Does Tradition Hinder Us?

It was just a few years ago when you would go to a restaurant and if there was a waiting list, you would be called by name when they had an empty table. Have you been to Outback recently? They give you a pager and when it is you turn, they page you.

When they dial your pager, an electronic signal goes from their computer to a satellite that is 5,000 miles up in space. That signal is then turned back and aimed at your individual pager. That signal travels over 10,000 miles in less time than it takes a waitress to say your name. Things change.

When I was in the seventh grade, I stole a candy bar from the local drug store. To this day, I have no idea how he found out, but my dad drove me to the store that afternoon and made me apologize to the manager for being a thief, and then he took me around to every employee in the store and apologize to them, too. Then he took me home and grounded me for a month.

Today, if a boy that age did the same thing and got caught, he would not be taught the lesson of stealing, but he would be punished with a court record, possible detention center time, and anything else they could conjure up. Things change.

And change they must. If things were to never change, you and I would still be running around wearing the same thing the pilgrims wore, and we would eat our Thanksgiving dinners out in the woods, sitting on stumps. Thank goodness some things do change.

Today, I want to talk to you about how and why things change, and the necessity of our being flexible enough to accept those changes for the glory of God.

The first thing I want to talk about is how we are supposed to …

1. NOTICE THE CHANGES & HOW THEY AFFECT US

There have been more changes in the last 50 years than there has been ever before in history all put together. More information has been produced in the last thirty years than in the previous five thousand years. More than one-half the scientists who have ever lived are alive today.

Ninety percent of all the items in the supermarket today did not exist just ten years ago. It is estimated that 73% of college graduates are going into jobs which did not exist when they were born – 22 short years ago.

George Washington traveled from Virginia to Washington D.C. by horseback. It could take him ten days traveling at a speed of twenty-five miles per day.

The astronauts that just came back to earth last week traveled at over 25,000 miles per hour. At that speed you could fly from New York to San Francisco in just a couple of minutes.

I am hi-lighting the changes we have all seen just in our lifetimes. Sometimes it seems that life is going by so fast it confuses us and all we want to do is hibernate away from the changes where it is more comfortable and we don’t have to be bothered with thinking about it.

But we cannot afford to hide our heads in the sand. To do so would not gain us anything worthwhile. We must know what is around us at all times. Everything we’re familiar with is changing, right before our eyes.

We are forever on the move – if you can name it, we humans are doing it! The pace is somewhere between maddening and insane. In most cities across America, the streets are packed with cars 24-hours a day with people going to and fro.

If you look at the people you see in the supermarket or in the cars next to you, they never seem to be smiling anymore, either. Their faces reflect the tension that is in our society.

The air is polluted. Memorial and 71st is so crowded, people actually try to drive further just to avoid the congestion. Everywhere you turn, you run into people whose nerves are shot.

Why is all this occurring? Because of change. It is human nature to avoid change, because it is human nature to be comfortable. Unfortunately, we live in a society that is always changing.

We are commanded to be aware of what is going on around us and the affect it has, or might have, upon on.

In MATTHEW 24, Jesus is telling His disciples what the signs of the end times will be. This entire passage is about how we are not to know the hour or the day, but we are to know the season. And the only way we can know the season is by paying attention to what is going on around us, especially all the changes.