House Cleaning Time! (Cleaning Up The House)

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• I want to ask you to raise your hand if you cleaned you house up your house a month ago.

• How many of you cleaned it again the next week and the next week? Raise you hand if you cleaned you house a month ago and then you cleaned it AGAIN this past week.

• How many of you are planning to clean it again this week?

• Doesn’t seem like all you do sometimes is cook, clean the house, wash the dishes and do laundry?

• Would someone please tell me why you have to do this constant cleaning?

• We need to constantly clean up the house because we mess it up. If we quit doing it, there would be so much stuff in the way we would not be able to walk through it.

• Did you know your life is much the same? It requires constant cleaning. We must constantly examine the things in our lives to see if they are keeping us from God.

• Today we are going to look at the concept of cleaning up the house. We are going to look at three area of our house or life that we need to constantly work on keeping clean along with what we can do to help keep things clean.

• Our passage is Psalm 101:1-4 this morning. King David wrote this Psalm and many believe he wrote it at the beginning of his reign as King.

• This passage has been used by world leaders as a promise as to how they would rule or govern. This is the context in which we find David writing this Psalm. It is a sort of promise to the people as to how he will conduct himself as their king.

• As we look at this passage, let us use it as a roadmap as to how we will live our lives for Jesus!

• READ PSALM 101:1-4

• SLIDE #2

SERMON

I. CLEAN UP THE EXTERIOR. (CLEAN UP YOUR WALK) (V2)

• Let us look at verse 2.

• SLIDE #3

• Psalms 101:2 (NASB) 2I will give heed to the blameless way. When will You come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.

• SLIDE #4

• It is all about integrity.

• What David is saying is he wants to walk in perfection. The NIV translates verse 2 this way. I will be careful to lead a blameless life.

• One of the things that will help us to live a life that is pleasing to God is for us to set a higher standard for ourselves. Too many of us settle for mediocrity. We should expect the best and strive for the best God has to offer.

• David says he will give heed to the blameless way. This implies a concentrated effort on his part to do right.

• The original is very emphatic; “I will set myself to walk,” I will make it a determined point thus to walk.

• I will “aim” to be perfect; I will have before me a perfect standard.

• David knows he will not be perfect or follow God’s way perfectly as we will see in the last part of this verse, but his intention is to do that.

• We need to understand that if we do don’t put a focus on how God wants us to live, we will not do it. We will just go with the flow of life.

• I am saddened by the low expectations and standards we set for ourselves.

• God’s way is the perfect way and as we see things in our lives that do not match up with God’s way, for our own good we need to clean it out of our lives.

• David made a vow that he would give heed to, pay attention to, or examine God’s way of living and then work on putting it into practice.

• David says that when he walks in his house he will do so in the integrity of his heart.

• He will walk or live his life in such a manner that he will not compromise what he believes about God and not only that, but those around him will see that.

• From his servants, to his wife to his children, David will shine the light to them in his conduct.

• The exterior is a reflection of the interior. We will look at this point a bit later.

• The only way people can see your heart is by seeing what you do, this is why our exterior needs to be clean.

• This is a tough job.

• David realizes he cannot do this in his own strength. In the first part of verse two he is pleading with God to help him to carry out his promise. He is pleading for immediate help from God.