50 Days of Transformation – Part 1 (Spiritual Health)
One day, a man went to his doctor for a regular check-up. The doctor did a very thorough examination and then asked the nurse to send the man’s wife into his office. The doctor said, I have some very bad news, your husband is very sick. The good news is that there is hope. If you will take him home, cook him three hot meals each day and take care of all his needs, he should be recovered in about two months or so. Two Months! The Lady left the doctor’s office and went out and got into the car with her husband. The man asked, “Well, what did the doctor say?” The wife looked at her husband and said, “You are going to die!”
Welcome to 50 Days of Transformation. Today we launch a new sermon series titled “Transformed” taught by Rick Warren. Over the next seven Sundays, we are going to study seven key areas where God wants us to be transformed in our lives. They will deal with our spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, financial and vocational health. This morning we begin looking at our spiritual health. We all want to be close to God and it is for this reason we are here today. The Bible says “We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way” (Isaiah 53:6). If we have fallen away from God, we need to regain our relationship with Him. Fortunately, we have a story in the Bible that can help us. It is the story of the Lost Son & Loving Father. From this story, we learn the four things we need to do to get closer to God.
Number one is to get completely fed up or tired of the way we are living. In our text for today, this young man said to his father, “I want you to give me what is rightfully mine.” Once he got his portion, he packed up and wandered off to enjoy his freedom. He wasted and lost all his money, time and energy there. He decided he needed money so he found a job to look after the pigs. Because of the famine, the man starved to death so he ate the pig’s food. He finally came to realize how terrible he had been living his life since he left his father. He didn’t want to live that way anymore. He got fed up with his life.
We often say or hear others say, “I can’t take it anymore.” There are difficult times in our life where we struggle to move forward or to look at the future. I want you to know that nothing is going to change our lives until we decide that we are tired of the way we are living. The first starting point of transformation is confessing that we are at the end of the rope. God is going to help us to be transformed in our spiritual health if we are desperate enough to ask Him for His help.
The second step is “I own up to my sin.” We must own up to our mistakes and failures. We must have the courage to tell the truth about the mess we are in. This is what this young man did. When he came to his senses, he said…”I have sinned against God and you…” (Luke 15:17-18) We need to face up to the fact that we have not been living in God’s way. Even though we accept Jesus as our Saviour, we have been living our own way from time to time. Even though we ask Him to lead us, we take over His authority. We control everything around us on our own. Have we ever prayed and we felt like God was a million miles away? Where does that come from? The Bible says, “Your sins have separated you from your God, and have hidden his face from you…” (Isaiah 59:2). It comes from our sins. God has not moved. God did not move. God has always been here with us. He loves us unconditionally.
I heard about a story of the conversation between an old priest and a young man. The young man asked, “Father, when will I cease to be bothered by the sins of the flesh?” The priest replied, “Son, I would not trust myself until I had been dead for at least three days.” Obviously, the priest was making a joke, but what he said had a point. Human beings are very sinful and as long as we live, we will constantly be surrounded by sin. As Christians, we need regular examinations to monitor the true condition of our hearts.
The bible says, “Test yourself to make sure you’re solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourself regular checkups. If you fail the test, do something about it.” (2 Corinthians 13:5, Message) Many of us go to the doctor for an annual check-up to see if our health is good. In the same way, we need to examine our spiritual health. We need to pray. “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139: 23-24) If we find anything in our minds that is not right before God, we need to get rid of it until it becomes bigger.
What is God’s response when we own up? The Lord says, “No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can remove it. I can make you as clean as freshly fallen snow.” (Isaiah 1:18, NLT) Isn’t that a beautiful verse? No matter what we’ve done, He can remove it. This is the promise of God.
Here is the third step to getting back to God, I must offer up myself. Did you notice in Luke 15:12? “The son drifted away saying, “GIVE ME MY share…” Then he comes back in Luke 15:19, “He returned to the Father saying, ‘MAKE ME a servant.’” That is the transformation. Did you also notice any change in attitude there? He leaves saying, “Give me. Give me, give me, give me.” Instead, he comes back saying, “Make me!” That is transformation.
Do we say to God, “Give me, give me, give me!” Or do we say to God, “Make me your servant”? When our heart moves from self-centeredness to God centeredness, that is true transformation. It does not happen overnight. It is never instant. But there is a decision that starts the process. 2 Corinthians 3:18“We reflect the Lord’s glory and are being transformed into his likeness…”
There was a caterpillar crawling across a Persian carpet. The caterpillar crawled for what he thought was eighty or ninety years. He crawled all over that Persian rug, but he could see only one color at a time. He saw first some blues, and then some orange. He saw yellows, reds, purples, deep violets, and greens. But he saw only one color at a time and said: “O, what a beautiful world I am on.” He lived for what he thought was a very long time, a blink in God’s time but long for the caterpillar. One day, he crawled off the Persian carpet and transformed into a cocoon. Although he did not realize it, the cocoon was part of the miracle. He then came out of the cocoon as a butterfly. He fluttered up higher and higher and higher and when he looked down for the first time, what a wonderful sight he saw! He saw the meaning of his whole life. He saw the past and the present as he had never seen it before.
It is important to notice the father’s response. Luke 15:20, 22 says, “Filled with love and compassion, he ran out to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him! … Bring the best…” Bring the best robe. Bring the best ring. Bring the best shoes. Bring the fatted calf. Did you notice he did not wait for the son to come home? While he was still distant, he ran out. The moment we say, “God, I am tired of living the way I have been living. I am tired.” He will run out to meet us. God is not waiting for us to come knocking at the door. He takes the initiative. He throws his arms around us. God has a better plan for our life than we can imagine. We live in Canada, we are looking good, feeling good, and have got the goods. There’s only one problem, it is not good enough. We were made for the better life. A life we cannot even imagine. God made us to be a butterfly. God made us to soar. God made us to be beautiful!
Finally, I must lift up my praise. Here is what the father says, “We are going to celebrate with a feast of eating and drinking… He was lost but now he’s found! So the party begins!” (Luke 15:23-24) Life becomes a party when life comes to transformation. The father celebrated when the son came back home. Not a condemnation – a celebration. The Psalmist says, “Sing to God, sing praises to his name; LIFT UP A SONG to him… his name is the Lord!” (Psalm 68:4, ESV) “I will sing to the Lord, because he has been so good to me!” (Psalm 13:6, NLT)
Some of us have probably heard about the book “Imperfect Harmony: Finding Happiness Singing with Others” written by Stacy Horn. In this book, she talks about the physical benefits of singing in community. Her 30 years of singing in a church choir in New York City make her life much happier and healthier. She wrote, “Singing might be our most perfect drug… with no… unpleasant side effects.” A Christian doctor prescribes his patients suffering with depression, “Attend a church service on Sunday and sing all lyrics of the hymns with others.” A scientific study notes that when people sing together their hearts beat in unison and it lowers rates of anxiety, depression and loneliness. Some of us may say, “I can’t make sing in the right.” The Psalmist says, ”Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!” (Psalm 100: 1, 2) Anybody can make a joyful noise. We can all do that. God is pleased with us whether we hit the right notes or not.
*In this sermon I have used materials from the sermon series “Transformed” Pastor Rick Warren has prepared.
Series: Transformed “How God Changes Us”
