Were starting this morning with 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5. We begin a new series, Extreme Makeovers, Spiritual Edition. Extreme makeovers are everywhere, arent they? Have you noticed that? It seems like you cant turn on the television without some sort of extreme makeover kind of show being on. Theyll makeover your home; theyll come in and knock down walls and do incredible things in peoples homes. They will incredible things to peoples faces. The Swan, Ive never seen it but I know of it, is the show where they do cosmetic surgery to transform their faces. There are other kinds of makeover shows where they will come in and do your hair, makeup, and clothing and make a new you. Theyve got makeovers for automobiles. They even have makeovers for dysfunctional families. I caught a show called Nanny 911, where she comes in your home and tries to teach you how to discipline children and set up a schedule, so you do an extreme makeover for your family life. Well, God is into extreme makeovers. Did you know that? He does the spiritual kind. Theyre extreme. God is not into fine tuning or minor adjustments; they are extreme makeovers for people who are willing to submit to Him. In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5:17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old one has gone, the new has come! Theres enthusiasm in Pauls voice as he writes this. This is radical; its extreme! Its a new start. Verse 18, And all this is from your hard work… Nope, it doesnt say that! And all this is from your great book smarts… Nope, it doesnt say that either! It says, This tremendous spiritual renewal and change 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 mens sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christs ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christs behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. If youre ever looking for a snapshot, a short passage, theres a synopsis in the Gospel that you can share with somebody who has spiritual questions; I cant think of a better one than this. This is a tremendous snapshot of what the Gospel is. This says, Gods in the renewal business. So for the next few weeks, were going to talk about renewing our minds, renewing our spirits, renewing our wills. This week were talking about renewing our mind or our heart. I want you to turn to the Book of Ephesians with me this morning, and were going to spend the rest of our time in Ephesians, Chapter 4. In the book of Ephesians, Paul is making a contrast. He is going to contrast the truth of the Gospel, the reality of the resurrection in the Lordship of Christ and lay that in a juxtaposition position with the traditions of men, the philosophies of men, and their thinking. Hes going to demonstrate the superiority of the truth of the Gospel. In Verse 17 of Chapter 4, he says, So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. So he said the word futility, and futility or vernacular means useless. If you say something is futile, you mean its useless. Biblically, this word meant a lot more than that. It meant void of truth or empty, lacking substance. So when Paul says, It is futile thinking, he means it doesnt have any substance. Paul is saying people are entrusting their eternal souls on the philosophy or world-view or a belief system that is empty and void of truth. Its not going to stand the test or hold up. There is only one truth, and truth is objective. I was emptying a truck when I was in high school. I had a job at a factory, and we had to empty a big truck. Im standing up in the truck, the semi, unloading it, putting boxes down on the gravel ground, and Im stepping on the boxes as we spread them out. I stepped on one box, and the next thing I knew, down on my face I went. See, what I stepped on wasnt a box. I stepped on a lid of a box. It looked like a box, a big lid that had been opened up. What I thought was going to hold me turned out to be empty, without substance. Down on my head I went, kiss the gravel! That explains a lot, doesnt it? Now you start to understand a little bit more about why I lose my train of thought. See thats what Paul is talking about. It has the illusion of substance. It has the illusion of durability. When its all said and done, when it is really put to the test, its void of truth. He says thats what mans philosophies are. Thats what mans traditions are, rather than the truth of Christ, which is solid and eternal. In Verse 18, They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Notice, its a process. Its a hardening; its not instantaneous; its a process well explain in a moment. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. It wasnt always like that. There was one time, a time when sin grieved their hearts, but now because of this habitual practice, their hearts have become hardened, desensitized toward the truth of Gods word. When I was a young man, I had a cat named Cuddles. Cuddles and I used to fight. I would put my hand up, and I would play box him; and then wed grapple and Id flip him around and wed fight and wrestle. I just had a great time with my cat. Now my mom chose not to declaw our cat, so my cat Cuddles had some pretty good front claws; so she would just start to tear up the skin on the top of my right hand. It would hurt something fierce. I would have to pull my hand back and say, Ow, that hurt! but it was fun, so Id go back in. Wed fight some more, and Id play and laugh. By the time I was finished, my hand would be all scratched up. Mom would say, Why do you do that? Look at your hand! You need to stop! Id say, Because its fun! I like it! Sometimes Id have to wait a few days for my hand to heal up, and then Id go back to fighting again. Over a period of literally years, literally years, of fighting with Cuddles on a weekly basis, the skin would get cut and heal up and get cut and heal up, that it got to be so tough, it was like rawhide. It got to where the cat could just scratch; it would leave a mark but wouldnt cut me anymore. That skin had become desensitized, that I could just get in there, grapple with that cat and not feel the pain of the claws. I put my left hand in there, and oh man. That would hurt, but the right hand had become callous. Thats what sin does. At first when we sin, we grieve. Were embarrassed; were ashamed. We have scars, theres cut, theres pain. But if we dont then confess and repent and forsake, and go back and indulge again, we say, You know, I kind of liked that. We are hurt again, but this time its not as bad. Over a period of time, through this habitual cycle, we can become desensitized and the effects are sin. Our heart can become callous, so were no longer responding to the voice of God or to the word of truth. Paul warns against that. He says in Verse 20, You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. Paul is talking here about the word truth or lathia. It is objective reality. It is something that is real or true, regardless of the circumstances. Like what Paul says, I could believe that was a real box lid, but the truth of it is, it was just a lid. It wasnt a box. It wasnt going to sustain me. You can think that gravity is not real, but if you step off the roof of this church, youre going to fall. Because reality is objective; its true whether you believe it or not. Regardless of what you believe about Christ and who He is, He is the truth Paul says. He is the alathia. He is the one we rest in. So, the world has changing philosophies. They come and they go. Their heresies are recycled over the centuries, but Gods truth remains the same. I loved what our current Pope of the Catholic Church said, Pope Benedict. I was thinking about what he had said in a speech he gave before the first conclave, and I thought, Im going to try to look up what he said. I had no idea, but when I looked up his remarks, he was commenting on what? Ephesians, Chapter 4. I thought, Well, thats a coincidence right there. But listen to what the Pope had to say, How many winds of doctrine have we known in the last ten years? He looks back on his panoramic view of his life, his theological experiences over the decades. How many ideological currents, how many fashions of thinking? The small boat of thought of many Christians has been tossed about by these waves? Sometimes we, too, can succumb to those lines of thinking. Thats what Paul is warning about in Ephesians. The Pope continued, Thrown from one extreme to the other, from Marxism to Liberalism, even to Libertinism-to just be a free thinker and think whatever you want to think. From collectivism to radical individualism. And certainly he experienced collectivism, that mindset, that political theory or belief that this group, because we think something is right, is therefore the truth. They redefine truth. He grew up under Hitlers regime. He grew up with that collectivism mindset. From atheism to a vague religious mysticism, from agnosticism (questions the existence of God) to secretism, which tries to combine all sorts of beliefs and philosophies, everyday, new sets are created. What St. Paul says about human trickery comes true with cunning, which tries to draw those into air. Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church is often labeled as fundamentalism. How many of you ever thought because you believe the Bible, something must be wrong with you, the way the world speaks? Sometimes when people throw a label on you, its fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by wind of teaching, looks like the only attitude acceptable to todays standards. In other words, you become your own truth or reality. We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism, which does not recognize anything as for certain and has as its highest goal ones own ego and ones own desires. Notice he says a dictatorship of relativism. What does that mean? It means everybody could become, under that school of thought, their own little dictator. Right? Because relativism is very individual. Its saying that your truth is your truth, and my truth is my truth. So everybody becomes their own little island of truth, and the Pope says, No, thats not reality. And Paul says, No, there is one truth, and that truth is in Jesus. Its only in Jesus that our minds could be transformed and renewed. It talks in Verse 22-24 about our part and Gods part. He says, You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Paul does something here that you cannot detect unless you study it in the original languages here. What Im going to share with you doesnt change the meaning of anything, but its important for you to know that Paul changes voices here in this passage. You say, What do you mean he changes his voice? A voice in the Greek is how the subject relates to the verb, whether the subject is doing the action or the subject is being acted upon. In Verse 22 and 24, when he talks about putting off and putting on, he uses whats called the middle voice, which means the subject, you and I, are doing the action. We are putting off, and we are putting on. However, in Verse 23, when it talks about being made new, he uses something called the passive voice, which means you, the subject, are being acted upon by an outside person or thing. Youre not the one doing the action. Youre being acted upon. So what does that mean? That means when it comes to renewing our spirits, renewing our minds, only God can do that. That is what Paul is saying here. Its in the passive voice. That comes from God. You cannot renew your heart. You cannot renew your mind to obey Gods truth in and of yourself. I was kind of grappling about this. I was trying to think about an illustration that would help me communicate the middle and the passive voices to you and our part and Gods part. I came across an illustration. God gave me an illustration, and I want to share that with you this morning. Hypothetically, imagine you had to go to the doctor to have your heart checked. When you went to the doctor, the doctor found an irregular heartbeat. Something was wrong, and he gave a diagnosis. He said, We think there is reason to believe that your arteries are clogged, that you are going to have to have bypass surgery. Or he said, We have reason to believe that a valve isnt functioning right. Youre going to have to have valve replacement surgery. At that point, you have a decision to make. You could either accept what the doctor has said, or you could reject what the doctor has said. Correct? You can either say, Thats true, and I need to trust your judgment. You have the education. You have the expertise. You have the equipment, and Im going to submit to this operation or you can reject it. You can say, Well, Im still alive. I dont feel that bad. Im just not going to listen to you and go on and live my life. Well, if you do that, chances are you wont be with us long, right? Chances are youre going to succumb to that heart condition, and youre going to pass away because you chose to reject the truth. Paul says, You and I have a disease called sin. God says the wages of sin is death, and all of sin falls short of the glory of God. But there is a solution to that sin. That sin is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. That solution is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Youre going to choose to accept that reality and do something about it. Let God do something about it, or you can reject that news and say, Im not that bad. I dont have that much of sin problem. The scripture says, You will die in your sin because theres a spiritual law. The law says the one who sins will die. Thats your choice. You answer to God. So what can you do, and what cant you do? Well, youre going under this health procedure. The doctor says, Okay, Im going to teach you about the heart. This habit youve gotten into about drinking bacon grease for breakfast, were going to put that off, and were going to put on orange juice. So, you start drinking orange juice. You know that habit youve gotten into of being so lazy that you dont even get off the couch to change the channel because if you dont have your remote, you cant even watch TV because youre so lazy? Were going to put that off, and youre going to be stepping on the stair master while youre watching TV. So were going to put off a lack of exercising, and were going to put on a healthy routine, so you can strengthen that heart muscle and have a healthy cardio-vascular system. Or were going to put off ignorance of the heart. Right now, you hardly know anything about your own heart. Were going to teach you about your heart, and were going to teach you about this procedure. Youre going to put on knowledge. Heres the key. You can put on healthier habits, and you can put on healthier exercise, healthier eating habits and exercise, and you can put on education and put off all those bad habits, but you will never, ever, no matter how smart you get about the heart, no matter how fit you get from exercise, no matter how trim you get from diet, you will never be able to perform open heart surgery on yourself. Youre never going to come to the point where you can stand in front of a mirror and go, Scalpel. Oh yeah, theres that little clog thingy right now. Let me just take a vein out of my leg and sew that right in there. You cant do it! Youre going to need an outside person who is an expert, who has the knowledge to do what you cannot do to make that physical change in your heart. The same thing is true in the realm of the spirit. If youre trying to change your mind spiritually, your heart spiritually, in and off your effort, you will not do it. There are certain things you can put on, certain things you can put off, but only God does the transformation. Only God does that. Your job and responsibility as a follower of Christ or as a human being is to, what? Submit. Its to submit. I go to the doctor, and I say, Im agreeing with your truth. You said this is my condition. You said this will cure me. Im going to take this risk of faith, and Im going to sign my name on this paper that gives you permission to open up my chest and renew my heart. When you succumb to that anesthetic and go into that operating room, you are totally and completely surrendered, arent you? When youre under anesthesia, theres no fighting you. You totally trust that doctor. The same thing is true in the realm of the spirit. When you come to Christ, what you have to say in response to your sin condition, the fact that your heart needs to be renewed, is to say, God, I am powerless to renewing my own heart, and Im by faith going to sign this contract that says I am yielding my spirit to you, the care and concern of my soul to you. Im just going to lay it all out. Im going to lay my soul there. God, you do the work in me. God, you forgive me. God, you renew me. God, your restore me. And then I will do my part to make sure Im meditating on your word and your truth and allowing your Holy Spirit to renew my mind, but I know only you can do the renewal God, not me. Only you can do that. Man can fix cars and houses and faces, but only God can do a makeover in the heart. Are you trusting Him? What voice are you listening to today? Are you succumbing to the traditions and the winds of doctrine that blow through, or are you on the rock that doesnt change, the truth that is reality because its Gods truth. How are you trying to change your heart? Are you trying the self-help technique? Or will you just fall down at the foot of the cross and cry out to a living God and say, God, change me, because I cant do it myself. If youll do that, God will do an operation on you that we wont be able to see with the naked eye, but well be able to see it, the results of it. Well see a new you, a healthier you, once you submit. There are things you can do, and there are things you cannot do. Humankind has lost a few patients on the operating table during heart surgery. But Im happy to announce to you that God has never lost one. There is not one person who has come to Doctor Jesus and said, Lord Jesus, change my heart. I trust your authority; I trust your rule, and Im submitting to it by faith. Be the Lord of my life. I lay my soul, my eternal soul, into your care. Theres not a one hes dropped. And you wont be the first this morning. A lot of competing voices out there. Are we listening to the voice of truth? Gordy and Brook are coming to sing a song now that we started to sing on Saturday night in our plug service, and then Id catch it on the radio every now and then. Ive come to really appreciate this song and its message. What Id like you to do is reflect upon the words of this song and reflect on its meaning as it applies to the message weve heard this morning. Normally when we pray, I pray or one of the pastors prays, and your heads are bowed, your eyes are closed and your mouths are closed. Were going to pray a little differently this morning. I want to lead you in a confession of your faith and what weve talked about today from Gods word, so I invite you to speak out loud. Whisper if you want to, but move your lips. Say these words, making your confession. Would you bow your heads with me in prayer. Heavenly Father, I come to you in Jesus name. For truth is found in that name. I submit to your truth and to your Lordship. I confess I cannot renew my heart. I need you to do that. I ask your Holy Spirit to renew my heart today. Forgive my sins, my weaknesses, my tendency to stray. It is my desire to put off that which does not please you and put on the new man who was made in the likeness of Christ, in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Happy Mothers Day to you moms!