You Can Make A Difference
Jason Hill – June 30, 2002
Have you ever looked around at the world, your town, your work, your neighborhood or any other place you may frequent and wish that you could make some changes?
Isaac Asimov once said, “It is change, continuing change, inevitable change that is the dominant factor in society today.” And Charles Kettering said, “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress”.
How would you change the world? You look at the world in which we live and know that if you had your way things would be different; people wouldn’t get away with killing others, countries wouldn’t be able to harbor terrorists, criminals would be punished correctly and swiftly, everyone would have enough food to eat and issues such as the pledge of allegiance being unconstitutional would not be an issue at all.
You think to yourself that if you were in charge of the company for whom you work that policy would change and the worker would be taken care of and not abused for the sake of the customer. You look around your town and think that if you could control it all that things would be different. But so often, many of these ideas of change are just that, ideas.
There have been many people just like you and me; everyday average Joe and Jane’s who took their ideas and thoughts of change beyond the confines of their hearts and minds and made them a reality, and those ideas and thoughts of change made an impact on our society and our world that changed things forever.
He was a young boy from Milan, Ohio. Like many children he was hyperactive and suffered from what we now call, Attention Deficiency Disorder. He was hard of hearing and his teachers deemed him mildly retarded. Yet this boy grew into a young man with an insatiable appetite for knowledge and the skill of intense concentration. And in 1879, Thomas Alva Edison, this boy who was deemed mildly retarded by his teachers in school, invented the first incandescent light bulb, an invention that changed society and the world forever.
Skinny, shy and awkward, he seemed an unlikely successor to his overachieving parents. His father was a prominent attorney, and his gregarious mother served on charitable boards and ran the United Way. While he showed enormous talent for math and logic, he was no one’s idea of a natural leader. He dropped out of college in his junior year and set out to pursue his heart’s desire. In 1974, young Bill Gates got his big break and Microsoft was born. I don’t think I need to mention the impact that this man’s invention has made on society; he has revolutionized business into what it is today.
These are just 2 examples but there are many more. People who are just like you and me who made a great impact on the world. They weren’t child prodigies or anything like that, they were just average, everyday people who had an idea and made it a reality and that reality just happened to change the world.
While the ideas and inventions of Thomas Edison and Bill Gates certainly are two of the greatest contributions to our world; two inventions that probably have made the greatest impact on our modern society and in our world through the past century, I want to tell you that there came 2 men long before Mr. Edison and Mr. Gates who made an even more significant contribution to our world, the greatest contribution in the history of mankind.
He was born out of wedlock by a teenage mother. On the surface there was nothing special about this child. He worked with his father as a boy and at the age of 30 began to talk to people about God and His love for them. At the age of 33 He made the most significant impact on the world that anyone has ever made and it will never be matched. On that dark Friday afternoon in Jerusalem, Jesus Christ gave His life as a sacrifice to pay for the sins of the world so that anyone who would accept this gift would have their sins forgiven and they would have a place in heaven.
Many people think of Jesus Christ as a myth, and some maybe even believe He existed yet they don’t believe the rest of the story. However, in the January 2000 issue of TIME Magazine, Jesus Christ was named the most influential person in all of history.
Then, a few years later there came a man who was very learned and scholarly. He was one of the most highly educated men of his time and hated anyone who believed the message of Jesus Christ. He was the last person you would think of when you think of total commitment to Christ. Yet, this man named Paul, who made a living killing those who belonged to the “Way” and were committed to the teachings of Christ, out side of Christ Himself, made the greatest impact on the world for the sake of the gospel and teachings of Jesus Christ.
What is my point? I’m not trying to give you a history lesson nor am I trying to make today biography Sunday at South Shore. My point is this: other than Jesus, all of these men I described were average everyday Joe’s who made incredible contributions and huge impacts on our world and were chosen by God to do so.
And I want to let you know something today, you can make an impact in this world, you can make a difference in society; in fact you can change the entire trajectory of someone’s life and in doing so can change the neighborhood you live in, the office you work at, the town in which you live and yes, you can change the world!!!
Take a look around you and I don’t see anyone who has a glow of light around them or has an arrow pointing to them that says, “I am special, I am going to change the world so don’t worry about it, I’ve got it under control.” We are all regular, everyday, normal people and each one of us can make a HUGE impact in the world in which we live.
We all have the ability to change the course of history and the eternal destination of our neighbors, friends, family and the world. We all can be world changers and it starts with our own little worlds and spreads to the entire planet.
This room is full of all different kinds of people from all different walks of life. We have bankers, engineers, mechanics, nurses, purchasers, shipping & receiving clerks, insurance salesmen, plumbers, builders, postal workers, teachers, house wives and pastors. There are people from Galloway, Smithville, Tuckerton, Somers Point, Cape May, Egg Harbor City, Absecon, Deptford and anywhere else I forgot to mention; ALL of whom have the ability, with the help of God to change their towns in the greatest of ways.
It is no accident that you are here today. God arranged the events of your life so that you would end up here today because He wants to speak to your heart through this message. I believe that through the people who are sitting in this room today, God is going to do something big in our community. I believe that God is going to use all of us to make a HUGE impact in the Atlantic County area such as has not been seen in a long time. I believe that God has assembled a team of people together that will, with His help, change this section of the world.
How Can We Make A Change?
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but there is a strong possibility that no one in here will ever make a significant technological or financial or psychological change in society. But the truth be told, we, and I mean everyone of us in this room, can, should and I believe, will make impacts and changes in our community, our society and our world that are HUGE and will, in God’s eyes far outweigh and be bigger than any technological, financial or psychological change that the world has ever known.
The impact we will have on our society and the changes that we, with God’s help, will make will outlast and be light years more effective than those that have been mentioned earlier, and we don’t even have to do extensive research and submit patent requests or clear them with the proper authorities for them to be.
In fact, for us to make a HUGE impact and change in our world, we just need to follow the simple instruction of the most influential person of all time and our example, forgiver, sacrifice and leader – Jesus Christ. As Jesus was ascending into heaven He left a word of instruction to His disciples. The word disciple means follower of Christ so His instruction applies to every person who has made a commitment to live their lives fully for Christ and have accepted His forgiveness and leadership of their lives.
The parting words of Jesus are found in:
Matthew 28:19-20: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
We will make an impact and change the world around us by simply following this instruction and make it a consistent part of our lives.
God wants us to share His grace and the life-changing story of His son Jesus with those around us who have never heard it and who have yet to commit their lives to live fully for Him.
God desires to have a relationship with mankind and though He has a relationship with many people and many in this room, there are still millions and millions of people in this world and maybe even some in this room who are relationally lost from God and have never placed their trust in Him and committed their lives to be lived fully for Him. God loves these people and wants to have a relationship with them.
By sharing the message of God’s grace and love with those around us who are relationally lost from God we can make a HUGE impact in our towns, workplaces, families and world that will last for eternity.
You don’t have to be a theological scholar or a Bible thumping bookworm to understand the truth of God’s grace, nor do you have to be one to share it. In actuality it is both easy to understand and share.
Let me break it down for you in a real simple way:
God created man and man sinned, which means he disobeyed God. Since man disobeyed God, he was separated from God. God loves mankind and wants to have a relationship with His creation but He can’t because of sin. God cannot look at sin and we cannot approach God because of our sin. Still, Go desires a relationship with mankind so He decided to do something about it.
God came to earth in the form of a man named Jesus Christ to share the extent of His love for mankind and died on a cross to pay the penalty for all sin so that through that sacrifice mankind could be connected with God once again. It is only through accepting God’s forgiveness of sin that we can have a relationship with God because He sees us as sinless when we come through Christ to Him.
Jesus didn’t stay dead. The Bible says that three days after He died Jesus was raised again to life thus defeating death and anyone who comes through Christ to a relationship with God not only receives forgiveness for their sin but also receives the free gift of eternal life in heaven with God.
That’s it! That wasn’t so difficult to understand was it? It isn’t in fact God’s grace is often referred to as the SIMPLE plan of salvation. The difficulty comes in sharing God’s grace and forgiveness with others. We often feel that we will offend someone if we tell him or her that Jesus is the only way and we don’t want to pressure people to believe and accept God’s forgiveness. Listen, God doesn’t call us to save people because in all reality, we can’t – only God can do that. God has called us to make an impact in the world, with His help! We cannot do this on our own. God has called us to Himself by an inner working of the Holy Spirit and He asks us to share this life-changing gospel with others and He will do the rest.
The Bible says in:
John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son the whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
We can never back down from God’s calling to us. We can make a HUGE change in the world around us but we can only do that with God’s help. It is a team effort.
A few weeks ago we talked about being a part of God’s search party to look for those who are lost and matter so much to God. We learned that we are to search and lead people to God. That’s as far as we can go. We can lead a person to God but it is the inner working of the Holy Spirit or God working on that person’s heart that leads them to cross the line of faith and commit their lives to live fully for God. A wise man once told me:
“Sharing the life-changing message of Christ is like being in the pitching staff on a baseball team. Sometimes you’re the starter, sometimes you’re the middle reliever and sometimes you are the closer. No matter what role you play, you are still a contributing part of the process.”
God desires to have a relationship with millions and millions of people in this world; they all matter dearly to Him. Included in those millions are some people that you and I know and come into contact with on a regular basis. We can make a change in our world by sharing the life-changing message of God’s love and grace with these people. We need to become world changers beginning with the people around us and within our sphere of influence.
What Kind Of Change Can We Make?
Each one of us who has committed our lives to live fully for God have the ability, along with God’s help, to change the eternal destination and lifestyles of those people that we come into contact with on a regular basis as well as those who live, work, vacation and play around us.
We can make two types of changes, both of which go together. The first is an:
Eternal Change:
We can make a change in the lives of the people around us that will last for eternity and a change that will effect the eternal destination of our friends, neighbors, co-workers and loved ones. In all reality God is the one who makes the changes, but it is through us that He makes them. Whatever the case, we can have a part in making an eternal change in people’s lives which effects the world in which we live.
I once heard someone say that as a follower of Christ we were to be in the business of depopulating hell. In other word we are to be in the business of making eternal changes in the lives of those around us.
For all of us, making an eternal change in the lives of people around us will be the greatest feat we will ever accomplish in life. Making an eternal change for God and for His kingdom will be the greatest influence that we or anyone could and will ever make.
We also can make an immediate change:
I mentioned that these two types of changes go together and here is how. When God uses us to make a change in the lives of those around us for eternity, it affects the way in which they live their lives. When a person who had no regards for God or to live a life fully for Him and cared only about themselves and their progress and didn’t care who they walked over along the way turns their life over to live fully for God their thoughts and ways change because God takes control of their heart and moves them to live a life His way and the result is a more peaceful person who wants to go out and make an eternal change in the people who live, work, vacation and play around them.
When God changes someone’s life and world radically, the change is immediate. A person begins to think and act differently. It may be slower in some but there still is a change.
The greatest change that comes immediately when someone commits their life to Christ is their eternal destination. Jesus said in:
John 5:24 – “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”
The impact that we can make for the kingdom of God can rattle this world. When we commit our lives to doing God’s work and sharing the good news of God’s love and grace to those around us; when we begin to invest and invite and trust God to lead someone over the line of faith and it happens, we are making a huge impact on our world one person at a time.
I was talking with someone recently who has been involved in church work for a number of years. He was telling me that he can remember being in a meeting of church officials and they all were laying out their goals for the upcoming year. Some guys were giving financial goals some were giving attendance goals and others were giving goals of the amount of people they wanted to see cross over the line of faith. Guys were giving numerical figures and it got to my friend and he said something that was very profound. He said, “Just one more.”
In other words my friend was saying that there is always one more person out there that matters to god and needs to establish a relationship with Him. What’s my point? My point is that that should be our attitude, “Just one more.” Our work for God is never done, and our chances for making an impact in this dark, sorry world that will shake the gates of hell will continue until the day God calls us home. Because people matter to God!
World-Changing Qualities
But in order to make such an impact, we have to be aware of a few things. If you examine the lives of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates and anyone else who has made a significant impact on our society and our world, they all possessed certain character traits that moved them to do what they did. God wants us to possess these same qualities in order to impact our world for Him.
The first quality that enables one to make an impact is:
Commitment
Thomas Edison would have never made the light bulb and captured light unless he was committed. He attempted many time to do it and failed many times but he was committed to the task and finally completed it.
Bill Gates would have never invented software had he not been committed. Who in the world could sit down to write computer code and write computer programs unless you they were committed? God knows that I couldn’t.
The apostle Paul was committed to the core of his being to spread the message of God’s grace and love to the entire world and we see many times in the Bible that Paul’s commitment to God was so strong that nothing could get in the way of fulfilling his mission.
Jesus Christ displayed the ultimate example of commitment. He could have, on many occasions just left this world and gone to be with the Father in heaven. When the disciples abandoned and betrayed Him, He could have checked out. When the religious leaders frustrated Him, He could have said, I’m out of here. When He was given the death sentence and was facing crucifixion, He could have summoned 10,000 and said, “Come on boys, let’s get out of here”. Yet through all of that Jesus never abandoned the mission. He was committed to the Father and knew how much He loved mankind so He fulfilled His earthly mission.
If we are going to make an impact on the lives of those around us and change our towns, workplaces, families and world then we have to be committed to the core of our being to sharing God’s grace and love with those around us. Hey friends, listen; we never lock eyes with anyone that doesn’t matter to the Father. We need to be radically committed to making an eternal impact in those around us.
Determination
The greatest example of determination in the Bible to spreading God’s love, outside of Christ was the apostle Paul. He faced much opposition but was committed and determined to let nothing stop him. Listen to the extent of Paul’s determination.
2 Corinthians 11:23-25: “…I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a day and night in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, I have been in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from the Gentiles; in danger in the cities, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled, I have gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst and have gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides all of this I feel the pressure of concern for all the churches.”
Paul was determined to let nothing get in the way of his commitment to God and to do His work. We should do the same. Paul faced many things that we will never face. We may face rejection and ridicule, but if we want to be a player in the world-changing project, then we cannot let hardship and let down keep us from our commitment to God. We need to be determined.
Lastly, every person who has made an impact on this world for whatever reason was driven by a:
Passion
Thomas Edison had a passion for electronics and inventing. Bill Gates had a passion for computers and business and probably money. Jesus Christ had a passion for people and a passion for the Father. The Apostle Paul had a passion for God and the lost people who matter so much to God.
What drives you? What is your passion? What causes you to sit up late at night and ponder or think about?
If we as followers of Christ are going to be effective in changing our world with the life-changing message of God’s love and grace then we need to be passionate about 2 things.
We need to be passionate about:
God
We need to develop a passion for God and a passion for knowing Him better and following His leading in our lives. We need to have such a passion for God that it drives us to do his work in life and to make an impact that will affect the neighborhoods we live in, the places where we work, the families we are in and the friends we have.
Secondly we need to have a passion for:
People
This one is usually hard for many people to grasp. Many people can understand the need to be passionate about god, but when it comes to being passionate about other people the line is drawn at their spouse.
Jesus was passionate about people because they mattered to Him. If people matter to God then don’t you think they ought to matter to us? We need to become passionate about lost people because God desires a relationship with them and He is passionate about those that are lost coming home to a relationship with Him.
Passion can drive someone to stay committed to a cause and committed to God. Passion makes someone determined to complete the task at hand, and as followers of Christ that task is to become fully committed to Him and to make an impact in our world by sharing the life-changing message of God’s love and being world-changers.
This message is a reflection of my heart and the heart of South Shore Community Church. I believe that God lead me and you here so that we could be on a team that will make an impact for the Kingdom of God in Atlantic County and change this part of the world for God.
I want you to know that I am honored and excited to be on your team. I believe together that we will complete the mission that God has placed us here to do and we’ll get to know and love each other along the way.
Being someone who cares about you, I want to take a second right now and ask you to evaluate yourself. First I want to ask you to be honest with god and honest with yourself and answer this question – have you ever committed your life to live fully for God? Have you accepted His forgiveness and leadership of your life? If you never have, I want you to know that you can right now, I care about you and I don’t want to see you spend eternity separated from god in hell, so please if you’ve never committed your life to Christ, do it now, what’s holding you back? - Salvation Prayer
To everyone here that has committed your life to Christ, I want to ask you a question and I want you to be honest with god and yourself. Are you committed to making an impact and changing the world around you for Christ? If you are then great! But if you were honest and you know that you aren’t committed to it, I want to ask you to make a commitment to do so.
We, as followers of Christ, are part of a big family, and there are people all over the world who are committed to being world-changers. When we all become committed and begin to make an impact, man, we can, with God’s help, change this dark, sorry world for God and for the Kingdom of God. There is no greater team to be on and there is nothing else in the world worth giving your life to.
Let’s commit together today to be world-changers in Galloway, Absecon, Tuckerton, Egg Harbor, Somers Point and all of Atlantic & Ocean Counties, and together change this area for God.
Let’s Pray
