My place of employment is going through a total remodel. The place is only six years old and many ask, "Why are they remodeling it?" On the surface the place looks good but when you take a closer look you will find tiles that are cracked, walls with blemishes and shelves that are dented.
Isn't this building I work in much like you and me? On the outside we might look pretty good. We are like the guy in the Old Spice commerical where he tells you to look at him then your man then back to him. He looks great compared to most of us men. BUT... he is actually just like us except packaged in a hunk body. When you look closer at his or our life you will find cracks in our character, blemishes in our personality and dents in our hearts. We are like our building and in need of a complete remodel.
The first thing that is happening at our building is demolition. People are taking down old shelves and some of the shelves are going to a wearhouse for resale and some are being placed in a dumpster to be thrown away. To remodel our lives we need to do what Paul tells us in Ephesians 4 and get rid of the rotten life we had before we accepted Jesus as our savior.
Ephesians 4: 20-24 But that's no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.
Then we need to look at our daily life and the attitudes that feed our negative areas and let the Holy Spirit fix those things.
Romans 12: 1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Then we need to dress in a different way and be more transparent in who we are. We need to work on becoming a new person.
Colossians 3: 9-11 Don't lie to one another. You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. Now you're dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.
When our building has been completely remodeled it will look up-to-date and have some of the latest technology. Once we have matured (been completely remodeled) in Christ we will be living in an upside down world because life is still going to happen to us and everything will not be perfect. We will face troubles and difficulties but with the help of Jesus Christ via the Holy Spirit we can still be joyful about what lies ahead for us.
2 Corinthians 4: 16-18 So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever.
Father, Change us for Your glory. In Jesus name amen
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