A Transformed Life

Alright, let’s get started. We are in week 5 of this sermon series that we have called Built Different, and it’s because we are to build our lives on something different than the way the world builds. We are not building our lives on the things of earth, we’re building our lives on Christ. We’ve been going through Romans chapter 12, 1 through 2, and in this Paul says, I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but— here’s what we’re talking about today— be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

So Romans 12, Paul tells us to be transformed by the renewal of your mind. This raises a question: is that actually possible? Is it actually possible to see transformation? Is it actually possible to see your life change in meaningful ways? We have to come to grips with our— what we actually think about the answer to that question.

So one of the great things about being in a growing and lively church is that we’ve got people coming on all sorts of places in their spiritual walk. It’s awesome. Some of y’all might be here this morning, you’re like, “I’m not a Christian.” And rock on, let’s go. Like, you don’t have to pretend to be a Christian to come here. Be honest.

Be like, “That’s not me yet. I’m here because I’m curious. I got some things that, you know, or I like the people or whatever.” Just be honest about why you’re here. Like, “I’m not a Christian.” Awesome. Come as you are, baby.

That’s what we’re talking about. There might be some of y’all that are here and you’re new to your faith. You know, you’ve recently made a decision to accept Christ, to accept his forgiveness, and you’re starting your spiritual journey, and you’re looking at your life and you see things, you’re like, I really want this to change in my life. I really want to see growth in this area. I’m tired of this part of my life weighing me down, or whatever it is.

And you’re coming with hope. You’re like, I hope that God will transform me. I got to have it. And then some of you all, you’ve been a Christian for a long time. And if you’re honest with yourself, there are some places in your life that you look back on the time when you came to Christ and you were like, man, I need some things to change, I need that to change in my life.

And you’re looking at your life 10, 20, 30, 40 years past that point and you’re still waiting for that to change. And you’ve maybe given up hope that it could ever change. You’re like, this is just not I’m just going to deal with this. I’m just going to have to deal with this. This sin pattern, this, you know, brokenness in my life, it’s just never going to change, apparently.

Well, we’re here to talk about how to be transformed today. We have hope. What do we say? Come as you are. What?

And be forever changed by the love of Jesus. We believe that that transformation can happen, or we wouldn’t be here. So John Mark Comer, in his Practicing the Way course, he says the problem isn’t that people don’t want to become like Jesus or that people aren’t trying to become like Jesus, it’s that we don’t know how. That might be true for some of us today. We want it, we’re trying, we just don’t know how.

Well, today we’re going to talk about that. We’re going to talk about how to live out the transformed life that Christ has given us. In Colossians chapter 3, that’s where we’re going to be today, the Apostle Paul taught this, this church of the Colossians that he had planted. He taught them that because they had died and they were raised with Christ, they were to live out the transformed life that Christ had given them. Because Christ gave us his life, our lives can be transformed to be like his.

This is what we’re going to learn about today. So now we’ve got to ask the question, how? How does this actually happen over time? The text is going to give us 3 ways to live out this transformed life. Let’s dig into Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 through 11.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, Your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator.

Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all, and in all. It’s God’s word, amen? Amen. So let’s dig in. How do we live out this transformed life that Christ has given us?

First, set your mind on things above. Now Paul begins this section. I don’t know how you were kind of receiving this as I was reading the words, but when I look at this and I read this, I go, “Paul, you’re out of your mind right now.” He says two things that don’t seem to square with reality. And so you either say, “Paul, you have no idea what you’re talking about,” or, “This doesn’t apply to me,” because he starts with an “if.” If then you have been raised with Christ, and I’m like, Well, that has not happened yet. Right?

He lays out this, like, there’s the earth and the things above, you know, the heavens where God is seated. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God up there. And then we got the earth that’s down here. And he’s like, well, if you’ve been raised from earth to heaven, then blah, blah, blah, blah. And you’re like, well, that’s not me.

Right? Anybody else? Everybody else is still here, I’m pretty sure. So we have to wrap our minds around the fact that, what is he talking about? ‘Cause that doesn’t seem to square with my perception of reality.

And then he says, “For you have died.” Well, that doesn’t seem to have happened yet either for me or hopefully anybody in the audience, right? I know we got some time here, but hopefully that’s gonna be true for all of us by the time we’re done here. We have not died. Paul, what are you talking about? What— what— if, if you have been raised with Christ, if you have died— it kind of reminds me of that scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, right, where they’re like, bring out your dead, and the guy’s like, but I’m not dead yet, I’m feeling better, I think I’ll go for a walk.

You know, it’s like, Paul, I’m not dead yet. What— let’s— what’s going on? What’s happening here? Uh, he says that if these two things— so like, like, let’s first just kind of say that maybe we don’t understand what Paul is saying. Rather than just dismissing him out of hand and saying, “Well, Paul, this is not true,” let’s just, like, for a moment, like, intellectually say, “Okay, Paul knows what he’s talking about.

What is he getting at? What is he trying to say to us then?” He says, if these two things are true, then what are we to do? He says, “Seek the things above. Set your minds on things that are above.” That’s what he says. So if you’ve been raised with Christ, you died, you’ve been raised with Christ, and now you’re with Christ where he is seated above, then set your mind and seek the things that are above.

This reminds me of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus because Jesus said something that Nicodemus was like, “What?” Because he says, “Hey, how do we do this whole kingdom thing?” Nicodemus asked Jesus. He said, well, it’s pretty easy. Just, you know, be born from above. Now, we typically say born again. You might have heard that.

I’m a born-again Christian. What Jesus said was actually, you must be born from above. He actually used the same word that Paul is using here, set your mind on things above. Jesus said, you must be born from above. And Nicodemus went, huh?

Uh, uh, we don’t do the whole birth thing twice, so I’m not sure what you’re getting at, Jesus. Totally, you know, blew his mind. Like, it’s okay to sit here and, and look at this and go, this is not making sense with me. It’s okay to say that. What is, what is behind here?

What is Paul trying to say here? Um, he says, seek, set your mind on things above. Jesus said something similar to this in Matthew chapter 6, in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, don’t worry about these things. What things?

Well, what we will eat, what we will drink, what we will wear. These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteous— live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So there are things that are, you know, things that are of the earth and there are things that are above. And Jesus is saying, don’t worry so much about the things that are on the earth.

Like, don’t let those dominate your thoughts. Seek, seek the kingdom, seek the kingdom of God, seek the things that are above. He’s saying the same thing that Paul is saying. You know, where does your mind drift when, when you have no external stimulation, when you’re sitting in silence and your mind is, is, is just free to go wherever it wants to go? And if we’re honest with ourselves, in today’s world, most of us are sitting here saying, “I don’t know because that never happens.” If we’re really honest, we don’t let our minds be at rest with no external stimulation.

There’s always something popping in our brains from the outside, right? Well, if you were to just turn everything off and let’s just sit in silence for a second and say, “Okay, what is dominating your thoughts?” in the words of Jesus here. What, what just pops into your head? That’s where— that’s what you’ve set your minds to. Uh, Matthew 16, he’s, uh, Jesus is, is talking to his disciples, talking about what’s getting ready to come.

From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you. Don’t worry. You’re in good hands.

Don’t worry. We’ve got this under control, Jesus. This is not going to happen.’ And Jesus turns and says to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are—’ check this out— ‘For you are not setting your mind on the things of God.’ That’s the exact same phrase Paul is using.

Set your mind on things above. Jesus says, ‘Get behind me, Satan,’ to Peter. Why? Because you are— you’ve not done that. You have not set your mind on things of God, but on the things of man.

So the first step of transformation is to understand that there’s an earthly reality, but there’s also a heavenly reality, a reality of above, a spiritual reality.

Y’all, just let’s listen for a second.

You hearing that? I don’t know.

So did you know that every radio station that is on the FM dial and on the AM dial is playing right now in this room? Every radio station, like, if you got in your car and turned the radio on, all those radio stations are playing right now in this room. They’re all, like, yelling at you. If you could hear them all, you’d be because there’d just be some noise, right? I’m telling you the truth right now.

You don’t perceive it because you don’t have the hardware in your ears. Your ears don’t tune to those frequencies. You don’t have the hardware, but it doesn’t mean it’s not true. This is— you’re not perceiving it. And also, all those little cell phones you got— I don’t know if there’s anybody in the back watching TikTok or something like that, but your cell phones have radios in them as well.

That talk to cell towers, that talk to Wi-Fi, and those radios, it’s the same thing, they’re yelling, they’re screaming all the time. Guess what? Every cell phone that’s within like a mile radius of here, it’s sending radio waves into here as well. So every radio station on the FM dial and the AM dial, plus every cell phone in about a mile radius is all screaming at us right now. But you are not hearing anything of it, right?

Because your ears don’t have the hardware. If you had the hardware, you could tune to one of those frequencies and then understand what’s being said, or the music, or whatever. And it’s kind of like that in the spiritual life. There is the earthly dimension that we have the hardware for, we’re built in. We can see, we can touch, we can taste, we can feel.

And so we can just say, well, this must be all there is. This is the only thing that there is, what we see on earth, the things that dominate our thoughts. And what Jesus is saying, what Paul is saying, is that there’s a heavenly dimension that’s just as real as everything we see here. When you are born from above, you get new hardware. Now you have the ability to tune to God’s frequencies.

You didn’t have it before, now you do. And it just leaves the choice: are we going to tune our hearts to God’s frequencies, or are we just going to ignore that and still only pay attention to what’s going on on the earth? Amen. So this is what he’s saying: if you want to be transformed, start tuning to heaven’s frequencies, not just the earth’s. When you wake up in the morning, take some time and be still and silent and say, okay God, right now I’m tuning to you.

I’m going to tune to your frequencies this morning. I want to be on your plan. I want to be in your program today. See, the problem is that a lot of times the best we can hope for as Christians is we say, well, I got some things I want to accomplish. I got some things I want to do.

I got my program. And about the best we’re looking for as far as transformation is that God will come and sprinkle some Jesus magic over those things and help us to accomplish those things. And that’s why we’re here. And Paul is starting off saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, time out. There’s more than what’s going on right here.

There’s a bigger mission. There’s something more important, more real than what we can see. It’s the heavenly dimension, and you’ve got to tune to it. You’ve got to tune the frequencies of your heart to be able to hear what’s going on. But he’s given you the hardware to do it.

You just got to do it. The Lord’s Prayer. Spend more time on the first part of the Lord’s Prayer saying, OK, In heaven, in that heavenly above dimension, Jesus’ name is holy. The Father’s name is holy. And his kingdom has come and his will is done.

And spend more time on that part of the Lord’s Prayer, saying, God, I want to be part of you coming to earth. Just as it is in heaven, just as it is in the heavenly frequencies, let’s bring that down. Come on, let’s go. I’ll be part of your program, your plan, not mine. And then get to my daily bread, my sins, where God’s leading me.

But start with the heavenly frequencies first. Because if we don’t have God’s perspective, if we’re just looking at things from a human perspective and the things of earth are dominating our thoughts, that doesn’t lead to transformation. It doesn’t lead to a renewal of the mind because our mind is only set on the things of the earth, the things of man. Okay, we gotta move. That’s the first step.

The first step of transformation is to set your mind on things above. The second is to put the old self to death.

Alright, so Paul says this kind of weird thing. He’s like, y’all are dead and I’m going to need you to die. It’s like, Paul, you’re not making sense right now, right? He says, since you have died, put these things to death. This is a strange thing to do, but see, here’s the thing.

We like to think of Christianity and the Christian walk as just, you know, adding on, like I said, adding on some Jesus to our life. And Paul is saying that the Christian life is not about adding on some new habits and just kind of tweaking some things and some little self-improvement here and there. It’s about putting some things to death. That’s right. Putting some things to death.

Jesus says something kind of similar, kind of striking in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it and many of them walked away. Can you imagine the first hearers of that? The people that actually heard him say that going, uh, what am I signing up for here, Jesus? It’s probably the same people when he said, if you want to be my disciple, I’m going to need you to eat my flesh and drink my blood.

And people went— and it literally says, and many of them walked away. Many of them went. That doesn’t sound like a good idea. I think I’m out.

Paul gives a couple lists of things here. He’s in chapter 3, verse 6: Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. Verse 8: Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth. And do not lie to one another. He gives these lists, and if you kind of take some time and think about these and kind of pore over them, you see that there’s just this mixture of what’s going on inside, like desires and thoughts and attitudes, all the way to action that affect your fellow man.

It’s all there. And he’s saying, stop messing around with this stuff and put it to death.

Whew. Okay. That’s pretty tough. Now, let me pause here and say, what Paul is not saying is, if you want to be made right with God, you have to put these things to death.

That’s not what he’s saying. He’s saying you have been made right with God. You have died and you’ve been raised with him. Therefore, you get to put these things to death. Very big difference.

You’re not working to earn your childhood of God. Because you are a child of God, you now have a new master. Before, you didn’t have the ability to not be ruled by sin. Now you do. You have the ability to not be ruled by sin.

Look at Romans chapter 6. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. That’s you and I. If you’ve said yes to Jesus, you’re set free from sin.

And then what? Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. You have a new master. You get to say no. You get to put that voice to death.

You get to put those desires to death. You get to put those actions to death.

I came to Christ when I was 11 in the 5th grade in Virginia Beach. That’s where we were living at the time.

And, you know, we had a baptism last week and there were some, you know, some kids. And every time we have baptisms, there’s kids that are baptized. And like, I was 11 and I’m looking at these kids and I’m going, these kids are not coming out of like, they’re not naive. You know, when a kid who’s, you know, 9, 10, 11— Gail talked about her being baptized at 12— there’s real faith there. I remember very vividly the sense at 11 years old that I wanted to be right with God, and I was trying, and I was failing, and I was feeling just beat up and guilty about the fact that I was not— the more and more I tried, it’s like the worse and worse I was performing, and I was feeling guilty about it.

And there was a new church plant in my neighborhood, and we decided to go there. We showed up on the first day they were open, and it was at that church we started hearing the gospel for the first time, the gospel of grace, the gospel of you don’t have to make yourself right with God. Christ has done that work. You receive his righteousness, and then you begin to live things out. So we heard that for the first time, and I received Jesus.

I received his righteousness. And there were two particular areas in my life that, as an 11-year-old, that were making me feel guilty, that I was really hoping for transformation. One area was my mouth, and the other area was anger. So as a 5th grader, I had a terrible, terrible mouth. Whatever word you can think of, I was saying it.

I was pretty good, not 100%, but I was pretty good at keeping that from my parents and keeping it out of my house. I got stories for when I did not, but most of the time I was pretty good at that. But, you know, this is back in the days when you just had the run of the neighborhood, kids had the run of the neighborhood, and with my friends out in the neighborhood and my friends at school, I just had a terrible, terrible mouth. And at some point I began to feel like, this is not right, I want to stop this, but I couldn’t. And then the other area was anger.

I was a very, very angry child. I had rage problems. Just ask my sister. She’s got stories. And when I came to Jesus, those were the two kind of presenting problems, if you will, that were making me feel guilty.

And you know what? My mouth, it wasn’t overnight, but it was kind of close to it where it just, it just changed. And I had begun to have freedom from my potty mouth. And The anger, it has taken longer and is taking longer for that to change. And I think that’s true for a lot of people.

Like, when you come to Jesus, the stuff on the outside, the stuff that other people can see, tends to be the things that get cleaned up quicker. The things that are on the inside that nobody else sees but you and God are the ones that take longer. And I am not at 100% on the anger thing. Just ask my family. But I will, with humility and sober-minded evaluation, say that I’ve seen transformation in that.

I really have. It’s taken me 37 years for the progress that I’ve had, and there’s more progress to be had. But if I look back and say, okay, well, what has led to that transformation? And I think it’s about putting things to death inside me. Putting my need to control other people, my need to have like a standard of perfection that if I’m honest with myself is all about how other people look at me, not necessarily me being perfect, but other people’s viewpoint of me, and so then when that doesn’t match up, then anger comes.

Does anybody else? Am I just— is it just me? Okay. Putting my need to control outcomes to death. Those are all things that are— those are heart issues, and I’ve had to put them to death over and over and over again.

But that has led to slow transformation. And I think that’s what Paul’s getting at here is that, look, you’ve got to stop playing with sin and excusing it and rationalizing it.

Mortifying sin— I skipped over this quote, but it’s a good one, so I’ve got to go back and get it. John Owen, it’s from the 1600s. He wrote this book called The Mortification of Sin. It’s a fun read, but he says, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” So to mortify sin, to put sin to death, means we got to stop playing with it. It takes more than good intentions, it takes concrete action.

So if you want to be transformed, it means beginning to look inside your heart at the motivations and desires and things that are not according to God’s best for you and put those things to death. So your pride, your ambition, your greed, your drive for worldly success, it’s time to stop rationalizing that and calling it something else. You might say, “Well, it’s just ambition,” or, “I’m just, you know, I just want to be the best at what I’m doing,” or, “I’m just trying to provide for my family.” And there’s a lot of goodness in there, but if you’re really honest with yourself and let God really look at your heart, There’s more there. There’s things that need to be put to death there. And stop playing with it.

Stop rationalizing it. Stop feeding it. Put it to death. Your lust, your consumption of media that is not holy and pleasing to God, you might be rationalizing that and saying, “Well, you know, it’s just what everybody does these days. You know, it’s just normal.” It’s just all around, and you can’t get away from it.

Oh, what am I to do? Oh, you know, it’s not hurting anybody, you know, it’s just, just in my mind. It doesn’t hurt anybody.

Well, God sees it, and God knows it’s not what’s best for you. And he knows that those things that are going on in your heart are going to yield a fruit of unrighteousness, and he wants you to kill it. He wants you to stop playing with it. He wants you to stop rationalizing it. He says put it to death.

Put it to death. Stop feeding and nursing back to health something Christ died for. Just kill it. Your angriness, your bitterness, your contempt for other people, you’re rationalizing that and saying, well, you know, I was It’s the family system I was born in. I was wounded as a child and it’s just made me this way.

Or other people just this, other people just that. Well, if bitterness has taken root, you need to forgive. You need to ask God to change your perspective, to get that heavenly perspective on things, and stop rationalizing your anger and your bitterness and your wrath and your contemptuousness towards other people and put it to death.

That’s the strong message of Jesus and Paul this morning to all of us. Is you want to be forever changed by the love of Jesus? The love of Jesus has made you a new person and has given you the option now to put some things to death that are not good for you. And he wants what’s best for you. Will you partner with him and put some things to death?

The third way that we are transformed is to put on the new self. So we’re looking at things from above, from a heavenly perspective. We’re getting on his frequency. We’re seeing, seeing things as God sees things, and we start seeing things that need to be put to death. So we put them to death.

Then what do we do? We put on the new self, the new life. He doesn’t just empty us of sin when he saves us. That’s mercy. God says, I’m not going to hold you accountable for your sin anymore.

I’m not— you deserve death, but I’m going to give you my life. That’s great. He also just piles grace on top of it too and gives you new life and gives you a new self. He doesn’t just put you back to neutral. He wants something wonderful for you, and that’s his very life.

It says put on the new self. It’s like clothing, and it doesn’t imply a choice. When you wake up in the morning, you got a choice. What clothes are you going to put on? The nasty, sweaty, disgusting ones that you took off yesterday?

Or you can put on your new self. That’s the analogy that Paul’s working with here. Then notice verse 11, it says here in this renewed life, There is not Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. So here’s what Paul’s working on. You should be thinking, okay, created in the— this renewed image, the image of your Creator.

We’re supposed to be thinking about Genesis 1 and 2 here, that God created mankind in his own image and called it very good. He had a plan for mankind that was very, very good. Mankind rebelled, the first mankind, the first Adam, and rebelled. And so now the second Adam has come, the second mankind, Jesus has come. And what has he given us the ability to do?

To go back and reclaim what was, what was missing, to go back and reclaim that, that image of God that, that he had planned all along. That’s what, that’s what Paul’s saying. And in this beautiful— it’s, it’s really part of what Paul is getting at in this whole book of Colossians and in a lot of his letters. He’s trying to figure out how do we take people that that from an earthly perspective have no business being together, the Greek and the Jew, the circumcised, the uncircumcised, the barbarian, the Scythian, the slave, the free, and help them understand that, you know what, we are all one new humanity with God as our Father. And we’re on mission together to say all of us are made in the image of God and we’re going to reclaim that.

We’re going to partner with God for his kingdom to come, his will to be done. And for us all to be his perfect spotless bride, the church, together. That’s what he’s after. It’s pretty cool. Look at 2 Corinthians 3:18.

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory— like we see it perfectly from his perspective— we’re being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory. So it’s a process, but that’s where we’re headed, transformed into his image. Romans 8:29 says, for God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to be come like his son, so that his son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. Here’s a saying from Pastor Gary that’s worthy of repeating and remembering. You’ve probably heard him say this.

If you’re wondering, what is God up to in my life? Why am I going through this trial? What is God wanting to accomplish in my life? I’m bored, or I don’t see what I’m supposed to do next, or what am I— where am I supposed to aim? You know, young people, where am I supposed to aim my life?

I don’t get it. I don’t know where I’m supposed to go. What’s God up to in your life? He’s making you like Jesus. That’s his will for your life.

And if you begin to partner with him and say, “God, I want to be smack in the middle of your will. Make me like Jesus,” he will give you everything you ask for. That’s his promise. I’ll get— that right there, that’s a request I will honor every single time. I’m going to make you like Jesus.

That’s what he’s up to. It’s been a while for me since I’ve gone, like, to a gym, like an inside gym. Just, I much prefer to work out outside. You know, not treadmill, open roads. You know, not musty, smelly gym equipment.

Like, give me some outdoors, right? But I have before gone to a gym, and you know, you’re doing your thing. You’re on this machine, you’re on that machine, you’re going from one to the other, you take a breath, take some water, you go hit the next thing, you’re sweaty, and you’re huffing and puffing, and you’re doing your thing, right? And I remember, you try not to judge, but you notice sometimes, right? I noticed this, you know, there’s like, it’s a type of a guy at the gym.

Maybe you’ve seen this person before. They seem to do more talking than working out, right? They’re drinking some sort of juice. You’re like, I don’t think that’s healthy, you know, and you’re doing more talking than you’re doing working out. And every once in a while they’ll get on something and do something, and then they’re huffing and puffing, they just sit down.

And they go find somebody else to talk to, and you’re like, why are we here? You know, like, you’re not seeing— you know, month after month goes on, you’re not really seeing any change, and you’re like, I think I know why. Because you’re doing more talking than you’re doing working out, right? When it comes to our physical, like, you know, getting in shape, we have a theory of change. Like, we have an understanding.

It’s pretty well understood. Theory of change when it comes to getting in shape. Like, we know what to do. Might not want to do it, but we know what to do. Yeah, you got to get active.

You got to, you got to do some things to get active, get that heart rate going, get your muscles working. You got to do some things. And then you gotta, you gotta, in between the exercises, you got to do some other things like, you know, get your rest, watch what you’re eating, and things like that, right? This is not rocket science, right? We know what, we know what the theory of change is for for physical activity and getting in shape.

But we sometimes, uh, we apply a different theory of change when it comes to spiritual life, our spiritual walk, to that transformation that we’re after. We look at things, we’re like, “Man, I really want this to change. I want that to change. I want to grow in this area. I want this to change.” And then the theory of change we’re operating under is, “Well, if I come to the gym, if I come to the church, you know, every every other week or so and spend an hour listening to somebody and might do more talking than listening, and then don’t really do much during the week.

I’ll tell you what, I’ll tack on another 2 hours to that 1 hour and I’ll go to small group, and so— and I’ll come every week. So now I got 3 hours of my week I’m going to do some things, but the other 165 hours I’m not— I’m not participating with God and yielding to God in his transformation, and we expect to change.

Like, we have to get on God’s theory of change here, which says there’s things that need to be put to death, and then there’s a new self that you need to put on actively. It doesn’t happen on accident.

Christlikeness is not gonna happen on accident. There might be some behaviors that you need to put on during the week, some practices that you need to put on around setting your mind on the things of God, on praying. Again, what I’m getting ready to tell you, everyone’s like, “Yep, that’s exactly right.” But how hard is it to put into practice? You say, “I don’t have time to read and pray.” Well, what’s the solution to that? Do it first thing in the morning.

Go to bed a little bit earlier at night and wake up a little bit earlier in the morning. And what I have just said is the least controversial statement ever. Everyone knows it’s true, but it’s the hardest thing to do, right? So it’s like, these are— there are practices that you, you just must do in order to yield with God. You can’t expect to just sit and have this transformation happen to you.

You must put off and put on, in the words of Colossians 3. You must yield to him, and part of getting on his wavelength is reading his word and understanding what it is to be in the kingdom of God. That’s what the word is all about. To pray and to start invoking his will and his kingdom and his name in your life, to start seeing how he’s working around you and to get on mission with him, to start Identifying those things inside of you that really, really need to change and then start saying, “Okay, well God, how could I actually partner with you on this?” I’m doing something I don’t want to do. One of the ways that you can partner with God to stop doing something that you don’t want to do is to stop doing something you do want to do.

It’s kind of counterproductive or counterintuitive, but if you want to stop doing something you don’t want to do, A very useful practice is to fast, to fast from food. And it begins to build a muscle in you, a spiritual muscle that God is somehow mysteriously working in our hearts, going, okay, you know what, God is everything I need. I don’t need these things in order to make me satisfied because the word of God is the bread of life, right? And so you can do things that will help yield to God’s work in your life. And those are the historical practices, the things that we all know are the things that we need we need to engage in to partner with God for his work in our lives to make us more like Jesus.

A challenge I have for you, and I’m just putting it out here as an idea, is this week when you go to your small groups and you’re in conversation talking about what you learned and learn, you know, we talk about how to apply things to our lives, the Holy Spirit has probably brought something to your mind as, as we’ve been talking, as we’ve been studying this as the area that you really, really want to see transformation in.

Would you be willing this week during small group to confess that to your small group peeps and tell them, “This is the area that I want to see change. I want to grow in Christ-likeness in this area, and I don’t care what it takes. I’m ready to do it.” Whether it takes a week, a month, a year, or 10 years, I want to see God move in this area of my life. Would you be willing to say that to your small group? Because that’s what our small groups are, is that we’re just people locking arms going, we just want to be more like Jesus together.

And it might take confession to one another, as the book of James says, to start saying, ah, that’s the exact same area I’m looking for transformation in. I wonder if we could talk about that together and learn from each other and grow and pray for each other. This is a way that we could yield to God’s work in our life, is just to become honest about where we want to see transformation. So if you are in Christ, if you have died, if you are raised with Christ into the heavenly places, that’s where your life is. Your life is hidden with Christ and your life is Christ.

Would you begin to tune the tuner of your heart to the things of God more than the things of the earth? Start seeing his perspective on what’s going on in your world and how he wants to move? Would you begin to see those places in your life that really just need to be put to death? Stop playing with them. Stop messing around with them.

Just put them to death. And then begin to put on the new life. The image of God that he has for you, that he’s ready to transform you into his image if you will walk in those new, those new ways. Put on that new clothing, put on that new self, walk into the life that he has for you. This is what it takes to be transformed.

This is what it takes to be transformed by the renewal of your mind. This is what God has for us. He’s making us like Jesus. Let’s pray.

Lord, thank you for your word, even when it’s hard to hear.

Hard sometimes because we don’t understand it. Hard sometimes because we understand it exactly, and we know that to walk in obedience to it is going to be putting some things to death. Help us, Lord.

We want what’s best for us because we know that you’ve got it. You’ve got the life that we really want. Help us to walk in that life. Help us to, to say no to the, the master of sin and to say yes to you.

I pray for anyone here today who you’ve not made him the Lord of your life, you’ve not given your life to him, and you’re tired of being ruled by sin.

I pray this morning that you would confess, you would confess Jesus as Lord. You would say, Lord, you’ve got what I need, and I can’t do it myself anymore, and I’m done trying. Give me your righteousness. Give me your life. My old life is dead to me now.

You’re Lord of my life. You are my righteousness. You are everything I need to be right with you, and I’m going to accept it, and I’m going to receive it, and I’m going to now live in it.

If that’s you, if you said that, you are on the path of walking in your new life. You have new hardware now. You have a heart that can tune to God’s frequencies and to his what he’s up to.

I pray for all of us that we would— Lord, help us. Help us to be more about your kingdom and your activities than we are about ours. Help us to set our minds on the things above and not the things of the earth. In your name we pray, amen.