Transcription
At this time, we have a few announcements to share with you.
Next Sunday morning, we're continuing resurrection to revival. When a church prays, things shift, chains break, heaven responds. Don't miss it because something happens when we pray.
Join us for a gym night from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. this Friday in the life hall for a night packed with games, competition, and time together. Expect a high energy night with plenty of opportunities to compete, laugh, and make memories with the life teams crew. Bring your friends and come ready for a great time.
Join us for a special celebration service on Tuesday, May 19th, as we honor the achievement of our high school and college graduates along with our precious kindergarten class of Christian Life Academy. Come rejoice with the family, friends, and church community as we pray over and recognize the next generation of leaders, dreamers, and world changers. We can't wait to celebrate with everyone.
This concludes our announcements for tonight. Don't forget to pick up an invite card in the lobby for our 8-week series, Resurrection to Revival, because life gets better from here. Be sure to invite someone to join you.
Now, let's continue in worship together.
I will bless the Lord. I will bless the Lord. I will praise his name. I will praise his name. I will bless the Lord. I will bless the Lord. I will praise his name. I will praise his name for the rest of my life. Rest of my life. I will forever. I will bless the Lord. I will bless the Lord. I will praise his name. I will praise his name. I will bless the Lord. I will bless the Lord. I will praise his name for the rest of my life. Rest of my life. I forever broken. I forever broken Jesus. Jesus mighty glory. Let us exalt his mag. Let us exalt his life. might his glory and his name is exalted heaven. I will bless his Lord. I will bless the Lord. I will praise and praise him. I will praise his name. I will bless his Lord. I will bless the Lord. I will praise his name. My life forever. exalt his brightest. I will praise his name. I will praise his name. I will bless the Lord. I will bless the Lord. I will praise him. I will praise his name for the rest of my life. Rest of my life. For the rest of my life. Rest of my life. For the rest of my life. Rest of my life. For the rest of my life. Rest of my life. For the rest of my life. Rest of my life. Rest of my life. Rest of my life. The rest of my life. I will my heart I will bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. I will praise you. I will praise. I will bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Heat. Heat. You lift your voice. Do that right now. God, we bless your name. God, we lift you up for the rest of my life. I'll praise you. I will bless the Lord. I will bless the Lord. I will praise his name. I will praise his name. I will bless the Lord. I will bless the Lord. I will praise his name for the rest of my life. For the rest of my life. Heat. Heat. He's Come on, give him a shout of praise. God, you're a good God. We lift up your name. We bless your name in this house. There's none other name that's higher. God, we lift up your name. Can you carry that praise on for just a moment, God, we lift you up. You're worthy. You're worthy of our praise. We enter this sanctuary tonight to give you praise to bless you, Lord. To give you the honor that you do, God, you're worthy. You're worthy. Can you open your mouth and begin to speak well of him? God, you're worthy. You're holy, Lord. You're higher. God. Lord, you're worthy, worthy, worthy. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Well, it feels good to be in the house of the Lord on this Tuesday night. And we're here after a busy day for most of us. And we walk into the sanctuary and sometimes we're tired, weary in our bodies. But we have something that we have brought to give God tonight and that is our worship. That's one thing he can't give himself. But when we enter this sanctuary, we can offer him something, uh, even if it feels like it's out of our, I don't know, the reserves or just maybe what we have left over from the day. I think God would honor that. And the scripture talks about lifting our hearts with our hands. And I wonder if across this sanctuary tonight, you may not feel like you have anything else to give, but if we could lift up our hearts with our hands, say, "God, we want to give you worship. We want to acknowledge your greatness. We lift you up, God." Oh, hands up, hearts open, wide as the sky. We lift you high. We live to high, hands up, hearts open wide as we cry. God will lift your name high. Hands up, hearts open wide as the star. We lift you high. You high. I lift you high. Lift you high. Lift up your heart. Open as we cry. God we lift your name. Hearts open wide as a star. Lift you high. I will lift you high. Hands up, hearts open wide as we cry. God, we lift your name. Oh my s you high hearts open wide as we cry. God, we lift your name high. Let all the other names fade away. Let all the other names fade away. Let all the other names fade away. Jesus take your place. Jesus take away all the f say let all the fill it all away. Jesus take your praise. Jesus take your way. There's no name that's higher than all the other names. Till there's only that all the other Jesus take your place. Take your place. We need God to most Jesus. Take your place. Jesus take your place. Jesus take your praise. Jesus. Jesus. Come on. Jesus. God. Sing Jesus. Jesus take your place Jesus take your Jesus take your praise. We lift you high. We lift you high. We lift you high. Come on. Can you shout that out? God, we lift you up in this room. We lift you high. Every voice says, we lift you high. We lift you high. We lift you. We lift you. We lift you. We lift you high. We lift you high. Heat. Heat. Heat. High you high you lift you high. We lift you high.
You know, we're we're saying the words, "We lift you high." I don't know if we can make God any greater than he already is. I don't know if we can lift him any higher than he already is. But what we're saying is, in our lives, we're giving him a position that's higher than everything else. And that is part of our worship tonight is putting, putting God in his rightful place in this service, in our lives. And when we say those words, "We lift you high," I don't know that God's elevating up here, but you know what's happening is, in our spirit, we're elevating God in our hearts. We're recognizing him for who he is. He's God and there's none other. There's not another name that's higher than his name. There's not anyone that sits on the throne with the earth being his footstool. And I wonder for just a few minutes, just the next few minutes, if we can begin to really lift him, connect from your spirit and begin to lift up the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Say, "We lift you high." Come on with your own words. Begin to lift him up. God, you're greater than my circumstance. You're greater, God, than anything that's happening in my day today. God, we live high. We lift you high. We lift you high. We lift you high. We lift you up. God, we lift your name high. Say we lift you high. We lift you up. We lift you up. We lift you up. We lift you higher. We lift you higher. We lift you higher. God, we lift your name high. Let all the other names fade away. Let all the other names fade away. Till there's only you. Let all the other names fade away. Jesus take your place. Jesus take your pain. Come on, can you lift your voice? There's a choir in the room. Let all the other names fade away. Let all the other names, all the other fade away till there's only you. Let all the other days fade away. Jesus take your Jesus take your Say Jesus take your place. Jesus take your place. Take your place in this room. Oh Jesus take your place. Jesus take your place. Can you begin to lift him up like he's in his place? God, you're in the seat of authority. You're the seat of power. You sit on the throne, Lord. You reign, God. We lift you up. We lift you high. We lift you higher and higher. Hallelujah. Hallelu. If you're thankful to be in the presence of the Lord, put your hands together one more time and exalt the King of Kings. Open your mouth and begin to praise him. God, we praise you. We praise and exalt your name. We worship you. We worship you. Why don't you turn to your neighbor, take a couple steps, greet them, shake their hands, say something nice. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. God bless you. You can make your way back to your seats to see everybody out on a Tuesday evening. We've come here to worship the Lord midweek to lift up his name, to surrender our hearts to his lordship, hear the word of God. And I'm just believing the presence of the Lord to settle down in this room in the next little bit. But did you come ready to hear God's word? Amen.
If you have your Bibles with you, we're going to go back to Exodus chapter 28. And we're going to continue our series of teachings on the priesthood of a believer tonight. And I don't know if anyone here is enjoying hearing it, but I sure am enjoying digging it out. And it is my hope that as we work through these biblical principles, that it will ignite a fire in every one of us to get involved in the Lord's work. A lot of times we hear about getting involved in the Lord's work, we think, well, if the church needs me to serve in a particular position, I will. And that's certainly one form of working for God. But the Lord's work is so, so much bigger than just serving in a, in a position at church. It's really getting the burden for souls and having God open our eyes to see the opportunity to work for him everywhere we are. We don't need a position at church to work for him. Everybody's got somebody you can reach. You got prayers you can pray. And there's things that you can do to promote the mission of God to build the kingdom from right where you are.
But let's read again about the priestly garments. Chapter 28 of Exodus, verse 39. "And thou shalt embroider the coat of fine linen. And thou shalt make the miter of fine linen. And thou shalt make the girdle of needle work. And for Aaron's sons thou shalt make coats. Thou shalt make for them girdles. And bonnets shalt thou make for them for glory and for beauty. And thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, and shalt anoint them, and consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister unto me in the priest office, and thou shalt make them linen breaches, which is what we get our English britches from, or pants, shall make them linen breaches to cover their nakedness. From the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach. And they shall be upon Aaron and upon his sons. And when they come in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, when they come near unto the altar to minister in the holy place, that they bear not the iniquity and die. And it shall be a statute forever unto him and his seed after him."
Now, this passage of scripture is not a particularly easy one to read and it's a little bit harder to comprehend cuz we're reading about, uh, a priestly wardrobe and a lot is left to our imagination to fill in the blanks. And hopefully, we can do some of that today. But as we shall see here in the next few moments, there's a whole lot of theology that is packed up into this obscure passage of scripture. And I'm about to drop a teaching title on you that's going to seem a little bit odd. And just hang on to it and ride with me for a few minutes. And it will become apparent as we work through this. Tonight, I'm going to teach tonight about ministry without sweat. Ministry without sweat. Someone say, "You got the point."
So, everybody is called to be a priest of God. And as we have discovered in previous studies, the priesthood of the believer is really an extension of the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Because there is, there's one God. There's one mediator between God and man. There's only one great high priest and that is Jesus. But God has committed to us, the church, the word of reconciliation. And so we are here in Memphis as emissaries of Jesus Christ and as priests of God, as a royal priesthood according to the apostle Peter. It is our job to represent Jesus to the world. That means when people get around the church, they need to see Jesus. They need to learn about him. When people observe our lives as individual believers, they need to be able to get a glimpse of the character of Jesus. They need to be able to sense the essence of Jesus radiating from our spirit. And, and it's that's a great challenge for us to represent the Lord because, let's just be honest, we tend to be full of ourselves. We're full of pride and envy and all the things of the flesh. And so for us to really shine Jesus out the way that we need to, the flesh has got to be diminished. It's got to be brought under subjection to the spirit so that the Lord can shine out of the church. But not only do we represent Jesus to the world, but as priests, we take the need of the people, the burden of people, and we carry it to God in prayer. We lead people to God through evangelism. And so the priests, their whole job is connecting God with the world that is around them. And that is the great mission of the church.
So, we have been looking through some of the Old Testament details about priesthood. Now, just to state the obvious, we don't live under the old law. We're new covenant people. We are New Testament people. But the New Testament did not do away with the Old. It simply fulfilled it. And many of the passages in the Old Testament contain very beautiful types and shadows that illustrate to us timeless truths of the word of God. And so as we look at this chapter 28 of Exodus and we're reading about these linen breaches and, and girdles and, and robes and coats and ephods and breastplates and shoulder plates and miters, uh, those are those are garments that we don't typically wear nowadays. When you go to Walmart, you can go both to the men's section and the women's section, and you won't ever find a miter section. Now, you might find the girdle somewhere over there in, in the plus sizes, you know, they, but the girdles that you would buy at Walmart would be far, far different than, uh, than what is mentioned here in the word of God. So when we read these passages, we don't want to just dismiss them as being an ancient description of an ancient wardrobe of people that we'll never see or meet, that don't really have anything to do because everything in the Bible is there by divine intention. And in this priestly wardrobe, there is package up a whole bunch of theology. The Old Testament priest and his garments have something to say about us fulfilling our role as a New Testament priesthood. And tonight we are going to put our focus on particularly the linen garments, garments of fine linen.
The reason that God clothed the priests in linen was so that they could minister without sweat. Linen tends to breathe and it's cool and it's something that you bring out. If you have a summer wardrobe, you probably have a linen shirt or linen pants. And typically they say you should not wear linen past Labor Day because the seasons are changing now. Some of us, you know, like me and brother Harris, we just got the touch for style and we might wear our linen all the way up to the end of September. But there comes a point in the year where you put the linen in the back of your closet and you break out the flannel and the wool because it's warmer. Well, God told the priest, you wear linen when you're doing the work of a priest. And later on, we're going to see there was a scripture that expressly forbade them from wearing wool because God did not want them to sweat. This meant that ministry was to flow from holiness and dependence on God and not from human struggle and exertion.
So let's take just a minute and let's take a look at the garments of the priesthood. Uh, we have already went through several of these so I won't spend much time reiterating it, but we're going to talk particularly about the priestly coat right here and we'll talk about this girdle that the colored girdle that has the fine needlework on it. These clothes were made out of linen and they were exquisite. The Bible said that they were made for glory and for beauty. Now, let me just take a little side note right here. Wearing beautiful clothes is God's idea. There's nothing wrong with wearing good-looking clothes. Uh, you know, there's some groups of people and, and I kind of respect, you know, some of their philosophies, but you look at the Amish and the Mennonite and they have the, uh, mindset that you can only wear, uh, clothing that is either white, black, or navy blue. And they want all of the clothing to look drab and uninteresting. And nothing about that clothing is to catch anyone's attention. And there's nothing on it for beauty. Well, that's not how God did. When God gave the instructions for making the clothes, he said, "Make them for glory and for beauty." And these clothing were designed to look good. They were functional, but they were also there to cover the nakedness of the priest because it was a big deal with God that when he went into that holy place that every part of his flesh would to be covered except for his hands, his feet, and his face. Those are the only three areas of his body that could be revealed. And there's purpose and intentionality in that because you see when Adam and Eve fell into sin in the Garden of Eden, the Bible says their eyes were open and they realized that they were naked and then they were ashamed. And so from that moment and ever since, nakedness has been a sign of vulnerability. Nakedness in public evokes a feeling of guilt and there is a certain sense of shame attached to it. And I've preached this a number of times, but throughout the scripture, we find that the further people get away from God, the more comfortable they are with public nudity. But the closer somebody gets to Jesus, the more they want to cover themselves up. That's one of the reasons why we as Pentecostal people, we embrace a standard of modesty. We believe that we ought to cover our bodies. Summertime is coming on. It's getting hot outside, but godly people don't take their clothes off out in public just because it's hot outside. Because the Bible trumps utilitarianism. Modesty is important. Modesty matters to God. And here the priest, he was to clothe himself so that his nakedness did not appear. But there's, there's a little bit deeper shade of meaning than just God wanting, uh, his skin to be covered. But this represented the idea that God did not want flesh to be exposed when he was doing ministry, but it was to be covered.
Well, this, this goes along with a beautiful type and shadow in the word of God, and that deals with what linen symbolizes. Linen symbolized the righteousness of God. Let's look at what the Bible says in Revelation chapter 19 and verse number 8. Speaking about the bride of Christ, the church, the Bible says, "To her was granted that she should be arrayed in what? Fine linen, clean and white." What is that fine linen? It is the righteousness of the saints. So when that priest was instructed to be covered with fine linen, that was symbolic of righteousness or holy conduct, purity put into practice. So brothers and sisters, when we read about these white linen garments that were made for the priest, in essence, we are seeing an Old Testament type of how when we get saved, Jesus imputes his righteousness unto us.
There was a little detail in our text. You may not have even noticed it, but when God was describing the priestly clothes that was to be put on Aaron, he told Moses, he said, "I want you to put this clothing on Aaron and his sons." Aaron did not dress himself. Moses helped him put the clothes on. Why was that the case? Well, it's the case because you and I cannot make oursel righteous. All of our selfish attempts at righteousness are as filthy rags in the word of God. We can't do enough good things to make oursel holy. The only way we get holiness is Jesus has got to take his holiness and transfer it to us and put it on us. We are in him. We are clothed in him. And the Bible says that we have put on Christ. So I would suggest that we stand here today and positionally, we are covered in the righteousness of God. When God looks down from heaven at me, he is not looking at me in all of my faults and fallibilities, but he sees himself because I am in Christ. I am hidden in him. I have put him on and I am covered with his righteousness. I have boldness to walk into the holy place. Not because I've been such a good boy. Not because I have such a great record. But I can walk into the holiest of holies and have an audience with God because I am covered by him. I stand in his presence on his merit, not on my merit.
There are some of you in this room that have dealt for years with a persistent feeling of unworthiness. You felt unworthy to be in the presence of God. You miss communion service because you feel unworthy. You, you don't worship because you feel unworthy. You're afraid to pray out loud because you have a sense of unworthiness. Well, I hate to break it to you, but the fact of the matter is, you are unworthy. But when we are born again, we don't operate from our worthiness any longer. Our worthiness would never earn us a seat at his holy table. But now his worthiness, his holiness is vicariously imputed to us. And we stand and we minister and we act based on the merit of Jesus Christ, not on our own merit.
And so the linen symbolizes righteousness. Now, from a positional standpoint, I have his righteousness. But as with most things in the kingdom, the big part of it God does, but he leaves a little part of it for us to do. It will not do to say, "I'm clothed with the garment of righteousness. I've got this invisible righteous robe on me, but I'm going to go ahead and treat you really bad." And all of my bad treatment of you will be covered up with his righteousness. That doesn't work that way. But holiness is the way that we live out the righteousness of God. What God does for us in the spirit, somewhere it's got to translate into practical ways of living. I'm covered with his righteousness. So when I speak to you, I need to speak to you with respect. I'm covered with his righteousness, so I need to tell the truth. I'm covered with his righteousness, so I need to be honest in all of my dealings. I'm covered with his righteousness, so I need to demonstrate humility and I need to forgive and I need to, you get the picture. It's got to be lived out.
But let's talk a little bit here specifically about this business of God not wanting us to sweat in the sanctuary. The Bible talks about this in several places and it wasn't until just recent weeks and studying this I started seeing it pop out. But Ezekiel makes it real clear when Ezekiel is reiterating the priest of garments. Said, "They shall be clothed with linen garments, and no wool shall come upon them while they minister. They shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat." God doesn't want you to sweat when you're doing ministry. Well, why is that? Well, the first time sweat appears in the Bible is in Genesis when Adam and Eve sinned and they were pushed out of the garden as a consequence of their sin. God put a curse on the world, on man. And part of the curse is that by the sweat of your face, you'll eat bread. You'll still be able to earn a living, Adam. You'll still be able to have increase, but it's not going to come so easy. Now your labor is going to be submerged in toil. You're going to have frustration. The ground is going to bring forth thorns and thistles and you're going to do a lot of sweating. So the sweat came to symbolize human struggle. Sweat was the language of the curse. And so when God said, "When you stand to minister, don't wear wool. Don't wear anything that makes you sweaty while you're ministering." What he is saying is, I don't want ministry. I don't want your service for me and to me to be driven by the flesh. Service needs to be spirit-driven, not flesh-driven.
So when our ministry, competition, ego, pressure, the need for approval, that's me trying to do it. So let's break this down and let's make it practical. Let's talk about music ministry. Now, there's two things that the Bible says you got to do if you're going to play music in church. Number one, play skillfully. Don't be missing them notes. And come prepared. Number one, play skillfully. And you know what the other part of that was? With a loud noise. So God wants the music to be good and he wants it to be loud. There's a biblical guideline. I'm, I'm not saying I'm just saying what the Bible says. Don't, and we sing with the same spirit. Sing to the best of our ability and we need to sing heartily to the Lord. BUT WHILE WE SHOULD BRING OUR BEST effort at singing and playing music, we got to be careful because the motive by which we play music and sing means just as much as what we do. If you're going to hit a little lick on the keyboard or the guitar or the drums or whatever your instrument is, and if you do it from the standpoint of, "I want people to see me. Let me see IF I CAN WOW THE CROWD." And we hit that little lick and all of a sudden we just put clothing on that made us sweat. We are now ministering from a flesh posture and we are striving to do it through human ability and not dependence on the spirit. We give you another way that we can do this and, and a lot of churches do it and there's a fine line here. Music can be used to manipulate people or it can be used to lead them. And it's the same song doing the same thing but with different motives. Leadership and manipulation are very close. The only difference is in the, in between the two is the motivation. Manipulation says, "It's kind of dead in here tonight. And so, let me hit this chord progression and let's try to, let's try to whip up a move of God." Well, I'm just going to tell you, you might be able to get people up out of their seats. You might be able to get them to shout. You might be able to get some motion going on in the sanctuary, but you can't work up a move of God. That's flesh sweating and striving and trying to get a righteous result. What is better is you got to understand it's the mind of God for us to have worship. And we're going to have worship. And I'm going to play this song not from the standpoint of trying to whip up a move of God or get something stirring in here, but my motive is, "We want to touch God." And I believe touching God might include a little bit of shouting right now. So, we're going to do the shout beat not to work something up, but we're doing a shout beat because we want to get people worshiping God. There's a subtle difference, but there is a difference. And you got to be careful about that because God doesn't want sweat in the sanctuary.
Here, a few weeks ago, I made a statement from the pulpit. I don't remember how or what and it wasn't meant anything bad in the moment, but God convicted me about it and I said something to the effect, I don't remember the exact wording, but it's like I said something like, "You know, this is, I think this is the friendliest church in town or this is the greatest church in Memphis." Well, I kind of feel that way. But after I said it, I really felt like God dealt with me on several occasions about saying that that I shouldn't have. And here's why. We're not in competition with another church. That's what the disciples were doing when they argued amongst themselves about who should be the greatest. And Jesus reproved them for that. So our mission is not to be the greatest church in Memphis. Our mission is not to be superior to some other Pentecostal church because, you know what? We want everybody to live for God and serve God and everybody to be blessed. And the minute we start comparing ourselves with another church or we are striving to in some way be better than them or outdo them, we have missed the whole point. We have laid aside the robe of linen and we have put on a wool garment and now it is our flesh. Now, we're trying to win souls so we can have a few more people on the Sunday attendance record than the church across town. We try to have good music because we want to outdo someone else. I'm going to tell you, that ought not to be in the spirit of this church. We ought to want every church to grow and every church to be blessed. And we ought to speak well of other churches, even if we disagree with some of the things they do or say. And, and we might have some disagreements with other Pentecostal churches, but, you know what? We're not trying to outdo anybody, but what we are trying to do is we're trying to be the best that we can be. We're trying to be everything that God has called us to be. And I have enough effort trying to measure up to the stature of Christ rather than having to worry about trying to outdo my brother. We are not in competition. We're not going to be in competition. We are going to live for our master. We're not here to sweat in the sanctuary.
Another way that we sweat in the sanctuary is when we do what we do just because we're trying to get approval. We don't need to do that. That's, that's the curse. It's not the spirit. God called us to minister from a posture of rest, purity, and dependence. I put together a little chart comparing flesh-driven ministry versus spirit-driven ministry. Let me quickly try to tease out some of the difference here. Flesh-driven ministry sweats. "I got to make something happen. If it's going to happen, I got to do it. I GOT TO PUSH." We push and WE PUSH AND WE PUSH. And I'm not in any way discouraging us from being industrious and working hard. That's not what I'm preaching. We got to understand that. BUT THERE IS A POSTURE of rest in which you understand that I'm going to work and do my best, but at the end of the day, I am not stressing about the outcome because God's going to build the house. And if he doesn't build it, the leg labors in vain. If he doesn't do it, it can't be done. And it's taken me some years to learn this. I used to feel an unhealthy sense of responsibility for the church. I need to, I need to feel a sense of responsibility and I do. But I used to think the outcome was all up to me. And if there were problems, I took those problems sometimes personal and deep way. And if there were successes, I took credit in a way that was not right. But as I have matured a little bit, I've come, and I'm really on the beginning stages of this. I'm realizing this is God's church. When I come this pulpit, I'm going to be trying to be just as prepared as I can be. I'm going to try my best to bring you a word from God. I'm going to love on the people. I'm going to lead with integrity. I'm going to keep my finances honest and above board. I'm going to tell the truth. I'm going to live right in my private life. But at the end of the day, even with me doing everything I know to do, I cannot build Christian Life Church. Only God can. And so that means that when I do everything that I know to do, I need to go to home and go to bed understanding it's God's church and I'm going to get a good night's sleep and I'm just going to trust that God's going to work it out. When there's problems in the church, I go to God and I say, "God, your church has a problem. What are you going to do about it?" If you give your business to God, you can say the same thing. "God, your business has got a problem. What you gonna do about it?" And it's not that we don't put in effort because we have to, but we're not doing it from a sweat posture of "I got to make it happen. I'M GOING TO STRONGARM IT. I WANT TO GET MY WAY." No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Do the best, but you just say sit back and take a breath. Okay, God, you got to do it.
Spirit-led ministry focuses on purity. Fleshly ministry is all about performance. We're evaluating somebody to do ministry in this church. Here's where we really need to be. We need to evaluate them based on are they living a pure life more so than their skill set. Spirit-led ministry has peace. The other has pressure. Fleshly ministry is full of comparison. But when you're spirit-led, you lead and you work because you feel called to do it, not because you're trying to outdo. We lean on divine empowerment. Fleshly ministry burns out. But when you're spirit-led, you have sustained strength. Flesh-driven ministry is recognition seeking. We're trying to get the approval of people. But when we're living for God and we're being led by the spirit, we're not so much concerned about people's approval. We want his approval.
Now, church, I'm just going to ask you. I mean, we probably need to evaluate ourselves on these columns. As I have worked through this stuff and meditated on it now for, for a while, I'm just going to be transparent. I see, I see some of this stuff in our church, in our culture. But you know what my goal is in this teaching? And I see some of me, I'm, I'm standing too often on this side. But what I want us to do, through the help of God, I want us as a church family to step over to this other side. Let's take off the wool garment that makes sweat and let's put on that linen garment where we're depending on him to do the work and we're doing it for the right motives. Can I have just a couple of more moments?
Let's talk about how to put this purity into practice. I'm going to give you the application. There's three ways we do it. Number one, ministry should flow out of personal holiness. Before God can use our hands, he has to sanctify our hearts. In other words, we may have the skill set to do something quite well, but if we're not living right, our service is not a blessing. Think about a surgeon. If you had to go get, say, brain surgery and you got the best surgeon in Memphis and he was going to open you up and fix your brain, but he was wearing dirty gloves that he had used on the last 10 surgeries. How many of you would go through with it? He's got the skill set. He's got the degree. He's got a track record, but he's got dirty gloves. So, obviously, skill does not compensate for unclean gloves. And it's like that in the work of the church. You might be able to do the functions of a lot of different ministries in the church, but if your heart's dirty, if your motive is unclean, your service does not minister life, it ministers death. We got to have clean hearts. Purity ought to be a non-negotiable thing in the church.
Let me just ask you something and once again, I'm, I want to say this carefully and gently and I want us just to think through this. I know pornography is a big scourge of our society and if you got a phone, it's a click away and there's doubtless a lot of people probably in this room that's had various struggles with it over the years. But is it really okay to be looking at porn and then getting on the platform? Is that okay? Are we as a church okay with that? I'm personally don't feel good about that. I don't think it's right. So what do we do? We say, "Come." Oh, brother Adams, you know, I, I, I got, and I've had this conversation a bunch of times, you know, so I'm not picking on anybody. I just need to step back for a minute. Okay, you could do that. Or better than that, why not repent, get a little bit of accountability and deal with the issue? Because you can go from being impure to being pure pretty fast if your heart will just turn to God. Is it really okay to be serving in a function in church and full of bitterness and hate towards people? I don't think it is. I think biblically, we make a case that it's not. So what do we do if you're in that position? It's not that I'm asking you to step back from that position. I'm just asking you to forgive. I'm asking, could you let a bygone be bygone and could you just forgive somebody in the love of God and let go of that hate? Could you find a prayer meeting sometime this week and say, "God, I have carried a grudge against my husband for years and now I am ready to let it go. I'm going to surrender it. I'm going to forgive him and I am going to release my right to be right and I'm going to let go of the resentment and the hate." You would be surprised at what that kind of prayer meeting would do. It'd start freeing something up in your soul, but then it would freeze something up in what you're doing in the service of the church.
The church, I'm just trying to preach this as transparent as I can. Why don't we just live clean lives? Clean lives. We got to wear those holy white linen garments. We don't want to be a place that where the, where the ways of flesh is what dominates the culture of our service, but we want cleanliness and purity to be at work. And I think God will help us get there. Don't you? I believe that he will. We don't minister to impress people. I've talked about that. It's not about skill and recognition. True ministry can only have three pure motives. And if you have any motive for ministry outside of these three motives, you're working out of wool, not linen. Ministry is to God, for God, and for the people. The minute ministry becomes about me, I've just crossed the line. I might be doing all the right things, but my motive is wrong. And if I'm doing it about me, I'm doing it to promote flesh. I'm sweating in the sanctuary. And that's not what God wants. We want pure motives.
And then last of all, we need to learn to abide before we act. And I wish I had time to unpack this. Let me just bump it. Private devotion's got to go before public effectiveness. You got to be before you do. There's too much doing without any being. Think about Mary and Martha. Here Martha was busy, but Mary was just sitting. Martha was sweating while Mary was receiving. Service is important, but service only works if it's preceded by devotion. Simply saying, you need times of lingering in the presence of God before you do a work for God. That's why a culture of prayer is so important in the church. That's why daily prayer is important. We need moments throughout our week when we put everything else on pause. We lay the phone aside. We turn off all the other notifications and we spend some time in prayer, fellowshipping with Jesus, slowly and quietly reading the word of God and letting the word ingest and impact us and stir us. Being has got to come before doing. I don't want a church that has the spirit of Martha that doesn't recognize Mary. We got to have Mary and Martha. But Jesus said Mary has chosen the better part, the part that cannot be taken away. And let me just tell you how this works. More time in prayer does not translate into less effectiveness in your life. And I know we got a lot of people right now that's right in the middle of your career. You, you working hours, you got family responsibilities. I know how it is. Every day I'm looking for somebody to invent a daylight stretcher. And the first clue that the first prototype that comes out, I'm buying three of them. There's not enough hours in the day. I get that. And we're under the pressure to produce. One thing I've learned, and it's hard to practice it, but I've learned it. If I will pray, prayer never takes away from productivity. Prayer will only increase your productivity. So, I want to challenge us. Let's live for God with a pure heart and let's do ministry without sweat. Let's walk before God in righteousness and holiness and watch what he does through this church for the remainder of this year.
Why don't we stand together and I want us to lift our hands and our hearts to the Lord right now. And let's just pray that the spirit and the ethos of this word settles down in this congregation. God, we come before you in earnest prayer. And Lord, we're going to start by confessing that we have not been everything we should be. God, we recognize that we've got some fleshly ways that need to be laid aside. But Lord, I'm praying that right now you would take the word that we have heard and convict our hearts. God, I pray that you would shine your holy spotlight onto every blemish in my character, God, every motivation and attitude that's not pleasing to you, God, put the spotlight on it cuz God, we don't want that. We don't want to carry that into your service. God, I pray for a revival of purity and holiness in this church. I pray for holiness of mind and holiness of conduct. God, give us a love for holiness and righteousness. Help us to embrace it with everything that we have, God. Lord, we give you the praise for it. We give you the glory and we ask you to help us. Join with a prayer partner. Let's just pray for a love of holiness to come over this congregation at a whole new level. I pray for fervent love for holiness. I pray for a spirit of fervent holiness. God, let there be a revival in this church of consecration. I pray for a revival of convictions. A revival of of holy living. Convict us of things that we've been wearing that you're not pleased of. Things that we've been doing and saying that you're not pleased with. Convict us, God. Let your word settle down heavy upon our hearts. God, I pray that you would finetune our walk. Help us, God. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.
And everybody said, "Amen." Amen. I love everybody in this building. You're great people. You're wonderful. Let's go do the work of God. Good things happening this week.