Text: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
When God created the heavens and the earth change took place. God liked change, so then He created two great lights, one to rule the day and the other to rule the night. In addition to the two great lights, God created the many stars and placed them in just the right place in the universe.
If He had stopped making changes in His handiwork, we would not be here today. God decided to make life for the waters and life for the air. He created animals of all sort to walk upon the face of the earth. And then God created His most prized possession, that being mankind.
God started the process of change. Change takes place everyday of our life. You and I have seen many changes during our lifetime. We like to think of change as being good and in many cases it is.
Change came about in the life of two people at the time they chose to be disobedient to God. This change brought sin into the world and in addition created a void between Almighty God and mankind.
Man suffered for his disobedience by being driven from his garden home and forced to work the ground to make a living. This was a drastic change in his lifestyle. Man was given the freedom to choose and in this case he made the wrong choice and change occurred in his life.
As time passed, more and more wickedness came into play. God saw that man was not living according to His plan. “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).
Man was making changes and these changes were negative in the eyes of Almighty God. Man was not only disobedient, but he was greedy, selfish, self-centered, and interested in only himself. God was not happy about what man was doing and “He grieved in His heart” (Genesis 6:6).
God had no choice other than to destroy what He had created, but Scripture tells us “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:8).
Another great change was about to take place under the direction of God, but God chose to save Noah, his family, and a number of each kind of animal. For this event to take place, Noah was given directions for building a huge boat to protect his family and all the animals during the 40 days and 40 nights of rain and flooding.
All seemed to be going well after the flood, but then sin began to show its ugly face again. Man began to worship other gods and return to pagan ways. Construction was started on a tower that would glorify man.
The people said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4).
The people made a change and God stepped in and also made a change. “So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city and the tower” (Genesis 11:8).
Five generations after Babel, a man by the name Abraham came upon the scene. Wickedness was rampant, so God decided to make another change. This change would involve the life of Abraham.
God said to Abraham, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curse you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3).
All down through history, individuals and nations who blessed Abraham’s descendants received a blessing from God. By the same token, those who persecuted Abraham’s descendants were cursed.
I am trying to get you to see that all down through history change has been taking place. This change is necessary because of the sinful nature of mankind. You and I possess the sinful nature that the earliest man possessed. We are not the way we should be. We do not think Godly at all times. We do not extend love, compassion and understanding as we should.
Greed has surfaced upon each of us.
We are like the Pharisees in that we keep our outward self looking good and acceptable, but our inner self is wicked. Jesus said to the Pharisee, “Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness” (Luke 11:39). Change is necessary if we are to acquire inner holiness.
Selfishness has shown its ugly face.
We are selfish when we concentrate on our own desires at the expense of another person. Sometimes we are like James and John who asked Jesus for the highest position in His kingdom.
They said to Jesus, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory” (Mark 10:37). James and John did not understand that greatness comes from serving others. They were more concerned about a position of authority for themselves without consideration for others. Change needed to take place in their life as well as our life.
Lying seems to fit certain situations.
Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever told a story that was not quite true, but you made it sound true? Whether we want to admit it or not, we have all told little white lies. As children, we have lied to our parents, our teachers, and our friends. As adults, we have lied to our employer, those we work with, and our friends. You might say this is not true, but remember God knows each and every thought that crosses and has crossed your mind.
Do you remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira? They were husband and wife who sold a piece of property they rightfully owned, but held back a portion of the money with the rest being given to the disciples. The fact they kept part of the money was not really the issue, but the real issue was lying to God and to God’s people. They lied when they said the whole amount was given. They tried to make themselves look good in the eyes of God and God’s people.
Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy
Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? After it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God” (Acts 5:3-4).
God dealt with their lying very harshly. Lying is bad, but when we lie to deceive God and His people about our personal relationship with Him, our testimony is destroyed. Ananias and Sapphira both paid for their lying with their life. The time to change to honesty ran out in their lifetime and it is running out in our lifetime.
Dishonesty is okay according to worldly standards.
Dishonesty is something we have all faced. You probably remember the time or two when you had something that you wanted to sell, something that didn’t quite work like it should have worked and a buyer came by who was interested in the purchase and you sold it to him knowing it was not as good as you told him. Maybe in you mind you thought, “Buyer beware!”
I remember watching one of the Andy Griffith shows when Opie was going to sell his bicycle to his friend without telling him about the missing master link on the chain, the coaster brake that was not working and the tire that kept going flat. Opie was going to make $5.00 on the deal until Andy came along and informed Opie’s friend of the problems. Opie learned a lesson about honesty.
A little later in the story, Andy was going to sell their house to a young couple who was very interested in buying it. As they were standing in the kitchen with Barney, who was the real estate agent, talking about the house, Opie says, “Pa, did you tell the people about the roof that leaks, the water pipes that make terrible noise, and about the crack in the kitchen ceiling?”
Andy tried to keep Opie silent, but Opie reminded his pa that kids had to be honest but adults did have to tell the truth. Andy got the message.
Some people today use dishonesty to their benefit. They justify dishonesty by saying everyone else is doing it. If society thinks it is okay, then it is okay. WRONG!!
God’s Word says, “He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; he who tells lies shall not continue in my presence” (Psalm 101:7). Change is necessary if we are to follow God’s standard instead of the world’s standard of honesty.
Envy is in the mind of each of us.
Anger seems to be justifiable.
Impurity is disguised as beauty and desirability.
All of these items are sinful. Greed, selfishness, lying, dishonesty, envy, anger, and impurity are part of all of us. We did not have to learn these things. These characteristics are part of every person born and were the result of the original sin of disobedience.
Each one of these characteristics will lead us down the wide road of destruction if change does not occur in our life. The only way we can have change take place in our heart is to turn our heart over to our Lord and Savior.
Jesus came into the world to give man an opportunity to make change. Sinful man had to have help if he was to attain a right relationship with Almighty God. Help came from a God who loved all He had created and through His love and mercy changes in the heart of man could take place if man was willing.
God laid the foundation for the redemption for mankind in His Word. Man knows exactly how he is to treat people and how he is to reach out to people with love, compassion, understanding and caring. God talks about the sinful nature of man and the many sins man has committed in the past and ones he can commit in the future.
His Word tells man how man can have eternal life in His kingdom. Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17).
Conclusion:
We are all guilty of a sinful nature because we were born with it. This sinful nature leads us to do such things as being greedy, being selfish, lying, being dishonest, being angry, etc.
Change must occur in our life if we intend to follow the blueprint as put forth in God’s Word. God wants us to spend eternity in His kingdom and He has provided the path we are to follow to accomplish that end. It is not too late to change.
Jesus is saying, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).
Won’t you open the door and let Him in?
Jesus hasn’t changed. “He is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
I want to close with this funny story that illustrates changes that need to be made.
Story:
A police officer pulled over a speeding car. The officer said, “I clocked you at eighty miles per hour in a fifty-five mile an hour zone, sir.”
The driver said, “Officer, I was on cruise control. It was just sixty. Maybe you should recalibrate your instruments.” That’s a nice thing to tell an officer.
Without looking up from her knitting, his wife said sweetly, “Now don’t be silly, dear. You know that this car doesn’t have cruise control.”
The office writes out the ticket, and the driver looks at his wife and growls, “Can’t you keep your mouth shut for once?”
The wife smiles and says, “You should be thankful your radar detector went off when it did.”
As the officer makes out the second ticket for illegal radar detector, the man glows at his wife and with clenched teeth he says, “Woman, can’t you keep your mouth shut?”
The office frowns and said, “I notice you’re not wearing your seatbelt, sir. That’s an automatic seventy-five dollar fine.”
The driver says, “Yeah, but you see, sir, I had to take my wallet out of my pocket and I couldn’t get to it without undoing my seatbelt.”
His wife says, “Now, dear, you know very well you never wear your seatbelt.”
And as the police officer wrote out the third ticker, the driver turns to his wife and barks, “Why don’t you shut up?”
The officer looks over to the woman and said, “Ma’am, does your husband always speak to you in that tone?”
And she says, “Oh, no officer, only when he’s been drinking.”
The man has problems as do many people in this day and age. He needed to make changes in his life.
Story by: Mr. Gary Black
Amen.
