The Lord Has Completed Your Spiritual Make-Over!

5th Sunday after Epiphany, 2/5/23 1 Peter 2:9-11 The Lord Has Completed Your Spiritual Make-Over! I. Declare his praises. II. Live a Christian life. There’s just something about a home make-over that grabs our attention and holds our interest. That’s one of the reasons you can find a renovation episode on your TV just about any time of the day or night. The owners of the home and the contractors took a home that was ugly, rundown, and in desperate need of repairs and updates, and turned it into a home that is bright, beautiful, warm, updated and functional. What was formerly an eyesore is now the pride of the neighborhood. And we’re interested in it. Or, maybe that home make-over isn’t on your TV; it’s in your own neighborhood. As you drive past that home, you simply have to see what’s going on. You marked the progress from demo to renovation. You love seeing what’s been done on the outside and you’re dying to see what it looks like on the inside. Maybe one day soon you’ll work up the courage to ask the owner to see some pictures. Maybe they’ll give you a tour. Have you ever done a make-over on your home? I’m sure many of you have. It can be a long and expensive project. There are always unwanted surprises in construction work. Perhaps it took longer to complete than you expected, and it cost more than you estimated. But, now that it’s complete, you don’t think about those things any longer. You’re just enjoying the make-over. Your Lord has another make-over he wants you to look at this morning. It’s not a home in your neighborhood or your own home. It’s his home, where he lives. When the Holy Spirit brought you to faith in Jesus, your God began living in you. And the changes he brought about in you are nothing short of miraculous. It was a complete make-over. The Apostle Peter describes that make-over in these words before us this morning. At first, that might be difficult for you to process. After all, you probably don’t view your life in terms of how wonderful it is, but how difficult it is. Every day is a search for solutions to the problems you face. Most days, life is tough. Some days are unbearable. But that doesn’t change the fact that the Lord has made you to be exactly what he wants you to be. The Lord has completed your spiritual make-over. Let’s see how he describes you and me in these words from 1 Peter chapter 2. Part I. Instead of doing a complete make-over, there are times in our lives when we decide it’s better to simply make a temporary fix. For instance, your mechanic may tell you that your car’s engine needs extensive repairs. But it has well over 125,000 miles on it. You’re not going to put that kind of money into that car. So, you tell him only to do a few of the things on his list; just enough to keep your car running for now. Or, you know your house’s wood siding needs to be replaced, but you decide to put off that major project and simply apply a coat of quality paint. When it came to dealing with you, your imperfections, your deficiencies, your limitations, your God didn’t put a band-aid on you and declare, “That’s good enough” or, “It will due for now.” He did a complete make-over. Listen to Peter describe you, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” That’s quite a description of you. In fact, I challenge you to find a more glowing characterization in all of Scripture. First, he calls you one of his chosen people. You’re not the generic brand. You’re not what the discounter sells. You’re not what’s leftover. You’re one of God’s chosen people. And when you consider that he chose you before the world began, you begin to realize just how much you mean to your God. Next, he calls you a royal priesthood. I realize that priests might not have the best reputation in our modern society, but they were the cream of the crop among the Jews of the Old Testament. There was no higher position among the Jews than to be a priest. You have the privilege of serving your God with your life! How amazing! Your God has also made you part of his holy nation. Contrast that with the evil that abounds in our nation and others around the world. You’re part of a holy nation—a nation of people who live each day with the holiness that Jesus won for them. You’re spotless before your God! Finally, Peter calls you part of God’s special possession. If you’re married, on the day of your wedding you rejoiced to tell your spouse that you belong to him or her and she or he belongs to you. You meant that only in a loving, blessed way. It was the fulfillment of your hopes and dreams. Your God says that about you every day of your life. You are the bride of Christ. He rejoices over you. But remember, it cost you nothing while it cost him everything. You and I didn’t make ourselves over. God did, and it took the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ, to make it happen. What we could never attain on our own—making ourselves acceptable to our God—he did for us. And he left nothing out. He didn’t spare any of the details. He made you exactly who he wants you to be. So, what’s your response? Peter states that God did this so “that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” You live to praise God. But just what does that mean? To praise God means to tell others what amazing things he has done for you. It’s what we do in worship. I hear you praising God for what he done for you and you hear others doing the same. How could we do anything but praise him? Look at the make-over he has completed in you! You’re exactly the way he wants you to be, so declare his praises. The Lord has completed your spiritual make-over. You and I should be jumping and shouting with joy. But we’re not, at least not all that often. More often, we’re convinced he hasn’t done enough for us. We’re the ones who praise him, we’re the ones who worship him, we’re the ones who support his kingdom work, but our lives are not what we want them to be. It seems as if God isn’t treating us fairly. That’s an awful thought. A devilish thought. The last thing you want is for your God to treat you fairly, because that will get you nowhere but hell. Instead, he treats you graciously. He makes you to be the person you don’t deserve to be—his own child, one of his own people, his own bride. And it’s all because of what Jesus did for you. You have a Savior who lived, died, rose again, and rules for you. He completed your spiritual make-over. Declare his praises! Part II. In my mind, one of the harshest ways a parent can discipline a wayward child is to tell that child, “That’s not how I raised you. That’s not the way our family members talk and that’s not what our family members do.” The parent is heartbroken that their efforts with this child, at least in this instance, have not produced what they intended. If the Lord has completed your spiritual make-over and made you exactly as he wanted so that you can declare his praises, then the last thing he wants is for you to return to your pre-make-over condition. He wants you to live like the person he has made you to be. Peter states that very thing with these words, “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” First, you’re a foreigner and an exile here. This is not the life and this is not the world that the Lord Jesus has won for you. He has something infinitely better in store. It’s heaven. That’s your daily goal. Realize every day that you don’t belong here. And then live like it. Peter reminds us that living sinful lives is not what’s good for us, even though Satan wants us to think so. The sinful desires of our hearts and the temptations from our world only intend to bring about our spiritual ruin. They only lead to death and destruction. So, live as the person God made you to be and receive his blessings. He promises to bless those who walk in his ways. And, as you do so, you’ll have the blessed opportunity to draw others to Christ. You have the highest motivation for doing what is good and right in every situation, for living the Christian life—it’s love for your Lord Jesus who loves you with an eternal love. And his love extends to all people. He wants them to know that love more than anything else. He wants to complete a make-over of their lives just as he has yours. Draw others to him by living a Christian life. We’re smart enough not to jump back into the cesspool that is our world, but we’re prone to living on the edges of it. What do I mean? Even though we are strangers and aliens here, and even though our Lord has completed a spiritual make-over in us, we’re drawn to reverting to our pre-make-over lives. The seedy, sinful side of us wants to indulge itself every so often. We play with Satan’s fire and think we won’t get burned. We convince ourselves that we can control our sinful impulses. We justify the way we’re thinking and feeling as normal for humans. That’s like taking the dwelling that God has made—you—and filling it with stinking trash, completely defiling it. But that’s what we do. More times than we can count. Sometimes we don’t even realize that’s what we’re doing because sinning feels so natural. Confess it. Trust in the cleansing blood of Jesus. Tap into the power he gave you at your baptism to drown your sinful nature and follow the ways of the new person he created you to be. All to his glory! It’s not just your neighbor who is interested in the spiritual make-over the Lord has completed in you; so is your renovator, the Lord Jesus himself. Live for him every day out of thanks for completely making over your life. Amen.