Living Life with Purpose – Session 4

Bethel Mennonite Church – Gladys VA

Revelation 3:21 – This verse speaks of a very special time, a day when we can leave behind the struggles that we face in this life and can sit down with Christ on the throne of victory.

Purity

Matthew 5:8 – Pure in heart, free from iniquity, free from the corruption of the world around us, that love the kingdom. They shall see God.

2 Timothy 2:22 – Many of the desires of our hearts don’t lead us closer to God. We need to flee these youthful lusts and follow righteousness, faith, love and peace. We will find ourselves in good company, with others who also have a pure heart.

Titus 1:15 – Either you are pure everything about us is pure. However if we are defiled in one area, it taints all of who we are.

1 Peter 1:22 – How are we purified? In obeying the truth. How will the way that we think be changed? It will happen because we read, know, think, understand, and live out the truth.

2 Corinthians 7:1 – To live in this corrupt society should “grate” on us. It shouldn’t feel like home. Our desire should be to be becoming more and more perfect in our holiness.

We often ask the question, “what’s wrong with it?” This is basically asking, “how far away from God’s perfection can I be and still be ok?” Stop and think about it, we should be asking, “how is this leading me closer to perfection in holiness in the fear of God?” This is where the principle of purity will draw us.

So, what is purity?
– Looking to God for our standards
– Freedom from corruption.
– Absence of contamination.
– Complete, whole, unmixed.

Purity is a principle of the christian life. Purity affects everything about us.

Examples

Joseph was a long way away from his home. He wasn’t able to check up on them via Facebook. He was living, integrated in the culture of Egypt. Yet he fled the advances of the wife of his master.

Acts 4:10,23 – Peter and John – The power of the name of Jesus. Peter made sure that it was clear by whose power the miracle had been done. It was impossible to deny that something incredible and powerful had happened… They were told to not preach any more in the name of Jesus, but they would not, they could not be silent.

Psalms 51 – David gives us the “blueprint” for the response that can bring us back to purity. None of us are perfect, we can all apply something of what David says here. There is a way, the path of repentance, from impurity back to a clean heart.

Forgiveness

Matthew 6 – Here in the Lord’s prayer we see the importance of forgiveness. When we refuse to forgive others, we cannot be right with God.

Matthew 18 – Jesus standard is much much higher than that of the Pharisees of that day. Jesus point isn’t about the number of times that forgiveness should be given, but rather that there is nothing that someone can do to us that cannot be forgiven.

The more we understand about the holiness of God, the more we can understand the incredible amount that God is capable of forgiving us. When we can understand, even a little bit of what God has done for us through Jesus Christ… we should be more than willing to forgive others around us.

Colossians 3:13 – Forgiveness should be the way we “tend” towards forgiveness no matter what happens. It changes the way that we act, but it is an attitude, it is a governing force of how we live our lives.

What is forgiveness?
– To release a debt.
– To free from pardon and penalty.
– Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.

Examples

If there was anyone who should have been filled with unforgiveness and bitterness. It should have been Joseph. But he didn’t! Joseph told his brothers that they meant it for evil, but God had everyones good in mind.

Stephen in his last moments, when he was being stoned. He prayed that God would forgive those who were killing him.

Rudy Tomjanovich, an NBA player was punched in the face by a teammate, it was, in essence the end of his career. Rudy’s response was that “if I don’t forgive, its like drinking poison and hoping someone else will die.”

Corrie ten Boom met one of the guards who had tortured her, and he asked her to forgive him. Would she forgive him? She didn’t feel like forgiving him, but she says she knew that she could raise her hand and shake his, and God would do the rest.

Jesus, after being tortured in incredibly ways and being hung on the cross to experience the most excruciating death possible… says to his Father, “forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.”

Forgiveness is a principle that must pervade and guide the life of every Christian.

Why do we do it?

Obedience, protection, identity are all important. The fourth one is “illustration.” Let’s see what God says about this.

John 8:12 – Jesus came into the world to bring to us what it means to walk in life, to walk with God.

John 14:9 – If you have seen Christ, you’ve seen the Father.

Matthew 5:14 – Ye are the light of the world.

When people ask today, “show us the Father” who will they see? They will see us. We are an illustration of Jesus and God the Father.

1 Peter 2:9 – We are the peculiar people spoken of here.

Romans 13:14 – When we become a new creation, we put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have the privilege of illustrating what God is like to our neighbors and those who don’t know him.

Principled living is the only way to glorify God!

The Series

This is part of a series of messages preached by Glenn Horst at our Youth Rally weekend in March 2016. All of the sessions are linked below.

• Living Life with Purpose – Session 1
• Living Life with Purpose – Session 2
• Living Life with Purpose – Session 3
• Living Life with Purpose – Session 4
• Living Life with Purpose – Session 5

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