Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTEN: DVD - CHANGE

There are many people who have taken that man’s advice.

Haunted by a constant stream of failure, they’ve cashed in their effort and settled for an uneasy defeat and a guilty conscience.

I don’t know about you, but I find real change very hard sometimes.

In fact, I think everyone does.

I’ve been taking some classes at seminary and in one of those classes I remember the professor writing some definitions of leadership on the board.

You know, he wrote, “Leadership is influence.”

You’ve probably all heard that one.

But if I were to tell you my favorite definition of leadership, many of you, who know my favorite football team would not be surprised.

I’m a Dallas Cowboy, Tom Landry fan.

It was Tom Landry who defined leadership like this: Leader-ship is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve.

That is so true isn’t it?

We know what we want to be.

We want to be holy.

We want to serve God, or at least a part of us does, if we really belong to Him.

We want to know the Word of God and we want to be a consistent witness for God.

We want all those things, but we just have trouble going from desire to reality.

And, if I can be so bold, I think I know what the problem is.

The problem is that our desire for change just doesn’t overcome the aggravation, effort, and sacrifice it takes to change.

When I was in high school, I remember I was all enamored with being a great piano player and the next great musician to make it big like Barry Manilow.

Ok, I know some of you just lost all respect for me, but the truth is the truth.

I got it into my head that I was going to do it, and since Barry was a great piano player, I wanted to be a great piano player to.

So I started taking piano lessons.

I had done that when I was in the fifth grade, but I had quit to take band.

I remember driving to Boca Raton, Fl. once a week and paying for my own lessons out of my own money.

I would get up in the mornings and practice an hour before school, then I would try to practice at night for another hour.

I was totally committed . . .

for about three months.

Then all the practicing started to get to me.

My desire for change couldn’t overcome the aggravation, the effort, and the sacrifice it took to change.

I bet you’ve had the same thing happen in your life.

For many it happens in January.

You set a goal that you’re going to lose twenty pounds and look like j-lo, ladies (no, I didn’t say “jello” I said “j-lo”) Anyway you get that goal in your mind.

You can just see everyone looking at you and saying, “Wow, you’ve lost weight, you look great!”

You can just hear your doctor compliment you on how healthy you are.

You’ve got the picture in your mind of what you want to be and you go to the gym.

You join and pay your money and you’re all excited for about one week.

But about the second week in January, you catch a cold, you don’t feel good; the kids are sick too and you’re staying up till 4 am in the morning taking care of them.

Then your husband has to go out of town on a business trip so you can’t go and, before you know it, its March 1 and you’re heavier than you were at Christmas.

Now what’s the problem?

Well, we can make all kinds of excuses, but if you’re really honest, the problem is that your desire for change couldn’t overcome the hassle, the aggravation, and the sacrifice it took to change.

So what’s the answer?

Well the answer is for you to increase your desire to change.

This is true in every area of life, but it is especially true in our spiritual lives.

Peter writes about what can only be described as very drastic change in his first letter.

He said in 1:14-16

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.

Now this really is drastic change!

God is holy, that is, He is absolutely and totally different than any being you can ever think about.

When I become holy, as He is holy, my friend that means I’m going to change and change drastically.

The question then becomes, how can I change in my spiritual life, I mean really change?

How can I stop losing my temper with my family when they make me so angry?

How can I stop watching inappropriate material when I’ve developed such an addiction that it controls me?

How can I stop robbing God of His tithe and myself of the blessing of giving when my heart’s not in it?

How can I look at that Sunday School class of elementary kids and stop dreading Sundays?

How can I really change?

How can I, in a practical way, be holy as He is holy, not because I feel guilty, but because I really want to change?

Well, the answer to that question lies in what you know . . .

or maybe I should say, who you know.

There are three people you must know well if you are to have the motivating desire to change.

First:

DIV 1: YOU MUST KNOW YOURSELF

EXP

Peter says something, right at the beginning of v14, that stacks the deck, you might say.

He’s got a view of these folks that pigeon-holes them.

He presupposes their holiness when he says in v14, “as obedient children.”

There’s a lot in that title folks.

There’s the situation of the title.

He calls them “children.”

That means they belong to a father somewhere, and, in this case, that Father is God.

Calling them children also says that they are dependent.

They don’t call the shots themselves, they are waiting for instructions from their Father.

And calling them children also says that they are loved, because God is seen not as the majestic potentate of the universe, but their close intimate dad, their papa, their Father God.

Then there’s the obligation of the title.

They aren’t just children.

He calls them obedient children.

That’s what they are supposed to be.

In that culture, obedience was presupposed.

It was commonplace in that day that children should have the character of the father and that they were in submission to their father.

If they were not, they brought great shame on their family.

APPLICATION

What’s the point?

When I say that I am a child of God that tells me something about myself.

It tells me first of all that I depend on God.

I can’t make it by myself.

Like a child in a “Home Alone” movie, I may get along for a little while doing it for myself, but I reach a point where I need the Father, and I need help.

I am dependent.

What does that mean in concrete terms?

It means that I don’t take the job just because it gets offered; I seek God about it.

It means that when I am facing insurmountable odds and it seems like I’m going down in defeat, I don’t quit because I realize that success isn’t up to me anyway.

It means that when Dr. Jones tells me I’m going to die, I may be upset and I may be discouraged but I don’t quit because I realize that my survival doesn’t depend on Dr.

Jones, it depends on Dr. Jesus.

I am a child and that means I depend on God

But it also means that I belong to the family.

I’m not out here by myself.

I belong to something that’s much bigger than me.

I may be in trouble, but I’m not in trouble alone.

I got my brothers and sisters in Christ to help me through.

That’s who I am, and because that’s who I am, I am able to make some changes in my life.

I’ve got built-in accountability that helps me become that person I always wanted to be.