Speaker 1: The further away you get from God, the more trouble
Speaker 1: you're going to have in your life, the more trials,
Speaker 1: the more difficulties, the more stress, the more things are
Speaker 1: going to go wrong because you're not cooperating with your creator.
Speaker 1: You're not following God's plan for your life. And the
Speaker 1: Bible says, the way of the unrighteous is rough, it's
Speaker 1: full of thorns, it's difficult, it's a rocky, rocky road.
Speaker 1: The further I get away from God, the more trouble
Speaker 1: I'm going to have in my life. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: the closer I get to God, the more my life
Speaker 1: is going to be transformed. And we can see this
Speaker 1: all through the scripture that Paul, when he finally met
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ face to face, he was radically transformed from
Speaker 1: a literally a terrorist, he was a religious terrorist, into
Speaker 1: the apostle of Love, who wrote the most beautiful poem
Speaker 1: on love ever written or penned by men. Was transformed
Speaker 1: from a depressed person into a courageous person when he
Speaker 1: met God. When he got close to God, Moses got
Speaker 1: so close to God the Bible says he was even
Speaker 1: transformed in his appearance, and people had to even look
Speaker 1: away from him. He almost like glowed, and he got
Speaker 1: so close to God that God is light, and in
Speaker 1: him is there are no darkness at all. He was
Speaker 1: literally physically transformed. Now, we all want to be close
Speaker 1: to God, but the Bible says, all we, like sheep,
Speaker 1: have gone astray. We've each turned into our own way.
Speaker 1: In other words, like sheep, we tend to wander. You
Speaker 1: don't have to teach sheep to drift off. They just
Speaker 1: do it naturally by their very nature. They just kind
Speaker 1: of wander off when the shepherd has to bring him
Speaker 1: back in, and they'll walk off a cliff, and you know,
Speaker 1: sheep aren't really that bright an animal. They'll walk into
Speaker 1: a den of wolves, and in all kinds of difficult
Speaker 1: and dangerous situations. Sheep tend to wander in. The Bible
Speaker 1: says all we, you and me, like sheep, tend to
Speaker 1: go astray. We don't tend to stay close to God.
Speaker 1: We tend to wander off. How do you get close
Speaker 1: to God? How do you stay close to God? And
Speaker 1: if you've fallen away from God, how do you get
Speaker 1: back in that close relationship to God? Some of you
Speaker 1: you can point to a time in your life and
Speaker 1: you go man. I remember when I was really I
Speaker 1: felt God's presence. I was close to God. I could
Speaker 1: sense his friendship, I could sense the fellowship, and there
Speaker 1: was a joy in my life. But I've lost that.
Speaker 1: You know. It's kind of it's like you let the
Speaker 1: air out of a balloon. How do I get back
Speaker 1: to God if I've kind of wandered away, if kind
Speaker 1: of lost the spark, Because if I'm not close to God,
Speaker 1: I don't have the power to make all the other transformations. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: we have a story in the Bible on how to
Speaker 1: get back to God and how to get close to
Speaker 1: the Father. It's one of the most famous stories in
Speaker 1: the entire Bible. Jesus told that it's the story of
Speaker 1: the prodigal Son, or sometimes it's called the story of
Speaker 1: the Loving Father, because it's really more about the Father
Speaker 1: than is about the son. And that story is in Luke,
Speaker 1: chapter fifteen. Let me read you the story, and then
Speaker 1: we'll pull some principles out of it on how to
Speaker 1: transform your life spiritually Luke fifteen, verses eleven to twenty four.
Speaker 1: Jesus told this story. A man had two sons, and
Speaker 1: the younger son told his father, give me my share
Speaker 1: of your estate now, instead of waiting till you die.
Speaker 1: So the father divided his wealth between his two sons.
Speaker 1: A few days later, the younger son packed all his
Speaker 1: belongings and left to live in a distant land. See,
Speaker 1: he's already getting away from the father. He's getting distant
Speaker 1: from the father. And he got as far away, basically
Speaker 1: as far away from the father as he could. He
Speaker 1: goes to a distant land, and there he squandered the
Speaker 1: gift he'd been given. And we've all done that, and
Speaker 1: he wasted his life and money on wild parties and
Speaker 1: reckless living. Now, about the time all his money ran out,
Speaker 1: a se fear of famine hit the land, and he
Speaker 1: began to starve because he was left with nothing. Now
Speaker 1: he's getting hungry now. The only job he could find
Speaker 1: was feeding swine on a farm, and he became so desperate,
Speaker 1: so hungry that even the pig slop he was feeding
Speaker 1: the swine looked good to him. That no one would
Speaker 1: give him anything for his hunger. When he finally came
Speaker 1: to a census, he said to himself, this is crazy.
Speaker 1: At my father's home, even the lowest paid workers eat well. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm over here far away dying of hunger. So he goes,
Speaker 1: I know what I'm gonna do. He says, I'm going
Speaker 1: to re turn home to my father and humbly say, father,
Speaker 1: i have sinned both against God and you, and I'm
Speaker 1: not worthy to be a part of the family or
Speaker 1: called your son. But please just make me one of
Speaker 1: your servants who works for you. So I'm not even
Speaker 1: gonna be a family member. Just hire me out as
Speaker 1: a servant. Make me one of your servants who works
Speaker 1: for you. And with that attitude, he headed back home
Speaker 1: to his father. But while the son was still a
Speaker 1: long distance away, he hadn't got all the way back home.
Speaker 1: His father saw him coming, and filled with love and compassion,
Speaker 1: he ran out to his son, threw his arms around
Speaker 1: him and kissed him. The son said, no, he's got
Speaker 1: his prepared speech. Father, I have sinned against both God
Speaker 1: and you, and I'm no longer worthy of being called
Speaker 1: your son. But the father said to his servants, quick,
Speaker 1: bring me the fine robe in our house and put
Speaker 1: it on him. Then get my signet ring for his finger,
Speaker 1: and shoes for his feet, and then roast the calf
Speaker 1: that we've been fattening up. We're gonna celebrate with a
Speaker 1: feast of eating and drinking. For this child of mine
Speaker 1: was distant and dead, but now he's back and alive.
Speaker 1: He was lost, but now he's found. And so the
Speaker 1: party began. Don't you love that story? Don't you just
Speaker 1: love that? Yeah, you can clap for the story. That's
Speaker 1: for Jesus. That's an incredible, incredible story, and it tells
Speaker 1: the story of how every one of us tends to
Speaker 1: wander away from our creator, wander away from the father
Speaker 1: who made us, wander away from the God who loves us.
Speaker 1: This kid starts off staying, God, our dad or father,
Speaker 1: I want you to give me much rightfully mine. It's
Speaker 1: all about me, give me my. It's a very self
Speaker 1: centered life. And that's where we usually start in life.
Speaker 1: Give me my, God, give me my. I want mine now.
Speaker 1: And we're by the way. We're in a hurry, and
Speaker 1: I want it and I want it now, and if
Speaker 1: I can't pay for it, I'll put it on credit.
Speaker 1: And so we're always in a hurry. Give me mine now.
Speaker 1: And so he takes off and he packs up, and
Speaker 1: he heads off for Sunset Strip in Jerusalem, and there
Speaker 1: he wastes his money and his time and his energy
Speaker 1: on wine, women and song, particularly women, and he really
Speaker 1: gets mets up and he hits the skids and he
Speaker 1: becomes homeless. And then on top of that, the nation
Speaker 1: goes into a national recession because there's a famine in
Speaker 1: the land, and now nobody has anything to eat, So
Speaker 1: nobody's gonna give a panhandler or a street guiding to
Speaker 1: eat because they don't have anything to eat. And then
Speaker 1: he can't even find a job. Things go from bad
Speaker 1: to worse. Finally finds a farm where he hires himself
Speaker 1: out to do the worst job on the farm, slopping pigs.
Speaker 1: Now for a jew that's not a good thing. That's
Speaker 1: not kosher, because you're not even supposed to touch a pig. Okay,
Speaker 1: you're not even supposed to have anything to do with pork.
Speaker 1: He gets the worst job a Jewish kid could get,
Speaker 1: slopping pigs, and he gets so hungry and he gets
Speaker 1: so desperate. He's going, man, this stuff looks good. You
Speaker 1: gotta be serious, seriously desperate if you think pigslop looks good.
Speaker 1: And it says nobody gave him anything. And then it
Speaker 1: says he wises up, and it says he came to
Speaker 1: his senses and he goes, shoot the servants, the poorest
Speaker 1: paid guys in my dad's employment eat better than this.
Speaker 1: What in the world am I doing? Now? He knows
Speaker 1: he doesn't deserve his father's love. He knows he doesn't
Speaker 1: deserve he's just wasted half of his dad's inheritance, all
Speaker 1: that his dad's burned his entire life working to earn.
Speaker 1: And he goes, I know what I'm gonna do. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna go home and ask God to or asking
Speaker 1: the father to just accept me back in the family.
Speaker 1: I'm just go home and say, look, hire me. I'd
Speaker 1: rather be a servant in your house than be over
Speaker 1: here in a distant country, starving to death. And you
Speaker 1: know the rest of the story. As we saw the
Speaker 1: father's response. Now from this story we gain the four
Speaker 1: things you need to do to get back to God. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't know where you are today. You may be
Speaker 1: way way way way way way way way way far away.
Speaker 1: Maybe I haven't been in church in years and years
Speaker 1: and years, or maybe you are a little bit closer,
Speaker 1: or maybe you're a little bit closer, but maybe even
Speaker 1: you've just been distant for a week and you've had
Speaker 1: one of those weeks and you just thought, you know,
Speaker 1: I really don't feel God's presence in my life, and
Speaker 1: yet we all long to be close to God. How
Speaker 1: do I get back to him? You do these four things.
Speaker 1: This is the pathway back to spiritual transformation. Number one.
Speaker 1: I get fed up. That's the first. I get fed
Speaker 1: up with my life. I get fed up with my circumstance.
Speaker 1: I get fed up with the way I've been living.
Speaker 1: I just get sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Speaker 1: I am not gonna live this way anymore. I am
Speaker 1: too stressed out, I'm too lonely, I'm too depressed. I
Speaker 1: am overworked and busy, and I don't even like myself.
Speaker 1: Why would anybody like me? I don't even like me.
Speaker 1: I don't like the life I'm living right now. Now.
Speaker 1: Let me just say this, Nothing is going to happen
Speaker 1: in your life until first you get disad with the
Speaker 1: way you are. Nothing's going to happen in your life
Speaker 1: until you decide I don't like this. I'm tired of
Speaker 1: being stressed out all the time. I'm tired of being
Speaker 1: frustrated all the time. I'm tired of being overworked all
Speaker 1: the time. I'm tired of feeling distant from God. You
Speaker 1: gotta get desperate, you gotta get hungry, you've got to
Speaker 1: get anxious for change. Nothing happens until you get fed up.
Speaker 1: In that passage in scripture, it says this, he wasted
Speaker 1: it all, he had nothing left. He got desperate and hungry,
Speaker 1: and he finally came to his senses. And that's where
Speaker 1: transformation starts. Are you there yet? If not, it's okay,
Speaker 1: God I'll just leave. Let you stay there, and he'll
Speaker 1: allow a little rain in your life. And if that
Speaker 1: doesn't work, he'll allow a little bit more in your life.
Speaker 1: And if that doesn't work, he'll send the storm. Why
Speaker 1: because God loves you just the way you are, But
Speaker 1: He loves you too much to let you stay that way.
Speaker 1: He will not let you waste your life. And when God,
Speaker 1: you know, wants to come and get our attention, he comes,
Speaker 1: and he he knocks on the door, And if we ignored,
Speaker 1: he just knocks on the door again. And then if
Speaker 1: he we ignored, he knocks on the door again, and
Speaker 1: if we ignored, he blows the door down. Some of
Speaker 1: you have had the door blown down in your life.
Speaker 1: And you've lost your job, or you lost your marriage,
Speaker 1: or you lost a friend, you lost something. Why Because
Speaker 1: God does everything he does in your life out of love.
Speaker 1: He does not want you to miss him, and he
Speaker 1: does not want you to waste your life. You know
Speaker 1: the old phrase, you can lead a horse to water,
Speaker 1: but you can't make him drink, but you can salt
Speaker 1: his oats make him thirsty. God often makes you thirsty
Speaker 1: by putting salt in your oats. And when you start saying,
Speaker 1: I'm just so unsatisfied with my life, I just don't
Speaker 1: like the way I'm living. I don't like this. Hello,
Speaker 1: that's God knocking on your door. The first step in
Speaker 1: transformation is for you to get disgusted, to get discontent,
Speaker 1: to get fed up with the way you're living. Jeremiah
Speaker 1: twenty nine, verse thirteen says this. God says, you will
Speaker 1: find me when you get serious about finding me, and
Speaker 1: you want it more than anything else. See, God's not
Speaker 1: gonna reveal himself if I just kind of want to
Speaker 1: do it on the casual it's kind of a part
Speaker 1: time hobby. I gotta get fed up with the way
Speaker 1: I'm living. Say, there's gotta be more to life than this.
Speaker 1: There's got to be a better way to live than this.
Speaker 1: There's got to be asaner way to live than this.
Speaker 1: You get fed up. Second step. You own up first,
Speaker 1: I get fed up. Second, I own up. I own
Speaker 1: up to my own sin. I own up to my
Speaker 1: own sin. That's the second thing that this young man did.
Speaker 1: He goes, this is nuts, this is nonsense, this is crazy.
Speaker 1: I can't maintain this lifestyle I've been living right now.
Speaker 1: It's just not sustainable. It's not fulfilling, and it's not sustainable.
Speaker 1: When he came to his senses, and that is you know,
Speaker 1: he wakes up. You see, to live without God is insane.
Speaker 1: To live without God does not make sense. To live
Speaker 1: without God is not rational. To live without the creator
Speaker 1: who made you is not logical. It doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: When he came to his senses, he said, I have
Speaker 1: sinned against God and you, and nothing's going to happen
Speaker 1: till you come to stage two. And stage two is
Speaker 1: you go all right, I just need to own up here.
Speaker 1: I need to face up to the fact that I
Speaker 1: have been not living God's way. I've been living my way.
Speaker 1: I've been doing it my way. I've been doing it
Speaker 1: the way I think is best. I've been doing it
Speaker 1: the way that protects all my fears. I've been doing
Speaker 1: it the way that tries to control everything around me.
Speaker 1: Even though I know I can't control it, I'm still
Speaker 1: trying to control it all. And I'm getting tired of
Speaker 1: holding onto all of the controls. I'm about ready to
Speaker 1: resign as general manager of the universe because I've noticed
Speaker 1: it isn't cooperating with me, and so I own up.
Speaker 1: And what do I own up to? I own up
Speaker 1: to my sin. When he came to his census, he
Speaker 1: said said, I have sinned now. In Isaiah fifty nine,
Speaker 1: verse two, there on your outline, the Bible says this,
Speaker 1: it's your sins. Your sins have separated you from your
Speaker 1: God and have hidden his face from you. Have you
Speaker 1: ever prayed and you felt like God was a million
Speaker 1: miles away? Have you ever prayed and felt like your
Speaker 1: prayers are bouncing off the ceiling? Have you ever prayed
Speaker 1: and felt like there's just like this veil between me
Speaker 1: and God. I can't see God, I can't hear God,
Speaker 1: I can't feel God, and I feel like I'm just
Speaker 1: talking to myself. Where does that come from? Your sins
Speaker 1: have separated you from your God and have hidden his
Speaker 1: face from you. That's where it comes from. It comes
Speaker 1: from your sin. If you feel far from God, guess
Speaker 1: who moved. God hasn't moved. God didn't move. God didn't
Speaker 1: go on vacation. God didn't move away to a foreign country.
Speaker 1: God has always been there and he has never not
Speaker 1: been there, and he loves you unconditionally. But if you
Speaker 1: few far from God, you're the one who moved, and
Speaker 1: you moved away by giving your love to something else.
Speaker 1: When you give anything else your love, there's a word
Speaker 1: for that in the Bible. It's called an idol. Now
Speaker 1: we think idols are like these little stone things that
Speaker 1: people bow down to in words no no, no, no no.
Speaker 1: An idol can look like your car. An idol can
Speaker 1: look like your job. An idle could be a dress,
Speaker 1: and idle could be the way you look. Anything that
Speaker 1: you love more than God becomes an idol. The First
Speaker 1: and second commandments say, thou shalt have no other gods
Speaker 1: afore me thou shalt not make any false idols. Money
Speaker 1: can be an idol, success can be an idol. Golf
Speaker 1: can be an idol. These are not bad things. They're
Speaker 1: just not deserving the first place in your life. So
Speaker 1: I own up to my sin. Your sins have separated
Speaker 1: you from your God. The fact is this, You're as
Speaker 1: close to God as you choose to be. You can't
Speaker 1: really blame anybody else. You can't blame your husband, you
Speaker 1: can't blame your wife. You can't blame your mom, your dad,
Speaker 1: the brother. You can't blame the government. That's one thing.
Speaker 1: You can't blame the government for you spell blame, be lame,
Speaker 1: and that's being lame when you blame other people for
Speaker 1: your spiritual condition. Well, if my husband were a more
Speaker 1: dedicated believer, really, well if my girlfriend was more on
Speaker 1: fire for Christ. Really, you are as close to God
Speaker 1: as you choose to be. And the fact is you
Speaker 1: haven't been desperate. You haven't been fed up enough to
Speaker 1: say I am desperate to know God. God. You know,
Speaker 1: if I were to hold you underwater, you would struggle.
Speaker 1: But when you really started running out of breath, you
Speaker 1: would really struggle because you would be desperate for air.
Speaker 1: When you're that desperate, you don't just get fed up.
Speaker 1: You own up and he say I've got to know God.
Speaker 1: You're as close to God as you choose to be. Now,
Speaker 1: when I own up and I say, God, I've owned it.
Speaker 1: I've been going my way. I've been I've been doing
Speaker 1: your way. I've been going my way. I've been doing
Speaker 1: what I want to do. When I do that, what
Speaker 1: is God's response to my facing up to my sin?
Speaker 1: He goes, yeah, Yeah, let me tell you what else
Speaker 1: you're doing wrong. No, he doesn't rub it in. When
Speaker 1: I come and I say, God, I've really you know,
Speaker 1: you know what I've done. I'm really sorry. What does
Speaker 1: he do? Well, look at the next verse. Here's the
Speaker 1: prayer you should pray, Psalm fifty one. By the the way,
Speaker 1: David prayed this prayer after he'd committed adultery and killed
Speaker 1: a wife's husband. So this is a pretty serious sin here.
Speaker 1: So I'm fifty one to one to four. David says, this,
Speaker 1: be merciful to me, Oh God, because of your constant love,
Speaker 1: because of your great mercy, wipe away my sin, Wash
Speaker 1: away all my evil, and make me clean. I recognize
Speaker 1: my faults, and I'm conscious that I have sinned against you.
Speaker 1: What's your circle of phrase? Recognize my false That means
Speaker 1: to own up. I face up to my sins. I
Speaker 1: own up to my sins. He says, I recognize my fault.
Speaker 1: And what is God's response when I own up? When
Speaker 1: I face up? Look at the next verse. The Lord says,
Speaker 1: no matter how deep the stain of your sins, I
Speaker 1: can remove it. I can make you clean as freshly
Speaker 1: driven snow. Not a beautiful verse. He says, no matter
Speaker 1: what you've done, no matter who you've done it with,
Speaker 1: I can I can remove it. This is this is
Speaker 1: the uh, this is the oxy clean versus the Bible. Okay,
Speaker 1: he said, man, I can take it out. You know
Speaker 1: that's stain. You think, Man, I'm never gonna forget that
Speaker 1: one bad and that was so bad and it's gonna
Speaker 1: haunt me the rest of my life. God says, I
Speaker 1: can remove that stain. This is the stain remover verse
Speaker 1: in the Bible. Now, doctors will tell you that every
Speaker 1: so often you need to go and get a check cup,
Speaker 1: and you need to have your heart checked every so often,
Speaker 1: and you had need to have your colon checked every
Speaker 1: so often. That's a fun one. Anybody want to give
Speaker 1: a testimony on that right now? Okay? Anybody have you
Speaker 1: know personal story from this week? Yeah? Okay, Uh, But
Speaker 1: you have to get regular checkups quiet because if something's
Speaker 1: growing wrong in your body, you want to know sooner
Speaker 1: or not later. Right And the same is true with
Speaker 1: your your life. If sin starts growing in you, it
Speaker 1: can become a cancer. It's better to nip it in
Speaker 1: the bud, like Barney Fiffe would say, before it gets
Speaker 1: really big. You gotta do this spiritual checkup on a
Speaker 1: regular base basis. And where do you do it. You
Speaker 1: do it in your thought life. It's a checkup from
Speaker 1: the neck up, and you got to think about your thoughts.
Speaker 1: Just like you need a physical checkup regularly, you need
Speaker 1: a spiritual checkup regularly. Tewod Corinthians five seventeen. Anyone who
Speaker 1: belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old
Speaker 1: life is gone, a new life has begun. Now that's
Speaker 1: a positional statement. What that means is God says you
Speaker 1: are a new person. Doesn't mean you don't have to
Speaker 1: stay the same anymore. You don't have to listen to
Speaker 1: those old impulses. You now have a new power in
Speaker 1: your life to make it through. The Bible says this.
Speaker 1: Test yourselves and make sure you're solid in the faith.
Speaker 1: Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourself regular checkups,
Speaker 1: and if you fail the test, do something about it.
Speaker 1: I love that message paraphrase, and that's what we're talking
Speaker 1: about here. In owning up, the Bible says that before
Speaker 1: you take the Lord's supper that you should do a
Speaker 1: spiritual checkup every time. That this is a time to
Speaker 1: pause and not to just get fed up, but to
Speaker 1: own up and say, Okay, is there anything in my life?
Speaker 1: Pal one thirty nine, search me, Oh God, and know
Speaker 1: my heart, try me and know my thoughts. See if
Speaker 1: there be any wicked way in me, and lead me
Speaker 1: in the way everlasting. That'd be a good verse to
Speaker 1: memory someone thirty nine, three twenty four. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a search light verse. God says this verse in Second Corinthians,
Speaker 1: First Corinthians eleven. A man ought to examine himself before
Speaker 1: he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. So,
Speaker 1: in other words, we need to do this second thing.
Speaker 1: I get fed up, and then I do an own up.
Speaker 1: I get a face up to what I need to do. Okay,
Speaker 1: Now here's the third step to get in back to God,
Speaker 1: to getting back in his love and his grace. Not
Speaker 1: that he doesn't love you. He always loves you no
Speaker 1: matter where you are. But to feeling that love. Here's
Speaker 1: a third thing. I get fed up. I own up
Speaker 1: number three, I offer up. I offer up my life.
Speaker 1: I offer up myself. I offer up my total being.
Speaker 1: And this is a third thing that we find this
Speaker 1: young man did. He got fed up. He came to
Speaker 1: his senses. He owned up. He says, I've sinned against God,
Speaker 1: and then he offered up. Now. Notice in Luke chapter
Speaker 1: twelve fifteen, verse twelve, the son drifted away saying, give
Speaker 1: me my share. And in Luke fifteen nineteen, when he
Speaker 1: comes back, he returned to the father saying, make me
Speaker 1: a servant. Do you notice any change in attitude there? Hello,
Speaker 1: He leaves saying give me, give me, give me, gim me,
Speaker 1: give me, give me. He comes back, saying, make me.
Speaker 1: That is transformation. That is true transformation. When your heart
Speaker 1: moves from self centeredness to God's sinneredness, that's transformation. Are
Speaker 1: you there yet? Are you still in the gimme, gimme,
Speaker 1: gim me, give me, give me. What can God do
Speaker 1: for me? Give me my stuff now to make me
Speaker 1: your servant. That's the transformation. He returns saying make me.
Speaker 1: That's a heart trend and that is the greatest transformation. Well,
Speaker 1: from self centered to God's sendreness. Are you letting God
Speaker 1: do that in you? Now? That transformation it doesn't happen overnight.
Speaker 1: God is still working on me on this one, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna be your entire life. He's going to work
Speaker 1: on It's never instant, but there is a decision that
Speaker 1: starts the process. Second, Dreen these three eighteen says this,
Speaker 1: we reflect the Lord's glory and are being transformed. That
Speaker 1: means a continuing process. We are being transformed, not just once,
Speaker 1: but on a ongoing basis. It's a process. We're being
Speaker 1: transformed into His likeness now with ever increasing glory. And
Speaker 1: I leave that for just a minute, which comes from
Speaker 1: the Lord. Was the spirit that we'd transformed. You know,
Speaker 1: the Bible was written the New Testament in Greek. You
Speaker 1: know what the word there is in Greek metamorphous. Ou
Speaker 1: does that sound like anything? You know? Metamorphosis? It's the
Speaker 1: word we get met what's the metaphor of morphosis. It's
Speaker 1: when a butterfly goes from a caterpillar to a pupa
Speaker 1: a chrysalis, and from a pupa chrysalis into a butterfly.
Speaker 1: That's metamorphosis. It hadn't happened overnight. In fact, there's that
Speaker 1: stage where it's sitting there in that chrysalis, it forms
Speaker 1: that little cocoon. It's pretty ugly. Ever seen one of
Speaker 1: those things. It doesn't look very beautiful to me, But
Speaker 1: when it breaks out, that butterfly is stunning. I so
Speaker 1: badly want to be that, and I want you to
Speaker 1: be that. I want you to be transformed from the
Speaker 1: lowly caterpillar into the beautiful butterfly. That is what transformation
Speaker 1: is all about. It is metamorphosis. It is going from
Speaker 1: you know, when you're a caterpillar, what can you do?
Speaker 1: Not much except munch on leaves b boom boo boom
Speaker 1: boo boom boo, boom boo, boom boom, and you're stuck
Speaker 1: on the ground. And I'm sure when caterpillars have looked
Speaker 1: in the air butterflies go. You never get me up
Speaker 1: in one of those things. God made you to be
Speaker 1: a butterfly. God made you to soar. God made you
Speaker 1: to be beautiful, not ugly beautiful. But you've got to
Speaker 1: go through the transformation process and the transformation process is
Speaker 1: number one. Get fed up with the way you've been living,
Speaker 1: and then own up. Get honest to God. God, I
Speaker 1: admit I have been living for myself. I've been doing
Speaker 1: it my way, and do that check up and then
Speaker 1: offer up myself. Transformation is a process, but the starting
Speaker 1: point is what the prodigal son said. Make me. That's
Speaker 1: offer up, make me, transform me, change me. God, I
Speaker 1: don't want to live the rest of my life the
Speaker 1: way I'm living right now. Change me. Romans twelve to one.
Speaker 1: This is our theme verse, but let me read you
Speaker 1: the verse before it. Because God is merciful to you.
Speaker 1: Offer yourselves. Offer yourselves. That's it. I offer up myself.
Speaker 1: That's step one. I get fed up. Okay, I own up,
Speaker 1: and now I offer up. Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice,
Speaker 1: holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act
Speaker 1: of worship. And don't be confis to the pattern of
Speaker 1: this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Speaker 1: No transformation until you do the offer up. And it's
Speaker 1: important to notice the father's response. Luke fifteen twenty three.
Speaker 1: Filled with love and compassion, he ran out to his son,
Speaker 1: threw his arms around him and kissed him, and he said,
Speaker 1: bring the best, bring the best robe, bring the best
Speaker 1: bring bring the best shoes, bring the fatted calf. In
Speaker 1: all these things. The father's response. Notice he didn't wait
Speaker 1: for the son to come home while he was still distant.
Speaker 1: He ran out the moment you just.
Speaker 2: Say, God, I'm tired of living the way I have
Speaker 2: been living.
Speaker 1: God, I'm tired. He will do more than halfway. He
Speaker 1: will run out to meet you. God is not waiting
Speaker 1: for you to come knock on the door, or he's
Speaker 1: waiting for this moment in your life. He runs out
Speaker 1: to you, He takes an issue, He throws his arms
Speaker 1: around you, He kisses you, and he says, okay, look,
Speaker 1: I know you blew it. Go get the best rope,
Speaker 1: get the best clothes in the house. And then he says,
Speaker 1: go get my signet ring. Do you know why? He
Speaker 1: says that you know what a signet ring is. In
Speaker 1: those days, the signet ring was your credit card, because
Speaker 1: you take the ring and you press it into wax,
Speaker 1: and that was like a credit card. He said, go
Speaker 1: get my unlimited Black American Express and bringing out to
Speaker 1: my son who just blew half of my income. God
Speaker 1: doesn't holding the grudge against all the the dumb stuff
Speaker 1: you've done. He's ready to lavishly pour this on, bring
Speaker 1: out the best, bring out the bestes, do all these things.
Speaker 1: God has a better plan for your life than you
Speaker 1: can imagine. If you knew there was a better way
Speaker 1: to live than there is right now, the way you've
Speaker 1: been living, wouldn't you want to know about it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what transformation is all about. People said, well, I'm
Speaker 1: living the good life, and you are. You live in America,
Speaker 1: you live the good life. You're looking good, you're feeling good,
Speaker 1: you got the goods. You know, there's only one problem
Speaker 1: with the good life. It isn't good enough.
Speaker 2: You were made for more than the good life. You
Speaker 2: were made for the better life.
Speaker 1: Life. You cannot even imagine anymore than that caterpillar can
Speaker 1: imagine what it's like to be a butterfly. You can't
Speaker 1: even imagine it. You cannot even imagine it. It is
Speaker 1: so much better. And there are people who live next
Speaker 1: to you and they got the car, and they got
Speaker 1: the cash, and they got the clothes, and they're going,
Speaker 1: I'm living it, I'm living the good life, and they're
Speaker 1: missing the better life. And then there's one other thing
Speaker 1: I do. Once I come home and I'm enwrapped in
Speaker 1: God's love, and he hugs me and he kisses me,
Speaker 1: and he says, bring out the best. All is forgiven,
Speaker 1: All is forgiven. Go get the credit card, Go get
Speaker 1: the rope, Go get the shoes. Let's let's have a barbecue.
Speaker 1: And in that celebration, you now come home, not the condemnation.
Speaker 1: You come back to God in celebration. Here's the fourth thing.
Speaker 1: I lift up my praise, and they just go, thank
Speaker 1: you God, thank you for your grace, thank you for
Speaker 1: your love, thank you for your goodness. I lift up
Speaker 1: my praise. Luke fifteen, here's what the Father says. We're
Speaker 1: gonna celebrate with a feast of eating and drinking. He
Speaker 1: was lost, but now is found. So the party begins
Speaker 1: and life becomes a party. When life comes to transformation.
Speaker 1: The Bible says in Psalm sixty eighty four, sing to God,
Speaker 1: sing praises to his name. Lift up. There's that word,
Speaker 1: lift up my praises, lift up a song to him.
Speaker 1: His name is the Lord. Now the Father celebrated. He
Speaker 1: had a celebration, not a condemnation. A celebration when the
Speaker 1: son came back home. I'm fed up and I'm owning up,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna offer up and now I lift up
Speaker 1: my praise and we're gonna party, and we're going to celebrate,
Speaker 1: and we're going to sing. Let's bow our heads for prayer. Father.
Speaker 1: When we think of your grace, we are overwhelmed. It
Speaker 1: makes our hearts want the same. There's no way that
Speaker 1: we deserve this kind of reaction, this kind of celebration,
Speaker 1: this kind of welcoming when we come home. But we
Speaker 1: come to you, and first we say we're fed up.
Speaker 1: We're fed up with the way we've been living. We're
Speaker 1: fed up of life without Christ. We're fed up with
Speaker 1: doing it all on our own power. We're just fed
Speaker 1: up with all of that. And we own up. We
Speaker 1: realize that you haven't moved, but we have. And now
Speaker 1: the reason we're not close is because we've allowed other
Speaker 1: things to cloud our vision of you. We have allowed
Speaker 1: idols in our lives. We have loved other things more
Speaker 1: than you, and that has made you feel distant. But
Speaker 1: we come back and we own up to our sin,
Speaker 1: and then we offer up ourselves. We're not saying give me,
Speaker 1: give me, give me anymore. We're saying, make me, make me,
Speaker 1: make me. If you've never accepted Jesus gift of salvation,
Speaker 1: say Jesus Christ right now. I accept your gift of salvation.
Speaker 1: Thank you for loving me and dying for me on
Speaker 1: the cross. I give myself back to you. I offer
Speaker 1: up myself to you. Make me your servant, and I
Speaker 1: ask you to transform my life. In your name. I
Speaker 1: pray Jesus Amen.