Holiness
This summer, The Young Professionals Community Groups (Lake View and Wicker Park) will be going through a book by David Platt called Counter Culture. We are going to learn how to take a compassionate and courageous stand about different cultural issues such as poverty, same-sex marriage, racism, and gender discrimination.
God’s people are called to holiness. As much as we need to be immersed and engaged in culture, there is a greater need to be set apart and not lose God’s distinctive mark. In fact, our response to the call for holiness – how we refine our beliefs, act on them and are transformed in the process – lays down the foundations for God’s redemptive work in culture.
PREACHING
1: START WITH HOLINESS.
- New Community Group series
- Compassionate and courageous stand about different cultural issues
- Can we, as Christians, immerse ourselves in culture, enjoy life experiences and take in the good things the world has to offer without losing God’s mark of holiness?
- Given that the most basic meaning of holiness is “set apart for God,” I always find myself asking how I can close the gap between how I’m supposed to live and how I’m actually living.
- Even Paul says, in Romans 7: I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
- I feel like I’m not supposed to be doing this or that there’s a boundary I’m crossing.
- As God’s people, there will always be a heavier sense in us that there’s a bigger TRUTH that I’m supposed to be living out and it’s more than just trying not to get drunk tonight, more than being an agreeable, cool person and more than going to church. Holiness is a lifestyle that we need to keep refining as we’re empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Before you leave your seat and call this another dogmatic, religious call to be different and stand out, let’s take a step back and look at what’s happening in culture.
2 & 3: Big and Small issues
- Whenever I find myself asking these questions, I can't help but also see the brokenness outside me. (Read BIG issues.)
- More so, the brokenness in my life. (Read small issues.)
- You can join our City Professionals Community Groups if you want to embark on this study about specific cultural issues, but for now, I want to focus on how we can pursue holiness in general, because that is the end goal.
- I remember when I was younger…my youth leaders would always tell me: “The battle is not against sin. Jesus has already won that. Our big, daily fightis upholding the central passions of our life” – what gets us out of bed, what we revere and hold dear, what we prioritize when we get busy, what we post/like/share and comment on the most on social media.
- Our desires are expressions of what’s going on inside us; aligning these with God’s intents and purposes is central to holiness.
- God has a grand design for this world – a moral fabric that He’s keeping intact. Therefore, as God’s people…
4: DO YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS FRACTURED WORLD? START WITH HOLINESS.
- I want to challenge all of us to go beyond the fight merely against sin and embrace the bigger battles. God saved us for many reasons – He loves us and to worship. But holiness is just as important.
- Yes, holiness has its table stakes. The Bible mentions holiness about 600 times so there are countless verses about what’s considered sin, what attitudes to cultivate and how to handle many of life’s situations. You guys can study those verses yourselves and seek God to ask Him what’s He’s dealing with in your lives.
- My hope this morning, is that all of us be made more aware of why we were set apart.
5 & 6: Freedom vs. Virtues
- As modern Christians, it’s become too easy to simply “stick to the basics” when it comes to how we’re living.
- We enjoy discussions about our freedom in Christ, but we tend to be turned off by discussions about Christian virtues.
- We don’t want to be too religious, too backward, too judgmental, too rigid.
- We will embrace God’s love, mercy and grace any day of week, but how much do we really embrace His discipline and try to carefully obey His commands?
- 2 kinds of freedom: freedom from and freedom to
7: 1 Peter 1:13-15 (NIV)
- Before I propose 4 big ideas that can anchor our how we can pursue holiness today, let me read this verse:
- FOCUS on:
o Encouraging mental alertness and being mindful about being too “intoxicated” with life
o Checking our desires
- Sorting
8: 4 BIG PILLARS of HOLINESS
- A framework, not a prescription
9: UNION. Christ-centered life [1 Peter 1:15-16 (NIV)]
- YES: God commanded us to be holy. We pursue it because we value our relationship with Christ and wouldn’t want anything to stand in the way of our intimacy and desire for him.
- Stories: HS, wanted to be one of the cool kids
- College: Learning what these women were into
- Other thoughts:
o Beholding Christ changes us – His beauty & majesty
o His presence follows us.
10: [Ephesians 5]
11: DISPOSITION. Never perfection [1 Peter 1:15-16 (NIV)]
- There are very clear instructions in the Bible, but the pursuit of holiness is not rule keeping.
- You don’t decide to become a lawyer after you’ve taken the bar. You do it because there’s something intrinsic about you that is “perfected” by being a lawyer.
- Picture of Freedom: child vs. pianist.
- We pursue holiness because it’s possible, because we’ve been given the capacity to. A spiritual regeneration.
- This person loves God.
12: PROCESS. Faith-driven pursuit [1 Peter 1:14 (NIV)]
- There are many plainly made cases about how we should live as God’s people. But let’s face it: There are so many gray areas in adult life and we simply can’t write a discourse about each of these before we start living them out.
- As we redirect our hearts and minds to God’s will, we need to trust His sovereign process of revelation and transformation.
- Pursuing holiness can be painful and will definitely require extra effort on our parts, but it is possible. Holiness is possible.
- Not conforming means to filter our actions and thoughts through what God is doing in our lives, in faith that there’s a grand design out there.
13: [2 Peter 1]
14: Process
15: COLLECTIVE. Community effort [Exodus 19]
- Israelites as a model for why and how holiness is a corporate calling
16: Salt & Light
- Just as the many branches of Science prove that there is a hidden order to how the physical world works in terms of matter and nature, there is also a moral fabric of how we should behave as humans.
- It becomes too easy to give on pursuing and being passionate about holiness when we reduce it to our lives.
- When we see the bigger picture: God is redeeming His creation and we, His people, are agents of redemption, we will realize that the stakes are higher.
- YES: Donate to charities, sign petitions, fight for a cause…BUT also, walk blamelessly when you’re alone, watch what media you consume (“Thank you god for this!)
17: Prayer
Second City Church- Guest Speakers Missions & More Sermon Series 2015