A Man was sitting in his recliner when his youngest son walked in and asked if he could ask his a few questions. The Father said sure but he asked what is this for? The young boy replied, “It’s for a project as school. We have to write a report about a role model in our life.” His father was touched, and said, “Son, I’m so pleased that you chose me to be your role-model. Why did you choose me?” The son said, “Yeah, well the kids next to me already picked Arnold Swartzenegger and the Rock, so you were the only one left.”
So who is your role model in life? Who is it that you are trying to imitate in your daily walk. For most of us in our day and age, we have chosen the wrong role models. We pick our role models off whether they can throw a football, sing and dance, or shoot a quick jump-shot. When people pick their heroes, holiness isn’t usually part of the requirements. Integrity and purity are left out of the equation.
Now we can choose to imitate God or man. And more often than not sadly to say, we choose to imitate man. But in his word, we are told “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Tonight I want us to take a look at the topic of holiness. If there is one teaching that is missing in our church today it is this, the need for holiness, the need to lead a holy life. Now to start off our discussion, let’s first look at why it is we strive for holiness. Why do we strive for holiness?
The first reason why we strive for holiness is because scripture demands it of us. Scripture demands it. Over and over throughout the Word of God we are told to flee immorality, to flee wickedness, to pursue that which is righteous and good and to be holy. Ephesians 4:22-24, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” We are told the same thing in Colossians 3 “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry… since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” And then we told of the necessity of holiness in Hebrews 12:24 which says, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Now I don’t know about you, but I want to see the Lord.
These and many more passages point to the importance of the Christian to live a holy life. In fact, the pursuit of holiness is one of the pillars of our Methodist movement. But the sad reality is, not to many people are striving for holiness anymore, in fact not to many are even looking for it. And the result has been that we now have a church that is no longer distinguishable from the world.
George Barna did a survey and wrote a book about the status of today’s church, and it was shocking. He found that the divorce rate for non-Christians was 23%, and the divorce rate for Born Again Christians was 27%. That’s right, the Christians had a higher divorce rate than the non-Christian. The question was asked, “Have you gave money to a homeless or a poor person in the past year?” The results, Born Again Christians 24%, non Christians 34%. What’s the matter with this picture.
The church is called to stand out. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.” We are called to shine, to give light to this world darkened by sin, but if we are no different from the world our light just simply tends to just blend in. What is the cause of this? I think its because we’ve tried to water down the Christian faith to make it more approachable to others. We emphasize the positives and negate to mentions the calls of Christ. “If anyone comes after Me he must deny Himself, take up his cross and follow me.” A call to receive Christ is a call to forsake the world, and since we haven’t emphasized this, we have a generation of Christians who think they can come to Christ and not have to make any changes in their lifestyle, no commitment or anything. We say come, but we forget to say “Repent!”
The lost teaching within the church today is the call for repentance. The word repentance comes from the Greek word “meta-noia” meaning to change the mind. It’s a change of heart, mind, and life. Now Genuine repentance involves three words. The first is conviction, you know you’ve done wrong. You don’t blame anybody else, you don’t deny it, you say I did it, It’s my fault. The second word is Contrition, you’re contrite…you’re sorry…not because you got caught, but because you know you’ve sinned against God… and this is often accompanied by tears. And the third word is Change. There must be a change. You cannot continue to live in sin and say that you have repented.
Now there are some who go to God in prayer and you’ll say, “Father forgive me for yelling at my spouse, for looking at that pornographic magazine, or lying to my boss, getting drunk last weekend, for gossiping about that lady…Father I’m sorry and since I know You’re a God of grace, forgive me and forgive me later to because I’m going out to do it again.” That’s not repentance…that’s indulgence, that’s exploiting grace.
And there is no room for that in the Christian life. As a Christian, you have been redeemed from the empty way of life, you have died to sin, and God wants you…He demands that you live a holy life. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 reads, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.” We strive for holiness because scripture demands it.
Next, we strive for holiness because the world around us is watching. As a Christian, you are an ambassador for God in this world. Just as when a police officer puts on his uniform he then represents the police department, so the one who has put on Christ represents Jesus Christ. And the world is watching us. They are watching us to see if what we say matches what we do. We live in a society soiled by sin, and a holy life is a rebuke to that soiled society, so you have on one hand, those watching you to see if this faith you speak about is real, and then on the other hand you have those who are watching hoping that you will fall.
Consider the damage that has been done to the church by the church leaders who have not strived for holiness. When a pastor embezzles the hard earned money of his flock, when a TV evangelist condemns another pastor for having an affair on national television when at the same time he himself is guilty of the same behavior. And the enemies of Jesus rejoice when they see that. They scoff at the church and say, “See, what did I tell you. There all just after your money. They’re all hypocrites.”
And don’t think that it is just the leaders, the world is watching you, and your lifestyle may be the difference on whether a person accepts or rejects Christ. If you have a life of integrity, it will impact others for the kingdom of God...Good or Bad. Last week my wife went to Wal-Mart and did her shopping, and as she was leaving she realized that she had forgotten about the pen that was in the cart, so she didn’t pay for it. Now some of you might just say, “Oh well. They won’t miss it Don‘t worry about it.” But not my wife. The next day she went back through the line and said, “I want to return this but I didn’t pay for it.” The Lady looked at her like she was crazy, and then commented on her integrity. Then Denise was feeling pretty good until she got back to the van and saw that Carrie had a package of M & M’s in her hand. I have a honest wife but a child whose a crook…Preacher’s Kid!” Realize that the world is watching you. So live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 1 Peter 2:12 says, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” A life that glorifies God.
So we strive for holiness because scripture demands it, because the world is watching, and third reason why we need to strive for holiness is because Jesus Christ deserves it. He deserves it. When Denise and I were first married, we were at her mom’s house, and Denise ironed a shirt for me, she took her time, got each wrinkle. When she was finished she gave it to me and not really thinking I just threw it on the bed. Her mom then yelled at me and said, “She worked so hard on that, the least you could do is hang it up.” Well, when you look at all the Jesus has done for you, when you look at the cross, and you see the Son of God dying for the sins of this world the least we can do is to live our life for Him.” 1 Peter 1:14-19 says, “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
Now we’ve looked at why we need to strive for Holiness, now let’s look at how we can live a holy life. Becoming holy must move from being a sermon topic, to being a priority in our lives. It’s not easy. It takes a lot of effort on your part to live a holy life. God will give you the tools, but you must put for the effort. Mother Theresa said, “Our progress in holiness depends on God and ourselves, on God’s grace and on our will to be holy.” Yet so many of us are just so complacent when it comes to our spiritual lives…and I just can’t help but wonder if God doesn’t get upset with us. If He doesn’t get fed up with our complacency. I came across this version of a familiar poem we all know. It’s a take off of the familiar footprints poem:
One night, I had a wondrous dream;
One set of footprints there was seen.
The footprints of my precious Lord,
But mine were not along the shore.
But then some stranger prints appeared,
And I asked the Lord, "What have we here?"
"Those prints are large and round and neat,
But, Lord, they are too big for feet."
"My child," He said in sombre tones.
"For miles I carried you alone.
I challenged you to walk in faith,
But you refused and made me wait.
You disobeyed, you would not grow,
The walk-of-faith you would not know.
So I got tired and fed up,
And there I dropped you on your butt,
Because in life, there comes a time,
When one must fight, and one must climb,
When one must rise and take a stand,
Or leave their butt prints in the sand."
If you want to live a holy life, put forth the effort. So how do we do this. Well the first step you need to do is to take a spiritual bath. You can’t try to live a clean life while you’re covered in filth. You can get away with it for a while but eventually the dirt starts to show. I guess you can say that I’m a typical guy, but I have a certain pair of pants that I like to wear, and my philosophy is if it looks clean, then it must be clean. And if it starts to smell, then I’ll just spray some cologne on it. But after about 3 days, the cologne just won’t cut it. Well, you try to live a good life without coming to Christ, but eventually the filth of your sin will start to show through. So you must start off by coming to Christ and being covered by His blood. And when you do that, the Bible says that you are made clean. You’re made clean. Isn’t that wonderful.
Just think about the images the Bible uses to describe this. As far as the east is from the west so far have I removed your transgressions from you. Though your sins be as scarlet they will be white as snow. Hebrews 8:12 says, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." A while back I was counseling a young man who had come to know Christ, and I told him to think about every sin he had ever committed, every mistake…and now just forget about them. God says I will remember them no more. So the first step is to confess your sins to Christ and allow Him to cleanse you of your guilt and your sins.
The next step in our strive for holiness is to spend time with God. If we are going to be holy, which means to imitate God, we need to be spending time with God. The more time we spend with someone, the more we start to take on their characteristics and their behaviors. And if you want to become more and more like your Heavenly Father, then you need to spend ample time with Him. That means when you go home tonight, you get on your knees and pray…you talk and you listen to God. That means that you spend time in God’s word. That means that you come and you spend time in God’s house with God’s people. You spend time with God.
Next, you need to avoid temptation as much as possible. Don’t purposely put yourself in sin’s path. Avoid it as much as possible. In His book “The Prayer of Jabez” Bruce Wilkinson writes, “Most of us face too many temptations-and therefore sin too often-because we don’t ask God to lead us away from temptation. We make a huge spiritual leap forward, therefore, when we begin to focus less on beating temptation and more on avoiding it.” If you know it’s dangerous don’t get near it. So don’t put yourself in situations where you know you will be tempted.
If I know the lure is there and if I don’t want to get caught, I won’t swim around the bait and play with it. Don’t see how close you can get to fire before you get burned. Proverbs 4:14-15 “Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn from it and go on your way.” Avoid places and situations where you know you will be tempted.
The choice to live a holy life is just that, it’s a choice. It’s a choice that you must make. So who are you going to imitate. This evening as Garreth comes forward to play for us, I want you to ask you…are you tired of being a mediocre Christian? Are you ready to surrender every aspect of your life to Christ here tonight. There’s a song that is often song in a worship service. It says, “Holiness, Holiness, is what I long for. Holiness is what I need, Holiness is what you want from me. Take my heart and mold it. Take my mind and transform it. Take my will and conform it…to Yours O’ Lord.” Is that your prayer today. Now as Garreth plays, and with every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to ask you a question… “How’s it going with your walk with Christ? Does Christ have a hold of you this evening. We’re going to have a time of invitation here in a few moments, and I‘m going to invite you to come and pray with me at the altar. When the invitation is given, I want you to forget about everything else that is on your mind, because these next few moments are holy ground, and they can change your life. Now during this time, I’m going to invite you to come forward and to pray with me here at this altar. Now if you have never received Christ as your Lord and Savior, I want you to meet Him today. If you are already a Christian, but now your ready to say to Christ that you want to become serious about your faith, and you want to recommit your life to Christ, we invite that decision tonight as well. But for right now, I want everybody to stand and sing reverently. The altar is here, we invite you forward to pray.
