Transformation - Part 3
Don't Go Back
Ephesians 4:22–24 (NLT)
(22) Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God, truly righteous and holy.
If God is changing me, I can't keep going back to the old me.
There are some things we need to take off.
And some things we need to put on.
1. SOME THINGS DON'T FIT YOU ANYMORE
There are things that may have been part of your old life that don't fit you anymore.
What are you still wearing that God has asked you to take off?
Bitterness?
Anger?
Jealousy?
Fear?
Insecurity?
Offense?
At some point you have to say: "That's not who I am anymore."
2. YOU HAVE TO LET GO TO MOVE FORWARD
Isaiah 43:19 (NLT)
For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.
Sometimes our hands are so full of yesterday that we don't have room for what God wants to do tomorrow.
At some point you've got to put something down.
What they said.
What they did.
What didn't happen.
What you lost.
The mistake you made.
You don't have to pretend it didn't hurt.
You just have to decide: "I'm not carrying this forever."
You can't keep moving forward while constantly looking backward.
Let it go and keep moving.
3. TRANSFORMATION SHOULD MAKE ME LOOK MORE LIKE JESUS
This is really what transformation is all about.
Not becoming more impressive.
Not becoming more religious.
Becoming more like Jesus.
So here's the test:
Am I more loving?
More patient?
More forgiving?
More peaceful?
More generous?
More compassionate?
Am I harder to offend?
Do I respond differently than I used to?
Galatians 5:22–23 (NLT)
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Fruit is evidence.
If God is doing something inside of me, eventually there should be evidence outside of me.
DON'T GO BACK!
Don't go back to the old mindset.
Don't go back to the bitterness.
Don't go back to living offended.
Don't go back to needing everybody's approval.
Don't go back to allowing fear to control you.
Don't go back to who you used to be.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
Part 1: God, change me.
Part 2: I’m producing fruit in the fire.
Part 3: I'm not going back.
That's transformation.
Not perfection, progress.
Not just changing behavior, changing from the inside out.
Not becoming somebody else, becoming more like Jesus.