The Invitation to Change

Bible Passage: John 15:4-5, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Hebrews 12:1-2, Acts 2:42-44

Introduction

Have you gone through a time in your life where some sort of challenge brought you closer to God? Unfortunately, most of us don’t run to Him when life is going smoothly. We tend to wander our way through life, maybe looking, attending church, but not really digging in on our own time. Never really fully committing ourselves to following the Lord. We may have an interest in Him, but it’s not really fueled by anything in particular so we’re content to just wander through and catch an occasional glimpse. But nothing has really given us a burning flame of desire to find Him and know Him. Then something happens; a diagnose, a death, a separation, a divorce, a layoff, an injury. I have no idea what it might have been for you. It could be heart wrenching pain or what others might consider a minor inconvenience. Whatever it might be it’s pressure from inside or from outside that finally gets our attention. We finally start to talk to Him and to seek His help. My hope for you is it won’t take some kind of tragic experience to get you looking towards heaven. Whatever the cause, I think you will find the following to be true.

I. Spiritual formation is like a horizontal coil with continual (and repeating) highs and lows.

II. Spiritual formation takes deep work and must be a priority in your life.

III. Spiritual formation requires perseverance through seasons of growth and struggle.

IV. Spiritual growth happens when you are engaged in authentic Christian relationships.

V. God uses every moment—the mundane, the joyful, and the difficult—to ultimately accomplish His purpose of transforming you into Christ’s likeness.

Spiritual growth doesn’t happen by accident. If you feel like you’ve suddenly made a giant leap forward, be wary. Spiritual growth rarely happens suddenly and in large leaps forward. Experience may teach you that the giant leap forward was really just a small step and something will bite us to remind us we’re maybe not as full grown as we might think. Know that it is ok. Know when you continue to make mistakes that you think you’ve conquered that spiritual change is rarely immediate. Give yourself the grace to grow and the patience to move into it consistently and continuously. One thing is certain, it will not happen without effort on your part. Follow along with me if you will.

I. Abiding in Christ

John 15:4–5 “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

Abide in me

Make your life

Spend time dwelling

Make Christ your center

Branch must stay connected

Disconnected branch becomes a dry stick

Connected branch gets its nourishment from the Vine

Branch can’t bear fruit without connection

Those who abide in Jesus

Person who lives with Jesus

One who bears fruit stays connected

Disconnected cannot bear fruit

What does it mean to abide in Christ? It’s just like we’ve been discussing. You have to make the choice to start spending time in His presence. If you find it difficult to find time. Then do this and be honest with yourself. Open your cell phone to see the weekly tally of how much time you spent browsing on your phone. Most will even show you which apps you’re using most often and spending the most time in. Keep a record for a week, how much time do you spend watching TV, how much time do you spending working out, how much time do you spend on your hobbies, how much time do you spend with your loved ones. Just try to notice especially where the time which is not required of you (work, meal time, etc.) is spent. I suspect you will find that you have time in the day where you could start. If you don’t have a regularly scheduled Bible time, download the YouVersion Bible app and look in the plans section. I promise you can find something that appeals to some area of your life. Maybe don’t start with a plan that studies the whole Bible in a month or maybe even a year. Start small, maybe fifteen minutes in the morning while you drink your coffee. Give a few minutes to reading a small passage of scripture or a Bible study plan. Spend five minutes quietly thinking about what you’ve read, then another five minutes talking to God, praying. If you will do that every day for a month, it will stick. You will begin to slowly see change taking place in your life.

II. Transformed by Glory

2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Unveiled faces

All of us who seek

Remove our masks

Turn our face toward Jesus

Behold the Lord’s glory

Look toward Jesus

Focus on Him

Begin to see His glory

Transformed into same image

Changed to look like Him

Changed slowly by degrees

Transformed by the Spirit

Jesus promised us if we seek Him, we will find Him. He’s not hiding from you. He’s not distant and so far away you can’t ever hope to reach him. We have unprecedented access to the Scriptures. That app I was talking about, YouVersion, will give you access to most every Bible translation known to man. It’s super easy to switch between them. If you have an iPad you can even look at multiple versions side by side. It can help you to get a better understanding of what the original authors were intending to say. I used to change the version I read each year. I would read through the whole Bible in one translation for a year. If I ran across something I had trouble understanding, I’d flip through several versions to see if that helped me to get a greater understanding. Beware of the Google. There’s lots of stuff on the Internet, that just isn’t true.

III. Run the Race

Hebrews 12:1–2 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Surrounded by witnesses

We are surrounded

Many witnesses come to see

Observe our gradual transformation

Lay aside the weight

Put down what weighs on you

Set aside our sins

Run with patience / endurance

Looking to Jesus

Keep our eyes fixed properly

Author of our faith

One who perfects us by his death and resurrection

You’ve all heard more than enough illustrations of me running long distances. It’s close to my heart so it’s easy. One of my favorites, is the Backyard Ultra World Championships. A slightly over 4 mile course that starts on the hour every hour until only one runner finishes the last lap alone. If that doesn’t happen then nobody wins. Phil Gore won the last race in 119 laps, 4 days and 18 hours, 495.8 miles total. It takes perseverance to keep going. The same is true though of any endurance event. You have to continue to make yourself go. You have to put one foot in front of the other. There is an auto race, fundraiser, event called the Mongol Rally. It’s a 10,000 mile race with no specific course. “This is 10,000 miles of chaos across mountains, deserts and roads ranging from bad to not-a-road in a tiny car you bought from a scrapyard. There’s no backup. There’s no set route. There’s no guarantee you’ll make it to the end.”

IV. Growth in Community

Acts 2:42–44 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common.”

Devoted to apostles’ teaching

Focused on teaching passed from Jesus through apostles

Focused on fellowship, togetherness

Focused on eating and prayer

Overtaken by awe and wonder

Everyone in awe of change

Many wonders and signs (miracles)

Worked through the apostles

Became a connected community

Believers remained together

Shared what they had together

Took care of needy

We found out about the Mongol Rally by watching a YouTube channel we’ve been watching for a few years. It’s a young couple who do travel videos and all kinds of weird challenges. The interesting part about that particular race is there’s not really a strong focus on a winner. It’s about finishing the race. And many teams, including the one we were watching find that the only way you’re going to finish is if you learn to help one another. Having other teams close by that can help when the car breaks down or gets stuck in the mud or struggling to keep going. It’s good to have other people around. The same is true of our spiritual growth. It’s helpful to have other people around. We welcome anyone who’s interested to come to our Bible Study on Wednesday evenings. We study in a little more detail the things I preach about here on Sunday. We learn from one another. We help each other to grow our understanding of Scripture and how to live it out.