Game Changing People Series

People of the Change

Game Changer Series

11.21.10

“Close your eyes. Count to 10. Open your eyes.

Imagine every second, every minute, every day of your life is visually blank.

Charlie Wilks is 100 percent blind. He can sense only extreme light. He is a smart, witty 14-year-old kid who even finds time to tell blind jokes.

At age 5, a brain tumor crushed Charlie's optical nerve and stole his eyesight. After multiple surgeries, Charlie was completely blind by age 6. He saw football on television before he went blind and heard plenty of stories from his grandfather, Al Reynolds, who played in Super Bowl I for the Kansas City Chiefs.”

(Ben Houser http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/e60/columns/story?id=4637537)

By the way, Charlie plays football also. Here’s his story.

VIDEO: CHARLIE WILKS

Ultimately the game is changed by people every time.

There are people throughout the history of mankind and throughout your own history that you can point to and say, this person changed everything. Most folks who fit in that category had no idea they would make such an impact. They just tried to play the cards that were dealt them the best way they could, Yet they changed the world around them.

Homework Assignment One really cool thing to do in your devotion time this week is to make a list of 3-5 people that you see as the top game changers in your life and in your world. They could be as close to you as in your house or as far removed from you as in the Bible, but somehow their life has touched yours.

When you finish your list. Thank God for them in prayer, then eat a turkey in their honor this Thanksgiving.

If you will indulge me I want to share a few of my top Game Changers. (this is as close to a three point sermon using assimilation as I get, but it only applies to me. Sorry.)

• Dad

• David

• Disciples (Jesus was awesome, but he was still Jesus)

After Jesus went to be with the Father, someone needed to step up. As these guys did, they actually saw that Jesus never left them. He was there with them in the Holy Spirit and He was there with them physically. That’s right, I said Jesus was still physically there with them after the ascension.

Jesus put it this way…

Matthew 25:34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

He was there in the face of the prisoner, in the hands of the beggar, in the thirst of a child.

What’s ironic is that they could barely figure out who Jesus was when he was with them, and after the resurrection they saw Him everywhere because they understood the deep connection between Jesus and those in need. Do we?

Something happened with these guys. Acts 4 explains it…

Acts 4: 13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

“It takes transformed people to transform the world.” (75)

Martin Luther once said we should, “Live as if Christ died yesterday, rose this morning and is coming back tomorrow.”

My fear is that the church thinks and acts more like pre-resurrection disciples than post-resurrection ones. We love to learn like the disciples at Jesus’ feet, but when it all comes down, we are scared to do what we’ve learned.

James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

Verse 18 is enough to push the faith that we experience within to the outside. It’s there that our mind and hearts move our hands.