DETOXING YOUR LIFE
Isa. 6:1-7
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: SMART PILLS
1. Feeling listless, a woman bought some expensive "brain-stimulating" pills at the health food store. But it wasn't until she got home that she read the label.
2. He complained to her husband, "This is just rosemary extract! I can't believe I spent all that money for something that I have growing wild in my own yard!" "See?" said her husband, "You're smarter already!"
B. THESIS
1. In our society we often see signs which warn of dangerous hazards. We see signs with distinctive warnings on them: Biohazards, Radiation danger, Flammable Chemicals, High Voltage, Health Hazards, and Poison danger.
2. If we are exposed too long to any of these it can be toxic to our bodies. There are many other types of things that are SPIRITUALLY TOXIC to us.
3. So we’re looking tonight at the topic, “Detoxing Your Life.”
I. WHAT IS DETOXING?
A. DEFINITIONS
1. TOXIC definition: 1). poisonous: 2). unpleasant or unacceptable: 3). causing you harm and unhappiness. 4). It can describe harmful habits, relationships, or even the environment around us that creates negativity and stress. A “toxic relationship” is one that causes emotional pain and distress, often characterized by manipulation, drama, and a lack of respect for boundaries.
2. TO DETOX [-IFICATION] – is the process by which toxins are reduced until they are removed from the body/life.
B. EXAMPLE OF THE ENEMY WORKING
1. WHELK – a little ocean creature that attacks oysters. Their nickname is called “oyster drills.” This small mollusk lands on top of the oyster shell and drills a small hole in the shell. Through the small hole the whelk slowly devours the entire oyster. Little by little, the oyster’s body is ravaged by the Whelk.
2. That’s what the devil does. He attacks you, drills into your mind, spirit, or emotions – and begins to suck all the joy and peace out of your life. He sucks out your confidence, your courage, your hope. The enemy will drill down and set up a stronghold in your mind.
C. AN EXAMPLE IN MY LIFE
1. I used to watch a lot of horror movies. As a result, my imagination could conjure up the most terrifying monsters that troubled me when it was dark or I was alone. After I got saved, I figured out that if I quit watching horror movies, my fears would melt away.
2. If you’re watching videos on your phone, TV, or Ipad and it causes you to lose your peace and hyperventilate – you’re opening the door to the devil.
II. WE NEED TO DETOX
A. WHAT’S IN OUR ENVIRONMENT
1. If you watch the nightly news, it’s easy to see the many areas of our nation where toxic ideas have overcome people’s common sense. The result is devastated lives.
2. All around us are agents of toxicity:
a. Lingering poor health that discourages us.
b. Problems that won’t go away and that eat away at our soul. You may have the feeling you’re not going to survive your problem.
c. People around us are unkind, rude, & don’t care about our situation.
d. There’s a negative atmosphere in our country where people are angry about many issues, and they focus their angst on some unfortunate individual.
B. HAVING TROUBLE DEALING WITH YOUR WORLD?
1. Right in front of the Rockefeller Center on 5th Avenue in NY City stands a bronze statue of the Greek god Atlas, straining to carry the world on his back. It appears to be more of a curse than an act of courage. Atlas bends as the world seems to crush him.
2. What’s amazing is that right across the street is St. Patrick’s Cathedral. There you’ll find a statue of the boy Jesus behind the high altar. In contrast to Atlas bending under the weight of the world, the boy Jesus is holding the world in His hand.
3. You’ve got Atlas bent & crushed, and Jesus standing at peace. What a contrast. Are you letting Jesus hold your world or are you straining to bear it yourself?
4. KID’S SONG, “He’s got the Whole World in His Hands...” SAY, “He’s got the Whole World in His Hands.”
C. THE HOLY SPIRIT WANTS TO DETOX YOUR MIND!
1. Jesus said (John 16:33), “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
2. God gives us peace. Peace is promised, protected, and has been purchased. Peace does not get rid of the problems; NO, it’s God moving into the chaos. “He will keep them in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him” Isa. 26:3.
3. Peace is not a place; Peace is a Person. An old Puritan, Thomas Watson, said, “The world can create trouble in [the midst of] peace, but God can create peace in trouble.”
4. You may be here looking for the ‘absence’ of problems, but what you need to do is look to the ‘presence’ of Christ.
III. GOD HAS A DETOX CENTER FOR YOU!
A. ISAIAH WAS SHONE HE HAD A TOXIC LIFE
1. Isaiah went to the Temple to pray and saw a vision; “I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne....2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings....3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for” Isa. 6:1-7.
2. While praying, God revealed to Isaiah that he was unfit for heaven & even an enemy of heaven, because of his sinful life – he was toxic! And there is no earthly solution to this condition. This caused him grief & despair.
3. Oh, if all we ever see is the weakness of our sin - the depravity of our hearts - without discovering the cleansing power of God, WHAT MISERABLE PEOPLE WE WILL BE.
B. GOD HAS A PLAN TO MAKE US PURE
1. But GOD DOES have power to cleanse! To DETOX US! God sent a Seraphim (‘burning one’) with a live coal from the heavenly altar, that, when it touched his lips, Isaiah was purified of his uncleanness.
a. His history was forgiven/expunged.
b. His spiritual being (‘heart’) was made pure.
c. His mind & motives were renewed in the image of God.
d. His destiny was elevated.
2. GOD did, in a moment, what government, social workers, psychiatrists, education, modern medicine, & science could never do!
C. ILLUSTRATION
1. Years ago the barbers of America held a convention in New York. They wanted to make the nation appreciate barbers so they hired a publicity agent.
2. He went into the ghetto and found a young vagrant who was sleeping on a park bench. He offered him some easy money. He made pictures of the young man with his tattered clothes, unshaven & dirty face, and ragged hair. He got him a haircut, then a shave.
3. They got him a complete bath, shampooed his hair, and got him a massage. They bought him a beautiful silk suit, shirt, and tie and fine leather shoes and socks. The publicity agent put up life-size pictures showing the man's progress in being cleaned up. At the end were the words, "This is what the barbers of America can do for a man."
4. The scheme worked. Newspapers picked up the story. They got nationwide coverage. The manager of a hotel offered the young man a job to start the next Monday. The young man never showed up.
5. A few weeks later, the hotel manager saw the young man in a drunken stupor. His suit was torn and filthy; his face was unshaven. He'd gone back to his old ways!
6. The barbers CAN do wonders for man on the outside, but only God can do something for us on the inside!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUS.: Why the children wanted to be Bald
1. A bald man & his wife went out to a special dinner, leaving their children at home with a babysitter. While the baby sitter was not watching (on the phone), the little boy got a hold of his father's electric shaver and shaved off a wide strip of hair right down the middle of his head.
2. When the parents arrived home, the father was furious. He was about to discipline the boy when the son said, "Wait until you see sister!" Oops! he had shaved off all her hair!
3. Dad was really angry now. He was about to give him a spanking when he said, "But Daddy! We were just wanting to look like you!" What a sweet motive!
4. That’s our goal too! We should want to look like our heavenly Father, like Jesus! [Randy Walker]
B. THE CALL
1. Isaiah saw God’s cleansing power. The seraphim applied the blood-sprinkled, fire-purifying coal from off the altar and Isaiah experienced the sweet, clean feeling of forgiveness and peace. Hallelujah!
2. How many are ready to experience the joy of forgiveness? Of being set free from your past? Of getting all the toxic poison of the world out of your system? LET’S PRAY!
[This message was influenced by Tim Dilena’s “This Fight Needs All Three.”]
