TRANSFORMERS
Romans 12:2a
INTRODUCTION:
How many of you have seen the
movie “Transformers”? How many of you have some Transformers at home?
Because we have some adults here
who don’t have any idea what we are talking about, let me talk to them for a
minute:
Transformers is about two warring armies of shape-shifting alien robots
renewing their battle on earth. While the Decepticons, followers of the
evil Megatron, try to take over earth, the Autobots, led by the brave
Optimus Prime, are determined to protect humanity. When young Sam Witwicky
discovers that his new car is really the Autobot Bumblebee, it is time for a
giant-robot showdown.
OK, that’s enough talk to the
adults. I don’t want to ruin the movie for them by telling them who wins.
Would it surprise you to know
that transformers are mentioned in the Bible? It is in the book of Romans,
chapter 12, in the first half of verse 2.
2
Do not
conform any longer to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind.
The Bible says that you
should be transformed. That doesn’t mean that your arms and legs should
become fenders and your hands and feet should become wheels. The Bible says
we should be transformed from looking like everybody else in the world into
looking like Jesus.
I have some bad news for you.
God wants you to look like Jesus and you can’t do it. It is not possible
for you to make yourself look like Jesus but God says you have to. Now
that’s bad news.
Here’s some good news: God will
change you to look like Jesus. Want to know how? Here are some of the
tools God uses to transform us to look like Jesus:
I.
WORSHIP
“Worship” means showing God that
we love Him and that we respect Him. We sometimes talk about a worship
service at the church on Sunday morning. All that means is that we have
planned a meeting to help each of us show God that we love Him and respect
Him.
Now here is the cool thing about
that: when we focus our attention on God and think about Him, we become more
like Him.
A long time ago, an author named
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a story about a boy who saw a shape in the rocks
on a distant mountain and he thought it looked like the face of a man.
Every day he stared at the mountain and studied the face. When he was very
old, people noticed he had been transformed and now he looked like the face
on the mountain.
That is just a story but here is
the truth: the more you concentrate on God, the more like Him you will be.
Worship is when we can concentrate on God.
II.
BIBLE READING
Another tool God uses to
transform us to look like Jesus is our Bibles. One of the men God used to
write the Bible is named James. James wrote that the Bible is like a
mirror. When we read it, we can see how we are living and we can compare
that with how we ought to live. That helps us to become more like Jesus.
So God can use the Bible to transform us to look more like Jesus…but only if
we read it and pay attention to what it says.
I know some of you cannot read
yet so is there any way you can know what the Bible says? Well, yes, there
is. And that brings me to another tool God uses to transform us to look
like Jesus.
III.
SUNDAY SCHOOL & YOUTH GROUPS
What we learn about in Sunday
School and in Youth Groups is the Bible. Sometimes we can get so caught up
in the fun of Sunday School and Youth Groups that we forget why we have
them. Sometimes we can think so much about the snacks and the soda pop that
we forget why we are supposed to be here. We can get so excited about
coming here to see our friends that we forget that we come here to see Jesus
and learn about him in the Bible. Fun is great and we want Sunday School
and Youth Group to be fun. Food is great and we want you to enjoy the
snacks. Friends are great and we are glad you have friends at church. But
if all you do is play, eat and see your friends, we’ve missed the point.
The point is to learn what the Bible tells us about Jesus so we can become
like him.
IV.
CHRISTIAN FRIENDS
Now, I’ve just mentioned the
friends you see at church. Did you know that our friends are one of the
things that transform us? They are. If we have friends who are trying to
be like Jesus, they will help us become like him, too. But if we hang
around with friends who don’t care about Jesus, it won’t be too long before
we don’t care about him, either.
Most of the time, the people who
become our best friends are people who like what we like. If you like to
listen to Beyonce or Shop Boyz, then you will probably want to hang with
friends who like Beyonce or Shop Boyz. If you are into sports, you will
probably find friends that like sports. If you like American Idol, you will
usually make friends with people that like American Idol.
If you want to be like Jesus, you
need to have friends that want to be like Jesus.
CONCLUSION:
So God can use worship, the
Bible, Sunday School and Youth Groups and Christian friends to transform us
to be like Jesus. Is there a place where we can find all of that so we can
become like Jesus? Well there is. And you’ve found it. The church is like
a garage where we come to be made over to be like Jesus. It takes a while
so don’t give up. But if you keep putting yourself where God is working, He
will change you - - not into a shape-shifting alien robot but He will change
you to be like Jesus.
