45 – The Games People Play
Sorry
Repentance/Changing The Heart
Ezekiel 18: 20-24 NIV
Your parents can set things in motion that can cause you pain or benefit in the future but it all boils down to you making a choice. Your parents cannot destine you to a certain fate based on what they have done. We all have a choice to make.
God has given us all choice. Why would He do that if what someone else did determined our destiny?
Righteous people will be judged according to righteousness and wicked people will be judged according to their wickedness.
Alfred Nobel started over because he was Sorry! He was originally known for creating dynamite but changed that by starting a means of honoring and recognizing peace in the world. He made a change. He started over.
Many don’t have the courage to say they’re sorry.
God expects us to change
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17)
The old way of life must be replaced with the new way of life.
We can change.
Our thinking has to change. Cut the Stinking Thinking.
Change your attitude.
Change your commitments. Make the main thing, the main thing. Let #1 be #1. That’s a choice. Things have to be reordered. There’s a benefit.
Change and say you’re sorry. It re-characterizes who you are. The reward is much better than what I’m losing. God’s got me. He’s going to bless me.
It needs to be a permanent change. We have to walk as Jesus did. A Christian walk. It’ll be uncomfortable. Paul was persecuted because he preached no more idol worshipping and that put the metal workers out of business.
God wants us to make changes to our hearts.
What you love with all your heart is what has to change.
Must be committed.
But how do we know if our hearts are not right with God? Bitterness, unforgiving nature, sexual immorality in your life, envy, jealousy, hatred, constantly critical of others, always finding a reason to say something negative
How can we change our hearts in order to please God?
First, we need to ask God for help.
You can’t make the change by yourself. You need a higher power to make the change that needs to be made. God will put you in a position where you’re uncomfortable which forces you to change. Sometimes you regress and that regression can lead to progression.
Second, to make changes to our hearts we must get rid of sin.
God can change anybody.
Don’t try to equate your bad to someone else’s bad. Just admit your sin.
Tamala R. Maddox, Ph.D.
Principal
R.F. Bumpus Middle School