When you look in the
mirror spiritually, do you like what
we see? Hello, I'm Phil Sanders,
and this is a Bible study "In Search of
the Lord's Way." And today we're wondering
if we can change our hearts and lives or are we
stuck with what we have? In all the hurry and hustle and confusion of modern living, the Lord
has the way. We believe that the Bible is the revelation of His way. We invite you to
join us In Search of the Lord's Way
with Phil Sanders. Welcome to In Search
of the Lord's Way! We'
re truly grateful that
you've joined us today. We're here to search the
Scriptures for God's will. And we want you to know
the Lord and to live with
Him forever. Your friends, members of
some churches of Christ in the area served by this
station, sponsor this program; and they would
love to have you attend Bible study and
worship with them. When you walk through the door, you'll feel welcome and wanted. Thanks for taking
time with us today. We want to be a part
of your life each week. The best l
essons of life
come from God's Word, the Bible. I don't know about you, but I need a lesson now and then. Lessons teach us, so we
might not make the same mistakes that we've
made in the past. Lessons open an
opportunity for us to change our lives
and to do better. Because they point to
something better, we have hope for
the future. I thank God for the
lessons of the Bible; they protect me and help me to
go in the right direction and avoid the
hazards of life. Now some people think
that people ca
nnot change. Have you ever heard
someone say, "Well, that's just the way I am; or I
can't change"; or "you can't teach an old
dog new tricks." Or maybe, "Well it's genetic; and I was born that way"? When I hear people say
such things, I have to ask, "Is that
really true?" Are we born with no
ability to make changes in our spiritual
or moral lives? Are we unable
to repent? I have to admit that that
concept really doesn't square with what I've seen
in people or with what I
read in the Bible. Throu
gh the years I've
seen all kinds of people make serious changes in their thinking and in their lives. And I believe
you can too! Now if you want to study
more, we offer this study free. If you'd like a printed
copy or a CD of our study and you live in the United
States, mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or send an e-mail to searchtv@searchtv.org. Or you can call our
toll-free telephone number. That number is
1-800-321-8633. We also have materials fr
ee on our website at www.searchtv.org. The Edmond church will
now worship in song, we'll read from Luke 15:17 to
24, and we'll see how people really
can change! Our reading today comes
from the most famous story ever told, the story of
the Prodigal Son, Luke, chapter 15,
verses 17 to 24. "But when he came to his
senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men
have more than enough bread, but I'm dying
here with hunger! I will get up and go to
my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have
s
inned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no
longer worthy to be called your son; make me as
one of your hired men."' So he got up and
came to his father. But while he was still a
long way off, his father saw him and felt
compassion for him, and ran and embraced
him and kissed him. And the son said to him,
'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in
your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your
son.' But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly
bring out the best robe and put it on him
, and
put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and
bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat
and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and
has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.' And they began to celebrate." What a marvelous
story. Let's pray
together. Oh Father, we're thankful
for the love and grace that's found in
Your Son Jesus. And how He opens His arms for us when we're willing to change. Help us to make
those changes. And may Your will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. In Jesus
name, Amen. Making changes in our
lives is challenging, because the temptation
to continue doing what we used to
do remains strong. Now an alcoholic may
stop drinking, but the temptation to drink will
return over and over. The alcoholic must keep
his heart strong and remind himself why
he won't drink. He has to fight the battle
over and over, but he can win. And there are thousands,
thousands who have overcome the
temptation. An alcoholic will always
be challenged, but
he can break the habit
of drunkenness. Can a person
change? Of course
they can. Many times it's not so
much a question of whether a person can change as
it is "do they want to change?" Many people make the
excuse they cannot change, when the truth is they
don't want to change. People start sinful
practices and become addicted. They don't plan to be
controlled by their appetites, but
they become slaves. The Lord Jesus said in
John 8 verse 34, "Truly, truly, I say to you, that
everyone who commit
s sin is a slave
to sin." Now that's a
harsh reality. No one likes to
be controlled. But because of Christ
it is not the end of the story. My friend, I tell you,
there is hope for you! There is a way to
overcome the past. Two verses later in verse
36, the Lord promised, "So if the Son sets you free,
you will be free indeed." Jesus can set us free from sin and its control over our lives. Jesus helps the Christian
to rise above the failures and moral stains
of the past. God can help us become a
ne
w person, freed from the old
and born again. The Bible says in 2
Corinthians 5 and verse 17, "Therefore, if anyone
is in Christ, he is a new
creation-or creature. The old has passed away;
behold, the new has come." The apostle Paul
explains in God's Word. He says in Colossians 3
verses 5 to 10, "Put to death therefore what is
earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and covetousness,
which is idolatry. On account of these the
wrath of God is coming. And in these you too
once walked, when you were living
in them. But now you must put them
all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and
obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another,
seeing that you've put off the old self with its
practices and have put on the new self, which is
being renewed in knowledge after the image
of its creator." Now if people cannot
change, why would God demand it? God's not
cruel. He doesn't expect us to
do what we cannot do! But God knows what we can
do, and he knows that we ca
n change our thinking,
our behavior, and our lives. The Lord told a story
about a young man who changed in Luke 15
verses 11 to 24. Perhaps you
remember the story. "That there was a
man who had two sons. The younger of them said
to his father, 'Father, give me the share of
property that is coming to me.' And he divided his
property between them. Not many days later, the
younger son gathered all that he had, he took
a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless li
ving. And when he had spent
everything, there was a severe famine arose in
that country, and he began to
be in need. And so he went and hired
himself out to one of the citizens of that country,
who sent him into his fields
to feed pigs. And he was longing to be
fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one
gave him anything. But when he came to
himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired
servants have more than enough bread, but I
perish here with hunger! I will arise and I'm going
to go
to my father, and I'm going to say to him,
"Father, I have sinned against heaven
and before you. And I'm no longer worthy
to be called your son. Treat me as one of
your hired servants."' And he arose and
came to his father. But while he was still a
long way off, his father saw him and felt
compassion, and ran and embraced him
and kissed him. And the son said to him
to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven
and before you. And I am no longer worthy
to be called your son.' But the father said
to his
servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it
on him, put a ring on his hand, and shoes
on his feet. And bring the fattened
calf and kill it, and let us eat
and celebrate. For this my son was dead,
and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And
they began to celebrate." This touching story
reminds us of the fact that people can wake up to
the life that they've been living and can come
home to the Father. God meets every one of his
children just like he did the
prodigal son. He r
uns to them with open arms and He celebrates their return. The lost can be saved, and
the dead can become alive
spiritually. Change can and
does take place! People don't have to remain the way that they've always been. They can change
their lives. Repentance is a change of heart that leads to a change of life. God made us people who
can change our thinking. Yes, we can control our
thoughts, and we can control the focus
of our lives. The Bible says in Ezekiel
18 verses 20 to 23: That the soul who
sins shall die. And the son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon himself, and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be
upon himself. But if a wicked person
turns away from all his sins that he has committed
and he keeps all my statutes and does what is
just and right, he shall surely live; he
shall not die. None of the transgressions
that he has committed shall be remembered
against him;
for the righteousness that he has
done, for that he shall live. (Then God says) Have I any
pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the
Lord God, and not rather that he should turn
from his way and live? God wants everyone to turn
to Him, to change and do what is right that they may live with him eternally. Regretfully not everyone
will change, and that brings us a
heart ache. I want to tell a true story of forgiveness and freedom. In 1935 a family in
Oklahoma with eight children lost
thei
r father. The mother went to work
as a nurse to feed the family, and the children
had to spend much time raising
themselves. The youngest boy as time
went by got into the wrong crowd and began to do
all the wrong things that rebellious
teens do. He often drank and
committed crimes. He would rather steal than
pay for anything, even when he had money
in his pocket. As a young adult he spent
many nights in jail. And he was a strong, young
man; and if he had been drinking, he would
tear up his jail
cell. He was wanted for theft
and burglary in several states. Once when he came home to
visit family in the 1950s, he stole a check-writing
machine, well he was caught, and went to
prison for four years. Now this got
his attention. And while he was there in
prison, his oldest sister and her husband came to
visit him and talk about the Bible and
his soul. Some fellow prisoners were
also Christians, and they taught him what he
should do to be saved. Now he learned that he had
never been baptized,
that is according to the
teaching of the Scriptures and he needed
to be baptized. Well he served his time
and he came out of jail in 1962 shortly before
his mother died. At first he was humble and
spiritually motivated, but before long he returned
to a rough life out in the oil fields
of Oklahoma. He was often drunk and
took illegal drugs. His mouth was foul and his
behavior very obnoxious. For more than twenty years
he forgot the promises he made to God while he
was back in prison. In 1985 he a
ttended my
father's funeral and was very obnoxious, I said
in my heart that I didn't care if I ever
saw him again. I regret saying
that now. But the Lord had something
more in store for him. In 1987 he had gained a
lot of weight, and the doctors told him that his heart was enlarged, like a cow's heart. They said he would soon die if he didn't change his ways. Many nights he would hunt
raccoons and get drunk. And he sometimes woke up
in a ditch, not really knowing
where he was. The doctor's words
,
though, hit home. He remembered all the
promises he had made to God and to his older
sister while he was in prison. And frantically he
approached every preacher in town to find
spiritual help. But none of them
had time for him. One even threatened
to call the law. And then he remembered
the two family members who taught
him in prison. He called me one Friday
night and asked me to come to his house and teach
him about baptism. Well, the next morning
I was there and I had my Bible. Now he knew t
hat he hadn't
been baptized according to the Scriptures and he
wanted to know the truth. So I began with Matthew
3 and told him how Jesus fulfilled all righteousness and was baptized by John. I showed him that the
one who believes and is baptized will be saved
-Mark 16 and verse 16. We learned that the
baptism of Christ was the new birth of water and the
Spirit - John 3 and verse 5, and a person must
be born again, verse 7. We also learned that we
needed to repent and to be baptized for the forg
iveness of sin - Acts 2 and verse 38. Now in baptism we also
learned that you go down into the water and you
come up out of the water - Acts 8 verses 38 and 39,
and that baptism is an immersion, it's a dipping
or plunging in the water. We also learned that when
we're baptized, that our sins, it's at that time
that are sins are washed away - Acts 22
and verse 16. We learned that baptism
is into Christ, that's how you get into Christ, and
it's also how you get into the death of Christ, that
we're
baptized into His death, that we're buried
with Him in Baptism, and raised with him in baptism
to walk in newness of life - Romans chapter
6 teaches. We also saw that our old
man of sin was crucified with Him in baptism so
that we can be free from sin - that's from Romans
6 verses 3 through 7. We learned many other
things about baptism that day, that is that baptism doth also now saves us - 1 Peter 3:21. And that He saved us by the washing of regeneration, the renewing of the Holy Spirit - Titus
3 and verse 5. And after we had finished
about three hours of study, five precious souls
went down into that large pond behind their house
and they were baptized. Now from that very day my
uncle never drank again. He began attending church
every time the doors were open. His language was godly
and his attitude was one
of love and faith. He opened his big old
heart to everybody, and loved everyone, and helped
many, many prisoners. He began reaching out
to the prisoners at the county courthouse,
and soon many of them were being baptized. And then he went to other
county jails, and it wasn't long until people there were being baptized as well. Soon he went to the
Oklahoma state prisons where he taught young men
who had fallen into the same sinful traps he
himself had known in times past. Oh, he would speak
straight to them about sin but with lots of love;
and they responded to it. From 1987 onward he
baptized more than a thousand souls into
Christ with his own hands. My friends I have to
tell
you, never, never had I seen such a great
change in a man. But that kind of change is
not so unusual for people who
come to Christ. The Bible says in 1
Corinthians 6 verses 9 to 11, "Do you not know that
the unrighteous will not inherit the
kingdom of God? Don't be deceived: neither
the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor men who practice homosexuality, nor
thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom
of God (no they won't).
(And then he pointed his
finger, Paul did, and said) And such were some of you (that is in the Corinthian church). But (here's the other
point) you were washed (God cleaned you up), you
were sanctified ( God made you holy), and you were
justified (God declared you innocent) in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit
of our God." Oh I tell you, God helped
them change from sinners to saints, and they
made that change. Let's pray
together. Oh Father, we're thankful
that through Your lov
e and through Your goodness You
can help us to become the kind of people that
You want us to be. Father we love You and
we're thankful to You. And we pray that Your Will
will be done on earth as it is
in heaven. In Jesus
name, Amen! You probably know people
who've left a sinful lifestyle and have
come to Christ. They made real changes in
their moral and spiritual lives. When you come to Christ,
you become a new person. You have a
new start! You're born
again! If God could make a
difference in th
e life of my dear uncle, He can make
a difference in people that you know too, and
could make a difference in those Corinthians, if He
could that He can make a difference in your
life if you let Him. He can help you overcome
every sin and become the kind of person that
you want to be. My favorite saying is,
"I'm not all I ought to be (and I'm not); I'm not all
I want to be; I'm not all I'm going to be; but,
thank God by His mercy and grace, I'm not
what I used to be." God can help each of us
bec
ome the godly person that He intended
for us to be. You can win over sin by
giving yourself to the Lord. He'll help you overcome
every sin and struggle that
you face. Faith truly is the victory
that we have in Christ our Lord. So are you willing
to come to Him? To become a Christian
believe with all your heart that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God. And out of faith and love,
love for Christ, then turn away from what the Bible
calls sin, take up your cross and follow
the Lord Jesus. That chang
e of heart, that
change of life is what repentance is
all about. The Bible everywhere
teaches that people can repent. And after repenting, confess your faith and be baptized
into Christ. Yes, baptism is an
immersion in water in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins can be washed away. And when you're baptized
the Lord will cause you to be born again,
a new creature. God will add you to His
family, the church of Jesus Christ, the church
of Christ; and you'll be His child an
heir of heaven. W
on't you make that change
and become a Christian? We hope that today's study
about changing our lives has stirred you to
consider your soul. Think about what
God says. If you live in the United
States and want a free printed copy or CD of this
message, mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or send an e-mail to searchtv@searchtv.org. Or you can call the
Search office toll-free at
1-800-321-8633. Now you can download these
lessons or a newsletter online a
t our website:
www.searchtv.org. There's also a schedule
of our programs and a map with the location of
churches that are in your area. We also offer free Bible
Correspondence courses. Now if you get a hold of
us, don't worry, we're not here to
get your money. We're here to help
you get to heaven. We do ask that you please
get involved with a church
of Christ. Now if you're looking for
a healthy, Biblical church home, we'll be happy
to help you find one. We want you to
worship with them. Just re
member that we'll
be back next week, Lord willing. So we ask that you keep
searching God's Word with us and tell a friend,
be sure to tell a friend about
this program. God bless you and we love
you from all of us In Search of
the Lord's Way.
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