INTRODUCTION
Have you ever wondered how those folk who live in rural SA and in informal settlements are able to get their washing so white?
Have you seen it?
You drive along the road near the farm houses of the farm labourers and there hanging on the fence of the most basic home is the washing. No washmaid or combo queen inside purring away with a load of washing, no plumbing to bring fresh water into the home even, just a Tupperware bucket, some water and some cold water Omo. Boy does that washing come out clean. I don’t think we get to see clean washing like that in the city. And like the toothpaste in the tube, I have often wondered how they get it so clean.
LINK – SPIRITUALLY CLEAN
Well today I want to ask you about your dirty laundry. I want to chat to you today about your commitment to getting whites whiter and your brights brighter, no matter where you are in your spiritual walk or how well you know the bible or what tools you have, I want to speak directly about your commitment to being spiritually clean, spic and span, glaringly white for God!
CLEANLINESS VS PURITY
When it comes to trying to be spiritually clean, scripture speaks of purity and cleanliness.
Interestingly, when the word speaks of cleanliness, more often than not it was to do with the physical cleanliness of his people.
Deuteronomy is packed with great ideas to keep the nation of Israel clean. Where they had to go to the toilet, what had to happen around food, dead bodies, the sick and so on. All kept Gods nation physically well.
SET APART BY BEING CLEAN AND PURE
He set them apart from the rest of the filth by asking of them two things. He needed them physically clean – that was for their health, but then in a much larger way, God implored them to be spiritually clean. And when it cam to being spiritually clean, in came this word pure or purity.
And it makes sense doesn’t it. We don’t ask our children to purify their rooms when their toys are lying ankle deep. We ask them to clean up.
PHYSICALLY CLEAN
God needs us to be physically clean. We cant even begin to get our act together spiritually if we cant keep our temples or our bodies and our homes clean.
But interestingly, the scripture that tells us that we need to respect and keep our temples clean, gives us a spiritual reason as being the primary motivator.
Read 1 Corinthinans 6:19.
HOUSE THE HOLY SPIRIT
We need to be clean in body and pure in mind because we house the Holy Spirit. We are his home. In us He dwells. The clean pure sweet presence of the Holy Spirit is the reason we are asked to be clean and pure, but it’s the reason we should want to be clean and pure.
BRIEF ON PHYSICAL
Now today, I am not really going to dwell much on physical cleanliness aspect of Washday. But I do want to say that being physically clean does not just imply a good daily shower. That kind of goes without saying, but it does imply respecting our bodies because of the Holy Spirit, it does mean that we should look carefully at what else we put into our bodies. How we treat and respect life. Which includes practicalities as to how we drive, how we approach safety precautions etc.
INTRO OF DIRTY CLOTH
Today, I want to concentrate more on the lines of purity. Now as you arrived into the auditorium today you would have reveived a dirty piece of rag. We are going to get to that a little later, but I saw some of you take your rag. Now some are dirtier than others, but I saw some of you kind of do the I don’t want this thing.
NOT HOLD IT AS IT WOULD MAKE YOU DIRTY
Probably you didn’t want this because you did not want to get dirty from this dirty piece of cloth you were being handed.
Well I am glad you felt like that.
You see when it comes to the dirty business of sin in our lives, we have to develop a similar aversion that you may have had to that dirty piece of cloth you were given.
WE SEEM TO LIKE TO GET CLOSE – EXSCUSES
What I am saying is that we as Christians today would rather get dangerously close to sin than flee from it like Joseph fled from Potiphers wife.
We would rather make an excuse why certain things happen in our lives than begin the process of ripping out the desires, cleaning out the aniquity and thoughts and being clean before God.
WE HAVE TO WASH – WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING – ITS NOT AUTOMATIC IT’S A TWIN TUB
You see when it comes to being clean before God, Revelation tells us that WE HAVE WASHED our robes in the blood of the lamb. Jesus death and sacrifice, does not automatically mean we are clean. We have to go and wash in his blood daily.
We have to daily be watching, contantly aware of the dirt that is being rubbed into us.
But we as Christians we often lie back, rest on our laurels and say that we are covered by the blood of Jesus. God will understand. God will forgive.
Amen to each of those things, but that’s what we need God to do for us, what does God need us to do for Him?
PECULIAR PEOPLE FOR HIS NAME
He needs us to be fleeing from sin, He needs us as it tells us in Corinthians to be a peculiar people for his name, we need to be different. We can not be seeing how close we can get to the dirt and then wonder why we are getting dirty ourselves.
DIRT – CHOICES VS PERSONLITY PROCESS
The dirt I am referring to here specifically is the things we actually choose to do.
Part of being clean before God is working on personality traits and who we are and allowing God to change us into better people. That’s a process that we submit to God.
THE CHOICES WE MAKE
When it comes to purity though, I am talking about choice. I am talking about the things you watch on TV, the music you listen to, the books you read, the parties you go to, the people you sleep with, the websites you browse, the little naughtinesses you indulge in.
CHOOSE TO DRAW CLOSE TO SIN – KNOWING ALLOW OURSELVES TO BE TEMPTED
I am talking about the willful decision to draw closer and closer to the line of sin. How close do want to get. Because the closer you want to get is the further you want to get from God.
LIFE VS DEATH
God is life, sin is death. The closer you wish to go to that line, or even cross it every now and then, is the closer you wish to get to death. That’s pretty harsh. Well its what the word tells us in James 1:15.
Don’t conceive it, don’t give birth to it, and definitely don’t allow it to grow up.
SEXUAL PURITY
The biggest temptation that lies amongst Gods people today is sex.
MEN WHAT WE SEE
We are bombarded with it. Now ladies I am talking to everyone about this, and I want you ladies to listen up, but men this is for you.
We as men have a problem with our eyes. Now I am not saying woman don’t have a similar problem, but 90% of our sexual arousal as men, comes from what we see.
TEMPTATION EVERYWHERE BUT IT’S A CHOICE
Advertising, internet etc etc etc etc etc etc
And boy are we tempted. But I want to say to everyone today. What you look upon is a choice. Don’t make the excuse and say but Craig its every where. Don’t look! It’s a choice.
If you happen to see something, it’s a choice as to the effect of what you will see.
CHOICE –
Why get close to the line? TV internet – girlfriends etc
BATTLE AT ITS HOTTEST
2 Sam 23:9-10
ITS YOUR MOMENT
GOD WANTS YOU TO RISE UP AND GET IT DONE.
COVENANT WITH YOUR EYES
Encouraged by Job in Job 31:1 I decided it was time to covenenant with my eyes as he did.
You see Job made a pact with his eyes that He would not allow filth to come in through his eyes and make his cloth filty. He would not tolerate it.
LADIES
The battle lines in sexual sin are easy to define in men. But ladies, the battle is just as heated for you.
Those not married – sex outside of the marriage arrangement is not going to get you clean.
Comparing husband to someone else – even imagining he is someone else during intercourse.
Books etc
NOT ONLY SEXUAL SIN
Taxes
Honestly in business
Jokes
Language
How we drive
How we build our family.
WHY?
Just as in the nation of Israel, God is doing this for our benefit.
Admit it – when we do it Gods way, the results may not be as instantly euphoric or as instant, but they are way better than the result of any sin.
He wants husbands and wives to enjoy the blessing of being in harmony, pure. He want people to just simply do it right.
Its more than just being pure. It’s the results of being pure.
Deut 30:19
HOW?
Living according to His word – Psalms 119:9-11
Have a desire to be clean – Psalm 51:10
Don’t try to get as close to the line as you can – Matt 18:9
Be teachable not hard hearted – Psalm 139:23-24
