The Horror of Change

Don't fear change! Or we may just be insane.

Finishing up .. Wars – I found it appropriate to speak to you about ….CHANGE. We hear the word all the time…from politicians, about climate issues, from changing our ways of thinking; over time we've heard many quotes about change. Here's a few: The more things change the more they remain the same. Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

Nothing endures but change. Heraclitus

A leopard doesn't change its spots.

Change your thoughts and you'll change your world. Norman Vincent Peale

Change is a constant companion in our lives.

Statistics tell us that every day in America:

- 108,000 of us move to a different home.
- 18,000 move to another state.
- 700 are moving to Florida.
- 40 Americans turn one hundred.
- 5800 turn sixty-five.
- 167 businesses go bankrupt.
- 689 new ones start up.
- 100 Americans become millionaires.
- 45,000 new automobiles and trucks are purchased, and 87,000 of them are smashed.
-6300 people get divorced.

If I asked you the question; "if you could change one thing about yourself; what would it be? …we would have a bunch of different responses. We talk about A LOT about change! But we do very little of it. The problem is people say all the time that they want change…but when it really comes down to it… they aren't that ready to put in the work. It's just so much easier to remain the same.

It takes real work to change. It doesn't happen easily… that's the reason for the statement – a leopard doesn't change its spots. There are a lot of outward changes that we can see Americans doing everyday but sadly most people who are struggling with issues just end up bringing those same issues into their new lives over and over again because they never truly change on the inside. That's because change takes discipline and we can be a pretty lazy society. There is a saying that I'm sure you've heard me quote before by Albert Einstein – it is that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results.

We can be a pretty insane bunch!

Here are 5 reasons why people don't make positive changes in their lives.

1.    Fear: People do not make changes in their lives because they're afraid. They are afraid of the unknown; afraid of persecution, afraid of being alienated from their friends and family.  I've heard it said before that the only people who like change are babies with wet diapers. That is probably true. We fear change. We fear change disrupting our daily routines. We hate it when we have to get up earlier than normal. We fear change a lot.

2.     Comfort: People who become very comfortable with their life; do not want change, even if it will be positive.

Comfort can also be disguised as indifference, laziness or apathy. Comfortable people can be very exasperating to work with… they don't want to stay late, get up early or do anything that might take a bit more work. They don't have opinions on things and they don't see the reason why others are so passionate about something because they just don't care beyond their tiredness or the things they would rather be doing.

3.    Complacency. Is kind of on the lines of comfort but also thrown into it is the unawareness factor. Complacent people are unaware that there is danger, trouble or controversy. The world itself is in a very complacent state. There is a bad moon on the rise but a lot of people would rather bury their heads in the sand and just pretend that it's not coming.

4.     Programming: People who have been educated or coerced to "believe" that their belief systems are correct and that they do not need to change. Sometimes it's a family that has spent all its time and energy pushing education but hasn't spent any time at all developing relationships between each other and then they cannot understand why it is that there is no closeness between them. Or there are some people who belong to a political party but they don't even actually know what the party stands for except that their family has always been a part of that Party. There are also some people who don't even actually attend a church but yet they still claim a certain denomination because that is what their mom, dad, grandma and grandpa have always done.

5.   Ego:  OR pride; it's what I spoke to you about last week – some people believe that they are beyond the need for change. There are always those who are just prideful and will not change because they cannot see that they could ever be wrong no matter what. They are the old dog who can't be taught new tricks. You try to get them to see a different perspective and all they can see is that you just don't get it and that they are so much farther along than you are.

All these issues of why people won't accept change are the same reasons why people won't accept the free gift of salvation. People won't accept it because it means change. And it doesn't just happen on its own – it's got to be intentional. And most interesting of all – it doesn't take a degree, money or age or beauty to do it – it just takes a willing heart. Matthew 18:3 Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven."

Change required by Jesus begins with being humble, dependant on Him, weak in your own strengths and willingly allowing Jesus to mold us.

He expects us to change:

1.    By turning away from everything that is ungodly.

2.    By turning to God and becoming more like Him.

 Donald Stamps who wrote the Full Life Study Bible says that conversion is not done by a single act of sorrow or penitence but instead, an all embracing attitude of life.

This is necessary because by nature we follow a life that leads away from God and toward eternal death. Conversion – True REAL Change is the human response to God's free gift of salvation through faith. Because of our new relationship with God – our conversion involves changes in the areas of our relationships, habits, commitments, pleasures and our whole life view. We are to CHANGE. 

But understand that God Himself doesn't change.  His word tells us in James 1:17 every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows.

Hebrews 13:8  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

We serve a stable, reliable, faithful God who loves us with all of His and His Son's heart. We are truly blessed in His patience in waiting for us to work on our changes.

Please change, we cannot afford to stay the same; we need to STOP THE INSANITY!!!!

Tootin

Don't toot your own horn! Pride drowns out the sounds of God.

One thing that I've learned over the years is that when a person says "I don't mean to toot my own horn or anything"…. is that they usually do. There are a lot of people who we deal with on a daily basis who just love to tell us how great they are; yet with somewhat false humility.

I'm sure you've heard of the term. Toot your own horn; which means to brag about yourself, your talents or your accomplishments.

We've all run into those people…and tonight I hope that IF YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE that you might begin to recognize it. Do you toot your own horn, pat yourself on the back, or sing your own praises? When we do these things… there is one thing in common and that is that it's all about me! You speak to them and all they have to say is…"I did this." "I went there'; 'I bought that.' I can do that. I – I - I …….It's truly not a surprise that we can find I right smack dab in the middle of the word PRIDE. People that talk about themselves all the time have a problem with pride. Pride is defined as an inordinate amount of self esteem. Pride is described sometimes as stiff necked, puffed up or stuck up.  We would naturally think that a person who's prideful would only be loud mouthed and obnoxious but in reality there are a lot of very prideful people who are quite mild mannered, cool, calm and collected. Sometimes you have to look a bit closer to notice pride in a person; because some are better at hiding it than others. Pride is something though that God despises.  When we begin to think more about ourselves than we do everything and everyone else around us - it will eventually trip us up. The bible tells us …

Proverbs 16:18 The Message: First pride, then the crash; the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.

And it's not IF but WHEN the fall will come.

God will eventually get around to showing a prideful person that He's in charge if they haven't noticed it already.  He states in Proverbs 6:16-19 There are six things the Lord hates, no, seven things He detests… haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Proverbs 8:13 All who fear the Lord will hate evil. That is why I hate pride, arrogance, corruption and perverted speech. God hates pride – He describes it as evil.

I think He hates it so much because it seems to be the root cause of so many other sins that we commit.  It was the root cause of Satan's sin –listen to Isaiah 14:13-14 when he speaks of Satan…you said to yourself, I'll climb to heaven; I'll set my throne over the stars of God. I'll run the assembly of angels that meets on sacred Mount Zaphon, I'll climb to the top of the clouds, and I'll take over as King of the Universe. See where his emphasis is … I, I, I. Satan's plan was to be just like God… and it was also the root cause in Adam and Eve when he promised them that they too could be just like God when he promised that they would see things clearer just like God does when they ate from the tree of knowledge. God hates pride so much because he knows that it has the capacity of destroying our lives so easily.  

Pride causes people to do things that they never thought they would do, takes them places that they never thought they would go, and makes them hurt people they never thought they would hurt. And it's sneaky… We don't usually recognize it at first when it begins to take hold.  A lot of times we begin to think that we've arrived in our faith and that is when we are in the most trouble. Look at Luke 18:9-13 Jesus told this to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people. Two men went up to the Temple to pray – one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this…Oh, God I thank you that I am not like other people, robbers, crooks, adulterers, or heaven forbid this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income. Pride blinded him to not even see things as they really were. But the tax man prayed like this…he slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, and said, God – give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.  God desires for us to be humble because that is how His son acted and we are to emulate him. Pride though is the way that Satan acted and God desires us to flee from him in all things.  But like I said – it can happen rather sneaky like – you may not have even realized that you are getting somewhat prideful…How do we then notice when pride begins to creep into our lives?

·         When we have a poor prayer life. When we don't rely on God on a daily basis and we begin to put ourselves in front of His will. When we try to do things without His help, we begin to grow prideful.

·         When we become exhausted.  When we try to accomplish more than God intended for us to accomplish we can become really weary doing good. We are to work selflessly but according to His plan and not our own. If we are utterly exhausted then we are relying on our own strength and not His.

·         When we become more and more angry. When we don't let God control things and people and we focus more on other people's faults instead of our own we will just become more angry and dissatisfied with our lives.

·         When we become critical of everyone else around us. When we begin to make others feel bad in order to feel better about ourselves it can point to a prideful spirit taking root.

·         When we get defensive when we are corrected or criticized. If you CANNOT laugh at your own mistakes you may be taking yourself a bit too seriously; and if you cannot be corrected by anyone, you will never become who God intended you to be.

·         When we think that everything's going good because we're doing it. When you begin to take responsibility for all the good that is going on and think that you're the only one doing anything; it may mean that you've lost sight of God's grace and underserved provision.

·         When we become impatient with everyone and everything. When you don't have the time to wait, to listen, to serve or be led by someone else – you've obviously lost sight of God and have your eyes on self too much.

·         When we look at people and judge their worthiness of our time. You have lost Jesus' perspective; no one person has more worth in His eyes. When we play favorites with people thinking that they are more important – we have fallen into pride.

We have to remember to lose the I in our lives. There is no I in selflessness; but there is however one in selfishness.

To get rid of pride:

·         we need to recognize it's there

·         and then change….repent of it

·         And then FIGHT IT off EVERYDAY TILL THE VERY END.

It's important to fight our pride or it will be our undoing. We need to quit tooting our own horn – so that it doesn't drown out the sound of the final trumpet horn that will be played when Jesus calls His true followers home.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

GIGO — Part 2

GIGO - garbage in = garbage out! More things to think about. Last week I spoke to you about how scientists believe that our thoughts make grooves into our brains over time and after we've practiced a skill, learned something new, or studied a topic, a new groove is actually carved into our brain tissue. I then spoke to you about how our bad thoughts also over time can also create grooves into our brains, with a lot of them coming from our choices with what we've allowed into our minds. Its garbage in = garbage out! That is what the term GIGO stands for.  A computer can only do what it is programmed to do. What is inputted will determine what's outputted. That's why it is so important to be aware of what is inputted into our minds on a daily basis and we need to do that with our media choices that we make each and every day.

Philippians 4:8 finally dear brothers whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things. The Message translation puts it this way: Summing it all up friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best and not the worst; the beautiful and not the ugly; things to praise and not to curse. I explained to you that if you watched TV, turned on the radio, rented a movie, read a magazine, logged onto the internet, played video games or read the newspaper today – that you have already been influenced by media. The media knows that they have your attention – that is why there are political advertisements on MySpace, why certain commercials will run during programs that you watch, and why companies pay big bucks to advertise in certain magazines that they know the youth are reading. ..:namespace prefix = o />

Media by definition refers to any kind of format that is used to convey information.

Another way we need to think about media is this way.

M – Message – what is the message?

E - Effect – what effect does it have on me?

D – Damage – what kind of damage does this do to me?

I – Instead – what could I be doing instead?

A – Ask God – How does this match up to what He would want for me?

We NEED to BE AWARE with media and ask ourselves some questions when it comes to it; the most dangerous thing to do of course would be to do nothing! Ultimately it starts with our choices; what we input and what we spend our time and hard earned money on. Media is around us everywhere, shaping our culture and guiding us in what we think, what we wear, and how we act. Not all media can be bad; there are good effects from media that take place… but they can be few and far between.

Last week I spoke to you about two big things that they throw at us all the time and they are SEX and VIOLENCE. This week I'd like to talk about a few more things.

Television – especially Reality television

What effect do these shows have on us? It is anything but reality. Most of it is scripted and edited and created to bring great response. If you watched Big Brother last season you saw a sad state of what has happened to television – a man who was the father of one of the girls on the show berated and verbally beat up just about anyone who got in his way to win the 100,000. These shows tell all of us that it is absolutely normal to meet a person one minute and hop into bed with them the next. They purposely ply alcohol on people to get them to open up and embarrass themselves by saying and doing things. Most of these shows are overly competitive and it's a do anything, say anything to just get to the final three and then win…. Remember Johnny Fair Play who lied about his grandma just to win sympathy from the others that were there.

There's the Real World, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Tila Tequila, EVEN Farmer wants a wife, and Kid Nation; reality shows are EVERYWHERE! These shows often display values, points of view, stereotypes and ideologies that are crazy.

Garbage in = garbage out.

Media tries to provide heroes or role models for us.

A recent study of Jr. High students found that 36% chose actors as their heroes, 19% musicians and 11% athletes or comedians. In that it is definitely more about their celebrity status than it is in truly what these people stand for. 

Most of these celebrities don't have a clue to what the world is about but all of a sudden they become famous and they become delusional and think that everyone wants to hear their opinion on saving the earth, God, or politics. The world might think they are good enough to emulate but us as true followers of Christ are supposed to know better.

It is much more important to examine a person based on your true beliefs; and when you believe in God's word – do they match up?

Most media is anti- family.

For the most part we see most men in sitcoms looking pretty stupid. Either the dad is lazy, dumb or needs the constant supervision of his wife just to make it in life. The moms; we don't many like Beaver's mom on television anymore …most moms on television aren't making dinner but they are instead trying to make it big in the corporate world. There's not much applause for being a wife or a mother.

The kids are super smart and they are always pulling fast ones on their parents. Most shows don't show much respect or love directed at the parents. You watch reality shows like Supernanny or Nanny 911 and it amazes you how many dads will not step up and actually set rules into place for their kids and mom's who are just too lazy to put a rule into place and stick with it.

The view you do see on TV about marriage is that it's filled with fights, arguments and a lack of respect and love. Most shows, movies or sitcoms show a family that belittles each other constantly and makes fun of each other; this is all supposed to be normal.

Garbage in = garbage out.

No respect for God.

TV and movies present an unfair and messed up picture of what God is about.

Preachers, priests, nuns and believers are often portrayed as idiots and misinformed buffoons who haven't matured past the Neanderthal thinking that a God exists.

Most shows don't have a clue about real faith. They love to mock what true believers believe in. Religion is presented as a list of rules.

No respect for the less attractive.

The people we see on TV, the movies or in magazines are the trim, slim and the beautiful. Let's face it - less attractive people and overweight people don't make it on a television show unless it's a show about the less attractive and overweight people.

Media mocks and makes fun of the obese, they make fun of dwarfism; and they take no interest in the so called "unattractive people" that walk our great earth. This is not the way that God would want us to behave? He values each and every person?

Garbage in = garbage out.

Those are just a few things to think about….there's more of course that we'll talk about next time; but this week beware of the media. Think about it…watch what you watch and be careful about allowing some crazy grooves that are being carved into your brains.

M – Message – what is the message?

E - Effect – what effect does it have on me?

D – Damage – what kind of damage does this do to me?

I – Instead – what could I be doing instead?

A – Ask God – How does this match up to what He would want for me?