I'm A Transformer And I'm More Than Meets The Eye

Introduction:

I remember when I was at the Clifton Park Junior High School on Hartford Road, there was a cartoon out by the name of Transformers. Its theme song was Transformers, more than meets the eye. Transformers, robots in disguise.

Little did I realize that there was going to be a remake of the old transformers cartoon into a movie more than 40 years later. Going back in the history of my life, when I use to sing the theme song of Transformers, I was really setting the stage for the religious realm in my own life. Putting a footnote on that thought, that brings me to my first of two points.

Development

Point Number One: Don’t Become a Clone of This World

When we talk about becoming a clone, it means that you are emulating or taking on the same characteristics as someone or something. As you emulate something you become more and more of that person or thing and it gets to a point that you begin to look like that person or thing.

The Bible calls emulating conforming. When we emulate we conform to what others do, we conform to what others say, and we conform to what others think. We as believers in Jesus the Christ should not conform to anything or anyone in this world.

Let me break this thing down a bit. The Greek word for conformed is suschematizo ( sus – chem – a- tee – zoo) which comes form the root word schema which means fashion, the outward appearance of a man/woman.

This appearance does not stay the same. It changes from day to day and from year to year. For an example, the way I dress for church (before a bring the Word) is totally different than how I dress for work. I would look like a fool walking around in a school with my priestly garments on. Priestly attire is for specific situations and not for everyday casual wear.

A man looks different as a young man than he does as an older man. A woman looks different as a young woman than she does as an older woman. The schema (the fashion, the outward appearance) is different because age has marched across their lives. As Bishop Walter Scott Thomas of the New Psalmist Baptist Church used to say, Beauty fades away but ugliness holds its own.”

What he was saying is that as we age our bodies no longer look the same, as they were when we were young. We don’t even feel the same way. As we get older, our bodies change as well.

We as believers in Jesus the Christ are not to emulate or conform to this world. But one thing about the appearance of this world:

1.) Is that it seems to be lasting, permanent, and unending.

2.) It seems to offer the very best of everything such as pleasure, enjoyment, happiness, fulfillment, satisfaction, and completeness.

But my brothers and my sisters, I hate to burst your bubble, but the fashions that the world poses, and the appearance that it shows is nothing but a lie, a mask, and a masquerade. Even the very spirit of the world within has with in it the seed of corruption.

We see this seed of corruption in this world by the way people are acting.

We see selfishness. We see greed, we see hatred, we see bitterness, we see ungodliness, we see war, we see deceitfulness, we see sickness, we see death, we see pride, we see cursing, and we even see homosexuality.

And the list goes on. But there are two facts that we as believers and the world as we know it should heed.

1.) The world itself and everything in it is going to pass away. 2 Corinthians 4:18 says, So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2.) The believer is not to conform or emulate, or fashion himself after this world.

We are not to follow the fellowship of this world. 2 Corinthians 6:17-18 says, Therefore come out from them and be separate says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

We are not to follow the fashions and lusts of this world (1 John 2:15-16).

We are not to follow the course of this world (Ephes. 2:2).

We are not to follow the leaders of this world (1 Corinthians 2:6-8).

We are not to follow the false security of this world (Matt. 24:38-39).

We are not to follow after deceitful riches of this world (Matt. 13:22).

We are not to follow the crowd of this world (Exodus 23:2).