Your Renewal Plan
I used to wear cargo shorts. Specifically, I had these camo cargo shorts that I loved. I had them for like 10 years, and they were marvelously comfortable. When I put them on it was like coming home, sitting in my favorite chair, pulling up a warm blanket with a coffee in my hand and slowly falling asleep. I loved those shorts. But they were sinfully ugly; just horrendous. No human being should be seen in them. And no grown man should wear cargo shorts. And my wife hated them. So I threw them away. I changed. Change is hard. What am I supposed to do without pockets near my knees? Hold stuff in my hands?
But change is necessary. And, shockingly, change can be really beautiful. In Ephesians 4 Paul tells Jesus followers, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.” He tells them to change. He doesn’t leave it as an option, he demands it as part of what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus followers are changers. But change is stinking hard. Because whatever we need to throw away has probably become very, very comfortable to us. So Paul lays out a plan for us to change to be more like Jesus and display his beauty in this world. In verse 22 he says, “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of Godin true righteousness and holiness.” This is the Renewal Plan that God is leading Harbor West through:
Identify What Needs To Change
Where is it that you’re still walking like someone who doesn’t believe in Jesus? Some of you might think, “Where do I start there’re so many ways?” Others may be asking, “Where do I start, I’m pretty good and can’t think of anything?” If you don’t know what you need to put off, what you need to be renewed in, here’s a way to help you figure it out: ask your husband, ask your wife. Ask someone in your life that you trust that knows you well. Ask your community group leader or someone else in your group. Pray and ask God to show you exactly where your life needs to be renewed to look more like beautiful Jesus. After you pray and ask God to show you what you need to put off, read through Ephesians 4:25-32 and see what God brings to your mind.
Confess Your Brokenness to God, And Trust In Jesus
We often skip this step because just as soon as we identify that something is wrong and needs to change, we jump to action to change it ourselves. We have to see that we can’t fix ourselves. We need to BE renewed. And Jesus is able to renew each of us. This means that we need to pray to God and spend some good time with him. Here’s a great way to help that Tim Chester talks about in his book You Can Change: 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus was made to be the sin that we need to put off, so that Jesus could be punished for that sin, so that we wouldn’t be. Jesus paid for our ugliness. He died for it. And because of that, our lives can be much more beautiful. Chester recommends that we personalize this verse. Insert your sin that you need to put off into this verse. For example, “For my sake God made Jesus who knew no laziness to be punished as a sloth for me, so that in Jesus I might become a hard worker before God.” Whatever sin you’re struggling with, see clearly in this verse that Jesus died for that sin. He died so that that sin could be put to death in your life. Confess your brokenness, and trust in Jesus.
Put On Something Beautiful
Write out a list of ways that you could live beautifully in this area. But most importantly, pray and ask God to help you do this. That’s the only way we’re going to have lasting change, is if God does it in us. That’s because only God can truly renew us. And God has been promising to clean us and make us beautiful ever since the moment we became ugly and rebelled against him. Look at what he says in Ezekiel 36: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Jesus gives us a new heart and a new spirit. If you’re a Jesus follower, you have God’s Spirit living in your life, bringing renewal and beauty into your life. He WILL bring beauty into your life.
Find Someone To Help You
This can’t be done in isolation, it was never meant to be done that way. It has to be done in the context of the church. Renewal is a community project. Look at the community aspects of the rest of Ephesians 4: “let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another …speak in a way that gives grace to those who hear …Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” This is a community renewal project, to be lived out together. If you seriously want to be renewed, if you seriously want to shine with the beauty of Jesus, ask someone to help you. Get up extra early and meet someone for breakfast to talk about this. Make the sacrifice and set aside one night a week to come to community group. Go up to someone in our church who looks beautiful like Jesus in ways that you want and ask them to help you.
We’ll be talking about this in our community groups this week to add a little accountability. If you come to community group this week, you’re leader’s going to ask if you’ve taken any steps in your Renewal Plan. That’d be a great time to ask for some help. It’s going to be uncomfortable, but any change that’s beautiful is uncomfortable.
No matter what sin you are fighting right now, no matter how long you’ve battled it or how hopeless it seems for you to have victory over it, God will bring renewal into your life. The cross is that powerful. The resurrection is that powerful. Your life is heading toward beauty, because it’s heading toward Jesus.
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