Extreme Christ-Centered Makeover
June 27, 2010
(delivered by Chris Gossard)
Scripture: 2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Theme: No more excuses…Lets take action!
This morning we are going to talk about making an extreme makeover in our homes. Not a physical makeover like Ty Pennington does for needy families on the TV show; though I am sure that each of us would love a new kitchen or banging backyard. Today, we are going to talk about a makeover that focuses on the “what” or the “who” that is the center of our lives and our home. Many of us mentally know that Christ needs to be the center of our home and our life, but truth be told, often that thought never moves from our brain into a plan of action. Oh, it may get as far as our mouths but that’s where the thought stops.
Why is that? Why do we fail to act on what we know we need to sustain our lives? I believe some of the reasons many of us never take action to make Christ our center is because of our belief in Satan’s lies. Satan loves to plant weeds in our minds. The weeds may take the form of fear, doubt, laziness, self-pity and busyness. If I were to ask each of you individually why you struggle to keep Christ as center for yourself and for your home, the reasons I would get would be as vast as the stars in the sky. And the sad part is that Satan has us so confused and comfortable that we allow those lies or weeds if you will, to clog our mind and keep us from thinking clearly.
Another thing we are going to talk about are the tools that are at our disposal for such a makeover. Yes, there are tools that we have at our disposal to make our “Christ-Centered” makeover a reality. You maybe thinking, “Chris, I pray privately and I go to church a few times a month or even every week. I even throw some change in the plate..cut me some slack.’ My response to that is…great you may be using some of the tools we are going to discuss today…but are you sharing them with others? Are you sharing them in your home, in your place of work, or in your crowd of friends? None of us are perfect or even close to perfection, but each of us have a responsibility to answer the call that Jesus laid before us and that is to go and tell the Good News.
I am not sure where your walk with Christ is today but if you have no idea what the Good News is or how to find it then you really need to hear what I have to share with you today. Your family is counting on you. Your home needs a foundation that is built on rock and not sinking sand. That rock is Jesus Christ.
Ok so now you might be thinking she is saying a lot of words but is she going to be like others who say there are tools and then never actually touch on what they are. Nothing frustrates me more than when you go to hear a speaker and they spend all their time on the “shoulda, coulda, and woulda” but never give you a clear direction or guide!! So get your pencils ready and write these tools down. My suggestion is that you keep them as a reference in your Bible. I believe that each of us needs reminders of these simple but Christ-given guidelines.
The 4 tools are…
1. Prayer (private and public) Yes public means praying out loud!
2. Bible reading and devotions (personal and with whom ever you call family)
3. Faith Talk (private and public) What are you spending your time talking about?
4. Acts of service (A time to be Jesus and put self second!)
Let’s keep this simple and start with the 1st makeover tool: Prayer.
Luke 18:1 Then Jesus told the disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
For a long time I was a prayer snob. I thought that if you prayed well and the words flowed out smoothly then your words went directly to God’s ear. I thought that because I could not pray well out loud than I had no right to pray publicly. See I grew up in a Catholic church. I even went to Catholic school for a few years. If any of you have ever spent any time in a Catholic church you know that the one thing that priests can do really well is pray. The words they use are amazing. The words flow out like poetry. Now you can understand why I was so intimidated by the idea of praying aloud. I wanted to sound like them. I wanted my words to rock the world. I wanted goose bumps and tons of “Amens!” from others while I was praying. I wanted my words to make an impression on others. Then one day the Lord revealed something to me: the reason the priests prayed so well was because they were praying God’s word. They had a formula and a guide for prayer.
What I have come to realize is that praying without direction is like buying a piece of furniture from Ikea. Ikea’s picture directions work for someone who is handy but for the average “Jack of all Trades, Master of Nothing” picture directions are pointless! Most of your time is spent trying to figure out if you need to put the washer on with the bevel end up or down. Sometimes you can’t even figure out if you have all the pieces, let alone all the hardware. Who knew that screws, washers, and bolts came in so many different sizes and don’t even get me started on the bent piece of metal that is suppose to work like a screwdriver. What ever happen to good old Philips or flat head? I want words, people!!! I don’t know about you but to me the greatest sign I ever saw was “No Assembly required!”
So if you are like me and need some assistance try a word guide for private and public prayer. You can use the word ACTS. “A” stands for adoration. Tell God how much you love him. “C” stands for confession. Clear the air so that the physical connection between you to the Lord is clear. “T” stands for thanksgiving. Thank the Lord for his blessings, and finally “S” stands for supplication. This is a way to present your requests. We need to keep things simple folks. I don’t understand why we make everything so complicated. Who or what are we trying to impress. Sorry but I am pretty sure we can never out shine God…creation pretty much covers the “dress to impress” category.
Another thing that God revealed to me, was that prayer was not to impress others but to show them love and Jesus. Prayer is God’s tool of communicating with us. It is our love connection to Him. It is our love connection to one another.
Why are we not taking the time to pray with our children, our spouses, our loved ones, and in public? We have no trouble talking about the weather, telling jokes, gossiping, ordering pizza, and wasting our hot air on making sure our opinion is heard and obeyed. Why are we not using our words wisely and deepen our relationship with the Lord and with others?
We must remember that to truly have a makeover that makes Christ the center of our home and our lives we need to keep prayer at the front of our mind. Prayer needs to become like breathing. We do not need to think about breathing, do we? I am convinced with deliberate practice, prayer can be as simple as breathing. Just think of how different the world would be if we continually prayed. There would be no time for arguing, bickering, gossiping, or self-destructive behavior.
The second tool I mentioned was: Bible Reading and Devotion.
Romans 1:28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
Now I am going to make an un-educated assumption and guess what you may be thinking: “Reading the Bible and doing devotions are great tools and if I had the time I would love to read my Bible and do devotions. I get so much out of it when I can get to it. But there is no way to fit it in.”
Well my response to you is this: that Comcast has really hit the jackpot. Cause all of you who are too busy to read your Bible and do devotions must definitely be too busy to watch TV. I would love to be the CEO of Comcast because you are forking out hundreds of dollars a month and you are not even using their product….right? Or maybe it is because you are running from here to there for soccer, dance, music lessons, business meetings, nail appointments, T time, and hunting season that keeps you from spending time in the Word, personally, let alone time in the Word with your family.
Ok, now I am guessing that I may have crossed the invisible line and entered into your personal space. I may have hit a nerve and my response to that is this…I cannot say “I am sorry!” because you and I both know that this world, our homes and our lives need to change. We need a makeover. We need Christ as the center. It is time to take off the kid gloves and really get serious about whom or what is the center of our life.
We have a choice to make. We can stand by and let Satan get his claws into our lives, our homes, our children, and our community or we can arm ourselves with the Word of God and stand in battle against the evil one. We need to get our priorities straight and spend daily time in the Word. Let’s drop the excuses and do something about our lives. It is sad to say, but it may take getting in some of your faces for you to realize that your children, loved ones, and friends are dying spiritually and they need you. God is prepared to do what ever it takes. Are you prepared to receive whatever He delivers?
Fathers and husbands: your children and your wife need to you to be the spiritual head of the household. They need the spiritual rock that the Lord has commanded you to be. But you need to be warned: if you are not armed with the Word of God, Satan is going to cut you at the knees and you are going to be a like a piece of useless Ikea directions. All backwards and full of confusion and hopelessness!
Mothers and wives: your children and your husband need you to be what the Lord has commanded you to be: A symbol of gentleness, faithfulness, and an example of self-control.
Friends: you need to be what the Lord has commanded you to be: Armed with the Word of God to serve others in love and compassion, to be available to counsel and offer support and prayer.
Children: you need to be what the Lord has commanded you to be: Honest, obedient, and respectful. You want to have friends and have someone listen to what you say; then be mature in Christ and recognize that the Lord watches how you treat your parents and your siblings. How you treat them is how you will treat God.
God knows our hearts. None of us can hide anything from him. And no one is excused from spending daily time with God in prayer and scripture reading.
The 3rd tool in our extreme “Christ-Centered” makeover is Faith Talk.
1 Timothy 4:1-2 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
Ok, now we got you praying and reading your Bible daily, so that must be enough.. Wrong! We need to talk about what is coming out of our mouths. Having a total “Christ-Centered” life and home makeover means that when you speak that you are giving Jesus to people. That your words speak of things that rise people up and does not tear them down. Our children, and I am not just talking to people who have children of their own, I mean the children of SUMC, the community and in our families, are looking for us to set the bar on faith talk. If they see that adults are not confident enough to speak about Jesus, talk to one another with respect, be quick to seek and offer forgiveness, how then can we expect the children to demonstrate what we are not practicing? Our children want to hear about Jesus. They hunger for clear faith-based direction on which they can model their lives. They want to see us praying, reading our Bible, and spending time in church.
Research shows that many children make a decision to leave the church while they are still in elementary school. That means 4th to 6th grade. I believe that the reason that we have such a large exodus of children, high school students, college students, and young adults leaving church is because they see us adults making a mockery of Jesus. They have no faith-based foundation to believe what they are being taught.
Their Sunday school teacher is telling them that the scriptures say “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal. 5:14) and then they go home and see their parents beating each other down with words. They see their parents totally losing it in the car because of traffic. They see their sibling being disrespectful to their parents and to one another. They are being bombarded with society and the “small investment, large return” mentality. They hear “look out for #1” and “you are entitled to this and that”. They are being bullied in school. They are forbidden to pray. Our children are like drowning victims that can see the life boat but yet have no idea how to reach safety. They are so tossed and blown by the waves of this world that they have lost all faith that someone, let alone Jesus, will jump into the water and rescue them. As hope, faith, and trust are destroyed: so goes their direction in life.
The average family spends 1 hour a week in church. That is 52 hours a year. What kind of influence can that provide if there is not reinforcement in the home? I don’t know about you but if I needed to go into battle I would want backup and reinforcements. Children want that same security. They want a Jesus they can believe in. They want to have the freedom to talk about a God who loves them with grace and mercy. They want a home that is centered in Christ. Will you give it to them?
We have come to the final tool of reconstruction in our makeover: Acts of service!
Ephesians 4:12-13 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
For a complete and total makeover in our lives and our homes we need to realize that serving others is a major ingredient that is needed to have a strong Godly foundation; a Christ-centered life. I am pretty sure that you would never pour a foundation and build your home on a form if you did not make sure that the foundation was sound. You would definitely ensure that all the right ingredients and tools were used to create this vital piece of your home. When we make changes to our spiritual home we need to make sure that we utilize the faith based tools that the Lord has provided: Prayer, Bible reading, fellowship, Faith talk, and acts of service. The Lord never asks us to do something that He Himself did not demonstrate.
Let’s face it we are all perfectly happy in our “comfort zone”. None of us want to stress ourselves even more with another thing taking up our time. However, serving your community, your church, and reaching out to participate in projects such as thehope.effort, local and foreign mission trips, or the Atlantic City Rescue Mission will cause changes in your life that will impact you and your family. Research shows that “acts of service” modeled in the home increases the likelihood that the household will chose to remain in the church and develop a stronger relationships with others and with God. The Lord commands us to help the poor, the widow and the orphans. This is not a request but a command.
What we sometimes fail to realize is that serving others can be the greatest witness we have. Often our words cause us and others to stumble but no one can dispute our acts of service. When we demonstrate acts of service in our church setting, with our families and friends, and in the community we share the love of Jesus with them. We teach our children that God has brought us together for a purpose and He has a plan. So many of us struggle with what our purpose is in life. I believe that our purpose is simple: to Love the Lord with all our heart, mind and soul, to be a Godly example to one another, and to serve one another is love.
We need to think outside the box and realize that our time is not our own. If we are so bogged down with commitments and schedules that we have no time to pray, spend time in the word, talk about Jesus, and serve others; we are missing the blessings that the Lord wants to shower on us. Are your ready to get serious and allow a total life changing Christ-centered makeover? Who will you serve today? Remember we can not have 2 masters.
Unlike the mother of Zebedee’s sons who asked Jesus to place her 2 boys at each of Jesus sides so that they could have a place of prestige and honor in Heaven; we need to realize that a place of high standing is not what is needed to enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Not even the tools I have given you today will win you a place in Heaven. Yes, the tools are helpful in your faith walk and makeover but they are not the ticket. Total surrender and faith in the one true God who sent his one and only son to the cross while we were yet still sinners is The Way. If you have lost your way or have not ever searched out The Way please know that our altar rail is always open for prayer and support. It is time to do away with excuses and take action. Let us do excellence and center our lives on Christ together.