Ezekiel 36:26 CSB – I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Isn’t that what you want?
2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
James 1:19-20 CSB – My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, 20 for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
Be Quick to Listen to God’s Truth
Transformation begins when we listen to the Truth
James 1:20 CSB – [to be] slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
4 Stages of Change
- Unconscious Incompetence
- Conscious Incompetence
- Conscious Competence
- Unconscious Competence
Proverbs 12:15 CSB – A fool’s way is right in his own eyes,
but whoever listens to counsel is wise.
John 5:24 CSB – Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life
James 1:19-20 CSB – Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, 20 for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
Anger is the first enemy of change
John 3:19 CSB – Jesus said, This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
Ephesians 4:32 CSB – And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.
Matthew 6:19-21,33 CSB – Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth,… 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,… 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.
1 Corinthians 6:19b-20 CSB – You are not your own, 20 for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.
Galatians 2:20 CSB – I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
James 1:19-20 CSB – Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, 20 for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
Humbly Receive God’s Truth
James 1:21 CSB – Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
Transformation Demands New Thinking
Concentric Circles:
- Behavior– Actions
- Attitudes– priorities
- Beliefs—true or false
- Worldview– Reality
Romans 12:1-2 CSB – Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Ephesians 4:14-15 CSB – Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.
15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ.
James 1:21 CSB – … , humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
2 Chronicles 26:5 CSB – He sought God throughout the lifetime of Zechariah, the teacher of the fear of God. During the time that he sought the Lord, God gave him success.
2 Chronicles 26:15b-16 CSB – So his fame spread even to distant places, for he was wondrously helped until he became strong. 16 But when he became strong, he grew arrogant, and it led to his own destruction. He acted unfaithfully against the Lord his God….
Luke 6:26 CSB – Woe to you when all people speak well of you.
John 12:43 CSB – Jesus once condemned leaders, For they loved human praise more than praise from God.
Galatians 1:10b CSB – Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
James 4:4 CSB – You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.
v.10, Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
God Changes Us As We Take Action
Take Action: Clean House
James 1:22-23 CSB – But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. 25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.
James 1:21 CSB – Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent
Hebrews 12:1-2 CSB – let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
- God will change your words
James 1:26-27 CSB – If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself.
James 3:2 CSB – For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able also to control the whole body.
- God will change your service
James 1:27 CSB – Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
- God Will Change Your Walk
James 1:27 CSB – …look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
