Supernatural Transformation
Curing Stuckititus
Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
It’s said that Dr. Harry Ironside, on one occasion, was involved a meeting in San Francisco. Dr. Ironside shared his testimony with the gathering then returned to his seat on the platform.
Soon after sitting down, a note was handed to Dr. Ironside. A well-known agnostic was in the crowd and had written a brief note on his business card, then had someone hand it to Dr. Ironside. The agnostic challenged Ironside to a public debate and offered to pay all expenses.
Ironside returned to the podium and publicly accepted the debate on the following conditions: the agnostic would bring one man and one woman who had both fallen into some type of vice that had caused them to experience great loss and cost them favor within society, but who were now back in the graces of their respective families and society at large because of the positive changes and transformation caused by their newfound belief in agnosticism.
Ironside then acknowledged that he would have 100 such people whose lives have been radically changed by their commitment to Jesus Christ. Upon hearing these conditions, the agnostic waved his hand in polite surrender and exited the building.
According to a study released by Barna Research at the end of 2006, professing Born Again people were only somewhat less likely to illegally download music, to smoke, to view pornography, to purchase a lottery ticket, or to use profanity than non-believers.
Also, believers were actually more likely than non-believers to try to get back at someone who had stolen something from them. On eight of the 16 behaviors, the profile of ”born again” people was virtually identical to that of non-born again.
Additionally, 59% of “born again” people believe that cohabitation is morally acceptable. This same response pattern was evident when it came to gambling, sexual fantasies, abortion, sex outside of marriage, profanity, pornography, same-sex marriage, and the use of illegal drugs.
The director of the research, David Kinnaman, pointed out, "The research shows that people’s moral profile is more likely to resemble that of their worldly peer group than it is to take shape around the tenets of a person’s faith.
This research paints a compelling picture that moral values are shifting very quickly and significantly within the Christian community as well as outside of it."
We’ve taken moral experimentation to new heights, and now live in a world where such experimentation is the norm, not the exception.
Let me boil all of this down: According to Barna’s findings, Christians are only marginally different if not identical to the non-Christians in their peer group on an array of moral issues.
Is it any wonder that Paul begins this passage by insisting that the Ephesian believers “no longer live as the Gentiles do”?
Obviously, he is concerned that Christians are accepting and owning the life patterns of those outside of God’s family more readily than they are within the body of Christ.
That struggle to maintain a way of life that demonstrates my connection with God in the midst of a world that doesn’t share that connection is the key to the latter half of Ephesians 4, more accurately, the rest of the book of Ephesians.
So often we can be seduced by the world around us to comply with their redefined moral positions, in the closeted recesses of our lives where we hang out our own dirty laundry. If the data is accurate, the biggest difference between believers and non-believers is often that non-believers are just more public with their moral failings.
But as we look at our text, that is not how it is supposed to be.
Jesus makes it clear that Salvation is about Change, it is not magic, it is a change in ownership of life. Christianity is about transformation.
Romans 8:29 makes it clear that saving faith moves us to be conformed into the image of Christ.
The Truth of Transformation; the truth of Christianity is found in being transformed not in being conformed.
Conformed means that we mold ourselves into a form; while we do need to be conformed, we desperately need to be transformed, changed into something that we have not been.
The truth of Christianity is not in conforming to a set of standards or acting out a part. It is in being transformed into the image of Christ. Changed by God into the likeness of His son. Transformation is not just a reshaping it is a change in substance.
Transformed Thinking; Transformed Heart; Transformed Walk; Transformed Ministry; Transformed Relationships.
A transformed life is one of the most indisputable pieces of evidence of the validity and reality of
Christianity. Christianity is not a religion it is a relationship, and it is this relationship with Jesus Christ that transforms a person from who they were into a child of God, which results in dramatic changes in the persons life.
The truth is that there are some Christians who feel as though there has been no transformation in their lives. And then there are those who observe people who call themselves Christians and don’t notice any transformation and say to themselves, “Why should I want this, what difference does it make?”
There are those who remember the transformation that happened in their lives and now feel as though they’ve reverted to what they were before. There are those who only have a private understanding of the transformation that has taken place in their life. Then there are those who have been so trans-formed that it is obvious to all that it has taken place.
Why such variety? There are many reasons, but one of the primary reasons is because the evidence of transformation is seen in our physical life and this transformation is a process.
It is a process that only goes as fast as WE let it!
Jesus Christ resides in the heart of every believer, but He will only clean out the rooms of the heart that we give Him the key to.
We’re going to be looking at some of the things that were so evident in Christ’s life that they are
what God would like to see in our life.
These “things” are characteristics of Christ’s heart that we cannot reproduce on our own, but we can
limit God from reproducing them in our life.
Remember, God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you there. He wants us to have a heart just like His, He wants us to be Supernaturally Transformed and be Just Like Jesus.
I remember one day when I was a child, I found a baby raccoon clinging to its dead mother killed by an automobile. I brought it home and asked if I could keep it until it could survive in the wild on its own. My mother explained to me that this would be a big responsibility.
I quickly fell in love with Rocket. I took him with me everywhere I could, everything about Rocket intrigued me, sure He smelled a bit, and yes, I did have to get up in the middle of the night in response to his screeching so I could feed Him.
Rocket was not the easiest to toilet train and I often found myself cleaning up His messes in my bedroom, can’t say that it was nice smelling, but I didn’t mind. I took Rocket for walks, I gave Him baths, I kept him fed, I kept Him neat and purring.
Within a few days, however, my feelings changed a bit. Rocket was still my raccoon, and I was still his friend, but I grew weary of His screeching in the middle of the night and having to get up and prepare a bottle of condensed milk to feed Him. More than once, I was reminded by mother, “Take care of Rocket, he’s your raccoon, he’s your responsibility”
That’s when it occurred to me. I am stuck with Rocket. The courtship was over, and the honeymoon had ended; we were mutually leashed. Rocket went from being a novelty to a nuisance, an option to an obligation, from a pet to a chore, from someone to play with to someone to care for.
Perhaps there are some of you who can relate. Chances are there are some of you who know the claustrophobia that comes with commitment.
Only instead of being reminded, “He is your raccoon,” you’re told, “He is your husband.” Or “She is your wife.” Or “He is your child, parent, employee or boss or roommate” or any other relationship that requires loyalty for survival.
Such permanence can lead to panic, at least it did in me. I had to answer some tough questions. Can I tolerate the same pointy-nosed, hairy, hungry face every morning? (You wives know the feeling?) Am I going to be screeched at until the day I die? Will he ever learn to clean up his own mess?
These are the questions we ask when we feel stuck with someone. Max Lucado, in his book “Just Like Jesus” coined a word for this condition, stuckititus (Stuck meaning “trapped”. Ititus the six letters you tag on to any word you want to sound impressive.)
Attacks of stuckititus are limited to people who breathe and typically occur somewhere between birth and death.
Stuckititus manifests itself in irritability, short fuses, and a mountain range of molehills. The common symptom of stuckititus victims is the repetition of questions beginning with who, what, and why. Who is this person? What was I thinking? Why didn’t I listen to my mother?
There are three ways that this condition can be coped with.
Some people decide to flee, to get out of the relationship and start again elsewhere. They decide that the way to solve this feeling of being trapped is to run away.
This is a condition that is often used. When you’ve been hurt by someone you “never want to see them again.” It leads to an oppressive silence and unresolved conflict.
This way of coping often happens in marriages, the husband or wife decide they can’t handle the other person anymore, at first the fleeing starts with silence towards each other and then it leads to running away from the marriage and each other.
This way of coping often happens between children and their parents, “My parents don’t understand me, so I’ll run away”
This way of coping takes place in work situations, “My boss is so unfair” “Or that co-worker just rubs me the wrong way” So the person “resigns” in pursuit of a “better” job.
This way of coping takes place in the church, “I don’t like the Pastor” or “someone hurt me
emotionally” and so the person “moves on” to another place of worship in pursuit of the “perfect” church.
Others fight. Houses become combat zones, and offices become boxing rings, and tension becomes a way of life. The slogan, “Don’t worry, I’ll get my revenge” becomes an active force in such a person’s life and they live by the philosophy of, “Me against them” or “Me against the world”!
People who cope with stuckititus this way become almost proud of their battle scars. They’ll tell anyone within earshot and who gives them the slightest opening of the “wrong” that has been committed against them.
They’ll actively recruit people who sympathize with them to “be on my side.” And they’ll go on the offense viciously in the name of “it’s only right, considering what that person did to me!”
A few, however, discover another treatment: forgiveness. The greatest example for how forgiveness occurs is found in the Bible and it is to God’s word that we look at today for the cure for stuckititus.
Jesus knew the feeling of being stuck with someone. For three years He mentored the same motley bunch of people. At mealtimes He saw the same dozen or so faces around the table. Around the campfire He heard the same voices. They rode in the same boats and walked the same roads and visited the same houses. I wonder, how did Jesus stay so devoted to His men?
Not only did He have to put up with their visible oddities, He had to endure their invisible follies. Think about it. Because Jesus was not only fully man, but also fully God, He could hear their unspoken thoughts. He knew their private doubts both present and future.
What if you knew every mistake your loved ones had ever made and every mistake they would ever make? What if you knew every thought they would have about you, every irritation, every dislike, every betrayal?
Ask these questions, was it hard for Jesus to love Peter, knowing Peter would someday curse him? Was it tough to trust Thomas, knowing Thomas would one day question Jesus’ resurrection? How did Jesus resist the urge to recruit a new batch of followers?
John wanted to destroy one enemy. Peter sliced off the ear of another. Just days before Jesus’ death, His disciples were arguing about which of them was the best! How was He able to love people who were hard to like?
How was Jesus able to love His disciples? How did He cure stuckititus? The answer is Jesus had a heart of forgiveness and we see this demonstrated in a powerful way in the thirteenth chapter of John.
In the midst of the meal being served, Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s, stands and removes His outer garment. He wraps a servant’s girdle around His waist, takes a basin, and kneels before one of the disciples. He unlaces a sandal and gently lifts the foot and places it in the basin, covers it with water, and begins to bathe it.
One by one, one grimy foot after another, Jesus works His way around the table kneeling at the feet of each disciple.
This is a significant event; hours before His own death, Jesus’ concern is singular. He wants His disciples to know how much He loved them. More than removing dirt, Jesus is removing doubt.
As Jesus was washing their feet, He knew that they would not spend the next day following their master, defending His (and so they claimed, their) cause. Christ knew that their feet would dash from the flash of a Roman sword.
Do you recognize the awesome gift Jesus gives His followers! He knew that by morning they would bury their heads in shame and look down at their feet in disgust. But when they did, Jesus wanted them to remember how He knelt before them and washed those same feet and that they’ll realize that those feet are still clean.
Isn’t this amazing? Jesus forgave their sin before they even committed it. He offered mercy before they even sought it.
Some of you saying, “Oh, I could never do that, the hurt is so deep. The wounds are so numerous. Just seeing the person causes me to cringe” Stuckititus rages deep within you.
What is the solution? Maybe you’re looking at the wrong person, remember the secret of being just like Jesus is “fixing our eyes” on Him. You’re right, you could never do that, but Jesus could, and WILL!
Remember He resides in the hearts of those who believe in Him. But you are still holding the key to the locked door, the door that He will only enter if you give Him the key.
Try shifting your eyes away from the one who hurt you and set your eyes on the one who has saved you.
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Aside from place and time, we share the same story as the disciples. What Jesus has done for them He has done for us. He cleansed us. He has cleansed our hearts from sin.
Let a speck of dust fall on the soul of a saint, and it is washed away. Let a spot of filth land on the heart of God’s child, and the filth is wiped away.
Jesus still cleans His disciples’ feet. Jesus still washes away stains. Jesus still purifies His people.
Jesus washes our feet for two reasons, The first is to give us mercy; the second is to give us a message, Jesus offers unconditional grace; we are to offer unconditional grace.
How does this happen? It happens when we give Jesus the key to the locked room in our heart, when we say to Him, “Okay Lord, go in and rearrange this room and make it like your heart.”
It means that we will kneel as Jesus knelt, touching the grimy parts of the people we are stuck with and washing away their unkindness with kindness.
It means even if you are the innocent party you do it. Jesus wasn’t guilty, Jesus wasn’t the betrayer, Jesus didn’t cheat, Jesus didn’t run away. Of all the men in that room, He was the only one truly worthy to have His feet washed and yet He was the one who washed the feet.
Relationships don’t thrive because the guilty are punished but because the innocent are merciful.
Sometimes conflicts can only be resolved with a water-filled basin. Do you know of any relationships in your life that are thirsty for mercy? Is there anyone you know who needs to find your grace? Jesus made sure that His disciples would have no doubt of His love, how about us?
Folks, there is only one way out of the trap of stuckititus, it is to forgive. No matter how hard, or how undeserving, or how painful. We MUST forgive!
Jesus knows the hurt that you live with, He knows the suffering you’ve gone through, He sees the event playing over and over in your mind, He knows the injustice of it and in the midst of all this He is whispering to us, “Give me the key, give me the key, let me into this room, let me fill that room with my heart and through you I will pick up the basin and the towel and wash.
Won’t you let Jesus Supernaturally Transform You?