The Transformers

By Jason Lovelace

 

Keys for Today:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world:  but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

– Romans 12.1~3

 

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.  If any man loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the father, but is of the world.  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof:  but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

– 1st John 2.15 ~17

 

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”

– 2nd Corinthians 11.13 ~15

 

How many of you saw the movies The Transformers and Transformers II:  Revenge of the Fallen?  How many of you liked these movies?  How many of you will go to see Transformers III when it is released sometime in the next year or so?  What does it mean to be a transformer or to be transformed?  In the movies (and also the television cartoon series, books, and stories), the Transformers are aliens who come to Earth and take on the shapes of motor vehicles and aircraft, given life by a giant pyramid (which, when anything robotic or mechanical on planet earth touches it becomes a transformer also).  Did you know that there are Transformers in the Bible?  What is a Biblical Transformer, and what does it mean to be transformed according to the Bible?

 

Transformed:  Why It’s Important

In the movie, The Transformers, we see an interesting facet of the aliens which come to Earth and take on their living mechanical form:  an experiment is undertaken where one of the main characters has his cellular phone transformed by the alien pyramid.  As this phone comes to life, it is more than a little interesting to note that it is an evil little machine, which automatically starts shooting at the people watching it almost immediately after its “birth” (fortunately, they are safe, as the cellular phone turned living machine is trapped under a heavy dome of thick Pyrex glass).  Somewhere along the history of the Transformers, it is told that some of the aliens chose to become good and help others in the universe – becoming the Autobots when they arrive on Earth – while the others who wanted to dominate the universe and everything in it stayed evil – in the process becoming the Decepticons when they, too, happen upon Earth.  In similar fashion to the Transformers in the movie, people, too, are born with an inkling to do evil called “Sin” (See Romans 3.10, 23).  This sin, if left unchecked, will grow and grow, causing all sorts of problems for people.  It also does something deeper:  Sin leads to death, both of the body, and eternally (James 1.13 ~ 15; Revelation 20.11 ~15).  Sin causes separation from God, both in the here and now and, more dangerously, in eternity to come.  To escape this, to be able to live in eternity in Heaven with Jesus Christ, there is something we need to do…

 

“Be Ye Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind…”

Our Key for today is pretty clear.  The Apostle Paul pens that we need to be transformed by the renewing of the mind.  How does this happen?  Well allow me to ask some questions first.  What do you think about the most?  What do you like to think about?  When you are riding in a car on a long trip with Mom and Dad, what do you think about most often?  Where is your mind most oftentimes?  Do you think about classes?  How about your teachers:  do you think about them?  Guys, do you think about the cute babe sitting next to you in Biology or English class?  Girls, do you think about the cool looking guy from PE who always seems to make every catch, hit every basket, and always looks good in what he’s wearing?  Do you think about what you have to do tomorrow?  What do you think about throughout your day?  You see?  If your thoughts aren’t on good things, then sooner or later, your actions will point in that direction.  Guys, when you see a hot girl in a bikini, whether in a magazine or in real life, what happens next?  Are your thoughts pure?  Girls, when they smooth guy looks at you and says “Hello”, what follows in your mind?  You see?  We need to be very careful where we place our thoughts.  We need to take great care with regards to what we place our minds on.  Now let me be honest and straightforward for a minute:  if you don’t have Jesus Christ in your heart and life, your mind will not be dominated by good thoughts.  That’s as simple as it gets:  either you have Christ and your mind and thoughts are on good things, or you are without Christ, and things in your mind are sensual, evil, and devilish.  Even Christians have trouble keeping their minds on things above; that’s why we hear about that nationally known preacher getting into trouble with his secretary.  This is why that Christ professing sports star gets caught doing the illegal drugs.  This is why Christian legislators and politicians get caught on secret tape taking a bribe.  When believers allow their minds to go to the gutter and stay there, eventually our actions will come about the same. 

 

Sin in the Mind and Heart Equals Sin in Action

Jesus says it straight with regards to how the mind operates:

 

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, ‘Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment’: But I say unto you, ‘That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment:  and whosoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, ‘Thou fool,’ shall be in danger of hell fire…Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, ‘commit adultery’: But I say unto you, ‘That whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.’”

– Matthew 5.21~22, 27~28

 

Jesus is saying here that even if we sin in our hearts, it is no different than doing the deed.  Anyone have someone whom you hate?  Jesus is saying here that hatred is the same as murder:  the only difference is that one is done in deed and one done in the heart.  Gu8ys, when you see that bikini-clad model in the swimsuit issue and want her, it’s no different than going to bed with her.  Ladies, when that hot guy looks at you, and you want him to undress you head to toe and let him do whatever he wants, it is no different than doing it for real with him.  Friends, this is why singers like Beyonce’, P. Diddy, Alan Jackson, George Strait, Fifty Cent, Eminem, Aerosmith, and the rest of what this world calls musical entertainment is so dangerous.  Their lyrics and words, not to mention their videos, paint pictures in the mind that cause us to sin if we allow it in.  The same (even more so) is true with television, movies, books, and the Internet.

 

How to Be Transformed

The Apostle Paul states clearly the need for our minds to be transformed.  How do we do it?  Really, there is only one way:  through Jesus Christ.  Without Christ, our minds will languish in the gutter of sin; but with Christ, all things are possible (Philippians 4.13).  The written Word of God states that there is only one way to have our minds transformed:

 

“I am the way, the truth, and the life:  no man cometh unto the father but by me.”

– John 14.6

 

The transforming power that Jesus Christ gives can come from no other place by Him. We can try twelve step programs to get us free from alcoholism and any other addiction, but if we try without Jesus Christ, we will only fall back into sinful habits.  If we attempt to change ourselves and get away form the commission of sin on our own, we may succeed for a time, but sooner or later, without Jesus Christ, we will return back to our own habits:

 

“As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.”

– Proverbs 26.1

 

Only through Jesus can we truly have our minds transformed, and if our minds get transformed, so will our hearts, souls, and lives.

 

That Transforming Power!

Once we have asked Christ into our hearts and lives, and he has transformed our minds, nothing will be impossible for us:

 

“Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

– Romans 8.37

 

“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

– 1st Corinthians 15.57

 

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

– Philippians 4.13

 

“For whosoever is born of God overcometh the world:  and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.  Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?”

– 1st John 5.4~5

 

Our primary Key for Today also says this:

 

“…but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

– Romans 12.2

 

When we have the Spirit of the Living God living in our hearts and lives, we will know what God’s will for our lives is, and we will be able to do what he has asked us to do.  But this is only true of we choose Jesus Christ.  The proof of this is in the pudding:

 

“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them:  because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”

– 1st John 4.4

 

If we will come to Christ and open our lives to him, we will be transformed….but there is a price to pay.

 

“Love Not the World…”

This truth in the header above is what sets apart the men from the boys, as it were.  Too many believers, when we come to Christ, try to play around with the world, give in to carnality, and allow sin to creep back into our lives like a snake.  We must understand that if we are to be transformed we have to turn back form the world.   Yet a lot of us are doing just that:  we are giving into spiritual decadence even though Christ has transformed us.  Yet the Bible is uncompromisingly clear:

 

“But ye have not so learned Christ;  if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; ands be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.  Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man the truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.”

– Ephesians 5.20 ~25

 

Did you see that?  Did you catch what Paul is writing of here?  If we are truly in with Christ, we must put off the old ways:  we must repent and start fresh:

 

“But now ye also put off all these:  anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.  Lie not to one another, seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds:  And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him…”

– Colossians 3.8 ~10

 

When we put on the new man – Jesus Christ – he makes all things new (Revelation 21.5; Isaiah 43.19; 2nd Corinthians 5.17).  You see?  There’s a danger for believers, for those who’ve been transformed by Jesus Christ, in loving the things of the world:

 

“Behold, a sower went forth to sow; and when he sowed…some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them…hear ye therefore the parable of the sower…He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, ad the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.” 

– Matthew 13.3 ~4, 7, 18, 22 (Mark 4.3 ~4, 7, 13 ~14,18 ~19; Luke 8.5, 7, 10 ~11, 14 similar)

 

“I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman.  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away:  and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.  Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches:  He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit:  for without me ye can do nothing.  If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.  If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done for you.  Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.  As the father hath loved me, so I have loved you:  continue ye in my love.”

– John 15.1~9

 

If we, as followers of Jesus Christ, as Christians, turn and look to things of the world, we will become unfruitful, and fail to live up to the plans and potential that God has for us.  Case in point is the Bible Hero Samson.  In the Book of Judges, starting with Chapter 13, we read of the life of Samson.  Before he was even born, he was given great strength.  His power was such that  on one occasion he defeated one thousand Philistine soldiers in single combat, his only weapon being the jawbone of a donkey.  In another instance, Samson – trapped in the city of Gaza – heaved the doors and carried them to the top of a nearby hill.  Such were the feats of Samson, and he judged Israel for twenty years.  However, Samson had a bad weakness:  he loved sinful women.  His first fiancée was a Philistine, who was later murdered by her own people (along with her father and sister).  The reason he was trapped in Gaza was because he spent the night with a prostitute.  Finally, his ultimate undoing was a woman named Delilah who was, again, an ungodly  woman of the city of Sorek.  Such were the wiles of Delilah that she found out that the secret of Samson’s strength lay in his long hair, had his hair cut off, and rendered him weak.  The Philistines then came, bound Samson, put out his eyes, and had him grind grain in a dungeon.  It was in the dungeon that Samson repented, and after having his hair grow back, regained his strength.  He ended his days by pulling down a building on top of himself and three thousand Philistines.  While Samson’s end was righteous in God’s eyes, his life was wasted, and his walk with God not straight and true.  In modern times, we probably know athletes, politicians, celebrities, and stars that have followed a similar course.  John Belushi was a high rising actor in the late 1970s and early `80s.  He had starred on Saturday Night Live for a few years, helping SNL to gain its highest ratings ever, had starred in the cult hit Animal House, the Stephen Spielberg film 1941, and the box office blast The Blues Brothers with Dan Aykroyd.  But Belushi had a serious problem:  he was a drug user.  At the young age of 34, in 1983, Belushi was found dead in his house one morning, the result of a drug overdose.  In the 1980s, there was a phenomenal baseball star named Darryl Strawberry.  Strawberry helped the New York “Mets” reach and win the World Series, and later helped win three more World Series’ Championships with other teams; was a four-time Major League Baseball MVP; and was a millionaire by the time he was 30.  However, Strawberry also had a serious drug problem, and it wrecked his career.  At one point in his life, he had only the clothes on his back, and a few personal items in a suitcase.  When he was in this rock bottom place, he turned to Jesus Christ, and has since become a much-sought speaker, giving his testimony all over the US of A.  But his potential as a baseball star was ruined.  Many sports writers believe that had Strawberry not had such a drug problem, he could have broken numerous records, and likely been the greatest baseball player in history, even surpassing Babe Ruth.  Such is the same for us, brethren.  Such is the danger for you, sinner and non-believer.  When we choose to allow sin and carnality into our lives, we fail to bear fruit.  We must do as Peter admonished the 1st Century Church:

 

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:  Whom resist stedfast in the faith…”

– 1st Peter 5.8~9

 

If we give in to the devil and his schemes, if we allow sin to take its place in our hearts and lives, Christian Brother and Faithless Sinner alike, we will be unfruitful for God and will bear no fruit...and as we have read above, such is a dangerous place in which to be.

 

False Transformation

Friends, as we have seen above, just as Christ can transform lives, so too can the devil….but the devil’s kind of transformation is false, and always leads to death.  Part of the reason we need to be sober and vigilant (see again 1st Peter 5.8~9) is because of the following:

 

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”

– 2nd Corinthians 11.13 ~15

 

The devil is a trickster; he’s sneaky; he’s a snake (Genesis 3.1; Revelation 12.3 ~4, 7~9, 20.2); and is further described thus by Jesus:

 

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father will ye do.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own:  for he is a liar and the father of it.”

– John 8.44

 

You see?  Everything about the devil – what he says, what he does, where he goes, and why it all happens – is because there is absolutely no good in him.  In Matthew and Luke, we do see the devil using Scripture, but his use of it was for his own ends, not to glorify God.  We need to understand that the devil is no friend to anyone, and just as Christ transforms lives for good, the devil transforms lives to send people into an eternity without Jesus Christ.  We have King Saul as an example of this kind of transformation.  In 1st Samuel, we read that Saul was chosen to be king over Israel by God himself, and for several years of his reign, he was a good, faithful, Godly ruler.  However, along the way, he began to disobey, became arrogant, and eventually was rejected by God.  Despite knowing the truth, he never repented of his sin of disobedience (on two separate occasions – see 1st Samuel 13.8 ~16 and 15.1~31), and his end came in battle by his own hand.  All of his sons were killed or murdered, and his daughters met tragedy in their own lives.  Do you know anyone like this?  Do you know someone who started off so very well for the Lord, yet somewhere along the way fell into sin, and never recovered?  This writer had a friend named Jimmy.  Jimmy was a phenomenal athlete in high school.  He was 6’4”, weighed 235lbs, was strong as a bull, and talented like no other person this writer ever knew.  In football, he was all-conference three straight years, and in basketball led his team to the Kentucky State High School Sweet Sixteen  Tournament finals, his team falling by one point.  He was offered several scholarships from many high profile universities and colleges for both football and basketball..  He chose to go to a Christian University on a full basketball scholarship following graduation from high school.  Things were looking good for Jimmy, and his future looked bright.  During his time in school, Jimmy was a regular Church attender, coming from a Christian home, and was active in youth ministries.  However, while in college, Jimmy was found in possession of drugs, and was expelled.  He lost his scholarship, and was forced to return home.  A couple of years later, he was offered a partial scholarship form another Christian University in Kentucky, and played football for two years.  Things were, again, looking good for Jimmy.  However, in his second year, following the end of football season (in which Jimmy helped his university win a national title), Jimmy was caught stealing from the campus bookstore and was, again, expelled.  He was later caught transporting drugs across state lines and was fined several thousand dollars.  Today, things are looking better for Jimmy, but drugs, theft, and alcoholism squandered his past potential.  This is the second-to-end result of giving into the devil’s form of transformation (the end is death – see Romans 6.23 and James 1.12 ~16).

 

Four that were Transformed

Think about these four men:  Moses, David, Peter, and Paul.  Who and what was Moses?  What was his station in life?  He was a Jew who – as a baby condemned by Pharaoh to die –  was saved by the daughter of the King of Egypt, raised as the brother of the crown prince, educated in the finest schools and taught by the greatest educators of the day, and had great power.  The problem for Moses came when he tried – as a prince of Egypt – to free the Children of Israel by his own power.  Forced to flee for his life, he was transformed by forty years of shepherding in the wilderness.  When the Lord came to him in the burning bush, we see that he was a totally changed man, able to be used by God to lead his people out of Egypt and captivity, and face Pharaoh countless times with strength, power, and authority.  What about David?  Who was he?  Why is he important in the Bible?  We may know him as the slayer of Goliath the Giant, and later the greatest king in the history of Israel, but his beginnings were very humble.  He was the youngest of eleven children, and so overlooked that when Samuel came looking for a king to succeed Saul, his Daddy Jesse left him with the sheep, and took his seven older brothers.  It was only when God told Samuel to have Jesse call in David that Israel got her second king.  How about Peter?  Who was he?  What do we know about him?  We know that Jesus called him as an Apostle, that he later betrayed Christ but was restored, and became one of the leaders of the Early Church.  We also know he was the first to evangelize the Gentiles.  What were his beginnings?  He was a fisherman of Galilee, sailing on the Sea by the same name.  What we may not know is that Jesus asked to use his boat to teach in, and later, when Christ asked him to drop the nets one more time, hauled in his biggest catch up to that time.  He later became the preeminent fisher of men, and served Christ faithfully the rest of his life.  What about Paul?  Who was he?  What did he do?  We know him as the greatest single writer of the Bible and the church’s first missionary, but how did he begin?  What was his life like before he met Jesus on the Damascus Road?  We know that he studied at the feet of some of the greatest Jewish Scholars of the 1st Century.  He was also a Phar4isee, and zealous for the law.  Unfortunately, he actively persecuted the Early Church, but after he was transformed on the Damascus Road, became the greatest scholar for Jesus Christ and the instigator of Foreign Missions, establishing dozens of churches throughout the Middle East.  All four of these men – and countless others like them in the Bible – were transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, and as a result, the world has never been the same!  This is what the power of the  transforming Spirit of Jesus Christ can do.

 

The Bottom Line – Transformation by Christ = Revival

We cannot and we will not know revival until we allow Christ to transform us.  So long as we continue to live the life of a Carnal Christian, there will be no revival.  So long as we continue in sin, we cannot be sued fully by God.  If we dabble in sin, we could very well end up like Samson – broken and humbled, saved in the end, but with wasted potential.  More likely, we will end up like King Saul (and many others in the Bible) – we will fall totally away from Christ, failing to surrender totally to the will and purposes of God, and passing from this earth in an unrepentant state despite being on fire for the Lord in the beginning.  You see?  Revival cannot begin until we allow the Lord to transform us.  So long as we are in love with the world, we will be at enmity with the Lord and pretty much useful for nothing in his kingdom.  If we want real, life changing, eternity impacting, and world shaking revival in our hearts and lives we need to ask Christ to cleanse us and change us.  If we come to Christ  - no matter what shape we are in – he will not cast us away from him (John 6.37).  If we allow him, Jesus will change us from the inside out.

 

Conclusion – What If?

Let’s play “what if?”  What if King Saul had allowed the Spirit of God to transform him?  He could’ve been the greatest king of Israel.  What if Judas Iscariot had repented of his betrayal of Christ?  He probably could have had a very great impact on the world for Christ.  On the other hand, what if Moses had ignored the burning bush?  What if he, as Prince of Egypt, had closed his heart and his ears to the cries of the Children of Israel?  What if David had – when called to come to his father and Samuel – decided to stay with the sheep?  What if he had never repented of his sin with Bath–sheba and the murder of Uriah the Hittite as King of Israel?  How about Peter?  What if, when Jesus came calling, Peter had told the Saviour to keep on hiking and find another boat?  He would have missed out on not only the blessings of the great catch of fish, he would have missed out on following the Lord in a way that has yet to be forgotten.  What if Paul had never gone to Damascus?  What if he had contented himself to stay in Jerusalem and remain a Pharisee?  Instead of becoming the first Missionary, greatest writer of the Bible, and most scholarly of the Early Church, he would have become a cloistered monk and scholarly Pharisee that likely would have been useless to the kingdom of God, impacting those around him, instead of the entire world.  Now what about you?  What could the Holy Ghost do through you?  What if you allowed the Lord to transform your life?  How could you impact the world if you allowed Jesus Christ full access, control, and authority in your life?  What could God do with your church?  What if God had complete and 100% free and total access to your church?  How could God impact your community, your city, and your state?  If you and your church allowed the Holy Spirit to move as freely as he wished in your church, to transform your congregation, and your pastoral staff, what could God accomplish?  How could he change this nation?  What impact could you have on the world?  What if Jesus Christ transformed your life?  Where could he take you?  What could he do with you?  Think about some of the people he transformed in more recent history:  God took a hillbilly from the mountains of North Carolina and made him this generation’s greatest evangelist.  That hillbilly’s name is Billy Graham.  He took a slave trading ship captain and, in a moment of time, transformed his life insomuch that he gave up the slaving business, became a pastor, and wrote the single most renowned hymn in history, Amazing Grace.  That former slave ship captain was John Newton.  Christ took a stuttering, bumbling, timid young man who was afraid almost of his own shadow and transformed him into the single greatest pastor in the United States in the 19th Century.  He was Dwight l. Moody, founding pastor of one of the Greatest churches in Chicago.  He took a would-be drunk and disorderly and transformed him into the greatest British minister and pastor of the 19th Century, Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon.   He took a meek, shy schoolmistress and transformed her into the founder of the Red Cross in the USA and one of the founders of the International Red Cross, and the model by which all nurses aspire, Clara Barton.  If God could do this with men and women such as these, and others not mentioned here, what could he do with you?  What could he do with your youth group, your  Sunday school class, and your church?  If we would just allow the Lord to transform us, think about the possibilities!  What could God do with us, through us, and how could he use us if we would allow him to transform us?  To close, here’s a story about this writer.  When he was growing up, he was shy, introverted, and timid around others.  In fact, so timid and shy was he that when his Dad took his second church in Kentucky, he didn’t leave the house for a week after moving to the new area.  This writer’s brother literally had to drag him out of the house to go out and make new friends.  His Dad had to threaten him in order to get him to play Junior High School Baseball and High School Football.  He had a lot of trouble even making new friends, and was constantly bullied throughout his eighth, ninth, and part of his tenth grade years.  However, when this writer allowed Christ to transform him, he made all of his dreams come true:  he played five years of college football, earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees, is studying for a doctorate in Biblical Studies, spent twelve years living in a country which he only dreamed of visiting as a little boy, and married the most beautiful woman in the world.  He taught college in Japan for eleven years, and junior-senior high school for fifteen more months, and has recently been hired by a major university in Virginia.  Friends, God has transformed his life!  What could God do with you?  If you gave God total control, total access, and allowed him to transform you, where could God take you?  How high could you fly?

 

Invitation

Do you want Christ to transform you?  Do you want the Spirit of God to totally take over?  Do you want to give God complete and 100% free reign in your life?  It only takes a willing heart and an open spirit.  You can be transformed today, but it is up to you to ask.  Your friends, your family, your pastor, your church cannot transform you or be transformed for you in your stead:  you, my friend, and you alone, can only be transformed, but you must ask.  Please, won’t you ask Jesus to transform you today?  Let’s pray…

 

Prayer

Father in Heaven, we love you.  We ask, O Lord, for you to transform us today.  We want to do your will, O Lord:  we wouldn’t bother with this lesson and message if we didn’t.  We pray, Father in Heaven, that you would transform our lives.  Change us, O Lord, into what you wish for us to be, and help us to follow in your footsteps.  Transform us and change us, filling us with your Holy Spirit, today, won’t you please, O Lord?  If there is sin in our lives, we pray for your forgiveness; if there is transgression, Father, we ask you to erase it in the Name of Jesus Christ.  We repent of our sins, and ask you, O Lord, to bring us into full and complete relationship with you.  We pray, Father, for these things, and for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ Precious Name above all names, Amen.

 

Verse to Remember

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.  If any man loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the father, but is of the world.  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof:  but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

– 1st John 2.15 ~17

 

 

 

 

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