Joy in Change

Series: On The Way to Joy: A Study in Philippians

You might have noticed that this is an election year.

Let me ask you a "what if" question:

  • What if we managed to elect all the right people?
  • What if for the next four years every law passed was the perfect law?
  • What if we made the right decisions on what to do with the war in Iraq?
  • What if we decided what the best alternative to oil an ethanol and then implemented them?
  • What if we found the perfect solution to illegal immigration?
  • What if we got it all right, from Supreme Court nominees to school board directors?

WOULD YOU BE THE WOMAN OR MAN YOU ALWAYS DREAMED YOU COULD BE?

The subject of human change is a multi-million dollar industry.

Amazon lists 3,706 books tagged "self-help" ranging from time management books like From "The Alphabet Of Manliness" to "Getting Things Done" to "The Secret"

The Secret:

The essence of The Secret is "the law of attraction." According to Byrne and the twenty-nine co-contributors whom she quotes extensively, everything in the Universe (which is always capitalized and usually synonymous for "God") vibrates on a particular frequency. When you think in harmony with the frequency of something, you attract it to you. If you think about wealth, you will receive wealth. If you think instead about your debt, you will receive more debt. You attract what you think about; your thoughts determine your destiny.

"Nothing [good or bad] can come into your experience unless you summon it through persistent thoughts" (p. 28). "Your thoughts are the primary cause of everything" (p. 33). "Your current reality or your current life is a result of the thoughts you have been thinking" (p. 71). According to the product description on the DVD, "This is The Secret to everything-the secret to unlimited joy, health, money, relationships, love, youth: everything you have ever wanted.

How can you have this?  B/C you are God.

You are God in a physical body. You are Spirit in the flesh. You are Eternal Life expressing itself as You. You are a cosmic being. You are all power. You are all wisdom. You are all intelligence. You are perfection. You are magnificence. You are the creator, and you are creating the creation of You on this planet (p. 164).

The earth turns on its orbit for You. The oceans ebb and flow for You. The birds sing for You. The sun rises and it sets for You. The stars come out for You. Every beautiful thing you see, every wondrous thing you experience, is all there for You. Take a look around. None of it can exist, without You. No matter who you thought you were, now you know the Truth of Who You Really Are. You are the master of the Universe. You are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of Life. And now you know The Secret (p. 183).

The reason that there are so many self-help books is because they don't work.

  • You read the Secret and think happy, positive thoughts, but nothing really changes.
  • You read "Getting Things Done" and are more productive, but still wonder why all this productivity ultimately matters.
  • So you turn to "Your Broke because you want to Be"
  • Or one of the other of the thousands of books, and no real, ultimate change happens.

How do people change?

The passage we are looking at today gives us some insight.

1.  God Initiates Change

A.  Two Small-But-Powerful Words

 - Therefore & For

i. "Therefore" (v.12)

All this is based on the person and work of Jesus

Philippians 2:5-11 - Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

  • Remember this
  • Renew your faith in Who Jesus Was and What He Did
  • Change finds its power and role-model in the Cross of Christ

ii. "For" (v.13)  For it is God who works in you

This is good

- the same power that spoke the universe into existence is willing and available to bring about change in me.

This is bad

- the same power that spoke the universe into existence is willing and available to bring about change in me.

Why's that bad?

  • Because God isn't a genie in the bottle that we can call up to fix a little habit here or a broken relationship there
  • He is the creator of the universe and gives us an all or nothing option.
  • Either we let him loose in our lives and tap into God-help
  • Or we continue to go our own way and dabble in self-help
  • We can't ask God to help us become a better parent, but keep our marriage to ourselves.
  • We can't ask God for help with our finances, but hold onto our greed and pride.
  • We can't say "I need God to help me overcome this nasty break-up" but stop short of a total revolution of the way we think about sex, dating and relationships.
  • We can't say, "I need God to help me stop drinking" but then stop...I'll take the rest from here.

Example - Dell Utility "Restore to Factory Settings"

Example 2 - Hoover Dam

  • Imagine a nasty stain on the road a few hundred feet from the Hoover Dam
  • You've scrubbed but you just can't get it out
  • Think "I'll just blow up the dam!  That will probably get the stain out!"
  • If the Hoover Dam broke the Colorado River would overflow
    • Water spills over into the country side.
    • The more water rushing, the wider the flood extends.
    • It would not flood the whole west, but it would cause probably the largest flood in US history, if not the world.
      • The flood waters MAY extend south from the dam as far as Mexico
      • East and West for several miles at least into California

B.  This is Called "REGENERATION"

Regeneration = Wolverine

  • You can do incredible damage to him
  • It heals back

Sin has done incredible damage to our hearts

"Heart of Stone"

Ezekiel 36:26 - I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Regeneration is the process by which God undoes the damage sin has done to our hearts.

The concept is of God renovating the heart, the core of a person's being, by implanting a new principle of desire, purpose, and action, a dispositional dynamic that finds expression in positive response to the gospel and its Christ.  - J.I. Packer

Regeneration = Being Born Again

- Completely from God

C.  Regeneration Renews our Wills and our Actions

"it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."

WILL = The seat of decision making

Augustine - Love God and do as you will.

Dangerous idea ... if not for regeneration

Actions = The Consequences of our Decisions

Follow the chain

  • Actions
    • Leads to Will
      • Leads to Heart

EXAMPLE OF A REGENERATE HEART - Mark Driscoll

  • College Party
  • Soon Bible Studies
  • Prayer Meetings
  • Book buying

[Transition] Change comes 100% - Completely Because of God.

He is the giver of regeneration

He is the author of salvation.

It's all Him.

Point 2 - Change comes 100% from our work.

Two Pedals on a bike - Human Responsibility and Divine Sovereignty

Obey!  Work Our Your Salvation.  Do Everything Without Complaining and Arguing.

Remember the idea of blowing up Hoover Dam?

  • Huge river in front on you.
  • Will you swim with the current?
  • Or will you swim against it?

Complaining = Swimming Against the Current

Philippians 2:15 - so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe

Deuteronomy 32:5 - They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation.

Crooked & Deprave // Warped & Crooked Generation

Israel in the Dessert was Marked By Complaining and Arguing

Stories of Exodus 16 & 17

Manna

Exodus 16:2-4 - In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."

Then the Lord said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day."

Water

Exodus 17:1-7 - The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink."

Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?"

But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?"

Then Moses cried out to the Lord, "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me." The Lord answered Moses, "Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?"

Complaining is a Sin

It's not a bad habit to be broken.

It's not even a bad attitude that needs to be adjusted.

Follow the chain

  • Action = Complaining
  • Leads to a Will that is choosing to Decide to seek what it wants instead of choosing to trust in the leading of the Lord.
  • Heart - more like stone than flesh

Complaining is a Heart Issue!

Psalm 95 v.1-7 = Worship

            v.8-11 = Heart Heart

Psalm 95

1     Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;

let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

2     Let us come before him with thanksgiving

and extol him with music and song.

3     For the Lord is the great God,

the great King above all gods.

4     In his hand are the depths of the earth,

and the mountain peaks belong to him.

5     The sea is his, for he made it,

and his hands formed the dry land.

6     Come, let us bow down in worship,

let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;

7     for he is our God

and we are the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care.

Today, if you hear his voice,

8     do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah

as you did that day at Massah in the desert,

9     where your fathers tested and tried me,

though they had seen what I did.

10     For forty years I was angry with that generation;

I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray,

and they have not known my ways."

11     So I declared on oath in my anger,

"They shall never enter my rest."

#1 - When We Complain, We Are Sinning Against God

Psalm 78:17 - But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

#2 - When We Complain About Other People - Especially Leaders - We Are Really Complaining Against God

Exodus 16 - Complaining about Food

Exodus 16:7 - ... in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?"

This is nearly anti-American to say

Our culture is a culture of grumbling, second guessing, complaining & insulting

Complaining about our leaders is Big Money and our national pass-time

Aside on Parenting - Deal with the Heart

When your kids complain or argue

Follow the chain

Action

Will

Heart

Proverbs 4:23 - Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

#3 - Complainers Won't Enter the Promised Land

It is approximately a 2 week journey from the Red Sea to the Promised Land

It took 40 Years - time for an entire generation to die off.

God held back their salvation because of complaining.

But We Enter Heaven by Faith!

EXACTLY!

The Book of Hebrews = an expository sermon on Psalm 95

Warning Against Unbelief

Hebrews 3:7 - So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice...

Hebrews 3:12 - See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

So complaining is a symptom of unbelief.

It shows that you are swimming against the current of faith.

How Do We Swim In the Stream of Faith?

We are doing an entire class on this - Tuesday Nights.

Helping People Change.

For now let me give you three points and a story.

#1 - Have Confidence in What God Accomplished In You.

Don't focus so much on the "work our your salvation" part that you forget that "it is God who works in you"

Confidence in God's work can go a long way - both to motivate our activity and to quiet the demons that tell us that we don't measure up.

Trust in God's Power

Trust in God's Grace

Trust that the cross washes away your sin

#2 - Build A Daily Life that is Light

Philippians 2:15-16 - so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life-in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.

Stars don't have to shine - they just shine.

Train your mouth, your heart, your habits and actions to hold out the Word of Life.

Lifestyle evangelism = LIGHT

A light doesn't change reality, but it helps you see it more clearly.

Key point of "helping people change" = to give them God's insight and wisdom so that the can rightly interpret reality.

#3 - Be Willing to Sacrifice For The Kingdom

Philippians 2:17 - But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.

There will be times that obedience doesn't feel natural.

In that moment-SACRIFICE.

STORY - Scott and the Church-Plant Parties

Church plant in Bellevue

Strategy - core members invite people to parties

A party every 2 weeks

Scott is a young guitar player

Practicing too loud - ladies upstairs complain (65 year olds)

He invited them to the party

Kept inviting back

Then to church

One gets saved

The other

Meeting with pastor - they are an older lesbian couple

?? For Scott, was this shining or sacrifice?

He was definitely swimming with the current.

Conclusion

Change is 100% God and 100% work.

Follow the chain

Actions

Will

Heart

What's the result?

For some - blow up the dam today

Others - Joy, yeah, that's me.  I'm not perfect by my chain leads to a heart that is flesh.

Most of us - STRUGGLE

            Puritans "going through"

            Depression

            Soul searching

            ESTATIC JOY!