Baptism of the Lord, Sustainable Change, and YOU

Jan 12 • Faith

Today we see the paradigm for how we have lasting, sustainable change in our life. It begins in the desert. In the desert we see the group of sinners who have found themselves in need of a new life. They leave the world behind, in order to find a new beginning. There we see John preaching to them about repentance and baptizing with water. Enter Jesus, and we see that He is in the midst of the crowd — but He doesn’t belong. First — Jesus has no need to repent — He Is without sin. But why go there? Because that’s where the sinners are. They are in the midst of their brokenness. They flee the world and go to the desert because they are in search of life. They go to the source of life — water — in the desert because that’s where they can start new. John, preaching to them about repentance, then baptizes with water. Jesus shows up, out of place, and mixes in with the other sinners in need of repentance. The physician goes to the sick. The doctor goes to the patient. And John calls Him out: “Behold the lamb of God” Look at the window in the back of our church that depicts this so well. John the Baptist points out that Jesus is the next step. John is there to help them recognize that they need to leave their sin behind to have a better life. Jesus shows up to lead them to the better life.

Here we have the paradigm for sustainable change. How many of us have realized that we need something to be different in life, and then even after we resolve to change it, find ourselves right back where we started, or worse still… where we started feeling the shame of not following through on the changes we wanted to make?

How do we make sustainable change? Three things:

Desire it You have to flee the world. You have to change your environment. You have to WANT something different in your life. It has to be a fire within you to change your life. Changes in the outcome of your life follow from a change in your actions. You cannot keep the same habits that got you to where you are. You must change them.. for that, you need to be fed up with your old life, sin, brokenness.
Repentance: You need forgiveness. You need someone who can give you a fresh start. Forgiveness occurs on two levels: 1) God forgives, and 2.) You forgive yourself. Forgiveness allows us to recognize that our past does not define our future, but until we hear it, until we are given the fresh start we cannot be truly free from it. We will be bogged down by its baggage. We need to be specific. The more specific we are about our failings, the more clear we can be about the solution.
Follow an Example: IF we could change our lives by ourselves they would have already been changed. Most of us need motivation — we need some reason to keep going. We need an example to follow.

Notice that Jesus does these things: 1) He meets the sinners who are ready for a change in life — they are already out in the desert. They want it… full of expectation. 2) Baptism of repentance. They promise to be moved from their former way to a new way of life. 3.) Behold the Lamb of God — Jesus is not just there to sanctify the water, He is there to lead them from the water to a NEW Life by His example.

If you want change in your life. Do the same: Admit you want to change, Resolve to make the change: repent of the thing that needs changing, and follow Jesus. Then you will live the LIFE God wants for you, and your changes will stick!

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