INTRODUCTION
• 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.
• Now raise you hand if you cleaned your home this past week and 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 and we will look at 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!
• Let’s turn to Psalm 101:1-4 and read it together this morning.
SERMON
I. CLEAN UP YOUR WALK (SEEK GOD’S WAY) (V2)
• Let us look at verse 2.
• 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.
• I have heard people say we need to teach kids to lose. I do not agree with that. We need to teach them to win and in teaching them how to win we will teach them to deal with losing in a gracious way.
• How many of us expect our kids to be a failure? How many of us are raising them with the thought they are going to be a failure anyway, so why try?
• We need to apply the same thinking to our lives!
• 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 and our children.
• 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.
• Not only is the way we walk important, but the “heart” with which we do things is important. Out of the heart springs what we do.
• PROVERBS 4:23 Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.
• David realizes he cannot do this in his own strength. In the middle part of this verse he is pleading with God to help him to carry out his promise. He is pleading for immediate help from God.
• In the next couple of verses David will give us some insights as to how he will be able to give heed to the blameless way!
II. CLEAN UP WHAT YOU SEEK (V3)
• Let us look at verse 3.
• David says one thing he will do to help him as he strives to walk in a manner pleasing to the Lord is he will set no worthless thing before his eyes. In the NLT it says he will refuse to look at anything “vile or vulgar”.
• It here means that which is worthless, bad, wicked. He would have no wicked aim; he would not look upon a wicked thing for a moment, or with the least favor.
• Jerry Kirk, founder of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families in an article in Men of Integrity magazine, shares the following insight. I travel alone a lot in my job, and I stay in a lot of hotels with cable TV. I sometimes struggle whether to watch pornography while in the room. One time, I was flipping through the channels to find the World Series. While flipping, I came across a channel with half-nude women. I flipped over to the baseball game. Ten minutes later, I flipped back to the movie, and then quickly back to the World Series. I did that four or five times before I shut off the TV. I was unnerved at the power of temptation, especially since I’ve given my life to combat pornography. I’ve had to come face to face with the Lord and plead for mercy: "Lord, how is this possible?" I began to lose confidence in my prayers. God reminded me, "Jerry, I’m not surprised by your sin. I’ve known all along you were a sinner. I’ve known all along that you were weak. I needed you to know that you were weak. And I need you to know that I alone will make you strong."
• It is so important that we clean up what we look at, or what we put before our eyes. Notice David speaks of not “setting” any worthless thing before his eyes. This implies that he himself will not purposely put something vulgar or worthless in front of himself.
• There is an old saying we all know, if you play with fire, you are going to get burned.
• What we look at and what we listen to has a very deep effect upon us. What goes in through the eyes and ears goes to the mind where it is replayed over and over again.
• PHILIPPIANS 4:8 says, Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
• PROVERBS 23:26 encourages us to, Give me your heart, my son, And let your eyes delight in my ways.
• What are you looking at, what are you chasing after? If we keep putting junk in front of us, we will have a very difficult time being pure.
• David is not going to allow himself to be drawn into the work of those who fall from the path of righteousness.
• It seems like sin grab on to us like hot wax; it is hard to shake once we get it on us.
• I used to work in the packing part of the assembly line. We used wax that if my memory serves me right was at 350 plus degrees. WE would seal screw holes with it. Once and a while if you were not careful you would run a finger or your hand through it. All you could do was hop up and down until it cooled because you not get it off until it cooled, after the damage was done.
• Many times when we seek the wrong path or continually put vile things before us, it will snatch us and we will not shake free from it until after the damage is done.
• It doesn’t hurt to look does it? It sure can.
• David lets us know it will once again take a lot of effort to make this happen.
• The last area of the house we need to clean up is the most important part. The heart.
III. CLEAN OUT YOUR HEART (V4)
• Look at verse 4.
• David says a perverse heart will depart from him.
• A perverse heart is one that is false, deceitful and depraved (wicked).
• Out of our heart springs forth what we do.
• MATTHEW 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
• 1TI 1:5 But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
• 2TI 2:22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
• David is saying regarding his heart that he will root out all the evil within his heart and get rid of it.
• The rooting out implies a very close examination of his heart, and a close examination of his motives.
• If we are not careful we can allow junk to get into our hearts that we really do not want.
• I remember when I was single, I moved to Columbia, MO one summer when I was going to MU part-time. I had these dishes that I would continually forget to wash.
• One day I came home to find my kitchen infested with bugs and larva. It was gross. I did not want the bugs, but because I neglected to clean the dishes, one day I got home and there they were in all their nasty glory.
• Neglect your heart and one day you will find some things in it you did not want.
• Now I want to finish up today by going back to verse one to give you a cleaning agent, something you can clean with.
IV. KEEP IT ALL CLEAN WITH PRAISE (V1)
• If you are going to root out the bad stuff in your heart. If you are going to clean up your walk and if you are going to be careful what you put before your eyes, then you need to replace it with something good.
• Now the Philippians passages tells us once again to; Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
• This verse gives us some good advice but David adds something for us to do in verse 1.
• David says he is going to sing of God’s lovingkindness and justice. He was not going to do it right then, but he implies he is going to make praising God one of the practices of his life.
• If we will live our lives recognizing all we have is from God, we will praise Him. If we live life willing to acknowledge God, then it will help us to keep pure. If we live recognizing that Jesus is with us everywhere we go and He sees everything we do, it will help keep us pure.
• If you are going to remove things from your life, then you will replace them with something.
• Luke 11:24-26 says, "When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ’I will return to my house from which I came.’ "And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. "Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first."
• 15 or so years ago when I decided to quit listening to secular music, I did not quit listening to music. God had something better waiting for me in my Christian music.
• When you are willing to drop some of the stuff in your life that is not good for you, God will give you something much better than what you had!
CONCLUSION
• My wife has told me on many occasions the thing she does not like about cleaning house and doing laundry is it does not stay done.
• In our lives, the cleaning process never ends, we are always cleaning out cob webs, sweeping out the dirt and washing the windows.
• If we ever decided to quit cleaning our home, it would be unlivable at some point. If you decide to quit cleaning up your life, at some point it will be unlivable also.
• If you know the story of King David’s life, he broke all these promises he made to God. He made his own life very difficult because many times he forgot to follow his own words.
• Even after all the mistakes he made in his life, God still considered David a man after His all the mistakes because David always turned back to Him in humble repentance.
• Take the time to clean your house today!
