Time to Begin…Again
Genesis 8:20-22 and Jeremiah 18:1-4
(The Message)
Mark 12:1-9
Christ Church
Longboat Key, FL
September 7, 2014
Dr. Paul T. Eckel
“Whenever the pot turned out badly…
the potter would simply start over
and use the same clay to make another pot.”
(Jeremiah 18:4 The Message)
F
rom one end of the Bible
to the other, God makes
new things and God makes
things new.
No Starting from Scratch
The world had hardly gotten
started, you remember, before the
whole business got scrubbed.
On the first page of the Bible
we are told,
Genesis reports that the human
family had gotten so snarled up, so
terribly out of step with God’s original plan, God decided to begin
again – to flood it out, flush it
away and start fresh!
“In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth”
(Genesis 1:1).
On the last page of the Bible
God tells us,
(Revelation 21:5).
This may not be altogether
foreign. Many of us may have
been there. We know the feeling.
From start to finish, God
creates and re-creates! God is
always rolling up his sleeves,
drawing in a deep breath and
declaring with fresh determination,
‘It’s time to begin…again.’
Everything goes bad. People
turn on you. The money runs out,
along with the ‘good luck.’ You
lose your job, sickness intrudes,
grief oppresses, temptations defeat,
obligations overwhelm.
“Behold, I make all things new”
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It’s the heart of man that needs
changing. Tinkering with externals
– rearranging the furniture of life,
adjusting our attitudes, shifting our
geography – has nothing to do
with new beginnings, only old
‘continuings.’
Sometimes, amid all the tangle
and upset, there is something
inside you that wants to quit.
Turns out you’re not alone.
Even God felt that way once…
though interestingly, never again.
This is how the Bible describes
God’s feelings after the flood.
God never promised that mere
continuance would produce anything new, much less anything
‘Godly’ in your life.
God…thought to himself,
‘I’ll never again curse the ground
because of people.
I know they have been
bent toward evil from an early age,
but I’ll never again kill off
everything living
as I have just done.’
Recycling our Lives
Yet, God keeps on insisting,
‘It’s time to begin…again.’ But
from now on, the Bible strikes off
in a totally different direction. For
God, beginning again does not
mean trashing the old. It means
transforming it!
Even God – if I may risk
putting it this way – even God
discovered that ‘beginning from
scratch’ doesn’t work.
But did you catch why God
decided never again to destroy the
entire human family? It’s not
because we human beings are so
good.
Jeremiah learned this when he
sauntered down to the potter’s
shop. He watched the potter at his
trade, then described what he saw.
The clay kept crumbling in the
potter’s hands. So, smashing it
down into a formless lump,
It’s because we are so bad!
Humans are “bent toward evil
from an early age,” says the Bible.
“the potter would simply
start over and use the same clay
to make another pot.”
This is the reason God refused
to wipe us out and start from
scratch. Evil is embedded in the
human spirit. Starting from scratch
with a new generation would not
correct the human problem.
The point is – the potter could
have pitched out the crumbly clay
and begun with fresh. But instead
he felt, ‘Stubborn though this
lump may be, I intend to make
something beautiful of it yet.’
(Jeremiah 18:4 The Message)
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And with that, Jeremiah
watched as the potter began once
again moistening his hands and
putting them to the task – the
potter’s transforming touch!
have to be God who makes it
happen.
But will God stay connected
and not get discouraged with us?
This is the question Jesus’ story
helps us answer.
God is that Potter! He is
totally committed to recycling our
gritty clay. This was the brilliant
insight Jeremiah received.
At harvest time, the Master of
the vineyard sent one servant after
another to collect the Owners share
of the produce. But each of the
Master’s servants got kicked out of
the vineyard and staggered back
beaten, abused and empty-handed.
Today, we recycle all sorts of
things – glass, plastic, aluminum,
cardboard. Beg your pardon? You
ask, ‘Recycle a human being? You
mean make something valuable,
useful, even beautiful out of lives
that are abused, broken and
crushed? That’s a tall order.
How long do you suppose the
Owner, and Master, is going to put
up with such rejection? Jesus’
story ends with this very question.
In the light of the tenant’s bitter
hostility to God – the true Master –
“What will the owner of the
vineyard do?”
No, that’s not a ‘tall order,’
that’s an impossible order? On our
own we cannot recycle ourselves
or anyone else for that matter.
That’s simply not a miracle any of
us can pull off by ourselves.
Will God be like a scorned
suitor, finally giving up and
leaving. Will God be like an
exasperated landlord evicting the
tenants?
Only God is capable of
recycling and reshaping our lives.
“Let God,” said Paul – and he
certainly knew something about a
life being recycled! – “let God
remold your mind from within”
To answer that, try putting
yourself into the mix. How many
times has God sent to you a
person, a hymn, or an inspired
message? Yet time and again you
may have turned away.
(Romans 12:2 Phillips).
Giving New Life
God is constantly remolding
us, constantly ‘beginning…again’
with us. If we are ever to have the
sort of life God wants for us, it will
Lots of people today consider
so many other things to be more
interesting and important than
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 Sever His cords of love, and
one day he’ll mend those
strands and bind you to
Himself.
God. Many stay busy ignoring
God, rejecting Him altogether, or
simply forgetting about God.
Which begs the inevitable question
– does God respond by forgetting
about us?
 Submerge Christ under years of
neglect, but one day He will
rise and march triumphantly
through your soul!
Apparently not! You’re still
alive, aren’t you? You still believe
life has purpose. You’re still in
church, convinced this is where
new beginnings can happen. And
you’re right!
God’s life in you is not about
‘beginning again and trying
harder.’ Mere personal resolve is a
skin deep affair. God intends on
changing us at the cellular level!
“Behold,” says God, “I make all
things new” – including people!
God offers you ‘new life’
through His Son. Jesus Christ is
God’s personal gift of Himself to
you.
Through Jesus you are
assured of having your life recycled, and living God’s kind of
life now and on into eternity.
Everyone here who is concerned about a spouse, or a child,
or grandchild – know this: God
never quits on anyone!
God
begins again and again and again
with each of us for as long as it
takes to reshape our stubborn clay.
The Potter’s Touch
With God it’s always “Time to
begin…again.” But the tenants in
the vineyard wanted nothing to do
with the Master – or his Son for
that matter. “This is the heir,”
they snarled, “let’s kill him.” And
they did.
But if they with Golgotha to
help them could not get rid of
Jesus, neither will we!
God has never promised to
create a new beginning for you.
God has only promised to make “a
new creation” of you (II Cor. 5:17).
Through faith in Jesus Christ we
are transformed from a creature
God has fashioned into a child
Christ has redeemed.
 Smother His voice however
you will, one day He will
shatter your silence like a
trumpet.
With God, it’s always “Time
to Begin…Again.” And why not?
He is the Potter – we are the gritty
clay.
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