A lot of people wouldn’t miss the Extreme Makeover shows on TV. On a show they can take a somewhat ordinary–looking woman, send her off to another room, and, a little later, bring her back with a whole new look: hairdo, make-up, clothes, and accessories. It’s a different woman!
Or they take a family who’s gone through a disaster with their home in a flood or something, ship the family off on a week’s holiday, and completely renovate their home.
All of these extreme makeovers have something in common ---- an outsider comes in with a three step programme. First, that outsider sees the possibilities you couldn't see. Second, that outsider does what you couldn't do. Third, that outsider pays for what you could not afford to pay.
Now…
pp Extreme Makeovers are God's business.
God is in the extreme makeover business. He's in the business of transforming your life and mine. He has a similar three-step programme.
1 - He sees possibilities in you and me that we're not good at seeing in ourselves.
2 - He also is able to do for you and me what we cannot do for ourselves. And 3 -He's able to pay the price for what He does. We can't afford the price. He paid it for us. But His makeover is a little bit different in one area. The reality show makeover is an external job. God's is an internal job. He makes you a new person from the inside out.
The Bible is primarily a book of good news. It's the story of God's extreme makeover on your behalf. The story starts in Genesis 1 and goes all the way through to the end of Revelation. It's a good news story of a God who created us in His image.
He created us with the capacity to make personal choices, to choose to go our own way which is generally Satan's way -- or we can choose to go God’s way.
We see the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, placed in a beautiful situation. They were placed in the Garden of Eden. They were given every opportunity two people have ever had, and they chose to disobey God. God's only message was this: Don't reach out and eat the fruit of that tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
But Satan slithered up in the form of a snake and said to the woman that God didn't want her to be God. And they both reached, ate, and discovered evil. We've been reaching ever since. In fact, the Bible says in Romans 3 verse 23….
pp Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
And in that same chapter 3, verse 10, the Bible says …
pp “There is none righteous, no, not one."
We know that about ourselves. We don't have to be told. Not one of us is perfect, and that imperfection separates us from the God who created us. Here is a righteous, holy God, and here we are, and there is a deep chasm between us.
The good news is that God has taken action on our behalf. He promised Adam and Eve that someone would come— Jesus. The Old Testament people lived in anticipation of the coming of the Messiah - Jesus. That's what it's about—Jesus coming down here to this hurting earth and to these hurting people, and dying for the sins of the world. The Scripture says in 1Peter 2:24 that …
pp 1 Peter 2:24 "Jesus Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness."
This is God's extreme makeover. God does for us what we couldn’t do ourselves. Let’s look at that ….
pp A New Creation Makeover
This extreme makeover involves us becoming new creations. Let’s turn in our Bibles to page 1330 --
2 Corinthians 5:17. Paul was writing
to the church at Corinth, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." In other words, you can be a brand new you! --- Extreme Makeover!
This extreme makeover involves a spiritual rebirth. In John chapter 3, a religious man named Nicodemus came to Jesus. He came by night, it said. I don’t think he wanted to be seen by his religious colleagues in the presence of this upstart teacher from Nazareth. He asked Jesus what he had to do to receive eternal life. Jesus said, "You have to be born again." Confused,
Nicodemus said: “Wait a minute. I'm an adult. I can't crawl back into my mother's womb and be born again!”
Jesus said, "What is born of the flesh is flesh; what is born of the Spirit is Spirit." Jesus is saying: The first time you're born, you’re born physically. The second birth is a spiritual birth.
People sometimes ask, "Are you a born-again Christian?" Well, "What other kind of Christian is there?" You can't be a Christian without being born again. You have to open yourself to Jesus Christ and admit your need for a Saviour. You have to admit your sin, and put your trust in Him alone.
Drugs, sex, wild parties, sport, gambling, alcohol – they won’t cut it. They might give us a bit of temporary happiness but they won’t give us the deep peace that we’re craving for. We’ve got to put our trust in Jesus Christ. That’s the ‘being born again’ that the Bible talks about. ----
This extreme makeover also involves salvation. In John 3:17, Jesus says…
pp John 3:17 "For God did not send His Son Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him."
It's all about salvation.
Now what about…
pp The Forgiveness Makeover
This extreme makeover also involves forgiveness. In John chapter 3, the same chapter that tells the story of Nicodemus, it says, “Those who believe in Jesus are not condemned,” (that's forgiveness – we’re not condemned! We’re forgiven from the bad stuff we’ve done in our lives. -- the verse goes on) … “but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
As I study the Bible, it seems to me
that there is only one unforgivable sin! It's to refuse to receive Jesus Christ as your Saviour and follow Him. The Bible calls it blaspheming the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is wooing you, welcoming you to come to Him in repentance. To say no to the Holy Spirit’s pleading; to say no to our conscience; is to harden our hearts to Christ's invitation. That is the unforgiveable sin. ------
This extreme makeover also involves reconciliation. Reconciliation means making ourselves in harmony with another person. Please turn in your Bibles again to page 1330.
2 Corinthians 5:17-20. We read verse 17 before. Page 1330, 2 Cor 5:17-20. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth. Now Paul’s a bit hard to understand sometimes isn’t he? He’s very highly educated. We’ll look at these verses in a simpler translation soon but let’s look in our Bibles first. Here he says, verse 17…
pp 2 Corinthians 5:17-20
v17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
v18 “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,”
v19 “that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing (not counting) their trespasses (or sins) to them, and has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation.”
v20 “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled (made in harmony) to God.”
Let’s quickly read the same verses in simpler English. We’ll put verses 17-20 on the screen from the Good News Version Bible.
pp 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 GNB
“Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come. All this is done by God, who through Christ, changed us from enemies into His friends and gave us the task of making others His friends also. Our message, is that God was making all human beings His friends through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins and He has given us the message which tells how He makes them His friends. Here we are, then, speaking for Christ, as though God Himself were making His appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf -- let God change you from enemies into His friends!”
Friends, a chasm exists between the holy God and humanity, but there's a bridge over that chasm. That bridge is the Cross of Christ. By the cross of Jesus Christ we become reconciled (made in harmony) with God, our wonderful Father.
So far, in the ….
pp EXTREME MAKEOVER
… we’ve noticed that …
pp
(that’s the life changing, peace giving business He’s in). The TV Extreme Makeover Shows can’t match that!
pp
(God helps us to be born again. He makes us into a new person, a new creation.) The TV Makeover Shows can’t match that!
pp
God forgives us for the bad stuff we’ve done, the sin. And He reconciles or makes us in harmony with Himself. The TV Makeover Shows can’t match that!
And then next is …
pp
The TV shows certainly can’t match this one either!
The extreme makeover of eternal life! Perhaps the first Bible verse you ever learned was John 3:16. Let’s turn to it on page 1223. John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." That means life that goes on and on for ever and ever and ever. Eternal life is actually a wonderful God-filled life right now in this world, as well as in the life to come. Jesus also came to help prepare you to one day die with the knowledge that you will live again in the next life—a life that's incredibly better than this life.
As I put this last title on the screen…
pp Evidence of a changed life
… I’m going to ask Sarah to come up and tell us a little bit about her past journey, and her latest journey, a journey that is still going on, the journey of Extreme Makeover.
Thank you Sarah
Sarah’s Testimony (interview)
Sometimes we church goers can be like the hypocritical Pharisees, the ‘religious’ people that Jesus was not happy with. We have to be careful He’s not looking at us today in the same way.
Do we sometimes look too critically at others, others who are just beginning their journey, their ‘makeover’ ??
Do we sometimes think out loud to others in Satan’s little gossip groups? The groups are often only small -- Satan only needs two people to start a group. Mostly we just talk about people, but sometimes we take on a holy boldness and confront them personally.
We say, “You should do this”, or “You should do that.” Is our little lecture coming out of a ‘Mr Fix-It’ attitude, or genuine love? People often need to not be lectured but loved. People need to be prayed for, and praised, and loved. We often need to leave the Extreme Makeover job in the hands of the greatest Counselor the world has ever known…..
And that Counselor, Jesus, and our heavenly Father, through their Holy Spirit, tell us to just love the people.
Remember the little sign over at the Butterfly House?
pp ‘How it improves people when we begin to love them.’
And there’s another thing. 40 years ago Delphine and I walked into a church and saw this statement written up in chalk on a blackboard.
pp ‘Never judge another Indian until you’ve walked two weeks in his (or her) moccasins.’ ----------
Hollywood’s version of Extreme Makeovers happen in a few hours or a few days. In real life the journey may take a little longer. But remember friends, the TV version gives surface changes. God’s version of Extreme Makeovers runs deeper and more permanent. God’s Extreme Makeover not only changes the exterior, what people see, but it also changes the heart. And it gives lasting peace.
Jesus said in John 14:27 ...
pp John 14:27 “ My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Then He said in Matthew 11:28-30
pp Matthew 11:28-30 “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. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
If you’re interested in having real peace, --- and rest from the heavy burdens of life, --- then please let me know because we can go up together to the door with the sign on it...
pp ‘Extreme Makeovers by Jesus’.
We’ll knock on the door, and He’ll let us in to begin a wonderful, wonderful, journey.
Stand and pray.
Thank You,
Ray Archer
The words of this little book guarantee a reduction in stress and depression, and an increase in happiness and good attitude in life, whether you are an atheist, agnostic, Christian, or someone searching for meaning in life.
Best wishes for ‘A Better Life’ – guaranteed!