Sermon Central
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Does God Want A Dirty Church
Contributed by Corey Laughary on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: What does it mean to "honor God with your lips" and yet be far from him? This sermon explores the type of followers Jesus is calling us to become.
Lets look at v. 21
v. 21, greek of evil thoughts is literally, the word for dialog- so from within, out of the men’s hearts proceeds the consideration, dialogue, discussion of worthless, injurious, harmful thought- the list of sins- that need to be dealt w
4. Reality: God has a wounded, but healing church
Let’s look at a couple of words here:
koinoo- defile- make unclean vs. katerizo- coterize- to make clean, to purge, to purify, a church willing to admit its own wounds and seek healing for them. James 5:16 "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”You have to clean a wound before you stitch it up.
5. God doesn’t need a well-dressed church
The main Theme: Commands of God vs. tradition of men
Illustration- tradition of men wearing a suit and tie to church. Is that a command of God? Does a flashy suit a good pastor make?
How do we tell the difference between traditions of men and commands of God?
We study the wordeating and digesting the word
Hold ourselves accountable to a worshiping community
letting others tell us if what comes out of us is good or bad
Most churches are full of people afraid to tell the truth
James text says pure religion- is acts of goodness taking care of widows and orphans- you don’t become good by doing good acts- we do good acts because goodness in Christ has come into us- so that is what comes out of us.
There are no pure people, no pure churches- only people and churches who regularly and humbly seek to be purified by the cleansing blood of their savior Jesus Christ.
Jesus says at different times- he came for sick, the lost, and sinners- he does not come for the pure, or the confidently righteous and religiously clean folks
So does Jesus want a dirty church?
Yes- Jesus wants an honest dirty church willing to admit its need for cleansing. Today we have free cleansing available- we have time and elements here that God uses to wash you up to bring more grace and forgiveness in - to fill your heart- your spiritual life-blood with the Spirit of God- Jews believed life was in the blood
For he is the way the truth and the LIFE-aima- blood- let Him be your life today- and he will clean you up and out of you he will bring forth wonderful good.
