It is clear that you are christ's letter, produced by us, not written with ink but with the spirit of the living God—not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.
2 Corinthians 3:3
2 Corinthians 3:3
Last week Sam Nobles preached on what discipleship is and the commission that Jesus gave us to make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching. Yesterday he told us what true discipleship is. Our lives are a testimony of who God is to us and through that living testimony we can make disciples. We are walking examples (we are Christ’s letter to the world) of what a disciple is and when others see the transformation that has taken place in our lives, they want to know how they can have the same thing.
· Spiritual transformation is the goal of discipleship and only happens in relatioships with people - when life touches life.– In our everyday relationships, our lives are bumping up against others constantly. The people we work with, go to school with, neighbors, and our family are all potential disciples in our lives and the way we live our life is noticed by them. The whole purpose of family, who are your primary disciples, is life touching life. People are changed as they share life together and help each other along the path of discipleship.
· Spending time in God’s presence is where real transformation takes place.In order to experience transformation, you have to position yourself for transformation. In other words, you have to make a specific effort to spend time with God every day. That’s how God changes you and if this piece is missing, change will be missing too. You have to go to Him - sit at His feet and soak it up so you can pour it out to others.
· Transformation is to be shared – Sharing our transformation is how disciples are made. Our transformation story brings joy to God, but it also can be used by God in the transformation of others. It is three-fold. It is for God’s glory, for us to experience abundance in our own lives, and to have an impact for the kingdom.
· What Spiritual Transformation is Not:
It is not the accumulation of knowledge. We can sit in church and Sunday School for years and accumulate a wealth of knowledge but if our lives don’t change, it is not transformation. You can have information without transformation.
It is not behavior modification. We can act like we are something we are not. Our world today has mastered this with social media. We can write the script of our lives to be anything we want it to be. We can change behavior but not change on the inside. This is changing what we dio witout being transformed. External conformity does not prove real transformation.
It is not the accumulation of knowledge. We can sit in church and Sunday School for years and accumulate a wealth of knowledge but if our lives don’t change, it is not transformation. You can have information without transformation.
It is not behavior modification. We can act like we are something we are not. Our world today has mastered this with social media. We can write the script of our lives to be anything we want it to be. We can change behavior but not change on the inside. This is changing what we dio witout being transformed. External conformity does not prove real transformation.
· Transformation is becoming like Christ. Like DNA causes a son and father to look alike in spite of the generations between, we also have the DNA of Jesus Christ if we are His children. LIike a child looks like a parent, with the DNA of Christ in us, transformation happens and we will look like Him.
Position yourself to be transformed, be intentional in your relationships, and share the story of how God changes you - causing an explosion of the life of Christ to flow from you into the life of others.
