We are four weeks into our Fighting Temptation series.

Question: How is it going with that?

Are you on a hot streak against temptation like never before?
Have you been sinless for three weeks?
Are you a perfect, 1,567-0 against every temptation in the month of March?

Hmmm…
Maybe a better question is:
Have you won any temptation battles?

Today we’re going to talk about what to do when you have failed at fighting temptation. Before we do that, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. Two Different Reactions
 
The lesson we are going to look at is from the book of James 4. James is a letter written by James, a pastor in the early Christian church to Christians everywhere. In his letter, James gives all kinds of guidance to FIGHT temptation. He tells them to not be prideful (1:11), to be slow to anger (1:19), to get rid of moral filth (1:20), to watch their tongues (1:24), to not show favoritism (2:1), to care for others (2:15), to not curse (3:10), to not be envious (3:14), to be peace-loving (3:17), to not fight amongst each other (4:1), to not covet (4:3), and to not be romantic with someone that isn’t your spouse (4:4).

That’s a lot of commands.
That’s a lot of opportunity for temptation.

But about midway through chapter 4, James begins to talk about what to do if you find yourself falling to temptation. He identifies two completely different approaches to losing: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (4:6)

Have any of you been watching the NCAA Tournament? Teams win and teams lose. It’s interesting to listen to teams when they lose – whether it’s in an interview or Twitter – there’s really two different reactions to losing:

Some say, “We lost. We didn’t play well. We didn’t deserve to win. We failed.”
Others say, “It was the refs’ fault.” “My teammate didn’t play up to his potential.” “I read a mean tweet and I wasn’t able to focus like I should.”

Two different reactions:
Humility and Pride.


It’s the same thing when we fail at temptation.
We can respond in humility or pride.
 
God opposes the proud.
God gives grace to the humble.
Be humble.

Amen?

II. Types of Pride

But it’s not necessarily that easy.
 
One of the trickiest things about pride is that pride tends to be very good at disguising itself.
It’s very good at not realizing its own sinfulness.
It’s very good at making you think – that it’s not prideful at all.

Because of that – I would submit that each and every one of us -- even long time Christians – struggle with some version of pride when we fail to temptation.   
Here’s a list of a few different prideful ways that we respond when we fall to temptation. Which one are you?
 
1. The Bar-lower-er
 
It’s like the high jump. Did any of you have to do the high jump back in high school gym class? It isn’t easy. You have to time your run, time your approach, plant off the back foot while arching your back in the air, throwing your feet back and then jack-knifing over the top.

If you aren’t very good at it, what happens? The coach lowers the bar. From 5 foot to 4 foot 6 inches to 4 foot to…maybe let’s try laying the bar on the ground.

Bar-lower-ers do the same thing with the bar of conduct that God has set:

“God, I know you said to love my spouse – but marriage is hard. You should be happy! I wasn’t that rude.”
“I know the Bible says, ‘Don’t lust,’ but that’s unrealistic. God’s probably happy that I didn’t actually sleep with her…for long.”
“I know the Bible says, ‘Love your neighbor,’ but have you met my neighbors? I’ll tolerate them. What more can you really ask for?”
 
And there’s no sorrow.
There’s no humility.
Because the bar-lower-er makes it over the fake bar that he set up – while ignoring the divine bar that God set up way over his head.
 
2. The Fixer
 
That name comes from politics. A fixer is the person on your political team who has the ability to fix any negative, dirty laundry news story and make you into the hero of the narrative. If you’ve ever watched Scandal, this is Olivia Pope’s job. She finds out the bad story that’s going to hurt her client, she reworks it, and feeds that story out instead in order to make her client look good.
 
The Spiritual Fixer responds to sin the same way.
 
Bitter and angry at work? No. I was just standing my ground against all the bitter and angry people who were challenging my ideas!
Cheated on my wife? Nope. I’m just a romantic. A fan of true love. I’m the good guy in the story.
Said something racist? Nope. I was baited into it…by some other friends…who knew it would happen. They’re the real racists.
 
And there’s no sorrow.
There’s no humility.
Because the fixer imagines himself the hero of his story --- even when God says he’s clearly not.
 
3. The Accountant
 
Kudos to actual accountants. They do impressive work. They take numbers. They take receipts. They take line items and mistakes and put them all together to try and make the numbers balance – no matter how it is.

This is hard work. It’s why Kevin from The Office developed a “Keleven” It’s a made up, magic number he uses to balance the numbers when he can’t figure out the mistake.
 
The Spiritual Accountant does the same thing. They try to take the seeming “good” that they’ve done and balance it against the bad that they just committed. Like some kind of magic number, they try to make it balance.
 
Sure. I was grumpy this morning. But I was nice from like 1:15-3:30p yesterday afternoon so…
I have been gossiping a lot lately. But I did go to church Sunday and Wednesday for the Meditation service.
I know I told a lie there. But this morning I told like 4 truths. Things like “Good morning” and “I had an egg for breakfast.” It all balances out.

And there’s no sorrow.
There’s no humility.
Because the Spiritual Accountant thinks they’ve made up for their wrongdoing – even when God says the only way to make up for sinful wrongdoing is death.
 
4. The Bootstrapper
 
This type of person “Pulls themselves up by their Bootstraps.” Have you heard that phrase? Apparently, it means to be lying on the ground with your boots on and then, to grab ahold of the strap at the top of the boot until you are standing. This isn’t actually that possible. It’s really, really, really hard. Hence the phrase, “Pulling yourself up by your bootsteps” being an exemplary thing. If you can do that, then people will forget all about the fact that you fell – they’ll be way too impressed by the fact that you pulled yourself up by the bootstraps.

Spiritual Bootstrappers think they can do the same thing. They focus on how they’ll get themselves out of sin to distract themselves – and God – from the fact that they have sinned.
 
I know. I know. I got drunk for the 8th day in a row You might even call me addicted. No worries. When I get out of this, it’ll be that much more impressive.
Yes, I lost it on my kids again. But I’m gonna keep improving, keep working harder, and I’ll figure out how to deal with 4 whining kids all by myself.
And…I said things that made my spouse mad at me. But I’ll fix it. I’ll buy flowers. I’ll buy a nice card. I’ll send her a cutesy emoji. I’ll pull myself out of the pit I dug.
 
And there’s no sorrow.
There’s no humility.
Because the Bootstrapper distracts himself from his severe sin by looking at his half-hearted, sin-tainted, feeble efforts at righting it.
 
5. The Humble Looking
 
This seems a bit like an oxymoron. Because this type of response to sinning doesn’t seem prideful at all. In fact, they sound humble. They say things like, “I am a miserable sinner.” “I did an awful job.” “I am a horrible, no good, very bad person – God!”

It sounds humble.
But then…
 
God, I have so much sin, that it’s too much for you to handle on your own. I’ll try to help.
God, I’ve done so much wrong. I don’t think your blood can cover it all.
God, I really messed up. I can’t ask you to help. I don’t belong in church. That wouldn’t be right.
 
There’s false sorrow.
There’s false humility.
And there’s this strange clinging to a tiny ounce of sinful dignity, because “I’ll feel better about myself if I can help God out with getting rid of my sins.”
 
Here’s the truth:
All five of these responses to sin are prideful.
All five of these responses to sin set oneself up against God.

The Bar-lower-er says, “God, your bar wasn’t good enough. I’ll make my own.”
The Fixer says, “God, you don’t know the whole story. You’re wrong for rebuking me.”
The Accountant says, “God, if you don’t accept all the good I do for you, you’re the one who isn’t any good.”
The Bootstrapper says, “God, don’t patronize me. I don’t need your help. Even if you tell me I do need your help.”
The Humble Looking says, “God, you can’t do this on your own. You need my help.”

All five of these responses to falling at sin will leave you…imagining that you’re up and on your feet again.
 
When in reality…
You’re still lying on the ground.
You’re still beaten.
You. Aren’t. Getting. Up.
 
God opposes the proud…
But…
God gives grace to the humble. (v.6)
 
III. Blessings of Humility

Our Old Testament lesson was from the book of Judges. Have you ever read the book of Judges? It fits in really well with today’s lesson, because it is filled with a very repetitive theme:
Repeated, repetitive failures to temptation.
 
It’s a cycle.

Israel falls to temptation.
God warns them to stop.
Israel has too much pride to listen.
God warns them again.
Israel still doesn’t listen and…
God is against them.
God sends a foreign nation to overtake them.
Israel is overrun by the Assyrians, the Moabites, the Philistines.

The once proud people of Israel are defeated – lying flat on their backs.
 
But then…
As they are on their backs…
They realize that they cannot get themselves out of the predicament.

Their story changes.
They ask God for mercy.
And…
 
WHAM!
 
God acts.
He sends a conqueror.
He sends a hero.
He fights for his people and gives them the victory!
 
Friends, there is blessing in humility. Look at what James says:
 
1. The Devil Flees
 
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  (v.7)
 
Which seems strange. Because you would expect your best chance at beating the devil to involve puffing your chest out, getting really big, really prideful. Like scaring off a grizzly bear. You act as impressive as possible so as to scare him off.
But…
Newsflash:
The devil is not scared of you.
Not one bit.

On the other hand, when you are humble…
When you admit that you can’t do it alone…
When you call out for help…

The devil…?
He’s absolutely terrified!
 
2. God Comes Near
 
This is the reason the devil is terrified. Look at what James writes, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”  (v.8)
Because God is a God of mercy.
He is a God of compassion.
He is a God who helps those who need help.

Also?
 
He erupts volcanos.
He flicks his wrists to send hurricane like winds.
He pours out rushing flood waters.
He is the undisputed, undefeated, champion against temptation – and there is no love lost between him and the devil.

God shows up and the devil runs.
Nope…
Sprints.
Nope…
He does one of those things that the Roadrunner used to do in Looney Tunes and leaves a cloud of dust behind.
 
3. Purification
 
James writes, “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (v.8b)

Because the reality is that falling to temptation can feel awfully icky.
It can feel like the end of a long day working outside.

There’s dried sweat on your forehead.
Dirt under your finger nails.
And this…stench that just seems to be deeply entrenched in your skin.
But Jesus?

He washes us cleans.
He washes away your guilt.
He washes away your shame.
He washes away the stink and the stench.

And replaces it with the beautiful perfume of the phrase: “Forgiven.”

4. Uplifting to the Highest Heights
 
James writes, “Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (v. 9-10)

The truth is the humbling yourself means that you will be lowering yourself.
There’s a moment when you say, “I am a sinner.”
A moment when you say, “I failed, again.”
A moment when you say, “I can’t do this on my own.”

During that time, you can feel really low.

But…then?

God forgives you.
God uplifts you.
God lifts you up beyond where you were before – and places you up beside Him – in His kingdom!
Do you get it? If you fall and a friend picks you up, your feet are back on solid ground.
But if you fall and God picks you up…your feet are on heavenly ground.

IV.  What Now?

The one WHAT NOW? It’s pretty simple:
Be Humble.

When you fail against temptation…

Humbly confess.
Humbly seek God’s help.
Humbly hear his promise of forgiveness.

No matter how many times you’ve fallen to temptation.

Like the son in the story that Jesus told.

Remember what he did?
He came up to his dad – long before his dad was dead – and said, “Give me my inheritance! I’ve had enough of living under your roof. I’m sick and tired of doing what you tell me to do. I’m sick of being here. There’s a whole world full of life out there. Give my money. Give my money so I can leave and never have to look at your ugly face again.”

And his dad was sad.
But he gave him the inheritance.
A couple hundred thousand dollars.

And the son takes the money.
He heads to the city.
He goes downtown.
He rents a high-rise $4,000 a month apartment.
Every night he goes to the finest steak restaurants.
He drinks top notch scotch after drinking top shelf vodka after drinking a $25 dollar shot of whiskey.
And he buys for his friends.
And he buys illegal drugs for him and his friends.
And he buys women for him and his friends.
And he wakes up around 2 pm the next day.
And does it all over again.

Until…

The money’s out.
No one will hire him.
He gets evicted.
His “friends” ignore his text messages.
He pretends to have enough cash for an Uber out of the city – only to pretend like he left his wallet in the other pants when he gets to a local pig farm that’s hiring.

And he gets a job.
Feeding the pigs.

He gives them slimy old applesauce.
He gives them moldy old cheese.
He gives them this greenish, brownish muck that he’s not sure – isn’t snot.

But…

It looks so good.
He’s so hungry.
He’s so…pathetic.

And he says to himself, “I should never have done it. I should never have left my dad. I had it good in my dad’s house. I was fed. I was clothed. I was…home.”

I sinned.
I don’t deserve to be his son.
But…maybe he’ll let me clean the outhouse. And gives me a few pieces of bread for supper.

And so…
He returns.
He makes his way to his dad’s house.

And…
When he reaches the dirt road, the long dirt road that leads to his Father’s house…
He takes a deep breath…before he walks up.

But before he can get far, way off in the distance…his dad. He sees him! And he takes off down the dirt road.

And the son thinks, “Here he comes. He’s going to give it to me. He’s going to scream at me. He’s going to tell me how awful and terrible I messed up and that I should buzz off and never be around again.”

And as his dad approaches.
He lifts up his hand.
And his son braces himself to be smacked on the cheek.

But.
His hand doesn’t hit his face.
Instead?
It embraces him.

But the son shrugs him off! “Seriously, Dad! I sinned. I did wrong. I don’t deserve to be your son! Let me work my way back. Let me do my own thing. Let me be a worker on the lowest run in your farm.”

But the dad…isn’t listening.
“Hey Walter! My son’s back!! Run; tell the cooks to get the steaks from the freezer. Go grab some of my finest wines. And text everyone that I know. There’s a party at my house tonight.”

Because…This son of mine is lost; but NOW? is found.

Friends, this is God’s reaction to you.
When you fail against temptation, humbly return.
And you’ll be welcomed home.

Amen.

It was a run of the mill pastoring day.

I woke up.
Got dressed.
Drank some coffee and kissed my wife.

I got to church.
Greeted parents.
Drank some coffee.
Talked to more parents.
And had a good conversation about Jesus.

About 3 hours into the day, I went into the 4-year-old room.
I saw some friends playing with the Duplo’s and thought I would join them in constructing a gigantic Duplo station wagon.

As I started putting them together, I turned to the friend next to me and said, “What do you think of my car?”
The friend scrunched his face up.

I said, “You don’t like it? I thought it was pretty cool.”
Again – he turned his face away from me.

I said, “I’m sorry you don’t like it. What should I change?”
And my friend said, “It’s not your car….”

“It’s your stinky breath.”

Over the few weeks we have been in our sermon series called FRESH and talking about how to FRESHEN up our own lives. We discussed our FRESH identity, our FRESH start, our personalized FRESHNESS in baptism, we talked about our FRESH purpose and our FRESHNESS of speech.

But…how do you bring FRESHNESS to those who aren’t you?
How do you tell someone else about their need for FRESHNESS?
How do you tell someone that their spiritual life – is kinda like coffee breath – it stinks?

Today’s lesson is called a Breath of Fresh Air in the Heart of North Raleigh. Our goal is to consider how we can bring the FRESHNESS that Jesus provides to our family, friends and community. Before we do that, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth, your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see, our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. God’s Biggest Air Freshener
 
The section of God’s Word that we’ll study this morning comes from 2 Corinthians 2. It’s a letter written by a pastor named Paul to a church in Corinth. Important to note – the Corinthian community was a community that wreaked of ungodliness.
 
Because it was a market city that was all about the major dollar, it had issues with greed, fraud, and theft.
Because it was a bustling with many kinds of people it also had issues with hatred, racism, and bigotry.
Because it was influenced by fertility idols, it also had issues with sexual immorality, lust, and rape.
Because it was far apart from the true God, it had issues with unbelief, guilt, and shame.

Sound like any countries you know? 
Sound like any communities? 

And so, Paul writes to the believers in Corinth and explains to them how God wants them to FRESHen up the place. He starts by explaining how he has been freshening up places in his travels: 
Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind,because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. (v.12-13)
 
This is an interesting start to this section. Paul wanted to go to a place called Troas. He says, “God opened a door” for him. Whether that means that someone offered him a ride on his carriage or let him borrow a horse, I don’t know.  But Paul goes. He travels hundreds of miles to get to Troas because he really hoped to find Titus, a ministry partner of his, at work in Troas. But when he got to Troas – Titus wasn’t around. He had gone the entire trip just to find the guy and he wasn’t there.

Some might call that trip worthless.
Not Paul.

Look at what he writes:
But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. (v.14)
 
Triumphal Procession. In the early 1st century, that was pretty common. As countries battled for control of other countries, they would celebrate a war victory with a parade! They’d parade the troops. They’d parade the prized stallions. They’d have trumpeters trumpeting the trumpets, drummers drumming the drums and trombonists tromboning the trombones.

But the big part of the parade was the spoils:
Soldiers would wheel in carts filled with gold – spoils of war.
Soldiers would march with foreign stallions – spoils of war.
Solders would march with captivities, tied together, marching in front of them – spoils of war.

Jesus says that we are his victory spoils.

He defeated sin.
He defeated guilt.
He defeated shame.
He defeated Satan himself as he bore our sins on that cross.
 
And now – we are HIS victory spoils
And He is parading us to showcase HIS Victory.

To put it another way – because we are a part of Christ’s victory parade – we are also the aroma of Christ.  

Another common sight (or rather smell) among 1st century victory parades would be incense burners! As people cheered and music played, incense bearers would twirl incense carrying sticks and let the smell of victory permeate the air. In addition, women would dance and throw flower petals into the air in order to welcome their conquering heroes. Again – the sweet aroma of victory would linger.

A modern version of this might not be as pleasant. It’d probably have the smell of gasoline from all the cars that are carrying the local Parks and Rec float, the smell of little pieces of unwrapped candy that float dwellers would throw towards the crowd – and maybe the smell of the horses as they walk around.

Still – regardless – the smells are associated with a parade. They are associated with a celebration!

Believers are the aroma of Christ.
An aroma of forgiveness, with a hint of joy, and the lasting airs of grace.
God wants us to share that forgiveness, that joy, and that grace with others!
 
That was Paul’s excitement when he talked about his travels. Even though the goal was to go see Titus…and he didn’t get to see Titus, but that didn’t mean his trip was worthless.
Because everywhere he went, he was paraded as Christ’s victory spoils.

As he walked on the path to Troas, he stopped to provide for the needs of an old beggar with a few coins – while telling him about how Jesus took care of his own need of forgiveness. 
As he stopped by a local watering hole and waited behind a woman with 4 screaming children, he got their attention and told stories about Jesus’ miraculous power over death – even his own!
When he made it to Troas and grabbed a bite to eat at the local restaurant, he talked with the waiter about how Jesus is the bread of life and how he had filled him spiritually.
When he got to Troas and saw that Titus wasn’t there, he didn’t just turn and leave – he took the opportunity to parade himself as victory spoils for Christ – to tell about how Jesus had mercifully saved him…
 
…and could save others too.

You are also the aroma of Christ.
Let that aroma permeate the air wherever you go.
 
Share the message of Jesus.
Share forgiveness.
Share the joy of salvation!
 
II. One Man’s Potpourri
 
But…I need you to be aware of one thing as you go to share this message.
Not everyone is going to like it.
 
It’s like potpourri. Do you know what potpourri is? (It’s a pot filled with pourri…I think). Really, it’s a bag filled with supposedly good smelling things. Usually it’s things like pine twigs, pieces of bark infused with essential oils and cinnamon sticks. You put it in a bowl and it gives a sweet smell to the house.

Or at least…it gives off a smell.

I remember one time someone was so excited to have me smell their potpourri. I’m pretty sure that potpourri must have been called: “Mowing the Lawn while Sweating.” It wasn’t pleasant.
I didn’t love it.
But that person did.

What’s pleasant to some people’s nostrils is repugnant to others.

It’s the same with the aroma of Christ. Look at what Paul writes:  We are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. (v.15-16)

Maybe you’ve noticed that.
Maybe you’ve noticed that sometimes the person you share a Bible passage with on Facebook puts a big THUMBS UP by it and others put the ANGRY face.
Maybe you’ve noticed that some people appreciate your holiday card with a religious passage; others tell you to stop or they’ll report you to HR.
Maybe you’ve noticed that some people are thankful when you share the Gospel with them; others tell you to “keep that religious mumbo jumbo to yourself.”

Here’s the reality:
The message of Jesus smells…great to BELIEVERS, but awful to REJECTERS. 
 
For instance, think about the message of John 3:16.
“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
 
To the rejecter, it’s the smell of death:
 
“I’m a sinner? You’re telling me that I need a Savior? You’re telling me that I’m not good enough? You’re telling me that I need God’s help? You’re telling me that without Jesus I won’t be saved!?!”
Smells funny.
Smells like a rat.
Get that garbage away from me.

But to the believer, it’s a smell of life:

“I have a Savior? His name is Jesus/ He died for all of my sins? He has completed forgiven me, completely rid me of guilt and absolutely guaranteed that I will have life?!?
That’s beautiful.
I want to soak it in.  
Tell me more…
 
The message of Jesus smells great to WHO BELIEVE, but awful to WHO REJECT. 

Expect different reactions.

III. Another Reason to Be a Good Smell…

But…that doesn’t mean you should stop sharing Jesus.
When someone is mean about it…
When someone doesn’t listen…
When someone makes you feel uncomfortable just because you were trying to invite them to church…

That doesn’t mean you should stop being the aroma of Christ.

Our Old Testament lesson today was a unique lesson. Often, we read poetry or narratives. It isn’t often that we read a recipe for ceremonial incense:

Gum resin.
Onycha
Galbanum.
Pure frankincense – all in equal amounts.
Salt it.
Purify it.
Bless it.

Then grind it up into a powder and place it in the altar area.
Use it to burn incense to the Lord.

But did you know this recipe comes with a warning?
Take a look:
Whoever makes incense like it to enjoy its fragrance must be cut off from their people. (Leviticus 30:38)
 
Do you get it?
This incense was for God.
This aroma was for God.

And it’s the same with you and me.
The aroma of Christ that permeates from our lives it isn’t for OUR SAKE, but for GOD’s!

We don’t share the message of Jesus in order to feel good about ourselves.
We don’t stop sharing it when people reject it.
We don’t do the things we do at Gethsemane to feel good about ourselves, to glorify our own desires, to impress others with what we do at church or in anyway to give glory to us!

We share Jesus for God’s sake.
And that’s important.
Because when we start sharing Jesus for our own glory, it can easily become some strange version of work righteousness. It can become a thing you do IN ORDER To make God like you.
It can become something that you do in order to earn God’s approval.
In order to cover up the stench of your sins.
And I get it. The stench of our sins is great.
There are sins from years ago that still have a stench.
There are day to day sins that make the day stink.
There can be relationship sins that just make the whole day smell awful.

And try as we might, we can’t cover it up!

But…Jesus did.

And He didn’t use a bottle of perfume.
He didn’t burn a stick of incense.
He didn’t cover us in Glade Plugins.

He sacrificed himself to cover up the stench of our sins.
And I’ll tell you what – his blood was so powerful – that God doesn’t even smell a hint of your sins anymore.

Like an incredible, divine, righteous incense, God doesn’t smell even a hint of your sins.
Only the pleasing aroma of Christ’s sacrifice!

IV. What Now?

And now? He wants to cover up your neighbor’s sins by bring the message of his forgiveness to them through you.

1) Be Fragrant…EVERYWHERE!
 
Paul’s language says, “spread the aroma of the knowledge of Jesus…EVERYWHERE.” (v.14)
That means we aren’t just being fragrant here in worship.
It’s not a one hour a week aroma that happens in this particular building.

Nope.

Be fragrant with Jesus’ love EVERYWHERE.

At home.
At work.
At school.
At play.
At the Valentine’s Dinner.
At the President’s Day Luncheon.
At Starbucks.
At McDonald's.
At Sola Coffee café!

2) Be Fragrant…ALWAYS!

God doesn’t want you to be one of those timed air fresheners – that goes off once a week and freshens things for a few minutes, but then quickly fades into general bathroom funkiness.
Nope.
God wants you to be a long-lasting air fresheners. One of the ones that is always letting off a beautiful aroma.

Always changing the air around them.
Always connecting others to Christ.
 
Let me tell you – you have opportunity to do so later today.
You’ll have interactions.
Make use of those interactions.
Share the love of Jesus.

3) Combine Odors

Have you ever been to a football locker before? It’s pretty stinky. Practice gear. Practice socks. Practice pads. Washed once a week. Steeped in sweat, grass stains, blood, and general YUCK!
If you want to make a football locker room smell good, you need more than just one of those little Christmas Tree air fresheners.

You’ll need hundreds.

To make our world smell better – it’s gonna take more than just you.
It’s going to take all of us.

To make this community of North Raleigh fragrant with the message of Jesus…
It’s going to take all of us.

This is why that kind of language is used in Paul’s letter. He says: We…are the pleasing aroma. We...are an aroma that brings life…God uses US to spread the aroma.
 
This is a together thing.
This is a YOU thing.
This is a ME thing.
This is an ALL OF US TOGETHER thing.

That means you are a part of something BIG.
You are a part of a new wave in the Raleigh community.
We have something amazing to offer.
We have something incredible to offer.

We’ve said it like this Plant the Message of Jesus in the Hearts of North Raleigh.
A brief, Biblical paraphrase of that is to Bring a Breath of Fresh Air to the Fragrance of North Raleigh!
 
And it’s a fresh air – that saves eternal lives. Amen.

What’s on your NEED-TO-DO List?

A NEED-TO-DO list are things that you need to get done in 2018. Maybe it’s things you’ve always wanted to do; things that fit into your goals; things that the internet tells you that you need to do.

What are they?
 
Do you need to lose weight?
Do you need to join a gym?
Do you need to join a gym and use that gym?

Do you need to get a degree?
Make more money?
Find the right guy or gal?

Maybe your NEED-TO-DO List is kid focused.

Need to get them learning their ABCs.
Need to get them learning their 123s.
Need to get them memorizing the order of Vice Presidents of the U.S.  – because, “How can they get a job if they don’t have that memorized?”

Need to get them in karate.
Need to get them in ballet.
Need to get them playing basketball, knitting and making sorbet.
 
Question: How many of you have “get baptized” on your NEED-TO-DO List?
Or “get your kid baptized?”
Or, if you’ve been baptized, “reflect on your baptism daily?”

No.

Today is a day all about Baptism. Our goal is to see that Baptism NEEDS to be a priority.  We’re going to examine Scripture and see why it’s so important.  Before we do so, let’s say a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see. Open our ears to hear what you want us to hear and open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. Why is Baptism so Important? 

There are a lot of places in the Bible that discuss the importance of Baptism. We are going to dig deeply into one section in 1 Peter 3. A bit of background: 1 Peter is the first letter written by (wait for it) Peter. Hence the name: 1st Peter. He writes the letter to Christians spread throughout the 1st century world and (since his words have been saved for us in 2018) he writes his letter to us.

In chapter 3 Peter directs Christians to do good even when suffering for it. Because (1) it’s better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil (2) suffering for doing good will always bring good.
 
Example?  Jesus. Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. (v.18-19) He suffered. He suffered on the cross. He did that because he wanted to bring you to God. That’s exactly what Jesus is accomplished! He rose and brought you and I back to peace with God.

But…

…Before Jesus came back to life and brought this good news to us, he made another stop:
 
It’s thousands of years before Jesus.
 
The earth is filled with violence. Hundreds of thousands (if not million) of people – all filled with violence.
They beat each other up for money. They attack one another for food. They pillage; they rape; and they want absolutely nothing to do with good and even less to do with God.

Enter Noah.
He’s different.

Noah isn’t violent.
Noah fears God.
Noah loves God.
Noah worships God.

Noah and his family of 8 make up the entire church at this time. They are the only God worshippers in whole world. Talk about a minority -- Their belief system encompasses less than .000001% of the world’s population.

But Noah isn’t alone.

“Noah!?!”
Noah’s heart skips a beat. Have they come to kill him?

“Noah!?!”
Noah cleans out his ears. “Who was that?” It sounds like it is coming from above.

Noah, this is God.
I have a task for you.
Build an ark – it’s like an ancient wooden ocean-liner in the shape of a rectangle.
Build the ark.
Built it by yourself.
Build it here in the desert.


In 40 years, I will send a flood that covers the whole earth and destroys this sinful, violent, godless generation.

Noah gets up from the ground.  
Takes a deep breath.
And gets to work.

He chops trees.
He saws wood.
He hammers nails.

He and his family get to work on the construction of the ocean-liner like contraption in the middle of the desert.
But it isn’t without some suffering:

You idiot! What are you doing wasting your time on this project?
Hey weatherman, what’s the chance of rain today? Is there No-ah chance?
Hey Noah! When you’re done, come talk with me. I could use a 450 boat to cruise around the sand!


But Noah keeps working.
He works through the shoulder pains from hammering the nautical trusses.
He works through the pain in his thumb from the splinter he got putting the second-floor storage together.
He works through the tweaked back muscle from trying to pull the hippopotamus into the proper room.

He works.
He suffers.
He finishes.

Then, things change.

In fact, a group heads their way toward Noah for their daily routine of ridiculing that believing idiot:
“Hey Noah! You got a minute? I was about to cross the desert, but I figure I’d better be prepared in case it floods. You got time to start on an ark for me?”
 
And in the middle of the joke:
A drop of water.


“Wait? What was that on my face? Fred, is that you?  Stop spitting when you laugh!?”
“What are you talking about? I wasn’t spitting. That didn’t come from me – in fact, I just felt it myself.”
“If you didn’t get me wet then…oh…no.”

And the rains came down.
And the rains turned into a torrential downpour.
And geysers from within the earth sprang up.
And the people start screaming.
And water starts to pile up.
And water begins to rush.
And some people are washed away.
And others tried to climb trees.
And some slip.

And finally, the last one outside looks up towards heaven. Curses God and God curses him.

Death.
Destruction.
Drowning.  
 
Meanwhile, Noah stood near the 4th story window of his ark.
Drinking some coffee.
Staying dry.
Safe.
What’s interesting is that Peter references this account because these events are not the end of the story for those people.  Because years later, After being made alive, Jesus went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.  (v.19)

Do you see it?
These people aren’t drowning anymore.
Nope.
Now they’re burning.
In hell.

And Jesus says to them,

“You all were wrong.
You should have listened.
To my warnings.
To my warnings through Noah.
To 40 years of my warnings through that the gigantic wooden structure Noah built in the middle of the desert.
 
But…look around.
Do you see Noah here?
No?
That’s because I saved him.
I saved him through water.”
 
In it, only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water. (v.20)

Saved from sin.
Saved from unbelief.
Saved from falling into the same traps that the other 99.9999% of the population was in.
 
And here’s where it gets good – and very relevant, this water (the water at the time of the ark) symbolizes baptism which now saves you. (v.21)
 
Do you see it?
Baptism is related to the flood in that it’s water.
But it’s related to the ark in that it saves.

It saves from sin.
It saves from death.
It saves from the same eternal destruction that the violent people from Noah’s time underwent and are undergoing.

Why get baptized? Same reason Noah built the ark, because in it, God saves.
And why baptize your kids? Same reason Noah told his kids about the ark, in it God saves.  
 
II. How Does Baptism Save?
 
And maybe you’re thinking; Hold it! Pastor, aren’t we saved by Jesus? Isn’t it by faith on the cross? Isn’t it faith alone that saves?

Absolutely.
Faith in Jesus saves.
But…so…does Baptism.
 
Here’s why both of those are true. Look at verse 21 Baptism now saves you, not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let’s break it apart:
 
 
1. Not Some Outward Act

This truth might seem obvious. Baptism doesn’t save by removing dirt from the body. It isn’t like some poison rubbed on us and we need to wash it off quickly lest we have to call the poison control center. It isn’t like the chemistry classroom when you accidentally spill some chemicals on yourself and have use that special chem lab shower to wash it off immediately.

Baptism’s point isn’t just a physically cleaning. That’s what showers and baths are for. It’s not like we need to scrub behind our ears get all of the sin off. Nor is baptism just an outward act. It’s not just a nice ceremony where you approach the font, throw some water on a kid, and say a nice prayer for his life – never to return him to church again.

And it isn’t some magic holy water that’s so special it removes 40% more sin than regular forgiveness. That makes it worth about 210 lies, 170 lusts, and 17 brother pinches.

Baptism is not some outward act.
It’s not something we do to earn God’s love.
It’s a gift.
 
 
2. Pledge of a Good Conscience  

How do we know that? Look at the next part of the verse. “Baptism saves…the pledge of a good conscience towards God.”

QUESTION: In Baptism, how does one get a good conscience?

Just really mean it when you get baptized?
Like…really, really mean it?
Does baptism get super charged the more perfect faith that you, sinful, imperfect, individual can muster?

No.
 
Because if that’s how you view baptism, think about this:

What happens when you don’t feel that good about your faith anymore?
What happens when you start to doubt?
What happens when your friend tells you about his baptism and “Man, his sounded way better than mine.”

Does your baptism still count?
Did it ever count?
Do you need a do over?

The pledge of a good conscience towards God cannot come from ourselves.
The pledge of a good conscience towards God comes from God.

It comes from his promise of forgiveness.
It comes from his promise of sins washed away.
it comes from his promise that you are his child.
 
3. Powered by Jesus 

This is important. Because God doesn’t need a Do Over.  God always keeps his pledges. In fact, look at the last part. Baptism saves…by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  
 
While on earth, Jesus made a different kind of pledge.  He swore to die and come back to life. He said,

 “Go ahead. Kill me. Nail me to a cross. Leave me to die. Watch me breath my very last. Laugh all you want as you see me die.

But…
 
…3 days later…
…I will return…
…I will live.”

If Jesus’ promise remained true past death, don’t you think his promise to you will remain true in this life?
If you’ve been baptized, he made a promise to you. You are his.
If you haven’t been baptized, he is waiting to make that promise to you.
 
One more thing about this passage. This is where it all gets connected. Jesus and faith and baptism.

1st - -Jesus saves.
2nd –Faith saves - - when that faith is in Jesus.
3rd – Baptism saves because it works faith in that Jesus.
 
It works faith because it is a pledge from God of his love.
 
It’s like holiday cards. Did you get any? Maybe you got a card from mom and dad, from your brother and your sister, from your coworker, from your good friends, from cousin Bob, and from your dental hygienist team.

But you didn’t send one to Aunt Sally. Because you weren’t sure Aunt Sally still liked you. She hasn’t sent one in years.
Then, you get one. And it’s pretty nice. And she signs it, “Love, Aunt Sally.” And that card gives you faith – she still cares about me.

Baptism is a pledge from God that he loves about you.
And it gives you faith that God loves you.
And it gives you faith that God will pledge to love you eternally.
 
This is why Jesus said this, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”

Because Baptism is an act of faith, but it also works faith.
Faith in Jesus saves.
So…Baptism saves.
 
III. What Now?

1. Be Baptized

I’m sorry if this is an obvious first WHAT NOW? Point but please. God is holding out his promises to you. He promises to connect you to Jesus. He promises to make you a part of his kingdom. He promises to wash you from sins and make you a part of his family.

What are you waiting for?
Your parents to get here?
Your friends to get on board?
To feel readier?

These things are nice, but they don’t increase God’s promise power.
They don’t supercharge baptism.

Baptism is powered by God’s promise.
Don’t put it off.
The only one who wants you to put it off, is the devil. Because he can increase doubt when God’s personal promise has not been given.

Don’t give him that foothold.
Be baptized.

2. Baptize Your Kids

Because your kids tend to have your genetics. They have your eyes. They have your brown hair. They have your chin. They may even have your propensity for baldness.
Unfortunately, they also have you sin. John 3 says, “Flesh gives birth to flesh,” meaning, “Sinful humans give birth to sinful humans.”

Kids need the promise of Jesus in baptism, too. 

And this isn’t like a ride at an amusement park. God doesn’t say, “You must be this old to ride this ride.” If you have ever heard of an “age of accountability,” that’s essentially a human practice. God’s rule isn’t: “Wait until you are 16 until you can get baptized,” No. God’s rule is: “Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Mt. 28:19)
 
All nations? That includes kids.
Get them baptized.

3. Celebrate Your Baptism 

Because each year we all celebrate our birthdays. Even if you don’t like to have a party – generally people celebrate with you. They give you high fives. They give you cake. They give you a present. They give you messages on your Facebook wall.

It’s nice to celebrate the year we were born into this life.
But what is that compared to the year we were born into eternal life?
 
Celebrate your baptism.

Because on that day, God called you child.
On that day, God called you forgiven.
On that day, God called you – His. Amen.  

Joshua bristled at the bitter boldness of his morning coffee.

It was stronger than normal, since he was a bit drowsy. It had been a long couple of days. They had marched around Jericho for a whole week, seen the walls topple down, entered into the city and completely destroyed it. They toppled every wall, killed every citizen and burned to the ground every building.

Then, they partied.

But today…
Today, it was back to work.  
Today they were attacking the next city in Canaan.  

Ai was a much smaller city. Located in the countryside to the west of Jericho, it lacked the fortification of Jericho. In fact, there’s not even a reference to any kind of wall. And when spies came back to report on it, they recommended that Joshua give most of the men rest. They would only need 2 or 3 thousand soldiers to easily take the city.

If taking Jericho was a miracle…
Taking Ai was expected.
 
So, Joshua had the trumpeters gather the small group that he would send against Ai. His speech was simple: “We took the great city of Jericho – this won’t be that hard. Let’s go in, get the job done, and get back to celebration.”
 
So, the army marched to Ai.
They marched boldly.
They marched confidently.
They marched directly into a route.

About three thousand men went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, who killed about thirty-six of them. (7:4-5)

What happened?
How can they go from conquering Jericho – a huge city with a gigantic double wall – to getting routed by the agricultural community of Ai?

Before we take a look at the reason and learn a few very important lessons about sin, let us pray: Strengthen us this morning by the truth, O God. Your word is truth. Open our eyes to see what YOU want us to see. Open our ears to hear what YOU want us to hear. Open our hearts to believe what YOU would have us believe. Amen.


I. The Route of Ai
 
Take a look at verse 7. We’re going to find out what happened at the same time that Joshua found out what happened. Because -- take a look at Joshua’s words – he is absolutely dumbfounded as to why Israel was unsuccessful:

Joshua tore his clothes because he was so upset.
He fell face down on the ground.
He stayed there weeping.

Then, he spoke: “Alas Sovereign LORD, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! Pardon your servant…what can I say?"  (7:7-8)
 
Why did you do this if you just wanted us to lose?
Why the escape from Egypt?
Why the splitting of the Jordan?
Why make the walls of Jericho tumble?
Why all the promises?  
Why did you do this to us?
 
And in response,

God let’s Joshua finish.
Then, He clears his throat:

The LORD said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant.” …They have taken some of the devoted things.” (7:10-11)

What were the devoted things? In chapter six, God mentions this to Joshua again and again. Unlike some of the other cities coming up – which God would allow them to reoccupy and use what’s there – Jericho was God’s. As such, it was to be completely destroyed. All the people. All the animals. All the buildings…and the few things not destroyed: Gold and Silver were to be saved for use in religious ceremonies.

God said, “Keep away from the devoted things... Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction.” (6:18)
 
So, what does this mean when God tells Joshua that Israel had taken devoted things?
It means the loss at Ai wasn’t God’s fault.
It was Israel’s.
 

TRUTH #1 -- You can’t blame the results of sin on God.

I bring this up because humans do this all of the time.

My wife and I are feeling disconnected. You must not be blessing our marriage God. And no, I don’t think it has anything to do with the porn that I look at on my phone.
Work is hard. No one likes me. That’s on you God! Not on the fact that I’m a total jerk.
My boyfriend left me! And I feel terrible. God why do I have such emotional pain? It certainly has nothing to do with the fact that I was living together with him and sleeping together with him – long before we were married!
 
The reality is that the results of sin are not God’s fault.
The results of sin are on us.
Just like the results of sin – the loss at Ai – was on Israel.

 
II. Achan’s Story
 
And Joshua should have known that.
God wouldn’t have broken his promise. If they lost at Ai, the only option was that Israel had sinned! It’s why God tells Joshua to “Stand up!” He needs to quit moping and start acting.

And God has a plan. He tells Joshua to bring all of Israel out together -- a mass meeting. Then, Joshua would cast lots. He’d assign a number to each tribe and then roll a pair of dice. The number that was rolled would represent the tribe that was at fault – and so on it would go down from tribe to clan to family to man. 

Enter Achan.
His heart skipped a beat.

 No, no, no. They know someone took the sacred things? I was careful. I made sure no one was looking. I…I… I’m sure this won’t work. There’s millions of Israelites. That game of chance will not reveal me. Better to stay hidden.
 
And the first lot was cast.

Judah!
Ok…That’s coincidence. There’s a 1 in 12 chance. It’s unlucky, but Judah is the biggest of the tribes. There’s still hundreds of thousands of others. I’ll be fine. Just stay calm. Stop sweating. Breathe deeply.


Zerahite!
What!? Don’t panic. Another lucky guess. That’s all. There’s still hundreds of other people. There’s still hundreds of other chances. No one knows what you did. No one…
 
Zimri!
Except maybe God. O I hope he takes my brothers. Maybe I could frame him. Or my cousin? He’s been in trouble before. Please don’t let that lot fall to me. Please don’t let that lot fall to me. Please don’t let them find out it’s me!

Achan!
 
And Achan fell to the ground.
God had been behind that investigation.
God had revealed the culprit.

And Joshua approaches, “Son, give glory to God and tell me what you’ve done.”

And Achan stops hiding.
He stops pretending.
He’s been caught.

I have sinned.
 
 
TRUTH #2 -- You can’t hide sin from God.

To be fair – you can hide sin from your pastor.
You can hide it from the elders.
You can hide it from the other people at church.
 
But not God.

You can hide it from your family.
You can hide it from your parents.
You can hide it from your spouse.

But not from God.



In fact, Scripture says this, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13)
 
And laying it bare means ‘it’s uncovered.’ It’s like if you have a bunch of mold under your sink, but you cover it up with all kinds of bottles and cleaner and always keep the door shut. That way no one knows about it.

But God is like the Home Inspector who comes in, walks right over to the kitchen sink, throws open the doors, takes out the bottles and shines a light on the mold. God has a way of making sin known.

Whether it’s through the rolling of dice in Achan’s fault or whether it’s through internet search history, phone records, stories that don’t match up, funny receipts on the credit card, or just plain that “weird feeling about him,” God will make sin known. Or whether it’s through the divine fiery judgment of Judgement Day, God will make hidden sin known.



III. God’s Mercy
 
So, don’t hide your sin; but confess it.


Because in Achan’s case, it was God who revealed the sin and God who held Achan accountable.

Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan, the silver, the robe, the gold bar…and all that he had. Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them.  (7:24-26)
 
Which might seem harsh…but remember:

(1) Wages of sin is death.
(2) He had repeated opportunities to confess.
(3) His sin led to the death of 36 people! 36 involuntary manslaughters.

But I think there’s one more thing that’s important.
One more thing that’s missing.

There’s no call for mercy.
No call for God’s love.

That’s striking. Had Achan confessed rather than been caught, does the situation change? Maybe.

It certainly does for you.  That’s what God tells us in 1 John: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us all of our sins.”
 (1 John 1:9)  

Why trust this? Because:  TRUTH #3: God is the ultimate eradicator

In fact, may that be motivation for your confession. Because the reality is that God already knows all of your sins. He already knows what you’ve done. He knows and, in fact, he knew. He knew and he went to the cross for you.  “He himself bore our sins” (1 Peter 2:24) in his body on the cross.

Jesus died for every last one of your sins.
He took your sin in his body on the tree.
He brought them to the cross for eradication.
 
When you confess, all your trust is in his eradication abilities. It’s like signing the dotted line for the Terminix man. When you do that, you trust that he’ll be able to poison, burn, trap, and eradicate every single pest that you have in your house.

Trust in Jesus to do the same.
He'll go under the floor boards, look in the cupboards of your heart and eradicate the sins that even you didn’t know were there!

Jesus eradicated every one of your sins.
Jesus will eradicate their eternal consequences.
Confess and trust in his mercy.


III. What Now? 
 
(1) Eradicate Temptation.  


Because God didn’t eradicate the consequences of your sin, just to leave you in sin. God wants you to eradicate sin from your lives.  That’s what Israel does. They eradicate Achan and the stolen devoted things.
 
You do the same.
Get rid of the unrestricted access to internet porn.
Set limits on late night with boyfriend so you aren’t tempted to sin.
Throw out the alcohol.
Flush the drugs.
Stop the late nights that prevent you from church in the morning.
“Break up” with the group of ladies that wants to sit around and gossip.

Whatever the sin might be – eradicate the things that tempt you to do it.

It’d be like the exterminator telling you that the reason you have so many rats in your house is that you have been stacking your half-finished pizza boxes in your living room.

Get rid of the pizza boxes.
Get rid of temptations.
Be free from sin, guilt and shame.


(2) Watch God Work.
 
After the Israelites do all of this – God says, “Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged…Go up and attack Ai.” (8:1)
 
Which if I was an Israelite, I’d probably think, “Don’t be afraid? We just got our butts kicked. God, you didn’t help us. It was our fault, but how do we know that sin is really forgiven?”

But God promises.

So, they trust. They attack Ai. They are more than victorious.

Trust God to eradicate sin.
Trust that he already eradicated its consequences.
Trust that He will eradicate its power.
Trust that he will enable you to eradicate temptation. 

Amen. 

Today we’re continuing our series called Follow. It’s all about following Jesus in 2017. Since it’s Baptism Sunday, our goal is to focus on following Jesus to the waters of Baptism. One simple goal – to understand the host of blessings that God provides those who follow him into the baptismal waters. Before we do that, join me in a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see. Open our ears to hear what you want us to hear. Open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.

I.    The Water of Life

We’re beginning our study in John 4 – It’s a section of Scripture that is not directly related to Baptism, at least – not at first. But it continues the story from where we left Jesus last week. Remember -- he had been identified by John the Baptist near the Jordan river. He called the disciples to follow him by the Sea of Galilee. Now they want to get to Judea. In order to get to Judea, they need to travel through a place called Samaria. That’s about a 60-mile journey!

This long before the invention of the minivan. Can you imagine that? All the disciples piled in a minivan. Peter wants to drive. John is trying to change the radio station dial. Andrew is in back: “Are we there yet?”  There was no minivan. There was no car. This wasn’t even by horse. This was by foot – which was Jesus’ preferred method of travel. Still that’s a long way to walk by foot. So the group stopped near the Ancient civilization version of the rest stop: A stone well. 

Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said, to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

And the woman was startled. “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” Now that might seem a bit rude, but there were some cultural reasons for her surprise.  

(1) He was a Jew. She was a Samaritan. Scripture makes this note (Jews do not associate with Samaritans). If you think relations in America are bad today, they were worse amongst Jews and Samaritans. Jews purposefully would not spend time with Samaritans. So…this meeting and Jesus’ greeting was strange. It might be similar to a man in a turban approaching a young white woman or an older white man talking with a young black woman. It happens. It even happens in this church – praise the Lord – that’s a good thing. But it’s not the norm and people might think it a bit strange.  

(2) In addition, he was a man – she was a woman – and they were alone. People were a lot more polite back then. Women didn’t want to unwittingly cause a man married to another woman to lust after them. Men tried hard not to woo and flirt a young woman into his bed before they were married. In fact, they were so serious about this (and perhaps as a culture we could learn a thing or two from this – but that’s another topic for another day) they refrained from speaking with members of the opposite sex in lonely places. That way there wouldn’t be any temptation. 

Racism. Temptation. Both reasons for a conversation between the two of them to be strange. But I’m not sure that either of those really get to the heart of her surprise. 

(3) Look at the time. Verse 6 says that, “It’s noon.” That tells us that the majority of well-visitors had gone for the day. Usually townsfolk would get there first thing in the morning to draw water for the day's’ activities. They would each take a bucket, put it on their head, bring it to the well, chat about the latest gossip in town, fill up each bucket, and then make their way back with enough water for cooking, cleaning, and drinking the rest of that day. 

The only people who came at noon would have been travelers, like Jesus. 
And anyone who didn’t want to meet anyone else at the well like this woman.

Jesus responds to her concerns, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (v.10) 

Living water? Seriously? Sir – you don’t have anything to get the water with. It’s deep. You need something to get the water out. You can’t just lean down with your hand and scoop me some water. Unless this is some lame attempt at a pickup line. I’ll tell you what. If you can get water without a bucket and a rope – if you can get “living water” out of thin air – then you must be pretty great. You must be a magician. A great magician – even greater than Jacob – the guy who dug this well for us!

“Everyone…” Jesus interrupted her train of thought…“who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (v.13-14)

And the woman turns around with disdain on her face. Sure dude. Get me some of that water. I’d love that water. I hate having to come out here, fill up the buckets and bring them back each day – only to do it again tomorrow. If you’ve got living water, give it to me. I’d be more than happy to never have to do this stupid job again.

The woman smirked. That should have been enough sarcasm to get him to shut up. She called his bluff and now she can go back to getting the water out of the --  

“Go,” Jesus said, “Call your husband and come back.” (v.16)

Immediately, the nerves throughout her body tightened. This was the reason that she didn’t come with the other women earlier in the day. "I don’t have a husband." She spoke shortly. She spoke sharply. 

“You’re right. You don’t have a husband. The truth is that you’ve had five husbands – and the guy that you’re sleeping with right now; he isn’t your husband. What you have just said it quite true.” (v.16)

The woman froze. She let the bucket drop. How did he know? She had worked hard to avoid the embarrassment, to avoid the shame, to avoid the guilt. That’s why she came to the well when she did! How did this foreigner know? Who was he? 

Still – that was a conversation that she did not want to have. That was sins that she did not want to drag up. So, she dropped the sarcasm and changed the subject: 

Sir, you must be a prophet of some kind. Can I ask you a prophet question? We Samaritans worship on this mountain. Jewish people worship in the temple of Jerusalem. Who’s right? 

And as she finished that question – the woman breathed a sigh of relief. Crisis avoided. Her past avoided. Her sins avoided. 

Or so she thought.

“Woman, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. (The place doesn’t really matter.) You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. (As in God did miracles among them and revealed his saving plan to them.) Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth…” (v.21-23)

As in making their marriage commitments true – the first time, not just the sixth time. 
As in sleeping with their husband, not some guy she has no intention of staying with. 

Worshipers worship in truth. Because God is spirit and his worshipers worship in truth. (v.24)

At this point – the woman’s heart must have been pounding. Her eyes widening. Sweat dripping. These were her secrets. These were her sins. These were the things that she couldn’t wash off of her soul – off of her mind and off her reputation. These were the things that had mucked up her life so much that she had given up trying – simply succumbed to the sins – and tried to avoid any reminder of her wrongdoing. 

She stared at the ground. The only hope she had seemed like a fairy tale. It seemed so far off. It’s something that she remembered from her few days of Sunday School. She fought back tears. It was the only hope she had. "I know the Messiah called Christ is coming – he will explain everything to us." (v.25) 

At this, Jesus leaned in. He lifted her chin. He looked into her eyes: “I, who speak to you, am He.” (v.26)

Break from the story. Do you understand what that means? Do you understand what that means for you? 

Because we’re exactly like that woman. We’ve got problems. We’ve got aches. We’ve got pains. We try to deal using earthly things – money, home improvements, friends, career status, raising kids to be better than us! And we try to deal using sinful things – too much alcohol, self-medication, lust, fantasy, writing angry bitter things on our Facebook status. 

But here’s the thing – all that stuff is just like that water in the well. It fills you up for a bit. Then, it fades. The money stops coming in. Your friends leave you. You lose your job. Your kids move. The drunken stupor turns into a headache. The self-medication turns into the shakes. The pornography turns into a broken relationship. The fantasy turns into a broken marriage. The bitter things on Facebook leave you without any friends. 

These things are nothing more than regular water. H20. Dirty, mucky, bottom of the well wet molecules that quench thirst for a moment – but then fades away. 

Not Jesus. 
He’s the Water of Life. 
He says to you: 

I am the One who will fix it. 
I am the One who will clean your soul. 
I will clean up your past. 
I will clean up your present. 
I will clean up your future. 

I am the water of life. 

And the water of life is water that lasts! 

He quenches our thirst for righteousness with his true righteousness gifted to us through us perfect life. 
He quenches our thirst for forgiveness with his incredible sacrifice that he made on the cross. 
He quenches our thirst for peace with God with his blood, shed to make peace with God.
He quenches our thirst for immortality with his incredible resurrection from the dead. 

In short – you’re forgiven.
In Jesus, you are forgiven. 
In Jesus, you will find a constant, eternal, never changing, unending source of spiritual nourishment. 

II.    The Water that Connects us to the Water of Life

Now – I said this is a message on baptism but we are now 1800 words in and I haven’t even mentioned it! That’s because baptism gets its power from Jesus. Baptism without Jesus is just water. It’s just like taking a shower, washing your hands, spraying off your dog or running through the sprinkler on a hot day. 

Baptism is just water, unless Baptism is in Jesus. Then, Baptism is water that connects you to the water of life. 

Listen to what Jesus said about baptism in Matthew 28:19. He said, “Go and make displaces of all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” 

I’ve been working on fixing up our new house recently. Part of that is painting. Usually we’ve been using latex painting which comes off fairly easy. Usually with just water – but maybe a bit of soap. The other day I was staining a piece of wood. I dipped my paintbrush in. I stained the wood. Then, I took it to the sink. The paint didn’t come off like it should. In fact, it was just causing it to congeal. I went to look at the can of stain – it wasn’t latex, but oil paint. The kind that you can only get off when you wash it in paint thinner. 

Here’s the deal with sin. It doesn’t come off in just water. It doesn’t come off in water and soap. It doesn’t come off in paint thinner. 
Sin comes off when you wash in the Father who pours out his love for us in the promise of a Savior.
Sin comes off when you wash in the Son who shed his blood through the nail marks in his hands to win your forgiveness. 
Sin comes off when you wash in the Holy Spirit who floods our hearts with God’s promises in His Word. 
Sin comes off in baptism, not because of the water, but because of the Holy, incredible, divine, everlasting, all powerful, all complicated, all mysterious, all loving, Triune God of heaven and earth. 

That’s why baptism isn’t just water. But water that connects you to the water of life.  

This water of life gives you three blessings. Three awesome reasons to be baptized. Three awesome reasons to give thanks for your baptism: 

(1) Baptism Cleans

Acts 2:38 says this, “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.” That’s a pretty powerful stand-alone statement on its own. God gives forgiveness of sins through baptism. 

But it’s even more powerful when you understand the context. Because the guy preaching is Peter. The time he’s preaching is 53 days after Jesus’ crucifixion. And the people he is preaching to are literally people who stood in a crowd 53 days earlier and chanted “Crucify him! Crucify him!” about Jesus. 

A bit earlier in this sermon Peter tells them that Jesus came back to life. 
He tells them that this resurrection is proof that Jesus is God. 
He tells them that this means they killed God. 

And—not that we should rank sins – but let’s rank sins. Killing the author of Life himself is pretty high up there!

The people are hurt. The people are ashamed. The people are filled with guilt and cry out, “What must we do?” (Acts 2:37)

Peter’s response: “Repent – turn from sin and turn to God, turn from unbelief and turn to faith, And be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.” Even the sin of murdering Jesus. 

That’s the cleansing power of Jesus in baptism. It washes you from your sins – no matter what your sin is!

Greed? Washed.
Lust? Washed. 
Homosexuality? Washed. 
Hatred? Washed.
Violence? Washed.
Racism? Washed.
Pride? Washed. 
Yelled at my wife to the point of her leaving me and now I have been bitterly blaming her for the whole ordeal and living a quiet angry, life on my own? Washed.

Baptism connects you to the cleansing power of Jesus. 

(2) Baptism Rejuvenates

Titus 3:5 says this, “God saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal in Jesus.” 

Because the truth is that sin is tiring. Feeling guilty is tiring. You and I – even if we’re Christians – still sin each day. At the end of the day, we’re disappointed in ourselves. We’ve failed. We may even be disgusted. 

How awesome to hear: You are forgiven and be rejuvenated again. 

Just like Jesus. He died. (out of energy) But three days later, Jesus came back to life. He lambasted the grave – he walked again! 

By that same resurrection power, baptism resurrects you--- each day. It drowns the old, sinful you, but resurrection is the new you. The new man – the new woman – created to be apart from sin – created to live for Jesus. 

(3) Baptism Uniforms You

The Super Bowl is next week. And each Super Bowl there are always people who don’t get their due. There will be lots of talk about Tom Brady and Matt Ryan. Talk about their coaches. Talk about their teams, their trainers, even their general managers. But not a lot of talk about their uniform specialists. That’s not fair. Without the uniform makers, we wouldn’t know who’s on who’s team! They wouldn’t know. The whole thing would be chaos!

Uniforms are important. Check out what Galatians 3:27 says, “All of you who have been baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ.” You are no longer on the team of sin. You are no longer on the devil’s side. You are no longer on team ‘you.’ 

You are on God’s team. You are wearing the "Team Jesus" jersey.  

What a team it is! It’s a team that has people of all different background and all different experiences and all different ages on it. Black and white, Asian and Latino, elderly and teenage, male and female, Republican and Democrat, Raleighian and Durhaminian. All united in Jesus Christ. All united in his family. 

All on the same team.

CONCLUSION:

Can I show you one last interesting note on John 4? After the woman hears that Jesus is the Messiah Scripture says that, “She left her bucket.” Interesting huh? She came with the bucket because she needed water!

She left without it because she received so much more. 

If you’ve been baptized, leave content! God has done amazing things for you. You’ve been washed clean in Jesus.

If you haven’t been baptized, what are you waiting for? Jesus offers amazing blessings – all the blessings you need – Blessings that well up to eternal life. 

Amen.

Have you seen that meme from the movie ELF? I saw it back on December 26th last year  -- where Will Ferrell’s character is panicking with excitement because "There’s only 363 more days until Christmas!?!"

But now it’s not funny anymore. Now we are into the holiday stretch. Now we’re on the clock.

And there’s a lot of things that will be vying for your attention this Christmas season. 
Macys’ will be wanting you to shop their sales. 
Amazon will be wanting you to surf the net. 
ABC Family will be wanting you to watch Christmas movies. 
Your friends at work will be wanting you to attending an Ugly Sweater party. 
Church will be wanting you to do “churchy” Christmas things. 
And you’ll be wanting to wrap presents, drink some spiked egg nog, and curl up to some Bing Crosby at around 5pm. 

There’s a lot of ways to prepare for Christmas. But are all of them good? 
And I checked – you can find all kinds of Google articles on the “10 Most important Christmas things to spend time on” this holiday season.  

But as cool and awesome as the internet is – maybe there’s somewhere else we can look for guidance on the holiday season. 
Something that’s been around a lot longer.
Something that’s been around for every Christmas ever celebrated – and even a few before Christmas even happened.

Today we are going to start our series from God’s Word called Old Fashioned Christmas. We are going to look at how people prepared for Christmas – before there was Christmas!  As we take a look at these Old Testament (before Jesus) Scripture readings, we’re going to get some divine guidance on our holiday season. Before we do that today, please join me in a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see. Open our ears to hear what you want us to hear. Open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.

I. Time Without God? 

We’re going to start this week in Isaiah chapters 1 and 2. Isaiah is a prophet who lived about 600 some years before Jesus was ever born. That means – he lived hundreds of years before anyone ever heard of Christmas – thousands of years before Walmart ever put their first Christmas tree display up in July. 

At the time of Isaiah, the scene wasn’t exactly the peaceful, Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire situation that we think of today.  

Look at what Isaiah writes about the state of Israel:

Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged…your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers. Daughter Zion (that’s an ancient phrase meaning “Jerusalem”) is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field…”  (1:6-8)

Ever been to a cucumber farm before? Me neither. But I love that illustration. Because during the peak cucumber season, the little cucumber storage huts are completely full. They are filled with vitamins and minerals – and big, plump juicy cucumbers that just can’t wait to be pickles. 

But at the end of the harvest – after they’ve all been sold, and the left overs have been given to the local food shelter and the deer have found the mushy remains and eaten them up, there’s not much left. Just dirt. Bugs. A few rotten pieces in the corner. It’s desolate. 

That’s how Isaiah describes Israel. They are dirty. They are bug ridden. They are desolate. There isn’t anything nutritious or beneficial about their existence. 

But this message would have been strange to the Israelite people. 

It says in 1:1 that this was written during the reign of Uzziah. You can learn more about the specifics of his reign in 2 Chronicles 26, but the general impression of his reign is that things weren’t all that bad when he was in charge. In fact, he probably had a good approval rating. He rebuilt Elath – a city that had been destroyed in southern Judah. He defeated the fierce, terrorist like enemies, the Philistines. (v.6) He worked a trade agreement where the Ammonites brought taxes and tribute (v.8) to him. He built towers, and walls, and cisterns (v.9); he had plenty of livestock (v.l0) and he had a well-trained army. (v.11) 

The description in 2 Chronicles doesn’t match the description of Isaiah. 

But Isaiah wasn’t commenting on the economic state.
He wasn’t commenting on the power of the Israelite drachma. 
He wasn’t commenting on the scope of Israelite political power. 
He was commenting on Israel’s spiritual condition. Isaiah 1:2 says, “Israel is a sinful nation. They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy one of Israel and turned their backs on Him.” 

As in, they didn’t have time for God.  
As in, they were too busy. 
As in, he was last on their To Do List.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? 

I think this is a good time to stop and ask that question. How much time are you allotting for God this holiday season? You know – the One who created you, gave you life, has been taking care of you for years and sustains you each day so that you even have enough money and strength to celebrate Christmas in the first place…

How much time are you going to give Him?  

An hour a Sunday – because I can use a lot of the service to write down my shopping list plan for the rest of Christmas!
A minute to skim through a Bible passage or two on social media – because it makes me feel better about lingering on angry political posts for an entire lunch break!
Hours at church each week – because To God Be the Glory! And also Me! I hope people see how awesome I am at Christmas – and to Me be the Glory!

We just had Black Friday. Hundreds of thousands in Raleigh hit the shops and the malls -- many of them at 4am! They spent all day shopping and even continued shopping into the night on their computer. Invigorated and excited by the deals that they found online. 

But think about it: 

4am is no problem for shopping, yet 10:30am on Sunday is too early for God? 
An entire day is no problem devoted to parking at Crabtree Mall, but an hour is too long for God? 
A weekend of shopping takes months of planning and couponing and mapping out the right area that I should go to at just the right time to get the best deals on the best items at the best times...but I’ll only consider mapping out my time with God, because Pastor said so. 

It’s an epidemic in America. It can get us too! Even if you aren’t into shopping. Even if you’re only into Holiday marathons, party planning, wrapping, Christmas concert going, hunting, watching football or just making money to pay the credit card bills in January, it’s so easy to make God the very last One to spend time with.

And that’s where it gets serious. Even though Isaiah was only speaking of the spiritual condition of the Israelites his first prophecy, he was also offering a warning. If the people didn’t have time for God, eventually God wasn’t going to have time for them. And if He didn’t have time for them, then this spiritual destitution, would become very real. It would become very physical. 

It would become eternal. 

The same warning is true for you. If you don’t have time for God, why should He have time for you? 

Eventually – He won’t! 

It’s kind of like if you got into a Thanksgiving spat. Ever had one of those? You have some relatives and friends over to your house. You eat some turkey. You talk about the recipe for the dressing. But then, you start talking politics. Suddenly, your good friend is a big enemy. And you argue – crudely and rudely—for the entirety of the Halftime show. 

What happens if you don’t apologize and make up before Thanksgiving is over? If they pick up their coat and leave without an apology for you, because you didn’t want to talk to them? Well…The sin festers. The bitterness intensifies. A friendship is ruined. 

If you don’t return to God. If you don’t come back to your Savior. If you prepare for Christmas without God, eventually it will be too late. 

And He’ll be gone. 

Forever.

II. God’s Time for Us 

But don’t think that God wasn’t ever at work for you. Inside these harsh, scary, challenging words of Isaiah is one of the greatest promises of God’s love in the Old Testament: 

“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” (1:18)

I  used to be up in Wisconsin. Here’s the thing about living up North—sometimes you don’t get all of the leaves raked up before snow comes. Because -- it snows sometime in early September. Regardless – when that snow melts in mid-March, the ground is a mess. There’s mud, decayed leaves, an old McDonald’s Happy Meal bag, and a brownish, grey apple peel on the grass. 

But then – it snows again. The next morning you wake up and there isn’t an inch of grass. 
There isn’t a hint of trash. 
You can’t see any of the mud.
Just this brilliant, sparkling, scene of fluffy, white snow. 

God says that is what he would do for Israel. 
God says that is what he would do for you. 

Those filthy disgusting sins – the stuff that will ruin a Christmas celebration:
Relationships destroyed. 
Rude words spoken.
Sex had…and lingering on your heart. 
A past filled with yuck! and gross! and God could never love me. 

Covered. 
Covered by God’s love. 
Covered by divine forgiveness.
Covered by Jesus Christ. 

Understand: God was always at work to do this for you. From before you were born – from Ancient times – from times long before the First Christmas ever took place – God was planning to send a Savior. God was spending all of his time working for you. He was keeping a small group of Israel alive from whom the Savior would emerge. He was maintaining promises in His Word. He was working miracle after miracle in the Old Testament to prove that He means his promises and keep faith growing. 

At just the right time, He set up a Roman Government that would ask for a census at just the right time to move a young man named Joseph and his bride to be named Mary into the town of Bethlehem – long promised to be the home of the Savior. The Bible says this, "When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law – that’s us – that we might receive the full rights of His Children.” (Galatians 4:4-5)

Talk about incredible! God used all of His time for you. 

And when the Savior did finally come…
He dedicated every hour of his life to you. 
He dedicated the last moments of his breath to you. 
He gave up his time on earth for you!
He rose triumphantly from the grave to offer you an eternity of time with Him in heaven. 

III. What now? 

(1)    Go to His Mountain

The next chapter says this, “In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains…and all nations will flock to it.” (2:2)

That’s because things that are lifted high are easily seen. 

Think about it -- how many times have you been driving down I-40 – it’s late in the day. You’re tired. You’re hungry. It’s late. You’re about to pull over and give up, but then, in the distance, you see it: The Golden arches. They mean delicious is on the way. 

That’s why churches had steeples. So that no matter what’s going on – no matter where you are – no matter what kind of awful is going on in your life, you can look up and see – a cross. See the place where you can go and find God. 

So -- Go to His mountain. Make sure that you have time to be in church this Christmas preparation season. Put it down on your Google calendar as a can’t miss event of the week. In fact, I think you can even lock it into Google calendar as an “unchangeable time.” 

But we’re not open all the time. Does that mean God’s mountain is only open on Sundays? Of course not! You can go to God’s mountain without even leaving the comforts of your home. Pick up a Bible. Open it up. Use the Advent reading suggestion that is stuffed into your bulletin this week – Go to God’s mountain.

And please keep in mind that simply having this advent planner, doesn’t mean you’ve actually made it to God’s mountain. That’d be like assuming that once Google Maps is fired up, you’re at your destination. It doesn’t work like that. You’ve got to actually get in the car and drive. 

And you’ve got to get into God’s Word to arrive at his mountain.

(2)    Walk in His Footsteps

What do you do there? Look at what Isaiah says,

“Let us go to the mountain of the Lord to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths.” (v.3) 

Because when you get to God’s mountains, that’s what you see: Footprints! And just like when there’s a fine dusting of snow and you walk outside, see your dad’s footsteps and try to follow them, that’s what we do on God’s mountain. We follow his footsteps. God’s footsteps lead to some incredible truths.

You see his steps throughout history to ready for the coming of the Savior.
You see his steps throughout prophecy to prepare for saving you. 
You see his steps toward the cross – to take away all your sins. 
You see his steps off the cross – with a tiny hole in each footprint – showing  you just how much he loved you! 

This means when you’re at God’s mountain – you don’t just chill. You’re active. Actively listening. Actively learning. 
Not playing games on your iPhone.
Not looking up fantasy scores. 
Not getting distracted by text messages. 

Actively coming up with a plan to put God’s Word into your life. 

(3)    Live in Peace

Isaiah talks about this on God’s mountain: God will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords and make them into gardening tools. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore!

Which is something that happens during the holiday season. Supposedly, people lay down their differences and stop hating on one another. 

Supposedly.

Then, come December 26th it’s right back to hating on one another. 
Calling people racist names on Facebook. 
Gossiping about that coworker on the day back to work. 
Leaving a nasty message for your parents about why you’ll never go to their house for Christmas again. 

It’s funny. Things and stuff and gifts and cookie and garland and mistletoe and Santa – can make you happy, but they can’t bring peace. Deep down – the problems you have before Christmas are still there during Christmas – and still there after Christmas. 

But Jesus deals with those problems. 
The mountain of God brings peace.
The mountain of God brings you peace with God. 
If you’ve got peace with God, it’s a lot easier to have peace with other. 

CONCLUSION:

So what do you do this Christmas season? 

It just started. You’ve still got plenty of time. Add “Time with God” to your holiday list. Make it the most important part of your list. Listen to the words of Isaiah:

“Come, descendant of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” 

Amen. 

The Pharisees were the most religious looking people of the time. They dressed religious with long flowing robes and ornamented sashes; they talked religious – about the Bible, about God, and traditions. They walked religious – with a stoic, appropriately respectable jaunt! It wouldn't be surprising if they smelled religious – a soothing combination of incense and oil with a hint of sweat (because they had been praying so hard)

The Pharisees even ate religiously. With big motions so that everyone could see what they were doing, they walked over to a nearby jug. They spoke words of Hebrew blessing. They dipped their hands in the water and gave them a ceremonial washing from the tip of the pinky finger to the crook of the elbow.

Then, they sat down, expecting to see everyone’s eyes filled with amazement at just how devoted to God they were.

The people weren’t looking at them. An upstart group of men who had been gaining quite a following recently had the crowd’s attention in the corner. Their leader was called Jesus and the men that followed him – disciples. They seemed like decent people who knew the law and knew religion. The Pharisees were interested in talking with them.

But as they approached the disciples, they noticed something appalling.

THEY DIDN’T WASH THEIR HANDS!!!

So, like a Preschooler, excited to tell mom and dad about the bad thing that he caught his brother doing, the Pharisees asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

Now – this wasn’t a germ issue. It wasn’t a "when did you last use the restroom issue." It wasn’t a matter of physical cleanliness at all. It was a religious issue – a matter of spiritual cleanliness.  

It’s important for us too. Today we are interesting in finding out if we are clean. (No, I’m not asking if you took a shower recently and if you used soap and if you washed behind your ears). I want you to consider if you are spiritually clean.

I. Where NOT to Measure Cleanliness

We going to start by taking a look at Jesus’ response. He emphasizes where NOT to look for the answer this question: 

6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:  “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’"

Wouldn’t it be really awesome to find out that a long time ago someone had prophesied about you? Wouldn’t it be pretty cool to find out that you would be a prophet? Or you’d walk on water? Or you’d become President of the United States?

Jesus was telling the Pharisees that there was an Old Testament prophecy that talked about them. But I don’t think they were too happy to find out. Because the prophecy painted them in a horrible light!

“‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” 7 They worship me in vain.” That word “vain” means “empty; worthless; without any substance to it.” The Pharisees sang the praises of God, sure. They followed God’s rules, absolutely. In fact, there probably wasn’t anyone who followed God’s rules better than the Pharisees.

But in their hearts? These godly actions weren’t being done for God. These actions were being done for themselves.

“Isn’t it awesome how much I serve at church? I love having people say, “You do such a great job.”
“God – notice how I didn’t drink any alcohol at the party tonight. I’m a little better than all those people who did, right?”
“God, did you see that check I just made out for charity? It’s ok if you didn’t. They’re gonna put my name on the donor list. You can find it there."

We can’t look to Godly actions to identify ourselves as “clean.” The motivation may be far apart!

The Pharisees had taken it a step farther. "Your teachings are but rules taught by men.” The Pharisees didn’t just follow God’s rules. They followed a collection of Rabbinical writings that their teachers had written down. These teachings were supposed to take it to the next level. These teachings were supposed to subscribe another level of holiness to the Pharisees!

God says, “Rest on the Sabbath.” I won’t just rest; I will also make sure that I don’t even take 1000 steps on my pedometer.
God says, “Give a tenth of your harvest to me.” I’ll go one better and make sure I give a tenth of the salt I put on my fries to him.
God says, “Fast every once in awhile.” I’ll fast today and tomorrow and the day after that (Just as long as everyone sees the hunger in my eyes and they know how godlike I am.

But what’s Jesus saying here. These laws didn’t make them cleaner. In fact, they had no relevance whatsoever on their status before God. They were mere human laws! Teachings taught by men.

That’s foolish.

How many of you went school supply shopping recently? Did you pick up some erasers, number two pencils, a 64 pack of Crayola crayons, 2 packages of tissues, a painting smock, Play-doh, a Dora the Explorer backpack, and Fruit Roll up Snacks?

How many of you got those things for your college kid? You wouldn’t. That would be mixing up the two supply lists.

When the Pharisees were fulfilling their own man made laws, they had God’s supply list all messed up. Yes, they did things that they themselves had thought of, but they failed miserably at things that God had thought of. Things like mercy, fairness, and love.

Don’t get caught in the same trap. Don’t measure cleanliness via human actions either. 

II. Where TO Measure Cleanliness

Where then should we look to for cleanliness? Listen to what Jesus says, “15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.  21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come.”

Ask yourself this question:

Where does the murderer plan his murder?
Where does the adulterer decide to sleep with his secretary?
Where does the boss figure out ways to cheat his employees?
Where does the pornographer think, “I should look at pornography?”
Where does the gossiper decide, “I’m going to tell everyone how much of a loser that person is?”

The answer is simple. It starts on the inside. In here (our brains) and in here (our hearts.) Spiritual uncleanness is measured in the heart!

So…how clean is your heart? 

Here’s a test. Jesus next gives a list sinful things. Take a look with me: “21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

You ever done any of those? Then, your heart is unclean.
Think that you never have? Then you're full of deceit and arrogance. Your heart is unclean.

Yes, but pastor…I’ve only struggled with it a little bit. I don’t do those things all that often.

Ok…

What if I told you that the Organic, GMO free, farm raised chicken was missing a key ingredient? Mercury! Maybe it’s not as clean as you thought, huh? Or what if you opened up a bottle of pure, fresh from the mountains clean Aquafina water and brown came out? Probably not drinking that one.

If your heart produces, has produced, has ever produced any kind of unclean actions, then your heart is unclean! You are unclean.

This is a big deal. It’s a big deal because God is a connoisseur of holiness! He loves his human lives to be completely devoid of any impurities. None in action. Nothing sinful in words. Nothing sinful in thoughts.

He has the palate to tell the difference! We might not; but God does. God does and when God finds impure hearts, do you know what he does? He throws them away. From his presence. Forever.

That’s a very real threat of our very real Holy God!

 III. How Do I Get Clean?

1 John says this, “The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purifies us from all sin.”

If you needed a blood transfusion, because your blood went toxic, do you know what would be valuable? Using blood that isn’t toxic. Similarly, it wouldn’t do any good if you needed a new lung to take the lung of the 30 year smoker with cancer.

Unclean things don’t fix unclean things. We, who are unclean, cannot make our hearts, which are unclean, clean!

But Jesus, He is. Jesus lived a life that was completely pure in every way. His actions were God pleasing always. His words were morally upright always. His thoughts were completely in line with God’s way of thinking always.

Granted, it probably helped that He was God. Did you know Jesus claimed that? He claimed to be God’s Son, the Lord of heaven and earth. If it’s true, that would explain why Jesus is as holy as God wanted – because He was God….who is holy.

But that’s hard to believe! Do you know what else is hard to believe?

That Jesus could make a blind man see with only his hands – but he did.
That Jesus could make a lame man walk with only his words – but he did.
That Jesus could calm storms. That he could walk on water. That he could change water into wine. That he could die a tragic death on a cross in front of hundreds of people, be buried and assured of his death by the many involved with placing his body into the grave, ONLY to come out of that grave, a grave sealed shut with a giant stone and guarded by the Navy Seals of that day, ONLY to come out of that grave ALIVE! And to appear to hundreds in various times, at various places, and in various ways.

Jesus did God things. Which is proof that he’s God. Which is proof that He’s miraculous.

Which is proof that he cleans hearts.
  
1 John 1:9 says this, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us all our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Granted, this is a faith thing. I don’t have a giant, divine X Ray machine to show you how Jesus cleans souls. It doesn’t have visible proof.

But, we do have the very words of God written down right here. If you confess your sins, God is faithful and just He will (he has forgiven you) and He will (He has cleansed you) from all unrighteousness.”

It wasn’t long after Jesus made these statements that this whole Him having the power to cleanse people thing got put to the test.

A woman approached him with tears in her eyes. She was stressed. She was appalled. She was at her wits end.

Her daughter was possessed by an evil spirit. (Talk about unclean.) The evil spirit controlled her. It led her to speak hate. She hurt herself. She tried to drown herself. She had put her mother through misery. Her little child, her daughter, was in agony.

“Lord, can you help!”

“For such great faith, go. Your daughter is healed.”

The woman returned and she found her daughter returned. Healed. Freed. Cleansed. 

Stop trying to clean yourself. Turn to the One who cleans all hearts. Put your faith in Jesus. Be clean. Amen.

"You need to wash those before you sit on the furniture."

At the church work day this past week, I did some gardening. Unfortunately, standing in the soil all day had gotten my feet quite dirty. They were dirty enough that I needed to take a shower right away before they would be allowed on the ottoman. 

I really wanted to watch an episode of Kitchen Nightmares, so I trudged to the bathtub. 

I didn't even THINK of asking her to wash them for me. 

In today's lesson that's what Jesus did. He's starting washing the feet of his disciples. This was a job usually reserved for the servants, now done by their leader. Plus this was at a time when sandals and walking in the desert left feet much dirtier than argyle socks, black shoes, and an office complex did. 

Why would the Lord of heaven and earth lower himself to such a lowly job? See if you can grasp why...

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 Jesus poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Peter was indignant! Why would Jesus, his master, lower himself to such a level? This was his 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' not 'plebian' and 'servant'. Jesus was above doing such work. And he, Peter, was above having his feet washed! So he tried to stop Jesus. 

But then, Jesus stopped him: 

"Unless I wash you, you have no part in me." 


Now Jesus wasn't just talking about having clean feet. Certainly, as they walked the roads earlier that very day, their feet had gotten dusty. Yet Jesus hadn't sent them away from him. He wasn't offended by dirty skin. 

He was offended by a dirty soul. 

Because as dusty as his big toes may have been, Peter's soul was a mess. Just like any human being it was filled with the ugliness of hatred, lust, pride, and selfishness. 

It was so dirty that not even a mother would love it. 

And, as God himself describes, not even He could love it. "The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time." (Genesis 6)

It's a disturbing thought. 

More disturbing is God reacts to such dirty souls! Just like a wife who tells her husband he'll need to clean his feet before setting foot in her living room, so God tells us that we'll need clean souls before setting foot in his heavenly house!

And how do you clean a dirty soul when the soul that tries to clean it is dirty too? 

That was Peter's problem! "Stop it! I can do it myself!" 

It's a problem that we are often plagued with too. "Lord, Jesus, I don't need your help. I have a neighbor who wears tattoos and is struggling with homosexuality. He needs your help. But not me. I don't need to be cleaned. I'm just fine!" 

Listen to the words of Jesus to such an attitude. "Unless I clean you, you will have no part with me." 

Of course, when we accept that hard truth, Scripture urges us to turn to Jesus! He is our Lord, our Master, the great One from Above, yet he is not above getting his hands dirty...


...even with blood. 

That's why he was on the cross. Because "the blood of Jesus...purifies us from all sin." (John 1:7) Jesus served us in a way even greater than cleansing our feet. He cleaned our souls.

 This was way more degrading than getting on your hands and knees to scrub the grime off of our dirty heels. He was horribly mocked, terribly ridiculed, and cruelly treated like the scum of the earth in order to cleanse the grubbiness of sin from our spirit. 

Yet he did it. Even though he is the great ruler of the universe deserving of all praise! 

What motivated him to get himself dirty in this way? 

You. 

Yes, washing the feet was a nice thing for Jesus to do. He helped to relax and refresh the disciples for a time. But the washing that Jesus would do on the next day was even greater. It was a thorough cleansing of their souls. It would relax them with the joy of having God's love. It would refresh them with the peace of sins forgiven. It's a cleansing that lasts forever. 

This is the same cleansing that God has given you. Through faith in Him, you are clean!

Now...you can pulled up the heavenly ottoman. 

PRAYER: Dear Lord, forgive me for selfishly thinking myself above a Savior. Forgive me for comparing myself to others and labeling myself as 'more pure' because of my own actions. Instead, cleanse me. Cleanse me with your Word and the promise of Jesus' purification on the cross. Hold me in faith that I may stand before you with a heart of purity in heaven. Amen.  

Ever done something really bad? Something especially awful? Something that has haunted you throughout your life? Something that pops into your memory during the quiet peaceful moments and turns them into unsettled seconds of torture?

I imagine that's what the Jewish people felt who had killed Jesus. He was innocent. He hadn't harmed them in any way. Upon farther examination, they had killed a miracle worker! In fact, they consciences may have even pricked them to learn the truth: "They had killed the very son of God! How could God ever forgive them for that?"

In a moment of complete despair, they realized the error of their ways. They called to one of Jesus' disciples. Perhaps they were wondering, if there was any way for them to make it up to God? Could they feed the disciples? Could they help them share their message? If they were better people, could they in any way warrant an ounce of God's forgiveness? Or even less the blow of his wrath?

They asked Peter, "What should we do?" 

Peter did not tell them to start making amends to God with their offerings. He didn't ask them to work really hard to make it up to God with their prayers. He didn't even tell them to go on some kind of courageous spiritual journey to earn forgiveness. 

His reply was much simpler: 

“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins." (Acts 2:38) 

Did you see that? Peter's prescription for the people who were bogged down by the atrocious sin of killing the very son of God was repentance and baptism! 

Take a look at that word "repentance." Repentance means "to turn." These people were to do a 180 degree turn from their sinful pride in themselves to a humble reliance on the LORD. 

What better way to do it than to trust his promise in the simple act of baptism? 

"God, I'm going to be baptized into your name. Trusting that in doing so, you will give the gift of forgiveness won for me with your death on the cross. Not that I am earning it by being baptized, but that you are giving it in my baptism."

This is the very promise that Jesus himself had given his disciples. He said, "Go and make people who follow me by baptizing them!" (Mt. 28:19) 

And this is so personal. To the thousands who were baptized on that day of Peter's sermon, it was extremely personal. To the many who had been hearing echoes of his voice screaming, "Crucify," they now heard the soothing tones of Peter's proclamation: "You are baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." 

At your baptism, the same was/will be true too. The promise is specifically for you! The devil can't come into my head and say (as he does when you hear a sermon) and say: "The forgiveness that the Pastor is talking about is not for you. It's for the others in this church. Not you. You are too pathetic." 

In baptism, God's Word battles these accusations in a very specific way. There is no doubt who is being baptized. There is no doubt who the forgiveness of sins is for. There is no doubt for whom Jesus died on the cross.

May this voice of comfort soothe us with the forgiveness of sins now and always!

PRAYER: Dear Lord, help me remember my baptism with fondness today. Thank you for the wonderful blessing that you gave me in baptism. Thank you for the forgiveness of sins that you gave, very specfically, to me. Thank you Jesus for earning this forgiveness on the cross. Thank you Holy Spirit for making it mine through faith in Jesus. Amen. 

There are few things on earth that are harder to clean off of yourself than blacktop sealant. I helped a friend do that to his driveway once. Besides getting it all over my  hands I had splotches of tar looking like my  own collection of moles running up and down my leg.

I tried water. Nothing. Soap and water. Still nothing. Mineral spirits and lots of elbow grease later, I was able to see parts of my hands – rubbed completely raw from the cleanup effort.

Truth is: Blacktop sealant is nothing compared to sin.

Go ahead. Try all you want. Try to clean up your day to day actions. Try the newest shampoo, the toughest grease fighting soap, and the stain fighting power of Dawn! Nothing will happen. Try living a better life and doing 'good' things and it will not erase the mess of sin that you have already committed.

Good works are about as useless against sin as a Shamwow!

There’s only one cleansing element that promises to completely cleanup the messiness of our sins.  Baptism.

Now that doesn’t make a lot of sense does it? Isn't baptism just water while the pastor says some Bible things? How can that water do such incredible things? How can it clean up where these chemical agents fail? How can it affect the soul? How can water -- any type of water at all -- be applied to the outside of a person and somehow make the person clean?

If ever there was someone who might be nervous that this wouldn’t work, it was a man named Saul. His sins – at least from a human perspective – were disgusting. He had persecuted Christians. He had thrown them into jail. He had hated Jesus and looked on approvingly at the murders of Jesus’ followers. These sins had left a deep stain in his inner soul.

To make matters worse, he had just met this Jesus! He was not dead, but alive. Meaning, that Saul now realized he had been persecuted people for following the true God!

I imagine Saul felt alot of this guilt as he sat in the home of Ananias -- a man who knew of Saul's sins so well that he was intially frightened to even spend time with him.

But Ananias was directed by God. He came to Saul and spoke these words -- “Now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away.”

Saul did just that. And his sins were completely washed away!

Baptism is powerful stuff. It isn't because of any chemical agents or all natural cleansers. It is because of the Almighty word of promise attached to it. It is because of God's Word:

“Go and make disciples…baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Mt. 28:19)

Better than washing with soap and water. Better than washing with chemicals. Better than any kind of cleaning agent on the planet. God's Word and promise wash us completely clean. Because when you are baptized, you are washed with water and God's eternal promise of love! A promise fulfilled in the death of Jesus Christ himself.

There isn’t any sin Jesus can’t handle. No matter what you’ve done. No matter what guilt you hold onto. No matter what awful things haunt you on a daily basis – Jesus washes away all of these sins in Baptism!

To be fair, this is only the beginning of the blessings promised in Baptism. Yet, may I ask, do you need in more? You have God’s divine promise of the divine washing that baptism gives. God doesn’t lie. In fact, he died to make this promise a reality.

So, why wait? Why not be baptized into the name of the Lord? Why not receive this incredible cleansing?

As Ananias told Paul:  “What are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away!”

PRAYER: Dear Lord, thank you so much for my baptism. Thank you for hte promise of cleansing attached to it. Thank you for washing my sins away. Please help me to marvel at the blessings of my baptism this week and always. Amen. 

BAPTISM SUNDAY IS THIS SUNDAY AT 10:30AM! Plan to be there.