Think back to when you were young – so much has changed.

Revisiting places of our youth...

Streets and buildings change...

Laws and taxes change...

Weather changes...

Land changes, mountains erode away, Volcanoes create new land, sea levels change...

Climate changes, year without a summer...

We change (bodies and minds)...

Everything physical is in a constant state of change...  It seems like the only thing constant IS change...

While we find change to be annoying for the most part, change is essential for our well being as a Christian.  But our changes must be for the better...

Today I want to go over some of the changes we are expected to make as God's elect.  We must make these changes in order for us to inherit eternal life.

-We must be careful not to put anything before God...

Mark 12:

28  And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

29  And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

30  And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

Ephesians 4:

17  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

We must think of God primarily.

Ephesians 4:

18  Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

19  Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

20  But ye have not so learned Christ;

21  If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:

22  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

True holiness – that is what we must put on.

Ephesians 4:

25  Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.

26  Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

27  Neither give place to the devil.

28  Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needs.

29  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

30  And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

31  Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

32  And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Matthew 6:

19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

22  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Matthew 6:

31  Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things.

33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Romans 16:

17  Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.

18  For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

-We must be putting sin out of our lives...

Romans 6:

1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

7  For he that is dead is freed from sin.

8  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

9  Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

10  For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he lives, he lives unto God.

11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

15  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Colossians 3:

1  If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.

2  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

3  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

4  When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

6  For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:

7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

8  But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

9  Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

10  And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Galatians 5:

19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

20  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

21  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

24  And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

26  Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

John 15:

7  f ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

8  Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

Romans 8:

4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

5  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

6  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

10  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.

12  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

13  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

2 Corinthians 7:

1  Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

-We must be putting on the mind of God...

2 Corinthians 2:

11  For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God.

12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

14  But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

15  But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

16  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Romans 12:

1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Philippians 2:

1  If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,

2  Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

3  Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

4  Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

7  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

9  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

10  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

11  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

13  For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Matthew 18:

1  At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

2  And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

3  And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18:

21  Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

22  Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

Matthew 20:

25  But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.

26  But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;

27  And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:

28  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Matthew 23:

4  For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

5  But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,

6  And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,

7  And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

8  But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.

-We must realize that while our brethren are scattered we are all part of the same body and imbued with the same spirit...

Colossians 3:

11  Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

12  Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

13  Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

14  And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

15  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

16  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

17  And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

1 Peter 3:

8  Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:

9  Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

10  For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:

11  Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.

Romans 12:

3  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

4  For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:

5  So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

6  Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;

7  Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teaches, on teaching;

8  Or he that exhorts, on exhortation: he that gives, let him do it with simplicity; he that rules, with diligence; he that shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

9  Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

10  Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

11  Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;

12  Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

13  Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.

14  Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.

15  Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

16  Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.

17  Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

18  If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men.

John 17:

18  As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

19  And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

21  That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

22  And the glory which thou gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

23  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

24  Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

25  O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

26  And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

John 10:

14  I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

15  As the Father knows me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.

16  And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

John 13:

34  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

35  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

John 15:

12  This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

13  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Think on these things...

Philippians 4:

8  Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think [meditate] on these things.

Brethren, change in this world is guaranteed.  All physical things will change over time.  Our ancestors would not recognize the world as we know it today.  However, the changes we must make are more spiritual in nature.  We must grow in grace and knowledge to become more like Christ.  We must put God first in our lives, put out sin, put on the mind of God, and practice the love of God with our brethren as well as with others.  If we do these things, we will hear the words - " Well done, good and faithful servant: You have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things: enter into the joy of your lord."

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Sermon:

"The Only Thing Constant Is Change"