Spiritual Cleansing - Who Needs It?

Luke 15:8-10

Luke 15:8 - 10 8Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?

9And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.

10Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

INTRO: What a great descriptive story the Lord has given us about gaining revival. Better yet, finding revival. Now, I know we might not like to think of revival as something we can luck on to. But, this is more than just lucking onto something! This is about deliberately looking and seeking out what God has for us spiritually.

When we study this passage of scripture, we can ask the question, "How many of us have all the coins that God gave us?" I want to look at cleansing our lives during the two Sundays. Today I want to look at "who Needs Spiritual Cleansing?"

It has been suggested by some commentators that the headdress of a married woman was ten silver coins linked by a silver chain. If this be the case of the woman who is the subject of this story, then it would be quite easy to understand why she would miss the coin. On the other hand, we are not to understand that the woman was wealthy.- [This paragraph is from the New Commentary of the Whole Bible]

First, just to give it some thought, let us consider the…

TEN COINS: JUST AS EXAMPLES what could they be in our lives that would be worth spending time to regain them.

1. Prayer

2. Bible reading and study

3. Assembling for worship

4. Love for the Brethren

5. Love for the lost or a sense of urgency

6. Holy living or a godly example

7. Godly witness

8. Godly giving

9. Giving Him praise

10. Love for God above all others!

How precious are these to you? Do you still have these in your hand?

Would you miss them if you lost any of these things?

I know there are others I could have used, but these are on my list.

  

Okay, if we are going to receive or gain spiritual blessing, what do we do?

Examine our Spiritual Wealth

We need to look at our:

Standards in OUR lives

Do we still see sin or just misdeeds, mishaps, etc. ?

Do we still hold to BIBLICAL standards?

Do we have standards or do we use other peoples?

And our…

Service for the Lord

Same level of that we used to have?

Same desire we used to have

 

And look at…

Self

Not what others have or don't have, but what we have.

Not what others CAN have, but what you, yourself can have

Not what others need, but what you need!

Just like the lady of the house did, we need to…

Enlist some means to regain our loss or lessening for Him

She did the following:

Shed light on the problem/loss - Lit a candle

Swept house - clean out that sinful attitudes, etc.

Sought diligently - look for the item that Gods want you to have, don't give up.

  

And last, we need to…

Exhort those around us to be thankful and "cleaner" for God

Search - By all means don't give up FIND the lost "coin"

Speak to friends - tell of the joy that comes with regaining what you had lost!

Sing His praises - Take part in the rejoicing with angels

Rejoice! "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say rejoice!" - Phil. 4:4

 Yes, I have some things in my life that I need to regain that I might have the Spiritual Cleansing that the Lord wants in my life!

 

Gary Marcum - New Beginnings Church - 091706am - first used 040697am