Ephesians 5:27
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
A Church without lust (continuation)
Pride of life
This is one of the lust that the church must avoid. It is a killer of destiny. Pride is the quality or state of being proud; inordinate self-esteem; an unreasonable conceit of one's own superiority in talents, beauty, wealth, rank, etc. The pride of life is the desire to show self, display arrogance, do whatever it is to make you be seen as higher than others.
Lucifer was destined to be great but the pride of life killed his destiny and he became satan.
Isaiah 14:12-13
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
Pride of life has eaten deep into the church. The devil has strategically placed it for us to walk in it without knowing. He did it for Jesus (Mathew 4:1-11), by asking him to show his power by jumping from the top of the mountain. What will that contribute to God's purpose for the life of Jesus?
Today the love of the world has eaten deep into Christians that they are most interested in earthly glory for personal gratification. Sin abounds in personal gratification- self-centeredness, egoism, lies, deceit, hatred. Let us avoid being deceived by the devil to give in to the pride of life. All that is in this world is vanity, do not allow the personal glory of a few minutes, hours, days, months, or years deprive you of eternal glory.
Declaration/Prayer
I submit to the love of God that I may be free from the love of the world. Holy Spirit purge my heart that I may be free from the pride of life. Let me at every point in time take the right decision that will push me unto eternal glory rather than personal glory.
At the beginning of our discussion on this topic, it was said that without spot or wrinkle means PURE. Only the Church that is PURE...is worthy to be Christ bride for presentation to the father.
We went further to describe the pure church:
A church...
• Without disunity
• Without disorderliness
• without self-centeredness
• without lust
• without arrogance
• without thieves
• without liars
• without idolatry
• without flesh...
We have since discussed disunity, disorderliness, and lust. To further our discussion we shall be looking at A CHURCH WITHOUT IDOLATRY.
Exodus 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
It is very easy to call those that are worshipping other gods idol worshippers, but the truth is that idolatry has entered the church. It may be debated but our understanding of the truth about idolatry will help us to see.
What is an idol?
1. A picture or object that people pray to as part of their religion.
2. A thing, person, item, that is put in the place of God.
3. Anything that appeals to one's heart more than God does.
4. Anything that takes a significant amount of our time leaving us with little or no time to spend with God.
What is idolatry? It is the worship of an idol.
Anything in our life that falls into these four definition is an idol. We need to check our self, our mode of worship, our denomination doctrines and belief system, and our relationship to be sure we are not involved in idolatry.
We need to ask God to open our eyes to see clearly whatever idols we have in our life because the devil has successfully made graven images to be part of our worship as Christians (or denominations).
Declaration/Prayers:
Father help us to look inward, help us to see every form of idolatry in us that has stained and wrinkle our garment so that we can make amend in Jesus name.
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