What Has Changed? Times or People

Recently when I was preaching, I said something that really resonated with my audience. The statement I made was this: “Often people will say that times have changed. But that is not true. Times have not changed; it is people that have changed.”

The rural community I lived in as a boy was not perfect. We had a few rough folks living among us. The little farmhouse we lived in had a screen door and wood door with the top third being three panes of glass. It had a lock, but I never saw the key to it. We never locked the front door. We would sleep inside with an unlocked door. In the summertime every window would be raised and only a flimsy screen separated us from the boogey man outside.

We never had anything stolen. My Daddy never had to run someone off with a shotgun. Most folks knew that if they really needed something, all they had to do was ask my Daddy.

Not so now! I live in the same community. It is relatively safe, but we all lock our doors. Many homes have a security camera, and most homes have guns. Our murder rate has been zero over the last year or two. But people still live somewhat cautiously.

When I was a child, children roamed the roads and woods on foot or bicycle and our parents had no need for concern. Now, no one would allow their child to get beyond their sight.

Have times changed or people? Times are different because people have changed. There are still a lot of wonderful people around but there is an air of insecurity blowing among us. We watch the news and hear the reports of bad people doing crazy things, random acts by random people with no logical reasoning behind it.

When you listen to politicians, they all have an answer, but they do not have solutions. Most sociology experts have theories that are based on ideology than reality. Theologians have invented a new gospel that is not the good news. It is generated by PhDs who do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus. Lady justice has taken her blindfold off and has a new agenda rather than justice. Even some churches seem to be more like the Church at Ephesus where they have left their first love [Jesus] or the Church of Laodicea where they are lukewarm and ready to be spued out of the mouth of God. (See the Book of Revelation chapters 2-3.)

So, what is the answer?

Hearts and lives of people must be changed by the power of God!

How does that happen?

We must preach the true Gospel of Christ based on the Word of God.

We must rely on the power of God by the Holy Spirit to change lives.

The church is not a social club where we join to “win friends and influence people.” It is a living and breathing organism of the redeemed of God who love God with all their heart and love their neighbors as themselves.

Evangelism is not a sales technique to sell Jesus like a new car or convince people to join ‘our team’. True evangelism is a spiritual dynamic where sinners are convicted of their wayward life by the Holy Spirit and deeply convinced that Jesus is their only way out of their spiritual dilemma.

Jesus is not an ooey gooey guru who “gets you.” He does not blindly accepts you with your sin and brokenness with no thought of redemption and regeneration. He loves you and died for you in order to redeem you from your sins. He loves you too much to leave you in your sin and brokenness. He gets you by calling you out of the world of death and into His living Kingdom.

Ephesians 2:1-7 NKJV
(1)  And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
(2)  in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
(3)  among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
(4)  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
(5)  even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
(6)  and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
(7)  that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Once we are saved by His grace, we need to live in a community of Christians where we are held accountable to each other in love and taught the principles of God’s Word. We call this discipleship.

Truth and grace must live together in harmony. If we have only grace without truth, we have the danger of veering into “anything goes” cesspit of lustful living. If we only live in judgmental truth, then we have the danger of cornering ourselves in a chained cell of fear and condemnation. “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17 NKJV).

God has called us to the balanced life of liberty, not to be in bondage to sin or legalism. If you believe you are a Christian, yet you live in fear and condemnation while trying to be good, then you are trying to live by your own strength not God’s. If you say you are a Christian, yet you are living a life of sin with no remorse over your sins, you need a true born-again experience in Christ.

How do we correctly change our community and even the world? It is not by governmental change or by new sociological programs. The only way the world can properly be changed is by a true spiritual heart change of men and women by the power of God, who live out the principles and promises of God’s Word by the power of the Holy Spirit.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17 NKJV).

You want to change the world? Let Jesus change you and your family, then tell someone what God has done for you and your family. Folks are looking for answers—tell them and show them yours.

Yours on the Journey,

Harry L. Whitt