Transformative Love
The Glory of God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
Gospel / Good News
To Proclaim
Release - Chains
Recovery of sight - Lost in darkness
Freedom - Oppressed
The Favorable Year of the Lord
Bind Up - Broken-hearted
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
What I Saw the Other Weekend
I saw God literally transform people with His love over 3 days.
But that was just one glimpse of transformative love
Because God transforms people over a lifetime.
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
As I pondered this, a miracle of Jesus came to mind and planted a thought which became the genesis for today’s sermon.
Read Matthew 15:21-28
A few things stood out to me.
Jesus’ decision to use bread as the main metaphor.
The woman’s keen insight to relegate the bread to crumbs as she sought the Lord’s favor.
Table scraps are better than no scraps.
Jesus proclaims that the woman’s faith was great.
Her wish was granted.
Bread
Bread
What did Jesus say about Himself?
“I am the bread of life. “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
What did Jesus ask us to pray for?
‘Give us this day our daily bread.
These are both in reference to the manna in the wilderness.
Both touch on not just our physical needs being met, but Jesus highlighting the spiritual significance behind the manna.
The Bread from Heaven - that divine spiritual nourishment presented as the life and soul of Christians in the person of the Son of God.
Daily bread
Sufficient for this day.
Cannot eat yesterday’s bread.
Cannot store up for tomorrow.
Except on the 6th day for the Sabbath.
A picture of a double portion for the 7th Day.
Sunday we get a double portion of what we have been getting during the week.
And yet, the double portion on Sunday is not enough to get us through the week.
We get a double dose of Jesus on Sunday, but we need Jesus every day of the week.
Crumbs
Crumbs
Daily Bread Crumbs
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Our daily dose of Jesus is connected to seeing His glory each and every day.
This text is in connection to Moses being in the presence of God and radiating the glory of God and when Moses came to talk to the people he had to put a veil over his face so that the people would not “freak out”.
But the metaphor Paul uses is that we are only seeing a reflection as if in a mirror the glory of the Lord.
Like Moses, we can’t see the glory of the Lord directly, we can only catch a glimpse, a reflection of His glory.
Daily Bread Crumbs of Glory
Table scraps are better than no scraps.
We may not be able to see the full glory of God, but we get the after-effects of the whole, pieces that remain, if you will, just like crumbs are the remains of the whole.
This transformative love of God comes to us from one daily bread crumb of glory to the next daily bread crumb of glory, from glory to glory.
Michelle’s corn bread crumb story.
Something was missing. “Dolly”
A few weeks later was a youth fundraiser and we had a chili feed.
Michelle was vacuuming the church the next day and there was a corn bread trail up the back staircase.
Michelle was focused on the mess which led up to the main floor.
The next day she saw more crumbs that led up the stairs to the attic storage.
She followed them up and it led her to the manger that was stored up there.
In the manger was Dolly.
God had left a cornbread trail of glory and love.
These bread crumbs which are meant to be daily moments where God reveals His glory and love to us are often overlooked, or due to our frustration not seen as moments of glory.
God is always revealing Himself to us, it’s just whether we will recognize it or not, or whether we will seek Him or the difficulty of the moment.
Daily Transformation by Bread Crumbs of Glory
But we aren’t just seeing the glory of Jesus.
We are being transformed into that same image of Jesus.
It is a daily transformation into the image of the Lord
The more we spend time with Jesus the more He rubs off on us.
The more we spend time with Jesus the more we look like Him.
By the power of the Holy Spirit
And the first aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is love...
Because spending time with Jesus reveals a relationship based on love.
This is not a religion based on laws or a “to do” list.
This must be a relationship based on love.
And it’s the love of Jesus that transforms us.
The more we let Jesus love on us, the more we fall in love with Him.
Trying to set time aside to spend with Jesus is not a scheduling problem, it is a love problem.
We will always make time for the things that we love.
Early morning basketball.
Hanging out with the boys, or my wife.
Daily Transformation by the Bread Crumbs of Glory and Love
I John 3:1-3
How Great a Love (vs. 1)
How Deep The Father’s Love
Love of the Father bestowed upon us. (vs. 1)
Bestowed - To give of one’s own accord and with good will; a favor or benefit given.
That we would be called children of God. (vs 1)
We have no business being adopted to the family of God.
We have no business being called children of the Most High.
We have no business calling Jesus our brother and God our Father.
We have no business being co-heirs with Jesus.
We have no business being called sons and daughters of the King.
But, John says, that is what we are.
If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and have accepted His sacrifice for your sins, that is what you are!
You are a child of God.
Satan will lie and try to convince you that you are not so.
You Say - Lauren Daigle
Who You Say I Am - Hillsong
And it has not appeared as yet what we will be. (vs. 2)
There is more to come.
We only see a minute fraction of the potential of what will be.
When He appears, WE WILL BE LIKE HIM! (vs 2)
What?!!!
We will see Him just as He is.
But there is a cool subtly here. Let me rephrase it and see if I can capture it.
When Jesus is standing before us, we will realize that we look just like Him.
We will be a mirror image of Jesus.
Everyone who has this hope fixed on Him (vs 3)
The hope of looking life Jesus!
This hope is not wishful thinking, but rather, this hope is basing our expectations on a certainty.
Purifies himself, just as He is pure. (vs 3)
This is a huge statement.
This is an action that we perform. There is effort on our part.
This is not justification, which is an act of God only and is conferred upon us by His decree.
The only part we play in justification is the acceptance of the gift by faith in the declaration that we are forgiven through Jesus Christ.
Sanctification, however, is where we have a responsibility to act out our faith.
The context here and in the rest of I John is that this purification process is connected to how we act out our faith through loving our brothers and sisters in Christ.
No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
This is what we saw with the Syrophoenician woman.
Her love for her daughter and her faith that Jesus could heal moved her to beg for just a crumb of His glory and love.
And that crumb of glory and love healed her daughter.
Daily Transformation by the Bread Crumbs of Glory and Love
This is the purification process. Remember that it is a process.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Transformation into the same image from Glory to Glory.
We are being transformed moment by moment until we look like Jesus and then when standing before Him we realize we do look like Jesus.
Our wish to be like Jesus will be granted, just like the Syrophoenician woman was granted her wish.
But these bread crumbs of glory are also moments where God reveals Himself to us in loving ways.
From glory to glory.
From moment to moment.
From bread crumb of glory and love to bread crumb of glory and love.
So, let’s put this together.
The transformation process is to embrace Jesus relationally as our source of life and sustenance now and for eternity.
We must daily allow His transformative love to marinate our souls.
Each bread crumb we consume is a moment of glory and the love of Christ.
Follow the bread crumb trail until you get to the manger and when you look inside, you’ll find what you are looking for.
You will see Jesus reflected in you.
Follow the Trail of Bread Crumbs
Testimony
Fred was in a sober transitional house and clean and sober for maybe a month.
His kids’ mom had cut off ties with him and even blocked his calls. It was driving him crazy.
During the week God began to minister to him and he asked for prayer about his situation. We prayed that he’d be able to talk to his kids and “coincidentally” later that day, his kids called him and he got a chance to talk to them.
A bread crumb of glory.
He also recommitted his life to Christ and then he asked for prayers for his ex and that she would be open to coming the next weekend. He said it’d be a miracle.
Somehow he got a hold of her and she agreed to come. She even let him pick her up and drop her off at the retreat.
A bread crumb of glory.
She went and loved it. He said it’s been awesome seeing fire in her and their relationship and communication has gone from night to day.
A bread crumb of glory.
This past weekend he texted and said he got to have his kids over for the weekend and all the way through Tuesday morning.
A bread crumb of glory.
Application:
Application:
Get your bread crumb of love and glory from Jesus.
Don’t let your love grow cold for Him.
Renew your relationship with Him.
Look for your bread crumbs of glory as you go through this next week.
They’re always there, we just don’t always recognize them.
Even the hard times can have crumbs of glory in them.
Closing Song: The Lord’s Prayer (It’s Yours)
