“The Calling of Saint Who”
Tapestry of Worship – Saturday Night Encounter
I Peter 1:
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Pass out Puzzle Pieces. What do you struggle with? Are their areas of sin that seem to have a grip on you? Look through the list and assess how much control these area have over your life. Then write down on the puzzle piece the initials of those you struggle with. These pieces indicate areas of your life that is broken and needs to be given to God for Him to make whole.
The greatest need in the church, the greatest need in your life – is not success or more money. It is not peace or even for your family to get along. The greatest need is holiness. Because when you have holiness everything else will fall into place.
Prayer:
I Peter 1:
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1. God is calling you to HOLINESS.
God says You Shall be holy, for I am Holy. Notice it is not an option it is a call and a command. God does not say you shall be Saved for I am a Savior. The call that God has placed on our life is not salvation. Salvation through Jesus Christ sacrifice on the cross for us is the doorway that leads to our call. We are called to be holy.
Most preachers, starting with myself, have done a poor job in calling us to holiness. To a large degree “holiness” is not spoken of in the church today. And often when it is, it seems to take on a tone of condemnation that the enemy uses to rob us of what God desires to accomplish in each of us. Because of this many believers are spiritually impoverished.
The complaints of many Christians is that they lack of joy and power.
If you feel like something in your Christian experience is missing, that there must be more that this, I want to tell you what you are missing is holiness.
Holiness = Set apart to become who you were created to be.
In Christ Jesus we are set apart to be the real eternal you, chosen by God before the foundation of the world.
The US Army used to have a great motto – “Be All You Can Be.” Which basically means discover where you can do your best.
God’s Motto is better, and He is much more able to make it more than a motto in your life but a reality. “be Holy – Be all you were created to be. It goes doing the best you can and instead leans on the best that God can do.
Listen to these verse on this from Ephesians…
Ephesians 1:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
God created you to be holy. He also calls us to be holy.
But here is the problem…when it comes to holiness most of us are functionally AGNOSTIC.
We believe God has made some people holy, like the people in the Bible and maybe Mother Teresa or Billy Graham, but we just don’t know if He can make US holy.
Our doubt and subsequent disobedience shipwrecks us so that we go through life half in this world and half in Christ and therefore uncomfortable in both.
But God says you are Holy and therefore you should be holy.
The problem is we don’t understand that it is in the pursuit of holiness that we find our true selves, as God made us.
We have the mistaken idea that fun and holiness are polar opposites. They are not.
We also have the idea that God wants to take the fun away. It is not that God does not want you to have fun, but rather He wants you to be full, Full of Him not full of Sin and self.
Listen the Andrew Murray as he explains this.
To be holy is to be Godlike, to have a disposition, a will, a character like God. The thought almost looks like blasphemy, until we listen again,
‘He hath chosen us in Christ to be holy.’ In Christ the Holiness of God appeared in a human life: in Christ’s example, in His mind and Spirit, we have the Holiness of the Invisible One translated into the forms of human life and conduct.
To be Christlike is to be Godlike; to be Christlike is to be holy as God is holy. The call equally reveals the power of Holiness. ‘There is none holy but the Lord;’ there is no Holiness but what He has, or rather what He is, and gives. Holiness is not something we do or attain: it is the communication of the Divine life, the inbreathing of the Divine nature, the power of the Divine Presence resting on us. And our power to become holy is to be found in the call of God: the Holy One calls us to Himself, that He may make us holy in possessing Himself. He not only says ‘I am holy,’ but ‘I am the Lord, who make holy.’ It is because the call to Holiness comes from the [p15 ] God of infinite Power and Love that we may have the confidence: we can be holy.
Murray, Andrew (2009). Holy in Christ Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is Holy (Kindle Locations 118-127). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.
I Peter 1:
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
The Word “Called” is very important. It does not mean an invitation. It is much stronger than that. Nor does it mean a phone call to see how you are doing. It rather refers to a fixed state of being. It literally means “Be so named.”
2564 καλέω [kaleo /kal·eh·o/] v. Akin to the base of 2753; TDNT 3:487; TDNTA 394; GK 2813; 146 occurrences; AV translates as “call” 125 times, “bid” 16 times, “be so named”
It proclaims our identity. God is saying live like who you are. Live like IU have named you. Be the man, the woman that I created you to be.
No matter how hard you look you will never find yourself in sin. In fact that is the very place you lose your self. You lose your true nature because sin will always take control and drag you down. It may feel pleasurable for the moment but you will be left with a terrible sense of lostness. As if your soul has been imprisoned in solitary confinement, and peace runs from your mind.
God wants to restore you to who He created and named you to be, His holy son or daughter. Called to be like Him, to bear His very nature and spirit within you.
There is no higher calling in all the universe.
Romans 8:
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
These verses are often misunderstood because they often lead to a debate over understanding predestination. But in the midst of the debate what gets lost is what we are predestined to be… conformed to the image of Christ Jesus. We are predestined to be holy. And God is the one who does the work. He says you will be holy. And He has the power to make holiness a present reality in your life.
The real question is do you want to be holy? Or are you so attached to SIN (Selfish Inward Nature) that desires to pull you away from God, that you refuse to obey God’s call and command.
2. God calls us to Holiness in order to make us WHOLE.
I Thessalonians 5:22:24 Abstain from every form of evil. 23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
(Uses the same world Kaleo)
There is a close connection between Holy and being Whole (complete).
Only when we are holy will we be truly whole as well.
God is calling you to surrender sin – “your Selfish Inward Nature,” and the fruit of sin which are the desires that your Selfish Inward Nature clings to and to wholely His.
a whole comprises. Consists of and is composed of all its parts,
We are holy (h) when we have given the whole (all the parts) of our life to God.
Understand if you are divided you can never be whole!
3. SIN – (Our Selfish Inward Nature) SEPARATES us from God and leaves us BROKEN.
Sin is our “Selfish Inward Nature.” Sin longs to possess. It constantly cries our “Mine!” Sin must die so that life can flourish in us.
Child of God, have you ever realized it, our Father is calling us to Himself, to be holy as He is holy? Must we not confess that happiness has been to us more than holiness, salvation than sanctification? Oh! it is not too late to redeem the error. Let us now band ourselves together to listen to the voice that calls, to draw nigh, and find out and know what Holiness is, or rather, find out and know Himself the Holy One.
Murray, Andrew (2009). Holy in Christ Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is Holy (Kindle Locations 149-152). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.
4. When Jesus BOUGHT your soul back from sin it wasn’t just to save you it was to make you holy.
Look at the context..
I Peter 1:
15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Jesus shed His precious blood not just so you could escape the punishment of sin but so you could be what God created you to be – Holy!
God calls us to be holy therefore we can be holy. Do you believe that. holiness is living out the fulfillment of who God created you to be. It is your destiny as a follower of Christ. It is also your joy. When we determine to live out what God has called us to be, holy, then we experience His joy and his power fully as a present reality in our lives.
Most of us live as if holiness is unobtainable and therefore not really desirable. This is a false belief that is stealing from you the very thing your soul longs for - intimacy with God. Believe God can make you holy and live out that belief rather than a constant life of compromise where your faith saves you but has little power to fill you with God`s presence. Live out your calling be holy.
Jesus purchased your life for His glory and to make you holy.
“Remember God does not exist to fulfill our purposes; we exist to fulfill God's purposes. The reason why He allows you and I to draw another breath is for His purposes, not ours. God changes us not to make us feel good or accomplish our plans. He changes us so we can accomplish His purposes. God is not here for us; we are here for Him.”
MacDonald, James (2000). I Really Want to Change...So, Help Me God (p. 55). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.
It is in that truth and that pursuit however that we find the very thing we have all been looking for real life!
God calls you to be holy for He is holy.
5. Holiness puts the broken pieces of our lives back TOGETHER with who we were created to be.
God’s Will for your life is His holiness. If your will for your life is your happiness you will be at odds with God and with His best for your life.
God wants to remove from your life anything that would hinder your union with Him. Anything that can take His rightful place in your heart needs to be removed.
It can be removed in one of 2 ways. Trust – where we willingly surrender it to God. Or by Trial where God will either remove it or loosen our grip.
This is what God did with His friend Abraham. God asked Abraham to love Him more than He loved His son Isaac. God had to show Abraham that his grip on Isaac was hindering His love for God. When Abraham released his grip by surrendering Isaac to God, God gave Isaac back to Abraham.
God is not cruel in wanting to take from us His gifts and blessings. But He knows that the only way we will truly enjoy His blessings are if they do not possess us. Then we can be complete.
I Peter 1:
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
God is calling you to surrender sin – “your Selfish Inward Nature,” and the fruit of sin which are the desires that your Selfish Inward Nature clings to and to wholely His.
a whole comprises. Consists of and is composed of all its parts,
We are holy (h) when we have given the whole (all the parts) of our life to God.
EXAMPLE: Puzzle Pieces – What parts have you held on to?
Understand if you are divided you can never be whole!
Holiness requires a change in ownership over all the parts of our lives.
Sin – The Selfish Inward Nature reveals its control over our lives in selfish attitudes, actions, and values. So to be holy we must identify parts of our lives that we have not surrendered ownership of.
So what needs to change in you?
Diagnosing Disobedience
GETTING SPECIFIC: MY NEEDS FOR CHANGE
Here is a list of the symptoms of SIN, (Selfish Inward Nature) These are attitudes and feelings that every follower of Christ needs to “put off ” in his life in order to become whole in Christ and holy as a saint.
Place a number, from 0 to 10, before each item to indicate the extent of its presence in your life.
Mark 0 if it's “not an issue at all” and 10 if it's present on a regular basis.
__ Anger __ Anxiety __ Argumentative
__ Addiction __ Bigotry __ Bitterness
__ Boastful __ Bossiness __ Causing dissension
__ Controlled by emotions __ Controlled by peer pressure
__ Conceited __ Covetousness __ Critical attitude or tongue
__ Deceitfulness __ Depression __ Domineering
__ Debtors Ethic (Must strive to repay any kindness shown you)
__ Drug dependence __ Drunkenness
__ Envy (depressed by the good fortune of others) __ Fear
__ Feelings of rejection __ Feelings of stupidity __ Feelings of Inadequacy
__ Feelings of weakness or helplessness __ Feelings of worthlessness
__ Gluttony __ Greediness __ Guilt (false / not conviction)
__ Hatred __ Hostility __ Homosexual lust
__ Idolatry __ Impatience __ Impulsiveness
__ Impure thoughts __ Indifference to other's problems
__ Inhibited __ Insecurity __ Intemperance
__ Jealousy __ Laziness __ Low Self Discipline
__ Low self-esteem __ Lust for pleasure __ Materialistic
__ Negativism __ Occult involvement __ Opinionated
__ Overly quiet __ Overly protective __ Overly sensitive to criticism
__ Passivity __ Prideful __ Prejudice (Judging others)
__ Profanity __ Projecting blame __ Prone to gossip
__ Rebellion against authority __ Resentment
__ Restlessness __ Self-centeredness __ Self-confidence
__ Self-deprecation (or self-hatred) __ Self-gratification
__ Self-justification __ Self-pity __ Self-reliance
__ Self-righteousness __ Self-sufficiency __ Sensuality
__ Sexual lust __ Slow to forgive __ Stubbornness
__ To quick to speak __ Unloving __ Unwilling to serve others
__Vanity __Workaholic __Worry
Scriptural reference to these attitudes and behaviors – 1 Peter 2:1, Colossians 3:5-9, Ephesians 4:17-31, Galatians 5:19-2.
Romans 6:
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
As a Saint these symptoms are not “who you are.” Rather they reveal pieces of your old nature that you are holding back from God.
As you give your whole life to Him, He will fill all of you with His Spirit.
Don’t let the pieces define you. Don’t let sin, failure and weakness define who God says you are. Live out your calling. Surrender the pieces to the Lord through confession and repentance and give the pieces to the Lord. Ask Him to make you whole and holy.
You will never be whole until you are holy!
The holier your life the wholer your soul. Bad English but good theology.
“Holiness” – Becoming who God made you to be.
Take this list and use it at a tool to reveal areas of your life that sin is robbing you of.
The New Testament Greek word for repentance is metaneo. It means literally to rethink or to change your mind. All change begins with a change of mind. Notice the word mind. Repentance is not a change of scenery. Repentance is not a new church or new job or a new marriage. Repentance is a change on the inside, a change in the way I think about something.
MacDonald, James (2000). I Really Want to Change...So, Help Me God (pp. 82-83). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Then take these steps of repentance…
1. ASK - God for the wisdom to know exactly what He wants to change in you. Ask in faith believing that God not only desires to make you holy but will.
2. ADMIT - I AM THE PROBLEM. Let's accept once and for all that our problems are not due to other people, our parents, or our past. Let's take total responsibility for who we are going to become and bring our desires before God. When we do that, we have taken the first step in change. Then confess your sin to the Lord.
REPENTANCE IS THE PROCESS OF SEEING OUR SIN THE WAY GOD SEES IT. Only when we see our sin the way God sees it will we be able to say what He says about it. Only then will we break the cycle of sin, confess, try again—that spiritual game we play that doesn't bring glory to Christ and doesn't leave us changed. The first result of true repentance is a genuine confession of my sin to God.
3. TELL – The Lord you desire to change and be holy. The Scriptures include a phenomenal promise to every child of God who wants to change. “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14–15). Knowing that God will do whatever we ask if it is His will, and knowing that transformation is God's will for us (1 Thessalonians 4:3), we can be fully confident that God will change us if we ask. If you go to Him in faith and confidence and say, “God, I am willing for You to change me, and I want You to work on this specifically; I know it's Your heart,” you can be confident He will do that.
MacDonald, James (2000). I Really Want to Change...So, Help Me God (p. 74). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.
4. GIVE – The pieces of your life back to God. Only God can truly change us. But He desires to make us holy and whole. Give Him control. Recognize that you have been seeking a substitute for what God wants by choosing what you want.
5. TURN -
Begin to live as who you are. Ask yourself and ask others would a holy person think that? Do that? Say that?
Invitation:
You may want to write on the puzzle piece some of the symptoms of the broken pieces of your life that SIN has held onto. And then bring them to the altar and lay the missing pieces before the Lord.
“If your faith isn't changing you, it hasn't saved you.” The people who really have the new birth—the people who really have that conversion experience—are changing.
MacDonald, James (2000). I Really Want to Change...So, Help Me God (p. 57). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Prayer:
Dear heavenly Father: I come to You today seeking repentance regarding the specific things You are asking me to change. I ask You to grant me genuine repentance. I ask Your forgiveness for rationalizing and blaming others. I acknowledge that I have no excuses for my areas of failure, today I give the pieces to you. I turn from them and ask You to make me whole and to make me holy.
