Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome to the 18th and final part of our series on spiritual Transformation.

Last week we had two sermons owing to some important prophetic visions. In the first we looked at corporate transformation (as opposed to the personal) which is an essential characteristic of the Remnant Bride of Christ, and saw that when this fails it inevitably leads to denominationalism. We saw what this communal or 'corporatist 'we', as opposed to the 'they'-'I', spirit looks like by examining Peter and Ezekiel as case studies and understood that the Incarnation and Atonement represented the ultimate divine, sacrificial corporate mindset demontrated by the Saviour in His life and death that we are called to imitate on a human level in our service to the Body. We saw how this plays out practically at every level of creation from the differentiation of stem cells in the body to the malignancy of cancer. Finally, we saw how the Gospel life is summed up in divine ahavah-love which only finds its fullest expression in the communal covenant relationship, of which marriage is a type, the reason the covenant relationship is described in Scripture as an allegorical marriage. Marriage and family life is where we obtain most of the skills for a dynamic corporate life in the Messianic Community (Church). You cannot be a 'solo Christian' and become part of the Heavenly Bride.

In the second sermon I shared an important message about the kind of spiritual preparedness now required as we enter into the next phase of the Penultimate Judgment and what to practically expect by studying Zechariah 13:7-9. This is a time of testing and spiritual refinement of the righteous individually and corporately as much as it is a time of judgment for the wicked. My main message was not to go and distort the character of Yahweh through faulty scriptural exegeses and to remain true during the hard times ahead.

What I'd like to do now is to pick up on an earlier theme again by reminding ourselves that sacrificial Christian/Messianic ahavah-, chesed-, agapé-love and concern ought to be demonstrated not only to those within the Remnant or Bride itself, not only to those within the wider fellowship of the Messianic Community (Church), but to those outside these two divisions too. And the only way we can realistically do that, apart from being decent, kind human beings, is by coming to the understanding - which I suggest is inevitable if you are an authentically born-again, spiritually regenerated believer - that those who have been evangelised and transformed in the way I have been talking about these last few months, are supposed to become evangelists - missionaries. And the reason I say that is because a transformed personality, supernaturally changed by Christ, will be unable not to reach out, through the Messianic Community (Church), to those who are still living but untouched by Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ).

In these days of political correctness when the pressure is on us to accept 'everyone's truth' as equally valid and every 'spiritual path' the same as far as the final outcome is concerned, I realise this is something not as commonly done as it was a generation ago. About 40 years ago there was a businessman, and as he was studying his Bible, he came across a verse in the Book of Revelation which grabbed his attention:

"...the Ruach (Spirit) and the Bride say, 'Come!'" (Rev.22:17, NKJV).

The businessman said to himself, "Hey, I've been a hearer all my life, and I've never said to anybody, 'Come!'. My business is going well, it only needs me a few hours a day, so the rest I will give to Elohim (God) for the express task of bringing others into the community of the saved". He realised at that moment that it wasn't just Yah'shua (Jesus) who said:

"Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 3For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matt.11:28-30, NKJV).

Ever since Yah'shua (Jesus) departed this world, the invisible Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) has been doing the same thing as Yah'shua (Jesus) in in saying, "Come!" but notice that now it is a corporate or communal effort because it is "the [invisible] Ruach (Spirit) and (or 'working through') the [visible] Bride (the community of the Redeemed)" who now say, together, corporately, as one, "'Come!'"

So the business man went to his Pastor and said to him, "Give me a job." The Pastor replied, "Here's a list of people in this city who ought to be Christians/Messianics and are not; see what you can do with them." That business man, who didn't have the gifting or calling to stand in a pulpit and preach like his Pastor, was responsible, in two years, for 500 people coming to Christ. And before he began this work he had a bad heart! He forgot about his bad heart and just got on with it. He was a surprise even to himself.

You too can be a surprise to yourself when you allow Yahweh to transform you from the 'they'-'I' relationship to the one who puts his arm around a sinner and says, "I am not better than you, but I know the way to the Cross. Let's walk together to Calvary." We are all ambassadors for Messiah, not just the pastors, evangelists, missilonaries and other officers in the local congregation.

Indeed Paul points out this very commission we are given to the ancient Corinthians:

"For if we are beside ourselves, it is for Elohim (God); or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Messiah compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of Elohim (God), who has reconciled us to Himself through Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that Elohim (God) was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though Elohim (God) were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to Elohim (God). For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of Elohim (God) in Him" (2 Cor.5:12-21, NKJV).

"Whatever we do, it is because Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for everyone, we also believe that we have all died to the old life we used to live. He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live to please themselves. Instead they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though He were merely a human being. How differently I think about Him now! What this means is that those who become Christians/Messianics become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun! All this newness of life is from Elohim (God), who brought us back to Himself through what Christ did. And Elohim (God) has given us the task of reconciling people to Him. For Elohim (God) was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people's sins agtainst them. This is the wonderful message He has given us to tell others. We are Christ's ambassadors, and Elohim (God) is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ Himself were here pleading with you, 'Be reconciled to Elohim (God)'. For Elohim (God) made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we would be made right with Elohim (God) through Christ" (2 Cor.5:14-21, NLT).

Unfortunately, the human mind is adept at finding reasons whu we should not go outn of our way to share the ahavah (love) and compassion of our Messiah with those who do not know Him. Let me tell you another true story. There was a preacher who spoke on the subject of the Samaritan woman at the well (Jn.4:1-14) in which he took a very unusual line. He gave a list of reasons why Yah'shua (Jesus) should not have spoken to the woman:

• 1. She was a woman;
• 2. She was a woman alone;
• 3. She was a bad woman;
• 4. She was a bad woman alone;
• 5. She was a Samaritan;
• 6. She came from Sychar (which literally means 'drunken', assumed to be the default character of the inhabitants);
• 7. He was tired; and
• 8. It was noon, and probably very hot.

Then, in finishing his sermon, the minister gave the two reasons why Yah'shua (Jesus) overcame all these barriers thrown up by the flesh:

• A. The woman's need; and
• B. Yahweh's will - "the will of Him (Yahweh, the Father) who sent Me (Yah'shua/Jesus)" (Jn.4:34; 6:38-39).

Those two factors still lay claim upon us today - everyone needs salvation and Yahweh wills it for those who will accept it on the terms He has given. That's all we need to know. The "will" of the Father is for everybody and the "need" includes everybody. As Paul says, Yahweh "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4, NKJV) - not some predestined elect class as Calvinists teach, but all - everyone. 'Yahweh wills it, all man and women everywhere need it, so I'll do it' is all we need to recognise and so respond. It's why I preach every week and have thousands of articles online. It's how I say, "Come!" It's why King david said, in Psalm 66:

"Come and see what Elohim (God) has done,
how awesome His works in man's behalf!" (Ps.66:5, NIV).

"Come [and] see the place where the Master lay. And go quickly and tell His talmidim (disciples) that He is risen from the dead" (Matt.28:7, NKJV).

"Come and see" (John 1:46, NKJV),

You see, we're not the ones responsible for doing any converting - we can't change people's minds and hearts. That's the job of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). We're in the business of issuing invitations even if it's just to come along to a sabbath assembly to hear the Besorah (Gospel) preached. Even the Samartitan woman issued the invitation to all her friends and those she knew: "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did" (John 4:29, NKJV).

You know, I think we should read the story of the Samaritan lady as it's such an important one just in case you've never heard it before or because you may have forgotten some of the details. We'll read from John 4:

"The Pharisees heard that Yah'shua (Jesus) was gaining and baptising more talmidim (disciples) than John, although in fact it was not Yah'shua (Jesus) who baptised, but His talmidim (disciples). When the Master learned of this, He left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

"Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Yah'shua (Jesus), tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

"When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Yah'shua (Jesus) said to her, 'Will you give me a drink?' (His talmidim/disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

"The Samaritan woman said to him, 'You are a Yehudi (Judahite) and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Yehudim/Judahites do not associate with Samaritans.)

"Yah'shua (Jesus) answered her, 'If you knew the gift of Elohim (God) and Who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.'

"'Sir,' the woman said, 'you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?'

"Yah'shua (Jesus) answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life'" (John 4:1-14, NIV).

Now whilst there are lots of things that could be said about the Samaritan woman, let me just point out one thing in this story that might help you share your faith with others. How did Yah'shua (Jesus) open the conversation? He began at the point of her interest. He began with the thing she came for - 'water' - and then went from water to 'living water'.

When you show an interest in what others are interested in, they tend to respond more readily and be interested in what you are interested in. And that, I suggest, is what makes a good personal witness, missionary or evangelist (which is the heart of the Gospel) rather than a merely 'religious' one who wants to make a 'convert' for conversion's sake or to restock his church's pews to they can get tithes to maintain an expensive building, or for some other reason. We witness so that souls may be delivered from death and into life as we have been, or ought to have been.

If transformed people become witnesses of their transformation in Christ to the untransformed, they must be transformed in literally every area of living. And given we live in a material world and are ourselves part material and part spirit, it is important that the matter we inhabit becomes transformed also, or as least as far as our attitude toward it is concerned. You see, if we don't transform the material into the image of the spiritual then, inevitably, the material will transform us into its own image.

Some believers allow material things to gain the upper hand. Instead of serving Elohim (God) with Mammon (riches, wealth, money), they idolatrously make Mammon their god, and soon they begin to look like their god - cold, metallic or digital. The light of ahavah (love) fades from their eyes, and although they were made a living soul, they become only living flesh. With Edna St.Vincent Millay (1892-1950), the American poet and dramatist, they say:

I cannot tell what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, and in me sings no more.

The winter of materialism sets in and as multitudes of believers have discovered - especially those who chase after the illusion of the so-called 'Prosperity Gospel' - it is a frosty experience in the soul. The story is told of a leopard who was shot and his skin made into a coat, then hung in a shop window with a price mark of $2,000. The rest of the family of leopards out walking stopped at the window and, recognising the skin of their father, said: "He was better off when he wasn't worth that much. At least he was alive!"

Countless millions over the centuries have pursued material things only to discover, when they gained them, that an inner deadness takes over. When we make acquisition our god, we find that instead of owning it - it owns us. "No man can serve two masters," Yah'shua (Jesus) taught, "You cannot serve Elohim (God) and mammon (riches, wealth, money)" (Mt.6:24). As I have said many times before, I believe, as the economy collapses, as it's about to, and the world consists only of the super-rich and the super-poor, that there will be very, very few Christians or Messianics who have wealth, as it will all be concentrated in the hands of the élites who will control it all, and to be in their feudal 'club' you will have to sell your soul to the devil in any case. So that could well be a blessing in disguise.

None of this is to say that there cannot be wealthy believers, or that that is bad, because wealthy Christians/Messianics can be a great blessing to the Kingdom. In reality, though, there are very few people, including believers, who know how to handle riches without being corrupted and spiritually strangulated because they lack the wisdom and self-control that those like Abraham possessed. Mammon can become our master or a message, even for those who don't have much but nevertheless succumb to idolatry and long for more like so many of the corrupt prosperity gospel tele-evangelists of our own time. You must decide whether the money wealth you have, great or small, will be your master or message.

So how can Mammon become a positive, Christ-affirming message? It becomes a message when it is dedicated to Yahweh! When unsurrendered, it becomes a master - and what a terrible master it is! This aspect of surrender is something we have emphasised throughout this series of sermons, and we have done so because it is the turntable on which life turns from the material to the spiritual. If we don't surrender the material to Elohim (God), then it will not be long before Yahweh is pushed out by the material.

So the question we must ask ourselves is this: who owns my possessions? Elohim (God) or me? A believer is not a proprietor of his possessions but a steward. A proprietor is the holder or owner of property. A steward is a person entrusted with the management of someone else's property - a manager - for which he must give an account to the owner. And whilst the law of the country may say (at least for now, unless you live in a system where private property is forbidden) that you own this or that, in Yahweh's eyes, if you claim to belong to Him, as a believer should, then then all you may legally own belongs to Him. Surrendering our possessions to Elohim (God) does more than settle a material issue - it determines our life-attitude. We become men and women under orders. It transforms the secular into the sacred. It turns wealth into a witness. It makes money become a message instead of a slave-driver.

We are told by Yahweh in Scripture precisely how to handle our wealth. It is called the Law of Tithing or the law of the Tenth. Under the Old Covensant this was the obligation of every member of the Covenant Community, the Nation of Israel when it was living in the Promised Land. This was a theocratic nation which means it was governed by the Priesthood of Yahweh. There were three types of tithe that was paid in specific amounts over a seven-year cycle called the Sh'mittah:

These three were:

• 1. The tithe to the Cohenim (Priests) or Ministers;
• 2. The tithe for the poor; and
• 3. The tithe for the festivals.

Since we don't live in the Promised Land of Israel under a theocratic government steered entirely by Yahweh's torot (laws), but in nations with secular governments (which includes the 'Israeli Republic'), this is simplified in the New Covenant by dividing 10 per cent of one's increase and assigning a third to the ministry (your local congregation), a third for helping the poor as you are personally directed by the Ruach (Spirit), and a third you save so that you can travel to and purchase food for, the places (and where necessary rent accommodation) where the divine moedim or appointments are celebrated nearest to you. If you celebrate at home, or offer your home to others, then you can use the third-of-a-tenth however you see fit, perhaps in helping the poorer to travel or purchase food if you have any surplus. Why not 16 per cent? Because we are not in Theocratic Israel but in a pre-Melchizedek Order rather like that of Abraham and he paid a round 10 per cent to the King of Salem under whose spiritual jurisdiction he came.

The point being that the tithe belonged to Elohim (God) in the Old Covenant and to keep any of it back for personal use, as Yahweh warned against through the navi (prophet) Malachi, was robbery of Elohim (God) Himself (Mal.3:8). It's not man's to reassign. We neither live in the Promised Land nor under a divinely mandated Theocratic Government and therefore are subject to the taxation demands of the nations we live in, however exhorbitant or ungodly, another reason we don't pay the theocratic 16 per cent. We are required to submit to them for righteousness' sake even if it's sometimes daylight robbery. In Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Europe, Church and State were conjoined to varying degrees and I can remember years ago when in Norway, as here in Sweden until 2000, the state would collect 'tithes' for the State Church (Lutheran in the case of Norway and Sweden) which you could 'redirect' under more liberal laws to the denomination, religion or humanist association of your choice if it was registered. To make things more complicated, the 'tithe' was sometimes greater or less than 10 per cent. And some of the 'tithes' collected by the state have been funnelled to 'charitable' institutions like health care and social welfare for those going through hard times, to make things even more complicated, and so the churches and messianic assemblies have had to work out, usually with considerable disagreement, how best to live financial stewardship under secular governments.

Without getting into all of that today, I just wanted to point out two things that:

• 1. Firstly, in the New Covenant, all our wealth belongs to Yahweh; and
• 2. Secondly, we are to manage it under a combination of the law of the basic tithe or tenth (divided into three parts, for the ministry, poor and festivals) and freewill offerings.

What you do beyond the 'tithe' with your surplas after you have met your family needs (which you alone have the authority to determine) is entirely between you and Yahweh, what one minister called "an offering of minted personality". You might feel led to support an orphanage, help a fellow believer struggling, or support a Christian charity. As Paul said to the Romans, expressing this idea:

"Let the man who is called to give, give freely; let the man in authority work with enthusiasm" (Rom.12:8, J.B.Phillips).

The context of that passage is important so let's quickly run through it, starting at the first verse:

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of Elohim (God), that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, qadosh (holy, set-apart), acceptable to Elohim (God), which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of Elohim (God).

"For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as Elohim (God) has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Messiah, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

"Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honour giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Master; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones), given to hospitality" (Rom.12:1-14, NKJV).

So as we can see here, just as some are called to the ministry of preaching, so some are called to make money for Elohim (God). This doesn't necessarily just mean professionally, of course, but can also mean raising money through various projects pursued in one's spare time. In either case, ledgers must be handled with the same sense of mission and sacredness as a Bible is in the hands of a preacher.

I like the definition of religion given by Howard F. Lowry who said this:

"It conceives of all man does as a calling, and of his life as a piece, a unity of richly component parts."

Well, this has been a long series, begun last summer. We have explored the theme of transformation in some breadth so all that remains for me to do now is sum up, and I can think of no better way of doing so by saying that ALL of life is based on transformation. We are transformed either upwards or downwards, depending on which side of life we stand: Yahweh's or the devil's. For those of us who have received Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) into our lives, we are able, in His Name, to transform everything we touch. And why is this? Because Elohim (God) transformed Himself into a man (the incarnation), became like us, so that we might become like Him.

And a verse of Scripture that most perfectly sums this up for me may be found in 1 John, chapter 3:

"What we are to be is not apparent yet, but we do know that when He (Christ) appears we are to be like Him" (1 Jn.3:2, Moffat).

Just think of it! We who are born of the dust, this humble material, are being gradually transformed into the most beautiful image this planet has ever seen - the image of our Messiah. This road, this derech or way, which takes us from "glory to glory" (2 Cor.3:18, NKJV) will lead us eventually to the final goal of being transformed into the perfect image of Christ. We are to be with Him, and like Him, from one æon to the next, for ever and ever.

You know, it was once said of a blacksmith, over a century ago in New England, that he lived so much in thought with Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), that he actually came to look like him. I've heard similar stories of other people. We, who love the Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Lord Jesus Christ), and who daily walk in His light, and delight in His emet (truth), will one day see Him, and the sight of Him will be so breathtaking, so positively absorbing, that we shall suddenly become like Him, not only in thought, but in appearance. This is the final transformation, the goal to which we aspire.

Let's pray: "Father Yahweh, I have been a hearer too long. I'm not going to begin to say 'Come'. Help me to win others to You in my daily life. Thank you for showing me so clearly that if I show an interest in other people's interests, they may show an interest in my interest, which is You. First of all, though, You, who made me in Your image, help me to realise that I do not live aright if I try to live in the material for material gain's sake. I see so clearly that I am part of a vast deign in which is a very large and confusing world, and as I find my task, and do it, I grow big in the vastness. Make me a good steward of my time, my treasures and my talents. I am so grateful for what You have taught me as I have travelled on this pilgrimage into transformation. And although I come to the end of studying this theme for now, I realise that I will never come to the end of the fact. Transformation is an open vista, a long narrow view of remembered or abticipated events that have formed me, and are continuing to form me, for ever. Thank you for the privilage of walking this derech - this way - in this life. In Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen."

With that we conclude this series which I hope has been some small blessing to you. Until next sabbath, grace and peace to you in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Acknowledgments