Overcoming Roadblocks to Change

So Kate, you might wanna come in, like, tent hill. Right. All right. I got too many books up here. There we go.

Romans chapter eight and verse 29. You can turn to it or look on the screen. Kind of dovetails with Romans twelve two that we read a moment ago. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be, there's another one of those words, conformed to the image of his son, which would be who? Jesus Christ.

That he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Why did God save you? To change you. That's why he saved you. He saved you to change you into the image and the likeness of Jesus Christ.

I've said before, if the only reason God saved you was to take you to heaven, where would you be? You'd be in heaven, but you're not, which means he's not done working on you. There was a song I listened to as a kid that was on the radio when he's still working on me to make me what I ought to be. It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars. How loving and patient he must be for he's still working on me.

Working on working on me how? How is he working on me? He's working to change me into the image of his son, Jesus Christ. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for your word.

Thank you, Lord, that you are a patient, merciful, loving, almighty God. And we thank you that you're still working on us. And, Lord, I pray that we would understand the importance of that work that you are doing even this day, Lord, to conform us to the image of your son, to transform us from the inside out, to change us to be more like you. And we thank you, Lord, for the power that you have, not only to save our souls, but to change our mind and our behavior each day to be more in line with that of your son. Lord, I pray that you would challenge us today as we look into your word to overcome the roadblocks that are put up in this life to that change that you are seeking to make in us.

In Jesus' precious name we do pray. Amen. In this transformation process, this verse comes to mind as a key verse. Proverbs three, five, and six, trust in the Lord with all thine heart. It's gonna take trust in who?

It's gonna take trust in the Lord. And lean not unto thine own understanding. That gets in our way. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall, what? Direct thy paths.

He will lead you down the path of changing you into that which brings glory and honor to him and joy and fulfillment to you. But it's going to involve change. Any kind of journey, any kind of adventure, even a path. As you walk down the path, things around you change. It requires change.

We can't become more like Christ if we're not willing to change. And so that is going to be a necessity in the journey that we are on in trusting the Lord. He is going to to change us. He will accept you as you are, but the reason he accepted you as you are is that he might change you after you have become his child into the likeness of his son. As children of God, we should know and accept this as an elementary principle to the Christian life.

And yet, change does not always come easy. We struggle often to see change for many reasons in our life. Satan puts up obstacles in our path, roadblocks to change. Sometimes other people put up roadblocks in our life to change. But most often, we do.

We put up roadblocks of our own making. In order to change to be more like Jesus, to be better ambassadors for Jesus Christ, we must learn how to navigate and overcome the roadblocks as did so many others who went before us. Abraham. Abraham grew up in a pagan world, and the Lord call came to him and said, follow me. Follow me to a land that I will take you.

He didn't even know exactly where he was going. And we go back to Proverbs three, five, and six. It says, trust in the, what, Lord with all thine heart. Was Abraham perfect? No.

By no means. He had a lot to learn. Day by day, God changed him. Not only changed his location, but he changed who Abraham was as he wants to do with us, As he did with Jacob. Oh, boy.

He had a lot of work to do with Jacob. Change didn't come easy for Jacob. He fought it tooth and nail. Moses. God spent forty years in the desert.

When Moses was age 40 to age 80, before God had Moses ready to come back and lead the children of Israel, he had to change. God did it. Even David, the man after God's own heart, spent many years being molded by the Lord before he became king of Israel and still had some hard lessons to learn. How about Peter? How about Paul?

Boy, did they need to change to be used of God as as they were. And it didn't happen overnight, but it did happen. It began with their faith, but it didn't end on the day that they were saved or born again. It just began that day as it began in my life when I was nine years old and as it began the day you became a child of who? A child of God by faith if indeed that is the case this morning.

Don't think because you have problems and shortcomings God can't use you. He can. But you do need to what? To change. It's part of the process.

God can use you, but it will require change, A change that that he initiates in your heart and life. A change that he continues to work day by day, but a change that also requires our participation in. Few obstacles we'll look at in the next few weeks to that change. Obstacle number one, you have to see the need. The first obstacle to change for the child of God is to see what needs to what?

To see what needs to change. Because so often, we're blind to it. I can see how so and so needs to change and how so and so needs to change and how that person needs to change. But I'm also very blind to how what? I need to change.

That is that's human nature. In order to change, we first have to see the need. Now who's gonna help us to do that? The word the Lord is, particularly as we get into his word and allow the Holy Spirit to use the sword of the spirit to open our eyes and to help us to see where we need to change to be more like Jesus. Paul said in Philippians chapter three that he had not apprehended.

In other words, he had not arrived. He he still God still had work to do on the apostle Paul. And I'm guessing if God still had work to do on Paul that he probably still has work to do on you and and also on me. The problem is so often, we're not willing to see or we don't see the need to change. In, Mark two seventeen, Jesus spoke to the religious leaders in Israel.

It says here, when Jesus heard it, he said unto them, they that are whole have no need of physician, but they that are sick, I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. You don't call the physician to come and help you if you don't think you need the physician, if if you're not sick. It's sick people that, sake of his illustration here, call on the doctor for help because they're sick. Okay? Jesus said to those who were listening, God doesn't call those who who see no need of their salvation to salve.

He calls those who see it and who are of a repentant heart, who recognize that they have a shortcoming, that they are sinners in need of a savior. The problem with the religious leaders in Israel, they didn't see the need for a savior. They thought they were okay. They thought they were fine. They thought they were doing well enough keeping the law and that God would overlook the some things.

They were what we call self righteous because they didn't think they needed the righteousness of Christ for their redemption. Thus, when Jesus spoke, they didn't what? They didn't listen because they didn't see the need to change. They didn't repent because they didn't see their need of a savior. The first obstacle to change in the Christian life, in anybody's life, is is denying the need of it.

While we all may say generally that we want to change, we must be more specific if change is to happen. Oh, yeah. I need a change. Oh, yeah. I'm not perfect.

Most everybody says that. But what does that mean for you? What needs to change? Maybe you're here this morning and you're still trying to get to heaven based on your own works like the religious leaders in Jesus' day, and the change you need is to repent and accept Christ as the Lord and savior of your life. That is the first most important change in your life that only God can do, but you must be willing to see the need and come to Jesus to receive it.

But maybe you're here today and you say, well, I'm a Christian. I've already been saved. God's made me a child of God. I've been born again. I've been changed.

Yes. So that means he's done? No. He's still got a lot to do. What do where do you need to change?

How do you need to change? Is it is it the thoughts that go through your head? It is your attitude towards others that that is lacking something in the likeness of Christ. Is it a bitterness in your heart that needs to be needs to be eradicated and forgiveness and mercy put in its place? Is it the stuff you watch and listen to, the your entertainment that isn't very honoring to God?

Is it the language, the words that come out of your mouth that are not very honoring to God? Is it your prayer, devotional life that's lacking? Is it your temperament or your temper? Is it your selfishness? Is it something you drink or something you put in your body?

Is it your witness that is lacking? Is it your patience? We could go on, couldn't we? What is it? And I and I and I don't know.

I know what I'm lacking in. I know what needs to change in my life. What needs to change in yours? There is something, probably some things that God has put his finger on many times, but the first step is to be willing to admit that there's something that needs to change and rather than just sweeping it under the what? The rug to do something about it.

That's what we're told in first John one eight through 10. There, John writes, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. If you say, hey.

I don't need to change. I I everything's perfect in my life. I've got it all under control. There isn't something that God is working on me about that he's put his finger on that I need to change. Well, there's something wrong because there is something that needs to change.

And the first step to change in our life is to be willing to confess it. That means to admit to God that there is some area in your life and mine that needs to change. And until you're willing to confess that need to the Lord, are you going to likely see change? The answer is probably not. As long as you are in denial or as long as you're willing to justify it or just sweep it under the rug and say, oh, I'll deal with it, what, later.

We're not going to see the change. We see change when, number one, we're willing to confess to the Lord, Lord, there's something in my life, a specific thing, a specific area that I'm lacking, Lord, I need help because I need to change. You must first willing be willing to confess. Number two, not only do you need to see that you need to change, but second of all, you must have a desire to change. First Peter two one and two.

First Peter two one and two up on the screen here says this, wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby. Let me read that one more time. Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, These are nasty roadblocks to change in our life. As newborn babes, what's the next word? Desire.

Desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow. What what is growth? Growth is a change. It's a change in a positive direction in a maturing process. Desire the milk of the word, the word of God, his word, his power, his direction, his guidance that we may be changed, grow to be more like Christ in our mind, our attitudes, thoughts, our actions, our behavior.

But there has to be a desire. There has to be I can preach all day long on change. We can talk about whatever it is you need to change. But if you have no desire to change, then is it going to do any good? The answer is no.

There must be not only a acknowledgment of the need, but there must be a desire to change. A desire to be more on your part and on my part that I, myself, cannot impart, it comes from it comes from the Lord. What is one of the keys to that desire? Spend time with who? Spend time with God.

Spend time in his word. That's what this verse says. Desire the sincere, what? Milk of the word that ye may grow thereby. You've got to spend time in the word of God, and he will give you he will give you that desire.

You know why there are thousands of people, not but a few miles around this church that claim to know Christ that aren't in church this morning? Well, one of the main reasons they're not in church this morning is because they don't want to what? They don't wanna change. And if you come to church and you hear this, then God's going to put a desire in your heart to change. And that's going to require some effort, and that's gonna require some soul searching.

And, generally, the human nature doesn't want to do that. And so we use excuses of things that happened in the past to keep us away from church, to keep us away from the word of God, and then we don't see change because we don't have the desire. They say you can take a horse to water, but you can't make him what? Drink. When the desire hits him, when he's thirsty enough, he'll what?

He'll drink. But you're not gonna change nor am I gonna change until we're thirsty enough for for what God has for us. So God God wants to do in our life to actually drink from the word of God and listen to the Holy Spirit and desire that change in our lives for our good and for God's for God's glory. It tells us in James in James one and verse 22, but be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own self. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.

For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what he forgetteth what manner of man he was. Okay? And so if you go and you look in a mirror and you see, oh, look. My hair is all messed up. What little hair I have.

And believe it or not, the little hair I have can get really messed up. I mean, it just gets all stretched sticks up like this. It looks like I have horns. It's bad. So so you look in the mirror and you go, oh, man.

I look all disheveled. And so then what do you do? Well, you just walk away and go about business and don't mess with it. No. That's not usually what you do.

You look in the mirror and go, oh, look. Wow. I gotta brush my teeth. I gotta comb my hair and I gotta what's that splotch on my face over here? I need to clean it up.

It's foolish to look in the mirror and go, oh, look. I need to change, but then what? And then have no desire to do anything about it. That's that's foolishness. And yet, sometimes as Christians, I think, we say, well, I know right from wrong.

That makes me a good Christian. No. Only if you do right and not wrong. Only if you're following the Lord. Knowing right from wrong isn't the whole ballgame.

There must be a desire to change to be more like Jesus. To do the right thing and not and not the wrong thing. And what does the Bible say in James one five? It says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of who? God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.

You're struggling with something in your life. You know it's there. You need help. I know someone who can help you. If you ask him, if you really ask him, if you really mean it, if you really believe that he is a God who is there, who is able, who cares.

And if you ask him, he will help you. He will help you if you ask him for wisdom, deliverance, and strength. If you desire, express that desire to him. He can help you, and he will. And only those who put forth effort will reap the rewards of it.

In Galatians six nine, it says, and let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we, what? If we faint not. If we faint not. If we keep what? If we keep at it.

What does Satan want you to do? He wants you to give up. He wants you to quit. He wants you to throw in the towel and say, it's not happening with me. I'm done.

It's over. Just it's I can't change. Well, I beg to differ. God's word says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. You can change.

We're more we're an overcomers through him that loved us more than conquerors through him that loved us. You can change, but you must see the need, you must desire the change, and you must swallow your pride. You know, we want to think of ourselves very highly. That is human nature. We want to think we're the smartest, we're the strongest, we're the greatest, we're the whatever whatever.

You wanna fill the blank in. There's something. Maybe you're, you know, past the point to where you know you're not the strongest anymore, and and maybe even you know you're not the smartest anymore. But we all wanna think very highly of ourselves. And we all think that we need to be treated very highly by others.

And we definitely don't want to embarrass or humiliate ourselves or humble ourselves before others, including God. Our human nature tells us to reject his offer invitation to help because we got this. We don't need his help because our way is the right way. I did it my way. Proverbs sixteen eighteen says, pride goeth before what?

Destruction and a haughty spirit before fall. You want to see change in your life, kick pride out the door. Let it go. Let it go. Quit hiding who you are to God and others.

Quit quit focusing on, like the Pharisees, pleasing other people and focus instead on pleasing God. Be willing to be humble and admit, like everybody else, that there is some area in your life that needs to what? That needs to change. Pride will keep that from happening. I don't need to change in that area.

I've got it taken care of. I can't do that. I can't walk an aisle. I can't go and admit to somebody. Then they'll think less of me.

What is what's talking? That's pride talking. And pride goes before what? Pride goes before destruction. That's what pride does.

Akin to the problem of denial is the obstacle of pride. Pride which deceives us into thinking it will not happen to us because we are better. Well, I'm a pastor. It can't happen to me. Whatever you would fill in the blank with.

I'm a Christian. I'm a teacher. I'm a deacon. It'll it'll happen to somebody else, but it won't happen to me. What's that talking?

That's pride. Take heed if you think ye stand, lest ye, what? Fall. There are many examples down through the years of Christians, pastors, and teachers that have fallen into sin and immorality and many other hurtful things that have destroyed their ministries and their lives. And a lot of times, it started with pride, a trust in yourself rather than a trust in who?

God. An exaltation of self over the Lord. Proverbs three, five, and six, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not into thine own understanding. Pride which will not let us admit that we are wrong or a failure because we we just don't want anybody to know that we're human like everybody else. Pride which will not let us be humble before God and others.

God can only change the humble, the broken, can only fix that which is broken. David says, a broken and contrite heart, o Lord, thou wilt not despise. God needed to do something in David's life. And only when David was what? Was broken in his spirit, in his heart.

He was already broken. You can see that as we've been studying on Sunday nights. David had a woman problem women problem leading up to Bathsheba. It wasn't something that just popped up all of a sudden in his life. It was something that had been a problem for years in David's life, a shortcoming in David's life.

And it came to a head. And it was only after that when David realized that he was broken that God could then fix that which was which was broken. And when David said finally in Psalm 51, Lord, restore unto me the joy of my salvation. A broken and contrite heart, oh Lord, that will not despise that God was able to deal with that area in his life that he didn't wanna deal with. Sadly, he had to learn that lesson the hard way, and sometimes we do too before we get all over David's case.

And what often stops us and gets in our way? Pride. First Peter five five says this, likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves under the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud but giveth grace unto the what?

Unto the humble. Be willing to confess. Matthew seven, judge not that you be not judged. Pride blinds us to our own faults. We just see everybody else's.

Be willing to share with others. James five sixteen. Confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Pride keeps us from seeking help.

And you know something? Sometimes we need help. And God has given us his word. He's given us his spirit, but he's also given us each other. But we can't help each other.

We can't even know what to pray for for each other if we're unwilling to let anybody in. You don't have to let everybody in, but you need you need to be willing to let somebody in to see what you're struggling with. Pride keeps that from happening. Learn to put others before self. You know what will cause you to change and bring you joy and fulfillment in your life?

Putting others before self. Half the problems we struggle with would be solved if we could get our eyes off of ourselves and quit thinking all day long about poor me and all my problems and how I should be treated this way and how this happened to me and how that happened to me. And we just started getting our eyes on others and truly love our neighbor as ourself. Philippians two three says, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, that is in pride, but in loneliness of mind, let each esteem other better than who? Themselves.

And if we get our eyes off of ourselves and we'd start looking at people around us that are in need that we could help, then half of those problems would be solved. Instead, we spend so much time just focused on us out of pride, our problems. There are many roadblocks to change in our life. The first three this morning. You must see a need.

You must desire to change. And you must get rid of what? Pride. Because it's standing it's standing in your way. Sad to say there are many soul that will wake up in a place called hell because they heard a sermon or they heard many sermons, and they heard the invitation to come and to receive Christ, or they were talking to a friend who was sharing with them the gospel and pride got in the way and wouldn't allow them to admit they were a sinner who needed a savior.

Some of them grew up in homes where they never heard the gospel. Some of them grew up in homes where they heard the gospel over and over and over and over again. And as time went along and as they got older, they thought, I don't want anybody to know that I'm not already saved. So they put it off, and pride got in the way to them walking an aisle and trusting the Lord Jesus. When all the time, God in his mercy was calling out to them, Come on to me all you that labor and heavy laden.

I will give you rest. I'll give unto you eternal life and you will never perish. But pride got in the way. Don't let pride get in the way of your salvation today. And don't let pride stop you from seeing.

Even as a child of God, the areas in which you need to change. Humble yourself before the mighty hand of God and he will what? He will lift you up. What is it in your life that needs to change? Maybe maybe as you came to revival services a few weeks ago, God put his finger on some of those things.

Have they changed, or do they still need to change? Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for your word this morning. Thank you, Lord, for the power that you give, the grace and mercy that you have bestowed upon us. And, Lord, if there's one here that is yet to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lord and savior of their life, I pray that they'd be willing to swallow their pride.

I pray, Lord, that they would do so of all of us who have come to Christ who've had to do, to humble ourselves before the Lord and admit our need of a savior and come to Christ and be saved today. And, Lord, we pray for your children here. And, Lord, we struggle sometimes with things in our life, and we need your help. And I pray, Lord, for those here this morning. Lord, we know what it is that needs to change.

I pray, Lord, not only would you show us, but that you would give us a desire to change that, to trust you, to swallow our pride, and to humble ourselves before you, to confess that need and allow you to cleanse us and to change us more into the image of your son today. In Jesus' name, do pray. Amen. If you take your