A New Beginning - Part 1

"A NEW BEGINNING"

TEXT: NEHEMIAH 1:1-11

Have you ever needed a new beginning, a fresh start, a clean slate - a do over, have you ever needed a second chance after you had really blown it?

I’m sure Bill Buckner would love to have a second chance at that ground ball hit to him on the 6th game of the world series a few years back.

And Mike Tyson would love to have a do over in that now infamous fight with Evader Holifield - if Iron Mike had a chance to do it over again, I’m sure this time he would keep his mouth piece in and have dinner first.

And the player on the New York Giants #80 I believe his name was Callowway, the guy who fumbled the on side kick last saturday giving both the ball back and the win to the Minnesota Vikings would just love to get another try at fielding that kick.

Ernest Binder of the Cleveland Browns who fumbled the ball heading into Denver’s endzone in the 4th qtr leading to Denver’s comeback in The AFC Championship in 1987 would have loved to have a second chance.

Let me tell you a little story I heard about a computer whiz who would love to have a second chance.

A minister, a boy scout and a computer expert were the only passengers on a small plan. The pilot came back to the cabin and said that the plane was going down but there were only 3 parachutes and 4 people. The pilot added, "I should have one of the parachutes because I have a wife and 3 small children." So he took one and jumped out.

The computer whiz said, "I should have one of the parachutes because I’m the smartest man in the world and everyone needs me." So he took one and jumped out.

The minister turned to the Boy Scout and with a sad smile said, "You are young and I have lived a rich life, so you take the remaining parachute, and I’ll go down with the plane."

The Boy Scout said, "Relax preacher, the smartest man in the world just picked up my knapsack and jumped out."

Unfortunately there are not too many second chances given in life; therefore Bill, Mike, Callowway, Ernest and the computer whiz

will just have to live with their mistakes.

Last sunday we talked about how falling does not equal failure And how our God is a God of second chances a God of the do over.... Now what do you think about that?

Doesn’t that excite you?

You know we tend to let that truths like that just dance on our brains - but we need to resist that temptation and let them take root in our hearts & stir our souls...

With "our" God our failures do not make us a flop -- we get to bat again, we get another swing -- 3 strikes and it’s still not over...

Yes, our God loves to give fallen people like you and me a second chance.

What we are going to do for the next several weeks is study from the book of Nehemiah. And what we want to uncover as we study this book are the helps that we need to embrace and the hindrances we need to avoid in order to successfully accomplish our new beginning.

And let me tell you up front that I am very excited about this study. Do you know why? Because so many times I have tried to make a fresh start and by the end of the year I have not accomplish what I set out to do. I’ve failed/fallen/blown it!

I think you know what I mean many times figuratively speaking at the end of the year the car is still on blocks and the exercise equipment is still sitting on the garage floor covered in cob webs..

Our best intentions didn’t get the job done.;

I don’t know about you, but I am thoroughly convinced that I need help if I am going to have the 1998 that I want to have.

And I am equally convinced that God wants me to have a great 98’ and that He is going to reveal some awesome stuff to us in Nehemiah that will help each of our New Beginnings, become a reality.

God’s people in Nehemiah’s needed help as well. They to needed a second chance....

The book of Nehemiah is the last historical book in the OT and it takes place in the years following Jerualems destruction by Babylon in 587 BC. It’s been over a hundred years since that happened and Persia is now the world power and many Jews had returned home.

Nehemiah 1:1-11

PRAYER

The first help we need to embrace in order to have a successful new beginning is;