Could We Start Again, Please?

Could We Start Again, Please?

Intro

We all have those moments. Moments when everything goes haywire. Those moments in the storms, so to speak. Maybe we get bad news. Maybe a relationship ends. Maybe we end up sitting at home, or having to work, in the middle of a pandemic. Those moments when maybe mistakes were made, maybe not. Maybe it was something we did, or maybe it was just chance. But we all have those moments when reality hits us as hard as it can, and we just want another chance.

Could we start again, please? Is there any way we could just reboot this thing? Just throw away what we have right now and restart with what we want!

And there in that question lies a hard truth for us. In this life, there will be troubles, Jesus tells us. There will be storms. There will be awful news. There will be seemingly awful times. But don’t worry - Christ has overcome this world!

As much as we might want it, there is no need to start again. At least not more than once!

You see we all have a chance to make the choice to start again! And there, in the waters of baptism, we are given new life! New hope! And most importantly, perhaps, new expectations!

A new reality; one that is based on the eternal God and not the temporary storms we face.

So when we start again - or since have started again for those who have been baptised, what does that mean for us? Well, it doesn’t mean our problems go away, but it does mean that through faith we go away from our problems by returning to our God - and in that presence we find the truth, perspective, and hope we need.

1 Peter 1:17–25 ESV

And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

1 Peter 1:17-25

Pray

[Saved]

We have been saved from our exile. And I want us to notice, right off the bat, that what Peter is getting at isn’t saved from our problems. It isn’t saved from a situation. It is saved from our exile.

And to Him, that meant that we have been saved from a life devoid of God! Saved from existing in a world where God wasn’t. Saved from having to weather the storms of life all alone. Saved from having this life be all that really mattered.

But when you notice that, and contextualize it, you come to the truth of the matter. There will be storms. There will be catastrophe. There will be moments when everything falls apart! When we just want to start it all again.

[perishable?]

That longing for a better reality, a solution to our problems, or whatever, is what Peter would call “perishable.” Something that would make us feel better, or happier, or more comfortable, as we trudge our way through this life - as if those problem free moments in creation are better than all the other moments.

No! We are surrounded by God, even in our troubles! But it is our almost instinctive desire to escape difficult situations that ends up making us long for the perishable - for the temporary - and to then forget the eternal.

And if we do that enough, it turns out, we forget what the reality of faith really is.

[Hebrews 11:1 pic]

Listen, as hard as it is to hear, faith isn’t the tool we use to get what we want! Faith is substance of things hoped for! The evidence of things not seen! And just as it was for the Patriarchs, it is perhaps the only evidence we will ever get! Faith alone - sola fide as Martin Luther wrote - is what we are after in this life.

About that faith he wrote, ““Faith is a vital, deliberate trust in God's grace, so certain that it would die a thousand times for it.”

Faith is our intentional trust in the forgiveness of our sins that leads to eternal connection with God - even beyond this life.

Church, there will always be a time of exile in our lives. For some that time is seemingly endless, others maybe it is just a moment. But God isn’t simply the tool we use to get out of those moments. In fact, Peter leads us to believe that regardless of our situation - be it life or imminent death - God is interested in the imperishable! Our souls! Our eternal salvation!

But we spend so much time worried about the things that are perishable - and understandably so. I do. You do. Everyone does. But that isn’t, or shouldn’t be, the focus of our faith! Those perishable things - things that the birds and flowers don’t fret over. Things that creation doesn’t worry about. Those things that we think we need or that we want. They aren’t the reason for our faith, nor should they be the constant subject of our prayers and our hopes!

[peaceful pic]

Understand, I am not saying we shouldn’t want some of those things, I am saying that to focus in on receiving those things, or experiencing those things, or getting the answers we want from God rather than focusing on the eternal blessing of EVEN ONE. SINGLE. MOMENT. WITH HIM. Is to miss the point of faith entirely!

When we enter the waters of baptism we die to this life! We acknowledge that we were made for something eternal, not something that we want in this moment or the next. We are then born into the imperishable - a life renewed by the power and Spirit of Christ to live out a life of faith as long as we have breath!

And in the process of that, to focus our life on the gratitude we have for every moment. Not looking ahead to the other moments, but sitting where we are in gratitude for what we have had - and for what we eternally will have!

But that brings us to the Psalm from earlier today. And broadly speaking, it brings us to our interpretation of scripture overall.

Psalm 116:1–4 ESV

I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”

[Psalm 116:1-4]

When we read those words we more often than not read them as an affirmation that God will save us from whatever we might be facing. That when bad happens, when life doesn’t go the way we want it to, when we are in the moments - if not permanent reality - of exile, God will remove that bad from us and give us everything we want.

But that isn’t the point. It isn’t what David was saying. It isn’t what scripture says more broadly. If you read this text closely, you will see that David is expressing a sentiment that is far more important than his present situation - perishable as it was. He is speaking of imperishable stuff!

Psalm 116:8–9 ESV

For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

[ps 116:8-9]

Listen, when we read that God delivered David’s soul from death, it is almost instinctive to think only of perishable life! But that isn’t the point at all! David is speaking of the assurance of life with God! Of life that is bigger than this life! Of a hope that extends beyond the difficulties of these moments of exile - moments of pain, or difficulties. He is speaking of the imperishable life of a person of faith!

Just see his response to those own thoughts from verse 8 and 9. “I believe,” verse 10 tells us, “even when I spoke ‘I am greatly afflicted.’”

I believed, even when life wasn’t good. Not that it would get better - that isn’t what I believed - I believed in God even though He feels so very far away! I believe in God even though I didn’t or won’t get what I wanted! I believe in God no matter what I face and no matter what happens! I believe in the God of the imperishable - not in the benefits of the perishable!

And church, that must be us. I know that we all want things. But our want of God’s will must be bigger than our want of ours. Just as Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane modeled - we can want those moments in storms to pass, but we must always turn back to God’s will being done no matter what. We must reconcile the perishable with the imperishable love and presence of our God.

Psalm 116:12–14 ESV

What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

[vs 12-14]

So what do we do with that? What do we do when life doesn’t go our way? Do we seek the pity of others? Do we create an altered image of who God really is or what God really does? Unfortunately, sometimes we do! But that isn’t our call!

What shall we render to the Lord for all His benefits? That is the question David asks. Not for all those things we wanted. Not for life abundant, as some prosperity Gospel peddlers hand out, but for all the benefits of God!

What benefits? Well David illustrates that as well! There in verse 13 he gives it to us! “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.”

Salvation! The imperishable! Christ in us! The ultimate benefit of the faithful. Not that raise. Not that new job. Not the results we want in any given situation. The imperishable love of the God of creation experienced eternally with Him!

Psalm 116:15 ESV

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

[vs 15]

That is what faith offers. Not the answer to our perishable problems in life, but the answer to the ultimate imperishable condition of all people.

Not that we are living for Heaven! Please don’t misunderstand. But that life, when viewed through that lens of the imperishable, is so much more understandable! God stops serving in our minds as a vending machine, or a benevolent parent that just protects us and gives us what we want, and becomes the Creator of everything we see! The creator of the perishable AND the imperishable! The author of life that gives to us moments in which we can, through faith, attain a relationship with Him that will secure our souls and give us peace - for these moments we have on this planet AND for the eternal moments with Him!

1 Peter 1:22–25 ESV

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

[1 Peter 1:22-25]

And then, church, having been born again in Christ. Having been buried with Him and then raised to new life, we have put away the perishable! We have been born into the truth! But we must make room for that truth if we are going to live in it!

And when we do that, when we place our full trust AND OUR HOPE in God and in the imperishable, we find our souls at rest - purified to use Peter’s language. And having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth - to Christ and His Spirit - we can love one another with a pure heart! A love that doesn’t focus on only the perishable - not that needs shouldn’t be covered mind you, Jesus makes that clear in his life - but a love that focuses on the imperishable!

A love that is lived out in faith so that others might find the hope needed for them too! A love for others that never points to self. Never schemes to be the focus of God, or of His miracles, but instead accepts whatever happens as a perishable reality that never deters them from the eternal reality of God!

[born again]

You have been born again! There is no need to labor and spin! No need to get what you want in order to have faith in God! Church, God is so much bigger and more important that us! In our culture that constantly tries to convince us that we are all that matter, it can be so hard to remember that. But every moment you have is a gift from God. More than we ever should expect or deserve! And so often we fill them with perishable things - instagram moments. Status updates. Lives so busy that only working endlessly to climb up corporate ladders - or worse yet coveting money - will buy us that expensive vacation. One that will let us settle our souls just long enough to remember that God is good, even when our toes aren’t in the sand. We work so hard, and are so distracted that only that will remind us of the God who loves us. Reliance on systems and cultural moraise that leads us to play at faith rather than live it out!

But all that perishable stuff is worthless! It adds to our problems, if only because it convinces us that we are God! That we can get whatever we want and that reality moves to us!

But that isn’t faith, church. Faith is nothing more than the acceptance of God’s reality fueled by the realization of God’s truth. The divine Logos. The word made flesh. The word preached to us all! Christ - the sacrifice made so that all people might better understand that this life, while still important, is perishable! But with Christ, life can be imperishable! Eternal!

SO NO MATTER THE EXILE WE MIGHT BE FACING. NO MATTER THE TURMOIL. NO MATTER THE STRUGGLE. NO MATTER THE DIRENESS OF OUR SITUATION. NO. MATTER. WHAT. WE CAN ALWAYS START AGAIN WITH HIM!

NOT THAT OUR PROBLEM IS SOLVED! NOT THAT WE GET WHAT WE WANT! BUT THAT WE START AGAIN IN HIM; RENEWED BY HIS LOVE FOR US AND BY HIS ETERNAL PROVISION FOR US!

[startagainpic]

And no matter what you are facing, you can start again. This time is hard, no doubt. But this is a moment when we can start again. We can, in this time, wean ourselves from the perishable, and lay hold of the eternal. To be grateful for our moments - past and present. To find reasons to thank God and not just ask Him for what we want! To see God in the struggle, and understand that each step is an opportunity to increase our faith in Him, and draw nearer to Him.

It isn’t unlike what I said to the children today. Storms will come. Some are deadly, some are just temporary. But they will come nonetheless. And when they come, in our fear we can run to God - through our faith in Him - and be at peace. At peace not because the storm will go away, but BECAUSE OUR GOD WILL NEVER GO AWAY!

HE WILL HOLD US WHEN WE ARE FRIGHTENED! HE WILL COMFORT US IN OUR TROUBLES! HE WILL CARRY US THROUGH IT ALL INTO ETERNITY! THE PROBLEMS WE HAVE MIGHT NEVER GO AWAY IN THIS LIFE, CHURCH, BUT THEY WILL NOT CONTINUE TO ETERNITY! THAT IS THE GOOD NEWS OF CHRIST! NO MATTER WHAT WE FACE, IF WE REMAIN FAITHFUL IN THE GOD OF ALL THINGS - FAITHFUL NOT THAT THE AFFLICTION WILL PASS, BUT THAT GOD WILL NEVER LEAVE US - THEN WE WILL FIND THE GREATEST TRUTH THIS WORLD COULD EVER FIND!

We will find God in all things. And finding Him, we will, like David, praise Him! We will lift Him up in His house, in our house, and everywhere we go! We will praise Him for the storm, if only because it brought us closer to Him. And in that praise, church, you will find life. Not perishable life through likes or attention or problems solved - but the imperishable life of Christ living in us on into eternity.

So let’s start again together, even now as we close with the only prayer He taught us all to pray.

[lord’s prayer]