Daring To Be Holy Series

DARING TO BE HOLY

I heard the story of a man who was remembering that when he was a boy, he had a brother that collected baseball cards. The brother had some cheap regular cards that they played with. However, being a serious collector, he also had some that were very valuable. Those did not get played with. They were kept sealed in a ‘special’ collection. One day the boy overheard his brother telling a friend that he was going to organize and put all his special cards into a 3-ring binder. The boy decided to surprise his brother and do it for him. He got into the collection and began to organize the cards by cutting out all the heads of the players and then gluing them to a piece to lined binder paper from school. Many years later he said that he can still see his brother’s face as he showed him what he had done with his "special" cards. He especially remembers cutting out and gluing the Hank Aaron rookie card. A similar card (that had not been destroyed) had just sold on eBay for about $100,000.

Today we are continuing in our series Daring Faith. Like the baseball card collection of the older brother, there were some cards that were ‘special’ or set apart. In the bible this is the meaning of the word holy. Today I want to talk about Daring to be Holy. Let’s look today at the story of Samson;

Judges 16:15 Then she said to him, "How can you say, `I love you,' when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength." 16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death. 17 So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man." 18 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, "Come back once more; he has told me everything." So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. 19 Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him. 20 Then she called, " Samson , the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him.

From the story of Samson, we recognize three things about holiness;

1. Born to be Set Apart - (Chapter 13)

Samson was set apart from before birth to be a Nazirite. Before he was even conceived an angel came to his parents and told them that he would be different. He was special.

Judges 13:5 because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines."

Though unable to have children, his mother would be given a son. His father Manoah asked for confirmation of the angel's message so the angel appeared to him as well. Like Gideon, they only recognized it was an angel after he had left. Samson was "set apart" from birth. The same is true for all of us who accept and believe in Jesus. From the moment we receive salvation we are "saints" or "sanctified" ones. This does not relate to our behavior but our position with Christ.

Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand…

When we gave our lives to Jesus Christ God forgave our sins. The righteousness of Christ was imparted to us. That means that our sins have been paid for and we are forgiven. We stand in the position of grace. We have been declared holy.

To be holy means to be set apart. In the Christian sense holiness always relates to someone or something which has been set apart from the world for use exclusively for God. When Moses stood on holy ground it was not that the soil was different but that the ground was set apart by the presence of God. We likewise are holy in that we have been set free from the kingdom of darkness and are now under the sole ownership and control of God.