Conversion: Changing Your Spiritual Address

In many ways their story was a lot like the story of other ministry couples. They met young, at college, married young, had babies young, and entered into ministry young. The difference was that this pastor’s wife was unsaved, and she didn’t know it.

She had not been raised by Christian parents. Most of her life she did not go to church. But she did go to a Christian camp, where she was asked if she wanted to spend eternity in heaven or in hell. Of course, she said heaven, and then she was told to repeat a prayer after the person talking to her. After she repeated the prayer, she was assured that she was saved, born again, converted, right with God. But nothing in her life changed.

Fast-forward several years, and she had married her husband, Joel, a pastor, and she had become a pastor’s wife. Now our church is a pretty healthy church. Because of that, you treat my wife really well. You love her, you accept her, as she is. But many churches expect the pastor’s wife to be a certain way and dress a certain way and act a certain way and when she doesn’t, they gossip about her or treat her poorly.

That was the case with this pastor’s wife. In addition to that, she was also thrust into responsibilities and roles that she wasn’t equipped for.

Our transition was exciting, at first. The excitement, however, wore off with the challenges of being married to a church planter. I was thrust into a world of pastor’s-wife expectations and felt a lot of pressure to move way out of my comfort zone, to live on mission, to visit the park to try to meet with moms, to share the gospel with some random person Joel would ask me to visit. It was all so utterly frustrating and daunting because I had no clue what to say to these women.

In other words, she was being asked to play a role she didn’t fit into. She felt like a fake, and she was. And she felt trapped. How could she tell her husband and her church about this? So she began to medicate her pain.

She says:

The stress was too much. I started drinking to numb the pain. I would drink so much and stay out so late, I don’t know how I made it home in one piece. I finally came up with a plan to do whatever I could to make Joel so miserable that he would finally tell me to leave. I followed through with my plan, but he wouldn’t tell me to leave. I gave myself over to severe sins he didn’t know about. I honestly hated my husband. I hated his church.

I remember asking Joel one day if he would be OK if I weren’t a Christian. He told me he would still love me, but he wouldn’t be OK with it. “I would preach the gospel to you every day if I have to,” he said.

And, well, that’s exactly what he did. For six months, he loved his wife sacrificially. He allowed her to walk all over him for six months while he continuously loved her and kept reminding her that God would forgive all her sin and give her and them a clean start if she would trust in Him. Finally, God honored her husband’s prayers, and his wife trusted in Jesus and was born again.

In January 2011, something changed. I now know what it was: I was converted...It happened in a moment, but I can’t tell you exactly when that moment was. All I know is that Joel took me out to a restaurant, and I confessed my sins to him. As I did, I confessed those sins to God. I not only felt grace and love from Joel, I felt grace and love from God. I felt a weight lifted. I felt as if I had hit rock bottom, but God had broken through my wicked and dark heart––and he rescued me.

I was saved under the faithful preaching of my husband. The hopelessness I’d always felt was gone. I had an insatiable desire to be in the Word. Even better, it made sense to me. I had a new desire to serve others, share Christ with others, and serve the church. These were just some of the beautiful proofs from the Spirit that God had saved me. [https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/when-the-pastor-baptizes-his-wife/, accessed Feb. 20, 2021]

When you trusted in Jesus as your Savior and committed yourself to Him as Lord, your life instantly and comprehensively changed. It doesn’t matter how old you were or how young you were. It doesn’t matter whether you felt it then or feel it now. Whenever it took places, and whatever the circumstances, your life changed instantaneously, comprehensively, and permanently. And our passage this morning explains to us what this change is. It is a change in our spiritual address. Three things that happened when you trusted in Christ, three things made easy to remember by three words: rescued, adopted, and redeemed. Rescued, adopted, and redeemed.

#1: Rescued (v. 13a)

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 1

13 For He rescued us from the adomain of darkness,

The first thing Paul says is that we have been rescued. Now the word “rescue”, that’s a hero word, isn’t it? A rescuer is a hero.

Ill. Think of those people who are heroes. Aren’t they heroes precisely because of their willingness to come to your rescue? About two years ago we had a little fire in our house. I had plugged in my laptop, and no sooner had I plugged it in that our lights flickered, the outlet exploded, sparks flew, I jumped back screamed like a little girl, and stood sort of stunned as I watched that outlet engulfed by flames. The flames continued to burn as I called 911. Within five minutes or less, our front driveway and front yard had about 12 vehicles in it. EMS workers, police officers, firefighters, first responders. They came to our rescue. In my opinion those people are some of the best people on this planet, because whereas we run from danger, they run toward it in order to rescue those threatened by it.

The word “rescue” in verse 13 is not only a hero word, it’s also an action word. And the subject of that verb is God. God - the Creator and Sustainer of the universe - the Judge of all the earth - the consuming fire - Yahweh - He it is that comes to the aid of His people. In fact, if you were to open a Bible dictionary to this word for “rescue”, you would discover that this word is the same word used to describe God delivering or rescuing the Israelites out of Egyptian captivity.

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 12

26 And when your children say to you, ‘What does this rite mean to you?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to the LORD who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.’ ” And the people bowed low and worshiped.

Safe to say the Exodus was a rescue, right? Under the cover of night, and the fury of Pharoah upon them, with the Egyptian army on their tail, the Israelites quickly fled Egypt, found themselves crossing the Red Sea on dry land, made it safely across and looked behind them, only to see Pharoah’s army being overwhelmed by the same waters that had just been split into two to allow them to come through safely. Rescue is a hero word. And for those of us who have trusted in Christ, God is our rescuer.

Well that’s all well and good, but what does God rescue us from? What does it mean that God rescues us from the domain of darkness? What kind of darkness is it? Well, the darkness must pose some danger to us; otherwise Paul wouldn’t have chosen the word rescue.

The word rescue means to be extracted from some situation or state that is a threat to us - a serious threat. The clue to this question is found in the word right before the word “darkness”. “He rescued us from the domain of darkness...” Domain - it means authority, power. And darkness, well in the Bible that often means evil, wickedness, everything that is against God and against us.

That would include Satan and his demons, which I believe are real, by the way; we’ve been rescued from Satan and his demons; they can harass us, but they cannot indwell us or own us or possess us or control us. That would include sin and its penalty; we’ve been rescued from the guilt of our sin, so that it no longer hangs over us and alienates us from God. Darkness would include death, and the fear of death. And darkness would include, of course, the prince of darkness himself, Satan. The domain of darkness is the spiritual realm in which Satan is ruler, his demons attend to him and do his work, we are slaves and captives who also do his work even as we think we’re merely going about our lives. Satan is the first human trafficker the world has ever known.

Now sometimes people portray God and Satan as though they are equals fighting it out. We don’t know exactly which one is going to win, they say. We hope God wins out, but we don’t know. That’s called dualism. Satan is basically elevated to the level of a being with all the same powers and attributes of God, the only difference being God is good and Satan is evil. That’s false, though; it’s a lie. The real story is better than that. We know that good will triumph over evil; we know that God will have victory over Satan, because Satan, for all his power and skill, is no match for our Father in heaven. Satan, you’ll remember, is a created being. Satan cannot put a finger on us without the express permission of God. This is not a battle between equals. This is a battle we know will be won by our God and in our favor.

You’ll notice, too, that this rescue is not something in which we play a role at all. Look back at verse 13. Does it say, “He has rescued us…with our help?” Does it say “He has rescued us but we did the preliminary work?” Does it say “He has rescued us but we put the finishing touches on it?” No, it simply says “He rescued us.” We’re not in the picture at all. We’re not even like the castaway in the ocean who is able to swim to the Coast Guard helicopter basket and be pulled up? No, we’re floating dead in the water, limp as a dishrag, totally unable even to dog paddle or do anything to keep ourselves afloat. This is because the NT tells us that prior to our conversion, prior to that big defining change in our lives that took place when we trusted in Christ, we were not just sick or weak. We were dead. But when we trust in Christ, we are born again - regenerated - quickened to new life by the Holy Spirit of God, and we are rescued.

And this rescue God provides - it doesn’t mean that a person’s actual behavior changes immediately. It might - it might not. What it does mean is that we’ve had a spiritual change of address. If you ever moved before, maybe you can relate to the guy who going home from work accidentally drives to his old house - the one he and his family just moved out of last week. He does this periodically for weeks after they’ve moved. He’s not crazy. It’s just habit. He lived there for 20 years. But regardless of the fact that he continues to go there by habit, the reality is a change has taken place - his address is now somewhere else, and eventually, finally, he’ll form new habits that coincide with his actual address.

Well in the same way, when we trust in God, God rescues us immediately and instantaneously from the penalty and the power of sin. It just takes us some time to learn and grow to the point where we begin to live like people who’ve been rescued.

Do you think of yourself as someone who’s been rescued by God? Here’s why I ask that question: Those of us who came to Christ at a young age, like 13 and younger - it’s harder to accept that God rescued you from the domain of darkness. It’s easier to think of God rescuing someone who spent their life on the streets. It’s easier to think of God rescuing someone who’s really deep in sin or drug use or mental disorders. Hardened criminals need rescue. Heroin addicts need rescue. This much we know. What about the lesser sins? The sins children can commit? How about people enslaved by greed and jealousy? Do they need rescue? What about people who outwardly look pretty good but inwardly are full of resentment and envy and bitterness? What about pride or selfish ambition? Do they need rescue? The point is this: Sin is sin. And all sin separates us from God and will send us to hell if we are not rescued. So, the question for you and I then is: Do we need rescue? Have we been rescued? It’s important to know that and always keep it in front of us, because it’s the only we will ever learn to appreciate the depth of God’s love. And only then will we be changed.

That’s the first thing that happened to us instantaneously when we trusted in Christ: we were rescued. Next, we have been adopted.

#2: Adopted (v. 13b)

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 1

and transferred us to the kingdom of bHis beloved Son

Just as God rescued Israel out of Egypt and transferred them to a good land, in the same way God does more than just bring us out of our bondage to the darkness. He brings us into His kingdom of light.

Because, you see, it’s one thing to be rescued out of a bad situation. It’s one thing to be removed from the clutches of darkness. It’s another thing entirely to be brought into the light. But that’s exactly what Paul says God has done for us in verse 14. Not only has he “rescued us from the domain of darkness”; he has also “transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”

The kingdom imagery is important. We are citizens of the kingdom of God. We are the loyal and grateful subjects of a heavenly King. But the kingdom language also suggests an inheritance. In fact, just one verse prior in verse 13, we are told that the Father has qualified us to share in His Son’s inheritance. So not only has God rescued us from the domain, from the power, from the realm of sin and Satan and death; He has also made us citizens of His kingdom, the only lasting kingdom. He has made us His sons and daughters. And as His sons and daughters, we are given an inheritance. And it is this citizenship, this inheritance, this kingdom in which we really live. The book of Hebrews talks about how Abraham was a sojourner on this earth but all the while he was looking forward to “a better country.”

Ill. St. Augustine was an early church pastor and leader and theologian. He lived to see the fall of the great and mighty Roman empire. And he wrote a book after the fall of the Roman empire to comfort the Christians in Rome. Do you know what he said? He said basically this: there are cities - the city of man, and the city of God. The city of man is temporary, it’s passing away. No matter how good things get here in the city and kingdom of man, it’s of limited value because it’s temporary. Everything we do here will pass away, he said.

But the city of God, he said, is the city in which we really live. And the city of God by nature can never pass away. And only by seeing yourself as a citizen of the city of God first can you avoid being disappointed and frightened when the city of man falls, and it will.

Our citizenship in America is important, but for the Christian, it is secondary. It’s part of the city of man. It’s passing away. It’s not synonymous with the kingdom of God. We’re citizens of two kingdoms. We’re proud citizens of the United States of America. We’re citizens of a constitutional republic. We have freedoms that most people throughout world history would have given anything to have.

But as Christians, we’re citizens of God’s kingdom first. And that means that it is His kingdom values that are our values. Our obedience to that King is our first obligation. For years I was a Republican. Now I’m registered independent. When I was a Republican, I was committed to the Republican platform but if at any point the Republican platform involved me having values that went against my Christian values, it was no question for me which way I would go. I follow Jesus, not a party. Only then can we look at our citizenship in this kingdom. What is true of that kingdom, the kingdom of God, has to dictate how we view and live in this kingdom.

I wonder, you fellow citizens of two kingdoms. Which kingdom is most important to you? Which values hold sway over your life? The values of this world, the values of the kingdom of this world, the values of a party or a person? Or the values of the kingdom of God? I’ve got news for you, church. We are not guaranteed that the United States of America will endure - at least not the way we’ve known it. And so we had better figure out which kingdom we really want to live in, because it’s only by committing to see ourselves as primarily citizens of God’s kingdom that we will be able to keep our wits when this kingdom inevitably gives out.

So what do we do? We vote our conscience; we pray for our elected leaders, whether we voted for them or not; we pay taxes; we want to be good citizens. But here’s the thing. If our guy doesn’t get in office, it’ll be okay. God is in control of His kingdom and this one. And that means that if this kingdom is shaken, as everyone around us freaks out and goes off the deep end, we ourselves are not shaken, because we have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken. God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us to His kingdom.

And then Paul says that this kingdom is the kingdom of His Son. It’s the kingdom of His beloved Son. Actually the NKJV gets closest to what the Greek says. There it says that this kingdom into which we have been transferred, into which we have moved, in which we have our new spiritual address, this kingdom is the kingdom of the Son of His love. Boy, does God the Father ever love His Son! I love the KJV, too. It says “kingdom of His dear Son”. His dear Son! Do you know, church, that if you have trusted in Christ, no matter how much you have or have not grown in your faith, God loves you with the very same love He has for His Son? He loves you no less than He loves His Son.

Ill.l I love this story from Reader’s Digest. There was a contributor who told a story of his Aunt Ruby and Uncle Arnie. They had tried to have kids for five years but were unsuccessful. Finally, they adopted a baby boy. Then just a couple of years later they ended up getting pregnant. Well, one day when the boys were a good bit older, a friend was over and as they watched the boys play, the friend said, “Which boy is yours, Ruby?” Ruby said, “They’re both mine.” The friend said, “Well, yeah, of course, they’re both yours. But, you know, which one is really yours and which one is adopted?” The mother was a little irritated by this question and looked her friend straight in the eye and said dismissively, “I’ve forgotten which one is adopted.” [Larson, pp. 13-14]

We have been rescued from the power of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of His dear Son. In other words, we’ve been adopted. The last thing this great change consists in is redemption.

#3: Redeemed (v. 14)

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 1

14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

What is redemption? It’s an interesting question, because we live in a culture that claims to appreciate redemption. We claim that everyone should get second and third and fourth chances. But it turns out that’s harder to practice than it has to preach. Our culture instead delights in shame. This has really become the case in the last year. People are looking for others to mess up. We love to expose people, don’t we? Man, our culture just eats that up. A racist tweet, some comment about homosexuals, anything that could be interpreted as misogynistic - these are unforgivable sins. No opportunity for redemption. Your’e done, cancelled, irredeemable. The protestors come out with their signs and their screams everyone and they cry out for justice. We want them to get what they deserve - and more than that, we have a perverted appetite for watching them get what they deserve.

The ones doing the shaming and exposing and protesting, though, rarely take the time to consider what they deserve. All of us have things in our past we don’t want people to know about. If they were to come to light, what we would want? We would want mercy. We would want a second chance. In other words, we would want redemption.

Well, praise God that what the world around us withholds, God stands ready to give us generously. We’ve not only been rescued from the darkness; we’ve not only been transferred into His kingdom and adopted into His family. We also have redemption. A second chance. A release from the guilt of our sin. That’s what redemption fundamentally is. It’s a payment securing our release from the guilt and power of our sin.

Ill. There’s a story about a boy and his sister who were visiting their grandparents. While they were there, the boy accidentally shot and killed his grandmother’s pet duck with the shotgun his grandfather had just given him. When he panicked, his sister had a plan to use this to her advantage. She said, “It’s ok, I won’t tell them you did it. All I ask is that you do my chores every day while we’re here. If you can do that, no one will know.

But that proved harder for the boy to pull off than he thought. Every time his sister was asked to do something, she cheerfully said, “Oh, Johnny will take care of it. He loves doing chores.” And then she would punch him in the ribs and whisper, “remember the duck!’

After this went on for a few days, Johnny had had enough. In a moment of desperation he blurted out to his grandmother that he had killed the duck. To his great relief his grandmother put his arm around her and said “Sweetheart, I know. I watched you do it from the window. I’ve already forgiven you. I was waiting to see how long you would let your sister make you her slave.” [Larson, p. 179]

What a beautiful picture of the forgiveness God has given us. Like the little boy, we don’t realize that God has already forgiven us of our sins. That’s why Paul goes on to define redemption as “the forgiveness of sins”. Whose sins? Yours, mine - anyone who’s in Christ. What sins? Any and all, past, present, and future. When? Now. Today. Paul doesn’t say “in whom we will have redemption”. He says, “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.”

If you and I have trusted in Jesus as Savior, then we are already forgiven before we ask. The question is whether we will let Satan and our guilty conscience make us into their slaves. As long as Satan can convince you that you are not forgiven, that you have sinned one too many times, you will still be in slavery to the power of darkness even though in reality God has set you free. But if you can realize that you’re forgiven of sins past, present, and future, then you’ll really be free to live like you’re forgiven.

This is the change of our spiritual address: we’ve been rescued, adopted, and redeemed.

Conclusion and call for response

Ill. I’m really proud to be a North Carolina Baptist. One reason for that is the work of our state convention’s orphanages. They regularly rescue young boys like Kimani. When Kimani was first placed with the Baptist Children’s Home, he was malnourished; he was in poor health; he was chronically fatigued; and he had been traumatized.

You see, Kimani’s parents abused him. They withheld food from him. When they did give him food, they inflicted psychological torture on him by telling him it might be poisoned. They beat him. They isolated him. Kimani never went to school, in fact Kimani’s was rarely let out of the closet that his parents would lock him in for fear that people would see his bruises and report them.

I’d like to say that Kimani’s situation was unique, but we all know, unfortunately, that it isn’t. But God has his eye on Kimani. Social Services did finally discover what was going on inside his home, and he was removed and placed with the Baptist Children’s Home location in Clyde, NC.

When he got there, he was 12 years old, weighed 32 pounds, and was right at three feet tall. But for the first time in his life, he Kimani had a bed to sleep in and all the hot and safe food he could eat. Not only did they take him out shopping for clothes - also a first for him - they also got him in to see doctors - specialists who could treat his malnourishment. Within a few years he had grown more than two feet.

Most importantly, Kimani has come to know a heavenly Father who will never fail Him or hurt Him. He has trusted in Jesus as His Savior because of the witness of the house parents at the Baptist Children’s Home. These are his words: “I went from a kid with no life in him to a kid full of life. That’s all thanks to Broyhill – they have shown me love and they have shown me Jesus,” Kimani says. “I have been transformed, renewed, changed, and I have been rescued thanks to them.” [https://www.brnow.org/news/Kimani-rescued-by-Baptist-Children-s-Homes/, accessed Feb. 20, 2021]

CUE MUSICIANS

In Kimani’s case, he received a new physical address that led to receiving a new a spiritual address. All of us who are in Christ have been given a new spiritual address. We’ve been rescued; we’ve been adopted; we’ve been redeemed.

Ill. When I was growing up, my mom made me memorize our address. I’m actually old enough to remember the old school addresses. Mine was Route 6, box 443b, Morganton NC 28655. Why did she make me memorize that? So that if I was lost, or got separated from my parents, I would know the way home - or, at least, I could tell others my address and they could get me back home. It’s essential to know your spiritual address. It affects how you live, not just where you will spend eternity.

So here’s the question for you this morning. Two questions.

Are you in Christ? Have you received a new spiritual address? Has this change taken place in your life? I’m not talking about perfection. I’m talking about some degree of change, some growth in godliness, with at least a desire for more. If that’s not there, then you should do business with God this morning. Tell him that. Only God can show you where you stand with Him, so ask Him. And should He show you that you have not made this commitment to Christ, what a blessing to discover that now rather than later when it’s too late. The Bible says that anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Others of you have already changed your spiritual address, but like the man in the story, you keep going back to your old address by habit, going back to old ways and old sins. Some of those long-standing sins can be so hard to kick. But God is patient with you. And He will complete the good work He has begun in you. Will you stand with me as we pray?

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