1. Be Real

In this week’s teaching we learned about how Jesus offers us “A New Way to Be Clean”. Many of us walk with a feeling of being unclean before God, even if we have put our faith in him. Many of us try to deal with this feeling by “cleaning ourselves up” for God. Yet without Jesus, sin makes us leaves us impure, and only he can clean us up.

• When you approach God, do you feel clean? If not, is it because of something you’ve done, or what’s been done to you or around you?

• Jesus calls the Pharisees “white-washed tombs”, saying they clean the outside but are dead on the inside. How do pride and self-righteousness play a role in how you view cleanliness compared to others?

2. Grow Together

Cleanliness matters, both to God and his people
An enormous amount (too much to list) of the Old Testament way of living and worshiping focused on being “clean” before God. God wants his people “clean,” and God’s people long for the same.

The way God views cleanliness is not, “you’re disgusting, I can’t stand you, wash up and we’ll give it a shot” but rather, “This is how you get to know me, experience me, become like me. What you were made for.” Read these scriptures about how cleanliness matters to God and his people:

Psalm 51:7 (David longing and asking for forgiveness)

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow.

Isaiah 1:18 (God desiring to cleanse his people)

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they
shall become like wool.

Does being clean before God matter to you?

How do you think God approaches you? If you’ve put your faith in Jesus, does you believe he sees you as clean?

Because of Jesus…
We can be clean from our sins and the sins of others through confession, forgiveness, and restoration. Read these scriptures about how Jesus makes it possible for us to be clean:

Hebrews 9:14

How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Hebrews 10:22

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

1 John 1:7-9

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin…If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

What ways have you been “unclean”, either now or in the past? Do you trust that Jesus’ work can make you clean?

3. Next Steps

Have you taken your uncleanliness to God and asked him to forgive and/or cleanse you?

What is your next step? Do you have sin you need to confess and repent for? If you are you facing anger or shame from sin done to you or around you, can you bring that to God today?