Lord, Pick Me! Series

This past week, I went online to learn how to apply to be on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!

They ask, “Does your home desperately need some attention?” You are encouraged to print out an application and send it in. They also require each application to have a video tour of the home.

Include your family’s story. Make sure you tell us why you deserve a Makeover. Talk about how your life situation relates to your house and how having your home fixed would improve your life. Open up to us during the tour and give us a chance to get to know you. Then you should go back to the front of your house and say, “Bye ABC! Thanks for coming to see our home; we hope you pick us.”

Most of us are willing to admit that a makeover would help. But we don’t know how to make the makeover happen.

Don’t forget that Jesus is alive. That means that the life of Jesus is accessible for us today. He makes all things new. His life in us can mean an extreme makeover for us.

Jesus wants to impact every area of your life. We can tap into the resurrection power of Jesus so that our lives have more joy, more peace, and more kindness than we’ve ever known before.

This series is designed to help us get an extreme makeover from the inside out.

On TV’s Extreme Makeover, only a few people can be picked. The sponsors of the makeover only have limited resources.

That’s not true with God. He has unlimited resources. He is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in all His ways.

Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool; what is the house that you would build for Me, and what is the place of My rest? All these things My hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My word.”

Isaiah 66:1-2 (ESV)

Look – nabat - to show regard to, to pay attention to

This is the one I esteem… (NIV)

These are the people I am pleased with… (NCV)

This past week, I did a little study on what it means when God “looks” at us.

God “looks” to give us…

1. … His strength.

I don’t have the energy to do everything I need to do. I run out of gas. I bet I’m not alone. That’s why we need His strength.

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.

II Chronicles 16:9a (ESV)

He looks to give us His strength.

2. … His protection.

When you are driving on slick roads, you want His protection. When your kids head out to school or on a date, you want His protection.

The eyes of the LORD watch over those who do right; His ears are open to their cries for help.

Psalm 34:15 (NLT)

He looks to give us His protection.

3. … His reward.

This life is filled with injustice. Some guy at work conned the boss and got away with it. The bad guys sometimes get ahead in this life. But God is looking for just the right time to reward His people.

Great are Your purposes and mighty are your deeds. Your eyes are open to all the ways of men; You reward everyone according to his conduct and as his deeds deserve.

Jeremiah 32:19 (NIV)

He looks to give us His reward.

4. … His forgiveness.

Just a little thought about this past week, will remind us that we didn’t live the way we wanted to live. We let the people around us down. Worst, we let God down. But God is a God who lives to forgive. He’s looking for people who will confess and turn from sin.

Be not so terribly angry, O LORD, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.

Isaiah 64:9 (ESV)

He looks to give us His forgiveness.

5. … His renewal.

It’s Extreme Makeover time. The biblical word for this is revival.

Return to us, O God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Revive us, and we will call on Your name.

Psalm 80:14a, 18a (NIV)

He looks to give us His renewal. We need this Makeover. We need renewal and revival.

Why is every form of moral impurity rampant in our evangelical, Bible-teaching churches? Why do the vast majority of people who say they know Christ never introduce anyone to Christ? Why are our churches loaded with people who want a part-time, convenient, weekend Christian experience and who show no serious interest in spiritual growth? Why do pastors have to twist people’s arms to give, to serve, to get involved in the work of the ministry? Why are church splits so common? Why are so many professing Christians barren, empty, hurting, confused, and in spiritual bondage? Why is the world so utterly disinterested in what we have to offer?