Lord change me!
1 John 2:3-6 Voice
3 We know we have joined Him in an intimate relationship because we live out His commands. 4 If someone claims, “I am in an intimate relationship with Him,” but this big talker doesn’t live out His commands, then this individual is a liar and a stranger to the truth. 5 But if someone responds to and obeys His word, then God’s love has truly taken root and filled him. This is how we know we are in an intimate relationship with Him: 6 anyone who says, “I live in intimacy with Him,” should walk the path Jesus walked.
Illus. By Gregory McDonald Sr.
Well, one way to respond to opportunity is to learn to recognize it even when it is disguised as difficulty. In a famous study by Victor and Mildred Goertzel, the home backgrounds of 300 highly successful people were investigated.
All 300 of these people made it to the top of their respected fields. And they were names all of us would probably recognize...like Franklin Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Albert Schweitzer, Clara Barton, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Ghandi...
Well here is what the study revealed. Three-fourths of these people were troubled in childhood by either poverty, broken homes, rejection, or over possessive or dominating parents.
74 of the 85 writers of fiction or drama--and 16 of the 20 poet--came from homes where, as children, they saw or experienced physical, emotional, or spiritual abuse.
More than 75 were victims of physical handicaps such as blindness, deafness, or crippled limbs. And yet every one of them somehow recognized the "advantage of disadvantage" ...and became the people God had called them to be.
It's amazing that some people automatically conclude that difficulty, adversity, obstacles and objections are signs that God is closing the door of opportunity. And most of the time that is just not true!
If a person is going through life with no spiritual guidance or relationship with God in their lives, closed doors represent what they think is yet another roadblock on the path to their self controlled destiny!
However Closed doors are not missed opportunities, if you are truly letting God lead and direct your life! What they are is friendly stop signs along the way God puts there to say, hey this is not the way! Let me Spare you the drama of going down the wrong way street you are about to regret.
If you are trusting God with your future and destiny, there is no physical limitations that can hold a person back achieving what God has for them!
Unless they think their limitations are bigger than Gods ability to help them in spite of what they think their limitations are!
Did you know that there are people who think that life being unfair, is a limitation? Did you know that there are people that think their personal circumstance at any given time, is a limitation? Did you know that there are people, because of their upbringing or their social status feel that is also a limitation?
Even while those things sometimes feel like limitations, those are self-imposed limitations. And I say that not to make light of any persons situation, but because they can all be overcome with Gods help, sooner rather then later. And none of them are permanent, unless a person chooses to make them permanent!
There is a big difference between those who talk about wanting God to help them and those who choose to trust God with the future and plans for their lives no matter what happens, and are ok with the results!
1 John 2:3-6 Voice
3 We know we have joined Him in an intimate relationship because we live out His commands. 4 If someone claims, “I am in an intimate relationship with Him,” but this big talker doesn’t live out His commands, then this individual is a liar and a stranger to the truth. 5 But if someone responds to and obeys His word, then God’s love has truly taken root and filled him. This is how we know we are in an intimate relationship with Him: 6 anyone who says, “I live in intimacy with Him,” should walk the path Jesus walked.
Until a person truly relinquishes their control to the Lords will and destiny for their life, things will never change! But once they do, things will start to change and it won't be because of anything they did, but everything God is doing for them, in them and
through them!
Saying that you want to change and declaring that you have changed are just idle words, unless God is the one in charge of doing the changing in a persons life!
Are you saying if I do that I'll be on the easy track? No, but I know without a doubt that you'll be on the right track! And once you're on the right track, its so much easier to receive the blessings that God has for you all along the way beside the track! Amen??
Romans 8:31 MSG.
31-39. So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us?
And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us.
Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
Sometimes, things will happen and we get beaten down by the accuser and by what happens to us in the world, By a certain situation, or a group of people, or sometimes just one person.
Or it may be our heredity, the family we came from, or the lack of family we came from,
We may have caused it, or had no control over it happening at all.
Things are going to happen, it's just a given. But wether we choose to participate or not, is not a given. It's a choice that we could make each and every time and we are confronted with drama in our lives.
Did you know that some people like the familiarity of drama? Especially when it's one that they've confronted before. They've walked down that same road so many times before that it almost seems like family.
The freedom of will and the freedom of choice allows us all to do that if we choose too!
We don't have to reopen the door we probably forced open in the first place! All that does is focus on the past and that's one thing we should not want to do. When God clearly has a bright future for us!
Jeremiah 29:11The Voice (VOICE)
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Eternal, “plans for peace, not evil, to give you a future and hope—never forget that.
If were not careful and we find ourselves participating in The distractions and problems of life. They can become a focal and dwelling point with us and one thing we don’t need to be doing, is looking behind.
Right now today, is the good ole days! We need to look towards the future,
our best days are ahead of us, not behind us! We need to learn to let go of the past and never revisit it again. In other words shut the door on it, lock it and throw away the key!
Amen?, that’s what God does! When you accept Jesus as your Savior and ask for forgiveness, that's exactly what God does with all our sins and our past!
TBS. it's tossed into the abyss, into the sea of forgetfulness never to be remembered or used against you again!
Micah 7:19 MSG
Where is the god who can compare with you— wiping the slate clean of guilt, Turning a blind eye, a deaf ear, to the past sins of your purged and precious people? You don’t nurse your anger and don’t stay angry long, for mercy is your specialty. That’s what you love most. And compassion is on its way to us. You’ll stamp out our wrongdoing. You’ll sink our sins to the bottom of the ocean. You’ll stay true to your word to Father Jacob and continue the compassion you showed Grandfather Abraham— Everything you promised our ancestors from a long time ago.
Jesus cannot forgive us anymore than we have been forgiven, completely means just that. God is not interested in your past, once a person has come to salvation He has forgotten it forever!
If you were on trial for your sins and you were acquitted, you certainly wouldn't want to be retried each and every day would you? Then don't, and the good news is you don't have to be! We have all been set free, thing is some of us are still acting like we haven't been!
When the past seems to creep up on us, the accuser and you are the only ones who see it. You know what God sees? He only sees His Sons perfection when you try bring up something from the past.
Jesus Blood covered it all! How much is all? Like all is not enough? ALL MEANS EXACTLY WHAT IT SAYS!!!
If you don't think that all is enough, then I suggest that you Quit trying to redefine the word all!
TBS. (the bible says) If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us?
Gods willing to do His part, He already has, but we have to be willing to put on, what He has given us each and everyday and be willing to walk in it.
Eph. 6:13-15 MSG.
13-15. Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet.
Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them.
You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon.
The Forgiveness Jesus offers, has its privileges, freedom from any and all condemnation is one of them.
And a condemnation free life, is a beautiful thing! And if you're not experiencing it why aren't you? Jesus died so you could have it, so why wouldn't you want to embrace something that was valuable enough for Jesus to die for in the first place?
Romans 8:1-3 NKJ.
1. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh
The law is about self-governing your self. Which is impossible to say the least! Accepting Grace and what Jesus did for you and truly establishing a relationship with Him allows Him to do for you what you could never do on your own!
If the law could not keep us on the straight and narrow before Grace came onto the scene, than its certainly not going to do it now, is it?
There's a better way, there is a better way! But you still have to choose to participate!
There comes a time, where a person has to draw a line in the sand and say, enough is enough, I can't do it on my own! I'm not going to kid myself anymore...I'm going to lay it down once and for all and trust Jesus for every, single, solitary thing from this moment on!!!
If that's you this morning, I want you to know that you just opened the door wide open, for Jesus Grace to fulfill the plans God has for you in your life!
2nd Cor. 5:17 AMP.
17Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. (its dead as a doornail, quit trying to give it CPR) Behold, the fresh and new has come!
Lord change me is the title that I gave this sermon today. It's one that should be embraced with enthusiasm, but for far to many sadly is ignored! Either way takes a decision, either way chooses the consequences created by the decision!
Illus.
While waiting to pick up a friend at the airport I had one of those life-changing experiences that you hear other people talk about. This one occurred a mere 2 feet away from me.
Straining to locate my friend among the passengers deplaning through the jet way, I noticed a man coming toward me carrying 2 bags. He stopped right next to me to greet his family.
First he motioned to his youngest son (maybe 6 years old) as he laid down his bags. They gave each other a long, loving hug. As they separated enough to look in each other’s face, I heard the father say, “It’s so good to see you, son. I missed you so much!” His son smiled somewhat shyly & replied softly, “Me, too, Dad!’
Then the man stood up, gazed in the eyes of his oldest son (maybe 9 or 10) & while cupping his son’s face in his hands said, “You’re already quite the young man. I love you very much, Zach!” They too hugged a most loving, tender hug.
While this was happening, a baby girl (perhaps 1 or 1½) was squirming excitedly in her mother’s arms, never once taking her little eyes of the wonderful sight of her returning father. The man said, “Hi, baby girl!” as he gently took the child from her mother. He quickly kissed her face & then held her close to his chest. The little girl instantly relaxed & laid her head on his shoulder, motionless in pure contentment.
After several moments, he handed his daughter to his oldest son & declared, “I’ve saved the best for last!” & proceeded to give his wife the longest kiss I ever remember seeing. He gazed into her eyes for several seconds & then silently mouthed, “I love you so much!” They stared at each other’s eyes, beaming big smiles at one another, while holding both hands.
For an instant they reminded me of newlyweds, but I knew by the age of their kids that they couldn’t possibly be. I puzzled about it for a moment, then realized how totally engrossed I was in the wonderful display of unconditional love not more than an arm’s length away from me.
I suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if I was invading something sacred, but was amazed to hear my own voice nervously ask, “Wow! How long have you two been married?” “Twelve years,” he replied. “Well then, how long have you been away?” I asked. The man finally turned & looked at me, still beaming his joyous smile. “Two whole days!” he replied.
Two days? I was stunned. By the intensity of the greeting, I had assumed he’d been gone for at least several weeks – if not months. I know my expression betrayed me. I said almost offhandedly, hoping to end my intrusion with some semblance of grace, “I hope my marriage is still that passionate after 12 years.”
The man suddenly stopped smiling. He looked me straight in the eye, & with a forcefulness that burned right into my soul, he told me something that left me a different person. He told me, “Don’t hope, friend… decide!” Then he flashed me his wonderful smile again, shook my hand & said, “God bless!”
Copyright Michael Hargrove, 1997, on http://www.mysuccesscompany.com/free/secret.htm and 1998 in A Fifth Portion of Chicken Soup for the Soul
The change a true relationship with Jesus and His Grace Message can accomplish in ones life is not one you hope to accept, it's one that you whole heartedly choose and decide to accept!
Amen??
Let's pray!
