Extreme Make-Over, Heart Edition Series
~Make-over My Heart Toward God~
Tyson Graber, Herscher Christian Church
February 7, 2010
Romans 12:1-3
Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless you CHANGE and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 18:3
The apostle Paul said these words to the church in Corinth, “I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be CHANGED in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be CHANGED.” – 1 Corinthians 15:50-52
The truth is that 'Change is necessary for life.'
We all think we understand the truth about change, but most of the time, we try and apply change to our lives in all the wrong ways. We often say things like this: “If I could only change – (this or that) – in my life then everything would be great . . .”
How many of you have ever heard someone say or even said something like this . . . “If I only could change ? , then everything would be better.”
If we could only change the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the car we drive, the house we live in, the way we look, the friends we have, the jobs we have, our government, our schools, our healthcare system, our love lives, our bank accounts ..., and the list goes on and on, then we would be really living.
In fact, there is an entire website that this is dedicated to the top 43 things that most people should change to be happy. Yes, I said 43 things. If you are not happy with life, you might be tempted to check it out. It’s on the web at www.43things.com, but don’t waste your time. If you changed all 43 things listed there it would never really offer a life that is a blessing.
Yet, we are told from a young age that if we can just continue to change certain things about our life then everything will keep getting better and better. The world promises blessings from change all the time.
Even our current president has claimed for years now that change is the thing that can make things better. His recent campaign strategy was based on change. He even went on the record saying that HE was the change that was needed, and America responded by electing him president of the United States of America.
The president said this about the change that he believed was needed in the USA, and I quote:
“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
From what you can tell so far, how much blessing actually comes from the pursuit of change found from within ourselves? Does true happiness and peace take place when we try and change things on our own?
Then why do we, time after time, try to change things with our own power? Why do we look to change something simple about ourselves and hope that is what will save us? Why do we try and change things, time after time, on our own that only our father can truly fix?
[Story of Declan trying to fix his bike.]
Declan has been learning how to ride his bike. We’ve actually been impressed with how quickly he’s been catching on. But, one day I came home for lunch and found him, apparently frustrated, trying to put his training wheels back on. He had about 10 or 15 of my tools laying on the floor of the garage, and was hard at work. I asked him, “Declan, would you want me to do it for you?” “No, Dad, I can do it.” “But Declan,” I said, “I can do it for you in just a couple of minutes.” “No, Dad, I can do it myself!”
So, I went in to have my lunch while Declan tried to do for himself . He spent all afternoon trying to “do it myself”, when if he’d just let his father help him... he wouldn’t have lost a whole afternoon of enjoying the use of his bike.
Make no mistake, starting right now over and the next four weeks we are setting out to be changed, first as individuals, then as an entire body of Christ here at HCC. God can and will change our lives, in fac,t from scripture I believe He desires to give us a complete life make-over but we must allow Him to empower the transformation.
Over the next four weeks through God’s Word we will encounter and experience His desire to change us from the inside out by giving us an Extreme Make-over Heart Edition -- starting with our Heart toward Him, our heart toward our spouse, our heart toward our family and finally our heart towards all people.
We will be studying mainly from Romans chapter 12 so please turn there at this time. Romans 12 is an amazing chapter with enough power and wisdom from the Lord to truly give each of us an Extreme Make-over Heart Edition.
Read with me from Romans 12:1-2 and begin to see the desire of God for all of His children.
Liiving Sacrifices - Change
There is no question at all that this is exactly what God wants us to do.
If you knew the number of your days, and they were 30, you have one month left to live and you know that is it. How would you live you life? How would the way you live change? What choices would you make? What would change?
Romans chapter 12 gives us a good look at what needs to change. Not only if we had 1 day to live but if we had a lifetime ahead of us living for God. Romans 12 shows us what God expects from us as we live. It shows us how to live to honor and please His perfect desires for us, so that we become fully and completely His.
God wants to give each of us an extreme make-over, he wants to transform your mind and your heart so that your life is pleasing to Him in every way.
So how does this begin? How does God transform our life?
It starts by giving everything that you are to God.
READ Romans 12:1
Each of us must give ourselves completely to God.
If some of you were to be completely honest with God right now, your answer to that first statement, for the first 15 to 75 years of your life has been, “Why should I? Why should I offer anything to God?”
Why should I give myself to God? Because, if I actually would give myself to God that means I would have to trust Him. I would have to begin to do as He pleases, not as I wish, and I’m not sure if I’m ready to do that.
You are thinking, “I want to be in control of my life and I am not sure if I can trust it to God. I want what is best for my life and ‘I’ know what is best for my life. If I let God lead, He just might mess it up. Why would I ever trust God with everything?”
But here is what the Bible tells us about God, and I believe it and I know it to be true.
God is good, He is right, He is perfect, He is lovely, His ways sometimes are mysterious and they are beyond us, but He is always holy and pure and He desires to have a relationship with each of us forever.
You ask, “Why should I give myself to God?”
The answer is right there in Romans 12:1.
We should give ourselves to God because of His mercy He has offered us.
In view of God’s mercy, we are to offer ourselves completely to Him because He first gave Himself to us. God perfectly modeled what He expects from us when He saved us by freely giving us His Son as a sacrifice for our sin. He has done for us what He desires us to do for Him.
Can you see it? When you see it, you begin to understand it. Can you see the mercy that Paul speaks of that we receive from God? Paul says, ‘in view of what is there before you.’
Some of you have seen and know the mercies of God, and still others have yet to see them or receive them. For those who have never seen the mercy of God it is hard to explain, but through the first 11 chapters of Romans Paul has been trying to give us a glimpse to what they look like.
As sinner (and each one of us is a sinner), we have a self-pleasing nature because we are lost in sin. But God chose to send His son to save us. Did you know that? Have you realized that you are lost without His grace? Here is the deal. Paul explains in chapters 1 - 11 that we deserve to die because of our sin problem, but because of God’s mercy we can live through Christ.
Can you see that? Have you ever realized that because of your past and because of your position, alone, without Christ, you deserve to die. But there is mercy offered in Jesus. Paul says, ‘in view of God’s mercy...’ If you have lived it, if your heart has been changed you understand it, but it is one of those views of life that you have to see to believe and understand. Each of us has to experience our need for Christ or we will never understand the change that can take place or the need for a change to give ourselves to live for Him.
Can you see it? Some things you need to see to believe or understand.
Like the power of the ocean during a strong storm or beauty of the Northern Light in the middle of winter near the north pole ... or the Colts winning yet another Super Bowl in 2010. There are just some things that are amazing to view and see personally. You can’t really appreciate them, they won’t really effect your life until you see them.
[Story of witnessing the miracle of childbirth.] You have to see it to be effected by it.
Here is the beginning part of the story where many of you are currently at, and it should lead you to the need for a heart makeover.
Read Romans 1:20-22
Without God, we are without excuse
Left to ourselves without a change of heart we become dark and foolish, full of sin. We give ourselves to sin, time and time again. Paul goes on to explain the penalty of rejecting the good that God desires for our lives. We need a change, but often we try and convince ourselves that we even know better than God what our need is.
Then in Romans 11:33-36, after showing us all that Christ has done to make it possible for a change, after letting us see the story in words, He gives a wake-up call to us who are still in the dark and foolish.
Read Romans 11:33-36.
(Can you see it?)
We give because he Gave first
In view of all that God has done for us through His mercy and grace given to us in Jesus; in view of the entire story of God’s plan for us, we need to have a change of heart and give ourselves to live for the Lord.
The reason we can live is because of the mercy of God. The reason we give ourselves to Him is because He has given us everything.
The start of a real make-over is going from 'living to please ourselves' to 'living to please God.'
Over the next three weeks we will be looking at a lot of great wisdom and advice about living to please God. Starting next week we’ll look at loving and honoring our spouses, then at loving and honoring our family, then finally at loving all of mankind as God does.
And over the next few weeks there will be a great deal of practical Godly wisdom that will be shared concerning these three areas of our relationships that will increase your life’s blessing. But before you can ever truly love your spouse as you should, before you can ever really love a brother or mother as you should, before you will ever be able to love a world that is hurting, you must begin your ‘life make-over’ in your heart towards God. We have to commit to a change. We have to stop living for ourselves and living to please our sinful desires, no matter what they are, and commit to giving our hearts to God and living to please Him.
A verse that we often run to when we are trying to explain or show God doing a make-over in someone’s life is Acts 2:38.
READ Acts 2:37-38
Please hear me today. Unless you allow you heart to be cut, unless you allow your heart to be open to the Spirit of God in your life, a Godly change will not take place.
Paul puts it this way; ‘Be transformed and take on a totally new way of thinking.’ What is this type of thinking? What should our hearts long after?
After we have had a total make-over of the heart and mind, once we realize we are dead without Christ but alive in Him, we begin to see and do what is good, pleasing and perfect according to God’s will. The amazing thing is that God truly does begin to transform your mind into a way of thinking that is of Him. HE affects the change.
We are to have the mind and attitude, or the heart of Christ that is in perfect step with the Father.
How?
Offer yourself to Him completely starting right now. Allow your selfish, sinful desires to be overcome by the leading of the Holy Spirit. Live your life as a living, breathing, daily sacrifice that would please Him.
And the interesting thing I have found is that when I stop fighting God and follow Him, He gives me exactly what my heart has always desired. For He truly knows what will be a blessing to me.
One of my favorite passages of the Old Testament sums up what happens when we allow God to give us a Spiritual Heart Make-over. When we commit to honoring Him with our lives I promise the blessings to follow will make all the wants and desires of this dark world fade away.
Read Psalms 37:3-4
If you have been looking to change something about yourself in hopes of finding something that would turn everything around for you, look no farther than to allow your heart to be turned to honoring God. He promises to bless you with all that you will ever need and more through His mighty power.
The truth is that change is necessary for life, and to live eternally blessed, our hearts must be transformed to honor God.
Does your heart need to have a make-over? Let it be cut, let it be changed. Allow God to transform all that you are into all that He desires you to be. Stop living to please yourself and decide to live to please Him.