Remarkable Legacy: Holy vocation

Intro

Good morning and welcome again to our English service . Thank y u for joining us in person and Online. (open to Galatians 13-22-26)As we’ve been completing this picture of a remarkable legacy We’ve seen what it looks like to build a legacy and more importantly, the kind of legacy we want to build. A legacy of Love, faith, hope and this week’s subject Holiness. The title today is Remarkable legacy: holy vocation.

When we think about vocations we usually chock it up to church work or our jobs outside of here. Where vocation is generally a strong sense of calling or purpose in life, particularly in the context of one's occupation or career. It goes beyond mere employment and encompasses a deep personal commitment to a specific path or role. I pray that what we do in our day to days has that sense of fulfillment, but today I want us to consider the Holy Vocation, the holy call God has put on every believer. Sometimes we hear people say that God has a great calling for your life and it ends up focusing on some sort of success or sense of success in our social or work lives, but I believe that misses the mark. God has an even greater call on your life, a call in the ordinary, but a holy vocation beyond even success in this world.

1 Peter 1:15–16 ESV

but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Let us pray...

How do we become holy?

I’m glad you asked. I’m gonna give a quick crash course before we really dive in.

To become holy, to be truly righteous, we need Jesus, or more accurately, we need to have faith in christ. without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). So if you think that you can be holy without faith, then you are wrong. this goes back to a sermon a couple years ago now, there is only one way to the father and that is in Jesus. Likewise there is only one way to be Holy as God is holy, or righteous as the NT epistles use it, that is through faith in Jesus.

Philippians 3:8–9 ESV

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

The only thing we can do to be holy is have faith and the righteousness or holiness of christ is ours. The beauty of this work is that though we come to christ in our current state, we are not left there.

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

By the work of the Holy Spirit, in God’s grace, we are gifted faith(eph2:8), then by the merits of christ’s life, we are counted righteous(Romans 5:17) before God. This is how we become Holy. I know in our context call and response isn’t usually something we use in our sermons, but, Is any of this work our own? No!

This is foundational to the work at hand. A vocation isn’t merely heard, but it is lived.

How do we live holy lives?

Galatians 5:13–26 ESV

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

We are not going to deep dive in every single fruit, that’ll be for another series, but I do want to start with this, Just as God brings about the growth in 1 Corinthians 3:6, and just like a tree doesn’t force the apple to come forth, likewise, we can’t force the fruit of the Spirit to grow in us. The Holy Spirit indwelling us does this through a beautiful process named sanctification.

Sanctification is this gradual, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, process of change or conformity as Scripture calls it. Unfortunately, in our western world our rugged individualism is celebrated more than our conformity to the image of Jesus, but another day, another sermon. The work of the holy spirit in sanctification changes us to look more like christ. We’re not talking about physically with beards and such, but in character. That we are becoming more and more like the original picture of humanity through the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work. What do I mean by that?

matt chandler says this:

what happens in the fracture(sin) is an ongoing dehumanization that malforms and deforms and dehumanizes us until christ the perfect man comes and he lives perfectly what a human life should look like lived by the spirit. He dies on the cross, ascended to the right hand of the father and sends the spirit so that those of us who believe, by faith in the grace of God through jesus christ, emboldened and empowered by the spirit will be progressively re-humanized over the days of our lives, we’ll become more human not less human.

We’ve all heard the testimonies of people who come to faith and are transformed instantly and those are beautiful stories, When I look at my own life I can see the gradual change God made my in my life. My conversions have always been gradual, so if your process is slow, don’t feel bad God is working.

In our focal verses we find what it looks like to live holy lives. Though we don’t will fruit to grow and don’t bring about the growth the idea here is that we, as believers, walk in lock step with the Holy Spirit and that takes Holy Spirit enabled effort.

When we look at the fruits of the Spirit, do they look or sound like anything we would want to do? These fruits or characteristics are against our dehumanized nature, but they are who christ is. So our goal and believers who have gained holiness through christ and have gained eternity through christ, who have gained approval through christ, is hat by Holy Spirit empowered lives, we live more like christ did.

This is the legacy that as fathers as spiritual heads of our house hold, we are called to live in. These are not options. The gifts of the Spirit are optional, preachers, teachers, prophets, healers and all that, but the fruits of the spirit are for all believers, not just fathers or the holiest of us. How many of us know people that like to say, I’m just being honest? or this is just how I am, I’m just direct, I didn’t read that as a fruit, did you?

I’m just not very patient, or I’m not very kind, I can’t be all fluffy with everyone always. I bring these up because I can be this way. These are things I’m working out of my self as the spirit works them out of me. Though every illustration falls apart at some point, walking with the spirit is similar to learning something new, like an instrument. We learn a new skill and then we take it home and practice it, except it’s like having the teacher in our house with us 24/7 helping us to get it right.

What I love is that there is room to grow for everyone. Even the nicest people are not perfect. especially cause I read kindness not niceness. There’s a video making the rounds that speaks to the effect of the different between niceness and kindness. Niceness empathizes with you, you get a flat tire,” aww man that sucks...” and walks away, kindness helps change the tire. even though being nice isn’t a fruit, we can do better to do so with each other sometimes. I always think of Melissa or hermano Zelaya, really, a great deal of brothers and sister here that can do better, just kidding, these two, like a great number of others here at horeb exhibit some of the nicest temperments, to a fault almost. they are also kind, patient and so on.

James 2:15–17 ESV

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Our work as holy Spirit indwelt believers is work out or salvation, in other words, live in the identity given to us as saved people, in other words that we walk in step with the holy spirit expressing our salvation through love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; fighting the urge to fulfill our ungodly desires and choosing instead to be more like christ.

Maybe your sitting here today a seasoned believer thinking, that I’m preaching to the choir, that we’ve learned this or are beyond this, but you’re not. To say that is to say, I’ve paid the entry fee, now what’s new? Nothing! Nothing is new, God doesn’t change and his word doesn’t change.

Believer, you have been drawn near, given a new heart, gifted with faith, given the holy spirit and adopted by God our father. We are a new creation in christ, and are empowered to live as such.

Romans 6:6 ESV

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Unbeliever, the call from God is to be Holy as he is holy, you cannot merely exhibit holiness, or the fruits of the spirit, you can’t earn it, it is only by faith in christ and what he has done that you can achieve holiness. The rest will come.

There was a pit deep down inside of me A need revealed by laws I could not keep And it's demands had put a curse over my head And blinded me with shame, I could not see

Then God chose love and sent his only Son To hang my curse upon a tree And I've been crucified with Christ It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me

The foolish are working in the flesh Only Spirit will perfect, by faith He's been received Now sons, now daughters, we put on Christ We are made one, all who believe And it is for freedom we are free Stand firm, therefore Give up the yoke of slavery

Faith working through love Praise be to Christ, He lives inside of me Faith working through love What God is this, He set me free