And Be Ye Healed /Change

I preached this message in Council a couple of weeks ago; I thought this morning this is a good subject for us as we think about our testimony service here tonight and as we examine ourselves and look towards communion later this week.

Isaiah 6:9–10 “And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; And see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, And make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.”

This sermon is not predominantly about healing, but don’t lose this link here to healing. We are broken, we are unwell, without Christ’s work in our lives, BUT healing is possible.

But for that healing to happen there has to be change in hearts.

We are good at changing oil, changing jobs, changing diapers, changing political parties. We’d love to change other people. But we often hate changing or being changed ourselves. Which is too bad, because God wants to change us.

Now “change” in church circles can bring up two things — one of them is should our church change in how we do church or in an application of some sort, and people can get stuck in an push and pull between the folks who think any change is a slippery slope and folks who think that all change is good and valuable. This is about change in hearts.

Take Heed Lest We Fall:

There is a warning in 1 Corinthians 10:

1 Corinthians 10:1 “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;”

King James Version Chapter 10

10 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. 5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 9 Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. 10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. 11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

This passage is about people who were children of God — but were examples for us, and their lives, their experience here are for our admonition. And the warning for the Corinthians, and for us, is that we accept Christ and begin to walk with him, but we do not let him control, or change, certain parts of our lives. And then those unchanged areas control us, and overthrow us.

Jesus came to save us and to heal us but to do that he wants to change us.

We need change:

Jesus told Nicodemus be born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

This change involves a transforming of our Mind described in Romans:

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

Why Do I know we need change?

I wish that God’s work of grace in the lives of all Christians would turn us in one instant into people who never are tempted to sin again.

But it takes time and a process and multiple events in our lives - God works through these.

And so I look around and I see evidences that our hearts need to be changed more:

Yes, I do see changed lives and Christians who are working together and getting victory.

But I also see other things when I look across churches and I see an anger problem there, I see selfishness there, I see pride over there, I see people who are putting their focus on the wrong thing.

And so I conclude from that - I see a need a greater change in our lives.

Mark Twain said “Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.” (Puddnhead Wilson). If I’m honest - I need to be changed too.

WHAT KEEPS US FROM CHANGING?

Let’s look at some things that keep us from the change that God wants to work in us:

1. We don’t see ourselves clearly.

About 100 years ago Edwin Hubble was studying a mysterious cloud in the sky, a nebula called Andromeda using a 100 inch telescope. He was looking for Cephid variable stars.

Cephid variables are stars whose brightness pulses very regularly, and the rate of those pulses is directly linked to how bright they are. So if you measure a Cephid variable’s pulse rate, you can determine its brightness. You can then use its brightness to determine how far away it is.

So he used a Cephid variable to calculate something that astronomers had suspected for some time - that Andromeda was a different galaxy, far, far away.

As we studied Andromeda we learned that it is a beautiful spiral galaxy.

We will never be able to take a picture of our own galaxy. But seeing other galaxies is informative - it tells us what our galaxy looks like. Doesn’t matter what our emotions or pride want us to believe about our galaxy. It probably looks like Andromeda.

The same is true as we look at other Christians and see their flaws and failures and areas where they need to change. It doesn’t matter what our emotions or pride say — we are like them and need to change too.

It’s humbling sometimes to see ourselves clearly:

Where I work, everyone gets an annual evaluation. Opening up an evaluation and seeing discussion about ourselves from a long list of people - you have to take a deep breath. I like to run my eyes over the ones that say Norman’s a great guy, he’s sound technically, and he works well with others, and he’s thoughtful about people and he has good ideas. Those confirm who I believe I am and it is comforting. But then there are the comments that say Norman doesn’t listen to people like he should or he doesn’t respond to emails as quickly as I wish he did. Those comments are uncomfortable — because I’m going to need to respond to this with some kind of change.

2. We subconciously decide that we can’t change.

Change is difficult:

Most of us as people follow a path where we learn things about life, we develop habits, and we develop character qualities when we are young. These start early and they continue to develop — but often lot of our characteristics and habits and tools for relating to people - kind of firm up. Often the person you see at 30 is a lot like he’ll be at 50.

Sometimes in the workplace people who are 60 years old - its assumed that they won’t accept or adapt to change very readily, and that younger people will be more open to accepting change and adapting to it.

Can you teach an old dog a new trick?

Dogs and people are a lot alike.

I briefly researched guidance on training old dogs vs young dogs:

Training Young Dogs (Puppies) - Let’s Think About Declan

The Focus Should Be: Socialization, establishing positive habits, and housebreaking.

Attention Span: Short (5–10 seconds), requiring quick, consistent, and frequent sessions.

Energy Level: High; needs lots of exercise to manage energy and prevent destructive behavior.

Advantage: Less "baggage" (no prior bad habits to undo).

Training Old Dogs (Adults/Seniors) - John Schlabach

Focus Should Be: Breaking habits (such as pulling, barking), and giving mental stimulation.

Attention Span: This is Longer, allowing for longer, more focused sessions.

Energy Level: Generally lower, but this also offers a calmer training environment.

Advantage: Usually already housebroken and understand basic boundaries, requiring less constant supervision.

Overall Methodology: Use positive reinforcement (treats, praise) for both, but focus on building trust with older rescues who may have unknown histories.

Myth: "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" is false; older dogs have better cognitive skills to solve problems.

So don’t give up just because you’re an old dog — you can still learn and you can still change.

3. We Can’t Hear or See What God Wants to Tell Us

Many things can lead to a hardened hearts.

But a hard heart is just that — things bounce off of it and it isn’t going to change — God can’t work with it.

Isaiah 6:9–10

Matthew 13:13–15 “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”

At our last prayer meeting I was sitting in a circle with Vernon, Dennis, and Tony, and we were talking about someone who is facing blindness - and for some reason we got to talking about being deaf or blind. Which would you rather be? Wouldn’t it be awful to be both deaf AND blind? Think of how helpless that would feel.

I take eyedrops now to ward off glaucoma - one of my eyes has always had an odd looking optic nerve; I wear ear plugs when I run a chain saw. I want to see, I want to hear.

What am I doing spiritually to protect my eyesight, and my hearing.

4. I’m upset about the problems of others

This is a spiritual maturity issue: I’m focused on the problems of others - I’m fascinated by them, I study them, I review them. I could talk for hours about the things they should change in their lives. I’m far less interested in what I should change. Here is just a fact of life: Things i obsess over become larger to me; things i am disinterested in become smaller. And so I reach this point where that speck in my brother’s eye seems so big, and the branch or the log that is my eye - doesn’t seem very important.

Minister’s week:

Came away very challenged by some of John Coblentz’s sessions this week where he again and again emphasized the fact that hearts need to change if there will be real change in our lives. When we work on relationships — there are tools that can help there, there is wisdom that can help us, but we need to have Jesus work on our hearts, we need those hearts aligned with Him, if we are going to accomplish meaningful work in fixing relationships. John gave us a list of things that we are warned not to do: Reviling, slander, calling each other derogatory names, distortion of facts, threats, quarrelling. These are all things that are used to win arguments, not people. But when we have these things - these are not a speech problem, this is a heart problem.

God uses other people, even people that are difficult to relate to, to effect change in our lives. Difficult relationships can make us look at ourselves more clearly.

5. I’m unwilling to change my friends and environment

This week we heard about a man — it was the father in law of one of our speakers. This father in law had developed a drug problem, and in battling it, he moved far away. He needed to be away from the environment, the friends, the influences that pulled him down. As far as I know he had found freedom.

Our friend group is impactful — yes as Christians we should reach out to those that need Jesus, that’s true. But we should also remember the “take heed lest we fall” warning — our close friends affect our thinking and affect what we believe is wise and what we believe is OK.

Does God want me to change?

Sure he does.

In my life, I’ll call it growth. Other people looking at me may say it looks like he finally fixed something.

But I know God wants me to change.

God wants me to be a transformed Christian — a transformed Christian is going to respond differently than an unsaved person.

What should I be more like?

I should change to be more like Jesus. My responses should be more like Jesus. My motives and my heart should be more like Jesus.

How Long Should This Take?

Well, it would be great if it happened overnight.

For a lot of us - the change happens more slowly. I think I’m more Christlike than I was 10 years ago - but I see a long ways to go.

Should I be embarrassed that I need to change?

Nope. I need to stay kneeling at the cross and asking God to work in my life and change me.

When someone comes to me and says brother you need to change - I can say Amen. That’s the safest place to be.

It’s freeing to be in a place where we recognize that change needs to occur.

If Christians never change, what does that say about us?

We have been called into his marvelous light. That light isn’t to illuminate how perfect we are but it should illuminate how we need to change. The Spirit is leading us.

We have been called to be transformed?

If we never change, then God hasn’t gotten hold of us yet. We’re stuck in that wilderness and we are in an unhappy place?

God’s Changes in Our Lives Leads to Healing:

To pick back up the thread we started with - changes in our lives lead to healing.

2 Chronicles 7:14

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Isn’t it interesting how often when we are thinking wrong, we put ourselves in God’s seat.

Here’s an example. If I’m honest, sometimes I have thought this way: If those people over there will humble themselves to me, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I’ll hear them from my lofty place, and I’ll forgive their sin and I might even see if I can do something nice for them.

Note the progression that God is calling for here:

Humility

Seeking God’s’ face.

Change and repentance

Forgiveness

Healing

James 5:15–16 “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

Conclusion: I know God wants us to be congregation that experiences revival, that experiences spiritual growth. We have needs and we will continue to have needs. Change in our lives begins when we are open to God’s working our hearts. Let’s humble ourselves before Lord and ask him to change us.