Experience Transformation // Dianne Leman

[Music] [Music] well good morning everyone it is so good to be together and it's a good time in the life of our church because we are diving into our mission you know why are we here what are we all about and you know we're looking at the past and the present and where god wants to take us in the future and we're saying this is vineyard and we've landed on a simple summary which i think captures our mission so beautifully and it is this we are a people who encounter love experience transformation extend the miraculous and ex encounter love last week that's what leah did so beautifully as she explained the love of the father that he's all for us he embraces us today i'm going to look at experience transformation you know which starts with you know trusting jesus and all that he has done for us and his marvelous redeeming work on the cross and then next week mike will address extend the miraculous that we actually believe all of us can be empowered by the holy spirit to do the same and greater works as jesus so this is vineyard but for today i will focus now on experience transformation and i think this is a topic that's of interest to all of us you know we're born with a desire to be changed to be transformed and we often go about it in the wrong way we take things into our own hands sometimes to our detriment illustration way back when i was just a gangly skinny pimply 13 year old can i just say it can be tough to be a teenager it can i was desperate for curves well i'm reading in a teen magazine i stumble on an advertisement for a very simple machine that promised overnight transformation so i'm like yes it costs some money so i decided to save my babysitting money which at the time i got paid 50 cents an hour hey there's some inflation has taken place so saved up wrote the letter but unfortunately my dad found the letter before i sent it and that letter was never sent and the curves never came transformation was aborted okay but all of us because we're human we have a god-given desire to be transformed and i want you to know that's actually a god-fulfilled desire to that's best because when we take into our own hands we inevitably run into all kinds of hiccups for sure now you know i just lost my place there sorry this is the kernel that i want to leave you with today transformation god's way so transformation starts with truth and then obviously we have to embrace that truth act on that truth but transformation starts with truth many of you are familiar with the scripture that says you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free right so you already know that okay so this is the truth that i'm going to invite you to right now today and that is this every one of us me you included need to attend a funeral we need to attend a funeral right here and right now in order to experience the transformation that god has for us we need to attend a funeral let's pray father what you have done in rescuing and redeeming and transforming us is so miraculous and so marvelous we we can't comprehend it on our own we need you holy spirit come teach us today open the scriptures to us today just focus in your love focus in your truth continue to to transform us so that we truly reflect you wherever we go whatever we do in jesus name amen amen whose funeral is this well this funeral is your funeral and this funeral is my funeral the very mysterious i'll be the first to know tell you at times some confusing but nevertheless marvelous truth of the scripture is if you are in a relationship with jesus if you are a disciple of jesus you have died and the sooner you acknowledge that death attend that funeral if you will the sooner true transformation starts okay let me let me go to the scripture because that some of you are looking at me like okay yeah all right for the this is now second corinthians 5. now this is written by the apostle paul in in my opinion second corinthians 5 is probably the most revelatory passage in the entire new testament okay and we're going to be here today with some texts but we'll we'll hop around also but listen to this again all who are disciples of jesus christ the sooner we can acknowledge we have died you know the old sinful selfish you me have died the sooner transformation starts okay this is what he has to say for the love this does release love in your heart of christ controls us because we have concluded this that one has died for all therefore all have died and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised okay now that can again be kind of heady but simply what does it say one died that one is jesus most of us know that one died but then so did we all died you died i died and embracing this truth is so important if we want to experience the transformation we have to agree to the death of the old sinful me okay why because god has something so marvelous planned it goes on in second corinthians 5 17 to say this therefore if anyone is in christ included in christ in that relationship with christ he is a new creation the old has passed away behold the new has come so we don't stay in that grave right sometimes we sing here run out of that grave right no we rise up alive in christ to live as a brand new creation i love how this text says the old has passed away confession i love to read the obituaries now i know that might sound kind of morbid but actually it's a really good discipline it causes you to like think about life and and and what what was important to people did they have faith did they have family anyway that's not the point of this message uh it's not all about funerals by the way so i love to read the obituaries because they almost all start with you know sis sally sue on october 13th 2021 passed away that means she died right passed away not just when we use the word passed away it's not just like well kind of fades out into the to the oblivion no no no passed away means died and so when paul says the old has passed away he's saying the old you the old sinful selfish anxious immoral you fill in the blank the old you has died and behold the new has come a brand new creation we are actually that masterpiece julie talked about this the first week another pauline scripture from ephesians 2 10 he said for we are god's masterpiece he has what created us anew in christ jesus so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago we are no longer condemned guilty shame-filled hateful anxious immoral selfish sinners i like to say it this way we now are saints now sinners no more saints is just a biblical word for a holy righteous clean person saints now sinners no more no that old identity has died but we have a problem most of us are still stuck in the old identity of sinner whether it's by experience or because we've never heard the truth of what jesus work actually did in our lives no we still act like a sinner we make stupid choices we make wrong choices we're still maybe consumed with anxiety or hate or fear or any number of things or we let culture define you know it's all about me who am i what is my destiny very self-centered so much of christianity is very focused on the self and very focused on sin actually many christians try to manage their sin right they exert willpower i've done that instead of spirit power try to fix up the old sinful me try to clean up or like kill off the old me and so much of it doesn't work it's very sin focused very self-focused doesn't work i often say it this way it's like okay i'm trying to fix the old me it's like putting makeup on a corpse yeah like introspecting trying to to to make myself look better or i'm still just dragging that old me around being burdened and weighed down by the sins i'm telling you you drag your corpse around that's going to stink okay you don't want to do that right no see if we don't know the truth of our brand new identity that we're this new creation that the old me has died i have risen again to live you know what we're going to continue in a very you know frustrating and often sinful lifestyle and so this is why the truth starts here transformation starts with this truth the old you the old me has died in christ and we have risen again folks this is no just little measly cleanup this is a crucifixion and that's not fiction the apostle paul also said i've been crucified with christ i no longer live but christ lives in me in the life i now live i live by the faith of the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me wow i mean this is an astounding truth it really is but if you don't know that if you don't start with that again we're left to our own efforts often you know let me tell you a story of how important identity this identity is to then how we behave how we live um i'm from peoria illinois and during the summer uh when i was in college i worked for a summer program for children who were in difficult situations uh some of them had special needs others you know their house their home situation wasn't great because i was getting my degree in special education and so one day two boys were brought in two twins timmy and tommy and when they were brought in and put down they couldn't stand and they were like five years old so they they weren't infants but they they crawled like this like oh and then when we addressed them and we were chatting with them they instead of like again talking like a five-year-old they said woof we're like what what has gone on i mean these weren't stupid kids we later found out they actually were quite smart we would put food in front of them and they wouldn't eat it but if we put it down in a bowl they would lick up the the milk or eat the graham cracker we're like what well what we found out i mean this was like my first experience ever for with feeling the compassion of jesus and i wasn't even a believer at the time but what i we found out is they had been kept in a cage at their home and were treated like dogs so their whole identity was i'm a dog and that's how they acted that's how they communicated well thankfully you know children home services rescued them out of that home brought them to our summer program and we watched them it didn't actually take that long for them to blossom you know surrounded by love and being spoken the truth of who they were as healthy uh little five-year-old boys now when we continue in an old identity as sinner that's basically how we will end up acting okay maybe because we don't know better but the truth is we're not half saint half sinner half holy half hellish no no no we are saints now sinners no more and transformation starts with that truth it's an amazing truth again hard for many of us to believe because like why still sin yeah well so do i thankfully we have a savior who really is all about delivering us and setting us free and conforming and transforming us into people of righteousness peace and joy in the holy spirit okay and it's best if we do this together we need one another holding one another you know accountable and and encouraging one another in this brand new identity as righteous holy clean saints in the eyes of god but it takes time so i don't want you to think it's an overnight transformation because that's not the experience of most of us right we we have some transformation but it's a it's a relationship with god and so relationships you know they they're built on trust and communication and leaning uh on one another and so this transformation takes time takes time so i want to share with you several stories and the first one is a story about our church that happened about 10 years ago and i particularly like this because it shows you time it takes time for truth to take root right and for transformation to begin to happen more fully and then secondly i want to go to the scripture because i can tell you all the stories in the world but if it's not rooted in scripture i don't want you to take it as truth okay so it's rooted in scripture so i'll share a scripture and then lastly we'll finish with the story of a young woman who's part of this church and she'll share her story of experiencing transformation okay so here we go this is a story that happened in our church family and i you need to know we've always as a church believed in the power of transformation i mean you know we were we've always emphasized the holy spirit him filling us and bringing transformation bringing healing you know and so it's not like this was a new truth but many of us were frustrated and way too sin focused so a lot of our prayers were like oh what do i need to clean up what do i need to fix or oh okay god i'm going to do better next time or you know we tried to manage sin and again our intentions were lord we want to be transformed we want to look like the disciples that you say we're to be again filled with fruit and joy and peace okay so we were frustrated but thankful for all that god has done then one faithful freezing day in january 2012 everything changed you know i love this is an aside you don't know at any moment god unleashes something in your life it's often when you're not expecting it just be alert and you can trust him okay that's just an aside okay so i have to back up a couple weeks into into december my husband happy had received not one not two but six phone calls from a man named todd white now we didn't know this guy at all but our son one of our sons had connected with him and exchanged numbers and now this guy is calling us and he said hey god has a message for your church and i'm being sent to deliver it and i'm like red flag all over it like no there's no way like we just don't have people you know come up here and and somebody we don't know i mean that's a shepherd's heart okay we've been commanded to keep you safe from the wolves and all okay so no no but he kept calling so then i said to hap okay look i'm gonna google this dude okay because nowadays you can find stuff out about people oh my goodness there he was he looked like some wild john the baptist guy i'm like there is no way hap he wouldn't quit we we did we actually of course prayed about it and finally happens i just think we should have him okay okay i'll compromise but it's going to be the first week in january it's going to be below zero no students will be here and half our church will be gone because they're on christmas break okay we're good one and done we're good okay so fine we tell him he arrives interestingly he wanted to stay in our home i'm like okay this is good i can keep an eye on him yeah this is good so he the first night we just met with some of the leaders and you know it it was okay i mean he did this weird thing i'd never seen it's going to totally date me but he did this thing called b-bopping or something like with a microphone or i don't know you guys all know what it is right oh okay this is cool okay but it's okay like you know i have you know a big family i i get it okay so um and then he just starts telling stories and he's like very he's funny and he is engaging and then he says but you know i have been sent here to drop a bomb now i was sitting right there in the front row and i'm like i know what bombs do they destroy right sounds like oh god oh god i started praying in the spirit you know praying in tongues okay because that's praying in harmony with the will of god okay well i didn't know what god's will was which he then said as i'm like lamenting this he goes i have been sent here to unleash a revival and i'm not amenning i'm like no i don't want revival no i know that sounds blasphemous coming from a pastor i didn't want revival i've lived through five revivals and i want you to know as good as they are they're messy people lay on the floor they call you at all hours of the night demons are flying all over the place like i actually though this is like this is the way it was i didn't want that and i'm sorry but okay but how many of you know just because you don't want it that god can't get his way it's so good right okay but this is the next statement he says i'm going to unleash a revival a revival of righteousness and it begins and every one of you there he was pointing and i felt the sword of the spirit pierce my heart i knew it was 100 truth and i had absolutely no idea what he was talking about now that's kind of embarrassing i've been preaching the gospel for a long time did i know that righteousness was a biblical word and concept oh absolutely i knew that but i had no idea what the holy spirit was doing in unleashing a revival of righteousness he was taking that foundational scripture of our church matthew 6 33 seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all will be added to you right i'm like okay god and we committed we we committed hours to prayer and study and seeking god out of this whole journey was birthed the school of kingdom ministry because the focus was all on oh my goodness the righteousness of god what what i know it's more than just being restored into right relationship with the father it had to do with we are actually righteous in our being the old sinful nature is dead i have been born anew right into a new righteousness that i didn't have before saint now sinner no more i'm telling you we've only scratched the surface and it's been 10 years but it starts transformation starts with this truth right i went right back to that second corinthians 5 which is such a revelatory chapter and it ends with this verse for our sake he made him so that's god made jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become say it with me the righteousness of god wow i don't have to be sin focused anymore i can be savior focused i don't have to be self-focused i can be son of god focused why because he took all my sin he bore it on the cross and he now gives me his righteousness that old me died and now i rise up to live as a brand new righteous creation don't hear me say oh you'll never sin again oh you'll have plenty of opportunities because it's a relationship of trust independence and growth okay you have to wait till heaven to never sin again okay but i want to say to you why do you want to that's despising the cross of jesus christ that's despising the shed blood of jesus to say oh well oh well i am crucified with christ i no longer live the life i now live i live by the faith of the son of god christ lives in me well this has been an incredible incredible journey for us as a church but like i said i want to anchor it in the scripture i want not just the epistles but you know what i like to look back at the early church i like to look at the book of acts because they've been given the same mission as us right to encounter love experience transformation extend the miraculous and we actually get to see how did they live it out like in everyday life what what does it look like okay this amazing gospel so i'm gonna take you to a story of a guy named philip and i love philip because he's just an ordinary guy he's like like you and he's like me very very ordinary and we first meet him in the book of acts when he is chosen to be a busboy that's right did you know the kingdom's upside down yeah he gets chosen to wait on tables and you know what the qualifying characteristics were it says he was a man of faith wisdom honor and full of the holy spirit faithfully serve folks sometimes that's where some of us need to start just faithfully serve and that's what he did in jerusalem until persecution breaks out then he's like oh no uh they all fled to samaria and he gets to samaria and he's no longer waiting on tables actually now he's proclaiming this good news about jesus death and resurrection our inclusion in it that you can become a brand new creation the kingdom of god has come and you know what happened demons start flying lame and paralyzed people get healed and it said there was so much joy in that city and then peter and john show up and they're like okay this is great but have you guys have you received baptism in the holy spirit they're like we didn't even know anything about the holy spirit i mean philip did but he hadn't prayed for them so they pray everybody gets baptized in the holy spirit and more miracles break out it's just tremendous tremendous revival for true revival well you think this is great except an angel shows up to philip and says hey i have an assignment for you i want you to go to this desert road near gaza i have an assignment go there it's like what i mean don't you see all the good stuff happening here i mean oh that must be the devil or an angel you know of darkness no that was god and i love this about philip he obeys so he goes and he's it's no small trek by the way i mean don't think like you know hop in your car or you know anything like that it's a 60 mile like trek to the desert and he gets there and he sees he sees a chariot and in the chariot is a black man and this black man is like reading a scroll it's like what what's going on and the holy spirit says i want you to go up to him this is what i think is so transformational philip is a middle eastern jew okay you you don't cross ethnic lines okay he has no problem going up to a black man sitting in a chariot reading a scroll and what he finds out is this is a eunuch from ethiopia a very prominent man in the court of the queen actually he's in charge of the entire royal treasury and there he is reading a jewish text he's reading from the prophet isaiah so he obviously had been in jerusalem worshiping somehow he'd gotten a scroll but he's reading this and it he has a confused look on his face and so philip goes up to him and says uh hey do you understand what you're reading and the guy goes i mean how can i unless somebody explains it to me i mean that's how i feel about the prophet isaiah you know actually how i feel about a lot of the bible we need help and philip was right there ready to explain but this is what i love i absolutely love this part you know what text he was reading none other than isaiah 53. stay with me here then philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news about jesus jesus name isn't mentioned in this text it takes a revelation to understand this text you see isaiah 53 says but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed oh we like sheep have gone astray we've turned everyone to his own way and the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all jesus was oppressed and afflicted he opened not his mouth he was like a lamb led to slaughter but out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge shall the righteous one that's jesus my servant make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities now that's a mouthful but this is what you need to know that's the incredibly great exchange right where jesus took all of our sins and not just our sin our sin nature on to the cross he bore it for us the righteous one for the sinful one that we might have his righteousness transformation starts with that truth well as they were going along the road they came to some water in the eunuch said see here is water what prevents me from being baptized and he commanded the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water philip and the eunuch and he baptized him now why is this important you know a lot of times people say to me well why should i be baptized is i i mean is it that important i don't know i like i don't actually want to get wet or yeah i mean isn't it just about like cleansing your sins i'm like wrong on all counts no first of all jesus commanded baptism but baptism is so incredibly important why because it is an outward witness an outward demonstration of the incredible inward truth that what i've died so i'm going to go under the watery grave i'm going to be buried i've been buried with christ crucified with christ and then i'm going to rise up alive in christ a brand new creation and i'm testifying to anyone and everyone that is what has happened to me wow october 31st you can have the opportunity to be water baptized here to testify to friends and family again whoever that the old you has died you've attended that funeral once and for all and you have been buried with christ risen with christ now filled with the holy spirit to extend the miraculous wherever you go you know lastly i just want to emphasize the importance that we do this together we're on this journey together we celebrate together we worship together we meet together and that's where i want to go with the story today of destiny now i met with several people from kent and angela copenbarger's small group and for those of you who don't know i think they're in this service right there yes they lead our college ministry yes they they lead our college ministry they've also led small groups i mean they're all about gathering people together so people can experience transformation okay and i got to hear the stories of like five or six different people being transformed through the small group often and the power of the holy spirit it was so good but i could only choose one to share with you today so listen now to destiny's story hi my name is destiny and i'm here to share a little bit about my story so i'm from chicago i was raised on the south side um i actually came to christ when i was 12. and i didn't come to god for me i came to god for my mom she was an alcoholic i was just asking god like hey can you come in and save my mom please help her my transformation my story with vineyard really starts after my mom's death that just hit for me on a different level my mom was my home she was everything everything to me um and when she died i wanted to die too but god was telling me that there was more right and that people needed what he had put in me as far as it goes with vineyard i didn't really like vineyard at first i came from a predominantly black and like minority community back at the yards in chicago so coming to champaign and coming to the university of illinois was really a culture shock to me i didn't really feel like i belonged because of my blackness chade actually had invited me to vineyard and y'all were doing a sermon about baptism i went up there i was crying and i got baptized here at vineyard it was a terrific day i still had a very cold heart i was still very like standoffish i didn't really mingle like i mingled with people but it was only people that i saw myself in it really wasn't people that came from like a different culture or honestly was from champaign or happened to be white i started going to angie and ken's small group because once again i was being bugged by my friends about it and they came home just telling me all these stories about like how god was moving and people getting delivered so i went one day and i remember the first day coming in and just smelled like apples like it really just smelled like apple pie and i remember feeling like i was walking into a thanksgiving you know like a family that was the marker for me in that night i think that specifically in canon angie's small group it was a variety of people from different cultures and different ages and you know we were these young black kids trying to see where jesus was so it was it was hard for me at first to adjust to it even in that first session in that first meeting i really didn't warm up to it but it was coming back again and again i got i got warmed up i realized that i was transformed and i felt like i was at home i knew that i had a place here i am not alone here at the vineyard church yes she's not here today she's in chicago so we say hi thank you destiny for just sharing she illustrated the sermon so well you know dragged by friends resistant and yet yielded to the water baptism and then the whole experience of the small group just doing life with people not like her but transformation is ongoing and that's the invitation for all of us right to encounter the love of the father experience transformation by the redeeming work of jesus extend the miraculous this is vineyard and we want all of you to be a part so we're going to transition now because we're going to sing about this amazing king jesus today and just allow yourself to just allow the holy spirit to bring more transformation as you acknowledge the truth that we'll sing today amen

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Length: 38min 18sec (2298 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021