GEMS Sunday is always a special Sunday, and I especially love your theme verse this year, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” How many of you have things you would like to change about yourselves?
Following Jesus changes us when we take Jesus seriously. Verse 1 talks about offering ourselves as a living sacrifice; what do you think that means? Paul wants us to make God the most important person in our lives and to try to please God with everything that we do. One of the ways I do this is to ask Jesus every morning to help me see all the ways to do the good works that he’s prepared for us to do each day. I ask Jesus to give me a kind heart to help anyone who needs help that day, and to help me share with them how much Jesus loves them.
When you love and care about each other, and try to make sure that everyone, even the people you might not like, are all treated with respect, it’s one way of worshipping God. You can be at school, at home, playing with other kids at the rink or gym, or even at the grocery store by helping the people and kids around you, you’re worshipping God. When you help someone who’s being teased or bullied feel safe and important, when you do your chores the best you can, and when you obey your parents, you’re worshipping God. But we all fail at times, so we ask God to transform us to be more who like Jesus wants us to be.
The GEMS theme this year is about Jesus transforming us. Do you know what word they use for “transformed?” The Greek word that Paul uses is “metamorphosis.” When I checked one of my dictionaries for a simple definition, it told me metamorphosis is “a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, by natural or supernatural means.” When I checked out the GEMS board downstairs, I noticed that it’s covered with butterflies and that’s when I remembered science class. The first time I heard this word was in science class when we were studying how caterpillars and tadpoles were similar because of how they both changed. I was especially fascinated by the caterpillars. Do you know how butterflies become butterflies?
Butterflies start off as caterpillars. God then created them to know when it’s time to transform from a caterpillar into a butterfly. After they’ve spent lots of time eating and growing and getting ready to change, the caterpillar begins to build a chrysalis around itself, like a small tent. While the caterpillar’s hidden away in its chrysalis, God does something pretty amazing to the caterpillar, a lot of the caterpillar’s body dissolves and then the core the caterpillar’s body begins to reform and the antennae and wings begin to grow and this common crawly caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly that has wings and can fly! I think that’s pretty amazing. Can you imagine how fascinating the world becomes for the butterfly? Before all it could do was crawl over a few plants and eat and eat, and now it can fly and see the world in a completely different new and wonderful way. Do you know that some butterflies can fly 4,000 to 5,000 kilometers when they migrate south for the winter? Amazing!
We can’t see the transformation happen, and it takes time for it to happen; about 3 weeks for the caterpillar to change into a butterfly. It’s the same thing with us; we don’t always recognize how the Holy Spirit is working in us to transform us more and more into the people God calls us to be. When I think about the caterpillar changing into a butterfly, I sometimes wonder if it hurts while its body changes. It can’t be easy for the caterpillar’s body to transform so much so fast. It must take a lot of work for it to transform itself. But in the end, the transformational is so cool; from a caterpillar into a creature of beauty that brings wonder and joy to so many people!
Our verse tells us, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” I found it interesting that Paul is talking about renewing our minds, about changing the unhealthy and wrong ways we think and what we allow into our minds. When we have wrong thoughts and ways of thinking about people or things that have happened, it hurts us and it can hurt others, and this hurts God. It happens so easily. What we watch on tv or online, the music we listen to, or the kinds of people we hang out with and listen to, can really impact how we think and act. When we listen to things that fill our minds with things we know aren’t right it can make us say and do things we know our parents, teachers, and God might not be happy about. When we fill our minds and hearts with rotten stuff, rotten stuff comes out of us.
This is why Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8–9, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Your theme t-shirts say it really well, “Transformed by God’s Word from the inside out!” My grandfather told me that I should find someone that I admire who loves Jesus and lets Jesus shape who he is, and then imitate him. Paul tells us the same thing when he tells us to imitate him as he imitates Jesus.
How can we transform our minds so that we can test and approve what God’s will is? We need God’s help to transform our minds. How does God do that transformation? One of the most important ways that God uses to transform us and through reading the Bible regularly. You can read it on your own, with your family, at church, and wherever you are. In the Bible, God shows us who he is: he’s the creator of the entire universe! When you look up into the night sky and see all the stars, the moon, and even some of the planets that are close by, God made them all! All the trees, plants, animals, and even each one of us was created by God. All the things that have been created by people were because God gave us the skills and imagination to be able to create them because we’re small creators in God’s image. We discover in the Bible that God never gives up on us and is willing to forgive us when we do things that are wrong, he even sent his son Jesus to become human, so that we could learn even more about God and wash away all our sin on the cross.
God transforms us through prayer. When we talk to God, God guides us through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes our prayers to God and even prays for us when we find it hard to say what we need to say to God. The Holy Spirit fills us with faith and trust as we pray, reassuring us that hears our prayers and loves us to give us what builds us up and helps us to become more like Jesus.
God uses times like right now when we come together to worship God. The Holy Spirit during worship reminds us Jesus’ amazing love for us and the call to love each other and share with others how much Jesus loves them too. We’re reminded of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross where he washes our sins away, transforming our hearts when we believe in Jesus as our Lord and saviour. Worship gives us the opportunity to tell Jesus how much we love him and to ask him to transform our minds and hearts, so that how we treat others is a witness to who Jesus is. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5, “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
We know what God’s will is, we find it in your GEMS verse, Micah 6:8 “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” It’s not always easy, remember the butterflies? They transformed from plain caterpillars into beautiful butterflies; in the same way we can be transformed more and more into beautiful, amazing girls, women, and people who look and sound like Jesus. Your old friends may tease us about our transformation into people that make Jesus the most important, but Jesus loves the beautiful people you’re transforming into!
