Change Brings New Beginnings (Elder Anthony Lopez, 07/15/23)

Good morning everyone. Happy Sabbath. Happy to see everybody here this morning.

Let me get my notes together. I apologize if you hear a little bit of nervousness in my voice.

As I was sitting there in the front pew, my watch goes off.

I look down and it says that my heart rate is high.

And it also says it looks like you've been inactive for about 10 minutes.

So I guess I'm a little nervous. So I apologize.

As I was putting this sermon together, I was a little nervous about how long this thing was going to be.

You know, I don't do this. So I was nervous it was going to be too short of a message.

So I was talking to Grace about it and I told her I was like, I'm nervous this thing is going to be too short.

But you know, the more I thought about it and I prayed about it, it's not too short. It's going to be efficient.

So let's start with a word of prayer.

Dear Lord Heavenly Father, I thank you for this Sabbath day that you've given us.

I thank you that you've given us this day that we can put our worldly things aside and focus more on you.

Dear Lord, I ask you that your Holy Spirit be present here today.

I ask you that you guide me, guide my words and let them be the words that you want me to speak.

I ask you that my words may be a seed that can be planted in the hearts of those that are hearing them,

that it may grow into something bigger for you. And in Jesus' name, Amen.

All right. So here we are. It's the middle of the year. It's summertime. It's warm outside.

You know, I feel like just a few, I feel like it was just a few weeks ago, a few months ago maybe that I was thinking,

I wish it was warmer outside. Right. But now I'm thinking, I wish it was a little bit cooler outside.

Don't get me wrong. I like the warm weather better than I do the cold.

But it just reminds me how fast time flies. All right.

So let me ask you guys, since it's the middle of the year,

how are your 2023 New Year's resolutions coming along?

No, I see some heads shaking. You know, some people make them, some people don't.

I do remember back at the beginning of the year, it was New Year, it might have been New Year's Eve,

Pastor Aaron was up here talking about New Year's resolutions.

He was talking about how some people said them, some people don't, how maybe difficult to follow through.

And he gave us some pointers on setting goals for ourselves.

And if you remember, he said set a SMART goal and he had an acronym for that and he went through it.

So my question is, you know, how's it going for you guys?

A little bit of some statistics on New Year's resolutions.

And you might have heard these before. You can Google them because that's what I did.

Thirty eight and a half percent of U.S. adults set a New Year's resolution. Thirty eight and a half percent.

Fifty nine percent of young adults, that's ages 18 to 34.

I'm a little bit past young adults. I see a yes back there.

They set New Year's resolutions.

As you can imagine, 48 percent want to exercise more.

And the top three are actually all health related things.

But this is where it's, you know, the data really starts to show itself of how these things go.

Twenty three percent quit in the first week that they start these things.

So, you know, January 1st, seven days later, you're done with it.

It didn't didn't pan out.

And actually only 36 percent make it past the first month.

So January comes along. You're gung ho about it.

February, we forget about it. OK.

Only nine percent successfully succeed with their New Year's resolution.

Nine percent of those that that created.

You know, there's a lot out there that don't create it. I didn't create one.

So I can't I can say that I didn't fail because I didn't create a New Year's resolution.

But only nine percent successfully keep their New Year's resolution.

So, you know, that looking at that data, it tells me that that we, you know, we struggle.

We struggle with these things. Right.

So why why do we struggle with New Year's resolutions?

If we set something for ourselves, why are we struggling to keep this thing?

Maybe it's it's laziness. You know, that could be it.

Laziness. Maybe we didn't set the smart goal that that pastor kind of talked to us about.

Could it be that life is just getting in the way?

Maybe, you know, your work, you're too concentrated on work and you're prioritizing things.

Maybe your kids, you're you're you're involved in their extracurricular activities and stuff like that.

And you kind of put your New Year's resolution to the side.

Maybe it's a change. Change happened.

You know, change happens all around us.

And, you know, that's the title of my message today.

Change brings new beginnings.

Maybe you set your goal and and you got a new job.

And so that that changed the way that that you need to prioritize your time.

Right. Maybe your your kids need extra help in a certain subject at school.

And you've got to prioritize your time.

You're not putting the time into that New Year's resolution that that you set for yourself.

But but change is hard. Change change can be tough sometimes.

Right. So, you know, as an industrial engineer, I change is what I do.

Change is my expertise.

OK, I look at I look for ways to change things all the time.

Like it or not, that's that's what that's what I focus on.

OK, so I know change can be hard and it doesn't matter what type of change it is.

People struggle with it. It could be good change or it could be bad changes.

People struggle with change.

We're creatures of habit and we we don't want something to change things.

Right. We like the stability.

Change can be scary and change can be unknown.

We don't like the unknown.

We like to see what's coming and prepare ourselves and what not.

But change is going to happen and it happens all around us.

There's two types of changes. OK.

To simplify, there's two types of changes.

There's the expected change.

That's the change that we like, right, that we feel more comfortable with.

We can kind of see it coming.

We can prepare ourselves and it's going to happen.

Now, when it happens, we still may feel a bit uncomfortable, but we know it's coming.

And then there's the unexpected. The unexpected change are the hard ones.

Those are the ones that that we get emotional about.

Right. It disrupts everything. We didn't see it coming.

It changes. Now, it could be a good thing and it could be a bad thing.

But a lot of the times we just don't feel comfortable with those.

OK. Those are the hard ones.

All right.

An example of a change and some of you may know this story.

It was it was all over the news. It got popular.

There was a movie that was put out about it.

And there's a funny story about that.

You can ask Grace and I. We tried to get into this movie.

Ask us later about it.

So there was about 13 years ago in August, there were 33 Chilean miners.

OK. They were getting ready for work.

It was a normal day. They got up, got dressed, got their food packed for the day,

put their heart got their hard hats with the little lights.

And they walked out the door to go to the mines to work.

They loaded on those buses that that take them up to the mines.

They got up there and they headed down into the mine.

Now, these mines are huge. And so they headed down.

It was well over miles and miles down into the into the mine.

All right. It was a normal day.

This is what they were used to doing.

Hard work, but they were used to it.

They get in there, they start working about lunchtime rolls around and they're

and they're wrapping up so they can get get together and eat their lunch.

It's not like they're going to come back up.

They just gather their stuff and find a place down there and eat their lunch.

So lunchtime is coming when all of a sudden they hear some rumbling.

OK. And then they hear this loud explosion.

And actually what happened was a boulder that was the size of a 45 story building broke loose in the mine, collapsed.

When it collapsed, it created a an avalanche of rocks falling down.

OK. Dust filled everything. They couldn't see anything.

OK. I mean, you can imagine the the what they were feeling.

Right. And it probably happened really quick.

But you can just imagine what was going through their minds. Right.

This is probably the thing that they're all scared most of when they first start going down into the mines.

As the dust cleared, first thing they realize is we're still alive.

OK. We're here.

Then they quickly realized that their way out was now was now blocked.

They were more than three miles in and that whole three miles was blocked by rubble.

OK. They could not get out. They couldn't get out.

So a change happened. Right. Something happened.

Something that that disrupted their their stability happened.

OK.

As word went around the town that that a collapse happened, all the family members rushed to the mine to get answers.

But there was no answers to be had because there was no communication down in the mines.

They couldn't communicate down there.

They had radios and all that. But the collapse took all that out.

They could they didn't know there was any survivors.

I mean, a collapse that big, you can only imagine the worst. Right.

So the families rushed not knowing what had happened.

The change happened for them. Right.

Now their lives as they know it has changed.

And they don't know they don't know what's going to happen to the unknown now showed his face.

OK. As a matter of fact, it took 17 days before they had any word of the miners.

Seventeen days as the miners were trapped down below, the officials above started drilling.

OK. They had no clue that that the miners were alive down there.

But what they did know is that there was a safety chamber down there and they knew that through their training that that if a collapse or or or something happened, they were trying to get to that safety chamber.

So that was their goal to to drill down into the safety chamber, see what they could find or what they could see. Right.

So they start drilling. And it's pretty tough to drill straight in and hit that point because it's so far down.

But but they had to try. And this was all over in the news.

They had outfits from all over the world helping in this in this rescue, if you will.

So as the Chilean miners are down below, they did make it to the safety chamber.

And in the safety chamber, they had some food set aside and some water.

Unfortunately, it was only they only had enough food for two to three days.

OK. So they started rationing this stuff out.

But they could hear the drilling was happening.

OK. So they had some hope that maybe they could be rescued.

After several attempts, they sat and listened after several attempts.

They could hear the drill coming down and missed the chamber, missed the chamber.

And as the days went on, 17 days, you got to think they were down there 17 days.

They didn't have any answers and the people above didn't have any answers.

But finally, they hit the safety chamber. OK.

The Chilean miners were ready for this. And so they had written a note.

And the note said, we're alive. We're in the safety chamber. There's 33 of us.

Before the drill bits got taken back up, they attached it to the drill bit somehow.

And it gets up and they see this note. OK.

And so now they know that the miners are alive and there's 33 of them.

Then the really hard work starts to take place. They got to figure out how to get them out.

It took 69 days for them to get these Chilean miners out of the mine.

69 days. These guys lived down there for 69 days. OK.

Now, as they drilled the hole, they were able to get them food and whatnot.

But 69 days, 69 days of change from their everyday life.

And it really changed their life from here on out.

Because once they got out, their life was changed forever. OK.

So although we don't like change, change can happen, just like it did to these Chilean miners.

Change can happen. OK.

Now, this was an unexpected change. This was a change that just happened, unfortunately.

It changed their life.

I want to talk about another change, though.

I want to talk about a change that will shape us as Christians forever. OK.

I want us to turn to Luke in our Bibles.

And we all know the story. We all know what the Gospels are about, right?

This is going to focus on the death of Jesus Christ. OK.

And we all know what that happened, what changed after the death of Jesus Christ.

But I want to focus on the disciples in that moment, what they went through, and how they handled that event. OK.

A change was about to happen for the disciples. OK.

They've been with Jesus for the last three or so years, right?

Seeing all the things that he was teaching, all the miracles that were happening, right?

And they were seeing it. They were right there, seeing it for themselves.

But a change was about to happen. OK.

But was it an expected change or was it an unexpected change? OK.

So let's look at chapter 9 verse 22. OK.

This is Jesus talking to his disciples. This is he's predicting his death to them.

Chapter 9 verse 22. And he said, The son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the teachers of the law.

And he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. OK.

If we go on a little bit further, he predicts his death a second time to them. OK.

Let's look at verse 44. He says, Listen carefully what I'm about to tell you.

The son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. OK.

Sometimes I read the Bible and I'm trying to get understanding and sometimes I don't understand it.

Sometimes I don't understand the passages, right? But Jesus is sitting here telling them. It's pretty simple.

He's like, Look, this is what's going to happen. It's coming. All right.

But they didn't understand. They didn't understand. Sometimes I wish Jesus was, Hey, this is what's going to happen. All right.

This is what I want you to understand. And he's there with them and he's telling this.

And they didn't they didn't understand.

And they were too afraid to ask. Ask what he meant by it. Right.

In Sabbath school today, we were talking about the new world and what we're most excited to see or to experience when we're there.

And we talked about being able to ask Jesus anything and getting full understanding from then on. Right.

But they were scared to ask. They were scared to ask him, What and what are you talking about? Right.

See, this change wasn't an unexpected change. This Jesus is telling them, expect this. It's coming.

But nonetheless, the changes was coming. It was coming. OK.

So we know the story well. We know what happens. We know what happens.

Everything that Jesus was telling them comes true. OK.

Jesus would suffer and be rejected and delivered to the hands of man.

He'd later be crucified on the cross for you and me.

And on the third day, just like he told his disciples, he would be raised to life. OK.

But again, I want to focus on what the disciples went through at that moment when Jesus died.

OK, the change that they felt at that moment.

So when Jesus was put to death, the disciples were overcome with sorrow, with discouragement, with fear. Right.

These are the things that the world puts in our face when things don't go the way we want. OK.

And the disciples let the weight of that fall on their shoulders.

They didn't remember what Jesus was told them before. Like, hey, guys, this is what's going to happen.

They forgot. They didn't remember.

See, perhaps their worldly hope was that Jesus would become king

and kick out the Romans that have taken over their country. Right.

And that's what they were focused on.

So when Jesus died, that worldly hope went out the window for him.

And that's what they could. That's all they focused on was that worldly hope. OK.

Disciples had just spent three or so years with Jesus.

Like I said, seeing his miracles, learning about the love of God.

But a change occurred.

And because of that change, they quickly forgot about those.

They couldn't remember. They didn't remember what was going on because they were focusing on that worldly hope that they had.

I like to think of it as the disciples, just as they were overcome with sleep at Gethsemane, they fell into temptation when Jesus died.

And they needed a wake up call. Right.

They forgot what Jesus told them. Hey, this is coming. This is coming.

And they forgot. They forgot what they were taught.

So they needed a wake up call.

Like in the mornings when you wake up, how many of you guys set an alarm?

How many of you guys set three alarms?

Meaning you snooze the first one, you snooze the second one, and you hope you wake up on the third one.

Yeah, I see you, Alex.

I do that too. Right.

The first one is kind of like a, okay, it's getting close. Turn it off.

Second one's like, all right, it's coming. And third one's like, get out. Get out of bed.

Okay. So they needed a wake up call.

All right. So let's look at what their wake up calls were.

All right. Stain and Luke was turned to chapter 24.

All right. This is the third day.

This is the third day after Jesus died.

He is raised back to life. Okay.

And in the morning, the women took spices to the tomb.

But what did they find?

They didn't find anything, did they?

That tomb was open, so they were looking for Jesus.

They were looking for Jesus.

But then in Luke, it tells us that two men appeared and gave them what I think was the first wake up call.

Okay. So Luke 24, verse 6 and 7.

Luke 24:6

They say, He is not here. He has risen.

Remember how He told you while He was still with you in Galilee,

the Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners,

be crucified and on the third day be raised again.

First wake up call.

All right. He's reminding them.

Look, remember what He said?

And the women remembered.

And they went back to tell the others. Okay.

And they told the other, but what did the others do?

It tells us they didn't believe what they were saying.

They didn't believe it.

How many times does your man, does your wife tell you something and you don't believe it?

Okay. Just remember that.

Wake up call number two. So the alarm was snoozed.

Wake up call number two is coming.

As two of Jesus' followers were on the road to Emmaus,

they're discussing what just happened.

And I can imagine them walking down this road, this big event just happened.

They're still full of sorrow.

Maybe they're not understanding.

Their heads are down. They're kicking a rock down the road.

And they're sitting there talking between themselves of what just happened. Right.

But then Jesus appears and starts to walk with them.

But they don't recognize Jesus.

And sometimes I think like how do they not recognize Jesus?

But they didn't recognize him.

And Jesus asked them, what are you discussing?

And they said, what do you mean what are we discussing?

Where have you been?

Look at this event that just happened.

Jesus just died. They just crucified Jesus.

Where have you been?

And so they go on to explain what happened.

And then they even tell them that we have found the tomb empty.

And here's where the second wake up call happens.

You look at verse 25.

He said to them, how foolish are you and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken?

Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?

Second wake up call.

Now Jesus continues to explain to them what was all said about him in the Scriptures.

Now remember they don't recognize him.

They don't recognize him.

As they're walking, Jesus continues to explain everything about him in the Scriptures.

Now evening is coming and they tell Jesus, stay with us because it's getting late.

Break this bread with us.

And Jesus did break the bread with them.

As soon as that happened, they realized who that person was, that it was Jesus.

And then it tells us that Jesus disappeared.

When they realized it was Jesus, they quickly get back to, they quickly go back to tell the others what just happened.

So they get back and tell the others.

And while they're telling the others, wake up call number three happens.

So as the disciples were gathered and talking, Jesus stood among them and said, peace be with you.

When he said that, the disciples were shocked and thought this was a ghost.

This is a ghost talking to us.

But wake up number three happens.

Let's look at verse 38 through 39.

Luke 24 verse 38 through 39.

Luke 24:38–39

So as they're startled and frightened, he said to them, why are you troubled and why do doubts rise in your minds?

Look at my hands and my feet.

It is myself.

Touch me.

See a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.

So he's like, hey, I'm here.

Touch me.

Touch me.

And they still struggle to believe.

OK.

But let's let's look down a little bit at verse 44.

He said to them, this is what I told you while I was still with you.

Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms.

Verse 45 tells us, then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures.

Wake up.

Call number three happened and they wake up.

Their focus now becomes on Jesus.

They now forget about the worldly focus that they have been been going through since Jesus died on the cross.

And now their focus turns on Jesus.

They woke up.

So soon after, Jesus gave his last instructions to the disciples.

And that brings me to our purpose as Christians.

If I had to summarize our purpose or a purpose for me as a Christian, I would say one love God.

Two love one another and three bring people to know God.

Jesus instructs us to go out and witness about him.

But with changes that occur every day, we let our worldly things get in the way sometimes of what that purpose may be.

We because those were we take our eyes and our focus from that purpose.

And sometimes we forget to love God first.

And if we forget to love God first, it makes it harder for us to love our neighbor.

And if we're struggling to love our neighbor, it's going to be even harder for us to go out to witness to our neighbor about God.

So you can see the trickle effect that that our worldly issues can get in the way of.

We lose our focus. We lose our focus and it can trickle down.

Since the disciples encountered that change and they lost focus on Jesus and who he was,

this allowed the weight of the world to rest on their shoulders and they didn't believe.

As soon as they put their eyes back on Jesus, their new beginning felt greater and more blessed.

Changes are going to come our way.

It's going to come our way no matter what we do, expected or unexpected changes.

They're going to come our way.

We're kind of going through that right now at our church.

Pastor Aaron is leaving us. He's going to seminary.

We're currently waiting on a new pastor. We're in a transition phase.

It's a change for us, right?

But after a change, there's always a new beginning.

But the new beginnings are going to be full of blessings if we keep our eyes on Jesus.

Our scripture reading today was Hebrews 12, 2.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneering perfecter of faith.

For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame,

and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

See, in my line of work, I continue to look at ways to improve different processes.

I look at the data, I study it, and I try and figure out how to change it,

hopefully to improve it. That's my goal.

But I know personally that when I'm making a change, when a change happens,

that a decision has to be made, a conscious choice, to face that change straight on.

And our scripture reading reminds us that Jesus should be our focus when a change occurs.

See, then it goes on to tell us why.

Because he's the author and perfecter of our faith.

He kept his joy, or he kept his focus on the joy that was set before him.

You know, Pastor Aaron last week was telling us to keep our eyes on the goal, on the end line,

just a half mile more.

And this passage can relate to that. Jesus kept his focus on that joy that was set before him.

And because of that, he endured what was meant on this world to be an execution that brought shame and humiliation.

But that didn't bother him because he kept his focus where it needed to be.

So this verse reminds us, yes, we have a goal, but if we keep our focus on Jesus,

it's going to help us get to that end goal, no matter what changes get thrown our way.

So keeping our eyes on Jesus as a Christian involves seeking him in everything, in every area of our lives,

allowing him to guide our thoughts, our words, and our actions.

It's a continuous process of growth and transformation.

As you seek to become more like Jesus Christ.

I'm sorry, it's a continuous process of growth and transformation.

As you seek to become more like Jesus Christ.

It's a new beginning.

A change happens and it's a new beginning.

But it's a new beginning in him.

When we keep our focus on him.

Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, we worship you because you're awesome.

You know the plans that you have for us and these plans are intended not to harm us.

We know that changes can come our way and sometimes make our lives a little bit uncomfortable.

Lord, I pray that in the period of change that you give us the wake up calls to keep our eyes focused on you.

That we have an opportunity at every change to have a new beginning with you.

Thank you for always being with us, especially through periods of change.

Be with us now as we go our separate ways.

We love you and in Jesus name, Amen.