The last week we looked at a message on “Be Not Conformed” because there is a whole world around us that seeks to draw us away from God. This morning let’s look at Romans 12 verse 2 and the second half of it where it says, “Be ye transformed.” So do not conform but be ye transformed. Whenever I come to the word ‘transformed’ it reminds me of my childhood days where I will watch the cartoon series, the… Transformers. The Transformers is a popular series during my time and er… somehow after twenty years it has make a resurrection today and the Transformers are still very popular at… at this moment of time. Now during those times I would like to watch Transformers and there is a character in the cartoon that I love very much. And I’m sure you know who he is. He is Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime is the leader of the good robots. Er… he is the king, he is the leader there and I wanted to be Optimus Prime. So in my school bus that I take everyday, because I was the biggest size then, believe it or not…er… I would often bully the younger ones, the smaller ones and I will bully, threaten…er… cajole them until they would call me Optimus Prime. And so I was the leader of the bus, I was the bully of the bus, not quite in sync with Optimus’ umm… character but that’s who I wanted to be. I bought many Optimus Prime figurine toys and I’ve kept them even up till today. My son now plays with them and of course he breaks the arms and so on… but today we all hear about Transformers because it has sort of been a popular series reinvented. Show that I have good taste when I was younger.

But a Transformer is a very simple story. It’s based upon the Autobots, the good guys versus the Decepticons, the bad guys. The Autobots are the protectors of the earth. The Decepticons are the destroyers of the earth. And they all called themselves robots in disguise. Er… because each of these robots, they can transform into trucks, cars, planes, dinosaurs, whatever you have it. Or they can transform themselves back into robots. And there’s always this battle between these Autobots and the Decepticons. There’s a tag line that transformers have. That goes… Transformers… (pause) Oh man, wrong era, wrong generation. (Laughter from congregation) Transformers… (pause)… more than meets the eye! Because they are robots in disguise. They are trucks but you didn’t know they were robots. They are planes flying in the skies but you do not know they are robots. They are Transformers, robots in disguise. Transformer, more than meets the eye. In a sense, I think a Christian is like a Transformer. The day we came to Jesus and the more we walk with Jesus, something amazing changes within. Our physical appearance may be the same. We still have pimples, we still have freckles, our hair is thinning. We may have still the same physical appearance but there is more than meets the eye because something different takes place within us. There is a transformation of life when we come to know Jesus because Jesus changes lives. That’s what He does. If He lives in you, your life will be changed by the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what happened to me. Eighteen years ago I came to know Jesus and Jesus radically changes my life. If I look at what I was in the past and I look at who I am today, I’m a different person. I used to be egocentric. I’m a proud guy, I want to be Optimus Prime. Today, I just want to live my life for Jesus Christ. You say, “How in the world did you get from that state till today?”

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Well, all I could say is, Jesus changes lives. Now I still struggle in my life, for sure, I still struggle with pride, with impatience, with a temper, with an eagerness to protect self. But I know that who I am later on in my life will be different from who I am today because Jesus lives in me! Jesus changes lives. That’s the mission of our church. The mission of GLCC is to be leading generations, leading you and I, leading all of us and others into that life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. Because there is no-one in this world that can change your life like Jesus Christ and we have a glorious, glorious message to tell the world. In Jesus you have forgiveness. In Jesus you have joy, you have hope, you have transformation. That’s the mission and that’s the message I have for you this morning. It’s a glorious message and this is something I believe that will be resonating within your soul. Because deep within every single human being I believe, is a desire for change. We want to be a different person from who we are today. That’s I think our desires. You see, when you listen to stories, like Cinderella, you are intrigued by it. You love story of transformation where Cinderella would become a princess. You are intrigued by stories like the frog who became a prince or Pinocchio who ultimately became a normal boy. We’re all enchanted by stories like this because that’s the desire deep in the human soul. I believe that’s the desire of God for you as well.

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So if you today want to move on, you do not want to remain where you are. You are sick and tired of status quo. You want to break free from the habit of sin, you want to be more like Jesus. You want to have a transformation of life, this is the message for you. This is the Word of God. Because Paul tells us in Romans 12 and verse 2, “You can be transformed.” Transformed on the within, in the inside where he says, “More than meets the eye.” What does he say in Romans 12? Scripture tells us, “Be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of the mind.” The word “transformed” is a beautiful word. In the Greek, it is the word “metamorphoo”, sounds “chim” (Dialect word meaning profound) but it is the word that we use to describe metamorphosis, a process whereby a little caterpillar becomes a beautiful, gorgeous butterfly. This metamorphosis is a very, very profound change. It is not just a change on the outside. It is not just a superficial transformation. It is a complete and radical change and transformation. You see, the difference between a caterpillar and the butterfly is not just two wings on the back. If you bring it close together to… before your eyes, you’ll realise it is a totally different organism. Totally different insect! It is not just attaching two wings, it is a change from the inside out. So we don’t even really know how it takes place. Because when the little larva, the little caterpillar turns into a pupa and so on… it wraps itself in a cocoon and after sometime, it emerges completely different. That’s the change. That’s the change. That’s the word that is used for the transformation that can take place in a Christian’s life. It is a change that is not just on the outside, it is a change from the inside out. In other words, the transformation of the Christian life is not just behaviour modification. It’s not. Policeman can give you behaviour modification.

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Agree with me? You’re speeding and the police comes and then suddenly you stop, you slow down. You change your behaviour. But the very moment the police is gone, you switch back to your original behaviour. Really, you are doing that just to avoid being caught but that’s not what you desire from within. But the Christian transformation is a change from the inside out. It means this: it means that when you are going through tough times, you don’t just come to church and you put on a smile and say, “I’m ok, thank you very much. I’m ok.” But you are dying on the inside. It means that when someone has done something against you, you don’t just put on a plastic smile again, but you are seething, you are burning, you are really angry on the inside. You smile at him and you want to ki… but you want to kill him, if you have the opportunity to. No, that’s not the kind of change the Bible is talking about. It’s a change not just about the behaviour, but a … the way you think. The core of a being. It means you don’t surf pornography because you don’t want to and not just because others are watching you. There’s a deep fundamental change like a caterpillar to a butterfly. It is not something just attached on the outside, it is something that works through from the inside. That’s the kind of transformation Jesus brings to your life. You can go to school and they will teach you moral education and all moral education can do is to cause you to change on the outside but never on the inside. Jesus changes us on the inside. And that’s why as a church, it is such a glorious message for us to proclaim Jesus, the Gospel of Jesus Christ that He came to die on the cross to save us from our sins and to live in us, to change us from the inside out! That’s the glorious message the church, the Bible has for you and I.

This Thursday I was with our staff group, we were having an outing every week. We… we have a time together as the staff group and we were sharing Scripture. We were sharing about life and we were talking about raising children. And I was sharing passionately about teaching children. Because I’ve learned that teaching children is more than behavioural modification. You know how it is right? If your child is naughty, what did you do?

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Of course, you bring him aside to discipline him. And so what the child picks up, if that is all that you do is this, whenever I do something wrong, Mummy Daddy canes me, that is not a pleasant reward, that is not a pleasant outcome, so what I do is I avoid such behaviour before Daddy and Mummy. And with consistency, with time, er… with severity of the chastisement, the kid learns to adjust his … (pause) what? His behaviour. Kids are smart, they know what to do. So they change their behaviour but within their hearts, it is still the same. They still love sin, they still love to rebel, just that they are clever about revealing it to you on the outside. So what happens is that as parents we can raise children with modified behaviour but the same sinful heart. So I shared with the staff group. I believe the key in parenting is not modifying behaviour. The key in raising up children is in shepherding a child’s heart. Directing the child to the cross of Jesus Christ. So I tell them, I shared with them my personal experience, you may have your own. I say, when I… when I… when my wife and I deal with our son, we bring him to a room, we make sure he understands that he has done something wrong. That’s necessary. And we tell them because they have done something wrong, it grieves God, it is a sin and as representatives of God, Daddy and Mummy have to teach you, discipline you, and so comes out our “Bao Jian” (Mandarin words meaning treasured sword)… “Shang Fang Bao Jian” (Mandarin words meaning top-notched treasured sword)… “shiiinggg” and the fear comes into his eyes, “No… I don’t want!” “But we have to cane, Shawn.” And there goes the few strokes that he need to have and thereafter, we… we shared with him, “Shawn, you realised that all that is a result of a sinful heart. God doesn’t want us to sin. But we sin because we are sinners, but Jesus loves you Shawn. He came to die on the cross for your sins. He came to forgive you of your sins. He came to change your life! Shawn, you got to believe in Jesus.” And everytime there’s a disciplining event such as this, my priority is not to change his behaviour, though that’s great. My priority is to point him to Jesus Christ. Because it is only Jesus who can change his heart. And this is the change that is spoken of by Paul. It is not an external change, it’s a change on the inside. That’s why as a church, we must be careful to always present the Gospel of Jesus. Otherwise every Sunday morning you are just attending moral education. Pastor say, Bible say, I must be a good man, I cannot lie, I cannot cheat, I cannot steal, I cannot have adultery, and it is full of rules and regulations. But there is no grace in the heart of a man, there is no authentic change. We changed the way he behaves but what he believes remains the same.

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God is in the business of radical changes in your life. That’s what the word “metamorphoo” means. It’s a change that is profound, that is complete and it’s a change that goes on for the rest of your life. It’s a lifelong process. Because that is the word, be ye… in a tense, continuously transformed.

You know, years ago I met a man who told me, when I was preaching halfway, it’s quite cool… I was preaching halfway he stood up and said, “Brother, I think you are preaching wrongly, because Christians never sin.” Wow… Christians never sin? Yeah, we are perfect. We are sinless. Well, that’s not what the Bible says. The Bible says we are constantly, continuously moving from stage to stage, from glory to glory. In other words, deeper layer of sins of self in our lives will be peeled away, peeled away, peeled away so that more and more of Jesus can be seen. And this lifelong process of change is something we need to grasp. It’s a gradual thing, it’s a progressive thing. Because sometimes we get impatient with ourselves. What’s worse, we get impatient with others. You say, “Eh, you’ve been a Christian for so many months, how come you still don’t change ah?” And we become critical, we judge people, not forgetting that change takes time. There’s a process, there’s a progress that is here. It’s a beautiful word. God wants to change your life completely. God wants to change your life continuously. And can I say thirdly that this transformation is a co-operative process. Meaning this change is the work of God and it also requires your full responsibility and participation. How do I get that? Very simple, the Bible says, “Be ye transformed.” This is the word that means in Greek, a passive voice. That means you don’t transform yourself. Paul doesn’t say, be not conform to this world and transform yourself. He doesn’t say that. He says be transformed. It’s in the passive voice because transformation is not something we ourselves can effect. Let me ask you, if I were to ask you, “Would you like to change your life or change your body?” Many of us would say “Yes”. And some of us would like to change some physical things about ourselves. Maybe er… we would like to change our waistline. We like to change the pimples or the freckles on our face. But you know something? It is very hard to change the physical. Some of us we labour everyday trying to lose some kilos and it doesn’t seem to work. Let me tell you something that is even harder to change. It’s not your body but your heart, your mind, your character. It’s not easy to change. In fact, it is impossible for you to change. Spiritual transformation is a work that God alone must do. The Bible says, “A leopard cannot change its spots.” You can’t change yourself, it’s the work of the Holy Spirit in us. So number one, it is totally the work of God. At the very same time, however, it requires your full participation because this is spoken of in the imperative mood. In the Greek it simply means: God commands you to yield yourself to be transformed. So this is the understanding. Change is what God must do but I need to surrender myself to say Lord change me.

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I need to participate in it. See, this is where most Christians go off tangent. Some of us think, transformation is what I do, therefore we li… we get lifted up in pride. And then there are others who think, transformation is all God’s work and there is nothing I need to do. We slip into passivity. But neither is reality. Let me give you an example alright? Maybe you are lost a bit. Let me share with you about the cup that I gave you two weeks ago, you remember the cup? The green bean thing. Some of you are still growing it. Some of you started to grow this week, I saw it on the Facebook. The green bean thing, let me ask you. Who made the green bean become a bean sprout? Who gave life? Did you give life? Are you able to make a green bean become a green sprout by yourself? Can you go to the green bean, peel the testa or the skin and then pull out the bean sprout to look like this? Anyone can do it? We can’t. That life process is something God alone does. Yet at the same time, if you are not watering the seed, there can be no life. In a sense, that’s what spiritual transformation is. It is a work of God. 100% but it requires the full participation of men in yielding ourselves to be transformed. My friends, you’ve got to get this because this is the teaching of the Bible consistently.

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Sometimes we don’t grow because we have a misunderstanding, we think it’s all God, nothing to do with me. Or we think it’s all me, nothing to do with God. The Bible says in Philippians 2, for example, “Work out your salvation.” At the very same time, Paul says, “It is God who works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure.” It’s all you and it’s all God. Paul himself says in 1 Corinthians 15, “I laboured more abundantly than they all.” I did it! And then he goes on to say immediately, “Yet, it is the grace of God in me.” So it’s all him. It’s all God. The psalmist says, “Lord incline my heart to obey your Word.” And at the very same time he says, “I have inclined my heart to obey His Word.” So it is God fully and man fully.

We live in a generation where I’m told this… there’s a new generation coming up, not generation X, Y, Z, we called this the strawberry generation.

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I…I actually don’t know why it’s called strawberry. But strawberry generation, doesn’t sound very cool. But it’s a generation that rises, that is before us, that has been er… maybe pampered, shielded, and even Christians, we can have strawberry Christians, who… who lose that fighting spirit. Are you a fighter? Actually I think in Christian life, you must fight. You must have determination. You must have a fighting spirit because transformation is not something that will take place in your life if you live passively. If you just stay there and say, “God grow me.” You know every single morning, you just sit there and you say, “God grow me.” and you do nothing about it. No… the Bible does tell us there is an active participation that is needed. You say what do you need to do? If there’s a fighting spirit that is required… I’ll skip that… what is it that we need to do? The Bible says you’ve got to be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Now, it’s a bit different from what Romans 12:2 is. If you look at this carefully, it says, “Transform by the renewing of your mind.” But Paul explains a bit more in Ephesians where he says, “Renew in the spirit of your mind.” The word “spirit” here refers to the mindset that you have, the attitude you have, the posture of the way you think, the prospective, the anger, the inclination or the bend. So Paul is saying, you’ve got to grow by having a change in the way you see things. There‘s got to be a change in the bend, the attitude, the posture of thinking. Because prior to coming to Jesus, all our thinking is anti-God, we don’t like God. Man hates God, the Bible says. The carnal mind is enmity against God. We don’t live for His glory. We don’t… center of our lives around himself. Man hates God. And in order to be transformed, your mind's got to be renewed. The spirit of your mind got to be renewed. The way you see things got to be renewed. And this is where the devil doesn’t want it to take place. There’s a battle taking place today. It’s not in Middle East. There’s a battle taking place today and I’m not talking about Armageddon in the future. There’s a battle today for your mind. The devil wants your mind.

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He wants to corrupt you from Jesus. He wants to draw you away from Jesus. And therefore the Bible says, “He is the father of lies.” He loves to give you lies. He loves to tell you untruth, half truth about God. He wants to draw you away with falsehood. And the Bible says, “I then need to be renewed in the spirit of my mind.” Because I am anti-God in my thinking. And in order to be changed, God’s got to change my mind. The word “renewed” is a simple word called “renovated”. If you’ve renovated your house, you know what it means. It means to take out the old things and to put in the new things. So your mind needs a complete renovation. Because prior to this, it’s all anti-God furniture and furnishings. But God says you’ve got to renovate your mind. Take away the old and put in the new. Take away the falsehoods, take away the lies of the devil and put in the truth of God. That’s why Jesus says, “Sanctify them through your truth, thy word is truth.” It’s a process where we need to actively be engaged in. There will be looking at the Word of God, the truth of God, that it will then be renovating our minds. The lies are taken away and the truths of God are placed right back in. It’s a renovation. And when you do so, the Bible says, “You’ll be renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created Him.”

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Basically it says, after God, after the image of God. The more you look at truth, the more you take away the falsehood and replace it with the truth of God’s word, the more you will be created and renewed in Jesus Christ, in the image of God. That means you’ll start to think as God thinks. When you have the Word of God fill your mind, this is how transformation takes place. You will begin to think as God thinks. It’s no more behaviour. It’s not about your physical appearance, it’s about the way you think. The renewing of the mind, taking away the lies, putting in truth, will cause us to be renewed after the knowledge of our Saviour, of God. We will begin to think as God thinks. That’s exciting! I will have a godly mindset, a God-centered mindset. That’s how my life can be changed. So this is what Romans 12:2 says, you’ve got to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. In other words, a Christian today, you need the truth of God to change your life. You need to study God’s Word, you’ve got to have that fighting spirit and not allow the devil to deceive you, to draw you away from God, you need to fill your mind with truth, with the Scriptures, with the Word. He used this architectural description, renovate your mind. You want to change, you’ve got to renovate your mind. That’s an architectural description. There’s also an agricultural description, that this growth is like botanical growth. It’s like a plant. Someone says you’ve got to be like a tree that is planted by the rivers of water. 1 Corinthians 3 tells us that it is God, it is man who will sow, man who will water, but God who gives the increase. The spiritual life is seen like a plant, botanical growth. I show you again this picture of the “tau geh” the beansprout we had, and like I said, growth takes place when we diligently put water and moisten the cotton wool and the environment that is around this “tau geh”. I realised that if you don’t put water for one day, it stunts. It doesn’t grow very well. Those who flood it with water, generally they grow quite well. But you see, you need to diligently apply water that the plant may grow. Now last week I said, last week I tried something right? I put in the watercolour, the blue colour, purple colour, orange colour and I was trying to see the effects of what the world will do to us when the paint gets into the “tau geh” but somehow the “tau geh” is a great non-conformist. It doesn’t take in the colours. It… it doesn’t become purple or orange or blue. And then some of you after the service say, “Pastor you are not a very scientific person. Of course it won’t change colour because the paint pigments are not organic. Umm, they are in fact toxic, the pigments are too big to be absorbed.” And I say, “Yah, that makes sense.” So let me try it again this week. And according to some suggestions, I used food dye.

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You know those food dye, it’s very potent, just a little bit of it and it taints the whole, whole pot or whole cup of water to its colour. So I tried food dye. And I did the same thing. Because this week I wanted to use blue colour. I want to have blue “tau geh” to show you the effects of conforming to the world. And after 5 days, food dye ah… what do you think happens to the “tau geh”? Sorry? See, not many people here scientist you know. (Laughter from congregation) Water colour you can’t predict, food dye also can’t predict and it’s true, I couldn’t predict it. I thought it will work. Ok, I don’t tell you whether it works first. I put food… blue dye. Why did I choose blue? Well, because I want to show the effects of the world and I wanted to demonstrate the transforming effect of the Bible, of the Word of God. So I wanted to put another thing after blue to make it back to its original form. What do you think I will put in? To reverse the effects of blue? Sorry? Put green ah? Can, but it become blue-green like “or cheh” (Dialect words for blue-black bruise) like that. (Laughter from congregation) What should I put in? Sorry? Red ah. Then it turns purple isn’t it? Yellow! So I bought a blue dye and a yellow dye. I hunted around, hunted left and right from NTUC, Cold Storage just to look for blue dye. Not easy to find blue dye, all sold out. Got brown, got yellow. I’ve got the blue dye, I tried it for five days, sad to say, it didn’t take it up as well. Umm… the blue dye didn’t get into the “tau geh”, I do not know why? The “tau geh” is very resistant to the world. It’s a great picture of a Christian life. But I wanted to put in yellow so that you could understand the Word of God does change your life, back to what God wants you to be. Er… sadly I couldn’t demonstrate. But it does tell us something. If you want the “tau geh” to grow, if you want the bean sprout to grow, you’ve got to give it water. You’ve got to apply effort. Another way of looking at Christian growth is not just architecturally, or agriculturally, you can also look at it athletically. Because Paul says to Timothy, “Timothy you‘ve got to exercise yourself to godliness.” Exercise yourself to godliness? Yah, godliness has to be trained. It means effort, it means discipline. Train yourself to be godly. Umm, recently I saw this newspaper article on Straits Times, I think, I was… I saw this in a… somewhere else, I quickly snap a photo of it. Who is this… this gentleman? (Response from congregation) Jeremy Lin. He’s more famous than most Chinese in the world. Jeremy Lin has a schedule. I’m afraid you may not see it so clearly. But he was in an interview, saying this is what he does on a daily basis. Basketball training, bible reading, family time and relaxing. And so he says in his typical day, he trains for five hours in basketball. And then in a typical day, he reads the Bible for half an hour. And then he relaxes with his family for three hours. I’m not here to say what his proportion should be. But what I learn about Jeremy is that as an athletic, he understands the need to train. Now if you don’t train in basketball, you can’t be a good basketball player, right? I mean you can sit at home and watch people play basketball but until you personally train, you cannot be a good basketball player. You can be a critic, you can be a narrator, but you’ll not be a basketballer. And he understands the importance of training spiritually as well. He’s got to set aside time. It doesn’t happen by chance. You don’t drift into holiness. You’ve got to exercise yourself unto godliness and holiness. And so he says, I read the Bible half an hour every day. That’s my training. You don’t train to be a good basketball player by saying I…I…I … help me to be a good basketball player. I’m going to be a basketball… and you sit there and you watch people play. You can’t. Likewise, spiritual growth is not you come in to church and watch other Christians play Christianity. You’ve got to train. You’ve got to get into the work. You’ve got to study the Scriptures. You’ve got to exercise yourself, now at the end of the day, that growth in your spiritual life is the work of God. But the fighting spirit, that determination to place ourselves in a position that God can change your life is necessary.

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So it’s a athletic thing. Your muscles don’t grow if you just lie there. I want big muscles, I want big muscles, I want big muscles and all you do is to lie there. You won’t have big muscles. I want…I want a transformed life. I want a transformed life. I want to be like Jesus. But you are not reading the Bible, you won’t have a transformed life. I want “tau geh”, I want “tau geh” but I’m not going to add water. You’re not going to have a “tau geh”. Yes life is from God. Transformation is from God, but you’ve got to do it. And you’ve got to determine yourself to do it. I like to bring this message right home and it’s a very simple message. Just one point isn’t it? That we today got to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And the mind is renewed as we determine ourselves to look into Scriptures. I like to challenge you this week to remember three letters of the alphabet and acronym - RPG. So what is RPG? Not Role-Playing Games. RPG stands for Read, Pray, Grow. Jeremy Lin has a thirty minute RPG, maybe. He reads the Scriptures and I’m sure he prays to God that he will grow. And I pray you will have a RPG for your life. If someone is to ask you, what is your typical activity like? I hope somewhere there in your schedule, there is a Bible reading. There is a “RPG” time. Because if you don’t have that, you don’t have growth. You don’t. You can imagine you are growing but you are not growing. Until you are willing to invest yourself like an athletic who invest himself to grow spiritually. I would like to encourage you, in your life, you don’t have to start thirty minutes, alright? Some of you, you are not in the habit of reading the Bible everyday, I’d like to encourage you to start. Start small – five minutes. Har… like that also can ah, Pastor? Can, five minutes. Just five minutes, can? Five minutes, five days a week, that’s all. Now don’t stay there for the rest of your life. But start small, start small, but start! Do something about it because if you really want to grow, you want to have a transformed life, not just your behaviour, but the way you think, your values, your perspectives. If you want a supernatural work of God in your life, Start! Be determined! Everyday have a RPG! Read the Bible and ask God that He will teach you, show you who He is. And make you more like Him. Reading the Bible is an exciting process where you can see the miracle of transformation take place as you do so. It’s exciting every morning for me to wake up to look at whether the blue colour is taken up by the “tau geh”. It’s exciting! Life and change and transformation is exciting and you can watch that, you can experience that as you do your RPGs. Let me say this, the evil doesn’t want you to do it. Alright? So let me say, if today, tonight you want to apply this, it will not be easy because the devil hates it when you want to be like Jesus. He hates it.

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And he will be constant and relentless in keeping you away from it. He will spurn lies for you. He will bombard your minds by saying, “You’ll never understand the Bible”, “You can’t do this”, “You can’t last”. He will come to you and say, “Hey, let’s watch some television”, “Let’s go to the internet.” He will come along with all kinds of distractions. He will come to you with all kinds of lies because he hates a Christian transformed and being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. He hates it. And therefore the battle of the mind is a daily battle. The five minute, ten minute, fifteen minute RPG is a daily battle. It’s a battle that takes place in the mind all the time. But all of us understand that. You want to lose weight? You want to lose this extra layer of tyre around your waist? You know what? It’s a battle. It’s a Battle of the Bulge. You want to sleep; you want to rest; you want to eat your chocolate; you want to eat your curry puffs. But you say you‘ve got to battle and only when you battle, then will you have a win. Will you be able to overcome that “Bulge” and we are so… so many of us are flabby spiritually without doing anything about it. You’ve got to exercise yourself to godliness. And as you do so on a daily basis, I say this, God will give you the joy of seeing your life transformed. I want to say another thing to you as… by means of application. Don’t just have your RPG, I think that’s great, that is a great start, we must all do this. It’s for you by the way, it’s not for… just the pastor and so on. Every single one of us is God’s desire, that you’ll be transformed.

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The second thing you need to do is to be in a Care group. In a group that study the Scriptures together. You know why, because every single day we are out there in the world, bombarded by the world. The world is exerting all kind of influences in your mind, that leads you away from God. And if you are not in a community of believers, you know what you are, is that you’ve drawn for yourself a big red bull’s eye and ask the devil to attack you. That’s all it is. Because you are laying yourself vulnerable to his wiles and to his attacks. In our church, I pray that we will have groups, Care groups, Community groups, Two Seven groups, SFs, that will be focused on looking at God in the Scriptures and asking God to change us into the image of Jesus Christ. My friends, this is what it means to be a living sacrifice. If you’ve been touched by grace, if you know how much Jesus loves you, you want to give your life. You would want to. It is the grace of God that motivates us. And if you want to give your life to Jesus, let me tell you what it means. Because so many of us think that giving my life to Jesus means that I’ve to go to Africa. I’ve to go to South America and be eaten by the lions. Lord I give my life to you and I’m going to die in South America. But let me say this, being a living sacrifice is not about these things, primarily. It’s about this: a living sacrifice is someone who is on a day to day basis, yielding himself to the working of God, in transforming his life to be more like Jesus. A living sacrifice is therefore someone who is always looking into the Scriptures and praying, “Lord, make me more like Jesus.” Who is determined, who is disciplined. Who exercises himself to godliness. And as you do so, God changes you, transform you on the inside out to be more like His Son, that you will truly be that living sacrifice, wholly, acceptable, pleasing to God. You see, Christian living is more practical than what you have imagined. It’s not about you today suddenly boarding a plane to go somewhere far off and to die a martyr’s death. It begins at your home on a daily basis. Having your minds transformed by the Scriptures. And if we do that, God changes your life, we will be a different people. In a world where there are plenty of square watermelons, as we shared last week, you will be those that are rounded and beautiful. So many stunted types. Mutants, God did not make us to be like mutants, He wants us to be like His Son. And if you are transformed in your mind, you will be someone different in a world where there are plenty who follow the ways of the devil. My friends, Jesus came to set us free from sin. He came to give you a new life. And I pray by the grace of God, by the Word of God you will be transformed. And as a community, we encourage each other. As a people, we read, we pray, we grow, we gather in small groups and our lives are so different because Jesus changes us from the inside out and we encourage each other. And when we are strengthened in Christ, we are maturing in Christ, we get out into the world, our lives shine, and we will truly be gospel lights. And people are drawn to the life of Christ in you. That’s what really is evangelism about. It’s about living the Gospel and then giving the Gospel.

0:44:10.3

There’s no shortcuts. It’s not just about your methods, it’s about your life. Be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Be a transformer today, this is the Optimus Prime issue of command: “Transform and roll out!” Alright? We roll out into the world where we’re transformed by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s bow for a word of prayer. This morning, this is a very, very simple message. The purpose of this message is not to thrill your mind as much as it is to encourage you, to realize Jesus changes lives. He wants to change your life. God wants to transform you to be more like Jesus. And exciting thing about this transformation is that it is not something you do, but He does. And it is a profound change. He changes the way you think, he changes what you desire, He changes what you value. And it can take place when you apply yourself diligently to the renewing of your minds. My friends, there are plenty of lies and falsehoods in us today, and the Word of God is able to renovate it. The Word of God is able to provide that water for life to flourish. The Word of God is where you need to exercise in order to be the person God wants you to be. Right here, right now. Maybe by the grace of God, you pray, you ask God, Lord, help me, not just to feel good or to understand these things but help me from today onwards, to have a RPG in my life. Just where it is most practical, help me everyday, to read your Word, to pray to you to change me and then Lord, grow me. So that as I grow, Jesus is seen in me. And I can live that life that will draw all men to yourself. Maybe some of you today, need to be in a Care group, you’ve been living that solo Christian life. And you’ve believed the lie of the devil. The devil tells you, “You don’t need to be in a small group.” The devil tells you, “You can be a good Christian by yourself.” Let me tell you, that is total falsehood. The Bible says, “We need one another.” That’s why the church is given. Maybe today you need to pray, “Lord, lead me to a band of brothers, to a Care group where I can look into the Scriptures together and grow in Christ-likeness.” Deep down in your heart this morning, I know you desire to change. You do… you do. Don’t let the devil deceive you, come to Jesus, come to His Word, do a RPG and watch the miracle of life change. And so dear Lord, this morning we pray that You will steady our hearts and our hands. That we may apply ourselves diligently to the renewing of our minds through the Word of God. I pray for Your people here that we will not be falling prey to the lies of the evil one. Help us, help us to be transformed, help us to be more like Jesus. This is Your will, dear God, this is Your Word. So do what we cannot do and help us to be the people You want us to be. We thank You today, for the grace of Jesus, that while we were yet sinners, He came to die and our prayer this morning is for our friends who are here who do not know Jesus. And they desire also a changed life, bring them to the cross, help them to see Jesus crucified for them. May the grace of God touch every heart this morning. We thank You, we pray all these now in Jesus’ name, Amen.