A life of transformation
Jeremiah 18:1-4
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Introduction-
Last week we looked at having amazing faith.
Jesus marveled at faith.
He marveled at Israel’s lack of faith, continuing to walk away from God .
He marveled at the faith of the centurion.
Which one do you want Jesus to marvel in your life?
We saw that faith was taking God at His word, trusting in His promises and applying them to our lives.
Faith has to believe when it seems impossible, and faith has to believe when you cannot see it.
We will never see God do what He desires to do in our power and strength.
That is why I kicked off this message from Jeremiah… God took Jeremiah, a young person with a heart for God and wants to teach him something.
He wants to teach us something also.
Jeremiah 18:1-4
He says to Jeremiah- (paraphrased this morning), go down to the potters house and I’ll show you how this works.
(3) “So I went down to the potters house (obedient) and I saw him working at the wheel, but the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to Him.”
Did you catch that?
God is the potter
We are the clay
If God doesn’t like the shape we are in, we give him permission to shape us as he seems best.
The question this morning is- Will you allow Him to be the potter or shaper of your life?
Or are you going to get off the wheel and do things your own way? (That is what most do)
Exactly, how do you surrender everything to Jesus?
How do we learn to give things to Him freely, without fear?
How can a person live in His presence daily?
Song:
All to Jesus I surrender
All to Him, I freely give.
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.
That is a great song, but there is a far cry from singing the song and living the life.
Growing up I struggled between the two.
Surrendering to God and whatever that meant, and freely trusting God to do what was needed in my life.
I knew there had to be more, but I was missing something somewhere.
We often think that becoming like Christ should happen easily and quickly.
When Jesus talked about people becoming disciples, nowhere did He talk about easy.
There is a tension that exists between who we are compared to who we want to be in Christ (repeat)
We cannot find the narrow road without looking for it.
We cannot get through the eye of a needle or pick up our cross by accident.
It requires a decision and it is intentional.
This is where the transformation comes in- we are giving God space to work in our lives.
One pastor said- “If we want to be God’s workmanship, we need to spend time in the workshop.”
Apostle Paul to the Romans said “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Nowhere in the Scriptures does it tell us to transform ourselves.
We are to allow ourselves to be transformed by God.
Spiritual formation is a Christian buz word about positioning ourselves to be transformed by God into the image of Christ.
Transformation by definition- is an act or process of being transformed. An operation that converts.
God takes us as we are, we cannot earn salvation, but desires to change us into the image of Christ.
Hymns of the lukewarm Christian. (listen closely)
Oh, how I like Jesus
Take my life and let me be.
When the saints go sneaking in.
Greek word for transformation is Metamorphoo- (Met- a- mor- phoo) meaning to change into another form.
When we submit to God’s power- we are changed !
Illustration-(Sermoncentral)
THREE DOLLARS WORTH OF GOD
Man says:
I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of Him to make me love people I don’t know. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please.
We are no longer plastic Christians, but become the real thing!
Unless God does it, it is superficial and probably won’t last long.
God has not saved us to abandon us.
There are 2 methods that God uses for transformation
Inside out
Outside in
We are really good at changing the outside, but God needs to do the work on the inside.
I have a 40 year friend with me today from Wisconsin, and he can attest to the power of transformation. God is not done with me, but for sure I am not where I use to be.
God is the master potter of inside out as well as outside in.
(1)God wants to change us, (2)God has the power to change us
2 Corinthians 5:17-
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come!”
We have several getting baptized next week. Down in the water , the old way, out of the water signifying the new creation in Christ.
Paul says-
“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
You know what a rut is? It is a grave with the sides kicked out.
All right!
How do we put ourselves in a position for God to do it?
Embrace the need for change. (settle that between you and the Lord)
Desire change to take place.
Determine to submit to God as He makes the change.
Illustration (Sermoncentral)
• A Wise Mother And Christ’s Picture
A mother visited her boy at college. Upon entering his room, her eye swept across the walls, which were covered with more than a dozen suggestive pictures. Her heart was grieved, but she said nothing.
Several days later, the mailman delivered a package to the young man. It was a gift from his mother—a beautifully framed picture of the head of Christ.
Proudly the boy hung the picture on the wall above his desk. That night, before he went to bed, he removed the pin-up picture which hung closest to the face of Christ. The next day another picture was consigned to the wastebasket. Day after day the pictures began to disappear from the walls until only one remained—the picture of the Saviour.
That’s a tremendous example of the incredible work that God wants to do in your life. Will you let that transformation begin this morning? I pray that you will.
Beliefs determine behavior. That is why we cannot fool God. We can fool others, but not God.
Slowing down but not done,
There is a risk involved with giving God permission to work in your life. You give up your right to control it.
There is a direct connection between what we initiate with faith and how God responds with His supernatural power. (repeat)
Illustration
Remember the disciples in the boat in a storm crossing the Sea of Galilee. Suddenly they see Jesus walking on the waves, they thought He was a ghost. Jesus says, it is I, do not be afraid. Peter gets the idea- lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water, so Jesus said come, and when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to Jesus!
That was a risk! But then Peter experienced the miracle. Not anyone else in that boat!
They want to judge Peter for lack of faith and sinking, but I commend him.
For getting out of the boat in the first place.
When the residents of Nazareth didn’t have faith in Jesus despite his miracles. Jesus marveled at their unbelief.
Why did He marvel?
Because they clung to their unbelief in the face of overwhelming evidence against it.
Closing
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
The righteousness of God is in Jesus Christ- Transformation of our lives to the image of Christ is in Jesus Christ.
Illustration (Sermoncentral)
Paul said spiritual metamorphosis is accomplished “by the renewing of your mind.” The word “renewing” also means renovation. Think of a house.
You can make repairs. You know, the cosmetic kind – some paint and carpet – and it looks better, perhaps increases the resale value.
But Paul isn’t talking about repairing our minds. That may cover up some ugly defects for awhile, but it isn’t going to lead to transformation.
You can restore a house to its original historic condition. You take out carpet and refinish the original wood floors. You find windows, doors, woodwork and hardware in good condition from the period the house was built and install those to reverse someone else’s “modernizations”.
But Paul isn’t talking about restoring our minds to their original condition. We were born sinners and did not have the mind of God so what is there to restore?
Paul is talking about a complete renovation. This is not about cosmetic repairs or restoration. It’s like taking a house and completely gutting it. Walls, floors, wiring, plumbing, cabinets, bath and kitchen fixtures, roof – it’s all completely new. Anyone who’d seen the house in its previous condition wouldn’t recognize it now.
That’s what needs to take place in us according to Romans 12:2. Paul said something similar to the Ephesians; “Throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through… Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal [renovation] of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s
There is a new way to be a new you! Allow the Lord to do the transformation that is needed in your life.
The Lord has the right to put his finger on any aspect of your life and change it!
Positive change is a decision- between you and God. It is not automatic- It is not forced upon you.
You can go from no hope to hope in an instant!
It is not easy to confront our failures, our disappointments, our pain. Reality check, to hope is scary and the thought that we could start again seems far fetched.
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
