Inland Empire: Riverside
Transformed By Christs Love - Audio
Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, 1976, I was driving home in Colorado, had 18 friends coming home with me for Thanksgiving dinner. We had been at the Academy since June 28th and had not been allowed to leave until that Wednesday night after midterms. And we had spent that time being abused basically being treated as what they called smacks. Smack is an affectionate term used for freshmen at a military county, Academy, it's the sound that human waste makes when it hits the wall. And that's basically how they describe you and from the moment I arrive there until that moment, I had literally had plenty of people trying to do everything they could to convince me that's what and who I was. So as we were leaving the Academy going home for Thanksgiving, it was like we had all been set free. Most of the eyes that I went to school with were on the extreme class A personality type of the 18 who were going home with me, 16 were either on the rugby team, the wrestling team or the football team. So of the class A personalities, these were the class A type personalities and they had been set free. So they descended on my small town home, 3500 people and it was changed forever. It was a little bit like the invasion of a biker gang coming into some small rural area. We knew exactly what it hit them. We had people literally sleeping under tables lying all over the place and for three days it was just absolute pandemonium. I will never forget the look on my mother's face as we left. My parents were not spiritual people but if I did not know better I would say she was thinking God was my last Thanksgiving as an on Christian. The following Thanksgiving would be a completely different experience for me. Instead of something that I had to look back at and apologize for, it changed radically but to be able to have Thanksgiving this weekend with people Jake indicated to you that we have Thanksgiving with for almost 30 years. We had 53 people at Thanksgiving this year and of those people there were six couple whose weddings I had done and I don't even know that we had the most festive setting. We had plastic plates purchased at Costco but Costco is where Jesus goes for bargains. The food was great but what was great was not even just the fellowship. It was the representation of the dramatic difference that God has made in my life. To be able to hear Jake share today. You know I am so proud of him. He's come such a long, long way. Very early on in his life we started trying to mess him up and spent basically 24 years doing that then Kelsey came in and she's the cleanup crew that comes in to try to help him get to what he needs to be and it's always fun watching their interaction. I think like my mother was thinking thank God when we all left there are times when she leaves our house I can hear her silent praying thank God we're going home. But to be able to have him here and to share Thanksgiving to have Scott home I just sat there and had a lot of meaningless conversations and fun conversations and deep conversations but I was basking in the glory that represents my life. The first three songs the first four songs actually that we sang I love I love the Latin song that we sang on the fourth song because it talks about us being in God's hands turning to him and crying out to him and calling out to him. And the fifth song we sang is amazing grace and of all the songs that I've chosen to be played when I die that is the one song I want to close it out with because I want my family to recognize I realize my life was a life lived by grace the grace of God that there was nothing in me that deserved all the rich blessings that I have. I love Thanksgiving I love what it reminds me of because I'm not the same man that I was that Wednesday going home in 1976 you see I've been transformed by the love of Christ and that's the title of my lesson I want to talk today about what that transformation needs to do and how it should impact and affect us Jake talked about hating to disappoint his wife I hate to break this to you Jake from the moment your mother said I do she's lived with disappointment and we feel that towards God we don't want to disappoint God and yet God that's not what God wants us to feel God wants us to feel his overwhelming grace he wants us to feel that in his presence we don't have to worry about anything that he holds our life in his hands and he is better able to take care of us than you and I will ever be able to be on our own that God looks at us as if we are his treasured children we long so much for us to feel the security that doesn't have to live a life motivated by guilt but can live a life motivated by grace by the love that he has shown to us from the day that we're born one of my favorite characters in the Bible is the Apostle Paul because there are so many specific letters that he's written that show us so much about his life and his transformation maybe the single most written about character in the New Testament other than Jesus himself and in his life we can see the incredible influence that God had on him that Jesus transformed in him and then to watch the way his life impacted so many people we sang the song before I came up here forever that that is how faithful God is that God is faithful and your life and my life they don't end at the funeral all eyes carry on and they will literally forever and ever have an impact the only question is what kind of an impact will that be and that's a choice God's given us to make but if we can allow Christ love to truly transform us in every way then we can be assured that that will be a living legacy that will continue to produce life over and over again in Acts chapter 7 in verse 54 through chapter 8 verse 3 you have the story of the disciples Stephen who we know was a brother full of the spirit the Bible describes him as that he was so excited by what God had done in his life that he spoke very openly and very aggressively to a very very religious group of people people who quite frankly like Jake described didn't want to hear the things in their life that weren't the way they should be in the same things that can be how some of us are we wouldn't much rather have everybody just agree with us just like us just get along with us and yet Stephen full of the spirit comes to these people and he is literally laying out the promise of God the opportunity that having a relationship with Jesus can have for their lives in verse 54 of chapter 7 it says when they heard this they were furious and nast their teeth at him and it escalates because Stephen doesn't back down he's so excited about Jesus and the impact of Jesus is that on his life that he continues to teach about Jesus and they just get matter and matter and matter and what ends up happening is they literally drag him out now I don't know how many of you have ever been drug but this isn't some Hollywood thing this is a mob a frantic enraged mob dragging him through the city to the outside of the city for the sole purpose of stoning him to death one of the most brutal ways that a person could die I don't know if you've ever been hit by a rock but can you imagine the crowd of people in this church gathering around you and everyone throwing rocks until you are dead it's a brutal and ugly of vicious death and yet on the end of that Stephen's spirit was to surrender to Christ to trust in God in verse 58 it says meanwhile witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul Saul who become the Apostle Paul was there many Bible scholars believe that he probably was a witness to the crucifixion whether he wasn't no we really don't have any clear proof but we do know he was aware of it we do know he was aware of the influence and the impact that the followers of Jesus and he was like this crowd so enraged so full of confidence in himself in his own righteousness that his response wasn't one of humility it was one of anger and he went to the extreme of literally pursuing believers of the faith and dragging them from their homes to be executed and as chapter nine and verse one through verses 22 it says meanwhile Saul was still breathing out murders threats against the lords and disciples this is sometime later it's after the persecution has gone from the initial stages to the stage where literally Christians are being murdered everywhere and so Paul Saul at the time gives a license to travel a hundred and fifty miles to Damascus to hunt down Christians that may have escaped the initial persecution in Jerusalem and got into the outskirts he's not just willing to get him out of town he wants them gone this is a religious fanatic a zealot who has one thing in mind and that is to destroy the faith in Christ and yet on that road the Bible describes his conversion when he struck blind and all around him the only thing he can hear is the voice of Jesus Christ saying Saul Saul why do you persecute me it's quite a communion message isn't it and that one simple question it brought to reality who he really was he couldn't deny it his only response was to say who are you I am Jesus Christ whom you're a persecuting this wasn't a theological debate it was standing in the presence of God with everything you are everything you think everything you've ever done laid out with no discussion and no debate Jesus tells him to get up to go into Damascus to find out an is and there he would be told what he needed to do every one of us has been on a road to Damascus at some point in our life the purpose of that road isn't a judge it's not to condemn we're already condemned we've already been judged by our own sins the purpose of that road is a salvation road it's the road of transformation the purpose of that road is to bring us to a place where we're not living in fear of disappointing God but instead we live out of a desire to show appreciation to God we're going to look at four specific things that I believe that Christ love is meant to do in our lives to change us and I've been thinking about this a lot before Thanksgiving as I was preparing food I just spent a lot of time cooking and thinking and over and over and over I think about where I was at this time I think about where I was one year ago and how much different my life is now I look at all is taking place where we were as a family a year ago the events that have taken place the number of cars at Libby's Rec I look at the things that could have happened for those of you that don't know Libby totaled an indestructible car the other day and someone who was asking me what do you think out now I said the Libby factor and Kelsey was a little bit protective of Libby because Kelsey has that same genetic deformity that Libby has she's one of the few people and I think she had three accidents in two weeks or something and so I told both of them I'm sending them both the remedial driving school where they're going to get trained and I don't want them on the road but I think about how different that could have been Jake and Kel and Libby could have died they didn't thank God it wasn't that big of a deal they were fine but what could have happened thanksgiving would have been a dramatically different thing for a young widow and an old widower Scott was on the phone talking to Jake when that happened he heard the sound he didn't know exactly what's going on and he called me and said that I think mom and Jacob in a car accident several years ago the potential of his mom dying really sent Scott into a tailspin and messed with his head and took him to very dark places that we all followed him into and so as I was cooking I was thinking about just what took place a few weeks ago and how different that Thanksgiving could be for us if it weren't for the hand of God and you know what the food became insignificant the fellowship even was less significant although that fellowship helped that feeling what was significant was God and God's presence and the presence he gives us one of the first things that take place in Paul's life when Jesus began to question him and expose his life was the first thing that's got to happen to us and that is brokenness we have to get to a place where we're we're going to stop trying to deny who we really are then we don't have to hide we don't have to shut and jive then we can come in here and just be who we are there is no way you and I could deserve the right to be here we can't earn our salvation we can't earn our position in the pew it's a gift it's the passage that Jake talked about in Romans chapter five while we were still sinners Christ died for us at the most sinful point of your life you were met on a Damascus road what does God want what is his first desire we see that in Acts chapter two in verse thirty six when the people that were at Pentecost heard Peter preach for the first time publicly after his own denial of Christ after his own failures and sin and when they recognize that it was Christ whose presence they were standing in front of what it says is literally that the people when they heard this were cut to the heart what messes us up in the church more often is that we stop allowing our heart to be broken we stop allowing ourselves to be cut and we start feeling pretty good about the progress we've made and instead of seeing that is only because we are resting in the hands of Christ we somehow believe it's us and we can we can even turn back and walk away and then come back and we we just expect people are going to just be fine with that because we this is our right no none of us have the right to be here and if we don't get to the place where we're broken God can't continue to work in our lives as ministers this to me is one of the greatest dangers that we face is we start feeling pretty good about ourselves because we're not doing this stuff there's so many people out in the world are doing and we start feeling good about our accomplishments and the impact our lives may and yet somewhere along the way it stops me about what Jesus has done and it becomes about what I've done and it is Christians we feel like don't you know who we are don't you see what we've sacrificed what have you sacrificed we do that to each other we give to each other expecting a result or expecting a return rather than doing it because so much has been given to us what Paul had to get to what God wanted the people of Pentecost to get to was a state of brokenness not depression but a state of brokenness for our whole life is laid out before us and instead of condemnation like the woman caught in the act of adultery Jesus is there to lift us up that instead of persecution for persecution its resurrection by the resurrected you see Saul was lifted up you've been lifted up I've been lifted up if I had to wait for my life to be righteous enough to share I'd have nothing to share I'm doing pretty good if between songs I don't sin we have to change the way we approach God it's not a debt it's an expression of gratitude the second thing that took place in Paul's life and it's got to take place in ours is that personal transformation literally sitting alone in the darkness in Damascus before ananias even came to speak to him for two solid days Saul had to be sitting around thinking about what is his fate and when he's given the opportunity for all of his sins to be forgiven and then he's told he's to be a witness for Christ it began something in him that will never change and each one of these things we're going to look at they're not things that happen at one moment in time they are a lifestyle that God wants us to live in that chapter 13 verse 9 is the first time that Saul it's recorded it becomes Paul and part of why that took place was the people that he was going to speak to but part of it is he was reinventing himself from the time that he had spent with ananias he was trying to change who he had been he didn't want to be that guy he didn't want to be the burden the one that people dreaded he wanted to be someone whose life couldn't make a difference but it starts with brokenness but then there has to be a commitment to personal transformation Romans chapter 12 verse one when he's talking to the church of Rome he says this is our act of worship therefore I urge you brothers I am begging you get this in view of God's mercy with an understanding of all of this off of your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing now holy does not mean without sin it means set apart it means no matter where you're at you are setting yourself a part for God why because of what God has done for you what he's done for me this is your spiritual act of worship do not conforming along to the better of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind we've got to change the way we think this is a decision that you are not going to make when someone comes up in their approaches and says can I talk to you about something we can literally choose to take control of our emotions and say yes to be quick to listen to be slow to speak to be slow to respond but instead to desire so much to glorify God that whatever we can change we choose to change and so much of our behavior right now we can just change by making the decision to change I don't feel very good today hope the service is good to know no matter how I feel today I want to give then I'm going to get out of myself I will choose I may be frustrated with you I may be irritated with you but do I think God was never frustrated with me to catch myself instead of responding the way that I've tended to respond to my marriage so you know what after 30 years I want to do a better job I want Jake and Kelsey to be able to be around us and see a marriage that makes them grateful to be married I want it to be an inspiration for Scott if I'm waiting to fix Libby for that to happen it isn't going to happen I can't fix her Lord knows I've tried but I can fix me many of us in our marriages we want the other person to make all the changes rather than just surrendering sin you know I'm broken and I want to personally transform myself second Corinthians 5 talking the church at Corinth this is a common thing it's a repetitive thing it's an enduring theme for Paul if we're out of our mind is for the sake of God if we're in our right mind is for you for Christ love compels us because we're convinced that when died for all and therefore all that and he died for all the those who lived in the longer lived for themselves but for him we died for them was raised again so from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view though we once regarded Christ in this way we do so no longer therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation are you a new creation this year from where you were last year or as depreciation shown in your life what he's talking about here is that desire because of the grace of Christ the love of Christ that we're going to continue to strain and destroy to be better the old is gone the new has come all this is from God so many times I hear people say I just cannot believe this will ever be different than me that's because it's not coming from God when it's coming from God when it's motivated by Christ love it has supernatural power to take a son of thunder and help him to become an apostle of love to take a persecutor and help him become the one person who may be more than anyone else during that period of time impacted the world for Christ it takes a prostitute or a Samaritan woman and it lets their life change cities I don't know exactly where you're at but I know no matter where you're at by God's grace and in God's hands you can be transformed but God leaves that choice to you it starts with being broken I don't be this way anymore all this is from God who reconciles to himself brought us home through Christ the invitation came to the thanksgiving meal by the son of God and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ not meaning counting men's sins against him he's committed to us he's given us the responsibility for just sharing the good news number three we got to be humbled by that grace not the same thing as being broken to humble yourself is liken to the phrase used for surrender it is what Jesus did in the God of the Yosemite not my will but you will be done and it wasn't a time it was a way of thinking for so many of us we surrendered when we wanted to become Christians but are we still surrendered or is there a conditional clause to our Christianity now do we want to make sure that we've got the papers in place for our retirement plans in first Timothy chapter one towards the end of his life and one of the last letters that he wrote writing to Timothy who at this time is that an evangel is probably 35 to 40 years old Paul says I think Christ Jesus our Lord has given me strength that I thank God that I've been strong enough I thank God that Christ has given me strength and he considered me faithful appointing me to this service even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief the grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly do you feel God's grace and abundance day in and day out that we look around and we we everywhere we look we see God's presence along with faith and the love that are Christ Jesus and here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst I would dare to say at this point in Paul's life he is probably more righteous and more spiritual than any other point he's close to the time he's going to die he serves Jesus faithfully for decades he's been beaten he suffered for the sake of the cross but his mindset his heart is he's more aware of how far he fell short of the glory of God I pray that in the lives of the people on staff that you can see a humility that can only come with a recognition that no matter how far we may have come from where we've been we've got so far to go it's almost as if we're not doing anything but starting over this very reason I was shown mercy and that me the worst of sinners Christ Jesus might displays unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and reserve and receive eternal life when we recognize the position and the place the grace has in our lives it gives hope to the hopeless to the people who struggle with feeling like I can't be different I'll never be that positive oh never be that happy I can't love her anymore I can't love him anymore I can't take my kids it changes us to the letter that he wrote to the church at Philippi and flipped in chapter one he's trying to address people that he knows or teaching about Jesus with impure motives and selfish and he says you know what who cares let's just be grateful that Jesus is being taught but then in the end of verse 20 says I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body whether by life or by death for to me to live is Christ and to die is game from a prison so policy I don't care if Christ can be exalted in my life if that means me being the best prisoner I can be I surrender because his grace is produced in me a humility in Philippians chapter two he starts off with the whole thing is if there's anything that we have by being in Christ it should do one thing it should change us so we do nothing out of selfish ambition what does that mean that means that nothing we do is meant to glorify us it's meant to glorify what God can do even in us and the example that he uses there was Jesus who was by nature God but that thought didn't occur to him because all he wanted to do was reflect the glory of God and while we were hostile to Jesus he called us out on a Damascus road not to condemn not to judge but to give us a purpose and a hope that could change not just our life but the lives forever many of you have been around a long time how many have you been Christians for more than ten years okay more than twenty we a lot of people have been around a long time what a tragic thing if at this point in our life we give up three decades into it Paul's in prison knows he's going to be executed and he's praising God for the opportunity to serve I'm glad that the marriage beat the campus for so many reasons number one among those reasons or maybe not number one but high up in that list is Steve can't gloat because for six years that I've been here he's been playing with the college students I can never see that out because he's so far past being a college student but the college students dominated the marriage until this year this was the Phoenix of football the rising out of the ashes of the feet to see a triumphant warrior bird rising it's good for the young people to have older examples to follow what is tragic because that even in our movement so many of our churches are really moved and motivated by the youngest Christians they're the inspiration they're the celebration they bring the imput and yet that's not how God wants it to be he wants us salty old sea dogs to just get more grip to get more conviction and more safe that we can even at this stage and I haven't even greater impact than we've ever had before I don't want the older ministry to be kind of the ones that we try to find something useful for them to do because they're at the stage that they have to have people even chew their food for them before they can digest it I'm approaching that that doesn't motivate me but the fourth and last thing that I saw in Paul's life is that he was motivated to finish in a race not everybody finishes and there comes a point in time in a marathon especially when most people feel like I don't know if I can go on but then there comes a point where you get your second win and the goal is in sight I don't know how much longer on the live I pray to God it's not too much longer I won't leave you to still be young enough to cash in on the investment of my insurance policy and be able to marry a good husband but I want however long it is to be useful to be used by Christ I don't want to make way for Steve or dog or you I want to make way for Christ to work in my life and he was chapter 10 verse 39 it talks about us not being of those that shrink back and are destroyed but are those who believed in or saved somebody asked this morning I was doing I said I'm old and tired but those statements are true I'm old I'm tired but that doesn't mean I have to be retired living our leaving tonight to go to Budapest for the disciples delegates meeting to make plans for the next two years for what we're going to do in the movement to dream to talk about the missions to look at what we've done that's been effective was not been effective and see how we can together have a greater impact we get goals that we've set for 2020 and what we want to see happen those aren't going to just happen by themselves they're going to happen when you and I step up pitch in any up and let the grace of Christ transform us to have an impact that we could never even believe was possible before when I was a young man I wanted my life to matter that Wednesday night before Thanksgiving 1976 I had no idea who I would be this year at Thanksgiving and probably had I known it it would have freaked me out because I was so stinking worldly but I can tell you my life has had a greater impact in one year than my life had had in the eighteen to that point and the difference was being met on a road to Damascus and experience in the grace of Christ in his letter to the church caution and a closet and caution chapter three in verse 12 says therefore as God's chosen people holy and dearly love I hope you had a great time over Thanksgiving but I hope that what you feel is holy set apart for God and dearly love like there is no way anyone could lavish more love on you. Clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another we earn each other we sin against each other all the time hang on you bear with it forgive as the Lord forget you and over all these virtues put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts when we recognize we're in the hands of the Lord what do we have to be stressed about since his members of one body you were called a piece and be thankful let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish another one another with all wisdom and as you sing songs hymns and spiritual songs the songs we sing this morning every one of them was a song talking about how awesome God is and how great he's been to me the song before this forever and ever God is faithful I have three decades of history of his faithfulness this meant to inspire me to believe he'll be faithful tomorrow and whatever you do whatever you do today what does that mean anything whatever you do today whether in word or indeed either by your action or by what you say do it all in the name of the Lord giving thanks to God the Father through him flippings chapter 3 verse 12 Paul says not that I've already obtained all this I've already been made perfect but I press on to take all of that was Christ Jesus took hold of me brothers I do not consider myself yet to have taken over but one thing I do forgetting what is behind forgetting the failures forgetting the success and just straining towards what is ahead I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has told me every word in Christ Jesus all of us who are mature should taste such a view of faith and if on some point you think differently that too God will make clear to you only let us live up to what we've already take let's do what we know to do an extreme forward for what we can the end of my life I don't want to hear stories about hunting or cooking or some other activity I want to hear well done good and faithful servant in his final letter to his spiritual son Timothy in second Timothy chapter 4 verse 6 Paul says I'm already being poured out like a drink offering the time has come from my departure it's over I'm gone I'm done I fought the good fight I finished the race I have kept the faith now there isn't a store for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearance I hope your Thanksgiving holiday was a good one but I pray that it offered you the opportunity to take time to look back and reflect on the grace of Christ and its influence in your life and I pray it produces in us the brokenness the desire to change the humility that we need to have to finish the fight thank you very much. [ Silence ]
Sunday lesson by Mike Rock