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).
We are not to live in pleasure in this world (James 5:5).
In other words we must live holy for Jesus the Christ. Leviticus 11:45 says, I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
Point Number Two: Thank God I’ve Been Transformed
If we are saved and sanctified, then we have been transformed. We are all Transformers and there is more than meets the eye.
Well preacher I’m not following you. How am I a Transformer, and how is it that I am more than meets the eye?
My dear brothers and my sisters, I’m glad you asked. I’ve got to keep this thing real.
Well before we came to Jesus the Christ:
Our minds had become carnal and full of enmity against God.
Before we came to Jesus the Christ Satan had blinded our minds so we really did not believe the glorious gospel of Jesus the Christ.
Before we came to Jesus the Christ our minds had become full of vanity, futility, and emptiness.
Before we came to Jesus the Christ our minds had become focused on earthly things.
Before we came to Jesus the Christ our minds had become the fornicators of the flesh by means of pornography and the actual act.
Before we came to Jesus the Christ our minds had become defiled.
But thanks be to God, there was a Savior that came into our lives. Our minds became renewed/transformed by the image and the presence of the living God, Jesus the Christ. This only happens in the life of the believer. We as believers are now spiritual.
We as believers are spiritually born again (John 3:3-8; 1 Peter 1:23).
We as believers are spiritually made into a new man (Ephes. 4:24; Col. 3:10)
We as believers are spiritually made into a new creature (2 Cor.5:17).
§ We as believers are spiritually given the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).
We as believers are spiritually changed into the image of Jesus the Christ (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:49; Col. 3:10; 1 John 3:2)
Since were have been transformed, we are to Love the Lord with our entire mind.
Since were have been transformed, we are to keep our minds on spiritual things and not carnal things.
Since were have been transformed, we are Not to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
Since were have been transformed, we are not to let our minds be corrupted.
Since were have been transformed, we are to Get rid of all imaginations and thought that interrupt the knowledge of God and to focus every thought on Jesus the Christ.
Since were have been transformed, we are not to walk as the world walks in the vanity of the mind.
Since were have been transformed, we are to live by the laws of God that He has put into our minds.
Conclusion:
Just before I take my seat, I just want to think back to when I was not transformed. Come on now, let’s just keep this thing real and be honest. We all were just like the world. Just take a moment and look back into the history of our lives and see how God has transformed us.
Because we have been transformed, God has remade us. God has created in us a clean heart and has renewed the right spirit within us.
Because we have been transformed, some of us up in here can say, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.
Because we have been transformed, we can say I can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
Because we have been transformed, we can walk with pride in the Lord.
Because we have been transformed, we can sing the song “Because He Lives, I Can Face Tomorrow.
Because we have been transformed, we can say I’m Standing On The Promises Of Christ The Lord.
Because we have been transformed, we can say As For Me And My House We Will Serve The Lord.
The reason you can stand and say these things, is because Jesus the Christ dropped the charges. He paid the debt.
He took that walk down the road of Golgotha, to the Hill of the Skull better known as Calvary. They drove three nails into His body. The nail that was driven into His left hand represented the Father, the nail driven into His right hand represented Himself, and the nail driven into His feet represented the Holy Ghost which was soon to come.
They hung Him hung and stretched Him wide. He hung there between two thieves. The thief on the left had an unrepentative spirit. He mocked Jesus and refused to believe.
However, the thief on the right had a spirit of repentance. The thief on the right repented of his sins to Jesus on that old rugged cross, and on that day He was with Jesus in paradise.
Jesus soon gave up the Ghost. But just as He had promised, He said that He would tear the temple down and rebuilt it in on the third day. Just as He promised, early Sunday morning Jesus got up from the grave with all power in His hands. AMEN. AMEN.
