Authentic Transformation - Pastor Sandra Roach

In this powerful message, Pastor Sandra Roach calls the Church to return to genuine, Spirit-led change rooted in the Word of God. Addressing the rise of compromise, deception, and surface-level faith, she emphasizes that true transformation is not self-produced but comes through a surrendered relationship with Jesus Christ. 

This episode challenges believers to pursue purity, develop discernment, and live as new creations, fully transformed, grounded in truth, and prepared for a coming move of God that prioritizes changed lives over filled seats. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Summit Church Podcast. Thank you for joining us as we share weekly sermons and teachings from Summit Church in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Our prayer is that today's message encourages your faith and helps you grow in your relationship with Jesus. Check out our website at summitchurchtn.com. Thanks for listening, and we pray this message encourages you today.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Today I'm going to talk to you about something so important, so transformative. The title of my sermon is Authentic Transformation. I've been praying for the church, not just Summit Church, but the church especially in America for what I'm seeing in America, for what I'm seeing in the exposure in the church in America. And so we see compromise in lifestyles, we see uh exposure of sin. It seems almost weakly. I know I've talked about this before, because it's really important for us to understand that being faithful to God is paramount to anything else in our life. And being faithful to what he says in his word. So even though I've spoken about this before, it seems to be happening on a weekly basis almost like rapid fire. Why is that? Because God is cleaning up and growing up his church. Hallelujah. So one of the things I've noticed over the past few months, we're becoming aware of things in us that are not Christ in you. And that's God's plan. It's a good thing to say, Lord, is there anything in me that is not Christ in me? Hallelujah. We're returning to the purity of the Word of God instead of the latest catchphrase in the church. You know, we're really good, especially spirit-filled churches. We're really good to grab hold of a catchphrase. Have y'all noticed that? It's like the latest, greatest, and oh, we do all of our sermons, and you know, at the first of the year, it's, you know, it's the new thing that's coming out for the church, and everybody preaches it. This is the direction and everything. And yet we're still seeing things go on in the church that God wants to clean up. Our focus has truly been about growing in him. This church, our focus for you and for us has been about growing in him. Not about filling seats. That's his job. Do you realize that? That's his job. As I pray for the church, the Lord keeps speaking about preparing the church, equipping the church. That's why we're teaching on Wednesday. Well, I'm not. But we've got great teachers. Brother Ryan is starting revelation, and we're excited about that. But um, anyway, we're preparing the church. It's time for us to know the truth because the Bible says if you know the truth, the truth will set you free. Amen. Hallelujah. So what is living a life of authentic transformation? The word authentic means real, genuine, true, authentic is never afraid to be tested. Anything that's real is never afraid to be tested. Transformation for Christians is becoming a new creation without history. Oh, come on, you all need to be excited about that. Transformation for us is becoming a new creation without history, becoming who we were created by God to be. Hallelujah. And the beauty of authentic transformation is we don't do it, God does. Isn't that beautiful? We don't, it's not like we're having to work this up. He I am crucified with Christ. You see, when I see Jesus on the cross and when I see all that he's done for me, I am so thankful. But I don't grieve over it anymore. I thank God for it because he took what I deserved in his own body. So that I could live for him and like him. Oh, hallelujah. Listen to this, 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says, this means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone, a new life has begun. We must, as the church, yeah, I've heard that before, Pastor. Oh, great, great scripture. I've always loved that passage. That is so good. But are you living it? Are you actually living as a new creation created by God? Old things, your old life is dead and gone. We're not, we were not created to go stand at the grave of who we used to be and grieve over the fun we had. Because let me tell you something, there is nothing like living for Jesus. Hallelujah. Praise the name of the Lord. Oh. How do we know that we have been authentically transformed? How do we know that? Through the Word of God, through the Word of God and through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Listen, the Bible tells us that the Word of God is alive. It's powerful, it's sharper than any two-edged sword. Come on, church. It is so powerful. I love the word. I was raised in a word family. I was raised in a family where we'd get up on Sunday and do communion before we went to church. We wanted to remember him in everything. Listen, his word is alive, and it has to be alive in me and in you. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Aren't you thankful that God didn't just leave us to our own devices? Well, you got to change, but you're on your own. See, much of the church lives that way. We live by a loose, uh a list of church rules and regulations. You have to do this and this and this to become like him. You see, he took all of what made me unable to look like him on the cross. And when I received that, oh brothers and sisters, what glory, what wonder, what joy we have knowing that He took on Himself what I couldn't carry. So that I would become a new creation in Christ Jesus. Pastor, I know all of this. I thank you for this little review. I think it's really wonderful. Yea, God. Just go ahead and pray, and we'll get out of the traffic early. You know, Pastor Tim upstairs has a lesson. And I'm not going to disappoint him by not getting to teach it, okay? So I'm just going to keep on plowing, okay? You see, beloved, I want you to hear this from me today. It's not an option for us to be in the word. It's imperative that we know the word because the Bible says you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Beloved, I want you to know his word is truth. And he said he will fulfill all of it. Oh, hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Summit Church has a heart for an authentic move of God in this region, in this state, and in this nation. I prayed for over 20 years for that great move of God. Well, Pastor, maybe you prayed amiss. You see, I can't pray anything but what he places on my heart to pray. As I was coming here today, he said these words. You know, you're at that one big step before you see it.

unknown 10:11

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

What? I about ran off the road. I was on Sugar Hollow. Y'all know what that's like. Sometimes God speaks to me, and you know, I'm passing a car. Whoa. One step. If we could look at it that way, one step into the place where God is gonna pour out his spirit again, where God is going to wash the streets of this county. Come on. Somebody needs to be excited about it. I'm telling you, I believe this move of God is going to come differently than that previous move or what you might call revival. I believe that every authentic believer, I want you to hear this, grab hold of it today. This is you I'm talking to today. This is a word from God. This isn't something I said, I could teach on. Hmm, that might be good. No, this is a word from God. Every authentic believer will be so full of God, so transformed by his love and power, that wherever you go, his presence will be with you. It will be felt as you walk, as you walk down the street, as you walk in a store, as you walk in the church, someone's gonna say, wait a minute. I don't know what you have, but I want it. Come on. And you can look at him and say, Jesus paid it. Jesus paid the price, Jesus paid the price you can have, you can have this. Come on. Hallelujah. You see, we want to get some people saved. Oh, how we want to see people get saved. But do we want to really be responsible for growing them? We we we love to talk. I remember I had to work this evangelism thing in. And uh there was a pastor in my group. You know how pastors are. And he said, I'm keeping a count of how many I'm gonna pull out of hell tonight. Well, that push my buttons, and so I felt like something needed to be said, and I've never been shy whenever something needs to be said, but are you willing to disciple the ones you put out, pull out of the mouth the pale? Are you willing to show them who Jesus is? Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. I was talking to a a woman, young woman, oh, many years, 25 years ago, in this county, and and she had this wonderful ministry where she would go to all of the in bars and different places and talk to people about Jesus. And I said, Do you do you have a plan when you lead them to the Lord for growing them up? She looked at me like I, you know, was out of my mind. She said, That's not my job. Yeah, it is. Yes, it is. Come on, if all we do is lead people to the Lord and don't lead them into what had they been born into, who they are, how they can walk. Put a Bible in their hand, open it up and show them who Jesus is. We're putting a target on their back. Come on. You see, this next move of God, I believe with all my heart, is going to be about filling people's lives with the love of God more than filling seats in a church. You know, people have big evangelistic outreaches, but I want to tell you this. We've spent so much time focusing on seats instead of transformed lives. That people can walk away from him anytime things get hard. You know, I'm seeing that. Things get hard in your life. I've had people say this to me before. Listen, I listen, this is too hard. I I don't want anything to do with it. Why? Because they were never grown up. Come on, church. You see, real transformation can only come through an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ. That's when we become like Him. Sons and daughters reflect the image and the glory of the only true God. Hallelujah. Beloved, the enemy knows this. And we're experiencing an unprecedented attack on the church in these last days. Matthew 24 tells us this. Jesus said to his disciples, when they asked, Lord, what will be the sign of your coming? And he said, Deception. The very first thing, very first sign will be deception. And we're seeing it. There are many in these days saying that they have gotten great revelation from God. But these revelations do not line up with the word of God. I mean, I I don't, I can't even listen to this stuff anymore. I can't even listen to it as as proof that it's out there. I can't hear it anymore. It is such, it is so fraudulent. It does not reflect God, it reflects man. Let me read something to you that's real important that we understand. Jude chapter 1, there's only one chapter in Jude. Starting in verse 3, dear friends, I have been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all to his holy people. Do y'all hear that? You hear that? Jude says the truth that was delivered to us, his holy people. You can say that's me if you know him. Hallelujah. I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God's marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. I want to say this. Well, I know people that have fallen and they've not denied Jesus. You're denying the Lordship of Jesus Christ when you choose sin over godliness and you're a son or a daughter of God. Well, I hope God is more gracious than you are. Beloved, let me tell you this. I didn't get this sermon on my own. He gave it to me, okay? And he is concerned that the church is going the way of the world. We are reflecting the glory of the world, which is darkness, instead of the glory of Almighty God. I can't get away from this. It's the time in which we live. I want you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. And I want to say there is so much deception and mixture in the church today. That's why the cleansing and purifying is happening. This is wonderful. This is the love of God, people. He loves us so much that he is cleansing and purifying his church. And everybody that loves him says what?

unknown 19:18

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Praise the Lord. Thank you, brother. The Apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth. And in verse 1 of chapter 11, he says, I hope you'll put up with a little more of my foolishness. Please bear with me. Or I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God Himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband, Christ. But I don't consider myself inferior in any way to those superapostles who teach such things. I may be unskilled as a speaker, but I am not lacking in knowledge. We have made this clear to you in every possible way. That scripture always just blows my mind when I read it. He said, I'm not a skilled preacher. I'm not going to impress you with my preaching skills. But I come to you with the truth because I know the man of truth. Oh my goodness. It amazes me when I read this and I think that the Apostle Paul, who wrote 13 of the 27 books in the New Testament. And he says, now I know you're not impressed with me. Listen, I know they didn't know what was going to happen in our day, in uh thousand years and two thousand years. They didn't know what was going to happen. But here this man is writing these letters, which God used to put in the canon of Scripture. That we read. That we are so, are y'all as blessed as I am to have the Word of God? Come on. He was saying, I may not be a great speaker, but I know God. Beloved, we see a different gospel popping up in the words to our music. Not every worship song lines up with the Word of God. Well, Pastor, don't you think you're being harsh because it's saying something nice? Listen, nice isn't always truth. Nice may give you a good feeling. And you know, after all, we are a spirit-filled church and we're all about having a good feeling, aren't we? But, beloved, I want to say this to you about a spirit-filled church that is all feeling but doesn't have any depth in the word. We will get pulled into anything the enemy will throw at you. If you're a silver-tongued preacher, come on. They'll go, Wow, did you whoa, whoa, did you feel that? That was, I felt Holy Ghost just flying in the room. Say stupid stuff like that, flying in the room. He lives in me. Come on, hallelujah. He walks with me as the paraclete, but he lives in me as the indwelling person of the Godhead. Hallelujah. Don't realize I'm talking about the church of the living God. We ought to be excited today to be part of the church. Well, Pastor, it's Rod Rudd. It's busy out there. And you're not gonna preach so long we can't eat somewhere. I'm thinking I'm gonna preach long enough the crowd will be gone. No, I'm feeling the anointing on that one. I just feel like he's smearing that all over me. Praise the Lord. Glory to God. And if you do not know the word, you will be lured in by deception and not even know it. Do you realize that? You'll be pulled in by deception and not even know it. And think, whoa, that's a good word. As a pastor, I feel great sorrow. I feel that the way he feels when he writes this letter to the Church of Corinth. He said, I'm jealous for you. With the same jealousy of God, I promised you. See, he takes that so seriously. What if every person you lead to the Lord, you say, Lord, I promised you to present them as your holy bride? Well, that'd change. Just to one husband, and that is Christ. Come on, that changed the way we'd disciple people. We'd be connected. Do you know everybody you lead to the Lord and everybody you're connected to isn't like you? They're not easy. But I have found the church wants to minister to people like themselves. We just have it's called a country club. And instead of tithing, you can pay dues. But let me say this. Oh, come on, Lord, high five on that one. I felt the Holy Ghost hit me just now. He says the problem is the fees, the dues for a country club are a lot higher than you're willing to tithe. Okay. Did I say that out loud? Praise the Lord. Oh, come on. Paul's intense concern. It wasn't selfish, it was protective. His highest priority was to keep believers faithful to Christ. Not faithful to a large following, not faithful to attend his preaching assignments, not faithful to his latest new revelation, but faithful to Jesus. Now, I'm going to talk about something really important. It's all important, but this is seriously important in the day in which we live. Paul saw deception coming to the church and issued a warning to stay faithful to the gospel that you once believed. See, there was a time when you didn't have a smorgasbord of beliefs. One gospel. One faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. One baptism. Come on. But now you've got all kinds of selections. Paul saw deception coming. I want you to listen to verse 3 and 4 again. But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed. You see, just as that old serpent deceived Eve, false teachers are corrupting the minds of believers, leading them away from the truth they once believed, promoting a different spirit, teaching a different gospel, preaching another Jesus. Beloved, I want to say this to you. A year ago, April, a year ago, my life was radically changed by one thing. Jesus came to me and he said, I came for you. And in that moment, I felt a love I have never experienced before. Because you see, I believed that I had to earn the love of God. If I didn't check off all the marks, I was raised in it. If you had come to me and say, Pastor, do you have any religion? Oh no. No, no, no. I have buried religion in the graveyard of good intentions. But I realized I didn't fully understand that he loved me and would always love me. I heard Lisa Bevere teach something and I have not been able to get away from it. She said this. God is love. But love is not God. She said, if God is love, it's unchanging. When God is love, it's his love. It's his love for humanity. It's his love that is non-negotiable. But if love is God, then we get to define how that love looks for every person. Wow. For every situation. Beloved, if my child is taking drugs, I'm gonna go after that child. I'm gonna do everything I can to rescue them. And I will probably be loving them more than I knew I had the ability to love. Because they're in trouble. See, here's the problem. We think love is defined as a warm fuzzy. You are so awesome. Oh my goodness. I'm looking at all of you. You're so awesome, you're cute, you look like Jesus. It's so when church is over, let's all do a group hug. Well, let me tell you something, beloved. God's love is I'll come after you wherever you're at, and I will pull you out of it. I will pull you out of that. I will not keep let go until I have pulled you out of that place. I will show you a love that will never let you go. I will be, I will pull you out, but there may be some things you have to go through while I'm pulling you out for your good. You see, that's the love of God. It's all in his word. It's throughout his whole word. Beloved, I can't I can't redefine or throw away the word of God. I love it. I feel like Jeremiah when he said his words are found, and I ate them. And they were the joy and rejoicing of my heart, for I'm called by your name. O Lord God of hosts. Come on. I love picking up his word. I love opening it and reading it. There's rarely a time that I don't read the word that it brings me to tears. Because even when he says, This has to go, it's said with so much love. I know that he has a great plan and purpose for my life. So I was getting ready this morning, he reminded me of something I foolishly had said. You ever said foolish things before? I mean stupid. Not just stupid things, okay? And he reminded me, and he said, if your faithfulness is contingent on that, you're never gonna get where I want to take you. And I stopped. I didn't care if I was late for church, which I was a little bit late, but I started praying right then, canceling the words I'd said that could keep me stationary instead of moving forward. Come on. Listen, sometimes we say things, you know why? They sound warm, fuzzy, and good. Oh you know, we all, uh it's so awesome. I love it when you all send me messages and tell me you love me and good sermon, whatever. I thank you for that. But I'm not gonna change because I don't hear it.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

Paul said, I travail over you like a woman in birth paints, till Christ be formed in you. That's a church. That's what we should be saying. Not wanting a good following, not me putting on my fake life on Facebook. And and and filtering my face to make me look twenty years younger, although that might not be a bad anyway. I mean, not everything is bad, okay? Let's agree. Okay. Lord, you have me say crazy stuff, okay. Just as the serpent deceived Eve, false teachers are corrupting the minds of believers, leading them away from the truth they once believed, promoting a different spirit, teaching a different gospel, preaching another Jesus. Are you all hearing me? Paul said, I know I don't speak with flowery words or with the silver tongue of false apostles that are leading you astray. But I have this great burning truth in me that I'll pray for you until Christ be formed in you. No higher goal, no greater achievement for the church is for us to stand together, pray for each other until Christ be formed in you. Beloved, we are called to keep our focus on one, and his name is Jesus. This scripture I'm getting ready to read to you has been recorded in my mind for an entire week over and over and over. I wake up in the middle of the night hearing this scripture over and over in my mind until I can actually see it. Hebrews 12, 1 and 2. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. How do we do this? By keeping our eyes on Jesus. Come on. Keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne. As I would pray this, as it would be in my mind, I could see the atmosphere between heaven and earth is getting thinner. You see, they know what Jesus said. They know that Paul said, Paul's up there leaning. Remember what I said. Deception will be high. It will be, you will be on alert for deception. But there's a great cloud of witnesses believing for us. See, knowing what they did. They didn't get to experience what we're experiencing right now. We're experiencing the fullness of what they didn't see, yet they believed. Can you believe that? They didn't see it and yet believed it for us. You see, I'm gonna live it. Keeping our eyes on Jesus who endured the cross for us. Never take your focus off Jesus. Never never take your focus off Jesus and the truth found in his word. The need for discernment. The church needs discernment. So how do I cultivate discernment in my life? That's a really good question, don't you think? How do I cultivate discernment? Know the authentic. Know the real, know the pure. You know, bank tellers are trained to know when a fraudulent bill is handed to them. We are called to study the word of God and know it. And we won't be deceived. Maintain sincere devotion to Jesus. Let me tell you about this. The Lord said deception usually starts when our love for Jesus grows cold. You know, we it's an option to, you know, pick up your Bible and read it. And you know, I just, you know, I knew that God said that I could go up to the mountains and encounter him, same as going to the church. But you don't have believers who'll walk alongside you up on the mountains, okay? Oh. And so I've had a lot of conversation with the Lord about this. Asking him how people who once burned with the gospel, who burned with the love of God, who was on fire for God, how their fire has almost gone out. And they don't see it. He said a false gospel gives you solutions without change. And the final thing is in order to cultivate discernment in my life, I have to follow the Holy Spirit's leading. You see, real discernment is a gift from the Holy Spirit. He always guides believers into all truth. They will, there will be a have you ever had a check in your spirit about something? You couldn't figure out, you couldn't put your finger on it, but there was a check there. Something just wasn't right. It was off. And so, what do I do in a situation like that? If I have this uneasiness, I'll say, Lord, I don't know what it is. And I've been praying, and you've not yet showed me. Now I'm gonna ask you, if you will show me what's going on, open my eyes to it, and sometimes he will tell me to do things, and uh it won't be for me, it will be for someone else to do for me because I am not real proficient in things to do with search engines and stuff like that. But anyway, I've been in I've been in situations where red flags will come up and I'm I'm looking around every red flag I see, I'm trying to figure out what it is, and then the Lord will reveal to me exactly what I needed to know. He always does. Does he do that for you? Do you listen to the Holy Spirit as he's speaking to you? Beloved, we can't have mixture in our life, we must be distinct from the world. I am not like the world, I am a daughter of the living God. And you, if you're believers, are sons and daughters of God. Ephesians tells us that you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Hallelujah.