A theology of change…
Acts 11: 1 The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them." 4 Peter began and explained everything to them precisely as it had happened: 5 "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. … 15 "As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ’John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" 18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life."
A middle aged woman had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. While on the operating table she had a near death experience. Seeing God, she asked "Is my time up?" God said, "No, you have another 43 years, 2 months and 8 days to live." Upon recovery, the woman decided to stay in the hospital and have a facelift, liposuction and a tummy tuck. She even had someone come in and change her hair color. Since she had so much more time to live, she figured she might as well make the most of it. After her last operation, she was released from the hospital. While crossing the street on her way home, she was killed by an ambulance. Arriving in front of God, she demanded, "I though you said I had another 40 years?" God replied, "I didn’t recognize you."
We are in the midst of a conversation on change… not to change surface appearances… but to continue becoming who God has called us to be… a deeper level… a deeper search… a spiritual compultion…
From the conception of the church in the NT God demanded they change for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And throughout the Bible we see what I would call a Theology of Change…
God compels us to change
for the sake of the Gospel…
First – Recap…
Last week:
We discussed the need for personal revival…
For real revival comes from respondigng to God’s word that leads to heart change, to life change, to world change…
Second Question today:
Why must we change? Why do I talk about change so much? Why is it in our vision statement? If God doesn’t change why should we?
Why must last week’s message and this week’s service be more than just another service? It must be a milestone for us… a moment where we make a decision…
Many of you cut covenant with God last week… to do whatever He asks for the sake of reaching the lost… to reach the younger generations, to reach every ethnic group…
Life is change… and from a biblical perspective on change – why should we change… because God doesn’t change…
but God does change… not in character or essence but in relationship with us…
The nature of redemption is change… without knowing God and making Him our lord and savior we are condemned to our sin taking us to hell… when we reach out to Christ and ask Him to be Lord of our lives and accept Him as our savior and Lord the nature of our relationship with God changes… and we are accepted into His kingdom… THE RELATIONSHIP CHANGES resulting in what we discussed about revival… heart change, life change, world change…
So to must we change to encourage relationships with others that lead to their salvation.
For some time now God has been challenging my heart and life with several things we are called to accomplish as a church. Visions of who we are meant to be and where we must continue to Go.
A statement I tell our staff and board often is that the question is not if we will change but the pace at which we will change.
The bottom line – I am more concerned with the mission of God than the maintenance of tradition…
God compels us to change
for the sake of the Gospel…
I am more concerned with positioning ourselves to experience genuine revival that leads to heart change, life change, and changing our world. To see salvation of 100’s in this city…
To make sure our church is ready for its future and the vision God has for us… to make sure our church is poised to reach our children, and our grandchildren. That’s the question I need you to ask, do you want me to make you happy or make the changes I know we must make for the future of our church?
So it’s not a question of if we will change, but how, and how fast…
The NT passage we began with today… shows a tremendous shift in thinking for the early church. Was the gospel of Jesus just for the Jewish heritage, or for the gentile as well…
From the conception of the church in the NT God demanded they change for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And throughout the Bible we see what I would call a Theology of Change…
A Theology of Change:
1. God does change…
2. The church did change…
3. He calls us to change…
1. God does change… in relationship with us…
Romans 8: 8 But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
2. The church did change…
Acts 11: 1 The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them."
Guarantee… these few were not the first or the last to “criticize” Peter, and also Paul about being with Gentiles…
Things like…
• God hasn’t done it that way before…
• As Jews we have not done it that way…
• As Jews for all of these 100’s of years God has looked to us… why would He change now…
God knew how difficult change can be when we get fixed in on something. So He set up Peter very specifically…
• The Vision to Peter… the words of confirmation that men were coming…
• The vision to Cornelious… to go get Peter…
• Peter going to his house… presenting the message of Jesus
• God confirms with His Holy Spirit – even with evidence of speaking in tongues to show His acceptance of the gentile…
• Then peter shares with the whole group in jerusalem… 17 So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" 18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life."
• Their response – they embrace the change…
3. He calls us to change…
a. 1 Cor. 9: 19 Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
b. What is he saying?
c. I am willing to change whatever I must change for the sake of the Gospel. For the sake of reaching people…
God Changes in relationship with us…
The Church changed in
relationship with each other…
God compels us to change
for the sake of the Gospel…
I want to share a story of change with you that will parallel our own discussions. For the issue of change in our church is one that I weap over…
Let me ask this… how many of you have a digital camera? (Illustration heard from Reggie Joyner at Catalyst 2007)
1. who was responsible for inventing the digital camera?
a. Most famous company with photography – Kodak
b. Released in 1991 – 13000$’s
2. first year the point and shoot camera with a preview screen and compact flash –
a. 1995
3. First Digital SLR camera released – professional with exchangeable lenses…
a. NIKON – 1999 – cost 4000
4. 2003 Cannon releases the digital rebel – and an important shift…
a. First SLR camera released for under $1000
5. what year do you think that digital cameras outsold film cameras?
a. 2005
This caused a huge shift in the industry and major companies struggled with this change.
1. Kodak made a primary error – they missed it by about 6 years.
a. They thought the transition to fully digital would take 8 years, it took 2… and in the last 6 years have laid off 100,000 employees.
2. Nikon had a different problem… they lead the industry with professional photographers in 2000.
a. And they made a decision to not change the ring size as a way of keeping their loyal fan base.
b. But to do this they had to use a smaller chip and slightly less technology… and assumed the Proff. Photographers would stay with them to not lose their equipment.
3. Cannon – used brand new ring sizes, brand new technology…
a. And in a matter of a few years cannon took the lead in the digital market…
All of these changes occurred for this reason…
Kodak – went to slow in making the change
Nikon – went part way in making the change
- They made a decision about their customer base. Not wanting to make their customer base angry, and didn’t make the choice of kind of changes that resulted in them sacrificing what they needed too… and the very customers they didn’t want to make angry got angry because they didn’t make the changes that needed to be made.
Maybe one day the very people that would be upset with me and the staff for making certain changes… will be the same people who will be upset at me in a few years… for losing their grandchildren and children because we didn’t change.
As a church we are at a defining moment at a crossroad of change. Not just us, but everywhere…
In the past five years what has been happening in denominations across the board in the USA.
1. Presberterians – 3.7% loss in 2007 – highest loss in one year in their entire history 216 years
2. Episcopaleans – 115,000 in the last 3 years
3. Methodists – 50,000 people a year and are at the lowest attendance in reported history
4. One denominational leader recently said – they are actually crossing the line and the median average age of attender was over 60 years in age. And if trends continue half of their population will be gone in the next 5 year.
5. 1995 Baptist – 10% considered themselves – 2006 only 3%
6. Disciple of christ - 11% lost
7. Lutherans lost – 4% lost
8. Reformed lost – 6% lost
9. Church of Christ lost 9% lost
10. In the Assemblies In the last 5 years we had a slight growth (2%) and planted… 534 churches – but closed 500.
11. 7 in 10 protestants age 18-30 both evangelical and mainline said they quit attending church by age 23.
If we keep doing business as usual we will die!
Because the Gospel I read compels us to become a slave to all to reach the next generations… Nikon and Kodak and Cannon all knew they needed to change, but one did it too slow, one only went half way… and lost the market…
We must make a shift to continue the pace of change and pick up that pace… for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus… to reach our kids and grandkids…
What are some of the things God is putting in my heart… some of the vision we must carry out.
1. we must continue to bridge the gap of the generations…
2. we must bridge the gap with multiple ethnic groups in our city…
3. we must get to the place where we can begin planting churches in the surrounding areas…
4. we must get everyone to be a part of the process of discipleship – we cannot simply sit and listen and do nothing with it…
o we must reach people, see them saved, and disciples
5. We must enlarge the scope of compassionate ministries…
But this must be more than another set of Sundays, or another message… last week we cut covenant with God… what does that mean…
We have to get past the huddle…
Many of us are in Holy Huddles… with your group… and talk about in-groups or out-groups… and bring division in the church…
It’s like a football team staying in the huddle the whole game and doing nothing with the strategy…
I played center in high school – and my job was to get the huddle together… HUDDLE UP… HUDDLE… HUDDLE…
Here was also my job… READY BREAK…
(Team gets in positions…)
So what does God’s vision mean we must do… when we are breaking out of the huddle…
1. continue to push the boundaries of our worship expression and continue to hand the future to our next generations…
2. make intentional effort to reach other ethnic groups in our city… eventually in God’s timing hire an ethnic person to be a pastoral staff member… and also continue to change our music to encompass the different groups…
3. everyone must make a choice for PERSONAL REVIVAL… either be hungry and cut covenant with God… get in the huddle, get your assignment… and get on the field of play… we need workers with compassion running through their veins… for each other, for the lost… for our world…
God’s word… changing our hearts… changing our lives, changing our world… READY BREAK…
This is why our vision and values are so important… why they are on our banners for you to see every week…
DFA – a place for real people, living real life, but we are experieincing real change that must be personal revival…
We believe in honest transparency – real relationships that …
We believe in being boldly generous – you cannot out give God.
We believe in Relevant Service- there’s always room at the table
We believe in devoted faith… with the center of our life on Jesus Christ and God’s holy word… anointed by the Holy Spirit to pursue God and see salvation for every generation…
We are called by God… to live these values out…
Called…
1. we must continue to bridge the gap of the generations…
2. we must bridge the gap with multiple ethnic groups in our city…
3. we must get to the place where we can begin planting churches in the surrounding areas…
4. we must get everyone to be a part of the process of discipleship – we cannot simply sit and listen and do nothing with it…
- we must reach people, see them saved, and disciples
5. We must enlarge the scope of compassionate ministries…
BY…
1. continue to push the boundaries of our worship expression and continue to hand the future to our next generations…
2. make intentional effort to reach other ethnic groups in our city… and also continue to change our music to encompass the different groups…
3. Make a choice for PERSONAL REVIVAL… either be hungry and cut covenant with God… get in the huddle, get your assignment… and get on the field of play…
We are going to push forward as a church…
Be careful of division… the forming of ingroups and outgroups… there is one family…God’s family… all growing with Him…
God tells us to keep the unity of faith among us all…
He clearly tells us to change for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus…
Keep on your knees in prayer… watch your words… and pray for revival in your heart…
