Hey, church. Raise your hand. How many of you
know what Pentecost is? Great. Good, good, good.
We have a Pentecost celebration planned. for
our church community coming up here. So for those
who may not be familiar with it, Pentecost comes
50 days after Resurrection Sunday. So it's this
time between leading up to Easter, Easter, and
then up to Pentecost of us as a church sitting
and remembering that. And the series that we
have been focusing on is above all. Looking at
the victory of Jesus in his birth, his life,
his death, his resurrection, his ascension, and
how that changes everything. But the greatest
waste of the Christian life is to accept what
we just heard and was taught about Jesus being
above all, and then continue to live as though
it doesn't change anything. The late Dallas Willard
described it this way. He said it's the great
omission of the great commission. So the great
commission is to go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
the Son, the Holy Spirit, teaching them what?
All that I have commanded you to do, and lo,
I am with you till the end of the age. And we
say, Jesus, thank you for gifting me new life,
and then we continue living on in the old life.
So the greatest waste of the Christian life would
not be to participate in the fullness of life.
And so we have a series that is focused on this
verse here. Since we are living by the Spirit,
let us follow the Spirit's leading in what part
of our life? What part of our life? Every part
of our life. And that's not him exaggerating.
That's Paul saying this is actually supposed
to be what we are to do. So the series we are
stepping into is focusing on living the life
with the Holy Spirit. He has been called all
kinds of things. The uncle that comes to a reunion
that nobody quite knows and is just over in the
corner. Or the familiar stranger, as Tyler Statton
has termed him. Who is the Holy Spirit? This
morning, we want to look at what... the Holy
Spirit does to change us. And so the question
for you is, how do we change? Have you thought
about this? How do I change? How do you change?
Or to use the biblical language, transformation.
What does transformation look like in the life
of a believer? And before we go on, I want to
invite us to just pause. We're going to take
a moment, and it may feel a little bit awkward,
just some time. Just be present where we're at
right now. Be aware to the Holy Spirit, of the
Holy Spirit. And after a moment, I'm going to
pray and invite us to receive according to that.
Lord, here we are. Would you speak to us? Your
servants are listening. And Holy Spirit, would
you bring to mind whatever resonates within us
or whatever we resist, and would you shape and
form us increasingly into the image of Jesus
Christ through your word, according to the Father's
will and the power of the Spirit this morning.
Amen. The New Testament uses this word transformation
only four times. Two of the times are used in
the Gospels of Jesus. And we're not going to
get into that story, but Later on, if you're
not familiar with the Mount of Transfiguration
where Jesus is transformed into his glorious
self, go back to that story at some point. It's
incredible. It's used twice in the Gospels of
that scene. And then it's used two other times,
transformation. This isn't about outward change.
This is about inward nature renewal. And Paul
is the one who uses it. So why don't we do this?
Let's look at Paul's life, and we're going to
compare who Paul was before he encountered and
journeyed with the Holy Spirit, and then look
at him as he kind of has journeyed along forward.
Now, to do this, we first need to understand
that Paul had two names. Can you go ahead to
the next slide? The clicker's not working. His
Hebrew name was Saul. or Shaul, which was meaning
the asked for one. Now, if you know the story
of scripture, King Saul was the asked for king.
And so this was his name based on this history
there. And so Saul or Paul would use this name
in context of his Hebrew brothers and sisters.
And when we first meet Saul, we believe he was
born sometime between 5 and 10 AD, so around
the time that Jesus was born. And we first meet
him, and he's kind of a rough character. But
there's a lot of things that relate to him. And
the words aren't going to be on the scripture
here. I just want you to listen as I read just
a short description of who this guy Saul is when
we first meet him. This is in chapter 9 of the
book of Acts. was uttering threats with every
breath and was eager to kill the Lord's followers.
So he went to the high priest and he requested
letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus,
asking for their cooperation in the arrest of
any followers of the way. So he's uttering threats.
He's using the political system in a controlling
way to cause his ends to be met. asking for the
cooperation in the rest of those who are following
the way of Jesus. He wanted to bring them, both
men and women, back to Jerusalem in chains. Nice
guy? He's kind of a rough guy, huh? And a lot
of us are very familiar with this story of Saul.
And something happens later with this proud,
this self -righteous, this arrogant, this guy
who's inflicting suffering on others, this guy
who's controlling where he's on the road to accomplish
some of these things and something miraculous
happens. And here it says right in verse three,
it says, as he, Saul, was approaching Damascus
on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly
shone down around him. He fell to the ground
and he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul,
why are you persecuting me? So he's changed,
right? How many of you, this is your experience?
Maybe not on the road, a light comes down, but
you meet Christ and 180 degree, you are a totally
different person from then on. And it's great,
right? For those of you who may be new to the
faith, I'm sorry, but it's actually a pretty
long journey that you're going to see. And so
we may turn forward just a few chapters in Acts,
and we actually come to where we are introduced
to Paul's first missionary journey in Acts 16.
So we're just a couple chapters forward, right?
Let's read about what he's done. A little context.
Paul has come in with his colleague, his missionary
buddy, Silas, and they're going around preaching.
And they do something that actually aggravates
the city. Not because they're being unkind or
cruel or inflicting suffering. He's not being
proud. He's actually freeing somebody from demonic
oppression. And that is what instills this aggression.
So here in verse 22, it says, a mob quickly formed
against Paul and Silas. And the city officials
ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden
rods. What was their crime? Speaking of Jesus,
fring people. They were severely beaten and then
they were thrown into prison. The jailer was
ordered to make sure they didn't escape. Now,
let's think about old Paul, Saul, and how he
was in this situation, controlling, inflicting
violence on others. Totally different here. Around
midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing
hymns to God. They're in the middle of this dungeon
with their feet clamped together, completely
in just accusations against them. They've just
been beaten and stripped, humiliated in front
of others. And what do they do? They're singing
out praises to God and they're praying to him.
And the other prisoners were listening. I would
too. I'd be like, do we have a doctor in here?
You can go check on these ones. Something is
not right with them. Suddenly there was a massive
earthquake and the prison was shaken to its foundations.
All the doors immediately flew open and the chains
of every prisoner fell off. Great, they're free.
The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide
open and he assumed the prisoners had escaped.
Knowing that this meant certain death for him,
he drew his sword and he went to kill himself.
But Paul, Saul, shouted to him, stop, this is
his enemy. that he's shouting to. Stop. Don't
kill yourself. We are all here. This is massive
transformation, right? You have somebody who's
humble. You have somebody who's Christ -dependent.
You have somebody who's actually absorbing suffering
rather than causing suffering. You have somebody
who's sacrificial, willing to give up his very
freedom. He had his opportunity to run right
then, right? But he's so submitted to God in
this situation that he's like, Lord, what would
you have me do here and now? So we ask the question
of what happened between our first story and
our second story? What was going on there and
how do we experience change, right? What does
it look like for us to be transformed from the
inside out? Well, to do this, we're first going
to do a little bit of heavy work in philosophy
and psychology. So I want you to just kind of
hold on to this for a little bit. It'll make
sense in the end. But what we're going to see
is that there's, as we try to understand what
it means to be a human being and what free will
is, we can understand then where Paul comes in
with the answer to this question here. What does
transformation look like? So to do that, we're
going to look at a guy by the name of Harry Frankfurt
who came up with this concept. He's a philosopher
and he said, you know, if I observe people and
the world around me, there's these things called
first order desires. These are my instinctual
things that I want and I reach out to. So my
alarm goes off in the morning and my instinctual
desire is go away, right? I want to keep sleeping.
But then he says, We're reflective beings. We
think through things and we realize, you know,
if I've prepared to gather with you this morning
with a sermon teaching and I sleep through that,
that might not be a good thing. So I have a second
order that I'm trying to move towards and it's
I want what I want to be my desire, right? So
there's the first desire, keep sleeping in. I'm
confessing before you. Keep sleeping in. The
second desire is actually get up and participate
in what? Your day has before you. This is your
second order desire. Make sense? Animals move
on their first order desires. Generally, children
are like very impulsive, first order desires.
So what Frankfurt is saying is as we grow older
and we wrestle through with life, we can learn
to be reflective and move towards a better good
of life, a second order desire. But then he brings
in this next thing, which is our second order
volition. Now that's just a big way of saying
it's our governing force. It's what gets to dictate
what is the good life. All right? So this is
kind of like the capacity to choose. Sounds good,
right? I can continue to journey through life.
The more I know, the more I reflect and understand
myself, the better I'm going to get. But if any
of you have been on a tireless journey of doing
that, it is extremely exhausting. This is what
Augustine calls the divided will, where you have
two different things that are pulling you forward.
Now these terms up here, let me use a real life
story that may bring some more meaning to it.
As a young kid, my father had a job where he
would travel around and he was equipping and
training and helping modeling what it looks like
to preach the gospel. And he would invite our
family along on these trips. And we would go
sometimes like six, seven, eight hours on these
long drives. And we had one of those tiny little
Suzuki's and I was the youngest. And those Suzuki's
are made for four people. Maybe you can fit a
third one in the back seat, but I was the fourth
one. So that meant I sat up on the wheel well,
right? And I love this spot because I could look
down over what was happening in the car and see
the siblings fighting and whatever else. But
one of the things that I noticed was my father
was sitting there and every single time he was
driving right next to him was a bag of carrot
sticks. And as I sat there and I looked down
upon him and I thought this poor creature, he's
never tasted the glory and the goodness of potato
chips or a fudgy that is so much sugar compacted
into it that for the next six hours, I'm just.
riding away in that Suzuki, right? And my thought
is, this poor guy doesn't know the goodness of
life. Maybe someday he can wake up to it, right?
What do you think I have in my car next to me
on every single long road trip now? Carrot sticks,
right? What happened? How did I move from one
to the other? Well, my first order desire initially
was, I want this thing that tastes really good.
Six hours of eating salty, oily, crispy chips
does not make you feel good after the six hours.
But as you're putting it in, man, it's good,
it's good, it's good. And then you're like, oh.
So I come around the age of 18, 19, 20, and I'm
studying a little bit of health. And I'm like,
oh, I can't believe I was putting that much sugar
and fat into my body. So now I have my first
order desire that I still want to eat that. But
my second order desire, based on my second order
volition, says, I want to be healthy. But my
heart's not there. But I'm making a choice to
eat carrots. But right now, if you put a bag
of chips and you put a fudgy bar next to me and
you put a bag of carrots, I will eat the carrots
every single time. And that's not me saying,
wow, look at what has happened. The thing that
switched inside me is a journey with my own father
relationally, who I trust and I love and who
loves me. And I've seen that he's participated
in the good life. And there was a relational
transformation that happened there with me that
moved me where my first order desire is now carrots,
right? That's a simple way of trying to understand
the human concept. So we try all kinds of forms
of power to move us to choose the better thing.
And we may try behavior modification. If any
of you know in psychology, Pavlo's dogs, right?
They had this experiment where they put food
out and every time they did, they would ring
a bell and then the dog would eat the food and
they were making the association between the
bell ringing and the food being eaten. But then
they took away the food and they would ring the
bell and the dog was conditioned, was through
behavior modification to want food. And so he
would start salivating, but there was no food.
And so they thought, ha, we figured out how to
change people. You just need to use behavior
modification. And this works, doesn't it? It
works to a certain degree with parenting, but
it has a limit. And same with Imitation, right?
Paul says this, imitate me as I imitate Christ.
But there's only a certain level of imitation
if I'm imitating somebody, a pastor or a theologian
or a guru of some sort, and I'm trying to make
my life better by imitating them. There's only
a limitation to what will cause me to do that.
What about information? Maybe if I just have
the next piece of information, the next book,
that'll fix my life. Or, Let's consider detachment
and all forms of it. There's religious systems
around this. Let me push away desire. Let me
kill desire. Let me control desire. Because if
desire is present, I may make choices that I
don't necessarily want to. So maybe I can get
rid of desire and I can just lower my expectations
in life. These all offer a vision of life for
you and for me. But how do they work? In 1952,
there was an event in the UK in London, a catastrophic
event. What was the event? Well, the UK empire
had built their entire power source, their way
of life based on coal. So coal was what ran their
economy. It was their electricity source. It
was what moved factories and, of course, all
the lights and stuff in the city around. 1952,
this thing happened where because of the weather
pattern, all the coal just stuck, the smog from
it. And within a few days, hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of people died. And estimates of
somewhere around 100 ,000 people ended up with
long -term respiratory conditions because of
this. You see, coal had offered a great power
source for a while. but it came with bondage.
It came with a cost. It came with a price. And
so any change or transformation that is outside
of what Paul is going to highlight is going to
come with a cost. You're going to think I'm free,
but it's going to come with a cost. And it doesn't
mean it doesn't help you move forward, but if
you ultimately rely on that, it comes with a
cost. This is because of what Paul calls our
flesh, our sarks. These are our disordered, self
-directed desires. And what this means is even
if I wake up and I think I'm going to have the
right desires, my willpower, which is next, is
this choosing thing within me and it's super
weak. My willpower is really weak. And if you
think, oh, my willpower is super strong, enjoy
continuing living along in life, you'll find
that as you are pressed into a place like Paul,
when he's in prison, and his enemy is facing
there, that your willpower disappears really
quickly, or it's not strong enough to withhold
that. So Paul's going to consider both of these
things and say, hey, we're understanding what
it means to be human, but now let's look at what
true transformation, how that happens. Any of
these other things are going to be the absence
of true change, and you're going to experience
that. Please don't hear me wrong. I'm not saying
don't engage in any of these. There's things,
there's wisdom found within a lot of this, but
it doesn't mean that that will ultimately change
you. So what happened between the story we read
about Saul and then the story we read about Paul
later on? What was his transformation? How do
we change? Well, here's the verse again. Since
we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the
Spirit's leading in every part of our life. And
here's the part that we often will skip over
if we're just reading an Acts. There is a time
between when Saul was converted and when he goes
on his first missionary journey in this situation.
And God is working in and through him this entire
time. But there's a three -year period where
he's up in the desert of Arabia. We don't really
know what he's doing up there. Except that in
Galatians 1 .17, he says, God was teaching me
how to live and be transformed, essentially.
how to live my life. And then Paul goes to Tarsus,
his hometown, and he's there for a long time,
also preaching the gospel. But there's something
happening in this timeframe that I wish Paul
would have written about. Luckily, he did. We
see it in his other books. 25 % of the New Testament
was written by Paul. And so we're going to jump
into 2 Corinthians, and we're going to look at
those verses that Selina read for us. as what
true transformation looks like. So I want you
to read together with me. You ready? But whenever
someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken
away. Okay. If you're not familiar with the whole
back end story, you're thinking, what is this
veil? What is Paul talking about there? Well,
Exodus 34, there's a story of Moses where he
encounters God on behalf of the people and he
goes to speak with God and then he'll come back
to the people. And when he comes back from the
people, he's actually physically glowing. His
face is glowing and the people are terrified
and they're like, what is going on here? And
Paul will then speak whatever message it was,
but the people are really scared by it and it
fades away. So then Moses goes back into the
glory of God. His face shines again. So what
he realizes is, let me put a veil over my face
after I've spoken to the people so that they're
not seeing it fading away and are like panicking.
Oh no, God has left us. How many people were
able to go into the extreme presence of God?
How many? Just Moses, right? Only Moses. A few
years ago, we, We're gifted the privilege by
an upgrade of renting a car that happened to
be a Tesla. And I was so excited. I was like,
we've got an electric car that can drive itself.
And I'm like, this is going to be awesome. But
you see the picture behind me here. This was,
so let me back up. One of my favorite things,
life -giving realities. that I enjoy is being
in nature, going on hikes, getting up into mountains.
And we were traveling some of the most beautiful
part of the world, the west coast of the US,
down the line there through the mountains and
all this. And I'm so excited because I'm thinking
I'm going to get to do all these wonderful hikes.
But this was an older Tesla, right? Nothing comes
free. It's an older Tesla and the battery was
a little worn out. And so we found ourselves.
doing this most of the trip, not most, but it
felt like it, sitting along the highway, looking
at the mountains that I should have been enjoying
while the car was trying to recharge itself.
And in a certain sense, this was Moses' experience
in the Old Testament. You plug in for a little
bit, and you've got a little bit of energy, and
then you go back out, and it's good. But then
it has to happen again and then it goes again
and it goes again. So Paul is addressing it.
He's saying, hey, actually we're going to remove
the veil. The curtain is going to be torn when
Jesus rises from the dead or when he did rise
from the dead. So the key is that the Holy Spirit
now becomes what? For the Lord is the Spirit
and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there's
freedom. Who's the Lord? Usually it's Jesus or
the Father, but in this situation, Paul references
the Holy Spirit as being the Lord. The Lord is
the Spirit. What Paul is talking about is that
the Spirit is the agent of transformation. It
doesn't mean that he doesn't use other things
to help transform us, but the ultimate primary
reason for our transformation is the person,
presence, and power of the Holy Spirit within
us. Everything else will feel at best like that
Tesla and at worst like coal. We are plugging
into things and hoping to move along in life.
But there is something actually gifted within
those who have had the veil removed, who are
reconciled with God Almighty, where the power
source is actually inside me to move my will.
And Paul continues on and he says, so all of
us who have had that veil removed, can see and
reflect the glory of the Lord. This see and reflect
is a difficult word to translate between the
Greek and what we have today in English. It's
probably better to say contemplate or behold.
It's not about like I'm walking by and I see
you and I move on. This is maybe akin to a wedding
where the groom is standing there and the bride
walks in for the first time and there's a contemplating
or a beholding, a gazing upon and just being
taken up by what this person is seeing. So Paul
says you have had that veil removed. Now you
can see and reflect. You can contemplate. You
can spend time. having that energy source and
person and presence actually change you. Just
sitting before God. So the means is the awareness
of God's love within us. I was speaking with
a brother within our community a few weeks ago.
And he was telling me some of his story and he
said that, you know, his background was extremely
difficult. So much pain. There had been awful
things that had happened. And he found himself
outside of his home country in a small community.
And at one point, the rest of his roommates all
went away for a trip. And he was left alone there.
And he's left alone with all of what was in his
past. And as he sat there and he went out onto
the balcony, there was something inside him that
said, I should just end this. Now, he didn't.
Obviously. But that point, that story in it was
not the end because later on, as he shared, he
said he was doing something that's called a manual
journaling. And this is where you are entering
into your story and placing it before scripture
and before God. And you're saying, Lord, would
you help me to see where you were in all of this?
Would you help encounter me, Emmanuel meeting
God with us? I want you to be here with me in
this. And you know what the Holy Spirit brought
to mind for this brother? He brought to mind
a vision in that time of him sitting on the balcony
and he wasn't alone. Jesus was there holding
onto him and pushing against him. His desire
was something very different, but the love of
God through the power of the Holy Spirit brought
to light what was happening in that moment. This
is the type of transformation that begins to
move us in a different way than behavior modification
or all these other things that we have for us.
We become what we behold. What you focus on,
what you gaze on, that's what you will become.
We become what we behold is what Paul is saying
here. He's not done. He says, in the Lord who
is the spirit. Okay, we got this, Paul. You said
that at the beginning. Now you're saying it again.
This is because our will wants to think I'm the
one who's in control. The Lord who is the spirit
makes us more and more like him. as we are changed
into his glorious image. Now the language here,
if you've heard this passage preached before,
it's that of a caterpillar to a butterfly, metamorphosis.
It's this transformation that is, you participate
in it, but it kind of happens to you. It's a
both and reality, but the heavy lifting is not
your part. And this change is gradual. And that's
why I asked that question at the beginning. How
many of you have changed? You came to know Jesus
and you're like, I'm just like him. Get a community
around you and they'll let you know you're not.
And then it'll be a long journey, right? Join
a life group. So here's what we come to find
out. That God is telling through Paul that there's
a process. Sometimes there's sudden moments and
sometimes gradual. John Mark Comer uses the word
breakthrough and process moments. Breakthrough
moments are very rare. Process moments are the
heavy, the long -term thing that God uses. I
like the breakthrough moments. I want to be one
and done type situation. But you know what's
going to happen if God meets me in that way every
single time? I'm going to forget I need him.
And the point is not about me being fixed. The
point is me being with God. So the process moments,
the slower movement that keeps transforming us
step by step gives me that space to really encounter
and be with God and have that relationship come
to a deeper awareness for me. We are loved into
loving. This is back to that carrot story. My
behavior changed because I trusted my father
and I trusted what he was doing and I participated
in it. And as I was beholding him there, first
with judgment, later it was with a sense of deep
appreciation for how he had raised me in that
situation. So we are loved into loving. For the
Lord is the spirit and wherever the spirit of
the Lord is, there is what? There's what? Freedom.
So anytime there's this feeling of like, oh,
I don't want to choose that. You know, you have
a choice right there, right? It's that choice
is to say, okay, but I'm just going to grit my
teeth and do it. Or it's going to say, Lord,
meet me here. Spirit, empower me to this end.
And just so you don't come to talk to me later
and you say, I tried it and it didn't work. Remember,
it's a slow, gradual movement. And your change,
where that second order volition begins to become
your first order volition, happens over time.
And it will be complete one day, as Paul says.
Jesus is committed to the fact that he will transform
us. So the presence of true change has the outcome
of freedom as well in it. This is going to be
the experience of increased freedom that we participate
with the Holy Spirit. Here's another way that
Paul says it in the book of Philippians. For
God is working in you, and go ahead and read
this second part with me together. What? Giving
you the desire and the power to do what pleases
him. The desire and the power. So go back to
this whole framework and we look at what the
question of how do we change and consider Frankfurt's
model. If I'm left with first order desires,
second order desires, and my governing or second
order volition, I'm going to be an exhausted
human being. But if I participate in it and realize
that the Holy Spirit comes into that very center
of who I am and begins to transform me from the
inside out, in participation with me, some beautiful
things can begin to happen. And it goes out from
not only the worldview, but then my very values
and my behaviors, my attitudes, and what I choose
to have around me, the artifacts around me. And
so what you see around me is this complex reality,
but at the inside is the Holy Spirit with me,
moving me towards that end. So we kind of come
to the end here with a question for you. What
would it look like? Church, what would it look
like for you to truly welcome the Holy Spirit
in every area of your life? What might that look
like? If this is where freedom is found, if this
is the greatest participation in the news of
being a follower of Jesus, if this is what life
in the presence of the Holy Spirit is like, what
would it look like for us to be increasingly
open? To not think of the Holy Spirit as some
strange uncle that's in the corner of our family
reunion, but actually host him in a hospitable
way and participate with him in our very lives.
And what we are going to be doing here in celebrating
communion is one of the ways you can respond.
Because see what the Holy Spirit is going to
do in and through this time, so long as you surrender
to it, is to take the gift of Jesus Christ, sacrificial
death for you and bring it into who you are.
Not just a story out there to think, wow, that's
a really amazing story, but to take that truth
and impart it relationally into who you are.
So I want you to hold that posture. Say, Lord,
what would it look like for you, Holy Spirit,
to bring this time of communion? actually very
personally to me now. This is actually a way
of us remembering the death of Jesus Christ,
the sacrificial way he gave of himself. His body
was broken on our behalf. His blood was spilled
as an eternal lifelong covenant for you and for
me. And he did this as a once and for all victory
because he is above all. And those who follow
him continue to be shaped in and from this story
as it goes forward. What you hold before you,
brothers and sisters, is a small reminder of
the most significant gift that has ever been
given. The all -powerful, almighty God, who is
in all places at all times, has been forever
in the past and will be forever in the future,
who holds the cosmos together, said, you are
worth me giving my own life for because I love
you. And so as you partake in this, remembering
the body that was broken and the blood that was
spilled, we do this out of gratitude, remembering
what Jesus has done for us. It brings a combination
of sorrow for what he went through and joy for
what we get to experience. And his blood that
was spilled, an everlasting covenant, say I'm
forever yours, you are forever mine. Jesus, thank
you. Thank you once again. for bringing to mind
what you have done. Holy Spirit, we ask that
you would, based on the righteousness of Jesus
Christ, continue to form us more and more like
him, increasingly so that we can reflect your
glory to the world around. We pray this in the
wonderful, matchless name of Jesus. Amen. Thank
you for tuning in to the ECB sermon podcast.
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