 Psalm 51:7-13
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast 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 uphold me by Your generous Spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. This series is about evangelism and bringing people to church and making disciples... I believe God wants us to really go into the highways and byways and bring in the “those” who are out there hurting and confused and realizing the world isn’t what it promised to be… God’s plan is truly realized and the Spirit is fully activated when there is an equal value in a church for both the “these” who are a part already and the “those” who are still out there dying in their sins… Luke 14:23 23 Then the master said to the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. Some of you will lead your classmates... kids... parents... coworkers... best friends... spouses... acquaintances... In Matthew 14:18 Jesus said… "Bring them here to Me.” Jesus was speaking of the fish and loaves He would multiply to feed the masses but I have come to believe that this is His word for so many things… Our problems and issues and desires and hopes and so importantly the unsaved… "Bring them here to Me.” We are all evangelists to some degree because we must do the bringing and I believe we can all grow into better “bringers”... Soap is dense and consistent throughout… If dirty all soap needs is to be rinsed with water... Soap never takes on the characteristics of dirt but always changes the dirt it comes into contact with… Soap has one goal and one goal only which is to bring cleansing... Finally, soap can only bring cleansing by literally giving of itself… It is willing to die or disappear in order to bring cleansing… For Week #1 the title of this message is “Sincerely Subjective”… 1 John 1:1-10 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life-- 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us-- 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. 5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. As we look at SOAP with a focus on bringing others into contact with the God who cleanses the soul and conscience from all traces of sin we must be “Sincerely Subjective”… Sincere = Genuine, real, transparent, honest Subjective = based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions Together being “Sincerely Subjective” is to tell the true story of your experience… I want to break this chapter into 3 sections… Let’s look at the first 3 verses… 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life-- 2the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us-- 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. This word is a testimony from the washed to the dirty… The saved to the unsaved… we have seen with our eyes we have looked upon our hands have handled, the life was manifested we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you This is the “Sincerely Subjective” part of the testimony… We can only testify to that which we have experienced and since everyone’s experience with God is unique to them it is subjective… I’ve learned that many experiences are similar but none are exactly the same… If you go out to dinner and two people order the same meal they can both say “I liked it” but what each of them mean can be something significantly different… When a chef talks about an Italian meal its different than your average person who had spaghetti at Olive Garden… They may both enjoy the meal but the chef may be able to describe what went into it and where the ingredients originated from and how it was prepared creating an experience when tasting that is unique… As Christians we all speak of salvation as “It was good” but it is important to realize when we are talking to other people who don’t know Jesus it can just sound like spaghetti which they’ve had before but we have to make it clear that this aint no regular meal… This is the bread of life we’re talking about… Your “Sincerely Subjective” expression of what you experienced when you came to Jesus and He washed away your sins is so important… We all say… we have seen with our eyes we have looked upon our hands have handled, the life was manifested we have seen, and bear witness But don’t just say “it was good” like a plate of spaghetti… Express it like a chef and in order to do that you’ve got to go deep into what you experienced… If it was a joyful cleansing then express that and if it was a needed but difficult bath then express that too… Just be “Sincere”… I remember my washing and cleansing like it was yesterday… The initial washing away of my sin from my HEART was so sweet and so encouraging but the initial washing of my MIND was a long difficult shower… So many times the SOAP got in my eyes and the Lord washed my mouth out with SOAP… Pornography and Lust and Perversion were some long and difficult disinfecting showers… Like a burn victim that has to have dead skin pulled off… Selfishness seems to be a cleansing I’m still undergoing… Hebrews 12:11 says… 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. On the outside it really does feel this way but on the inside its more like dialysis… It’s as if God has come in and put a new clean heart in me but my old bad blood is still circulating and empowering my body to live and move and do wrong… Every week I come to church and worship and hear the word and pray and its like dialysis where my bad blood is taken out and good blood is put in… Hebrews 9:14 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? See the more we are in the presence of God and in the word of God and truly give all of ourselves to God through physical and spiritual baptism the more transfused we are with His blood and eventually we find only small traces of our old nature within us… Let’s go on from Verse 3… 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. 5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all… SOAP is dense… Through and through He is good and holy and light… When we are convinced of the goodness of God there is a peace and rest that we experience even in the areas where we experience uncertainty… We are unsure of ourselves and unsure how our circumstances will affect us but we are sure of the goodness of God and we are sure of His love for us and that makes everything ok… We are testifying of that love and we are trying to bring people into fellowship with this God… Our walking in that light though rather than the darkness of life without it has everything to do with our ability to be cleansed and ultimately our ability to bring others to a place where they can be cleansed… John 3:18-22 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." 22 After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. This is the dense truth of Jesus and the confessing of and walking in the light that must happen in our lives and it leads right into baptism… Walk in the light… do the truth… be cleansed… be baptized… Just in case any of us thinks we are perfect or that those traces of our old nature can be ignored 1 John 1 ended with this… 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. Until we get to heaven there are going to be reminders of our old nature and our ongoing need of the cleansing love & forgiveness of Jesus… Don’t rest on this scripture as an excuse to remain in our sins… This is like the cleansing of Lysol… 99.99% of bacteria & viruses… Our cleansing is very thorough but will not be complete until we receive our new heavenly bodies and we are ushered into heaven… We still need to shower and scrub and be furthered cleansed in pursuit of that earthly 99.99% of who we are supposed to be… Romans 8:29 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Our washing and scrubbing is how we are being conformed to the image of Christ… John 13:3-17 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. 6 Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, "Lord, are You washing my feet?" 7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this." 8Peter said to Him, "You shall never wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."9 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!" 10 Jesus said to him, "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you." 11 For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, "You are not all clean." 12 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? 13You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. 16 Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. The disciples had put their faith in Jesus and began to follow Him… They were cleansed from their sins but still had washing that needed to take place… Their feet had to be washed because they were still mere men and women who walked in a dirty world… Jesus said that this was in a way connected to their salvation because without this ongoing cleansing they had no part with Him… True Christians go on to sanctification and purification because we must be conformed into the image of Jesus… To be and look more and more like Him everyday… Jesus finishes this important time of washing and teaching with a command to go and do for others what He had done for them… He says blessed are you if you do this… Let us bring the message of cleansing to a dirty world…
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