The Dance Of Holiness

Title: The Dance of Holiness

Scripture: Matthew 22:36-40; 2 Peter 3:18; Proverbs 4:18

Theme: Walking in Holiness

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit!

I want to talk to you today about holiness. In particular, I want to talk to you today about living the life of holiness in our everyday lives.

“Living a life of holiness” – five little simple words that can change your life!

Just hearing those words can challenge you, inspire you or perhaps exhaust you or even cause a bit of confusion.

After all, what does it mean to live a life of holiness?

+Too often when people hear the idea about “holiness” or “holiness living” the thought of “holier than thou” comes to their minds.

+The thoughts of someone being “holy” might bring up images of being super moralistic or being excessively preoccupied with a set of strict rules and regulations that one must adhere to or else they will find themselves in danger of everlasting Hell fire.

Far too often, good people mistakenly go to the extremes when they talk about living a holy life. Often people have made the mistake of doing more than just focusing on their personal walk of holiness. They have instead found themselves becoming a type of “moral” or “holy” judge to those who live around them. This in turn ends up with them living a life where they are constantly judging people against a man made list of moral directives that they believe to be everlastingly true.

When that happens, what starts off being a positive life goal (holiness) ends tragically. The person ends up in the same camp that we see many of the Pharisees in the New Testament. If you remember, many of the Pharisees thought that their number one job was to tell others where they were missing the mark. That is the not the goal of living a life of holiness.

The Bible is clear, however, that we are all called to live a life of holiness. Over and over we read such passages as

- “Be holy, for I am holy” – Leviticus 11:44

- “Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect” – Matthew 5:48

- “Since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” – 1 Peter 1:16

- “Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” – 2 Corinthians 7:1

Living a life of holiness is not something that is just designed for a particular segment of people in the Church. Living a life of holiness is a call to all of us that have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and LORD.

The real question is what does a life of holiness look like?

How does one know if we are in fact living a life of holiness?

Before we get into what does a life of holiness look like it might be good for us to see what a life of holiness does not look like.

+It does not look like a life of virtual or absolute perfection – this was the mistake the Pharisees made in the time of Jesus. They were more worried about outward moral perfection than they were of possessing holiness of heart, mind and spirit.

+It does not look like legalism. Holy living is not a life that is rules based but it is a life that is relationship based. That is to say it is based on the relationship that one has with God, with themselves, with others and with creation.

So, what does a life of holiness look like?

I. It looks like a life that is centered on the Heart of God

Holiness begins and ends with our relationship with God.

Holiness begins and ends with us reflecting God’s image, character and glory.

Therefore, holiness begins with us doing our best to be a living example of God’s Image. And one of the best ways to do that is to be a living example of God’s two great commandments:

“Jesus replied, ‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.’” – Matthew 22:37-40

These two commandments have been with us since the beginning of time. This is how God wanted all humans to live. We need to understand that the Lord God Almighty, Creator of the Universe has desired for us to love Him supremely and then to love others as much as we love ourselves.

The first commandment is a part of the Shema. The Shema is the centerpiece of a Jewish prayer every faithful Jew was to say every morning and evening.