-MOOCTOBER 22, 1976DFO No.566

—Or the Ministry of Sanctification!

Copyrighted January 1977 by the Children Of God

1. I AM A SAINT!—A SINNING SAINT, because we're all Saints but still sin sometimes, because we're not yet perfect. Everyone who believes in Jesus is a Saint. "Saint" comes from the same root word as "Sanctified". Most of us think that means to be made permanently holy, but it really means merely to be cleansed and separated and set aside for future use.

2. MAYBE THIS WILL HELP YOU FOLKS THAT WASH THE DISHES EVERY NIGHT. DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING?—YOU'RE SANCTIFYING THE DISHES! First you sanctify it, then what do you do with it? Do you put it back with the dirty dishes in the sink? No, you set it over here with the clean ones, right? You don't put it back in the dirty sink with the other dirty dishes, you set it aside.

3. THAT'S WHAT "SANCTIFIED" MEANS. You pull out and wash a dirty dish, you sanctify one and get it aside and future use. So maybe that will encourage you in your dishwashing to realise that you are performing a "Ministry of Sanctification"!

4. WHO'D LIKE TO SANCTIFY THE DISHES TONIGHT? Have you the Ministry of Sanctification? On the wall on your work schedule you can put for dishwashing: "The Ministry of Sanctification". Who's on for tonight's "Ministry of Sanctification"? That's what it means!

5. THAT'S THE WAY JESUS DOES WITH YOU: He takes you, dirty as you are with sin, and he washes you with His blood and the water of His Word. He washes away your sins with His blood and your evil thoughts with His Word, and He gets you all nice and clean and sets you aside over here—for what?

6. WHY DO YOU WASH THE DISHES ANYWAY? Why don't you just throw them out in the garbage? You wash them to use again, right? They're set aside for use so they can be used.

7. THAT'S WHAT GOD'S DONE WITH YOU: He washed you, cleansed you and set you aside for His use, whatever use that He sees fit to make of you, amen? Now there's a thought:

8. WHEN YOU USE THE DISH AGAIN WHAT DO YOU DO?—YOU GET IT DIRTY AGAIN! But some people, some Christians, they want to be like this: "Ah, now I'm all nice and clean! I want God to set me aside on a nice beautiful shelf and never get me dirty anymore. I want to stay clean forever and never get dirty anymore. I don't want to get down on that dirty table and have all that dirty food put on me for somebody to eat! I just want to stay nice and clean up here on the pretty shelf for a decoration‚ not for use!"

9. MOST CHURCH PEOPLE JUST WANT TO BE A DECORATION. Most Christians pride themselves on how nice and clean and pretty they are and they just want to be a decoration—they don't want to be useful, they don't want to be used.

10. "OH GOODNESS, IF GOD USES ME I MIGHT GET DIRTY!" are you getting the point? Every time you go down to the club and have to witness and sit with sinners and mingle with the world‚ you have to be there, you've got to go down there like into the garbage pail to retrieve them.

11. SAVING SOULS IS SORT OF LIKE GOING DOWN INTO THE DIRTY DISHWATER, TO WASH AND PULL THEM OUT AGAIN. Every time you stick your hand back down into the dirty dishwater to wash a dish, what do you do?—You get dirty again! I don't know how you wash dishes but this is the way I used to wash dishes: I put the soapy water in the sink and I put all the dirty dishes into it, then I had to stick my hand into that dirty water to pull out each dish and clean it off and rinse it off in real clean water and set it aside.

12. DO YOU GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY DOING THE DISHES? OF COURSE! That's what you're doing down there in the club, that's sort of in a way our dishpan full of dirty dishes, and we have to go down there and get our hands dirty to take those dirty dishes out of the dirty water, wash them, clean them and set them aside, right? So that ought to help you while you're doing dishes. Amen?

13. THAT'S REALLY AN ILLUSTRATION OF WHAT YOU'RE DOING EVERY NIGHT AT THE CLUBS: We're trying to retrieve those dishes out of the dirty water and cleanse them, make them clean, wash them in Jesus' blood and the pure water of God's Word and set them aside for His use, amen?

14. BUT TO MAKE THEM CLEAN, YOU HAVE TO GET A LITTLE DIRTY, did you ever think about that? To make this yard so nice and clean and so pretty and neat you boys had to go out there and get dirty, right? To make the house so nice and clean and look so nice, what happens? You women have to sweat and toil and work hard and get dirty. Jesus' enemies said of Him as He hung on the cross:

15. "HE SAVED OTHERS, HIMSELF HE COULD NOT SAVE!" (Mat.27:42.) To make you clean‚ Jesus had to get dirty‚ did you know that? He had to bear your sins on the cross. He had to get dirty with your dirt on the cross. Maybe if I put it that way it will sink in‚ it really means.

16. WE'VE ALWAYS GOT THIS BEAUTIFUL PICTURE OF JESUS HANGING ON THE CROSS, such nice pretty art‚ it's so beautiful!—But we don't really see the pain, we don't see the dirt of our sins there on His hands, right? We don't really see the agony. We've gotten so used to looking at crucifixes we don't even know what they mean anymore, you know?

17. YOU CAN'T REALLY FEEL THE SUFFERING, YOU DON'T SEE THE DIRT OF YOUR SINS ON HIM AS HE DIES. But Jesus had to get dirty to make you clean. That's the truth! That's the Bible! "He bore your sins in His own body on the tree." (1Pet.2:24.)—God's Word says so!—And it says it time and time again!

18. HE HAD YOUR SINS ON HIM WHEN HE DIED! He had to let God turn His back on Him, He had to even think that God had forsaken Him, think that God had forsaken Him, think of it! "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" (mat. 15:34. ) Have you ever felt like that for some other sinner?

19. HAVE YOU EVER FELT LIKE YOU'VE HAD TO GO SO FAR AND GET SO DIRTY TO SAVE SOME SINNER THAT YOU FELT ALMOST LIKE GOD HAD FORSAKEN YOU? "God, how could you let me stoop so low to save someone? How could You let me have to go so low to try to save someone?" Hmm? I think you girls know what I'm talking about and I think you boys do too!

20. WELL, JESUS STOOPED PRETTY LOW TO SAVE YOU!—He went "all the way" for you until He took your sins on Himself for you. And in a way this is what you do when you minister not only to the spiritual needs of these men, but also to their physical needs:

21. YOU'RE TAKING THEIR SINFUL SELVES ON YOU AND LETTING YOURSELF GET DIRTY FOR THEIR SAKE, to minister to them. You understand? Because they need it. Because they need somebody to feed them both physically and spiritually. They need satisfaction and you have to get dirty to fuck and love them—whether it's in the club or in bed!

22. EVERY MOTHER KNOWS WHAT THIS IS AS SHE TAKES CARE OF A LITTLE BABY: TO MAKE THE BABY CLEAN, SHE HAS TO GET DIRTY, right? she has to clean the diaper, clean the baby's bottom, get all messed up with that milk that leaks all over her clothes, everything's stinky. She has to get dirty to clean the baby, she has to get dirty to feed the baby. It's a constant process of having to suffer and get dirty for the child to cause the child to be clean and to be fed, right? In a sense when you're cleaning that baby you're taking that baby's dirt upon yourself, see what I mean? you're getting a little of that baby's dirt on you to get it off the baby. When you have to handle those dirty diapers to wash them, you get dirty that the baby might be clean.

23. JESUS GOT DIRTY THAT YOU COULD BE CLEAN! You never thought about it like that did you? Well, that's exactly what you're doing in this FF ministry—that's what it means! You have to get a little dirty that they might be clean, do you understand?

24. JESUS WAS WILLING TO DO IT FOR YOU, SO WHY SHOULDN'T YOU BE WILLING TO DO IT FOR THEM? You're going through the same kind of sacrifice that Jesus went through. "My God, why do I have to get so dirty to save them? Why do I have to go down there and sit in that worldly club and drink?"

25. SOMETIMES YOU EVEN FEEL DIRTY JUST THE WAY THEY LOOK AT YOU, hmm? Just the way they look at you makes you feel dirty. But you have to go down there and soil yourself with their filth to cleanse them. Sometimes you feel dirty just having their hands on you, right?—Or trying to kiss you.

26. BUT YOU HAVE TO GO DOWN THERE AND GET DIRTY WITH THEIR LOOKS AND THEIR CARESSES AND THEIR KISSES AND EVEN THEIR OWN SEMEN of hard loving that they might be clean. Praise the Lord? Therefore it even says of Jesus‚ that "He learned obedience through the things which He suffered." (Heb.5:8)

27. YOU MEAN EVEN JESUS HAD TO LEARN SOME THINGS, HAD TO DO SOME SUFFERING IN ORDER TO LEARN HOW TO OBEY GOD? That's what it says! It says, "He learned obedience through the things which He suffered!"

28. DO YOU SOMETIMES FEEL WHEN YOU'RE DOWN THERE LIKE YOU'RE SUFFERING? You have to dance with men you don't even like, or you have to watch your wife dance with men you don't even care that much about? Hmm? Aren't you suffering with her?

29. GOD'S WORD SAYS WE ARE MADE "PARTAKERS OF HIS SUFFERINGS". (1Pet.4:13. ) We share His sufferings. Just as Jesus had to dirty Himself to save you, you have to go down there and dirty yourself to save them.

30. YOU LITERALLY ARE HAVING TO DIP YOUR HANDS INTO THE SLIMEPIT, THE DIRTY DISHWATER, TO PULL THEM OUT, TO MAKE THEM CLEAN! So sometimes when you think, "Why do I have to go down there in that horrible worldly atmosphere with all those evil creatures?"—Remember, that must have been exactly what Jesus thought when He had to come to this Earth to save you!

31. "WHY DO I HAVE TO GO DOWN THERE INTO THAT HORRIBLE EVIL ATMOSPHERE AMONGST THOSE EVIL CREATURES?" Jesus not only had to come down here amongst us‚ He had to be one of us! He had to take on this filthy vile flesh, He had to look like one of us and live like one of us. He had to eat, He had to sleep, He even had to go to the toilet!

32. HE HAD TO SOIL HIMSELF SO THAT WE COULD BE MADE CLEAN! Do you realise that? Jesus had to come down here and be a man and live like a man and get dirty like a man so He could make you clean, think of it!

33. SOMETIMES WHEN YOU WERE THOSE REVEALING GOWNS SHOWING ALL YOUR CHARMS MAYBE YOU'RE EMBARRASSED. When you see those guys a looking at you and feeling you with their looks it may make you feel a little dirty—especially when they get their hands on you and their mouths on you or even more!

34. BUT THAT'S WHAT JESUS HAD TO DO! He even hung naked on the cross for you! You are engaged in the ministry of Christ, stooping to conquer! You're going down there as far as you can possibly go and getting dirty with their dirt to make them clean!

35. YOU CAN'T GET THAT DISH CLEAN WITHOUT STICKING YOUR OWN HAND INTO THE DIRTY WATER. You can't clean the dishes without scraping off the garbage. It's a dirty job, right? This is why nobody's really crazy about doing dishes. Although maybe you can get a real victory when you realise you have the "Ministry of Sanctification"!—Doing dirty dishes!

36. EVERYTIME YOU DO A DISH JUST THINK, "THANK YOU JESUS! HALLELUJAH! PRAISE YOU LORD!—THIS IS WHAT YOU DID FOR ME, JESUS! Thank You Lord! This is what You did for me!" Praise the lord? Maybe some of you needed that. "You did this for me, Lord. You got your hands dirty too so You could wash me and make me clean. Thank You Lord!" I love you!—Do Dirty Dishes Daily!—Amen? God bless!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family