Starting Over Part 2:

We’re all in this together

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

(music) “Just Like Starting Over” by John Lennon

It will be just like starting over

Today we’ll continue our series on starting over.

What is it like to have a fresh start, to start over?

Let me ask you, have you ever had a bad restaurant experience?  If so, did you ever go back there?

One day a man ate a meal in a restaurant in Santa Fe . He was greatly disappointed. The tablecloth was not clean, the waitress’s uniform was dirty, and she was rude and discourteous. The food was terrible. He resolved not to go back to that restaurant again.

Some months later he saw a sign out front that said, “Under New Management.”  He decided to give the restaurant another chance, wiping the slate clean from his first experience there. As he entered the restaurant a nice looking man greeted him and showed him to a table. The tablecloth was clean, the waitress was neat and courteous and the food was excellent. He was greatly pleased with everything, and dined there happily ever after.

Ah, another “happily ever after” story.  What had happened?

Well, the restaurant had gotten a new manager and started over.

The same is true when a person comes to Christ- he gets a new manager and gets to start over!

You see, sometimes in life we take a wrong turn, and end up in the wrong place.

But as our scripture says today, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation! The old has passed away and everything is new!”

And the best part is that this newness, this transformation which is available, isn’t just for me, or the praise team, or you.  It’s for all of us.  We’re all in this together!

And here’s why: scripture tells us that all have sinned, and the penalty of sin is death.  Eternal death, which is separation from God for all of eternity because God is holy and pure and our sin separates us from God.

Prior to being a new creation we were confused. We were dead and buried under our sin. Lost, sunk submerged and dead. Trapped in our own sinful nature.

However, the Good News is that God sent his Son to die for us.

Paul says if we have a relationship with Christ all of that has been removed. Our old self has passed away. Our old stuff has been thrown out. We are changed from Junk to Justified!  A true change takes place!

This change I am referring to is not like a cheap paint job. You know, where a person slaps up a few coats of watered-down paint and hangs a couple of pictures to hide the chips in the walls.

I’m sure that I’ve shared with you the story of the church that needed a new paint job.  They received three bids, one of which was very attractively priced, so they went with that painter.

It looked as though the painter was doing a good job on the back and the sides of the church.  However, as he began the front of the church, he realized that he would run out of paint before finishing the job.  So, when no one was looking, he watered down the paint and painted the front of the church.

As he was finishing the job, the pastor came by to see the work, which on the surface looked like a fine job.  But just then it began to rain, and the watered-down paint began to run down the face of the church in flowing white rivers.

The painter admitted his deception to the pastor, who said, “Repaint and thin no more”.

You see, the change promised by God is not one where things get hidden or glossed over.  What God is talking about is a complete, new, and improved you.

To no longer be as you were.

Because Jesus became our sin, we have an opportunity for reconciliation with God. Not a mere exterior makeover, a thinning paint job, but a change that purges out that stuff on the inside that kept us from serving God.

In other words we are brand new.

We are no longer constricted by the mistakes that were made the previous year. No longer convictable by God of the crimes committed prior to being in Christ Jesus. We are "New Creatures," redirected from destruction to deliverance.

Now, I know, many people today attempt a change their life, going about it in various ways. Crash diets, plastic surgery, new hairdos, new clothes; we buy books and tapes to improve our self image, to stop smoking, be relieved of addictions. However, none of these things will result in the long-lasting (and eternity is pretty long), love-giving transformation that Paul is writing about.

So you can forget about your past, God has wiped your slate clean. Forget that broken vessel you came in as, for through faith in Christ God has remolded and reshaped you and refined you - from broken to blessed. From useless to useful. From purposeless to purposeful. From despaired to repaired. From junk to justified!

When one chooses to follow Christ, we become a person with a future. The past is over, and the future stretches out before us full of promise and possibility.

Again, did Jesus die for just certain people people? NO!

READ verses 14 and 15.  In verses 14, 15 we are told that Jesus died for all. Jesus died for everyone. We’re all in this together! 

Jesus died instead of, in the place of, on behalf of, or for the benefit of, everyone.

Jesus died so that we could all be reconciled with God.

I do not know if you understand this, but listen: no matter who you are, what you have or what you’ve done, Jesus died for you, He died in your place, for your benefit.

And we can have this even though we don’t deserve it: ROM 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Jesus did this because of His great love for us. This is the basis of the gospel message we heard last week, JOHN 3:16 "For God so loved the world (that’s all of us in this together), that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

God wants to have a personal relationship with you through Jesus, so that when we make Jesus our Lord, we receive a new lease on life.

Verse 17 tells us that because of what Jesus has done, when we belong to Him, we are a new creation, we can start over.  We are regenerated spiritually and our spirit is made alive.

When Christ makes us new, we have new goals, new, aims, and new purposes. Everything is new!

Before I gave my life for Jesus, my life was about me. My purpose was about me. Listen, if you do not belong to Jesus today, what is your life about, and what will that do for you when your life is over? What is it doing for you now?
Jesus died so that we could live for Him because of what He did for us.

When you give your life to Jesus, your life has purpose, it counts for something. You are able to serve something bigger than you.

And because we have been reconciled and forgiven by God, we also have a new way to look at other people—with forgiveness and love.

“You can judge a book by its cover.” Heard that one? That is how the world works. READ VERSE 16a: “So, from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.”

It is so easy to write people off. How many of us have been written off by someone at one time or another?

When you belong to Jesus, EVERYONE should be a person we are willing to love, just as Christ loves us.

You see, what’s great is that even though Jesus can see what is going on inside of us (and there’s some pretty scary stuff), He does not write us off.

We are not to look at people for what they are, but what they can be through Christ.  Because you see, we’re all in this together.

And once we realize our new life in Christ, and we realize that we’re all in this together, then our job is to take the message of reconciliation to everyone we know.

Verse 19 says that Jesus “committed to us the message of reconciliation.”  The word “committed” means that Jesus deposited into our hands the ministry of reconciliation as though we have been handed a sacred treasure.

Because we have been given the job by Jesus, we are commissioned by Him and we are to act on His behalf.  We are now ambassadors for Jesus.

This is why it is so important for us to reflect Jesus by how we live—in our conduct, our especially our attitudes towards one another.

So I ask you: Has Jesus’ death made a real difference in your life? Are you under “new management”?  Have you started over?

Jesus wants to make a difference in your life, Jesus wants you to be a part of His family. Because you know, we’re all in this together.  And it’s just like, starting over.

INVITATION

(Shine, Jesus, Shine)