Jesus is neat, I am still a mess.

Jesus is neat, I am still a mess

We are BELIEVERS -
not fixers!

To be a Christian means to believe that there is something real about us beyond, and quite apart from, our experience.

in Christ

in the Spirit

in the heavenly places

Phil 3:3 for we …worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,

He has a passage like
Ephesians 4:30-32
in mind.

The really piercing part is the word “all”.

Can any of us honestly say that we have let ALL bitterness be put away from us?

There are these times in the journey where the Lord makes it clear to us…

… that it is time for the Spirit to deal decisively with something in our hearts.

When this work is going on, DO NOT LET anything start to get you all worked up about how rotten you are.

He will try to devour us in our own guilt and shame and fear and frustration and discouragement.

Visit EPH 4:25-31 again tonight with a totally different perspective.

Why would Paul have to tell the saints who are at Ephesus to lay aside falsehood?

We have angry people here, and because of things like that they are giving the devil lots of opportunities.

It’s not only that they were still capable of stealing….but also they were actually still stealing!

Jesus is neat, I am a mess.

Yes, the Ephesians were still immoral, still greedy, still engaging in filthy and silly talk, coarse jesting.

Their lives were still … a MESS.

That is what we find across the board in the New Testament churches.

They still look pretty messy in their actual, on the ground, daily living experience.

Most of us probably think of the Philippian church as that great church, very mature, very spiritual and so on.
 

READ BETWEEN THE LINES!!