Extreme Makeover - Ear Augmentation Series

Ear Augmentation

Pre-Op Preparation for an Ear Augmentation

You have to be saved

You have to humble yourself

Post-Op Care for an Ear Augmentation

Be in the Word

Be in Prayer

Slide 1

We started a series last week called Extreme Makeover: God Edition.

Manyof us at some point seem to want something changed about ourselves. We would like a

nose job or

tummy tuck or

something enlarged or

something shrunk.

We often think that those things will make life better for us.

But what if we just asked God to change us so that life could be better?

What changes would He make to us?

We talked last week about God starting with our heart – that He would give us a heart Transplant so that we could better be able to

Love God

Love People

Live it out!

What other areas would He change so our life could be better?

One area that I think God would change is our ears.

Oh Good, some of you may say.

My ears are not even on my head, so I hope He evens them out.

Or

think we look like Dumbo, with ears that are too big.

look better with smaller ears.

Some people thought Ross Perot had big ears and he even joked about it when he was running for president.

Someone wanted to ask him a question and he said, “I’m all ears!”

But I don’t think God would shrink our ears.

Slide 2

In fact, I think God would do an Ear Augmentation.

He would make them bigger so that we could hear Him better.

Sometimes we think God doesn’t hear us, but

The fact of the matter is, is that we have hearing problems.

Illustration

There was a man who thought his wife had a hearing problem, she never responded when He asked her something.

To prove this while she was reading the paper one day walked across the room and said in a normal voice, “Can you hear me now.”

The man heard no response.

He took a few steps closer and said, “Can you hear me now.”

Again the man heard no response from his wife.

A few more steps closer and the same thing, no response,

Finally, He gets right behind her and says “Can you hear me now.”

And to his surprise she says, “For the fourth time, I can hear you.”

It isn’t God who can’t hear, it is us.

Now before you get all worried, God is probably not going to physically change the size of your ears, but He does want us to better be able to hear Him.

And that is the important thing.

We don’t just need bigger ears to hear more of everything else.

We need bigger ears to hear Him.

Jesus often spoke in parables and in several places, we see him end with a phrase such as

Slide 3

Matthew 11:15; 13:9, 43

He who has ears, let him hear.

Or when warning the 7 churches in Revelation, He says

Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 22

He who has an ear, let him hear

He wants people to

think about and

hear

what He has to say.

He wants the same thing for us today.

He wants us to have ears to hear.

So let’s let the Lord do an Extreme Makeover Ear Augmentation on us today.

Before we are ready to have that happen, we need to first talk about the

Slide 4

Pre-Op Preparation for an Ear Augmentation

If we are not prepared to receive the ear augmentation, it will not be effective.

We won’t hear God any better than we do now.

Just like someone going in for a real, physical surgery needs to do certain things like

Not eat,

Take certain medicines,

Etc, so their body is prepared for the surgery,

Some specific things need to occur in our own lives before we receive an Ear augmentation if it is going to produce the desired results of us hearing God better.

First,

You need to be Saved

Slide 5

John 8:47

47 He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."

We talked about salvation in our message on heart transplant last week. So I just want to cover this briefly this week.

You may come to church every week.

You may read the Bible every day.

You may watch and listen to Christian TV and radio.

You may give money to the church and other charities.

But until you stop and receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, you will never truly be able to hear what God has to say to you in directing your life.

I said last week that we needed to start with the heart transplant because if we didn’t, none of the other makeover “surgeries” would take without it.