Extreme Makeover- God Edition Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• There are a lot of popular televisions shows we watch. There is the whole CSI genre, Miami, NY, Navy, Cold Case, CSI Sierra Vista.

• We have the “talent show genre.” We have decoration shows, reality shows, but one of the genres that seem to have some amount of popularity is the makeover genre.

• These are the shows in which they take a person and make them a “new” person. In some of the makeover shows they take a house or a car and renovate it. The television is full of these types of shows. Ambush Makeover, What not to Wear, Trading Spaces, Extreme Makeover, 10 Years younger, Rides, Monster House, and one I used to watch, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

• In Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the crew usually goes to a family who is fallen on very hard times, and they come in and completely tear down and rebuild their home in something like seven days.

• When it is all said and done, the home is beautifully decorated and suited to the special needs of the home owner.

• I think the attraction of these shows is that we want to see someone be able to better themselves and we like to see a person who has not had too many good breaks receive a break for once.

• In the makeover shows, there is usually some expert or group of experts who all work together to make something better.

• God looked down and knew it was time for an extreme makeover and so He sent the expert, Jesus to cause some things to change.

• Let’s turn to 1 Peter 2:3-10 together.

• SLIDE #2

• 1 Peter 2:3-10(ESV) 3if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For it stands in Scripture: £“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 7So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, £“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”£ 8and £“A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

• In the first part of God’s extreme makeover we see…

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

I. GOD GAVE WORSHIP AN EXTREME MAKEOVER.

 The Old Testament worship was producing an outward faith. God did not intend for worship to be this way, but that is what was happening.

 Worship had a lot of external trappings, from the temple, to the items in the temple to the 10 Commandments which were turned into several hundred by the well-meaning religious leaders of the time.

 Worship became about a system of rule keeping instead of relationship. God needed to give worship an extreme makeover and He did so through Jesus.

 SLIDE #4

1. The makeover included a new cornerstone. (6)

 The cornerstone was the stone in which the rest of the building was started from. It was the first stone laid. If the cornerstone was not square, the building would not be square either.

 The positioning of the cornerstone determined the direction of the building would be erected along with where it would be built. The size of the stone could affect the size of the building.

 Jesus is said to be that stone, but it was a stone that the builders rejected. The word in verse four denotes Jesus as being refused as unsuitable, that He was tested and rejected as though He lacked qualifications to be the cornerstone.

 Men think one thing about Jesus while God thinks about Jesus in a totally different way!

 Verse seven tells us that the builders rejected Jesus.

 1 Peter 2:7(ESV) 7So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”

 A builder would look at many stones before choosing one to be the cornerstone. According to the religious leaders, they looked at Jesus and determined that He did not meet their specifications for a Messiah, so they rejected Him. They wanted a political Messiah who would lead them out of the bondage to the Romans.