I made time for Church again this weekend.
It was part of my New Year’s Resolution, so I was quite determined to go.
The message is part of a series – “New Year, New You” and this weekend was the 2nd part of the message.
The message was “Aligning your inner self” adapted from the verses Matthew 23: 25-26.
25“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
1. Confront our inner self
The Pharisees focused on cleaning the outside, demonstrated the fulfillment of the law, exaggerated their piety, self righteousness, became too legalistic, and their hearts become corrupted.
To confront our inner self, we would have to ask ourselves some hard questions to understand why do we do what we do?
a. Who owns you?
b. What are our motivations?
c. When we strip away our spirituality what are we left with?
d. Not just our sins, but why we sin?
Galatians 5. 17
7For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
Apparently, the heart of men tends to evil. I’m not totally agreeable with that phrase by the Pastor, and his evidence from the bible, because I still believe the Confucius saying “人之初，性本善“. This essentially says that men is inherently kind.
Anyhow, the key take away is that God is more interested in the inside than the outside.When we take care of our inner self, it will manifest itself on the outside.
2. Cleanse our inside
Let God rearrange our priorities by align our life to Christ. acknowledging Christ’s Lordship over us. We would have to. Avoid contamination. If you are in Christ, you are in life. If you are not in Christ, you are not in life.
Therefore, on a final note, it was to tell us to first clean the inside.
And, cleaning the inside is something that is impossible without the work of Christ.
Hence, dear friends, pray and be in Christ – let him take over whatever we do.