It's Never Too Late to Start Over

Built Different Week 1: We believe it’s never too late to start over

Sunday, August 3, 2025

The Rev. Megan Collins

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One of the fun things about raising teenagers was, when they lived at home, we got to know all of the new lingo. There were these words and phrases that entered the vernacular out in the world that we would learn when they would use them at our dinner table. Now that our kids are both off in college we are completely out of the loop. But a few years ago when they were both at home a new phrase made its way into our lives.

Built different

Built different apparently meant you are like unique or different or special, but in a good way. For example, let’s say you stayed up all night, but then could go to a 7am class and do really well on a test, and then not even take a nap when you got home. How are you not tired? I might ask. You might answer “I am, in fact, built different.”

Built different slowly became a part of Dave and I’s regular vocabulary over the past few years, which is a great indication that it is no longer cool at all and that kids are no longer saying it. The way to pretty much guarantee a phrase isn’t cool is when two pastors in their mid-40s are using it regularly. The good news is now that it’s not cool, we can use it freely and claim it as our own.

That is exactly what we are going to do in titling our new sermon series. Over the next five weeks, we will be in a series here at church we are calling, you guessed it, “Built Different.” We believe there is something unique, special, different about this church, not because of who Dave and I are, but because of you. There are some really powerful things happening here at Maitland Pres. God is doing some really amazing things in this church. We would like to spend the next five weeks putting words on what we are seeing, and digging more into where we see God in it. These are things that we believe make this church different from anywhere else. Maitland Pres is different from other places that aren’t churches of course, things like a social gathering or a staff meeting or even your family. But this church is also different from a lot of other churches and Christian circles we see. 

Over these next few weeks we will look at four statements (which are our best attempts at describing the ways we believe this church is built different). We’ll talk about why it matters that you are here, and why we think other people need to be here too. So, here they are, the four statements of who we are, right now, at Maitland Pres.

1.We believe it’s never too late to start over 

 2: We fight to fix what’s actually broken

3: We insist on real community

4.We love loud

Not only do we believe these four things set us apart, as a church, but we believe these four ideas are foundational to how we understand God together, to what God is doing here in this place.These ideas also will help us put some framing under our vision. To see, what it really looks like in the life of this church, to love like Jesus.  

We believe it’s never too late to start over.

It’s never too late to start over . . . is a sentence I personally believe theologically, as someone who really loves God and the gospel story and talking about grace. But it is also something I struggle to remember in the day to day of my life. I have a feeling I am not alone in this. Instead of seeing every mistake or hurt or tragedy as a time to start over, a lot of us have this sense that if something goes wrong, it’s just done. It’s ruined. 

Maybe you’ve made some mistakes. 

You made a decision that seemed small at the time, but now you’re standing in this wreckage of your choices. You said something careless. You acted without thinking. You gave into an impulse you knew you should ignore. There is this small but incessant voice in your head saying “you ruined it.” 

Maybe someone else did something that hurt you.

They lied. They betrayed you. They let you down when you needed them most. And it didn’t just hurt your feelings, it changed something in you. It made you put up walls you didn’t used to have. It made you second-guess your own worth. Maybe they hurt someone you love. Now you carry that anger around everywhere you go, trying to protect yourself and the people in your life from ever being hurt like that again. You used to trust people. You used to trust God. 

They ruined it. 

Maybe there isn’t really anyone to blame, but it’s just been hard. 

It’s just been the worst day… or the worst month… or the worst year. You did everything right but things are still going wrong and you’re so tired. You lost the job or the friendship. The plan you prayed over failed. You got the call you were dreading. The test came back positive. The person you love is gone. The world and our country seem to be falling apart more everyday. You look at it all and think, “This isn’t how it was supposed to go.” It’s ruined. 

I ruined it.

They ruined it.

The world ruined it.

It’s ruined. 

It’s over. It’s too late. 

But then we come here. 

When we get together, we begin to see that maybe it’s not ruined after all. 

Because what if God’s love is bigger than your worst day, your deepest hurt, or your biggest mistake. What if it really is never too late to start over, to be forgiven, to try again, to start fresh, to have a new chapter even with everything that has happened.

There is one key thing we do here, as a church, that helps us really have this fresh start. We’ll talk about that in just a minute. But first, to put some biblical and theological context on this, we’ll be reading from the letter to the Romans in the new testament. Let’s start in chapter 8, verse 28:

28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 

Now stop here for a minute. I know this is the verse we have all seen on like a pillow or a coffee mug. It’s one of those that people use to try to make us feel better about the chaos of our lives when really it’s just so they don’t feel guilty or sad. It can leave us feeling hollow. So let’s back up. This verse does not mean that God is bringing a bunch of horrible things into your life because of some secret plan. It doesn’t mean that the tragedy you have gone through is actually good if you just reframe it. All things work together for good means that God is ultimately pulling everything in our lives toward God, that somehow God meets us in the heartache and the mistakes and the brokenness and the hurt and loves us. It means that God doesn’t cause all the bad things, but God can bring good out of anything, even the worst days. Let’s keep reading:

29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

These verses fall under a broader theological concept we call the Sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God is one of the basic tenants of what it means to be a reformed Christian. The idea is that God is, ultimately, in control of all things. He is sovereign, on the throne. He foreknew, he predestined, he called, he justified. This doesn’t mean we are like these weird puppets and God is controlling our every move. We still make our own decisions and mistakes.  But here’s where this is really important, where church in general can be different from other places you might go.

You aren’t as important as you think you are.

Now stay with me. Let’s add something else too . . .

You aren’t as important as you think you are AND neither is anyone else. 

I’m not saying you don’t matter. You matter so much, to this church, and to God. God loves you more than you’ll ever know. 

Other people matter too. They matter so much, to us and even more to God. 

But the good things in your life, the good things that could happen in the world, it doesn’t all rise and fall on you or me or anyone else. People might tell you that because of you or someone else, it’s all ruined. It’s too late. You've made a mistake and there’s no coming back from it. That ship has sailed. It is what it is. You missed your window. But, as the kids say, we aren’t the main character. 

The church is the one place we go where there is someone higher up on the food chain of control in your life and in the world. Even if you make a huge mistake, even if someone else has brought tremendous hurt into your life, even if you have had the worst year and nothing is going right, it’s not all ruined. It can’t be. Because God is in charge. 

Look at verse 31 - “31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

Even if our lives get a little knocked out of alignment, we go a little of course, ultimately, God is still pulling us forward. We might bob and weave, but we’re stll heading in one direction. If God is in for us, nothing else can mess that up. 

32He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ[t] who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

There is no mistake you can make that will condemn you. God has decided to forgive you, so it’s done. You’re forgiven. It’s not up to anyone else. It’s not even up to you. It’s never too late for a fresh start. Romans goes on:

 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all day long;    we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.

So the hurt from other people, the affliction and persecution, the terrible things that happen to us, the famine and sword, those can’t ruin everything either. Because . . . . 

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

None of it can separate us from God’s love. So there is nothing you can do, nothing that can happen to you, that means your story is already written, that things are ruined. God’s love is so much bigger than that. We give ourselves and our circumstances way too much credit, to think that we could somehow ruin everything. God’s love is bigger than your worst day, your deepest hurt, or your biggest mistake. Which means:

 We believe that it’s never too late to start over.

You can start over because God’s love is more powerful than any one event, one decision, one tragedy in your life. It’s never really ruined, it’s never too late. 

There’s one specific way we’ve seen this in the life of Maitland Pres that we think is really important. Here at Maitland Pres: 

We tell the truth.

You can’t start over if you’re not honest about what has happened.

Here, in this church, we tell the truth about it all. 

You have told the truth about your struggles and your mistakes. A few years ago in church people stood in this pulpit and shared about the addictions they struggled with. That’s powerful. 

You have told the truth about the people who have hurt you. You trusted this church with your stories about the ones who cheated, who were violent, who broke your trust, the ones who told you weren’t the child of God we know that you are. 

You have told the truth about how hard life can be. There is this misconception in some Christian circles that we need to be press agents for God, falling over ourselves to justify tragedy and injustice on God’s behalf, minimizing other people’s pain to protect our fragile faith. Not here. You have told the truth about the hardest things like grief and loss, and then stood alongside of one another. There is nothing we cannot talk about. 

God’s love is bigger than your worst day, your deepest hurt, or your biggest mistake.

With that promise,

We believe that it’s never too late to start over.