Stage Five: Paint
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Opening
Opening
We’re almost done with our Renovate series. We’ve talked about having a plan, demolition, building walls, and last time: facing the unexpected.
The plan: God has a plan for us to to be conformed to the image of Christ, and He is at work making that come to reality.
Demolition: In bringing this plan to fruition, God is going to have to demolish some parts of us to make us more like Christ.
Building walls: God puts boundaries in our lives for our protection and constraint, and where we have gaps in those walls, we need our brothers and sisters to come and stand in those gaps.
Expecting the unexpected: We live in a broken world, and sometimes unexpected happens as a result. We choose how to respond to those unexpected things, and we can trust that God allows them in our lives for a purpose that fits in with His plan of making us more like Christ.
One of the biggest steps in our renovation project at our house was also one of the simplest: paint.
There are two things about paint: color and sheen. The color is, well, the color:
We picked out a nice tan paint called “Floating Feather” for the walls, and a nice white color called “Whisper White” for our ceiling, doors, and trim.
· Show pictures
Show pictures
The sheen of a paint is it’s shine or lack of shine. It could be flat, or eggshell, or satin, or semi-gloss, or gloss. We chose an “eggshell” sheen.
Paint is great. It changes everything. One second, you’re looking at a mud-spattered, gray piece of sheetrock, and the next second, it’s a wall. A real wall. The paint just brings it together. How does it do that? It does it in four ways:
Teaching
Teaching
1: Paint hides (so does Christ).
1: Paint hides (so does Christ).
Paint hides things like pencil marks (we’d write on the walls because we knew we’d paint them), old paint, chalk lines (for leveling), cover plates, wire moulding, etc.
SHOW PICTURES OF “HIDDEN” THINGS
SHOW A TWO PICTURES OF THE THINGS PAINT “HID”
There were also some places where we had to do some tricks with mud or caulk: filling in gaps and holes. Painting over these filled-in flaws hid them, too.
Paint makes these things “disappear”.
Jesus does that same thing: He hides our ugly parts.
1 Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love; according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion.
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9 Turn your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt.
(to blot out: darken or hide entirely)
When you “blot” something out, you darken it or hide it completely. When David prayed these things, this is what he was asking God—to completely cover over those ugly parts: his rebellion and his guilt.
(Our lives are now hidden in God, tucked away)
3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
If we are in Christ, our lives have been tucked away in God, hidden and safe in Him.
In the process of hiding things, paint must do something else:
2: Paint covers (so does Christ).
2: Paint covers (so does Christ).
Paint completely coats a wall. It covers all of the little bumps and nooks and crannies.
When you look at a painted wall, are you really looking at the WALL, or are you looking at paint?
You really see the paint, not the wall. You see the texture of the wall, but you only see that THROUGH the paint.
Jesus does the same thing: He works to completely cover us, so that others see only Him. They see the physical shape of us (our texture), but the goal is that they truly only see Him.
26 for through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus. 27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.
(Like paint, when people look at us with our clothes on, they see our clothes, not us)
Like paint, when people look at us with our clothes on, they see our clothes, not us. We are to be clothed with Christ, so that those who look at us see Jesus, and not us.
8 But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.
, (The old is exchanged for the new.)
8 But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator. 11 In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all. 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
col 3:12-14 (The old is exchanged for the new.)
(The old is exchanged for the new.)
Also, in Christ we exchange the old for the new...
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22 to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.
As paint covers over the bumps and flaws and ugly things, it does something more. Something that we can’t see.
As paint hides the bumps and flaws and ugly things, and covers us with Christ so that those who look at us see Him instead of us, it does something more. Something that we can’t see.
3: Paint protects (so does Christ).
3: Paint protects (so does Christ).
Paint seals the drywall, mud, and texture. It soaks and sticks INTO it, not just on top of it.
It makes the wall able to withstand being wiped with a wet cloth (mud would come off without paint).
It gives the wall durability and protection.
Jesus does the same thing: by His Spirit, He soaks into you and protects you, because you belong to Him.
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21 Now it is God who strengthens us together with you in Christ, and who has anointed us. 22 He has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.
13 In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. 14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
· (once you’re sealed with the Spirit, you’re God’s. He protects His investments – guarantees)
(once you’re sealed with the Spirit, you’re God’s. He protects His investments – guarantees)
Once we belong to God, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, a guarantee of our protection in faith until the return of Christ.
The last thing is the thing we most often think about when we think about what paint does. It takes something plain or ugly or dirty or stained…
4: Paint beautifies (so does Christ).
4: Paint beautifies (so does Christ).
Paint makes a wall look “pretty”. It makes it so that you want to look at it, or even touch it.
It adds that color and that gloss. It reflects a little light (unless it’s flat paint) and makes the room seem brighter.
It makes the wall attractive to others.
Jesus does that same thing: He covers us and makes us so that people should want to see us, and be around us.
He makes us “shine”.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
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But more than that, we will eventually be COMPLETELY beautiful.
· But more than that, we will eventually be COMPLETELY beautiful.
51 Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. 53 For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality. 54 When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory.
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4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
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Closing
Closing
Closing
Closing
Painting was such a big step in the renovation of that back room. It made it truly start to look like…a room, and not a construction zone.
To close out, I want to share a story (whether it is true or not can’t be verified) about Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous painting: “The Last Supper”.
One of the reasons the painting took four years to complete was that when Da Vinci was almost finished, a friend commented on how incredibly moving the painting was—especially the silver cup on the table. “It was brilliant, beautiful!” he said. “My eyes were immediately drawn to it.” Da Vinci got so angry that he immediately painted over the cup, blotting it out. The focus of the painting was to be Jesus, not the cup. All attention had to be drawn to Him; anything that detracted from Him had to be removed.
The cup had to be “painted over” or “blotted out” because it distracted the viewer from the focus of the painting: Jesus.
The same is true in our lives. Jesus wants to be the true focus of our lives, so much so that when people look at us, they may see our physical characteristics, but they are only seeing the texture that Jesus has chosen to “paint” Himself over.
It’s not about rules and regs. It’s about walking a walk so close to Christ that you begin taking on His “color” and “sheen”. He starts to hide your faults. He covers over who you used to be. He protects and seals you with Himself. He makes you truly beautiful.
The only way that’s going to happen is for you to spend time with Jesus, allowing Him to rework the things in you that need painted.
Painting takes time, and is sometimes tedious work. But in the end, the payoff is amazing.
Let Jesus “paint” some of you this week.