Sermon Central
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A Spiritual Transformation
Contributed by Dr. Odell Belger on Oct 9, 2025 (message contributor)
Summary: Some folks have some strange ideas about conversion. Illus: Did you hear about the man that was named John Smith who was a Protestant living in a Catholic community?
Introduction: On the first Friday of Lent, John was outside grilling a big juicy steak on his grill.
Meanwhile, all of his Catholic neighbors were eating cold tuna fish for supper. This went on each Friday of Lent.
On the last Friday of Lent, the neighborhood men got together and decided that something had to be done about John. He was tempting them to eat meat each Friday of Lent, and they couldn't take it anymore.
They decided to try and convert John to Catholicism. They went over and talked to him. John decided to join all of his neighbors and become a Catholic, which made them all very happy.
They took him to church, and the priest sprinkled some water over him, and said, "You were born a Baptist, you were raised a Baptist, and now you are a Catholic."
The men were so relieved, now their biggest Lenten temptation was resolved.
The next year's Lenten season rolled around. The first Friday of Lent came, and, just at supper time, when the neighborhood was settling down to their cold tuna fish dinner, the smell of steak cooking on a grill came floating through the neighborhood. The neighborhood men could not believe their noses!
WHAT WAS GOING ON?
They called each other up and decided to meet over in John's yard to see if he had forgotten it was the first Friday of Lent.
The group arrived just in time to see John standing over his grill with a small pitcher of water. He was sprinkling some water over his BIG steak on the grill, saying, "You were born a cow, you were raised a cow, and now you are a fish.”
Many folks think that conversion is no more then saying a few magic words and they instantly become a Christian.
Luke 13:3-5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Fancy words do not save us; the Lord Jesus Christ by His precious blood on Calvary is what saves us.
The Bible records some TRUE CONVERSIONS. Some of the true conversions we hear the most about are:
• The conversion of Cornelius
• The conversion of Lydia
• The conversion of Paul
• The conversion of the Eunuch
• The conversion of the Jews at Pentecost
• The conversion of the Samaritan
Now we certainly do not want our conversion to be a FALSE CONVERSION, so let’s look at this passage of Scripture closely so that we can have a TRUE CONVERSION.
We see several things. We need to look at life…
I. BEFORE CONVERSION
Notice, before conversion the Bible says that spiritually we were “dead in trespasses and sins.”
• Look at the word TRESPASSES, it means “to enter unlawfully upon the land of another”
• Spiritually God has laws about sin, that is, sin has a territory that God forbids us to enter.
And the Bibles say we have all ENTERED INTO THE TRESPASSES OF SIN.
Illus: We see signs on people’s property sometimes that say, “No Trespassing”. That simply means that as we are walking each day and come to that particular place in our walk where the sign is located, WE STOP THERE! If we go beyond that point we are trespassing.
Because of our trespassing we have all died spiritually.
That is, sinners are dead to spiritual matters!
Look at Ephesians 2:1, we read, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
If you tell a lost man that he is dead spiritually, he will tell you that he is not dead.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger was told that a lost man that he knew had died. Several months later, he was at a service station filling his car up with gas, and he saw this man that he was told was dead.
• He was totally shocked when he saw him and he said, “Bob, someone told me that you were dead!”
• Bob heatedly looked at him and said, “Well, I do not know who told you that, but I can assure you they are wrong!”
Physically he was not dead, but spiritually he was DEAD SPIRITUALLY!
But listen, a man can be alive PHYSICALLY and be dead SPIRITUALLY.
Ephesians 4:18 tells us, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Let me illustrate…
• We can talk to a lost man about the joy of the Lord and they have no idea what you are talking about!!!
• We can talk to a lost man about the peace of the Lord and they have no idea what you are talking about!!!
• We can talk to a lost man about as children of God we can have an intimate relationship with Christ and they have no idea what you are talking about.