Our verse for the year…….Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2
What is your biggest “If only”…if only I had a husband, a better husband, more money, a better job, more friends, better friends, a different president, if only this would change, or if he or she would change, Alec would start hating winter….Knox would…….., Rusty would….., more time, etc.,
Introduction….
Transformation of our “if onlys” …..of anything……. will take time….it’s a process. Change takes times. We tend to want the outcomes without the process!! We want victory without the warfare. We want to win the war without the fight.
We think the grass is greener on the other side of our if onlys, but really the grass is greener where you water it!!!!
Transformation of our “if onlys” takes desire…..we have to want to change the way we think….and it takes discipline...we have to retrain our minds...Discipline for the purpose of godliness is not the same as self-effort. We don’t need regular old discipline….we need spiritual disciplines...plural...spiritual disciplines are those practices found in Scripture that promote spiritual growth among believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are habits of devotion, habits of experiential Christianity that have been practiced by God’s people since biblical times…….reading God’s Word, memorizing Scripture, worship,putting on the armor of God, fellowshipping with other believers...this right here, and this is a huge one, prayer….spending time with the Lord.
My quiet place devotional this morning was so good….the key verse was Mark 1:38, “And Jesus said to them, “Let’s go on to the next town, that I may preach there also.” He had been healing and casting out demons and people were looking for him but Jesus said it was time to move on...how did He know that? How did Jesus know what to do and when???? Vs 35 is key…...
And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, 37 and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”
He spent time with His Father….you want to change your if onlys….spend time with YOUR FATHER….work alongside the Holy Spirit—yielding to Him so that He can conform us to the image of Christ. And that leads to…...
Transformation of our “if onlys” will only flow out of an intimate relationship with Jesus.
Transformation of our if onlys will ONLY come about by the Holy Spirit through my faith and obedience to do what we know we need to do….but so often we do the opposite or what we want to do because we want what we want….and sometimes maybe we don’t spend time with the these spiritual disciplines because we don’t want to change...we are stuck in our if onlys. BUT PRAISE BE…...
Transformation is possible because of Jesus and our hope of eternity.
Well that was the introduction lol
Part 1:
What can we do with these if onlys or what ifs……..I want to suggest 2 things:
1. Find contentment - Definition - satisfied with what one has.
Contentment doesn’t mean you are happy in the bad times. It means you are satisfied with life because you know that God has things in control.
One thing for sure is we live in a discontented “IF ONLY” world!!!! We’re not happy with our leaders, with our spouse, our children, or the things that we have. Our house is too small, our TV is an older model and our smartphone doesn’t have the latest 5G technology.
But what does God have to say about contentment….
1 Timothy 6:6-8 – “But Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”
We are so used to stuff….and doing and getting immediate gratification that we have lost sight of what our needs actually are….we have unrealistic expectations!!!!!! The “world” is out for gain - bigger houses, nicer cars, better jobs...not that it is wrong to want these things and work hard to get them...but that can’t be our focus. If only I had a bigger house so my kids didn't have to share a room, a bigger car to travel, extra money to travel…..instagram is of the devil!!!! Lol and being on social media can steal our contentment faster than a lot of things!! Material things are not bad as long as we can keep things in check….and being satisfied with what we do have because it’s so much more than we deserve.
Along those same lines….Luke 12:15 – “And he said to them, ‘take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’” This is Jesus speaking and He is painting a very clear picture...coveting is the opposite of contentment and it is a scheme of the devil to keep you “if only minded” rather than eternity minded...and it can also affect your relationships!! Jealousy is a real thing and it can eat away at us.
Love this verse…...2 Corinthians 12:10 – “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
There is an important point here: “for the sake of Christ.” This is the reason why we all can be content. Christ left perfection in Heaven to come down to the most brutal place ever. He came down willingly, knowing that he would die a horrific death on a cross, so that we could be saved and be holy before God. That is why we can be content in all of all if onlys. If Christ loved us enough to die for us, then being content is nothing compared to the gift we have been given. We can be thankful in all things because Christ loved us all of the way to the cross.
2. BE GRATEFUL…..DEFINITION: warmly or deeply appreciative of kindness or benefits received; thankful:
Give thanks in (not for) all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you…..IF ONLY YOU MAKE SURE MY CIRCUMSTANCES DON’T CAUSE ME ANY GRIEF. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
“Gratitude isn’t anchored in ease, it’s anchored in intimacy.” The more we know God, the more we have reason to thank Him. When we focus on who God is rather than what He is doing, we can be thankful for where He has us, and that will change our if onlys.
"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."—Colossians 3:17
You want to change your “if onlys”??? Look for the good in the good and look for the good is the brutal!!....another quote, “When we become familiar with the bent of God’s heart, we learn to trust the work of His hands even before He has finished His work.”
Our if onlys tend to make us glass half empty kinds of girls they make us not content and not thankful...they tend to make us forget….BUT if we...
Part 2…..see our “if onlys” in light of an eternal perspective...that changes everything!!
Three Scriptures to help us with our
Eternal perspective…..
We get to those last two chapters of the Book of Revelation, and we find out that there is coming the day in Revelation 21:4 when there will be no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain. You come to (Revelation) 22:3, and there is no more curse. All the blessings we've been seeking for, the tears that we wanted dried from our eyes, the sorrows we wanted to escape from, the pain we wanted to be delivered from, it's promised to us that this is the way it will be. But it will not be fully that way until then…..What a day that will be….
There is coming a day,
When no heart aches shall come,
No more clouds in the sky,
No more tears to dim the eye,
All is peace forever more,
On that happy golden shore,
What a day, glorious day that will be.
What a day that will be,
When my Jesus I shall see,
And I look upon His face,
The One who saved me by His grace;
When He takes me by the hand,
And leads me through the Promised Land,
What a day, glorious day that will be.
There’ll be no sorrow there,
No more burdens to bear,
No more sickness, no pain,
No more parting over there;
And forever I will be,
With the One who died for me,
What a day, glorious day that will be.
What a day that will be,
When my Jesus I shall see,
And I look upon His face,
The One who saved me by His grace;
When He takes me by the hand,
And leads me through the Promised Land,
What a day, glorious day that will be.
Ya’ll…...and oh how our if onlys will just pale in comparison
That's why Psalm 30 promises--I love this promise--"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." God mercifully gives us some glimpses of joy, some foretaste of heaven. Some times by His grace He does give us our if onlys…...the desires of our hearts….There are some pains He does heal. He does bind up the brokenhearted and the wounded. But it is all just a taste. No matter how many wounds you've had healed, no matter how many sorrows God has comforted you through, that is nothing compared to what eternity will be like!!!!!!
Romans 8….18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
These verses are talking about the whole creation striving, groaning, travailing in pain. But what is the context there? He says the day is coming when the whole creation will be redeemed. Our bodies will be redeemed, our spirits will be whole as we have always longed for them to be. Yes, He has redeemed our souls; but He has just given us a taste of what can only be experienced ultimately in eternity….how are those if only looking right about now….brutal!!!!! Our if onlys don’t compare to what is waiting for us in eternity.
As we are here on earth, walking through those pains, those sorrows, those tears, they are not purposeless. They are not wasted. They are part of God molding and shaping and preparing us for eternity.
From Lies Women Believe……..When you go back to the Old Testament, you remember that when the temple was being built, there was no construction noise at the construction site.
1 Kings 6:7, “When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.”
If you've ever built a home or seen a building go up, you know that there are very loud noises that usually take place at construction sites.
And they built the temple out of these huge stones. The stones had to be shaped and hammered and made to fit, but none of that took place at the site of the temple construction.
Where did it take place? Back at the quarry. = a place, typically a large, deep pit, from which stone or other materials are or have been extracted…. That's where all the cutting was done. That's where all the shaping was done. That's where all the noise took place. That's where all the pain was inflicted on those stones. Then they were brought in silently, quietly, (and) perfectly fit together at the construction site.
I think that's a little picture for me of what heaven is going to be. We are in the quarry right now, and God is making us stones for His temple. Living stones, Paul says in the New Testament. We're being shaped and fitted so that in heaven we can be together... a temple fit for the glory of God. So there is purpose in that suffering. There is purpose in those wounds. There is purpose in those tears. The problem is that if we resent it and resist and run from it, we're not going to be fit for heaven. We're not going to be ultimately what God called and chose and has made us to be.
Part 3 - Turning our “IF ONLYS” to “EVEN IF”
We do that with one simple word……...Trust.
Throughout the Bible, God asks His children, in so many words, Do you trust Me?
Do you trust me, O Israel, to only collect a day’s worth of manna? (Exodus 16:15-20)
Do you trust me, Achan, to not collect the spoils of the land of Jericho? (Joshua 6:18)
Do you trust me, Joseph, to marry the woman with child conceived by the Holy Spirit? (Matthew 1:18-25)
Do you trust me, Noah, to build an ark even though it's never rained.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9, ESV).
1 Peter 5:7a tells us to begin “casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully].” The word “cast” refers to intentionally relocating an object. God wants us to hand Him anything that weighs us down. He wants us to hand over our if onlys. But we have to be willing to hand it over … and then let Him handle it….and then know that even if it doesn't look like we think it should, He’s still good and we can still trust Him.
2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (NIV)
Psalm 33:4, “For the word of the LORD holds true, and we can trust everything he does.” (NLT)
Psalm 55:22, “Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” (NIV)
These are the promises of God...and we can trust Him.
The Power of “Even If”
In Daniel 3, three brave Hebrews turned their “if only/what ifs” into an “even if.” When King Nebuchadnezzar’s armies conquered Judah, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were among those ripped from their homes and families and carried off to Babylon. They lost their names and perhaps their manhood to be placed in the king’s service. But they didn’t lose their identities. They were God’s chosen people and servants of the Most High God.
When Nebuchadnezzar demanded they worship his golden idol or be thrown into the fiery furnace, they responded, not with, “what if …?” but with “even if” God doesn’t rescue us. Read their words.
“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Dan. 3: 17-18, italics added). WHY??? Because they knew that He was worthy of worship...they knew His character, His goodness, and they knew Him
Don’t you want that kind of faith...to have that kind of trust?
Favorite Refit song...EVEN IF
I know You're able and I know You can
Save through the fire with Your mighty hand
But even if You don't
My hope is You alone
I know the sorrow, I know the hurt
Would all go away if You'd just say the word
But even if You don't
My hope is You alone
It is well with my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul
Because in closing, let me tell you the rest of the story... He did deliver them... Because they were never alone in the fire and neither are we. When King Nebuchadnezzar looked in that fiery furnace he saw four people... And then a couple of chapters later when Daniel is thrown into the lion's den for worshiping God…. God closed the mouths of the Lions and Daniel is protected. And guess who gets the glory for that God because he's the only one who could do such a thing??? BUT GOD! Understanding God's power, his character, and his purpose is key. Realizing that Daniel and his friends did not escape the stuff…..there if onlys didn't go away….. they had to go into the fiery furnace and into the lion's den, but they didn't go alone...and neither do we.
So my hope is for us to transform our “if onlys” to an eternal perspective!! AND to transform our “if onlys” to “EVEN IF”!!!!!!!!!!!...By continually sitting at the feet of Jesus, digging into his word, talking with God,.....doing what we're doing right here, but trusting Him, and by living every single day in light of eternity…. this won't make the things we struggle with miraculously go away but it will definitely shift our Earthly troubles, our if onlys, To our beautiful savior end to an eternal perspective and it will help us to remember that even if our if only’s don’t happen this side of glory, He’s still good!!!!!
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