Text: Job 14:14, John 3:3-5
I. The Possibility of Change
A. Two Questions
I’d like to ask you two questions this morning, and the first question is this:
Have you ever gotten up and wished things could be different? I mean, have you ever thought about some problem in your building, your neighborhood, in your community…and wished that it could change? Well, it can. Bad things can be changed. Difficult circumstances can be changed for good. Things that look hopeless can sometimes be altered entirely when they are met with people who bring an infusion of hope.
You see, people can make a difference. You might think that’s a strange statement to open a Sunday morning message with, but its true none-the-less. People can make a difference. You can bring change…good and lasting change…to your world and the world around you. You can be a change-agent!
Stories abound of those people who grew tired of things as they were, and decided that they were going to help make things different…better. There are neighborhoods in cities that were havens of drugs, riddled with violence…and then ordinary people got sick and tired of things as they were. I read of one grandmother who began to plant flowers outside of her home…of citizens who began to scrub graffiti from walls…even of groups of citizens who began putting reverse pressure on drug dealers, eventually driving them out. And in all of the stories like these I’m left with a feeling of hope, and a feeling of certainty that people can make a difference. You can be a change-agent!
Being a change agent is a power that’s granted by God. When God first created humanity, He gave to human beings authority over their environment. That authority means that human beings are granted the right and responsibility by God to effect change in their world. Bringing change is nothing less than humanity’s manifestation of the creative power of God…it is us exercising the vestigial remnants of the Divine nature that created us. The desire to change things and the ability to engage ourselves in the process of change is God given. People can make a difference, and you can be a change-agent.
Now I’d like to ask you the second question. It’s similar to the first, only the focus of the question is different. I’ve already asked you if you’ve ever wished things could be different, if you’ve ever wished that things could change. Now I’d like to ask you this:
Have you ever gotten up in the morning and wished that you could be different? Have you ever experienced the realization that you weren’t very happy with yourself as you were, and that there were things you wanted desperately to alter about your life? Have you ever reached the place where you looked yourself in the mirror and thought, “I don’t like you very much. I don’t like the person you’ve become. I don’t like the way you act. I don’t like the way you treat other people. And I don’t like the way you feel inside.” Have you ever looked yourself in the mirror and wished that you could change?
Now I don’t know most of you very well at all. I can’t read your minds, and I make no profession to speak prophetically about this. But I am pretty familiar with human nature, and I could hazard a guess that most of us at some time or other have deeply wished that we could be different, that we could change.
B. Mixed Messages
But one of the great frustrations of this desire is that we are constantly inundated by mixed messages about the subject of change. On one hand we’re told constantly of the value of our contribution, how we can be change agents, and of how we can make a difference. Community associations, non-governmental organizations, social agencies, and religious groups all rely in large part on volunteers to conduct their operations. And these volunteers are often motivated by this powerful message of hope; you can make a difference!
On the other hand, we receive this other signal loud and clear; it’s the signal that tells you that you…you as a person…CAN’T change. Whatever changes that groups or individuals can effect in the world around them, whatever alterations that people can make in their environment, that the most significant and important change of all is denied to us. We’re told that the ability to change ourselves, to alter our own natures, is beyond us. We’re told that while we can and should bring needed change to our external world when the circumstances demand it, our fundamental natures are beyond any such action.
It’s just another extension of the old debate between free will and scientific determinism. And the frustrating, hopeless, and cynical balance we seem to have struck is that while we are free to change our environment, we remain forever bound to genetic predispositions and societal influences when it comes to changing ourselves. Things may be different, but you will never really be different. Things may change, but you can’t.
Well, I’m going to boldly contradict the message of the determinists…of all those who tell you that you are forever hopelessly locked into being what you are…the message of those cynical disbelievers and unbelievers who proclaim there is no escaping your own nature, that try as you might you are everlastingly bound to your misery, to those aspects of your nature that you despise…
C. The Bible’s Story; Redemption
I’m here in this pulpit this morning not to declare the hopeless message of those naysayers, but to proclaim what the Word of God has to say…and that Word plainly states that you can change, you can be different! That Word declares that you are not bound by your own nature, that you can make choices about your life. That Word tells you that you are not limited to making changes in your environment. That Word clearly preaches that change in your life is about far more than hair colour, the shape of your nose, or the loss of thirty pounds. I’m here today to tell you that the Bible says that true change, lasting change, the kind of change you long for, the kind of change that matters most, is a possibility. It can happen! You can change! You can be different! And this is the message of the Bible!
Try for a moment to free yourself of the typical view of the Bible as a collection of books containing collections of stories. Allow the distinctiveness of David and Goliath, Joseph and the Coat of Many Colours, and Noah and the Ark, to be lost…and let the stories merge together. Allow the thundering voices of the prophets, the pleading voice of the Saviour, the rebuking, exhorting, and encouraging voices of the Apostles, to come together as one voice. Let every psalm, every prayer, every poem, every proverb, every prophecy, coalesce into one truth. Let all of the uniqueness of storyline, method, place, and context be lost, and let all of the messages of the Word of God be distilled into one profound, grand, overarching, fantastical, mind blowing truth…and that truth is this:
God is the Redeemer.
The entire storyline of the Bible is nothing more or less than the grand story of redemption and restoration. That’s what every line, every precept, every jot, every tittle, every story, every prayer, every proverb, and every prophecy are all getting at…God is the Redeemer, and YOU can be REDEEMED!
That’s the ultimate point of the stories; the creation, the fall of humanity, Cain & Abel, Noah & the Ark, David & Goliath! That’s the ultimate point of the Exodus and the giving of the Law! That’s the point of the history books and the poets and proverbs! That’s the point of the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi! That’s why the Gospels were given, and why we’re told of God’s incarnation as a man, of Calvary’s cross, and of an empty tomb! That’s why Pentecost occurred, why the Spirit was poured out, and why God gave spiritual gifts to the church! That’s the point of the Epistles; of Paul’s and Peter’s letters, of Hebrews, of James and John’s letters, and even of Revelation!
Through it all, in it all, reverberating constantly throughout every change in time, place, and protagonist is this ultimate truth; God is the Redeemer, you can be redeemed…you CAN change, you CAN be different!
II. Channels of Change
The way I read the Bible, I see four different channels that change flows into your life by. By calling them “channels” I’m not implying that all change occurs in your life with you simply being a passive recipient. No, because effective and lasting change will often require you to take an active role in implementing that change. I’m simply trying to point out to you that not only can you change, but there are several different conduits that change can follow in your life.
A. Dynamic Change
The first channel of change that I want to mention is what I call dynamic change. “Dynamic” means that it’s forceful, powerful, and sudden. Dynamic change is what happens to you when you’re born again. It’s the sudden conversion from one state into another that is categorized by the transformation from being a sinner to being a saint. It’s the radical transformation of affections and fundamental desires that accompanies the New Birth. It’s the revolutionary change in outlook that is born in the mind and spirit of someone who has been born again.
If you’ve never experienced dynamic change, God makes it available to you. There will be nothing in your life quite like the change that the New Birth brings. How does it happen? Well, it starts with faith. You want to change, and you believe somehow that God wants to work that change in your life. You’re tired of who you are, of what you are, of where you’re headed…and you make the choice to trust God with your life, just as it is…in the belief that He will not leave your life as it is, but that He’ll work the change in you that He promises.
This faith in God and the sorrow of your current life work together to bring you to engage in what the Bible calls repentance. The idea of repentance is found throughout the Bible, and it’s presented as an absolute necessity for change. To repent means to change your mind, and change your direction. It calls for an active searching of your own heart and life before God, and the willingness to turn your back on your current life that doesn’t satisfy in order to follow after the new life that God has prepared for you.
Sometimes people confuse repentance with seeking forgiveness…but these two are not the same. True repentance will involve seeking God’s forgiveness, and even may involve seeking the forgiveness of others. But it’s possible to seek God’s forgiveness without any intention of seeking life-change. Understand this; repentance is about life-change, and Jesus demanded repentance of everyone that would follow Him.
Once you’ve repented, then according to the Scriptures, dynamic change requires you to be baptized in water in the name of Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that when a repentant heart obeys this commandment, that God removes all the guilt and shame of their past life and gives them a brand new start! How amazing is that!?! More than your repentance…more than simply changing your mind and changing your direction…when you’re baptized in Jesus’ name, God acts to cleanse and wash your past. You’re given a brand new lease on life.
And then the Bible promises that God’s Spirit will come to live in you…and this wonderful Gift is how He empowers you to continue to live out the amazing change that He has brought to your life. This New Birth experience is God’s channel of dynamic change.
B. Unconscious Change
Another channel of change is one that follows the dynamic change of New Birth, and it’s what I call incremental or unconscious change. This form of change is simply that gradual changing of aspects of your life…and it’s a result of your spiritual growth. A child doesn’t have to place conscious effort into the growth of the physical body. In this same way there are changes that occur over a process of time as you live with God’s Spirit in your life.
Unconscious change doesn’t require deliberate action on your part. It just requires that you receive good spiritual nutrition and spiritual exercise. Oh, every once in a while you’re suddenly aware that you’ve changed in some amazing way…that something is wonderfully different about you…just as a child suddenly realizes that he’s gotten taller and stronger. But the process of that change is unconscious. It occurs just because God has programmed it into your spiritual DNA.
C. Metamorphic Change
The third channel of change is metamorphic change. Metamorphic change is being made from one thing into another through the process of metamorphosis. A great example of metamorphosis is the process that changes a caterpillar into a butterfly. There comes a time when the caterpillar weaves a cocoon around itself, and there in the close darkness and the aloneness of the cocoon, a fantastic change occurs that brings inner development into outward reality. The ultimate state of the butterfly is already present in the little caterpillar, but it takes metamorphosis for that change to occur and the caterpillar’s inner beauty to be revealed.
In your life, you too will have opportunity to undergo metamorphosis…to change more fully into the person that God desires you to be. And like the circumstances of the caterpillar, you too will be called upon to enter what has been called the “cocoon of God…” those dark circumstances of life that seem to place you in a state of isolation and loneliness. Yet as painful, as dark, as lonely as those times of life will be, you will be made into something beautiful. In those times you’ve have to resist the urge to rush God’s formative process, or tear yourself free from God’s splendid isolation. If you’ll be patient and trust in God’s work, then the good things He sees in you will become a reality for all to see.
D. Conscious Change
The last channel of change that I see operating in the Bible is that of conscious change. This is simply when you recognize that there is something in your life that needs to change, and then you set about consciously building the conditions into your life that will allow for the change to occur.
Conscious change may involve the willing alteration of habits and practices that you realize aren’t good for you. Conscious change may involve changing the places you go and the things you do. Conscious change may involve even willingly changing the people you’re with in order to remove certain influences from your life.
Repentance is one form of conscious change. Conscious change is what allows an alcoholic to stop drinking and live a life of sobriety. Conscious change is what allows a shiftless father to mend his ways and become a caring, providing, concerned dad. Anyone is capable of conscious change, but it requires discipline and the willingness to apply great effort to acquire new and positive habits.
So when people tell you that change is impossible, that you’re bound by what you are, and that what you are you’ll always be, then you need to remember that God’s entire story to the world is based on the truth that God is the Redeemer, and that you CAN change. And you need to remember that God has designed four primary channels that change flows into your life through. I’m telling you again that your life can be as different as you desire it to be. From the dynamic change of the New Birth, through the unconscious growth of spiritual development, into the dark season of the cocoon of God, and with the conscious, determined development of new habits and practices, your life can be amazingly, wonderfully different than it is today.
III. The Message of Job
As we come to a close, our text this morning teaches us three powerful lessons about the change God wants to bring into your life.
A. Engage Your Will
First, we learn from the language of the text that change requires you to engage your will. You’ve got to want to change. You’ve got to desire to change. Anytime you see the phrase “I will” in the Scriptures, you’re being told that the truth that follows requires your will be activated. If you’re going to change, you’ve got to want to change more than you want anything else. Do you want to change? Do you really want to be different? If so, then true, real, and lasting change is waiting for you!
B. Anticipate Change
Next, you’ve got to anticipate change. Job said, “I will wait until my change comes!” My change is coming! I will not be left as I am! I anticipate what God is going to do in my life! I expect to be different than I am! I’m not just hoping I’ll change, I’m expecting to change! I know that I’m not going to be as I am now.
C. Have Patience
Lastly, you’ve got to be patient with yourself. Job said, “I will wait until my change comes.” In other words, change is at times going to require patience. You might not change as completely as you want to at first, and growth might seem like it takes forever. You might grow weary with the circumstances that are bringing God’s metamorphosis to your life, and at times you’re just going to mess up, make mistakes, and grow frustrated with yourself.
But don’t quit! Be patient with yourself! Be patient with the process! Trust in God’s Word! Trust in God’s good intentions for you! And rest assured that if you leave yourself in His hands, you’ll one day stand complete in His likeness…and you’ll be everything God ever intended you to be.
God is the Redeemer. You don’t simply have to wish that you were different…you can be different. You can change. And that change can begin in your life today.
