“I want To Change – So Help Me God!”
Romans 7:15-18

    In Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a mild mannered Dr. would drink a potion and change from a sweet innocent bookkeeper type into a hideous monster. When the potion wore off, He would feel very ashamed and say “I just can’t believe that was inside of me!” ”I can’t believe I would do those things!”  However, even though he knew it was wrong, he was strangely drawn to drink the potion again and again. There was this on and off craving…and an on and off feeling of power and guilt…“I want to do right, but I can’t seem to control this desire”.

    Have you ever felt like Jekyll and Hyde? We do something and then think “O why did I do that”… or “Why did I say that!” We know we were wrong, but we discover that there is a big gap between knowing and doing…between our thoughts and our actions. Paul struggled with this same issue.
    I Think that most people would agree that Paul probably was about as successful a Christian as you could find in the art of living the New Life in Christ Jesus, otherwise he could not say with confidence “Follow me” – or follow my example – “as I follow Christ.” But it took something …some kind of change…to get Paul from where he is in this scripture, to being an example to follow in the Christian life. What was it? As it concerns change in our lives, someone once said; “I’m not what I ought to be, and, I’m not what I want to be but thank God - I’m not what I use to be!”
    You can’t try to suppress your will and make yourself change! Just ask any smoker, alcoholic, or anyone who has ever made a New Year’s resolution! Usually after repeated failure, we decide, “Well, if I can’t change, then I’ll just stop trying!”  “I just don’t have enough “willpower!” Jesus said in Matthew 26:41 “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The problem is that we “quit trying” in the flesh! (Our will power)
    This scripture will cause problems toward understanding, if it is perceived ONLY through the doctrine of  the believer’s walk of victory in the power of Christ. Those truths tell of the believer’s power through the Holy Spirit, the defeat of the enemies power, and how we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. And of course that is all absolutely true - if we are walking in the Spirit – if we are being spirit led.  But, we need to look at what Paul is saying about the sinful nature and how it co-exists in our lives even as "new creations in Christ." 
    What that means is even though we are Christians, we still spend a lot of time “walking in the flesh” rather than the Spirit. So, this struggle causes tension and we live as though we are having a “tug of war” with our spiritual nature.  No matter how much we try to please God and to be conformed to the image of Christ, we keep coming up short.
    If we were to stop at this point we are left with a pretty dismal and depressing picture of a war of hopeless conflict and tension between the flesh and the spirit. Thankfully, we are not left to dangle in despair, because all that Paul has announced has set the stage for his question as, he says, "Who will rescue me from this body of death?”…And then, he gives us the answer – “Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord..."
    Deliverance from our sinful nature does not come through law, personal power, self resolve, or separation or a change of environment. All that has been said up to this point has been said to say this: Although both natures co-exist together in tension and conflict, only the stronger one will reign and rule in dominance. The stronger one will be the one that we attend to and spend the most time with. The stronger one will be the one that is fed, nourished and nurtured…the stronger one is the one that wins over our “wanna”! 
    God has given us great disciplines in which our new created spiritual nature may grow in the grace and the knowledge of God. Staying in His Word, prayer, fellowship, worship, service with a heart consistently filled with praise and thankfulness--- will see the presence, power and peace of our Lord enlarged and magnified within the believer’s mind and heart. The more time we spend seeking the Holy Spirit’s leading and direction, the more the Holy Spirit will occupy the desires, the reasoning, and the choices one makes, as the will seeks to please God.
    The first announcement that Paul makes is that he is unspiritual, carnal and a slave to sin as perceived from within his sinful nature. When Paul says that he "is sold as a slave to sin" he simply means, that as a creature of the "sinful nature", he is subject to sin, a slave to sin in his sinful nature, capable of sinning, guilty of sinning, influenced by sin and cannot free himself by himself of sin and of falling short of God’s glory. It goes to the scripture that says “no man can have two masters”…It’s only when we decide to have one master, that we begin the journey to true change and the expression of fruit in our lives; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control.
    Perhaps it comes down to the words of Joshua...."Choose this day whom you will serve, as for me and my house---we shall serve the Lord."
    I guess the word for this lesson on change would be “focus”. What is the real focus of your life? If you were to keep a spiritual journal, how much time do you spend seeking and feeding and following your spiritual nature? An hour on Sunday? – Ten minutes a day? Real change means always having the right focus.

A Look at Change
1^st. Peter 1:13 – 2:3

    When it comes to the Christians life and lifestyle, there is a good admonishment in 2 Corinthians 13:5 that we should look at often which says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is IN you…unless of course, you fail the test?” Now, what is the “test”? I believe the test involves two things; change and fruit. Scripture itself testifies to the fact that if there is no change, there is no Christ – if there is no fruit, no Spirit!

    I have been looking at various scriptures, all of which talk about “change or fruit” in the life of a Christian. I have learned that these are things that #1 God demands or commands; #2 These are things that God desires and will do if we allow Him; #3 Some of these changes happen because we are born again; #4 Some of these things only happen because of our will ( we must make the effort and be consistent.)
    Romans 12:2 says “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” There are three reasons it begins in the mind; #1 So we will be able to “test and approve what God’s will is”… #2 Because you can’t put new wine into old wineskins…it will “blow their minds”… And, #3 Because when we change our thinking, it changes the way we feel, (affects our emotions) which in turn affects our will or our actions.  The only way of real change is God’s way – from the inside out!
    God is in the business of “Extreme makeovers”…”Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things become new!”  If there ever was a scripture that speaks of change that is it.
You can also read – Matthew 7:15-23; Matthew 13:23-30; John 13:34-35; John 14:23-24 and finally, John 15:5-8
    “Love” is the result of “change” in all three areas of our inner being; the mind, the heart, which in turn change our actions… and it is the first “fruit” of the Spirit. It is the fruit of the Spirit that will manifest itself when Christ is IN us…No change? No Christ…No fruit? No Spirit.
    There are those who think if they BELIEVE the right thing, that makes them okay with God. However, if what we believe (which is what we think or what is in our heads) never reaches our hearts, it is useless. The Pharisees believed a lot of right things, but Jesus had a problem with them!
    There are also some who think that if they DO the right things, they are o.k. with God. “I attend church; give tithes and offerings; read my Bible now and then” but, just doing right things won’t do it either…“any who say to me Lord, Lord”, didn’t we do this or didn’t we do that…and Jesus said to them “Depart from me, I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:23)
    There are also those who think because they DON’T do certain things, they are right with God. “Well, I don’t cuss, drink, smoke, or chew…and I don’t go with girls that do!” There were a lot of things the Pharisees didn’t do…they were very righteous… But, Jesus called them “white washed tombs.” What God says in His Word is “They honor me with their lips, but their HEARTS are far from me.”  
    Does God care about what we believe? ( Yes)  Does he care about the things we DO? ( Yes )  Does he care about the things we DON”T do?  Of course!   But, all of those things must stem from a heart that loves God because it’s that love that will influence every aspect of our lives. “Man sees the outside, but God sees the heart!” (see Mathew 23:28)
    Finally, I learned that all of this “change” that either comes because God does it automatically, or because of the Holy Spirit convicting us and enabling us to change and produce fruit, is all part of the process we call “sanctification”.  “It is God who works IN you to WILL and to ACT according to His good purpose”. ( Philippians 2:13 )
    We must hunger and long for the Word of God that will teach us the difference between truth and error, which will teach us the very mind and heart of God. As we walk by the power of the Holy Spirit, as we make the choice to put off the old and put on the new, we will become spiritually mature, sound, wholesome and healthy. We must long for the Word of God. And he will put that longing in our hearts. Don't try to do it mechanically because it will taste sour if you do. We must long for it!
    Peter's desire for his spiritual children is that they may grow in respect to their salvation if they have tasted of the kindness of the Lord. That's the process of sanctification. There is a difference between “change” and “growth”…They are not the same. Growth is like a ship on a voyage; slow, steady progress toward the destination of maturity; change is more radical and critical. It’s like the captain of the ship shouting; “Quick, start bailing, we’re taking on water, and if we don’t do something we’re gonna go down!”
    Growth is about improving who we already are; change is about becoming someone different. Growth usually concerns addition – “Make every effort to add to your faith…goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love”. ( 2 Peter 1:5 ) Change is more about elimination of things that are damaging; “put off” - “put to death” – “crucify” – “rid yourselves of” – such things as; and then the list goes on…most of which are an act of our will.
    Yes, God will help us to change, but He never forces himself upon us…He will only do what we allow and ask Him to do. He does it by the power within us, but we must work “with” Him. “With God nothing is impossible!”

What is unity?
Ephesians 4

    In a musical production, there are a variety of singers and instruments. Yet, in spite of a great diversity of instruments and voices, they can play together in harmony. How?  They each look to and obey the direction of the conductor…But also, each one follows or does their own part. What if the Tuba was to play the piccolo part? Or what if the Sopranos tried to sing bass?  The church is made up of a diverse people, who are called to live in harmony…based upon their common relationship to God and their willingness to listen to Him and obey Him…for the common good. When the choir and the orchestra are all in sync, the music is marvelous.

    In the book of Ephesians, more than any of Paul’s other letters, he calls the church to be unified. He mentions the unity of the church 18 times. Both Paul and Jesus agree on this: unity in the church is not just a good thing; unity is absolutely essential.
    Moments before he went to the cross, Jesus prayed for the church in John 17:20-23 ( read )… This is the church that he knew would be established after his death and resurrection. He didn’t pray for large buildings. He didn’t pray for ministry programs or administrative finesse or creative worship. He asked for only one thing: “I pray that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” If we’re going to be the kind of people God intends, then we need to take this to heart. The greatest cause of unbelief in the world is the poor testimony of those who profess to be Christ-followers.
Here are two important words we need to remember concerning unity: Community – Unity of things in common.  Opportunity – Favorable circumstances (because of unity) Opportunity is the result of Community.
    A few years ago at the Special Olympics in Seattle, WA, nine physically or mentally challenged runners lined up at the starting line for the 100 meter run. At the sound of the gun, all the runners eagerly started out except for one boy who stumbled. He tumbled over a couple of times and began to cry. The other eight runners heard the boy cry and slowly turned around and paused. Then they all turned back - every one of them. One girl with Down syndrome bent down and kissed the boy and said, ¨It’s O.K.” Then all nine of them linked arms and walked together to the finish line. Everyone in the stadium stood and the cheering went on for a solid ten minutes.
    That race paints a picture of what God’s family is like. We’re all wounded. We’re all challenged in one way or another. But God, in his infinite mercy and grace, makes us part of his forever family through faith in Christ. And it’s with our spiritual family that we are to journey through life helping each other along the way.
    The goal of unity is found in John 17 verse 21, “so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” When we stand together as one, the world takes notice. The song we sing says, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love”…what will they know if we don’t get along?