The Power of Change

Well, thank you, Mr. Waterhouse. Happy Feast of Pentecost to all of you. This is the first chance I've had to speak since the seventh day of unleavened bread. As we celebrate this day of Pentecost today, I would like to talk about the constant concept of ongoing change.

You see, the universe is constantly changing. We don't like to hear that because as physical human beings, we like stability. We like sameness. We don't like change. Any good management expert will tell you when he goes into a business that there will be a high percentage of people who will resist change, any kind of change. We like our ruts. We like to live in a world of sameness, of emotional stability, but the truth is that we all live in a world of constant change.

And it's important for us as God's people to understand that ongoing change is a reality, and it's something we need to accept and it's something we need to approach from a biblical perspective, something that is important for us to fully understand. Mr. Miller read from Acts 2, so rather than have you turn there, I'm just going to quote a couple of verses from Acts 2, since he already read it a little bit earlier. Verse 4, it says, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And then down in verse 6, and when the sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them in their own language.

This is only possible because these individuals experienced a transformation. That transformation was because they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. They were able to do things they were never able to do before. They were able to do things extra ordinary things. And you and I have the same potential.

We have the same calling that they had. We have the same spirit that they had. On this very day in 31 A.D., God poured out His Holy Spirit upon them. They were given a new heart and a new nature, enabling them to live by the commandments of God under the new covenant. But change means that this was not just some one-time event.

This wasn't just something that happened on the day of Pentecost in 31 A.D. This transformation for all of them continued for the rest of their lifetimes. And I think that's important for us to understand. Let's go to Acts chapter 5 and verse 34. This was not a one-time event that we read about in Acts chapter 2. They continued to transform as individuals. Here in Acts chapter 5, a number of the apostles were put in prison for preaching, talking about Jesus Christ in the Gospel. But the doors of the prison were miraculously opened.

So what do they do? Well, they leave the prison and immediately they all went to the temple and they continue to teach about Jesus Christ and the Gospel. And then the captain of the temple and the other officers arrested them and brought them before the Jewish council. So let's see what happens and let's see if they have been continuing to transform in their approach to life in understanding what their purpose is.

Acts chapter 5 and verse 34. Then one in the council stood up, a Pharisee named Camelio, a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people and he commanded them to put the apostles aside for a little while. I don't want them to hear what I'm about to tell you, council. That's why he wanted them put aside.

Verse 35, very wise man. And what he's basically telling them is don't overreact to this situation. Verse 35, and he said to them, men of Israel take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men. For some time ago, Thuttis rose up, claiming to be somebody, claiming to be important, claiming to be special. A number of men, about 400, joined him. He was slain and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing. After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census and drew away many people after him.

He also perished and all who obeyed him were dispersed. Verse 38. And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or if this work is of men, it will come to absolute nothing. It'll die out just like the other ones did. It will come to nothing. But if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it. You can't stop it. You can't impede it.

Lest you even be found to fight against God. So again, he's encouraging them, don't overreact to this situation. Verse 40. And they agreed with him. And when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and they let them go.

So what would most people do? I don't know about you, but I don't like beatings. A few times in my life I've been beaten pretty bad and whatever it was, I didn't want to do that again because it hurt. So what do they do? So they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer in his name and daily in the temple. In other words, take that daily in the temple. And in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. As Mr. Miller pointed out, some of these individuals were the very cowards.

I can't think of a better phrase. The very cowards who abandoned Jesus when he needed them most.

On the night he was arrested, the night he was interrogated, and the next day that he was put to death, they're nowhere to be found or they're standing off far, terrified, afraid. And here they have been transformed where they don't even have fear anymore. They have no fear, not even of being beaten again. And they know what it feels like to be beaten, but they have no fear.

They understood something. They gained knowledge and understood something that most people don't.

They understood that the world is changing, and due to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a dramatic and powerful transformation and change was occurring in world history.

They understood that change is continuous and is going on everywhere. They were embracing a dramatic change in human history because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And they came to understand that we are all either being transformed into the likeness of Jesus, or we're being transformed into the likeness of something else. Paul's going to talk about that and a little later we'll get to. He says we're either conformed or we're transformed. This is everyone on earth. We're all experiencing change, and we're either changing into the mind of Christ or we're changing into something else.

Have you ever considered how much as human beings we really do resist and loathe change? Most of us love to live in a sense of self-delusion. We like sameness. We live in a world of constant continuing change, but we don't like to accept that. We don't like to face the fact that it is absolutely true. We like our habits. We like the security that comes from a routine. We like our sameness. It's a human trait to get into a rut and to like the rut and to stay in the rut until, for God's people, for us, until something happens to kick us out of the rut, because that's what change does. If I haven't convinced you yet that things don't change much, I want to encourage you to take a look at a picture of yourself 10 years ago. If you have grandchildren, just take a look at your grandchildren, a picture of them, five years ago. You see, the change is slow and subtle, and because we see each other every week, it doesn't seem to be a lot of change going on. We look at ourselves in the mirror every day. That change is subtle. Change is gradual. But in spite of that, we are still living in a world of constant change. The universe is experiencing constant change. Planet Earth is experiencing constant change. Your cells are replenishing themselves and old cells dying and new cells being formed continually. Our bodies, every aspect of this world, is a world of constant change.

Some things you may not have thought about before.

According to a website called DeadOrKicking.com, approximately 190,099 people died in the world yesterday. They changed.

They no longer are living. For an entire year, that equals about 69,386,000 people will die this coming year. Why? Because change. Change is going on everywhere.

According to ourworldanddata.org, approximately 367,125 were born yesterday. That's change.

They had no existence, and suddenly they're coming into a world and gaining consciousness of their very existence and beginning a brand new life. 134 million babies were born in 2023.

We know the social issues we have today. Take a look at a newspaper 20 years ago, and look at the change in values compared to 20 years ago, and look at the change in ethics 20 years ago compared to the way that it is today. Think about the changes in technology.

You hear a lot of talk about AI and other technologies that are just on the cusp of being introduced. We read a lot of information off of a sheet of glass. We call it a tablet or we call it a device, but it's basically a sheet of glass, and that's how we exchange information today.

There are medical advances, all kinds of diseases. I'm alive today because of medical advances.

There are scientific discoveries as we continue to go back to the moon, and as we the United States plans to go to Mars, we discover new scientific facts and new knowledge about the way the universe operates. It's a constant change. The weather changes. Seasons change. The climate changes. About 30 years ago, I had a pond dug in my backyard, and they ran into some about 10 feet down. They ran into some limestone blocks with huge clam shells embedded in the limestone. Huge clam shells. Now, I live, I don't know how many miles from the lake area, pretty far. I live in Litchfield, Ohio, and the county extension individual who happened to be there that day said, oh yeah, that's nothing. He said, you know, a few hundred thousand years ago, your property was under Lake Erie. That's why there's clam shells down there. The climate changes. It has always changed. It will continue to change because everything is changing. Again, I want to emphasize that the world has always been in a state of change. It's us who like to live in denial that nothing really changes. That if I just don't pay attention to it, it won't happen. It's us who like habit, routine, sameness, who like the ruts that we're in.

And the day of Pentecost reminds us that God is deed has called us to change, to embrace that change through the power of the Holy Spirit. Every day, we wake up with three human choices regarding change. The first choice is to look backward and desire to go mentally backward, going backward is indeed changing. Wanting to relive the past is indeed changing, but it's not healthy change. It's not productive change as it keeps us frozen in the past. If we're looking backward all the time, we are frozen in the past. We allow hurts, mistakes, problems to replay in our heads all over again. Reliving these episodes of the past becomes failure reinforcement therapy That's what happens if we keep looking backward to the mistakes, to a life of shoulda woulda coulda.

Looking backward is failure reinforcement therapy. We allow our past hurts to define our future.

This is one reason, by the way, that Peter encouraged his audience in Acts chapter 2 and 38 to repent. You see, brethren, repentance is not to turn around and go back to the past.

Repentance means to wipe the past clean and with God's help to move forward with a brand new and fresh start in life. So that's the first choice, to look backward, to long for the past, to live in the past, and this usually is someone who terribly resents change, resists change, hates change. The second choice we have is to stand still and stay where we're at. A lot of people make that choice, but the reality is, is this is just slowly going backward. This is just slowly living in the past because the world, our world in life, is constantly moving forward. So it's similar to going backward, except you're doing it slowly.

By standing still in our thinking, we're literally moving backward because everything else is moving onward. Education is continuing to expand in our lives and in this world. Opportunities, new opportunities are being presented. A greater understanding of how the world works. I've already mentioned about the medical advances and the scientific advances and the technology. Everything is moving forward and our maturity needs to be moving forward, always advancing. And if we're standing still, everything else, because it's changing, is moving forward and pretty soon we are in the back. We're looking backward. That's the second choice. The third choice is to learn from the lessons of the past but make the conscious choice to move forward.

And that's what this day is all about. These individuals who received the gift of the Holy Spirit knew that God wanted them to make the choice to move forward in their lives with an additional purpose, additional meaning, and not to simply live in the past before they met Jesus or even during the ministry of Jesus. They couldn't live in the past. They couldn't go backward.

They could only go forward. You know, even the word growth means to change by its very definition. If you're growing, you obviously are changing, and life is intended to be an experience.

To reach our potential means we learn the lessons of the past. We accept each single day as a gift, because in fairness, that's all we're given one day at a time, and we continue forward towards God's calling. That's what the disciples were asked to do on this day of Pentecost, to move forward with our goals, to move forward with the personal mission that God has given us in this life. Do you realize that these three choices are in the Scriptures?

And they're all mentioned within just a few verses of each other? I think there's something we can learn from this example, so I'm going to ask you to go to Exodus chapter 14 and verse 9. Exodus chapter 14 and verse 9.

Israel has traveled a number of days after leaving Egypt. They are on the cusp of crossing the Red Sea, but uh-oh, because we live in a constant world of change, their lives are threatened. We're going to pick it up here in verse 9.

So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and overtook them camping by the sea beside Pihahirath and Beelzefan.

This is a great example of constant change.

There was a while ago that the Egyptians were nowhere in sight.

Suddenly, Pharaoh and his army arrive. So what choice do you think some people want to make of the Israelites? Well, some want to go backward. Some want to surrender. Some want to return to Egypt. Let's read about this in verse 10.

This is not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians, for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. Let's look backward.

Let's live in the past, is what they're saying. But they can't. Nothing is waiting for them by going backward to Egypt and by reliving the past. The truth is that life was almost unbearable there. They were slaves. They were oppressed. And God is pushing world history forward. He's going to use these descendants of Abraham to found a nation, and he's going to use them to move his plan forward. So that's the first choice, much like one of the three choices we face every day when we get up, and that is to want to go backward, want to relive the past.

Let's take a look at what the scriptures continue to tell us. The next choice is suggested by Moses himself. The first choice was suggested by a number of the people.

This choice is suggested by Moses. Now it's better than going backward, but it's a very limited choice. Verse 13. And Moses said to the people, Do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians, whom you see today, you shall see no more forever.

The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.

Now Moses is certainly correct about the salvation of the Lord. Indeed, God will fight our battles. But we're about to see that God is going to mildly correct him for a very good reason. Standing still is simply going backward slowly.

God had temporarily put a barrier between the Egyptians and Israel, a pillar of fire and cloud.

But God knows he's going to remove that pillar of fire and cloud. That barrier is going to be removed. The Egyptians are going forward. The verses said here they're pursuing them, and they will very soon be upon them. Yes, God will always do his part. He will fight for us.

He indeed is our salvation. But he expects his children to take responsibility and to do their part. Just like God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, but he expects us to fulfill our responsibility with that spirit and to do our part.

What was true then is true now. The Lord God himself makes the third choice, and it's actually the best answer, just like it is for us each and every day when we wake up and we determine to make one of those three choices for the rest of that day. Going backward or standing still in life is simply resisting change. It's living in denial, perhaps even hating change.

But going forward is accepting the reality of change. It's accepting that change is constant and it's inevitable. So we might as well embrace it. We might as well rely on God in faith, and we might as well move forward. Verse 15, and the Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel, Go forward.

I'll put this in a modern vernacular. Standing still is wasting precious time. You see those Egyptians? They're going to be here pretty soon, so I encourage you to put one foot in front of the other to start walking, not stand still, but move and go forward. And that's the choice that you and I need to make each and every day. And the good news is, is we don't have to make that choice alone. I'm going to read verse 15 from the new century version. Then the Lord said to Moses, Why are you crying out to me? Command the Israelites to start moving. Do your part. You do what you can in the natural.

And the Lord God promises to do the supernatural.

This was the only real option for the ancient Israelites. And on this day of Pentecost, in the year of 2024, it's the only option for us as well. God wants all of us to move forward.

And do our part to fulfill our calling. All that God wants us to be is individuals.

And to fulfill our role in his work. And here is an important key. We don't have to do it alone.

Yes, change is scary because change means unknown.

Change usually means I don't totally understand the outcome. Therefore, it frightens me.

It scares me a little bit.

Brethren, we don't have to struggle and live in this ever-changing world all alone. We don't have to change ourselves all alone. We don't need to move forward in life all alone. Because God has given us an incredible power, a helper, to support and spiritually mentor us into the future. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit. And it was given to the New Testament Church of God on this day. Let's go to John chapter 14 and verse 23 if you'll turn there with me.

This happens to be my favorite scripture.

And I get to read it once a year, usually around the Passover is when I read it.

And it ties in so well with this day. John chapter 14 and verse 23, Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him. And we, that's the father and the son, we will come to him and make our home in him. Isn't that encouraging?

Isn't that remarkable? The way that the father and son make their home in us is by giving us the same spiritual essence and power that they share together. The gift of the Holy Spirit, pictured by this Pentecost day. Did you know that soon after Jesus Christ was resurrected, that he gave his disciples just a foretaste of what they would receive on the day of Pentecost?

Just a foretaste. Let's go to John chapter 20. We're already in the book of John. John chapter 20, picking it up in verse 19, the very day that he was resurrected, and see what he did.

That is a foretaste of what happened on the day of Pentecost. This is then, at the same day and evening, which was Sunday, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut and the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst of them. So he basically materialized through his shut door, and there he is. And he said to them, peace be to you. That would get your attention. Someone doesn't even need to open the door. They just kind of materialized and say, peace be to you. When he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Look at the scars.

Look at the imprints. Where I was stabbed with a spear, where nails were hammered through different parts of my body. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them, peace to you, as the Father has sent me, I also sent you. And when he had sent this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit.

Long before the day of Pentecost, this was just a foretaste. Jesus Christ was saying, because of your faithfulness, because you're here, and I've been resurrected, according to the will of the Father, you will receive something very powerful on the day of Pentecost coming up.

Now, I want you to think about this. The breath coming from Christ brings to mind the Scripture in Genesis 2 and verse 7. Here's what it says in Genesis 2 and verse 7, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, referring to Adam, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

As the gift of physical life was imparted to Adam by God's breath.

So the gift of spiritual life to the apostles was imparted by Christ's breath.

Again, this was a foretaste of the broader and more dramatic outpouring that took place on the day of Pentecost. Here in John chapter 20, the disciples were instructed to receive the Holy Spirit, and their reception of it was in anticipation of the day of Pentecost in 31 A.D.

While we continue to be in the book of John, let's go back to John chapter 14 and verse 15. John chapter 14 and verse 15.

Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper. Of course, talking about the Holy Spirit, that he may abide with you forever. And, of course, we know this should be gender neutral, should be, and it may abide with you forever. The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it never sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he dwells with you primarily through the presence of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit was dwelling through Christ's presence around the disciples and will be in you in the future. They literally would go beyond just dwelling in the presence of the Holy Spirit, and that Spirit would be inside them. And I will not leave you orphans. I will not leave you alone. Is change scary? You bet change is scary. Is sometimes change uncomfortable because it's got a big unknown? Absolutely.

But we don't have to do it alone. We are not orphans. Christ has come to us and made his home in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. The way that Jesus comes to us is by giving us the name, or giving us the spiritual power that the Father and Son share together, the gift of the Holy Spirit pictured by this very day. What this means is that we have a robust helper, that spiritual essence, through the change process, whether the process is positive or negative, but we have that spiritual essence always there to help us as we decide to go forward in life.

At the edge of the Red Sea, we talked about that a few minutes ago, Israel was encouraged to do their part, put one foot in front of the other, and move forward. And that's exactly the choice that you and I need to make every day. Now let's take a look at this scripture from Paul, in which he contrasts being conformed to transform. That's Romans chapter 12 and verse 1.

He writes Romans chapter 12 and verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. You know, the challenge of being a living sacrifice? We can squirm off the altar.

We can begin to lack faith. We can begin to abandon our calling, but God wants us to be a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. It's the reasonable thing to do, considering the fact that God has given you the most powerful essence in the universe, the gift of his Holy Spirit. That's very reasonable that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice.

Verse 2, and do not be conformed to this world, he's going to draw a contrast here, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. First, let's talk about this word conformed. It's a Greek word that's only used two times in the entire New Testament. It's suske mezuzu, and it means to fashion yourself according to a pattern. It's like a dressmaker. You have a template. You have a pattern.

And the God of this world has a template, a pattern, that people who are not called and don't have a relationship with God are being conformed. Now that's change, but they're conforming to this world's values. They're conforming to society's moors. They are changing themselves to be like everyone else, because it's less threatening when you're like everyone else.

The only other place this word is used in the New Testament is 1 Peter 1 and verse 14. As I said earlier, everything is changing. Most people are being changed to conform to the values and philosophies of this world. That's change. The world is changing. They're changing.

I know religious people who 10, 20 years ago, if you brought up the subject of same-sex marriage, would have said, no way. It's against the Bible. Paul condemns it. It's not biblical. No way, no way.

Some of those very people today say, oh, it's okay. Not a problem. Jesus loves everybody.

What happened in that 10-year period of time? They weren't transformed.

They were conformed to the pattern, to the template of this world.

Let's take a look at the word transformed.

Transform is a word that many of us are familiar with. It's metamorpho.

And it means to change, to transfigure. And this Greek word is the root of the English word we use, metamorphosis. And there's a powerful analogy from nature. I think we all understand.

And that is a butterfly that emerges from a cocoon is a totally different creature than the caterpillar that entered it. They've actually studied extensively what happens in a cocoon. And that butterfly becomes liquefied. All of its cells become liquefied and totally repurposed.

Transformed.

I'm going to go backtrack here. That caterpillar, all of its cells in every part of that caterpillar, is totally repurposed, liquefied, and transformed so that when that butterfly comes out of there, it is an absolutely, positively new creature. What Paul is discussing here is radical change.

Are we ready for that? God has called us to change. We need to embrace change.

We need to move forward with the change and not look back in life and how the church was in the 1970s or not be slowly going backward by standing still. We need to be moving forward in our thinking, in our emotions, in our life. And we need to just realize that God hasn't called us to just tinker with our lives. God hasn't called us to just tweak what we are. He's not interested in just upgrading us to a good person, but a new creature that eventually doesn't even resemble the way we started out when we were born in this world, which was physical, carnal, selfish, and self-absorbed, like most other people in this world are. And much like that caterpillar becomes a brand new creature when it's transformed into that butterfly, God is trying to transform us into a brand new creature. As the Apostle Paul told the brethren in Corinth, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 and 18, therefore if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things have passed away.

That's the past. That's looking backward, those old things. Standing still is just slowly looking backward to those old things that should have passed away. All things have become new.

Being transformed means accepting and embracing the change process that God desires in each and every one of us. Virtually everyone in this world is changing. The universe is changing. Earth is changing. Our bodies are changing. All human beings are changing. But some are changing to conform to a carnal world, and few are being transformed into the mind of Jesus Christ. Change is a natural part of life, and it's also part of God's plan. Even change that is negative can have a long-term positive benefit to help us mature spiritually if our attitude is right.

I'm a very private person. I normally don't talk about myself that much, but it likes to spend just a few minutes telling you about my personal health history and struggle with a blood cancer, a form of leukemia. I was diagnosed with this at age 49. It was very low grade. I needed treatment by the time I was age 60 years old, and I went to Ohio State University and entered a clinical trial for a brand new drug that had never been brought to market. It's on market now, and I was part of phase two. I was happy that I was because in phase one, they didn't have the dosage right, and two individuals dropped dead when their heart stopped beating. Whoops! So they had to alter the amount that they were giving you.

And it bought me about 10 years of remission. I'm very thankful for it. I've had 10 of the most productive years of my life, including most of the time that I've spent as a pastor and my family and many other things. It's been the most productive 10 years of my life, so I'm very, very thankful. They haven't extended life. 50 years ago, I'd be dead because these technologies did not exist. This kind of blood cancer was a death sentence 50 years ago in a short period of time.

But it's returning, and that's one reason I had these repeated episodes with pneumonia. I've had pneumonia three times in 18 months, and that just can't continue. Now, I can't look backward.

Some people might do that. People play victimization. I can't look backward. As a small child, as my lungs and my body was developing, I grew up in a household of three smokers. The doctor told me years ago that secondhand smoke is one of the reasons for this form of blood cancer. Yeah, I could be angry with my parents. I could be angry with others that they were spewing toxins in the air to a young man who was just growing and developing, but I'm not going to do that. I'm not going backward. I'm not living backward. I'm not blaming anyone or myself because that has no productive benefit. I'm not living in the land of woulda, shoulda, and coulda. As they say, that ship has sailed. And that's what happens when we look backward and we try to relive the past. There's just no benefit from it. And there's no standing still for me because standing still would be denying reality. If I don't get treatment, this is only going to get worse and worse. I cannot endure reoccurring pneumonia. Something like the sixth leading cause of death on earth is influenza pneumonia. So I cannot continue to assault my body every six months by getting reoccurring pneumonia. This can't happen. I need to go forward. And I need to get treatment. I need to make the conscious choice to move forward.

Not just live in denial. This isn't important. Not to live in denial. Not to blame something from the past for my issues and my problems, but to move forward. To embrace the change. You know, this is an experience. And the first time I was treated, that was negative. That was painful.

But it resulted in the best 10 years of my life. You see, God wants us to go through these life experiences. And if our attitude is positive, we may go through these very difficult experiences, but I've learned things about myself and a greater degree of empathy towards others who have diseases than I ever had before, because I experienced it firsthand. Do I want to go through treatment? No.

There's a big unknown there. I don't want to do that. It's scary. It's change. But that's a choice that each and every one of us need to make every day, and that is to move forward. Life is intended to be an experience. To reach our potential means we learn the lessons of the past. We accept each single day as a gift, and we savor that day, one day at a time, because that's all we're promised. And we make the most of it. We continue forward towards God's calling, towards the achievement of our personal goals, and towards our personal mission in life.

Second Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 16. Paul, understanding the change, happens everywhere and is continuous, says, therefore we do not lose hearts. Even though our outward man is perishing, that's our physical body, we're getting older, we experience diseases that afflict us, cause us distress. Even though the outward man is perishing, this is all due to biological change, part of what God wove into the universe and into planet earth, yet the inward man, our spirit, is being renewed day by day. I have a number of people tell me over the years that, Mr. Thomas, you know, though I'm 80 years old and can't do much, I still think like I'm 21.

That's that inward man, and with God's spirit it can be renewed day by day. Now, in contrast, he says, for our light affliction, and so when you look at the realm of eternity and what God promises and the rewards we're going to have, perishing slowly through age or disease is really a light affliction. A hundred years of human life, in contrast to eternity, would be like you taking an eyedropper, and that would be representing your physical life. Fill up that eyedropper, walk under the Atlantic Ocean, and squeeze that eyedropper in the Atlantic Ocean. That's a hundred years of life compared to eternity. Is it really that important? In the realm of understanding what God has for us, he says, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. It goes far beyond the outward man that is perishing. So, on this day on Pentecost, I'd like to recap some of the highlights of some of the things that I said today because I know that I moved around a little bit, and I just want to make sure that we understand some of these concepts. God created a physical world of constant, ongoing change. The universe changes. It's constantly expanding. It's important for us to realize and accept this fact. Stop living in denial. Stop loving our ruts. Stop feeling comfortable in our poor habits. Stop wanting sameness and realize that God has called us to dramatic change through the power of his Holy Spirit, and we don't have to do it alone.

When we do, we have three choices to make on how we deal with the change process, and every day we basically make this choice over again. Our choices are to go backward, stand still, which is going backward slowly because everything else is marching on, or move forward, which is the third choice.

Moving forward accepts that God will do his part. That's his promise. But we must do our part because, as James would say, faith without works is dead.

Everyone alive today is changing, growing older, being either conformed or transformed through the life process. Everyone is changing, just like our physical universe.

Brother, are we being transformed into the likeness of Jesus? Are we using that incredible, powerful spirit that was given on this very day, 31 A.D., to change who and what we are, to develop the likeness of Jesus? Because if we're not, then slowly we are being conformed to something else because we are changing one way or the other. On this day in 31 A.D., God gave the gift of his Holy Spirit to individuals in his church, and he's still doing so today. We're going to have a baptism at our home next Sabbath. God still calls individuals, they repent of their sins, and they are baptized, and they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, just like, anciently, the time of Jesus that still happens today.

And that's a wonderful and a beautiful thing.

We are called to be able to do things we could never do before, and we haven't been called for our conversion to be a one-time event. Just like the apostles were transformed with a new purpose, and they became bold in the way they preached to the gospel, just like they became fearless and energized in their daily lives, we too must make the choice and allow God's Holy Spirit to do incredible things in our lives. And we don't have to live and struggle alone in this ever-changing world. We don't have to change ourselves all alone. We don't need to move forward in life all by ourselves. God offers us that incredible power, a helper, to support and spiritually mentor us into the future. It is the Holy Spirit, and it was given to the New Covenant Church on this day.

Being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit is a radical change. Not just a minor tinkering, not just tweaking what we are, not simply an upgrade from version 1.0 to 1.1, not some small, incremental little upgrade in our lives, but a transformation going beyond being just a good person to literally becoming a new creature that eventually doesn't even resemble the way we were before we were called. The way we started out in life is physical, carnal human beings who were self-absorbed and whose very motive was it's all about me.

Like everything around us, we are all constantly changing.

Again, is it for the better? Or are we changing into something else? The choice is ours. Going forward, we have our part to play. Are we willing to make that choice?

So let us celebrate this very day and the opportunity God is giving us because of that wonderful gift that he's imparted to all of us and made his home within us. Our potential is great.

And you know what? We're going to change anyway. So we might as well accept and change through the power of the Holy Spirit because change is inevitable. We might as well embrace it.

We might as well allow the Spirit of God to convert us deeply into a new creature in Christ that has the very likeness and the nature of Jesus Christ himself.

I wish all of you a wonderful and fulfilling day at Pentecost.