Transform

Once upon a time, there was a young girl. Every week in a room much like this one she would come to youth. She would pray in a little box. She would worship in a little box. She would listen to the sermon in her little box. She would sit in her little box during small group time. Never stretching out Never stepping on anyones toes. Comfortable wtih where she was.
And then one day....something happened.
Transformation. Change. The act of changing. Something we do in our every day lives. Everyday we make changes, see I'm going on the notion that hopefully atleast all of you change your underwear, right?
We make small changes like the foods we eat, the clothes we wear. And we make bigger changes like where we go to school, the friends we have, the places we live. But often we dont make the same changes or any changes in our spiritual lives. We get so comfortable with where we are that we make no changes and much like the girl in the story we just sit in our box.
But i have NEWS for you. Now your going to have to listen closely, because this will not be easy to hear. Faith is not about being comfortable. Our faith is about constant change and not sitting in our box. If we are consistent about our belief in Jesus Christ, then we are consistantly changing.
When we are washed in the baptismal waters, We are changed, TRANSFORMED. When we accept Jeus and surrendor our lives to him. We are Changed, TRANSFORMED. But once we get comfortable with our faith, why is it that we cease to continue changing.
This is your wake up call to be TRANSFORMED and to MOVE!
Our faith calls us everyday to live bettter and we must model our lives after Jesus. But you cannot commit to this by staying in a box. Jesus ate with taxcollectors and aldulterers. Murderers. Sinners. This is not Comfort. Jesus was crucified under the weight of all the sins of all of humanity THIS IS NOT COMFORTABLE! Martyrs have been slaigned because of their faith. Still today people are persecuted because they are praticing christians in a country where it is illegal THIS IS NOT COMFORTABLE. The girl from Columbine who said YES I BELIEVE when she had a gun to her head. THAT WAS NOT COMFORTABLE.
These people allowed Jesus to transform their lives and this allowed them to step out of thier box. Out of their comfort zone. Out of their own lives and into a life of Christ.
This is not comfortable.
We can start small.
We must transform our speech. Transform our speech to reflect truth. We do this by gaining knowledge and wisdom in both prayer and by throwing our selves into the word of God.
We transform our faith. Transform our faith by continually walking in Jesus footsteps. By stepping out of our comfort zone. By knowing what we beleive and preaching that both with our words and our actions.
We transform our purity. We strive everyday in our appearance to appear modest. To dress modestly. Have an attitude reflective of truth. To speak slowly and think quickly.
We transform our love by not only loving those with which it is easy but loving those with which it is hard. Those people who are different. Unfed, unclothed, unloved. These are the people Jesus calls us to love. The least of us. Our love should not be judgmental but extravagant. Never catious but constantly moving at breakneck speeds.
We transform our lives by MOVING in all these things. We use the transformations and spread them to others. We ACT in faith rather than have faith passively move through us.
We are like butterflies. After, we are transformed we do not sit by our box but we FLY away spreading the good news flower to flower. Pollinating the earth with the Good news of Jesus Christ.
So that young girl who sat in that box. She is me. She is you. and you and you.
But when we are transformed, our story has a happy ending.
and we live HAPPILY EVER ALTERED.