Introduction
Good morning. Welcome to Great Commission Church on this last Sunday of 2024.
My name is Don McKenzie, and as part of the pastoral staff, it is my honor to be filling in for our pastor, Trevor Davis.
Let me start this morning by asking you a hypothetical question:
If God gave you the power to change other people – change the way they think and act – would you use it?
I know if my wife, Phyllis, had this power, she would joyfully use it to change some things about me.
I know for a fact she would change my clothing choices – my fashion sense.
You know how I know this?
Because she’s been trying to change me for years.
I know she would change how I eat chips and anything that is crunchy – to make sure my mouth is completely closed when I bite down and make that big crunch noise.
You know how I know this?
Because she’s been trying to change me for years.
Now, if God gave me the power to change Phyllis, well, I wouldn’t change a thing because I think she is perfect just the way the is. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)
Is it wrong to want to change other people?
The Bible teaches it is right to want to help other people change.
Now, I think we usually do it the wrong way and for the wrong reasons, but today I want to show you “a right way” to try to change other people.
Are you ready to learn how to change somebody else?
I need to start with a major premise – a foundational truth that will permeate every aspect of this message this morning.
The love of God is best seen in the Lord Jesus.
Here’s a verse every Christian should memorize – Romans 5:8
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God demonstrates – he displays – he billboards – he explains His love to us through the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us.
God has no better way to explain his love to us than to point to the Lord Jesus.
The love of God is best seen in the Lord Jesus.
Okay, that’s our premise and it will filter everything we talk about today.
Now, let’s learn how to change people.
The same man who wrote Romans 5:8, wrote a prayer in Philippians chapter 1, verse 9:
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
Let’s make a few observations:
[Please put these items together on the Screen.]
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
- Paul thought these people needed to change.
Do you see it?
He is praying that something will change for them – that their love will increase – abound more and more.
He didn’t believe they had enough love, so he prayed they would receive more.
This is a prayer about people changing.
[Please put these items together on the Screen.]
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
- Paul thought these people needed to change.
- By praying, Paul was telling them that only God could change them.
If Paul could have changed them, he would have, and there would be no need for him to pray to God to change them.
Paul is confessing his inability to change these people, but he knew who could change them – so he asked God to keep changing them by giving them more love.
[Please put these items together on the Screen.]
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
- Paul thought these people needed to change.
- By praying, Paul was telling them that only God could change them.
- Paul focused on the solution and not the problem.
They had some serious problems, but Paul didn’t mention those in his prayer.
Instead, he focused on what they needed and they needed the love of Jesus to keep growing and overflowing in their lives.
What’s the opposite of love?
Various good answers, but in Matthew 6:24, Jesus said the opposite of love is hate:
24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other….”
Love and hate are big summary words of a lot of other qualities.
Love is pregnant and contains qualities like kindness, goodness, gentleness, patience, wisdom, joy, forgiveness, mercy and grace.
Hate includes things like anger, meanness, resentment, criticalness, selfishness, self-righteousness, vindictiveness, condemnation, judgment, gossip, slander, rage, nagging, etc.
Let me tell you something every Christian already knows.
Even though all our sins have been forgiven, we are still personally sinful and far from perfect.
When we were saved, we received a starter dose of the love of Jesus, and it transformed us – it changed us.
According to Jesus, we went from hating him to loving him, but we did not go to completely, 100% loving him.
We have been changed but not anywhere near completely changed.
So, when Paul said he was praying for their love to increase, he was also subtlety saying that something else in their lives needed to decrease.
Think about it – why would they need love to abound more and more – why was Paul praying for their love to greatly increase?
Because they needed their remaining hatefulness, their sinfulness, their wrong thinking and wrong actions to change and decrease.
If the love of Jesus is increasing, then the opposite of love is decreasing.
If love goes up – the opposite of love – hate and all its companions go down.
- Paul focused on the solution and not the problem.
Focusing on sin and just trying to be a better person is not the solution.
I’m telling you this is one of the most profound, life changing things I’ve ever learned about the Christian life – and I wished I had learned it as a young Christian.
You conquer hateful qualities with the love of Jesus.
Okay, what does that even mean?
Look at Romans 12:21
"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
Our battle is with evil on the inside and on the outside.
In this verse, how do you defeat evil?
You overcome it with good.
Our weapon against evil is goodness and goodness is a fruit of the love of Jesus growing in your soul.
Goodness will suffocate evil like a wet blanket thrown on a campfire.
You focus on the solution, not the problem.
Let me show you this truth in another passage in 1 John chapter 2, verses 10–11
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10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness….
John associates love in verse 10 with light and in verse 11 hate with darkness.
The love of God brings a new light to your soul, and as a result you start seeing things that you didn’t see before, because you were blinded by sin.
But hate, resentment, anger live in darkness, and they cause you to stumble and keep sinning.
How do you overcome the darkness of sin?
You can’t fight against darkness; you can’t just have more self-control and will it away; you can’t just try harder to see but that is what we usually do.
How do you conquer darkness and the power of sin and hate?
You need the solution, you need the antidote, you need a power greater than darkness and what is it?
It is light and this light is the light of the love of Jesus Christ.
[BLANK SCREEN]
Does anybody own a flashdark?
How about a flashlight – does anyone own a flashlight?
I own a flashlight – I love lights – did anybody go by my house and see the McKenzie Family Christmas Light Show?
Then you know I like lights.
Hey, we don’t have flashdarks because they don’t work.
We use flashlights because light overcomes darkness just as goodness overcomes evil.
Light and goodness are all elements of God’s love.
So, why was the Apostle of Jesus praying that the love of the Philippians would abound more and more?
You conquer hateful qualities with the love of Jesus.
This is how you personally change for the better, and this is how you help others change for the better.
First, you personally pray for this nuclear weapon of the love of God to go off in your soul because it will annihilate whatever sin it impacts.
Second, you pray the same thing for the person you think needs to change – recognizing, it’s up to God.
Now, back to Paul’s prayer:
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
If God answers this prayer, Paul understood that the love of God is made up of two major ingredients – they are listed at the end of the verse – what are they?
Knowledge and depth of insight.
Knowledge means what you think it means.
When God gives you some of this Jesus love, it always comes with an educational packet – it brings a new page or chapter in your Christian user’s manual.
God’s love conveys knowledge to your soul about Jesus.
Jesus said in Matthew 11:29
29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Jesus’ yoke was his teachings – take my teachings upon you as your knowledge base and learn from me – learn about me and I will change you.
Look, the world’s dictionaries all define love as a feeling – a feeling of affection toward someone or something.
To the world, love starts in your heart but with Jesus, it starts in your mind.
God’s love will impact your mind first and your heart second.
God’s love starts with education, not feelings.
Later in Philippians, the Apostle wrote this:
Philippians 2:5
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
The solution is to learn how to think like Jesus.
Listen, receiving the love of God is a supernatural activity of God and when he chooses to give it to you, he will open your mind to see things about the glory of Jesus – and that alone will start changing you.
Back to verse 9:
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
So, Paul is letting us know in his prayer that the true love of God first comes as knowledge about Jesus into our minds.
But Paul understood that knowledge was only the first thing the true love of God does to a person.
Look at the verse again – what’s the second major ingredient that is always in the love of Jesus Christ?
This translation calls it “depth of insight.”
Others translate it as discernment.
This simply speaks to the ability to successfully put into practice what you have learned.
This could read that their love would abound more and more in knowledge and application, knowledge and skill, knowledge and insight in how to apply the knowledge – how to best live it.
Knowledge is only half of the puzzle – but it is the first half and it is mandatory.
Without knowledge, you are just guessing about your choices for Jesus.
You are just hoping you are hearing from God and going in the right direction – and you aren’t because knowledge about Jesus is what God uses to light up your mind and soul so you can see what is right and best.
But the second part is how to properly use the knowledge.
You can have your mother or dad tell you all about how to ride a bike and you need that information.
But until you get on the bike and try to put it all into practice – well, you discover it takes time and practice to finally get the skill to just ride in a straight line.
It is the same way with the love of Jesus.
You first learn about him and then you discover it is easier to learn about him than it is to live like him.
Education and application.
I want to give you an illustration of how knowledge and skill both need to be present to bring about the best result.
I have had this hand circular saw for 40 years.
I rarely use it but my wife, Phyllis, asked me to cut a board because she needed a piece of wood for a project.
Now, I’m not very mechanically inclined but I try from time to time.
So, wanting to be a loving husband, I dragged out my saw – hey, at least I owned one.
I cleaned off the cobwebs and thought, wow, this blade is old, rusty and dull.
I need to put a new blade on this.
I went to Home Depot and discovered there were so many different types of blades.
At that point, I should have realized I lacked knowledge but hey, a saw blade is a saw blade, right?
[REMOVE SAW PICTURE]
I got home, successfully put it on my saw – which was a minor miracle, and I felt a little rush of manliness go through me.
When my wife passed by, I could see she was pleased that I was happily working on her project.
I marked up the board and was now ready to make my first cut.
I was expecting this new blade to cut through this wood like a hot knife through butter.
So, I started cutting but it was oddly slow.
Then smoke started coming up from where I was cutting but I was making progress.
So, I just kept pushing hard, and it kept cutting but the smoke just increased and was filling up the garage.
As I finally finished cutting, Phyllis came through the door with a look of shock on her face.
“What in the world is going on out here? Is there something on fire? It smells awful out here. What happened?”
I said, “I don’t know but look, I cut your board for you.”
All she could talk about was how bad it smelled and that the cut was splintery on the bottom – Ms. Perfection.
I thought – wow, you ungrateful … person. Where is the thank you sweet husband for cutting my board?
Instead, all I heard was complaints and what did I do wrong?
I had no idea why it smoked the place up.
I lacked knowledge.
Then suddenly, I had a random thought or a moment of discernment: Is it possible to put a saw blade on backwards?
So, I grabbed my saw and looked at it – and sure enough, I put it on backwards.
Instead of the teeth of the saw cutting into the wood, the back of the teeth had literally been burning their way through the wood, splintering the bottom as it went.
Well, here’s what I learned from that experience:
Good intentions can still stink the place up.
I was too proud or lazy to take the time to first find out the kind of blade I needed and then how to put it on correctly.
I lacked knowledge – but not completely – I knew how to get the blade off and back on.
But I also lacked depth of insight or discernment.
The second that board started smoking – I should have stopped and said, “Something’s not right here. What am I doing wrong?”
But, no, I just kept cutting or burning my way through because I was making progress – or so I thought.
I ended up stinking the place up, losing all the goodwill I was building with my wife and just ended up irritating her.
All because I had the blade on backwards – completely opposite of the way it was supposed to work.
If your love for Jesus grows, you will learn from him that his love works just the opposite than the world’s love.
The world’s love is on backwards.
It starts with how you feel and it then makes decisions on how you feel.
Oh, you make me feel good, so I love you.
Oh, now you make me feel bad, so now I don’t love you.
[BLANK SCREEN]
This message today is to alert you that we all start in life with our blades on backwards and only the knowledgeable, discerning love Jesus will flip it around.
The solution is the light of the love of Jesus shining in your heart – and that happens as God opens your mind to see more of the glory that is in Jesus.
The glory of Jesus is his greatness, beauty and infinite value.
When God gives you some of his love, you will suddenly see it and your soul will gasp at the wonder and majesty and love Jesus has for you.
This message is not to educate you on some aspect of the love of Jesus.
It is about Paul’s prayer on how we need the love of Jesus to change us and then to change others – and it all starts with prayer.
My goal is to not only alert you to our great need but God’s solution.
If you keep focusing all your energy in trying to just keep burning your way through life - just keep trying to be a better Christian – you will just keep stinking the place up.
Use all that time and energy to study about Jesus – meditate on who he is and what he did for you and pray and cry out to God to open your soul to grasp it.
And when he does, light will come in and darkness will flee.
Don’t focus on your problems – we all have them – focus on the Lord Jesus because he is our only hope for change.
Look at this verse in closing:
2 Corinthians 4:6
6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
If you are saved, God has already shone in your heart the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
See how light and knowledge go together.
When God saved you, he opened your heart and shined the light of the glory of God into it and what did you see?
You saw the face of Jesus Christ.
Not literally, but your mind’s eye saw Jesus and your heart gasped and you cried out in faith to him – because light came to you and now you could see that Jesus is the Lord.
That’s how your Christian life started – that is how God first changed you – and it is how he keeps changing people.
Learn about Jesus, talk about Jesus, learn from others what they know about Jesus and pray, asking God to shine more light into your souls and reveal the glory of God to you in the face of Jesus Christ.
Ask others to pray for you that your love and respect for Jesus will continue to increase, more and more.
Paul was praying this for the Philippians.
This is how God changes people.
It is not typically how we try to change people, but hopefully after today, this might become your new, priority way of investing in those you want to change – by first asking God to do it for them by giving them a new fresh glimpse of Jesus and that will change them for the better
Come and join us this Sunday at the Great Commission Church for a truly remarkable and uplifting experience. Great Commission Church is not just any ordinary place of worship; it's a vibrant community where faith comes alive, hearts are filled with love, and lives are transformed. Our doors are wide open, ready to welcome you into the warm embrace of our congregation, where you'll discover the true essence of fellowship and spirituality. At Great Commission Church, we are more than just a congregation; we are a family united by a common mission – to follow the teachings of Christ and spread His love to the world. As you step inside Great Commission Church, you'll find a sanctuary that nurtures your faith and encourages you to be part of something greater than yourself.
We believe in the power of coming together as a community to worship, learn, and serve. Whether you're a long-time believer or just starting your spiritual journey, Great Commission Church welcomes people from all walks of life. Our vibrant services are filled with inspiring messages, beautiful music, and heartfelt prayers that will uplift your soul. Every Sunday at Great Commission Church is an opportunity to deepen your relationship with God and connect with others who share your faith and values.
At Great Commission Church, we believe that faith is not just a solitary endeavor but a shared experience that strengthens and enriches us all. Our church is a place where you can find purpose, belonging, and the encouragement to live a life in accordance with Christ's teachings. Join us this Sunday at Great Commission Church and experience the transformative power of faith in action. Be part of a loving and supportive community that is committed to making a positive impact in our world. Together, we strive to fulfill the great commission to go forth and make disciples of all nations. We look forward to having you with us at Great Commission Church this Sunday, where faith, love, and community intersect in a truly amazing way.
Great Commission Church is a non-denominational Christian church located in Olive Branch, Mississippi. We are a short drive from Germantown, Southaven, Collierville, Horn Lake, Memphis, Fairhaven, Mineral Wells, Pleasant Hill, Handy Corner, Lewisburg and Byhalia.
See you Sunday at Great Commission Church!
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