven, Jonah's God, and they say, look, we don't want to be held responsible for killing an innocent man. You've caused this.

So we're going to do what this man says. We're going to throw him overboard. Just don't hold it against us.

And so they take Jonah and they throw Jonah overboard on this ship. He hits the water. And as he hits the water, the sea goes calm.

Now, even though the sea is calm, you have two different scenes here. You have the scene on the boat. Could you imagine the scene of the boat? I mean, I would be sitting down, finding the closest wall I could just go under the ground and being like, oh, we made it.

I'm going to see my wife and kids again, you know, and I was just huffing and puffing because of all the stuff we've been doing. I've just been so relieved. And they offer sacrifices to the God of heaven, Jonah's God.

They make vows to him. But in the water, even though it's calm, Jonah's not treading water. He's going down and down and down.

And he sees maybe some trash go by him. And he sees this blurred vision because of the water. The seaweed starts wrapping around his head and his neck.

And he goes all the way down to the bottom of the sea, ready to die. And when he's at the bottom of the sea, he says, oh, I think I may have made a major mistake here. And so he turns himself to the temple and he prays to God for a second chance.

And that's where God has this big fish ready at his call. He's prepared this fish. He says this fish swallows Jonah.

And let's note some things that Jonah says while he's in the belly of this fish. Jonah chapter two and verse three. He's sort of in the fish.

He's sort of reminiscing about what just happened and the waters. He says, for you cast me into the deep and to the heart of the seas and the flood surrounded me. All your billows and your waves, they passed over me.

Then I said, I have been cast out of your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple. The water surrounded me, even to my soul. The deep closed around me.

Weeds were wrapped around my head. So in the belly of the big fish, Jonah looked again toward God's holy temple. Now there's significance to that.

You remember in Solomon's time when he dedicated the temple, he made the prayer and he says, please, Lord, any time in the past with any of your servants find themselves in a stressful situation because they have rebelled against you and not done what you told them to do, and they look to this temple and they ask for your help, please help them. And God said, I'll do that, Solomon. If any of my people find themselves needing a second chance and they turn and face the temple, I was thinking about this, I don't know what kind of sense of direction Jonah had.

If he could look in the right direction from underneath all this water, I have no idea. But in his heart, he turned to God, right? And he said, God, help me in this distress. I'm sorry for what I had done.

So inevitably what he was doing is he was asking God for a second chance. God, I want a second chance. And in verse 9 of Jonah chapter 2, it says at the conclusion of this, after he realized he gets his second chance, he says, but I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving.

I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. So Jonah was thankful for his second chance.

I think there's something important there. He didn't want to offer the people a second chance, but when he needed a second chance and asked God for the second chance, he was grateful to get it. And one of the points I want to make sure that we get, and I might mention it multiple times as we go along, no one should ever begrudge another person's second or third or fourth chances.

We should be grateful that God is willing to give people second chances and third chances and 747 chances, and we should never stand in judgment of that or in any way want to withhold those second chances from God. We want to help people see the God of second chances and take advantage of those opportunities. Well, God says, here's your second chance.

Go to Nineveh and deliver this message. And the message is 40 days and the city of Nineveh will be overthrown. So I mean, this is a pretty vaunting task.

Not only does he not want them to repent, he still doesn't want them to repent, by the way. He is traveling through a foreign city of wicked evil people. And so it's a three-day journey across.

The whole first day he's walking across, and as far as we know, that's all he's saying. 40 days and the city of Nineveh is going to be overthrown. 40 days and the city of Nineveh is going to be overthrown.

Well, what happens is the people of the city hear this, and the king hears this, and they make a change. Jonah chapter 3 and verse 5, in the outline, it says this, So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest even to the least. Then word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and he sat down in ashes.

And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink water, but let every man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to the God, Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that he, we may not perish? Then God saw their works, and that they had turned from their evil way, and God relented from his disaster that he said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.

See the king of Nineveh told his subjects to subject themselves to the God of heaven, and turn from their evil ways. The hope was if we turn from our evil ways, then God would turn away from his fierce anger that he had against us, and he will give us another chance, and that's exactly what God did. We find out in Jonah chapter 4 and verse 1 that Jonah's not happy about that.

You think, I got my second chance. I'm happy about that. God gave them the second chance.

I'm not so happy about that. See, I deserve the second chance, right? I'm a good guy. I'm trying to do what's right.

I deserve all the chances God wants to give me, but maybe other people don't deserve the second chance. I don't know what exactly was going on in Jonah's mind, but his attitude wasn't right, right? He didn't want them to have the second chance. So in chapter 4 verses 1 through 3, it says, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry, and it turns out twice in chapter 4 he says, God just kill me.

I'm so angry. I'm so upset about all these things. I want to die.

We're back to him wanting to die again instead of seeing people repent. So Jonah was displeased that God offered the people of Nineveh a new start. All right, so let's shift gears from Jonah in the Old Testament and go to the Apostle Paul in the New Testament.

He is going to be given second chances. Now, there's a major difference here. Saul wants to do what God wants.

He just doesn't know what that is, and so God wants to show him what my plan is for you and give him a chance to stop doing the bad stuff and start doing the good stuff. We're introduced to him really in chapter 7 when they're stoning Stephen. Stephen is one of the seven chosen to give the need to take care of the needy widows there in that particular area.

He's a righteous man, man full of the Holy Spirit. He gives this incredible lesson, and when he's done with this lesson, the people don't say, what a great lesson. We're grateful for that.

They pick up rocks and they start throwing them at him, and they all want the big shot. They want the kill shot. They want to hit him in the head with that rock, and they want him dead.

He looks up to heaven. He sees Jesus standing there. He says, don't hold this against them.

Sort of what Jesus said on the cross, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they are doing, and in that particular occasion, all these men who are throwing the rocks take their garments off, their coats off, their cloaks off, and lay them at Saul's feet. He wants these people to hit him, Stephen, and kill him. So we pick up in chapter 8, in verse 1, it says, Saul was consenting to his death.

At that time, a great persecution arose against the church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles, and devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. So here you have, again, like a lot of these scenes, you have two scenes, right? You have this scene of all these people taking his body and lamenting over the fact that Stephen, this great warrior for Christ, is dead, and over here you have Saul, who says, all right, that's first one. Next, who else can we have suffer? Who else can we kill? Who else can we put in prison? It says, as for Saul, in verse 3, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.

So Saul persecuted the church. Now, that seems like an understatement to me. It wasn't just a matter of making things difficult for them, making sure they couldn't buy food, or whatever the case may be.

Look at how it describes it. Made havoc of something. Now, we understand what havoc, making havoc of, is.

You go in your kid's room, and a couple things are, you know, not right where they need to be. You might say, you know, you need to straighten your room up a little bit. You know, it's a little messy.

But you might enter the room where your kids have been playing, and you're like, you have wreaked havoc on this room. I spent hours cleaning this room yesterday, and now it's just, everything's everywhere. And that's what Saul was doing.

He wasn't just making things uncomfortable. He was wreaking havoc on the church. He wanted them to suffer.

And it wasn't, didn't matter if there were men and women. He was dragging them to prison, away from their families, as their kids are there. Mommy, mommy, daddy, daddy, what are you doing? They're going to prison, because they believe in Jesus.

And that's exactly what Saul thought he should do. As a matter of fact, Saul explains it this way in Acts 26, in verse 9. He says, Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priest.

And when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme, and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities. Saul wanted Christians to have brutal deaths.

It wasn't just he wanted them to die. He wanted them to suffer as they were dying, because he wanted to teach everybody else a lesson. And the more brutal your death is, the more likely other people are going to come around to my way of thinking.

And it was a terrible way. He forced people to blaspheme the name of Jesus. He tracked them down from city to city.

All right, you're leaving Jerusalem. Don't think you're out of my grasp. I'll go to Damascus, and I'll get you.

And I'll just drag you away from your family. I'll arrest you. I'll bring you back to Jerusalem, and you'll pay for believing in the name of Jesus.

Now, we're not going to have time to read all of Acts 9, 13 through 22. But I think it's important for us to understand a few things. See, Saul didn't know he needed a second chance.

So what does God do? He gives him a bright light out of heaven. And Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It's hard for you to kick against the goads. I'll tell you what you need to do.

What should I do, Lord? You need to go to Damascus. I'm going to send a man. His name is Ananias.

He's going to tell you everything that you need to do to get this second chance. And that's exactly what happens. Now, granted, Ananias was a little leery.

Wouldn't you be leery? This guy came with permission to take Christians and put them in jail. This might be a ruse. This might not be serious.

He might not really want to be changed. He might just be trying to figure out who the people are that believe in Jesus. And as soon as I get there, he's going to have the guys hiding behind the door arrest me.

And so God has to reassure him of that. So he goes and talks to Saul. And let's pick up in verse 18.

I'm in Acts 9 and verse 18. Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once, and he arose and was baptized. So when they set food before him, he was strengthened.

He spent many days. Let's look at verse 20. Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

Drop down to verse 22. And Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelt Damascus, proving that Jesus is the Christ. The whole point here is God had a plan for Saul, and Saul wasn't living according to the plan.

So God was going to give him a second chance to live according to the plan. The plan is for you to go and talk to Gentiles, to kings, and to the people of Israel. And he does that.

He does that to the nth degree. He didn't waste any time with his second chance. He started doing that in the synagogue, and it says he confounded the Jews who dwelt Damascus, proving a couple things, that Jesus is the Christ, and the Christ is the Son of God.

That was significant. See, Saul knew the scriptures better than anybody. He's a straight-A student.

He knew the scriptures. And now that he knew what the scriptures really meant, who they were really pointing to, he had to be, one, just extremely gratified and amazed that now he understood all the scriptures, and he wanted to share that with everybody else. That's who this Jesus is.

Well, Paul had a different view of giving other people second chances than Jonah had. In first Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 9, there's a list of sins that he mentions there, and he says anybody that does these things will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. I mean, you have all kinds of things mentioned there.

Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners, they're not going to inherit the kingdom of heaven. But then I just almost imagine if he's writing this with his own hand, or if he's dictating this to someone else, I could just sort of see him pausing there for a second, and then come to this, verse 11, and such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of God.

See, Paul was thrilled to give everybody a chance to have their second chance, and their third chance, and their fourth chance, and he didn't care what you did in the past, because he knew the power of the blood of Jesus was powerful enough to wash away all those things, and let you stand justified and whole before God once again. And he wanted to offer that to everybody, and he was thrilled when people took advantage of it, and became right with God again. Now we could go on, and on, and on, and on, and on.

We could preach a series probably that lasted the entire year of people in the Bible who needed second chances, and got second chances. Just a few of names that you might remember, you might be familiar with. Moses needed a second chance, and he got it.

Abraham needed second, third, fourth chances, and he got it. David needed second, third, fourth, and fifth chances, and he got them. Elijah needed second chance.

He was ready to die, too. He says, Lord, I'm no better than my father. Just kill me now.

And God says, get up and do what I ask you to do, and he gave him some tasks to work on. Peter needed second chances, right? I mean, he denied the Lord. I don't even know this man.

He's been, after three years, seeing all these miracles he performed. I don't even know this guy. And Jesus took him aside on the sea.

Do you love me? Feed my sheep. Do you love me? Feed my sheep. Do you love me? Feed my sheep.

And what about John Mark? He forsook him, and he was able to write a gospel. That's pretty good, right? That's a pretty good second chance. If I can take my second chance, and attest to the power of Jesus Christ like John Mark was willing to do, and at stand the test of time, I would love to be able to do that with my second chance.

So let's look at some principles governing second chances. Principle number one. God offers all people second chances, and He wants everyone to take advantage of this generous offer.

And some people might offer something, and you could sort of see in their tone of voice, and their demeanor, they don't really want you to take them up on it, right? They don't really want you to take them up on it. They don't want to come help you, whatever the case may be. That's not the case when it comes to God.

He wants us, when we find ourselves in the bottom of the sea, looking up, thinking we're about to die, turn to me and ask for a second chance. Please, please ask for a second chance. I want to give it to you, and I'll make it so much better than anything that you have.

And that has to do with how God considers our sins after He's given us second chance. So let's read some powerful verses here. Psalm 103 and verse 12, As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.

I love that passage. Not only that, very powerful. As far as the east is from the west.

Now my sense of direction isn't as good as maybe Jonah's was. I don't know which is east and west, but as far as the east is from the west, that's how far I removed his sins from you. And when God looks down upon us, He doesn't look down upon us and say, I can't believe you blew it again.

I mean you're worthless. He looks down upon us with pity, like a father pities his son. You ever see your kids make dumb mistakes and you know they're going to suffer for it? Yeah, I think we've all probably experienced that in our life.

And God, and you might think, well they're only a kid, right? They're only a child. They don't know any better. God says, they're only dust, right? They're only dust.

They're only dirt. I know where they came from. I breathed, they were created in my image, but I know where they came from.

I know they're frail and I'm going to be patient with them. And He offers those second chances. I'll have to read a little bit faster here going forward.

So Hebrews chapter 8 verse 12, For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds. I will remember no more. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18, Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord.

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Although they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool. Lamentations 3 verses 22 through 23.

Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed. Think about that for a second. At the bottom of that sea, what was the only thing that stopped Jonah from being consumed by that water? The Lord's mercies.

That was it. Because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning.

Great is your faithfulness. And this powerful passage in 2nd Peter chapter 3, it says, Beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

God wants everyone to take advantage of his second chances. It's not a reluctant offer. It is a begging offer.

Please, you have messed up. Take advantage of the second chance I'm giving you, please. And that's what He wants us to do.

Second, our second chances start with us acknowledging that we failed in our first attempt. That's hard for some of us, right? It's hard to admit that we failed. I messed up.

You gave me all these good things, you gave me blessings, and I really messed them up. Proverbs 28 verse 13. I usually use only the New King James Version, but I like the way the New Living Bible puts this.

It says, A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful, but if he confesses and forsakes them, he gets another chance. The only difference in the New King James, really, is instead of he gets another chance, he receives the mercy of the Lord. And isn't that really receiving another chance? And you see that those are similar things.

If you really will confess your mistakes and forsake your mistakes, you will receive the mercy of the Lord. He's promised that to us. David simply said when he was confronted with his sin, I have sinned.

In Psalm 51, when he was praying to God, he says, I have sinned against you, and you only have I sinned. Third principle, our second chance requires that we repent of wrongdoing. So I don't want to fool you here and think all you got to do is, you know, just say, sorry God, Mulligan.

And it's not that simple, and it's not that easy as hitting the reset button. God expects us to acknowledge those wrongs and turn from those wrongdoings and turn to Him. That's an important step.

And the other thing I want to make sure that I make clear to all of us, second chances doesn't always, they don't always erase all the consequences from our past mistakes. All right, so I'm not going to lie to you and say, hey, you know, everything's gonna be great. You know, everything, God's going to erase all his consequences.

No, it doesn't work that way. We're still going to have consequences. We've made mistakes.

We're going to have consequences. Now, with God's grace, He minimizes those sometimes. He provides people to help us endure those consequences in our spiritual family, but those consequences might be there.

Some of the consequences might be lifted, but He doesn't say every single consequence will be lifted. Even Jonah, and they knew that. Jonah chapter 3, verse 8, this is the king talking.

Let every man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God. Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hand. So even the king of Nineveh, a wicked man, he says, you know what? I think that if we want the mercies of God to come upon us, it doesn't make any sense that we can keep living the way that we're living.

You know, he's mad about this. He says we're going to destroy us if he keeps doing this, and so we're going to say, all right, sorry, mulligan, redo, whatever, and keep doing it. He even knew that doesn't make sense.

So we're thinking that we can just easily say, you know, God, just forgive me, and not change. We're missing the whole point of repentance and recognizing who it is that we've upset. We've upset God, and so we have to repent of those wrongdoings.

Jonah realized that when he's at the bottom of the sea and in the belly of the big fish, hey, you know, I really messed up here. I need to make a change. Saul realized that when he was blinded by the light and lost his sight for three days.

Principle number four, our second chance requires that we fear and obey God. Proverbs 28 and verse 13 says that we must confess and forsake our sins. That's the one that we just read, and the Lord will give us a second chance.

We read Isaiah 118 that talked about even though our sins are scarred, they should be as white as snow. Well, verse 19 says this, if you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. We talked about the blessings and the curses recently, right? There's a blessings for doing the right thing, curses for doing the wrong thing, and so here's a couple thoughts I want to leave you with, some practical ideas.

Two of them I don't have in here, so you might want to jot them down, or if you have good minds, you can just remember them. That's the thing about the outline. Sometimes you print the outline, and then you think of something else, and you can't really go back and put it in there.

So here we have one point is this, you and I need to be proclaimers that we serve a God of second chances. So it's not someone who wants to hold that in, and that's what Saul was like, right? I want everybody to know that my God is a God of second chances. He will forgive you if you turn from your ways.

He wants to give you second chances. He's not stuck concerning his promise, so you and I need to make it. We want to be bold in telling people God is a God of second chances.

Second, I've already said this point, but I want to bring it back to your attention because it is critical. Never begrudge another person's second chance. Always be grateful that God gives it to them, and so open your arms to them and say, I am so glad that God has let you start new again because He's let me start new multiple times, and I want you to enjoy the same blessings that I have.

Now these are in your outline. Everybody should just take a moment this week to evaluate all aspects of your life and be honest with yourself. So I think probably all of us here have an element of their life where they're not doing that well, and they would like a second chance in that.

Some might not, you might have come to the building this morning not knowing that you needed a second chance, and you might still not know you need a second chance, and that's okay. Just think about it. What am I doing? Am I trying to serve this God, or am I not trying to serve God? And evaluate that, and if it is just one area of your life where you need a second chance, take advantage of that.

Make the change there. If you need to make a wholesale change in your life and you just don't know where to start, I just ask you to talk to me, talk to Brian, he's in the foyer back there, or any of our elders, or any of our members, and we can sort of help point you in the right direction and gladly assist you in getting that second chance. And if there is any aspect of your life where you need to make a second, take advantage of God's second chance, I just, don't delay.

Don't put it off. I mean, don't wait till you get so desperate you're like Joan at the bottom of the sea, and you're like, you know what, this is the moment that I really, do it before that, because like I said, there are consequences to our sin that sometimes, even with a second chance, follow us. So why not make the choice before you have to suffer any more consequences and decisions? When you know you're not pleasing God, make it right immediately.

God wants you to know, He wants me to know, that He is offering second chances. And when I find I'm not doing what I need to do, He is willing to give me those second chances. And I can attest to this, that the people that make up the Palm Springs Drive Church of Christ will not begrudge you a second, or third, or fourth chance.

We want everybody to be right with God, and we don't care what you've done, and how many times you've messed up, we're in the same ballpark, and God has given us a second chance, and we're happy to extend that to you. You will not find anybody saying, you know what, this is your 475th chance, I got it right at 437. Was that number lower than the first number? All right, whatever.

All right, so don't think that, hey, I made it before you did, somehow I'm better than you. That's just the way it works. We know that we have failed, and we have been forgiven by God.

But then I want to bring you back to this one more very powerful point. The mulligan is a simple example, and it's frivolous, so I don't want to compare the two. Somebody paid for the mulligans a lot of times in these tournaments.

Your do-over, my do-over, was paid for by God. And he paid for it with the blood of Jesus Christ. Peter knew that.

That's why he could say, you are redeemed not with corruptible things like gold and silver, but with the precious blood of Jesus as of a lamb that was perfect and spotless. And so we need to take serious our opportunities to be washed in the blood of Jesus. And if we can help anyone who's here today start their second chance, you don't have to come to the front right now.

You can come to the front as we sing this song, but you don't have to. You can come talk to any of us. But if we can help you, just let us know, and you can do that as we stand and sing.