5/11/08 – Mother’s Day – What’s Old: What’s New
Mother’s Day
Is there anything that has more to do with TRANSFORMATIONS in life than being a mother?
Being a mother is all about a myriad of transformations – to herself, her family, her emotions, her passions, and her priorities. Carrying a child inside your womb is nothing more than life changing!
Being a mother is all about raising your children from the time they were young to be good and Godly men and women. Watching that process and nurturing it along can be amazing. Who would think that a baby would grow to become an adult by just looking at it!
Take for example this picture of Tyler:
Who would think that this could become this strapping young man you see here before you…
That’s really no surprise. Take a look at this picture of Rick: I apologize on Rick’s behalf the color didn’t transfer from his pictures to the power point so all of his pictures are in black and white?
It seems like just recently that I was headed off to college and my parents were worried especially my mom. I think my dad was a little worried to but all he could think about was “the fridge is finally going to have some food in it… but after that he was worried too.
The worry comes from understanding the world and its ways. Our children are innocent and naïve. They don’t understand the dangers in this old world and get sucked into its ways because of not understanding and also their own selfish desires.
Being a mother is about bringing your kids into the world and then helping them become God’s children. It involves helping them to break free from the old ways of the world and to learn the new ways of God. Parents they are not your kids they are yours to feed and nourish, yours to protect and influence, but it’s about raising them up into understanding that we are God’s kids.
That’s why today we are launching a six week study of Spiritual Transformations. We begin with a look at Ephesians 4:20 and 21.
Transformation through Jesus
20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.
Ephesians 4:20-21
Today I have prepared for you a six week study guide. Each week there are five two-page sessions for you to read and work through. 15 minutes a day will help you to start a process of spiritual transformation that you – and others in your life will be pleased to see!
To really have it take hold you will need to have a partner. Guys you’ll want to partner with another guy. Ladies, you’ll want to find another woman to meet with. Just plan to meet at a designated time and place once a week with someone who you can review your study booklet with and that you can talk with about the things you are learning. You’ll help them and it will help you.
In your bulletin today you’ll find a card. I’d like to ask you fill it out and to check off the appropriate boxes. I want to help you make this next six weeks the start of something truly exciting. A real, lasting, and powerful, spiritual transformation! Each Sunday during these six weeks Tyler and I are going to team teach the main lesson – Tyler will bring a young man’s perspective and I’ll bring the wisdom of an older and hopefully wiser man!
Are you ready? Let’s get started!
To Put off the Old Self
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
Ephesians 4:22
When we were looking at this scripture together this week I thought of a character the Lord of the Rings that went by the name of Gollum. Do you remember him? He was a hobbit that went bad because of his love of the ring….
Gollum didn’t become this creepy little guy suddenly. It happened over time, step by step. That is how transformation occurs. All his steps were done moving in the wrong direction.
Unlike Gollum-
If some of you are as old as Rick then you might remember… Back in the 1960’s, John Kennedy challenged us as a nation to go to the moon. There was a beginning and then a whole lot of steps. Some were tragic and hard. Death was even a part of the process. Yet, some were exciting. They all moved us to the point that eventually Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin stepped off the last rung of the ladder and put his foot onto the moon.
It happened in the summer of 1969.
Both Gollum’s descent into corruption and this journey to the moon took steps. The transformation into sin is gradual and destructive – but so is the transformation into the mind of Christ!
The key to spiritual transformation is the beginning. The next verse in Ephesians puts it this way.
To be Made new in the Attitude of the Mind
23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
Ephesians 4:23
Just as John Kennedy made a commitment we must make a commitment. There must be a time and place that we determine to follow Jesus and allow his Holy Spirit to guide us into the Father’s ways. It has always been so.
What we are talking about is a change of mind that leads to a change of life.
A Change of Mind
26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Galatians 3:26-27
It begins with your decision to follow Jesus. You seal that decision with your baptism into Christ.
Several years ago I spoke to a young man who was worried about being good enough to become a Christian. He was really struggling with the decision because he didn’t want to fail. I took him to Matthew 28:18-19 that we are familiar with as the Great Commission
The Great Commission
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
Matthew 28:19-20
Notice the order. Go; make disciples (become a follower); baptize them; teach them.
The beginning is a turning from the past with all its corruption and then a new birth into the family of God through a new relationship with the Father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. Then you begin to grow and change as the work of God – through his spirit is to transform you. Some of you need to make the initial decision. Some of you have made the decision but you need to be baptized into Jesus Christ – you need to become part of the family of God and to join his team.
When I was at Western Michigan University for a few years and I was very much a part of everything they were involved with I wore my WMU jersey proud. I was committed to the world and many of the distractions it offered me.
Shortly following my time there I began my walk with God, I was plugged into the first true community of believers and it felt great. As Soon as I understood the Gospel of Christ I wanted to get baptized and change teams, I wanted to switch Jerseys. I didn’t understand fully what I was getting my self into I hadn’t read all of this book, but I knew I didn’t want my old life anymore. The first thing I did was to go out and buy new t-shirts that simply had crosses on them; I wanted to show people I was now different. I hadn’t actually changed yet but it was the first step to me closing the old door and putting on the new. I didn’t know where I was going but I knew I wanted Jesus leading.
To Put on the new self
24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Falsehood must give way to truth telling. Anger the boils into sin must give way to rational communication and reconciliation – the same day. A thief must put off thievery and become a worker who gives from what he had done with his own hands. A slanderer and gossip must stop using words to hurt others and start becoming a person of encouragement and compassionate speech.
Ken Bailey is the name of young man who came to church after earning some $19,000 on the Alaska pipeline back in 1975. He had already earned $35k and spent it all on wild living on a previous trip to Alaska. Now he had come back again and he walked into church with his brother.
I remember thinking as he came in and sat on the back row, there is a guy who will never come to Jesus. He looked like Grizzly Adams – long scraggly beard, flannel lumberjack shirt and big honking boots.
When the invitation was given at the end of the message to accept the lord he ran down the aisle toward me. It was a small church and short aisle and he was more than a little scary! He came to accept Jesus. I asked him if he wanted to be baptized. He said, “What’s that?” I went to his house that afternoon and talked with him about his decision and he was baptized that night.
The next Sunday he came to church in a three piece suit and his beard was gone. No boots either! I didn’t recognize him! When I asked why he dressed up for church this Sunday he said that he wanted people to know that he had changed on the inside by cleaning up the outside.
That’s what we’re talking about – real transformation from the inside – to the outside!
If you want to change and not be the creepy Gollum dude… then you must start putting on a different way of living.
Think about it. What was Gollum’s problem? Gollum was a thief. He took what was not his – the ring – and kept it for himself; and finally it overtook and overpowered every aspect of his life. Now Frodo was different. He kept the ring for another purpose. He understood that it wasn’t his – that he was a steward of the ring. The ring in Lord of the rings is a symbol of the things in life that can be worshiped. It was a form of Idolatry. Frodo too struggled on his journey with this ring but ultimately he took enough steps in the right direction that he was able to finally return it.
Today we are at step 1 of a six week journey that I pray will be fruitful for the rest of our lives. We need to decide if we are going to continue to live with deceit, bitter, selfish, and personal struggle. I make new years resolutions that I don’t ever even start!
We are not strong enough to conquer all of this on our own, and you are not supposed to be able to. We need to be transformed into this Frodo like ways putting aside our selves to put on a new self in Christ Jesus. Church hear me… God wants to work in your life- are you going to let him? Put off the old and put on the new.
Spiritual Transformations
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24
You must make a Commitment to Jesus Christ
Stopping bad behavior is not enough
Failure to be transformed is how we grieve the Holy Spirit.
The same way a child that fails to thrive grieves a mother. Imagine the pain of a mother who has to watch her son be sentenced by a judge in court for a crime he admits that he committed. Think of the pain that it causes her to know that her child has become so adept in the worldly ways of sin that he is condemned to life in prison or to death.
Putting on kind and compassionate behavior toward others is the only appropriate response to our own forgiveness in life.
CLOSE:
Prayer – Mothers come forward. Gather in small groups. If you have grown children seek out one of the younger mothers and huddle up as I lead you in prayer this morning.
While the mothers come. Let me remind you to fill out the card in the bulletin. Let me challenge you today to make today the beginning of a life of transforming power in you.
Let’s pray…
