How Does Jesus Change Us?

Tonight we’ll continue looking at what Jesus does and we’re going to talk about how Jesus changes us. Who here likes change? A lot of us don’t like change. We like things to be the way that they usually are… But over the last 2 years, hasn’t there been a lot of change? Think of some changes in recent years?

School changed whenever we did virtual learning

We had to wear masks everywhere

We couldn’t do some of the things we were used to doing

Change is difficult but sometimes it’s necessary and even helpful. Have any of you ever moved before? Whenever I was about your age (3rd grade) my dad got a job at First Baptist Ozark as their Children and Recreation Pastor and we moved from Springfield to Ozark. This was a big change for me because I had lived in Springfield and gone to FBC Springfield my whole life. I didn’t know anyone in Ozark. I didn’t have any friends. I didn’t even know the people at the church. This was a big change and I wasn’t very happy whenever I found out. Do you know what’s really cool about God’s plan for our lives? God’s plan for our lives involves some changes that we didn’t see coming. His plan might require you to step out of your comfort zone or it might require you to go to a place that you didn’t think you’d go to like it was for Jonah in the Bible. Tonight we’re going to continue looking at the book of Philippians and we’re going to be in Philippians chapter 3 looking at how Jesus changed Paul’s life upside down. Paul thought that he had it all figured out but Jesus changed Paul’s view on life and Jesus gave him a new purpose. For Paul, his life was all about living for Jesus and knowing Jesus more and more. This is what Jesus wants for us too! He wants us to know Him more, He wants us to look more like Him, and He wants us to tell others about what He has done!

Tonight let’s look at Philippians 3:1-11 and see how Jesus changes us.

Philippians 3:1–11 CSB

1 In addition, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write to you again about this is no trouble for me and is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3 For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh— 4 although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; 6 regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. 7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, 11 assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

Jesus Changes Our Priorities

What are some things that people place their confidence in?

Good works

Accomplishments

Money

Friends

Others

Paul tells us that these things aren’t grounds for confidence… Instead the only thing that we can truly be confident in is Jesus Christ and His power and presence in our life. Whenever you meet Jesus and you repent of your sins and place your faith in Him, you change from the inside out, from top to bottom! One of the things that changes is your priority list. See, Paul had all the reasons to have confidence in himself. Look at his “stats” if you will in these verses. What do we read about Paul?

Circumcised on 8th day

Israelite

Hebrew of Hebrews

Tribe of Benjamin

Pharisee

Persecuted others

Blameless according to the law

Educated by one of the best teachers in the world: Gamileal in Jerusalem

Paul had all of these reasons to have confidence in himself! Whenever the church doors were open, Paul was there. Whenever the Bible was studied, Paul stood out because he knew all of the answers. He easily could have placed his faith and confidence in what he knew and all that he had done. But we read in verse 7 that this isn’t an option because Paul met Jesus!

See, whenever you and I meet Jesus, Jesus changes the way that we think and the things that we do. So many people in our world and even people in churches place their confidence in what they do. They think that they help out with VBS and they go to church and they do nice things for other people and these are good things! But they can’t save us. All of Paul’s trophy list of things couldn’t save him. See, his focus was on the wrong things. It wasn’t that he was doing bad things. He was reading the Bible and praying to God… But his focus was on his works. His focus was on the good stuff that he did. His focus was on some good things but it wasn’t on God’s thing.

Think about your priorities for a minute. What would you say are some good priorities in life?

Working Hard

Being nice to other people

Doing good in school

Practicing hard at your sport or activity

These are good priorities! But think of the way that Jesus changes everything that we do. Instead of just playing baseball, for example, Jesus comes first and you play baseball to tell people about Jesus. Instead of just working hard at your job or at something you have to do, you work hard in order to show others the love of Jesus. You don’t work hard just because you’re asked to, you work hard because you want to glorify Jesus. Think about your priorities in life today. Would you say that Jesus is at the top of the list? Would you say that you do what you do because you want to tell others about Him? If you’re a Christian tonight, make sure that you try and always point people to Jesus wherever you’re at and with whatever you’re doing. If you’re not a Christian, maybe you’re placing your confidence in the wrong thing. Look at Paul’s testimony here… Don’t place your confidence in yourself or your actions… Place your confidence in Jesus because only Jesus can save us.

Jesus Changes Our Eyes

He changes our hearts and He also changes our eyes. This doesn’t mean that whenever you’re a Christian you suddenly don’t need glasses or you get 20/20 vision all of a sudden… But whenever you become a Christian, Jesus changes your eyes to see situations and people differently. You’re able to see people the way that Jesus see’s people. For Paul, before Jesus he saw people the way that he wanted to see them… But after he met Jesus, he began to see people with grace and compassion just like Jesus see’s us and others.

There’s a Christian song that came out a few years ago called Give Me Your Eyes and it talks about if we could just see others the way that Jesus does for just one second everything would change. So many times Jesus would see someone who might look ok on the outside but Jesus would know what they were dealing with on the inside. We see an example of this in John 4 as Jesus meets with the woman at the well. Do you know that story? This woman puts on a good face but Jesus knows what’s really going on because, after all, He’s God! Jesus meets people where they are at and calls on them to repent and trust in Him. This is what He wants us to do as well - He wants us to speak the truth to others and call on them to trust in Jesus. He wants us to not look at people as if they are a lost cause but to help them out where they are at and encourage them to become more like Jesus!

Not only was Paul’s focus on the wrong things, he was looking the wrong direction. Paul was looking backwards instead of forwards. He thought that if he did enough things in this life that he’d measure up… Instead of looking at what Jesus had already done and looking at what Jesus wanted Him to do now. Paul wants to live a life of faith in Jesus and part of that type of life means that we have to tell other people the truth of Jesus Christ.

If you look on a car, a car has something called a rear view mirror that helps a driver look at what is behind them to make sure that everything is ok. A rearview mirror is helpful whenever you back up, but you don’t use it a lot whenever you’re driving forward. If you’re in a car and your parent is driving, what is right in front of you? The windshield! You want to look out the windshield to see what’s coming and where to turn. You rarely look in the rearview mirror. Think about how dangerous it would be if everyone drove while looking only in their rearview mirror. Would that be good or bad? Bad! There would be a lot of traffic accidents and wrecks. We’re supposed to look in the windshield instead and keep our eyes on the road ahead.

If you know Jesus and if you have a relationship with Him, He wants you to keep your eyes forward and to look at things the way that He does. Whenever we do this, we view people differently. For some of you, this might require you to look at a brother or sister differently because instead of getting angry at them, you forgive them because you remember that Jesus forgave you of your sins. For others, it might look like reaching out to someone who doesn’t fit in because you remember that Jesus wants you to be a light for Him and to be nice to others. Think of a way that you can show others the love of Jesus, write it down, and follow through with it. Look at others the way that Jesus does. It’s easy to see the flaws in other people, but the Bible tells us that we have flaws too… Look at what Jesus says in Matthew 7 in the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 7:3 CSB

3 Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye?

It’s easy to notice what other people do, but it can be hard to see that we make mistakes too. Jesus wants to give us new eyes. Eyes that help us see our mistakes but eyes that also help us give grace to ourselves and to others!

Jesus Changes our Hearts

Do any of you know of a person named Lewis Washkansky? That’s a pretty big name and I don’t expect any of us would have ever heard of him before. He was a south african who was diagnosed with chronic heart failure. In 1967 Lewis received the first ever heart transplant. Meaning that someone else’s heart was put into Lewis and he was able to live longer than he would have been able to otherwise. In the 55 years since this procedure, many lives have been extended thanks to heart transplants and now most patients live another 10-20 years because of being given a new heart. 10-20 years is a good amount of time, but we know that sadly in this life we will eventually pass away. Even if you get a new physical heart, it will eventually have a problem or two. Do you want to know some cool news? Jesus Christ also gives His people a new heart and He gives us a heart that will never fail. Does anyone know John 3:16? John 3:16 is one of the most popular Bible verses as it tells us that God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Before Jesus says this, though, He says in the beginning of John 3 that we have to be born again.

John 3:3 CSB

3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Whenever Jesus says in John 3 that we have to be born again, what is he talking about?

We are all born of the flesh, but we all have to have the Holy Spirit in order to please God. The only way to see God’s Kingdom is to be born again and have the Holy Spirit live in us. Luke 9 talked about how we have to take up our cross, this means that our old self has to die and that we literally live a new life! We have to be born again and whenever this happens everything about us changes because we are given a new life and a new heart. This is what God wants for all of us! He wants to give us a new heart that will last forever.

Whenever this life is over, God isn’t going to ask you how many A’s you got in school. He’s not going to ask you how many hours you worked at your job. He’s not going to ask you how many trophies you won in your life. He’s not going to ask you how many times you said something nice to someone else… He’s going to ask you what did you do with my son? Paul shares that the only hope that we have is to know Jesus as Lord and Savior and place our faith in Him alone! The only thing that will change us eternally is faith in Jesus Christ. See, if we just needed a little instruction, God could have just send a teacher. If we needed a little encouragement, God could have just sent a counselor. If we just needed a little medicine, God could have just sent a doctor… But in the Bible we read that we need to be saved because we are lost and dead in our sins… So God had to send a Savior to rescue us and die in our place. The great news of Jesus Christ and the Gospel message is that we are saved from the punishment of our sins today, tomorrow, and forever! If you’re a Christian, you have nothing to fear because Jesus paid it all and has won the victory for you! He has given you a new heart and wants you to follow Him every step of the way. Paul shares here that we are supposed to boast in Jesus and place our confidence in Him alone. If you get nothing else out of this camp, I pray that it would be to trust completely in Jesus and place your faith in Him.

Maybe you’re here and this is your first week ever hearing about Jesus. Maybe you’re here and you’ve heard about Jesus before but something is different this week. Maybe you’re here and you feel like you need to do something because of what you’re learning about during worship or during your devotions throughout the day. See, the Gospel requires us to act. We’re not robots - we’re people and people have to make choices. My question for you tonight is this: Do you have faith in Jesus? Have you admitted that you’re a sinner, believed in Jesus, and confessed that He is Lord of your life? If so, that’s awesome and I pray that you grow to be more like Jesus and that He continues to change your life. But maybe you haven’t done that and tonight you really want to talk to someone about that decision. It’s the most important and best decision that you can make in your entire life. And you know the best part? Jesus promises to be with you and to help you out in this life as a Christian. Not only does Jesus change your priority list, your eyes, and your heart… Jesus also changes your last name. Do any of you know someone who has been adopted? I was adopted whenever I was just a couple of months old. I love my mom and dad and they love me as if I was their biological child. Adoption is a wonderful thing but it’s also talked about in the Bible of what God does with us. Before Jesus, we had no home and we were a part of a hopeless family… But whenever Jesus saves us we are adopted into God’s eternal family. We are invited into God’s forever home. We receive a new name and new brothers and sisters. Paul shares in these verses that if you are saved and if you do have this faith in Jesus Christ that you are a part of this family and that you have hope of spending eternity with God. This is the best news of all - but we all have to be changed. There is no one here tonight who is too good that doesn’t need Jesus. There’s no one here tonight who is too bad that Jesus can’t save them and forgive them. We all need Jesus.

Let’s pray and as we pray, ask God to help you know where you’re at and what you need to do next.

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