Keys to Change

Theme:  Positive change in our lives comes from cooperating with God.

Texts:  Romans 12:1-2 

Here’s a Thought:  A.W. Tozer explained, “We can know the right words yet never be changed. This is the difference between information and transformation.

If you had seen Arthur when he stepped off the bus in Kingston, Ontario, you would never have been able to guess his past.  He would blend into the background and be just like any travelling salesman or perhaps a grandfather coming to visit his family.  However, Arthur’s vital statistics were anything but average.  He was released from prison at the age of 53, yet incredibly, he had spent 42 years behind bars.

 He began his prison career at the age of 11.  No prison seemed capable of holding him; no prison system could break his spirit or reform his behaviour.  He served 24 of those years in solitary confinement.  For 17 months, he sat on death row.  He participated in prison riots, broke a guard’s arm and another guard’s collarbone, and brought about the death of one sheriff.  In one prison in Indiana, he stole 40 pounds of cyanide while working in the jail with the idea of poisoning the entire prison staff.  He spent 31 months in Devil’s Island Prison, confined in a 5 x 7-foot cell, chained by his neck.  Society had no hope for him; they just tried their best to confine him.

But something happened in Arthur’s life that dramatically changed all of that.  It began one day in Leavenworth, Kansas, while in prison.  A preacher visited the prison and brought along his 14-year-old son, Tim.  As Tim followed his dad down the row of cells, he paused by Arthur’s cell for some reason, smiled, and winked.

That’s all it took.  Arthur responded, called him back to the cell, and began verbally abusing him, cursing, swearing, and calling him everything he could think of.  The boy broke down in tears, but he stood his ground.  Finally, he simply said these words to Arthur, “I love you.”

Arthur said, “That was the first time anyone had ever told me that.”

Arthur began to receive letters from Tim.  Tim would write to him and share his concern for him.  Tim prayed for him.  Those letters kept coming for seven years, and correspondence began to be exchanged between them until Arthur finally broke down and said, “Every letter was stained with his tears.  I couldn’t take it anymore.  I got on my knees and came to the Lord.”

God performed two miracles in Arthur's life.  The first was to change a hate-filled, violent man into a man of love and grace with the ability to care for others.  Then God performed a double miracle because He saw fit to have him released from prison in spite of that kind of background and record.  Though he had cancer, he set about proclaiming Christ with the years that he had left (from http://media.calvaryvista.com/salvato-rob/studies-books/42-LUK-1997/42-LUK-007-017.htm) 

Many of us here today could testify of the change that Jesus Christ has brought in our lives, some less dramatic than others.  Regardless of how much change we have already experienced, there remains an inward longing to change more.  Attitudes, habits, and patterns in our relationships linger and remind us of how far short we fall of God’s perfection.

How on earth can a person change, anyhow?  Is it getting a new wardrobe, new slippers, a new hairdo, a new vehicle, a new house, or a new job?  This restlessness for change can cause us to try different avenues.  Education can’t bring about the depth of change we all crave.  No measure of sophistication through mixing with the right crowd can truly change us. It is much more than all these!  What is it that enables a person to change?  What are the ingredients?

In Romans 12:1-2 the Apostle Paul, himself a dramatically changed man, reveals the keys to change:

       1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will. NIV

The keys to change are:

Dedication

Separation

Transformation

Dedication (Romans 12:1)

In view of God's greatness and His plans for His people, in view of Christ’s painful sacrifice and glorious resurrection, I urge you to do this …

Paul is pressing here for a decisive act of the will.  Offer here implies “present, bring, put at someone’s disposal.”  This word is used also in Romans 6:19:

       I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves.  Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. NIV

After reading this, you may say, “But I never offered the parts of my body to impurity.”  You likely have never done this … consciously.  In the same way, most people do not consciously offer themselves to Satan.  However, because they have neglected or refused to offer themselves to Christ, they are subject to the one the Bible describes as ruling over the world and its system.  By failing to offer yourself to God, you, by nature, are a slave to sin.  We were born with a tendency to fulfill our selfish desires and go our own way.

One lady reported:

I was driving with my three young children one warm summer evening when a woman in the convertible ahead of us stood up and waved.  She was stark naked!  As I was reeling from the shock, I heard my five-year-old shout from the back seat, “Mom!  That lady isn’t wearing a seatbelt!

When sacrificing an animal according to God’s law, a priest killed the animal, cut it in pieces, and placed it on the altar.

Why offer your body?  It is the vehicle through which choices are expressed, and action is carried out.

God wants more than rituals and time sacrifices - He wants you!  Only by giving yourself to God can any eternal work be done.  Personal change begins with our response of dedication to the Lord.

The keys to change are:

Dedication

Separation (Romans 12:2)

God’s desire for His people to be different from the world is not new.  Jesus did not pray in John 17:15 that His disciples would be taken out of the world but that they would be protected from the evil one.  The world’s influence on us can be subtle.  Thought patterns such as, “I must look out for #1, wealth brings happiness, I work hard only when my boss is watching, I refuse to forgive after what that so and so did to me” are not ideas we pick up from the God of the Bible but from ungodly influences.

A convict told his cellmate, “You know, I feel that just our being here makes this world a better place to live.”

One who is conformed to his surroundings is something like a chameleon, a lizard that changes its colour to match its surroundings:

·    Temperature variations, changes in light and the lizard’s feelings control these changes.

·    Its body is flat - almost like it has been mashed out of shape.

·    It has bulging eyes that roll about separately - both can be looking in a different direction.

·    It has a long tail that curls into a spiral when it’s not being used to grasp things.

·    These animals are not attractive!

How is your life?  If you live and work in a setting that does not acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ, is your life different from these surroundings?  As the chameleon is unattractive, so is the Christian, who is conformed to the world around him.

We often hear about pollution of streams, lakes, oceans, and air and are even warned against noise pollution.  But our most significant danger is thought pollution.

People’s thoughts are polluted every day.  The internet, social media, television, movies, music, magazines, books, gurus, and many other “authorities” say, “Do this.  Go this way.”  Like children following a pied piper, multitudes buy into the pop philosophies which have never brought a higher quality of life and never will.  They form ideas according to the culture around them.  They develop mindsets that can lead only to destructive actions and feelings.

I find Philippians 4:8 to be excellent advice to prevent being conformed to the world:

       Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. NIV

As one thinks in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV).  Consider what thought patterns and influences you are allowing to dominate your life.  Are they helping you to grow closer to God?  Are the activities you include in your lifestyle helping or hindering your relationship with Jesus Christ?

The keys to change are:

Dedication (Romans 12:1)

Separation (Romans 12:2)

Transformation (Romans 12:2) 

Some would interpret this verse as “But be transformed by the removal of your mind.”  Some non-Christians would see the faith as illogical and for weak-minded people only.  Some followers of Jesus would renounce our ability to reason to be genuinely led by the Holy Spirit.  However, the Apostle Paul says here, “be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

The word translated “transformed” here is metamorphoó (met-am-or-fo’-o).  This means “to change in form which is invisible to the physical eye.”

The same word is used in 2 Corinthians 3:18, where Paul writes:

       And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. NIV

The English word metamorphosis comes from this Greek term.  Metamorphosis describes the butterfly, which undergoes three stages:  larva or caterpillar, pupa or cocoon, and adult butterfly.  The caterpillar becomes an attractive butterfly through its remarkable transformation. 

Will you be like a chameleon or a butterfly?

The commitment to become more like Jesus Christ is a daily one.  What you allow to influence you, what you fill your mind with and how you respond to God’s Word and His promptings determine how much you grow.  Do you allow time within your daily schedule for meditation on the Bible, communication with the Lord, and other spiritual disciplines such as fasting, worship, and repentance?

Change comes as we hear and obey God’s Word.  American pastor and author A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) explained, “We can know the right words yet never be changed.  This is the difference between information and transformation.”

I stand before you not as a perfect person but as a changed person.  As a boy and a young teen, I was mouthy and disrespectful, especially giving my mother and my bus driver a lot of grief.  My mouth often got me into trouble with older siblings and older kids on the bus and at school.  In desperate attempts to gain attention, I tried to be the class clown in grade 8.  I hoped I would win the approval of my peers by being a good athlete in high school.  However, my priorities and pursuits have changed dramatically through careful selection of my influencers, life-changing experiences, and daily times with the Lord and in the Bible.

The keys to change are:

Dedication

Separation

Transformation

Positive change in our lives comes from cooperating with God.