Matthew 18:1-3 “About this time the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus called a child over and had the child stand near Him. Then He said, ‘I promise you this. If you don’t change and become like a child, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.’”
Be That Somebody Who Will Change
John 5:2-4 “Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.”
a) Decide You Want To Change
John 5:5-6 “Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty- eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’”
Harold Wilson (Former Prime Minister of the UK): “He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.”
Ephesians 4:23-24 “Let the Spirit change your way of thinking and make you into a new person.”
Philippians 2:13 “God is working in you to make you willing and able to obey Him.”
Peter Senge: “People don’t resist change. They resist being changed!”
b) Do Something You’ve Never Done
John 5:6-7 “When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ The sick man answered Him, ‘Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.’”
John 5:8 “Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk.’”
Pastor Dave Divine: “Most people are one great change away from reaching a brand new level.”
Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”
c) Live Like You’ve Never Lived
John 5:14 “Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well. Sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you.’”
Galatians 2:20 “The life you see me living is not ‘mine,’ but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
The big idea: You are that somebody!