Hold My Beer

Read Genesis 6

Did you ever do something that you regretted?

Have you ever made a really, really big mistake and wished that you could take it back?

Have you ever been sick to your stomach and even to your inner being over something that you did?

I know some of you regret doing the horns down thing this year. Was this the wrong year for that!

I’m talking about serious stuff.

The first cruise that I went on was about 8 years ago. I was riding the bus back to where I parked my car.  The driver asked a couple young ladies seated near the front of the shuttle how their cruise was.  One of them said, “It was great.  I just can’t tell my boyfriend about parts of it.”

What a great cruise!  There’s some stuff that I regret.  What a contrast of emotions.  What a dichotomy.

Think about and God saw what he had made and called it very good in contrast to God was saddened that he had made humankind.

The creation was good—very good.  Humankind was set atop of this creation.  We were the crown of the creation, but we embraced sin and not God.

God was saddened.  He grieved.  He regretted.  Some translations say he repented of making mankind. 

This whole creation business, especially mankind, sure caught God off-guard. Or did it?

If God is truly all-knowing and all-seeing and beyond this physical universe that we know, he had to see this coming.  Right?

I would surely say, “Yes!”

God could see what was to come.  God could see man embracing sin.  God could see his regret at the same time he saw what he made was very good.

And yet, he created us anyway.

And yet, he created us in his image anyway.

And yet, he breathed life into us anyway.

God saw what he would make, how we would rebel, the consequences of our rebellion, our redemption, and the price required for our redemption, and he made us anyway.

God knew what was ahead of us and he made us anyway.  God knew that our rebellion and our relationship with sin would grieve his heart; yet he made us anyway.

What do we make of this?

Consider that you are so very valuable to God.  You are valuable to God not because your obedience was or will be perfect, but because you are his.  You are made in his image and likeness.  We are to become like him. We are not there yet.

The road that we take to get there is full of struggle and pain and hurt and broken hearts and the list goes on, but it is the road set before us.

It is a road that you can’t find on the map.

It is a road named by faith not sight.

It is a road that goes through the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

It is a road that God must have thought worthwhile for us to walk for he knew the price he would pay.

God knew ahead of time the cost of creating humankind.  He did it anyway.

Sometimes, we know ahead of time that if we do something, we are going to regret it.  So do we do it anyway?

If we know that we will regret something, we probably shouldn’t do it.  We should consider the cost of our decision for us and for others and for our relationship with God.

Most of the time, if we know we will regret something, we shouldn’t do it.

West of the Mississippi, there is a phrase for I know that I will regret this.  Do you know what it is?

Hold my beer.

So, if those hold my beer thoughts come to mind, you probably shouldn’t do what you are contemplating.

But if you do and if you have those regrets, if you grieve your decision, if you are lost in a world of I knew better and did it anyway; don’t give up.

God already factored in the hold my beer factor into his creation.  He preserved a remnant that would lead to the One who could redeem us all.

The better choice is not to do things that you know you will regret, but God has already factored in your bad decisions.  He still made a way for us to be redeemed and reconciled.  God’s heart has already ached for our sin; yet he made us anyway.

Yes, we will have trials and tribulations and suffering and temptation.  Some of these will come from our own poor decision-making.  We may be persecuted because of our good decisions to follow Jesus as Lord and be known as his disciples by our love.

But whether our decisions are good, bad, or too close to call; God has made a way for us to come home. God knew what we would do before our thoughts and actions were manifest in our lifetimes, and yet he continued with the very part of the creation that grieved him so.

You must really be worth something to God for him to still love you in spite of what you have done, I have done, or humankind has done throughout history.

God will not tolerate wickedness or rebellion, but he loves you.  His love is greater than our rebellion.  Let’s do our best not to do things that we will regret or will grieve God, but never forget that in the height of our rebellion, God still loved us more than we can comprehend.

Know the story of Noah, the flood, the destruction of the evil world that had developed, and that God found favor in Noah.  These are important to understanding our relationship with God.

But know with absolute certainty, that God loves you.  He knew what humankind would do and he knows how many hold my beer moments you have while you are on the earth, and he loves you.

Even though we break God’s heart, he loves us.

God is just.  He is righteous.  He will not tolerate sin.  He has wrath for the wicked, but know this:

God loves you.

Amen.