“Transformers”
Pt. 2 – The Body
Last week I started talking to you about the need that we have to be transformed. As bad as we hate change and fight change there must be change in order for us to mature in our walk with Jesus. I stated to you that I believe the most crucial and critical element of change is that which must take place in our mind. We must change the way we think. What we think about. How we think about ourselves. How we think about others. And how we think about church. All change must begin in our mind. If we do not allow Christ to change our mind all other change will be short lived. It is the starting place. However, the change cannot stop there. It must go further than that. So the second area that I believe we need radical change in is in our body.
Paul, in writing to his spiritual son, Timothy, reveals to us the need for a transformation of our body. Paul makes it very clear that in order for us to become what God desires for us to become we must change the way handle our bodies.
TEXT: II Timothy 2:20-26
20Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some unto honor, and some unto dishonor. 21If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, meet for the master’s use, prepared unto every good work. 22But flee youthful lusts, and follow after righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 23But foolish and ignorant questionings refuse, knowing that they gender strifes. 24And the Lord’s servant must not strive, but be gentle towards all, apt to teach, forbearing, 25in meekness correcting them that oppose themselves; if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth, 26and they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him unto his will.
20In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. 21Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.
Paul teaches us three things in this passage of Scripture.
1. Both vessels are in the house.
This is not a lesson for non-Christians. This lesson concerning the use of our vessel is a lesson for Christians. When he makes the statement that there are vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor in the house he is not comparing Christians and non-Christians. He is dealing with Christians.
2. There are two types of Christians.
There are Christians who have become vessels of honor and some who have become vessels of dishonor. What makes us one or the other? What determines if we are a vessel of honor or dishonor? According to Paul the difference is determined by how we choose to use or handle our vessel.
When God looks at us and examines how we handle our vessel some of us look like gold/silver and some of us look like Styrofoam.
3. How we use our bodies.
Paul clearly states that how we choose to use our body determines how we will be used by God. It is when we choose to become a vessel of honor that we are fit for every good work. But you can read what is not stated and realize that if we choose not to handle our vessel correctly and cleanly then we are unfit for use.
In other words, some of you are wondering why God isn’t using you and why he is using someone else.
It is all based on our vessel. God is willing to use those who have a clean and a pure vessel.
If you have guests over you will pull out the fine china. When you have a special occasion you will use the special vessel. That is in essence the whole idea of sanctification. We allow God to purify us so that our vessel is pure and prepared so that we can be used.
You forfeit being used if your vessel is a vessel of dishonor. Just like you won’t put dirty dishes out for guests, God won’t put a dirty vessel out there to be used. He requires holiness and purity.
B. How To Become A Vessel Of Honor
So how do we handle our body in a manner that will cause us to be deemed a vessel of honor fit for service?
1. We must make a conscious choice to be pure.
2 Timothy 2:21 – Puts the emphasis on us. If a man purges himself. A man must choose to purge himself and become pure. We must choose on a daily basis to become a vessel of honor. We must choose on a daily basis to not sin. It doesn’t happen by accident or by chance.
According to Paul it only occurs as we beat our body into submission. He said it like this in I Corinthians 9:27:
27But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
It isn’t an easy choice. It isn’t an easy task, but it is our task and it is not optional.
Paul admonishes us in Romans 12:1 we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice that is wholly acceptable to our Lord. We must make sure that our bodies are acceptable which means that we change the way we use them.
Paul says to beat our bodies into subjections – Going to use a nasty, dirty word - discipline. That seems to be have become a dirty word now. However, we have no disciples because we have no discipline. We must become disciplined in how we use our body.
2. Use/handle our body differently.
a. Feet – 2 Timothy 2:22
We are to flee and get away from temptation. It seems to me that we have forgotten that we are commanded in 1 Thessalonians 5:22 to actually flee every appearance of evil. Not only are we not supposed to do evil we are supposed to flee the very appearance of evil. We have to do everything we can to make sure our witness is safe.
We are to run away rather than running toward, hanging out with, or seeing how close we can come to the edge without falling off. We walk away rather than purchase a ticket and stand in line waiting on the thing that will trash up our vessel. The way to have a pure vessel in God’s eyes is to stay away from the filth.
David had to deal with his feet. He says in Psalms 119:59, 59I thought on my ways, And turned my feet unto thy testimonies.
Or in the Message Bible, “59When I took a long, careful look at your ways, I got my feet back on the trail you blazed.
Where are your feet taking you? Are your feet causing you to stumble? Are they causing others to stumble? Transform how you use your feet!
b. Mouth – 2 Timothy 2:23
Refrain from arguments. That is a new concept for some of us. We are to use our mouth to be gentle. Have we forgotten that a soft answer turns away wrath. Have we forgotten that the tongue is a powerful weapon. In the tongue resides the power of life and death. We are to use our mouth to teach. Our mouth should become an instrument of instruction rather than an instrument of destruction. Our mouth should not be used to retaliate when wronged. Paul commands us to be patient when wronged.
I am challenging you to be transformed in your mouth. Here is a novel idea. Think before you speak. Stop just a moment and ask yourself this question. Is what the thing that is about to come out of my mouth going to help me be a vessel of honor or dishonor? Am I causing pain with my mouth? It is not enough to use your mouth on Sundays to praise if on Mondays you use the same mouth to argue, curse, cut. Can sweet water and bitter water come out of the same well? Transform your mouth. Some of us just need a good old mouth washing. Remember that when moms would get a bar of soap and wash our your mouth. It was nasty, tasted bad but it worked. It changed how you talked. God desires to wash out our mouth!
c. Hands –
Paul deals with hands in an earlier writing to Timothy. He tells Timothy in I Timothy 2 that he wants us to be able to lift holy hand before the Lord. Who can approach God? Those with clean hands and a pure heart.
The way we use our hands must change. What we touch should change. How we touch should change. Our hands should be agents of rescue. They should be used to reach down for those who have fallen. Pulling people up, not putting them down.
In Isaiah 58 God very specifically speaks to us about how we should be using our hands. He says,
“7What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. 8Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The GOD of glory will secure your passage. 9Then when you pray, GOD will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’ (DID YOU GET THAT? HOW YOU USE YOUR HANDS DETERMINES WHETHER OR NOT GOD ANSWERS OUR PRAYERS!) “If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins,10If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. (I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU BUT I WANT A LIFE THAT GLOWS IN THE DARK!)
How are you using your hands? What are you touching? Who are you touching? Maybe the question for you is who are you not touching?
Finally I want to remind you of two passages of Scripture that address how we use our bodies.
The first is I Thessalonians 4:3 -8:
3God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity. 4Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, (KJV - every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;) 5not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God. 6Don’t run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters. Their concerns are God’s concerns, and he will take care of them. We’ve warned you about this before. 7God hasn’t invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful—as beautiful on the inside as the outside. 8If you disregard this advice, you’re not offending your neighbors; you’re rejecting God, who is making you a gift of his Holy Spirit.
II Corinthians 6:19 – 20:
19Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. 20God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.
God desires us to handle our bodies in a sanctified and honorable manner. When we learn to use our body in this manner, when we flee temptation, when we refuse to argue, answer in gentleness, teach, and when we use our hands to help rather than hurt we will become a vessel that can be used for special purposes. We must allow transformation to overtake not only our minds but our bodies as well.
