This will be our sixth and last lesson on I WANT TO LEAVE SOMETHING HERE. It has been a great series, at least to me – STOP LOOKING BACK, TAKE TIME TO DANCE, FACE MY FEARS, CHANGE FROM THE INSIDE OUT, MAKE MY MARK, and today I want to talk about BRAND NEW MAN.

As I prepared this lesson, I was sitting in the hospital waiting for a literal BRAND NEW MAN to be born. He was my grandson, Michael Lance, Jr. It was interesting thinking about the natural birth, and all the transformations that take place, as I studied the spiritual birth and all the transformations God wants us to go through. To become all God wants him to become, there will literally be thousands of transformations for Michael Lance. For you and I to become all that God wants us to become, there must be transformations.

The scriptures speak quite a lot about something dramatic and dynamic happening to the Christ follower that transforms us into a new and different person. Let me show you ten scriptures, quickly, that show us the radical transformation that is to happen.

[Ezekiel 36:26]  I will give you a NEW HEART and put a NEW SPIRIT in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. [New attitude, motivation, will]

[John 3:3]  In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is BORN AGAIN." [Drastic transformation]

[Romans 12:2]  Do not conform any longer 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. [Transformed way of thinking and reasoning]

[Titus 3:5]  he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the WASHING OF REBIRTH and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 

[James 1:18]  He chose to give us BIRTH THROUGH THE WORD OF TRUTH, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

 [1 Peter 1:23]  For you have been BORN AGAIN, not of perishable seed, but of IMPERISHABLE, through the living and enduring word of God. [Something incorruptible is birthed in our lives so we can leave it here.]

[1 John 2:29]  If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been BORN OF HIM. [Definition of righteousness – stop making mistakes]

[Galatians 6:15]  Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a NEW CREATION. [Become a different person – new man]

[John 3:8]  The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with EVERYONE BORN OF THE SPIRIT." [Spiritual person]

[1 Peter 1:3]  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us NEW BIRTH into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [Something drastic and dynamic is supposed to happen to us – brings hope.]

Something is supposed to happen so drastic and so dynamic that it is as if we are reborn. It is as if we have a new heart – attitude, motive, reason for living. It is as if we are living in a different kingdom. It is as if we have a different mind. We no longer want to do wrong things. It is as if your heart has had hardness cut away and now it is very tender and sensitive. Suddenly you desire and want to do spiritual things. Something drastic and dynamic is supposed to happen. So, why is it that way for some and not for others? Why do some begin changing, but then stop? The answer is they stop the transformation.

The Bible teaches this transformation is a metamorphosis that brings beauty, success, and allows us to LEAVE SOMETHING HERE. The transformation of the caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly is a lesson from nature (natural) from which we can draw principles about our spiritual transformation. It is an image of a sinner becoming a saint, or a sinner like me becoming a preacher. In other words, there is a transformation for you to go through if you become what God desires. Sadly, many Christ followers stop the metamorphosis and never develop into the beautiful creature that God planned for them to become. The butterfly intends for every larva to become a butterfly. God’s intention is for every born again believer to become successful and abundant and to LEAVE SOMETHING HERE.

The caterpillar began as a tiny larva that does nothing but breath, eat, and struggle to move. It gives it all its got, but travels only a few inches during its existence. It is an ugly and hairy looking thing that boys mash and girls look at and say “Yuck!” Have you ever felt mashed? Have you ever experienced such a crushing time that you did not know if you would make it through? Have you ever felt like your life was “ugly” or “yucky”? Have you ever felt like you were struggling and struggling, but not going anywhere? Well, I am happy to break the news to you. You were a caterpillar that God wanted to metamorphous into a beautiful butterfly. That which was once a defenseless, ugly, struggling, yucky caterpillar is actually destined to become a powerful and beautiful winged butterfly. That is the destiny that God has for each of us! That wormy caterpillar is supposed to give up its old life and begin a brand new life. After the transformation, people no longer say, “Yuck.” No one can mash you and, just as the transformed butterfly, you can fly anywhere.

An article by THE PLANET says, "Despite its paper-thin wings, the monarch butterfly is a powerful flyer with uncanny endurance. It is best known for its annual migration through -- sometimes as far as 3,000 miles--North America to California and Mexico… While migrating, it can cover 80 miles a day.” [1]

Imagine that! A tiny two-inch insect goes from moving a few inches in its entire existence to traveling three-thousand miles in a few weeks. That is what will happen to us when we allow God to change us into A BRAND NEW MAN.

Let’s talk about the spiritual transformation of a Christian from a sinner to a saint using the natural transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly. We will use the “new creature passage and its context to make our analogy.

[2 Corinthians 5:17]  Therefore if any man be IN CHRIST, he is a NEW CREATURE: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 

A Christ follower experiences a spiritual metamorphous just as a butterfly experiences a natural metamorphous. If we are IN Christ then he wrapped us IN a spiritual “cocoon.” The metamorphous begins with the desire to produce a beautiful new person that can fly great distances and will use the winds of the Spirit to migrate into the heavenly kingdom of God. God wants us to become a new creature – a BRAND NEW MAN – that LEAVES  SOMETHING HERE.

All Christ followers are at some level of development. We are a larva, caterpillar, or in a “chemical” state of change, or have emerged as a butterfly.

Let’s look at a few truths from 2 Corinthians 5:14-21.

1. CHANGE FROM BEING SELF-CENTERED.

[2 Corinthians 5:14-15]  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. 

A caterpillar does nothing, except fulfill its own needs. It eats, gets fat, and tries to move. It lives a self-centered life. However, inside of that caterpillar resides a butterfly that desires to fulfill its destiny. Inside of that caterpillar is the desire to pollinate plants, bring beauty, and to produce beautiful butterflies that will fulfill their destinies. The first thing that a metamorphosis does is begin to change that self-centered lifestyle.

True story: “One spring day a poorly dressed boy appeared at the door of Worthy Taylor, a successful farmer in Portage County, Ohio. The young man asked for work, and he was given a job of heavy chores around the farm. He slept in the haymow and ate in the farm kitchen. Jim worked hard, and in time he formed a strong liking for Worthy's daughter. Later this affection turned to love. When he asked for the daughter's hand, he was refused on the grounds that he had no money, reputation, or apparent talents. Jim took his few belongings, stuffed them into his carpetbag, and went away. Thirty-five years passed. One day Mr. Taylor, now an old man, tore down his barn to make space for a new one. Far up on the rafters above the haymow he found where the hired farmhand Jim had carved his name-James A. Garfield. At that very moment James A Garfield was President of the United States.”[2] Inside of that young boy with no money, no reputation, and no apparent talents was the 20^th president of the United States of America. Did you know that before James Garfield became president, he was a preacher? He allowed himself to be transformed by God into what he was to become.

What butterfly is in you? Jesus looked at a rough fisherman named Simon and saw an apostle named Peter. Jesus saw another apostle inside of a tax collector named Levi. I was a little poor boy raised on a farm, but Jesus saw in me a person who could transform from being self-centered to Christ-centered, touch lives, write some books, teach the Bible, and begin something that I WILL LEAVE HERE.

2. ATTACH AND ALLOW THE TRANSFORMATION

[2 Corinthians 5:16-17]  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 BECOME NEW PERSONS. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME ANYMORE, FOR THE OLD LIFE IS GONE. A new life has begun! 

I learned in my studies what happens during the metamorphous of the caterpillar to the butterfly. The caterpillar attaches itself to a safe branch by spinning a silk button from its mouth and attaching itself at the abdomen. The skin is then shed and becomes the cocoon.

There are three things that will stop the metamorphosis. First, our lives will never metamorphous until we attach some place safe so that the metamorphosis will happen. To whom or what are you attached? Your friends, church, habits, etc must be safe and conducive to transformation.

[1 Corinthians 15:33]  Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."

Secondly, silk must come from our mouths to attach us to the correct people and dreams. We direct our lives by our words.

[Proverbs 18:21]  The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. 

[Matthew 12:37]  The words you say now reflect your fate then; either you will be justified by them or you will be condemned." 

It is interesting that we begin the process of becoming a BRAND NEW MAN with  the words coming from our mouths.

[Romans 10:9]  That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 

You will talk like that to which you attach. If you attach to positive company, a positive church, and positive friends, you will spin silk with your mouth.

The third thing that will stop the metamorphosis is getting out of the cocoon. The metamorphosis takes place inside what is called the chrysalis – Christ-alis – the old skin.

[2 Corinthians 5:17]  Therefore if any man be IN CHRIST…

No transformation will happen outside of the “Christ-alis.” We must remain in the body of Christ – the church. Inside the chrysalis, “the tissues and organs of the caterpillar break down into a soupy liquid, and then reassemble into the tissues and organs of the adult butterfly.”[3]

Inside of each of us, there should be a metamorphose taking place. God is changing us from the old nature into the nature of Christ. Our hearts, souls, spirits, liquefy and transform into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

[2 Corinthians 3:18]  And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being TRANSFORMED [Greek word metamorphoo] INTO HIS LIKENESS with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 

Of course we get our English word metamorphose from metamorphoo. Allow me to ask a question. Are you accomplishing what you want to accomplish in life? If not, why? Most likely it is because you have stopped the metamorphose by attaching to the wrong branch or by spinning something other than silk with your mouth or you have gotten out of the Christ-alis. We must attach, spin silk with our mouths and remain in Christ.  

3. THE PURPOSE IS TO BECOME CHRIST’S BUTTERFLIES.

[2 Corinthians 5:18-20]  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and GAVE US THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore CHRIST'S AMBASSADORS, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 

The context of this entire passage about being a new creature is that we transform into Christ’s ambassadors, or if you will with my analogy, Christ’s butterflies. When we initially come to Christ, it is for selfish reasons. We are avoiding hell, or in trouble, or need deliverance from an addiction, etc. All those are good reasons, but as we metamorphous, the reasons we serve God change. The reason becomes transforming into Christ’s ambassadors. The butterfly is so beautiful that it catches the eye of all who see it. It attracts others for a closer look. Our lives, when truly transformed, will be so beautiful that they will do the same thing. We will attract people to God. If that purpose is at the center of our lives, God will make certain that we live abundantly. We will not crawl only a few inches. Rather, we will fly anywhere we want to go.

The caterpillar would look at a large boulder as an unconquerable block in the road. The caterpillar would have to stop, turn around, or attempt to crawl around it. In his NEW LIFE as a Butterfly, NOW he looks at the boulder as a nice landing pad to get a better view of where he wants to go next. He can now fly over and beyond his old, and once huge, obstacles. God wants you to fly from yesterday’s failures and fears.[4]

If we allow the metamorphous to take place WE WILL become a BRAND NEW MAN, WE WILL “ LEAVE SOMETHING HERE. “