Introduction:
A. I heard a story about 3 co-workers, who were out of town for a convention and they were sharing a suite at a hotel. Their room was on the 75th floor.
1. So, you can imagine their discouragement when, after a long day of meetings, they returned to the hotel and found that the elevators were not working.
2. To get to their room, they were going to have to climb 75 flights.
3. To try to pass the time, they decided to have the first man tell jokes for the first 25 stores.
4. Then the second man would sing songs for the next 25 flights.
5. And finally the third man would tell sad stories for the last 25 flights.
6. It was all going according to plan – the first told his jokes for 25 stories, the second sang songs for 25 stories, but when it was time for the man to begin telling his sad stories he hesitated.
7. He said, “I think I will begin with my saddest story of all. I’m afraid I left our room key in the car.”
B. This story illustrates the reason why many people who are pursing life-change get discouraged.
1. Often, when we are trying to make progress, we take “three steps forward and two back.”
2. Have you ever had that experience? I know I have!
C. Today, as we finish our Extreme Makeover Series I want to say that I really appreciate all the feedback you have given me.
1. Obviously, these messages have been touching a need, and I pray that God will continue to minister to all of us through His Word and the teaching that all of us do from the Word.
2. I pray that all of us can continue to experience significant and lasting life-change.
D. As we start our long journey to freedom, there are two obstacles that we are going to have to overcome.
1. First, as I have said in many of these sermons, we must not travel alone.
2. And second, we must not let discouragement stop us along the way.
3. There are no easy shortcuts to life transformation that is lasting.
4. A makeover of our lives takes time.
E. In the end, we must realize that real life-change is a process not an event.
1. As we make progress in our journey toward Christ-likeness, there will be many stumbles along the way.
2. While we find ourselves sinning less and less, we will never be sinless in this life.
3. One reason that is true is because there are spiritual forces about us that will not cease their attempts to derail our journey to freedom.
4. In Ephesians 6, Paul warns us about these forces and tells us to put on the full armor of God and to be strong in the Lord.
5. Just because we make some progress in overcoming in some areas of spiritual bondage, doesn’t mean that the evil forces will leave us alone; actually, it may mean that they step up their attacks to try to derail our spiritual progress.
6. But, not only do we have to battle against the forces outside of us, we also have to battle the forces within us.
7. We have to win the battle against our own wrong thinking and the evil desires that are within.
8. As long as we live in this world, we will have to battle with the flesh and the mind.
9. We are not going to win this battle randomly or accidentally.
10. We must intentionally subject the flesh and the mind, and we must undertake an intentional strategy for reaching our spiritual goals.
F. With our time remaining today, I want us to consider four principles that will help us to keep the process of spiritual life-change alive in our lives.
I. Principle #1 – Lay Claim to the Promises
A. Our first step in life-change is not doing something, but believing something.
1. I’m really not thinking of any specific promise; rather, I’m suggesting that we need faith in God and His promises.
2. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
3. And so, we must know and trust God, believing that He exists and that He rewards.
4. We must believe that all things are possible with God (Matthew 19:26).
5. We must believe that through Christ’s death and resurrection, and our participation in it through baptism, our old self was crucified and that we have been freed from sin (Rom. 6:6-7).
6. We must believe that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength (Phil. 4:13).
7. And we must believe that Jesus our faithful high priest sympathizes with our weaknesses, and offers us mercy and help in our time of need (Heb. 4:15-16).
B. There are literally hundreds or thousands of promises that God has given us, and the process of life-change begins as we claim those promises and act upon them.
1. In lesson 3 of this series we spent time talking about having a spiritual mind.
2. We said that to experience life-change, we have to think for a change.
3. The mind is the place where Satan attacks us with doubt and deception.
4. But as Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 10:5, we must “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
5. Paul also has taught us that we are transformed by the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2).
6. In our Scripture reading for today, Paul declares, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:12-14)
7. Do you hear what Paul is saying there? He is claiming for his life that for which Christ has accomplished. He is believing it and acting according to it.
8. So, that’s what we have to do as well.
9. The first step to freedom is believing that freedom and power really exist as God’s promises.
10. We’ve got to win the battle of the mind, and lay claim to the promises.
II. Principle #2 – Play On A New Team
A. If extreme life-change is necessary, then very likely the team we were on was the wrong one.
1. We must intentionally choose relationships that encourage and enable our longing to change.
2. We will likely have to stop keeping company with the crowd of people who participate in the behaviors that we are trying to gain freedom from.
3. We need to be closely connected with people who are going to help us reach our spiritual goals.
B. It think it is instructive to note that whenever Jesus sent someone on a mission, he always sent them with someone else.
1. Our faith certainly is a personal thing, but faith was never meant to be totally private or individual.
2. If we are going to walk this journey to freedom, then we are going to have to walk with others.
C. One day a man was sitting on an airplane next to a retired general.
1. As it turns out, this general had flown 300 missions in Vietnam, and not once was his plane hit by anti-aircraft fire.
2. The man said, “Sir, you must be an amazing pilot.”
3. The general said, “No, I had an amazing partner.” And he went on to explain that when a person flies a plane during an attack, the pilot can’t see the plane’s tail, and that’s where your partner is invaluable. It was the job of your partner to tell you the enemy was firing at you so you could avoid the attack you could not see coming.
4. That’s why Jesus always sent people into battle with a partner.
5. We need somebody in our life to see the attack that we cannot see.
6. The Bible says in Hebrews 3:13, “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.”
7. Gal. 6:1 says, “Brothers, if a man is trapped in some sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.”
D. It is so much easier to win the battle and make the journey when we do it with a platoon.
1. So, #1 - we need to lay hold of the promises and #2 - we need to play on a new team.
III. Principle #3 – Walk In The Spirit
A. We must pray to be Spirit filled and to be controlled by the Spirit.
1. Here’s what may happen to us – as we start on our journey to freedom from wherever it is we have been stuck, we are going to stumble and take a step back.
2. When that happens, someone is going to show up and give us a scolding and a list of rules.
3. They will say something like, “Just obey the rules and this won’t happen again.”
4. But whatever we do, we must resist the temptation to put ourselves under a system of law.
5. The “law” has never been able to control the flesh. The “law” incites the flesh.
B. I know that this is counter intuitive.
1. Many parents have raised their children with all kinds of laws and rules, and then they wonder why when the child leaves the home they go in a wild and totally different direction.
2. All rules can do is force outward conformity. Rules cannot change the heart.
3. We cannot change an internal bent with an external code.
4. So, what God does is not set his Holy Law aside, he puts his Holy Law inside of us in the person of the Holy Spirit.
5. Look at Rom. 8:6-14, The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
6. Those are some powerful thoughts! Amen!
7. It takes time to learn the sweet voice of the Spirit, and that’s why life-change is a journey.
8. Hold your hand up if you understand more about living by the Spirit now than you did when you first became a Christian.
C. We are all growing and learning how to live by the Spirit.
1. So, we must not fall back into that old trap of thinking we can control our flesh by rules.
2. Instead, we must pray daily, “God, I’m walking toward freedom. Help me to learn how to listen to and cooperate with the Spirit.”
3. And when given the opportunity, the Spirit develops its fruit in us, “But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (Gal. 5:16-18 NET).
4. Through the Spirit, God changes us from the inside out.
5. So, let us learn to walk in the Spirit and be controlled by the Spirit.
IV. Principle #4 – Stay In The Game
A. They tell a story about Bear Bryant, the legendary football coach at the University of Alabama.
1. He gathered the assistant coaches in his office one day, because he was about to send them out recruiting prospective high school athletes.
2. He said, “Now boys, you are going to go out there and find a young man, who when he gets knocked down, stays down. We do not want that young man playing for the Crimson Tide. But you are also going to find a boy who when he gets knocked down, gets right back up.”
3. An assistant coach interrupted the head coach, saying, “That’s the boy we want right?”
4. Bear Bryant answered, “No, I want you to find the boy who keeps knocking those boys down.”
B. Well, it would be nice if life worked that way, but the truth of the matter is: Everybody gets knocked down.
1. Whatever our struggle is, whatever makeover we need, we will get knocked down.
2. The people who are successful, the people who experience lasting life-change are those who refuse to stay down.
3. A life makeover will require a courageous refusal to quit.
4. Hebrews 10:36 says, “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”
5. Hebrews 12:1-3 reads, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
6. We have all said, or heard others say that they are going to change, only to remain the same.
7. Anybody can sprint the first 50 yards of a marathon, but when we tire, or trip and fall, how many of us are going to get up and keep going?
C. When the late Charles Colson turned his life over to Christ during his trial and conviction for involvement in the Watergate break in and cover up, many doubted the sincerity of his conversion.
1. In an early interview, Colson was asked, “Many people turn to Christ in a jam only to drop him the second they are out of trouble. So, How do we know this is real?”
2. His reply was, “The only thing I can say is – see what I am doing 10 years from now. Then you will know if it is real or not.”
3. Well, it hasn’t been 10 years, it has been 40 years and before his death in 2012, Chuck Colson had gone around the world, particularly to prisons, pointing people to freedom in Jesus Christ.
4. The real test of change is the test of time.
5. And as we change over time it helps us to know that God doesn’t change.
6. God’s truth remains the same, and God’s love is with us every step of the way.
Conclusion:
A. The thought that I want to leave us with as we end this series is that we need to undergird our journey with the truth that God loves us.
1. Our stumbles and falls do not affect his affection.
2. God, our Father, is always there to help us get back up and continue the journey.
B. When I say the name Derek Redmond, you probably don’t recognize it, but as I start to tell his story, it will probably come back to you.
1. As a 19 year-old in Great Britain he shattered his countries record in the 400 meter race.
2. Derrick went to the Olympic games in Seoul, Korea in 1988.
3. Unfortunately, 10 minutes before the race, he had to withdrawal with an Achilles tendon injury.
4. So, Derrick trained hard and waited 4 more years for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
5. He went into the 1992 games as a favorite to metal in his events.
6. Derrick made it into the semi-finals in the 400, and he needed to finish in the top 4 to make it to the finals.
7. So, the gun sounded and his semi-final heat began. With the race half-way over, he was in a good position to qualify for the finals, and then he heard a pop.
8. He knew immediately that he had just torn his hamstring.
9. Derrick couldn’t believe it. It had happened again. In the race of his life, injury struck again!
10. He collapsed to the ground and lay there while all the runners he was ahead of passed him by.
11. Then something wonderful happened.
12. There was a man at the top row of the stadium of 65,000 people who started running down the steps.
13. The man jumped over the rail and was chased by two security guards.
14. Derek Redmond’s father, Jim, reached him and helped his boy up. And together, the two of them started walking to the finish line.
15. 65 thousand people began to clap and cheer as a fallen boy and loving father finished the race.
16. That’s the only way that any of us can finish the Christian Race - with our Father’s help!
C. At this point, none of us has finished the race, we are all still in the running.
1. To successfully finish, we first have to stay in the race.
2. Then, every time we stumble and fall, we need to get back up and start over.
3. It takes time to change and the race is long and hard.
4. But at no time will God stop loving us and helping us.
5. We need to embrace God’s love for a change.
6. Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us (Heb. 12:1).
7. God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5).
8. So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid” (Heb. 13:6).
