Motivational speaker and author Spencer Johnson wrote a book entitled, Who Moved
My Cheese. How many people remember that book who moved? Not a lot of readers I
guess, ok. Who Moved My Cheese, it became a monster hit reaching number one
bestseller status on various lists such as the New York Times, The Wall Street
Journal, Businessweek, USA Today. Big big book I remember buying it back then. The
book was essentially a modern parable about change and how different people
react in a positive or negative way in order to accommodate change in their
lives. Now the idea of cheese and who moves it was the author's clever way of
expressing the idea that what we desire in life, you know the cheese, what we
desire in life and how we obtain it is constantly changing and unless we adapt
we will die. Now in a section called The Handwriting on the Wall, Dr. Johnson
summarizes the seven key ideas in the book concerning change. The first key
idea is the bottom line reality in life that all must accept, everybody needs to
accept this basic reality of life, and that is what I'll tell you what it is in
a minute, the first idea is that everybody needs to accept this first
idea and then the other six key ideas are various ways that people can
successfully deal with the first idea. I'm a little confused here let me let me
give you idea number one and you'll see where I'm going, key idea number one key
idea number one is: that change happens. That's the base, change happens, or as the
author puts it they keep moving my cheese around. This is reality number one,
the fact that the source of your happiness, the basis or the object of
your contentment is constantly changing. If you understand
and accept this then you have taken the first and most important step in dealing
with change. Now as I tried to explain in the
preamble, once you have grasped key idea
number one: change happens, you can now use the other six key ideas in
your own personal experience with change. So key idea number two: anticipate change
anticipate change, be ready for the cheese to move.
Don't fret don't worry or whine just be ready for it to happen because it always
happens there's always change. Key idea number three: monitor change, smell the
cheese from time to time to see if it's still good sometimes change is needed
and we just don't realize it. We're wondering what's going on what's
happening why can't this have them and also and we realized oh I need to
change this. Key idea number four: adapt to change quickly.
The sooner you let go the old cheese the sooner you get the new cheese, don't
waste all your energy and resources and goodwill fighting change get into it or
get left behind. Idea number five: change with change, go where the cheese is,
don't just acknowledge that there is a change
you must also change yourself if you want to succeed. Key idea number six:
enjoy the change. Savor the cheese, change can be good
so enjoy the experience as much as you can. And then key idea number seven:
repeat change, hey they move the cheese again. Realize that the change experience
is constant in life and you'll have to go through it many times because that's
what life is about. People spend many people spend the
greatest part of their energy and ability resisting inevitable change that
happens in everybody's life and what the author here was trying to get across was
instead of spending all your time and energy resisting change, in other words
resisting changes your default position how about considering change from time
to time, cooperating with it and you know the keys that it gives here. So this is
the essence of this little book that has believe it or not less than a hundred
pages and lots of pictures and 12-point type and at that time I remember was
selling for twenty dollars that was a lot of cheese for Dr. Johnson I'm going to
tell you that 20 bucks for the little book and it was written you know it was
a general idea just caught on mainly aimed at businesses and
business people in the workforce things like that.
Well our life is more than cheese right.
If our lives were lived only here on this earth and we had to deal with the
ever-shifting reality of this world with only our own wisdom or maybe the wisdom
of Dr. Johnson here, this little book would be very helpful. Actually it is
helpful in the sense that it does remind us that in life things do change and we
constantly have to adapt in order to deal successfully with this reality. One
very important thing that the book fails to mention however is that not all
things change, not everything changes. As a matter of fact in this changing world
there are several unchanging realities and that's really what I want to focus
on tonight. The first reality about things that don't change is that God
does not change. The Bible says that in the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth. The God of creation has always existed even
before this changing world existed He existed. Not only has God always existed
but He has always been the same without change. A couple of scriptures, "For I, the
Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed."
Malachi 3:6. And then James says the following concerning this matter, "Every
good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the
Father of lights," what does he say about "with whom there is no variation or
shifting shadow." No change, you always know who you're dealing with
when you're dealing with the Lord.
This eternal changeless being created a changing world and in doing so made
possible the expression of His own immutability. We know, we understand, we
appreciate His unchanging nature because we live in a changing world. Otherwise we
wouldn't be able to discern this primary quality that He has. That God is
changeless is seen as we glimpse His eternal nature through the looking-glass
of this passing world. Another changeless reality: the Word of God never changes.
Isaiah said it so eloquently when he wrote in the power of the Spirit, "The
grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:8.
This unchanging feature of God's Word is seen in various
context, for example the premise of God's Word does not
change.The story that the Word tells is relevant to every generation
from creation to the consummation of the ages, the content of Scriptures is the
divine context for our lives and our history and our future, in other words
the Word tells every generation it's essential life story without change.
People who heard the gospel in the 17th century and in the 11th century and in
the ninth century and in the first century were being addressed with a
timeless message that didn't change. God's Word fit perfectly their life and
circumstances whether they were Gentiles living in Thessalonica or Jews living
in Jerusalem and 21 centuries later Americans living in Oklahoma City. God's
Word it never changes and it has the ability to explain man's condition in
every context in any time until the end of the world.
Another unchanging feature of God's Word is the fact that the power of God's Word
it doesn't change either. The Word never loses its power to establish moral norms.
We're reading epistles for example that teaches how we should conduct ourselves
in the church and as Christians and what is the right way to act and
what is the wrong way to act and so on and so forth we're reading that today it
has the power to form our character and to direct our lives, and yet people a
thousand years ago were reading the exact same words that had exactly the
same powerful effect on their lives.
What book what notes what author can claim the same other than the
Lord who has given us His word? The content of the scriptures is the
divine context as I said for our lives the word tells every generation its life
story and tells every generation what the future will be for them according to
God's unchanging Word, it has the power to do this in every generation. The
words of men come and go the words of men rise and fall in their ability to
move people and to move nations; how many people remember Mao Zedong you
remember about Mao Zedong the leader of China the revolution in China brought
the communist ideology to China, how many people remember Mao Zedong's little
red book? Every citizen had to have a little red book it was actually a little
red book one of the members of the church in Montreal who was from China
brought me one and gave it to me that I could see it was in Chinese
obviously I couldn't read it but he was telling me that everybody carried one of
these books with them and what it included were the sayings of Mao, how one
should conduct themselves what life was about so everybody had that book notice
I said how many people have heard of Mao Zedong, not everybody
raised their hand, then I asked how many people have heard of
Mao Zedong's little red book and even less people raised their hand.
And Mao, it wasn't like he was alive five hundred years ago I was just in the
twentieth century and yet we've many forgotten his name don't know who he is
look much less the little red book. Where is he today he's
gone where is his little red book it's a souvenir
it doesn't guide anybody's life anymore. But God's Word has never lost a fraction
of its power to do what it claims to do and that is to regenerate man's
everlasting soul. So the Word has not changed in its premise it hasn't changed
in its power and neither has it changed it's everlasting promise. The promise of
God's Word never changes. Adam and Eve believed the promise contained
in God's Word to them and they lived to hope beyond mankind's greatest sin. Noah
believed the promise contained in God's Word and survived the global flood.
Abraham believed the promise contained in God's Word and had a son at the age
of 100. The Jews believed and they eventually lived in the land of milk and
honey. The Apostles believed and saw a risen Lord. The world believes and
receives unconditional forgiveness and the indwelling of God's Spirit. The Word
does not change in its promise that those who believe it will receive the
blessings that it offers, and so God's Word is unchanging in its premise its
power and its promise; people change society changes ideas change but God's
Word never changes, isn't that wonderful to note to understand to grasp when
you're reading God's Word you're reading something that just will
not change. The beauty of that is that when you learn something in God's Word
when you receive it and believe it what you have just learned will not change.
When I grew up as a Catholic boy in the Catholic Church
we would get encyclicals the Pope would write encyclicals and it
would filter down to the local congregation and they would tell us
what's happening and what's not happening and I remember one of my aunts
her favorite Saint was St. Philomena that was her saint, boy she was saints like
eh you still haven't your own team you know she had St. Philomena that was her
saint, there was even a church St. Philomena Church used to go to and she
would buy a calendar St. Philomena's calendar she was a saint and her day
I forget what it was but you know her day where you honored her some
time in May or something St. Philomena she had holy pictures St. Philomena the
whole thing. Well then one day we got the news that St. Philomena was not
a saint anymore, they had to make room for new saints you
know and St. Philomena she was out and the St. Philomena Church was now St.
John's Church or something and I remember my aunt was so up so how can
they do that my whole life I've been praying to St. Philomena she's gone
she's out. How did she how could she deal with a change like that why did it
change like that? It changed like that because it was a man-made thing human
beings made that up and human beings changed it. Isn't it wonderful when you
read just the Bible and believe what's in the Bible what you have learned as
true remains true today tomorrow forever what you know is true is true. How do you
think the Apostles in the early martyrs were able to go to their deaths
unwilling to change what they believed and confessed in order to save their own
lives? Can't we understand the motivation that
they had, go ahead beat me kill me even
how can I deny what I know is true, and you killing me is not going to make it
untrue that's the power of God's Word, to give us power. Finally in
our review of the short review of the unchanging we need to realize that of
course right Jesus Christ He doesn't change either. You read books that were
written a hundred years ago 300 years ago about Jesus,
devotional literature written about Jesus hundreds of years ago and
you can relate immediately to what he said he's talking about somebody that
you know, you're reading it you're saying that's exactly how Jesus is yes I
understand that about Jesus I've also discovered that about Him, wait a minute
you're three hundred years apart talking about the same person. How does
that work? Jesus doesn't change. In speaking of His timelessness and the
timeless nature that He has the Hebrew writer says of the Lord Jesus Christ the
same yesterday and today and forever, not only is Christ unchanging He is also
eternal and omnipresent, for this reason He was the reason and force for creation
Colossians 1:16. He was with the Jews to sustain them in the desert
I Corinthians 10:4. He died on the cross John 19. He appeared to the Apostles
after His resurrection Acts 1:3-4. He is with all Christians through the
Holy Spirit Acts 2 and 38. He will be with all Christians and judge sinners
and disbelievers and disobedient at the end of the world Matthew 25 and
II Corinthians 4. He will rule at the right hand of God for all eternity Matthew
19:28, II Timothy 2:12. How can one person do all these things? How can one
person be at all these things? How can the same person exist in all of these
different dimensions in the past physical world in the future
spiritual? How can the same person do that? He is unchanging, why? Because He is
eternal that's why. And so Jesus does not change in person in position or in power.
As I said societies change, the creation changes, we change but He never changes
When we say that He's the anchor of our souls, He's always at the
same place isn't He? Many times I say to you in classes I remind you and
encourage you to listen to the voice inside your head or your heart that
speaks to you and I encourage you always ask yourself who's talking to you? If the
one inside is criticizing you and telling you that you're unworthy and no
good ask yourself is that Jesus talking to you?
If the voice inside says come come you who are burdened and heavy-laden come I
will give you rest, that's not the devil talking and He speaks to all of us in
the same way. People say to me yeah I had that experience I know exactly what
you're saying. Why? Because the same Lord that speaks to
me through His word and through His Spirit speaks to you and in His wisdom
has given us concrete word in our language so we can make sure that it is
He who is talking to us through His word.
He's easy to find, He's easy to recognize in every generation in every situation
because He is always the same the same the same Lord the same Christ the same
person. So in our lives as citizens of this world the cheese does get moved and
we do have to accommodate ourselves to never-ending change until we die but in
our lives as citizens of the kingdom of God however we can take comfort in the
fact that there is a constant a permanence a stable set of realities
because the source of our happiness and peace is always the same, nobody is going
to move it and here's why we can have confidence in this, confidence in what I
call our immovable cheese that's where the title comes from. We have confidence
because as I mentioned God never changes, the God of the Old Testament is the same
God of the New Testament is the same God of the 21st century. We can depend on Him.
Now that cuts both ways, you know that God you read in the Old
Testament who says if you disobey me you know the earth will swallow you up and
and eat you and you will die, that's the same God that we are
praying to, the God that is offended because someone offers worship to him in
an improper manner and they die instantly yeah that's the same God that
we have today. The God who spoke to His people with fire and noise and
the earth trembling, that's the same God that we pray to today it's not like hey
God He's mellowed out the 20th century come on you know we got to let
things slide, it's ok me and God we're buddies He doesn't care you doesn't care
how I dress it doesn't care what I say you know we're good we're tight you know,
no no no no, He's a holy God holy God the God they were afraid to even go forward
they said to Moses you talk to Him don't let Him come near us yeah that God
that's our God. Yes we can depend on Him and yes He never changes but let's make
sure we understand exactly who He is, a holy God demanding that we be a holy
people, in our speech in our conduct in our dress in our attention yeah that God.
We have confidence because God's Word never changes let me go back one here
there we go God's Word never changes yes the story it tells remains the same the
power it has never waivers the promises it makes are ever sure we can depend on
it but we also have to remember to learn it preach it as it is and make sure that
we pass it on to the next generation complete without changing without
eliminating or adding that's our responsibility. And of course God's
Christ never changes, He is and will forever be the Son of God and Savior of
our souls we can depend on the Lord the same Lord that the martyrs in the first
century gave up their lives in order to confess we need to be ready to give up
our lives in the same way. He is worthy for us to give up our lives in order to
maintain our good confession of faith. We haven't been asked to do this in a
dramatic way of course but we could we could. And so after hearing about these
two realities the two realities being one: things in the world change
constantly and two: things in the kingdom of God always remain the same. After
reviewing these two realities what conclusions should we come to what
should these things mean for us? Well knowing these two things means that
first of all we must learn to separate these two, you see just because your
world changes from time to time doesn't mean that God is changing or His power
has diminished or His promises are no longer available, don't confuse the
changing world with the unchanging God. Some people think that because
their lives have changed for the worse that God has somehow lost His power or
backed out His promises, they don't realize that a
change in life especially a difficult one is usually a call for us to sustain
an unchanging faith. How else does God tests our faith? With gifts with presents
with good times? No no He examines our faith through difficult changes a change
of health a change of economic level a change of ability a change in family.
Through our changes God is whispering to us do you still
believe that I'm here do you still believe that I am with you do you still
believe that I can deliver you? As a matter of fact turmoil caused by change
is best dealt with an unshakable faith in what is truly constant truly
steady and unmovable. Perhaps in the context of this lesson we could say that
one way God tests our faith is to move our cheese around from time to time.
Finally knowing these realities about the nature of the world and the kingdom
should mean that we must be ready and are ready for the final change. All of
our changes are simply conditioning us to realize accept and prepare for the
final change and that is of course death itself.
It's amazing that everything in the physical world points to this sobering
reality but so many people refuse to deal with it let alone prepare for it.
And when I say prepare I don't mean buying a burial plot and planning your
funeral and getting a will ready I mean of course do that but that's simply a
plan for the disposal of your body not a preparation for death.
People think oh I'm ready for death you know I've got the plot I got the
headstone I got the power of attorney health proxy,
you're not ready for death you're just ready for burial disposal
because that's all those things do they help in the disposal. Preparing
for death requires us to decide where we will live after we die
that's prepare for death. Will we live with and commune with God in His
eternal and spiritual kingdom of life is that where we plan on living after we
die? Or will we live in darkness plagued by regret and tortured with the absent
of the Spirit eternally? Regardless of where your earthly cheese /
happiness is or was or will be regardless of how well you've learned to
adapt to the changes in this world, all of us need to take comfort in the fact
that the unchanging God makes an unchanging promise to you in His
unchanging Word guaranteed by His unchanging Son and this is that you are
to believe in Christ confess His name repent of your sins and are baptized
today, you too can become unchanging in life unchanging in spirit in time and
joy and love in Christ all unchanging. And the way to prepare for that is the
same today as it was 2,000 years ago. We could be transported back to
the first century we would not understand the language we would not
understand the social customs the food would be very very strange for us and
what we would drink we would become lately lost I mean we'd recognize human
beings but other than that we wouldn't be able to communicate you know we would
be completely lost except if we were at church, if we were at a church service
2,000 years ago we might not understand the language but we would know exactly
what was going on. And if someone came forward after the teacher or preacher
had spoken what we thought was the gospel we would know exactly what was
going on as they went to the baptismal font or the river or
whatever we know exactly what's going on, we wouldn't understand the words but
we'd know exactly what what was happening, why? Because the way to prepare
for death 2,000 years ago has remained the same for 2,000 years, we prepare for
death in exactly the same way: we bury the old body of sin in the waters of
baptism we resurrect a new spirit a new life a regenerated soul ready now for
death ready now to live in an unchanging place because we finally have become
unchanging. And so if you desire to live in this future unchanging place and have
not yet prepared for that in the way that I have described to you even
tonight this humble and small setting of an evening service if the Lord is
calling you to do what Christians or believers have done for thousands of
years if this is the night you are to respond then we encourage you to do that
now as we stand as Mike leads us in our song of encouragement.