Teague Bible Church

HOW TO LIVE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE- Part 2

3/28/2020 ( We could not live stream today)

  Today’s main topic — QUESTION:  HOW DO WE GET TRANSFORMED?

 Please listen to March 8, 2020 for Part 1 of What Is The Christian Life?

          At teaguebiblechurch.org

 Intro: Tombstone movie;  Doc had to fight for Wyatt because he was faster on the draw. Wyatt was willing, was brave enough, and was planning to fight; even though he knew , (after talking to Doc about it) that he was not fast enough with a gun to kill his opponent. Wyatt had to humble himself and be helped by Doc Holliday . Doc was fast enough to defeat the enemy, and did so.

Review;  Part 1– The Surrender – Romans 12:1  When you surrender first; ( before you pray other things; before you study the Word, before your fellowship; before you witness to others about Jesus) it puts you in tune with your new nature in Christ. Otherwise you end up trying to improve the old nature which is impossible to improve.  John 6:63, John 15:5  

Review;  Part 2 – The Transformation Romans 12:2

When we are “born- again” ( John 3:1-5)  we receive a new nature that gives us a new power to defeat the enemy; i.e.,  to live as God intended. When you were born -again you repented of your sins, turned your back on an old life, and received a new life when you ask Jesus to save you from the judgement against your sins.

In our old nature we cannot live the Christian life. Please get this!

So a born -again believer in Christ now has two natures. The old one he was born with, and a new nature given as a gift of God. The old nature is not able to work for it; i.e., the new nature. It has to be given as a free gift, based on the work only Jesus could do for us, in our place, by a free gift of grace. Grace is something unearned and undeserved. ( Ephesians 2:8-10)

“Conformed” – Going with the flow of the worldly.

             Phillips translation- ( The N.T. In Modern English)“ Stop letting the world squeeze you into its mold.”

“Transformed” – Greek word ,  “  metamorphousthe “

    Only used twice in the New Testament. From where we get the word, METAMORPHOSIS, which means a drastic change from one state of being to another!

Ex. Cocoon to a butterfly

Ex.  Acorn to an oak tree

For every believer this holds out the reasonable possibility of dramatic changes in your life in the here and now!

 D.L. Moody- “ The world has yet to see a man totally sold out to God; I want to be that man!”

QUESTION:  WHY DO WE NEED TO BE TRANSFORMED? ( John 6: 63, Romans 8:5-9,13) Old nature can’t cut it. It is a self-defeating attempt. The old nature runs on pride.

ANSWER:  It is the only way to discover God’s will for your life!

“Good, acceptable, perfect” – Surely you long for this? To be able to say, “ Oh yes, God’s will for me is perfect, it fits me like a glove; personalized and perfect!” It will satisfy your deepest longings. If the world could give it to you, you would have already found it. If your attempts to get it, through the old nature could have done it you would be there by now! But the world system can never give you satisfaction!

PART 3:  ANSWER: BY HAVING YOUR MIND RENEWED. To be different you have to think different! Remember back when you were 8 or 12 or 16 and you thought you pretty well knew how things were? Could you imagine the disaster your life would be if you had not learned and matured?

Our problem is we do not think right; because of the Fall of man. Our thinking got off.

Ex. Say you are at Walmart. Some old bag -of bones old person who is never ready at the check out counter(the old nature thinking) is in front of me.  I pray to the Lord so I do not say or do something I will regret and be a bad witness. And the Lord grants the request and I settle down a bit. Something much better could have taken place. If you understood your mind needs to be renewed you would let the Lord reset your world view at that moment, through surrender to your new nature, and instead of merely, “Lord , give me patience!”, you would have said, “Lord what is in in my thinking that needs to change here?” Immediately you surrender your will to His, to get the answer. “ My child you are precious to me but so is that person. You are having to wait in line and that goes against your thoughts that say, “I should never have to wait in line!” Your thinking is off. The grid you are seeing life through is off. You must listen to the Holy Spirit I have placed inside of you; and allow the Holy Spirit to work in the new nature to have a renewed mind.” Do you get what I am saying?

Ex. “ The Lord will help me and intercede on my behalf!” So, you keep getting in debt, over and over again. You plead with the Lord to bail you out. And He graciously does so a few times. But a renewed mind will say, ”Why do I want so much stuff and get myself in such a pickle time and time again?” The old nature tells you that you just need God to bail you out; the renewed mind leads you to a whole new reality of being satisfied in your relationship with Christ that you learn to budget. Just living “your life” the way you want to and checking in with God just when you fall on you face in not the life God intended for you in Jesus Christ. Plus it is no way to relate to someone who loves you, especially the Lord! The Old Testament gives example after example of why this does not work, has never worked, will never work. Read Deuteronomy 8 sometime. It is a picture of trying to live with God’s help but remain self-focused instead of God-focused.

As believers in Christ we have a new nature that gives us all we need to become transformed which helps us discover God’s plan for our life. To be able to truly say, “ Now this is what I have been looking for!”

But we are responsible for feeding the new nature! If we do not, then the only place to go is the old nature which only brings continued lifelessness and corruption, dullness, emptiness, boredom, hopelessness, loneliness, misery. Galatians 5:16-25

Ex. Having a great new and fast computer, but not knowing how to work it.

You may say, “Ok, I realize a person cannot live the Christian life without being surrendered to God’s will; I can’t be doing my will and His will at the same time. I also realize that a transformation must start taking place, that is, having a renewed mind, but I still do not know how to do it! Where is the handle on this reality?

THE HANDLE: Occupation with Christ!  Living in the Word of God!

Replacing one false thought with the true thoughts of the Word of God.  Proverbs 4:23/ Colossians 3:16

The second time the word, “transformation” appears in the N.T. is II Corinthians 3:5-18.

 Big Example:  II Corinthians 3: 5-18  Paul explains the superiority and permanency of The New Covenant.

This passage show the “how to” of the process. This is the real open secret of living the Christian life!

Point: By beholding the glory of the Lord, from the Word of God, we become like Jesus Christ in our thinking and character. This is very different than just being a moralist; this is a real transformation! Very different than just believing , “God will help me when I get in trouble!”

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT–

 There is a psychological principle that God has placed in every human. If you spend a lot of time with someone you admire- you became like them.

Ex. Father to son

Ex. The Great Stone Face- Nathaniel Hawthorne (one hour read; read this)

If we spend a great deal of time with Jesus we will become like Him.  I John 3: 1-3

POINT: As we spend time in the Word of God, the Holy Spirit of God begins changing us, moment-by moment, into Christlikeness. This is exactly what happened to the disciples as they spend 3 ½ years under the personal ministry of Jesus Christ. They learned the truth while He was with them, but it was fully remembered, and applied, after the Holy Spirit was given to them. Read about that in the book of Acts

Point:  We need to saturate ourselves with God’s Word, then the Holy Spirit has something to work with. The Holy Spirit will show you how that applies.

REVIEW:

1. Surrender to God-  No joking around about it!

2. Saturate yourself with the Word of God

3. The Holy Spirit will empower and help us to apply the Word of God to any given situation. That is possible because you have a new nature given to you to overcome the old one , over time.

THE GOAL OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE:

A. Immediate Goal : Functional maturity     Ephesians 4: 13-15/ Colossians 2:2-3

Ephesians 1:3/ I Peter 1:3   Everything we need; through the new nature.

B. Ultimate Goal: Made like Christ    Romans 8:29/ Colossians 3: 10

The “good” Of Romans 8: 28 is defined in 8:29 “To be conformed to the image of His Son.”

No short cuts. No one big experience will make you a mature believer.

God is trying to work toward this goal in your life. Comfort here. Philippians 1: 6

Graphic Illustration:

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                 Moment of salvation                        Time Line                                                Death

We have a lot of ups and downs as we learn to live by a renewed mind instead of the old, knee =jerk reaction of the old nature. Generally the action along the line moves upward.