Following Christ Means Change Series

This sermon is part of a series called Back to the Future.

The sermon is easily adaptable to be preached individually without any serious flow change.

** Following Christ Means Change Mt 4 **

How many of you rode into church this morning on a horse?

I know there was a day some of you did come to church on a horse or in a horse drawn buggy or wagon…but not one of us did today.

Why not?

How many of you came to church today by way of an automobile?

Almost everyone except for perhaps a few that may have walked.

How many of you have watched television at all this week?

Just about everyone has watched some television in the last week.

News or sports or something.

Let me see the hands of those of you who used one of these?

(hold up rabbitt ears antenna)

How many of you used one of these a remote control in the last week?

What year is this right now 2005?

What year was it… last October 30th ?

The October 30th that happened just before this one…what year was that?

2004.

When October 30th comes around 12 months from now what year will it be

2006?

Time Changes …Am I correct?

Here is the real question….

Do we change with the changes?

Kim your son… William is almost three years old.

What room of your house did the doctor deliver him in?

The kitchen, living room, the garage….

Oh you mean he was born in the hospital …?

But that is not the way it has always been.

Just about everything we do… in our lives… changes some how.

The words we use, the way we decorate our homes, the cars we drive, the clothes we wear. It has all changed over the years..

If we are honest we all …change with the changes.

As things around us change…. we have changed things about us or our lives.

What do we believe then… about the church and change?

How do things in the church should change?

Looking at Mt. Pleasant..

Have things changed in the church much over the years?

Should things change?

I don’t know everything about churches or about pastoring but there are some things I do know and this I am absolutely certain of.

If we do not adjust… with the changes around us….

we will not survive.

Hear me clearly ….

The church should never change its message…

The message is Jesus.

Jesus Loves You

Jesus Died For You

Jesus Rose again for you

Jesus has a plan for your life.

The message MUST NEVER change.

Our methods….. must change…

To continue to do the same old things year after year and expect new results is called insanity.

The question is are we willing to change?

Are we willing to change?

(Yes)

That seems simple enough …Yes Lord we are willing to change.

BUT….Are we willing to pay the price of change?

What if changing means it is not done the way I like doing it?

What if change makes me feel awkward at time.

Change often makes us uncomfortable but we must be willing to change.

… but I think that we will all agree that if God is authoring the change and leading the transition that takes place…. In the end we will be glad for the change.

We know three terms…commonly used for describing what phase of life… we are in.

There is

The Past

The Present

And the what….(The Future)

Right now where are we…?

(please don’t say the past…I know that really feels like where we are stuck sometimes is in the past but we are not in the past…where are we RIGHT NOW.)

We are in the present.

If today is the present what does that make tomorrow?

The Future ….Right?

Are we thinking about tomorrow today?

Should we be ….? YES…. we must.

Why are we interested in the future?

Because.. quickly… the future becomes the present.

How many of you have ever heard of an inventor named Charles Franklin Kettering?

You should know that name you use part of his inventing everyday.

Kettering developed the first electrical ignition system and the self starter for automobile engines.

He made this important statement ….

Kettering said

“My interest is in the FUTURE because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.”

Here was a man who had the future in focus and he understood how important it was to have the future in focus.

Let me ask you this morning….

Do we as Mt. Pleasant Church…

Do we have the future in focus ?

Do we understand just how important it is for us to always be looking into the future?

When we as followers of Christ allow our focus to be on the future…. our lives will be continually dynamic.