Sermon: Called to Change
#1684B
Ryan McClure
Given 10-Dec-22; 31 minutes
description: People are generally averse to change because of the multiple stresses that militate against their comfortable accumulated routines. Change, however, is a part of life, and some change is beneficial if bad situations can be turned into good situations. As God's called-out ones, we are admonished to change, becoming living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2), renewing our minds from carnal to spiritual, becoming transformed into the image of our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ (II Corinthians 3:16-18) growing into spiritual maturity in a Christlike way (Ephesians 4: 11-16). We find change difficult because of 1.) fear of the unknown, 2.) the perceived and realized discomfort, 3.) perceived negative consequences, 4.) and the perception that it takes too long to be profitable. All these factors, to different people at different stages of conversion, could be perceived as a bridge too far, such as the rich young man who was unwilling to depart from his accumulated wealth (Matthew 19:16-22). We must ask ourselves, "What do we possess that we are not willing to give up?" ( a bridge too far in our own minds). Have we, like the Laodiceans (Revelation 3) found a comfortable rut in which we do not feel we need anything, unlike the apostle Paul in I Corinthians 9:24-27, who not only believed he had to change, but sustain change. According to James Clear, tiny changes bring profound results over time just like compound interest. If we apply 1% change per day in our spiritual walk, the results will be significant.
transcript:
Like most things in life, change is difficult. Even from a very young age, we humans have somewhat of an aversion to change. If you ask doctors and other professionals, they will tell you that establishing a routine for our younger kids and sticking to it will provide them with a sense of stability and decrease the amount of stress and anxiety for them, since in a way they know what to expect each and every day. Now, any change to that schedule, say missing a nap time, often results in tears and crying and maybe even a bit of a bad attitude because the child has become accustomed to taking a nap at a specific time each day.
How about moving or changing homes, especially when you are young. That often has a pretty big effect on a child. It is a new location, a new layout, maybe even new noises or smells, so moving can often increase stress levels on a child. And let us face it, even some of us adults.
Not all change is bad and so we obviously cannot make a blanket statement regarding change. For example, let us say you just had to run from your car to your home and it is raining outside and you get absolutely soaked. Thankfully you are at home so you are able to go inside and put on a dry set of clothes. So that change is quite a blessing. Now, let us say you live in a place where it is overcast and raining most of the year. Or you live here in Fort Mill, South Carolina where it has been overcast for a couple of weeks now. Well, a sunny day is a welcome change of scenery, we might say, that lifts your mood and provides some much needed Vitamin D.
Now, perhaps you work for a really terrible boss or a company, or both. And God blesses you with a new job, a new boss, and this change in company and the person that you work for makes you want to get up and go to work each day, and you actually enjoy doing so, versus dreading each new day. So not all change is bad, but many times we humans really struggle with change.
As I thought about this topic, I could not help but be reminded of a certain incident at work that happened about two or three years ago. Now to set this story up, for the past eight or so years I have had the opportunity to work in the program project management space where I have had the pleasure of meeting several folks that have become what I would consider friends over the years. Most of my colleagues have been in the industry for quite some time and are very familiar with managing large scale people, process, and technology change that has impacts to either our associates or clients.
Now, if you think about change that impacts employees it can be isolated to a small team. Or if it is a change that impacts the entire firm, it could be a rather large amount of employees, then certainly when you think about change the impacts clients, well, that can involve up to several million people. So managing change is something that is taken very seriously since the impacts of the change can be quite massive.
Again, I have had the opportunity to meet and work with some of the best in the business when it comes to managing change and one such colleague I bumped into within months of joining the company that I am currently with, we will call him Jim for the purposes of this story. That is not his real name, but Jim will suffice. Now, Jim and I, over the years, have both moved to different teams and spaces within the company. And as I mentioned, it was about two or three years ago when we landed back on the same team with the same boss in a new building, and we are working alongside each other once again through the general course of business. Our company has adopted what was dubbed as a high performance workspace in most areas and buildings, but certainly not all.
This workspace is very much like an open concept type space. You have sit/stand desks, you have lounges, you have white boards everywhere. But this comes with one very interesting and often unsettling consequence for all. There are not any assigned seats. You just grab a seat when you show up the next morning. So there are no cube walls to put your family photos up on, there is really no opportunity call a specific spot your own. And so most people generally sit, or try to sit, in the same spot each day in an effort to quasi-claim a seat.
I have seen some go to great lengths to claim a seat, A nice desk in the corner of the building with windows on both sides, maybe a plant that is sitting by them, or just in a place where there is a little bit of privacy. A stale bagel, rolled up tissues, days old coffee, and a nasty looking coffee cup is often enough to claim your spot and keep even the bravest person away. Now as time went on in this new environment, Jim posted up in his usual seat and we all kind of settled into our own chairs, spaces, spots, and we felt like things are going to be okay. Until one day when someone was visiting the Charlotte office, I do not know if this was an existing teammate or somebody new, but he got to the office first and he sat right square in Jim's seat.
Now, Jim came in and I could see the immediate irritation on his face as he noticed that someone was sitting in his seat. He was forced to move to a different desk and it was not long before I noticed Jim packing up, grabbing his things like he was about to leave, and in fact, Jim was leaving. I called out to him, "Jim, what are you doing? You just got here like five minutes ago." And he said something like he was tired of this whole scene arrangement and did not have time to deal with it. He was going to go work from home.
This change in work life was certainly difficult for some, if not most, and Jim definitely was having a hard time adapting. Now, I recall a subsequent conversation that I had with him, it was a couple of days later, where I asked, "You know, Jim, you're program manager. You literally deal with change on a daily basis. What's the deal with the seats?" To which he replied, "I'm a change manager and I can't stand change." I am still friends with Jim to this day and I hope that I always remember this exchange between friends.
You see, I agree with him. That working situation is not ideal for those who appreciate and desire their own space and just a little bit of privacy. It definitely takes some getting used to but I also appreciate his candor and that it is often easier to manage and lead change than appreciate change that is happening to us personally.
So what is change exactly? Change is defined in its verb form as "to cause to be different." And in its noun form it is "a transformation or transition from one state, condition, or phase to another." This is pretty straightforward. Most of us understand what change is—we experience change, we go through change, and we might even author change on a daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly basis.
Now, many of us do not eat the same thing every day for various reasons. We eat different things for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so what we eat to a certain degree changes each day. Maybe you have the same power shake every morning but generally lunch and dinner have some type of variety across the days and weeks.
Each day there are either internal or external factors that impact our attitudes and so throughout the days and weeks our attitudes change. Sometimes we are happy, sometimes we are sad, and sometimes we are not quite sure what we are feeling, so we do that awkward cry-laugh, cry-laugh thing and just hope no one is around to see us.
As we continue on in life, the days turn into weeks, weeks into months, and as the months go on, the seasons and weather associated with those seasons changes. We are in the winter season and it is cold and dreary, but we look forward to spring and warmer weather. But the change in seasons is something that we all live through every year.
Over the course of our careers we will often change jobs. That is, by the way, quite stressful as you navigate a new company, new culture, new teammates, bosses, etcetera. You will change homes at some point, which the last time I checked, is one of the most stressful things and the biggest decisions that you can make in your life.
Now, circumstances will change. Friends will change. Life will change. Change is part of life. In fact, God has called us to change. Let us see this because it is an important part of this message. So if you will, please turn with me to Romans 12 for our first scripture.
Romans 12:1-2 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.
Now, previously in chapters 9, 10, and 11, Paul was telling the Romans about Israel's rejection of God and the grafting in of the Gentiles. At the end of chapter 11, he calls out how God will have mercy on whom He chooses and then in chapter 12 he starts to take a different direction, which is really just a good segue into, "Hey, if God's going to make these decisions, here is what we should be doing." He tells us to not be conformed to this world, which means to not pattern our lives after the world and the way the world lives, but by the renewing of our minds be transformed, which, according to Strong's means change or changed, and more specifically, changed into a different image, we are to be living sacrifices. We are to be holy and this is our reasonable service because of the tremendous gifts that God has given to us and what He has called us into—His very Family.
I know this obviously is not new to most of us, but I do want to ground all things in Scripture and I really appreciate how David Grabbe recently said in a message that we should bring more than one witness to the discussion. So if you will, please turn with me to our second scripture. We will go over to II Corinthians 3. We are breaking in where Paul is talking about the world who does not know Christ and subsequently has the metaphorical veil over their eyes so that they do not truly see or understand the Old Testament.
II Corinthians 3:16-18 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Notice once again the word transformed here is the same word that means change or changed. We are being changed through the Holy Spirit into the image of our Savior. Now let us go to one more. I think this is very helpful in understanding a life full of change. If you will, please turn with me to Colossians 3.
Colossians 3:1-11 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanliness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
We can see the theme of change throughout these Scriptures. We once were sinners. We walked according to the ways of the world, but a change occurred. God called us, we repented, we were baptized, and we were given God's Holy Spirit and hidden with Christ in God. Now a change occurred and it is still occurring. If we continued reading verses 12 through 14, we would see the character traits that God wants us to now put on. It is a change. In fact, let us go ahead and read those.
Colossians 3:12-14 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
Here we see what Paul, and by extension God, is admonishing us to change into. He tells us to change ourselves by putting on tender mercies, kindness, humility, love, be peaceful. Let God's Word be in you, sing songs and hymns with the grace to our Lord. Essentially here is how we should be conducting our lives.
So here we have at least three (and there are certainly more) witnesses that show we have been called to a life of change. And if we boil it down to perhaps a specific purpose statement, we have been called to grow into
Ephesians 4:13 . . . the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
As we grow in age, change occurs for us at different paces. But nonetheless, growing, aging, and life experiences teach us things that change how we live our lives. And obviously as God calls us, gives us His Holy Spirit, and His Word as our guide book, that helps us to change and mold our lives into a Christlike way of living. Hopefully by now we have examined enough examples of what change is and what kind of change God has specifically called us to. God has not called us to remain just as we are.
So, why is change so difficult? I mean, it is pretty obvious based on what we have seen that humans go through some type of change daily. So why do we as humans dislike change so much? Now, just to be clear, changing your clothes daily probably does not give you the same type of anxiety as say, changing jobs or changing homes. Certainly not all change comes with the same amount of uncertainty and anxiety.
But for other changes in our lives, why oh why is it so difficult? A cursory search of the Internet lends several opinions from a variety of sources and of course this is not an all-inclusive list. But change is difficult because we are afraid of the unknown. We want to know how the story is going to end. Change is also difficult because sometimes we lack the motivation to change. The "if it's not broke, why fix it" kind of mentality. I would also like to add that we humans like a good rut, we like to find a lane and we like to stay in it, just as long as everything seems to be going A-OK. Also, when change has a perceived negative impact on us, we resist it at all costs. And then finally, we are impatient, and while change takes time, we fail to see improvement over time which makes it far easier to quit than to move forward—and you can insert any workout regiment there.
Now there are many, many more reasons why we humans have aversions to change. But my guess is that at least one of these examples unfortunately hits a little too close to home regarding our spiritual lives.
Starting with the first bullet: we often evaluate the perceived change that we need to make or that needs to be made in our lives and we calculate all the downstream effects and we fear all of the "what ifs" that could possibly happen. If I start to follow God's way of life there are these holy days I need to observe, there is the Sabbath day I need to observe. And you can ask yourself, "Do I really want to change?"
The next bullet: I like a good rut in the road. I am safe here. If I just stay in my lane, my family will still love me, my employer will still want to employ me, and everything will be just fine. I will not lose my job because all of a sudden I cannot work on the Sabbath. Maybe we do embrace God's calling and we get further along in the faith, we are receptive to some of the additional changes that God wants us to make to further refine our character. And for the newly called, we find out about the food and diet restrictions, the holy day restrictions, monetary commands by way of tithing, and all of a sudden this change that we are going through has some pretty significant impacts we perceive at the time, negative impacts on us.
Now being new to the faith, we might think, well God has called me, He has introduced me to all of these things I should not be doing, along with the things that I should be doing, and our own carnal human nature takes the net sum of all of this as, well this hurts. I cannot do whatever I want to do anymore. I need to buckle down. I need to tithe, I need to have self-control, I have to love my family, I have to love my neighbors and my brethren. And any number of these and more can easily become for each of us a bridge too far, and stifle or completely stop the change that needs to occur in each one of us.
And my last bullet (and again, I know there are several more out there): We avoid change because it takes too long. For most of us in God's church it is tough year over year going through Passover, the holy days, Atonement, and when we analyze our lives and our walk with our Creator, we begin to feel like we have not moved the needle at all and sometimes it feels like we are moving backwards. But we cannot give up though. God requires us to change and if we want to be part of His Family, we need to continuously work to change and overcome.
It is important for all of us to understand that all of God's people are in different stages in their walk with Him. For those new to the faith, the Sabbath and holy days and tithing might be among the most difficult. For those second, even third generations, those things are probably simply a part of your daily routine, yearly routine. Again, a very broad statement to hopefully illustrate that we are all in different places and the changes that we need to go through might be very different and their impacts on our lives equally different as well.
Now I thought of a couple of examples that God has given to us that I think can really help us as we think about our approach to change. So, if you will, for our next scripture, please turn with me to Matthew 19. (Levi [Graham] was here not too long ago.) This is the story of the rich young ruler.
Matthew 19:16-22 Now behold, one came and said to Him, "Good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good, but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments." He said to Him, "Which ones?" Jesus said, "'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and mother,' and 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?" And Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Now we might think of this rich young ruler as perhaps the present day nominal Christian. After all, he replies that he is essentially keeping all of the social commandments and the laws that God has put forward. And these are all very good things. We probably say something similar about ourselves. "You know, God, I'm keeping all of the commandments that You commanded me to keep. What do I lack?" Well, of course the Pharisees also kept the law and much more, but they lacked quite a bit.
I am relatively confident that many of us are not walking away from God because we have great possessions. Many of us are living paycheck to paycheck, week in and week out. But that does not mean that this example does not apply to us. Let me ask the question in a different way. What do we possess that we are not willing to give up? What are we not willing to change in our lives that we might fully and truly follow our Savior?
You see, the young man began checking all the boxes. I have done this, yep, I have done that. I am doing this. Wait, what's this? You want me to sell all that I possess? That was the young man's bridge that was too far. He was not willing to change that part of his life to serve God, to follow Jesus. And again, what are we not able or willing to give up to change in order to follow our Savior? There is a lot to meditate about in that statement.
Please turn over to Revelation 3 for another example. These are the letters to the churches and we are going to jump into the letter to the Laodiceans.
Revelation 3:14-19 "And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, 'These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent."
This is just my perspective, but to me the Laodiceans have found themselves a really decent rut in their minds and they are happy to stay in it. Verses 15 and 16 reveal that they are neither hot nor cold—they are lukewarm. So basically, right in the middle, just doing enough, but not really doing much more than even the basics. And in verse 17, they say they were in need of nothing, which is basically saying, I have everything, I do not need anything in my life to change. In verse 19, God admonishes them to be zealous and repent. This is a call to action, a requirement for them to change.
The theme of change is consistent through out the Scriptures. Do we recognize that we have areas in our lives that need to be changed, or are we good just the way we are?
For one final example, let us head over to I Corinthians 15 and we will see what Paul has to say about change and his approach to it. Paul was one individual who went through quite a bit of change in his life. He tormented the church and those who professed to be a part of it. And then one day on the road to Damascus, his life changed. Now, God did the majority of the changing. He did the calling. He gave him His Holy Spirit, just like He gives us His Holy Spirit. But Paul had to go through a lot of changes. There were times when he struggled with it, but let us see his thoughts here.
I Corinthians 15:9-11 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
Now, Paul acknowledges that it was only by God's grace that he was called and what did he do? He worked. He worked hard because he understood the value of what God had given him and it motivated him to continue to change and grow and be productive in Jesus Christ.
We are here in I Corinthians, let us go back a couple of chapters to chapter 9. I just want to pick up a couple of verses here.
I Corinthians 9:24-27 [This is Paul speaking again.] Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and I bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
Paul understood what God had called him to and he understood that he had to not only change, but sustain change. Verses 26 and 27 reveal that he was really willing to run, to fight, to discipline his body to do whatever was needed to succeed. This is a great example of how committed we should be in changing our lives. Change is not easy and we often fail the most when we simply do nothing at all. God has called us to change, to make incremental beneficial changes in our lives through His Holy Spirit.
As I was researching this topic, I happened upon the audio book titled Atomic Habits by James Clear (and incidentally, I think John Reiss had a CGG Weekly here in November that referenced this book). James Clear talks about tiny changes that create remarkable results. And that really hit home to me, at least where I am in my life.
James Clear speaks of making a 1% change in your daily life, and this is a positive change. So if you follow the rule of compounding interest, so it is not straight math, it is compounding interest, that 1% compounded over 365 days, assuming positive increase, equals about a net increase of 37% change in one year as opposed to no change at all, or perhaps even a negative change. Now if we look at change from that perspective, hopefully that shows us that we can make changes in our lives. We can overcome, obviously with God's help. We can certainly all improve 1% each day.
As I thought about this message, I could not help but think about James 1.
James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
Now trials do in fact test us. But sometimes they also help bring about positive change as we learn and grow through them.
Brethren, do not stop the positive changes that God wants us to make in our lives. If you have stalled somewhere in life or perhaps you have not given enough focus to changing a particular area in your life, get started and commit 1% each day, and continue to pray and ask God for help. And He, through His Holy Spirit, will bless your efforts. Remember brethren, as Paul said in Philippians 4:13, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
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