Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish Theologian who lived from 1813 to 1855. He related a homely parable about a flock of geese that milled around in a filthy barnyard imprisoned by a high wooden fence.
One day a preaching
goose flew into their barnyard, stood on an old crate and admonished the geese for being content (ripped it into 'em), he recounted the exploits of their forefathers who spread their wings and flew trackless wastes of sky, he spoke of the goodness of their Creator who had given geese the urge to migrate and wings to fly.
This
pleased the geese, they marveled at his eloquent words, nodded
their heads and applauded
his preaching; just
then Mrs Farmer came in with some good corn so they waddled off, after
having their fill they gaggled for years about the greatness of the preaching
goose.
They
never did fly.
Don't
copy the behaviour and customs off this world, but be a new and different
person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from
your own experience how His ways will really satisfy you.
CHANGE:
Oxford Dictionary- making or
becoming different,
different from previous
state
substitution of one for
another
EG. New clothes - when you first put on new clothes you may feel special, obvious, noticed and
proud, having a sense of worthiness;
but they are a
little stiff, you are not so not familiar with them as your trusty old jeans, there is a small amount of trepidation.
Change makes you feel different.
3 Reasons why God Wants
You To Change
1/ If we don't have
change the past will be the present and the future, boring,
lifeless, useless, dead.
Abraham would still be in Ur
of the Chaldees (Iraq),
Moses would have been the
next Pharaoh of Egypt instead of Israel's deliverer,
David would have continued
as his brothers lunch boy instead of slaying Goliath,
Esther may have lost her life
along with thousands of Hebrews, Mordecai said to her, "Who knows if you haven't come to
the kingdom for such a time as this."
Nehemiah would still be serving
wine to King Artaxerxes in Susa instead of motivating a bunch of no hoper
Hebrews to build a wall around Jerusalem,
Peter & John would still be out
fishing for lunch instead of changing the world as Christs apostles,
Paul would still be a
religious narrow minded, threatening, murdering bully, instead of converting the
gentiles to Jesus.
Czar Nicolas II, who ruled Russia from 1894 to 1917, was walking in his palace garden one day when he found a soldier who was stationed as a sentry to guard a particular place standing to attention in a lonely part of palace garden.
"What are you guarding," asked the Tsar
“I don't know - captain ordered me to this post," the sentry replied.
The Tsar asked the captain why, he replied, "Written regulations specify a guard to that place."
The Tsar ordered a search of records to find out why.
The archives yielded the reason.
Many years before Catherine the Great had planted a rose bush in that corner of the garden, she ordered a sentry to protect it for that evening.
100 years later sentries were still guarding the now barren spot.
Are
we still guarding our precious traditions, old songs, hymns, revelations of 30 years ago, or 20 or 10 or 2?
Are
we willing to change the way we do things to meet a changing community and stay
relevant?
Ask "Am I willing to get out of my own personal comfort zone to bring the lost to
Christ."
If
we don't have change we'll die in the past.
2/ God is a God of the
New Thing.
Isaiah 42:9 Behold, the former things are come
to pass, and new things do I declare:
before they spring forth I tell you of them.
Isaiah 43:18/19 Remember ye not the former things,
neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth;
Jeremiah 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the
LORD, that I will make a new covenant with
the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: because
his compassions fail not.
Lamentations 3:23 They are new every morning:
great is thy faithfulness.
Ezekiel 11:19 And I will give them one heart,
and I will put a new spirit within you;
Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put
within you:
Luke 5:33/9 new wine goes into new wine skins
use of wine skins, (dead carcass) empty, dry, hard, inflexible,
useless, throwaway when used,
the only important thing is the wine.
History is filled with dead carcasses of people, organisations, denominations,
churches, that wouldn't stay flexible to
the new wine.
They
like the way it used to be (old wine - mellow - dead)
3/ You'll always get
what you've always got
If
you always do what you’ve always done,
You’ll
always get what you’ve always got.
we need
to sacrifice for the new thing.
change
means sacrifice.
A
lot of people don't accept change because they're not willing to sacrifice for
the new thing.
Sometimes
you've got to stop doing it because its not working.
Have you ever seen a blowfly trapped in the house in the summer and flying at the window in a vain effort to escape.
We've
got to get used to taking the new wine.
v39
they like the old wine because its mellow/dead doesn't challenge them,
new
wine is full of life fizz, and challenge.
New
people come into the church, they don't know we've done it this way for 25 years &
they come up with new ideas.
Change
requires work, effort, challenge, sacrifice.
Don't
fall for the old trick - "the old is better."
The
new wine is full of fizz and life, it's always better.
What
God does is always new.
Where
will you be in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years?
Will
you still be a pew warmer admiring the good things that someone else does?
You've
got to do something different to what you've always done.
Where
will your church be in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years?
The church is changing.
The
last 50 years have seen more rapid change than at any time in human history.
Changes in technology have changed every aspect of life: from contraception to
computation, from communication to community formation.
Philip Hughes, Christian Research Asso0ciation
When
is the last time you did something for the first time?
At the resignation of the Queensland
state clerk from a major Christian denomination she wanted to leave a parting gift to the executive members.
After the executive meeting she took all the members onto the roof of the 14 storey hotel building in Brisbane where the meeting was held.
They were met by a mean hulk of a man with biceps on his biceps, The clerk advised here is my parting gift to you.
The hulk expressed, "You're all going over the edge, face down, walking down the side of the building to the ground." There was of course ropes, harnesses and all the safety gear.
Fear
and trepidation gripped one man, he backed up against wall and stuck there until every other member had successfully completed the mission of walking face down to the ground from the roof of that 14 storey hotel, the trainer
eventually talked him into it, harnessed him up and gave him his instructions etc.
Stand
on edge looking 14 storeys down to the Brisbane streets below, "you will take one step and go from vertical to horizontal in 2 seconds,"
With his heart in his mouth he took that step, and finally after many more he got
to the bottom. He unhooked his harness, screamed at the top of his lungs, "YES," and hugged first person he saw, a complete
stranger,
"I'm
going to do that again," he exclaimed.
When he got
home he said to his kids, "You should have seen your dad today."
CONCLUSION
Plans to change the church will not happen unless there is change at every level.
Plans to change the church will not happen unless there is change at every level.
Change
Means:
Being different
Thinking Differently
Doing Differently
Warning
New
wine will burst old wine skins,
wine
will run out,
wine
will be ruined,
You
will lose it if you're not willing to change.
Encouragement
There's
always a new wine with God.
Prophecy
God
is engineering change in his church.
3
Things for you to do now.
Take action - make a change in your life.
Greatest
change you can make is to make Jesus your Lord.
Be filled,
refilled and refreshed with the Holy Spirit.
Be prepared to do something you
have never done before,
if
you want to have something you have never had before,
if
you want to see God do something in and through your life you have never seen
Him do before.
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