Our God Never Changes Series

A. Let’s begin by considering this statement: Everything changes, nothing stays the same, except for God.

1. Think about how travel has changed over time:

a. When George Washington traveled from Virginia to Washington D.C. by horseback, it would take him ten days traveling at a speed of 25 miles per day.

b. The space shuttle traveled at twenty-five thousand miles per hour - at that speed you could fly from New York City to San Francisco in eight minutes.

c. With the advances in air travel it is possible to have breakfast in New York, lunch in Dallas, and dinner in Los Angeles -- and have your luggage wind up in Mexico.

2. Truly, everything changes and nothing stays the same, except for God.

3. This week I tried to wrap my brain around the way that we experience change all around us, and I marveled at the fact that nothing stays the same.

4. Our bodies go through constant change.

a. We start out so small and grow to our full size over the course of years, and then we begin our decline toward our eventual death.

b. Did you know that your brain starts shrinking at 25, your handshake starts weakening at 30, and at 40, your memory starts to slip? I’m in trouble!

c. Everything changes and nothing stays the same, except for God.

5. Our families are in constant change.

a. I was born into a family with an older sister and mom and dad, just the 4 of us.

b. Before long, 2 more girls were added, but then dad died.

c. Mom remarried a man with 4 sons, and then they had 2 more boys; you talk about change!

d. Then Diana and I got married, and we had parents and grandparents around.

e. We were blessed with three daughters, and then they grew up and gave us sons-in-law.

f. Then we were blessed with grandchildren.

g. But meanwhile, while our family was growing it was also shrinking as we began having to say good-bye to grandparents, and some of our parents, and even a few of our siblings.

h. Everything changes and nothing stays the same, except for God.

6. Our city is constantly changing around us.

a. Syracuse is called the Salt City, because it used to be our major industry, but we no longer make any salt in the Salt City.

b. GE once employed close to 30,000 people here and Carrier Corp also employed thousands.

c. Those businesses have changed and moved elsewhere, but now here comes Amazaon!

d. Even on a smaller scale our community is constantly changing – just think about the changes on Rt. 57: Kmart is now Uhaul, Breuger’s Bagel is becoming a KFC, Herb Philipson’s is now a Thrifty shopper.

e. Everything changes and nothing stays the same, except for God.

7. Technology is constantly changing our lives.

a. Snail mail to email, telephones to cellphones, radio to television to livestream, record players to 8 track tapes to cassette tapes to CD to Spotify.

b. We went from coins to dollar bills, to Venmo, to Crypto currencies.

c. Everything changes, nothing stays the same, except for God.

8. The membership of our church is constantly changing, as are our methods and ministries, but not our doctrine.

a. Our congregation began in 1941 in the city and moved out here to Liverpool in 1965, but none of us were members at that time.

b. I became a minister here 46 years after the congregation began and have been here for 34 years, and Alan grew up in our congregation, and returned to work with us 10 years ago.

c. Many ministers and members have come and gone over the years.

d. Truly, everything changes and nothing stays the same, except for God.

B. Need I say anything more to convince you how much in our lives is constantly changing?

1. And what do we think about change? Most of us don’t like change very much.

2. Someone said: “The only person who likes change is a baby with a wet diaper.”

3. In reality, must of us wish that the things we don’t like would change, and the things that we do like, would not change, but unfortunately, that’s not how life is.

4. In addition to death and taxes, there are two other constants that we must understand and embrace: (1) First, Everything changes; and (2) Second, God never changes.

5. You’ve probably caught on to our main idea for today: “Everything changes and nothing stays the same, except for God” (let’s say it together).

C. In contrast to the fact that everything else changes, our God never changes - this is a powerful and important truth.

1. During our sermon series “It’s All About God,” we have been trying to get a clearer picture of our God so that we can properly reflect who God is, just like the moon reflects the sun.