Less = More

Less = More

Prov 25:4-5

Remove the dross from the silver,

and out comes material for the silversmith;

remove the wicked from the king’s presence,

and his throne will be established through righteousness.

NIV

Isa 1:25

I will turn my hand against you;

I will thoroughly purge away your dross

and remove all your impurities.

NIV

The process of purifying silver:

The beautiful silver you see and the quality we all want our fine jewelry to be has an origin of a dark, dirty mine where the ore is tunneled out of the earth. When it reaches topside it is then crushed, amalgamated and smelted. Silver does not melt until it reaches 960.5 degrees Celsius. Through the melting the impurities are released and the pure silver is processed.

When we purchase an object made of silver we want it to be pure and polished. We demand quality in the silver w purchase but seldom apply the same standard to a far more important part of our life, our hearts.

The feel good society: Feel good about life and keep everything positive in the church.

God deals with us as a wise parent: Many times with a compliment and a pat on the back but other times he follows

2 Tim 4:2 2¡K. correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction.

The smelting removes the impurities of the silver as the correction and rebuke with patience removes the impurities of the heart.

Isa 1:25¡K"I will smelt away your dross as with lye, And will remove all your alloy.

God is taking away from us so we can be more. He is subtracting in order to add

A Look In the Mirror

Age 8: Looks at herself and sees herself as Cinderella/Sleeping Beauty.

Age 15: Looks at herself and sees herself as Cinderella/Sleeping

Beauty/Cheerleader or if she is fretting: sees fat/pimples/UGLY. (Mom I

can’t go to school looking like this!)

Age 20: Looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too/short/too tall,

too straight/too curly"- but decides she’s going anyway.

Age 30: Looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too

straight/too curly" but decides she doesn’t have time to fix it, so she goes

anyway.

Age 40: Looks at herself and sees "too fat/ too thin, too short/to tall too

straight/too curly"- but says: "At least I’m clean" and goes anyway.

Age 50: Looks at herself and sees "I am" and goes wherever she wants to.

Age 60: Looks at herself and reminds herself of all the people who can’t

even see themselves in the mirror anymore. Goes out and conquers the world.

Age 70: Looks at herself and sees wisdom, laughter and ability, goes out and

enjoys life.

Age 80: Doesn’t bother to look. Just puts on a purple hat and goes out to

have fun with the world.

Ill Church Growth toward revival. God often removes the impurities before he can enrich the church with more of Himself. When He turns up the heat the impurities within our own hearts come to the surface. We release part of who we are if we humble ourselves and change our heart to follow His direction. We in ourselves become less and in Him we are more.

When an individual refuses to change they often become disenchanted with that church and relocate to another or drop out of church all together. Pride will always stop spiritual growth.

In church attendance, less often will = more as God deals with the corporate church. When impurities are present in the silver it will not help to pile on more raw ore. When impurities are established, accepted behavior in a corporate church it will not help to add more people.

God tells you the truth:

To the person who is

ć Overextend financially God says reduce your indebtedness

ć Calendar busy and over scheduled God says stop scheduling so much

ć Overweight and lacks energy God says loose weight and get physically fit

ć Acquiring more to be happy God says give it all away

ć Inspiring to have more in life God says loose you life in Him.

Less = More

Oliver Wendell Holmes once attended a meeting in which he was the shortest

man present.

"Dr. Holmes," quipped a friend, "I should think you’d feel rather small

among us big fellows."

"I do," retorted Holmes.

"I feel like a dime among a lot of pennies."

God will never make a treaty with our secret pockets of sin. He will always insist that the impurities must go.

John 2:13-17

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!"