January is OFTEN a time for people to make some changes in their lives. They RESOLVE to lose weight, get in better shape, eat healthier, get out of debt, work on their marriage, get closer to God, etc. It’s relatively easy to MAKE changes. Have you EVER made some significant changes in your diet? Spending habits? Workout routines? Did you have to call for a special session of congress? Apply for a permit? Call your parents? NO! You just made the changes! Easy!

But was it easy to KEEP THE CHANGES? NO WAY! THAT is a whole different ballgame. If you are a regular at a gym, you know this. A whole batch of motivated people show up around January 2nd or 3rd and they take your machine, your elliptical, but don’t worry…most of them will be gone before Valentines Day. In fact, 80% will give up their New Year’s Resolutions before February 14th. WHY? Because it’s easy to make change, but it’s hard to KEEP the change!

If you want to KEEP the CHANGE, you must KEEP the CHANGES
· There is no shortcut.
· There is no easy button.
· There is no miracle pill.

In fact, let me ask us a hard question. Last year, we emphasized the 7 Pathway Practices. Are you still growing in those? 2 years ago, our theme word was “NEIGHBORING”. It wasn’t meant to be a one-year focus, but a paradigm shift. Are you still thinking about and looking for opportunities to connect with your neighbors?

You have to decide that you REALLY WANT to change, not just WISH for change. We all have WISHES.

· I WISH I knew more about investing
· I WISH I had a 6-pack
· I WISH I was a scratch golfer

Wishes don’t make lasting changes! #Dadquote said, “Wish in one hand and spit in the other, see which one fills up faster.”

Wishes are motivating for moments. Being motivated for moments…doesn’t lead to long term changes.

· We are motivated to get rich…in the moment when we attend someone’s seminar…and we purchase their system thinking it will be easy. When we aren’t successful quickly, we lost motivation.
· We can be motivated to lose weight…in the moment when we watch a YouTube video or a friend’s journey has been successful or we see a photo of ourselves. However, after a week or two and the scale hasn’t changed much, we give up.
· We can be motivated to put more effort in at work, but if the boss doesn’t notice and our sales don’t go up quickly, we lose our desire. It was a WISH!
· Or how about a desire to grow closer to God? You start making time to read God’s Word and to pray. But then it seems like things start breaking or relationships are strained and you don’t seem to be making any progress anyway, so you slide back into old patterns. It wasn’t going how you planned, so you quit. It was a WISH!

We need to know this: ANY change worth making will require some changes that are HARD to KEEP! But remember:

If you want to KEEP the CHANGE, you must KEEP the CHANGES

That is really what this short series is about. But THIS message is focused on “WHAT needs to change?” and why haven’t you been able to change.

Later today is the Super Bowl where the Kansas City Chiefs will face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Last year the Bucs were 7-9 and missed the playoffs. Their coach Bruce Ariens realized that they could not get where they wanted to get with the QB’s that they had on their team. They looked at what they had and realized they needed to make a big CHANGE. So they brought in the GOAT, and even at 43 years of age, he led them to the Super Bowl. Brady didn’t just decide to TRY and still be competitive in his 40’s when he turned 39. He had been TRAINING all along to remain competitive as he aged. He has a very strict diet and training regimen. And has had that for YEARS! All because he WANTED to still be competitive into his 40’s. He has recently stated that he believes he could still be playing at 45!

Somewhere along the line, Brady discovered that his muscles needed to remain pliable if he wanted to play the QB position into his 40’s, so he began to really focus on what he ate and how he trained ALL YEAR LONG! He made some permanent decisions SO THAT he could still perform at a high level. And later today, he will be the oldest player to ever play in a SB. Out of the top 5-oldest players, he is #1 and #5. By the way, #2, #3 and #4 are either kickers or punters.

Now, at some point during the Super Bowl tonight, as a lifelong Chiefs fan, I will most likely calmly express my opinion to the TV of something that the Chiefs need to CHANGE, if WE are going to WIN! Don’t you do that with your team?

We demand change with our armchair expertise!

But here’s the deal, there is another REAL battle taking place that is WAY more important than the Super Bowl. It’s the battle of YOU! Of WHO you ARE, of WHO you are going to BE? And whether you are going to be INTENTIONAL warrior in that battle or a pawn being played in that battle is YOUR CHOICE. But make NO MISTAKE, there IS a battle for you taking place. And ALL of you is a part of that battle.

SO, when you look at your life, IF you are going to be the best and healthiest version of you, WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE?
· For you to be healthier mentally?
· For you to be healthier physically?
· For you to be healthier emotionally?
· For you to be healthier spiritually?

WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE? AND HOW do you KEEP THE CHANGE? The next couple of weeks, we will address “WHY haven’t you been able to KEEP THE CHANGE?” and “HOW do you KEEP THE CHANGE when Feelings Fade?”

But today, before we talk about those things, we need to address
RECOGNIZING that something needs to change.

Have you experienced that MOMENT OF TRUTH?
· Your spouse tells you they are not happy?
· Your child gets in trouble at school or with the police?
· Your annual review goes poorly?
· A friend of yours speaks truth in your life that is hard to hear?

When a boulder like that hits your life, you have a choice.
· Deny it
· Minimize it
· Deflect it
· Excuse it or
· Face it

Growth is possible in your life, only when you FACE the TRUTH!

There is a correlation between TRUTH and FREEDOM. Truth never leads to bondage. Perhaps we could say it this way.

If you won’t face the TRUTH, you won’t find FREEDOM!

What truth do you need to face? WHAT needs to CHANGE? What is it that’s missing in your life?

· Are you ANGRY? Is that who you want to be?
· Are you SELFISH? Was that your goal as a kid?
· Are you UNHAPPY? Where has the JOY gone?
· Do you feel UNLOVING? UNLOVED?
· Are you filled with ANXIETY?
· Are you self-reliant instead of God-reliant?
· If you are feeling any of those things, know this, Covid didn’t CAUSE any of that, it just revealed what was there.
· Whatever we are now, only gets amplified later if its not dealt with.
· Andy Stanley, in his great book, “Better Questions, Fewer Regrets” has a question he calls the Legacy Question. It’s stated this way, “What story do you want to tell when your present circumstances are just a story that you tell?” Do you want to tell the story of giving up? Giving in? Or a story of facing the truth and allowing God to transform you?
· Let’s face the TRUTH!

So, WHAT needs to CHANGE? WE DO! While faithfulness and steadiness are certainly good things, being closed off to change or being stagnant, are NOT good things for us or for those around us. We need to strive to get better.

Think about it this way. What happens to stagnant water? It gets nasty! It creates harmful bacteria. We were not designed to “STAY WHERE WE ARE”. We were designed to GROW! In EVERY area. This goes back to one of our 7 pathway practices, “360º Faith”. We need to be open to examining EVERY area of our lives and seeing if JESUS is welcome there. If we are a follower of Christ, every part of our life should be showing that. God, give us the desire to GROW, to BECOME MORE LIKE YOU!

Our text today is Philippians 3:10-14. We will go through it little by little this morning.

Paul starts this section off with proclaiming his desire to KNOW and EXPERIENCE MORE of JESUS, no matter the cost. That is a SERIOUS level of commitment! But think about this. This was PAUL! He wrote over ½ of the NT. He established much of the theology of the NT. He planted churches all over the Middle East and Asia. But when he examined…himself, he found that he came up short, that he wanted MORE of Christ. After making that proclamation, listen to what he said:

Philippians 3:12a – NLT – “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection.”

Paul easily recognized that he hadn’t arrived yet. He wasn’t laying any claims of not needing to change. He KNEW he needed to CHANGE. That he needed MORE of Jesus and less of him. In fact, in another of his writings, he was very real in his personal struggle.

Have you been there before? I have! I am blessed with an amazing wife, but I have spoken harshly to her once or twice. I have been incredibly selfish in my attitude and my actions ONE TIME in my life. Unfortunately, it’s not been ONE TIME, but MANY TIMES! FAR TOO MANY TIMES! And I have resonated with Paul in Romans 7! But I appreciate his raw honesty! Because it is only when you FACE THE TRUTH that the TRUTH can set you FREE! Again…

If you won’t face TRUTH, you won’t find FREEDOM!

Let’s go back to our text in Philippians.

Philippians 3:12b – NLT – “But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.”

He recognized that he was coming up short, but he was still motivated to keep pressing, to keep getting better. It’s good for us to see and recognize that we have gotten better, that we have grown, but part of growing is realizing HOW MUCH FARTHER we have to go! The gap between what we are and the potential we have because of Jesus is a GREAT CHASM!

DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE? Then PRESS ON!

Philippians 3:13 – NLT – “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.”

Paul gives two of the keys to CHANGING:
1) Knowing what to FORGET – that which is behind.
That is…the past we might be embarrassed by OR the past which might make us proud or prideful. Forget that…not in the sense of not remembering it, but in the sense of not FOCUSING on it. Paul’s FOCUS was on FORGETTING the past….AND secondly… he FOCUSED on…

2) Knowing what to LOOK FORWARD to – what lies ahead.
Paul understood that there were some things in the future, in eternity to LOOK FORWARD TO. And if we understand that and believe that, it will help us to embrace the CHANGES NOW! It can MOTIVATE us to WANT to CHANGE! He really declares THAT as his motivation in the last part of our text.

So, WHAT needs to CHANGE? I DO!
HOW do we CHANGE? It starts with a new operating system! WHAT? The operating system in a computer is the integrator between the computer and the software. Everything goes through the OS. It handles input and output, file and memory management, as well as controlling peripheral devices.

You and I have an OS, called our “MIND”. And when we place our faith in Christ, we need our OS restored to it’s original design.

For the longest time, we have interpreted this verse as meaning that reading the Bible transforms the way we think. While this is true, new research shows that there is more to it than that.

We need a NEW operating System!

Studies have proven that doing something frequently like reading the Bible not only changes the way we think but literally changes our brain. Our mind is transformed and RENEWED! RESTORED!

Mark Batterson explains it this way:

“Doctors Avi Karni and Leslie Ungerleider of the National Institute of Mental Health did a fascinating study asking subjects to perform a simple motor task—a finger-tapping exercise. As subjects tapped, the doctors conducted an MRI to identify what part of the brain was being activated. The subjects then practiced the finger-tapping exercise daily for four weeks. At the end of the four-week period, the brain scan was repeated. In each instance, it revealed that the area of the brain involved in the task had expanded. That simple task—finger-tapping exercise—literally recruited new nerve cells and rewired neuronal connections.
When we read Scripture, we are recruiting new nerve cells and rewiring neuronal connections. In a sense, we are downloading a new operating system that reconfigures the mind…
When we read Scripture, we engage in spiritual tapping. Our brains are rewired in alignment with the Word, and we develop the mind of Christ. We think His thoughts.”

When we start reading God’s Word on a daily basis, we are tap, tap, tapping. We are REWIRING our BRAINS, RENEWING our MINDS! RESTORING the factory settings! And we need to see that:

We need a NEW operating System!

THAT is only possible though IF we RECOGNIZE that WE need to CHANGE!

Salvation isn’t just adding Jesus to your life, but inviting Jesus into EVERY PART OF YOUR LIFE. He doesn’t want to be an add-on, back to our computer analogy. He doesn’t want to be an app or a program, but your Operating System. For THAT to take place, we must admit that our OS is faulty. Left on my own, I am a broken man in a broken world that would consistently make broken choices that hurt people I love. But with Jesus as my OS, when I surrender to Him and follow His leading and let Him RENEW and RESTORE my MIND, I get better…Not always in my timing, but it will get better.

So, here are the ABC’s of how we take that step.
A – ADMIT that you have SINNED – This is the bad news. Our lives are not how God intended them to be. The consequences of sin is eternal death.

Romans 3:23 – NLT – “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”

Romans 6:23 – NLT – “ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

B – BELIEVE in JESUS – Here’s the GOOD NEWS. God loves us SO MUCH that He can forgive ANY sin, no matter how big or how small. God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross to save us from sin. JESUS said that if you put your trust in Him, you will have eternal life.

John 6:40a – NLT - “For it is my Father’s will that all who see His Son and believe in Him should have eternal life.”

C – CONFESS that JESUS is LORD – When Jesus rose from the dead, He proved His victory over eternal death. God wants you to confess that Jesus is Lord of ALL. He is your SAVIOR.

Romans 10:9 – NLT – “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

So, here’s the invite. Would you like to take THAT FIRST step towards REAL and LASTING CHANGE?