“RISING FROM THE ASHES” (1)

“Morphing into Christ-likeness”
Romans 8:29 & 12:2; Galatians 4:19

1. last June when our church caught on fire (not yet knowing that it was on fire) I was standing at the fire alarm outside the library punching in the code to silence the alarm when I heard Mel Yamase yell – Fire, call 911!

I ran toward the youth center (old sanctuary) and saw flames of fire climbing up the platform wall to the ceiling. I turned and ran into the office to call 911 (while I had a cell phone in my pocket!).

(By the way if I had entered the youth center to get a better look at the fire, I wouldn’t be standing here today. A few seconds later a huge fire ball rolled through the room – the intense heat would have instantly melted my lungs & killed me.)

I dialed 911 and told the operator our church was on fire. Suddenly I was surrounded by a blast of heat & smoke. I threw the phone down. I started to run out of the office. The change in air pressure knocked me to the floor.

I tried getting up on my feet but couldn’t. The movement of air and smoke sounded like a tornado. I started crawling on all 4s for the nearest outside door (wooden door on the north side of the church).

I felt like I was in slow motion, like I wasn’t moving. I thought the fire might be chasing me. I thought I might die. Heather Hannah & Elizabeth were frozen in my minds eye.

Finally I hit the wooden door with my right hand. The next thing I knew I was planted on my face, surrounded by smoke, about 20 feet out in the parking lot. I tried to get up & run away but fell down. Finally I got my footing & ran to the rental house lawn.

I was stunned. And I remember feeling overwhelmed that I was going to live. Mike Higgs came up & asked me if I was okay but nothing he said registered. I felt like God had just given me my life back.

2. and by God’s grace we are getting closer & closer to getting our church building back! Today we begin 30 days of Faith Promise Pledges – Rising from the Ashes. In dependence upon God we hope to raise $800,000 in pledges in the next 30 days payable over the next 12 months!

7 things I believe about God, the fire, CAC…
1. my 3 ‘nots’ for these messages on Rising from the Ashes:
I will not try to manipulate you
I will not try to guilt or shame you
I am not trying to spiritualize our circumstances

2. God’s sovereignty: our church fire & the sovereignty of God go hand-in-hand together – God has a design for the fire that he wants to draw into our personal & collective lives

3. God wastes nothing: God uses everything in our lives to draw us closer to him if we let him – jobs-kids-parents-spouses-successes-health-temptations-failures AND the burning of our church

4. spiritual growth: the fire & rebuilding are PRIMARILY about our spiritual growth and only SECONDARILY about a new building – the process of building will act as the vehicle of God’s transforming work in our hearts

5. equation: God + church fire + rebuilding process = CAC conformed into the likeness of Christ = renewed people for a new building

6. the stuff of transformation: process of rebuilding will surface issues in each of us that will impede what God wants to do unless we give the green light for God’s transforming work:
* idolatry
* small faith/trust
* indifference to God’s kingdom work
* spiritual myopia
* ingratitude
* idolatry

7. gospel: the whole point of the gospel is to be transformed into the image of Christ –
* Galatians 4:19
* Romans 8:28-29
* Romans 12:2

My heart for your heart
1. I’m a pastor. What gets me out of bed in the morning is the vision of doing all that I can to lead you closer to Christ.

2. the whole point of the gospel is to be transformed into the image of Christ. The deepest sin of my life is holding onto the right to lead my own life.

3. God is more interested in us than he is in a new building. God is more interested in the shape of our hearts than he is in the shape of the new worship space. God is more interested in how Christ is being formed in our lives than he is in how the new youth area is going to be laid out.

4. this is our grand opportunity to grow spiritually. Our spiritual life is our whole life – every moment & every facet of it.

Morphing into Christ-likeness
1. a word about transformation. The desire for transformation lies deep in all of our hearts. This is why we enter therapy – join health clubs – join recovery groups – read self-help books – take the season of Lent seriously. The possibility of transformation gives us hope.

2. one of the richest ‘transformation’ words in the New Testament is morphoo – the inward & real formation of the essential nature of a person. John Ortberg calls this ‘morphing’ in his book The Life You’ve Always Wanted. This word is a favorite of the Apostle Paul.

to the Galatians he wrote (4:19)
3. My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.

4. Paul is not satisfied that Christ dwells in them; he longs to see Christ formed in them. To see them transformed into the image of Christ.

5. he lives in the pains of childbirth for their spiritual maturity. He is in labor for them. They have drifted away from fully following Christ. They have gone back to trying to keep part of the Law as well as follow Christ.

6. he loves them so much that he is in agony over their spiritual regression.

7. John Ortberg writes, we are pregnant with possibilities of spiritual growth and moral beauty so great that they cannot be adequately described as anything less than the formation of Christ in our very lives.

to the church & people of Rome he wrote (8:28-29)
1. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

2. God’s eternal purpose for us – that we should become like Jesus. Here Paul uses another form of this word for ‘morphing.’ We are to have the same form as Christ. To be shaped into his likeness. This is our predestination, our calling. This is God’s highest purpose for our lives.

Paul also wrote to the Romans (12:2)
1. do not conform any longer to the pattern of the is world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is yet another form of the word morphoo, the word metamorphoo, from which we get our word metamorphosis.

2. this is the same word used by Matthew & Mark of the transfiguration of Jesus. A complete change came over Jesus.

3. our transformation involves a change of conduct & character away from the standards of the world and into the image of Christ himself.

4. this involves – the purpose of life + meaning of life + how to measure success + how to respond to evil + ambition + sex + honesty + money + community & on the list goes.
It’s morphing time
1. until Christ is formed in you….conformed to the likeness of his son…transformed by the renewing of your mind.

2. ordinary people like us are capable of experiencing extraordinary change in our lives. God our Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, wants for each one of us to become like his son Jesus.

3. I fear that many of us have bought into ways of becoming a Christian without becoming Christ-like.

4. I’m utterly convinced that over the next 14 months while we put up a building, God has a much bigger project in mind. He has new work that he wants to do in our hearts.

5. spiritual growth is a molding process where we become, as CS Lewis once said, little Christs. We begin to believe what Jesus believed. Live as Jesus lived. Love as Jesus loved. Serve as Jesus served. Lead as Jesus led.

6. our having to grapple with the fire, insurance settlement, a new building proposal & raising $800,000 are the vehicles-means-tools God intends to use to further conform us into the image of his Son.

7. all of this will surface issues in each of our lives that keep us from growing in Christ. For instance:
* our idolatry – our love of money & what it buys us & does for us – our laying up of treasures on earth instead of in heaven
* our weak faith & trust in God – will he really provide money for my Faith Promise Pledge? If I give generously will God take care of my needs?
* our indifference to God’s kingdom work – do we really care about the advance of God’s kingdom in Canby & around the world?
* our spiritual myopia – do we have compassion for the people all around us in our community that need Christ, need food, need encouragement, need love, need help? Of do we just care about ourselves?
* our ingratitude to God – for more ways in which he has blessed us than we can count
* idolatry – our temptation to make the new building our new idol

8. sure, no way around it, this season is about rebuilding a burned out building. But even more, this is about each one of us becoming more of a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. This is morphing time into Christ-likeness.

Prayer
1. 50 people to pray every day for 30 days – sign up on the round table at the back today!

2. First Friday 24 hours of prayer sign-ups!

Faith Promise Pledges
1. money over & above your regular church giving. We don’t want you to rob Peter to pay Paul.

2. this is money that you pray about. You ask God to show you how much money he wants you to give.

3. this is money that you are relying upon God to provide.