SPEAKER_00: Uh for those that uh weren't here uh three weeks ago when I really talked about how do you how do you how do you make the hard change in yourself because we can always see the faults in other people but seeing the faults in ourselves seeing the failings in our in our own life and then how do you how do you change that?
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to change it in the in the first place uh as well?
SPEAKER_00: And one of the problems will be that sometimes our failings we've had them so long that you almost grow comfortable with them, you know, and and you'll hear people say somebody will rip somebody in two with a acidic tongue or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll hear them say, Ah, that's just Michael, you know, that's just Amber, that's just Callum, that's just whatever, that's just and people have have carried their their their feelings or perhaps it's a case of you know something.
SPEAKER_00: I really messed up in 1984.
SPEAKER_00: That's alright.
SPEAKER_00: Is that you, Robert?
SPEAKER_00: Are you okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's fine.
SPEAKER_00: As long as everything's okay, that's the main thing.
SPEAKER_00: The uh his family looking for him, probably.
SPEAKER_00: The um you know, I I messed up or somebody did something to me in 1984, and I've I've carried it for so so long that it's it's uh it's just there now, and I I'll never go over it, I'll never be able to deal with it, I'll never cope with it, uh, I'll never never be able to learn to live with it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and you kind of give up a little bit in life in terms of that sometimes because you've carried it for so long, it's difficult to change, but sometimes because you've carried it for so long, it becomes part of your identity.
SPEAKER_00: As I say, they're just a cash is Michael, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And and so to change it is very, very difficult because it you almost feel as though you're you're lying to yourself, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I'm always the the the the one that's got the the smart alacancer or I'm I'm the class clown or whatever it would uh it would be.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not only that the fact that it becomes your identity, sometimes there's a payoff that comes with it, or you're rewarded with it.
SPEAKER_00: The person that shouts the loudest that gets angry at work always seems to get their way.
SPEAKER_00: And if that person gets their way, there's a reward for that.
SPEAKER_00: And if that behavior is rewarded, it'll be repeated.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, then people are saying, Do you know something?
SPEAKER_00: This is how I've coping with life, this is how I'm, this is how I survive at work or whatever it would be.
SPEAKER_00: And if you get a payoff or a reward with it, then because of that, it's almost like he said, I'm gonna continue to do it, and that's why many, you know, the old story of the school bully, the school bully is the school bully until somebody smacks him in the jaw, you know, and then he's not the school bully anymore because you know there's no payoff, there's no reward with it at all.
SPEAKER_00: And started three weeks ago just by saying that there are four things I think in scripture that help you make the hard changes in your own life.
SPEAKER_00: And the one that we dealt with three weeks ago was simply knowing the truth and facing the truth, learning the truth and facing the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And most of us know what's what we'd want to change in our lives, and we know that it's not Christ-like, it's not whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But having to face up to it is is difficult.
SPEAKER_00: And what I said back then was nearly all self-defeating behaviors are based on a lie, a lie that somebody's told you, or a lie that you've told yourself for whatever reason.
SPEAKER_00: So the fact is that you'll never apply for college or university because your mother or your father told you you'll never achieve anything.
SPEAKER_00: You're not as good as your brother, you're not as good as your sister, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, college and university, that's where brain boxes, you're a little bit just average, you know, don't bother, don't bother doing that.
SPEAKER_00: Or even the fact that do you know something you you've you've messed up in life or forever, and when Michael talks about God loves you, he's talking generally, he's not talking specifically, he's not talking specifically to you or whatever, because you know you've let God down this way, that way, the next way.
SPEAKER_00: You you're not a look at yourself, you're not a great advert for to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And because you believe that lie, then your actions are based on all of all of that.
SPEAKER_00: And what I said is where you'll find the truth is in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: So, what I want to do just quickly this morning is really deal with the last three points that I would have scribbled out a little while ago about how do you make a lasting personal change when it when it's hard in your life, when you're saying, Do you know something?
SPEAKER_00: There's an aspect of my life that I want to make sure is more Christ-like going forward.
SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians chapter 4, verses 21 to 27, or some of it reads as follows Since you have heard all about Jesus and have learned the truth that is in him, throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes.
SPEAKER_00: You must put on your new nature, because you are a new person created in God's likeness, righteous, holy, and true.
SPEAKER_00: So put away all falsehood and speak truth to your neighbor, because we belong to each other.
SPEAKER_00: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a mighty foothold, leading to a stronghold to your enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure God will bless that.
SPEAKER_00: It's the NLT version.
SPEAKER_00: So number two is simply this, and we touched upon it in January.
SPEAKER_00: Lasting change requires new thinking.
SPEAKER_00: It's been said before that you aren't what you think you are, but what you think you become.
SPEAKER_00: I'll say that again, that you aren't what you think you are, but what you think you become.
SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians 4 23 it says that there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes.
SPEAKER_00: Where does all of that happen?
SPEAKER_00: It happens in your mind, it happens in your thought life and whatever.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you change the way you act by changing the way you feel, and you change the way you feel by changing how you think or what you believe, and where most self-help books fail is simply this they jump straight in about changing how you feel.
SPEAKER_00: If you feel better about yourself, then you'll be able to change your life or or forever.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible is different from nearly all of these self-help books because it says, listen, you need to change the way you think, you need to change what you believe, and by doing that, that will change how you feel about any given situation, and because of that, it will change how you act.
SPEAKER_00: So it becomes from sort of how you think to what you believe to how you feel to how you act.
SPEAKER_00: And most self-help books will deal with the second part of that, and that's why self-help books help for a little bit, but they won't they won't bring lasting change in your life.
SPEAKER_00: There's a Bible word for that process, and you'll know it, but but we uh we apply it in a very, very narrow definition, and the world is repentance, because we think to ourselves very, very often about repentance is a case of I've disobeyed God, I'm sorry for it, and I go and ask for forgiveness for it, and then I move on with my life having changed, uh, or hopefully changing my behaviour pattern or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And the Greek word is metanoia, uh, so is uh meta is just change, uh, and noia is the mind, uh, and it's really just sort of saying that repentance is is a changing of your mind, is a turning around of your uh of your mind.
SPEAKER_00: It does apply obviously in uh you know coming to Christ first of all, uh accepting as your savior, turning, saying asking God for forgiveness for your sins and turning uh and walking uh with him.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but in terms of that, Philippines 2 verse 5 says, let the same mind and attitude be in you which was in Christ Jesus, let the same mind and attitude be in you which was in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you just live your life the rest of your life, just trying to do that, it's a full-time job.
SPEAKER_00: Let the same mind and attitude be in you which was in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What was the last argument you had with somebody?
SPEAKER_00: What was the last argument you had with somebody when you were in the right?
SPEAKER_00: And then think to yourself, did I have the same mind and attitude that Christ had?
SPEAKER_00: And you know what you're but I was right.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Was your attitude like Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Even when you're in the right, even if you're in the the wrong, you know, you you begin when you have that mind and attitude of Christ, you begin to think like He does.
SPEAKER_00: How would how would Jesus act in in that way?
SPEAKER_00: How would Jesus be in that way?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I and you you see your own defects in a in a in a different light is as well.
SPEAKER_00: And in a future message, uh I'll deal with it in detail, so I will uh but just as a as a teaser, I suppose, you know, often your defect is a strength that's misused.
SPEAKER_00: People that get angry sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: People get angry, they have a great desire to see justice done in this world or justice done in a situation, and they hate injustice.
SPEAKER_00: So when they see injustice being done, it frustrates them.
SPEAKER_00: When they can't bring justice into that situation, that that frustration bubbles up and often becomes red mist, and before you know it, they've got their baseball bat wanting to take heads off and and forever.
SPEAKER_00: And the trouble is that that anger overspills.
SPEAKER_00: But it's actually that defect is actually the misuse of actually a strength.
SPEAKER_00: If it was properly channeled, for example.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, there are evil people around, I understand that.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm talking within a church circle when most people are trying to live a godly Christian life very, very often.
SPEAKER_00: It's a defect, it's there.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody likes to be loved, everybody likes to be secure, everybody likes to be respected.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're in an environment where you don't feel loved, you don't feel respected, and you don't feel secure.
SPEAKER_00: Most guys, young boys, what do they do?
SPEAKER_00: They're the class clown at school or the class clown at worker, whatever it would be, and it's to it's to cover up something that's missing in their life.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll deal with all of that, but God has given you a strength.
SPEAKER_00: God has given you a gift and whatever, and you you you want to be able to use that properly.
SPEAKER_00: And if God has given you the strength, you you need to see the detail level and you need to see the big picture level of it as well.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes my defects are unmet needs, if I can call it that, uh, I suppose.
SPEAKER_00: And we're there to meet the needs of others.
SPEAKER_00: Those needs may be legitimate, may absolutely be uh legitimate.
SPEAKER_00: It's just that you're attempting to get them met in the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: And when that doesn't happen, then it's a case of do you know something that friendship dies.
SPEAKER_00: You know, or listen, I'll just go and find another church, I'll go and find a better pastor or or something like that there, you know, or just like whatever it would be.
SPEAKER_00: I don't get my way, the toys are at the Prague and I'm offsky, and God says, That's not the mind and attitude that you're supposed to have.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody has a need to be loved, everybody has a need to be valued, everybody needs to feel secure, and if and if you don't, you know, listen, you throw yourself at people the wrong way, you seek for attention, you seek for recognition, you seek for affirmation in all of the wrong places just to try and control things and forever.
SPEAKER_00: So, in terms of that, the first principle that brings about lasting change is learning and facing the truth, and number two is lasting change requires new thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Number three is simply this.
SPEAKER_00: I think in the scripture, lasting change requires community and coaching, if I can keep it with the C's, or community and mentoring.
SPEAKER_00: And again, it's something that we'll we'll deal with going forward.
SPEAKER_00: There's a a church with Alpha and some of the other things that the guys are uh the guys, guys and girls are are doing.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is very, very clear that you cannot face everything that you will have to face in life on your own.
SPEAKER_00: You know that the Bible says that we are family, we are the body of Christ, we're all different parts.
SPEAKER_00: And I say all of the time, my nose is fairly prominent.
SPEAKER_00: I can probably live without my nose.
SPEAKER_00: May not look any better, but I can live without my my nose.
SPEAKER_00: It's prominent, not really that important.
SPEAKER_00: My heart is not prominent, but it's vital, it's absolutely vital to keep me to keep me going.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we can get ourselves into that position where we don't do anything.
SPEAKER_00: Now, last night we had a great night for those volunteers at the church who were able to attend that we could honor them and simply say thank you to them.
SPEAKER_00: And the number of volunteers that we have and people that help out in various things, but you're not going to get spiritually healthy on your own.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the way God designed you.
SPEAKER_00: You we are better together, and there are some problems in life that are just so big that you can't tackle them on your own anyway, and you need a team around about you, you need expertise to if you're going to build a house, you know, and you're a joiner, you need electricians, you need you know plumbers, you need whatever it is, you need surveyors, you need an architect, you need somebody that's good at planning and all of that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And some problems in life are just so big.
SPEAKER_00: So you need people in your life who will support you, who will say that they'll be there for you and they will be there for you.
SPEAKER_00: Remember many, many years ago reading a weefridge magnet thing, and it said that those people in life who want you to succeed will help you succeed.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how you you can work out the difference that you can.
SPEAKER_00: But the people that will say, I'll be there for you, and they're not there for you, and the people that say, Do you know something, Bethany, Josh, I want you guys to succeed in God's calling in your life here and whatever.
SPEAKER_00: If all you simply do is say that and it's lip service, I want you to do well, I want you to succeed, I want you to succeed.
SPEAKER_00: But there should be people in your life, trusted people, maybe only one, maybe a couple, doesn't have to be a hundred out there, who are there, who are constantly helping you, making sure that you you will succeed because you will need support.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you don't have to tell everybody where you struggle in life, but you do need to have at least one person that God has placed in your life that you can trust, that you can be gut level honest with and say, Do you know something?
SPEAKER_00: See, at the moment I'm just struggling.
SPEAKER_00: See, at the moment, this just seems so unfair.
SPEAKER_00: See at the moment I'm praying and I'm looking for direction, and God's not giving me direction in my life at the moment, or whatever it would be in terms of that.
SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians chapter 4, it says there, put away all falsehood and tell your your neighbor the truth because we belong to each other.
SPEAKER_00: That that word belong.
SPEAKER_00: Your neighbour's not your next door neighbour, your neighbour is that trusted person or people that God has put in your in your your life.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're serious about changing and growing and resetting your life, rebooting your life, there are there are some issues in your life, some fearful changes that you'll have to make in your in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and to have somebody next to you where you can say, Do you know something?
SPEAKER_00: Say anytime, but any time that you think that I speak to somebody in a way that disrespects them, would you be there as my accountability partner?
SPEAKER_00: Would you be there?
SPEAKER_00: And listen, you don't have to pull me up in front of anybody, you don't have to all you've got to just say is just say, Michael, or excuse me, just a code word or something at all.
SPEAKER_00: That'll be wee trigger for me just to catch myself on and to think, or whatever it would it would be, you need to be gut-level honest with even just a uh a couple of people.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 28, verse 13 says this you will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins, in other words, your faults, your mistakes, your patterns.
SPEAKER_00: Usually it's stuff that everybody sees.
SPEAKER_00: You know, listen, just what he's a hot head, he's got anger management issues there, but we go around trying to think with the calmest guy in the world and whatever it would be or or that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: We just pretend we don't like to.
SPEAKER_00: He says you will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins, confess them, give them up, and then God will show you mercy.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we waste a lot of time, don't we, trying to cover things up.
SPEAKER_00: How are you?
SPEAKER_00: I'm fine.
SPEAKER_00: How are you really?
SPEAKER_00: I'm really fine, or whatever it would be.
SPEAKER_00: And we we try to keep that as a mask on, or or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: We're inside, we are desperate.
SPEAKER_00: The the number of young men recently in uh in the world who have who have taken their their life, uh I've had the the the sad, sad privilege of conducting uh funeral services for guys between 40 and and 55, you know, and it's amazing the number of people that say I I just wish, I just wish he'd spoken to me.
SPEAKER_00: And I've never said this to anybody, but what it makes me think is how many people have I got in my life?
SPEAKER_00: How many people have God put me alongside where I think they can speak to me, but they can't, for some reason or other.
SPEAKER_00: And I always think to myself, when people say, 'I just wish he had spoken to me,' and I think to myself, I wonder why he didn't.
SPEAKER_00: And is there anything like that in my life?
SPEAKER_00: It's never appropriate to have that discussion with him, but it causes me to think or or or whatever it is, you know, sometimes our biggest hurdle to holiness is a desire to look good, rather than just be honest, rather than being finding a small group or or people that are going to love you unconditionally.
SPEAKER_00: We're blessed in this church with people who are like that, who say, Do you know something?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to succeed, and I'll help you succeed, and I'll love you unconditionally, you know, and there's nothing you can do that will cause God to love you anymore, and there's nothing you can do that will cause God to love you any less.
SPEAKER_00: And that should be the same benchmark for me, it should be the same benchmark for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: That you won't do anything that's going to impress me any more than I already think of you.
SPEAKER_00: And no matter what you come and say to me, listen, I messed up here, Michael.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to think any less of you.
SPEAKER_00: I'll certainly help you.
SPEAKER_00: So well, in terms of that, and that goes for others as well.
SPEAKER_00: But you'll never succeed in life if you try to hide all of that.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 6, verse 2 says, by helping each other with your problems, you truly obey the law of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I might be wrong on this, but I think.
SPEAKER_00: There's 58 one another in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: 58 one another's.
SPEAKER_00: You might find 59 or whatever it would be.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible says in the New Testament, it says, love one another, help one another, serve one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, live, love one another, bear one another, bear one another's burdens, or whatever it would be, 58 times.
SPEAKER_00: I just think if the New Testament is saying something like the one another 58 times, there's a message that somebody's trying to get through to is for there.
SPEAKER_00: So a great way you can say to yourself, for the week that lies ahead, for the month that lies ahead, for the year that lies ahead.
SPEAKER_00: How do I do that?
SPEAKER_00: How do I encourage one another?
SPEAKER_00: Who will I pray for?
SPEAKER_00: One another.
SPEAKER_00: Wednesday night we've got a prayer meeting.
SPEAKER_00: There's a prayer meeting on a Tuesday, it's Angle Tuesday, there's a prayer meeting at 10 o'clock here in the churches as well.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it requires community, and the best place to get that is the church.
SPEAKER_00: But it also requires coaching or mentoring.
SPEAKER_00: Uh as I would say, uh Joshua had Moses to mentor him and to pass the baton uh on to him.
SPEAKER_00: The twelve disciples are eventually the twelve eleven, and then the twelve uh were coached by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, our young pastor, uh, had Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and in Ephesians 4, 11 to 13, that's why it says it says, Christ gifted some of us to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, so that his people would learn to serve and his body would grow strong.
SPEAKER_00: This will continue until we're united in our faith and understanding of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Then we'll be mature, just as Christ, and we'll be completely like him.
SPEAKER_00: That's the start of transformation.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you see, the minute you accept that Jesus Christ was sent from heaven as a sacrifice to be born in a manger, to live as an example, to die on a cross, to pay a spiritual debt that we could never pay, to be raised to new life, then to be ascended back to heaven, where he sits on the right hand side of God as our intercessor, as our solicitor, as our advocate, uh making pleadings on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: The minute you the word for that is justification, and it comes from an old carpentry term in the Bible in the Bible, a carpentry, and it means alignment, and it really means it's it's right in alignment, therefore, my life is in a through Jesus Christ, my life is aligned with God.
SPEAKER_00: After that, what I'm supposed to be doing is I'm a work in progress, and I'm supposed to become more Christ-like.
SPEAKER_00: That's sanctification, and through that process of sanctification, which will continue until I breathe my last and I take my first breath in heaven, so so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: That work in progress, that sanctification is where you see transformation in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And having a coach, a mentor, and they don't have to be perfect, all they need to be is somebody who's a lap ahead of you in life.
SPEAKER_00: Simple as that.
SPEAKER_00: I would pastor people who, for the first time, are dealing with a bereavement.
SPEAKER_00: It might be a parent, it might be a spouse, it might be a sibling, it might be a child.
SPEAKER_00: The first real close death that they've had to deal with.
SPEAKER_00: And the best people to be able to walk a lap of the track of life with people that are in that situation, it's people who have walked that already.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure I've I've said before, I remember my dad's funeral folks shaking my hand and saying he's in a far better place, you wouldn't wish him back, and all of that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And I know my dad is in a far better place, and I wouldn't wish him back ill by any means whatsoever.
SPEAKER_00: But see, by the time the 14th or 15th, one of my mates had said that to me, I was looking at my baseball back and saying, you know, and then I thought to myself, I wonder how many times I've walked past folk and said, I'm sorry for your lost, listen, he's in a better place and whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And it's what we say.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody means anything bad by that whatsoever.
SPEAKER_00: But then one person obviously saw something happening, changing in my life through the grieving process and drew alongside me.
SPEAKER_00: And that person had lost their father not long before I had lost my dad.
SPEAKER_00: And see the comfort and the encouragement that I got from realizing that some of the feelings I had were just normal, it was just part of the process of grief or or or whatever it would be.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes God places people in church and you think, why am I here?
SPEAKER_00: And six months later you're sitting next to somebody who said, You know something I'm struggling with.
SPEAKER_00: You know, all of my days I've worried about money.
SPEAKER_00: Uh listen, I just hope nobody ever sees me going in or coming out of the bookies or that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I've got a separate, you know, whatever it would be, and there's somebody who just happens to be in church, and when you're gut-wrenching honest with them, they say, Do you know something?
SPEAKER_00: I struggle with gambling, or I struggle with that addiction.
SPEAKER_00: I struggled with whatever anger, I struggled with whatever it was for years, and lo and behold, God's got them there.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Listen, here's what helped me.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how I dealt with it, here's how I dealt with separation, here's how I dealt with whatever it would be, whatever the situation would be, and it's search people like that out.
SPEAKER_00: God will bring them into your path, but sometimes it's only in the honest conversations that you have that somebody says, Do you know something?
SPEAKER_00: I've never been in that situation, but I know somebody that has.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm I'm I'm not a dad in the natural sense, I'm not a parent, so I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: And when people come, I know some folk in here, I know other folk as well, who are great parents.
SPEAKER_00: They're just absolutely fantastic parents.
SPEAKER_00: And I can give generic advice on parenting and whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm a perfect parent because there's not many kids.
SPEAKER_00: But there are people that I know that I can say, if somebody's struggling, parent kids, listen, here's somebody, go and grab a coffee and speak to them.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be useful, they'll help you.
SPEAKER_00: And we all need that in life.
SPEAKER_00: Even myself as a pastor, I rely on folks, some of whom you know, some of whom you don't know, uh, when it comes to things, that that spiritual coach, that friend, that whatever, that they don't have to be perfect, just make sure they're one step ahead of you and they've walked in your in your shoes, that that they are they are godly.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I always say to young folk, folk will always say, I met a new boyfriend or something like he's a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And my my answer to that was great as a Christian, is you're godly.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a difference between you saying I'm a Christian but being godly.
SPEAKER_00: Uh huge, huge difference in that.
SPEAKER_00: And you want somebody alongside you that can help you who's a godly man or a godly woman.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, very, very quickly, and I can deal with this just in about two minutes before we get around the Lord's table, is simply this lasting change requires the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Lasting change.
SPEAKER_00: I will never be able to do it all on my own.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how strong I am, no matter how mentally strong, how intelligent I am, how what no matter the hours that I've got or whatever it is, I will not see lasting change in my life.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way that I could never climb my way to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The only way I get into heaven is because Christ came down, heaven came down.
SPEAKER_00: I can climb all I want and I would never get into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But because heaven came down, my passport is stamped.
SPEAKER_00: And in the same way, and I understand when you talk about God, we've all got a concept of God, and we can park that and we're okay with it.
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to Jesus, we're okay with that.
SPEAKER_00: We read about him in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, whatever it would be, through the Bible, we're okay with that.
SPEAKER_00: He was born, he was crucified, he was raised to life again, and now he's ascended up to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So we're okay with that.
SPEAKER_00: But the minute you come to talk about the Holy Spirit, sometimes that's a bit spooky, that's a wee bit out there, that's a wee bit cultish, that's a wee bit whatever it would be.
SPEAKER_00: And to me, it's very, very simple.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I've done my job and I need to go back to heaven, but life is difficult for you, Michael, and you there'll be things in your life that you do not have the power, the ability to change.
SPEAKER_00: So you need power outside of yourself, you need something bigger than yourself that's going to be able to help you change, and that's the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Simple as that.
SPEAKER_00: The word dynamis is used.
SPEAKER_00: All those folk that are my generation above, remember from the wee bike light that you used to pedal and the wee light, come on, it was a dynamo, power by dynamo.
SPEAKER_00: Or it's where we get the word dynamite from.
SPEAKER_00: There's a power.
SPEAKER_00: And what the Bible says is that when you're born again, when you become a Christian, there's a deposit of the Holy Spirit that's placed in you.
SPEAKER_00: Now it is it's like a muscle.
SPEAKER_00: So is it you need to be able to exercise that for it to grow and whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And I had a conversation with a couple of folks just the other day there, and in church life, we will teach how to do that going forward, uh, and how you can draw upon the power of the Holy Spirit, how you can exercise that muscle in faith and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: That's not for today by any means at all.
SPEAKER_00: But there are some changes in your life that only God through the Holy Spirit can bring about in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Only God, through the power of his Holy Spirit, can turn somebody who's prejudiced and bigoted and racist into somebody who's loving, who's non-prejudiced, who's not bigoted.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes only the touch of God can change something in your life, which turns somebody from a hater to a lover.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's only the touch of God through the Holy Spirit who changes your life from having no hope, being told, listen, it looks like stage four cancer, to be able to have a smile on your face and saying, But now I've got hope.
SPEAKER_00: Now I've found something.
SPEAKER_00: It's that change, it's the power of the Holy Spirit that's that's in you.
SPEAKER_00: Zechariah 4.6 says this this is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You will not succeed by your own strength or power, but by my spirit, says the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and sometimes the hard part about that is it takes time.
SPEAKER_00: We want things to change like that.
SPEAKER_00: But God says, Listen, you want you need patience in your life, as they say on whatever it is, heaven almighty or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: You want patience in your life rather than just waving a wand and giving you patience, I'll give you the opportunity to grow in patience, to exercise patience.
SPEAKER_00: And when you we get to the end of your tether and you think, I can't, I can't do any more.
SPEAKER_00: I I'm I'm ready for giving up.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes God allows you to get to that stage because we're so selfish, we're so stubborn ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, That's fine, Michael.
SPEAKER_00: You ought to try it yourself, you try it.
SPEAKER_00: But see, when you failed and failed and failed and failed and failed, and eventually says, You know something I give up?
SPEAKER_00: That's when you'll see my Holy Spirit at work, and it's a reminder there.
SPEAKER_00: We say, Michael, just give up quickly, just give up immediately and say, Let God have his way.
SPEAKER_00: And then 1 Corinthians 3, verse 18 says, As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the Apostle Paul says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
SPEAKER_00: Slightly my paraphrase of that isn't I can do all things, it's I can master all things.
SPEAKER_00: So the changes you need to make in your own life, that you think even facing up to making changes in your own life, your own attitude, your own behaviors, even just facing up to that, and you think that I can't even look at that in the mirror, Michael.
SPEAKER_00: Where am I how am I going to be able to do that?
SPEAKER_00: Where am I going to get the strength to do that?
SPEAKER_00: God, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And it says in the scripture that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is alive in you, is alive in me.
SPEAKER_00: We need to exercise it, we need to use it as a muscle, we need to grow it and all that.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, We will we will do all of all of that.
SPEAKER_00: How serious do you want this?
SPEAKER_00: How serious are you about changing your life for the better?
SPEAKER_00: Not just for the better for you, but the better for your family, the better for other church members, the better for whoever.
SPEAKER_00: Because it impacts like dropping that stone in the pond, and the ripple effects touch more lives than you will ever think of.
SPEAKER_00: How serious are you about finally dealing with those parts of your personality that irritate you as well as irritate people next to you or whatever?
SPEAKER_00: How serious are you?
SPEAKER_00: How interested are you in evicting fears out of your life that you've carried for years, for evicting worries out of your life, but getting rid of the self-centeredness, the selfishness out of your life, or the laziness, or the procrastination.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'll do it tomorrow, I'll do it tomorrow, I'll do it next time, I'll do it when the weather's better, I'll do it when it's this, that, and the next thing, or the excuse making for being jealous of others, or being angry about others, or whatever, or even just getting rid, evicting the insecurity out of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've built a wall round about me that looks as though I'm super strong, but inside I am so fragile.
SPEAKER_00: You know, parts of my life are I'm holding on with the skin of my teeth, or I'm holding on my fingernails, I'm holding on by a thread.
SPEAKER_00: And if people saw the real me or whatever, those four steps, learning the truth, facing the truth, be able to that new way of thinking, just the same attitude and the same mind of Christ living in you.
SPEAKER_00: And I it takes time, I get that, but it's a journey we need to be mindful of, developing as we go along.
SPEAKER_00: Being part of that community, making sure you're you're here on a Wednesday night for for prayer meeting or small groups or whatever, because that's the conversations you're going to have.
SPEAKER_00: Being able to develop friendships within church and whatever, finding somebody who can be a mentor or a coach to you.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, it's not a mentor, it doesn't have to be a mentor for life.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it can just be for a season of your life that you need that person to walk through that that season of life with or forever.
SPEAKER_00: And then, as I say, that that lasting change undoubtedly requires the Holy Spirit, and that is the biggest single difference between the Bible and a self-help book.
SPEAKER_00: Between the Bible and a training manual or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Because even if you get to those places where you think to yourself, I don't have the ability to change, I don't have the ability to be honest, to be gut-wrenchingly honest with whoever that they are.
SPEAKER_00: God in his grace and his mercy can touch your life if you let him with the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And he can do in a moment what man cannot do ever.
SPEAKER_00: Simple as that.
SPEAKER_00: And that in itself gives us hope.
SPEAKER_00: Those four steps from God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that I've said an awful lot.
SPEAKER_00: Even that little verse about having the same mind and attitude of Christ, even that in itself, you could probably preach a million sermons on it and still not really scratch the surface of what that means in forever.
SPEAKER_00: But my prayer this morning is that these four steps, or even one of them, whatever the next step is for you, you'll say, Do you know something?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to take that, I'm going to take hold of it, and I'm going to own it, and I'm going to do something about it in my life and allow God's Holy Spirit to strengthen you and be able to see transformation in your life and in the life of others.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just pray.