Good day dear friends.
A word of praise first! We received seven new members yesterday during our Coffee with the Pastor. Those will be shared in our newsletter and recognized next Sunday during all worship services. We thank God for these new brothers and sisters into our church family! Please be in prayer for next month's Open House month.
We studied purity as a mark of a disciple during our sermon yesterday. I preached at 8:30 and 10:30 and Pastor Leslie preached at 11. We met early in the week to pray and discuss this topic. We both agreed it is a difficult topic to preach and indeed at least a couple of people said it was a "squirm" sermon.
Purity is possessing a clean heart before the Lord in order to maintain God's vision, purpose and plan for our lives. And to have a clean heart, we must rely on Jesus to have Him cleanse us of our impurities. The text for the sermon was from Matthew 15:1-2, 10-20 where Jesus explains that what is in the heart is that which defiles, not having unclean hands.
Here is our study guide for today:
Monday: Read Psalm 51 and notice the different references to the cleansing the Psalmist says is ours. Notice verse 10 and the basis that inspired a popular Christian song. If you know it, sing it!
Here is that text in NRSV:
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. 5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. 6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. 17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, 19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
You can read this Psalm as a prayer. As a prayer you're asking God to "blot out" "transgressions," "washing" of "inquities," and "cleansing of sins." What a chore for God! But God is up to the task, if we're up for the asking. Those three things are very similar but it shows the psalmist knew his offenses and wanted all the bases covered. For having broken God's law, for having committed injustice, for having been disobedient to God, he is asking God to come in and deal with those spots on his heart. It is a confession of guilt and a declaration of openness to receive God's justice whatever it may be. The writer goes on to make a declaration about even his birth, that he was born "guilty," having been such even at conception. This is to confess our complete and total dependence on God for our purity.
In the sermon yesterday we mentioned how important it is to have a pure heart so that we may have thoughts, words, and actions that reflect our desire to be pure. And this purity is to reflect God's presence in our lives, not to possess a holier than thou attitude or a self-righteousness that serves only to make us look better than someone else. We stressed that purity is that which will allow us to live our lives in a way that is a "sermon" to unbelievers and an "invitation" to the Christian life. Purity is that which will make this attractive to others. A life lived just like everyone else is not a sermon nor an invitation; if anything it serves to tell others that they're fine living in their sin.
Verse 10 is the basis of the popular song written by Chris Hillman, "Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a right spirit within me." If you know it, sing it. (I'll place the words at the bottom) If you can't sing, pray it!
Let today be the start of a week when we live our lives led by God into purity so that others will feel the presence of God within us and receive an invitation to a better way to live.
PRAYER: O God, like the Psalmist, we pray those words of that psalm. Blot, cleanse, wipe, whatever it takes to make us pure so that we may reflect Your holy presence within us. Let our lives today be a sermon and an invitation to holiness. We pray in Christ Jesus' name. Amen.
Have a great and blessed day!
e.v.
Here is that song:
G D C G
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
D G
And renew a right spirit within me.
G D C G
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
G D G
And renew a right spirit within me.
C D G
Cast me not away from the presence O Lord
C D G G7
And take not thou Holy Spirit from me
C D G G/F# Em
Restore on to me the joy of life's salvation
C D G
And renew a right spirit within me
G D C G
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
D G
And renew a right spirit within me.
G D C G
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
G D G
And renew a right spirit within me.
SOLO
C D G
Cast me not away from the presence O Lord
C D G G7
And take not thou Holy Spirit from me
C D G G/F# Em
Restore on to me the joy of life's salvation
C D G Em
And renew a right spirit within me
C D G
And renew a right spirit within me
