Change? Please not now
Good Morning
Stand with me and lift up your bible and repeat after me.
This is my Bible.
I am what it says I am.
I can do what it says I can do.
I am going to learn how to be what it says I can be.
Today I will learn more of the word of God.
The indestructible, never ending, living word Of God.
I will never be the same.
I will never be the same.
In Jesus Name
I have a question...
Are you open for change?
“Yes, I am but not now. Maybe later.”
Sound familiar?
Here is a story for you.
The man was a little different. His name is Bill. He has wild hair, wears a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans, and sandals.
This was literally his wardrobe for his entire four years of college. He is brilliant. Kind of living a simple life and is very, very bright and going.
He became a Christian while attending college.
Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church. They want to develop a ministry to the students, but are not sure how to go about it. One day Bill decides to go there.
He walks in with no shoes, jeans, his T-shirt, and wild hair. The service has already started and so Bill starts down the aisle looking for a seat.
The church is completely packed and he can't find a seat.
By now people are really looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one says anything.
Bill gets closer and closer and closer to the pulpit and, when he realizes there are no seats, he just squats down right on the carpet. (Although perfectly acceptable behavior at a college fellowship, trust me, this had never happened before in this church).
By now the people are really uptight, and the tension in the air is thick.
About this time, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the church, a deacon is slowly making his way toward Bill.
Now the deacon is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, and a three-piece suit. A godly man, very elegant, very dignified, very courtly. He walks with a cane and, as he starts walking toward this boy, everyone is saying to them-selves that you can't blame him for what he's going to do.
How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor? It takes a long time for the man to reach the boy. The church is utterly silent except for the clicking of the man's
cane. All eyes are focused on him. You can't even hear anyone breathing.
The minister can't even preach the sermon until the deacon does what he has to do.
And now they see this elderly man drop his cane on the floor.
With great difficulty he lowers himself and sits down next to Bill and joins with him so he won't be alone.
Everyone chokes up with emotion. When the minister gains control, he says, "What I'm about to share, you will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget. Be careful how you live. You may be the
only Bible some people will ever read."
Please turn with me to the book of Malachi in the Old Testament. Say, “Amen when you are there.”
Malachi 3:6 “For I am the LORD, I do not change;”
Interesting. In our lives has He changed?
Have you?
We all do. Whether we like it or not.
Have we had changes that have happened at exactly the right time?
Not me. I have learned a lot about patience with the changes that have gone on in my life.
What were these changes about in my life or in yours?
Life experiences that we never expected to happen.?
Answers to prayer that were good?
Answers to prayer that were not?
Things that were expected and things that were not.
Things that were out and out miracles that only the One who loves us more than we could imagine allowed to happen?
Do you know what is the most interesting and wonderful thing that has happened in my life is?
The most interesting thing that has happened in my life is that I have learned about Jesus Christ and how He has become the most important part of my life.
As you get older like me you realize all the things you have missed about in your life. But you also realize all that He has created and allowed to be in or lives here in this world that we live. There have been some amazing things over the past 60 years in my world.
A man landed on the moon.
Cell phones.
Fast food.
The internet.
Wars.
Facebook.
Satellite television.
Many personal things that I never thought would happen. I could go on and on but, He has not changed.
He loves us just as we are. We are made in His image. With a free will to do what we want with our lives, but we only want change when we want to.
That is good and bad.
Who here would like to go back in time and start over with what you know now and what you have experienced?
Go back 10 years? 20 years? 30 years?
Would that not be great? With what we have experienced in life?
But we cannot do that, but we, you and I, can however make changes for our future by rededicating what is first and foremost in our lives.
Jesus.
Let's read that verse again, “For I am the LORD, I do not change;”
Here is a couple of ideas for change and they all are surrounded by one word.
Change.
I just saw a story on the evening news about a man who went to spend 3 months alone in the woods somewhere in the United States. He went to spend alone time with God in a small cabin with no phone, no internet, and no contact with another human being. He got close to God by praying and listening to the word that the Lord our God created.
I am going to try and get back in the habit that I have not been doing for a little while.
Having some more alone time with the Lord.
Not with my bible and reading. I already do that.
Not praying. I already do that.
Not working on a bible study course or preparing a message to share.
Just devoting a short time every day to just saying, “Hello Lord, here I am. I’m listening.”
Turn in your bibles to Proverbs chapter 19 and say, “Amen” when you are there.
Proverbs 19:27 “Cease listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.”
I remember taking a course in college a few years back and getting a seat by the window every day. I did it because the class was flat out boring. It was a public speaking class that was a mandatory class and I thought that since I had been pastoring and teaching class over the past 15 years or so that it would be a waste of time.
A young lady made a presentation about what was the most meaningful thing she had done in the past 10 years and she shared a story that reminded me about change.
She was visiting her grandfather in a nursing home on a regular basis and he had had a stroke and could not speak any more. She would go and sit with him and tell him what was going on in her life. One day he asked her for a pencil and pad of paper. He asked her if she ever stopped and listened to God.
She was stunned. She was a church goer and prayed but she never stopped and listened to God during a quiet time each day. She looked at her grandfather and started talking and he reached out and clasped his hand over her mouth and touched his ear with his other hand.
She got it.
She told us that she now spends some quiet time, even on very busy days, with the Lord.
Maybe we need to make a change that we have been dreading or just too scared to attempt.
Isaiah 41:10 says,
“Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
There was a song that came out years ago and I heard it first at music concert in Pennsylvania.
The man performing the song and I got to spend some time together as I was the one who set up the concert.
His name was Rich Mullins and he sang a song that night that has been my reminder of the strength of the Lord in my life.
The chorus goes like this;
Our God is an awesome God,
He reigns on heaven and earth,
Our God is an awesome God,
Our God is an awesome God
Isaiah 41:10
Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.'
Let us pray.
