9 October 2011 - ENCS

Continuing the "Change For Good" series was Pastor Josh's task
"Is change good?" was the first question he did ask
The Lord does not change, per Malachi 3 verse 6
While He is perfect, we have so many things to fix

Josh chose "character" as his main topic
At philosophy majors he took a small kick
Ethics are what we ought to do
Morals are what we actually do
In unchanging ethics we should always trust
To these ethics, our morals must adjust
For if all the time, our goals seem to change
We will never get anywhere, very strange
We need a standard to judge movement by
The Bible of course, for it does not lie
Leviticus 26:10 tells us what we should do
"Clear out the old to make room for the new"
And per Matthew 23 verse twenty eight
The Pharisees' hypocrisy Jesus did hate
For as righteous as they appeared on the outside
Their hearts were filled with lawlessness and pride
God's law was good, it came from The Book
Instead of being good, they just wanted the look
Remember that Jesus did not want to change the law
He focused on the thoughts, not the actions others saw
Josh asked if we are living from the inside out
Our compassion lead to action, have no doubt

We then looked at verses 1-6 of Acts chapter nine
How Jesus changed Saul so that he could shine
For although all the laws Saul had been fulfilling
Pride is what his religion had been instilling
And if we judge others when they inevitably trip
That is pride and religion rather than a relationship
For better than others our works do not make
This is a prideful belief we really must shake
Saul had been persecuting believers, as if with a sword
On the road to Damascus he asked "who are you, Lord?"
And in the same way Jesus told Saul what he had to do
Obedient relationships with God are needed for Gentile and Jew
If God says to do something, "why?" we should not ask
Just trust in Him, obey, and complete the task

In Philippians 3:7-14, Paul later did conclude
That with gain from Christ he should be imbued
And later in that same passage we then saw
That righteousness depends on faith, not the law
In order to "attain resurrection from the dead"
Our sinful bodies need to be glorified instead
Per verse 12, we must press on and forget what is behind
We should let God define us, not our past remind
Verse 14 talks of pressing on towards the goal
Change does not come easy, it takes a toll
We should set our minds on things above, not of this earth
By giving our lives to Jesus so they really have worth

So do not let our pride get in the way
Of letting us make changes this very day
For we know God-driven change is for the good
Letting us think, talk, and act as we should