Do you want a life change?

There are some genetic changes we try to make in some cases to save a life.
One of those is a stem cell, bone marrow transplant, they are the serious ones,
They are very difficult, and many do not survive the transplant.

To start the process, you have to make a decision that you want a change in order to save a life.

That is a problem we face when we talk about allowing Jesus to change our genetic makeup. To often, people will not trust Jesus for the change because they don’t think they will die spiritually, even if they ever admit that they will die physically. Three main things are involved in this life change.

1. You decide that you need a transplant, a genetic change,

2. It is going to be painful, it will hurt to attempt it,

3. It will cost someone,

Christmas Offers Us A Change For Life

Christianity is not a creed; it is a life, a life to be lived again in us.

Do we need a change to live it?

Some life change just happens whether you like it, or want it.

You may remember the movie “City Slickers.” Comedian Billy Crystal plays the part of a bored baby boomer who sells radio advertising time. On the day he visits his son’s school to tell about his work along with other fathers, he suddenly lets loose a deadpan monologue to the bewildered youngsters in the class:

Value this time in your life, kids, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices. It goes by fast. When you’re a teenager, you think you can do anything and you do. Your twenties are a blur.

Thirties, you raise your family, you make a little money, and you think to yourself, “What happened to my twenties?”

Forties, you grow a little pot belly, you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud, one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother. Fifties, you have a minor surgery—you’ll call it a procedure, but it’s a surgery. Sixties, you’ll have a major surgery, the music is still loud, but it doesn’t matter because you can’t hear it anyway.

Seventies, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale. You start eating dinner at 2:00 in the afternoon, you have lunch around 10:00, breakfast the night before, spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate soft yogurt and muttering, “How come the kids don’t call? How come the kids don’t call?”

The eighties, you’ll have a major stroke, and you end up babbling with some Jamaican nurse who your wife can’t stand, but who you call mama.

Crystal then looks at the kids and asks, “Any questions?”

Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better. Richard Hooker

“For many people, change is more threatening than challenging. They see it as the destroyer of what is familiar and comfortable rather than the creator of what is new and exciting.” — Nido Qubein

Do we realize we have a gene defect, (all are born with sin) and would we like to change it?

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Romans 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God.12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one.

There are only two classes of people: the righteous (those who live for Jesus) and the unrighteous (those who don’t).

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. Romans 1:18

The problem with mankind is that we have the truth, but we will not look at it; instead, we suppress it. One way we suppress the truth is by not admitting that we have a defect.

John 5:40 Jesus said, you will not come to Me, that you might have life.

For life’s sake, we can experience a change.

1 Corinthians 6:11 And such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

God can change anyone, the power of Christmas can change anyone, even you and I.

Do you want to experience a life change?

Suppression of the truth is the central problem.

First, we ignore God. We don’t glorify him or give thanks to him. This is characteristic of our day in the way the media ignores God. We act as though he does not exist and has nothing to do with our world.

The second step in the process of suppressing truth is that we imitate God. We claim to be wise; we claim that we are able to handle all the problems of life and that they understand all that has happened in human affairs.

The third process by which we suppress truth is to choose substitute gods and to make God appear to be much less than he really is. By these means, we suppress the truth of God and have become godless.

In our human society, when the truth is suppressed, wickedness inevitably follows. When men lose God, they always lose themselves. They do not understand what is happening in human affairs and are not able to diagnose the sicknesses and problems that break out in society because we have lost God.

In his book, The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis says hell is made up of people who live at an infinite distance from each other.

That is the result of the loss of God in our life.

That is the condition of the rebellious people who display their enmity towards God and their suppression of the truth of God by flagrantly disobeying him, observing no standard, living as they please, and doing what they like.

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has showed it to them.20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 And such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

God can change anyone, the power of Christmas can change us

Submitting Our Life to Jesus for Change, Always Costs
Are we willing to pay the price?

Matthew19:21-22 Jesus said to him, “If you will be perfect, go and sell that you have, and give to the poor,
and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come and follow Me.” 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

Something awakened in this young man’s heart as he listened, so he got right to the point. He was direct, forthright, he came right out and asked: “How can I get what I need?”

Jesus said you have a lot going for you, however, you lack one thing, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.

The young man went away sorrowful, because he had a lot of money. He could see there was no way he could serve two masters. Jesus in that marvelous way of His, had pierced right to the heart of this young man’s life, right to the deep things of his spirit, and had shown him that he was owned by another god.

Christmas is about the choice to really live.

He saw it, caught a glimpse of it, and he wanted it.

He just didn’t want to pay the price in order to have it.

Eternal life is not just “living forever over there.” It is about a quality of life here and now. This rich young man had an emptiness within his spirit he could not fill. But he knew what Jesus offered could fill it, and he wanted it. He knew he had to give up the other in order to have this; he could not have both.

He had to make a choice.

Luke 14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sits not down first, and counts the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?

There is an ironic humor in the young man’s response: “He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” Would you go away sorrowful if you had great possessions?

This young man, who had everything that money and power and youth could give him, nevertheless had wanted something far more important. He saw it, caught a glimpse of it, wanted it — eternal life not just living forever, but a quality of life he knew he lacked, an emptiness within his spirit he could not fill.

But he knew this could fill it, and he wanted it. But he was sorrowful, because he also knew, at the words of Jesus, that he had to give up the other in order to have this; he could not have both. This is why he went away sorrowful, because he had great possessions.

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked
It is clear from the context that riches and money and wealth and affluence tend to destroy the qualities you must have in order to enter the kingdom of God.

Affluence creates a concern for secondary values. Rich people are not worried
about where their next meal is coming from; they worry about what it will taste like, and what the setting will be. Rich people are not concerned about whether they will have a roof over their head and clothing to wear; they are taken up with fashion and style and decor, and whether they are in the right mode or not.

They are not concerned about whether they worship God rightly or not, but whether they are in a beautiful building which pleases them aesthetically. Riches transfer their concern from the elementary, the necessary things, to the secondary things

This destroys simplicity in life

Christmas Offers New Life

With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

We can become less concerned about whether we worship God rightly or not, but whether we are in a beautiful building which pleases us aesthetically.

Anything that transfers our concern from the elementary, the necessary things,
(a relationship with Jesus) to the secondary things, destroys simplicity in life, and can hinder our
ability to see our need for God.