Sermon Central
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Transforming You
Contributed by Rick Stacy on Oct 18, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: 6th of 6 based on Acts 2:47 Small things done with great love change the world. You can change the world by changing you from being a taker to being a giver.
Transforming You
2:47 – 24/7
Now is the time for change
January 31, 1829
To President Jackson:
The canal system of this country is being threatened by the spread of a new form of transportation known as "railroads.’ The federal government must preserve the canals for the following reasons:
One, if canal boats are supplanted by ’railroads," serious unemployment will result. Captains, cooks, drivers, hostlers, repairmen and lock tenders will be left without means of livelihood, not to mention the numerous farmers now employed in growing hay for the horses.
Two. Boat builders would suffer and towline, whip and harness makers would be left destitute.
Three. Canal boats are absolutely essential to the defense of the United States. In the event of the expected trouble with England, the Eric Canal would be the only means by which we could ever move the supplies so vital to waging modem war.
As you may well know, Mr. President, "railroad" carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of fifteen miles per hour by "engines" which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the country side, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening women and children.
The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed.
Martin Van Buren Governor of New York
Michelle Casto whose profession is that of a “Life Coach” says, “Everywhere you look, change is occurring: for the individual, families, corporations, communities, states, countries, and ultimately the world. The pace of change has increased to keep up with the human desire to create more change. You wouldn’t have to look very far in your own life to identify something you would like to change. Now is the perfect time to transform yourself physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually or otherwise.”
What you may have noticed is that it is time for a change. We all want things to be better. We all hunger for purpose and meaning in life. We want there to be more to life than the production of carbon dioxide as we breathe the air.
I’ve spent a lot of time this week talking to people who are struggling with stuff in life. One person said, “I know better but I wonder if God is picking on me sometimes.”
What you probably don’t know is how to go about transforming your life.
Let’s begin with a simple proposition. If you want to be transformed you have to change something.
Life Coach Michelle Casto put it this way, “The first thing you need to learn about change, is that in order to change your outer reality, you must transform your inner programming. All change begins with you---on the inside---your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about how life works or doesn’t work determine what you will create in your outer world.”
She goes on to say, “What changes your life is not learning more, though education is important. What changes your life is not making decisions, although making choices and acting on them is important.”
Then she adds this final statement, "What changes your life is being in touch with your inner self and designing your life around what is important and true for you.”
WRONG!
This doesn’t change your life. This is how most people live their lives everyday and it isn’t working all that well. This is how many people mess up their lives - by seeing to please their "inner self" and to do what is right "for them". This kind of personal truth is both selfish and ineffective - it does not produce peace, contentment and joy. It produces dissatisfaction, chaos, and a haunting emptiness.
Rollo May, a renowned psychotherapist said, “The cause for insanity is doing the same thing the same way expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein, noted scientist of the last century said, “Nothing happens until something moves.”
What Really Changes Your Life… Is a different way of thinking.
What really changes your life is being in touch with God designing your life around what is important and true as He is revealed to you
Let’s look at what the Apostle Paul said in Romans 12.
2 Do not change yourselves to be like the people of this world, but be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect.
Thermometer or Thermostat
There are two items that measure temperature: The first is the thermometer.
It measures the temperature of the body or surrounding environment. It is usually used to check whether a person has a fever, how hot the home is, or how hot the internal temperature of the meat is. Although it reads the temperature of the body, it cannot change it.
