I came across some interesting statistics a few years ago. Someone went to the trouble to research what people do with their time, & came up with these results:
If we live to be 75, most of us will have spent 3 solid years, 24 hours a day, acquiring an education - grade school, high school & college.
We’ll have spent 7 years eating, 24 hours a day, - some more, some less, obviously. We’ll have spent 14 years, day & night, working. We’ll have spent 5 years riding in automobiles or airplanes.
We’ll have spent 5 years talking with each other -again some more & some less. We’ll have spent 1 year sick or recovering from sickness. And get this, we’ll have spent 24 years of our life sleeping!
We’ll have spent 3 years reading books, magazines & newspapers. And 12 years amusing ourselves - watching TV, going to the movies, fishing, etc. That totals up to 75 years - & that is what the researchers say, on the average, most of us will have done with our lives.
As I looked at these statistics I began thinking. Let’s suppose that you spent every Sunday or Wednesday of your life, for 75 years - through infancy, childhood, adulthood, old age - in God’s house worshiping during the Church Service. Now if you did, how much time would you have spent worshiping God? Figure it out - the answer is less than 5 1/2 months.
Think about that - 5 years in an automobile & just 5 1/2 months in Church! Twelve years amusing ourselves in front of a TV, & just 5 1/2 months in Church.
LIFE PRINCIPLE: We are called to live our ENTIRE life to honor God!
Transformation will never happen in a day or a week or a month – it is a process that takes your time and commitment!!!
Our souls need to be transformed each and every day!
2 Corinthians 4:16: “… though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day” (NLT).
We need “extreme makeovers” every day of our lives!
Let me share with you 3 principles of transformation …
1. We should be “Jesus with skin on” more than simply wearing a “Jesus costume” (“…don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture…”)
There are a lot of teenagers that have “Halloween Christianity” all year round.
Hear this tonight …
We come to MSO and we put on the “Jesus costume” – maybe we sing or raise our hands or even use religious words … but when we leave … look out …
Hell owns our tongues – we curse to our friends – we yell at our parents – we cut down those around us!
Hell controls our actions – we “lead on” members of the opposite sex – we ignore those around us – we watch things we should not – we listen to things that hurt God’s heart – we think things that we would never tell anyone!
Gang – we have become too “adjusted” to our culture!
We need an Extreme Makeover in our souls!
We need a transformation in our lives that makes us look more and more like Jesus!
How can we become more and more like Jesus?
1. Spend time with Jesus in prayer and bible reading - because the more time you spend with someone the more you will become like them.
2. Hang with those who hang with Jesus.
3. Realize that people are watching you – live a life that can be written about!
4. Commit to being a part of a maturity process – we call that Life Development at MSO – each student needs to be a part of a GROWTH GROUP!
2. Real transformation will only happen when our hearts and minds are open to a DESTINY’S DREAM (“…be changed from the inside out…”)
Romans 12:2 teaches us to “fix our attention on God.”
When we “fix” our attention on God he will give us something specific to do for him!
Why do so many in life feel unfulfilled? Because they have no dream ... no vision for their life.
One of our own has been given a DESTINY’S DREAM … on Friday night we gathered at a cemetery and realized that’s where this life ends – nothing in this life will get to the next … many of our students got a DREAM …
C’mon Brittany share the dream God gave you this past Friday …
BRITTANY’S LIFE STORY …
“Hey everyone! For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Brittany. I’ve been coming to Bethlehem Assembly of God for about 12 years now and I’ve been part of MSO for about 4. I’m one of those people who was born in church. Before starting school, I really never knew there were people who didn’t have religion centered around their lives.
When I started school I got into a program called Dual Language which was a program meant to teach the Spanish-speaking students in my school English. So those students didn’t feel out of place, they joined that class with an English speaking class and taught those students, me being one of them, Spanish. I was in that program for 10 years, which resulted in me learning a substantial amount of Spanish. I honestly never thought I would use my Spanish education for anything of use.
A few months ago I was talking to my mom and she was telling me how when I got chosen for that program she knew that I was going to use my Spanish one day for God. I was just kind of like “whatever mom.” I really didn’t think about it after that until this past trip to Syracuse.
I didn’t go to Syracuse expecting to have a huge revelation. I’ve been to retreats before and I basically knew what to expect. You go to the services, sing a few worship songs, listen to a message that most of the time you cant relate to, and then an altar call that everyone goes up for even if they have no idea what the message was about. The first night of convention basically went like that. The second night came around and it basically started off like that, but towards the end of the service when Monty Hipp had all the junior high students on stage turn around and look at all of us high school students who were standing, something hit me. I was just like ‘wow’. We really need to be examples to them. If they see that we are not following God’s will for our lives, then how should we expect them to do it?
When Monty called us up to the altar I went up and started praying. I told God that I wanted His will for my life and that I was willing to do what He wanted me to, and that I was willing to go where He wanted me to go. A song started playing that I don’t remember at all except one line; “I will go to the ends of the Earth.” I just thought “God, I will go to the ends of the Earth for You. I’ll go where you want me to go.” That line honestly just hit me and rung a bell so loud in my head. Now I knew that I was going somewhere for God, I just didn’t know where.
Little by little, as I was praying, God told me things. He told me that He wanted me to go to a Spanish speaking country. He also told me that He wanted me to reach the children there and tell them the message of Jesus Christ. I was just like “Oh wow, that makes sense! I need to work a little more on my Spanish but I can definitely do that!” And then I thought about what my mom told me about God using my Spanish. It just all fit together so perfectly that I was just flawed. I was so excited!
The next day I kept thinking about it and I started getting really nervous. I started thinking, “How am I going to go to another country? What about keeping a job back home? What about having a family?” I don’t know if God wants me to become a full time missionary to Spanish-speaking countries or if he just wants me to go every once in a while. I don’t know what He has in store for me, and of course that scares me. But I’m just going to keep on trusting in Him. He has a perfect will for my life and I am ready to do what he has called me to do.”
All of us need to get a DESTINY’S DREAM for the Lord!
3. Transformation of our minds results in knowing God’s good, perfect and pleasing will (“…recognize what he wants from you…”)
During the US civil war Abraham Lincoln met with a group of ministers for a prayer breakfast. Lincoln was not a church-goer but was a man of deep, if at times unorthodox, faith. At one point one of the ministers said, "Mr President, let us pray that God is on our side". Lincoln’s response showed far greater insight, "No, gentlemen, let us pray that we are on God’s side."
Lincoln reminded those ministers that religion is not a tool by which we get God to do what we want but an invitation to open ourselves to being and doing what God wants.
Listen to the words of Romans: “God brings out the best in you, develops a well-formed maturity in you” (12:2).
That is God’s Will – that you will become MATURE!
There are 3 ways that I believe we can be helped in our maturing process:
1. Faithfully attend to the Wednesday Night Student Service
2. Commit to the Life Development Strategy on Sunday mornings
3. Get involved in a small group for the next 5 weeks
CONCLUSION
Let me leave you with a verse …
Ephesians 4:20-24: “But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything — and I do mean everything — connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life — a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you” (MSG).
If our soul is transformed then our conduct will also be transformed!
How are we transformed?
Simple – by God reproducing his character in us!
How many of you want the character and qualities of God in your life?
Let’s pray!
