Be Transformed

Introduction

The Game of “Telephone”

Introduction

The Game of “Telephone”

The challenge of this game is not to let the message get so changed that you lose what was being said.

There is a great truth we can learn from this game. Just as the original sentence is changed and distorted, Satan has been and is trying his best to change and distort the truth of God’s Word! We see this in the early words of Scripture, “Did God really say … ?” (See Genesis 3:1.) This is and has always been his plan of attack. We must be able to recognize the half-truths and outright lies that our enemy wants us to believe.

We are all on a search for the truth. Why? Because what we believe about reality affects the way we live and interact with the world and the people around us. And if what we believe is wrong, then it is going to have devastating effects on the consequences of how we live.

We all live according to a certain set of philosophical and idealogical worldviews. The question is, are the philosophies we live according to true?

Romans 12:2 CSB

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Here we have Paul urging the Roman believers to not simply give into whatever the popular philosophical idea is of the time. He wants them to not be conformed to this age, or to the world and culture around them, but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.

What does this mean? It means There is something that has

fundamentally changed who we are, and that change

is affecting everything about us! It is the work of the

Holy Spirit in us and our cooperation with that work

that produces transformation. This change ultimately takes place in our mind—

righteous thinking leads to righteous behavior! The call

of Jesus is to repent and believe. It is to turn from the

ways of sin and this world and turn toward the ways of

Jesus and His kingdom—become a living sacrifice!

So how are we transformed by the renewing of our minds?

Understand that Truth Comes from God

First we have to understand that truth comes from God alone. The world is going to try to lead us astray. Of course it does that by mixing some of God’s truth in with its own lies. It doesn’t give us outright lies of course. That would be too easy to detect. But just like the serpent in the garden, it is going to take God’s truth and twist it in such a way as to sound true.

The world wants us to believe that truth is whatever we want it to be. It wants us to believe that I can have my own truth and you can have your own truth. But truth doesn’t work that way. Either something is true or it is not.

So how do we know what is true?

We have to go to the source of truth itself, which is God. Everything God has said and spoken is true because God Himself is the truth. So where do we go for what is true then if God is its source?

God’s Word.

Psalm 119:160 ESV

The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

If our lives are going to be transformed by God’s truth rather than conforming to the lies of this world, we must ground our heart and our minds in God’s Word.

And it is not just part of God’s Word. It is the entirety of God’s Word. Even the world likes some parts of God’s Word, like loving your neighbor. But it will ignore the parts about God’s holiness and our sinfulness. If we are going to live by what is true, we must live by the entirety of God’s Word, not just the parts that sound good to us.

Believe that God’s Plan is Best

But not only do we need to hear and listen to God’s Word, we need to be transformed by our obedience to God’s Word.

It is not enough to simply affirm that we believe God’s Word. i

Proverbs 3:5–6 ESV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Humbly Confess the Truth of Our Sinfulness

Romans 3:23–24 (ESV)

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Trust that Jesus is Our Only Way

John 14:6 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Acts 4:12 ESV

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Lovingly Share the Truth of Jesus With Others

Ephesians 4:15 ESV

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,