OPENING IMAGE ILLUSTRATION: contrasting mountain peaks with passes; peaks enable you to enjoy the view of where you have been and where you are going, whereas passes give you mere glimpses of what may be ahead. “Year ends” are like passes to me.
How different are you now than you were the first Sunday of 2002?
How much about you is new from 02?
How different do you think you will be by the end of 03?
YOU WILL BE AS DIFFERENT AS YOU DETERMINE TO BE
ONE BASIC PURPOSE OF OUR CHURCH:
To be a positive, transforming agent in the lives of people
“To grow closer to Jesus Christ, and to each other.”
It is understood that you cannot get closer to Jesus unless you are in motion, unless you are willing to move. [spiritual entropy is actually a truth] You cannot grow closer to others by be ‘unmoveable’. You cannot get where you are going by staying where you are.
By the way, do you know where you are going?
WE SAY THE CHURCH IS IN THE BUSINESS OF TRANSFORMING, BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT GOD DOES…
GOD IS NOT OUT TO MAKE YOU BETTER, TO IMPROVE YOU. HE IS OUT TO COMPLETELY TRANSFORM YOU.
HE HAS TRANSFORMED OUR SPIRITS
Col 1:12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
HE IS TRANSFORMING OUR PERSONALITIES
Col 3:9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
HE WILL TRANSFORM OUR BODIES
1 Cor 15:51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—
Phil 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21
who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
The individuals who make up this church are fixed on a three- fold mission, tour guides who bring others to the One who can transform their spirit, be a living expression of God’s ability to transform our personalities culture-wide, and preparing for the day when our bodies will be transformed & re-fitted for eternity.
In every aspect of our existence, God is at work transforming us as individuals, and as a people; as a church. - That is the GOOD NEWS.
God has not just saved us then abandoned us.
God is in the process of transforming you. Not just the idea of from bad to good to better to best. Faith in Christ is not just some self-help system to ‘move you into excellence’. Christ does want to transform you, however, from wherever you are (bad, good, better, best) to whom He wants you to become.
Whoever you are and wherever you are, you are not ‘there’ yet, I am sure. The bible idea of TRANSFORMING is not simply change, nor is it just improvement. God is at work, re-creating who you are, re-programming how I think, re-defining what we value, why we do what we do. He is doing this so that we will be conformed to the image of His Son, the model and pattern.
(Rom 8:29 NIV) For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
GOD HAS AN ON-GOING DESIRE TO TRANSFORM US. Consider these famous scriptures…
(Rom 12:2 NIV) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
(Phil 1:4 NIV) In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
There are basically two methods that God uses to transform people …
From the inside, out
From the outside, in
NO TYPE OF CHANGE is friction free, and all types of transformation have as part & parcel uncomfortable aspects.
(2 Cor 4:8 NIV) We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.
INSIDE OUT TRANSFORMATION happens in those areas where you are willing to be adjusted, when you are open to something new, and when you are sensitive to His interests…
The story of Annanias in Damascus, or of Peter on the housetop before visiting Cornelius, Abram to Abraham
(I/O transformation may correct a ‘blind-spot’, like Peter’s, or may have to overcome some opposition in creating a new way of thinking)
OUTSIDE IN TRANSFORMATION happens in those areas where you are hiding, not open to change-
Saul or Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus
Luke 13:34 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 35 Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ’Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’"
READ JEREMIAH 29 FOR MORE INSIGHT ABOUT THE JEWS
The challenge with each way, INSIDE OUT or OUTSIDE IN is to choose that the experience will make a positive transformation, rather than a negative, or even a less valuable one.
ILLUSTRATION: a poll. Raise your hand if you…
Read in the bible (or heard in prayer) this past year, once or twice, about some way you should be different, and made an effective change from that interaction.
Had an experience this past year that made a significant change in the way you live? New spouse, child, house, illness, injury…
(One will likely see more folks poll for the event over the prayer. The event parallels the OUTSIDE-IN transformation)
Take a moment and jot down on your handout 3 of the ways (just a reminder for yourself, no details) about those ‘transformations’.
INSIDE OUT OUTSIDE IN
1.2.3. 1.2.3.
Some of the transformations we have experienced were by our own choices, some were thrust on us-some we gladly embraced, and some had all the welcome of a car wreck. Some come about from personal open times with God, others from events we do not understand. Either way, God is at work through them to ‘create good according to His good pleasure” (Romans 8:28)
I can look back at some of the OUTSIDE IN changes in my life and see that God was trying to get my attention beforehand from the INSIDE-OUT, but I was too dull to listen.
The opportunity of Hope with each way INSIDE OUT or OUTSIDE IN is to choose that the experience will result in a positive transformation, rather than a negative, or even a less valuable one.
The pressure of OUTSIDE IN TRANSFORMATION does not create character, but merely reveals my character. That type of transformation also proves out the true strength of my relationship to God.
(Job 13:15 KJV) Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
OUTSIDE IN TRANSFORMATIONS are most often applied in cases when the person, or the church, has been dull to hear God. They have, for whatever reason, chosen to ignore God’s calls via INSIDE-OUT transformation, or the have created another option of their own choosing. Rebellious, listless, dullness, etc.
Such was the case with the OT Israelites and their idols
(Prov 29:1 NIV) A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed [broken]--without remedy [option].
INSIDE OUT TRANSFORMATIONS are the most intimate, the most unseen to us, but the most obvious to God, AND the ones with the greater degree of choice. I/O Transformations carry with them the least amount of grief (preferred by this preacher at least 2:1 over the other way).
(Psa 51:17 NIV) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
NIV Psalm 34: 15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry; 16 the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. 17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. 18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
The hardest things to have successfully transformed are our favorites, the ones with which we are most comfortable. We take for granted that there are certain aspects of our lives about which we are sure God does not have a preference, or would not want to change.
THE LORD JESUS RESERVES THE RIGHT TO PUT HIS FINGER ON ANY ASPECT OF YOUR LIFE AND CHANGE IT.
In fact, it has been my experience that God usually starts with my ‘pets’ and works from there.
The most dangerous and difficult consideration to transformation in my life is my own way of thinking, my mental outlook.
2 Corinthians 3: 13 [Paul says] We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance (from visiting with God) was fading away. 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in [RELATIONSHIP WITH] Christ is it taken away. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Paul was saying that the veil dulling their understanding comes from their mental outlook, their mind-set.
We are transformed into His likeness by reflecting the Lord’s glory. The glory that is being reflected is not some brilliant radiance from a Moses like visitation, but the true glory of His authority and directorship in my life. My sensitivity and obedience not just to His Will, but his desires.
EPHESIANS 4: 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.
Who prefers INSIDE OUT to OUTSIDE IN transformation? Who here is willing to be transformed? Who here is willing to do what is necessary to be transformed?
GOD will work to transform you, even in areas of which you are unaware, as you spend time in searching, fasting, and prayer. That is why we I am navigating us into an area of searching, study, fasting, and prayer. I believe it is essential for us to come through this time if we are going to accomplish our purpose as a people and as a church.
