The Constant

October 22, 1999

(August 30, 1998)

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, and today, and forever.

CHANGING SCENES, CHANGELESS CHRIST

Last year (1998) I visited the house I left to come to E.N.C. as a freshman student back in September, 1949. I found the house, even though the neighborhood has changed dramatically. It was painted a bright, shocking blue!

I met, too, with a number of friends I hadn't seen too often in the last 40 years. There were several who were members of the youth group; we had grown up as teens together. We laughed and remembered the good times and the dumb things we had done. But somehow THEY had all changed, too. They looked different, even though we recognized each other.

I know that I have changed a lot, too. But there was a constant. Our old friends had come to be with us to remember my father, who died earlier in the month. As we prayed the Lord's Prayer together Jesus Himself was there. Things had changed, we had changed, but Jesus had never left us, not one!

The fact that we were burying my father, who was born in 1901, really underscored the idea of "change." We had to laugh a little bit because Dad died in Texas, and we flew him back to Ohio to the family plot to be buried. And that was the first time Dad ever flew. He was born November 15, 1901, two years before the Wright Brothers made the first powered airplane flight. Dad was one of those who knew that if God had intended us to fly...

It is almost impossible to imagine the changes in the way we live and move and have our being that took place in this one century. But through those changing years, there was one constant: Jesus never left us!

It is a simple, powerful statement we are asked to believe: "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, and today, and forever." The same Jesus we know that the writer of Hebrews knew as he wrote those words. The same Jesus no matter where we come from, or what race we represent, or what our I.Q. might be, or how important our place in life is supposed to be. The same Jesus regardless of what our doctrines SAY about Him; because Jesus is not the product of our understanding: Jesus IS.

Jesus is YHWH, the "I AM THAT I AM" who spoke to Moses from the burning bush. The "Alpha and Omega" who frightened John half to death on the Island of Exile. He is the same Jesus you learned to pray to when you said, "Now I lay me down to sleep" and he will be the same Jesus if you ever live to be 96 and close your eyes and die like my father did. In changing times, you can count on it: the one unchanging CONSTANT in this universe is Jesus Christ.

CONTRASTING GOALS, CHOICES FOR ETERNITY

I am probably pretty naive, but I'll say it anyway: There are just two kinds of people in this world . . . only two kinds of life-goals:

1. Those who believe that Jesus IS — is there for them to build their lives on . . . AND
2. Those who think they can "fit Jesus in", that Jesus changes with the times.

It may come as a shock to you, but YOU CAN'T FIT JESUS INTO YOUR LIFE PLANS! He always gets in the way. Jesus is the "odd-shaped cornerstone" that only works ONE WAY: You can trust Him, and build on Him, and He will never let you down as long as you live!

The first kind of people are people who really believe that Jesus doesn't change, and so they dare to follow him through the changing scenes of life. They believe that Jesus is NOT simply who we make Him out to be. He is not the private, personal "God of our choice", but the God that IS! He is YHWH!

The second kind of people are people who act as if Jesus Christ is in the same category as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. They may never admit it out loud, but instead of staying in personal touch with Jesus they begin to accept what the experts say about Him, or they stop talking to Him because that is what little kids and old, old people do. And so they change their god to fit their world instead of the other way around.

THAT is what Jeremiah was talking about when he put God's words like this: "My people have done two big sins! They have left ME! They have constructed pitiful substitutes that will never work!"

COMPREHENSIVE PROMISE: A LIFE-TIME GUARANTEE

The Hebrews passage is a conversation. It is a dialogue we can play back when we need help in changing times.

The conversation starts with God. God says, "I will never leave you or forsake you!" Then the response we are challenged to make is: "I will not be afraid!"

This doesn't mean I will not FEEL afraid. We can't always help how we feel. It doesn't mean we will never fall down and cry in fear at times. But it does mean: "I will not be afraid to build my life on my relationship with You, Father God!" I will not be afraid to look the values and non-values of this world straight in the face and say "If they don't fit with Jesus, they don't come into my life!"

I have a final challenge, to us all, but particularly to any who have had great times of blessing; real experiences of God's blessing, perhaps at camps or on spiritual retreats. That challenge in a phrase is this: Begin with your experience and turn it into relationship.

Being saved is wonderful; but it is not the end of the line. Having your sins forgiven is great; but that is not all there is. Experience can be essentially "me-centered." Have you been saved? Do you have the Holy Spirit? Are your sins forgiven? All these are necessary and wonderful... But the secret of joy in the Christian Way is this: Everything God does for you, he does so that you can be his child and his friend.

Being a child and a friend are not always one and the same thing. I hear that a lot in my journeys around our church. We LOVE our families; but we aren't always really FRIENDS! It is great when families actually CARE! Do you LOVE God??

Prayer: Lord we come to You, the Eternal God! We thank You we can dare to build our lives on You. Give us grace to make and keep covenant with You and live to please You. In Jesus' name, AMEN

Closing Hymn 145 (STL) Glorious Is Thy Name (IF the brass can be ready!) After last verse go into #146 (STL) There is Strength in the Name of the Lord