The Anatomy of Transformation

 “The Anatomy of Transformation”

 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sun, January 5, 2020

Text: Romans 12:2

Welcome here, my name is Brad and I’m part of the teaching and leadership team here at Jericho Ridge.  As we dive into a new year together, I want to ask you a question: How many of you ski or have skied?  How many of you have never been skiing before?  OK, so skiers amongst us, can you help answer this question: IF a person wanted to become a skier in 2020, what would they do? (buy gear, take ski lessons, practice)

You may well wonder, why in the world am I asking you this question?  Well, as we start into a new and significant year in the life of Jericho Ridge, we are launching into a new teaching series in the month of January.  This series is entitled “Follow Me” The Adventure of Discipleship” and we are going to be using the metaphor of a ski hill and learning how to ski to help us understand what it means to follow Jesus and live out JRCC’s 5 Core Values: Transformational Truth, Authentic Community, Glocal Service (not a spelling error), Generous Living and Holistic Worship.   

If you are new or visiting with us, this is a fantastic time to be joining in on the Jericho journey because our core values really define who we are.  If you’ve been here awhile I want to remind us that core values in some settings are all about what the organization is about. But really, when you think about it, when it comes to core values in the church, there are not merely institutional values as they are characteristic that WE as individuals choose to live out.  Our core values are the corporate expression of who WE are as the individuals who make up the body of Christ here at Jericho Ridge.  We really are the sum total of our parts.  If we are not generous as individuals or families, then we can’t be generous as a church!  If you and I are not being transformed by God, then we are not able to be agents of transformation in our community, in our schools, our jobs and in the world. 

So this morning we are going to begin this series by looking at our first core value: Transformational Truth.  We have like a one sentence summary which is simply “we Allow God’s Spirit and God’s Word to change us”. Seems straight forward enough. Everyone is welcome at Jericho and no one is welcome to remain as they are at Jericho J.

Then we have the longer description of this value which is as follows:

God’s character and Word shape our thinking and behaviour. Biblical truth is taught in our homes and church in such a way that it leads to holistic growth. We are committed to depth and maturity in our faith, fully aware of our need for grace in our spiritual apprenticeship. We desire to work out our faith in all aspects of our personal lives – intellectual, physical, emotional, spiritual – in order to transform our world as we are transformed.”

There are a LOT of assumptions and questions and presuppositions built into that one paragraph but I want us to ask a basic question today.  That is “How does Transformation Happen?” put another way, What is the anatomy of Transformation?  What are the parts that you and I play in this process and what part or parts does God by God’s Spirit play? 

Turn with me in our Bibles or on your devices to the book of Romans. We are going to look at Romans 12 and one of the most concise descriptions of the process of transformation or spiritual growth toward maturity in the Bible.  In this verse we are going to see three ways in which transformation happens or three components that must be present in order for you and I to grow.  Let’s pray together as we look into God’s Word. 

How does transformation work?  Romans 12:2 in the New Living Translation says this: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good & pleasing & perfect.”

So the first and essential component of any life transformation is simply:  

• Let God transform you. Let God transform you into a new person.

This is where our image of wanting to grow as a skier may come in helpful for us to think about. If I want to become a skier, I have to actually let myself become a skier.  I have to submit to whatever process is necessary for me to become a skier. I can’t just wish for it to happen.  I can’t pray harder and hope for it to happen.  I actually have to allow a person or persons outside of me to provide me the assistance and support and means by which to become that which I am not at present: a snowplowing mogul shredding, lift-riding, goggle wearing, snow-loving ski bum!

But somehow, when it comes other parts of our lives, for example, spiritual maturity and development, we often omit this crucial step in the transformational process.  If you want to grow as a person in 2020, you have to actually submit to allowing God to transform you into a new person.  And here I am not strictly or only talking about an initial experience of salvation, where you surrender to becoming a follower of or a disciple of Jesus.  This letting God transform you is an ongoing thing. 

You see, transformation isn’t automatic.  It requires you and I to be a willing participant.  You have to allow or permit God to transform you. 

I want to let you in on a little secret… The ways in which God transforms us are as varied and as unique as the people at Jericho.  Suffering and affliction is a tool of transformation.  Putting ourselves outside of our comfort zone – allowing us to be stretched by say going to Guatemala or giving sacrificially to the capital campaign.  Or by mentoring a young person who is struggling… all of these and more are possible ways that God can use to transform you and I.  BUT, here’s another secret: more is not always better.  More action does not equate to more transformation.  

I love watching the Netflix show The Crown.  Meg and I are on season 3, and this week, we watched episode 7 entitled “Moondust”.  Now it;’s not up to me to give out Emmys, but wow was it a good episode!  In it, we get insight into the inner world of Prince Phillip.  He’s BUSY with lots of activities but he is struggling to find himself.  Struggling to find meaning and purpose.  So he throws himself into activity after activity: service to others, compulsive exercise, taking risks as a pilot.  At the end of the episode, he finds out that all he simply needed to do to experience the start of transformation was simply to sit down with a trusted spiritual friend and say a simple word “HELP”.  Transformation requires you to be a willing participant.  Cease striving, the Psalmist says, and know that God is God.   

Some time ago at Jericho, we did a church-wide survey called REVEAL.  And one of the findings of REVEAL was that activity doesn’t equate to transformation.  There is not a 1 to 1 ratio. We don’t expect that simply because you come to more stuff that Jericho puts on that you will experience God’s transformation work in you.  There’s a higher likely hood of it, but activity is not the best predictor of transformation.  Simply increasing activity often increases legalism (and burnout) in lives without seeing transformation.  So I want you to hear us that we run on a different operating system here at Jericho Ridge than some churches.  We are not interested in putting out more and better programs for your consumption.  Our vision is to help create the right kinds of environments for you to experience God, to learn to know God and practice responsive obedience. 

This past fall we studied the book of Galatians, and in his closing notes to that group of Christ followers in the first century, the author, Paul, said something that has stuck with me.  That is that Your Transformation is Not About You. I love the way that it comes across in the message translation: ““Because of that Cross, I have been… set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do… It is what God is doing, and He is creating something totally new, a free life!”  Galatians 6:14-15 (The Message)

So the first part of transformation is to admit that this is about what God has done, is doing and wants to do in you.  This is incredibly freeing good news!  Because it means that the burden that you and I sometimes feel when it comes to new year’s resolutions is gone when it comes to spiritual formation and heart transformation.  We don’t have to shoulder it and simply try harder & work more in 2020 at Jesusy stuff than we did in 2019.  The central issue is surrender to the process. Let God do God’s work. 

For you, this might be the first time you are hearing it this way.  Your response is surrender.  Saying “yes” to Jesus – being set free from religious legalism and learning to life freely and lightly.  This is what countless people have found at Jericho and if you want to step into that, come and pray with our prayer teams at the end of the teaching time. 

So the first key to seeing your life transformed in 2020 is simply a posture of being wiling.  Ask yourself:  ?) Are there unsurrendered areas of my life? (places I don’t want God to transform). Surrender them to God. Take a moment as we start into a new year and say to God, I choose to allow you into all parts of my life. I surrender. I want you to transform me.

The second thing component part that we see in Romans 12:2 is the HOW “let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  The way that you think is intricately connected to the way that you act.  Al Theissen says “you have to think correctly in order to act correctly”

Lorne Epp wrote a great blog post on this in his monthly newsletter – that in 2020, or any year, you are going to go in the direction you are looking.  In other words, what you focus on, what you think about, will impact the way you behave and who and what you become by the end of 2020. 

A few pages earlier in Romans, the Scriptures express it this way: ““Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.”

The Bible teaches us what you and I think about is important because it impacts our actions.  Jesus talked about this – that the overflow of our hearts, our thinking, shows up in what we say & do.  So if we want to test and see what you were thinking about in 2019, look at your actions. 

This is also a point of good news: You and I CAN take intentional steps to change the way that we think & act and this can lead to our transformation. 

In his book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear (full confession: I didn’t read it, I watched YouTube clips of him speaking about it but I’m sure it’s a great book as it appeared on many year-end books I read this year lists from people I admire).  In this book, James Clear notes that if we want to change our thinking and our actions in any area of our lives, we can institute tiny changes that can bring about big differences over time.

Romans 12:2 talks about this using the language of behaviors and customs.  We are not to simply copy what those around us in the world are up to.  We are to let God transform our thinking and acting.  In Atomic Habits, Clear suggests 4 ways our behaviors and customs can change:  

• Noticing – I have to pay attention to what my life is telling me
  • Do I have clarity about what I want to change?

Sociologists who study human behaviour tell us that more often than not, we don’t suffer from motivation problems, we suffer from clarity problems.  We are not quite sure what we want to quit doing or start doing and what it would look like if we succeeded.  Many of us have only vague sense of this “I want to become a better person in 2020”.  How? In what areas?  We have to wake up and become better students of our own lives.   

One spiritual practice that I use for this is journaling.  I take stock of what is going right, what God is teaching me, what areas of my life that I feel need to be tuned up.  I review my journals at the end of a year or start of a year they can help me recalibrate.  I also read historical journals, currently Jonathan Edwards – though he’s a bit dour for my liking as an optimist.  But I’m trying to pay attention in this exercise to what I want to change.      

• Wanting - do I actually want to change?
  • “The actions you take provide the evidence for who you are…every action is a vote” -James Clear

If we break down and think about each action as a vote for the kind of person I want to become, it takes away the “all or nothing” game.  Think about elections – no candidate anticipates they will get 100% of the vote, right?  But they don’t need to.  They only need to get enough votes to win.  What if you bring that thinking into an area of your life you want to change in 2020?  You don’t need to be perfect at say, Life Journaling, but you do need to want to change enough that you will act in a new way and that there would be enough accumulated evidence for you to have progressed.    

Clear’s third of 4 keys to changing our habits is

• Doing
  • Optimize for the starting line, not the finish line

Here’s the part that is encouraging for me… you just have to SHOW UP.  Put yourself into the environment and see what happens.  Let’s stick with the example of Bible Intake for a moment.  If you want to read the Bible more in 2020 than you did in 2019 in order to let God use that to transform you, you need to think about putting things into your life to get you started.  Show up at Jenna’s group on Wednesday morning at 6 AM at Starbucks.

Because we learn to do by doing.  You don’t’ say “I’m going to become a writer” if you want to become a writer, you just start writing.  If you want to become a marathon runner, you don’t start by running 42.2 kms, you start by running a few steps further this week than you did last week.  You put the time in.  You optimize for the starting line – where you are at right now – not the finish line: where you want to be by the end of 2020.   

This is helpful because sometimes when we compare ourselves to others, we get discouraged.  Romans 12:3 says “be honest in your evaluation of yourself” – you might say “Brad, I can’t be a super Christian… I suffer from mental illness.  I can’t read my whole Bible this year – I’m not a reader.  I can’t serve with kids like so and so does”.  The good news is that you can just start doing some small actions, changes in your behaviours and patterns and you can experience transformation.  Put the Bible on your bedside table where you can see it.  Sign up for a Bible reading plan on the Bible app and have it email you each morning.  Try and audio Bible instead of reading. Start small but start doing something that moves you. 

• Liking – change has to be satisfying in order for us to persist.
  • Celebrate the small “wins” along the way

Seth Godin says “the best way to change long behaviour is by short term feedback.”  In other words, reward yourself.  When you show up to Life Journaling with Jenna on Wed, at 6 AM – buy yourself the BIGGEST coffee they sell.  I link my reading to my coffee in the morning – it could be that my spiritual growth is connected to caffeine intake I’m OK with that J.  

Sometimes we make it too complicated.  Start by asking yourself:

For Reflection and Action:

?) What habits or practices do I want to work at cultivating this year?

?) How can I make them easy & satisfying?

Sometimes, you just need to show up and put the miles in.  Make the commitment to more regular attendance at Jericho.  Make the commitment to give away more money this year than you did last year.  Make the commitment to start small and do-able and then just step out in faith and start doing it.  Start a Bible reading plan.  Start serving people on the margins.  Start getting up 4 min earlier to pray. Get into a small group.

Back to Romans 12.  The third thing that it says about transformation is that it is connected to us knowing God’s Will and that God’s will for you is good & pleasing & prefect.  You & I can 3) Learn to Know God’s Will

Think of that for a moment: God’s will for you is something that can be learned.  Meaning you can get better at figuring out in 2020.  Anything that can be learned is not something that you should see as a failure if you are not an expert right away.  Keep working at it!  You don’t ski the moguls on your first time out on a ski hill.  You start simple and you grow in skill and ability over time.  The same is true when it comes to God’s will.  I think that

Sometimes we overcomplicate God’s Will. But the New Testament keeps it fairly simple:

• “God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin.” (I Thessalonians 4:3)
• “Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.” (John 17:17)
• “It is God’s will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you.” (I Peter 2:15)

Pursue holiness, pursue God in God’s Word, live honourably.  That’s God’s will for you.  Learn to lean into those simple things in 2020. 

Here we come back again to the way we phrase our core value: we are spiritual apprentices.  We are all learners when it comes to the spiritual life. 

As the worship team comes and leads us into a time of responding to God,

?) Can I see myself as a life-long apprentice     as opposed to a person who tries and     fails at transformation year after year? 

When we see ourselves are learners we are more apt to give ourselves grace and offer grace to others around us.  We are more likely to take a risk, to try something new, to allow ourselves to fail at it because we are still learners.  Let’s be honest, when it comes to growing and allowing God to transform us, we are all still learning and we will be till the day we die.  So let’s take that posture, Jericho.  One of the ways we do that is by confession – confession is simply saying to God that we don’t know it all.

As the worship team plays, I am going to lead us in a Prayer of Confession written by Moira Laidlaw, and posted on Liturgies Online.  I’ll pause regularly to give you time to personally process things with God.    

Lord Jesus Christ, we confess that the distractions and busyness of our lives make it difficult to listen deeply to your voice.  Transform our priorities so that we make space in our lives to be quiet and listen to you.

Jesus, seeker of the lost, we confess to becoming so shaped by the values of this age that your call on our lives is increasingly hard to hear. Transform our values so that they are shaped by your concern for the unloved and unlovely, and for the weak and powerless in our society.

Jesus, friend of the poor, we confess that too often any mission and outreach planning is weighed against economic viability. Transform our thinking so that we risk believing that all things are held together, not by the bottom financial line, but by you.

Jesus, bearer of reconciliation, we confess that all too often in our faith communities, we harbor thoughts which estrange and make us hostile towards one another. Transform our hearts so that we are filled with the desire to forgive one another and to make peace.

Jesus, source of our faith, we confess that we forget all too quickly the words we say, and pray, and sing, in our time of worship. Transform our lives so that they remain connected to you at all times and in all places.

Jesus, Saviour and Lord, may the posture of our lives be shaped by listening to you; the goodness of our lives be shaped by love for you; and the service of our lives be shaped by a humility like yours. This we pray in your name. Amen

If you want to spend time in prayer with someone or you need some support in what you are walking through, our prayer team is available at the back with name tags.  This morning that is Meg & myself, Gary & Betty.  I invite you to stand with me as we respond to God in worship by singing two songs that declare our intentions to follow Jesus more deeply.

Benediction – by Joanna Harader on Spacious Faith.com

In the coming week, may you experience the presence of God with joy. May the holy cloud comfort you. May the divine voice encourage you. May the power of the Spirit transform you, transform us, transform our world.