I knew about this day for quite a while now, but it seemed like I couldn't figure out what I was going to teach about. So one evening, I was sitting at my boyfriend’s at the time and asked the boys what I should teach about. I walked over to the counter and saw a plaque that he earned. Now I've read this plaque I don't knowhow many times, but this time it read completely different. And on the plaque, the award is for being the "Man/Person In The Arena".
So, my question to you today is "Where's Your Dirt?"
So when you think of something that's dirty, you think of something messed up and smelly. (Furniture, clothes, dishes, kids that smell out like "outside")
Not only are those things true, but things that are dirty are also things that are shown to be valuable, useful, a sign of potential success.
(example) A clean jersey in a championship game
Yeah, your team may have won and you got the ring, but did you earn it? Did you put forth the effort to get in the game?
What if I told you that we were created for the dirt. For its in the dirt that life begins and miracles happen
Adam and Eve - Came from dirt
Blind man - Spit in the dirt
Woman at the well - wrote in the dirt
People that garden are on their hands and knees in the dirt and in the mud, to create the beauty of their garden. They have to get their hands and their clothes dirty to bring forth the life that they're working to create.
1 Corinthians 3:6-8
6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
While the planting may be the lesser of the job, how can God water if there’s nothing to plant?
We want to be these dynamic people of God that draws the multitudes, but we only want to “rub shoulders with our kind”. We treat Christianity like it’s this exclusive club of socialites, and then we wonder why the church won’t grow.
We're a people that admire and pick fun at (guilty a charged) the people that peach on the corners or go to the bars to convert people, but then we wonder how some of the people that were converted out of those bars became that way.
Not saying that being out on the corner and in the bar and in prison is for everybody, I believe that there are people that have been given that calling. But it’s the Holy Boldness that they have that we all need to develop.
We’re in a society where the church is constantly scrutinized and made out to be weak (movies, tv shows) and hyper critical (radial “christians”) to the point where people are turning away from the church in droves. I know what the Word says about the last days and how people will be lovers of their own selves
2 Timothy 3:1-7
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
but instead of going out to combat the issue, we sit in our 4 walls and critique and talk about what a shame it is at the affairs of the world.
Instead of being a catalyst for change, we’ve become mere spectators. Bystander apathy is the Psychological term. When multiple people see what’s going on, but assume that someone else is going to make the 911 call, or don’t call because they don’t want to “get in the middle”. But isn’t that our charge?
Matthew 10: 5-8
5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
The sick, dead, and lost are the dirty. And in order to reach them, we have to get down to where they are. We can’t be so concerned about our own reputation, that we forgo our purpose. We want the “washed whiter than snow” to be now instead of how the Word promises it to be, which is in heaven.
(Overcome by the Blood of the lamb and by the Word of our testimony)
What do you think your testimony is?
You can't overcome if you can't endure/go through
(And when thou are converted, strengthen your brethren)
Our drawing power is our experience. The things we hide from, the things we try to ignore don't exist, the things that changed who we are.
But we want to lock it away into the trap doors and smoke mirrors of our heart, so we can clean up like the church elders with our pristine white suits.
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