Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign pastor Chuck Allen here with another weekday podcast. And today I want to talk about mulligans. Oh, my stars. I used to golf. And I remember I. I was playing in this charity tournament. I got done, you know what, I just wasn't playing enough to be good. And I just thought, I'm done. So I gave the caddy at the end of the day, I gave you my shoes, I gave him my clubs, I gave him a bag, I gave him everything that I had in the bag. And I just walked off. And from now on, people say, do know you? Do you play golf? The answer is no, I really don't. But there is that magical, wonderful, grace filled moment on the golf course when you mess up your first shot. I mean really like, I mean, mess it up. One time I was playing in a men's tournament over in Birmingham, teed it up. I happened to be the first one up, draw the, you know, last name of Allen. I just crushed this drive. The problem is it hit the box in the ladies tee and came right back at me.
[00:00:58] Just a bit embarrassing. You need a mulligan. I mean, like the kind of things, like somebody says, you know, just take a mullet, do it again, start over, fresh beginning. But here's what I've been thinking about. What if. What if the entire story of God is actually about mulligans? Stay with me here for a minute. You see, there's this moment in the book of Genesis where everything goes sideways. Adam and Eve are in this perfect garden. They've got one rule, literally one rule. They blow it. They take the one thing they're supposed to take, not to take. I mean, they just blow it. Sounds familiar. It's like the first tee shot that goes sailing into the parking lot. And what does God do?
[00:01:36] Does God say, well, that's it, game over. Thanks for playing? Nope. God gives them a mulligan. The new living translation puts it this way. In Genesis 3:21. And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins to clothe Adam and his wife make. Now think about that for a second. They've just broken the one rule. They're hiding in shame. And God's response is to make them close, to cover them, to care for them. Now that's a mulligan. But it doesn't stop there. What about Noah's generation? Total disaster. So God says, let's try this again. Flood comes, ark floats, rainbow appears. Mulligan. Abraham lies about his wife being his sister not once, but twice. And God still chooses him to be the father of all Nations Mulligan, David, a man after God's own heart. I mean, that guy commits adultery, has the woman's husband killed to cover it up. And when the prophet Nathan confronts him, David breaks down. And God, what does he do? Forgives him. Mulligan.
[00:02:34] Peter denies Jesus three times. Three times. The guy who walked on water, who declared Jesus to be the son of the living God, who cut off the soldier's ear defending Jesus when it mattered most. He said, I don't know him. And what happens? Jesus cooks him breakfast on the beach and asks him three times, do you love me? Three denials, three chances to say yes. Three mulligans.
[00:02:57] I could go on and on.
[00:02:58] You know what?
[00:03:00] Here's what I think is happening in all these stories. God isn't keeping score the way we think God is keeping score. We live in this world of strikes and. And you're out. Think about it.
[00:03:12] Three chances and done. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. But God, God seems to operate on this completely different system. It's like God has an unlimited supply of mulligans. Jesus tells a story in Luke 15 about a son who takes his inheritance early, which, by the way, is basically telling your dad you wish he was dead. So the kid ends up feeding pigs, which is for the Jewish audience, about as low as you can get. And when he finally comes home, expecting to be hired as a servant, what does the dad do? Well, again, in the New Living, it says, and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. The dad runs. In that culture, respectable men didn't run. But this dad runs to his son, he throws a party, breaks out the good wine, kills the fatted calf, because his son, who is lost, is found. That's not just a mulligan, guys. That's a celebration of the mulligan.
[00:04:09] What if that's how God sees every single one of us when we mess up? What if grace isn't the exception, but is God's rule? What if mulligans aren't just for golf courses, they're for life?
[00:04:22] Because, you see, if God can give David a mulligan after murder, if God can give Paul a mulligan after persecution, if God can give Peter a mulligan after betrayal, then just maybe God can give you a mulligan after whatever it is you're carrying around.
[00:04:37] That thing you did, the thing you said, the person you hurt, the promise you broke, the dream you gave up on. Take a mulligan, do it over, start over, start again. Fresh beginning, y'. All. The apostle Paul puts it this way in 2nd Corinthians 5:17. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life has gone, a new life has begun. New person, old life gone, new life begun. That's not just theology. All that's a mulligan, and it's available to you right now.
[00:05:07] You know, thanks for joining me. This has been the weekday podcast, and I'm Chuck Allen. Go live like you've been given a mulligan, because, well, you have. God bless you. By now.
