Restore Church

In our new Bo-Ed Discipleship Group we are covering our Gospel Identities of Family, Servant, Learner, & Missionary. Last night we looked at our Servant Identity. New D-group member, Matt G, shared a spoken word that powerfully paints the picture of being slaves to sin and points us to Jesus as the One who frees us from sin’s guilt & power. This was a perfect set up for walking through the vertical (Jesus became a bondservant to set us free, purchasing us from the slave market of sin) and horizontal (We are now worship Jesus as Lord by submitting to Him and serving those around us for His glory) implications of the gospel. You can check out the lyrics at the bottom.

We are servants of God who serve those around us.

Ask anyone you know, “what is sin?” and get a wide range of or opinions descriptives/  Anything from lying, stealing and killing,  or any act that can be labeled “vindictive”/

And though these things are true, if we stop here, we leave ourselves with a surface perspective/ Which “keeps us afloat” but blinds us to what sins true depth is/

See sin acts are just that, sin in action… for an instant/ but this instance isn’t  the source, it’s more like a cough or a sneeze… it’s a symptom/

It’s a signal that screams something wrong is underneath/  but we don’t see what’s underneath so the outside is what we treat/ like when you were a kid and all you wanted to do was brush the fronts of your teeth/… remember?

Listen, sin is deep rooted and it is drastically effecting our health/ but instead of wanting release from it, we use it to create wrong relationships and in some cases material wealth/

See our sin has become leverage to gain STUFF that only exalts self/ and we’ll never be free from this bondage unless we are deep rooted in something else/

Or someone else…but I’ll get to that in a bit/ First let me address the fact that instead of confronting our sin, we tend to hide from it/

Like when your friend says “Im fine bro, it’s just a sore throat man, I got this”/ let’s be honest, that’s just him not willing to admit that he is sick “enough” to see the doc yet/

See you have to address your sin for God’s grace to be upon you/ Because if we ignore our sin nature, we WILL play the fool/ Like Owen said, be killing sin, or sin will be killing you/ Remember that confession is step 1, and repentance is step 2/

In order to leave something, you have to first realize that you’re in it/ So how could you ever be repentant of something that you never admitted to begin with?/ That is the definition of being  SIN SICK/

So pour it all out before God and stop hiding your mess/ die to yourself daily, crucify the flesh/ and conform to Christ’s image, until there is NONE of YOU left/ So that when communion comes, you can rightfully enjoy your “drink and your 2 step”/ (confession/repentance)

 So I’m pleading with the Church, let’s stay honest with ourselves/ Know that sin unaddressed just builds up like dust on your shelves/ 

You don’t know it’s happening, till someone comes and runs their fingers through it/ and when they kick up your dust, at that very moment you LOSE IT/ You SNAPPED and everyone who saw, thinks that it happened at the drop of a hat/ but we know it’s a different story if we rewind the tape back/

See sin doesn’t just pounce at first, it prowls and creeps/ and it waits to empty us out in those times when we prove to be weak/ and we are left like a flat tire… but AFTER a slow leak/

And Jesus said it the best, so allow me to quote He/ who told us that it is out of the abundance of our heart that the mouth THEN speaks/ 

But don’t we all like to cling to “God knows my heart, that’s what it’s all about”/ And “it’s whats on the inside that matters, that’s all that really counts?”/ and I agree…

But let me ask you…

If our words are the product of our hearts overstock, that have forced their way out/ Do you really want God to know your heart after what came out of your mouth?/ Think about it…

And let me make it plain son/ for every hurtful word you say there is PLENTY MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM/ I Said (repeat)

So how do we fix it? Our reaction is an attempt to try to clean up our actions, in hopes of portraying a better person/ but the moment we do this, we have just taken the proper sequence, and reversed it/

And it’s just like us, to submit to our sin and allow it to change the proper order of events/ we do it with most everything, just think of this in the pre-martial sense/

For those who get that, it might make you tense, but I’ll leave it because I’m after the bigger picture/ Plainly put, SIN is what leads us to think that we can be CHRISTIAN but live a life that is in blatant contradiction to the scriptures/ ITS SICKNESS

So if we can’t fix ourselves, then what on earth can we do?/ I mean Jesus even called religious people white washed tombs/  On the outside all glamour, but on the inside, nothing but doom/

He told us to wash our inner self, and then the outside would become clean/ And we say  “sure, but how to I wash what I can’t see?/

The answer is to not lean on your understanding of things/ but to trust in the Creator of all, to whom nothing is unseen/ 

So instead of seeking worldly remedies to cling to/ cling to Jesus… and let the Author of faith use His offer of grace to redeem you/  and then He’ll fill you with HIS Spirit in order to clean you/ and send you out into the world in order to advance his kingdom/

FULL surrender to Christ is the goal, but luke-warmness is a plague/ God demands that you go ALL IN or FOLD, the only way He accepts that your allegiance as pledged/

So you gotta pick a side, either a life of sin, or repentance/ but if you play the middle ground, just know that the devil owns that fence/ 

So don’t waste another second, run to Jesus like He was holding a stop watch/ cuz everyone of us has a final countdown and we don’t own that clock/

God can get His glory from showing us grace and perfect love, but also from wrath in perfect justice/ and He’ll decide how He get’s His glory from us when we face Him at Judgment/ 

and there is no way to avoid, having to give your life’s account/ so will you be welcomed with open arms? Or spit out of His mouth?/

So I thank God for Jesus, who for my sin paid the entire cost/ without His redemptive work, this sinner would be forever lost/ cuz like Piper said, every sin will be punished, either in hell or on the cross/