A Life Truly Transformed

Good morning. I want to say a special welcome to the visitors. I hope that y'all have been blessed and encouraged so far and want to speak into your lives here today.

I want to also thank everyone for the messages that everyone sent me and the prayers; they were definitely felt. So the title of my message this morning is "A Life Truly Transformed." I'm going to start with a question: Is it important for us to be transformed in Jesus?

Are we supposed to be different? The Webster Dictionary definition says, "To change—so transform is to change in composition or structure, to change in outward form or appearance, and to change in character or condition." Why is it then in America, where we have approximately 162 million Christians, or roughly 62 percent of the population that identifies Christian, do we not see different? And statistics don't really lie.

One out of four Christian marriages in the USA end in divorce.

Approximately 70 percent of active duty military personnel today identify as Christian, and the vast majority of our population here that are Christians, that say they're Christians, believe it's okay to kill in self-defense. These are practical biblical teachings; somehow they don't really believe it, I guess.

There's a book I'm reading called "The Freedom Fight." It's a part of the course that some of us men are doing from church on purity, and there was a little section in the book, and it really caught my attention. It's called "The Christian Porn Problem," and there's a little paragraph here I'm going to read. "It might come as no surprise that there is virtually no difference in monthly porn use among non-Christian men, 65 percent, versus Christian men, 64 percent. In fact, it might even be worse than the public statistics indicate. The Freedom Fight recently conducted a survey of over 750 Christian college men from over 30 different campuses across the country.

Each of the men we surveyed was involved in a campus ministry, and each considered their faith to be a vital element in their lives. Many of them were leaders in their ministries. What we found was an alarming 89 percent of the growing Christian men we surveyed watch porn at least occasionally.

More than 6 in 10 view it at least weekly. More than half of these practicing Christian men say that they are addicted to pornography."

That's a terrible statistic, and it's very scary, and the sad thing is I didn't bring it along, but there was a paragraph below about women, and the numbers are just—it's just huge, the amount of women that are also being entrapped in this addiction.

I want to be clear that none of us are perfect, no matter who we are. Romans 3:23 says, "We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," and so I'm not trying to say that we're perfect here.

I want to go to the Bible now and read a couple of verses to try to understand the heartbeat of God calling us to be different, calling us to be transformed. We're going to start in Romans 12:1-2.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove that what is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

Let's go to 2 Corinthians 3:18.

2 Corinthians 3:18. "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." And then the last verse I want to look at is 2 Corinthians 5:17. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." So we see the heartbeat of God here. When we accept Christ into our lives, that's just the beginning, but there needs to be a change. There needs to be a change in our lives.

I find it interesting that that word "transformed" in those first two verses that I read is translated from the Greek word "metamorpho," which of course is where we get the word "metamorphosis" from, and many of us, I'm sure, know what that is.

Probably my favorite example of metamorphosis is a butterfly and how it starts as an egg, caterpillar, the chrysalis, and then it becomes a butterfly, and it's amazing transformation that happens. So I'm going to read a little bit about that. I'm sure many of us as children—I know we did—we would have all these dill plants, and we would go out there and pull these caterpillars off and put them in a jar and poke holes in the top and watch them turn into these beautiful monarch butterflies.

But it's an amazing transformation.

So the first stage is the egg. Eggs are laid on plants by an adult female butterfly. These plants will become the food for the hatching caterpillars. Eggs can be laid from spring, summer, or fall; this depends on the species of butterflies. Females lay a lot of eggs at once so that at least some of them can survive.

Butterfly eggs can be very, very small. The next stage is the larva stage that is also called the caterpillar. If the insect is a butterfly or a moth, the job of the caterpillar is to eat, eat, and eat.

And we all—probably all of us—or most of us have that little book of "The Hungry Little Caterpillar." I actually just got it. Thinking about this, I ordered it and have it, and Weston thought it was really interesting how you open the book and there's this, and you eat through there, and there's a hole through it, and it just keeps on eating and eating and eating, and at the end this caterpillar is really fat. But it's very accurate. It's very, very comparable to what's happening here.

As the caterpillar grows, it splits its skin and sheds it about four or five times. Food eaten at this time is stored and used later as an adult. Caterpillars can grow a hundred times their size during this stage. For an example, a monarch butterfly egg is the size of a pinhead, and the caterpillar that hatches from that tiny egg isn't much bigger, but it will grow up to two inches long in several weeks.

The next stage is the transitional stage, and that's called the pupa. When the caterpillar is full-grown, it stops eating. It becomes a pupa. The pupa of the butterfly is also called the chrysalis. Depending on the species, the chrysalis may suspend under a branch hidden in leaves or buried underground. The chrysalis of many moths is protected inside a cocoon of silk.

This stage can last from weeks, a month, or even longer. Some species have a chrysalis stage that lasts for two years.

And there is a miracle happening inside this little chrysalis. It's turning from this caterpillar here into this beautiful, beautiful butterfly.

The last stage is the adult stage. It's also known as the reproductive stage. The adult stage is what most people think of as when they think of butterflies. They look very different from the larva. The caterpillar has tiny eyes, stubby legs, and a very short antennae. The adults have long legs and long antennae and compound eyes.

They can also fly by using their large and colorful wings. The one thing they cannot do is grow. The caterpillar's job was to eat. The adult's job is to mate and lay eggs. Some species of adult butterflies get energy from feeding on nectar, and flowers from many species don't feed at all.

Flying comes in handy. The adult butterfly can easily fly from place to place and find the right plant for its eggs. This is important because caterpillars cannot travel very far. Most adult butterflies live only one to two weeks, but some species hibernate during the winter and may live several months.

Anyhow, I've always been fascinated with this stage, and so I thought it was interesting how this plays in. And when I found this word "transformed," it got me thinking. It's kind of—I know all analogies break down, but aren't we kind of like this metamorphosis of a butterfly?

When Jesus finds us, when God comes to us, we're kind of like that caterpillar a little bit. We're a little bit yucky, a little bit gross, maybe, and God can transform us into something extremely beautiful if we allow Him to. Next, I want to go to one of my favorite Bible characters that had a complete transformation, and I'm sure many—there's many good stories in the Bible about these transformations, but this was a complete 180, and this is the life of Paul or Saul.

So we're going to go to Acts, and we're going to read all of chapter nine, and this is—for a little bit of context here—this is like two chapters after Stephen was stoned, and Saul actually had a part in that. He was there, from what I understand. So we're going to read chapter nine of Acts starting in verse one. "Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

As he journeyed, he came near to Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then it fell to the ground. Then he fell to the ground, and he heard a voice saying, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?' And he said, 'Who are you, Lord?'

Then the Lord said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' So he, trembling and astonished, said, 'Lord, what do you want me to do?' Then the Lord said to him, 'Arise. Go into the city where you will be told what you must do.' And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one.

Then Saul rose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus, and he was there three days without sight and neither drank nor ate.

Now, there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and him the Lord said to him in a vision, 'Ananias?' And he said, 'Here I am, Lord.' So the Lord said to him, 'Arise and go to the street called Straight and inquire at the house of Judas, for the one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying.

And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming, putting his hands on him so that he might receive his sight.' Then Ananias answered, 'Lord, I have heard many things about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.

And he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name.' But the Lord said to him, 'Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name for the Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel.

For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake.' And Ananias went on his way and entered the house and, laying his hands on him, said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me to receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.'

Immediately there fell from their eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once, and he arose and was baptized. So when they had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.

Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that he is his Son, that he is the Son of God. Then all who heard were amazed and said, 'Is this not he who destroyed, who called on his name in Jerusalem, this name in Jerusalem? And he has come for the purpose so that he might bring them bound to the chief priest?' But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who dealt with him in Damascus, proving that Jesus is the Christ.

Now, after many days were passed, the Jews plotted to kill him. But their plot became known to Saul, and they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket.

And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were afraid of him and did not believe he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and he declared to him how he had seen the Lord on the road and that he had spoken how he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.

So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out, and spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the helliness, but they attempted to kill him. When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus.

Then the church throughout all of Judea and Samaria had peace and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.

Now, I don't know about what that does for you, but that story is just—it's amazing. It frankly is. And that is a true miracle transformation from literally breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord as he was going down the road to preaching in the synagogues about Christ.

Now, we all—we won't all have a complete 180 transformation. Not all of us are like Saul.

But when we accept Christ as our Savior and follow his commandments, there will be a transformation.

Here are a few things that will change if you are a born-again Christian.

I think you will love your enemies.

You will have joy even in hard times.

You will be honest, won't lie.

We will be men and women of moral integrity.

We will forgive. We won't swear.

And to back some of those claims up, I want to go to Ephesians 4.

Ephesians chapter 4, we're going to start in here at verse 17 and read to verse 24.

"This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, whom, being past feeling, having given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanliness with greediness; but you have not so learned Christ.

If indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as truth in Jesus, you will put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put away—that you put on the new man which was created to God in true righteousness and holiness." And then we're going to go to Colossians

talking about this old man and putting away with the old man and putting on the new. Colossians chapter 3, we're going to read starting in verse 8, and we're going to read to verse 11 and then make a few comments. "But now you yourselves are—but now you yourselves are to put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie and want—do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds. And you have put on the new man who is renewed in his knowledge according to the image of him who has created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all in all."

So that's the old man, what the things were supposed to be putting away.

And now in verse 12, we see the character of a new man. So let's start in verse 12 here, and we'll read to 17. "Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God ruin your hearts, which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.

And whatever you do in the word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving him thanks to God the Father through him."

So there is a miracle that happens here. It is a form of a transformation. When we are without Christ, that old man is in charge. And when we follow Christ's commandments and take him as our Savior, we put on that new man, we will be a changed people. We will be a changed person. In closing, I want to read a story about someone who did have a complete transformation.

And it really stuck out to me, and many of you may know this story, but it'll be okay.

Louise Amparini was born January 26th, 1917, in New York. His parents moved their family to Torrance, California, when he was only two years old. As a child, of an Italian immigrant parents who spoke no English, Zamperini was a target for bullies. He quickly took to fighting, smoking, and drinking, and was known by the local police.

In an effort to put Louis on a better path, his older brother got him involved in running, and his speed was immediately obvious. "I gave up everything. I wouldn't even eat a milkshake," Louis said. At the age of 17, he set an interscholastic record for a four-minute, 21.2-second mile. And in 1936, he decided to try out for the Olympics.

In those days, athletes had to pay their own way to the Olympics, but his reputation as a hometown hero quickly caused people to rally around him to raise the money. On a brutally hot New York day, where more than 40 people reportedly died of heat stroke, Zamperini tied another runner and qualified for the Olympics in Berlin.

He remains the youngest American 5,000-meter qualifier. When he arrived in Germany, Louis was offered more food than he had ever seen in his life, and he gained a lot of weight. Although he paid the penalty for his excessive weight gain and finished eighth in his Olympic debut, his last lap of 56 seconds was enough to gain attention of Adolf Hitler, who requested a personal meeting and a handshake from Louis.

In a strange twist of fate, just four years later, Zamperini would go to enlist in the Army Corps and fight against the very man whose hand he was shaking.

In 1942, Louis earned a commission as a second lieutenant and was assigned as a bombardier to a B-24 Libidor bomber on the Pacific island of Frituni.

He miraculously survived several air battles, one of them resulted in more than 500 bullet and shell fragments holes in their plane. On a trip home, Louis rendered aid to five of his injured crew members. The plane barely made it back. And as they journeyed... as they journeyed... and the journey was so amazing that Zamperini appeared in the New York Times.

On May 27th in 1943, Louis's crew left Hawaii on search of a rescue mission, but their plane, the Green Hornet, suffered mechanical difficulties and crashed into the Pacific, killing eight of the 11 men aboard. The plane went down about 850 miles south of Oahu.

The suffering Louis endured after this point was almost unmanageable. The three men were at sea for 47 days in a small rubber raft with minimal food and no water. They survived off of seabirds and fish and endured the brutal sun, several storms, and the consistent bumping of sharks through the night that disrupted what little sleep they had.

One day, they observed a passing plane and signaled for help, only to realize it was a Japanese fighter, which actually shot at their puny raft multiple times, causing them to jump overboard into the shark-infested waters. On day 33, one of the three men died of starvation.

One day, Louis remembers pleading, "God, if you can just get me through this, I will devote the rest of my life to serving you." But things got worse. After surviving a terrible plane crash and almost two months at sea with very little food or water, Zamperini had the terrible luck of washing ashore in the Japanese-occupied Marshall Islands, where they immediately were taken prisoner.

He would next spend the next two and a half years enduring torture and starvation in the POW camps.

Louis even drew the unfortunate attention of the notorious and sadistic Mashiro, the bird, of one of the most wanted war criminals in Japan. He would not be released until the end of the war in August 1945. When Louis returned home, he was celebrated as a war hero, but he was not the same person as just three years before. He was forever changed.

Despite getting married to a wonderful woman, he suffered severe PTSD with some extreme nightmares and drank heavily and shut out horrific images in his mind. He also wanted to go back and to take vengeance and get revenge on his captors in Japan. And then things got worse.

His wife wanted a divorce.

And at that very time, Billy Graham was having a crusade in California there, and his wife went and attended it. And she came to Louis and she said, "Will you go with me? She doesn't want a divorce anymore. Will you go with me?" And he refused many times, but he ended up going with her and was saved there. His wife took him to a Billy Graham crusade where Louis remembered his promise he made to God when lost at sea.

He went on to be mentored by Billy Graham, and Zamperini devoted the rest of his life to helping at-risk youth. He had two children and was married for 54 years. He even returned several times to Japan to forgive his tormentors. Only the bird refused to see him. Forgiveness would become a core message of Louis's life.

In 1998, at the age of 80, Louis ran a leg of the Olympic torch relay in Japan, not far from the POW camps where he had been held that 50 years earlier. Then Louis died in 2014 at the age of 97.

What a powerful story of going through hardship and then at the end wanting revenge, and then God got ahold of him and completely transformed his life. And you know, the devil hates a transformed people. He doesn't want us to be transformed. He wants us to be the same as the world. And I guess I want to encourage myself and everyone here that we do need to be different. We need to read the Bible, and we need to follow it with our whole hearts.

Is there any comments?