Please read these three parts from Scripture before reading the message:

Our first reading is from the 6^th chapter of Judges beginning at the 11^th verse

The angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites. The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, you mighty warrior." Gideon answered him, "But sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has cast us off, and given us into the hand of Midian." Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; I hereby commission you." He responded, "But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." The LORD said to him, "But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them." Then he said to him, "If now I have found favor with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Do not depart from here until I come to you, and bring out my present, and set it before you." And he said, "I will stay until you return."

So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid, and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the oak and presented them. The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so. Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that it was the angel of the LORD; and Gideon said, "Help me, Lord GOD! For I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face." But the LORD said to him, "Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die." Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it, The LORD is peace.

Our second reading is from the 15^th chapter of the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians beginning at the 1^st verse.

I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you--unless you have come to believe in vain.

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them--though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

Our third reading is from Luke’s Gospel, chapter 5 beginning at verse 1

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

CAN WE CHANGE?

Do you remember what we’ve been talking about?

For a number of Sundays now we’ve been looking at the 1^st letter to Corinthians.

I’ve offered a premise – the premise is that the Gospel spreads not as a military operation, but rather by people being drawn into the Love of Jesus, and they see love in the local church.

We’ve discussed that Jesus did not “conquer people” as much as he “drew them in” – “drew them in with His love and concern”.

And so the premise is the way Gospel will spread is by drawing people in to the Love of Jesus that they can experience at St. John’s.

Which means the love of Jesus needs to be really present here.

Think about if you walked into a place and you could tell people were genuinely concerned with each other – not the building, or the sermon, or the music – but with each other.

They prayed for each other, the spent time with each other – in fact they even spent time with you – if you walked into such a place, would you be drawn to it?

I imagine that if love is not there then you and I wouldn’t be drawn to the place.

In fact if the love of Jesus isn’t here, I’ve been wondering if God would keep people away.

The people in the Church of Corinth were having a fair amount of internal strife and that is what prompted God to inspire Paul to write this letter – so the people of Corinth would have this Word from God.

In talking about this subject we’ve used 1 Corinthians 12 where the church is described as the body of Christ, and as a body, that it has many members – and that the members all need one another.

Further we’ve used 1 Corinthians 13 and saw that this popular wedding reading is really a teaching for the church – for us.

In fact it’s not just for “us” collectively – it’s for us as individuals – in other words I have to apply this to myself.

You might remember my story from last week, “That I was an angry young man” – do you remember that?

As I shared that with you I indicated that this week I wanted to talk more about “change” – how can you and I change to be more like Jesus?

It can be hard for adults to change.

I used to teach some Leadership Courses and one part of the course was an open discussion where new managers could ask us who were teaching the course what lessons we had learned – were there any “moments” when we figured something out.

Would you like to know mine?

When asked about some really big lesson I’d learned it was this:

“I can’t change anybody”. 

I can’t.  I use to pride myself on believing that if I properly taught my people, if I showed them how they could gain more knowledge, if I “walked with them” on projects, if I praised them when they did well and if I had the courage to tell them when the didn’t – that people could change.

Now I still tried to do those things, and I still try to do them today.

But the reality is “I can’t change anybody”.

But here is the Good News – that if we are willing to “be changed”, that God is faithful to hear our prayer and change us.

I had to first want to stop, to stop being an “angry young man”.

Some folks have asked me why I am preaching on this subject – they’ve asked, “Is there a problem, are we not loving each other?”

My answer is, “I’m talking about this for a few reasons:

• First, I want us to understand this idea of “drawing people”, drawing them into the Body of Christ that we are a part of – that we collectively need to be aware of what is at stake – might someone come to know Jesus because we love each other?

• Next, I’m talking about this because there are forces at work on us, forces that seek to tear apart the Body of Christ, the Church and if we are aware of those forces, then we can understand the anecdote.

• Finally, I’m talking about this because, guess what – we aren’t perfect – we always have room to improve – and in fact we have quite a bit of room to improve.”

The question is do you and do I – do we want to grow – to change?

I’ve been wondering if the reason we’ve stopped growing is Love – that we aren’t shining enough love towards one another, that people aren’t seeing a beacon of God’s love from this place?

So that is why I’m talking about it.

You can do this, you and I can be people of God’s love, people who display more and more the brightness of Jesus Christ.

• I’m certainly not perfect, but I’m not that “angry young man of the 1980’s.

• Last week Nancy asked me, “If I wasn’t an angry young man now what was I?” – I joked back, “Probably a grumpy old curmudgeon” – Well let’s pray not.

So how – how do we change?

Let’s look at all three readings today – what do we find?

We find people who were called by God to do something

• Gideon called by God to be a great warrior, but he was scared that he couldn’t do it.

• Paul called by God to tell people about Jesus, but overwhelmed by his past where he actually hunted down and killed Jesus’ followers.

• Simon Peter who when he realizes who Jesus is falls down and pleads Jesus to leave him because he is a sinner.

• All of these people were called by God, but believed they couldn’t do what God asked.

You and I called by God – we are called by Jesus to follow – to be his disciples – and Jesus says everyone, not just a few people, but everyone will know that we are His disciples because we love one another.

And When I hear that description, that I’ll love not some, but all of the disciples, then I cry out:

• Like Gideon and say I can’t, “How can I deliver Israel – I’m the weakest”.

• Or like Paul and say, “You don’t understand I’m the “least””.

• Or like Peter and say, “Go away from me Lord, I’m a sinful man”.

• In fact we in our opening prayer prayed, “Set us free O’ God from the bondage of sin…”

So how, how does God change us?

We’ve just seen step #1 – step #1 is to come “Face to Face” with God – that is what was going in with Gideon, that is what happened to Paul in Acts chapter 9, and this is what happened to Peter in the Gospel today – they’ve come Face to Face with God.

• We need to come “Face to Face” – seek Him and you will find Him it says in Deuteronomy 4:29.

We’ve also seen step #2 – step #2 is once we’ve come to Him we are like those we’ve read about and will come undone – we will “repent” – we will turn from the hardness that is in us, we will turn from the hurt that is in us – and bring it to God.

• There was hardness in me that led to my anger.

• There was hurt in me that led to my anger.

This is a hard step, you might still think like Gideon and Paul and Peter, “I can’t” – but look at what God says to Gideon.

• “Peace be with you, do not fear”.

And to Peter:

• “Do not be afraid”.

Our fear comes from a fear that we might fail – Gideon was afraid he couldn’t defeat the Midianite army, or we are afraid God won’t accept us, or like Peter that couldn’t measure up to Jesus.

But here is the Good News – when you #1 seek God and #2 be willing to repent – then God comes and pours His grace into you.

When I say I can’t change anybody I was 99.9% right – because with God’s help I can be changed by Him.

Let me encourage you today – that God – if you invite Him in – can continue to grow you in His Body the Church.

I say this to you not because “I’m fully grown”.

I feel like Paul, “For I am the least, unfit to be called to bring you this message, because there was I time I called myself a Christian and I literally persecuted Jesus’ Body by my anger – but God’s grace saved me.”

“I don’t’ want God’ grace to be in vain, so I want to pass on to you that which is of first importance – that Christ died for our sins and was buried and was raised so that we might believe and tell the whole world of God’s love.”

I’m want to encourage you to invite God in, today, so that by His Grace the Love of Jesus may shine in us more and more, not for our glory, but in order to bring Glory to Him who loves us and died for us.