A Total Life Makeover

News commentator Paul Harvey tells about the time the Italian sailing team went to Australia to participate in the America’s Cup race. Gucci, the famous Italian designer, had outfitted them with all the latest sportswear fashions before they left for Australia. After they arrived, the men had some time to kill, so they rented a car and drove out into the bush. They wanted to see some kangaroos. They not only saw one, they ran into it. They jumped out of the rented Land Rover and ran over to the kangaroo. It was just lying there on the roadway without moving. They took some pictures. Then one guy had the idea that it would be funny if he put his expensive Gucci jacket on the animal and took its picture. So he did. Just after he got the coat on the limp kangaroo and stepped back to take a picture, the creature revived and hopped away so fast he couldn’t catch it. Somewhere in the Australia outback is a fashionably dressed kangaroo. He wears a Gucci jacket, and in the pocket are the keys to a Land Rover and the team’s credit card.

Just because you might look like a team member on the outside doesn’t mean you are a member of the team.

Some people change their outside to fit what the world wants then to be...

ILL>>> “The Total Body Makeover” TV show -- New nose, new facelift, new tummy, new teeth, new cheeks, new chin ...

No man can change who you really are inside, only God can do that. He gives us a ...

A Total Life Makeover >>>Col. 3 --

Beginning with a ... v1-7

I. A New Mind

A. A New View //seek (co-resurrected) v1 - saved

Rom 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

ILL>>>One night a little boy fell out of bed. His father raced into the room to find the little guy crying and trying to climb back up into the bed. The father asked, "Son, what happened, why did you fall out of bed?" The little boy answered, "Daddy, I guess I went to sleep a little too close to where I got in." That is the trouble with many people in the Lord’s work - they never get in far enough to keep from falling out of it.

B. A New Focus // set your mind on things above v2

1. We died to sin at salvation

2. We are alive (hidden) with God // protected //

ILL>>>"The only people who really want somebody else to change them are wet babies. The goal of counseling is not to change people. It is to provide a relationship in which persons learn to change themselves--a relationship in which people mature." --Les Parott III (in Helping the Struggling Adolescent, Zondervan, 1993)

C. A New Life v4 He is our whole life - Jn 14:6 - I am the Way, the Truth and the Life...

D. A New Death - dying to sin v5 ...which is idolatry! How? - walk away/ focus on heavenly things

1. Because the wrath of God will fall v6

2. Because you are walking in a different life now v7

Another way to understand this total life makeover is to realize God made us into ... v8-17

II. A New Man

Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Rom 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Rom 6:8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

A. Put off the old man v8 v9 do not lie

2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

B. Put on the New understanding = renewed New equality of people v11 renewed in knowledge // of people ...ect

C. Put on New relationship skills v12-13

ILL>>>A handicapped girl with leg braces became discouraged with her condition and wished she could quit her physical therapy. One day when her father insisted that she continue, she fell into his arms and asked, "Daddy, don’t you love me just the way I am?" Knowing how she felt, he hugged her and replied, "Yes, honey, I love you just the way you are. But I love you too much to let you stay that way."

D. Put on a New Priorities v14 above all...

1. Love v14

2. peace v15

3. WOG v16 teaching, encouraging, singing

4. the Name of Jesus = everything

III. New Manners

A. A New life in the Home