Turning Your Life Around
Text: 2 Chronicles 7:14
On Monday night, we began this series of messages centered on the very first part of the theme verse for this week, and we asked the question, “What Does It Mean to Be Called By God’s Name.” And I believe that on that night, by the time we finished dissecting this passage, and were ready to leave the confines of this place of worship, We knew and had a clear understanding of what it means to be called by His name.
On last night, we continued our journey through God’s word and the Lord let us deal with the second part of this passage as we labored in the Word using the subject, “Getting Right for Prayer.” We discovered that we need to become a people of prayer. We need to pay the price of prayer. We need to understand the point of prayer. We need to know the position of prayer. And once we know all of that, we can then experience the power of prayer.
On tonight, we would like the Holy Spirit to move in this place and anoint this message that it may touch hearts and minds, and not fall on deaf ears. We would like to focus in on the third part of this verse which gives us instructions to seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways. So tonight, I’d like to you to turn to your neighbor and say “Neighbor, I’m ready to turn my life around.”
Subject: Turning Your Life Around
In the book of Acts, its author, Dr. Luke, introduces a Roman Soldier to the Holy Bible by the name of Saul. Luke records in the 7th Chapter of Acts that this young Roman Soldier was present at and presided over the stoning of the Apostle by the name of Stephen.
Luke continues his writing in the 8th Chapter by recording that there was a great persecution of the church going on in Jerusalem, which was causing many Christians to scatter abroad. And although this seems like a bad thing on the surface, we know that it was this persecution of the Christians that triggered Christianity’s spread outside of Jerusalem and into other parts of the world. Can I get a Witness?
Luke then records in verse 3 of Chapter 8 that Saul made a havoc of the church, entering into every house, and hauling off men and women and committing them to prison. My brothers and sisters, Saul was a treacherous man. He was a wicked man. He was an enemy of the gospel, devoted to destroying and eliminating the good news about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But let us not yet fully condemn Saul for his evil doings. For Jesus said that “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” And my brother and sisters, there are a whole lot of us who are in the church right now who are just like Saul.
No, maybe we haven’t been responsible for taking the physical life of somebody in the church, but there are a whole lot of folk in the church who have allowed their tongue to kill a whole lot of their brothers and sisters in Christ. Have I got a witness?
Lots of us have used our tongues as fiery darts and have laced our darts with deadly poison. And we are even more treacherous than Saul because we won’t even look the person in the face when we’re killing them. We just go around stabbing them in the back. Telling all kinds of lies on them. Scandalizing their name. And what eventually happens is that we kill their spirit and their will to stay in the church. So they leave the church and return to being among the lost. They are now dead. And we’ve killed them. Oh I wish I had some help up in here.
There are a whole lot of others in the church who are wreaking havoc, just like Saul, every step along the way. Instead of following the vision and the plan of the pastor, they are coming up with their own agenda, to do their own business in the church.
Instead of paying their tithes and offering like God commands for his people to do, they are still stuck on church salary. They are still putting in one or two dollars when God has blessed them with everything that they have.
They are wreaking havoc by keeping up and stirring up all kinds of mess all over the church. They go and tell one person one thing and then go right to somebody else and tell them something different. Then they sit back and watch all hell break loose because of mess that they’ve made up. I’m talking about good old every Sunday bible toting church folk.
They are just like Saul, breathing threats and slaughter against the children of God. But my brothers and sisters, don’t you know that you can’t stop God’s program? If these people don’t turn their lives around, they are going to end up standing in front of God, just like Saul.
For the Bible tells me that as Saul was travelling on the Damascus Road, God shined a light down from heaven and blinded Saul. Then Jesus asked him the $50,000 question: Saul, why are you persecuting me?
And I can hear Jesus asking us today, after all that I’ve done for you why are you still persecuting me? Don’t I wake you up in the morning? Don’t I clothe you in your right mind? Haven’t I blessed you with a roof over your head? Don’t you have food to eat for your nourishment? And even when you didn’t have a dime in your pocket, haven’t I always been able to make a way out of no way for you? So tell me, why are you still persecuting me? Oh can’t you hear Him talking to us today and asking us why?
You see, every time we do something outside of the will of Jesus Christ we are persecuting Him. Every time we don’t pray to him; every time we refuse fellowship with him; every time we fail to read and study God’s Word, we are in essence putting Jesus back on the cross, nailing him in His hands and feet, piercing Him in His side, and crucifying Him all over again. We are being just like Saul.
Saul was re-crucifying Jesus every time he persecuted one of Jesus’ disciples. But the Bible tells me that after Saul met Jesus on the Damascus Road, he turned his life around. And right here today, we need to turn our lives around.
We need to stop playing church and start living church. There was a time back in the day when churches had a mourner’s bench and if you were a sinner, you went to the mourner’s bench to receive prayer and forgiveness of your sins. The elders and mothers of the church, and those in leadership would lay hands on and pray for those that were considered to be sinners.
But nowadays, we have some of the biggest sinners in the church in positions of leadership. And they’ve gotten so big that they don’t even believe that they need prayer. JThey don’t believe that they’re doing anything wrong. They don’t believe that there is a need for them to straighten out their lives. But I’m here to tell you tonight that if they don’t turn their lives around God will turn it around for them. Have I got a witness?
The church needs to turn back to Jesus. I said this last night but we need to get back into the Word of God. We need to start going back into our prayer closets. Because when we turn our focus back on Jesus, we can start having a relationship with him. We can start knowing Him better. We can start knowing what he looks like to us and what He means to us. That’s what seeking His face is all about. Our text tells us that we are to seek His face and turn from our wicked ways.
The Bible tells us that Saul was blinded on the road to Damascus. But my brothers and sisters, we ought to praise God for what happened when He allowed Saul to regain His sight.
For the Bible tells me that when Ananias laid his hands upon Saul, scales fell out of Saul’s eyes, and he got up and was baptized. I can assure you tonight, that water did not save Saul. But something changed on the inside of Saul and caused him to believe in Jesus. He went down into the water only as a symbol the he had been washed up. That he had been fixed up. That he had become a new creature in Jesus Christ.
The Bible tells me that after Saul regained his sight, he ate some meat to recover his strength. He then left to be with the disciples. He went straightway and started preaching in the synagogues that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You see when God changes you, you can’t sit around and waste any time, but you have to get to going and doing things for the Lord. And don’t you know church, that if God can change a Saul, from a murder, to an ambassador for Jesus Christ; if He can change him from a Roman Saul to a Christian Paul, surely, he can do the same thing for you and I tonight.
For there are a whole lot of us tonight who still need the scales to fall from out of our eyes. Am I right about it?
We are still living blinded by the things of this world. But the Bible tells me “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” And if we turn our lives around, those scales will fall out of our eyes, and we will be able to let the S-O-N shine in our lives. Oh Lord.
And once we turn over all of our sins and all of our trespasses to the Lord, he will feed us with meat, gravy, and bread from the Word of God. Yes, He will? And then, He will give us living water to wash all of it down. Oh Lord.
Well brother preacher, you still haven’t told us, how do you know that Saul was a new creature in Jesus Christ. Well, my brothers and my sisters, don’t you remember in 2nd Corinthians the 5th Chapter, The Apostle Paul told the church at Corinth, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. Oh Lord.
And on this night, I what you to know that Paul wouldn’t know what it was like to be a new creature unless he first became a new creature for himself. Because not only did his name change, but his heart also changed. Ain’t God alright?
And likewise my brothers and sister, we will not be able to tell anybody else about Jesus until we first find out for ourselves just who Jesus Is. Oh Lord.
I don’t know about you, but I know for myself that:
Jesus: He’s my doctor, whenever I get sick.
Jesus: He’s my lawyer, whenever trouble comes my way.
Jesus: He’s my butcher and my baker, who puts food on my table.
Jesus: He’s seamstress, who puts clothes on my back.
Jesus: He’s my shelter in the time of a storm.
Jesus: He’s my living water that quenches my driest thirst.
Jesus: He’s my mother who loves me unconditionally.
Jesus: He’s my father that chastises me whenever I go astray.
Jesus: He’s my battle-ax in the time of a battle.
Jesus: He’s my friend when others desert me and scandalize my name.
Jesus: He’s my washing machine, that washed away my sins and made me as white as snow.
Jesus: He’s my carpenter, that is building my mansion in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus: He’s my body guard, that keeps me out of harm’s way.
Jesus: He’s my banker, that can make a way out of no way.
Jesus: He’s my comforter, who lifts me up, whenever I’m feeling down.
You don’t hear me.
I don’t know about you tonight, but I’m glad, that I’ve come to know who Jesus is for myself.
Is there anybody else here in this place, who knows who Jesus is. Have you ever tried him? Has He every made a way for you out of no way?
If you’ve tried Him for yourself, then you ought to know that one Friday morning Jesus died on Calvary’s cross with the weigh of the world on His shoulders, but early one Sunday morning, he got back up with power, power wonder working power. Ain’t he all right?
(CLOSE)
