This sermon is part of a series called Back to the Future.
The sermon is easily adaptable to be preached individually without any serious flow change.
** Following Christ Means Change Mt 4 **
How many of you rode into church this morning on a horse?
I know there was a day some of you did come to church on a horse or in a horse drawn buggy or wagon…but not one of us did today.
Why not?
How many of you came to church today by way of an automobile?
Almost everyone except for perhaps a few that may have walked.
How many of you have watched television at all this week?
Just about everyone has watched some television in the last week.
News or sports or something.
Let me see the hands of those of you who used one of these?
(hold up rabbitt ears antenna)
How many of you used one of these a remote control in the last week?
What year is this right now 2005?
What year was it… last October 30th ?
The October 30th that happened just before this one…what year was that?
2004.
When October 30th comes around 12 months from now what year will it be
2006?
Time Changes …Am I correct?
Here is the real question….
Do we change with the changes?
Kim your son… William is almost three years old.
What room of your house did the doctor deliver him in?
The kitchen, living room, the garage….
Oh you mean he was born in the hospital …?
But that is not the way it has always been.
Just about everything we do… in our lives… changes some how.
The words we use, the way we decorate our homes, the cars we drive, the clothes we wear. It has all changed over the years..
If we are honest we all …change with the changes.
As things around us change…. we have changed things about us or our lives.
What do we believe then… about the church and change?
How do things in the church should change?
Looking at Mt. Pleasant..
Have things changed in the church much over the years?
Should things change?
I don’t know everything about churches or about pastoring but there are some things I do know and this I am absolutely certain of.
If we do not adjust… with the changes around us….
we will not survive.
Hear me clearly ….
The church should never change its message…
The message is Jesus.
Jesus Loves You
Jesus Died For You
Jesus Rose again for you
Jesus has a plan for your life.
The message MUST NEVER change.
Our methods….. must change…
To continue to do the same old things year after year and expect new results is called insanity.
The question is are we willing to change?
Are we willing to change?
(Yes)
That seems simple enough …Yes Lord we are willing to change.
BUT….Are we willing to pay the price of change?
What if changing means it is not done the way I like doing it?
What if change makes me feel awkward at time.
Change often makes us uncomfortable but we must be willing to change.
… but I think that we will all agree that if God is authoring the change and leading the transition that takes place…. In the end we will be glad for the change.
We know three terms…commonly used for describing what phase of life… we are in.
There is
The Past
The Present
And the what….(The Future)
Right now where are we…?
(please don’t say the past…I know that really feels like where we are stuck sometimes is in the past but we are not in the past…where are we RIGHT NOW.)
We are in the present.
If today is the present what does that make tomorrow?
The Future ….Right?
Are we thinking about tomorrow today?
Should we be ….? YES…. we must.
Why are we interested in the future?
Because.. quickly… the future becomes the present.
How many of you have ever heard of an inventor named Charles Franklin Kettering?
You should know that name you use part of his inventing everyday.
Kettering developed the first electrical ignition system and the self starter for automobile engines.
He made this important statement ….
Kettering said
“My interest is in the FUTURE because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.”
Here was a man who had the future in focus and he understood how important it was to have the future in focus.
Let me ask you this morning….
Do we as Mt. Pleasant Church…
Do we have the future in focus ?
Do we understand just how important it is for us to always be looking into the future?
When we as followers of Christ allow our focus to be on the future…. our lives will be continually dynamic.
When Mt Pleasant Church is following Christ the church will be dynamic.
Does anyone know a good definition for dynamic?
I just happen to have one from Webster’s dictionary.
It says
Dynamic- an underlying cause of change or growth.
With growth comes change.
When Linda and I first got married we had an 85 - 2 door Chevy Camaro.
When we had our first child we traded that in for a Pontiac Skylark.
When our second child came we bought a Grand Am.
Then when number three of the Baggett children was on the way we decided …we need a van.
Growth means change.
But also change makes room for growth.
Let’s not be afraid to let God change us or grow us.
OK.
Repeat after me
I will not be afraid…
To allow God …
to change or bring growth…
to my life …
or His church…
Are you a follower of Christ?
Give me a thumb up if you are.
If you are a follower of Christ…
That means Christ has brought change to your life.
It means that Christ is still bringing change and will continue to bring change to your life.
I. Think with me about a change of FOCUS.
MT chapter 4
Matthew 4
18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.
19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."
20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them,
22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Now how many of you understand that when Jesus said follow me that day that it meant tremendous change for these guys.
When Jesus said “follow me”… to you that meant change for your life….
If it didn’t then you probably have never really followed Jesus.
That’s not an unsolvable problem….It’s not too late….
Jesus is still here and He still says follow me.”
But when He says “follow me” it means change.
It means for us as it did those first followers a change of focus.
What had been the focus of these men’s lives prior to Jesus calling them to follow?
What does it say at the the end of verse 18 they were what? (fishermen)
Verese 19 Jesus said follow me….and I will do what?
(make you fishers of men)
Verse 20 says they did what?
(left there nets and followed)
Now I have a question for you| …
DID JESUS CHANGE THEIR FOCUS?
Yes or NO???
(yes)
Now here is YOUR PERSONAL QUESTION….
Has Jesus changed YOUR FOCUS?
Or put another way….What are you really fishing for?
Have you followed Jesus?
(yes or no?)
Are you fishing for men (yes or no)?
If we were all fishing for men ?
Where are all the fish?
Where are all the people we are reaching?
You know what I think?
I think we haven’t been fishing?
Let’s change our focus and whatever else we have been doing needs to take second place and we need to make FISHING FOR PEOPLE who need JESUS our first priority.
Change of Focus…are you ready for it?
To follow Jesus meant for these guys a change of FOCUS but it also meant within the change that they had to forsake some things.
II. It was a CHANGE that requires FORSAKING.
When the King James Bible translates this event in both Mark and Luke’s Gospel both places use the word
Forsook.
MK 1:18 KJV
18 And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.
LK 5:11 KJV
11 And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.
What would you have to forsake….in order to really fish for people?
Time?
Yes….It takes time to reach out and build relationships.
If you are going to really fish for men….be a fisher of people for Jesus. Then you are going to have to give up some of that time that you are jealous of in your schedule.
It takes our time to reach people but also it takes
Our Energy
Energy? Yes…It will physically take something out of you to reach people…I hope your willing to do it.
It will also take our COMFORT?
Reaching people for Jesus will require that we forsake some of our comfort.
How many of you have an area of personal space?
It is that range of comfort that goes from here to here.
It’s your comfort zone.
This is my space of comfort.
And some people say
“I am uncomfortable with people coming into my personal space and also I am uncomfortable moving out of my personal space…my comfort zone.”
But if you are really going to gain people’s trust you are going to have to let the wall come down and just be you around them and let them be who they are around you.
Let me see your faces this morning ….
Everyone look up at me….
Are you willing to forsake some of your personal time to reach out and invite people and do some fishing for people? (Are you)?
Are you willing to forsake some of your energy?
Are you willing to come home from a long day at work only to go and do something that will allow God to grow us?
Are you willing to forsake your comfortable feeling of socializing with people who are just like you and instead let God stretch you by being around people very different in many ways from you.?
By the way did I mention forsaking material things as well. What did those guys nets represent for them?
They represented what they did for a living. It was how they made their ends meet.
If we are going to grow a church like God wants to grow a church in Medora the giving is going to have to change.
We are going to have to be willing to invest a little more of our livelihood into the life of the church.
Do you want the church to grow?
Do you?
Will you foresake?
Your Time ?
Your Energy?
Your Comfort Zone?
Even Your Finances?
God is not going to grow us …unless we let Him stretch us.
Are you willing to let God stretch us?
The future lies right ahead of us and if there is any hope for Mt. Pleasant.
God will change our focus.
God will lead us to forsake pieces of our lives.
That we might give to others that peace P-E-A-C-E that Jesus gives …. To their lives
Are you ready to change?
When we truly follow Christ….
Not only does our FOCUS change…
Not only are we willing to Forsake some things in the process of change…but here is the really good part.
III. His power will change us.
His power is continually changing us.
We sang a song in Vacation Bible School a few years ago that sang
“the power of your love is changing me
…changing me …changing me…
Oh Lord…Change me by the power of your love.”
When we are ready to let Jesus work His continual change into our lives….. is when we are really experiencing His power and it changes us daily.
Why do you live differently today then you did before you trusted Jesus as your Savior?
What is different specifically about YOU now that Jesus is your Saviour?
What causes you to live differently?
The Holy Spirit is the power inside of you .
RIGHT?
The Holy Spirit has given… you…. power.
Wouldn’t you agree that the Holy Spirit has given you power?
His power is transforming us and renewing us.
Paul said
12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God….
How many of you have a temple.
I am not talking about this (point to temple)
I am talking about this (point to entire body).
Each of us who are a follower of Christ….we are a temple.
What is inside our temple? The Holy Spirit.
Is the Holy Spirit living inside of you?
Are you allowing Him to change you?
If someone says something to us that hurts us…
what might our first initial knee jerk reaction be... ?
Our first thought may be to hurt them back but then if Christ is in control what happens…
The who takes control….The Holy Spirit right?
What initiates …what brings that change…
Isn’t it the Holy Spirit?
The power of the Holy Spirit in us gives us power to do many things we cannot do effectively or at all on our own.
Jesus said to His followers
Acts 1:8
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 NIV
The same power that helps us over come sin…
ALSO…. helps us to reach those who are beaten down by sin. Those who are without the power of God.
The same Holy Spirit that convicts us when we are out of God’s will….. is the same Holy Spirit that guides as we do God’s will …witnessing….reaching out…being fishers of men…being people who love people and are reaching people.
How many of you love God?
How many of you love people?
How many of you love all the people God loves?
The story is told of the great preacher D.L. Moody who went to an art gallery in Chicago there he saw a painting .called “The Rock of Ages.”
The painting showed a person with both hands clinging to a cross firmly embedded in a rock,.
While the stormy sea smashed against the rock the person clung tightly with both hands to that cross.
Years later D.L. Moody discovered another picture very similar to the first. This one also showed a person in a storm clinging tightly to the cross….but with the other hand the person was reaching out to someone who was just about to drown.
Which picture best depicts you and I?
I would not doubt that most people in the church at Mt. Pleasant love God.
But we have been holding on to the cross with two hands.
It is high time for change..
It is time that we reach out to those around us in the storm about to drown.
We need to change from being a people simply clinging both hands to the solid rock ….
to being the people who have one hand firmly on the solid rock and the other hand stretched out to those in the storm of life around us.
This is the change….. we most need to make.
This is the change…. that won’t be easy.
Yet this is the change I am convinced Jesus wants to bring to our lives.
This morning if you are ready to hold firmly to the cross with one hand and with the other one reach out to people like never before then would you come this morning and make that commitment to Christ by coming to the altar and meeting God?
Come and say yes Lord
I have received the right focus.
Yes Lord I will forsake what ever it takes
Lord I am counting on not my power but your power to make me a part of a loving growing changing church.
