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Holiness - Living Up to God's Standards
Intro:
• Finding underwear in used car I just bought. Yuck.
• Some things are set apart for specific uses and specific people.
o Toothbrushes
o Wedding china not used for your Saturday morning cereal bowl.
o Mom’s pinking shears not used for cutting out cool shapes on paper.
• We “get it” instinctively that some things are not common. They’re special because of their purpose or perhaps an emotional attachment.
• That uniqueness, special regard is the idea behind the biblical concept of holiness.
o As we’ve traced the Core52 ideas so far, we’ve seen how God made everything (Creation) and put his apex creation in the world (humanity as his image-bearers) to have dominion over that creation. But humanity did not choose to remain faithful to God and rebelled (The Fall from Grace). God ultimately chooses to initiate his restoration of creation through making an agreement with one man, Abram ( Covenant).
• Logically, the next concept to consider will be how we live in that covenant with God.
• God repeatedly says that we are to be holy because He is holy.
Memory verse for this week:
Leviticus 11:45 For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
What Is Holiness?
• Cultural context - moral purity, behavioral.
o If this is what we think God is asking for, we’re going to fail.
• Not so much in Biblical context. What makes us able to do ask God has commanded over and over?
• To appreciate that holy is not so much sacred as selected.
• Someone or something becomes holy when they are claimed for a purpose. Like your toothbrush, God takes ordinary people and claims them for his purposes. It is not our intrinsic nature that is holy, but we become holy when our purpose becomes different.
You are not holy because of your performance but because of God’s proclamation.
Leviticus 11:45 For I, the LORD, am the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God. Therefore, you must be holy because I am holy.
• God selection, not Israel’s moral excellence.
• The declaration makes them holy.
Exodus 19:6 And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’ This is the message you must give to the people of Israel.”
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
• This is biblical fact. We doesn’t rely on our own estimation of holiness. We’ll be wrong. We rely on God’s assertion that this is true.
• At the same time, God calls us to holy living. So...
How Do I Practice Holiness?
• Again, God has declared us holy and calls us to holiness. What do we do with that?
• Holiness (and here’s where we might get mixed up a bit) is manifest when our actions align with God’s declaration.
o Our lives represent the nature of God who has set us apart.
• The trouble begins when we attempt to become holy by our own efforts rather than allowing God to transform us.
2 Timothy 1:9 For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.
• Reference the initial study behind Core52 - regular Bible engagement is the single greatest predictor of behavioral transformation. 4x/week engagement.
Eph 4:21-24 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.
Conclusion:
• Parents telling newly independent teens before they leave the house: “Remember who you are and whose you are.”
• The message is, act according to your family and upbringing. Bring honor and respect on yourself and your people by your behavior.
• Want to be holy in the world? Remember who you are and whose you are and act accordingly.
