“I Want to Be Pretty.” This is the title of a popular TV program that was airing in Poland last year. It was a reality TV show in which, in every episode, you follow the changes of two women who are the heroes of the program. Each of these women works with a team of specialists for six weeks. During that time, they are cut off from contact with their friends and relatives as they undergo major changes in their physical appearance and also their self-image. Finally friends and family are invited to the studio, where they meet them face-to-face with great drama.

An example was Gosia, who said, “I was good-looking all my life, but I’m not able to accept how I look now… It’s not about being older. But it’s simply that I look different. Now I feel like an old used-up slipper. I’m ashamed of myself in front of my husband. This has gone on for nearly a year. How long can he stand it?”

Does our life and happiness depend on our appearance? Was Gosia really happier after her transformation? Is she a better person? Is she a better wife and mother? Does the change of appearance change our character and make us better people?

Losing weight and getting a new wardrobe will change your life. Getting a new haircut will change your life. Moving to a new city will change your life. Getting a new job will change your life. Quitting smoking and drinking will change your life.

But the odd thing is God doesn’t want to change your life. He doesn’t want you to turn over a new leaf. He doesn’t even want you to become a better person. He wants to make you totally new. 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” John 3:3 says, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

We live in an unhappy, unfulfilled world. Everybody is looking for that “thing” that will make them happy. Sadly most of us think that “thing” is a change to the outside that will make us truly happy and content on the inside. George Muller, who established many orphanages throughout England in the 1800s, once said, “I believe that the one chief reason that I have been kept in happy useful service is that I have been a lover of Holy Scripture. It has been my habit to read the Bible through four times a year; in a prayerful spirit, to apply it to my heart, and practice what I find there. I have been for 69 years a happy man; happy, happy, happy.”

Psalm 144:15: “Happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.”

Watch sermons and read sermon texts and other articles online at tomahawkmbc.com. Listen to Pastor Jack Ward’s sermons on WSIP FM 98.9 every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Watch his sermons on Facebook on his page.