Graduation

Happy Sunday! Today we wrap up our series on transformation. Over the past several weeks, we've looked at how we change when we let God take over our lives. Our thoughts change, our attitudes change, our behavior changes, our priorities even change. Sometimes the change or transformation is gradual, and sometimes it's swift.

Here's the question for today: is there a time when we graduate from the old to the new? Is there a time when we look back and say, "I am so changed that there's no old me left"? My friends who once had alcohol problems refer to themselves as alcoholics, even though they may have been absolutely sober for 30 years or more. They do this to remind themselves that their old nature is lurking in the shadows, ready to return in an instant. Back to the question: do we ever get to the point where we can say there is no old me left?

In local news, I've read about a lady who lived not too far from me here in Atlanta. She's a jewel thief. She was arrested not too long ago for stealing a necklace at a local mall. She's 86 years old. She said in an interview, "I don't have any regrets about stealing jewelry. I regret getting caught." She has let her old nature run her life. So many people do.

The apostle Paul talked a great deal about the problem of the old man, the new man, and the battle. You may remember his words from Philippians 3:12-14. There he says, "I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection, but I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I've not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."

There are several great points here about total transformation, or in answering the question, do we ever graduate from the old to the new for this earth or in this body? The first part of verse 13 gives us the answer. Paul says, "No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it." Now, don't fret. There's good news in the coming verse, help for all of us.

I love what Paul says next as we continue verse 13 of Philippians 3. He says, "But I focus on one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead." Forgetting the past is key here. When we look forward and not backward, graduation does come. Total transformation does come. It comes when believers get to their heavenly home.

Now, you already knew that. What I want to focus on right now is help for this side of heaven. Paul encourages us as verse 14 begins, when he says, "I press on." That's what we are to do. We're to move forward and not backward.

I have a friend that would say, when you ask him how he was doing, he would say, "I'm a way improved version of what I used to be." He was right. Hopefully all of us can say that. Let me put it this way: we graduate every day. We press on, don't we? Every time we resist, every time we say no to temptation, every time we act like a child of the King.

I want us to look at a man who pressed on after a roller coaster life. You know him as King David, king of Israel, a man after God's own heart, killer of giants, leader of men. And then all of us know that David had a lust problem. David liked the ladies. He had eight wives that we know of: Ahinoam, Abigail, Mecca, Haggath, Abital, and Elga, and later on he added Macal and Bathsheba.

There were even more. How many, we don't know. Second Samuel 5:13 tells us, "After moving from Hebron to Jerusalem, David married more concubines and wives, and they had more sons and daughters." It is guessed that David was in his mid-50s when the Bathsheba incident took place.

I want to skip a couple of decades to the end of David's life. He's in his 70s, and he's dying, and he's cold. Do you know what his advisors decided to do to wake him up? You probably don't hear this too much, but they decided to get him a woman. They knew his history. They knew his old nature. They knew his weak spot.

Listen to the words of First Kings 1:1-4: "King David was now very old, and no matter how many blankets covered him, he could not keep warm. So his advisors told him, 'Let us find a young virgin to wait on you and look after you, my lord. She'll lie in your arms and keep you warm.' So they searched throughout the land of Israel for a beautiful girl, and they found Abhishag from Shunam and brought her to the king. The girl was very beautiful, and she looked after the king, and she took care of him."

I find this very interesting. Historians tell us that this was not unusual. A king could get whatever he wanted. What I find interesting is that they went and found a beautiful girl. David liked beautiful girls. If this was just for temperature reasons, they would have searched the kingdom for the hottest girl, but instead they searched the kingdom for the hottest girl in another sense.

Was this a test of David's old nature? Had he graduated at all? We're told in First Kings 1:4, "The king had no sexual relations with her." I love that that's in the record. All of us have temptations that we will no longer have to deal with, deal with. We've made our decisions. We've improved. We press on to graduate more today than we did yesterday. David did that.

One day we will truly graduate. What a glorious day! But until then, press on. Let God continue to transform you.

Pray with me. Lord, thank you for this day, and thank you for these friends that watch. And we pray that you would continue to transform us, no matter how old we are, no matter how young we are. There's areas in our lives where, well, we need to yield even more to you. So, Father, whatever the test is, we pray that our new transformed self will pass it, and people will see the difference and be drawn to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

God bless. Thanks for watching.