1. We need to be transformed.
Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth. Unless you are born again, you cannot be in God’s kingdom.” —John 3:3
Being made “right with God” isn’t about small adjustments, it’s a new birth, a total transformation.
We need this transformation because of the effect of our sin.
1 Happy is the person
whose sins are forgiven,
whose wrongs are pardoned.
2 Happy is the person
whom the Lord does not consider guilty.
In that person there is nothing false.
3 When I kept things to myself,
I felt weak deep inside me.
I moaned all day long.
4 Day and night
you punished me.
My strength was gone
as in the summer heat. —Psalm 32:1-4 ICB
The Sin Cycle:
We need a way out of this and it won’t be through our own effort.
2. Tranformation happens by faith and not works.
4 When a person works, his pay is not given to him as a gift. He earns the pay he gets. 5 But a person cannot do any work that will make him right with God. So he must trust in God. Then God accepts his faith, and that makes him right with God. God is the One who can make even those who are evil right in his sight. —Romans 4:4-5
Paul says that faith is the key ingredient, both in our salvation and in our transformation - but there are many common misconceptions about that faith is how to appropriate it to your life.
Misconception 1: Faith is not the opposite of understanding.
Misconception 2: Faith is not something that just happens in your mind.
3. Abraham can teach us how to “faith-dive”
16 So people receive God’s promise by having faith. This happens so that the promise can be a free gift. And if the promise is a free gift, then all of Abraham’s children can have that promise. The promise is not only for those people that live under the law of Moses. It is for anyone who lives with faith like Abraham. He is the father of us all. —Romans 4:16
The Faith-Diving Process:
1. God says something is true.
2. Circumstances say it is not.
3. We choose to believe or not believe.
4. If we believe, we “jump”.
Abraham “faith-dives” in three different stories mentioned in Hebrews 11:
1. God called Abraham out of Ur to an unknown land. Abraham believed God and moved his family into the desert trusting that God would keep his promise of provision.
2. God told Abraham he would have a child though he and Sarah were already old. Abraham believed that God would keep his promise of restoration.
3. God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Because God had already told Abraham that his promised line would be through Isaac, Abraham obeyed because he believed that God would keep his promise of resurrection.
Faith is choosing to keep believing what you know to be true, when fear and circumstance tell you it’s not.
4. How we faith-dive.
We are saved through a faith-dive.
21 Abraham felt sure that God was able to do the thing that God promised. 22 So, “God accepted Abraham’s faith, and that made him right with God.” 23 Those words (“God accepted Abraham’s faith”) were written not only for Abraham. 24 They were written also for us. God will accept us also because we believe. We believe in the One who raised Jesus our Lord from death. 25 Jesus was given to die for our sins. And he was raised from death to make us right with God. —Romans 4:21-24
We believe in Jesus to:
1. Take away our sin.
2. Make us right with God.
3. Raise us from the dead.
Belief in God’s forgiveness through Christ interrupts the sin cycle. We begin to move toward God instead of hiding when we sin.
We are transformed by continuous faith-dives.
2 Tell me this one thing: How did you receive the Holy Spirit? Did you receive the Spirit by following the law? No! You received the Spirit because you heard the Good News and believed it. 3 You began your life in Christ by the Spirit. Now do you try to continue it by your own power? That is foolish. —Galatians 3:2-3
Every opportunity for obedience to God is an opportunity to faith-dive.
What is God telling me here? What would I do if I believed it?
Pastor’s Challenge:
- What is God inviting you to believe today?
- How would you “jump” if you believed?