The Great Change

The Great Change

Philippians 2:5-11

Watch on YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/mCAHAhjpwF8?si=LoLUybC_hGUYTtYk

Today, I’d like to share with you, my vision. A vision for myself, and hopefully for the church, but the church cannot really have a vision without that vision being a part of those who call the church their home.

Further, I cannot ask of others, what I am not allowing to happen in my own life.

When thinking about what the title of this message would be, the first thing that came to mind is the word “Great,” and I thought about some various aspects of what we would consider to be great. What came to mind was a movie and a couple of sports figures.

The movie was “The Great Escape.” It was a 1963 war movie starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn just to name a few. They were all POW’s in Germany during WWII when they planned the greatest escape of that time.

I also started thinking about those we consider the best at their sport in football names like Norm Van Brocklin from its early days or today, Tom Brady, Michael Jordan in basketball, Pelé (from my generation), or today Lionel Messi in soccer, and then as far as baseball is concerned, it’s always been the Babe, that is, Babe Ruth. But another has been Jackie Robinson. Today these and others are referred to as “The GOAT,” that is, “The Greatest Of All Time.”

But there is another great that can happen in everyone’s life, a great that can happen in all of our lives, which is why I am entitling this message and vision as “The Great Change,” or “The Great Exchange.” It’s what the Bible calls, “Transformation,” that is, a change that happens within the heart, soul, mind, and spirit of an individual when they enter by faith into a relationship with Jesus Christ, and then into the presence of God.

It’s the great change that happens when the greatest change maker of all times, Jesus Christ, gets ahold of our hearts.

Looking at Jesus’s life and message, Jesus gave a lot of not so popular messages. As I see it, Jesus wasn’t about winning friends and influencing people, as Dale Carnegie would like to say. You see, Jesus never watered down or sugar-coated the message, or what it meant to be a disciple, just to have larger crowds and greater attendance.

Instead, Jesus said to those wishing to follow, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head…Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God…No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:57-62 NKJV)

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is more than merely reciting a creed, stating a belief, or belonging to a church. Jesus made sure that those who follow Him understood the costs.

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23 NKJV)

Jesus wanted to make sure that those who would be His followers would be willing to be living sacrifices for the furtherance of the kingdom of God.

I think it’s safe to say, therefore, that Jesus wasn’t trying to garner popular support; rather He was after men and women who would be found trustworthy in times of crisis, and who would be unwavering in their devotion to God.

The Apostle Paul said it like this to the church in Rome.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2 NKJV)

And so, when I got to what Paul said about himself, and how he put himself out there as an example, I thought, would I ever have the guts to say something like this, and by my actions live it out?

Paul said, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1 NKJV)

This truly is the hardest thing that we as Christians can say. But as believers we are to be followers of Jesus Christ, not posers trying to look and sound like Him. Being a believer in Jesus Christ is about letting Jesus live in us and through us. That is when others see Jesus in our actions and speech.

Now, this has been ruminating within me recently when the Lord brought me once again to what Paul said about Jesus to the Philippian church and how it should dictate our actions and response to the world around us.