Real Transformation

INTRODUCTION
Good morning! My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here.
Welcome to the Grand Opening of our Building Expansion!
We are SO happy that you are here this morning!
You know, I think every single want of us has areas that we want to see change and transformation in.
Maybe you want to start working out, or changing how you eat
Perhaps you want to change how you think of others, or work on your mental health
Or maybe you’re struggling with an addiction…
Or a breakup, or a messy family situation.
We all have something we want to change.
But many of us feel stuck, in part, because we’re not sure how to bring about transformation in our lives.
Or we’ve tried before, and we failed.
But what we’re going to see today (when we open up the Bible) is a pattern for how real transformation actually works.

We are starting a new teaching series today called “In View of God’s Mercy”…
(Series Slide)
And over the next 4 weeks, we are going to teach right through a chapter of the Bible.
You are at, what’s called a Bible-teaching church.
That means that every week we open up the Bible together, read it, study it, and try and make sense of what God’s Word says to us.
And each week, we read every verse in the passage whether it makes us feel encouraged or makes us nervous.
And this is a fantastic place to learn more about the Bible…
… whether you’ve been a Christian for a while and just want to go deeper in your faith.
…Or, if you’re just starting out, and maybe have never even really opened up a Bible to read it for yourself.
There is a Bible at every chair, so go ahead and grab one at this point.
We want you all to hold it and study it with your own eyes, so it won’t be on the screen or anything.
Romans 12:1-2
Page 775
We are teaching right through that chapter of Romans 12 over the next 4 weeks.
Romans is a letter written by one of the early leaders of the Christian faith called “The Apostle Paul”
And he’s writing to some new Christians in in Rome (thus Romans) about who Jesus is and how to follow Him.
Okay, let’s read it.
We’re just doing 2 verses today, but we want to dive deep into them.
(Romans 12:1-2) – NIV
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform 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.

OFFER YOURSELVES TO GOD
Okay, keep that open this morning because we’re just going to work through it phrase by phrase here.
(Title slide)
In the middle of the verse 2, Paul writes that he wants us to be TRANSFORMED.
And when Paul originally wrote this letter, he wrote it in Greek.
And the root word in Greek for the word transformed is:
Metamorphoo
And as you might have guessed, this is where the word metamorphosis also comes from.
Which, in biology, is the transformation of a tadpole to a frog, or perhaps a caterpillar to a butterfly.
And I want you to think about the caterpillar.
Imagine with me that you grew up in Antarctica…without the internet…and you had never seen or heard of a caterpillar before, or a butterfly.
(Caterpillar photo)
Would you look at a caterpillar and say, “Now, that looks like it’s going to fly someday!”
No, you’d say, “Never gonna happen.”
And yet, real transformation is going to happen.
But there is going to be a process.
And it’s not going to happen overnight.
And the same is true with real transformation in your life.
God can do it in your life.
Even if you’re going, “no way. Never gonna happen”
He can!
But if you really want to see it happen, you’ve got to submit to a process.
And that process is given to us in God’s Word right here in Romans.
And here is Step #1 to the process we see in the Bible:
#1: Offer Yourself to God
Look again at verse 1 in our text.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice
What Paul is saying is this:
“In View of God’s Mercy,” (which by the way is the name of our 4-week Teaching Series for this chapter of the Bible (Romans 12) because it’s the theme of the whole chapter)
But Paul is saying in view of God’s mercy, in light of what God has done for you…
Meaning, given the fact that God sent his Son Jesus to die on the cross for your sins, in your place (which is amazing!)…
Given that sort of mercy, we should offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.
What does that mean?
It means that we ought to say:
“God, I want you to be in charge of my life”
“God, Here are the keys. You drive. And You take me where You want, and tell me what to do and where to go.”
We are to place our own lives on the proverbial altar saying, “Lord, you can have my life.”
Now, thankfully Paul says offer yourself as a “living sacrifice!”
So you’re still alive! Phew!
But that also means offering yourself isn’t a one-time thing.
Our whole lives should be for God
But here’s the thing about living sacrifices, is, as it’s been said, they have a way of crawling off the altar.
And many of us have had those moments in our lives where we say, “God, you can have all of me!”
And then, life got busy.
Or we had kids
Or, we made mistake, and wrongly thought we couldn’t come back to God.
And so we start walking away from Him
Maybe you’re there right now.
And you’re not sure if it’s worth coming back to that place….
…putting your life on the altar again…offering it up to Him.
And one of the main reasons we hesitate to fully offer our lives up to God is because deep inside, we don’t fully trust God.
But You can.
Because the Bible says He’s a Good Father
Think of it this way: Let’s say you are a parent to a 4-year-old, and they are a strong-willed-child…to put it nicely.
You say, “Sit down and eat your vegetables,” and they say, “I’m getting up to go eat ice cream.”
That’s just kind of how they roll.
But what if, one day, they came to you and said, “Dad, Mom, as of today, I want trust you with my entire life. I want you to tell me what to do and where to go, and I’ll do it”
Now, it’s not a perfect metaphor because obviously we want kids to develop independence and all that…
But the point remains, if your child asked you to do that…would you lead them astray?
Or, because you love them, would you lead to good things?
Good things!
And see the Bible says that God is the BEST Father there is.
And so when you say to Him, “God, I want to, like a sacrifice, offer my life to you…I want you to have control of how I live, act, and what I do”
You can trust Him to lead you to good things.
(Title slide)
And besides, look at how verse 1 ends.
“offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”
Sometimes, that last Greek phrase is even translated, “This is your reasonable service to God”
To offer your life to God, the Bible says, is actually quite reasonable.
Why?
In view of God’s mercy.
Because of what He did.
Jesus paid for our debt, on the cross…paid for our sins.
Think of it this way.
What if I stopped you in the lobby, and I said, “Hey, just want you to know, while you were in the service, someone paid off one of your bills.”
How would you respond?
I think it would kind of depend on what it was and how much it was.
Like, was it like your monthly Netflix bill?
Cuz if it was, that’s just creepy, and how did they get my password?
…And why did they do that; it’s not that much money anyway.
But what if you had $100,000 in student loan debt…and I told you that someone paid it all off?
What would you think?
In view of that mercy, how would you respond?
That’s what this passage is teaching.
It’s that we, because we’ve sinned against God Almighty, have racked up a massive heavenly debt.
One that we can’t actually even repay.
And for sinning against God, what we rightly deserve is hell.
But Jesus came down to earth and died on the cross, and in doing so, paid off all the debt we owe.
And if we believe in Him, and offer our lives to Him, His cancelling of our debt will be applied to our life, and we will be forgiven…
AND, we can have a relationship with Him, and have eternal life in heaven, not hell.
That’s kind of a big deal.
It’s the biggest of deals.
And in view of that kind of mercy…
When someone forgives your sins and offers you endless trillion years in paradise…
…it’s actually quite reasonable for you to offer up you very short life on earth to God and live for God.
It would actually be unreasonable, irrational even, to not live for God given those facts.

DON’T CONFORM; BE TRANSFORMED
So that’s the first step. Offer Yourselves to God.
Let’s look at the second step for transformation in our passage.
Let’s look at verse 2 now.
Just find the small number 2:
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 
This is the second step:
(#2: Don’t Conform; Be Transformed)
But what does Paul mean when he says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world?”
In the Bible, whenever you see “the world,” it can be defined this way:
The World = The manner of thinking that is often seen in the popular culture, and often is against God’s ways.
And so Christians are told to resist “the world”
So often Jesus is telling His disciples not to be like everyone else.
(#2: Don’t Conform; Be Transformed)
And with the topic of transformation, Christians are called to not conform to how the rest of the world looks at this topic.
Because “the world” world say that you don’t even really need to be transformed…
Because the world says:
“you just do you”
“You live however you want and determine your own truth”
“Follow your heart wherever it takes you!”
And yet this sort of lifestyle, where we’re all supposed to just chase our base desires and all boundaries have been removed…
…hasn’t led to any hope or peace in our lives.
But instead, it’s led to lots of confusion and pain and hurt.
And so God’s Word says to you, “Don’t conform. Don’t be like everybody else in the world…just chasing aimlessly after one passion after the next”
That’s not how God created you to find life.
The Bible says, “Don’t conform, be transformed.”
And we are to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds”
So this is a somewhat passive act for us.
God is the only one who can bring about real transformation in your life.
The kind of transformation where people can look at your life and say, “What happened? Wow”.
Now, we have a role to play, but it’s, interestingly enough, similar to the role the caterpillar plays.
You’ve got to get yourself into the cocoon, and then God is going to do his metamorphosis work of REAL TRANSFORMATION.
(Title slide)
So how do you get in the cocoon, practically speaking?
You’ve got to be in places where God can renew your mind, and your thinking.
And for starters, you’ve already taken a good step this morning just by being here.
I know so many of you are here for the first time today, and that’s amazing.
If you want to see real transformation in your life, one of THE Best things you can do is just keep coming back each week
Start with just challenging yourself to come every week of this 4-week teaching series on Romans 12.
And that’s one way that you’re in the cocoon, letting God transform and renew your mind.
Another is to start reading the Bible.
If you’ve never actually truly read it yourself, there’s no time like the present to start.
In fact, we’d love for you to even take the Bible you’re holding today.
There’s even a little guide in the front cover that tells you the easiest books to start with.
But every time you stop to pray, to talk to God, to read His Word, to talk with other Christ followers, it’s like getting in the cocoon.
But remember, it’s God that does the transformation!
I mean think about it:
It’s not like the caterpillar is in the cocoon studying books on flight.
He’s not lifting weights in there, trying to grow wings.
He’s not meditating to the song “I believe I can fly”
No, God is rearranging Him and transforming Him
In the cocoon, enzymes are released that basically dissolve most of the caterpillar (the old is gone, the new has gone), and then God rebuilds it when these dormant cells are awakened and then butterfly-building begins.
And it’s a helpful visual because too many of us, in our American, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps culture…think that transformation comes when we just start working really hard.
And you say, “I’m going to work harder than ever to be a good mom!”
“No more yelling, or looking at my phone. From today on, I’m done!”
And then next day at breakfast your kid rides down the stairs…on a scooter, and you lose your mind!”
And then what happens?!
We feel defeated, and we quit.
But listen, we can’t change on our own.
This is the great re-discovery that the founders of AA found right in the pages of the Bible 100 years ago.
You can’t truly experience real transformation and real freedom, until you firstly surrender your life over to God.
That’s literally the 3rd step of any recovery program…
Turn your life and your will over to God.
Because GOD is the only one that can possibly bring real transformation.
But if you’ve been a Christian for a while, it’s easy to grow impatient with this transformation process too.
Sometimes we want it to go faster than God has planned for it to go.
It reminds me of a kid’s book.
You may be familiar with the kids classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, but there is also a good one called “The Very Impatient Caterpillar.”
(The Very Impatient Caterpillar)
I think too often Christians act like this.
We’ve been in the cocoon for a day…and we say, “God why aren’t I totally different yet?”
Or, we just don’t want to wait anymore, so like the bottom right here, we say, “I feel metamorphosized enough”
But listen, sometimes God works fast.
For example, I became a follower of Jesus when I was 18.
And there were some things that God transformed really quickly in my life.
And they were evidence to me of how real He was.
Like, I used to hold so many grudges…and carried a lot of hate.
And as I trusted in Christ, and God came in my life, it was like so much of that just disappeared...almost instantly.
But there other areas, where, more than 2 decades later, God is still chipping away.

#3: LIVE IN HIS GOOD WILL
But we need to stick with it…because of what transformation gives us…
…which is the 3rd step of the process.
Let’s read the rest of verse 2
It says: Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
This is the 3rd step
(#3: Live in His good will)
Here’s what that’s saying:
The more you offer your life up to God…
And the more you get in the cocoon and let Him work on your mind and heart…
The more you’ll be able to know how He wants you to live (His will).
And better yet, the longer we’re in the cocoon, the more He’ll actually transform our desires to match His desires.
And you’ll WANT His good, pleasing, and perfect will as the Bible says.
And his ways are SO good!
In fact, I would say living for God has actually been one of the biggest pieces of evidence for God in my own life.
I lived many years not following Jesus, and now many years following His ways.
And I can tell you that living for God is so much better!
I’ve said to people before that even if someone could prove to me with video evidence that God isn’t real (which you can’t!)…but if you could…
I would still walk in God’s ways…because they are that good, and pleasing, and perfect.
And that sort of transformation that God has done is so many of our lives, is what makes so many of us want to go even deeper with God.
We feel like we’re experiencing the transformation of flight, and we don’t want to go back…even when the ground calls out to us.

THE GOSPEL
And to some of you in this room, God is calling out to you strongly right now.
And He’s saying, “It’s time to come home. It’s time to surrender to me, and trust me”
And you start by trusting in Him for salvation and offering your life to Him
The Bible says this, and this is the central point of our faith:
(John 3:16) - NIV
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
When you believe that Jesus died in your place, and took the death that you deserved…
The Bible says your faith in Him allows the guilt of your sin to go onto Jesus on the cross…
So that when we meet God someday, the punishment for our sin will be not upon us, but upon Christ.
And we can be declared not guilty at judgment, and enter into eternity in heaven.
And of course, that faith and trust in God, also allows Him to come into our lives right now, and start to transform us.
And some of you, this is what you need.
You need to invite God in to save you.
You need Him in your life.
And so I want to give you an opportunity to receive Him into your life right now as your Savior, and to offer up your life to Him as your leader.
In fact, let’s do this.
Let’s just have everyone, just for a minute, close your eyes and bow your head.
If you need to make this decision for the first time today…to tell Jesus that you need His forgiveness for your sins…to make Him the Lord of your life…to accept His gift of Eternal life…
In just a minute, I’m going to ask you to stand up
No one’s going to be looking at you at all, that’s why we had everyone close their eyes.
But sometimes in life, we just need that moment…that line in the sand moment.
To say, “God I’m taking that leap of faith to you today”
If you need to tell God for the first time today that you do believe, and you want to follow Him and be forgiven.
Then I invite you to stand where you are right now (and keep standing).

The Bible tells us that in this moment we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths.
Repeat after me
Dear God
I confess to you, that I have sinned against you.
But God I believe, that you sent your Son Jesus, to take my place
And God I thank you, for forgiving my sins.
And now I commit, to following you, with my life.

(NEXT STEPS)
As everyone still has their eyes closed, for those of you standing up, you just made the most important decision of your life, and I believe that requires some more information…
So here’s what we’re going to do to get you that…as everyone still has their eyes closed, I want you to walk over to that door on your left where my friends are waving.
You won’t walk there alone.
There are many others standing with you, and our follow-up team is going to walk out at the same time with you
And then, for just a couple of minutes, I am going to get you some extremely important resources & next steps to get you started on the most important journey of your life (and then you can come back in the service).
All right, I’m going to pray, and you can go as I pray.
Go ahead. Let’s pray