OCT 24 2021 | Takin’ It to the Streets S1E4 | The Process

Sea Change Church · Takin' It to the Streets · "The Process" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · October 24, 2021
Genesis 27:30–38
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

How you doing, everybody? Good morning. My name is Vinny. I am a part of the college group. Also, I help Pastor Harry with the middle school and high school group. We have a table out front if you guys are interested. I'm going to be reading Matthew chapter 28, verses 16 through 20. Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountains where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.

Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. The Word of the Lord. Take this message to my brother. You will find him everywhere. Right on. Thank you, Vinny. That is from our tour of the accents. Although, you backed it off a little bit, Vinny.

In second service, I'm going to need a little bit more. Is it Brooklyn or the Bronx? Brooklyn. Okay. So, he said the Word of the Lord. I can't even do it. I'm not even going to do it. So, I need more cowbell, Vinny. Because Badbo just like crushed you. Right now, Badbo is winning on the accents. And I know how you really talk. And so that's, I'm giving it to, point Badbo. We'll see what happens in second service if you can bring it back.

I got you. You're a good fella. Pray. Lord Jesus, we just thank you, God, for your grace and your mercy and how you speak to us. So, your Word be with us in Jesus' name. Amen. In the fourth week of Matthew 28, and looking at the great commission by Jesus, what he's called us to, where he's called us to do. It's the last thing that he said. It's super important. It's worth four weeks. Could have done 12. And then the next four weeks of this series, we're going to be looking at actually where people went and did it.

We're going to be looking at, in the book of Acts, at four stories from Acts to look at transformation. And Jesus was transfigured, and so that we might be transformed. We live in a society that is mesmerized by transformation. Like, our society loves transformation. You will see all the time in the news headlines or on Instagram, look at this person's incredible transformation. And sometimes it's positive, and sometimes it's negative.

Sometimes there's been some surgery involved, and there's a transformation. And I don't know why, but our society, we just love being, we just love transformation. We love to see transformational characters. Rarely is there a movie that is successful where a character is not transformed. They go through some life event, something happens, and they're actually transformed. When I was a kid, I used to watch, and I don't even know if these exist anymore, but in DC Comics, they had the superheroes on Sunday morning.

DC, you know, it had Batman, it had Superman, it had all of them. And they had these two twins, and they were called the Wonder Twins, right? And the Wonder Twins would put their hands together, and they would say, Wonder Twin Powers, activate, there we go, right on. And then one would say, form of this, and they'd become like some shape of something, like a, I don't know, a powerful triangle, or I don't know, it was kind of weird, you know what I mean?

And then the other would be like, raging fire, you know, shape of, form of, whatever. I never really understood what they were doing, but nonetheless, it would become something powerful, and they would overcome any evil in the world. The other one that was super important was Hulk. Remember Hulk and his transformation? I never understood how his pants always kept fitting. The legs would rip, but the waist would always.

Maybe he was losing weight, maybe he was getting more ripped. And so it was like, you had him, I mean, huge, you know, anything in the Marvel Universe, you see these amazing transformations. The Matrix, okay, so you got Neo. Neo has a choice, blue pill, red pill. What pill does he take? And all of a sudden, there's this incredible transformation. We just love transformation. The interesting thing, there's two things about transformation.

One, it rarely happens instantaneously. It rarely happens instantaneously. But we love instant transformation. And the other thing is positive transformation. Now, there's two types of transformation. There's positive transformation. You're becoming something more than you are now. You're becoming a better version of yourself, a better version of something. There's this positive transformation. One thing that's true for positive transformation is positive transformation rarely happens without a determined decision of the will.

Positive transformation. Now, negative transformation can happen all the time. You just sit on your couch and never do anything. And your body and your health is going to be transformed. But if you want to have positive health transformation, if you want to have positive relational transformation, then you are going to have to take some determined steps to have the results that you want happen. If you never think about your relationship with your family, it will probably begin to degrade.

If you never think about what you say, if you never shepherd and learn tools of, well, what's a better way to say this? If you don't step into some sort of healing, what happens is you end up to degrade. And what I want to talk about today is transformation. Now, the word in the Bible is, basically it's a Greek word out of where it comes metamorphosis. It's metamorphomethea. Metamorphomethea. And that means to be completely transformed.

And there's a process in this passage, and the reason we're looking at this process, because Jesus came to transform the world, but it's not going to happen passively. He came to transform you. He came to allow you an open door to walk into transformation, but then also be part of the transforming process of the world. Were you a part of that this week? And realize that positive transformation will rarely, if ever happen, without a determined decision of your will, do you want to be transformed?

There's five steps to world transformation that he speaks about in this passage. They're in verse 19. Go to verse 19. Therefore, here's the first one. Go. We talked about that. Go. You've got to be going. Go. Next one is make. Circle go and circle make. We're going to talk about the process of making disciples. That's what we're talking about today, this transformation. And disciple making means transformed followers of Jesus.

That's what disciple means. It means a follower of Jesus who has actually been transformed. It doesn't mean someone who watches him from a lounge chair. It doesn't mean someone who knows a lot about Jesus. It means that their entire life, their way of living, has been completely transformed. Matter of fact, on the top of your notes, write transformation. That's what we're talking about today. Transformation. Transformation.

The transforming of you, go and make. So that can work for you. Go. You have something you want to do. You want to go to counseling. You want to get better at painting. Whatever it is. You need to go and you need to make. So that's the second one is make. The third one is baptize. So we'll talk about baptism. And then the next one is teaching and obeying. Those are the five steps for world transformation. And they're steps that we need to be a part of if we are going to be transformed believers.

Now, I just want to start with a quick question. Do you want to be transformed? Sometimes the answer is no. Do you want your relationships with others transformed? Do you want to see the world transformed? Do you want to see the world changed? If you do, it is going to take a process. And there's a five-step process here. Once again, I'm going to write these out. I'm trying to get this through. It's go and make, baptize, teach, and the hard one, obey.

We'll talk about obedience here in a moment. This word of transformation, your notes, I put the wrong. I don't know how I do it. Sometimes just copying and pasting. It's not in Colossians. It's out of 2 Corinthians 3.18. You want to correct that in your notes. And C.S. Lewis wrote a book with the same title about being unveiled faces. And it says, And we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being what?

Transformed. Metamorphometha. God, goodness gracious. That is a big word. But I'm just going to say metamorphosis. Metamorphosis. We are being transformed. The metamorphosis. Into his image with ever-increasing glory. Which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Now I'm going to walk this. We're going to walk through this for one minute. Because this is the transformation of discipleship. Discipleship is boiled down in this 2 Corinthians 3.18 passage.

And continue to put a mirror up to yourself as you look through it. All of us with unveiled faces. That means we're no longer in shame. Moses would go in, would be before the Lord. But then he'd have to veil his face because the glory was so strong from God. It would actually blind others or hurt others. And maybe even could have killed others because of the glory of God was so strong of that. Because God's power. So he would have a veiled face.

But it says we with unveiled faces contemplate what? The Lord's glory. We're being transformed into his image. We talked about that last week. With what? Ever-increasing glory. Which comes from the Lord. So when you're being transformed, what is a disciple being transformed into? Well it's the image of Christ on earth. But it's also a form of glory. Not your glory. A reflection of the Lord's glory. So that when you move around in your home.

When you go to the coffee shop you go to. That you have been doing something in the going of your life. In the making of your life. In the teaching or learning, if it's you, of your life. In the obedience of your life. That it shows on the outside. That you are being transformed. And people actually see the glory of God. What does that look like? Well it looks like peace when you should have no peace. It looks like joy when all, everything is stacked against you.

It means that you are being transformed with ever-increasing glory. How's your transformation going? How do you feel like it's going? And I guess the question, how bad do you want to be transformed? Jesus asked a paralytic in John chapter 5, Do you want to be well? It's a great question. Do you want to be well? Woodrow Knoll has a great quote. He says, the God who made us can also remake us. The God who made us can also remake us.

We need to be remade. Carrie and I had a conversation recently. Where we have a really, really good friendship. We're just really, really good friends. We like hanging out together. But we realized, at least I realized. I think she did as well. That sometimes you can just be friends. But never go to a depth of intimacy. Of bearing your soul. Of really letting someone know who you are. And you end up just really good friends.

But you never go to that next level in regard to heart intimacy. Because of wounds. Because of holding back. Because of barriers. Of fear. Of these different things. And what I said to her on date night was, I don't want to be in the same place in 25 years. And I realized that even though we're in a great place. I don't want to continue to be here. And so the question at our date night was, What are we going to have to do to change it?

Because both her and I are very comfortable living as really good friends with walls around our hearts. We're really good at it. We learned it. It was a learned tool that helped us survive as we were alive. But we are going to have to go. We are going to have to go and make. And look for transformation. Transformation. Do you want to be transformed? The God who made us can also remake us. We're going to talk about three steps today.

Three process steps. We've talked about go. We've talked about make in the first three weeks. But now we're talking about baptizing. Training. And obeying. Let's look at baptism. What is baptism? Baptism is an outward symbol. It's an outward symbol of an invisible grace. It means when you're baptized, something actually happens in heaven. Something happens in the spirit realm. Something in the ethereal realm. Something in the metaphysical realm that actually changes your life arc on earth.

We believe that it is a physical symbol. You're not saved by baptism. But there is a physical symbol. When you become baptized, you step into a flow of God's grace. Almost like a river that flows. God has power that is moving through the earth. His power is found in truth. There are rivers of truth. There are rivers of righteousness. There are rivers of holiness. There are these rivers and currents that run. And when you decide to walk in righteousness, it's like jumping in that stream.

When you decide to walk in holiness, all of these are keys to the kingdom of heaven. And whichever ones you choose to step in will sweep you away in that. Well, baptism is one of those. Baptism is a command. And if you have not been baptized as an adult through immersion, I want to encourage you to do it. And one of the reasons is because when we are obedient to what Christ tells us to do, is part of the metamorphosis.

That's the actual word in the 2 Corinthians 3.18. The metamorphosis of your character. Do you want to be well? Where do you need to go? What needs to be remade with God? So, first thing he says is part three of this transformational process, go and make, is to baptize. What are we baptizing them into? Well, we're baptizing them into water. But look what he says. Go to verse 19. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in water.

That's not what it says. Now, we do baptize in water because that's the way Jesus did it. What are they being baptized into? Into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For people who say the Trinity doesn't exist in the scripture, it's there right there in that passage. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So, part of the metamorphosis of your transformation means that you are being baptized into a power of the deity.

To three parts of the deity. The Spirit of God, the Son of God, and the Father God. And we are baptized into that. So, let me just talk what it first is. Baptism is a public declaration that you're a follower of Jesus. That's what it is. Now, in the Old Testament, what was their form of baptism? It was circumcision. It was only available to men. And it was a physical change, alteration, to the exterior of the body. An exterior change that represented a symbol of an agreement with God, of a covenant with God.

And that symbol was like a handshake after a deal. Well, in the New Testament, God is moved from the exterior. The law was all about exterior, right? Doing all these things. And sometimes you can do things without actually obeying in your heart. In the New Testament, God is moving us from a laser focus on the exterior following of the law. Although, he still has a lot of obedience we want. That's why obedience is in this passage.

But he's moving it to an interior handshake or circumcision of the heart. So, Romans 2, 29a says, Know a person is a Jew who is one inwardly. Now, this would be a massive, massive, I mean, upheaval in the Jewish church. I mean, in the Jewish Christian church. And it was. They had lots of conversations about this in Galatians and all types. Where Paul was saying, you're not a Jew just because you're circumcised. This is thousands of years of this history.

He says, you're a Jew because your heart's been changed. That's massive. All positive metamorphosis, I believe, happens at the heart level first. You make a decision of the heart. You make a decision of the will. That you want a better, more intimate marriage. That you want better relationships with your children. That you want to share the love of Jesus more. That happens with the changing of your heart. So, he says, no, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly.

And circumcision is circumcision of the heart. By the spirit, not of the written code. So, first we see that there's a declaration. You're saying publicly. You're being baptized. You know, it's the symbol of being cleansed in water. That's the declaration. And that happens publicly. But when that happens, there is an internal agreement. And as you are baptized, there becomes this circumcision of the heart that happens.

So, you're being baptized. Remember, there's five parts to making disciples. And there's five parts to you becoming a, having the metamorphosis in your life. We need to go. We need to make. We need to baptize. We need to teach or learn, if it's us. And we need to obey. And we see that here in this scripture where that is happening. So, the first one is the declaration. The second is this new covenant of your heart. And then finally, in baptism, it's familial access.

You see, the thing that baptism does, and actually, it happens not just through baptism, but through believing that Jesus died on the cross for your sins. So, that's the gospel. When you receive the work of Jesus, you actually enter into God's family. I was at REI speaking to a woman yesterday. I shared Christ with about four or five people this week. I hadn't shared with that many people in a long time. It just kind of, the doors kind of opened up.

And we were having different conversations. And she said, well, I'm a humanist. And I don't like the idea of sin. And I think everything's random. And I just kept asking questions. And everything, you know, everything is random. And I believe that there's a good that is in the world. And I had questions like, well, where does that good come from? And she said, well, it came from evolution. It was evolved. And everybody has dignity.

And I said, where does dignity come from? Is it just because we crowdsource it? And so, we were going, you know, back and forth. And she was actually one of the most well-thought-out, philosophical, humanists, young humanists. She's in her 20s that I'd ever met. I mean, actually knew why she believed what she believed. And how that she, and why she believed it. And the thing I didn't finish with, because she got a phone call and had to bounce, was when you were just living in a random universe, what you don't have and what the gospel offers, and I think we should oftentimes lead with this, is that you step into family.

When you step into following Jesus, it isn't a set of sin, laws, it's actually becoming a familial member of the family of God, where you can actually be loved by a father who wants to know you individually. This is where we lead from, and this is where there is a massive void in much of the universal thinking of the day, whether it's evolution, agnosticism, other religions, you know, there's many other religions. But Christianity and Judaism are the only religions.

She was a Jew, actually. Her grandmother died at Auschwitz, which was interesting. Christianity and Judaism are the only religions that say, God is your father. And so when you are baptized, you are baptized into a covenant, you are baptized into a declaration, but you're also baptized into a family. And when you are in a family, a family will shape who you are. One of the things you know is that your upbringing will shape who you are.

And the more we begin to identify with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the culture of our family changes, and then it becomes your true family of origin. That's what this does. So when you are having metamorphosis in your life, according to this scripture, it is happening because you have made a decision in your mind and will to not leave home, but to stay at home. To stay at home with the Father, with the Son, with the Spirit, so that your entire culture might be changed.

How does that happen? Prayer, worship, actually going and spending time with God. Having your heart remade. Having your attitudes remade as we learn scripture. Finally, we are moving to the final two points, which I think are the most difficult. If you are a fan of the New England Patriots, which I am definitely not, nor are the Dodgers. They lost, didn't they? Yeah, that didn't bother me. It didn't bother me. The Padres are horrible.

It is like when the Raiders lose, even though the Chargers aren't here, I am still happy. So if you are a Padres or a Chargers fan, the only thing that makes you happy, because we never win, is when these other teams lose. So that is like my Super Bowl. That was like my Super Bowl yesterday if the Dodgers lost. So, sorry about that, whoever is a fan. But one of the things you know about the New England Patriots, the Patriots had this culture that, if you hate the Patriots, you hate the Patriots, right?

Like, you just hate the Patriots, but don't you wish they were your team? You know what I mean? Like, the culture of the Patriots. You could send any misfit to the Patriots. And Bill Belichick, okay, and Tom Brady would fix them. They sent Randy Moss, years and years, an incredible talent, okay, but couldn't get along with anybody. Always running the route he wanted to run. Upset when he didn't get the ball. They sent Randy Moss, and they sent all these different players there.

And the system remakes the player, and the player actually learns how to obey the route. They learn how to obey the rules of the team. And they had this incredible ability to reshape, renew, and remake players. You know, would you rather have obedience or talent? You know, I tell you, if you watch sports, there's a lot of talented players that ruin teams. Would you rather have obedience or talent? I tell you what, when I'm looking to create a staff here, I'm talking obedience to Jesus, not obedience to me.

I want to see people who are willing to be obedient to Jesus. I will tell you this, that in your process of being transformed to be like Jesus, you will never increase with ever-increasing glory, like we saw in 2 Corinthians 3.18, to become the transformed disciple without obedience. It is impossible not only to become that person, it is impossible to actually encounter God on a regular basis. You might have encounters.

Samson had encounters. He was disobedient. God can do what he wants. But if you want to have regular encounters with God, to know who God is, to have God show up, to experience him in different ways, and not only experience, to encounter. We have worship experiences all over the place, but do we have people that are actually encountering? The way to encounter is the final thing Jesus said. Teaching them to what? To know a lot about him?

To obey. Teaching them to obey. Jesus is looking for obedient followers. He doesn't need talent. Jesus doesn't. I think he's talented enough. I think the Godhead is fine without me. Although sometimes I think differently. They don't need me. God is not looking for your talent. He's looking for the circumcised heart, the baptized heart. He wants you to step in to the flow of God's currents in the world through obedience that you might know and encounter God.

There's this incredible scene. And before I actually say that, I want to say, I wrote in, I think it's in the notes. Disciples are hewn through training and proven in obedience. Disciples are hewn through training and proven in obedience. Leave that slide up if you would. The first thing is this. We need to be a church. We need to be people who actually train up children, like it says in Proverbs 22.6, to train up children in the way that they should go so that they might know what is right, what is true, and have understanding.

We, it says, disciples are hewn through training and proven in obedience. We need to train. But we need to train to be obedient. Obedient to what the God says even if you don't like it or don't agree with it. There's a lot of things in the Bible I believe and follow that I don't agree with. Ooh, what does that mean? It means I wouldn't do it the way God does it. I would allow for more of this and less of that and more of this.

But even though I don't like it and I don't want to like it, I still follow it because I know it's right. Because God did not ask me to be obedient to the things I like. The parsing and the picking and choosing of the scriptures I like, but we'll just leave that one out. No. When he said have purity before I was married, before we were married, he meant that. My wife believed he meant that. I believe he meant that. It was difficult, but we did it even though I disagreed and thought, why?

Over and over again through these different situations. Are we teaching people to obey? One of the things with the men that are at this church, we want to teach men in this church to obey. We want them to obey the word of God and to walk and be made and have their character transformed by it. There's an incredible scene. And you have a picture from Good Will Hunting, if you can see this. One of my favorite movies. It's a transformational movie with me.

And in the movie, Will Hunting, Matt Damon there on the right, was this incredibly brilliant mathematician. But he was raised in an abusive foster home and he had a big chip on his shoulder and he was totally just recessed in his emotions and he couldn't connect with anybody. And so because of court, the court, because he got in a violent fight, made him go to see all these different psychiatrists and people. And he ends up with Sean, which is Robin Williams' character named Sean.

And Matt Damon's character says something to Sean one day that just destroys his life. Sean had come through this death of his wife and it actually just takes Sean in like a week of just depression and whatever. And he comes back to Matt Damon and he says to Matt Damon, he says, hey, look, here's this opportunity. It's this incredible moment on a park bench. And he begins to say, you know what? You're incredibly smart.

There's no doubting that. He says, but you've never left Boston, have you? He says, no, I've never left Boston. He says, if I ask you about Michelangelo, you would be able to tell me about his art, the color, the pigments that he used, his sexual habits. You'd be able to tell me everything, but you have never stood in the Sistine Chapel, looked up at the magnificence of it, and you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel.

He said, you might have had relations with a few women here and there, but you don't know what it's like to wake up with a woman next to you and be incredibly and truly content in happy. He says, you could read about war. You could read about Shakespeare and war. But he says, you've never, because Sean had been in Vietnam, have never held your dying friend as he made his last breath. Because just because, you know, you've read Shakespeare, just because you've read these things doesn't mean that you have encountered or understand those.

And he says, you know, you're an orphan. He said, just because I've read Oliver Twist, does that mean that I know all of your nuance, Will? He said, no. He said, I've never encountered what you've encountered, but I want to experience it. I want to say that if you want to encounter God, it happens through obedience. If you want to encounter God, if you want to be transformed, it means in your relationship, if you want your relationship with your family and your wife or your husband transformed, your tongue needs to become obedient to Scripture.

It needs to become obedient to what love truly is. You need your actions, everything in your body, everything in your heart to become obedient. It says we take every thought captive and we make it obedient to Christ. I do have a Shakespeare quote I want to end with. Shakespeare says this, there is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune. Let me guarantee you, you are being transformed.

You are either being transformed by passivity or you are being transformed by an action of your will. Today is an open window. Today is another opportunity where you can stand before God and say, a line in the sand, enough is enough. I will no longer set my eyes upon things that are unholy and unclean. I will no longer speak anything that is unholy or unclean. I will no longer go to this place. I will no longer drink this substance.

I will no longer take this substance. I will no longer, whatever the thing is there, now is an opportunity and you are being transformed and you can step into the power of God and have the power of transformation or we can allow the passivity of the moment to continue to transform us into something we were never meant to be. Let's stand. We have a next steps table and we have prayer here at the front after the service.

We want to encourage you to go to the next steps table and somebody will be there. The next steps means getting you involved. If you're a man and you need help, showing up on Tuesday night, go to the next steps table, sign up for something, get involved, go to a group, go to Bucky's class, come for prayer. Now is the moment of decision. Now is the moment of opportunity. I'm going to pray. And if you would like to receive a blessing today, if you want to extend your hands.

Lord Jesus, I want to thank you, God, for the metamorphosis that is your will, your desire, your love, and your grace. Lord, would you step into this church as we go and we make and we teach and we baptize and we obey and let each of us see this window as the tide now. Even in this moment, the tide is flooding in. And God, let us step into those waters, God, and go into the deepest of the deep waters, God. And where we need to walk on water, let us walk on water.

I pray for wisdom. I pray for knowledge. And I pray for understanding how to do what they need to do, God. And a circumcision of the heart, a rebaptism, forgiveness for those that need to forgive, grace for those that need to give grace, healing for those that need healing, Lord Jesus. And in this moment, God, that they would take a proactive step of the will today to get connected, to get involved, to make a difference, to reach out to someone somewhere.

We bless you now. We send you out in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. We love you. Have a great week. Have a great week.