The Greatest Change Agent Ever

1 Corinthians 15:50-57

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2015%3A50-57&version=NIV;MSG

 

Change is not easy for most people. It can take us out of our comfort zone. Even the smallest change can be disruptive. As a result, we resist change because the status quo is safer. We know what to expect. We have more control of our world when everything remains the same.

 

So what does it take for us to change? To get some idea of how to answer this question, here are the first three steps of Celebrate Recovery, a Christian twelve step program that specializes in change.

 

1. We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable. 

2. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.

 

These steps tell us that in order to change requires reaching the bottom. When that happens you realize that your life is out of control; that you are powerless; that you can’t change on your own. Finally, you understand that you need the greatest change agent ever, Jesus Christ.

 

Eugene Peterson in The Message, paraphrased that change agent in Matthew 5:3-4.



 

³ “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

⁴ “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

 

 

 

This is from the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is speaking to common people; not to folks in a twelve step program. He’s telling them that in order to change, you have to hit bottom in some sense. Otherwise, there is no need for Jesus.

 

Today’s passage is about when Jesus brings us home with our resurrected body. From then on, there is no sting from death nor struggle with sin. Only the joy of living life as it was meant to be; living in the presence of our Creator.

 

Jesus is the greatest change agent ever. He specializes in taking us home. Thanks be to God.

 

 

Your Life as a House

Romans 8:15-27

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%208%3A15-27&version=NIV;NLT

 

Have you ever watched the HGTV hit show, “Fixer Upper” with Chip and Joanna Gaines? The show takes place in Waco, Texas where Chip and Joanna run a remodeling and design business. In each episode, they take an old, “fixer upper” house, invest time and money and make it into a beautiful home.

 

About twelve years ago I tried my hand at flipping a few houses. The last one we did was built in 1925. Unfortunately, it had suffered over the years from a severe lack of maintenance, abuse of the owners and finally a devastating fire.

 

As we got into it, we discovered even more problems which included termite and structural damage. I’m sure that when she was first built she was a beauty. But by the time we bought her, she was a mess. She had endured a painful existence.

 

Our daughter and son-in-law were going to buy the house so they invested their own sweat equity along with ours and a crew of skilled contractors. Here are some before, during and after pictures to give you an idea of the process.

 

Before

 

 

During

After

 

If the house could have talked, she might have said how painful it was to be neglected and abused all those years. The possibility that she might be able to return to her original glory was unthinkable with the previous owners. But as we began the remodeling she must have felt a spark of hope.

 

 

In some ways, we’re like that house. We’ve suffered from a lack of maintenance, from abuse and maybe even a devastating life event. But there is hope. There is hope to rebuild our life; to return to our original glory. And that hope comes solely from Jesus Christ.

 

¹⁷ And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. ¹⁸ Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.  NLT

 

Through his Spirit, God gives us the inheritance to experience his Glory, as a foretaste now, but fully later. Your life as a house does have hope.

 

 

 

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