Embracing Change

Rather than always resisting change, listen in and learn how to embrace change. 

No rights owned to “Church” by Tasha Cobbs Leonard and John Legend. 

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The title of our newday service today is Embracing Change. Embracing Change. The word change means the act or process or the result of making or becoming different. This can be done by substituting, altering, or transitioning from one state, condition, or phase to another. Change is a constant. But here's the thing many of us resist change instead of embracing it. And many times we resist it because we're used to the familiar. There's a certain comfort level with the familiar, even when we don't like it. Isn't that strange? You've heard people say, I would rather have the devil I know than the devil I don't know. That is resistance to change. Change often means that we have to learn a new skill, new ways to adapt, new ways of thinking. How many older people have had younger people promoted on the job above them? Maybe even someone they trained. But instead of beaming with pride at their hand in the accomplishment of the younger one, they take on an attitude of resentment because now change has occurred. Remember when President Obama, a proud, young, intelligent black man, took office? Mitch McConnell, who was then the leading Senate Republican, made the statement that he would block President Obama at every turn and vowed to make him a one-term president. Well, President Obama famously succeeded to make very many widespread reforms in government to make things so much better. And he went on to win a second term in office by a landslide. Mitch McConnell, on the other hand, while still in the Senate, has virtually lost all of his influence, and his health has taken a nosedive. Now I'm not suggesting that resisting the change of having a black president cost McConnell his health and lessened his influence. But what I am suggesting is that perhaps it would have been different for him now had he embraced the change. Perhaps the great divide we see in politics right now between the Democrats and the Republicans even widened and gotten to this point because McConnell and others resisted change. So as we look at the scripture today, we see that the people have come back from slavery and exiled to their homeland of Jerusalem, and they have begun to work on rebuilding the temple. The foundation was laid and there was rejoicing. But we see that not everyone was happy about it. The word says that the older priests, the Levites and leaders that had known the old temple, actually wept instead of being joyful, they cried. The old temple that Solomon built was a magnificent building made of cedar wood and gold, and it was built not by the Levites and commoners and all the people, but it was built by Phoenician engineers and skilled craftsmen. It took seven years to build the old temple, and it was the central place of worship for the Jews for about 400 years. But then it was destroyed, and the people were taken into exile. Now that doesn't sound exactly like us today, but there's some similarities because many of our churches are now dead, others dying. And how often do we weep, if not aloud inwardly, when we remember the days of full churches and choir anniversaries and church prayer meetings and the like, when people really reverent Sunday worship and gathered faithfully, don't we long for those days? I remember singing the hymns and songs of old and how they made me feel full of the Spirit of God, hopeful and joyful. They will never be like they used to be. So we must embrace change. How do we do it, you say? How do we embrace change? Well, the life and ministry of Jesus is a great lesson in embracing change. When Jesus came on the scene, he came not to condemn the law, but to fulfill it. And in so doing, he showed us that the spirit of the law is the main thing. Not necessarily the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law. Love is the main thing. Not the special songs we sing or the way we dress in church, not the special programs we have, not even how many of us gather necessarily, but love, love for God, love for each other. That's the main thing. Jesus could not be folded into the strict legalism and traditions of the Pharisees of that day, and neither can our younger generations be made to conform to the old ways that we used to do, church, no matter how much we wish it could be. In Matthew 9 and 17, Jesus shares the parables of the wineskins. He says, Neither do people put pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out, and the wineskins will be ruined. Because they can't stretch and absorb and take on all the new stuff, all the new wine. They've already been stretched, but they can't take on anything new. They will burst. And he says, No, they poured new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved. The wine and the wineskins. He was explaining to his disciples and others why he didn't follow all the strict rules of the Jews of old. Remember, they had over 600 laws, and it was absolutely too much for the people to follow. And when we think about it, some of our rules today that we still try to hold true to in church, they don't really make sense. And they're too much. Jesus said, don't worry about all those dietary laws, for example. It's not what goes into the body that defiles it, but rather what comes out of the body. The hatred, the unforgiveness, the blasphemy for me, what comes out of your mouth, that's what defiles you. He says, that's what defiles the body. Another time he says, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Keep the Sabbath as you can. But if your neighbor needs help and it's the Sabbath, help him. If your job, which God gave you, requires you to work on a Sunday, then use another day as your Sabbath. These are things that Jesus changed. He says, don't give to other people in front of everybody, boasting about what you do and how you do it. But do what you do in secret that God may get the glory. Don't pray aloud like the heathens do. But go to God in your secret room and pray to him. These were changes that Jesus instituted with his coming, because he became our sacrificial lamb, and he did for us what we could not do. And now we owe it all to him. So we should let go of all our old mindsets, our old ways of thinking, our outdated rules and regulations that don't really keep us. But we must embrace the ways of Jesus, put on his mindset, his grace, and his mercy. As Romans 12 says, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Don't be so concerned with the man-made rules, by doing what everybody else is doing, by competing with other people and imitating other things in other ways, but do what the word says. So as we cry and worry about how different life is today, let's thank God for the advancements that we seek. The new things that we enjoy, the goodness of God, the new mercies we enjoy each and every day. We talk about the good old days, but how many of us will go back to walking miles and miles to having to go to outdoor toilets, to not having air conditioning. We talk about that stuff. We talk about how good the good old days were, but do we remember everything about them? And let's look at think back on those priests. Remember the priest and the Levites and the leaders of old that remembered Solomon's great temple and they wept at the new, smaller, less magnificent temple. But let's look at what Haggai Haggai said to them. In Haggai 2 and 9, he said, This is the word of the Lord. The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house, says the Lord Almighty. And in this place I will grant peace, declares the Lord Almighty. So remember, we're not saved by outdated, rigid systems of worship, but by our faith in God. So no matter where we find ourselves, know that God is good, and we can embrace change in the church as well as any change that comes into our lives, on our jobs, in our families, in our society, in our community. We can embrace change. Not because of who we are, but because of who God is. God bless you. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you today for this reminder that change is a constant and that we're constantly changing each and every day. You even said in your word that to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. That means that seasons come and seasons go and things change, and that we need to be ready to embrace the change because there's a time for everything. So, Lord, as we grow older and we see the gray hairs, and we feel the aches and pains, and we see the younger people taking over and doing things their way, as we see our churches undergo changes in the mode of worship, in the songs that we sing, in the way that we do church, on our jobs, in our communities, as we see change each and every day, Lord. Let us say, like the songwriter says, I don't know about tomorrow, but I know who holds tomorrow. You, God, hold tomorrow. You hold us up, you help us to embrace everything that comes into our lives. We thank you, Lord, for who you are, and we thank you that you can supply all our needs according to your riches and glory, according to who you are. Whatever we need, you have it. And we just say thank you. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray this prayer. Amen. Amen, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us this Friday afternoon for our noonday service. I don't take it lightly that you come on Fridays and that you take time out of your day to be with us as we worship God. We thank you and we praise God for you. Now unto Him who's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power both now and forevermore. Let us all say Amen. Now go and be great for God and go to church on Sunday. God bless you.