My second through twelfth grade years were spent growing up in what was and still is very much a traditional, county-seat, Southern Baptist First Baptist Church.  As Jim Baucom would say, it even smelled like a Baptist church.  Every year, in the fall and spring, we’d have a revival.  What that really meant was that an outside evangelist would come in and attempt to do for us what we were unwilling to do the rest of the year.  The result was that not much ever really changed in the way the church did business.  There was one evangelist in particular whom I remember.  I don’t remember his name or even what he looked like.  What I do remember is that one year I caught him preaching the same sermon he’d preached when he’d been there once before.

What gave it away was a particular story, a “preacher story.”  Which means that it was more made up than true; it wasn’t very sophisticated.  The evangelist told of not being able to get his car to start one morning.  Not knowing what was wrong, he decided to wash it.  Of course, it still wouldn’t start.  All he had then was a cleaner broken down car.  Then, he decided to paint it.  Still, it wouldn’t start.  All he had was nicer looking broken down car.  Finally, he decided to take the old broken down engine out and put a new one in.  And, of course, the car started and all was well.  The evangelist used the story to point out how God isn’t interested in just cleaning us up or remodeling us, he wants to give us a new heart.  A heart that loves him and is willing to serve him.  Though we can clean ourselves up some, only God can give us new life.  Like the life Jesus offered Nicodemus when he told him that, in order to enter God’s kingdom, he would have to be “born again (John 3:3, NIV).”

I swore I’d never use that story.  But, for some reason, it kept coming back to me this past few weeks during our effort to discover our core values as a church.  More than once since I came here I have suggested that we try this or that only to be told, “Oh, we did that already, ten or twenty years ago.”  There isn’t much this church hasn’t tried in its 103 years!  Consultants have been paid good money but were unable to make suggestions that brought about lasting change.  Looking back on last weekend, I began to wonder if all these ideas, though well intended, amounted to nothing more than washing or painting a car that wouldn’t start instead of giving it a new engine.

This morning, we find ourselves coming back full circle to the same text of scripture that started us on this journey several weeks ago.  Not the same sermon.  But, the same text.  And, these words in particular from the apostle’s heart, “Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power.”  Again, “I have become a servant . . . by the working of his power.”

These words from a man who had once helped put others to death for their faith in Jesus.  He had now become of a servant of the very same gospel for which he had once killed others.  God had not just cleaned him up a little or helped him change a few bad habits.  He had given him a new heart.  This was a man who had been given a new life.  A life that included a new attitude toward God, himself and others.  In his own words, this has all happened as the result of something God gave him and of the working of God’s power.  There is real hope in this text.  People can change.  Just because we’ve lived one way all of our lives doesn’t mean we can’t live in new ways.  What was once dead can live again.  There is nothing the gospel promises us that is more significant than that.  We can be new people, by the grace of God. 

A couple of Sundays ago, I shared with you my dream for our church family.  This past two weeks you’ve shared yours.  This is what I’ve heard you saying.  We want God to do something new in our hearts, individually and corporately.  We want him to give us a new heart for serving and sharing the gospel.  One man said that he’s spent his entire time here being a consumer of whatever was for sale.  Now, he wants to be changed from consumer to salesman.  Just in case someone doesn’t appreciate the metaphor, he knows good and well this gospel is not for sale.  He was saying that he’s no longer interested in just coming to church and being blessed.  He now, more than ever, wants God to use him to bless others.  To be, in the apostle’s words, “a servant” of the gospel.

His sentiment gives voice to a wave of passion in our church that somewhat came to a head when we were developing our master site plan a few months ago.  There was something about it that just didn’t capture our imagination.  Not that the committee hadn’t done good work.  It’s just that now it appears that the really good work they did was to help us finally say out loud what many had been feeling.  Whatever we must be in this community to be God’s people is going to involve far more than moving a couple of our internal walls, re-carpeting and repainting floors and walls stained by years of use.  As crucial as those things may be in their right time, there is something else that must come first.  And, it has something to do with a new heart.  A new way of relating to God, to each other and to the community and world around us.  Without that new way of relating, then moving walls, re-carpeting and repainting won’t amount to much more than remodeling a very expensive cocoon. 

It’s hard to believe but maybe it’s a good indicator of our culture’s shallow obsession with looks that, in this day of heroic conflict with world-wide terrorism, the cover story on a recent People magazine was about a television news anchor’s face lift (People, February 18, 2002).  Greta Van Susteren is moving from CNN to Fox.  As part of the move, she’s had her face lifted.  And, this is news!  They have the typical before and after pictures.  Frankly, I can’t tell the difference.  She is 47, my age.  Which means that, at some point, you can’t outrun nature.  Not that I wouldn’t like to try.  Just this week, when I was paying my green fee, the kid behind the counter who looked like someone from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off asked me if I was over 60!  I looked at him and said, “Bless Your Heart!”  Which is really a preacher’s way of saying in those situations, “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard!” 

All said, Cliff Temple is saying as loudly as I’ve ever heard a church say it, “We don’t just want a face lift.  We want a heart transplant.  We’re not as interested in remodeling or reorganizing or re-re-adjusting.  We’re committed to a new way of relating.”  And, if that is truly what is in our hearts, God knows it.  God knows, for example, whether our passion is just remaking our image or that of Paul’s, “to him be glory in the church . . . forever and ever.”  He knows.

The other night, Nancy called on the way home from choir practice.  She says, “I have to stop by Eckerd’s on the way home.  Do you need me to get you anything?”  Now, women are far more intuitive than men as a rule.  Nancy can see me coming a mile off and finish most of my sentences before I start them.  But, this time, I had her.  This was late Wednesday night.  So, when she asked if there was anything she could get me I said, “Yes, while you’re buying my Valentine’s card, could you buy me one for you?”  She went on to say that she had just wanted me to have something Valentine’s morning so it would feel like Valentine’s Day.  I said, (this is really good), I said, “Honey, every day is Valentine’s Day with you!”  Mainly because I know her heart.  I know that she loves me when I don’t know anything else.  Before she says it, I know it.

God knows what’s in our hearts.  He knows whether they are full of love for others or love for self or even the desire to be changed from love of self to love of others.  The nine core values our church will consider adopting next Sunday night aren’t that radical.  They are to a church what one man said mom and apple pie are to American culture.  But, actually giving them life in the way we worship, serve, share, work and make decisions in this place will cause radical adjustment for all of us.  Painful adjustment.  Forgiveness, honesty and passion like never before.  Adopting the nine values will be simple.  It’s something we can do.  Making them work will require the power of God changing our hearts toward him and each other.  Only he can do that. 

This text is full of hope, people can change.  It is also full of humility.  When it comes to matters of the heart, only God can make those changes.  We can remodel and re-paint and reorganize.  If we stay that course, then it will always be said of us that what happened in the past tense was most significant.  We may die in a beautiful cocoon, but die we will.  If God gives us new hearts, then we will come to see the promise of his word take tangible shape here, in this place.  The promise that, he is able to “accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.”  Which means that, just as we have a past tense as a church, we know where we’ve been and what we’ve done and just as we have a present tense and know where we are, God has a future tense in mind for us the likes of which we cannot imagine.  It’s his promise.

He is able to “accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine,” for sure.  But, notice these words, “by the power at work within us.”  This work of God is a work from the inside out.  God does what he does in this world through working out his power through people like you and me, the church.  God is never more glorified than when people who once thought only of themselves are transformed into people who think only of how they can serve others and who gather in faith communities to worship and serve.  People can change.  Churches can change, by the power of God at work within us.

You’ve heard me quote Fred Craddock often.  His preaching touches something deep in me.  He has a gift for relating the truth of God’s word like few I’ve heard or read.  He is getting old now.  Thinking about his past tense, present tense and future tense this is what he says.  “When I was in my late teens, I wanted to be a preacher.  When I was in my late twenties, I wanted to be a good preacher.  Now that I am older, I want more than anything else to be a Christian.  To live simply, to love generously, to speak truthfully, to serve faithfully, and leave everything else to God (Fred Craddock, Craddock Stories, Chalice Press, 2001).”  To live simply, love generously, speak truthfully, serve faithfully, and leave everything else to God.  That’s what this wonderful old church is now saying she wants as she ponders her future tense as a new church.

How can that be?  What will make it happen?  The other night as I was watching Olympic figure skating and marveling yet again at the incredible grace and skill of those athletes I saw a motto on the sidewall as a skater glided by, “Light the fire within.”  No one can work that hard and sacrifice that much to be that good unless there is a fire in their belly.  A fire of passion and drive that refuses to be extinguished.  It’s a wonderful motto.  Light the fire within.  For us, if we would be a part of God’s future tense for this church in this place, it will have to be more than a motto.  It will have to be our prayer.  “God, light the fire within.” 

This past few weeks something very beautiful has happened.  Very Baptist.  Very Christian.  For two weeks some two-hundred of our folks gathered in homes all over this community to pray.  Then, at the Deacons retreat, one-hundred-twenty people gathered in small groups all over the room, their Bibles open, seeking God’s leading.  Like soldiers, Christian soldiers, warming themselves at campfires of God’s truth.  Then, a larger fire was lit within our church family.  It broke out again last Sunday night.  We’ve been praying, “God, light the fire within.”  Only God can give us new hearts.  Until then, we can meet around those campfires, reading his word and praying, “God, light the fire within.” 

Pray this prayer with me, will you?  “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.”

And, Amen.