2021.02.07 Dealing with Life Change
Notes
Transcript
Dealing with Life Change
Dealing with Life Change
What do they need to know? Character determines how we deal with change…and everything else.
Why do they need to know it? Living = change
What do they need to do? Don’t let change pull you off the mark
Why do they need to do it? If we’re changing, it should be to become more like Him.
How can I help them remember?
Me
There are two things this life guarantees - death and taxes!
Well … there’s also change. As technology has expanded, our rate of change has become more and more rapid. With the pandemic, our rate of change has gotten so fast it’s a blur at times. Some restrictions change before we even get a chance to modify our practices to accommodate them!
And, truth be told … I don’t always react to change very well at first? How about you?
The foundation of the Church and the foundation of our faith and our personal foundation is Jesus Christ and none other! Since Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, our foundation doesn't move. But the building shifts and creaks and cracks. The foundation being the immovable rock of Jesus Christ, HIS character should be reflected in OUR character.
Today I’d like to talk a little about dealing with life change.
To a person, all of us have trouble dealing with change, don't we? The world continues spinning and changing whether we want it to or not … and we're generally stuck with dealing with it. What’s your first reaction to life change?
When I received the call 7 years ago, that I was being moved to St. Mark’s, my first reaction was anger! That has nothing to do with St. Mark’s or Decatur, or anything else about this appointment. I was angry with the system that plucked me a year earlier than I thought was due. A move wasn't in MY plans, so it must be wrong...right? Maybe some of you can relate with an angry reaction to change.
We
The global Church is known in most circles as being out-of-date and passe and irrelevant. There is a reason for that. We feel a loss that we no longer live in a culture that supports (favors) the Christian faith. We grieve that the question has changed from "Where do you go to church?" to "DO you go to church?" and at times it’s replaced with a shocked, “YOU GO TO CHURCH?!?!?!” Yet, our culture keeps changing around us.
Let me ask bluntly: Has our lamenting had an impact on the speed of cultural change?
So, lamenting our losses has not been successful in holding back the changes around us. How, then, should we react to our lives changing and unexpected disappointments and even tragedy?
Life equals change!
So, I don't think it's a question of how to react. I think it's a question of how to BE in the midst of life. In the middle of all the mire and muck, how should a Christian BE?
God
33 “Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’
34 “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,
35 or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
36 “Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.
37 “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.
Dealing with Life Change
Dealing with Life Change
Some have proposed that this statement is Jesus laying down a law … to not swear oaths.
If that’s true, when someone gives testimony in court and they "swear to tell the truth..." are they sinning? "I swear on my mother's grave..." "I swear on a stack of Bibles..." "I swear...by the moon and the stars in the sky..."
I would propose that Jesus is rather telling how we should BE. Pledging by anything is an indication of something. When someone says, "I swear this is the truth..." it usually means, "not everything I say is true the other times..."
Jesus is telling us as his followers that swearing should be completely unnecessary. You should always tell the truth. When you mean Yes, say "Yes". When you mean No, say "No". Simple, right? Until Mom & Dad ask you a question you don't really want to answer. Or until your boss confronts an issue no one wanted to deal with. Or until you're faced with an unexpected change of plans in your life that you didn’t have a choice in.
61 Times in the Bible Jesus says the phrase, “Amen lego humin” (Truly I say to you)
0 times does He say, “I swear this is the truth!”
He doesn’t need to qualify His response … So how do we know it’s the truth? BECAUSE HE SAID IT! WE SHOULD BE THE SAME WAY!
Two choices in life:
We can let the circumstances of life make our decisions for us. You know these people. They have no standards. They have no line in the sand they will not cross. They also usually have very unhappy lives.
The other option is to choose what you want to be … choose WHO you want to be. Choose life principles on which you’ll stand … on which you’ll base your decisions … and for which you’ll fight.
“A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” John Stuart Mill
“Better to fight for something than live for nothing.” General George Patton
“Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything.” Alexander Hamilton
The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
In Malachi 3:6, God says, "I do not change."
Certainly God changes the way He deals with us when we accept the grace Jesus offers at the Cross. But He doesn’t change who He is. His character is constant! His tactics may change, but His nature does not … and it will not!
You
So how does that help you and me deal with change?
The world will continue changing. Our society is rapidly moving away from Christian principles. We live in what is called a post-Christian world, because the influence of Christianity has so greatly diminished in the Western world.
Those changes cannot be allowed to change who I am.
I will change as I grow older and learn and become a more well-rounded person, but throughout the changes of life, my yes will be yes and my no will be no.
I will follow God in Jesus Christ under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and whatever the world decides and however the world may change … from the rock of Christ … I shall not be moved.
The old hymn I Shall Not Be Moved says it this way:
Glory hallelujah
I shall not be moved
Anchored in Jehovah
I shall not be moved
--
Just like a tree
That's planted by the waters
I shall not be moved
--
In His love abiding
I shall not be moved
And in Him confiding
I shall not be moved
--
Though all hell assail me
I shall not be moved
Jesus will not fail me
I shall not be moved
--
Though the tempest rages
I shall not be moved
On the rock of ages
I shall not be moved
--
Glory hallelujah
I shall not be moved
This song was originally a black spiritual. In the midst of slavery and all of the oppression, they sang “I shall not be moved”, and whatever today I face will pale in comparison to what they were facing. “Though all Hell assail me, I shall not be moved!”
Dealing with Life Change
Dealing with Life Change
We
The Church is supposed to be the antidote to society, but today the Church seems to be changed by culture. I’m not talking about changes in approach, I’m talking about changes in who we are! Ultimately a secular culture that has rejected Jesus Christ is trying to dramatically change what we believe and who we are!
I can’t control what the entire global Church does. But I can control me!
Life will change, and I will deal with changes as they come. I won’t try to hold back change or technological advances … but even in those changes … I shall not be moved. I will not be moved from a living faith in the living God, His living Christ and the living Holy Spirit!
As the Jews crossed into the Promised Land, God spoke these words to His people:
15 “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;
16 in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.
17 “But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them,
18 I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it.
19 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,
20 by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
Dealing with Life Change
Dealing with Life Change
The one who handles life well is the one who has decided BEFORE the fan is soiled …
before they lose their job
before they lose a spouse
before they lose their parents
before they lose anything through life change
The one who handles life well is the one who has decided beforehand who they are and whose they are, and when life changes … they shall not be moved!
That’s what being a Christian provides that nothing else can provide. Whatever happens, whatever is thrown at me … I am His and He is mine!
In a world that is rapidly changing, would it be helpful for the lost to know of something that won’t change? When 9/11 happened, where did they turn? Since then, the culture has returned to their furious running away from Jesus, but when the storms of life assail, they return to the place that shall not be moved. They return to Jesus Christ because they know HE SHALL NOT BE MOVED!
How about you? Have you been moved? Will you be moved?
When life changes, are you changed by it, or does your faith hold steady?
When the storms of life assail … will you be moved?
One way we stay connected is through the sacraments. Wesley taught that believers should “continue in the ordinances of God”, and chief among those ordinances, those Christian practices, is Holy Communion…
And so, Father, we come to remember and to celebrate all that you’ve done for us, and your mighty acts in Jesus Christ...