What's Next

Gene Simmons Illustration

It would be fair to say that Eugene made a fortune in makeup. it would be equally

fair to say that Eugene craved his mother's approval. But it would not be

fair to say that Eugene's mother was impressed by the $10 million dollar

check her son just handed her. "This is very nice Eugene, but tell me what's next?"

Eugene sighed, and smiled in spite of himself. When he was a teenager he had

mastered four separate languages. Flora had smiled then and said, "That's very

impressive, son. Tell me what's next?" When he expressed an interest in art she got

him canvases and paints and Eugene created a series of beautiful landscapes

and portraits. "These are lovely, son. What's next?" When he expressed an

interest in music she got him a guitar, which he quickly mastered. "Oh, that sounds

lovely, son. What's next?" When he mastered a few card tricks and simple illusions

his mother encouraged him to go farther. So Eugene became a magician. Still his

mother wondered what was next. And now, after jumping headlong into a

brutally competitive industry, Eugene had finally made a fortune in makeup, of all

things - and the $10 million check he presented to his mom was proof

positive that a constant willingness to reinvent himself had finally paid off.

But Flora Klein returned the check to her son, and repeated the same question.

"What's next Eugene? What's next?" Truth is flora was not unimpressed with

her son's success. In fact, she was very proud of Eugene's boundless creativity.

It's just that Flora preferred to look forward, always forward. And she also knew

something about cosmetics that her son did not. As a former beautician, Flora

knew that the right makeup - properly applied - was worth more than $10 million.

Much, much, more. Flora recalled her very first client - the one she met

right after graduating from beauty school, 45 years ago. Her name

was Teresa, and she had posed a classic cosmetology challenge - an average looking

woman with strong features, who had the great misfortune to possess a nose

the size of the baby's foot. She also had money and a very powerful husband. Flora

knew what to do. A bit of rouge here to emphasize the cheekbone. A touch of

highlight there to draw the eye up and away from the bridge of the nose.

Darkened lashes to accentuate the blue in the eyes. When Flora finished, Teresa

looked in the mirror and gasped with delight. "Oh my word," she said. "Flora you're

a miracle worker! Can you come back tomorrow?" Flora left

Teresa's luxurious home giddy with excitement. Other clients would certainly

follow. And after that, who knows? Alas, Flora's optimism was short-lived.

That night, her mother explained the situation. "Your grandmother has been

called," she told Flora. "But she's very afraid, and I'm sorry darling but I can't

let her go alone." So Flora's mother and grandmother left the bunkhouse together,

and took their place in line. The line moved quickly and through a dirty window

pane, Flora could see her mother and grandmother holding hands as they walked

together into the gas chamber. The next morning the 14 year old orphan returned

to The Commandant's lovely home, where The Commandant's not-

so-lovely wife awaited her next makeover. Flora suggested a more dramatic eyeliner,

and applied it with expertise. "Oh that's wonderful,"

said Teresa. "What's next?" The following day, Flora suggested a new

hairdo. "Oh this is delightful!" Said Teresa. "What's next?" The day after that, Flora

separated Teresa's eyebrow, and showed her how to

conceal the mole on her chin. "Oh that's marvelous, Flora. Thank you.

Now, tell me what's next?" Everyday a new suggestion. A new improvement. A new

compliment. That's how Flora survived the

concentration camp. She made the wife of the Commandant feel

pretty. And was a little bit of makeup properly applied she made herself

indispensable. Eugene knew the story, but not the details. He'd never know all the

details, because Flora would never share them. But back in 1984, when his mother

wanted to know what was next for the man behind all that makeup, it's hard to say

if Eugene had the faintest idea. Did he know he'd soon be a best-selling author?

A reality TV star? A successful real-estate investor? A social and political

lightning rod? Did he know he would become a musician with more gold records

than anyone in history? A sex symbol who would marry a Playboy Bunny and have his

tongue insured for a million dollars? Who knows? But one thing's for sure without

her makeup - Eugene's mother would have surely

perished in the Nazi death camps. And without his makeup Flora Klein's son

would not be worth $300 million today. And the world would have been

denied the blood spitting, fire-breathing bass-playing, mastermind who gave us a

rock and roll band called Kiss. Who knew? Underneath all that makeup

there was a nice Jewish boy just trying to impress his mom. An insatiable

entrepreneur called Gene Simmons, who's still trying to figure out - what's next.

Anyway, that's the way I heard it.

Tonight we are going to discuss a big word. Add this one to your vocabulary. You’ll impress anyone you say it to. The $3 word of the day is

Sanctification

Sanctification is part of the process of salvation. It’s step 2 in the process. Forgive me for preaching these out of order.

There are 3 steps in process of salvation,

step 1 you are Justified- this happens in an instant. You receive an instant forgiveness of all of your sins. This is a legal term. Your crimes before God are erased in 1 shot. That’s Justification.

Step 3 you are glorified. Also happens in an instant. faster than the blink of an eye. you are made completely perfect, without flaws, and depending on who you ask, you’ll probably be physically glowing like the guy from Sky High. This happens after you die. The instant you enter the presence of God you are glorified and made like Him.

SO step 1, you’re justified. step 3 you’re glorified. step 2 is everything in the middle. step 2 is the life long process of becoming more like God in your thoughts and actions.

Sanctification is the whole journey from being justified to being glorified. and it is always a life long process.

Regardless of if you have your moment of justification and then you die a second later and enter heaven in your moment of glorification. You got 1 whole second of sanctification.

Doesn’t matter if you had your moment of justification, prayed a prayer when you were 8 days old, and got baptized that very day. and you live to be 127 years old.

You spend 127 years on nothing but sanctification.

Doesn’t matter if you make very little progress, maybe even take 1 step forward and 2 steps back sometimes. Your whole life from the time you come to know the Lord until the time that you go to be with Him, you will spend every minute working on your sanctification.

It doesn’t matter if you pray your little prayer and then take off like a bullet becoming more and more like Christ every second until you can’t think of anything else to do. You may be the Godliest person in Marengo County. You may think you’re done. You’ve finished the to do list of sanctification.

You haven’t. You will continue in your sanctification until the moment you arrive with God and are glorified.

Literally as long as you are alive you still have something you need to work on. Here’s how I know. Genesis 5:21-24

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 5

21 Enoch was 65 years old when he fathered Methuselah. 22 And after he fathered Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 23 So Enoch’s life lasted 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God; then he was not there because God took him.

We have 1 example in scripture of a man who seemingly finished getting sanctified. There is a ancient jewish text that explains further. Essentially the story goes that Enoch was so holy that God just took him up to heaven without waiting for Enoch to die. The best illustration I have is, if you imagine God and Enoch are going for a walk. They go for a walk every day and then they reach a point and head on back to Enoch’s house. Well, imagine, one day they walk so far that God says “Enoch, we’re a whole lot closer to my house than yours, why don’t we just go on there?”

That’s what happens when you get done getting sanctified. You die. and since you’re still alive, you haven’t finished this process of sanctification yet.

So before we go any further. If you think “I’m actually doing pretty God. I think I’m pretty Christ-like. I don’t have any big sin issues.” Stop. You’re wrong. You’re either confused, dilluted, or insane. If you’re alive, youve still got sanctification to do.

Now that we know what sanctififcation is, and that we all need it. Can we move to a more pointed question. Why? Why do we need to be sanctified? If God can take a thief on a cross or take Enoch and both of them when they arrive in the pressence of God receive the same amount of instant glorification regardless of how sanctified they were when they were on earth? What’s the point of putting in all the effort?

Well, short answer. God said so.

Leviticus 11:44–45 CSB

44 For I am the Lord your God, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy. Do not defile yourselves by any swarming creature that crawls on the ground. 45 For I am the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God, so you must be holy because I am holy.

Short answer, because God said so. Long answer, because God is so.

Here’s what I mean. God said this to the Hebrews 5,000 years ago because He was moving in with them.

You ever had relatives coming to stay at your house and there’s a whole nother level of clean that the house has to be? Like. There’s normal clean. There’s very clean. and then there’s company coming to stay clean.

For me it was my dads mom. She loves across the country. I saw her once a year for thanksgiving. My mother gets a little crazy when her mother in law is coming. When I tell you that that house got clean.

I’m all of 9 years old. and we’ve got 2 weeks till she gets here. and a box of SOS pads show up in my bathroom. Every time you take a shower, scrub a different wall with the SOS pad. Keep doing it until she gets here.

Laundy doesn’t go in the hamper. It goes in the washer. can’t have those hampers looking like we wear clothes for the next 2 weeks. Only thing allowed to be dirty is the clothes on your back.

you vacuumed that yesterday. Hit it again. Something will get shook loose that was stuck last time.

Why? because my grandmother is important. and our normal standard of cleanliness is inadequate when she is with us. We must become cleaner than clean so that Nana can come and stay with us.

Look, in Leviticus God is talking to the Hebrews and explaining to them. I am moving in with you. I will be living in your camp. Here’s a whole system of tents and an org chart describing who can come near me and when. because you people are not clean.

God is the epitome of clean. God is Holy. He is so Holy that anything unholy is vaporized by His very pressence. So if you’re unholy, God can’t move in with you. So He tells the Hebrews. Make yourself Holy because I am Holy. But it didn’t work. That’s why God still had His own tent. Moses spent too long with God up on the mountain and Moses came down glowing. like ol boy from sky high for a few weeks.

Sanctification is the process of you becomeing more holy, not for the sake of obedience. Not for the sake of behavior modification. Not for the sake of making your parents happy, or staying out of trouble. None of those things matter at all.

Sanctification is the process of becoming more holy so that you can get closer to God and God can get closer to you.

So, if God can take the dirty thief on the cross who took like half a step in his sanctification. or he can take Enoch who took all the steps in his sanctification. and they both get the same prize of glorifcation, why put in the work. Why expend the effort on sanctification.

Because the more sanctified you are, the closer you can get to God and the closer He can get to you.

If you’re at a point in your life where you feel like you and God just aren’t that close. If you’re in that place where you feel like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling and aren't getting through.

If you know you’re saved but you just feel like God is so far away that He’s hard to talk to.

This is the answer for you. Sanctification. The process of becoming more holy so that you and God can get closer and closer together.

SO if you feel like God is super far away and your prayers aren’t reaching Him…Dog have you done anything about that? Ball’s in your court here big homie, because I promise you God isn’t the one that walked away from you.

And that seems like a lot of responsibility to drop on you.

You aren’t capable of contributing to your justification. That was done entirely for you by God.

You aren’t capable of contributing to your glorification. that was done entirely for you by God.

But somehow you’re supposed to do this sanctification thing entirely by yourself?

No.

You don’t do it by yourself. See, God tells the Hebrews “be holy because I’m holy” and expects them to get it together on their own; and it doesn’t work.

That’s what the whole Old Testament is about. But in the New Testament, God does something a little different for us.

1 Peter 1:1–2 CSB

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those chosen, living as exiles dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Who does all the work in your sanctification? Whose job is it to sanctify you?

Nachos

Guy walks into a mexican resturaunt and asks “whose cheese is this” “nacho cheese”.

One more

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 6)

9 Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or males who have sex with males,, 10 no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom. 11 And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

So why is that you’re stuck in this spot. Feeling so far from God. Why isn’t the Holy Spirit sanctifying you like He said He would? Easy there parter. He is. He is sanctifying you by giving you that feeling that you need to be sanctified.

He is bringing you closer to God by making you realize how far away you’ve gotten. He is using that bad feeling you have inside to drive you back towards Him.

If you’re out in the ocean swimming. and you’re getting out there and out there, and then the lifeguard blows his whistle…what are you supposed to do? COME BACK IN

That’s what the Holy Spirit is doing. That’s why you feel bad.

Ok. We know this. So what do we do about it?

IDK man. I aint in your life. Idk what your sin problems are. I know what some of your sin problmes are, ya nasties, but I’m not all knowing or at the center of your life. I can’t tell you what you need to do. But you know who can?

The Holy Spirit.

See God, in your sanctification is the exact opposite of that old Jewish lady from the story at the beginning, but He still expects the same things from you.

God is not sitting there, unimpressed, asking you “what’s next?” until