Transformers: True Transformation

 

 

 

 

God on Film – Transformers: True Transformation
Sycamore Creek Church
June 29/30, 2014
Tom Arthur

 

 

Peace friends!

Today we continue in our series called God on Film.  During the summer we’re exploring a different summer blockbuster each week.  We’re taking the theme of that movie and seeing what the Bible has to say about it.  Today we’re using the movie Transformers as a jumping off point to explore transformation in baptism.  Today 13 people are beginning baptized!  Speaking of baptism…

A drunk man stumbled into a baptism service that a church was having at a lake.  He stumbled down to the water’s edge and the pastor said, “Mister, are you ready to find Jesus?”
The drunk man said, “Yes, pastor, I am ready find Jesus.”
“Come on down into the water,” the pastor said.  Then he dunked him into the water and when he came back up the pastor asked, “Did you find Jesus?”
“No, pastor, I did not find Jesus.”
So the pastor dunked him again. This time holding him a little bit longer.  “Did you find Jesus?”
“No, reverend, I did not find Jesus.”
So the pastor dunked him again, and this time, he held him a good long time so that it would really stick.  When the drunk man came up from the water he was spitting and coughing.  The pastor said, “Did you find Jesus?”
The drunk man said, “No, sir, I did not find Jesus.  Are you sure this is where he fell in?”

Today we’re exploring the transformation that happens in baptism.  Speaking of transformation…

An old Amish couple went to the big city for the first time in their lives.  They saw all kind of things they had never seen before including a big tall skyscraper.  It looked like the tower of Babel.  They walked into the lobby and saw silver doors opening and closing on what looked like a closet.  Above the doors were lights that would flash from left to right and then back again.  While they were standing there taking it all in, an old man in a wheel chair rolled up beside them.  When the doors opened he rolled into the little room and the doors closed behind him.  The little lights above the room flashed from left to right then back again.  The doors opened, and out walked a young man in his 20s dressed sharper than the Amish couple had ever seen.  The wife looked at her husband and said, “So what are you waiting for?  Get in there.” 

Today we are all looking for some kind of transformation.  Maybe we’re looking for our husband to be transformed into a young buff twenty-something.  Maybe we’re looking for transformation in our marriage or with our children.  Maybe we’re looking for a career transformation or a transformation in our self image.  Maybe our thoughts trouble us and we want our thoughts or emotions transformed.  Maybe we wish we could be transformed from our past or we hope for a transformed future.  Today I want to talk about four keys for true transformation.

1.      True Transformation Requires God
The first key to true transformation is that transformation requires God.  Paul, the first missionary of the church and the author of many of the books in the Bible had this to say about transformation: 

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform [metamorpho] you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
~Romans 12:2 NLT 

Notice that it’s God who does the transforming.  The Greek word here that is translated as “transform” is “metamorpho.”  That should sound familiar.  It’s where we get our word “metamorphosis.”  God metamorphizes us.  It’s like we begin as a caterpillar, God builds a cocoon around us, and out pops a butterfly.

It’s important to recognize that God is in the business of transformation.  God is working in your life before you even know it.  God’s transforming grace goes before you even recognize it, or accept it, or claim it.  Ask any one of these people who are being baptized today when God began working in their lives, and you are likely to hear stories of how they are now able to look back and see God’s fingerprints all over their lives long before they even noticed it.

So what kind of transformation does God do?  God forgives your guilt.  God heals your woundedness.  God teaches your ignorance.  God frees you from your bondage.  God cleanses your stain.

This past weekend I went camping with several other dads in our church and community at our Dad Kid Night Campout.  One of the dads at this campout brought glow sticks for all the kids.  It was a very kind gesture on the part of this dad.  My son, Micah, loved this glow stick.  He had never seen anything like it before.  He hung on to it all night long, and then when it was time for bed he brought it into the tent.  As we were laying on our sleeping pads in our sleeping bags, Micah bent the stick to the point that it broke.  The glowing liquid poured out of the stick and all over his hands.  His hands began to glow.  You could see all the intricate finger prints of each hand.  I was a little concerned about the liquid getting all over the place, but was also a bit in awe of how cool it looked.  Micah had a very different reaction.  He immediately began to cry.  I thought he was crying because he knew he had broken the stick.  But then through tears he said to me, “Daddy, don’t show them my hands.”  I quickly realized that he thought he had done something that would make his hands glow permanently, and he was ashamed of his hands.  I grabbed a hand wipe and easily wiped the liquid off his hands, and as the realization that his daddy could wipe the stain off his hands began to dawn on Micah, his tears went away.  (Then he wanted another glow stick!)

You see, the stain on our hands that we are ashamed of from whatever we’ve done in the past or whatever we’re doing right now, can be cleansed and transformed by God as easily as I washed the stain off Micah’s hands.  Transformation requires God.

Today we will be baptizing several infants and small children.  Not every Christian tribe does this.  But we do it because we believe that infant baptism is a strong symbol and reality that emphasizes God’s part of transformation.  There is nothing an infant can do to gain God’s love.  It is simply given to them.  It is certainly our hope that they will grow up to claim that transformation for themselves, but in the meantime, we claim it for them and welcome them into the family of God. 

2.      True Transformation Requires You
Today we will also be baptizing and reaffirming the baptism of several adults.  If infant baptism emphasizes God’s part in transformation, then adult baptism emphasizes your part in transformation.  True transformation requires God, but it also requires you.  If we go back to the same passage we were just looking at and read it again we’ll notice that a little word comes before “God transform”: 

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform [metamorpho] you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
~Romans 12:2 NLT

What comes before “God transform”?  The word “let.”  Let God transform.  This is a command that Paul is giving and it shows that true transformation requires you too.  You have to let God change the way you think.  You have to let God transform your mind, your thoughts, your reason, your attitudes, your intention, your purposes, your understanding, and your discernment among other things.  I like to say that you have to let God transform how you imagine the world and each person’s part in it.

So what are the ways you are letting God transform you?  Are you intentionally seeking God?  Those who are being baptized today will be asked three simple rules: are you doing no harm and avoiding evil?  Are you doing good?  Are you staying in love with God?  You intentionally seek God in those three ways.

You also let God transform you by making new friendships and community.  Here at SCC we have small groups where people get together regularly to build friendships.  Our current culture has a disease called loneliness.  We’re more connected than we’ve ever been, but we’re lonelier than we’ve ever been.   Who are you investing in?  Who is investing in you?  We let God transform us by the choice of friends we spend our time with.

Another way to let God transform you is to practice certain H.A.B.I.T.S.  Hang out with God and show hospitality.  Give a true account of yourself by practicing Accountability.  Read and memorize your Bible.  Get involved with a church community and invite others into that faith community.  Lastly, serve your church, community, and world and don’t keep your faith to yourself, share it.  Those are the H.A.B.I.T.S. you must practice to let God transform you.  True transformation requires God, but it also requires you.

3.   True Transformation Is a Process
A third key to true transformation is recognizing that transformation is a process.  In another book of the Bible, Paul says:

And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed [metamorpho] into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
~2 Corinthians 3:18 NRSV

There’s that word again, metamorphosis.  How does Paul says we’re transformed?  “From one degree of glory to another.”  In other words, inch by inch.  So when you let God transform you, it doesn’t always happen all at once.  Sin may remain but it does not reign.  There is still cleanup left to do.  It’s the process of C.A.N.E.I.: Constant And Never Ending Improvement.

Transformation as a process is just like any other process of learning something new.  My son Sam, who is being baptized today, is eleven months old.  He has been learning to communicate through a process.  First we’ve been teaching him sign language.  At six months old he signed “all done.”  He now signs all done, milk, play, more, change, and diaper.  His skill at communicating is slowing growing over time.  He has even begun to make sounds that sound a lot like words.  While he’s been learning to communicate, he’s also learning to move.  First was sitting up.  Then crawling.  Then crawling back to sitting.  He’s just begun to pull himself up on things to a standing position.  What’s next?  Walking.  Then running, jumping, skipping, and hopping!  It’s a process to be transformed from a baby to an adult.  The same thing is true when it comes to transformation, it’s a process.

Do you know that there are four stages of learning?  Stage one: Unconscious Incompetence.  You don’t even know that you can’t do it.  Stage two: Conscious Incompetence.  This is the awkward stage.  You’re aware of what you can’t do.  I’m taking guitar lessons from our worship leader, Jeremy.  It’s pretty awkward right now.  He’s got job security for a long time!  Following conscious incompetence comes Conscious Competence.  At this stage you are competent when you think about it.  The fourth stage is Unconscious Competence.  When you reach this stage, you did it without even thinking about it.  To move from one stage to the next takes twenty-one straight days of practice or longer.  Too many of us want to be transformed overnight.  We want the end result without the hard work of the process.  This is a pipe dream.  It’s false transformation, not true transformation.

Some time ago a woman I’ll call “Laura” came up to me and told me that something had happened in that worship service.  She had been wrestling for years with forgiving her ex-husband’s infidelities.  That morning three years later while she was sitting in worship, she realized she was no longer bitter.  She had let God transform her.  True transformation had happened.

Here at SycamoreCreekChurch, we like to say we’re a church that is Curious, Creative, and Compassionate.  When we say we’re curious, that means that your questions are welcome.  You don’t have to have your whole life figured out to belong here.  We’re OK with the process.  When we say we’re compassionate, we mean that we want to show you God’s compassion no matter who you are, where you’ve been, or what you’ve done.  In other words, no matter where you are in the processing of letting God transform you, we want to show you God’s loving compassion.

4.      True Transformation Begins in a Moment
The fourth key to true transformation is that it begins in a moment.  Back to Paul:

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
~2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT

A decisive battle in the war has been won, the tide has turned.  There is a day when you wake up and choose to let God transform you.  Baptism is an outward symbol or sign of the inward reality that the decisive battle has been fought and won.  Those who are being baptized today are in that moment.  It may have taken you some time to be engaged and it will certainly take some time to fully learn how to love a husband or wife, but today is the moment of the wedding day.  Today is the moment when true transformation takes root.  Today is the day when you don’t have to wait any longer.  You don’t have to get ready for it.  You don’t have to earn it.  You don’t have to clean yourself up.  You receive it.

You get in the game.  You show up for work.  You get married.  You sit at the table.  You say YES, today is the day!  I want to find Jesus and experience true transformation.

So what’s keeping you from making today that day?

If you want true transformation today, here’s a prayer that I invite you to pray:

God, I’m tired of running from you.  I’m tired of the guilt, the stain, the brokenness, the woundedness, the bondage, the ignorance.  Forgive me.  Free me.  Heal me.  Transform me.  Do your part.  Give me strength to do my part.   I give myself to you today.  I give myself to follow Jesus today.  Let these words be more than words.  Amen.