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Change Your Life Through One Simple Skill
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- We need to understand that our world is a fast changing world.
- Change is not necessary bad - if fact change is normal
- Change is really a sign of life.
> The medical definition of death is a body that does not change...
>
+ We Change
> During my sermon your body is going to change - about ½ million cells in your body are going to die and be replaced with a half a million new cells during my message.
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> Our skin replaces itself every month... X
- 70-80% of the dust in your house is dead skin that has flaked off.
>Your stomach lining has a complete change every 5 days X
> Your liver changes every 6 weeks; X
> Your skeleton every 3 months.... X
> Your whole body every 5 years for men & 7 for women X
- Change is natural
- To not change is to die....
+ Our World Has Changed
> The digital watch you have on your wrist contains more computing power than existed in the entire world in 1961.
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>Your late model car has more computation power to get down the street
> Than all the computers combined in the Apollo 11 space craft that carried Neal Armstrong to the moon.
+ It has been estimated that more information has been generated in the last 30 years than in the previous 5,000 years.
+ Change Your Life Through One Simple Skill
> The most basic of all human needs are food clothing and shelter
> The next most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood.
> The best way to understand is to listen
> If we listen we will change our lives
+ How Is It Simple
> Writing takes 12 years to learn Used 9%
> Reading takes 6-8 yr. To learn Used 16%
> Speaking takes 1-2 years to learn Used 30%
> Listening takes 0-few Hr. To learn Used 45%
>
+ Research On Listening
> We spend about 40% of our waking hours
listening, yet most of the time we’re only listening at 25% efficiency, and that creates many of our problems.
> James 1:19, NIV - "My dear brothers, take
note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry …."
+ Examples of Poor Listening
> Noah - preached 120 years - only 8 saved
> Lot - Cities of Sodom & Gomorrah 4 saved
> Pharaoh - 10 plages - He lost his son
> Have you listened to Christ call?
> Christ is coming again as a thief
> 2 Pet. 3:10 KJV But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up
> Video (Thief in the night)
+ Why Poor Listening Skills?
Four things that will hinder my hearing:
> 1. Ignorance
> I Don’t Know
- Jailer heard Paul & Silas
Acts 16:30–32 ..... Sirs, what must I do to be saved?31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord......
> 2. Disobedience -
> I Don’t Care
- Heard and somewhat religious but never responded to Christ
- John the Baptist Mt. 3:7
Matthew 3:7-8 (KJV) 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
> 3. Unbelief
> I Don’t Believe
- I am good enough OK
- I am not so bad of a sinner
Rom 3:23 KJV For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
John 5:24 KJV "He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life."
> 4. Procrastination
> I Don’t Have Time
> I Don’t Have Time -------- Sammy’s Big Catch - Sammy was a young boy who lived in the Deep South. His summer days were filled when times of walking through the woods, playing with friends, and fishing in the pond down the road. Fishing was by far his favorite thing to do. Just about every day during his summer vacation, he would dig up some worms and head off, pole in hand, for a day of fishing.
This steamy hot day was like most others during Sammy’s summer break. Waking early, he could hear the pond calling him to come fish. Sammy quietly walked out the front door, grabbed his pitchfork and worm pail and walked into the woods to search for bait. He turned over old stumps and dug under leaves hoping to find worms. Under one old stump he hit the jackpot. The ground was writhing. In 2 minutes he had all the bait he needed, and in 15 minutes he was at the pond.
Reaching into his bait bucket, Sammy pulled out a big worm. He double hooked it and tossed in into the water. He noticed a stinging in his hand, but filled with the excitement of the moment, he paid no attention to it. Within 30 seconds, Sammy had a strike and pulled in a nice catfish. Wow, he thought, a fish in the first minute.
He put the catch on his stringer, hurried to rebait his hook and tried his luck again. Once again he felt a stinging sensation in his hand as he threw his hook into the pond. He didn’t have time to worry about it. Within just a few seconds, he had another huge fish. He fumbled the next time he baited his hook--his hand felt numb and stiff. But Sammy was too excited about catching another fish to give it much thought.
At the end of only an hour, Sammy had caught 8 large fish. This was definitely his best fishing day ever. He was so proud of his accomplishment that, even though there was plenty of day left to fish, he threw the heavy stringer of fish over his shoulder and dashed down the road toward home to show off his catch to his parents.
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> The local sheriff happened to drive up alongside Sammy and started to congratulate him on his catch of fish. With a smile and a victory whoop, Sammy held up the stringer. The sheriff gasped, parked his car and ran over to Sammy. His eyes hadn’t deceived him--Sammy’s arms really were red and swollen to about twice their normal size. "Exactly where have you been and what bait did you use to catch all those fish?" the sheriff asked Sammy.
"I found some special bait under an old stump," Sammy boasted. "Thee worms really wiggle good," handing up the bucket for inspection. After a close look at the worms, the sheriff went into fast-forward. Putting the bucket in the car, he swooped up Sammy made a U-turn on the dirt road and sped off to the hospital, but Sammy was already dead.
What the sheriff had discovered was that Sammy had been fishing with baby rattlesnakes. Sammy’s deadly bait brought him a good morning of fishing but cost him his life. Had Sammy stopped fishing after that first sting, he could have been saved. But Sammy was having to much fun and didn’t bother himself with the small voice of pain in his hand. Then, as the hand grew numb, even that voice was silenced.
Playing around and not dealing with sin is like using baby rattlesnakes for bait. It may seem harmless but it’s putting its venom in you and it will affect you because:
> Sin will take you further than you want to go!
> Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay!
> Sin will cost you more that you want to pay!
> Is 55:6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon
him while he is near
+ Listening the One Skill That Will
Change Your Life
> Three Hearing Aids:
> 1. Listen With Your Head
- Do You Understand?
> 2. Listen with your Heart
- We have a head desire but not a heart desire
- More often we listen with our feelings
- We most often know what to do but don’t
- HS whisper says come — Do It
> 3. Listen with your Feet
- Come to Christ
- Get into the Word - Read Memorize Study
Mediate
+Listening To Christ Results In
> Sins Forgiven
> Joy Unspeakable
> Purpose Discovered
> Fantastic Tomorrow
