The Cleansing Power Of God

The Cleansing Power of God

Psalm 51:1-12 Ephesians 3:14-21

Introduction-

Psalm 51: 1-12 read

This is a Psalm by King David.

This is the cry for mercy after he had been found out by the Prophet Nathan for his adulterous and murderous affair with Bethsheba.

King David in a place he shouldn’t be. On the roof when his men were fighting.

Doing something he should not of been doing. Saw and took someone else’s wife.

Covered his sin by committing another sin. After many attempts at covering up his sin, he had Bethsheba’s husband Uriah killed while he was in battle.

Now we can relate to this passage, maybe not to the degree of David.

But we have all been somewhere we should not of been.

Done something we should not of done.

Covered up a sin by deceptive ways.

David has committed a sin against God, and he was being called out for it.

This low down wife stealing, adulterous, murderer, after repenting was called “a man after God’s own heart”.

So how did he do it? What happened to change King David’s heart?

What happen that God looked at King David differently?

DAVID CAME CLEAN BEFORE GOD

He was tired of hiding from God, from others, he was going to cry out to God and allow God to do what is needed to change him.

He cried out for mercy/forgiveness.

He presents his sin before God/ acknowledges that it is a sin against God.

He asked God to cleanse his heart/ take away the garbage.

Create in me a heart that is pleasing to you. Take the old one and give me a new one.

That is the foundation of our denomination. We believe according to God’s word when you present your sin to God that He is able to forgive, cleanse, create a heart in you pleasing to God. It is called Sanctification.

The cleansing power of God working in your life to change you from what you were to what God would want you to be.

Apostle Paul gives us a taste of that transformation recorded in Ephesians 3:14-21.

Remember Saul the pharisee, who had a Damascus road experience with Christ.

Christ changed his name and his heart for the work of God.

Paul here is praying for the church at Ephesus.

Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I prayed that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him that is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever Amen.

He was praying that God almighty would change the heart of the church.

Customary prayer for a Pharisee - standing arms up, palms up, Paul with such a burden and wanting to see God change their lives was prostate on the ground and crying out to God.

Paul wanted to see their hearts changed.

King David was asking God to create a heart pleasing to God.

The inner being- heart.

The place where Jeremiah said was deceitful above all things desperately wicked. Jeremiah 17:9.

The place Matthew says from the abundance of our heart, the mouth speaks. Matthew 12:32.

The place where you either place your trust in God, or you place your trust in man or self.

One promises blessings for faithfulness and one is promised consequences for disobedience.

One is promised to be like a desert, dry, and starving for life.

The other like a tree planted by the river, full exist the freshness of God.

It has been said “The problem of the heart is the heart of the problem.”

Do you want to be at a dry place, no water, or at the river of God refreshed by unlimited supply.

The inner place, that place where decisions are made, place where temptations are broken by the power of Christ or enhanced by our fleshly desires.

Human reason directed correctly can tell you right from wrong.

But God’s wisdom could keep your life pure and safe.

Conscience- most of the time is filled with guilt of the past.

God wants to go deep into your mind, to have you be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading.