January 23, 2005
Good morning. Let me start by saying that Diana and I could not wait to get back up here. It’s like that old John Denver song: ‘It’s Good To Be Back Home Again.’ And, we do consider this our home now. Thank you for inviting us to be a part of your church.
I want to talk to you this morning about change. Certainly we see all kinds of changes in our lives every day, don’t we? It has been said that we have had more changes in the last 50 years, then in all of history put together before that.
Do we mind having changes go on around us? For the most part, I don’t think it bothers us too much. We are very used to changes, aren’t we? We change the oil in our cars; we make change for dollar bills; we change our clothes every day (or at least I pray we do!), and we even change light bulbs.
Speaking of light bulbs, do you know how many postal employees it takes to change a light bulb? 45. Oh, it only takes one to do the actual changing, but it takes 44 more just to do all the excess paperwork.
Okay, I promise … that’s it on the light bulb jokes. But, you see what I am driving at, don’t you? We have all kinds of change in our lives, and we do not seem to mind too much. That is, until something comes up to show us that we need to change something within ourselves, and in those cases it seems the only thing we want to change is the subject.
You can see that tendency in the many New Years resolutions that we make. Many of us see something in our personal lives that we want to change and we use the New Year as a springboard to kick that change off. But what usually happens? We don’t follow through with that resolution; choosing to forget about it even before we can implement it. Simply said, change is okay as long as it leaves us alone, right?
We are going to be talking about changes in our lives, but first, let us open in prayer.
OPENING PRAYER
Here we are, at the beginning of another new year, and all of us has some major changes awaiting us this year. You have a major change in your lives because you are getting a new pastor for your church. It takes a lot to accept a new pastor, doesn’t it? After all, none of you know each other so there is often a period of time similar to a ‘courting period’ that will allow you to get used to each other and accept each other.
During this time, both sides must be willing to make adjustments here and there to accommodate the other. The problem with that is it necessitates us to move out of our comfort zones. And, we sure do like our comfort zones, don’t we?
My wife and I have a major change in our lives this year, too, as we are coming up here so that I can be your new pastor.
Our coming up here means that we are moving away from almost every earthly thing we hold dear. Some of our kids live in Arizona. One of our grandkids lives in Arizona. We pretty much had it made in Arizona. But, had we stayed in Arizona, we would have had to tell God that we did not want to follow His desires for us. So, we sold the house, bid everyone we know good-bye, some through the shedding of tears, and then stepped out in faith to serve the Lord our God.
So, you can see that all of us have some changes that will be occurring this year. And, being brothers and sisters in Christ, it will become necessary that we help each other through these changes - - just like God wants us to.
Have you ever thought any deep thoughts about rubber bands? I have. In fact, I had one of those great big rubber bands that I was going to bring up here, but somewhere along the way, I either mislaid it or lost it. I was going to bring it up here and drape it over this corner of the pulpit, right here, and I was going to just leave it there as a reminder.
Now, before you think I have lost my mind, let me explain what I mean. A rubber band is made for only one purpose. That purpose is to be stretched so it can hold something together. Now, if it is not stretched, it is not fulfilling its purpose at all, is it?
Christians are much like the rubber band. We were put on this earth to be doers of God word. To do that, we must stretch ourselves out of our everlasting comfort zones so that we can be effective. One of the hardest things for us to do, is to get out of our comfort zones, but to be effective for God, we must do it.
I have read the Bible through and through and I have never seen anywhere in it that says God wants us to be all comfortable and cozy. I have never read where God wants us to have it really easy and smooth, have you?
But, I have read in JEREMIAH 29:11, where it says God has a plan for us, and it is a plan to prosper us and not to harm us. Plans that will give us hope and a future. For us to get realize those plans God has for us, it will be necessary that we actually do something for God. Well, what are we supposed to do?
Change. It is all about change. Many Christians find their peace in the fact that their church will not change. They hold dear to the hope that their church will be their place of true unchanging comfort. And then, when they get all snuggled in, the minister changes the order of service, or the hymns they sing or something else about the church, and those Christians want to scream, “Isn’t anything sacred anymore?”
Mark Twain said it best when he said, “The only person who likes change is a wet baby.”
The Bible speaks a lot about change. Abram had it made before God called Him to go forth into the unknown. What did Abram do? He was human, and there is no doubt that he had questions and maybe even a little fear of the unknown, but his faith was strong enough to make him follow God. And, because of that great faith, what did God do for Abram? God made him Abraham, which means “the father of many nations.”
In ACTS 2:38, it talks about what I think is the biggest change of all for a human to make. It says for us to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of our sins. Actually, that one verse says a lot. It says that we must repent. Being repentful is one of the biggest and impacting changes we can ever make.
The very words ‘repent’ means that we effect a change in our lives. It means that we turn away from one direction (the world) and turn towards a new direction (Jesus Christ). If you think about standing in one spot, looking to your left, you can start to see the drastic change that is called for. If you turn from your left and turn towards your right, what are you doing? You are turning your back on the left, aren’t you? You turn away from all that you have known until now. That is a very big change.
I have had people actually come to me and question the necessity of being baptized. They say that if you truly give your heart to Jesus, you don’t really need to be baptized. My answer to that is always the same. If you truly give your heart to Jesus, why would you not want to do that which He commanded you to do? That would lead me to think that if you balk at being baptized, maybe you just think you gave your whole heart to Him. Hmmmm, something to think about, isn’t it?
That verse talks about the forgiveness of your sins. What bigger change is even possible in a human’s life than to have their sins taken away through forgiveness? It is all about change. Or, I should say it is all about our being willing to change - - for God.
It makes me very sad to know that there are some people who just flatly refuse to change for God. They have all the head knowledge of the world, but they have no heart knowledge of God’s all-powerful love. And, that heart knowledge is only available to those who have made a decision to change. To repent. To turn from. To realize that there is no way they can get to Heaven without Jesus as their Savior.
You cannot get that heart knowledge by just thinking about Jesus, or by just acknowledging Jesus. See, there is a big difference in knowing about somebody and knowing them. I know all about Dan Rather, or at least now I do. But I do not know him. I know all about George W. Bush, but I do not know him. Do you see what I mean? You must do more than know about Jesus. You must know Him for His loving grace to do you any good. And before we can really know Him, we must realize what God’s plan for us is.
1. GOD’S PLAN IS FOR US TO CHANGE FOR HIM
In 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17, we see direct evidence that God wants us to change. He tells us that if any of us are in Christ, we are a new creation, that the old has gone and the new has come.
That is not about things in our worldly life changing. It is about our inner hearts changing to come back to Him, through Jesus.
Before we receive Jesus Christ as Savior, what are we like? We are people of the world. We might be really nice people to know, but we are living a life that denies God. We don’t think we are, but that is exactly what we are doing.
Any time we do not live for Christ, we deny God any place in our lives. And then what do we do? Something bad happens to us and we immediately blame God, saying it just isn’t fair. ???
Let me give you an illustration that might help you see what I am talking about. Sometimes word pictures are so important.
You have a neighbor who lives next door to you. You don’t know why, but just the thought of him really rubs you the wrong way. You don’t like him, you don’t talk to him and you certainly wouldn’t ever walk over to his yard and talk to him. In fact, you do everything you can to demonstrate your feelings are for him by ignoring him every chance you get.
Now, let’s say that this man is inviting some people over for a sumptuous dinner. You find out that there is going to be chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, and even one of those foot high pies they sell at that restaurant in Claremore. (See, I still haven’t been able to get that out of my mind. Someday - - someday!)
Anyway, all the things you’d love to eat is going to be served. But, because you have done everything in your power to loathe the man over the years, do you think he is going to invite you to dinner? If the situation was reversed, would you invite him to dinner at your house? Of course not!
Now, let’s say that he has mistreated you over the years, and one day he sees you out raking the leaves in your yard. You see him walk across the grass towards you. As he approaches, you know something is very wrong with him; something is bothering him a lot.
He reaches his hand out to shake your hand, and you see tears in his eyes and he asks you to forgive him for mistreating you all these years. What would you do? Wouldn’t you be apt to take his hand in yours and with tears in your eyes, tell him that everything was okay? See, when he changed, he had a new direction. When he turned away from disdain and turned toward you, he accepted you into his life.
In this case, would you then invite this man to dinner? Sure you would. When we live our lives ignoring Jesus, and doing everything in our power to cast Him out of our lives, it is a sure bet that we are not going to be able to sit at the Table of Grace with God the Father in eternity. But, when we come to Him, tears in our hearts and ask Him to forgive us, He takes our hand in His and welcomes us into His family.
That is what change does for us. We become as new creatures. Another thing that change does for us is that it helps us drop this silly need we all seem to have about being the one in control. Ladies and gentlemen, this may come as a huge shock to you, but we are not the one in control. We never have been in control of anything, and we shall never be in control of anything. We have just thought we were in control. God is the one that is in control – not us!
Non-Christians run around trying to get away from God, and Christians run around trying to find out how to get more of God. All God wants is to have more of us. He is the one at the center, not us.
There is another verse in the Bible that tells us that God expects us to change. It is ROMANS 12:2, and it tells us that we must stop being conformed to this world and be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It says that is the only way we will be able to test and approve what God’s perfect will is. What does this verse tell us about ourselves? A lot. Listen to this very carefully.
Before we receive Jesus Christ, we are all living in this sinful world. The same world that denies the Father and the Son. If you don’t believe that, look at any TV show, read any newspaper, or listen to the many supporters of Dr. Michael Newdow. This world hates God.
Now, you say that we aren’t conformed to this world. Do you remember when you first became a Christian? Do you remember any instances when you had the chance to tell someone else about salvation and didn’t? I think all of us have had that situation at sometime in our lives.
Why would we not tell them? Mostly because it made us uncomfortable for some reason. It could have been that we did not want them to say things to hurt us or to put us down. It could have been that we thought we didn’t have enough knowledge to give them the right information. No matter what the reason, we did it because we were still a part of this world, and we were conforming to those around us, worrying about what affect it had on them and forgetting about what affect we were having on God.
This verse also tells us that walking with Christ is not a one-time decision. It speaks of the renewing of our minds. That is a continual verb. One without end. It means that we must decide every day that our walk will be with Jesus and not with the world. When we make that decision, and mean it, then God will start showing us what His perfect and pleasing will is for us in this life. In short, when we show God that we are serious about Him, He will then start getting serious about us.
Did you know that there are two “best ways” to show God you are serious about Him? One is by reading His word every single day without fail. The other is to go to Him in prayer and just talk to Him – again, every single day without fail.
God calls us to change. He calls us to change our hearts. He calls us to change our direction and focus. He calls us. Can you hear God calling you this morning? Many times, people hear Him calling, but they turn the stereo up really loud so they cannot hear Him. We get focused on what we want and start giving God excuses why we can’t do what He wants.
2. DO YOU OFFER GOD YOUR SERVICE OR YOUR EXCUSES?
Too many times, God calls us and we start telling Him why we cannot do it. Did you know that ever reason you come up with is nothing but an excuse? To fully understand that, we should know what the definition of “excuse” is.
The dictionary defines excuse as: An attempt to be released from an obligation by our own justification.
An attempt to be released from an obligation by our own justification. An obligation is something that we owe to somebody else. We owe God the decision to live for His Son.
Our own justification. In other words, anything we can make up to get out of doing our just duty. That, my friends, is what an excuse is. And, that is what we too often offer God instead of offering Him ourselves.
It doesn’t sound too good when put that way, does it? But, we are all guilty of that to some degree or other. The trick is to realize it, and from the most inner parts of our hearts, change.
A few moments ago, I spoke about how Abram was called to do something for God. That example isn’t just shown in Abram’s decision. Noah was called to build an Ark. Moses was called to lead the Israelites out of bondage. Jonah was called to go talk to Nineveh. You see, every one of these people were called to get out of their comfort zones, change the way they normally operated and become doers for God.
Jonah showed us that when God calls us to do something for Him, and we do everything we can to get out of it, we will sometimes experience very unpleasant consequences because of our decision.
But, what are you offering God today? The first thing God wants you to do is become a Christian. Not just in talk, but in total belief. Are you willing to give 100% of you to Him this morning, or are you still trying to keep that 1% -2% control for yourself? If you do not give Christ all of you, you aren’t giving Him any of you.
Many people say they are wiling to do for God, but that it isn’t fair to ask them to start the ball rolling. I think if we could hear God speak, He would say, “EXCUSE ME?”
See, God got the ball rolling when He made man. He got it rolling again when He freed the Israelites from Egypt. He got it rolling hundreds more times throughout the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The ball is now in your court, and all God wants you to do is to throw it back to Him and not just walk off the field.
In JAMES 1:22, it tells us to not merely listen to the word, and thus deceive ourselves, but to become doers of the word. It says very plainly to ’DO WHAT IT SAYS!’ That should seem pretty clear to all of us.
I urge you this morning to examine you life. Are you exactly where you should be in Christ Jesus? If you aren’t, what are some of the things you need to do to get there? May I suggest that the very first thing you should consider doing is to humble your heart?
Humble your heart so that God can be in complete control. Humble your heart so that you can see that you are but a faint vapor that vanishes almost as fast as it appears. Humble your heart so that your love for God can finally shine through. Of course, to do that you need to be willing to do for God, don’t you?
3. WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO DO FOR GOD?
God calls us at different times in our lives to do different things. But I think that one thing is constant throughout our lives. Every time God calls us into action, there is something in our lives that needs to change first.
Most of the time, that change might only be a slight change in our priorities, but sometimes, that change might be a complete overhaul of your life. That is how Diana and I feel about the changes we are making to come to Catoosa.
You should know that Diana and I really like our comfort zones. We get in that old rut and would rather fight than get out of it. I used to teach a mini-self awareness class in Ohio in the 1970’s. In that class, I gave an illustration of a big trench that circled the earth.
That trench was about 10’ wide and about 20’ deep. All of humanity was in a single file line, one behind the other, and all they did was spend their lives walking this trench; around and around and around. And, to make matters worse, the sides of the trench was slimy mud and there was about a foot of raw liquid sewage in the bottom of the trench.
Everybody complained and griped about the trench as they kept walking through it, but only rarely would somebody actually try to climb out of it to reach the ground above it. And, when somebody did try to climb up that slimy and muddy wall, everybody else would laugh at him and call him names and try their best to make him feel as badly as possible.
Most of the time, these people would soon give up and slide back down to take their place in the line of humans walking like robots along the trench. But, every now and then, somebody would actually make it out to where the green grass was; where the trees grew tall and strong; and where the warm summer’s breeze would gently brush their face as they stood in the brightness of the sun.
Christianity is much like the trench illustration. Most of humanity is busy walking the way of the world. It is a hopeless and vile place. It is filled with the raw sewage of violence, hatred, and greed. Every now and then, somebody gets out of it and follows Christ Jesus.
How do others respond? They laugh at them, put them down and even try to kill them, don’t they? Why? Because the enemy fills their hearts with pure hatred towards God and all things Godly. After awhile, most give up and slide back down to the world’s level and take the place they tried to leave.
But, every once in awhile, someone truly does receive Jesus as Savior, and they are taken out of the slimy pit and put on solid rock: In the sunshine and hope of Heaven’s promises. They accomplish this only through the power of Jesus.
There is the story of a man putting his money into a vending machine to get a cup of coffee. He watched as the coffee was poured down the drain because there was no cup dispensed to catch the coffee.
After the machine shut off, he commented about how the machine not only took his money; not only poured his coffee; but how it drank it too.
Many churchgoers view their service to God in the same way. They want to go to church every Sunday, and they want to go through all the motions, but all they are willing to do is sit in a pew and warm it up.
They are content to put their donation in the offering plate and then expect everything else to be done for them. The problem is that God’s kingdom has no automatic prayers or services. Everything He offers requires an action that begins in your heart.
IN CLOSING
The only way we can become a doer for God is through Jesus as our Savior. Too many times, we see the intellect of receiving Jesus, but that intellect just doesn’t make the journey all the way down to the heart. Has the knowledge that we desperately need Jesus made it to your heart yet? Is Jesus at the door of your heart, knocking, hoping you will open it for Him?
Are you going to pretend you aren’t home and hope that He will just go away, or are you going to open the door and fall into His loving arms and weep with thanksgiving that He loved you enough to pursue you; and to wait until you realized that you need Him?
If you are not where you should be with Jesus this morning, I urge you to get there. I urge you to just stop. Stop and pay attention to Him. If you are being called to open your heart, I am going to ask you to do something about it right now. I am going to ask you to make your decision public. That is what Jesus expects. You cannot decide to receive Jesus as Savior, and then keep Him your own little secret. You have to let others know about it, and there is no better place in this entire world to do that than here, this morning, among others who have already done it before you.
Jesus loves you. He wants you. What is your decision going to be? Decide to follow Jesus.
