For the Rest of Your Life

We know we live in a time that is ever, ever changing. We've gone through this time where we've heard, you know, we've been pretty much at a stay-at-home situation. People are working at home. So many people have been laid off. No one really knows what the effect on the economy is going to be. And as we watch the number of coronavirus cases in the country, we're told, begin to, I guess, reach the peak and begin to go down, we see all of a sudden in the news the last few days this groundswell about opening the country back up again. And of course, it's come from the White House, and it's appropriate sometime we have to get back to life as it was before. But in some states, including I noticed even in Florida yesterday, there were protests among people that they want the state back open to get. They want to go back to work. They don't want to do what they've been doing, you know, for the last few weeks. And, you know, hats off to the American public for for following the orders that they have and for being willing to stay at home and make the sacrifices in the wake of everything that's going on here in a very surprising situation. Now, I said many times that we will learn a lot of lessons from this time that we're in, and probably some down the road, we'll talk about some of those lessons that we have learned that that will last us and that we need to keep in the back of our minds as we go forward. But we see the country, we see the country ready to take action again, and there's a move on how quickly can it happen. You know, how quickly can the sports arenas fill up again? How quickly can the restaurants open again? All these things that people want to do, they want to go back to their old way of life. And it's not as kind of maybe coincidental as I think about us coming out of the days of Unleavened Bread. You know, we've gone through a days of Unleavened Bread and a Passover, the likes of which none of us have experienced in our lives before. It's been a very interesting time, I hope a very illuminating time to us to look into ourselves more, to see some of who we are and the things that maybe we need to change going forward, and to understand the purpose of these days more, and to embrace them and to observe them for the purpose of what they are, as opposed to maybe some of the physical trappings that go around the physical, just the days of Unleavened Bread and Passover. So there's these things that we, you know, and as we come back out of the days of Unleavened Bread, and as we stop eating the Unleavened Bread and we begin eating leavened bread again in our homes, you know, maybe there's that tendency among us to think it's over.

This time of intense examination, this time of intense study, this time of intense being with God and focusing on eating the bread of life, eating the Unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth, maybe we can relax a little bit and maybe we can kind of just go back to the way it was and we understand these things and we know these things and we might find that we can become a little lax and as the days pass, as the days pass, we long to get back to the way things were before and maybe forget some of the lessons that we were in. Well, let's look at Christ's words that we read, you know, during these days of Unleavened Bread. Go with me back to John 8.

And if John 8, you know, just to refresh your memory what's in there, it was the woman who was caught in adultery and she had been caught red-handed. You remember the story? There was no doubt that the law would say she should be stoned and she should be killed, but Jesus Christ intervened in that situation and he said, you know, those of you who are without fault, you be the first one to cast a stone on her and as he wrote in the sand or the dust or whatever he was writing in, you know, one by one they went away and he asked the lady, you know, where are your accusers now? And she said, they're not here. And in verse 11 of John 8, he says something that we can use as our theme for today. He says, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. Go and sin no more. And if you look in your margin, it'll say the majority text would say, from now on, sin no more. You've been forgiven. You've been spared. I forgive you, but go and sin no more.

Don't go back to the way life was before. Now you have a mission. Now you know who it is. Now you know who has forgiven you. Now you understand these things even more clearly from here on out for the rest of your life. Go and sin no more. No returning to the old way. No returning to the old person. Moving forward for the rest of our lives. And that's what he was telling the woman there in John 8 verse 11. And that's what we need to focus on as we emerge from the days of unleavened bread and every day of our life. Go and sin no more. Don't be the person that you were before.

Whatever fault, weakness, attitude, whatever it is that God showed you, language, entertainment, sin that was revealed to you during these days of unleavened bread and the Passover as you examined yourself, overcome them and sin no more. There's a mindset that has to happen if we're going to do this the rest of our lives. You know, it's very easy to say, oh, I get it. I get it. I'm not going to do that anymore. But you know as a week passes and two weeks passes and a month passes and six month passes, it's very easy to have that out of our minds and to kind of relax and go back to the way we were before, pat ourselves on the back and say, hey, I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay.

But Christ would say to us, remember, remember what you've learned and go and don't do that anymore for the rest of your life. You know, in the world, there's so many people, you know, so many people, us included, right, that have things that we need to overcome. You know, we could go down a list of addictions that are all over the world, right? There's alcohol, there's drugs, there's gambling, there's sex, there's shopping, there's, you name it, pornography, there's all sorts of addictions.

You could have a list a mile long of addictions. And at some point in time, people come to the realization that they cannot do those things anymore. And they want to, they want to, well, I can even talk about criminals, right? People who end up in jail. And they think they're rehabilitated, and they'll never do those again. But what is the, what is the failure rate among those people? How many criminals who are released from jail really learned their lesson, and for the rest of their lives, don't return to the life they had before? So many get readmitted. How many people who are alcoholics have a relapse and maybe go back to that because they let down their guard, and they think they've, they've made it? How many people start weight loss programs and are determined that they're going to do that? And then after a month or six months or whatever, boom, it's right back to the way it was before? There's a mindset, and the rest of our lives that you and I have been called to, because God calls us to the rest of our lives live the way that He's called us to. The rest of our lives, as each time we learn or it's brought to our attention a fault or a failure or a weakness that we have to work on that and put that put that away from us.

You know, we talk about overcoming, and yes, you know, the Bible is clear, to He who overcomes.

You know, it says over and over and over in Revelation as it talks to the seven churches, and to He who overcomes. And we've talked about overcoming, and we know what we need to do. We have to have God's Spirit, and we have to make the decision we won't do that anymore and train ourselves that for the rest of our lives we won't do that anymore and catch ourselves. And it's a hard thing to do. It's a hard thing to do, but we must do it if we're going to please God and live the life that He has called us to. So we can talk about overcoming, and we certainly talk about repentance because repentance is something that's there, you know, for those who are listening who are in the process of counseling for baptism. You know, repentance is something we have to do. When God calls us, we realize our lives have been lived apart, apart from what God wants. We may have thought we were very righteous people when we were doing all these other things that when God opens our eyes aren't in the Bible at all. We weren't pleasing Him at all. And when Christ says, if you love me, keep my commandments, do the things I say, follow my example, we learn we weren't.

We weren't. It's a bitter pill to swallow, but for the rest of our lives, once we know, we live that way. And it's the same for all those of us who have been in the church 5, 10, 15, 20, 50 years. Every year, there's never a time that we could say nothing more to repent of. Repentance is something of our past because it happens to the rest of our life as God perfects us and brings to our attention those things that we need to work on. As each year, He gets us closer and closer, if we're following Him, to the purity that He wants us to have, the blamelessness that He wants us to have, the spiritual maturity that He wants us to have. And then when we realize those things and we go through the process, it's really for the rest of our lives, those things are past us.

But how do we do that? How do we do that? How do we know we're on the track? How do we, you know, what is this process of change that we go through, that we've all been called to? And that so many, you know, everyone in the world, too, has something they need to change and it's somewhere in their life we need to change. You know, maybe it's financial bad habits, maybe it's eating bad habits, maybe it's from a chronic disease or a terminal disease that you have to have a lifestyle change. How do you do it? Well, I want to talk to you today from something that I, you know, worked with back at the time when I was employed in the medical field and we ran programs for hospitals and things. And one of the things that we taught people with chronic ailments is they were coming out of some situations that they needed to adopt a lifestyle change for the rest of their lives if they didn't want the recidivism, you know, to become one of the recidivism rates of going back to where they were before that they needed to do. And there was a man that we came across back in the 90s as we were putting these programs together by the name of James Prochaska.

And James Prochaska is an interesting man. He's a clinical psychologist.

Today's with the Cancer Prevention Institute up in the University of Rhode Island. But recently, he was named as one of the three most influential clinical psychologists of all times.

And he did an extensive study back in the, I guess, 80s and 90s leading up to the time that we were working with some programs. And in it, he identified a process of change of people who were able to change for the rest of their life. What did they go through? What were the stages that they went through? And it was a model on if you're going to change, you have to be aware of what you're going through and understand what you're going through and the pressures that's going to be on you. And so he had, he published a book at that time called Changing for Good. But in it, he outlined six stages of change, necessary change in someone's life. And I want to talk about those today, but I want to talk about them from a biblical sense. You know, often when I look at things and read things, I think, you know, I compare them to what the Bible says. And then I think, oh, the Bible that matches what the Bible says, the same processes. Therefore, it must be good.

Therefore, we can teach it. Therefore, we can apply it into our lives. So I want to talk about that today as we go through our change, whether we're very new in the church or whether we've been around for a long time and have things that we need to overcome, changes that we need to make in our lives, so that we're aware of what's going on. So let me, let me begin with the first stage.

I'm going to tell you what he called the stage, but then we'll give the biblical name as well.

Stage one, he says, is a pre-contemplation stage. In this stage, Mr. Prochaska says, and by the way, the book has so much more information than I'm going to give you today. This is just kind of an outline of what it is that you can find on the internet any place as you search. But the pre-contemplation stage is one that people aren't even really aware that they need to make a change, or maybe they're just in denial. Everything is okay, and I don't need to make a change. They don't see a solution to their problems. They don't even, most of the time, see the problem. They're not aware that what they're doing is contrary to everything that would be good in their life. It can be an denial, or it can just be plain ignorance. And you know, God talks about us with plain ignorance.

Let's go back to Acts 17. We'll call this stage, for our purposes, the state of ignorance. In Acts 17, we have Paul giving his sermon, if you will, at the Areopagus, and he's talking to the people assembled there about the unknown God. And as we come down to verse 30, now verse 29, he says, and as he's talking to them about the idols that they serve, he says, therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. And you can see where he's going with this. He says, truly, these times of ignorance God overlooks, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. There always was a time in our life that all of us have been ignorant, ignorant of what God's will is, ignorant of what God's commands really were, ignorant of what Christ's example was, ignorant of the faults, the little personal faults and weaknesses that we have, that we just kind of maybe going along blissfully and didn't even realize that the things we were doing were harming ourselves, that the things we were doing were harming ourselves spiritually or even physically. We all have been in that state of ignorance every single one of us, not only at the time before we were baptized, but in so many other areas of our life. There is the time of ignorance.

And Mr. Prochaska says, this is a time we're all in. Understand it. And God says he winks at it in the old, I like the way he says it in the old King James, God winks at it. Doesn't mean it was right, but he understands that we were ignorant. But when we know, when we know, then it's time, then it's time to repent. Then it's time to turn from the old way and turn to God and start doing things the right way or His way for the rest of our lives. Now we can look at Paul here for a moment, because he's a pretty good example of the stages that we're going to talk about. Let's go back to Paul. Just a few chapters back in Acts, back in Acts 8 and verse 1. We see the type of man Paul was before he became the Paul we know, a totally different man. And in that state that he was in, he was completely ignorant that he wasn't serving God. He thought he was. Paul, or Saul, verse 1 of chapter 8, was consenting to his death, talking about Stephen. At that time, a great persecution rose against the church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Totally ignorant of what he was doing and that it was not what God's will was. To over to chapter 9, verse 1. Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them down to Jerusalem. Hey, it's not enough to do this around Jerusalem. I'm going to go out and search these people out wherever they are. As he journeyed, as he journeyed, he came near Damascus and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. He thought he was doing God's will. And then a light shone on him. Now, his light was a very bright light. It caught their attention. But you know what? In every single one of our lives, a light shone at some time and we knew. We knew and we came across something when God opened our minds. Oh, I'm not serving God the way he wants to be served. I'm not worshiping the way he says to worship him. Now, that would be before baptism, but even as we go through life, whether or no longer how long we've been in the church, at some point we could be going merrily along and thinking everything is fine. And then all of a sudden, boom, the little spotlight comes down and someone says something to us. Or we have someone make a comment about something that we do or the way we act or the way we talk or the way we present ourselves or some weakness or whatever it is. It could come from spouse, it can come from children, it can come from friends, it can come from co-workers. And a light shines and all of a sudden it's like, oh, oh, there's something there. We were ignorant of it before, but at some point and all through our lives, God lets that light shine as it did for Paul. And as that happens, we move from the pre-contemplation or the state of ignorance into the next stage that Mr. Prochaskalists and that is the stage of contemplation. Now we have something to think about. Now we have something that, oh, there's something in my life. There's something here I need to think about.

It says, I wrote down here, in this stage you begin to see there's a problem and there's a solution out there somewhere. You begin to look at things in a new way. You look at your life, see where you've been, begin to see what's been done wrong, and you might find that you are unsatisfied with the way that you've been living. You begin to contemplate that things need to change.

Because all of a sudden this light has gone on as we see in Acts 9 verse 3. And we begin to see, oh, that's not what I'm supposed to be. Something happens to move people from stage one to stage two.

It's happened to all of us and it's happened to all of us many times in our life. And I hope, as God is still working with us, that it's happened to us even during these past days of unleavened bread and the time leading up to Passover, as God has shown us some things that we need to work on.

And things that we maybe look at in our lives in just a little bit different way than we think. You know, there's a verse you can mark it down in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 12 for those of us who have been in the church for a while. You know, it says, if any of you thinks he stands, take heed. Take heed lest you fall. And you know what? There's a danger with all of us who have been in the church for a while saying, you know what? I do everything.

I do everything. I keep the Sabbath day. I tithe. I go to the Holy Days. I make my offerings. I don't use foul language. I'm not, you know, I study the Bible. I pray. We can kind of, we can find of, you know, maybe get a little proud of ourselves and let things happen. And that can put us in that state of ignorance. And when we hear someone say something to us, we think, not me.

Not me. We always have to be aware because there will be something that takes us and shines that light on us and shows us something that is the dark part of us that needs to be changed. When those lights shine, we have to think about it for a while. You know, Paul had very expedited calling, if you will, here in Acts 9. For some of us, it takes some time to think about those things.

And we remember when we were coming into the church, it's like, yeah, I do need to be keeping that Sabbath day. Yeah, I do need to not be working on the Sabbath day. Yeah, I don't need to be keeping Christmas and Easter. All those things don't happen like immediately that way. For some do. Some just stop it immediately. But for some, it takes some time to think and work through it. And that's what this contemplation stage is for. If we will go forward here in Acts 9, you know, as we read through, we see Paul, you know, going about his business in a state of ignorance. Boom, the light shines in verse 3. And then look what happens to him. Look what happens to him. He fell to the crown and he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And Paul said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I'm Jesus, whom you're persecuting. It's hard for you to kick against the goats. So Paul, wow, the light has shone on. He's got it. Now it's like, whoa, this is Jesus Christ speaking to me. So he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what do you want me to do?

The light is in. There's something I'm not doing right. I've got to think about this. I've just been told what I'm doing is not in accordance with God's will or the word of truth that we have in front of us. The Lord said to him, Arise and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.

And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one.

So Saul rose from the ground and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus and he was there three days without sight and neither ate nor drank. Now he was in a contemplation stage during that time. There was no distractions for Paul during that time. The light shines shown on him. He knew something needed to change and for three days, three days, he contemplated. We see that he was praying, you know, as he was doing that thing. He was in total darkness. He was thinking about what had just gone on with him.

It's the way that we have to think about things that go on with us when we come to realization and kind of put things together. And someone tells us something about us. You know, if we've been in the church for a while, it's like our initial reaction is, no, that's not me. That's not a problem. But then we think about it and then the light begins a little bit clearer and clearer.

And you think back to situations like, man, that is me. When I think about it, that is what I do.

That is how I am. That is something that I haven't seen in my life. And you, as you come to it, you've got to come to that realization. And that's what happens during this stage. We have to think.

You know, and people who are counseling for baptism, you know, so many times, you know, I guess churches in the world will just baptize you immediately. The emotion hits, and so you get baptized that day when the Spirit moves you, as they say. But in the church, we say, no, you've got to take some time to think about it. You've got to understand what it is. You have to see who you were and who you need to be because you've got to be repentant and understand who you were before that and what needs to change. And that can't happen overnight. There has to be some kind of contemplation time that goes through all that. You know, during this time, we have choices to make.

You know, Deuteronomy 30, 19, all of a sudden, that verse applies to everyone. What are you going to choose? God said, blessing or cursing? Life or death? The choice is easy when you just lay them out side by side, but not so easy when we actually have to start doing the things and make the choice, and along with the choice, do the things that support that choice. And as we go through this contemplation phase, changes should happen, begin to happen in our life as the realization sets in. Let's go back to Luke and see what those changes, what the Bible, you know, says those changes that we see are called. In Luke 3, we have John the Baptist. He's preaching the gospel of repentance, and he's down, and he's baptizing people, a lot of people. So let's look at verse 7.

Luke 3 verse 7. He said to the multitudes, John the Baptist did, that came out to be baptized by him. Brute of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Now, he baptized many of them, and it says in Matthew, they confessed their sins, right? So John could say they were repentant, they recognized the truth, but then he would see these other people coming, and it's like, well, who are you? What are you doing here to be baptized for? And he says in verse 8, therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance. If you say you have, you understand that if you spake in the time to contemplate, if you recognize that you need to change, there should be some changes in your life.

There should be some fruits of repentance, because you do things differently when you contemplate, and as you go through that stage and you realize what's right, you make changes in your life as you recognize what is right and what isn't. Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance, and don't begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Don't just pat yourself on the back and say, I grew up in the church, or I do this, or I do that. Fruits worthy of repentance.

Contemplation stage, some of those things begin to emerge. As we understand, we have a financial bad habit or a health bad habit, and we get it, we make changes. We don't just continue with the same things, because as we get it, we need to change, and that's what Paul is, or this is what John is saying here. And so the people, verse 10, asked him, saying, well, what do we do?

What are you talking about, John? What are you looking for? And he said to them, he who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none, and he who has food, let him do likewise. I want to see that you have love for one another. I want to see that beginning to emerge, not the selfishness that was always there, not the self-centeredness that was always there, not doing things the way you always did, but beginning to change as you get it. The tax collectors came to him to be baptized, and they said to him, well, what do we do? And he said, do your job, but do it honestly. You know, the whole society around you may be doing it this way. You go out and you do your job, but just collect what is owed to you. Don't pat it to get more for yourself, even though every other tax collector is doing it, and people in the society expect that that's the norm. You don't be like that. Do the job honestly. Verse 14, the soldiers asked him, saying, well, what do we do? And he said to them, don't intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages. Whatever you're doing, do your job. Be honest with them. Don't look to make, you know, don't play politics and say, if I accuse this person or that person, to be content with what you have, as we, you know, talk about, and we've talked about contentment before, just do what God says and be content. I need to see some changes. If you're getting it that has to precede baptism or precede lasting change for the rest of our lives, then we need to begin to see some of these things in this time of contemplation.

You know, in Luke 14, we could turn there. I guess we should turn there just to read it. In verse 28, a principle that we were all talked to before baptism, and those who are in that process now, or will ever be, we'll talk about this. In verse 28, Luke 14, Christ says, which of you, intending to build a tower, doesn't sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it, lest after he has laid the foundation and isn't able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and wasn't able to finish. Now, God doesn't call us for just a short time. Repentance isn't just a one, two, or three-time thing. It's a rest of our life type thing.

Change, and changing for the rest of our lives, and putting the old out, and putting the new in, is for the rest of our lives. And God says, you know, before you go down this road, count the cost. It begins in stage two. When you're contemplating it, and you realize, this is the way I need to go, this is the way, this is where the light is shining, and it continues in stage three, which is preparation. Preparation. Okay, now you've made a choice. This is the way I need to go. Now I need to start looking at things because my life has to change. Or my behavior has to change. Or what I do for entertainment has to change, if we've been in the church for a while.

Or the language I use has to change. Or whatever it is that has to change because the light has shown, and I've taken the time to contemplate it, and not just throw it out and say, it's not me.

Because when we say immediately, you know, we're all prone to do, not me, there's a little bit of pride there, and we have to realize, maybe we need to step back and look at ourselves from the way God looks at us. So now it's time to prepare ourselves. During this stage, Mr. Prochaska says, people begin to make the final adjustments mentally before they begin to change their behavior for good. They start making mental adjustments to the way they think. And what we do mentally is so important. You know, just like what we do with the days of Unleavened Bread and Passover, the physical things we do are important. But it's what we do spiritually with those things, the mental preparation and the spiritual preparation that we have that really makes the difference. And so it is with this preparation time as we go through change, okay, I get it, I see, I see it, I've contemplated it, and now I've got to count the cost for the rest of my life. I can't do that anymore, or I shouldn't do that anymore. For the rest of my life, this is how I need to be, and I need to build that in. Easy words to say, very difficult to do.

And oftentimes, you know, there are people in the world who are able to do some of these things for the rest of their lives, but we need God's Spirit to give us the strength and to give us the ability to do that and the cognizance to do it and to catch ourselves when we're about to slink back into our old habits or old ways of doing things and immediately repent and then get up and start moving forward again, forward to perfection, always keeping in mind that for the rest of their lives, we are changing ourselves for good in accordance with what God would have us to do.

Well, we mentioned in Acts 9, verse 11, I won't turn back to Acts 9 right now, that Paul was praying.

He was beginning to prepare. He had gone through the contemplation phase, and then he was praying, and often there's a lot of praying and studying that goes on and a lot of mental preparations, you know, as we go through our lives because we have to train our minds, and it's, of course, God's spirit that gives us a sound mind.

But we see this, and we've talked about preparing our heart before. You know, you can go back and somewhere on in our archives on the web there is a sermon on preparing the heart, but let's go back to Daniel, and there's just a couple things where, you know, we have to be prepared to do this. It's throughout the Bible and the scriptures that we talked about in that scripture, but here in Daniel 1, we see Daniel, you know, for the rest of his life. I mean, he went into Babylon. For the rest of his life, he obeyed God.

He never yielded to Babylon, no matter whether he was active in the government or if he was standing by the wayside. And even as a young man, as he came over there in Daniel 1, verse 8, it says, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies or the wine, which he drank. He purposed in his heart. He didn't make that decision the day he arrived in Babylon. He made that decision as he was being exiled, as he saw Judah falling. And as he thought about what he would do and how he would live his life, I purposed in my heart, I will not.

I will not eat the king's delicacies. I will not drink the king's wine. I will, I just will not become part of that society at that time. Later in his life, we see him doing the same thing in a different situation back in chapter 10 as these prophecies are coming to him. And he wonders what is going on. What do they mean? And you remember, as Daniel prays in chapters 9 and 10, what do they mean? Show me what it means, and God doesn't answer him immediately. And in chapter 10, in verse 12, you know, as the angel came to him, it says, Daniel, it was written here, the angel said to me, Daniel, don't fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard.

And I've come because of your words. He set his mind to seek God's will. He didn't give up when the answer didn't come after one try, two times, two months, three months, he waited. And he kept it because he set his mind to understand. And God watched it. And Daniel's mind was that way. It's the same way we have to be. We have to set our minds, set our minds on the goal that God has set before us. That's the kingdom. But also the purity and what we need to become that whole transition and transformation in our lives that has to become part of our route to the kingdom.

It has to be marked with change, becoming more and more and more like Jesus Christ. As each year passes, as God shows us, this needs to be weeded out. This attitude is wrong. This idea is wrong. This is a sin. This is a fault. You need to become more this way. Whatever it is, then we do it and we set our minds and ask God, as Daniel did and as we know Paul did too, ask him to create that in us.

But we have to make those decisions to do that as well. We have to adjust our lives and it has to be us who drives it. God will give us the strength, but we have to make it happen. You know, Prochaska, one of the comments he makes about this stage is that those who cut short this stage and don't prepare themselves mentally, lower their ultimate chance for lasting success and change.

Preparation is key. Counting the cost is key. Setting your mind that this is for the rest of my life is key. I'm not going back to that anymore. That's the old man that has to be buried. That's the old way that has to be buried. I have to put in this new man, as we read through Colossians 3.

This new thing, a new way of looking, acting, behaving, eating, whatever it is that we have to do and the mind has to be set and it doesn't happen overnight. It takes months and months to do that. To set your mind is for the rest of my life. And that's what must happen if we're going to please God. That's why baptism is an immediate and that's why God has us work in our lives as we go through however many it is from the times that we begin, that He shines the light on us and He opens our minds to the time that we die. This is the process we go through and over and over again, sometimes with major things, sometimes with minor things, but it's the same process.

Now on stage four, then, we have the action phase. You become mentally prepared. You've made a choice. I'm going to do this from here on out. This is my life from here on out. During this stage, people overtly modify their behavior and surroundings. They make a change and that change is visible to their friends. When they make those changes, it's a public statement of the change they need to make. When we're baptized, it's a public statement. I choose this way. I renounce my old self. I renounce my old beliefs. I'm following this way for the rest of my life. If it's a financial change, if it's a job change, if it's a what days do we celebrate change, there are things that happen or a food change the way we eat. The rest of my life, this is what's happening. No longer keeping these days, no longer doing this or that or whatever. People begin to see, because there's public statements we make when we overtly change the way we are. Let's go back to Acts 9 and see this with Paul. Again, Paul is an expedited case. For us, it's much longer, but the phases continue in that way. In Acts 9 and verse 18, Paul has been there. He's praying.

Verse 18, after Ananias prayed for him, in verse 18, it says, immediately there fell from Paul's eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once, and he arose and was baptized.

Wow! For someone who just days earlier was persecuting people of the way and looking to haul them over to Jerusalem and do whatever he needed to, here's someone who's making a public statement. He was baptized. So when he received food, he was strengthened, and Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. People he hated before, but now this is who he's hanging out with. This is the people that he's hanging out with, not his old friends. He didn't go back to Jerusalem and say, you know, I'm going to hang out with you more. He was of a totally different mindset now. I'm not going to be with the same people anymore. I'm going to hang out with these people, the disciples at Damascus. And immediately, what did he do? He went and preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. Public statements, very public statements. It says in verse 21, all who heard were amazed. What is Paul doing? What's the change that has come over him?

But look at everything that he did. Look at all that he's done. He's now got a new group of people that he's associating with because they believe the same way that he does. You know, 1 Corinthians 15.33 says, you know, corrupt company or evil company corrupts good habits. And as we come into the church, if we go back into the time, you know what? The people we wanted to hang out with were not the people that we used to hang out with, right? I mean, now we wanted to be with people of like mind. Now we were people of a new family. We wanted to be with people who saw things and understood and believed things the way that we did. That God opened our minds to do. That's what Paul did. We made statements to our friends. Maybe we went to our boss and said, I'm not working on Sabbath anymore. I'm not going to that Christmas party this year. I need to have this day off and these days off for the Feast of Tabernacles because it's God's will and whatever you do to me, I'm still going to do God's will. Oh, statements that we make. Putting on the new man, doing those actions that become very public as people look around us. Let's go back to Psalm, Psalm 119 for a moment. You know, last year in the home Bible studies that we did last winter, we talked about Psalm 19 a little bit and I mentioned that, you know, it wouldn't be a bad Bible study for everyone to go back through and look at the various stanzas that are here in Psalm 119 because there are different messages in each one of those stanzas. As David talks about God's law and what a benefit it is to him. Let's look at one of the stanzas here beginning in verse 57 of Psalm 119. And I think in these eight verses here, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight verses that we have from 57 to 64, we see some of the things we've talked about already.

Verse 57, you are my portion, O eternal. I have said that I would keep your words.

This is my statement to you. I will keep your words. I entreated your favor with my whole heart.

Be merciful to me according to your word. I thought about my ways. I contemplated them.

I thought about my ways and I turned my feet to your testimonies. I thought about me. I thought about the way I do things and you know what? I made the decision to turn to you. I made haste.

I didn't delay. When I knew what I needed to do, I did it because I knew it was the right thing to do. I did not delay to keep your commandments. Oh, the cords of the wicked have bound me.

You know, one of the things we'll see and one of the things that happened to us, the people that we hang out with, they're going to really want to have us to go back to the way we were before. Our old friends will say, it's not that bad. There's nothing wrong with doing that or this. It's all innocent. The cords of the wicked have bound me, but I haven't forgotten your law.

It's with me forever. At midnight, I will rise to give thanks to you because of your righteous judgment. Verse 63, I'm a companion of all who fear you and of those who keep your precepts.

They're my family. They're my friends. I'm a companion of any of them. That's my group now.

As in birds of a feather flock together. And so it is, as we make those outward statements of who we are and what we're doing, there's new ways. Sometimes there's new surroundings.

Sometimes there's new jobs that we go to. I know when I was baptized where I was working, it got to the point where I just didn't feel that I should be there anymore. But I let it put in God's hands and he opened up an opportunity that turned into be one of the best things that could have ever happened to me in my life. And I left that. Never regretted because I learned a lot in the situation I was in at that time in that hospital. That stead me well, but I knew it was time to leave but waited for God to open those doors. We can do the same thing. Put it in his hands. He will lead us to where he wants us to be. Let's go back to Acts.

Acts 9.

We read about Paul here in this action phase.

And the statements that he's making. And it took people out by surprise, but he wasn't private about it. He didn't try to keep it secret. In verse 23 of Acts 9, it says, now after many days were passed, the Jews, his old friends, plotted to kill him.

Plied to kill him. We don't like. We don't like what you're doing. Now we'll kill you.

You know, Peter talks about this as well back in 1 Peter 4. 1 Peter 4. And in verse 3, it says, for we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, abominable idolatries, in regard to these, they think it's strange that you don't run with them in the same flood of dissipation, and they speak evil of you. Why do they do that? Why do they speak evil of you?

They want you to come back to the way you were. And that's part of our mental preparation, that no matter what, no matter what comes our way, we're not going back. We're not going back.

When Christ calls us, He says, you have to deny self. No matter what man will do to you or threaten to do to you, follow me, He says. What can man do to you? He can take your life, but he can't take your eternal life. That's part of the mental preparation. No matter what happens to me, no matter what is on the road that I didn't even count on, I won't turn back for the rest of my life.

I will continue to follow you. In Revelation 3, verse 11, it says to the Philadelphian church, the church that God says, or His called out ones, right? The ones who He says nothing negative about, you take heed and you hold on to your crown. No matter what winds are going, no matter what thunderstorms may come that way, it could be a tornado, it could be the biggest hurricane that ever hit the earth, you hold on to that crown. You don't let something else take it away from you.

Keep your eyes on the one who will deliver you to His kingdom. Don't give up. Don't fall back.

Keep on acting. So stage four is action, but you know changing for good for the rest of our life doesn't end with action. Now we look at it spiritually. You know, some churches might say it doesn't end with action. Once you're baptized, you're completely sealed. And we know that that's not the case. I can give you, you know, Hebrews 10 to look at, you know, other places as well. Change for life never ends with action. It never ends with action, Mr. Prochaska says. There are two more stages that we need to go through. The next one is maintenance.

Maintenance. He says maintenance involves being able to successfully avoid any temptations to return to the bad habit. People in this stage tend to remind themselves about how much progress they've made. People in maintenance constantly, constantly are acquiring new skills to deal with life and avoid relapse. They are able to anticipate the situations in which a relapse could occur and prepare coping strategies in advance. Now some of these things as I read them should turn on bells to you, right? Just like God gives us opportunities to strengthen ourselves. Trials come our way.

Coronavirus things come our way. Health trials come our way. Financial trials come our way. Any other thing that comes our way? They're opportunities. Okay, I have to develop the strategy to look to God for this. They are able to anticipate the situations in which a relapse could occur and prepare coping strategies in advance. They remain aware that what they are striving for is personally worthwhile and meaningful. They are patient with themselves and recognize that it often takes a while to let go of old behavior patterns and practice new ones until they become second nature to them. Even though they may have thoughts of returning to their old bad habits, they resist the temptation and stay on track. There's a lot of that, right?

Maintenance. You know, how many people, if we take a simple program like weight loss, how many people fail in the maintenance days? They get down to the weight and then they stop doing the things that they need to do. They need to keep doing them the rest of their life.

It's not a three-month program or a six-month program. It's a rest of your life program.

If you do it the right way and aren't relying on medicines or whatever else people rely on, it's the rest of your life. And there's mental adjustments that have to happen along that way, and there has to be reminders along the way to yourself as you change the way you think.

Now, I'm going to add to this something Mr. Prochaska doesn't have, but we've got to keep God's Spirit in mind in all these things, right? Because without His Holy Spirit, we will fail.

All of us would fall away. You know, I've given the statistic before that someone told me years ago that of all the people who have ever been baptized in the church, somewhere around 80 or 90 percent didn't stick with it until the end. Somewhere in their maintenance phase, they fell apart. They didn't stick with it until the end. And Jesus Christ calls this maintenance phase, Matthew 24, 13, He who endures to the end. That's the maintenance phase. We've been baptized. We're walking along the walk. We find these things that we need year by year to change in our lives. It's the maintenance phase. He says, endure to the end. Endure to the end. Watch what's going on around you. Don't fall prey to it. Don't think that you're so, you know, that you're standing so strong that nothing can knock you over. Humility has to be a huge part of it. Let's go to Hebrew 6.

Hebrew 6. I mentioned Matthew 24 verse 13 about enduring to the end, but let's look at Hebrew 6.

In verse 11, the author here says, we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. Not the initial flash of energy, not the first 10 years for the rest of your life. That you display that same diligence until the end. That you don't become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Let's go back to Matthew 24 because there are pitfalls along the way. We know, you know, we all have our own personal pitfalls, the thing that does so easily be set, as it says in Hebrews 12. But there are things that we can fall prey to if we're not watching what we're doing, if we're not paying attention to the maintenance phase, if we're thinking we're okay and nothing can knock us off our perch, sure enough something will because certainly with us, Satan is looking for any opportunity, any opportunity to knock us back. Matthew 12, let's look at verse 11. Leading up to what? I'm sorry, not Matthew 12, Matthew 24.

Matthew 24, verse 11. Many false prophets will rise up and to save many, many, he says, leading up to verse 13. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

Will it be a false prophet? Someone with a little different idea that kind of piques your imagination that you think you know a little bit more than what the Bible says. Whatever it is, get off on a little twig as opposed to the trunk of the tree. Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. He's not talking about the world here, he's talking about you and I who could become prey to this. And because lawlessness will abound. Boy, do we live in a lawless society today. More and more, we see lawlessness because lawlessness will abound. Not in the church, but in the society we live in, the love of many will grow cold. And it'll be just, you know what, things are going okay, I don't need to do that. Not a problem. God's okay with it. I'm doing okay. God has no issues with me. When we start thinking that way is the time we should be really throwing ourselves back into the repentance stage and looking at ourselves very closely. You know, Luke 21 verse 34 says, don't get caught up with the carousing of the world and the cares of the world. It can be very distracting, can't they? There's many things that we could do in our lives that can keep us busy and keep us totally away from God. And we find our priorities being there instead of where they should be. Not that there's anything wrong with doing things and we have to live our lives, but keeping our focus on who we are and what God has called us to. You know, back in 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy, Paul, you know, was prone to all the things, the same trials, temptations that we are.

You know, you read through Romans 6 and 7 and you see that Paul had the same kind of thoughts that we did along the way. You know, he had issues that would come up and he thought, man, am I even doing what God wants? Am I handling this the right way? And Romans 6 and 7 can be a very encouraging chapter to us as we see someone like Paul struggling with the same things that you and I, you know, struggle with. And he comes to the conclusion, I can do it through Jesus Christ, our Lord. It's like he pulls himself up by the bootstraps and says, I can do this not by my strength but by the strength that God gives me. Now, where was I going here? Oh, 2 Timothy 4.

2 Timothy 4. You know, many—you can go through and you can read in the Bible how many didn't endure to the end. And so many today don't endure to the end. And it's a sad thing. When we look at the scope, if we've been in the church 50, 60 years, look how many didn't endure to the end that we even—that we even know. In 2 Timothy 4.7, Paul, from all the things that he went through, and he went through so much more than you and I did, he says, I've fought the good fight.

I've finished the race. I have kept the faith. He endured to the end. He endured to the end.

Yes, he had God's Holy Spirit, but yes, he had all sorts of opportunities to give up, just like you and I do. But in 1 Corinthians 9, in verse 27, he tells us something that we have to keep in mind as we are in the maintenance phase.

Okay? 1 Corinthians 9 verse 27. Leading up to this, he's talking about the race and who the prize goes to, the victor, the prize goes to the winner of the race. And in verse 27, he says, But I discipline my body. We might add mind to that as well. I discipline my mind. I discipline my body. When I want to give up, when I'm tempted to go back, when I'm tempted to just enjoy it for a little bit, I discipline and say no. I engage God's Holy Spirit. I ask him to give me the strength and I determine I'm not doing that for the rest of my life. I'm not going back there. I'm going on to perfection, as it says in Hebrews 6 verse 1. The thing that God has called us to. I discipline my body. And we can add in mind. And of course, that comes with God's Holy Spirit.

I discipline. Notice what he has to do, though. God will give us the strength, but we have to do things. I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. So in this stage of maintenance, so many people will relapse, right? We could probably add a section in on relapse. But if people relapse in alcoholism or drug abuse or the life that they need to do after they come out of a chronic illness, they have to have the discipline to pick themselves back up and get on the right track again.

Start walking in the right way again. I don't want to dwell on that because many people relapse, but it doesn't need to be the end. Just get up and get going again. And discipline yourself to get back on the horse, as they say, and ride to the finish line. So the sixth stage, we endure through maintenance. Remember, this is a study that Mr. Prochaska did of people who were able to change the rest of their life, the stages they went through. The sixth stage, he says, is termination. In this stage, there is zero percent of temptation to engage in problem behaviors, and there is 100 percent confidence that one will not return to old behaviors, or in our case, or depart from the truth. 100 percent assurance that that person won't go back to the way they were before, and that relapse is not even a possibility anymore. It almost never happens in life. And in our life, as long as we're breathing, it doesn't happen. That stage of termination, that stage of becoming perfection, doesn't happen in our lifetime. But it is, it is in our future. It is on the plan that God has called us to. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15 and verse 50.

Now this I say, brethren, Paul writes, this resurrection chapter, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we all shall be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible.

Their life is finished. They lived the way of God, died with His Holy Spirit, died in Christ.

They endured to the end. All those phases, certainly the big one as we begin our life with God, but all the little ones along the way as well, when we have to put those things out of our lives that we learn year by year, maybe week by week. They endured to the end, and they were dead.

The dead will be raised incorruptible, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when the corruptible has put on incorruption, no longer. While we're incorruptible bodies, we can sin. We can relapse. We can fall away.

But when we're dead, and it's done, the script is written. When we're resurrected, incorruptible.

Perfect. No longer the temptations. No longer the things that we have to fight every day, and as we put on the armor of God to help us fight the things that we could fall back into.

In corruption, it's perfection in the resurrection. For those who endure to the end and go through those stages as many times as God would put us through for however major or minor the things that he wants us to change are as he sees our attitude and commitment to become like he wants us to become. Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. And in verse 58, Paul says, therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Keep working. Keep your focus. Keep on for the rest of your life.

It's what we've been called to. It's what God has in mind for us. It's the way to the kingdom, and if we want to be in his kingdom, it's what we must do. As we go on to perfection, let's keep our focus. Let's change for good. Let's be aware of where we are, and as we find ourselves maybe feeling weak at times, catch ourselves. Catch ourselves and get our focus back and realize that we must endure to the end the changes that God brings about in us.

We must keep on doing for the rest of our lives.