Intro: we live in a society that has all types of methods to help change people that are heading down the wrong paths of life. There is counseling, psychology, psychiatry, rehabilitation, and corrections. Some are sent to very disciplined areas such as boot camp training. Sometimes these methods succeed, many times they fail, but there is a counselor with a 100% cure rate. Everyone he touches is healed, everyone he delivers is totally set free. David knew this very well and wrote a song to tell of God’s Wonderful power of change.
God’s Wonderful Power of Change
Psalms 40:1-3a
Today we can rejoice in the power of God to change us. If we were honest
We would have to say that change is one of the hardest things to do. Many people can testify that the more they tried to change, the more they stayed the same. In many areas of our life, God is the only hope of true change, permanent change. I believe that today, God wants to continue his work in our lives by the Holy Spirit, and show His wonderful power of change.
I. He Brings Us Up—the first thing that God does is to bring us up. This is a powerful change. No matter how low you are, no matter how worthless you feel, God has the wonderful ability to bring us up.
a. God is the lifter of my head. He causes me to look up. No matter how down someone feels, no matter how discouraged someone is, God will bring them up.
b. God always brings us to new levels. Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before, everyday with Jesus, I love Him more and more.
c. God always gives us higher goals. Colossians 3:1-if ye then be risen with Him, set your affections on things above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Ill) Bob-alcoholic, saved in our church. He was always flat broke,
Unable to make ends meet, but God gave him a goal to start a
Business and dedicate to Jesus. Without any money, he bid on a
Government dry wall project on an army base. They forwarded
Him an advance to pay his employees. He made 500,000 dollars
On a 15 month project and paid 36,000 dollars on pews for our
Church, and 14,000 on commercial kitchen appliances.
II. He Brings Us Out—the two examples of what He brings us out of
Are a pit and mirey clay. In life people get stuck. They get into things they can’t get out of. That is why God’s wonderful power of change is so important. He gets us unstuck.
a. He gets people moving again. Toward goals, and dreams in their lives. The enemy is a robber. He steals people’s hopes and visions for their life. God comes in with the power of change.
b. God revealed this with the great deliverance of the people of God out of Egypt. God found a hopeless nation, that were stuck in bondage, and freed them to become the people of God.
c. If you feel that your life is in a rut. If you feel trapped by anything that you can’t seem to get out of. God is the God of wonderful change. He will release you, whom the Son sets free is free indeed.
Ill) a young man came to our service a few years back who was bound in so many ways. Stuck in neutral, no hopes, goals or dreams. I felt impressed at the end of service to pray for him, and said these words, God has some special things planned for you. A few months ago a man came to our service to meet me and tell me something special. He said, that the young man I had spoken a word over was his best friend. He was so touched by the power of God, that he moved back to his home in Louisiana, got involved in ministry at a local church and is now in his first year of Bible college studying for youth ministry.
III. Set Your Feet—set my feet on the rock, establishes my goings.
Many people feel they are living lives chasing the wind. They are up and down, in and out---we live in a very unstable world.
a. God anchors us to a rock—one of the greatest things that God does in our lives is anchor us to Him. We are no longer tossed and turned, we are no longer driven by the winds. When waves hit our house, our house stands because it has a rock foundation.
b. We feel secure in Him, we have stability. God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind.
Ill) young lady who was flying to be on the Oprah show from Springfield Missouri, to talk about living life in fear. A local television group was interviewing her as she left. At the end of the interview, I walked up to her and her husband and said, you can be secure, you can be safe, in Christ alone. I said, I am flying out of this airport today, and I will arrive back in Montgomery, or I will arrive in heaven, either way I am sheltered in the arms of God.
Her husband got saved on the spot. They got involved in a local church, and they sent me a letter telling how they were working in a local youth group and felt a call to youth ministry.
IV. To Give A Song—he puts a new song in my mouth—the last thing that God does is that he changes our heart, and gives us a song.
a. he gives us a song in the good times, a song in the hard times. The Joy of the Lord becomes our strength.
b. It’s a new song—it’s a song that the angels cannot sing, it’s a song that the world cannot sing, it is a joyous song, it is the song of the saints.
Years ago Charles H. Gabriel wrote it like this: what a wonderful
Change in my life has been wrought, since Jesus came into my
Heart, I have light in my soul for which long I had sought since
Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart, since
Jesus came into my heart, floods of joy o’er my soul like the sea
Billows roll, since Jesus came into my heart.
Ill)
I have never heard that song sung any better than 5 years ago this
October. After my wife had been in surgery for 71/2 hours having a
Baseball size tumor removed from the stem of her brain, the
Doctor told our family that it was wait and see, he had done all he
Could do for her. As Lauri was being rolled from recovery to NICU,
Under heavy sedation, she started singing, tis so sweet to trust in
Jesus, just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise,
Just to know, thus saith the Lord, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him,
How I’ve proved him o’er and o’er, Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, o
For grace to trust him more. 3 weeks after her surgery she was
Back in church, on her 4th Sunday she was back leading praise and
Worship. She walks 4 miles a day, leads our music ministry, and
Never hasn’t missed a beat in 5 years.
Close: God has a wonderful power of Change, to bring us up,
To bring us out, to set our feet, and to give a song. Over the last 18
Years of ministry, we have seen so many experience change in
their lives, it isn’t our ability to change anyone, but His ability to
Change that has made the difference. Today, we pray God will
Change you,
Just like He changed Bill—a young military man in our church who
Had been so hurt by a bad relationship in his life, he was living
Life as a hermit, collecting guns, a staying in the woods. He was
Preparing for Armaggeddon. He visited our church, and the God of
Wonderful change seized him. He was saved, filled with the Spirt,
And became Mr. Everything at Bethel. Choir member, Soloist,
Board member, Youth Assistant, Children’s Church Assistant, and
Single’s ministry coordinator, just to name a few. We all loved Bill
So much we became to pray God would give him a wonderful mate.
God answered, A minister’s daughter from the hills of Tennessee
Named Lydia. We lost Bill, but the good news is, he is ministering
At the University of Tennessee to the college basketball team. Has
A church and internet ministry with his wife. Now he’s not looking
For Armaggeddon, he’s looking for Jesus, because we serve the
God of wonderful change.
