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REACH, GATHER, GROW

Grow - Conforming to the Image of Christ

Chuck Lindsey · Sunday, 21 September 2025 · Romans 8:29 · 38:31 · 6,269 words

Romans S22 · 8:29 Grand Blanc

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

Growth in the Lord is the subject of the message, asking whether listeners are changing for the better. Using the Parable of the Sower, the speaker explains that many people hear the Word, clear away sins, but never let it take root, so no fruit appears. He emphasizes that true growth comes not from self‑effort but from drawing near to Jesus, abiding in Him, and responding with repentance. The sermon calls each person to examine their own heart, admit need, and turn to Christ for transformation.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

growth 32 seed 16 change 44 vineyard 10 fruit 22 grow 25 choking 6 plant 9 ground 10 dislocated 4 hear 24 something's 6

Topics

Prayer 2 Election & Predestination 1 The Body of Christ 1

Scripture referenced 18

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 8 0:56 Romans 8 1:32 Romans 9 1:32 Romans 9 1:45 Matthew 13 11:04 Romans 9:5 11:54 Romans 9:6 12:16 Romans 9:7 12:23 Romans 9:8 12:30 Romans 9:22 15:35 Romans 9:22 16:02 Isaiah 5 17:34 Romans 9:3 18:42 Matthew 3:18 19:41 Hebrews 12:12 21:43 Romans 9:13 22:02 Isaiah 1 23:11 Isaiah 1:5 23:11

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 10 lines, 0:43. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

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Amen. Well, good morning.

It is good to be together with you this morning.

If you've got a Bible, I'm going to ask you to open up to the book of Romans, chapter 8.

We'll be there in just a few moments.

So, pretty awesome to see what the Lord is doing.

Just very grateful.

Very grateful for His work.

And we want to talk about something this morning that's pretty important.

But just so you know, next week we will begin the second half of the book of Romans, okay?

So, beginning next week, we will jump back into Romans, where we left off.

We finished off chapter 8 a couple weeks ago, and we will begin chapter 9 next week, okay?

And can we get the lights on in here?

Does it feel very dark in here to you?

Okay.

So, we'll finish, or we'll pick up, excuse me, in chapter 9.

Last few weeks, we've been talking about really the purpose of the church.

And so, what is the church supposed to be?

What is the church supposed to do?

And so, a couple of weeks ago, we looked at the mission of the church, as Josh just talked about.

The mission of the church is to reach the lost, right?

That is what we are trying to accomplish.

That is what we are trying to do.

That's the first thing that the church is really supposed to be doing, is reaching the lost around us.

And then last week, we looked at the very important subject of gathering together.

So, what you're doing this morning as we gather together, this is what we're supposed to be doing as the church.

Gathering together.

And then, this morning, we need to talk about the subject of growing.

So, growth in the Lord.

That's what we're going to talk about this morning.

And so, let's go to the Lord.

In prayer, and let's ask Him to speak today.

Lord, we love You, and we thank You for Your Word.

We thank You, Lord, for the rescuing of us as people.

And Lord, thank You for opening our eyes and softening our hearts to hear from You, Lord.

Thank You for making Yourself known.

Thank You for coming and dying on a cross in our place.

Lord, I pray that this morning, You would open Your Word, and You would help us to hear from You today.

I pray that not one word from me would be heard today, but only from You, Lord.

You would speak.

Give us ears to hear.

We love You, and thank You.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Alright, well, let me begin by asking you, would you say that you, personally, you are growing?

What does that even mean, right?

What does it mean when we ask that question?

What does it mean to grow?

I think there's a lot of words we could use to describe what growth really is.

I think there's a lot of words we could use to describe what growth really is.

I think there's a lot of words we could use to describe what growth really is.

I think there's a lot of words we could use to describe what growth really is.

I think there's a lot of words we could use to describe what growth really is.

But I think maybe the simplest word would be change, right?

That's really a pretty simple way of saying it.

Are you changing?

But I think also, it's not just change.

I think when we talk about growing, we're meaning that in a positive way, right?

Like in a good sense, right?

Are you changing?

Are you changing for the better, is the idea.

You know, if a marriage is growing, we would say that marriage is getting better, right?

It's becoming, you know.

You know, it's deepening.

It's becoming stronger, right?

That marriage is growing, meaning it's a good thing, right?

If a musician is growing, their skills are becoming, you know, more and more.

If a father is growing, he's better with his children than he was, right?

This is what we mean when we say growing.

So, to define growth, we would always, I think, have to put it into the positive.

So, I would ask you that.

Are you making progress?

Are you advancing?

Are you improving?

Are you improving?

Or are you just sort of stuck?

Are you becoming a different person day by day?

Is that what's happening?

Right now, in your life, are you changing for the better?

Are you growing in the Lord?

Now, when I think about growth, I think about a garden.

Anyone who takes the time to plant a garden, they go through a lot of work to see what they've planted.

They want to see it.

They want to see it grow, right?

I mean, I don't think anybody goes through the work of clearing the ground and preparing it

and removing rocks and weeds and whatever else to protect it.

Sometimes even the soil is prepared for a very long time in advance, right?

But eventually, right, seeds are planted and then water and sunlight are supplied.

And the expectation is not a clear ground, you know, a dry patch of ground.

The expectation is that there's going to be a harvest.

There's going to be growth.

There's going to be fruit from this thing.

No one does all of that expecting nothing to happen.

Like, oh, what are you growing out there?

Mission accomplished, you know?

Look at all the rocks.

Yeah, it's actually our weed garden, you know?

We're growing weeds.

Well, I guess that could be a thing today, but I don't mean it that way.

You know, sometimes things come out.

You don't realize what they sound like until you say it.

But nobody does this, right?

Nobody plants a garden like this.

Nobody plants a garden like this.

And then just expects nothing to happen.

Like, hey, I just put all that work in and, you know, nothing's going to happen anyway.

The hope, the expectation is that in a relatively short period of time, there will be growth.

Growth that results in some sort of fruit, right?

And so if you went to all this work and a month went by, and then two months went by,

and then six months goes by, and then a year goes by, and there's nothing.

It's just the same ground.

There's nothing.

There's no growth.

What would you think?

You would think something's wrong.

It'd be like, wait, either the ground is bad or maybe it's the seeds that were bad or something is not right.

Why isn't there growth?

This is a really interesting thing because this is something of a question throughout the Bible.

There are times when there should be growth and then there isn't.

And this is an unexpected thing in the scriptures, but it's something God points to.

It can happen.

It can happen in a person's life.

It goes like this.

Very often, a person, they want things to change, right?

We want things in our lives to change, to be different, maybe because something difficult has happened.

You know, there's stress in the marriage.

There's problems in the family.

You know, I'm facing a job loss or I've done something that has caused problems in my life.

And so I want things now to change.

And the pressure is very, very high.

I need things in my life to change.

We see this all the time.

And so.

You know, a person decides, you know what?

I'm going to get things straight.

I'm going to clear the ground of my life, right?

I'm going to I'm going to clear out the rocks, some the things that were stumbling me, the things that were causing problems.

I'm going to get rid of that stuff.

Now I'm going to pull up weeds.

You know, I'm going to I'm going to pull up these things, you know, the sin and the things that are choking out my life.

I'm going to I'm going to stop doing those things.

I'm going to stop going to those places.

I'm going to stop hanging with those people.

The pressure's on.

So we start to make these changes and then see.

Seeds even start to get planted.

Oh, you know what?

I'm going to start going to church and I'm going to listen to podcasts.

I'm going to get some counsel or whatever it is.

You might even start reading the Bible.

You might start praying.

This is seeds and and water and sunlight and all of this right begins.

And you think, OK, after some time, you should you should see some fruit.

There's a weird anomaly.

Sometimes there's no fruit at all.

So you wait a little longer, a little longer.

Still no fruit.

I remind you, we're talking.

We're talking about people.

The person appears to be the same person that they have always been.

Person sounds the same.

They do the same things.

They are.

They are no different.

There is no change.

This was me when my parents came to know the Lord.

We suddenly were a part of church.

We had a Bible.

We read the Bible.

We prayed together as family.

I went to camps.

We all the all of a sudden I was I was like all in.

Except not in.

And so there was no difference.

I was no different.

My parents were dramatically different.

They were changing day in, day out.

I was the same.

So this happens in people's lives.

And after some time, right, the pressure starts to wear off the pressure.

Whatever affected them in the first place is now gone.

The urgency to see things change in their marriage or in their families or in their lives.

That all starts.

Starts to sort of, you know, back off a little bit.

The addiction, you know, isn't causing as many problems as it once did.

And so now we've got weeds growing again.

Now the urgency is not there.

We're back to the same things back to the same ways.

And I've seen this over and over and over and over.

And it is always so tragic.

And it's not really uncommon, unfortunately.

In fact, Jesus gave us this very example.

Didn't he?

In fact, in Matthew chapter 13, Jesus gives, honestly, one of the most shocking pictures of the human heart that I think really exists.

He talked about four different soils.

And he wasn't talking about soil.

He was talking about the ground of a person's heart.

He says there's essentially four different people, four different hearts.

Right.

So here's what he said.

He said, it says, then he spoke many things to them in parables, saying, behold.

A sower went out to sow.

And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside.

So this is someone's heart.

The seed falls, it says, but the birds come and then they devour it.

So the seed never makes its way into the person's heart.

They've heard it, but it doesn't apply it.

They don't bring it to themselves in any way.

It says, verse five, some seed fell on stony places where it did not have much earth and they immediately sprang up because they had.

No depth of earth.

So this is someone that hears it and goes, man, that sounds really great.

That sounds really cool.

I'd like to have that.

You know, I'm just going to kind of take that.

But then all of a sudden you'll see in a minute, things kind of choke all that out.

Then he goes on.

It says, verse six.

But when the sun was up, they were scorched and because they had no root, they just simply withered away.

Then verse seven, some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up and choked them.

It says, but verse eight, but others fell on good ground and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold.

Some 60, some 30.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Do you have ears to hear?

Because here's what Jesus says, right?

Four people had seed given to them.

One never even let it into their hearts.

Never even.

It just bounced right off.

It never made its way into the ground, into the soil of their hearts.

This is, of course, very, very common.

We see it all over the place.

I will not allow the gospel to reach my heart.

So many people are in that.

But then notice two of them seem to have received it, actually, right?

Two of them were like, you know what?

That sounds really good.

I think that's a good thing.

And that might mean, you know what?

I need to be among God's people.

You know, the Bible gives me some hope and purpose and whatever.

And so it's like a superficial because it says there's no root.

So it's a superficial thing.

It doesn't actually have deep roots in the person.

And so they received.

Receive it, but it says it did not take root.

And so thus it could not bear fruit.

And so when difficulty came, it just withered away.

There was only one that actually grew, and that was the one that put down roots.

And so Jesus explains it a few verses later.

He says, hear the parable of the sower.

Let me explain it to you.

This is what he says when anyone notice we're talking about people, when anyone

hears the word of the kingdom, let me pause for a second, what you're doing.

This morning is one of the most dangerous things you can do to hear the word of God

and do nothing with it is very, very dangerous, very dangerous.

Because if we do nothing with it, the same sunlight that that softens wax hardens clay.

And when you hear God's word and you do nothing with it, you don't bring it to yourself.

It hardens you rather than softening you.

And so I would just encourage you.

Let the words of Jesus ring in your heart.

Your ears.

If you have ears to hear, please hear what he's saying.

When anyone hears, it says the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the

wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.

So this is the picture of the seed of the gospel, not being brought to the heart.

It says, this is he who received seed by the wayside, but he who received the seed on the

This is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

That sounds really good yet.

He has no root.

In himself, it doesn't, it doesn't get down.

He does not become a disciple.

She does not become a disciple.

They hear the word.

They immediately receive it with joy yet.

They have no root in themselves, but endure only for a little while for when tribulation

or persecution or difficulty arises because of the word immediately, they stumble, they

go back.

They, they give it all up.

Right?

Now he who received the seed among the thorns is the one who hears the word at, but the

cares of this world.

And the deceitfulness of riches, choke out the word.

So it's like, well, I want it as long as it's going to bless me.

As long as I'm going to have what I want, but if I don't have what I want, I don't need

it.

I'm good.

I'm looking for, you know, more.

And so it becomes unfruitful.

It says there, verse 22, but he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the

word and understands it.

It literally means to bring it to yourself and indeed then bears fruit and, and produce

it.

Some a hundred fold, some 60 and some 30.

So notice there's differing degrees of how much fruit, but every, the person that is

truly saved is bringing forth fruit.

Right?

And we go through seasons where there's some fruit and we go through season where there's

a lot of fruit and that's okay because there's fruit, right?

What's Jesus saying at the core, if there is no growth, even if someone professes to

be a follower of Jesus Christ, if there is no growth, I remind you three of four soils

would have said that they had received seed, they had received the gospel in some way.

But Jesus's point is simple.

If there is no growth, there is no life.

And this is a tough thing to evaluate.

It is easy to hear it.

It is very hard to say, Lord, is this me?

Is this me?

And so as I prepared for this, I asked myself, Lord, is this me?

Am I someone who knows things, but it does not apply to me?

Am I someone who is bearing fruit, right?

Is this me or is there no fruit?

The same picture is given in the Old Testament book of Isaiah.

It's a very striking picture.

Isaiah chapter five, we hear the Lord talking about a garden that he planted and it's not

an actual garden or vineyard.

It's people.

And he's talking about the nation of Israel.

He's talking about his people.

They were supposed to be his people, but he says it was like planting a vineyard.

Listen to this.

Here's what he says.

He says, now let me sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard.

My well-beloved, talking about the Lord, has a vineyard.

A vineyard on a very fruitful hill.

So it means the hill was ready to go.

It should have produced tons of fruit.

It was the perfect place.

It was ready to go.

It says he dug it up and he cleared it out, cleared out its stones, and he planted it

with the choicest vine.

He built a tower in its midst and also made a wine press in it.

And so he expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.

So the idea here is he did everything the vineyard needs.

But the vineyard was rebellious.

It was wild.

It was not good fruit.

It is this wild, chaotic, crazy kind of thing, right?

And so he says in verse 3,

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, please, between me and my vineyard.

What more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it?

Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild or sour grapes?

Sour or bitter grapes is the idea.

And now, please tell me what I will do with my vineyard.

I will take away its hedge, its protection.

It shall be burned and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.

I will lay it waste.

And so this is the idea of God doing everything we need and yet us rebelling against him.

It's a common picture throughout the Bible.

And I was just reading the other night.

I pointed it out to my wife.

I was reading the section in Matthew's gospel that brought me to Christ.

That's 16 years old.

And it's this picture.

It's this very same picture.

And so Matthew 3, 18, it's the picture of fruitless trees.

Jesus said,

Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance.

And do not think to say to yourselves,

We have Abraham as our father.

Or, you know, my parents are Christians.

Or, you know, I prayed a prayer one time.

Or I went to church or whatever.

Don't think to say that.

It says,

For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

And even now, he says,

The axe is laid to the rock.

The root of the trees.

Therefore, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

I indeed baptize you with water under repentance.

But he who is coming after me is mightier than I.

Whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fan is in his hand.

And he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn.

But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

This passage shook me out of the fake Christian that I was.

John the Baptist preaching to the religious people.

It just shook me out of it.

I suddenly realized I was the one who was not a real...

There was no growth.

There was no fruit whatsoever.

It shook me into real repentance and faith.

And then into subsequently real growth.

So all of this is meant to make us ask a very real, a very important question.

To carefully evaluate what we actually are today.

Are we alive?

Are we actually growing?

If not, the solution is very simple.

We must admit it.

We must go to the Lord and confess it.

In brokenness and in reality, in humility.

And go to the Lord and say, I am not growing.

I have not grown.

I'm the same person I've always been.

There's no growth.

Something's very wrong.

And this is what he wants you to do.

To be healed.

He wants you to do this.

And that's what Hebrews 12, 12 says.

It says, therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down.

It means you're defeated.

You're despairing.

You're ready to give up.

It says, and the feeble knees.

So this, again, this idea, I'm going to collapse.

I'm going to give up.

He says, strengthen that.

Why?

Because there's hope.

Why?

Look at verse 13.

And make straight paths for your feet.

What does that mean?

To make straight paths means to repent of the ways you have been going.

The crooked paths.

And to begin to do what the Lord wants you to do.

And begin to do what he wants.

Instead of going our own way, we go the way he wants us to.

And it goes on.

It says, make straight paths for your feet.

Repent so that what is lame may not be dislocated.

So maybe today, things are broken.

Maybe you, there's so many things you feel like are just, they're broken.

They're not right.

They're not in the right place.

They're not in the right spot.

Your mind and your heart and your actions and where you're at in life and what you're doing, right?

These things are lame.

They are broken.

They are dislocated.

They are, something's not right.

The marriage is broken.

The family is broken.

Whatever it is, the condition, is this you?

Is this the condition of your heart and your mind and your soul like this description that is given to us?

Isaiah chapter one, verse five says, why should you be stricken again?

You will essentially just revolt more and more.

You will just rebel more and more like a, like a rebel.

You will just rebel more and more like a rebellious child being corrected that just keeps going back over and over.

The Lord says, goes on.

It says the whole head is sick.

The whole heart faints from the soul of the foot, even to the, to the top of the head.

There is no soundness in it.

Is this how you feel?

But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they've not been closed or bound up or soothed with ointment.

Is that you?

Because what it says is, go back to Hebrews.

It says, make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame,

right now may not be dislocated, may not be broken off, right?

There's hope.

There's a chance.

And it's only the Lord.

There's no self-help book that's going to fix it.

It's only the Lord.

You got to come to him in the brokenness, right?

You got to come to him before it's completely broken off.

It says so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather healed.

Don't you want to be healed?

Don't you want it to be healed?

You can be, but it won't just happen.

You must see your need today, not pointing to anyone else,

not pointing to your spouse is the problem or your boss is the problem or your,

your parents is the problem or whatever.

You've got to turn to him today and say with the tax collector that we find in the gospels,

God be merciful to me, a sinner.

Well, that's first.

I mean, we can't talk about growth without asking if we are actually even alive because growth is not possible if a thing is not alive.

It's not possible.

Now, if we are alive, then we must ask two questions.

The first is this.

What does growth actually look like?

And the second is, how do we grow?

So the first question, what does growth even look like?

And the answer is it looks like Jesus.

Very, very simple.

So I had you turn to Romans eight, verse 29.

Look what it says there in Romans eight, 29.

We read the wonderful words for whom he foreknew.

He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

So we don't have time to go into all of that, but we did cover it a few weeks ago.

But the word conformed there means to make like someone else.

Do you know that's what God's trying to do in you?

He is trying to make you like someone else.

He is trying to change me from being like me to being like him.

And I want that.

Sometimes I don't like it, but I need it.

And I want that.

I want to be like him.

I don't want to be like me.

You want to be like him?

You don't want to be like you anymore.

I'm with you.

Okay.

So he works in you.

This is his work.

He works in you to change you.

So there's a message in this world that says, essentially, don't let anybody change you.

You don't ever need to change.

You don't ever need to be different.

You be you.

You don't ever have to feel bad for being you.

It's like, what are you even talking about?

We all need to change.

We all need to be like him.

But this is what God does in us.

He wants to change us to be like him.

And this is the very definition of what growth is as a Christian.

It is to be like Jesus, to love what he loves, to hate what he hates, to think like he does,

to do what he would do.

I mean, it goes on and on, right?

So hear this.

Very, very simple.

Here's the definition of growth.

The more you are like him, the more you have grown.

The less you are like him, the less you have grown.

It's very simple.

Can I ask you, would you say you have the mind of Christ?

I said, what does that mean?

Do you think the way he thinks?

You want to test yourself, just start to read the New Testament.

And you find yourself disagreeing.

You do not have the mind of Christ.

You read the Bible and you go, I don't know about that.

You do not have the mind of Christ.

But if you read and you go, yes, yes, Lord, do this.

Yes, Lord, right?

The mind of Christ, your mind is changing.

And I remember that man sitting there in Matthew, reading the Gospels.

And all of a sudden, it was no longer me resisting this message of repentance and all of it.

It was, yes, Lord, rescue me, change me.

My mind was changing into the mind of Christ.

Do you have the heart of Christ?

Do you love what he loves?

Do you hate what he hates?

Do you love righteousness and holiness and goodness and godliness?

Do you love people?

Do you hate evil?

Do you hate wickedness?

Do you have the heart of Christ?

Do you have the actions of Christ?

Generally speaking, would you say your life?

You're doing what he would want you to do?

Or is your life like way out of line with what he would actually want?

So realize this is what it means to grow as a Christian.

You begin to change.

You begin to be like someone else.

You begin to be like him.

And when you change, when you become more and more like him, you become better in every single way.

There's no way to change into, you know, more of what he is and become less because he is infinitely more in every way.

So we ask ourselves, am I more like Jesus today than I was yesterday?

Am I more like him now than I was three months ago?

Am I more like him now than I was six months ago than a year ago?

And if you have a hard time evaluating this, you might want to ask the people around you.

Hey, would you say I am more like Jesus now than a year ago?

You might not like the answer to that, but it's a really important question.

If not, if you are largely unchanged, go back to the picture of the garden.

Seeds that don't grow reveal that something is wrong.

Something's wrong.

What's what's happened?

What's wrong?

What's choking out growth?

Oh, there's this thing in my life.

It's choking out growth.

Oh, there's these people.

Oh, there's this stuff.

Oh, all all of this is now choking.

Oh, my direction, my focus, what I've set as a goal.

Now, suddenly these things are choking out.

I don't see growth anymore.

My focus has been divided.

My attention has been.

Taken these things are stifling growth.

Something's wrong.

I'm not just going to continue.

Something's wrong.

And I need to figure out what that is.

But let me say to you, if there is growth, if you are different, rejoice, seriously, rejoice.

What a wonderful thing.

If you are different, you should seriously rejoice in that because he has worked in you.

You realize that your fruit has not been you.

It has been him working in you.

I mean, that is a wonderful thing to conform you into the image of himself.

It's been his work.

And yes, your surrender and some obedience on your part.

But the Lord is working in you and you are reflecting who he is.

What a blessing.

And so finally, as we come to a close this morning, we ask, how do we even grow?

How do we grow?

And the very simple answer is him.

Let me say it to you a different way.

Proximity to him is how we grow.

What does that mean?

Be close to him.

You will change.

It's so simple.

He said it, didn't he?

Abide in me.

What was he saying?

Stay close to me.

You cannot bear fruit apart from this process, he said.

So abide in me.

Stay close to me.

You will change.

Everyone that came near to Jesus and allowed him to come near to them changed.

Sure, there were people that came near, but they wanted nothing to do with him.

They didn't let him in.

And so they left the same people they were.

Maybe even more hardened.

Then when they first came, if you let him in, if you let his words in everyone that

allowed his words to reach their heart, they were changed.

And this is why the New Testament writers say things like this.

They say, as newborn babies desire the pure milk of the word, the Bible that you may grow

I love the picture of a little baby just wanting a bottle, right?

It's like, just give it to me.

Give it to me, right?

Just give it to me.

And then as they, they keep drinking milk, they keep growing, you know, and then you

have teenagers just weird.

You're like, I should have stopped feeding them a long time.

No, just kidding, right?

But listen, this isn't rocket science.

It's just not stay close to him.

There is a war against you.

You can do all kinds of things.

As long as you don't actually come, come near to him, you can come to church.

As long as you're thinking about the game and lunch and whatever your financial stuff

is and whatever going on at work, as long as you're no benefit, no problem, no change.

You're, you're fine.

Go do your religious thing.

The enemy does not care.

It makes no difference.

Read, read the Bible.

One little quick verse in the morning, barely engaged with it.

Go for it.

Buy all the Christian t-shirts you want.

Makes no difference.

There's a war to keep you from drawing near to him because when you draw near, he's promised

to draw near to you and you change.

He does not change.

Everyone who allowed him in, everyone who allowed his words was changed.

But a warning, every person who heard his words and tried to apply them to someone else

who sat there and went, you know what?

My husband really needs to hear this message right now.

I'll tell you what, boy, I need to invite Jesus over for dinner, for some shawarma,

right?

We're going to have dinner and he's going to, he's going to preach to my husband because

that loser needs to hear this.

Guess what?

Left unchanged, left unchanged.

The person who took it in, applied it to themselves, was changed, was transformed.

And so listen, the way to change is very simple.

All of the, again, Barnes and Noble self-help section is entirely useless because change

comes from him.

It's the only way we can be different.

He is how we grow.

We become more like him as we draw near to him because he makes us like himself.

He will always draw near to you.

If right now in your own heart, if you're like, Lord, I need you.

Lord, I come to you.

I draw near to you.

You will find he is always right there, waiting, ready.

He will meet you right there.

If that is the desire of your heart, you will find he is always there.

He has promised this.

We are the ones who are changed.

So if you sit here today and you wish you were different, you wish you could change,

you wish you could become better, you wish you could become more of what you need to

be, that is a wonderful place to be.

If you have the desire, it's a wonderful place to be.

But the answer is not.

It's not to double down on your effort and on your attempt to change yourself.

That is not the answer.

That cannot happen.

It will never happen.

It only happens if you turn to the Lord Jesus in your need, in your brokenness, over your

It's called repentance, and it means we're honest before God.

You know, the Bible says a broken and a contrite heart, he never ignores, never ignores it.

When you come to God and you say, I'm a mess, I'm a problem, God, I'm the issue.

I've been broken.

I've been trying to absolve myself of the responsibility by blaming everybody else around

me, but it's me.

God, I need you.

I'm a mess.

I'm getting it wrong.

I don't know how to fix this.

God says, you have my attention.

You have my affection.

You have my work now employed in your life.

Turn to him.

Instead of away from him, turn to him today.

Go to him in your need, and you will be changed.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we love you.

We thank you that it is through you that we change.

I pray, Lord, for every person here today or anybody watching online that just feels

the deep need to be different.

Is that you?

Humbled yourself before the Lord this morning.

You see your need.

Maybe you don't know the Lord, and you're just now realizing that.

Or maybe you know him, but there's not been any fruit.

Things have been choking it out, and it's not gone well.

The answer is still the same.

It is repentance before the Lord.

It is to humble yourself before him.

To say with the tax collector, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Come to the Lord this morning, admitting your need, being real before him.

He will hear you.

He will not ignore you.

We love you, Lord.

We thank you for loving us.

Thank you for dying in our place.

Give our lives to you today because you gave up your life for us.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.