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Dying for Change: A Step Closer All of us have things that we find hard to do. We all can relate to the struggle that humans have when they try to break some habit or pattern of behavior that they have engaged in for a long time.

For many of us we may relate well to the Peanuts cartoon. If you are an avid reader of this comic strip you know that Charlie Brown never measured up to the standards of some of those around him.

Failure seemed to be inevitable for him.

For some of you here this morning you have tried and tried to keep the rules. You have struggled and struggled with some of the same old things for so long that you feel like giving up.

Some of accepted Christ and became Christ follower in hopes of overcoming some of the habits and reoccurring problems that seem to plaque your life.

Some times we spent all of our time worrying about our weaknesses instead of focusing on God’s strength.

Paul Orfalea was a kid with dyslexia, and had a school track record that included the repetition of several grades, expulsions, and a stint with a school for retarded children. Plenty of Paul’s teachers were convinced he was as dumb as a stump. One junior high school administrator told his mother, “Maybe he could enroll in a good trade school and learn to lay carpet.” In addition to all of this, kids called him “Kinko” because of his curly hair. From an outsider’s point of view, Paul didn’t have much going for him. He managed to graduate from high school with what he classified, “a low D average.” He then made his way through the University of Southern California with a similar lack of distinction. Rather than learning to lay carpet, in 1970, Paul started a small copy shop at an old hamburger stand. From that humble beginning, he turned a goofy nickname into an internationally known chain of stores. In 2000, Paul Orfalea, at the age of fifty-two, stepped down from his position as CEO of Kinko’s. With multiple millions of dollars in his portfolio, Orfalea credits his parents for encouraging him through such great adversity. He has said, “Without my parents, I’d be a skid-row bum right now.” To fellow dyslexics, Orfalea says, “God gave you an advantage. So work with your strengths.” When facing adversity, we often worry about what we don’t have (our weaknesses) rather than using what we do have (our strengths). People, Oct. 30, 2000, p. 56

I want to address this subject this morning because I believe that there are some of you who are struggling with issues that have overwhelmed you. In fact, they are so overwhelming that some of you have given up.

Giving up is not an option. There are answers and we will discover them today as we look at God’s Word.

Gal. 2: 17-20 (The Message)

“What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me live is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.”

Step 1: The surrendered life is vital to being able to experience a victorious Christ—following life.

There are some steps that you and I can take which will help us to overcome some of the issues of life. When a person is a Christ follower or attempting to be one of the hardest things is often our ability to let go and let God work His will in our life. In the scripture that I read, the apostle Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ. . .”He is without doubt writing the very words that some of you need to hear. He is waving the white flag of surrender. He says I have tried to do it on my own. I have tried to keep rules. I tried to please people. I tried to make everyone happy. I worked my head off to please God. You and I can not do this on our own. This is not about what we know and have learned. This is not about how long we have been coming to worship services or involved we are. This is a matter of the heart and the question is have you surrendered your issues to God? Christianity will make a difference in the secret places of our lives if we allow ourselves to give up and surrender the private personal and very innermost places of our lives.

According to data collected by the Barna Research Group, “only four out of ten people who claim to be a Christian also claim they are ‘absolutely committed’ to the Christian faith.” Moody, July/August 1998, p. 32To be a successful follower of Jesus Christ you and I must surrender our lives to Him.

How does one surrender?

1. By giving up. “I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man.” Just quit trying to do it on your own. We spent an enormous amount of energy on trying to be something that is only possible through daily surrender to the power of God in our lives. Wave the white flag of surrender. Do it everyday. Remind God that you are allowing Him to live His life in you.

2. By allowing God to assume control of your life. “Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it.”Again make sure that you realize on a daily basis that you are not doing this with your own strength.

3. Be proactive about it. Don’t just admit your need but insist in your prayer of surrender to God that He must help you as He has promised to do.

Van Cliburn mastered the piano like very few people. His excellence at the ivory keys is known throughout the world. In a conversation with Howard Hendricks, the famed pianist talked about his discipline in practice. After years of success he still spent eight to nine hours a day practicing the piano. During those ongoing, lengthy practice sessions he did finger exercises every day for two straight hours. Van Cliburn’s excellence at the piano most certainly includes natural talent, but the bulk of his success can be attributed to the arduous price he has paid in the practice room. If we hope to likewise excel in any venture for our Lord we must be willing to exert a great deal of energy and effort in both prayer and practice. Leighton Ford Leadership Development Conference, 1991

Step 2: We exchange our efforts and our desires for God’s purpose when we allow Christ to live in us.

Dallas Willard in his book, Renovation of the Heart, writes, “But we must also recognize a second factor that leads many to think that spiritual formation to Christ likeness is impossible. This is the widely held view that the low level of spiritual living among professing Christians is to be regarded as “only natural,” only what is to be expected—lamentable as that may be. According to this view, human nature, flesh, life, and its world are essentially vile, rotten, and worthless, and especially on the inside. Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Hitler, as examples, were equally vile in their hearts, this view would say. But for various constraints in which God had placed her, Mother Teresa could have behaved just as wickedly throughout her life as Hitler did.” (pg. 79)

Willard says this is often referred to as “miserable sinner” Christianity.

When we come to accept Christ in our lives there is a great exchange that takes place. We give Him our sinful lives and He gives us salvation. For many people it seems to end right there. When people who accept God’s gift of salvation seem to be interested in going no further with Him in this life there is something wrong with the picture. Some have suggested that these people are only interested in fire insurance. Believing that somehow they can live however they want because they have accepted Christ as their Savior.

Many people have surrendered but to the wrong god. Being a Christ follower is not about just escaping hell someday.

Being a Christ follower is about exchanging your old life for a new one.

How crazy would it be if some of you who took back Christmas gifts a few days ago would have exchanged them for the same thing? The reason you took them back was because you didn’t like the gift or it didn’t fit or you didn’t need it. How ridiculous would it be for you to stand in line to exchange the old gift and tell the sales person that you wanted the same old thing again? Same color, same size, same everything. We all know that would be silly.

Why are some of you settling for that in your Christian life?

The exchanged life will make a difference in our everyday living.

Some of you are struggling with addictions. Some of you are still doing things that are harmful to your bodies. Do you think it is normal or acceptable that you would continue in the same behavior day after day, year after year?

In this same book of Galatians Paul gives us further clarification of what it means to exchange one’s life for a life of Christ likeness.

Read from the Message in Galatians 5 paragraph five and six.

The NIV says, “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” (Gal. 5:19-21)

Cleary the Bible is teaching us that when we come to Christ there is a huge difference that will take place as we learn to walk with Him and allow Him to live through us.

One of the biggest concerns in Japan is blood type. It is not uncommon for a man and woman to meet for the first time and quickly move to the topic of blood type. In publications about celebrities, the most vital information about up-and-coming stars is their blood type. The Japanese have a strong belief that a person’s blood type dictates their character. Type A blood is thought to produce nit pickers, B types tend to be carefree, and O types are driven. Although medical experts have insisted there is no scientific correlation between character and blood type, Japanese people hold firm to the belief that a person’s blood impacts their character. It may not be true in our physical makeup but it’s certainly true spiritually. When we are washed by the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, the Bible says we become “new creatures” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The blood type of Christ causes our character to be transformed into the image of God’s own Son. Without that change in blood type, we wallow in the depravity of sin. Houston Chronicle, Nov. 26, 1997, p. 21A

Some of us need to acknowledge that there are some things we need to exchange from our old life and begin to live the new life that Christ calls us to.

Step 3: The only way to experience the fullness of God in our life is to trust Him with everything that makes up our lives.

UCLA sociologist, James Wilson, has observed an interesting fact about city life: The crime rate escalates on those streets where broken windows are not repaired. His study showed that the failure to replace windows makes an announcement to the public by saying the standards have been lowered and authority has been abandoned. Wilson sees such practices of disrepair as an invitation for further crime without the threat of adverse consequences. What is true on the street is also true in our personal lives. If we allow bad habits, inappropriate behavior, or unacceptable practices to go unchecked, we will be inviting further destruction into our lives. When we exercise the discipline needed to stop and change our damaging behavior, we will erect a fence of protection that will prevent further personal erosion. Reader’s Digest, Oct. 1995, p. 157

To achieve the kind of life we have talked about this morning will take a great deal of attention.

It is not about our strength or our ability but it will take effort in the sense that we must yield ourselves to God’s plan for our lives.

You are going to keep right on living until you die, we all no that. The question is what kind of life are you going to live?

Are you going to continue to do it on your own? Will you be sitting here next year still struggling with the same habits and issues that pull you away from Christ likeness and destroy your testimony?

The only way to do this correctly is to trust God with your life and issues. Each year one professional team walks away with the most prestigious trophy in football, the Vince Lombardi trophy, which is awarded to the Super Bowl champs. This $10,000 trophy represents the best of football. Its presence at the pinnacle of football achievement is a tribute to the man for whom it is named. Lombardi was the legendary Green Bay Packer’s coach who led his team to victory in Super Bowl I and II. Ironically, he was an unlikely success. One expert predicted nothing but failure for the young coach. He said, “Vince Lombardi possesses minimal football knowledge . . . lacks motivation.” Interestingly enough, Hall of Fame quarterback, Bart Starr, remembers the following Lombardi quote as catalyst for his own success: “Perfection is not attainable, but in chasing it you could catch excellence.” USA TODAY, Jan. 29, 1999, p. 17F, 21F

Jim Denison is pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. While in college, Denison served as a summer missionary in East Malaysia. During one of their worship services, a teenage girl shared her faith in the small warehouse that was used for a church. She was baptized that day in their baptistery, which was a bathtub, and glowed with the love of Christ. While all of this was going on, Denison noticed some worn-out luggage leaning against the wall. He asked a church member for an explanation of the suitcase. He pointed to the girl who had been baptized and said, “Her father said that if she was baptized as a Christian she could never go home again. So she brought her luggage.” The Book of Acts, Baptist Way Bible Study for Texas, 2000, p. 46

To experience the life-changing power of God it will take initiative on your part.

Put yourself in the place where you can be accountable to some other believer or a small group.

Commit to study the Bible. Really absorb the words and the lessons that are to be learned.

Place your life in God’s hands.

Surrender, Exchange and Trust.

2003/01/12