What About The Change??

I. Introduction A. The most controversial issue in the church is whether a Christian is authentic or living an

authentic life. B. Due to our sinful nature, we try to reason it out so preachers are legalistic, even to the

point of being hateful because of their issues. We as humans cannot know a person’s heart or the depths of God 100% so we are often taking a lot of things by faith. 1 Corinthians 13:12

C. The change is a common controversy because it is the work of God and as humans, we want to know people in relationships and “know” if a person is saved, which is impossible”. Many preachers preach a Jesus plus works gospel to make sure people are saved (The opposite tends to happen).

D. We all want people to be saved and go to heaven, but due to our sin nature, we want to control the situation rather than let go and let God. This is why many pastors preach fear based methods, and try to be too persuasive, because it elicits a response. There is no fear in love (1 John 4:18). They want to hammer their congregation and emotionally plead with them so they can be saved and live a godly life. They try to convict them and change them so they can “get it”, but that’s not how God wants us to act.

E. Due to the uncertainty, many people debate whether a person is saved or not instead of letting go and letting God. Such topics come up such as Once Saved, Always Saved, Losing Salvation, Bearing Fruit, etc, because of the uncertainty of a person being a true believer or not. This has been hotly debated for 2,000 years and it will never end until God comes and gets us. The church is split in all sorts of directions because of this.

F. The most controversial issue in the body of Christ stems from the authentic vs fake Christian debate. The core of Christianity is the Gospel, so the most important topics in Christianity is our salvation, Jesus, the Bible, because they wove our faith together.

II. Main DilemmaA. As described in the introduction, mankind’s sinful nature causes us to not understand

the change. Our sinfulness gets in the way of serving others with the love of God. Mankind’s pride causes them to not let go, and let God. We want to be Lord in situations rather than Jesus. The flesh is what Christians struggle with daily. We cannot understand things because we try to do things by might and power rather than by spirit. This is why pastors are often fruit inspectors and judge people based on their interpretation of a Christian. The problem is that no one can fully know if a person is saved. Only God knows. And God’s standard matters, not ours. Yes, we can determine people by their false teaching, bad fruit and yes, we can assume they are walking in the flesh more than the spirit. If a person does not believe in Christ, then they are not Christians. If they are Christians, but they are not living like it, then they probably are not Christians or not walking with God at a time. Yes, we can know false teachers and believers by their faith, which shows itself by its works. Faith always has corresponding actions.

B. Due to the sin nature (flesh) of mankind, mankind are often:1. Prideful (Proverbs 16:13)2. Judgmental (Romans 2:1-2) 3. Conceited (Romans 12:3)4. Condemning/Fault Finding (Matthew 7:1-5) 5. Hypocritical (Matthew 7:2) 6. Controlling (See Selfish)7. Selfish (Philippians 2:3-10)8. Fearful (1 John 4:18) 9. Worldly (James 4:4) 10. Revengeful, Hateful (1 John 3:15, Romans 12:17-21)11. Limited (1 Cor 13:12)12. List Goes On (Read Galatians 5:19-21)

This gets in the way of our service. We have to put to death the deeds of the flesh if we are going to be effective witnesses for God.

C. Many people are confused on the nature of Salvation. Often times, we start off by grace and then we are to get into works. People operate out of their beliefs so people have their own theories on how people are saved rather than the Bible. Some say it’s a one time event, while others, it’s a process. This confusion is one of the most clever tactics Satan uses against the church.

D. Many people expect others to be perfect, if not all. We all demand perfection because God demands perfection. So we hold others to such a standard we cannot keep ourselves. Its our hypocritical nature. We want A in others, because we do not have B. Perfectionism is usually the blueprint for legalism and no one can live up to it. This is why we condemn others and criticize others because we have an overexaggerated view of ourselves.

III. Solution A. Zechariah 4:6 “It is not by might, nor by power but by the spirit”B. Regeneration and Sanctification are works of the spirit, not the flesh. God does the

work, we just obey him. John 3, Romans 6, Galatians 3C. Salvation is Grace through Faith in all Stages. Colossians 2:6, Ephesians 2:8-10 D. When we just allow God to take over, and not try to control people and do things

ourselves, God can do greater things in us and people will be blessed. The flesh is too weak to sanctify us. Have faith in God. Romans 7-8.

E. The nature of salvation is both a one time event and a process. Many people confuse the two. There is nothing an unsaved person can do other than turn from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. They cannot turn from every sin. Yes, it’s remorse for sin, and Yes to God, but God does not expect us to come clean for him, he just wants us to trust in Jesus. All an unbeliever needs to do to get saved is to give their life to the creator, relinquishing ownership of their lives to God. It is a turn from sin to God

through Jesus Christ. A person realizes they are a sinner and deserving punishment, but when they come to God, they want their slate clean so they can live free from it. When a person is justified, they are reborn. It’s a new birth. This is a one time decision. They trusted in Jesus alone and God gave them his righteousness.

F. Now, Sanctification is the process of being free from the power of sin. Throughout the process, God is turning us away from our iniquities (Acts 3:26). This is where people get confused. Preachers do not want to acknowledge Salvation by grace because they feel “works” need to be illustrated. Grace works. When one puts faith in Jesus, it will result in a changed life. 1 John makes that clear. When a person is reborn, they are a new person, they cannot help being who they are. They just need to grow up in God so the new person can come out more and more. It is only by the spirit one can grow up in God. God commands us to grow in his grace and knowledge. So being a Christian is all about being who you are and doing what you do. Faith will produce works. Grace is sufficient, one does not have to balance grace and works so they can get to heaven.

G. Growth is a choice, bearing fruit is a choice. This is why it is impossible to distinguish a Christians from unbelievers because growth is a choice. We have to choose to walk by faith everyday. Everyday is a surrender to God. An unbeliever can walk and talk like a Christian, but have an unregenerate heart and a Christian can walk and talk like an unbeliever, but only because he is struggling.

H. Our Spiritual Lives are not different from our normal lives, they are one in the same. You are a spirit, you have a soul and you live in a body. Growth is a choice.

I. No one will be perfect until Jesus comes and we are not perfect. So we should not hold people to a high standard that we cannot even reach ourselves. Yes, we are to strive towards perfection, but the word there in the original text means, maturity. We are to become mature in our faith in God. Usually, people think a person is going to bear fruit 100% of the time, much of the time, but growth is one step at a time. It’s not like a person gets born again and boom, they bear fruit all the time and do things perfectly. Yes, there will be an evidence of a change, but that evidence will grow when the person grows in faith.

IV. What About the Hypocrites? A. We are not to judge anything before this time 1 Cor 4:5B. Hypocrite means trying to be someone you are not. There are two forms:

a. An unsaved person trying to act like a Christian b. A Christian not walking by the spirit

C. A Hypocrite is a misrepresentation of a person. It is in the nature of humans to want to see the results since they can only judge by what they see.

D. Many people tend to dismiss true biblical doctrines because others misrepresented it and people took it as reality (Such as Faith, Spiritual Gifts, Tithing, Giving, etc). We tend to be hypocritical, attacking others because we have issues. Many people do not want to be Christians because they do not act the way they should. The same can be said about any institution. Every walk of life has it’s hypocrites. It’s a common tactic people use. Some faith teacher misrepresents faith and the pastor refuses to talk on faith.

Someone tries to operate in the spirit through the flesh and the whole Pentecostal movement gets canned. We like to feed off of mistakes and use other people’s problems as an excuse to not deal with ours. When they see the real thing, it’s like the dark cloud leaves and the sun is shining. Many people believe straw man versions of people, places, movies, etc because they have not experienced the real thing. When they see the real thing, it becomes evident. When someone says, “They are full of hypocrites”, they just do not want to deal with their own problems so they are dismissing the other as bad. We do it all the time and do not realize it.

E. We are to let go, let God and just remain humble to God.F. No one perfectly performs well. We all have a huge gap between our words and actions.

People who accuse others of hypocrisy in a negative way often are self-righteous themselves. They do that because they think they are perfect or better than you. Yes, we need to practice what we preach. Yes, we need to live out our lives, but no one does it perfectly. So we need to bear with one another.

G. How do we deal with hypocrisy? Just be yourself. Many hypocrites just have an overexaggerated opinion of themselves. They just need to come down to earth. Just start where you are at and go from there. Sometimes we preach things that are far above what we can do. Try slowing down.

V. With all of this in mind, how are we to follow Christ?A. Simple, walk in the spirit since you are a spirit Galatians 5:25B. Be yourself, do not think too highly Romans 12:3C. Surrender everyday to God 1 Peter 5:6-7D. Treat others with Grace, since God set you free Phil 2:3-4E. Do everything out of gratitude for what God did for you, not out of selfish ambition for

yourself. Too often, we do things to people because of our own issues, let God deal with your issues.

F. Release Control to God, let God work through you. Don’t try to fix people. It’s not our job to fix people, but to support them as God fixes them. Encourage, Exhort them in the faith and let God do his work. Let God lead.

G. Those who are led by the spirit are the sons of God Romans 8:11 H. Leave the salvation to God, do not try to control people in order to know they are saved.

Just be there for them. VI. Conclusion

A. The change is all God’s doing, not ours. Our righteousness cannot save us, neither can it sanctify us. Good works only count when it’s done by grace through faith. We are saved to good works, and we should do them out of humility to God and not for ourselves. One cannot balance Grace and Work, either it’s by grace or works (Romans 11:6).

B. Salvation is a gift and when we accept the gift, God changes our spirit (2 Cor 5:17) so we will live differently. Works are not needed alongside grace to make sure one is saved. It’s all by grace through saved. Usually people add works to grace when they preach so people can be “truly saved” but nothing can be further from the truth.

C. If we want to be a light to the world, we just have to be led by the spirit and not our own flesh, this is when results happen. Let Go…Let God. Remember, change happens when we let go and let God. When we let go of our life for his eternal life, God changes us and when we submit to God, change continues to happen (2 Cor 4:16-18). It’s not us that does the change, its God who does it when we submit to him. So there is no boasting (Romans 3:27). It’s all because of Jesus, not us. When we worship God and not desire to be worshipped, this is when God’s light can be shined. To him the glory forever, amen.