Time to Clean House | Jesus Can Sort It Out

Hey, everybody. You're listening to A New Beginning, which is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners. If this program has impacted you, I'd love to hear from you. So just send an email to me at gregatharvest.org. Again, it's gregatharvest.org.

You can learn more about becoming a Harvest Partner by going to harvest.org. And don't forget to sign up again. The second law of thermodynamics says things tend toward disorder. As time goes on, things fall apart.

When it comes to our homes, a clean room never stays that way for long. And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out there's a spiritual parallel. Our Christian lives can get messy and out of sorts, but we learn Jesus can come and sort it out if we let him. Pastor Greg urges us to open the door and let Jesus have access to every room of our spiritual house. Let's grab our Bibles. John chapter two is our text. We're in a brand new series that's called The Seven Signs of Jesus.

And the title of this message is Time to Clean House. I'm reading from the New Living Translation starting in verse 13. It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices.

He also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. So Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the temple. He drove out the sheep and the cattle, scattered the money changers' coins over the floor, and he turned over the tables. Then going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, get these things out of here, stop turning my father's house into a marketplace.

Okay, we'll stop there. So Jesus and his disciples are headed into Jerusalem. It's Passover time.

That was when friends and family would gather, kind of a happy time, maybe a sense of joy in the air. And now all of a sudden Jesus is getting irritated. He's hot and bothered. He walks into the temple, and what does he see?

He sees this outer area known as the Court of the Gentiles filled with all of these tables with these money changers. Now what is this all about? These are people that stepped in and said to you, you come in with your little lamb. It's all you could afford. It's unblemished.

It meets the criteria. The money changer says, I'm sorry, but this lamb does not pass muster. But we're having a deal on temple-approved lambs that you can buy for a jacked up price, and so you would pay it because you wanted to approach God. And in fact, even in the old covenant, before Christ came and died on the cross for our sins, establishing the new covenant, God welcomed non-Jews to believe.

You could still believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So the Court of the Gentiles was for those folks, but as they're trying to get in to approach God, they have this barrier put in front of them, and this made Jesus angry, bringing me to point number one of your taking notes. There are things that make God angry. There are things that make God angry. This perverting of His purpose was something that clearly made Jesus angry.

When He's angry, it's for a reason. It's righteous indignation. You almost wonder if the disciples were a bit embarrassed, like, really, Lord, seriously? You're doing this?

Yes, I'm doing this. But then they remembered Psalm 69, verse 17 of John 2. His disciples remembered it was written, zeal for your house will consume me.

That brings me to point number two. God cares about His house. God cares about His house.

He likes to maintain it, and He likes to keep it clean, and He will not tolerate evil. And so here's the problem with these money changers. Instead of praying for the people, they were praying on the people, right? They weren't praying for them. They weren't calling them to God. They were actually keeping them away from God, bringing me to point number three. God gets angry when people are kept from coming to Him.

God is angry when people are kept from coming to Him. Oh, this can happen in the church as well. You know, a non-believer comes and joins us, and they look a little different.

And we make a judgment on them by the way they dress or something about them. Oh, they're one of those, are they? Well, maybe they are, maybe they aren't, but they're loved by God. And aren't you glad they're here to hear the gospel? Why does the church exist? There's three reasons the church exists. The exaltation of God, the edification of the saints, and the evangelization of the world. So when we gather together as believers, we're here to glorify God, to lift up the name of the Lord. We do that in worship. But now we're here for the edification of the saints. Edification means to build up one another. So when we study the Word of God, we're being edified or built up. But listen, we also are here for the evangelization of the world.

I'm glad when people who don't think like us or look like us or live like us come and join us, because my prayer is they will become one of us through faith in Jesus Christ. Imagine being sick and going to the emergency room at the hospital. You're saying, why are all these sick people here? This is gross.

Excuse me. It's a hospital. It's where you go when you're sick so you can wait for five hours and then pay for it for five years afterwards.

But no, you go to get better. That's what a hospital's for. That's what the church is for. We're here to bring people to God. As they've said before, I don't know the original source on this, but it's a good line, the church should not be a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners. That was really the brilliance of Pastor Chuck Smith.

You know, Chuck left his comfort zone and opened his heart and opened the doors of his church to people that were not like him. Sometimes people say, well, who are the hippies of today? Well, they're probably hippies still.

I don't know. There are people that are still hippies. It wasn't about reaching hippies. It was about reaching young people.

It was really about reaching all people, but the last great awakening was an awakening among younger people. And not everybody had long hair. There were older folks that were businessmen. There were little old ladies that were students. Some people were preppy. Some people were hippie.

It didn't really matter. It was just people coming to Christ. So what is it today? It's just reaching our culture.

It's finding ways to connect with them and communicate with them in a language they understand. So you might ask, what does Jesus cleansing the temple have to do with me right here, right now? Well, number one, the temple is not the church.

Let me restate that. The church is not the temple. Sometimes we say the church is a sacred building. So when you walk in, don't speak loudly.

Whisper. We're at the church. Don't laugh. Don't laugh. You're in the church.

Come on. This is just a building. This is not the church. You're the church. I'm the church. Wherever we gather together, that's a church.

If we're in a stadium, if we're in a movie theater, if we're at a beach, wherever we are, worshiping God, honoring God, that's the church, right? But you, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Bible actually teaches this. First Corinthians 6 19, don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, who you have received from God. You're not your own.

You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body. Your body, my body, is the temple of the Spirit. And sometimes God wants to do a little temple cleansing. Sometimes the Lord will come into your heart and life and say, this needs to go. That needs to change.

This needs to be looked at in a new way. That sin needs to be confronted. That vice needs to be repented of. Even your mind needs to be clean.

You need to have a mind that's in alignment with what God wants you to have and as scripture says, bringing every thought into the captivity of the obedience of Jesus Christ. Jesus wants the master key to every lock. He wants the password to everything so he can just have access. See, my wife has all my passwords. And this sometimes is a bit of a problem, I have to say, because sometimes I'm talking to somebody, you know, I'm thinking of getting this new part for my motorcycle. Yeah, I know where you can get that.

And then I come downstairs, Kathy says, what are you getting for your motorcycle now? How'd you know that? I'm just reading your text. Oh, great. But seriously, though, she can read and does read. She goes, I like to just know what you're up to and I find out so much by reading your text and your emails. Great.

She has that. And that's important in a marriage to have trust. Unless it's about motorcycle parts, you know, then it's, I don't know. But the point is, Jesus Christ may come into your heart and life and say, I want a clean house. There's a mess here. There's clutter there. There's an unconfessed sin over in this area.

Let me have access. And sometimes we're afraid. And my question to you is, why? Why?

Are you afraid he's going to take away something you don't want to let go of? Let me illustrate. Let's just say you're sitting at home and you get a knock on the door. You open it up and there stands Jesus.

Jesus Christ. Hi, I stand at the door and knock, he says. If you hear my voice and open the door, I'll come in. Jesus, I can't believe you're at my house. Come in. By the way, you don't look like Jonathan Rumi on The Chosen.

He's an actor. I'm actually Jesus. Yes, come in. Have a seat, Lord. Wow. Good to have you here. Um, you hungry?

Yeah. The Lord says, I'm hungry. Let me get you something.

So you run in the kitchen, you open up your fridge. Where do I feed Jesus? I didn't know he was coming. I can't give him those deviled eggs. It would just be inappropriate. The devil's food cake.

That's out too. Wait, angel food cake. Maybe all of a sudden you hear a lot of noise in your front room. What is going on? You walk out. Jesus has the front door of your house open and he just picked up your couch and threw it on the front lawn. Lord, I bought that at Sears. I can't get another one.

Sears isn't around anymore. He's taking your wall coverings down. He's throwing your macrame plant holders away. Lord, don't throw that away. He's ripping up your carpet, Lord. That's green shag. That's collectible now.

I bought it in the 70s. He's ripping it up. Everything goes out the front door and you're thinking, wait a second. I didn't sign up for this.

This doesn't make sense to me. I asked Jesus to come into my house and he throws everything away. He says, would you stand back for a moment?

Okay. He lets out a loud whistle. A big moving van backs up into your driveway. On the side of the moving van, it says, Father and Son Moving Company.

Bring it in, boys. Brand new carpet is laid down. That's really nice. That's nice.

Puts up new wall covering. Oh, I like the combination. Are you a designer? Jesus says, yeah.

Pretty good at this. Just let me do my thing. New beautiful paintings, photographs on your wall. New fixtures. Everything's updated. Everything's better.

And suddenly it dawns on you. Jesus only got rid of the old stuff to replace it with something far better. Right? Don't be afraid to give him the master key. Don't be afraid to give him your password, if you will, because he will clean house in the best way imaginable.

You know, and we need periodic house cleanings. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. I'm glad you've joined us for Pastor Greg's message today called Time to Clean House. Let's continue.

One final movement to this story, and I find it really interesting. Look at John 2, verse 23. I'm reading now from the New King James Version. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name. Underline that phrase. Many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did, but Jesus did not commit himself to them.

Underline that too. Because he knew all men and had no need that anyone should testify of men, for he knew what was in man. Wow. Many believed in his name when they saw the signs he did. What signs did they see?

At this point, water being turned to wine. They had seen him cleanse the temple. These were significant signs. They were very impressed, and they believed, right?

Well, maybe not. Because it says Jesus did not commit himself to them. See, here's the thing with Jesus. He knew all things. So you might almost translate this verse, they believed in him, but he didn't believe in them. Or they trusted in him, but he didn't trust in them.

Why? Because he knows all things. You see, but wait, I thought God welcomed all people. Doesn't want everyone, God want everyone to believe?

Yes, if they come with the right motives. But these people saw the signs, but the problem was their faith was superficial, and it was hollow, and he could look right through them. He was always looking through people. In fact, when Jesus called Matthew, I mentioned Matthew earlier, he says to Matthew, follow me, and the actual verse says, he looked at Matthew, and that phrase, looked at, could be translated, he looked right through Matthew. Looked right through him. Have you ever had anyone look right through you?

Let me restate the question. Do you have a mother? Maybe when you were a teenager, you're out a little bit late, and your mother says, where have you been?

Nowhere, mom. Look at me, she says. And you just started confessing everything. You confess things you didn't even do, right? Jesus could look right through people. He knew the back story. He knew the thoughts.

He would call people out periodically. Why are you thinking this in your heart? How do you know that? Because he was God, he was omniscient, and he knew all things, and he saw that these people who thought they believed in him really did not at all. Bringing me to my next point, Jesus knows everything about you.

Let me add one thing to that. Jesus knows everything about you, but yet he still loves you. No one knows how dark your heart is except you. No one knows how dark my heart is except me. The Bible says the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things who can know it. That's why we shouldn't walk around saying, I'm just trusting my heart. The heart wants what it wants. Yeah, don't trust your heart.

Your heart can get you into trouble, you see. God sees through you, but yet he loves you because even though you're a sinner, he also knows if you're a seeker. Those that seek him will find him.

Here's a great illustration. John 2 ends with many believed, but Jesus did not commit himself to them. Then John 3 opens with the words, now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus. And then it goes on to tell the story of Jesus and Nicodemus, that religious leader who wanted to know Jesus, who ended up becoming a believer. So these people didn't really believe, and so he didn't commit himself to them, but then there's this guy named Nicodemus that showed up, and he did believe, and Jesus revealed himself to him. God will reveal himself to any true seeker.

That's my last point. Jesus will always reveal himself to the true seeker. And sometimes they'll say, you know what, prove it to me. Show me and I'll believe.

And effectively Jesus would say, believe and I'll show you. Come with as much faith as you have, and let me change your life. Maybe you've tried to clean up your life.

You've thought, you know what, my life's a mess. And I'm going to become a Christian. I'm in the process of converting. I'm going to cuss a little bit less, be a little less angry, do a little less of that.

Yeah, but that's not conversion. See, you don't clean up your life and come to Christ. You come to Christ and he'll clean your life up. Have you ever had a really stubborn stain in a shirt or a blouse?

You tried to get it out, nothing worked? What do you need to do? We need to take it to a professional, take it to the cleaners, right? And sometimes there are things in our life we just can't fix and we say, Lord, help me.

Only you can clean this. Only you can change that. Only you can work in my life supernaturally and I'm asking you to do it. And we're going to close in a moment asking God to help because there are some people here that are struggling in life. Maybe you're struggling with some kind of an addiction, an addiction to drugs, an addiction to alcohol, an addiction to pornography, an addiction to something else, gambling.

I don't know what it is, but it's something that's got a hold of you and you can't break hold of it. And there's others here that are saying, I've done these things I'm so ashamed of and I don't think I can ever be free of the guilt I carry because of what I've done. God can change the whole narrative for you right now. But you need to say, Lord, clean house. You have to invite him.

He won't force his way in. You have to say, Lord, clean me, cleanse me, fill me, use me, change me. I give you permission.

I want you to come and do this for me. But before we pray about that together, I want to just close with this thought, which is simply if you've joined us today and you are not yet a Christian. And by a Christian, I mean someone who has Christ living inside of them. You might say, well, I think I'm a Christian.

Hey, if you're a Christian, you'll know. If God Almighty has taken residence in your heart, you'll know he's there. And if you don't know he's there, maybe he isn't.

But he can be. Going back to that verse I quoted earlier, Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and I knock. And if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. Only you can open the door of your life to Jesus. He won't force his way in. He won't kick the door in. He could if he wanted to, but he won't. He wants you to want him.

Do you want him? Do you want his forgiveness? I mentioned this peace that God can give. I mentioned this joy that Christians experience. I touched on the hope that we have as followers of Christ. He can give you all of this and more. And the certainty that when you die, you will go to heaven.

It's really up to you. Only you can open that door. I would like to extend an invitation to anyone here who is not sure if Christ is living in them to invite him in.

Let's all bow our heads. Father, thank you for your word to us. Thank you for your love for us. And now we pray for any here that have joined us or are watching who do not yet know you. Help them to see their need for you.

Help them to come to you and find your forgiveness. And now we ask. Amen. An important prayer from Pastor Greg Laurie with those who know they need to make a change today in their relationship with the Lord. And if you'd like to make that kind of change, Pastor Greg will come back to help you do that before today's edition of A New Beginning concludes. And then Pastor Greg, we have a special guest here today. So I'm here with Shannon Breen talking about her new book, The Love Stories of the Bible Speak. And Shannon, you write chapters on Adam and Eve, on Samson and Delilah, David and Abigail, and Jonathan and David.

Now that was really a friendship for the ages. Because you stop and think about the fact that in effect, David took the place of Jonathan. Jonathan was the prince. He was the rightful heir to the throne of King Saul. But Jonathan saw that David was God's man. And he did everything he could to help his very close friend.

Talk about how unique that friendship was and maybe what principles we can take from that for our own friendships. Well, they pledged repeatedly this commitment to each other. And as you said, Jonathan would have been next in line, most people would think, to King Saul.

And yet he never was clawing or fighting for that. He knew that David was the anointed, the next one. So as much as King Saul was threatened by David and spent years trying to track him down and kill him, threw spears at him, sent him into dangerous situations hoping he would be killed, Jonathan almost refused to believe at some point.

Certainly my father would not be doing that to you. But I think he came to understand that David was very much under threat from Saul. And he cast his lot with David.

He said that is the way to go. So they pledged to each other. Jonathan did as much as he could to protect David when he was on the run from Saul. And what I love is this long-term commitment that they had that it was even after Jonathan's death which broke David's heart. He was committed to Jonathan's family because normally in those days when a king was deposed and there's a new guy, that family would be wiped out.

You didn't want any lineage hanging around from that time. But David wasn't about that. He actually treated King Saul and Jonathan's descendants with respect to the point where he at one point says, is there anyone left from Jonathan's household that I could help? And he sends for word and finds out that this young son of Jonathan's who was injured when they were on the run away from potentially being killed themselves, Mephibosheth, and he was lame, that he still existed. And so it must have been a fearful time for them to hide out not knowing if the new King David would wipe them out as had been the policy.

But instead, David remembers this covenant he had with his heart and soul friend Jonathan and calls for Mephibosheth to be back and eat his table as one of his sons and to restore the land that had been Saul's and that would have been for him and gave him workers to actually work the land so that Mephibosheth would be an honored member of the kingdom. And that to me just said so much about these two and their pledge to always put each other above anyone else and any other commitment short of the Lord. Excellent. So Shannon Bream has written a brand new book called The Love Stories of the Bible Speak, biblical lessons on romance, friendship, and faith. And we're making it available to you for your gift of any size this month.

Yeah, that's right. And we hope you'll get in touch for your copy right away. We're making the book available to thank you for partnering with us so these daily studies in God's Word can continue.

Would you let us send you The Love Stories of the Bible Speak? Just ask for it when you call 1-800-821-3300. That's our 24-7 phone number, 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514.

Or just go online to Harvest.org. Well, Pastor Greg, a few moments ago you spoke of the need to get our hearts right with God. Could you help someone who wants to do that right now?

Yes, I'd be delighted to. Listen, as you've listened to this program today, maybe something's been happening inside of your heart where you're sensing, I need to do this personally, but how do I do it and what do I do? Let me help you. It's very simple.

In fact, it's so simple you may be shocked. God, this relationship with Him is just a prayer away. The Bible says if you will call upon the name of the Lord, you'll be saved. So I'd like to lead you in a prayer where you do just that. You call on the name of the Lord. This can be the moment where you change your eternal address literally from hell to heaven. Just pray these words. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that You're the Savior who died on the cross for me and rose again from the dead. Jesus, I choose to follow You from this moment forward. In Your name I pray. Amen.

I know. It's such a simple, short prayer, but you just called on the name of the Lord, and you know what? He heard that prayer, and if you meant that prayer in your heart, He answered that prayer. Now let me help you to get started on the right foot in your new life in Jesus Christ. The greatest adventure awaits you, the life of walking with God. I want to send you what we call a New Believers' Growth Pack that includes the New Believers' Bible and a whole lot more.

And let me be the first to say to you congratulations and welcome to the family of God. Yeah, and to get that free New Believers' Growth Pack, just ask for it if you prayed along with Pastor Greg to receive Christ today. We'll be glad to send one on its way to you free of charge. Just call us at 1-800-821-3300.

That's a 24-7 phone number, 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. Well, next time, as we consider the feeding of the 5,000, Pastor Greg shows us how we can trust God's faithfulness even when the future looks bleak. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins The preceding podcast was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. To learn how to become a Harvest Partner, sign up for daily devotions and find resources to help you grow in your faith at harvest.org.