“Changing Lives”
The Life – part 3
Today is week three – in our sermon series called, “The Life…” A message series that has (and I’m not kidding) has the very real potential of radically changing; not just your life – but also the lives of those in your home; and the life, direction, success and influence for Christ of this church…
LISTEN – IF, you think that we are doing pretty good now as a church… We ain’t seen nothing yet!! BECAUSE – when you & you & you & you and I, really start to live, ‘The Life’… Our God will move WITH power AND His will, will be done in this place, like we have never seen before… AND – we will benefit from this awesome promise in God’s Word.
“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him…” 2 Cor 9:16
IN WEEK ONE – we said that what you do with your life matters… UNDERSTAND - what you do with the years between your birth and your death, what you do with your dash (and listen all of our dashes are getting a little shorter) Matters…
What I do with my life matters? (repeat, tell the person sitting next to you)
QUESTION – Why does it matter? FIRST - because – your life, is a gift from God (every breathe, every heart beat is a gift – and understand your new life in Christ, is a pretty incredible gift as well…) SECOND - WHAT you do with your life matters? Because one day (as Jesus taught in Matthew 25 in the parable of the talents) one day God is coming back to settle accounts with everyone – with you and with me… And when he does he has no intention of settling for mediocrity, and He will accept no excuse for burying the life that he so graciously gave us...
THIRD - WHAT you do with your life matters? Because God is also returning to reward us….One day you will hear the applause of heaven given for you….
NOW – I think most of us know that what we do with our life matters. I really don’t think I told you anything new when I said that God wants you to live your dash well, that he wants you to live a life that pleases him….
BUT – we all know from personal experience that having this knowledge does not as we saw last week keep us from being stuck in borderland…
LISTEN – simply knowing that we are to live the life that God has called us to live – does not keep us from getting stuck, does not keep us from stalling out, does not keep us from setting up camp and pitching our tents in that barren but often crowed place between;
q where we were and where we should be
q between where God brought us from, to where he wants to take us to
q between our redemption and our sanctification
q between the old life and the new life;
(Look at the drawing in your outline – UNDRSTAND - when the blood of God’s Son saved and rescued you from your sin and from hopelessness – when you stepped over from being lost to being found – God did not intend for you to never take another step ever again…)
LISTEN - Many believers are stuck in borderland and like we said last Sunday…
when we’ve been struggling with the same old sin for years.
when we keep holding on to the same old wrong and negative attitudes
when we keep talking about the things we need to change and the things we need to start doing for the Lord, but we never do them – we are stuck;
when year after year we keep saying, “It is time for me to step up to the plate,” – BUT we never make the trip from the on deck circle to the batters box.
When the awesome truths that we hear and sing about within these walls fail to carry us throughout the week…. We are stuck
When our best days of serving God & His church, when our fire for the kingdom burned so much brighter years ago – we are stuck…
And when true joy, hope and peace, when God’s presence and His power continually elude us we are stuck… we‘ve stalled, we’ve pitched our tents in borderland…
QUESTION – do you remember the illustration that I closed with last week….
(My car stuck at Daytona…)
The Bad News – “We’re Stuck”
THIS MORNING - I want to tell you some good news, some great news and some bad news…
AND – we’ll begin with the bad news… We’re stuck… All of us… me, you, the person sitting next to you… all of us are not where and who we should be… UNDERSTAND – every single person in this room, in varying degrees has fallen short of where God wants to take them…
WE - have fallen short of; who God wants us to, of what he wants us to do and of the new life he longs for us to live…
LISTEN - that’s just the way it is… It’s the truth…. Them are the facts like em’ or not…
AND UNDERSTAND - when we are stuck, there are several; wrong, bad and ineffective ways that we can respond to our stuckness…
Prayer. . .
One ‘wrong’ response to being stuck is;
To Not Care
QUESTION – wouldn’t that have been a crazy response for me to have when my car was stuck in the sand…? BECAUSE – the tide was coming in and not only would I not have my car to drive it may have wound up floating in the Atlantic.
YET – many people have this exact response to something much more important – to something that has eternal consequences…
“yeah, I know I’m stuck, I know I’m not where God wants me to be, I know I am not who God wants me to be (I’m not the husband, the wife, the father, the mother, the child, the worker, the student, the person I should be) I know that I am not doing all I should be doing for God & His church, AND do you know what – I’m really okay with it…”
QUESTION – do you know anybody like that? Who just doesn’t care? Are you like that?
AND UNDERSTAND – part of the reason why people can be okay with being stuck is that as we said last week, they have created a ‘safe God,’ (a nice – little gray haired god sitting on the front porch in a rocker waving) a God who is okay with their being stuck, a God who is not bothered or concerned, a God who simply smiles and winks at the fact that they are not where OR who they should be…
LET me say that this view of God – is not true.. the bible says that God is a consuming fire & it is a terrible thing to fall into his hands…
The response that some people have to their being stuck is to simply shrug their shoulders and say –“It’s alright, It doesn’t matter, it’s okay, it’s no big deal, it’ll all be fine.”
A second wrong response is;
To Deny And Cover Up
[again this would have been a crazy response for me with my car stuck in the sand… deny and cover up.. It’s not stuck… not stuck signs… sit behind the wheel and act like I’m driving as I listen to life in the fats lane…]
YET many believers have this response to the fact they are stuck spiritually and are not where God wants them to be…
Jesus said these words to a bunch of people in the church in Sardis who had taken the deny and cover up response… “I know your deeds you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” (Rev 3:1)
‘Hey I know that you guys are working real hard at not looking stuck… but I (the one who sees all) I know that you are…’
When Jesus walked this earth, there were a group of people who were the poster children for this deny and cover up response to being stuck… I mean - these guys were stuck big time, they had really stalled spiritually they had fallen woefully short of where God wanted them to be…
CAN - anybody guess who these guys were? The Pharisees…
UNDERSTAND – much of Jesus’ ministry was spent trying to get these ‘religious leaders’ to see that they were stuck… NOW – if you were to ask them if they were stuck, they of course would have denied it, and done so rather strongly… YOU SEE - these guys believed that they were the furthest thing from being stuck…they were convinced that they were well on the road – cruising in the fast lane for God…
QUESTION - WHY did they feel that way? They felt that way - BECAUSE they had created a bunch of eternal stuff (cover ups); a bunch of: rules, traditions, regulations, do’s and don’ts. AND – according to them it was this eternal stuff that proved that they were right with God (things like the length of their robes, how far they walked on the Sabbath, how often they went to the synagogue, the number of times they washed their hands, by not going to certain places or being around certain people…)
These guys were sitting in sand up to their roof tops –and acted as though they were cruising down the highway…
LISTEN - there is a very real danger that arises when people choose to remain and stuck – and respond with denial and cover up. YOU SEE – when we don’t experience authentic transformation, authentic change in our lives - there is a very real possibility that we will settle for what might be called, false or pseudo transformation…
UNDERSTAND IF - we don’t change from the inside out, IF – we don’t get unstuck we like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day will be tempted to find some external things that we can do – we will create lists that we can check off to make ourselves feel, and prove to those watching that we are some where we are not.
YOU SEE – as Christians we know that we are to change, that we are to be different then the world, different from the way WE were – and if we can’ be transformed, then we choose to conform to external standards that we set up…
“Me stuck – of course not… how could I be…” then we pull out our check list…
q I go to church almost every Sunday
q I keep the nursery once a month
q I read my bible
q I know a lot of bible facts
q I don’t drink
q I don’t smoke
q I don’t cuss (at least not at church or out loud)
q I wear my best clothes each Sunday
q I don’t watch nasty movies
q I don’t go to the wrong places
q I don’t hang out with ‘bad’ people…”
LISTEN – when Jesus Christ walked this earth, in order to bring God near - instead of focusing on the external – the outside stuff, like all the other religious leaders of the day – He took it straight to the center… WHEN – Jesus was asked to summarize what the law was all about (he didn’t say it’s about going to the synagogue, washing hands, how far you walk on the Sabbath…)
Jesus said that the law is about – our being right with – our being unstuck, is about our love for God and our love for other people…
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself…” Mt 22:37,38
UNDERSTAND – the reason Jesus ticked the Pharisees off so much; the reason they were constantly fighting with Jesus about circumcision, dietary laws, the Sabbath; the reason they would one day nail him to a wooden cross – WAS NOT BECAUSE – Jesus was disagreeing with them about how to interpret the law….
IT – was because Jesus was challenging and threatening the very standards they had set up to make themselves feel right with God… Jesus was telling these religious men – “Hey guys you are not at all where you think you are… you are stuck, you have fallen short, you missed the mark… In fact the sinners and tax collectors are closer to the kingdom of God then you are… Why? because at least they have enough sense and honesty to acknowledge that they are stuck…and then I can help them get unstuck…”
LISTEN – this is SO important for us to understand - it is possible for us to think that we are becoming more spiritual when the truth is we are only becoming more smug, self-righteous, judgmental – more stuck… we are only becoming what Mark Twain once called, “a good man in the worst sense of the word…
SO HERE’S THE QUESTION – (and it’s huge) How do we make sure that we are not settling for false transformation, how to we make sure that our response to being stuck is not denial and cover up?
John Orteberg In His Book The Life You’ve Always Wanted find in Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees in Matthew 23 a few questions that we need to ask ourselves… to make sure that we are really being transformed…
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Am I spiritually ‘inauthentic’?
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” (23:25)
UNDERSTAND - Inauthenticity involves a preoccupation with ‘appearing’ to be spiritual. It’s making everyone think that you are more spiritual then you really are, that you are changing, that you really do have a close walk with God… (by the way you talk how you act) but it’s inauthentic on the inside…it’s not real, it’s surface, superficial…
QUESTION – are you more concerned with what other people think about you OR what God knows about you?
YOU KNOW - sometimes I catch myself trying to talk or appear really spiritual – wanting people to think I am some where I am not spiritually… saying church type things…. Things I don’t usually say… (do you do that, please say that you do?)
It’s like the little boy who went to Sunday school, where he knew the sort of answers you’re supposed to give to questions. The teacher asked, ‘what is brown, furry, has a long tail and stores up nuts for the winter.’ ‘Well’ the boy answered, ‘I guess the answer is Jesus, but sure sounds like a squirrel to me.’
I act like that. I try to say spiritual-sounding things even though I don’t know what I’m saying, “I guess the answer is Jesus.”
A second question to ask is;
Am I becoming Judgmental, proud or exclusive
“They love to have the place of honor at banquets an the best seats in the synagogue.”
UNDERSTAND – pride is a very real problem for anyone who takes spiritual growth seriously… How come everyone isn’t as far along as I am? What’s up with them? Why aren’t they like me?
One day Homer Simpson asks his fundamentalist neighbors where they had been. And they replied, “we went away to Christian camp so we could learn how to be more judgmental…”
Just where is that camp and why is it so well attended?
ASK – yourself, “am I becoming judgmental, proud or exclusive..?”
Man sometimes I can get in a crowd of people and just start labeling them….he’s like that, she is…
A 3rd question is;
Am I becoming more approachable or less?
“they love…to have people call them rabbi…”
UNDERSTAND - in Jesus’ day the lepers, sinners, prostitutes, and the tax collectors were careful to not get close to the Pharisee’s, (men who were supposedly so close to God) Why? Because they knew they weren’t welcome, they knew if they got to close they either be rebuked or slapped alongside the head…
BUT - Jesus was the most approachable person they had ever seen. YOU SEE - the religious leaders had a kind of differentness that pushed people away. Jesus on the other hand had a kind of differentness that drew people to him.
True spirituality is just that way….it draws people to us.. it makes us more approachable…
4th ask yourself…
Am I growing weary of pursuing spiritual growth?
QUESTION - is spiritual growth just a grind to you? Are you tried of hearing about it? Is it a heavy burden to you? IF it is, you are not pursuing the real thing…
“They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others.”
LISTEN – when you try to kept man made rules and regulations it will wear you out…
FRIENDS – that’s the old life the old way, the old land – AND we are called to live in the new way…
5th
Am I measuring my spiritual life in superficial ways?
“You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!”
Suppose some were to ask you, “How is your spiritual life going these days?” QUICK – what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Do you want to grab the check list I mentioned earlier of all the external do and don’t?
LISTEN – the real and only measure for our spiritual life is – do we love God more, and people more…
CHECKOUT – what Paul wrote;
“If could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn’t love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would be of no value whatsoever. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever..”
UNDERSTAND – the real issue is what kind of people are we becoming. Practices such as reading the bible and praying are important not because they prove how spiritual we are BUT because God can use them to bring us to life… they help us get unstuck… they put us in places where God can to his God thing…..
2 wrong response to being stuck…. Don’t care…. Deny & Cover up
The next wrong response is kind of a wrong response that the church can have…
To Not Expect People To Change
Hank as we’ll call him, was a cranky guy. He did not smile easily, and when he did, the smile often had a cruel edge to it, coming at someone’s expense. He had a knack for discovering islands of bad news in oceans of happiness. He would always find a cloud where others saw a silver lining.
Hank rarely affirmed anyone. He operated on the assumption that if you compliment someone, it might lead to a swelled head, so he worked to make sure everyone stayed humble. His was a ministry of cranial downsizing.
His native tongue was complaint. He carried judgment and disproval the way a prisoner carries a ball and chain. Although he went to church his whole life, he was never unshackled.
A deacon in the church asked him one day, “ Hank, are you happy?”
Hank paused to reflect, then replied without smiling, “Yeah.”
“Well, tell your face,” the deacon said. But so far as anybody knows, Hank’s face never did find out about it.
There was a period of time when his primary complaints centered around the music in the church. “It’s too loud!” Hank protested—to the staff, the deacons, the ushers, and eventually the innocent visitors to the church.
We finally had to take Hank aside and explain that complaining to complete strangers was not appropriate and he would have to restrict his laments to a circle of intimate friends. And that was the end of it. So we thought.
A few weeks later, a secretary buzzed me on the intercom to say that an agent OSHA—the Occupational Safety and Health Administration—was here to see me. “I’m here to check out a complaint,” he said. As I tried to figure out who on the staff would have called OSHA over a church problem, he began to talk about decibel levels at airports and rock concerts.
“Excuse me,” I said, “are you sure this was someone on the church staff that called?”
“No,” he explained. “If anyone calls—whether or not they work here—we’re obligated to investigate.”
Suddenly the light dawned: Hank had called OSHA and said , “The music at my church is too loud.” And they sent a federal agent to check it out.
By this time the rest of the staff had gathered in my office to see the man from OSHA.
“We don’t mean to make light of this,” I told him, “but nothing like this had ever happened around here before.”
“Don’t apologize,” he said. “Do you have any idea how much ridicule I’ve faced around my office since everyone discovered I was going out to bust a church?”
Sometimes Hank’s joylessness ended in comedy, but more often it produced sadness. His children did not know him. His son had a wonderful story about how he met his wife at a dance, but he never told his father because Hank did not approve of dancing.
Hank could not effectively love his wife or his children or people outside his family. He was easily irritated. He had little use for the poor, and a casual contempt for those whose accents or skin pigment differed from his own. Whatever capacity he once might have had for joy or wonder or gratitude was gone. He critiqued and judged and complained, and his soul got a little smaller each year.
Hank was not changing. He was once a cranky young guy, and he grew up to be a cranky old man. But even more troubling than his lack of change was the fact that nobody was surprised by it. It was as if everyone simply expected that his soul would remain withered and sour year after year, decade after decade. No one seemed bothered by the condition. It was not an anomaly that caused head-scratching bewilderment. No church consultants were called in. No emergency meetings were held to probe the strange case of this person who followed the church’s general guidelines for spiritual life and yet was not transformed.
The church staff did have some expectations. We expected that Hank would affirm certain religious beliefs. We expected that would attend services, read the Bible, support the church financially, pray regularly, and avoid certain sins.
But here’s what we didn’t expect: We didn’t expect that he would progressively become the way Jesus would be if he were in Hank’s place. We didn’t assume that each year would find him a more compassionate, joyful, gracious, winsome personality. We didn’t anticipate that he was on the way to becoming a source of delight and courtesy who overflowed with “rivers of living water.” So we were not shocked when it didn’t happen. We would have been surprised if it did!!
Question – are we like that? Do we expect people to change? Or do we expect them to remain the same? Would you be surprised if someone really did change? A husband? A wife? A friend?
OKAY – now for our final wrong response to being stuck
I Yam, What I Yam
YOU KNOW - one of the most profound statements I have ever heard about the human condition was made by someone I encountered when I was just a boy… Perhaps you have heard of him? Popeye the sailor man… When Popeye was frustrated or he wasn’t sure what to do or he felt inadequate, he would simply say, “I yam what I yam…”
NOW – Popeye wasn’t a sophisticated guy. He never went therapy, so he was out of touch with his inner child. AND as far as we know Popeye didn’t have much of an education. BUT Popeye knew who he was, he was a simple, sea faring, pipe smoking, spinach sucking, Olive Oyl – loving sailor man… I yam what I yam…
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BUT – do you know what I think there was a note of sadness in Popeye’s voice whenever he said that. YOU SEE – that expression was usually offered as an explanation of his short comings. It was like he was saying don’t get your hopes up, don’t expect much from me, there’s not much to offer here… I yam what I yam (and in his bleakest moments he would add, and that’s all that I am…)
LISTEN – that’s the sad cry of much of the human race; “don’t get your hopes up, don’t expect much from me, there’s not much to offer here… I yam what I yam… and that all that at am…”
AND UNDERSTAND - you’ve said those words, in your own way – and so have I …
AND – maybe as we talked about – The Life – as we talked about getting unstuck… as we talk about being transformed about changing about getting to where God wants us to be – about living the life you’ve always wanted… you are saying them again… “I yam what I yam and that’s all that I yam…”
IF – so I have God news for you
Good News – Christ Came To Unstuck Us
AND – the good news is – Christ came (and I know it’s bad grammar) – Christ came to unstuck us to unstuck you…to unstuck me…)
LISTEN – that’s the core, that’s the heart, that’s the message of the gospel… Change real change - authentic transformation is not only possible, It is God’s plan…for you and for me…
AND – I want us to quickly underscore this truth by checking out some scripture and some changed lives….
[STOP – and Pray for God to speak through His Word]
Checkout these scriptures;
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Eph 2:10 (NLT)
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:3,4
“But oh, my dear children! I feel as if I am going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives.” Gal 4:19 (NLT)
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Eph 4:22-24
“For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son Rm 8:29 (NLT)
“We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was given to us by God’s own power…” 2 Peter 1:3 (CEV)
AND - Checkout these changed lives
q Saul – a murderer of Christians becomes the great missionary dying for Christ…
q John – a man with a hot temper, known as the son of thunder becomes know as the disciple of love…
q Nicodemus - a man so afraid of what others might think of him that he goes to see Jesus at night – is last seen taking the body of Jesus down from the cross and preparing for burial
q Peter – the one who denied Christ 3 times – proclaims the first Gospel before thousands and later is crucified upside down…
q Zacchaeus – a crooked tax collector finds salvation and gives back 4 times what he had stolen.
q Mary Magdalene – a former woman of night ( a street walker), is last seen walking in darkness to take spices to the tomb of Jesus…
q A Demon possessed man – who had lived in the tombs, naked – screaming – chains could not hold – in his right mind dressed talking about Jesus.
q The women who was caught in adultery – who went and sinned no more…
UNDERSTAND - the Gospel has been changing & transforming people for years… LISTEN – to how it changed the people in Corinth…
“Don’t you know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers--none of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God. There was a time when some of you were just like that, but now your sins have been washed away, and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you.” 1 Cor 6:9-11 (NLT)
AND NOW FOR The Great News..
The Great News – “You Too Can Get Unstuck”
LISTEN – transformation, real change, is possible for me and for you. It’s not easy and it’s never quick, BUT it’s possible… YES – it is possible for you and I to live more and more like Jesus would live if he were living in our place…
The Gospel is about change – it’s about moving people from the old life and taking fully into the new life…(abundance, freedom, fullness). We have read a bunch of verses today that talks about this change and we have seen dramatic life changes in the pages of Scripture…
SO The QUESTION is - how does this change take place? How can this transformation take place in me, and in you? (and I know you want to change… change is the essence of hope for this life – that’s why people join health clubs, go to therapy, make new years resolutions…)
There is an event in Exodus chapter 3 that illustrates how this process for change works…
Moses was a man who was in desperate need of change… He was a fugitive, he had been living in the desert for 40 years…He was stuck… Moses was not where he needed to be… AND – one day he walks by a bush that he had walked by hundreds of times before – but this time bush is burning and is not being consumed by the fire…
AND – Moses said – “I must turn aside (scriptures says and see this wonderful thing..) and you know what happens… God speaks to Moses and says, “Moses I am calling you – I want to use you to lead my people out of bondage…
AND – you know what Moses does… He begins to do the Popeye thing , “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh? Nobody knows me. I don’t speech very well. I’m pretty much a failure out here in the desert, I Yam what I yam…”
And God says to Moses what he said to me and to you and to millions of other Moses; “I know all about that stuff… But it doesn’t really matter that much for I will be with you. Moses your guilt and your inadequacies are no longer the ultimate truth about you. You are what you are – BUT that’s not all that you are. You are what you are, BUT you are not yet what you can be… For I will be with you…”
To which Moses responds; “Who are you?”
AND – God answered; “I am what I am. I am the God of Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebecca, I am the God who cares for my people. I am the God who sees the misery of my children even when they think I am not looking. I have heard their groan when they thought was not listening. I am the God who saw you has lay hidden in the reeds in a basket, and when you were fleeing in the wilderness as a fugitive… Moses get your hopes up… You know me I yam what I yam! You know what I can do and have done!”
Yeah God! You are what you are – and it is awesome! AND because of what you are you can make us what we ought to be
QUESTION – do you see the two components in this encounter – Moses first has to turn aside – and then God can do his thing… his transforming and changing thing….
UNDERSTAND – If Moses did not turn aside, he would have missed the Exodus, the people of Israel, his calling, the reason for his existence. He would have missed knowing God…
LISTEN – real transformation is a partnership between us God….
And Peter - in 2 Peter after telling us that God’s divine power has given us everything we need to live a life that please God – tells us to make every effort… to add to your faith goodness, to your goodness knowledge…
You have everything you need so make every effort
It’s us and God…
And perhaps the best way to illustrate this is to picture a sailboat….
What does the real work in sailboat…? The wind… LISTEN – the wind is absolutely essential if we are to sail anywhere
Jesus said this in John chapter 3; ”The wind blows where it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit…”
God is the wind – the power of our transformation. UNDERSTAND – God is the only one who can change lives and transform hearts.. BUT WE – have an essential role to play as well… YOU SEE – to catch the wind of God we must turn aside, we must learn how to hoist the sails…
AND – that is what we will be talking about in the coming weeks… SPECIFIC things that we can do to hoist the sails of our spiritual life in order to catch the wind of God, that leads to true transformation…. That leads to a new life, a better life an abundant life…
CLOSE – with Jesus be the Center have them focus on Him being the wind in their sails
