(no caption really needed to know what he's thinking)

How People Change--Part 3

There are two basic schools of thought about change. One focuses on the emotions and one on the will. The religious world focuses on the will most of the time. If you are down on yourself they say, “Buck up, be strong, grit your teeth and bear it, hang on you can get through it, tough it out, it will be ok.” They place all of the emphasis on the will, your ability change things. Your determination to not settle. And we even say these things, “I am not going to do this anymore. I am not going to keep sinning like this.” You see understanding that something is wrong and applying your determination will not bring lasting change. It does not work. Why? The second school of thought, which is often found in the secular world focuses on the emotions. They tell you that you are practicing self-defeating thinking. You need to change the way you think, you need to do something nice for yourself. They try to get you to feel better about yourself by focusing on your emotions. They try to bring real change by changing your thinking and for those of you who have suffered emotional stress, this may change you for a while, but you will relapse back into it again. Because real change has not occurred. Now, that’s a lot of stuff to think about. I have been thinking about this for several months and it is still a lot for me to grapple with. Don’t miss this right here. If you are totally confused about everything I have said this morning, make sure you get this. Read 2 Corinthians 3:15-18 again. Listen to this. This is the key to real, lasting change. “Beholding the glory of God brings real change.” Listen to me, do not miss this. Josh Martin was converted to Christ when he beheld the glory of God. Seeing that changes you. Here is what I mean. I had heard the gospel many times as a child and it did not change my heart. Why? I didn’t get it. I believed Jesus was God’s son. Of course I believed he died on the cross for sin. I believed he rose from the dead even. But it didn’t change me. Why? Because I knew the facts, but I was yet to behold his Glory. The eyes of my heart were veiled. But when I actually turned to the Lord in faith and repentance, not just knowledge, I could behold the glorious truth of who he is and what he had done and I was transformed. God removed the veil and I could see him in all of his glory and it changed me. When you see him as glorious it will change you. You will experience true repentance because you will turn from your sin in sorrow and to Christ in faith. You don’t want that anymore, you want Him. This is not just true of conversion, but it is true of all of life and it is true of all change. All real change occurs this same way. Let’s break down these verses for a second and see the truth of what is being said here. v.15 Moses was not glorious. The glory on Moses’ face will fade but the glory in the face of Christ will not. V16 You must turn to the Lord, not your determination, not your emotional fix but to the Lord V17,18 When the veil is removed we can see him and it will change us. And it doesn’t end with conversion. But from one degree of glory to another. In all of life. This is how we are sanctified in heart and body. Look at other places where Paul does this. 2 Corinthians 8:1-9 When Paul wants the Corinthians to be generous he doesn’t just scold them. He takes them to the Gospel. He explains how Christ tasted poverty so that we could be rich. When you see that, you will want to give. And you will do it without any pressure. It will indeed be of your own free will. Ephesians 5:22-27 Wives, Because Christ is your savior and you have submitted to him, and he holds your life and you following Him, submitting to your husband shouldn’t be an issue. Husbands, because you know the spousal love of Jesus Christ, when he could have left and probably should have left you, he stayed and gave you everything. Loving your wife this way shouldn’t be an issue. It always go back to the Gospel. The Gospel is what will change us. Seeing that glory will change us. I want to end today the way Paul ended this thought in 2 Corinthians 3:18“For this comes from the Lord who is Spirit.” I want us to acknowledge the glorious truth that this change only occurs because of the working of God. Let’s be sure that he gets the credit for this. Let’s be sure that he gets the glory so that others may see who we credit this work to and then they, with unveiled face, may behold this same glory and be changed. If there are any questions, feel free to ask. I can say, "I don't know" as well as anybody. But who knows, I may have an answer.

How People Change--Part 2

Now that we have established that even those whose hearts are hardened toward God are hardened by something, what motivates us to change? Let’s look at some motivators that do not bring lasting change. Real change happens on the inside and is evident on the outside. Outward change is often a sign of inward change but not proof of inward change. I can have a change of actions without having a change of heart. We often ask what would Jesus do? This helps us conform our actions but you would be surprised what you could do with a hard heart. This was the main problem with the Pharisees and much of the problem with the religious world today. We honor Christ with our lips, but our heart is far from him. We have cleaned the outside of the cup without having touched the inside of the cup. Why do we do that? Why did the Pharisees do that? Why do we so often conform our actions without conforming our heart? Motivators Guilt is a motivator. And guilt will change the way you act but it will not change your heart. Because the change that you make in your actions almost never removes feelings of guilt. If they are removed, they come back and you find yourself in this vicious cycle of never being freed from that guilt. It changes your actions but it does not change you. Whole change must occur or it is not real change, it is a cheap imposter. Fear is a motivator. This is probably the greatest motivator for change that never brings real change. It too will change your actions but it will not change your heart. I do not teach the youth to not have pre-marital sex by scaring them into thinking about the consequences of an STD. This tactic may change their actions but it does not change their heart and the heart must be right or the actions don’t mean a thing. Jesus told the Pharisees I want you to follow the law but follow it with both heart and actions. This fear motivation will not lead you to real change. This is true of my own conversion. I didn’t come to Christ because I was scared of Hell. I was just as scared of Heaven. Hell hurt and Heaven was boring and I didn’t want to go to either. Heaven is not the goal of the Christian life, Christ is the goal of the Christian life. Being with love ones in heaven is not the goal, being with Christ in heaven is the goal. You cannot scare me into a relationship with Christ anymore than you can please me into a relationship with Christ. This talk of heaven leads me to the next motivator I want to talk about. Pleasure is a motivator. This is true for everyone in here. We are motivated by pleasure. We change our jobs so that we can make more money to have more pleasure. We change the way we relate to each other so that we can find pleasure in each other’s company. If you can go on a cruise to the Bahamas for the same price as a weekend at the lake, you will change your plans from the lake to the cruise because it brings you more pleasure. Do you see this? Do you see how pleasure motivates you? Pleasure changes the way you do almost everything but it can never satisfy the need for more pleasure which means it does not bring real lasting change. You will need to change something tomorrow to feel more pleasure so it is never a real change but many endless changes. These are just three of many motivators that will not bring real, lasting, Godly change. There are too many of these to list to put into one sermon but these are the most common I believe. I will post what I believe the Bible teaches about change on Monday.

How People Change--Part 1

There will be seveal posts on here in the next week that I am taking from a sermon I preached a few weeks ago about change. With New Year's right around the corner, people will soon be talking about their New Year's resolutions. Sadly, most of our resolutions fall through the floor. But I think it is helpful to get a biblical perspective on change. From conversion to true sanctification, not just moral conformity. Here goes. Read 2 Corinthians 3:15-18 We all have things in our life or about us that we would like to change. And we would do anything in the world change them. Some things we want to change are things that we should want to change because they are bad or unbecoming of us. In particular these things are mostly sin that we struggle with. We want to change some things because we just don’t like them. They are not bringing any harm to us or anyone else but we want to change them because we simply don’t like them. I have things like that. One thing in particular is my voice. I hate to hear myself recorded. When the JMB produces a new CD, I never listen to it after it’s finished. The last time I purposefully listen to it is in the studio for the final mix. Once it’s done, I’m done. I don’t want to hear it because I don’t like to hear my voice. But I continue to sing despite my voice, because I want people to hear the truth in the lyrics. I don’t have to sing as well as Mac Powell of Third Day, I just want to write music like King David. It is not my first priority to sound like Steven Curtis Chapman, but to write music that is as solid as his. I would change my voice if I could but it’s really not that important and it doesn’t keep me from doing what I feel the Lord has called me to do. Some of you have the same issue here. Some things you want to change don’t really matter that much. But some things do. And that is what I want us to look at today. How do people change? But not just for a little while, how do we change for good? It is really silly that people think that Christians are the only ones trying to convert people. The following is an article from the New York Times written by Mark Lilla. He starts off the article talking about how he had a "conversion experience" as a child but now totally denounces all claims to be a Christian. He goes to a Billy Graham Crusade in queens to write about it for the paper and talks with a young man who had gone forward and surrendered his life to Christ. Here is what he had to say: “I found it hard to conceal my bafflement, since Billy had not said much at all. You must be born again - that was it. I felt a professorial lecture welling up in my throat about the history and psychology of religion. I wanted to expose him to the pastiche of the biblical text, the syncretic nature of Christian doctrine, the church's ambiguous role as incubator and stifler of human knowledge, the theological idiosyncrasy of American evangelicalism. I wanted to warn him against the anti-intellectualism of American religion today and the political abuses to which it is subject. I wanted to cast doubt on the step he was about to take, to help him see there are other ways to live, other ways to seek knowledge, love, perhaps even self-transformation. I wanted to convince him that his dignity depended on maintaining a free, skeptical attitude toward doctrine. I wanted. . .to save him. I thought I was out of that business, but maybe not. It took years to acquire the education I missed as a young man, an education not only in books but in a certain comportment toward myself and the world around me. Doubt, like faith, has to be learned. It is a skill. But the curious thing about skepticism is that its adherents, ancient and modern, have so often been proselytizers. In reading them, I've often wanted to ask, "Why do you care?" Their skepticism offers no good answer to that question. And I don't have one for myself.” (emphasis mine) You will be converted by something. The writer says that we should stay skeptical of all doctrine.....all doctrine but his doctrine! All beliefs but his beliefs! Everyone has a set of beliefs and everyone has been converted by something. Even the most post-modern of the post-modernists have a set of beliefs that they, deep down, believe you should conform to. How silly it is to think that Christians are the only ones concerned with converting people. So, the question is not "will you be converted?" The question is, "What set of beliefs will have it's way with you?" I will continue with more of the sermon on Friday.