Waiting On The World To Change Series

Jason Sheffstall

StoneBridge Baptist Church

Morgantown, West Virginia

February 4, 2007

Series: GOD IN YOUR IPOD

Subject: Waiting For The World To Change

Text: Acts 17:1-9; Mark 10:45

INTRODUCTION

Let me first of all say that I am so excited

about this Sermon Series. I don’t know if I have

anticipated a Series like this one since I have

been in Morgantown! This month, we are going

to look at four songs which will relate to what

God is doing in our own lives through the music

culture of today.

Week One: Waiting on the World to

Change - John Mayer

Week Two: You and Me - Lifehouse

Week Three: When the Sand Runs Out -

Rascal Flatts

Week Four: Made to Worship - Chris

Tomlin

It is my prayer that God would uses these

messages to transform us. The big picture today

is to realize that the World is not going to

Change, until we become World Changers.

World changers are servants. They are

enthusiastic, servant-hearted, passionate people

who understand the mission of life! For the

most part, World changers are more about

changing the world than seeing their

pocketbooks filled and people manipulated into

doing something that they really don’t want to

do.

What is your Mission in life? What do

you value? How are you going to carry out the

plan God has for you? Today, we are looking at

John Mayer’s song entitled, Waiting on the

World to Change. Part of the lyrics say,

Now we see everything that’s going wrong

With the world and those who lead it

We just feel like we don’t have the means

To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting

Waiting on the world to change

We keep on waiting

Waiting on the world to change

This song reminds us of the challenges

that we have to reach the world for Christ.

Many times we see the ‘wrong’ in our society,

but we don’t feel like we have the ‘means’ to rise

above and beat it. This type of thinking leaves

us defeated. There are three characteristics that

I want to share with you today about World

Changers:

I. WORLD CHANGERS ARE

PASSIONATE (V1-4).

A. v1-4, “Now when they had passed

through Amphipolis and

Apollonia, they came to

Thessalonica, where there was a

synagogue of the Jews. 2 Then

Paul, as his custom was, went in to

them, and for three Sabbaths

reasoned with them from the

Scriptures, 3 explaining and

demonstrating that the Christ had

to suffer and rise again from the

dead, and saying, "This Jesus

whom I preach to you is the

Christ." 4 And some of them were

persuaded; and a great multitude

of the devout Greeks, and not a

few of the leading women, joined

Paul and Silas.”

B. In Acts 16:25, Paul and Silas were

put in prison, and at midnight

they prayed and sang praises to

God, and the prisoners heard

them. After displaying such

radical commitment to God,

people took notice. One of the

things we can learn from this is

that when we are radical for God,

people listen. People are more apt

to listen when we have earned the

right to speak.

C. Moving from Philippi to

Thessalonica, they came to a

synagogue of the Jews. Paul and

Silas were World Changers

because they were passionate. One

of the statements in our vision is

for every person who unites with

StoneBridge to be passionate

about Jesus Christ.

D. Passion drives us to be World

Changers. In our text, Paul and

Silas went into the Jewish

Synagogue and reasoned with

them for three Sabbaths from the

Scriptures. In other words, for

three weeks, they were preaching

and proving to the Jews that Jesus

was the Christ. The Scriptures

help us to become passionate for

Christ. Without the Scriptures,

we have no way to defend the

truth.

E. When people see passion, they see

authenticity. As Paul reasoned

with the Jews, concerning Jesus,

the Bible says that some were

persuaded; and a great multitude

of the devout Greeks, and not a

few of the leading women, joined

Paul and Silas.

F. Passion and Authenticity mixed

with the gospel of Jesus Christ

always results in lives being

changed. If we want to change the

world, we must be passionate

about our Savior as Paul and Silas

were in this passage of Scripture.

II. WORLD CHANGERS ARE

ENTHUSIASTIC (V5-9).

A. v5-9, “5 But the Jews who were

not persuaded, *becoming envious,

took some of the evil men from the

marketplace, and gathering a

mob, set all the city in an uproar

and attacked the house of Jason,

and sought to bring them out to

the people. 6 But when they did

not find them, they dragged Jason

and some brethren to the rulers of