Whatever is Pure

[00:00:01] I. There's potluck. When I was a kid in the multipurpose room, which we actually used the multipurpose room for multiple purposes. We had class in there. Children's worship in there. We ate in there. But there was a. There was. It was a potluck. And potluck is a time for you to get food and for you to eat. There was always a bit of a. [00:00:25] When someone tried to make an announcement in potluck, you just thought, church is over. [00:00:31] You don't get to. But someone. [00:00:36] The craziest thing happened. [00:00:38] They said, excuse me, everybody. Glenn's got an announcement. [00:00:42] And Glenn rolled in on with a dolly, a 55 gallon drum. Pat, I don't know if you remember this, of peanut butter. [00:01:00] Natural. [00:01:02] He had bought peanut butter for the church for all who are weary. [00:01:14] It was such, like, an odd thing. But what struck me as a kid, maybe I miss remembering this, but I remember how intense the announcement was about this particular drum of peanut butter. It was natural peanut butter, guys. [00:01:34] Natural. [00:01:36] Remember they used the word it's been. It's unadulterated. [00:01:43] I thought unadulterated peanut butter. [00:01:48] Well, pin a scarlet letter on Jeff's chest. Cause unadult. Like, what does that. What it meant is it wasn't good. [00:02:04] It meant you had to scoop it out and put it in your own jar and take it home. And when you got it home, it had separated. [00:02:16] People would say, that's what. That makes it good. [00:02:19] Oh, not in my experience. [00:02:24] I like when it comes. When food comes ready to eat. [00:02:30] And I didn't like all the word, but I just remember that, like, word, unadulterated peanut butter. Like, it was pure. Like, it was like this thing that, like, everybody would recognize as not having been messed with by the outside world, not having any, like, toxins or anything like that in it or stuff to keep it fresh for longer than two days. [00:02:54] So it was pure. Now, I think sometimes we have trouble with our words because we use big words for non big things. [00:03:13] That's when we were. When our kid, when our girls were little in particular, they would say, I'm starving. And I would say, you're not starving. [00:03:24] There are people that are starving, and you're not it. [00:03:28] And Rachel at one point said, just let them say starving. [00:03:34] It's getting pretty sanctimonious, but it is. It is. Yeah. I said, it's not sanctimonious. I corrected her too. [00:03:47] That's just a joke. That's not true. I'm still here. [00:03:52] But there are, like, it's not. [00:03:56] We have these words that are. That are big and can mean good things in the right context, but we apply them to the wrong thing. [00:04:10] And I think pure is one of those words. [00:04:19] Philippians four eight says, finally, brothers beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing or commendable, if there's any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things again. It's just. Listen, think about whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, worthy of praise. [00:04:55] This is where your mind is to be. [00:05:00] Now, we can just start there and say that our minds aren't often in places that they need to be. [00:05:12] Worry. [00:05:15] This whole passage comes after, don't worry about things, but spend time in prayer with God and focus on that which is true, honorable, just, pure. [00:05:31] And I want you to hear me right. I don't want. I am not saying, when things are sad, focus on happy thoughts. [00:05:40] If you're depressed, just pray it away. [00:05:44] That's not what I'm talking about here. But in the face of anxiety, to fill your mind with what is actual, what is true, what is honorable, what's worth taking a step back in awe of? [00:06:01] What is just or what is the righteous covenant of God, what is righteous? [00:06:09] God keeps his promises. [00:06:14] To spend some time there, to know that my God is bigger than whatever it is I'm facing, whatever it is I'm worried about. [00:06:26] We've got. I don't forget, okay? It's Clara's. Clara's not in children's worship. I'm going to pretend like she is so I can talk about her. [00:06:34] She's about to start driving. [00:06:37] She's a good driver. She's safe. She's. I get the car. I don't even. When I'm in the car with her and she drives us home, I don't even really pay attention anymore. [00:06:47] You know, they start. [00:06:49] When they start driving, you kind of pay attention. You're like, hey, brake break. [00:06:58] Mailbox, mailbox, mailbox, mailbox, mailbox. [00:07:02] Just trying to give a little bit of guidance. [00:07:06] Do you know what they don't need when you start teaching them to drive? [00:07:12] They don't need this. [00:07:17] Cause when you do that, guess what they do. [00:07:24] That level of anxiety, they don't need that in the car. [00:07:29] So you just want to relax and say, oh, we're about to die. We're about to die. We're about to die. We're about to die. [00:07:41] There's times you have to go break, break your shindo. Right? [00:07:50] Especially when, like, your garage wall's involved, but she hasn't run into anything. She's great. Great drive. [00:07:59] Teaching her to drive has not been stressful, but I guarantee you when she gets out, she leaves the first time, I'm going to be exhausted from sprinting after her. [00:08:17] I can't control it. [00:08:22] I'm going to have to pray. Not just about that. And here's the point, not just about it. I'm going to have to pray through it. [00:08:34] Not so that God will give me like a God will make things not go right for her or go wrong. Not go wrong for her. She'll be safe. Yeah, she'll be safe. [00:08:48] I trust her. [00:08:50] But I've also driven for 2 seconds in Tyler and learned that not everybody has the same level of safeness. [00:09:00] Praying through that, like when I'm anxious, God doesn't fix all of my problems or write all disasters, but I am my best in those disasters. When I'm with God, God doesn't make everything go well, but he helps me go through it all in a way that is helpful. [00:09:31] So when I have my mind on things that are true and honorable and just or righteous and pure, it's not so that I can feel okay and things will go my way. [00:09:45] The reason we go to God with anxieties is not because God has a magical wand with which he'll make the things that make us anxious go away. We go to God with our anxieties because God is the best place to sit with our anxieties. [00:10:06] That's why we focus on his truth. [00:10:12] We are taken aback by his awesomeness. [00:10:21] We are reminded of his promise, and we focus on what is pure. [00:10:30] Pure. Here, as you can imagine, there are several greek words for pure. [00:10:37] This one's almost exclusively used for things that have been made pure that are worthy, not because they've earned it. [00:10:59] In the Old Testament, you have, like a sense of we are clean people, we are pure people. The Old Testament, the people of Israel, were not pure people because of their good works. [00:11:16] They were pure because they showed up and made sacrifices, and God called them pure. [00:11:25] It's not an earned purity. [00:11:32] And purity has been used in our world, particularly in christian world, in a way that can be damaging, particularly to young ladies. [00:11:42] We've called our young women, you've got to be pure. [00:11:46] And they're constantly trying to figure out, well, what can or can't I wear, what am I allowed to do or not do, that men are in control. But somehow I believe I've got to be pure because I, as young women, might think turns out, am in control of men. [00:12:20] You know, Jesus didn't say if you lust change the dress code. [00:12:30] He said, if you lust gouge out your eye. [00:12:38] Purity. Yeah, sure, let's be modest. The Bible calls for modesty. [00:12:45] But associating that with being sullied in some way has made our. [00:12:55] The way we see purity. And the way, I'll be honest, the way young women, as I have two young women, the way young women hear the word purity, they think are pure. They think about how they aren't pure, how the church has told them they aren't pure, that they are. There's some standard they have to live up to. We just had Mother's Day. How many of you love it when the preacher gets up and reads the unattainable text of proverb 31? [00:13:32] I mean, I get it's a beautiful passage, and there's parts of it that remind me of all the different wonderful women in my life and in my church. I'm so thankful. But there's rarely a woman who feels like they live up to that. [00:13:52] And if they do, they don't. [00:13:59] Now, men feel that way on Father's Day every year. [00:14:05] Growing up, it was Father's Day. Mother's Day is about Jesus can wait for a week. Mothers are the best. [00:14:12] And Father's Day, the preacher would get up and say, you scum, we do not live up to our standard. [00:14:34] If purity is about how well we navigate our life, then we have not a chance. [00:14:49] And frankly, if the goal is to be a pure human being by my own merit, I don't want to think about that all that much. [00:15:04] Because what it comes with is shame. [00:15:08] When I focus on purity, when it's my doing, what comes to my heart is shame. Shame. [00:15:18] I have not been always throughout my life who I've wanted to be. Have you? [00:15:29] Your late teens, early twenties, late twenties, early thirties, late seventies, early eighties. You just never quite who you want to be. And so when I think about what is pure, my first thought is, well, not me. [00:15:51] When I think about what is, if God, Paul says to me, hold in your mind, think about what is pure. Well, not Benjamin and not anybody else I've ever met. [00:16:08] We are all adulterated peanut butter. [00:16:15] We're all a mix of something which is not quite what we thought we were going to be or what we want to be. [00:16:23] So this is the first one I get to where my instinct with the word makes me shy away from. I don't want to think about what's pure. [00:16:33] I've not always been there. [00:16:36] I've not always been there. [00:16:39] I definitely don't feel that way all the time, or if ever. [00:16:48] But then God says, come sit with me for a second and consider what is honorable, consider what is true. [00:17:07] Consider my promises, and consider what is pure. [00:17:16] And so I look around and I look at, like, just children, like, kids are just the best. [00:17:26] Like, little people's school is on a break right now. [00:17:34] They start back southern school pretty soon, but it's real quiet around here when little people's school isn't here and I have less fans. [00:17:46] It's the craziest thing. We do chapel once or twice a month here. They're just these two days on a Wednesday, Thursday for the, for the little people. School come in, we sing songs, have a good time. [00:18:00] I walk in and they're lined up and they're, the school hasn't started yet, but there's kids that are lined up because there's, there are some parents who are like, we need to get this kid out of this car as fast as possible. [00:18:16] Well, this kid is up out most. They're up out of the, the sunroof, and they're suburban, and they chapel guy every day. [00:18:32] Chapel guy. [00:18:34] It's the best. [00:18:37] It's the best. [00:18:39] I'm a beetle, so, yeah, DJ Yoko. [00:18:52] So we're so, like, we're walking in and they're just like, it's you. Yay. And then I'm like, yes, it's good to see you. How are you? And then I go in the door, leave the office and head down. [00:19:06] Same thing. It's the same day. [00:19:09] Chapel guy. [00:19:12] Yes. [00:19:14] I've moved my office out into the hall so that they see me all the time. [00:19:19] And it's such a good, but, like, they are so, so sweet. [00:19:26] They do the, they do the hand motions and the celebrations without an ounce of insecurity. [00:19:35] Just this pure little bundle of joy. [00:19:42] Now, they can be stinkers at times, but it's just, maybe that's what we're supposed to be and we're not it, and we lost it. I just, I lost it and I can't get it back. [00:20:04] God says, consider what's pure. And I look to the children and I'm like, oh, maybe that's it. I don't have it. [00:20:13] We have contaminated ourselves and the world around us. And I grieve to God, and he says again, consider what's pure. [00:20:32] And I say to God, I can't find anything else. [00:20:40] And he says, consider what's true. [00:20:43] Let's try to get a run at this Benjamin. Consider what's true. [00:20:49] Consider what's honorable. [00:20:53] Consider how God keeps his promises. [00:20:58] Now look around again and consider what's pure. [00:21:08] Oh, it is me. [00:21:14] It is you. [00:21:18] Not because we are spotless lambs, but because God has made us that way because of Jesus. [00:21:33] I still wrestle with shame about my position in the puritan scale. You know, I'm not pure. [00:21:48] And people sometimes look at me and know it. They're like, oh, it has ulterior motives. [00:21:55] I wish I was smart enough to have ulterior motives. [00:21:59] I've got one motive, and that's all I can handle at the time. [00:22:05] But in the presence of God, when I am anxious and I go to God about what is true and honorable and how God keeps his promise, I am reminded not of my abilities, but what God has made me. I'm not reminded of my good works. I'm not reminded of how I failed. I'm not reminded of my ledger of right and wrong. There is no scale that balances my heart and judges me except for the cross of Christ, except for the resurrected king. [00:22:49] There is nothing that judges me as sullied, as adulterated, as toxic. Nothing can call me what I am. Not. I, because of Jesus, because of the love of God, am pure. [00:23:06] I have been made clean, inherent in that, the way I see the world. [00:23:19] That's wisdom right there. Like, built into the way God sees me. God's the right one, isn't he? [00:23:29] Like sometimes the way I see myself and the way God sees me differs. [00:23:34] Who's right about it? [00:23:38] Who's got the upper hand of knowledge? [00:23:44] The verse that was read from James. We'll back up a little bit if we go to verse 13 of James three. [00:23:52] James says, who is wise in understanding among you? [00:23:55] Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. [00:24:01] But if you have bitter envy, selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but it is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For there is envy and selfish ambition. There will also be disorder and wickedness of all kind. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure. [00:24:28] What God grants us is wisdom that is pure. We try to get wisdom from the ground up, and we just envy. [00:24:39] There are people who have it better than us. There are people who have it worse than us. And we create this structure where we're going to envy the people above us and look down on the people below us, and we're never happy with our place in life, our place in the world. [00:24:55] That what comes from the wisdom from below, what comes from the wisdom of the world, it only will frustrate you, and it will make us more toxic. [00:25:07] But the wisdom from above begins with purity. [00:25:12] Not a purity that we've earned, but a purity that we have been washed, a purity that has been given to us, gifted us, he says. But the wisdom is first, purer than peaceful, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace. [00:25:42] What we find when we consider purity at the feet of God, at the throne of God, is not that we don't live up to what God wants us to be. What we find is that God has made us who he wants us to be. [00:26:01] From the beginning, he's called us blessed. From the beginning, he's called us pure. And we live out of that. Now, the only way to get to peace from anxiety is to recognize first that God's got me. [00:26:20] God has forgiven me already. [00:26:28] What if I make a mistake? [00:26:31] What if I try really hard? That's the scariest part, scariest idea. If I try really hard and fail, if I want to do what's right really badly and then I fail, isn't that the worst? [00:26:48] But even if that happens, we've been purified by the blood of the lamb. [00:26:55] Even if we fail, we've been forgiven by the resurrected king. [00:27:03] We don't have to worry. We don't have to have the fear of failing. [00:27:11] We've been purified. [00:27:14] We are pure because God calls us pure. [00:27:23] You are pure because God calls you pure. [00:27:33] If we start from there and know that God has us, us, it's not saying anxious things will go away. [00:27:50] But it's believing that the honorable. [00:27:55] It's believing that the true believing that God's kept promise actually impacts his people. [00:28:07] God kept his promise. [00:28:10] And when God calls us pure, we are pure. [00:28:13] When God calls us worthy, we are worthy. [00:28:17] So no more God. I am just a sinless buffoon. Or a sinful buffoon. That was a slip. [00:28:25] A sinful jerk who doesn't deserve you. But here, no God. [00:28:32] God's rooting for us. [00:28:36] God has purified us. [00:28:40] God thinks we are worth God's investment so our anxieties don't go away. [00:28:51] But when they come up, it would be helpful if at that point we were already sitting at the feet of the one who has made us pure. Let's pray together. [00:29:09] Father, we are sometimes ashamed and sometimes overly aware of our own brokenness. [00:29:26] But you are. [00:29:31] You are the one that's right here. [00:29:35] And then when you call us pure, we are pure. [00:29:38] When you have made us clean, we are clean. [00:29:44] And God, give us the wisdom that comes from above, that starts with purity, that brings peace and chaos. [00:29:54] And may we spend time considering what is true, what takes us aback considering your promise and the way you have made us pure. [00:30:14] It's in your son's holy name we pray. Amen.