Mission #1 - Transforming Our World

2 CORINTHIANS 5:17-21

TRANSFORMING OUR WORLD

          There was a man selling an old warehouse.  The building had been empty for months and needed some repairs.  The doors were damaged, the windows smashed and there was trash thrown everywhere in it.  As he showed a prospective buyer the property, the owner told him that he would take care of replacing the doors and windows and clean out the garbage before the property changed hands. 

          The buyer told him to forget the repairs and cleanup.  When he bought the place he was going to tear down the warehouse and build a new building.  He wasn’t buying it for the building, but for the site to put a new building. 

          When it comes to transformation needed in our world many times we want to just do a small renovation when God desires to make all things new.  He wants the site of our lives so He can create us into new creatures, not renovated ones.    

I.  WHAT KIND OF TRANSFORMATION ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

          Many Americans are not happy with the way their lives are going.  They spend $50 million a year on subliminal message tapes in an attempt to change themselves.  We are constantly looking for ways to help improve through crash diets, new hairdos, new clothes, etc.  People know they want to change, but they don’t understand the extent of the change that is needed to give them a better life.

          The only hope for our world is that the people of the world be totally transformed into new creations of Jesus Christ.  We have tried everything else and it simply has not worked.  We have tried educational aid, financial aid, military aid, and every other thing under the sun and our world is not been changed significantly.  That is why the call of all churches must be to transform our world in the only way that will really make a difference. 

          There are three stages of the human soul in connection with Christ.  The first is “without Christ.”  This is the state of nature.  The next is “in Christ.”  This is the state of grace.  The third is “with Christ.”  This is the state of glory in Heaven.  The mission of Ridgecrest is to transform the people of the world from those without Christ into those who are in Christ.  Let’s take a closer look at this transformation.   

           A.  This Is A Total Transformation.  Salvation is not just adding a new element of religion to your life; it is being instantly transformed from the inside out by God’s Holy Spirit into a new creature.  The old things are gone and we have become new to stay so.  It changes attitudes, behavior and perspectives.

          1.  We are given a new understanding.  Before we couldn’t understand God or His workings in our lives, but now by the wisdom of His Spirit within us we are able to understand Him, His Word and His ways.  We no longer judge things by the standards which the world uses.  There was a time when Paul had judged Jesus by the standards of the world, but no longer.  He had set out to blast the name of Christ from he earth to obliterate His followers, but now his standards are different.  Now the Holy Spirit helps Paul to understand that the man whom he had sought to wipe out from the world is the greatest person that ever lived as is His church!    

          2.  We are given a  new affection.  “Love is of God, and every one that loves is born of God and knows God.  He that loves not knows not God for God is love.” (1 John 4:16)  When we have been truly transformed by the Spirit of God we are given a new heart that loves God immensely and helps us to love others in a way that is genuine.  We are given the actual love of God by His Spirit.   

          3.  We are given a new relationship with God.  Because of what Jesus did on the cross, we are no longer alienated from God.  God’s justice had to be satisfied (Romans 3:26 ).  So out of His love for the world He gave His son to meet the requirements of justice for our sins.  (Romans 3:25)  Christ took the punishment for our sin, so we wouldn’t have to.  Since it is not justice to allow punishment twice for the same offense, we are set free from the punishment of Hell.  We are at peace with God because Jesus purchased us a full pardon. 

          B.  Only God Can Bring About This Transformation.  The transformation that is spoken of in this passage is so difficult that only God can perform it.  I want you to think about how difficult it is to change a person from one “without Christ” to one who is “in Christ.”  Charles Spurgeon rightly said that it is more difficult to create a Christian than it was to create the world.  When God began with the creation of the world there was nothing to stand in His way of creation. 

          But when God comes to create a new creature spiritually mankind opposes Him.  God is opposed by stubborn wills, deep prejudices in thinking, ingrained love of sin, and pride which cause people to resist the spiritual change that the Holy Spirit wants to work.  I hope and pray that this does not describe any of you! 

II. WE ARE TO BE AMBASSADORS WHO TRANSFORM OUR WORLD.

          A.  We Must Speak on Behalf of Our Commander-In-Chief.  An ambassador of the United States is commissioned to speak on behalf of the president and the American government.  In the same way the word Paul uses signifies that we are to speak to our world on behalf of our Heavenly Father.  We are to announce His amnesty with them that has been accomplished through the death of Jesus Christ.  We have to get the good news out to all of our world!   

          B.  We Must Go and Bring Men into the Kingdom.  This word was also used to describe when the Roman senate decided that a country should become a province.  They would send the victorious general who defeated the people and ten men known as ambassadors to arrange the terms of peace.  They determined the boundaries of the new province, drew up a constitution for its new administration, and then returned and submitted what they had done for the approval of the senate.  In other words they were the men responsible for bringing men into the family of the Roman Empire .  So Paul thinks of himself as the man who brings to men the offer and the conditions of God, whereby men can become citizens of the empire of God and members of His family.  We should think that same way.   

          C.  We Must Represent Our Home Country Well.  Remember that as ambassadors or envoys of Jesus Christ we represent Him in a foreign country.  This is not our home; Heaven is.  We are to always be strangers in this land.  As ambassadors we represent our home country.  Our country is judged by our words and deeds.  It is our job to commend His country to the men among whom we lives and to always make sure that we never condemn it before them. 

          D.  God Will Provide Everything We Need.  We must remember that wherever God guides, He provides.  However, we must do our part.  Many times when it comes to figuring out how to transform our world, we want to do the miracle.  Like the disciples in the feeding of the 5,000 we don’t have to work the miracle, but are to bring what we have and watch Jesus multiply it into all we need.  

          As God opens doors and as He provides for us to go through those doors we must go.  We must let Him set the boundaries on our world.  We must start here at home and then go wherever else He leads us.  Let’s transform our world for Jesus!  

CONCLUSION

Many years ago when many American missionaries were allowed to serve in China , a blind Chinese man was taken to a mission hospital.  The missionary doctor performed an operation and removed cataracts from the man’s eyes.  Soon the man was able to return to his home, rejoicing over his restored eyesight.  In a few weeks the missionaries at the hospital saw the man coming back down the road toward them.  He was holding a rope to which forty other blind people were clinging.  He was bringing them to the place where his sight had been restored. 

That is what the Lord is calling us to do.  You and I received life from Jesus.  It is a new life abundant and eternal.  Now it is our privilege and our calling to lead others to that same One from whom we received life.  In a world filled with death and sorrow, we alone have the words of life.  We are called to transform our world by the salvation that comes only from Jesus Christ.