[00:00:00] Well, hey, friends, welcome to today's weekday podcast. We love getting to do these. If there's ever anything that we can join you in praying for, drop us a
[email protected] now, today I want to invite you to Honest Planet. Be honest. When you've got a dentist appointment in the morning, what do you do the night before?
[00:00:17] You floss like it's your job. You're in there for 10 minutes, working every single tooth, maybe drawing a little blood, trying to undo six months of neglect in one heroic evening.
[00:00:28] Then you sit down in the chair and the hygienist takes one look and says, so how often are we flossing? She knows. She always knows. We laugh, but a lot of us approach God exactly the same way. We try to clean up right before we show up. We get that attitude in line, we pray a little extra, and we make ourselves presentable, hoping he won't notice the last six months. Here's the thing. God doesn't need us to look clean. He wants us to be honest. Paul says something in first Corinthians that has made a lot of sincere people nervous. He says this in 1 Corinthians 11, 27 and 28. He says, Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in doing so, he is to eat the bread and drink the cup. Now, if you grew up in church, you may have heard that verse read right before communion. Thought, well, that settles it. I'm not worthy. I'd better just pass on it this time. But when you look at Paul's words, he doesn't say, whoever is unworthy. He says, whoever eats in an unworthy manner. That isn't about who you are, it's about how you come. And honestly, none of us is worthy on our own. That's the whole point of the table of the Lord. The bread and the cup exist because we couldn't clean ourselves up. The Corinthians problem wasn't that they were sinners. Their problem was that they came carelessly. They ate as if poor people in the room didn't matter, and the cross was just another dinner.
[00:02:00] They were pretending everything was fine, pretending their divisions didn't count, pretending they didn't need anything. So Paul's answer isn't stay away. It's examine yourself and in so doing, eat. Look honestly. Then come the examination isn't the exit, it's the doorway. So here's the line for today. Come clean doesn't mean come perfect. It means to come honest. John puts it this way. In First John, chapter one, he says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Confession isn't a performance for God. It's agreeing with him about what he already sees and. And then letting him do the cleaning. So here's two moves at the table. Take one breath and name it in one honest sentence. Lord, I've been holding on to anger, or I've been running from you or God, I. I've got some bitterness inside of me. You don't need a speech. You just need to stop pretending. And maybe this week, if there's a broken relationship in your life, take a first step towards it. Maybe it's somebody you've avoided or somebody you owe an apology.
[00:03:06] You don't have to fix the whole thing. Just make a start. A text, a call.
[00:03:10] Can we talk?
[00:03:11] You don't have to scrub your life clean before you come to God. Come honest, and let him do what only he can do, coming clean. It doesn't mean come perfect. It means come honest. And tomorrow, man, I want to invite you back. What to do when you take the bread and the cup and you feel nothing. We'll see you tomorrow. Have a great day.
