we are in the third week of a series called “eternity is now in session.” Essentially worth talking about the fact that eternal life doesn’t begin “out there” when we get to heaven, it begins now in God’s purpose is to get heaven into us.
It starts with following him. Leaving behind all other idols, all other Masters and following him alone.
Last week Eric talked about how we have these awakenings in our life when we suddenly see things differently.
Today I want to talk to you about an old familiar saying; God loves you just as you are but he loves you too much to let you stay that way!
We’re going to tackle word this morning and then in our small groups tonight, the word is “purgation.” Purgation means that God is going to ruthlessly go after the things in your life that are keeping you back.
We start with this story when Peter is called by Jesus to follow him.
Luke 5:1 On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
That wouldn’t be the last time Peter became undone and knelt before Jesus. There would be the time when Jesus told Peter that he was going to be put to death and Peter aggressively responded, “that will never happen to you.” Jesus then said, “get behind me Satan, those are the words and the thinking of men…” And then there would be the time when Peter was walking on the water and took his eyes off of Jesus and plunged beneath the waves while crying out to Jesus to help him. And there would be the times that Jesus would tell him he had little faith. And of course there would be the time that Peter, right before the crucifixion, denied that he even knew who Jesus was three times in a row. Later peters racist views had to be dealt with when he questioned whether God’s power could save a Gentile.
It seems that Peter was full of defects… And guess what… So my and so are you - we have a lifetime full of them.
Peter needed purging or purgation.
Purgation. It is the removal of sinful actions or sinful thinking from our system. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
There was something in Peter that needed fixing.
There was something in Peter that wasn’t pleasing to God.
There was something in Peter that if, it was allowed to exist, would cause him to become the wrong person.
There was something in Peter that Jesus had to shine his light on in order for Peter to be set free from it.
There was something in Peter that was clogging up the works.
What is it that’s in Peter? What is it that is in us? “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” It is called sin. And when sin is exposed in our life it always hurts. It’s always embarrassing. It always causes shame. And we don’t like it.
We don’t like getting exposed. We don’t like getting exposed. It’s why men don’t go to the doctor are always afraid that something is going to be found. And we live in a world where media types love to dig around and expose a politician or a celebrity. I bet you expose the sin in my kids lives before and they can get ugly. But the worst is when I get exposed!
When sin gets exposed we call it conviction. That’s the moment that we know that HE knows what’s going on inside of me. And we have to do something about it.
The word sin and sinner are really are an outdated couple of words. The word sin itself means to “miss the mark” which implies that there is some standard for conduct and behavior that we will be judged by. That doesn’t really sit well with 2019 mentality. In 1950 when the Gallup poll asked high school seniors if they consider themselves very important only 12% said yes. 55 years later in 2005 80% consider themselves very important. Today 93% say so. We are an age that believes that we can choose anything we want including what gender we want to be and that God loves us exactly the way we are.
Try this is a definition of sin…
- Sin is the place in my life where I am choosing me over God
- Sin is the place in my life where I am choosing wrong over right.
- sin is choosing pleasure over obedience
- sin is choosing my glory over God’s glory
- sin is choosing my needs over everybody else’s needs
- sin is choosing lust over love
- sin is ugly
- sin is damning
- Sin is the place in my life where I am hostile to God
- sin kills
- sin controls us
- sin shapes my life and my future
- sin lies about everything
- sin damages us
- sin promises everything but delivers almost enough
- Sin is the place in my life where I am giving yourself to lesser things
- sin is a master that wants to make you a slave
- Sin is the place in my life where I am doing evil - choosing to do bad
- sin is hurtful
- sin is selfishness
- sin is standing with Satan
- sin is choosing against Jesus
- sin is working against Jesus
- sin undermines the work of Jesus in you and the world
- Sin is the place in my life where I am siding against Jesus
- sin separates you from Jesus
- sin sneers at Jesus
- sin substitutes me for Jesus
- sin wants me to hide from Jesus
- and sin flips off Jesus
- sin makes us dirty
and there is nothing redeeming about sin, there’s nothing good about sin, there’s no reason to sin, and you cannot control your sin.
You might just say sin is having an affair with ourselves.
- Aren’t I great?
- I’m always the smartest guy in the room.
- Let me just do what I feel.
- I’m the one that should be up on the platform.
- I don’t know why people don’t listen to me.
Peter knew that his life didn’t measure up. These are the worst possible feelings. Sometimes we call it “conviction.” Conviction is when we know were not cutting it. Conviction is when God exposes some issue in our life - an issue that causes us embarrassment or that we just don’t want to deal with.
It has certainly happened to me. Here I am happily going through life when suddenly I hear something or I read something and a big ugly thing in my heart is exposed. My pride flares up and I want to defend myself but God is relentless because he wants to remove that out of my life.
It’s called purgation. And we are all full of things that need removal.
God sees it differently - Jeremiah put it this way;
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick; who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind…
Too many people believe their Facebook profile. I know one family that Nancy and I marvel at. Perfect family, super loving, everybody traveling in the right direction, proud of each other, great marriage, accomplished, super spiritual, great family vacations… But it’s deceiving. It’s not really the way they paint the picture. It’s more like overworked, too much stress, too busy, too little church, too much extracurricular activities, too controlling, possible drug use…
But it’s not just them; it’s all of us. We all have a propensity to hide it and fake it and to cover it up - that is, until Jesus shows up and it gets real.
I’m sure that’s how Peter felt on this day…“Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Peter is in the presence of Majesty,
holiness,
perfection,
glory and Peter is in the presence of greatness,
Peter is in the presence of the word made flesh,
Peter is in the presence of Jesus and he suddenly realizes that he has missed the mark, that he has settled for less, that he is exposed and he knows that Jesus knows it. Peter knows that he’s messed up and that somehow he is broken.
And what does Peter do? He confesses his sinfulness. He takes ownership of his mess. He is responsible for his own sin. He feels it. He sees it. He confesses it.
We are not much into the confession of sin these days. In fact, we throw around words like sin and sinner as if God is okay with all of it, that somehow his grace has it all covered and we really don’t need to worry about it. But sin, at its essence, is you taking on the role of God in your life.
And that has to go.
And sin, at its essence, is you making every decision to ultimately benefit you in some way - even when you say to yourself that it’s not all about you, it still is - and that has to go because when you make it about you that it’s never about anybody else and that hurts people.
And sin, at its essence, is you looking at God and what he asks of you and just flipping him off.
How does it not bother us when we flip off God? How is that not alarming? How do we live like that? How do we willingly disobey God and not fear the consequences?
How can we go out of a place like this - knowing what Jesus says - and yet we continue to commit adultery, we continue to steal, we continue to be greedy, we continue to neglect our family, we continue to harbor bitterness and anger and while we refused to do anything about it and still think God is still in our corner?
I hate to tell you this but if you follow Jesus you are going to undergo a lifetime process of sin removal.
Does the theology of your life include discipline, hardship, rebuking? Does it include sometimes getting spanked or unpleasant confrontations with God or even your own soul? Does it include pain?
Prov 25:4 Remove the scum from the silver,
so the silver can be used by the silversmith.
Isaiah 1:25 I will turn my hand against you;
I will thoroughly purge away your dross
and remove all your impurities.
These verses talk about the process of refining gold and silver. The process of heating those metals up to 1761 degrees so that all the scum, or dross, or slag can separate from the gold and float to the top where it is removed.
Do you know that God uses a similar process for our hearts? That God will remove the dross from your life by allowing the heat to be turned up?
God knows the absolute necessity of removing the dross and scum from our lives. And dross doesn’t let go of gold or silver until it is heated. God will allow things to heat us up to a very uncomfortable point in order than he might remove some things.
That is why Peter knelt at Jesus’s feet. He needed some things removed.
In order for your life to have greater value, God will remove or subtract. He subtracts in order to add. That is strange mathematics but it is reality in the spiritual realm. In God’s math, you sometimes get more by having less.
I have seen this happen on teams. There was a kid named “Critter” who was a world of talent but the team played much better when he wasn’t there because he needed a lot of attention.
I have seen this in leadership teams when we needed to remove a person in order for the team to become stronger.
I have seen this in my own life as God has had to remove some things in order for him to use me more.
It is painful but the fact is when silver is contaminated by dross it does no good to add more silver to the pile. As long as there are impurities in the silver it doesn’t matter how much you have, it will never be shiny and smooth.
This is a spiritual principle.
Imagine someone who is 100 pounds overweight going to the doctor and saying, “please make me feel better, when I wake up in the morning I’m just dragging. Give me some pills to pep me up.”
The doctor would say, “All the pills in the world aren’t going to restore your energy, you need to concentrate on losing 50 pounds for starters.”
“What? Hey, I came to your office to feel better! I can’t change my whole lifestyle. Just give me something to help me.”
That person will be healthier – by subtracting, not adding.
Imagine another patient with a cancerous growth, who comes in wanting a better aspirin to dull the pain. That won’t work; the growth needs to be cut out. “But I don’t want to lose a part of my body!” “Well, you need to lose this particular part of your body – it is cancer and it needs to go!”
You mean that you care about me and say that you’re my friend and you are going to cut me with a knife?”
“Exactly or you are going to die.”
You will find that God is constantly doing surgery on us.
Many of us are quick to shout “PTL” and celebrate when God is blessing us. Others can quote the Bible easily. Some have some fantastic gifts. That is all good but ALL THAT WILL TAKE US NOWHERE IF WE HAVE UNREMOVED DROSS IN OUR LIVES.
All the talking in the world won’t produce a godly heart without God’s intimate refining process going on in our hearts.
Truth is that God will take aim at whatever is cluttering our walk with him. Maybe we are way overextended financially, maybe we are bitter and living in the past…we cry out to God for a miracle to come our way but God has other plans, he is going to remove the impurities from us.
You see God loves and he will be direct with you. He will tell the truth. He will be absolutely ruthless in going after the things that spoil the flow of his grace and blessing into our lives.
- He will never make a treaty with our pockets of sin. He will insist that those things “have to go.”
- He will say, “You cannot live with that in your life that is undermining your testimony.”
- Like Jesus when he cleaned out the temple, he will remove the things that don’t belong in our life.
- He will say, “Those attitudes grieve me. Those habits need to be broken. Your competitiveness and glory seeking and petty jealousy when others get the spotlight needs removing.”
Does you theology include Jesus sitting on a refiners stool, watching over a cauldron of liquid metal under which the fire is getting hotter and hotter? Can you see him every once in a while reaching down and removing the impurities that have bubbled to the surface? Is your faith deep enough to yield to the refiners fire?
Is this comfortable? NO!
Is it pleasant? NO!
Is it his method of refining us and getting rid of the junk in our lives? YES!
Do you know how the ancient refiner knew when it was finished, when the heat could be turned down? It was when he looked into the cauldron and saw his reflection.
Let’s face it; God will not let us remain the way that we are today. We are weighed down by things that hinder the race we are called to run. We stagger at God’s promises and commands because our hearts are clogged with so many unedifying habits and unnecessary things.
If we chose to fight God’s purifying process things can turn ugly. When we grasp our impurities and dross like they are some kind of treasure the future turns dark. We are headed for spiritual self destruction.
What is Peter’s reaction to Jesus? “Get away from me…”
- Maybe he still wants to hide his sin.
- Maybe this feeling will pass.
But it’s only in the exposure that healing comes.
John, the closest disciple to Jesus, said this;
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say 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…
This is what happened to Peter. When the light shines on him he comes to it.
And what does Peter do? He confesses his sinfulness. He takes ownership of his mess. He is responsible for his own sin. He feels it. He sees it. He confesses it. His solution is if Jesus would just get away but Jesus is not going to get away. Jesus is going to deal with his sin.
And then what is Jesus do?
Luke 5:10 And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
The very confession of Peter sin did not disqualify him, it freed him. It liberated him. He found forgiveness. And then Jesus calls him to join his mission.
And for now on Peter would be open to purgation. From now on Peter would be more quick about admitting his sins, where he falls short. From now on Peter would be much more aggressive about allowing God to deal with the things that block the flow of heavenly power into his life - things like habits, thoughts, practices, lies and pride.
Part of following Jesus is allowing him to burn the hell out of us.
