Holy Living
A Scene from Real Life
1 Peter 1:13-2:3
A muscular athlete admitted, “Sometimes I’m not sure I even know how to be a holy Christian. All day long I find myself wondering what I need to do to live for Christ. It’s a lot easier to keep in shape then to be holy.”
Most of us are eager to do what’s right.
We struggle with how to live in order to be holy.
We wonder, sometimes, if the expectation is too high.
“God, please get off my case.”
The pressures of the real world are sometimes too much to deal with.
Demands. Requirements. Obligations. Expectations. Duties.
Sometimes we grow weary simply thinking about what everyone wants us to be or do.
“Get off my case world”, is one response we would like to give when it all comes down on top of us.
We can’t be all things to all people. We need a little space to just be ourselves.
God, our Heavenly Father, now tells us to be perfect.
We all encounter crushing times. Pressures build. Something must give.
Do you wonder if you can go on any further?
Do you roll up your sleeves and redouble your efforts or sprawl out on the floor and take a nap?
How do you respond when everyone is on your case for more, including God?
Let’s be honest, doesn’t it seem like God is the pushiest person in our lives.
How’s this for pushy, “ You shall be holy, for I am holy (1 Peter 1:16).”
Everyone has a request for your time. Everyone has a request for something you should do.
Matthew announced the same demanding request.
He recorded Jesus’ statement from the Sermon on the Mount, “Therefore you are to be perfect.”
We shouldn’t be surprised; God has made his requests know for a very long time.
(Deuteronomy 18:13) “You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.”
(Leviticus 11:45) “For I am the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; thus you shall be holy for I am holy.”
(Leviticus 20:7) “You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.”
(2 Corinthians 7:1) Paul says, “Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
(1 John 7:1) John said, “The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
God must become number one.
Bill and Polly with two children: Billy and Wanda.
God had a dream in which God asked him for everything he owned.
Bill had no problem saying yes.
Then God asked him for his two children.
Bill wrestled and wrestled with God before he could finally say yes.
He told God that he would always serve him, enough if it meant letting Him take his children. He wouldn’t let anything keep him from serving his God.
Jesus reminds us in Matthew 22:37, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
Jesus helps us to understand about holy living by stating, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”
Jesus must be number one in your life.
Jesus must be your king.
We live in a nation where we select our leaders by popular election.
A king is sovereign; he owns everything in the kingdom for any purpose he wishes.
People within a king’s domain are referred to as subjects.
To live a holy life means we must submit ourselves to King Jesus.
There is one big problem – we each want to be king of our own lives.
We were created to be subjects of King Jesus.
Jesus was a model of yielding to God.
His submission to God is an example of how we should submit to Him.
(Philippians 2:6-8) Although He existed in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant,. . .He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.”
Jesus acted out submission in the quietness of the Garden of Gethsemane by praying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will (Matthew 16:39b).”
Relationships that prayers have with a coach may help us understand submission to Jesus, as sovereign.
There was a football team in which each member independently did there own thing.
Failure to yield to the leadership of the coach produced a sorry season.
A team that fails to acknowledge the authority of the coach is like a team trying to run 11 different plays at once.
A winning team, in contrast, is composed of athletes who voluntarily yield to the instruction of the coach.
When we join the team of King Jesus, we allow Him to call the plays, assign the positions, select the schedule, determine all of the practices, and decide on everything pertaining to the team.
Holy living means that we acknowledge Jesus as the ultimate Coach (King) of our lives.
We are for God’s use.
In God’s scheme, every possible caution is taken to purify God’s people and set them aside for His use.
In Leviticus 8, God let nothing to chance when He instructed Moses to consecrate Aaron and Aaron’s sons.
Moses slaughtered a ram and put a drop of blood on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear; another drop on the thumb of Aaron’s right hand; and for good measure, on the big toe of Aaron’s right foot.
“When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces (Leviticus 9:24).”
Holy living means that we become like the Sea of Galilee and not like the Dead Sea.
Both bodies of water have many things in common.
They are both in the same region of the other.
They both have sources for supply of fresh water.
They both have firm banks to contain the water.
There is one major difference, the Sea of Galilee receives water and passes it on.
The Dead Sea has no means for passing the water on.
In the tradition of the Sea of Galilee, we discover holy living as we allow Jesus’ love to flow through us in behalf of others.
We are who we are through Jesus.
Huxley’s’ book, Brave New World, proposed that we produce human beings that know their place and gladly keep their place.
A major problem with this concept is that human nature is made this way.
We push ourselves to reach new levels of achievement and strive to improve ourselves.
Reaching our potential forces us to consider what it means to be holy like God is holy.
One aspect of being holy is being who we are in Jesus.
Children act out who they are. They are not phonies. They don’t act like something their not. They are just kids, through and through.
Holy living is more than keeping rules, or playing roles.
Holy living is simply living out who we are in Jesus. We are not holy because we intend to be perfect.
We are holy because God redeemed us to be – kids in His kingdom.
Kids don’t struggle to be kids – they just come do what comes naturally.
In the same way, we can’t be holy by simply trying to be holy.
We are holy by His grace, alone.
Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
