02.14.2016 2 Cor. 3 - How to be Transformed in Christ

2-14-2016 from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

Lord, thank you that You are with us and we can be with You. You made a way we can enter Your presence – to come before You with boldness and confidence because of what Jesus did on the cross. There is no barrier there anymore – we may feel like there is, but the path is clear. Help us to trust and believe that You have cleared the path for us – to believe that we can receive mercy and truth in our time of need. Speak to us – help us to know what You are saying – that we may respond to those things that are on Your heart for us. Your heart longs to commune with us this morning – in Your name we pray.

2 Corinthians 3: 12 Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, 13 and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. 14 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil [e]remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.
15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; 16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
There is a contrast between The Law and the Spirit. Someone counted the Laws – and there are 613. Hopefully they got that right.
To understand this veil thing – we must go back to Exodus 34 – and I’ll give a brief theological explanations – if you like that – you’ll love this – but if not, then bear with me for 6 ½ minutes.
Exodus 34: 29 It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. 30 So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. 32 Afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the Lord had spoken [y]to him on Mount Sinai. 33 When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, 35 the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him.
What does this have to do with anything? Here is what is going on: When Moses entered the presence of God – he was up there for 40 days the first time – and they got impatient down below – and Aaron and some of the other leaders took the gold – and threw it into the fire – and out came a cow – and they said – this is the image of your God.
Then Moses came down and his face was shining – he began to reflect God’s glory and His character.
When he left God’s presence – leaving the tent of meeting – he would deliver God’s message to the people – and the glow would go – and Moses would throw this veil over his face again – So Moses’ face was shining after leaving the presence of God.
The veil represents Israel’s limited access to God – only Moses could enter God’s presence at that time – and Israel could not see it – they had no access to that – they could not go near the tent or they would be killed. The second thing the veil does – it is in reference to them making the calf – and their hardness of heart. They saw the glory of God – the thunder and lightning and noise – but it did nothing inside of them – they were not transformed by it.
When we hear and know the truth from God and do nothing about it – our hearts are hardened. When God speaks to us – and we don’t allow His word to have His way in us, we become hard to what God is saying. Jesus talked about this. When He was ministering in His day – He told parables – so seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear – but it was against them – speaking judgment against the listeners who would not understand.
When Moses put the veil on – it was as if saying – you don’t get it. The ministry of the Law is one of judgment and condemnation. We have a new way of living. We don’t have to live
15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart;
The veil was a sign of judgment and condemnation to them.
16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
For us – in the ministry of the spirit and the gospel – the veil is GONE! That which holds us under judgment and condemnation is gone in Jesus Christ. We don’t need to live a life of guilt and shame. And he is saying this to the Corinthians, who had every reason to feel judged, condemned, guilty and shamed – and the same is true for us – it has been taken away – we are no longer blinded or hard-hearted – we don’t need Moses to mediate.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
There is liberty! Freedom! But they go back to Moses – the Exodus –the story of freedom from Egypt – the story of the Jews today – that is THE story of their existence - it is what they go back to – they tell the story over and over again. Their identity is wrapped up fully in the story of the Exodus.
Even though they were physically freed as slaves, the people of Israel still weren’t free. And we, because of Christ, even if we were slaves, would be completely free. There is a freedom in Christ that is way beyond and freedom that happened when Israel left Egypt.
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
So for us, we are permanently unveiled. For Moses, every now and then God would show up in the Tent of Meeting – and then it would be over. For us – our faces are continually unveiled – we can look in His face and be transformed into His glory. It does not come for a short time and fade away; we have this ongoing, never-ending ability to be transformed into the image of Christ.
He is telling this to the Corinthians. We all – not just me – but all of us – The Corinthians and Timothy and all the others with us – we are being transformed into the image of Jesus even when it doesn’t feel that way – even when it doesn’t appear to be true – and it tells me that others are being transformed into the image of Jesus – even when we think they are going backwards!
And there are times we are being transformed and we don’t like it – sometimes it is unplanned, unpleasant, unwelcomed, and difficult! But that is the good news! He transforms us when we want to be untransformed! It is almost like we don’t have a choice. Eventually we won’t. The things we hold onto dearly will be obliterated and gone – because when He appears, we shall be like Him.
How does He do this? He uses trials – proven character – hope.
We all go through difficulties – and some more than others – and everyone will go through difficulty eventually. We all suffer because we live in this world – we will suffer the same stuff. For every human. But there is one difference – we, as Christians, have God working inside of us through the trial to transform us. So we can be assured that God is in us – and sometimes it feels like we go through the trials more because of it – but we can be assured that God is working in us to transform us.
He also transforms us through our weaknesses. In business and education and sports – there is the phrase, operate out of your strengths – but when it comes to transformation – we are to operate out of what we lack – His power is perfected in weakness, deficiency, and inadequacy. This is not a human thing, but we learn to cooperate through the work God is doing and He tends to do it out of our deficiencies.
How does this happen? How do we cooperate with what God is trying to do in our lives?
First – we need to change our story.
We live our lives – and they are shaped by narratives –

James Bryan Smith wrote:
“When we have a significant experience—one that shapes us—we
turn it into a story. For example, a powerful experience from childhood
may have been a special birthday party where you got the gift
you had been hoping for. You do not remember the event in exact
detail. You remember it as a narrative—who was there, what was
said, how you felt, what the cake looked like.
Narrative is “the central function . . . of the human mind.” We turn
everything into a story in order to make sense of life. We “dream in
narrative, day-dream in narrative, remember, anticipate, hope, despair,
believe, doubt, plan, revise, criticize, construct, gossip, learn, hate and
love by narrative.” In fact, we cannot avoid it. We are storied creatures.
Our stories help us navigate our world, to understand right and wrong,
and to provide meaning (So the moral of the story is . . .).”

Frederick the Great – deemed potatoes to be important for everyone to eat – he made a law trying to force people to grow potatoes – but they refused, because they didn’t LIKE potatoes! So Frederick called potatoes a royal food – only to be grown at the palace – so he instructed the soldiers - guard the garden – but don’t guard it too well ;). In Prussia at the time – if something was worth guarding – it was worth stealing. He changed the narrative!

We don’t live under the narrative of the tablets of stone – but under the story of Jesus and His resurrection. But what happens to us – we don’t live under the story of the Exodus, but we live under stories that we have created – abuse, abandonment, addiction – and those stories mold and define us and give us our identities – and have formed us – into the people we are – and in many cases, they have deformed us.
The good news – if you can be formed, you can be transformed! If the stories of your life have formed you, you can be transformed. We can begin and develop and get a new identity in life. And that comes by making the story of the Gospel as the one we live our lives by – the story that tells us that God loves us – He loved us enough to give His son to die on the cross – this should be the story that defines our story – from politics to work to shopping to marriage and raising children to death – The God who did all that – so we could be transformed. This new story tells us that everything in our lives can be redeemed. The worst things that have happened can be redeemed – and even more – they will be redeemed. We might not experience that until we are with the Lord. But when we stand before the Lord, we will be redeemed.
Tammy Smith is coming to speak to the women – I have listened to her stuff – but it is very similar – this is from Terry Wardle.
Here is how transformation takes place:
Unpacking your bag:
Life Situation
Dysfunctional behavior
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Those things above the line – these have broken down the family life – and we think we need to change the behavior to change the situation – but you cannot change the behavior – and in order to change the behavior, we have to dig deeper.
You can pull the dandelions out – but if you don’t get the roots – they come back.
If you don’t get to the root – it will pop up again.
We enter this world and begin being wounded in this world. It is a harsh, cruel world – it is fallen – you experience events that hurt – and as a result of those, we believe lies – false beliefs – about ourselves – we are not worthy – not loveable – filled with shame – we can’t compete, others are better – mom loved you more – and as a result – that produces this emotional upheaval that leads to dysfunction.
We need to bring the gospel story into our story – and understand that Jesus is there with us through that story. Jesus is there regardless of the hurt and pain. We need to replace false beliefs with the truth, and from there to move into a new identity in the healing process – so that we are no longer the unloveable, but the one loved by God – and it gives grace and power for living. We need to bring Jesus’ truth to the story of our lives.
We change through training, not trying. You can try all you want, and you know you will never change. We have all tried hard to change. When you train, you can change. I could go out and try to lift 300 pounds, and I would be in the hospital for a month. But I could maybe train to do that over several years. For me that could never happen.
Patience while driving is something I have struggled with. SO I started training myself – doing an exercise or practice - that I say to myself, whenever I get in the car – “I am not in a hurry” – now I am patient for the most part – but two weeks ago – it was weird – Cindy pointed it out to me. Every time we have to catch a plane – you become so impatient. We were trying to get to the airport – we got on one of the last planes out before they shut down the airport – and I was driving there and I was feeling that thing I had not felt in a while.
Let’s say you are a person who needs applause, attention, and the stage – we need to find spiritual practices that correlate to with our need. You can learn to do all kinds of things for people in secret. Just practice that – doing great exploits that no one will know about – and in time, you will be transformed and you will need applause less and recognition less.
Speech – rudely or too much – you could have a simple practice – I am going to ask questions and listen intently and not give my opinion – and you will see yourself transforming. You can do this in any area – finding a spiritual practice to allow you to transform.
2 Cor. 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
We need to practice spending time in the presence of God. When Moses entered God’s presence, He was transformed. You can do this through reading the Bible, prayer, silence, times of examination, solitude, worship. But – you can do spiritual practice and never enter God’s presence. Entering God’s presence is an attitude of the heart – a posture of the soul - we place ourselves in before Him.

Psalm 131:2 Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me.

As the deer pants for the water, so my heart longs for You.

All the activities are of no value if the heart posture is not there.

Learn to rest and focus attention on God that we might listen and hear from Him.
Let’s pray.
Lord, thank You that You have given us the power to be transformed. We know it will come in bits and pieces –and we know that it will be complete in the end – so we ask that You would give the grace we need – that we would place ourselves in such a position to cooperate with the work You are doing inside of us.