Transforming Life's Trajectory: Embracing Change and Growth

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This is my pretend guy, Jerry. Jerry is a teenager and he went to a youth group and an actual retreat as often as the case. And it changed his life. And he was very excited to go back to school, his public school, in fact, and share this. He couldn't wait to get back. He finally did. They had this time during a homeroom in their school where they kind of share about. The highlights and whatnot of of their weekends and whatnot. And so he couldn't wait. And his opportunity came and he he before the entire class said, this weekend I became saved. [00:01:33] (40 seconds)


And Jerry replied, well, before I was a sinner running after sin, but now I'm a sinner running away from sin. You see, that weekend, though, there were still lows. Jerry still argued with his parents, still thought in some areas they weren't very smart and whatever in his life. The trajectory of his life had changed, though, where before Jerry was pretty much interested in doing what feels good and what he can get away with. [00:02:41] (34 seconds)


And out of that Bible study, called the Oxford Group, they came up with 12 principles. Started actually with eight principles that came in 12 steps. And they came up with 12 principles that came in 12 steps. That ultimately worked to changing lives. And so we've covered the first five so far. Number one is we admitted we were powerless and that our lives had become unmanageable. So the first step is to understand we have a dilemma and it's a lack of power. Step two, we came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. In other words, in step two, we're given the solution to that powerlessness. [00:04:07] (33 seconds)


The number four is, was a very interesting turn. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. We honestly looked at ourselves and we said, OK, in my life, what has really gone wrong? Remember, we kind of said, if you can't name the chain that binds you, you can't experience change. You'd be able to name it for it to change. And then last week, we looked at step five. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. In other words, confession was the key to unlocking that chain. Once you understand this is the chain, we got to confess. And that unlocks the chain. [00:05:01] (40 seconds)


And so those churches often don't change. And that, of course, is true of people as well. Which brings us to step six. Very important. It's one thing to say you want something different. It's another thing to do it. Step six is we were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Seems simple, but it's not. Not at the least bit. So we're going to talk about three aspects of this step. We're going to talk about what it is, what the Bible has to say about it, and then the challenges of the step. [00:07:04] (37 seconds)


And it isn't about exterior change. There's something that fundamentally keeps leading us back to that thing. And so you admit that. I will also tell you, though, that as you experience change, you begin to learn. And the things that you thought were the problem are not. They're actually different problems. And your eyes begin to open up to things that you never thought were wrong in the first place. So it begins. It begins with the things you in the list. But then that list begins to grow because then you begin to realize, you know what? The real issue really isn't just my anger. The real issue is that I am upset that the world won't live the way I think it should live. That's the fundamental issue. [00:08:38] (40 seconds)


And so it's God who removes the defects of our character. It's God's work that changes us, but our work is to be willing to let him do his work. Think about Jesus' call when he first called his disciples. Right, he turned to them and said, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. They had a decision to make, follow me. The end result was he was gonna make them, he was gonna have them join him on this mission, which is to take God's love and good news to the world. But that middle part, I will make you. He didn't say, follow me, and I'm gonna teach you to do what you need to do. Follow me, show me some self -discipline. Follow me, get holy. And that's it. And then you'll join me on my mission. [00:10:01] (47 seconds)


And Paul's basically saying the same thing. I'm sorry that I hurt you, but it wasn't a good thing because it had a good result. As a matter of fact, he says here, this pain was causing you to repent and change your ways. I want to focus really quickly. I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time here on that word repent. It's a Greek word which is actually based on words for thoughts or intentions. It literally means to change one's mind. But it's more than just the way you think. It's what you do. The best way to describe it is 180 degree turn. So you're heading this way to repent. It's to wholly go the opposite direction. [00:18:05] (43 seconds)


And that is in essence what he's saying is he's saying what happened was you were heading on a trajectory of unhealth that was destroying you, even though you got something out of it. And what I'm thrilled is even though it was sorrow for you and my words hurt you and whatnot, what it caused you to do is change the trajectory of your life. To take a deep look at yourself and rather than embracing those broken things in your life or making excuses for them, beginning to run away from them. Here's James. Remember, James is a key book that they developed all these principles from. So here's James chapter 4, 7 through 10. He says this. James says, [00:18:38] (50 seconds)


And so the more tears and sorrow and grief and sadness, the more you understand the beast that's chasing you, that destroyed you, the faster you're going to move in the other direction and the quicker you're going to get actually to be where you want to be. That's the issue, isn't it? It isn't. It's like Paul saying, I don't want you. I don't want you to feel these things. But if the result is, if you get through that 15, 30 minutes of no, no, no, no, no. No, but the result is, and a better relationship and a better day. Well, then it was a good thing, not a bad thing. And I think that's something our society is struggling with is how much struggle is healthy and how much struggle is not, right? We talk about a hand out versus a hand up. A hand up is definitely needed, but a hand out often does not help people. [00:25:36] (60 seconds)


And let me tell you, coming to church is good, but that's not doing it. Reading your Bible is good, but that's not doing it. Religious activity should get you to this place. It all helps you turn over your will, but that's not it. That's what Jesus came in. And he was really harsh against people that only made it about religious activity. It was literally dying to self, dying to your will. The 12 steps and 12 traditions puts it this way. He says, if we ask, God will certainly forgive our derelicts. But in no case does he render us white as snow and keep us that way without our cooperation. [00:27:23] (36 seconds)


So I'm gonna have the team come up, and I want them to share a song, but as they do, I want to talk about the second quote. It says here, therefore, it seems plain that few of us can quickly or easily become ready to aim at spiritual and moral perfection. We want to settle for only as much perfection as we will get us by in life, just enough. Accordingly, of course, to our various and sundry ideas of what will get us by. In other words, just enough. [00:36:43] (29 seconds)


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