How many of you are familiar with the television show “Trading Spaces”? It is my wife’s favorite show. If you are not familiar with it, let me explain it to you.
Two couples who are neighbors and friends (hopefully) appear on this show. Each couple is paired with an interior designer and given $1,000 to work on a room in their neighbor’s house. So, family A goes to completely change and overhaul 1 room in Family B’s house, while family B goes to completely change and overhaul 1 room in family A’s house. They work on it for two days, and at the end, they each get to see their own new room. The best thing about this show is the “reveal”, or the reaction of each family to their new room. You see, outside of some very limited input (like “Please don’t touch the fireplace”), they have no idea what their new room will look like. Most of the time, the families like their new room. Other times, well, it doesn’t turn out so well.
I can tell you when it’s on television, because it’s on quite frequently at our house. I know when it’s 4 oclock or 9 oclock if it’s on television.
Several weeks ago I started a series on Spring Cleaning. We left it for three weeks, but I’d like to come back to it this morning. We looked at Ephesians 5:17-22, and the importance of getting rid of your old junk. We talked about the junk that we hold onto in our lives, how it really is junk compared to what God wants to give us. Yet we still hold on to our old way of living—the junk, the SIN—instead of enjoying the great and abundant life that Christ has to offer us.
Today, we are going to look at Ephesians 5:22-24, and see that God invites us to our own personal show of trading spaces. You see, he wants inside of our lives—he wants to get rid of all the old junk. He wants to change your thinking about how you approach your life. And finally, he wants to give you a makeover, and give you the fullness of his abundant life. But he doesn’t just want to do it with one aspect of our lives. He wants access to all of your life. It won’t do to just do part of your life, he wants it all. Let’s read together Ephesians 4:22-24.
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Now before we get into the process of trading spaces this morning, let’s look at the final result. You see, you don’t even get this on the show—you never see the final result beforehand. Here, for us, God wants us to see His blueprint. He has nothing to hide from us, he has the best in mind and his design is what we should desire.
created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
You see, the end result is that we would be like god in righteousness and holiness. Isn’t that something to be desired? I hope it is for you.
Now, it doesn’t say that we will be like God in power and majesty. It doesn’t say that we will be like God in all knowledge. Rather, in true righteousness and holiness. Matthew Henry says that this is the fulfillment of all of God’s commands for us. Righteousness concerns itself with the last five of the great commandments, the second tablet. Holiness concerns itself with the first five of the great commandments, the first tablet. Righteousness deals with men, while holiness deals with God. In other words, if we let God do this work within us, we will be pleasing to Him, perfectly dealing with both our fellow men and with God.
Now, how does this work? Let’s go back to the passage, and read it through again carefully.
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
We have to put off the old self—get rid of the old man. Get rid of the junk of the old way of living. We hold on to so much junk. I showed you a t-shirt the last time, signifying the junk that we individually hold onto in our personal lives. In fact, the words, “to put off” refers to the removal of clothing.
When we first started this series, I referred to it the same way as Christ told the disciples to remove the old burial clothes from Lazarus after he had been dead for several days. We think that we are styling in our old way of living. In actuality, we are walking around stinking up the place in dead men’s clothes. You see, that old way of living is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. Not only do we stink, but the stench gets worse and worse.
A concerned church member asked his pastor, Rick Warren, if he would go to hell for smoking. Dr. Warren answered, "No, but you’ll smell like you’ve been there."
Let me give you a personal example. This week, when Lynelle worked out, she came back real sweaty. If she kept those clothes on all day, and all night, and every time she worked out, she would stink to high heaven. That’s the way we live when we live according to our old lives.
We don’t need that old way of living, and we shouldn’t live that way. Listen to Colossians 3—“5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
That sounds very familiar to what Paul is saying here, isn’t it? Put it to death, get it off, get rid of it. God wants to come and redecorate your life, give you a brand new life. Why do we want that old way of living?
And the great thing is, we don’t have to get rid of things by ourselves—we have the Holy Spirit—our own personal interior designer to help us.
He’s the one who comes to us and says, “Hey James. You know that little white lie that you told? That lying has to go. That has no business being here in the blueprints for your new life.” And you know what—it is by His power that we can do it.
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
You see, Jesus isn’t letting us go into the process by ourselves, giving us a limited budget, a limited timetable, and limited manpower. We have God’s resources, God’s timetable and God’s power, all at work for us. So when the apostle Paul tells us to get rid of the old junk, it’s possible because God is the one working in us to do it!
The Message paraphrase puts it this way: 22Since, 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!
You see, God wants all of it. Not just a part of it. It needs to go!
But not only are we to get rid of the junk, we are to change our way of thinking.
to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
The NLT puts it this way—“ Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes.”
That sounds familiar doesn’t it? What does that remind you of? How about Romans 12:2? Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the (WHAT?) renewing of your mind.
In other words, we have to change our thinking. Our old way of thinking needs to be changed into God’s way of thinking. You see, it’s no longer about us. Our biggest problem in life is when we make ourselves number one. If we are number one, that’s the old way of living and thinking. BUT, if we make God number one, if we make others number one, then we will have God’s way of thinking.
A man called the church and asked if he could speak to the Head Hog at the Trough. The secretary said, "Who?" The man replied, "I want to speak to the Head Hog at the Trough!" Sure that she had heard correctly, the secretary said, "Sir, if you mean our pastor, you will have to treat him with more respect and ask for ’the reverend’ or ’the pastor’. But certainly you cannot refer to him as the Head Hog at the Trough!" The man responded, "I see. Well, I have $10,000 I was thinking about donating to the building fund." The secretary exclaimed, "Oh my, hold the line, I think the big pig just walked through the door!"
Often times our thinking will foul us up. We let the old way of thinking prohibit us from doing what God wants us to do. And you know what, sometimes it isn’t the old way of living thinking that trips us up, it’s the “We’ve never done it that way before” thinking that gets us as well. I talked about Jackson Street Baptist, thinking in new ways to reach the kids of Scranton. And I’m grateful that the thinking, “We’ve never don’t it that way before” didn’t get in the way.
Sometimes it means that we don’t always do things the way we used to. And you know what, that’s okay. If we are truly going to let God do a work in us, we need to change our thinking, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Finally, we are to put on the new. We are to put God’s blueprint at work in our lives.
and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
2 Corinthians 5:17—“ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
Get rid of the old junk, and get rid of the old way of thinking, and put on the new clothes!
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.
That is the way we are supposed to live. A God-fashioned life. A life renewed from the inside (by changing our thinking). God accurately reproducing his character of righteousness and holiness into your life.
A minister was conscious of the lengthy sermon he delivered last Sunday. In an attempt to console his congregation and assure them that this week would be different, he said, "To compensate for last week’s sermon of twenty points, this week’s sermon will be pointless."
This isn’t the end. There’s a lot more, which we will get to next week. But that’s God’s blueprint for our lives. He invites us to take part in our own episode of Trading Spaces. He wants to come in and get rid of all of your old junk, that old way of living that seemed so great. He wants to change your thinking about the way you live. And he wants to clothe you with His way of living, so that you can be the kind of person God wants you to be. Trading Spaces—that’s what God wants to do with you. Why wouldn’t you want was he has to offer?
