Change your Life!

[0:00] Talking about change. Now there's good change and there's bad change. A lot of change going on all around us.! Some have a lot of talk about, for example, climate change for one thing.

[0:14] ! I want to talk about change, change. And there's some bad change happening, isn't there? See, the change is going on. I look back at when I was a younger fellow, when I had a bit more hair, maybe a bit darker hair, and the world was a different place.

[0:28] Things have changed. Markedly and just in my own short lifetime. Change is happening. Change that oftentimes is not for the better, but is for the worse. There's a decline away from God and spiritual truth and life.

[0:44] See the value system of the world. It's like a seismic shift. A dramatic shifting of values. We see this increase in perverted morals and values.

[0:55] It's kind of almost humorous, but a sad reflection. It's a huge change on our world. It's a huge change on our world when people might have heard in the recent media stories about a recent drag queen story.

[1:07] A story of drag queens at a Brisbane library, and the media was calling it community outrage about this. Now, there was outrage. Now, there was outrage. Not that such a strange event was happening.

[1:20] Not that such weird people were bringing ungodly messages to vulnerable young children, but a community outrage that there was some kind of protest about such a thing.

[1:32] That such an event should be protested against. That was what the outrage, the community outrage was about. And I look back and think, you know, in such a world, a crazy, topsy-turvy, upside-down world, that the morals and the values, the warped values of our world are such that when someone would dare to question the common sense, let alone the morality of a man dressed as a woman reading stories to children, that that could be accepted.

[2:05] And it says a lot, doesn't it? It says a lot about what is changing, what is changing in our world. And God help the next generation, if that's what they're getting, in public libraries, paid for by taxpayers, by council rates of Brisbane Council.

[2:21] Things are changing, people, aren't they? There's a changing going on. And it's a changing, ever-changing, for the worst. We could do with some more protestants. People who protest, you know.

[2:33] And I'm not necessarily supportive of that particular protest, but the sense of protest. There should be a protest within us against that which God says is abomination, a protest within us against that which God clearly would show us is false and evil and sickly and sad.

[2:54] We should be protesting, shouldn't we, as it were? But yet the modern change agents are foisting these changes. There's a change agenda that they're promoting and marketing to the masses, and we see that through movies, through education, through all kinds of media.

[3:11] There's a change going on. The change agents are indoctrinating on a global scale. And we're seeing, I put to you, a generational change. A generational change.

[3:22] Where children are turning away from truth to lies. I fear for the next generation. I fear for my children and my children's children. There was a generational change in the Bible where a newer generation came along, and it says that they knew not the Lord.

[3:41] Now, as parents, we do our part, don't we? We try to instill. We try to relay the message. We try to communicate salvation. We try to urge the next generation to follow the Lord.

[3:55] But we see it doesn't always happen. The newer generation, they feared not the Lord. We see that, for example, in Judges 2 verse 10. It says that all that generation were gathered unto their fathers, and there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord.

[4:12] Another generation rose up, and this new generation knew not the Lord. And this was a cycle, a pattern that was repeated over and over, where there's a generation who knew the Lord, but then there was a generation who knew not the Lord.

[4:27] They feared not the Lord. And there was a change between the generations, a generational change. So we talked about some bad kinds of changes. Now I'd like to look at what the Bible tells us about some good kind of changes, because thankfully there's hope for us.

[4:42] There's hope there's some good change. There's good changes in the Bible, because God is in the life-changing business. Amen? God can change people. And he has done amongst us, and I've heard stories amongst our own number, of lives transformed, of lives that were once in darkness and now are in glorious light.

[5:00] A conversion happens. God is changing people today. Now Barack Obama used to have a slogan, Change you can believe in, as his kind of message on his lectern.

[5:14] Change you can believe in. Some pretend that change can happen through politicians, through a change of government, through a change of political persuasion.

[5:26] Change you can believe in. But we're talking about a real change here. We're talking about life change. We're talking about soul change. We're talking about what the Bible says. Because some might pretend to bring change, but really it's more of the same.

[5:39] Even when there's changes from blue to red and red to blue, in the government of our land, they pretty much do the same thing, sadly. Some pretend to bring change, but it's really more of the same.

[5:51] Just a turning over. And some would say that a turning over of a new leaf is what we need. You know, there's some who might have some radical change of mind, and they start to get some health kick.

[6:05] And they go on some crazy diet, and start to go nutty about some sport or activity. And there's a change in their lives. There's a changing, a turning over of a new leaf.

[6:16] We're not talking about that. There's some who can have false conversions. You know, they might give up some things, and think that's what saved them, or take some religious actions, or some religious process, and think that that is changing them.

[6:31] But the Bible says that there's some false conversions. There's that indication. For example, in Jeremiah 13, 23, Jeremiah says, Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?

[6:47] Then may he also do good that are accustomed to do evil. In other words, we can't change our skin colour. You know, I might try to spend more time out in the sun, but I just get a slightly darker shade of white.

[7:04] And likewise, someone who's got darker skin can't whiten their skin. We've got the skin colour we've got. We can't change our skin colour. And the leopard can't change his spots. There's a sense where a man-made, a man-manufactured kind of change is not going to happen.

[7:25] But the Bible talks about a God kind of change. Amen? An inside kind of change. When we are saved, we're given a new nature. The Bible speaks about the old man and the new man.

[7:38] Isn't that good news? Yes? But, you know, I don't really like the old Andrew Craig very much. Not at all, actually. And I don't want to ever go back to being the old Andrew Craig. We don't want the old man.

[7:49] We want the new man, don't we? We want to be that renewed man. And there's some change I'll put to you this evening. There's some change you can believe in. Amen?

[8:00] One thing's absolutely for sure. You shall be changed. You might say, well, I like me the way I am. The Bible says change is certain. You will change.

[8:11] You will change. We see that in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 51. We shall all be changed. It says, behold, I show you a mystery. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 51.

[8:24] Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. It's saying we shall not all die, but we shall all be changed. There's a sense where at Christ's coming, some will be lifted up alive.

[8:39] But there are some who sleep. As in the sleep of death, they are in the grave. It says that we all shall be changed. Those who are lifted up alive, it says that we'll have glorified new bodies.

[8:51] And those who are in the ground will be reconstituted and made alive and living again. With new bodies, resurrected bodies. So there's a resurrection change.

[9:03] Change is certain. Change will happen. We shall be changed. All be changed. It says in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, there's a trumpet going to sound, it says.

[9:15] And the dead shall be raised incorruptible. In other words, when you rise to life again, it says your body will be not possible to be corrupted.

[9:27] It's going to be a body that will never weaken or have weakness. It won't have sickness. The body that you have will be incorruptible.

[9:38] It will be a totally changed body. And then it says this corruptible must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. So in these mortal frames that we have now, these are just temporary.

[9:51] This mortal is going to put on immortality. And it's the same for you, for me, for believers here, that this corruptible is going to put on incorruption. This mortal shall put on immortality.

[10:03] And then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. It goes on to say, thanks be to God. It gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[10:15] So put to you, there's a good change, a great change, a change you can believe in. And the Bible says we all shall be changed. That's a good change, isn't it?

[10:25] I'm looking forward to that one, aren't you? That one day, whether I'm in the grave and he opens the lid and drags me into a new living body, a new made man, or whether at his coming I'm still alive, we'll be caught up together to meet him, to meet the Lord in the air.

[10:45] The Bible says we shall be changed. That's a good change. And that's for sure. Here are some changes the Bible tells us of. And I put to you today, these are changes God still is doing today.

[10:57] Firstly, a heart change. A heart change. A change of heart. And I'm not talking, as I say, a change, a turning over of a new leaf where we might have a new kind of way of thinking.

[11:09] But it's a change of heart. A radical change of the heart of man. The Bible says out of the heart are the issues of life. I put to you that the Bible tells us the heart can be changed.

[11:22] Our heart can be changed such that our appetites change, our affections change, our motivation, our direction. It's called conversion. Conversion.

[11:35] The Bible says in Acts 3 verse 19, Peter says, There's a repent, there's a turning around, there's a 180.

[11:55] And it says there's a converting, a conversion that happens and our sins can be blotted out. Conversion is something precious, isn't it?

[12:06] Well, the Bible would say that we may be converted. Repent ye therefore and be converted. People today would kind of poo-hoo that, wouldn't they?

[12:18] They would mock that. And, you know, there's a sense where conversion therapy, they don't want people to change. They want people to stay the same. But the Bible says we can be converted.

[12:30] We can be changed. It's a heart change. Today there's a whole lot of worldly conformity. One of the biggest problems we face in our world today is truth decay.

[12:40] Truth decay. There's a decay of truth. But God is in the business, still in the business of changing lives. You know, there's a song that goes, Just as I am, without one plea.

[12:51] I can come. I come unto the Lord. We can come just as we are. And the wonderful truth is that God loves us so much that when we come just as we are, he loves us so much that he doesn't leave us the same.

[13:07] There's a conversion. There's a conversion. He changes hearts. We see in Ezekiel. He takes the hard heart of stone. That stony hard heart. Whoa. That stony hard heart.

[13:18] He takes that out and he gives us a living heart. A new heart. And we start to have the blood pumping with the new heart. The new life. The conversion happens. Where God gives us a whole new heart.

[13:31] A brand new start. He changes us. And he affects that change within us. We see that through the word. We see a man called Saul. He was a man who was breathing out this threatening.

[13:44] And he was kind of picturesque here. But he was almost foaming at the mouth. He just wanted to destroy the church. He hated Christians. And he hauled them out and dragged them to their doom.

[13:58] To prison. To death. As we see in the stoning of Stephen. Saul hated Christians. He was a Christian killer in effect. By virtue of his taking part in that.

[14:12] Saul was converted. Became as God called him. Paul. He was made a new man. And then you can imagine. I was talking to David lately. Imagine Paul. As a newly converted Paul.

[14:25] As he walked into the church. And the people would have said. Who's that? It's a. You know. He's the Christian killer. He's Saul. He's just walked in. And they might have been packing it.

[14:35] Worrying about. That this. Christian killer. Is now. In their midst. Maybe he's coming to spy. To. To. Work out. To check us off on a list. So he can round us up later.

[14:45] But no. This was a new man. This was the new man. Paul. He was converted. Amen. Amen. He was converted. And the change we need. Is conversion. Is conversion. The Bible still says.

[14:59] Ye must. Be born again. Doesn't it? Ye must be. Born again. Absolutely. Nothing else will do. And I know I referred to it this morning. That when we were out yesterday.

[15:09] Talking to some people. And amongst them were some. So called. Jehovah's Witnesses. And we respectfully challenged them. On this key issue. They tried to get off on. What the shape of the cross was.

[15:20] You know. What were some other things. Or whether we're on the earth. Or in heaven. I said we're all over. In the whole universe. When we got our new bodies. We'll be on the new earth. We'll be in the new heaven.

[15:31] We'll be in planets. And stars. And solar systems. And universes. You know. It doesn't matter. That we're not bound to the earth. But that's not. That's a side issue. And we got back to the main point.

[15:41] Which the main point is. You must be. Born again. And like I was saying. As David and I were talking. At this doorstep. The Jehovah's Witness. So called Jehovah's Witness.

[15:52] Because we know. They're not really his witnesses. He got his smart phone out. To try to look up John 3. And his hand was quaking. And his. And his. His legs were shaking. And his lips were quivering.

[16:03] And he had to say. And I said. Are you born again? He says no. At least he was honest. Amen. He was honest. This man. He was honest. That he wasn't born again. But the Bible says. You must.

[16:14] You must. Must. Must. Must. Must. You must be born again. We've got some sound effects this evening. We must be born again. That's what it says. You know. We respectfully put it to him.

[16:25] You know. We were respectful to the man. And he was. He was. Being honest with us. Thank God. He knows he's not born again. This is the starting point.

[16:40] Conversion. A new life. A new heart. A new soul. A new beginning. Like the butterfly from what was the caterpillar.

[16:51] New life. He brings conversion. You must be converted. And we pointed this man to 2 Corinthians 5.17. Therefore if any man be in Christ he's a new creature.

[17:04] Old things have passed away. Behold all things have become new. Conversion. He creates us. He recreates us. He regenerates us. The Bible says in Ephesians 2.

[17:15] For we are his workmanship. Created. In Christ Jesus. Unto. Good works. Which God hath before ordained. That we should walk in them. Some may think they don't need to be converted.

[17:26] Some people think. Well I've got my values. And my philosophies. I'm alright Jack. She'll be right. I'm good. Good. It's another grave mistake isn't it?

[17:38] To think that we don't need to be converted. Maybe they think they'll somehow be able to bluff their way in. When the time comes. Okay. Time's up. Bang.

[17:49] Your heart stops. Your last breath. And you're with. You're maker. And you maybe think you're going to be able to bluff your way in. And maybe talk about some of the good things you've done.

[17:59] I've given to charity. I've tried really hard. I've done lots of good good things. And not done so many bad bad things. And that. But there's no admission without the passport. You know you get to that.

[18:11] Where you hear stories these days don't you? Someone's flown over to another country. Oh you don't have a visa. Go back where you came from. You know when you get to heaven's gate. And you don't have a passport.

[18:22] There's no admission. If you're not born again. There's no entry. You cannot enter the kingdom of God. Unless you are born again. You're either lost or saved. You're either dirty or clean.

[18:34] Now it's possible to be dirty without even realising it. It's a fact isn't it? You know we could get some special ointment or whatever they call it.

[18:46] And get a special microscope. And we could look at your skin. Your hands. Your fingernails. And you could. We could look through that special lens.

[18:57] And show you that your hands. Even though you've washed them. Well and I hope you've not got compulsive disorder or whatever. This will make you even moist. But you know.

[19:08] Your hands may look clean. But they're not clean. They may actually be quite dirty. Even after you've washed them. And they do the same thing with teeth don't they? And a dentist.

[19:18] They show you if you brush your teeth. They put this special material on. And through a special lens. And they show that your teeth actually are not really clean. Even though you brush them.

[19:29] You didn't brush them well enough. And if your hands, your teeth are not clean. What about your heart? What about your heart? You might think your heart's clean. There's no way it's clean.

[19:40] There's no way to make it clean. No way you can manufacture cleanliness. No way you can try to make your heart clean. There's only one way to make your heart clean. And it's by the blood of Jesus Christ.

[19:53] It says in 1 John 1 verse 7. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. You know, friends, you might think I'm a good person. You might think you've got clean hands, but they're not.

[20:06] You might think you've got a clean heart, but it's not clean. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can make your heart clean. And to get saved, we need to see ourselves first as sinners. In need of a saviour. And we need to see our heart as God sees it.

[20:18] As God declares it to be. The word of God tells you that your heart is deceitful. It can trick you. It can deceive you.

[20:29] It can con you. It can fool you. It's deceitful. And it's desperately, desperately wicked. There's no patching up of a heart. That won't do it. We need a new heart.

[20:40] Amen. We need a new heart. A complete heart transplant. Thank the Lord. Oh no, a great heart surgeon. The ultimate. Amen. The ultimate heart transplant can happen for you.

[20:53] And you can have a new life. You can have new eyes. You can have a whole new living. A whole new perspective. A whole new change. There's a heart change.

[21:06] Another change in the Bible is there's a power change. Power shift. You know, in the word of God we see, and some of this may be a little overlap on some of the things I've talked about this morning, but there's a new power that comes to the believer when you're saved.

[21:21] He empowers you. It tells of the visitation of God. It tells of a God sent revival. Now there's lots that talked about revival, so-called these days, but we're talking about what the Bible says is revival.

[21:33] It's a change of allegiance. It's a change of kingdom. It's an awakening. What we need is power. Power from on high. He says wait until you get the power from on high. Now there's a cost for power.

[21:44] Power's going to cost something. I got a letter just recently, just this last week, from my power company telling me that the cost of power is going up. The cost of power is going up.

[21:55] I want to tell you the cost of the power, the cost of the power of God. There's a cost to the power. There's a price to pay for the power. You know, Simon in the Bible was a sorcerer in Acts 8, and he saw these goings on.

[22:11] He saw the miracles, and he saw that through the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, and he offered them money. He thought he could buy the power. He thought he could buy the power of the Holy Spirit. And he says, Now some churches of today might have thought, well, Simon, he's offering this big wad of money.

[22:45] Maybe they'd have jumped at the chance to take some money off of this fellow. Maybe they could have cashed in on Simon's generosity. Maybe they could have sold him some holy handkerchiefs or some anointing oil from the Holy Land.

[22:56] Or maybe they could ask him for a big fat check and welcome him on board. But Peter said, no, thy heart is not right with God. The power comes when your heart is right with God.

[23:08] That's when the power of God comes. The power comes from a heart made right with God. That's the kind of change you can believe in. How is our spiritual life? Where is the weak point?

[23:20] You know, we hear stories. I know there's been some program where it talks about the weak link, the weakest link. And there's a sense where the weakest link is the one that breaks first, isn't it?

[23:36] The weakest link. And, you know, in churches too, and in our own lives, where are we the weakest? Where are we the weakest? And it's about seeking God for his strength.

[23:49] I think sometimes it's about humility, to humble and pray. That can be the weak point because we can think, I don't need God. I don't need to pray. I don't need to seek after him. I don't need to get spiritual.

[24:01] I'm doing fine. I'm just coasting in my Christian walk. For some, they would reckon the price is too much. Oh, for me to get really serious with God, that might mean a bit more commitment, a bit more enthusiasm, a bit more devotion of my time, of my energy.

[24:20] And they would say the price is too much. Or they would say that I'm okay. They don't want to take the pathway of humility. But where does the power come?

[24:33] It comes as we humble ourselves. We see in the word a story of a man called Naaman in 2 Kings 5. Naaman was a great man, they called him. A mighty man of valour, a captain of Syria.

[24:46] And yet he was a leper. He had a need. He had leprosy all over him. Imagine that. I can't imagine what it would be like. And when I get some little sore on me, that's bad enough. But he was covered with leprosy.

[24:59] And the king sent Naaman, his faithful captain, to Elisha, along with a generous amount of money to effect his healing. But Elisha did not receive that. He didn't care about the money.

[25:10] He didn't want the money. He told Naaman, go and dip seven times in the river Jordan. There's a price for the power. Naaman, this great captain, this proud and accomplished man, a man in charge of numbers of soldiers, a man called a great man, was told to humble himself and dip himself.

[25:37] Not once, but seven times in the river Jordan. And some reckon maybe that Jordan wasn't probably the greatest river to dip yourself in. It was maybe a bit murky here and there.

[25:49] But so Naaman had to pay a price for the power. He had to pay a price. He had to humble himself for God to work in his life. And the price to pay people of God is humility.

[26:00] It's the price to pay is humility for the power change to happen. We need to come to the extent where we come to the end of ourselves. Some would look at the price and it's like, you know, we go down the shop and you look, what do you look for?

[26:17] Oh, how much is that? Oh, the price tag. It's too high. Some look at that. When they see God tells me to do something, oh, that price tag is too high for me.

[26:30] You know, I don't want to humble myself. I don't want to get serious about my faith such that I'm actually opening my mouth and telling others. I don't want to get so serious about my Christianity that I might expose myself in the workplace.

[26:48] I might become a focus for people's jokes and mockery or they might start to pick on me. I might have some discomfort. It might mean that I've got to humble myself and go, in a way, be humbled before other people.

[27:05] I don't want to take that step, that price. It's too high a price to pay. To yield my life to God. To yield to his will. I mean, God's pointing to things that he wants you to do.

[27:17] And you think the price is too high. The price tag is too much. Yet the cost of doing nothing is much higher, isn't it? When we look at this brief lifespan we've got, the price of doing nothing is much higher.

[27:35] For you to spend a life and to think when eternity comes, you'll have a regret that you didn't do it. And to do nothing is to lose everything.

[27:46] In a way, there's a sense where we see as our Lord calls people to discipleship, that son, they said, it's too much for them.

[27:57] In Luke 14, for example, he says, If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, in his own life also he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

[28:12] For which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he are sufficient to finish it. And it goes on how if you begin to build and you're not able to finish, there's a sense where you look at the budget.

[28:26] You know, look at the, what is the cost here? What's the cost of not following Christ? What's the cost of missing God's best?

[28:36] What's the cost of you living a mediocre kind of Christian life when you face him and you've just got wood, hay and stubble? You're saved just as by fire.

[28:47] You've made it by God's grace. You're in heaven. And yet there's a sense where you're ashamed before him that he's coming because there's more you could have done that you did not do.

[28:59] It's not to condemn or to put us on a guilt trip or to say it's by works we saved. Absolutely not. But there's a sense where our works follow. Our saving is certain but our works follow.

[29:13] And there's a sense where we count the cost. What's the cost of not following God? What's the cost of not jumping in, boots and all? What's the cost of not being all out for my Lord?

[29:26] We must change. We must change. Pay the cost. We've seen the heart change. We've seen the power change. Really it's a change of rulership I put to you.

[29:38] A change of leadership. A change in authority over our life. And this change, this change you can believe in, it's not by some politician, some change of human government over us.

[29:50] It's the ownership of God over us. Do we come under his ownership? Who is king? Who is in control? Who do we obey? I know someone was testifying to me lately how they had addiction in their lives.

[30:04] And he was telling me like it was a hairy monkey. He kind of pictured it as a hairy monkey in his chest saying, gimme, gimme, gimme. Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. This sense of, this hairy monkey, this entity of sorts within him, this addiction was like something.

[30:21] Feed me, feed me, feed me. But God gave him the victory over that. God helped him to get loose of that, to get victory over that addiction that he had that was for him a stumbling block.

[30:34] Because it's about who's in control. We don't want the hairy monkey to be in control. As it were, our addiction, our flesh, our self, our sin nature. We want God to be in control.

[30:45] We want Christ to be in control. And conversion is when our life is changed. There's a turning point. As in 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 9, Paul says how you turn from God, turn to God from idols to serve the living God.

[30:59] That's the change that happens. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 9. There's a change to not serve idols anymore, but to serve the living and true God. And God changes our destination.

[31:11] It tells how once we were children of wrath. In other words, we were subject to the wrath of God, the condemnation of God. Children of wrath. And God's changed us to be children of God.

[31:22] Wow. You couldn't get furthest from one to the other, could you? To be subject to his wrath, his judgment, his condemnation, to be consigned to hell for eternity, for your sin.

[31:35] Or to be a child of God. Ransomed, redeemed, made his own, brought into his family, made his very closest and dearest. To be made a child of God.

[31:46] Friends, we can tap into almighty power. We're talking about power. We're talking about rulership. What is our Lord? What is his title? The Lord of hosts.

[31:57] It's interesting, this title, the Lord of hosts. This title, Lord of hosts, is used over 200 times. It's actually quite often used. Lord of hosts. What is a host?

[32:08] It's an army. We grasp that. We grasp that. The one who we serve is the Lord of hosts, of these heavenly armies. He's the commander-in-chief of the mightiest of mighty.

[32:23] He's the commander-in-chief of the mightiest military and supernatural force you could be reckoning with, with the angelic powers. And he is in command of the armies of heaven.

[32:36] The Lord of hosts. And here's the one who is our master, our Lord, our saviour, our father. And the Holy Spirit comes to us.

[32:47] We're talking Pentecostal power. The real. You know, we are all Pentecostal in the sense we're all post-Pentecost. But there's some Pentecostal that we know we're not today.

[32:59] But we are the real. We are the real people filled with the Spirit of God who can change this world. And it is by the Spirit. It says in Zechariah 4, verse 6, the Lord says to Zerubbabel, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit.

[33:16] No. It's by the Spirit of God we can see change in our world. It's by the Spirit of God we can be his witnesses. It's by the Spirit of God we can be effective believers.

[33:27] And the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ. It's Christ filling us as his channels to be spirit-filled men and women. You know, someone's saying, is your church spirit-filled?

[33:37] Yes! Amen! We are filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God. The Spirit of Christ. The Bible calls the Spirit the Spirit of judgment.

[33:48] The Spirit of burning. Isaiah 4, verse 4. And the Spirit of God is pictured as rivers of living water. Now a river can get choked. See down on the Gawla River, there's sections where there's an accumulation of branches and rubbish.

[34:07] And a river can get choked. Let's not grieve the Holy Spirit. Let's remove those blockages to our spiritual life. What can those blockages be? It's an individual question, isn't it?

[34:19] What's stopping me? Let's ask God. You ask him. Lord, what's stopping me from being more effective? What's stopping your flowing through me? What's choking that?

[34:31] Rivers of living water. What is it we're leaning on? Friends, we look to God, don't we? We look to him. We want to be a church that depends upon God.

[34:45] A church that believes in prayer. And revival is our personal need. Someone said this. When we look to man, we get what man can do. When we look to money, we get what money can do.

[34:57] When we look to organisation, we get what organisation can do. When we look to denominations, we get what denominations can do. But when we look to God, we get what God can do. That's what we need to do.

[35:09] We need to look unto God. Look unto him. Look unto him. With fervency. To be filled with the Holy Spirit. To empty ourselves. To be filled with all the fullness of God.

[35:19] Ephesians 3 verse 19. And it's revival on the inside of us. A change of rulership. That God takes control.

[35:32] It won't be about what I do. What the administration of this church does. But what the administrator of this church does.

[35:42] And wants of us. What he wants of us. Are we willing to pay the price? I talked this morning about kind of a holy disturbance. We need to disturbing.

[35:54] Because change, for change to happen, we've got to stop doing what we've always done. There's a sense where we get in a rut. I think that can happen spiritually, can't it?

[36:05] But we get stuck and stagnant and static. A man called Campbell Morgan says, We cannot organise revival. But we can set our sails to catch the wind from heaven.

[36:19] When God chooses to blow upon his people once again. Now the sun would kind of attempt to manufacture a revival. Or put the revival in the calendar. Look, we've got a revival in February.

[36:30] On the 2nd or whatever it be. As if we can plan a revival. But God is the one who orchestrates revival. And he orchestrates it as his spirit chooses.

[36:40] We've just got to adjust the sails. And catch the wind. Because the spirit speaks, the word spirit is the word wind. There's a sense where we've got to catch the breeze.

[36:51] And go with God. In the power of his spirit. And in the power of his word. This is a word of God. It's the word of power. There's convicting power here.

[37:03] There's cleansing power. There's converting power. And it's transforming. Of lives. And it still is today. Friends, we've been promised God's mighty power. And even in a world filled with mockers and scoffers.

[37:16] And those who would get detoured by false signs and wonders. We've got the word of God. The living, active, powerful word of God.

[37:32] In a world filled with unbelief. In a world where many would come and run to the shelter of the refuge of lies. The Bible speaks about some who go to a refuge of lies.

[37:43] They go to falsehood. They go to false doctrine. They go to false teachers. They go to false prophets. But we can know the truth. The word of God. Jesus says, And you shall know the truth.

[37:55] And the truth shall make you free. He says, If the Son therefore make you free, you shall be free indeed. What a blessing. Friends, today, as we consider these things.

[38:07] I'm talking about change. We've seen some bad change. There's bad change happening all around. It's bad change and it's getting badder. The change agents would steer this world.

[38:17] And they are steering this world. They're setting the agenda. And it's a hellward agenda. It's an agenda that's taking many to hell. But we are counter-cultural.

[38:28] We are the people of God. And God has enabled us. He's not given us a spirit of fear. But of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1 verse 7. We can know a real fearlessness.

[38:43] And I'm touching on some themes we talked about this morning. But we're facing persecution. That's the kind of change that's ahead of us, I put to you. I don't think it's going to get easier for us to, individually and corporately, to be a sold-out, Bible-believing, Christ-honouring church.

[39:04] A people of God who love Him and are sold out for Christ. I think it's going to get harder for people like us. But God has not given us a spirit of fear.

[39:15] Power. A love. A sound mind. And rather we should be all out. There's some crazy people who print some challenging t-shirts with slogans that will just confront people with Bible truth.

[39:31] And sometimes it takes some gumption to put such a garment on, doesn't it? But shouldn't we be about his work? Friends, we've talked about these changes.

[39:42] And lastly, there's a change I put to you that is a change that is happening moment by moment, from glory to glory, from glory to glory.

[39:54] It's sanctification. It's a change that happens on the inside of us. He's converted us. He's converted us. We're saved. S-A-V-E-D. Secured. Heaven bound.

[40:05] But we're also getting sanctified. We're sanctified. It's an ongoing work. Such that we're no longer the same. That's the change that's the change that he's making. And it's a change by change by change.

[40:16] Until the perfect day, from glory to glory to glory to glory. And it's likened to the potter and the clay of Jeremiah's day, where the potter is working and manufacturing and moulding and shaping.

[40:31] He's shaping you. You're not the same as you were yesterday and the month before and the year before that. Will we be as clay? Will we be as clay in the potter's hands?

[40:42] Of some it says they're hard-hearted. They're stiff-necked. They always resist God's spirit. Acts 7.51. Let's not be in their number. Amen? Let's not be stiff-necked.

[40:53] It's kind of a bit painful being stiff-necked, isn't it? Let's be soft-necked. Let's be willing to bear the yoke. Let's have that humility that will bow our neck to Christ.

[41:07] We'll be made more like Jesus. And when we're made more like Jesus, we can impact our world. It says in 2 Corinthians 3.18, we can impact lives in an everlasting way.

[41:17] It says, but we all with an open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord. It's like there's this kind of murky window pane we're trying to look through. We've got this looking after the glory of the Lord.

[41:33] And it says we changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Thank God he's doing a work. Amen? The work of the Spirit.

[41:44] And it's a work in human hearts, in human lives. And it's a changing from glory to glory. If only we can have that sensitivity. Lord, change me.

[41:54] Change my heart. Change me. Change me from glory to glory. Even as by your own Spirit, by the Spirit of the Lord, changed into the same image. His own image.

[42:06] Change me from glory. Victory comes at a cost. The power is the cost to the power. He's calling out a people for his name.

[42:17] He's calling out a people, separating the people from the world and unto himself. He says, come out from among them and be separate. And touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you.

[42:28] It's the work of sanctification. Brother, sister, there's some things. Touch not the unclean thing. make that decision. I'm not going to touch it.

[42:40] If it's questionable, I won't touch it. I won't go near it. I'll be separated unto him. Holiness unto the Lord.

[42:54] That is my slogan. That is my motto. That is my life goal. To be a sanctified people. Saints, a people made holy. And friends, to wrap up, that tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5.23, Paul tells the saints, he says in Thessalonica, the very God of peace sanctify you.

[43:14] Holy. As in W-H-O-L-L-Y. The whole of you. All of you. Sanctify the whole of you. Holy. And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[43:32] Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. The very God of peace sanctify you wholly. Now, when we were talking with these well-meaning people at the door, they were saying the righteous will inherit the earth.

[43:54] The Bible does say the righteous will enter into life eternal. How are we made righteous? Now, these ones, we were kind of talking further with them and basically they were saying, well, if we obey this and obey that and do this and do that, we might be considered worthy of heaven.

[44:13] We might be considered righteous by our own works, effectively. The Bible says not. Sorry, that woke you up.

[44:23] Not by works. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done. It's not by that. Now, these ones, they sadly, they're barking up the wrong tree. They've gone off on this way out detour as if you can make yourself righteous.

[44:37] No. He must do the work. He must. He must. His work. His spirit. His righteousness. Not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.

[44:50] Notice, it's interesting, the phrase, his righteousness. And the Bible talks about that in Isaiah 61, the sense of the robe of righteousness. His righteousness covers us in that sense where when Jesus fills us and we're in Christ, he wraps himself around us such that people, the Father sees Christ in you, over you, his robe of righteousness, such that despite our inadequacy, despite our failings and feeble flesh, he sees Christ, he sees the robe of his righteousness covering us, the garments, he has closed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.

[45:39] It's his righteousness. Are these ones that think, oh, the righteous will inherit the earth and it's about what we do, do, do? No. It's about what he has done. It's what he has done.

[45:51] It's not about try, try, try by some ladder of good works. It's trusting what he has done. It's the finished work. That's what we need. Friends, today, I urge you, if you're uncertain that heaven is your home, you're thinking, I want this, I want God to change me, it's not about you turning over a new leaf, it's not about you making some, doing some act or ritual, you know, I don't have some holy water to sprinkle on you here today or I don't have some holy smoke to waft over you or some incantation, some mantra to get you to parrot after me.

[46:29] It's between you and God this evening. It's between you and him. Are you wanting him? Do you want him? Do you want more of him? Are you willing to pay the price? It's come to the cross.

[46:41] It's come to the end of yourself. It's come to your knees. It's humble yourself. It's seek after his righteousness. I urge you today, there's a good change and it's conversion.

[46:52] It's conversion. Your life will never be the same and he's in the life-changing business. He always has been and he ever will be and he can change your life and keep on changing such that you're going from glory to glory to glory.

[47:06] Your Christian life is ongoing and it's ever upwards and onwards and heavenwards because Christ is in you by his grace. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that your word tells us that you are the very God of peace.

[47:20] You can sanctify us. You can make us a holy people from the inside out from top to toe. Lord, all of us to the whole of us body, soul, spirit.

[47:31] Lord, we thank you for that spiritual work. That's what we need. Lord God, we don't want to be a church that manufactures or make beliefs but we want the real.

[47:43] We want the real power from on high. Lord, help us to be such people that will seek your word, the power of your word, the power of your spirit that will be used as vessels for your glory, as channels for you to work in and through that you will be glorified in your church.

[48:00] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.