From the beginning of time, God has desired to have a relationship with people. We saw it as we looked at the new creation when God placed everything under mankind’s dominion. It was evident as we looked at the new life as we saw how God provided even after people messed things up by listening to Satan. We learned more about it as we examined the new covenant when God made promises to Abraham that were ultimately fulfilled in Christ.
Today, we’re going to look at this idea of a new calling as we see that God separates His people from the nations. Just as He had told Abraham, Israel spent 400 years in slavery in Egypt. God sent Moses to deliver them out of Egypt and lead them to take Canaan as their own. They’ve reached Mt. Sinai, where God has given the 10 commandments. The book of Leviticus is full of instructions for how to be God’s people, summarized in today’s passage, Leviticus 20:22-26. (Read, pray)
When I lived on the north side of St. Louis, I would often go to the neighborhood park to play basketball and get to know my neighbors. The guys there would often pick me for their team so that I could go home and share about my experience of playing ball with the boys in the hood. You should have seen their faces when I pointed out that I lived just down the street!
It opened the door to share about my ministry and faith with guys who hadn’t thought about those things much. However, it often led to statements like, “I’ve got too much dirt,” or, “The hood is the hood, it’s always gonna be the hood, so I’m gonna be hood.” They had no hope.
It’s not only a problem in the hood, but everywhere. People have resigned themselves to “I was born that way,” and, “I’ve just always been that way,” or, “I really don’t have a choice about who I am,” and have decided that there’s nothing they can do to change. They’re living without hope.
I imagine they sound a lot like the people of Israel who had been in slavery for so long. But God steps in and calls us to come out of those things and be His people. What exactly is that calling? (read Leviticus 20:26) You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy. Holy is defined as “to be set apart” or “perfect.”
How do we live out this calling? First, we obey God (read Leviticus 20:22).
In youth group, we’ve been learning about the various sections of the Bible recently. The Old Testament is composed of books of law, history, wisdom, and prophecy. The New Testament consists of books of gospels, history, letters, and prophecy. As we looked at the books of law, we found out that God gave Israel 613 laws to live by. Now, James 2:10 (read), tells us that if we break one law, we’ve broken them all. But how are you going to remember all 613 laws?
Well, God gave Israel the 10 Commandments, which summarize the rest of the laws. However, if we had a pop quiz right now, how many of you would be able to name all 10 Commandments in order? So we looked for a way to simplify it either further. In Matthew 22, a lawyer asked Jesus, which is the greatest commandment? Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:4-5, love God with all you got, and Leviticus 19:18, love your neighbor. He goes on to inform the lawyer (read Matthew 22:40). So there are two rules to live by.
For youth group, I’ve combined them into one rule, which I call the JOY of Respect. I got the idea from a children’s song set to the tune of Jingle Bells (I’m telling you that so I don’t have to sing it today). JOY is an acronym that puts Jesus first, yourself last, and others in between. I tell my students to consider, does this choice show respect for Jesus, respect for others, respect for yourself? If the answer is no, don’t do it. It’s that simple.
I first shared this concept with children coming to our ministry in the inner city. Their previous leader had a legal size sheet of paper filled with two columns of rules because he was convinced that every possibility had to be listed so that a child couldn’t claim they didn’t know. When I stood up and told them we removed the list and the JOY of Respect is now our rule, they got excited and cheered and rose to the bar set.
Today, we celebrate Mother’s Day. I know a big part of the celebration is to buy flowers and chocolates and make sure mom doesn’t have to cook. But what do Mom’s really want from their children? A day of obedience, respect for decisions Mom makes.
It’s the same way with God. He’s not as concerned about whether you dressed up all fancy for worship as He is with your obedience. (read John 14:15-17) Jesus tells us that if we love Him, we’ll obey His commandments. He gives us a Helper- the Holy Spirit. How do WE know we have come to know HIM (read 1 John 2:3-6)? Our obedience shows our relationship. Those who claim to know Him but disobey are really nothing but liars.
Holiness starts with obedience. It continues as we resist temptation (read Leviticus 20:23).
Why did God tell Israel not to walk in the customs of the nation? He knew what would happen if they did- it would pull them away from their walk with God. We see it happen time after time throughout the Old Testament.
Whether led by judges or kings or prophets, Israel was stuck in a cycle of rebellion. Time after time we read that Israel followed God for a time, then fell into idol worship and other sins they learned from their neighbors. God punished them for a time by allowing another nation to oppress them. When Israel repented, God would raise up another leader to free Israel and the cycle would start all over again.
Jesus set the example for how to resist temptation in Matthew 4. After Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights, Satan came to tempt Him. Three times, Jesus resisted. How? He relied on the Scriptures. When Jesus took the disciples to the garden to pray before His arrest and they fell asleep, He warns them to pray so that they may not enter into temptation.
One of my family’s favorite verses is James 4:7 (read). When facing temptation, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee. It’s a good verse to remember as we face the pressures of the world today. There’s been quite the progression over the last few decades. The attitude began with look out for #1. It led to do what makes you happy. More recently, the world has been promoting the idea that you can pick to love whoever you want regardless of their gender. It’s turned into now you can choose to be whichever gender you want and we’ll create a whole list of options and your physical traits have nothing to do with it. There’s even a growing movement now that you can choose to be whatever species you like. Here’s the rub- whatever choice someone makes must be respected by everyone else or be written off as intolerant.
Instead, we need to be helping people find who they are in Christ. All those other options are secondary. In fact, time after time, I’ve found that if we help someone figure out how much God loves them and wants a relationship with them, these other identity questions tend to go away because they realize they want God to come first. When someone finds Christ, they find their way to resist these temptaions.
The third part of being holy in our text today is that we must learn to discern (read Leviticus 20:25a). The example for discernment that God provides here is this concept of clean or unclean animals. Leviticus 11 provides an entire list of animals that are clean or unclean for Israel to eat. Why does God do that?
He’s protecting His people. Unclean animals tend to be species that scavenge for food. As a result, they’re more likely to carry disease. By forbidding the consumption of these animals, God is preventing disease among Israel.
(read Romans 12:2) Here we’re told to not be conformed, but to be renewed by the transforming of our minds.
This maturing process helps us to be able to test and discern God’s will- what is good and acceptable and perfect. Notice it’s not always about what’s right or wrong. Sometimes it’s about what’s good, better, and best.
Our track season has just completed. The one thing I don’t like about track season is that we can’t count on the weather. There have been plenty of days in recent weeks where we’ve had to make a decision to conduct a meet or cancel due to the rain. Ryan from Pisgah and I still joke back and forth about the time it rained for a short time as Pioneer was on their way to our track. Our athletic director called the meet concerned the track was now slick and someone could get injured. By the time the Pioneer bus pulled up, the sun was back out and it was a beautiful looking day, but they had to turn around and go home because the workers were no longer available. We text each other with weather reports each year on the day of the Pioneer/Logansport meet and conjecture if we’ll be cancelled (Pioneer rightly cancelled this year).
Acts 15 is an example of discernment needed by the early church. Paul had been bringing Gentiles into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and there were some Jewish Christians we refer to as Judaizers who claimed that these Gentiles must become Jews first and be circumcised. The elders and apostles came together in Jerusalem to discuss this matter.
Peter gave his testimony of how God had given him a vision to accept Gentiles into the church. Paul and Barnabus shared some of the stories of how the Gentiles were coming to know Jesus. James got up and summarized the matter, bringing the council to the decision we find in Acts 15:28-29 (read).
As a group of churches, we of the Restoration Movement use discernment when we apply a number of mottoes by which we live. The Bible is our final authority. Where scripture speaks, we speak. Where scripture is silent, we’re silent. In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things love. These principles help us as a church to discern God’s will when we are asked about the many traditions that have formed within a number of denominations.
We are holy as we obey God, resist temptation, and learn to discern. At this point, you may be thinking to yourself, “But Scott, didn’t you earlier mention that holy also means perfect? None of us are perfect, how can we be holy? Look what it says in Romans 3:23 (read)!
You’ve said a lot there and I agree. My response to your question is to keep reading (read Romans 3:24). God is our source of holiness. We can be holy as God is holy because God IS our holiness. You see, we don’t earn the status of holy, it’s been given to us by God through Jesus Christ.
So how do we live out being holy today (read 1 Peter 2:9-12)? We need to get out into our community so we can proclaim the goodness of God. We need to abstain from the passions of the flesh. We need to conduct ourselves in such a way that even if someone were to make accusations against us, people would see our good deeds and know those accusations are false. The result? They glorify God.
Let’s live this out together. There are a number of things we do together as a church already. Bible studies and fellowship times. Lunches for the community. Partnering with youth organizations to provide transportation. Clothing giveaway and the food pantry. I know many of you have ministries I know nothing about and the beauty of that is that I don’t need to know. God is already seeing what you’re doing.
My challenge for you this morning is to seek out opportunities to live the holy life and draw people to a relationship with God. Let me pray for you to that end. Pray.
Invitation
