Holiness Part 3

Obedience

Capture

Who here has the cleanest room? Now how many of you guys can sit here and tell me that your rooms are perfectly clean?

See when I was a kid I hated cleaning my room. My mom would get soooo mad at me cause she’d come in and everything on the surface looked really really good. but if you took two seconds to really look at my room she would always notice that there was something deeper. See because what I would do is shove everything up under my beds. yeah I would. my beds had these awesome Batman covers that hung down all the down the sides of my bed and every thing i owned in my room we get shoved up under my bed.

so on the surface it my room looked clean but at the heart of it it was piled with junk.

or oooo how about this how dirty do you guys thing it is under your couch cushions right now.

this is exactly how we are. we spend time cleaning up the things that are viewable by others. but the things that arent up front we tend to not worry about. this is what were talking about today.

See the bible tells us that if we aren’t obedient enough to allow God to change our heart eventually that dirtiness will come out. We make changes on the outside like our actions or behaviors but don’t allow God to clean out the hidden places in our hearts.

READ

Mark 7:20–23 NLT

And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

See in this Chapter the Parisees and the teachers of the Law were always looking to trap Jesus in saying something or doing something wrong.

When the Parisees noticed some of Jesus disciples not washing there hands before eating (as required by their ancient traditions) they called Jesus out on it.

Jesus immediately calls them hypocrites!

he was like “how dare you honor God with your lips but your hearts be so far from him”

Basically Jesus is saying you guys. you always dress the part, you’re cleaned up. you put on a fancy rob and have all this favor yet they way you treat Gods people the way you store greed in your hearts you’re just as dirty as the us who do not wash their hands.

Jesus is teaching us that if our hearts aren’t clean it’ll eventually rise to the surface and become evident in the way we behave, this things we do, or how we treat people.

Lets Pray

So in this series has been all about being set apart. being different than the world. living a holy life.

in 2 timothy chapter two Paul uses an analogy of dish wear. he say’s in a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver and some are made of wood and clay. He goes on to say “the expensive utensils are used for WHAT? Special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use.

How many of yall have a china cabinet in your house? that that cupboard with a bunch of fancy plates that never get used?

See Paul says ‘in 2 timothy ch 2

New Living Translation (Chapter 2)

If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.

See Paul is writing to Timothy on of his students and he’s encouraging him to be a “good soldier of Jesus” He encourages him to be strong through the grace that God gives you in Jesus.

He’s also warning of False teachers. These are the teachers who would come into these churches proclaiming to be christians but deep down they had hidden agendas. their motives weren’t good their HEARTS were not pure.

Most importantly he was instructing Timothy to be obedient.

turn to

2 Timothy 2:22 (NLT)

Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts.

(guys this isn’t a because I said so moment this is an acknowledgment that sometimes our elders know whats best for us because they’ve already made the mistakes)

Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.

see the only path to living a holy life to holiness the way God has commanded us is to be obedient and submit to God everything. The discipline to listen to the holy spirit.

So why do we obey? Why is this so important?

Because we love him. Jesus said 1 John 2 that if we love him we will keep his commandments.

It’s also because we fear God.

2 Corinthians 7:1 NLT

Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.

Now the concept of Fearing God is very significant.

I want you to understand that fearing the Lord is a Good thing. In the bible fearing the lord is attributed or a characteristic of those who are displaying wisdom righteousness and obedience to God.

we fear God because of his holiness

we fear not out of terror but out of reverence and loyalty.

God sees our hearts he sees everything about us. He sees the things we do when no ones looking. He knows if you’re going to keep it going or not. and he knows this soo deeply that he literally gave us everything so we could have his power with in us to do the right thing. to live a holy life.

Guy it’s not easy. In fact it’s crazy hard. Especially in the areas of our lives we keep to ourselves.

This morning Im just pray that God continues to move. That we continue to be and work on our obedience. That we allow the Holy Spirit to move in our heart so that when our actions start bubbling up from within that we bear Good fruit that we’re a good witness to his people and that we don’t allow the wickedness in our hearts to drive people further away from him.

I pray that we make the decision that no matter what the cost if theres anything in our hearts holding us back that we cut it off and walk in the obedience of his word.