Prosper: Changed Into A Different Person

I want to talk about prospering today in the context of transformation, change in your life. That a dimension of prosperity is the transformation of your life for the better. And a lot of times we don't think, you know, we did talk a few weeks ago about that John says in third John chapter 1 verse 2, he says, I wish that you will prosper in all things and be in health, even as your soul prospers. And we talked about that your internal prosperity of soul, as you prosper internally, that the prosperity that you have internally will eventually manifest itself externally.

It starts on the inside. When we first started this series, we talked about Joseph and said that Joseph was a prosperous man and he was in the house of his master. And here's a guy that was sold into slavery, he had everything stripped from him, he lost every physical thing in this world, but he had the one thing that mattered that was the presence of God. And said he was a prosperous man because God was with him.

And so we really started and anchored this series in prosperity is not defined by things, it's not defined by stuff, it's not defined by acquisition, it's defined by the presence of God in your life. That's the absolute number one thing that defines prosperity. So today I want to look at a little different aspect of prosperity and that is transformation. And actually changed into a different person.

That's interesting. I didn't use that font, somebody has messed with my slideshow already. Seth likes to try to throw me curveballs. Change into a different person.

You might recognize this phrase from 1 Samuel chapter 10 verse 6, it says that Samuel tells Saul who is about to be king, he says, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will be turned into another man. The new English translation says that you will be changed into a different person. I like that a little bit better just because it's not specific, it's just not about men becoming better men, although we need to be, but I like to include women too because you guys can do better. We want the ladies to improve too.

So it says that you will be changed into a different person. The verse says this 1 Samuel 10, 6, it says the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you. So he says that, and we're going to read the story, if you want to turn into your Bible, it's 1 Samuel chapter 9, we're going to start at the very last verse which is verse 27 and then go into 1 Samuel chapter 10, the first verse is that. This verse says this is, the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you and you will prophesy with them and you will be turned into another man.

I just want to show you this. See where it says I've highlighted come, the Holy Spirit of the Lord will come. So that is the word prosper. That's the word prosper.

Go to the next slide. The word will come is the exact same Hebrew word that means to push forward to advance to prosper, to make progress, succeed, be profitable, break out, or come mightily. It's the exact same word that used in Joshua 1, 8, it says this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but in it you shall meditate day and night that you may observe to do all things that are written therein and then you shall make your way prosperous and then you shall have good success. The exact same word that's used to define the prosperity of Joseph, it says that Joseph was in the house of his master and he was a prosperous man because the Lord was with him, Genesis chapter 39 verse 3.

The same word. So the same word we've used in this series now is used a little differently and it says the spirit of the Lord will come or will prosper you and then that you will be turned into another man. I really want to just take a minute and look at this word turned because a lot of times when we think of change, we think of a lot of different things. This word change means to reverse.

Anybody have something in your life that you could stand to have it reversed? Anybody like to reverse the aging effects? Yeah, the older I get that's the one thing I'll reverse. Wrinkles.

To overturn, to turn about, to turn around. Anybody need something in your life turned around? Yes. Yes.

So, let's take a minute and look at this. I want to give you some examples from scripture of how this exact word is used. First I'll give you three or four, but the first one, do you remember when the Israelites are crossing the Red Sea? Did they cross on wet ground or dry ground?

It says, look at this next slide. It says Psalm 66, he turned the sea into what? Dry ground. Is that a pretty significant change?

Like you don't just roll back the water and the ground, like if you pulled the water back, that ground would be wet. It would be muddy. But God turned it. God changed it.

God reversed it from wet to dry. When King, when the king of the Moabites, King Bailik hired the prophet Bailom, if you remember this story, the king of the Moabites was so scared of Israel, he hires a prophet to curse them. And when he gives him money, and when Bailom goes to curse him, guess what came out of his mouth? Blessing.

And the king's like, what are you doing? I hired you to curse. He goes, I don't know when I went over my mouth, blessing came out. And he did it again.

And he said, I'm going to curse him. When he cursed him, blessing came out. Look what it says. It says, God would not listen to Bailom, but the Lord your God turned the curse into the blessing because he loves you.

He takes a curse, meant for bad, and turns it. He reversed it. When Israel was in the wilderness. Remember, there were a few days out, and they're like, why did you bring us to this place?

There's no food. There's no, yeah, no what, all that. Where did they get water in the wilderness? Out of what?

A rock. Rocks don't have water. There's no water in the rock. But guess what God did?

He turned the rock into a pool of water, a dry stone that he miraculously turns from rock to water. This is the kind of change we're talking about. I'll give you one more Psalms after 30. David says this, you turned for me my morning into what?

Joyful dancing, but it's joyful dancing. It's not the kind of dancing Phil was doing when he came up here. It's this. He said, I was sad.

I was mournful. I was grieving and you turned it. And you didn't turn it just so I picked my head up. I actually you brought joy back into my life.

God drives, turns wet ground into dry. God brings water from a rock. God turns a curse into a blessing. God turns morning into joy.

Here's my question for you. If God turned all those things around, what could he reverse? What could he overturn? What could he change?

What could he transform in your life if you gave me opportunity? He said, all of those things by human standards are impossible, but God turned them around. God reversed them. God overturned them.

You may have a decision levied against you that God can reverse. God can overturn it. You might have a situation that seems impossible. God can turn it about.

He says, the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you and you will be turned. You'll be changed. You'll be transformed into another person. All right, let's read the passage.

We'll go to the next slide. We're going to start with 1 Samuel 29. I'll give you my three points ahead of time. What am I water?

I'm water today. So three things. And again, I had a whole bunch. I've hung this down to three because I think these are the three God has for us today.

As it has to do with becoming a different person, changing into a different person. Number one is this, the partnership of change. The partnership of change. A lot of people think they can change on their own.

A lot of people say, well, I'll. I'll do it when I'm ready. I can stop doing this at any time. I can start doing this at any time.

And then there's other people on the other side of the road that just stand there and do nothing waiting for God to do it. Why won't you say today there's a partnership between you and the Holy Spirit that has to take place in order for transformation to take place of the partnership of transformation? The promise, the promise of transformation. God makes us a promise.

Remember that it's impossible for God to lie? If I find a promise, guess what? I can trust God. I can believe God.

Some promises have things I have to do in order for them to take place. But when he makes a promise, he keeps it. So we have a promise. And then the last thing I'm going to look at today is the proof of transformation.

There should be some evidence in your life. If there's no evidence, I've got a question what you're telling me. My dad used to tell me all the time as I think he stole this from Ronald Reagan back in the 80s. But he had this saying, it's called trust and verify.

Trust me. I believe you. Why? There should be some evidence to back up what you're telling me.

So the proof. So we have the partnership of change. The promise of change. And the proof of change.

Father, we thank you today for your word. We're about to read. We ask you to bless it, to break it down for us, to make it understandable. Holy Spirit, teach us your word today.

We're open and ready and waiting for you in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, first Samuel chapter 9 verse 27 says this. I just want to tell you this.

The three points from this passage, all three of these same points, we're going to look at 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18, which is a verse on transformation. We're going to look at the same things in that verse. You'll see that verse quite often today too. It says, as they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, let me give you a little background.

I'm sorry, Saul tells us in chapter 9, he's the son of a guy named Kish. Kish is a very powerful man. Kish loses his donkeys. And he sends his son Saul to look for the donkeys.

And they look at several different cities for these donkeys and can't find them. And so Saul, I get Saul. If I say Saul for Samuel, we got to know what I'm trying to say. If I make him up.

But Saul says to his servant, he's like, hey, we need to go back because we've looked at several cities here, no donkeys. And I really think my dad is going to start to worry about us. And his servant that's with him says, look, there's a man of God, a prophet, at the town we're coming to, let's go see him. And if he can't tell us anything, then we'll go home.

So they, long story short, they go to the town and they meet up with Samuel. Now, at the same time they're going there, God tells Samuel that this man is coming to ask about these donkeys and that guy is the guy that's going to become the king of Israel. So God's kind of working both sides of the equation here. So at the point of the story where they've already met, Samuel has spent, I'm sorry, Saul has spent the night with Samuel and the next morning he says, hey, I want you to send your team that's with you on ahead.

But I want you to stay here because I'm going to give the word of God to you. And so that's where we are in 1 Samuel chapter 9 verse 27. It says, as they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, tell the servant to go on ahead of us. And he went on, but you stand here a while that I may announce the word to you, the word of the Lord.

And Samuel took a flask of oil, poured it on his head and kissed him and said, is it not because the Lord has anointed you, commander over his inheritance? When you have departed from me today, you will find two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelsa and they will say to you, the donkeys which you went to look for have been found. And now your father has ceased caring about the donkeys and is worrying about you saying, what shall I do about my son? So he's going to give him three signs that are going to happen in this is the first time.

So here's the prophet telling Saul what's going to happen. And then in verse 3 it says, then you shall go on forward from there and come to the Terabents tree of Tabor and there three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you. One carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread and another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread which you shall receive from their hands.

And after that, so here's the second sign, right? It's those three guys. And then here's the third. And after that, you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is.

And it will happen when you have come there to the city that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute, a harp, and a harp before them and they will be prophesied. Here's our verse 6, then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you and you will prophesy with them and you will be turned into another man. And let it be so when these signs come to you that you do as the occasion demands for God is with you. There's that connection again, remember we talked about prosperity is connected to what, first and foremost, the presence of God.

Verse 8 says, you shall go down before me a gill gal and surely I will come down to you to offer burnings and make sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait till I come to you and show you what you shall do. So it was when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart and those signs came to pass that day. When they came there to the hill, there was a group of prophets to meet him.

The Spirit of God came upon him and he prophesied among him. And it happened when all who knew him formerly saw that he indeed prophesied among the prophets, that the people said to one another, what is this that has come upon the Son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets? When a man from there answered and said, but who is their father?

Therefore it became a proverb is Saul among the prophets. All right, lengthy passage, but I want you to hear at least that part of the story. So when we talk about change, when we talk about transformation, we know that it involves the Spirit of God. Like you cannot change on your own.

You might buy will power. Like I'm a very willful person. I tell people one time I decided when I was 15 I wasn't going to drink soda. And I went six years.

And I never drank a lot of other things. I won't say what, but I count my word to not drinking soda. But eventually I got thirsty one day and I knocked it away. I think sodas are like 50 cents back then.

Maybe a quarter, but I emptied the machine. But I can choose to do something. But will power does not produce transformation. You can want to, you can make a choice, but that alone does not change you.

God alone cannot change you unless you willingly participate. He won't do it. There's a partnership that takes place between you and God when true transformation takes place in your life. And here's what it says.

It says, notice this. It says, Samuel says to Saul, he says, hey, I want you to see the you and then the God. He says, I want you to stand here. And while you stand here, I'm going to announce to you the word of the Lord.

He said, then when you depart from me, right, you're going to go to this place in Benjamin that's called Rachel's tomb. And when you get to Rachel's tomb, you're going to find two men. And those two men are going to say something to you. They're going to say, the donkeys that you're looking for have been found.

And oh, by the way, your father is worried about you. And after that, then you're going to go somewhere else. You're going to go to the Terabinth tree at table. And when you get to the Terabinth tree, you're going to run in and find three men.

And those three men, let's think about how specific the prophetic word is. It's really specific. He says, one of those three guys is going to be carrying three young goats. The other guy is going to be carrying three loaves of bread.

The third guy is going to be carrying a skin of wine. And he said, they're going to give you two loaves of bread and you're going to receive those. And when you get there, something else is going to happen. And what's going to happen there?

He says, you're going to meet these two guys and then you're going to meet three guys. And then when you get to the hilogodd, you're going to see a whole group of prophets. And they're going to be prophesying. And you're going to join them.

And when you do, the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you and you'll prophesy with them and you will be changed. Do you realize the, then the Holy Spirit will come upon you takes place after Saul takes a few steps. takes a few steps, that Samuel announces to him the Word of God, and based on the Word of God, he gives him instruction, and as he begins to step into the Word that he heard, then the partnership of the Holy Spirit comes and changes him into somebody else. See, it starts with the Word of God that you hear.

But what if Saul had heard the Word that Samuel delivered and decided to go back home to his dad? Now, could God have transformed him? Yes. Would that be out of the norm?

Yes. The most obvious is this, is that when I start to do my part, God does his part. See, you have a part to play in your transformation. God won't do your part.

God has a part to do. You can't do his part. It takes you doing your part, which is natural. It takes him doing his part, which is supernatural.

And when, what does the Word partnership start with? Part, well, Pete, yeah, you got me. You got me on a tech. You got me on a tech.

It starts with Pete. The partnership is part, you have a part to play in your transformation. When Paul writes to the Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians next slide, he says this, it says we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into that same image just as by who? The Spirit of the Lord.

Who does the beholding? It's in yellow in case you can't see it. We all. So, I feel like Paul was a southerner.

Like, y'all, we all. He's like, we all. So here's the thing about we all. We all, the few verses before that says, it says, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

And now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And then he goes on to this verse and says, and we all with unveiled face. So first of all, we all, once you turn to the Lord, the veil comes off. Don't put the veil back on.

See, when you turn to the Lord, the veil comes off. Stay that direction. Right? It says, but we all with unveiled face, but beyond that it says, we all be holding.

No, go back to that same stuff. We all be holding. So, that it's available to who? Everybody.

Everybody has the ability to behold. When you behold, what does the Spirit then do? Transform. See, he does the transforming.

We do the beholding. How hard is it to behold? Not as hard as what his job is, right? But we play a part.

See, he's not going to step in and change you unless you're beholding. You've got to do your part, and then he'll do his part. He's not going to force you to change. He's not going to like, come on.

That's how I like to change people. Like, I like to like twist their arm. But he doesn't work like that. He's a gentleman.

When you decide that you want to do your part, it says, beholding as in a mirror. I know you could say that's our word, behold, but it's actually like three words in one in the Greek. Beholding as in a mirror. What are we beholding?

It says the glory of the Lord. How do we behold the glory of the Lord? That's a whole other teaching, but let me just give you a quick one. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Verse 14 says, and the Word was made flesh. So who's it talking about? Jesus Christ, and the Word was made flesh, and we beheld his glory. The great as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and of his fullness we have all received.

To behold Jesus is to behold the glory of God. Glory just means as much as we do. What's glory mean? Glory is just the act of God expressing himself.

It's all that God has ever made, all that God has ever done, all his attributes, his nature, his character that backed up, everything that God is, is expressed when he expresses himself. That's called glory. Jesus was the divine expression of the Father. He said he is the exact representation of his nature, the outshining of his glory, the brightness of his glory it says that Jesus was.

So as we behold Jesus, the Holy Spirit then, and we behold Jesus through his Word, because he is the Word, as we behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus through the Word of God, the Holy Spirit begins to take that Word, then now we begin to step into it, and he begins to change me on the inside. See, but too often we act like what James calls as a forgetful here. So beholding is more than just viewing. You're like, well I read my Bible today.

I get sick of hearing that. I did my word for the day. I read my five minutes today. Like that's good.

God's Word never returns void. But this is more than that. This is more than that. James says why?

He says be doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving. Who? Who are you deceiving? Yourself.

It says for anyone is to hear the Word, not to do. He's like a man observing his natural face in the mirror. Anybody looking in the mirror this morning? Anybody remember what you look like?

Anybody doesn't want to remember what they look like when they get up. Yeah, my hair looks not bad now, but this morning it was all over the place. See, he says you observe yourself and it'll go away and then you forget about it. I guarantee you there's nobody sitting here.

I probably am pretty safe to say nobody was sitting here this morning five minutes ago thinking about what you look like in the mirror when you got up. You didn't think about it until I reminded you of it. So you look in the mirror and then you walk away and you go about your day. And that's what it's like when we look at God's Word and we just forget about it.

It's like now you look in the mirror. Okay, great. Five minutes, come my hair blow it dry. Put a little hairspray on.

You're thinking about it anymore today. He says this, he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and does what? Continues. See, there's a continuity of beholding that it should be a continuous thing that doesn't mean you walk around like this.

Although I have kind of perfected reading and driving. I got to admit, my wife doesn't like that. Even driving and writing. I know that it probably should.

But it doesn't mean that. It just means like we talked about meditating, chewing it over, mauling it over, musing about it. He says, continues, non-forgetful here, but it's a doer. There it is.

We're taking what God's Word says. Samuel says, wait while I release the Word of God to you and then you're going to depart from me and then you're going to do ABC. And as you begin to step into the Word that I release, the Holy Spirit is going to come and you're going to be changed. It's a partnership.

You're partnering. Think about this. Anybody ever watch that movie? Yes, ma'am.

Jim Carrey, right? I'd like Jim Carrey. It's a funny guy. Do you remember he went to this, like, like he couldn't say yes, right?

So he goes to this guy and he goes to this motivational speaker. I don't, the guy was playing himself in the movie's name was Tony Robbins. Anybody ever hear Tony Robbins? Yeah, Tony Robbins, he's credited as being the number one life coach in the world.

I looked it up, motivational speaker, life coach. What's a life coach do? A life coach helps you become the best version of you. Like they coach you, they train you, they help you develop into the best version of yourself.

If I said today, I went ahead, I took care of Tony's expenses. I bought him a plane ticket. He scheduled, he's going to be here next Sunday and one person here next Sunday is going to have the opportunity for the next 12 months to be coached by the number one life coach in the world. Would anybody be interested in that?

Let me tell you this. You have the number one life coach in the universe living inside of you. His name is the Holy Spirit. He is the person of God who can make you into the best version of you.

The you that God predestined you and designed you to be. I'm not against life coaches. I'm not against training and developing and counseling and all of that is important and necessary. But don't walk around with your head in the sand.

Moping around because you don't have anybody. You have somebody that we tend to forget about. And as soon as you make a decision that you want to partner with him, he's waiting for you. He's waiting.

Like right now in you is God saying, are you going to partner with me? Because I want to partner with you. Number two is this. We have a promise.

We have a promise to change. I put up the new English translation and it says this. You will be. You will be changed into a different person.

You're going to be saying this. I will be changed. I will be changed. Say it again.

I will be changed. Do you believe that? It's a promise. All the promises of God are yes in him and amen in him through us to the glory of God.

Like sometimes the, like everybody likes to say, what do we say in church? Amen. Let it be so. But sometimes your amen is obedience.

It's easy to say amen. It's not so easy to do it. But you will be changed because it's a promise. It's a promise.

God cannot lie. If you will follow the method that he's out late in scripture to partner with the Holy Spirit, you will be changed. Look at this word different for a minute. It means another.

Other. You might look a little strange to somebody. They might like, I don't know about her. I don't know about him.

There's something different about them. That's okay. Because it's who you're turning into that they may not know yet what God is doing in you. See, I like this.

It means following. Following. It means, think about this, version 2.0. It means something.

It's someone who follows a first. What comes after first? Second. Version 2.0 of you.

I want to tell you this, there's no 3.0. There's only 2.0. There was a man. His name was Adam.

He's called the first Adam. There was another man named Jesus Christ. He's called the second man. There's the first man and the second man.

There's the first Adam and the last Adam. The first man is also the first Adam. The second man is the last Adam. Like there's no more.

And so that in context, the first Corinthians 15, it says that the first man is first Adam. The second man is from heaven. The same way we have born the form of the earthly will also bear the image of the one from heaven. Now it's talking about when we die and shed this.

But I believe there's an aspect to that that's true today. All of you acting like Adam at one time. Some of you still are. But you're going to bear the image of Jesus Christ as you allow the Holy Spirit to transform you.

You're going to become you 2.0. The version that used to be Adam that now is Jesus. The version that can't get any better. That's what we're like.

That's our standard. That's who we're modeling. It says this the next line. It says again, but we all with unveiled face, beholdings in the mirror of the glory of the Lord are being transformed into what?

It says are being transformed. Like it's a promise. It's happening. If you're be holding, it's happening right now.

You are transforming. What are you transforming into? The same image. The same image as of the one you're beholding, which is Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the image of the Father. You are becoming the image of Jesus who is also the image of God. That's what the Holy Spirit is doing on the inside of you when He comes on you. He begins to change.

Part of you is already like Him. We talked about this before. Your spirit is already perfect. It says in Hebrews, it says that you have been perfected forever.

It says that He is sanctifying those who have been perfected forever. One part of you is perfect. The rest of you is becoming more like Him every day, hopefully. It's not one or the other, but it's both.

It says you're transformed into the same image. Do you realize that was God's destiny for you millions of years ago? Billions of years ago. Paul says in Romans 8, it says, whom He foreknew, He predestined.

A lot of people use the word predestined to say that some people were destined to get saved and others weren't. I don't believe that. I believe that Jesus died for the whole world. That whoever says yes, He says, whoever comes to me, I will know why it's cast out.

But it says this. Here's what He predestined us to. In eternity past billions of years ago, God destined you, predetermined you, determined ahead of time that you would be conformed to what? The image of His Son.

See that's your destiny. But too many Christians have unfulfilled destinies because God destined you to be version 2.0, but satisfied living at 1.1, or you're at 1.2. You know what? I'm happy with version 1.2.

I'm good. I'm not as bad as I used to be. Not as good as I could be, but 1.2 is good. That's not your destiny.

You're settling for less than God has destined you to be. It's a promise. You will change. Change.

You will change. Last slide says this. Proof. Proof.

And it happened when a few people who knew Him, when all, when all who knew Him, formerly, why? Because He's now a different person. They knew version 1.0. They knew the old soul.

But now they see a version of the soul and they're like, what is going on with soul? That's not the soul that I used to know. Something is different. It says all who knew Him, formerly, saw that He indeed prophesied among the prophets.

Is that Shaken or is that me? Okay. I didn't know. We haven't a earthquake.

I wasn't sure what was going on here. Trew me off my game for just a split second. All right. All right.

Everybody that knew the slide projector before doesn't know the one that shakes now. It says that indeed He prophesied among the prophets that the people said to one another, what is this that has come upon the son of Kish? Is soul also among the prophets? Therefore, it became proper.

Here's what that's saying. It was such a radical change in his life that they started a proverb about soul. It was like, we would say today, if God can do it for me, He can do it for you. And that was essentially the same thing.

So when they're having a bad day and things aren't going right and things are like impossible, hey, is soul among the prophets? If God could change that man, He could fix this. When I'm facing an impossible situation, like there's no way out. They would encourage themselves.

Hey, I know it looks bad. I know it seems impossible, but it's all among the prophets. If that guy can prophesy, think about this. It says that he was a good looking guy that tells us he was headed in shoulders.

It says from the shoulders up, he was above all of Israel. He should have had no issue with confidence. But when they went to anoint him as king, Samuel goes down the line and he picks the tribe and he picks the family and he announces soul and he's nowhere to be found. He's hiding among the luggage.

He's hiding in the equipment shed. So not only, I mean, you might think he's a guy with great confidence, but he's not like, if God could raise him up and let him prophesy at this level, then God can do something in my life. God can work a miracle in my life. God can change my situation.

God can turn it around. God can overturn it. God can change it. God can transform it because if he did it for soul, certainly my situation is not that difficult.

He can do it for me. It's soul among the prophets. Isaiah said this in Isaiah 818, it says, we shall become signs and wonders. That's what you're going to become.

You will become a sign and a wonder so much so that people in your job will say, oh my gosh, is Jeff among the prophets, is Kristen among the prophets, is Autumn among the prophets, is Ray among the prophets. Like, it's going to be so radical that there'll be no other explanation that, but God did it, but God did it. See, there's got to be evidence. It says that everybody, everybody could see it.

See, a lot of time, you know, how often do we make excuses for the level version of ourselves that we've decided to level out at? Right? I'm a 1.0 and I went to 1.1. Well, God ain't finished with me yet.

You know, he working on us all. God's just not finished with me yet. We're all like caterpillars and yet. You're laughing because you said it.

Or you're making excuses for your friend or your significant other, your spouse. Well, you don't know them like God. I know what it looks like, but you don't know, like, you don't know their heart. That's really not how they are.

My Bible says that we will be transforming from, not that we were transformed, not that we will be, but it's a promise that we are and that we are being transformed from one level of glory to another. Which means this, if I only transform when I behold, if I'm no longer being transformed then I've had a choice to stop beholding. I've picked the level at which I want to plateau. Well, this is just how I am.

Well, it's just how you is, how like Jesus is, and you ain't where you need to be. You haven't arrived yet. You need to get back in a book. You need to get back in his face.

You need to get back in the presence of God and allow him to begin to work on your life again. See because if I'm moving from one level of glory to another, that means from now to the day I die, I ought to continually be getting more like him. It shouldn't be, well, I've got to 1.5 and I'm good with 1.5. Well, there's 1.6.

And when you get to 1.6, there's 1.7 and there's 1.8. 2.0 is the max. The last Adam, the second man, the image of God. But don't get stuck at the level you're at because there's more.

God has more for you. God wants to do more in your life. But it takes you partnering on a continual, consistent basis with the Holy Spirit. Well, you know, I had an encounter one time and God really changed me.

Great. That was five years ago. You're no different than you used to be. You obviously made a choice to quit beholding because had you continued, you would be better now than you were then.

I like the amplified version. It says this. Next slide. What's the next slide?

There we go. And all of us, as with unveiled face because we continued to behold in the Word of God, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. Look at this. Are constantly.

See, if you're not continuing to be transformed, there's an issue. If you're the same, if your actions are the same today as they were a year ago, if your thought processes are the same today as they were a year ago, if your attitude is the same, forget going backwards, even the same means that you chose to stop. It says we're constantly being transformed into his very own image in ever increasing splendor from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Continuously changing. Continuously beholding. Like, it's one thing to pray God change me. I mean, it starts there, but you've got to spend time in the Word.

You've got to hear the Word that God's releasing over your life. You've got to let the Word and the Holy Spirit work in unison to begin to transform you into the image of Jesus. I'll finish with his verse, Paul gave to Timothy in 1 Timothy, chapter 4, because the very last verse is what I want to get to. It says, till I come again, give attention to reading, exhortation and the doctrine, right?

What would that be? The Word. Where do we get doctrine? The Word.

And what do we, what's he say? Give attention. Look at it. You perceive it.

You know, actively engage in it. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the Lang on a fan's about it. Now, I believe this was a particular gift or giftings of spiritual gifts, but I don't want to discount the fact that it could be the gift of the Holy Spirit. Because I know this that when Paul, who was Saul, had to encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, and he went to see Ananias, and it said Ananias laid his hands on him and said, Saul, receive your sight and receive the Holy Spirit.

And scales fell from his eyes at that very moment. And so through the Lang on his hands, Paul received the gift of the Holy Spirit. So think about this. He says, I want you to give attention to the Word, but also I don't want you to neglect the gift.

Where's that? It's in you. There's a gift in you. And he says, meditate on these things.

Give yourself partially, just a little bit. He says, I want you to totally commit to this. Give yourself entirely to it that your progress may be evident to a few people. You shouldn't have to make excuses for yourself.

You shouldn't have to. If you're making excuses, it's because you chose not to change. Or you're willing not to. Or you want to.

Because God has a plan for your life to make you into the absolute best version of you. It's not something he just came up with on a whim. He predestined it millions upon billions of years ago. He knew that you'd be alive today.

He has a purpose for your life. And in order for you to fulfill all that God has for you, you have to become all that God has destined you to be. You can't carry the weight of responsibility that God has assigned to you if your character isn't developed at that same level. God needs you, wants you to transform.

And he's willing to do it. And it's a promise that he's made that if you'll partner with him, he'll do the hard. He does the heavy lifting. He does the heavy lifting.

You get to do biceps and he's got to do squats. Everybody loves to do curls. Curls, little triceps, the gimpy, the little muscles. But there's not too many people that want to put their weight on you know, do squats.

So he does the heavy lifting. But you get all the transformation. Let's pray.