Dirty Christianity: We've Left Something out of the Gospel

© 2012 by Warren H. Stewart, Jr. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 11/06/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-7645-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-7643-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-7644-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012918371

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

All Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible ©, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,

1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

All Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Cover Design: BIGWO Designs

Author Photo: Mary Jordan

First Edition 2012

Published by Warren H. Stewart, Jr.

www.dirtychristianity.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

CHAPTER 1 : The Gospel

CHAPTER 2 : How Dirty Were You?

CHAPTER 3 : In Church or In Christ

CHAPTER 4 : Am I Too Dirty For God?

CHAPTER 5 : We’ve Left Something Out of the Gospel

CHAPTER 6 : Covered

CHAPTER 7 : Dirty Jesus

CHAPTER 8 : Passion

CHAPTER 9 : Daddy’s Love

CHAPTER 10 : Tell Your Story

End Notes

Book References

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Father, I thank You for YOUR LOVE, GRACE, MERCY, and FORGIVENESS You give to me everyday. Thank You for always being near to me. Thank You for Your HOLINESS. Your LOVE is set apart from everyone else. Your GOODNESS humbles me to repentance. Thank you for always loving me despite me. You are My God, My Savior, and My Comforter. You are the Lover of my soul and the Forgiver of my sins. I LOVE YOU DADDY!

DEDiCATiONS

This book is dedicated to my beautiful and loving wife Chrystal. You are such an inspiration to me through the Love, Grace, and Goodness of God. Thank you for trusting God in me to lead our family and for being my partner in life and ministry. I’m so glad I don’t have to take this journey alone. Our Father has so much in store for us and I can’t wait to experience the fullness of God with you. You are my good thing!

I LOVE YOU BABY!

To our children Josiah, Micaiah, and Kaira. Daddy loves you with all of his heart. Thank you for always loving me unconditionally. I am thankful to have such understanding children who love the Lord at your ages and are on this journey with Mommy and Daddy. I can’t wait to see what our Daddy has destined you to become. We are leaving a legacy for you.

To Church of The Remnant, I am humbled and honored to serve as your pastor. You all have heard these messages, themes, and stories throughout the years and I am grateful that you all are growing as Disciples of Christ and Bereans of His Word. #serveoneanother #loveoneanother #acts2ministry #chURch #tellyourstory

As sinful people we are NOT loved by God because we are beautiful; rather we are beautiful because we are loved by God. The more we surrender and absorb His love for us, the more vulnerable and honest we can be about our TRUE selves, especially the weak, needy, broken and angry parts of ourselves.

—Dr. Steven and Celestia Tracy

PREFACE

The church and modern Christianity has lost its authenticity! No one wants to tell their dirty stories of redemption anymore. We live in a broken world, full of fallen people who act as if they have no flaws once they have come to Jesus. There is not one perfect human being but Jesus Christ. Yet, Christians have hid behind the religious fallacy that we have to mask the past and act like we have been spotless since birth. People need to know that History changed our story.

We hide behind church attire, church jargon, multi-site church campuses, social cliques in the church, and brag about being in the ministry for so many odd years. While all this looks good externally, it is intimidating at times to the common unbeliever or sinner. We have focused so much on the edifice and external extremities of the church in American Christianity that we lose focus that our hearts are the very thing Jesus came to change.

Most unchurched or unbelievers as we call them, feel unworthy to even come to God because of how Christians have portrayed Jesus. Why is this? It is not that God’s loving arms are not open; it’s that a vast majority of Christian’s arms are folded and their eyes are crossed, looking down upon people that don’t fit into our Christian norm.

As Christians we are afraid to get dirty. We are afraid of people’s brokenness. We are afraid to deal with pain. We are afraid to deal with the issues Jesus came to comfort. We are afraid to really be like Jesus! We have prejudice for who we think is worthy of the love and grace of God. We judge, not racially but spiritually who should be at our church or not. And in my estimation some churches still do judge racially.

Were we not that dirty sinner before we found grace? Were we not the one who was in desperate need of saving? Were we not the one who felt unworthy to be loved by the God of the universe? Are we still not one who struggles with sin every now and then after coming to Jesus? So why have we forgotten our redemption story? Why are we afraid to reflect on where God brought us from?

I challenge you to examine your life and find that one common factor that sinners, the unchurched, unbelievers or whatever we want to label them will want to discover. The gospel of Jesus Christ is real and relevant because they will hear how our lives were changed forever because of an encounter with the heavenly Father who adopted us as sons and daughters.

There is one particular story in the Bible that the church rarely pauses to reflect on in preaching the gospel. And for many years I have wrestled with why we neglected such an important message, which Jesus said we should include in the gospel. It is the story of Mary of Bethany who anointed Jesus for His burial. However, Jesus is not just one-dimensional, only pointing out the significant anointing. I was pricked in my heart to discover that this woman’s story of brokenness and boldness all in one scene is recorded in every gospel account. I see another page of her story that we have overlooked biblically and practically in our personal lives when sharing the gospel. True biblical interpretation is effective only after application. So if we are not applying the gospel message intertwined with our stories of redemption, has it truly gripped our hearts?

In my opinion, the modern church and American Christianity is far from preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ as Jesus commissioned His Disciples. What I see is pretext preaching, topical teaching, and inspiring intellectual messages that are causing people to feel good, but where is the power of the gospel to change lives in truth and love? Christians are too apathetic and are focused on me and mine and not the lost and broken. There is a shallow selfish seeking of God for material satisfaction rather than for souls that need saving and then equating the amounts we are blessed with to authentic faith. This is not a universal gospel.

When someone was dirty in the religious culture in Jesus’ time, they were never afraid to come to Jesus, nor was He afraid to become dirty because of their sin. They did not and were not allowed to go to the temple or synagogue because they were labeled outcasts by the laws and extra religious practices of the Pharisees, Sadducees and religious authorities. But they came to Jesus! Do sinners feel that you are approachable? If Jesus could stoop down to sinners, eat with sinners, and talk to sinners, then why have we not followed the Master Teacher? There is a dying world of people who need this Jesus that we claim to believe in, but don’t fully display in character. So who is the true unbeliever? Those in the church or outside of the church?

This is a book of redemptive power to be like Jesus Christ, without the boundaries of religion that keep people stiff-necked and selective with the gospel. This book is to wake Christians up and make sinners aware that they have a right to search for authentic Christianity. This book is a voice crying out for those who are weeping in shame, guilt, regret and brokenness and pointing them to a God who desperately loves them and wants to make them whole through His grace, but using our arms as the first contact of the love of God.

As a purposed illustration, even the white book cover and pages will get dirty, but the content will remain pure. This is the story of our lives. We may be in these earthen broken vessels, but our treasure resides in our Relationship with our Redeemer who has purified us with His Word. The i dotted with the blood splatter signifies that Christ has dotted every i and crossed the t on Calvary’s cross despising the shame covering us and giving us the confidence to share our redemption stories because of His work to save us and not of ourselves. So we can’t judge a dirty book by its cover until we read and discover the content on the inside.

We will be going through many Scriptural texts and references because the Word of God is our source of authority for living as Believers. The reason for many Scriptures being quoted in full or what would seem lengthy is to forego any assumption that any Christian or non-Christian will open their Bible while reading this book. It is my prayer that someone who may not own a Bible or who hasn’t read Scripture lately may be transformed because God’s Word is infused throughout this literary text (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Dirty Christianity will challenge you on a prescriptive scriptural journey of transparency and authenticity to tell your redemption story and make the gospel relevant to those who desperately need the loving embrace of God the Father, the amazing grace through Jesus Christ and the refreshing filling of the Holy Spirit. In turn, this gospel that has changed your life just may grip you again.

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.—Saint Augustine

CHAPTER 1

THE GOSPEL

Growing up in the Baptist church I often heard the gospel preached at the close or the celebration part of the message. My dad was my pastor so I heard it almost every week. If you can imagine this in a black Baptist preacher’s tone of voice, I’m getting ready to close… Jesus died on Friday! He was buried… in a borrowed tomb! Stayed there all day Saturday! But early! Y’all didn’t hear me… I said early Sunday morning! Heh! He got up with all power in His hands! Of course that’s when the church would go wild and crazy. It brings great joy to even write and reflect on these moments, but as I grew older I discovered that the gospel was more than just the celebration part of church or the end of a sermon. It is the entire reason we have church.

In 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 (NASB) we have the gospel according to Scripture:

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins