The Christian Life Is a Changed Life

Good morning.

Let me pray for us real quick.

Lord, I ask that whatever is of me would be quickly forgotten,

but that which is of you would be remembered for a long time.

I pray that you would be our preacher this morning and you would use this in our lives.

We love you and we thank you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

This week I saw a clip online of a preacher and the preacher said that the way

that many Christians do evangelism is something like this.

They will say to the person, do you realize that you're a sinner?

And if the person says yes, they will say, do you want to go to heaven when you die?

And if the person says yes, they will say, Jesus died for you.

Do you accept that that's true?

And if they say yes, then they say, repeat this prayer after me and invite Jesus

into your heart. And then if they do that, they say, you're a Christian now.

And the guy, the preacher that I was watching, the online clip,

he said that that practice has produced a theology in America that is far worse

than all of the cults combined.

He went on to say that if people believe that coming to know Jesus or being

saved or becoming a Christian is like a five-minute decision that you make at

some point in your life and you go back to your previous life and continue to

live it the same way you did,

you did not come to know Jesus. Amen?

So today we're beginning a new six-week series titled Changed.

And the big idea that is like the foundation underneath all the other weeks

of this series is the idea that the Christian life is a changed life.

It is not merely a family tradition that you are born into.

It is not merely a group that you join. It is not a prayer that you pray.

It is not a one-time decision that you make that is unrelated to the 10,000

decisions that you make after the first decision.

And so for the next several weeks, I'd like to talk about multiple ways that

God changes us once we come to know him.

I got the idea from a book that I read one time, okay? It was actually a book

that you recommended to me.

And it was a book that was written by a pastor. And the pastor,

there was a point where as he was talking, he said, when people are first becoming

Christians, this is what I teach them.

Like when I'm mentoring someone and they're fairly new to the faith, I teach them this.

And as I was reading the book, I teach them this. And then there was this like little list that he had.

And the list, the title of it was, where does change come from?

And then underneath that, it was God's word, Holy Spirit, our part,

other believers, and what does a Christian look like? So there were like these

five topics that were under this heading.

And I thought the list was great. As I was reading it, I was like,

well, yeah, I could see why you'd want to teach people that.

And so I thought the list was great. And so under the list, like,

so there's a title and there's like several topics.

And then underneath each of the topics was just like a set of verses,

like he just put some verse references underneath there, but he didn't elaborate

on what he meant by Holy Spirit or God's Word or our part.

It was just like just a list of topics with verses. And I looked at the list and I thought.

Well, he didn't elaborate on that, but I could elaborate on that.

Like, I could say a whole bunch of things about God's Word and the Holy Spirit

and our part and other believers and what does this all look like.

And if I did that, like, that would be a great series to talk about those topics in that order.

So that is what we're going to do. Our plan, starting this week,

if the Lord permits, is to do this series on the book, this series on,

like, this topic of change using those topics in that order.

So we're going to put up the, like, titles.

This is what's coming up, okay? So if you're wondering, like for the next five

weeks, if God allows me to do it, this is the plan.

Then we're going to talk about part two, God's Word's role in changing us.

Now you might go, wait, why in the world does the list start with part two?

Because you're in part one right now. We are here.

We are in part one. And so for the rest of the series, part two,

God's Word's role in changing us. We'll talk about that next week.

The Holy Spirit's role in changing us after that.

Our role in changing us after that. Other believers' role in changing us after that.

And then what does the change look like? That's the plan for these next six

weeks. Anybody excited? Okay, good.

So before we get into all of that, I think an introduction is in order, okay?

And that's what today is, the introduction. And the reason I think an introduction

is needed is because the Bible speaks of the Christian life as a changed life,

or you could even use the word transformed.

The Christian life is a transformed life. In fact, this series could have,

we could have named the series Transformed. And in fact, if we had?

Wouldn't have that, can you imagine the graphic design we could have had if

it were called transformed?

They could have been Optimus Prime, right? And you could have had like a Bible

that like turns into a youth group.

Like wouldn't have that, wouldn't have that been fantastic?

But I didn't think of it in time, so we're calling it changed, okay?

But I did think about that this week and thought, that'd be fun.

Okay, so we're going to talk about the transformed or the changed life of a Christian.

The Bible speaks of these changes or these transformations in explicit ways and implicit ways.

When I say explicit ways, I just mean there are times where the Bible says stuff

like, be transformed, or it says, we will be changed.

But then there are other times where it's just implied. Like there's a verse

in the Bible that talks about, probably more than one, but I'm thinking of one in particular.

It says, grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, what happens when you grow?

Well, you change, right? You become older or bigger or whatever.

But like growth implies some sort of change happens to the person,

even though the word change isn't in that verse.

Change is in that verse, right? So between the explicit and the implicit comments,

we see that there's multiple places in the Bible where it talks about the Christian

life as a changed or transformed life.

And the Bible talks about these transformations in multiple places in the Bible,

in multiple ways they're described, directly and indirectly,

and not all of the transformations are the same thing.

In other words, the reason I think we need an introduction to this topic is

because it is not true that every time the Bible brings up change,

it's always talking about the same topic. It's not.

There are multiple subtopics within the Bible that are all different transformations.

In fact, it seems to me there are at least three transformations in the Christian

life that the Bible talks about.

Okay, maybe more. But there are at least three different things that you could

call a change or a transformation from this to this in the Christian life.

And so what I want to do is I want to explain it to you.

I want to show it to you in the Bible. I want you to be able to see the difference

between the different ones.

And I think it will give you some like categories in order to understand a whole

bunch of other things that you learn in the scripture.

And I think that will help us as we move forward as to what we're going to talk

about the next several weeks.

So I have the smart board set up here so that I can draw on it because I want

to give you a drawing or a chart.

I don't know what to call it, but a visual thing that I'm hoping once you look

at it, you will be able to like remember

the three different types of transformation in the Christian life.

But before I show you the transformations, let me put like what the background

is. So the idea behind this is this is supposed to be representative of the

Christian life. So there's a beginning, okay?

It goes out like this. So the beginning of the Christian life,

so this is like a number line that you learned in math class, right?

So we're going this way. So we've got a starting point and then it keeps going this way forever.

So this is the Christian life. You could think of it as like your life or my

life, okay? A Christian's life.

So there's a beginning point, okay? And so what I'm going to do is I'm going

to draw here a little symbol that helps us know the beginning.

So this is supposed to be a baby.

This is a baby, like, swaddled, okay? It's not a baby with no arms and legs, okay?

They're in there, okay? But it's wrapped up in a blanket with its head peeking

out, okay? So that represents your birth, okay?

At some point, you were born, you were a baby. That's the beginning, okay?

Then it keeps going, and you live your life, right, from babyhood on.

And then at some point, you die.

Ooh. Okay, so let's put that on the list, because that happens.

So this is going to be a tombstone, and that will represent the day of your death.

And if you notice on our chart, I've got the day that you're born,

I've got the day that you die, and then it keeps going. Do you see that?

That's because we're Christians and we believe in eternity, okay?

So the changes that happen, transformations happen in the Christian life,

and so I'm going to now put them on this chart, okay? And so we're going to

start with what I believe is the first one.

So somewhere along the line, you're living your life, you're living your life,

and then there's a moment where you come to know Jesus, if you do,

okay? If you're someone becomes a Christian. So we're going to use it as a symbol for Jesus.

Let's go with the cross. It's kind of not controversial. That's pretty much

what everybody uses for Jesus, right?

This is when you come to know Jesus, you believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You were not following in his ways and now you are. You did not love God and now you do.

You were not a Christian and now you are, right? You become a follower of Jesus

Christ if you do. That happens at some point.

Okay, with me so far? Now, notice it's at a different point than the day you're born.

You see, like I didn't assume that anybody becomes a Christian as soon as they're born.

You do not become a Christian the way someone, like the way someone becomes Korean, okay?

Like some people, you, some things, you're born and you just are that because

you were born that way, but not all things are that way and Christianity is not that way.

Christianity is by faith, right? Not by birth.

The only person that I can think of that was like, it seems to me they,

like they were a Christian.

They had the Holy Spirit, they were regenerated, like they were a believer in

Jesus Christ when they were a baby that I, the only thing that I can think of

in the whole Bible that would match that is John the Baptist.

That's like the one exception. It seems to me that the, like John the Baptist,

if you read the passage about him when he was, before he was born,

like it looks like that guy was a Christian in the womb, okay?

And I believe, the Bible says it, I believe it, but there's no other story in

the Bible like that. So I'm thinking that's an anomaly.

I think there's one, so one time someone became a Christian in the womb,

but I think ordinarily what happens is we live and then we hear the gospel of

Jesus Christ, we place our faith in him and we become a Christian,

okay? So I don't think the John on the Baptist story is normative.

So that's the first thing. Then there's another transfer. So this is the transformation

from non-Christian to Christian.

But there are other transformations and other changes that the Bible speaks

of. So I'm going to put another one up here.

This is going to be a transformation that takes place at the return of Jesus Christ.

So I need a symbol for the return of Jesus, and we already have a cross,

so we need something else for Jesus.

I'm going to go ahead and use a cloud because Jesus is going to be returning on the clouds, right?

That he ascended into the clouds, and then he descends from there.

That's what the Bible says.

So I'm going to have that be the second coming of Jesus. And I'm even going

to put a little trumpet in here because sometimes when the Bible talks about

the second coming of Jesus, it refers to like a trumpet that goes off.

That's like, hey, the king has arrived. The day is here, okay?

So we got a trumpet and a cloud. There we got Jesus's second coming.

Now, I don't know where to put Jesus's second coming on this timeline in the

sense that I don't know when he's coming.

So I don't know if he's coming before the day of your death or after.

Like, I don't know if he's coming in our lifetimes or if he's coming not in our lifetimes, okay?

But those are the only options, okay? So it's either in your lifetime or not

in your lifetime. So if he arrives before the day of your death,

then I guess there would not be a day of your death, but you being a Christian.

But if it's after the day of your death, then you die and then he comes back.

But either way, whichever time period it happens in, there is a moment that

Jesus returns and a transformation happens where people who are mortal become

immortal, transformed for eternity.

So now we've got two transformations, both of which happen at a moment in time.

And we have this period of time in the chart that is between your conversion

and your death or between your conversion

and the return of Christ if that happens to happen sooner, okay?

But this period of time, okay, is also described in the Bible,

it seems to me, as a time of transformation.

There's changes that take place between your conversion and the moment that

Jesus comes or the moment of your death.

So for this one, the symbol is gonna be, I'm gonna draw a little person and

a little bigger person and an even bigger person.

And the idea is that there is a growing or a maturing, like away from disobedience,

away from impurity, away from ignorance, and toward wisdom and obedience and,

you know, following God.

That there is a, over many years, if God allows you to live many years between

your conversion and your death, over many years, there is a growth,

a transformation that takes place.

So we've got three different changes in the Christian life. And I believe the

Bible speaks of all of these things, and it's helpful when you're reading the

Bible to know which thing it's talking about when you're reading about what

it's talking about. So it's important for us to understand this.

Therefore, let me go ahead and give you the words for these things. Okay.

I'm going to guess that most of you understand this just by looking at it,

but if you ever have a friend that comes to you and says, hey,

so how does it work when God changes your life?

I don't want you to have to go like, well, I don't know what anything's called, but hand me a napkin.

I'll draw you this. There are words for all of this stuff.

So this moment of transformation from Christian to non-Christian is commonly

called conversion. That's the word I'm going to use to call it today, okay?

Conversion is the transformation or the change from Christian to non-Christian.

Over here, this moment where we move from mortal to immortal,

from corruptible to incorruptible, the word I'm going to use to describe it is glorification.

The reason I use the word glorification is there are times where the Bible talks

about this moment to come and it emphasizes the glory that will be revealed.

There's a great verse in Romans that says that the present sufferings that we

are going through in our life right now are not even worth comparing with the

glory that will be revealed in us one day.

And then this middle section has to have a title. And so I'm going to go ahead

and explain, I'm going to use the word, I think, for this series,

I'm going to say spiritual growth is the word I'm going to use to describe this.

This is where I'm going from. So this is non-Christian to Christian,

baby Christian to mature Christian, mortal to immortal. You got it?

All right. Three transformations.

And there may be other words that people use to describe this.

So you might go, I don't know if this is the same thing that Pastor Bob taught me.

And so let me go ahead and tell you, there are other words that Pastor Bob might've

used that I didn't use today. And it might be that me and Pastor Bob believe the same thing.

Okay. So let me show you some other words that people use when they teach this sometimes.

Also, you may learn from other people outside of this building when you learn

the Bible. In fact, I hope you learn from more than just me.

You need more than just one person teaching you the Bible. Did you know that?

There's like a whole, there's a whole, the whole body of Christ.

And people are like, have you left out something, Mario? I know.

The other people need to teach the stuff I left out.

Okay. So, so Pastor Bob or whoever might say that if they were writing out this

chart, sometimes a word that is used for this moment is, I've seen people use

the word justification when they're talking here.

So you go from someone, you're not a Christian, then you become a Christian.

And what happens is justification.

I agree with that. Justification is a word that's in the Bible that refers to

your legal standing before God, okay? It's a legal term.

So it is like in our culture, it's similar to when you have like a judge or

a jury and they declare someone to be like innocent or they declare someone to be guilty, right?

It's like in our culture, it doesn't even actually matter if you did it or if you didn't do it.

Like once you get declared guilty, then you get treated like you did it.

And once you get declared innocent, you get treated like you didn't do it,

okay? Regardless of what you actually did.

It's a legal status. So when someone comes to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior,

They are justified. They go from guilty to innocent. They go from,

you should be punished for this to you have been pardoned. You are righteous.

You are not going to be punished for this. That is certainly a transformation.

A transformation from guilty to innocent is a transformation.

And so that happens right here. But the reason I didn't use the word justification

here is because it's a much more specific word, right?

It's about your legal standing.

And I think a bunch of other things other than just justification happen.

At the moment of conversion, okay? It's not just your legal status that changes.

Other things happen too.

Let me give you another word that sometimes is used. Sometimes when people write

out a chart like this, they will call this thing regeneration.

Anybody heard that word?

Regeneration is a word. Generation means for something to begin.

Regeneration means for it to re-begin, to start up again, right?

So regeneration is when a person is living their life and then they start all

over again, right? They begin a whole new life.

They are born again. They re-start. That's regeneration.

The reason I didn't use the word regeneration here is because it seems to me

it's a little bit more narrow than the word conversion.

Regeneration, at least it seems to me, is a word that's used to describe God's

part of the salvation process.

Like God is the one that restarts you, causes you to be born again, right?

God is the one that regenerates. I don't think I've ever heard a Christian say

like, and then one day I regenerated myself.

Like, no, God regenerates us, but conversion is a little bit more broad of a word.

You think someone could say, like someone could say God converted me,

but they could also say, I converted to Christianity, okay?

So at the moment of conversion from non-Christian to Christian,

I think a bunch of things happen, two of which are justification and regeneration.

There's probably more stuff too. God is that good.

That's the first transformation, all right? So glorification,

if we were gonna pick a different word for that, what are other things that

Christians call this moment?

Okay, anybody need to have a different word for glorification?

No, you don't, because nobody ever does. Let's not. This is the word,

okay? This is the word everybody uses. Pastor Bob probably used this word,

okay? Because this is the word everyone uses.

The only word that I can think of in the scripture that describes this moment

other than that is the word resurrection.

But it's more, resurrection's a real narrow, specific word also.

But it is a word the Bible uses.

There are times, you can tell in the Bible, where they talked about there is

this day coming when Jesus returns, where all the people will be resurrected.

And sometimes that day is called the resurrection. Like sometimes in the Bible,

the words the resurrection don't even refer to Jesus as resurrection.

They refer to this resurrection that happens in the future. So you could call it the resurrection.

The reason I'm not doing that though is because I think that's a more narrow

term. Resurrection is, so conversion is a transformation, right?

Justification is a transformation. Regeneration is a transformation.

Glorification is a transformation, right?

Resurrection is a transformation, right? From dead to alive.

We agree that's a change. Resurrection is from dead to alive.

The reason I am using the word glorification, though, is because glorification

includes all of that plus more.

Resurrection is from dead to alive, but glorification is not only dead to alive,

but if you are someone who's alive when Jesus returns, then you're not dead, right?

You don't go from dead to alive if you're there when he returns.

You go from mortal to immortal.

And I think it's more than just your body turning into something that can't die anymore.

You go from being a person who has sin in their life in this sinful world,

and then you become someone who is no longer a sinner and no longer exposed to sin anymore.

Like you go from corruptible to incorruptible, like morally speaking.

You're done with all that sin stuff, which is not implied with the word resurrection,

but I think is implied with the word glorification.

So we've got our conversion and we've got our glorification,

and then sandwiched in between the two, we have spiritual growth.

Now, there is a different word that people use to describe spiritual growth.

It's a very common word, I heard it all growing up, even as an adult,

I still hear people use one particular word as the word that describes this

process of growing up in Christ.

And it's so common, I'm gonna just guess, in a room this size,

several of you are gonna know it.

Okay, what is the word that Pastor Bob probably used? What's the word that people

usually use to describe this process?

Sanctification, that's correct, sanctification.

So I'm going to probably not use the word sanctification to describe this a

whole lot in this series.

Now, if you want to, you go ahead, okay? I support it. If I'm a big supporter

of freedom of speech, and if you want to call this sanctification, you go for it.

If Pastor Bob called it that, that's great. You definitely say it when you're

around him, okay? And if your grandma called it sanctification,

you say sanctification when you're around her.

But the word sanctification is actually a really broad word that means multiple

things, not just this one part of the chart.

The word sanctification means for something to be set apart as holy.

Like that's what the Greek word means. Like when something is set apart from

the rest of the stuff for sacred use or for a holy purpose, that's what it means to sanctify something.

And so it's not always about spiritual growth.

Like it's not even always about people. Like you could sanctify an object.

Okay. Did you know that? Like in the Bible, like in the Old Testament,

there are times where the Israelites were told to take particular gold and silver

and whatever, this table and that table and this sort of anointing oil,

and they were told to sanctify it, right?

They were supposed to set it apart for sacred use.

They're supposed to set it apart for holy purposes. You've got all your regular

stuff you use in your life, but then when you come to the temple,

there's the special stuff in the temple that needs to be consecrated or sanctified,

all right? This is stuff that's set apart for special use.

So it's not about spiritual growth, because it could be an inanimate object

that is being set apart for sacred use.

But this word that can be used for objects can also be used for people.

People can be set apart for sacred use or for holy purposes.

But people can be set apart for holy purposes in multiple ways.

And the Bible uses the word sanctification not only as something that you could

do to an object, but it also applies to people, and it also applies to people

in different ways that are mentioned on this chart. So let me show you them, okay?

Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. If you have your Bible with you, turn there. All right.

2 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

2 Corinthians chapter 7, I'm going to read you the first verse,

2 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

okay? This is what it says.

It says, therefore, dear friends, since we have such promises,

let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit,

making our, what's the word?

Sanctification. Okay, so we got the right Bible verse. This is good.

Making our sanctification complete in the fear of God. So there it is.

Our set apartness, right? Our set aside for sacred useness is what this is talking about.

So he says to these people, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves

from every impurity of the flesh and spirit.

Let us, like it seems to me he's saying, as we live, we need to be becoming

purer, right? We need to be becoming less dirty.

We need to be becoming more cleansed over time.

And so what is he saying? He's saying we need to make our sanctification complete.

The word sanctification in this case doesn't seem to be referring to like just conversion, right?

These are people who are already converted, right? They already have such promises.

So this is something that's after conversion. And I don't think he's saying

that this is, I mean, it's not Jesus is going to come back and do it.

He's telling them to do it.

He's telling them, hey, you need to become holier. You need to become more obedient.

You need to complete your sanctification.

The fact that he is saying that you're like completing something after the point

of your conversion sounds to me like an ongoing thing over time and not a one-time event.

You following it? So there, so we got the word sin. This is the,

actually, I think this might be the only place in the Bible I found it.

This is the place where sanctification seems to be referring to this process,

but that's not the way it's always used.

If you are at that point in your Bible and you just flip back,

I don't know, maybe 10, 11 pages, and you go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1,

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

so it's about 10 or 11 pages back in your Bible, and chronologically,

this would be about three or four months earlier,

maybe six or seven months earlier, but the Apostle Paul wrote both of these books,

1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. Which one did he write first?

Yes, yeah, they were great when they titled these books. It made total sense.

The second one came after the first one. Okay, so the second one was written

later, and a few months earlier, the first one was written.

And in that first one, Paul, talking to the same group of people just earlier,

this is what he said, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2.

1 Corinthians 1:2

To God's church at Corinth, right? He's writing to Christians in a particular

city called Corinth. To those who are, what's the word?

Sanctified in Christ Jesus and called as saints with all those in every place

who call in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their Lord and ours.

Who is he writing to in this verse? It seems obvious to me he's writing to Christians.

He's writing to the Christians in Corinth.

And even beyond that, he's saying, really, to anybody who calls on the name

of Jesus, I write this, okay?

So he's writing to Christians. He's writing to the saints, okay?

Which is interesting, because a lot of us grew up being taught that the word

saint means like a super Christian that's dead, right?

Okay, that's what a saint, a lot of times it's like, well, you know, St. Patrick.

Okay, and so what it was is Apparently, it's like this super,

super, you know, Christian, and now they're dead, okay?

But you can tell by the way that

it's being used here, this is not talking about a super dead Christian.

This is talking about regular, alive Christians, right? Because they're the

people reading this, like dead people, they know, I've never seen a dead person

read, but these people are reading it, and they're already saints as they're

reading it, because the saints are alive, and you might go, well,

maybe they were super Christians that were alive.

No, if you read the rest of 1 Corinthians, you find out, like,

they were screwing up so many things.

They were saints, and they were bad at a lot of things.

So these saints, and by the way, the word saints is similar to the word sanctified.

It means the called out ones, right? So you have the whole group and then the

ones that are called out. Those are the saints, okay?

It's very similar to set apart for sacred use.

So you have these people who call on the name of the Lord. They're not perfect, but they are saints.

And according to this verse, he says they are, look at this,

to those who are sanctified.

He does not say that he's writing to the people who are being sanctified,

the people who will be sanctified, right? The people that are in the middle of sanctification.

He just says, they're sanctified. They are set apart for holy use.

Which means sometimes the Bible uses the word sanctification to refer to this part of the chart.

And sometimes the Bible uses the word sanctification to refer to this part of the chart, okay?

But I'm just telling you in this series, I don't want to have a word that means

multiple things on my handy-dandy chart.

Okay, so I'm not going to use the word sanctification because of the fact that

it has multiple meanings.

In fact, theologians sometimes add adjectives to the word sanctification that

are not in the Bible in order to differentiate these verses.

So sometimes this, the thing that Paul's talking about in 1 Corinthians,

when he says, you are the saints, the sanctified ones, okay,

they call this positional sanctification, meaning I'm set apart in position, like God has placed me.

And then when you come across verses like the one in 2 Corinthians 7,

2 Corinthians 7:1

verse 1, where it says completing their sanctification, they will use that,

they will use the word, they will call it progressive sanctification.

And progressive sanctification is the theologian's word for this, okay?

But for the purpose of this series, I just think, why would I pick a word that

means multiple things? Let's just go with this.

So, but now you know, now you know all the terms. You can go talk to Pastor

Bob. It's going to be great, okay? You should pay for his lunch when you do it.

Okay, so we've got the transformation from non-Christian to Christian.

We have this gradual, over the course of many years, if God allows you to live

many years, of set-apartness and cleansing and growing in obedience and growing

and maturity, and then we have a transformation to come.

So, now what I'd like to do is I'd like to show you this in the Bible,

because anybody can draw up a chart.

Like, anybody can say, this is how I think God works, and then they can draw up stuff, okay?

But you really need to see, does the Bible describe this and this and this and

in the way that I said it? And so, I'm going to show it to you.

We're going to have three slides

that come up, and each slide is going to have two Bible verses on it.

So, I'm going to show you stuff that describes conversion, stuff that describes

spiritual growth, and stuff that describes glorification.

Let's have our first slide up. Conversion.

So for conversion, I want you to notice this in 2 Corinthians 5, 17.

It says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.

This is probably my favorite Bible verse. This is actually the Bible verse that

I read when I was like 14, and it made me realize that I was a Christian.

Like, I read it and I went, oh, I'm in Christ. I didn't even realize it.

And so this is what the verse says. It says, if anyone is in Christ,

okay, if someone is, like they belong to Jesus Christ, they are in him, they are united to him.

He is their Lord and Savior. They're on his team. They're one of his people, okay?

If that's true, then this verse says that person, whoever he or she is,

okay, if anyone is in Christ, he is a what? A new creation.

That's talking about, that's not talking about, that's talking about like some

thing happened, that you were one thing and now you're a different thing,

you're a new creation, right?

It doesn't say if anyone's in Christ, they are starting to transform,

they are like, they're the, whatever, the caterpillar or the pupa or the chrysalis,

okay? And like one day they're gonna be a butterfly.

Like this verse isn't saying that, this verse is saying if you're in Christ,

you're a new creation right now. You're already a new thing you weren't before.

New things have already come. Old things have already passed away, okay?

I think the same thing is being referred to in John chapter three, verse three.

This is a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, and Jesus says to Nicodemus,

I assure you, unless someone is, what's the word?

Born again. I mean, it's two words. Thanks for playing along.

I assure you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

What is Jesus referring to there, okay? Well, I think he's gotta be referring to one of these things.

And I don't think he's referring to this process of spiritual growth when he says born again, right?

Because born again, like that, like if Jesus is using the metaphor born again,

and he talks more later in this chapter about, he says, you have to be born again.

In this verse, he cannot see the kingdom of God. In a few verses later,

he says he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

So whatever born again is, it's something that needs to happen to you.

It's a restarting, right?

Like first they're born and then they need to be born again.

They got to restart all over again.

And so Jesus says, you got to be restarted all over again if you're going to

enter into the kingdom of God.

So what is that referring to? I think the reason that he uses birth as his analogy

is because he's talking about a one-time event, right?

Birth is a one-time event. It's not a process, okay?

Now, I realize some of you ladies here might go, it shows what you know, pastor.

It was quite a process. And I remember all 18 hours of it, and it was terrible.

And how dare you even say? No, here, I agree. I believe you,

totally believe you. I don't even want to hear the story. I just believe you so hard.

But I'm not saying labor is not a process. Okay, labor is a process.

I'm saying birth is a one-time event. Like the baby's in there and the baby's

not in there anymore, right? That's not the problem.

I think if Jesus were trying to describe a multi-year thing,

he would not use born again, right?

He's using born again for an event that happens where you were one thing and

now you got restarted and you're another thing. All right.

And I guess you could ask, well, couldn't it be this thing? If someone has to

be born again in order to enter in the kingdom of God, couldn't it be that this

is the moment we are born again into immortality, and then we enter into the kingdom of God?

Eh, maybe. I think that's possible, but I don't think it fits the rest of what

the Bible says about the kingdom.

I mean, there is a sense in which, yes, we are kind of restarted here and prepared

for the kingdom of God for all of eternity.

But when he says someone can't enter into the kingdom of God without being born again,

the Bible, when it talks about the kingdom of God, talks about something not

that's going to exist one day but as if the kingdom of God

already exists right now that you can you can

enter into the kingdom of God like today it's not that you have to wait until

one day the kingdom of God begins that you can be like Jesus can be your king

now you can be one of the citizens of his kingdom right now I think it's Colossians

talks about you can be transferred from the from the domain of darkness into

the kingdom of the Son of God right now,

And so I think that's because there's a moment where we are born again into

God's kingdom. All right, let's go look at the next slide, spiritual growth.

For this one, we're gonna look at Romans chapter 12, verse two.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

It says, do not be conformed to this age.

That means you don't wanna be like the pattern of, you know,

everybody else in the world that you've been set apart from, right?

Do not be conformed to this age, but be, what's the word?

Transformed. That would have been a good name for the series.

Okay, be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what

is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Here we have the Apostle Paul telling people to be transformed.

What's he referring to? I don't think he's referring to conversion.

He's writing to people who are already Christians.

He's not telling them, become a Christian, right? He's not saying,

by the renewing of your mind, okay, become a believer in Jesus.

He's talking to people who are already believers in Jesus. And he's telling

them, by the renewing of your mind, you need to be a transformed person and

who looks less and less like this world and more and more the way God wants

things to be, the way more and more the way God's will is.

And so that's why he says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

I think we'll probably talk about this, at least in concept,

more next week when we talk about God's word's role in changing us, right?

God's word, like God's word is his thoughts, okay?

So if we're gonna be transformed by the renewing of our mind,

I think what we're gonna have to talk about next week is thinking God's thoughts

after him. so that we do what he wants.

Okay, so this is something that seems to be, it could not be referring to one

day Jesus comes, and it could not be referring to a conversion.

It's got to be something that we are doing post-conversion.

Similar to that is 2 Peter 3, verse 18.

2 Peter 3:18

I think there are a lot of Bible verses that talk about Christians growing,

but this is the one I picked for this morning.

2 Peter 3, verse 18, it says, but, what's our word?

2 Peter 3:18

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

So this is the final sentence of the book of 2 Peter. When Peter was writing

this book, he said everything he had to say, and then when he got to the end, this is one last thing.

Grow. You need to grow in your faith. You need to grow in the grace and the

knowledge of Jesus. So I said this already earlier.

Grow seems to me to not be a word that you would use to describe a one-time event, right?

He's describing this, grow as believers, right? He's not saying grow,

like convert, like, you don't, that growth is not a one-time event.

Nobody says, like, what did you do yesterday, right? And someone else goes, growed.

Like, you don't know, you didn't do it, grew, right? No, like,

it happens so slowly, nobody ever says they grew, and yet you look back over

the years, and you go, oh, by golly, I did, okay?

But it's not a one, it's not like, well, this is the day I grew,

right? Growth is a process.

All right, now let's look at glorification. Does the Bible talk about glorification?

It does, and it's some of the most exciting verses in the Bible.

Let's go to Philippians chapter 3, starting in verse 20.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

It says, our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a savior from

there. Let me pause real quick.

You might go, what does this even mean, our citizenship is in heaven?

We don't live in heaven. That is correct.

This was written to a people that would have understood that you can be the

citizen of a particular kingdom and not be living there in the capital city, right?

Like, it was specifically written to people who understood that.

This was written to the Philippians.

The Philippi was a Roman colony, okay? So the Philippians, they literally knew,

we don't live in Rome, and we are Roman citizens here in Philippi. They knew that.

This made total sense to them, okay? So now here we are, and we do not live

in heaven yet, and yet this is what we're being told.

Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He will, what's the word?

Transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious

body by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

It says when he comes back, he's going to change our bodies to be like his body.

Now, keep in mind, if you've read that part of the story, you realize what did his body do?

It died, came back to life, never to die again.

And then I think it's also found in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

Let me read that. I think this is the same event. Paul says,

listen, I am telling you a mystery.

We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be, what's the word?

Changed. That'd be a good name for a series. We will all be changed.

And now look at this. He says, in a moment, in the blink of an eye.

Could not be referring to this, could it? No, it's got to be one of these two, right?

And it can't be this one because it says it will happen to us in the future,

not it's already happened to us, right? So it's not this and it's not this, but it's a change.

And it's something that happens in a moment, in the blink of an eye.

So we will all be changed in a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet.

That's why I put a trumpet here, okay? It was in preparation for this verse.

At the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, right?

The king has arrived, and what happens? Look at this. And the dead will be raised

incorruptible, and we will be changed.

Okay, so what is my point today? You go, well, you got this whole chart,

Mario. What is it that you're trying to get across?

This is what I'm trying to get across. The Christian life is this.

At some point, you were born and you lived your life apart from God,

that you were in your sins and you're worthy of his wrath.

And then at some point, something changed. If it happened to you,

you placed your faith in Jesus Christ and you changed from non-Christian to Christian.

You changed from not in the kingdom to Jesus is your king.

You changed from following your own ways to following his ways.

And then once that happens, okay?

So you got, the Christian life is, you're born and then that happens.

And then at that point, these people, they're not mature yet,

right? They're not perfect yet.

There's lots of stuff still wrong. They're like, they're not just suddenly perfected

at this moment, all right? But the direction of their life has certainly changed.

And now they must complete their sanctification.

They must grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

They must be transformed from the

pattern of this age to be someone who discerns the perfect will of God.

And then even after that, they are not fully perfected. Like there's no problems anymore.

Everything's right and as it should be. No, not yet. but here's the thing,

but then one day Jesus returns.

And on that day, our present sufferings will not be worth comparing with the

glory that is revealed in us.

And our bodies will be transformed to be like Jesus' glorious body,

and we will go from mortal to immortal, from corruptible to incorruptible.

That's my point this morning. This is the Christian life. And that is good news.

Before I close, let me answer an important question that I often ask at the

end of a sermon like this. And the question is, why does this matter?

Okay. Why is it important to know this? Okay, Mario, you said all this stuff.

It's great. I haven't clapped for you.

But why, what does this do? Like when I go to work on Monday,

what does this have to do with my life? Why does any of this matter,

okay? And so here's my first answer to that.

Understanding these categories will help us to avoid confusion.

If we are changed and changing and going to be changed, then we need to not

mix up all these categories.

So understanding this helps us understand a whole bunch of things.

So for instance, when someone comes along and they say, hey,

this guy over here, all he does is lie and cheat and steal and treat people like dirt, okay?

But he's a Christian, right? Because when he was seven and he went to VBS,

he prayed the prayer that they said to pray.

No, it seems to me he was never converted, right? There was no new creation.

But then someone else comes along and they go, what about this guy?

This guy says he loves Jesus, okay? And it kind of seems believable on some days.

But goodness, he's so immature. He says foolish things. He does stupid stuff.

He does stuff that's as stupid as my non-Christian friend. Stupider sometimes.

The stuff he does, stuff online he posts. It's like embarrassing.

I'm trying to pretend I don't know him.

Like it's embarrassing. I mean, I think he loves Jesus, but he's screwing up

all the time. So does that mean like he is for sure not a Christian?

No, it doesn't mean he's for sure not a Christian. It could very well be that

he is a maturing Christian.

And then someone else might come along and they go, okay, I was told that if

I would place my faith in Jesus Christ, I would be saved and things would get like way better.

And I believe in Jesus and I love him. And I believe that God loves me.

And yet, I'm still battling cancer. And I'm still battling sin.

Will I ever be free of this battle? And the answer is, praise God, yes.

The second reason why this is important is you need to know that these are our

promises in Jesus Christ.

If you are here today and you are not a follower of Jesus Christ,

okay? You're not a follower of Jesus.

I am glad that you are here, okay? You are welcome here. We're happy to have

you here. We're always happy to have you here. And I hope to be as helpful to you as I possibly can be.

But these promises are not yours to claim, not at this time.

If you have not trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and as your Savior,

you are not a new creation.

You're not being transformed by the renewing of your mind. and your body is

not going to be transformed into the glorious likeness of his body.

Unless, unless you turn to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith.

Repentance meaning turning from your old ways and turning from trusting in yourself.

And faith meaning turning to Jesus and trusting in what he did when he died

on the cross for your sins and when he rose again and trusting in what he said about everything.

And if you're here today and you're already a believer in Jesus Christ well

I have something so cool to tell you these promises are yours,

let's pray.

Oh Lord, we rejoice in this.

Thank you that these promises are ours. I pray that you would help us,

help us to be able to think clearly.

I pray that our minds would be renewed so that we would be able to like see

things in chapter and verse eyes and have like the proper categories for things.

So we see things and we look at this life and we go, I get it.

I get what God's doing and I get what I'm doing and I get what's going on here

and I understand the situation better.

And so I pray you'd help us to understand this world better as we understand you more.

I pray if there's anybody here who does not know you yet, I pray that they would

convert. I pray that they would come to know you. I pray they would go from

being not a Christian to being a Christian.

Someone who didn't follow you to someone who does. I pray that would happen

today, that you would regenerate them. I ask you that you would regenerate someone in here,

if they do not know you yet.

For those of us who already know you, I thank you for this growth that we are in.

Pray that we would cooperate with it, especially as this series goes on.

That's what we're really going to focus on mostly is this process.

And pray that we would be increasingly pure and obedient and mature.

And we look forward to the day you return and make all things new.

We worship you in advance for that.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.