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This was a very tough message for Pastor to deliver, but as a church we are comitted to bring you the complete truth of God’s word, not just what tickles your ears. God was working in our hearts mightilty through this message and it made many of us uncomfortable, but thats good. We need to get uncomfortable in the light of this truth. Our lives and the lives of those we know around us are plunging with break-neck speed in some direction. Maybe our uncomfort will drive us to do something about not only the track of our lives, but also of the lives of those around us.

Pastor began talking about how we didn’t have much of a choice to be born. Our parents brought us in to this world and now we’re along for the ride and there’s no place to get off. So what are our options? If  you’ve been coming the past couple weeks we’ve seen that Jesus is not our PBS self help counselor who is connecting us with our “source.” He lived, died, and rose again for way more that. So what’s really at stake in this life? Where is this ride headed? Eternity. Jesus came to reveal the Father to us and He spoke often of His great love for us and out of that love He revealed the whole truth to us. The truth of eternity.

Pastor took us to Matthew 7 to see what Jesus had to say about eternity. Then He gave us 5 sobering facts about eternity.

The first was: Everyone is not going to heaven. Many people have a false perception that a loving God wouldn’t send anyone to hell. They think He’s too nice and gentle. Heres something we need to understand. There is no dvision in the nature of God. There is no division between His love, His mercy and His justice. Many believe that as long as the good things outweigh the bad things they’ll be okay, that God will just “let it slide.” The problem with that view is its false and therefor it results in an eternity away from God.

The second sobering fact is: More people are going to hell than to heaven. We read this in verse 13. For those of us who are reading this, or hear this message are receiving the greatest gift God could give us: A neon arrow that says this is the way! Walk this way! There is only one way to God and eternity with Him and that is though the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. Confess your sin. Surrender you life to Him now! Trust His grace and you never need to fear. The narrow path is being made clear to you, the choice is yours.

Sobering fact number 3 is: Many people, who think they’re following God, are not. People will be decieved about their salvation for several reasons. There are several incorrect views on salvation. Selfish salvation believes that they can pray a prayer and then go on living their lives their own way doing nothing about the poor and hurting around them. Salvation by association believes that if they are a part of the right crowd doing the right things like going to church and saying their “hail marys” and “holy fathers” then they will be saved. Salvation by works believes that th right amount of good deeds done will get them into heaven. Jesus explains that not even great works done in His name for His kingdom will get you into heaven! Not even Mother Teresa could get into heaven apart from the blood of Jesus! Salvation by creed believes that if they simply believe in God they will get into heaven. James clears that myth up for us. The only way to God is through His son Jesus. We must confess our sins, repent-turn from our ways, surrender our entire hearts/lives to Him, and trust in His salvation alone.

The fourth sobering fact is: You will not get another oppurtunity after you die. There is a myth of another chance after you die, but Hebrews states clearly that is false. What is your other option? We don’t have another one after we die and find out if all this is true or not! Pastor said he had no desire for any of us to stand before God and say I knew you were the way, I knew you tried to get close to me, but I kept you at a distance. Paul tells us NOW is the time of salvation. Do not wait! You don’t have another oppurtunity after you die and you don’t know when you’re gonna die!

This leads us to the final sobering fact: There are no guarantees for us or for others. This could be your last chance to step into a eternal relationship with God and you could be their only oppurtunity. We believe the sun will rise tomorrow and we believe that we will get to see it, but we have no guarantee of that. We are all only one heart beat away from eternity. This could be your last chance and you could be their only oppurtunity. 85% of people who show up at church or respond to God do it because someone invited them. You could be the only oppurtunity for your friends and family. Now is the only time we are guaranteed. What’s your other option?

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What a challenging and relevant series! I don’t believe there is a single person who has not experienced God working in their heart over these past 3 weeks. Every week we are pressed to a new level with God and real changes are happening!

There is a cost to change that we don’t get. Pastor compared it with construction, everything costs more and takes longer than you originally think! We watch all the house upgrade/flipping shows on TV and think it looks easy. Then we step into it only to find out it takes all we got, and we end up wondering why we started into this and wanting to quit before its finished. That is just like life. Pastor talked about the change cycle. Any change that is worthwhile in our life follows this cycle: Change -> Chaos -> Conflict -> Growth.  We want instant results…cause and effect, but true change is messy. Many things we desire to change in our life have deep unseen roots, therefore there is a cost to change we don’t get.

Pastor took us through Mark 10:17-31. Here we see a man who has it all together on the outside, someone we would call a “good man” in today’s society. He was a wealthy, law abiding citizen, and was keeping all the commandments! Above that, we see he has an honest desire for God in his life. He runs to Jesus and falls on his knees before Him, asking Him how to have eternal life. He knows there is something missing in his life, even though he has all the world has to offer. We all can relate to this man, no matter where we are in our spiritual journey. We see that Jesus’ heart goes out to him, bceause of his honest desire and sincere need. Scripture says “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” Pastor showed us how critical that sentence is. It tells us that Jesus is not at all cold, heartless, or bureacratic. He’s not a perfectionist parent who always expects better. He’s never going to ask something from us or tell us to do something that is just “busy work.” He never makes unecessary moves. And He’s not all about rules- just look at the Garden, His perfect world…one rule. Yet Jesus proceeds to tell the man he needs to “sell everything” and “follow me.” At this, the man walked away sad. He chose His possesions over eternal life.

So many of us are like this man. We fall at the feet of God in desperate need of change. He looks at us with love and asks us to give up this, and surrender that and we respond with “that’s just too much God” and we walk away. Pastor asked us: How often do we stop short? At what point does the cost of change become too much for us? There is a cost to change we don’t get. You see our value system is messed up. We all feel a twinge when Jesus asks the man to sell everything and that reveals our skewed values. We value what we posses here over eternal life!

In order to experience true change in life, we must be willing to “sell everything.” This is impossible for us to grasp. In response to that Jesus says in verse 27, what is impossible for man, is possible with God. There is a cost to change that exceeds our grasp but does not exceed His grace! Change is possible, with God. In the midst of this season of change, when we hit the change cycle and we want to stop short because of our skewed values, we need to stop and remember that the cost of change may exceed our grasp but doesn’t exceed His grace. We must give everything to Him with the knowledge and understanding that we cannot out-sacrifice or out-surrender God. He has given everything for us to know Him and know life to the full.

May we not stop short of the change God desires in our lives!

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Pastor began this week talking about the paradox of change that we discussed last week. The thing that we need to do we can’t, and the change that we want we ending up running from, this is the paradox of change. Another ugly part of the paradox, is the fact that we attempt to cover up and hide the very things in our life that need change, which makes it impossible to change them. Its human nature to want to cover up our mistakes and shortcomings, and in many ways the world teaches you to cover up, both in life and career.

So what are you covering? What has control of you? The problem is, in our God designed universe this does not work. This is not God’s way. Solomon put it like this, in Proverbs: “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Pastor put it like this, What you cover up, God uncovers. What you uncover, God covers. What you cover up, God exposes. What you uncover, God forgives. As we talked about last week, the world God has created is the ultimate “no spin” zone. If you cover your sin, it will find you out. Life has a way of exposing our faults, and what we hide out of shame eats us up on the insde.

Uncovering before God is our life line, our hope of change. When we uncover our sin, He covers it with His blood. Jesus’ death upon the cross is what makes our forgivness possible. He was the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and now all we have to do is uncover our sin. What and incredible offer! He is willing to wipe our record clean, as if we had never sinned! In the gospel of Mark, Jesus is walking with a large crowd around him and a woman who has suffered hemorrhaging for 12 years knows that if she can touch him she will be healed, even though no doctors have been able to help her. She touches the edge of his cloak and immediately is healed. Right then, Jesus stopped and asked “who touched my clothes?” Jesus knew power had gone out from him in the midst of everyone bumping in to Him. The woman came and fell at his feet and told of her bleeding and why she had touched him, then Jesus said “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” It was critical that she uncover before Jesus, so that she and everyone would have no doubt who healed her. Jesus did this over and over again in His ministry, asking people to tell Him their problems despite their obviousness, before He would heal them. It is just the same for us.  Pastor had a tablecloth and nice place setting on a table and when uncoverd it, underneath the table was a pile of garbage. If he had left the cover over the table, nobody would have know about the garbage but it would have smelled. Just the same we must uncover our sins in order for Jesus to cleanse them and free us from their hold.

It’s the New Year and everyone is changing things, or at least talking about it, but it never seems to last. We all want change in our lives. As a litmus test, pastor asked us if we were to perpetuate our current situation for the rest of our lives, or die today, would we be satisfied? It’s unanimous that we both want and need change in our lives.
 

The problem is we can’t change. We are in love with the idea of change, but hate the process. We cannot pay the cost of true life change. It’s similar to having to go to the hospital to solve a health problem. Most sit in denial or fight going, because the pain always gets worse before it gets better. Pastor shared a story from when he was young received a large gash just above his eye while playing. When his parents tried to take him to the hospital to get it stitched up, he gripped the handle of their refridgerator so tight that it broke the handle when they pulled him off! He was more content with the bleeding andpain than with the idea of getting stitches. The thing we need most we can’t do, the thing we most desire we end up running from, this is the paradox of change. 
Galatians tells us that the world God created is the ultimate “no spin zone.” We can dress up our problems however we want to but it won’t change a thing, internally. The pain and the problems we are facing, we have a strong hand in bringing it about. In otherwords, its our fault! God’s word is calling it how it truly is. Scripture is real, God understands our life. “You cannot do what you want.” Hope begins when we admit “I can’t change.” When we admit the problems in our lives and the lives of those around us are beyond our control, then hope for change begins.
Only when we live by the spirit do we have hope to change. The good news is, it doesn’t depend on your desire or effort to change, it is dependent upon God, as Romans 9 delcares. If we “look within ourselves” as so much “new age” spiritualism tells us to do, we will only end up frustrated and jaded at the idea that our lives can be any better. His Spirit is the change agent in your life. Change is dependent upon a right relationship with God through His son Jesus. We must release our fears and trust Him alone.