Be Holy Like Jesus

We are spending our time together until the end of year focusing on the prophet Isaiah and what he says regarding Jesus. Our desire is to use these words to then help us live out our faith in a way that shows the love of Jesus to the world.

Each week as I began the process of preparing the next week’s sermon I began to realize that each week it has been harder for us to be like Jesus. We can look at the disciples and see that we can walk with Jesus. We can see how the disciples after he left them did all that they could to be like Jesus.

But this week’s sermon offers us an impossible task. We are going to look at what it would mean to be Holy like Jesus. When we state this, we remember that Jesus is God and therefore it will not be possible for us to be Holy like Jesus before we die and enter into heaven.

But that does not mean that we shouldn’t try. Sanctifying grace, the grace that comes after we have given our lives to Christ is all about us becoming holier. It is about God helping us become closer to him than we thought possible. This is what we are trying to do when we focus on being “Holy Like Jesus.” Our scripture comes from Isaiah 35:1-10. The words will be on the screen.

35 The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God. 3 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; 4 say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. 8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. 9 No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, 10and those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Please pray with me…

One of the great misconceptions that we sometimes find within the church is this understanding that being a follower of Jesus is easy. We hear scriptures speaking of God making our yoke light and it can lead a new follower of Jesus to believe that life gets easier when a person begins to follow Jesus.

The problem with this understanding is that following Jesus is a journey. A journey that never ends during our time on earth. It is us choosing a path to take that in many ways is the harder way for us to live our lives. We are saying through going on a journey with Jesus not my will God, but your will be done.

What we can end up discovering over time is that it may not always be the easy path but the closer that we become to Jesus we discover that it is the best path. It is the journey that allows us to follow the light. That has our creator, our Lord, our Savior, showing us the best way for us to live our lives.

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When we look at being ‘Holy like Jesus” our first focus should be on what does it mean to be holy. We cannot become holier if we don’t understand what that means to us and to God. The short answer, being holy is becoming closer too or being right with God.

Each one of us had a starting point from that moment that we gave ourselves to God through Jesus. At that point we had a choice to stay where we were on our journey with Jesus or we can choose to become holier or closer to being holy like Jesus by becoming closer to God.

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Part of looking at what it means to be holy is to look at what being holy is not. Being holy is not about behavior modification. By that I am speaking of the concept that if I am behaving in a certain way then I am being holy.

One way of looking at it is if I am saying darn and shoot instead of those other words. That in itself does not make us holy. God doesn’t mind if you change your behaviors that are against his will, but he expects much more from us than behavior modification. God wants to be in a relationship with you.

That’s why holiness is life transformation. It is us changing inside and outside from who we were to something better. Holiness involves evolving from where you are in your relationship with God into a closer relationship with him.

It is true that behavior modification might be a sign that you are becoming transformed. Holiness is about what is happening inside of us more than being about what the world can see. What the world sees can sometimes reflect what is happening within us as we become transformed by God.

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Our scripture calls it the highway or way of holiness. It is us walking a path with God. It is us looking towards him for our answers. It is us realizing that our human ways of living are not always going to be the best way.

We are on the way of holiness when we are relying on God to help us on our earthly journey. We are putting God’s desires before our desires. We are asking God to lead us down the correct path instead of making that decision on our own. We are letting God be large and in charge.

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Our scripture tells us what happens when we choose to take the way of holiness. It says that first, we become strong. We begin to rely on God instead of human answers. We choose to make decisions that will please God instead of those around us. Our focus becomes on how God wants us to serve him and others over what we may want to do.

This strengthens us because we aren’t living our lives on our own anymore. We possibly have people that help us on our earthly journey but there is truly only one that can lead us with the knowledge of what is the best for us every time and that is God.

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God strengthens our resolve. He becomes the person we trust. We can see this in Jesus during his last prayer before he is arrested. He doesn’t want things to take place as God chooses so he asks for God to take this cup away from him.

He asks God to find another way. But then he follows that up with asking that it be God’s will and not his own in the end. He is saying God I don’t want to do things your way but if I have too, I will.

This should be our way as well. We can decide we don’t like God’s way. We can want events to occur in a different way but in the end, we have to be willing to believe that God has humanities best interest in mind and we need to be willing to say to him “Not my will but your will.”

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We learn that “our eyes will be open and our ears unstopped.” When we become more holy, we begin to hear and see the world the way that God chooses instead of the way that those outside of the way of holiness see the world.

We become more aware of the desires of God over our own desires. One way this often plays out is that we become more compassionate to those around us. We are able to discover the needs that others may have that God is calling us to help with.

Jesus shows us how compassion can affect our actions. When we see someone who is struggling or God leads us into a conversation with someone in need we should be like Jesus and choose to intertwine ourselves with that person. Jesus made many of his decisions based off of the compassion he felt for others.

We also are able to hear from God more clearly. The scriptures can become the light that leads us down the path. We can recognize nuances within scripture that we may have missed in the past. This enlightenment occurs because we are following the way of holiness instead of choosing our own path.

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We become new in Christ. We become changed people both inside and out. Our first reading offers to us what this can look like. We have Mary meeting Elizabeth who is the one carrying the one that will precede Jesus in ministry. Their conversation leads Mary to say the words that are from our first reading.

From these words we discover that when we are made new in Christ “our hope magnifies the Lord.” When we become closer to God people are able to see Jesus in us. We show others the love of Christ through our words and through our actions.

At times, it may be that they will be able to realize that you are a Christian just by looking at you. They will notice that you are different because of the hope you have in your relationship with Jesus.

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Recognizing the change within ourselves will lead “our spirit to rejoice.” We will have no choice but to worship God. Our spirit will become so filled with God’s love for us that it will be released to those around us.

We will rejoice to God for the blessing he has given us. We will praise God for the places he has led us. We will thank God for the change that he has made within us and the impact he has allowed us to make on those around us.

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We will be able to see God at work. We will “realize the mercy he has showed and continues to shows us.” When we are walking the way of holiness, we become overwhelmed with the mercy that God has offered us and anyone who is willing to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

We become grateful that we have a God that loves us so much that despite the choices made before us and the choices that we have made ourselves have allowed for us to have our sins forgiven.

God could have chosen to keep us in the dark. He could have decided not to allow us to get out from under the weight of our sins. But instead, God wanted us and those that do not already know him, to be able to become as close to him as we want too. He gives everyone the chance to be free from the power of sin.

We talked a few weeks ago about how life on earth can sometimes be rough. Therefore, following God can allow us to become thankful for eternal life. Due to the power of sin being removed the power of death no longer controls us. We have eternal life. We get to reside with God in heaven. We are able to have hope in what is to come instead of focusing on the end that is inevitable. Jesus is our Savior and our Redeemer.

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All of what we looked at should remind us that God will help us in our time of need. We are not doing this thing called life on our own. We have someone on our side that will never leave us. We have a God that wants to be as close to us as we are willing to be to him. We are not left on our own in both the good or the bad times.

We have a God that will always listen to us and will respond with what is best for us. We might not always like what we hear from God, but through faith we can reach a point that we will be willing to follow the will of God.

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When we return to our first reading we find the words from the woman who will give birth to the Savior. These words can lead us into an understanding of what it means to be in a relationship with God through Jesus. These words can change us and can help us to be holy like Jesus.

This leads us to the steps that we can take in our lives to become holier. How do we do this?

· We walk and talk with him

· We spend time in scripture

· We allow God to speak to us through his word

· We spend time in prayer and listening.

· We ask for God’s help and we find the best way for us to hear from God.

· We spend time in Christian community.

· We find people to immolate.

· Mentors

· We accept people that want to immolate us.

· Mentees.

· We accept our weaknesses and try to change them.

· We ask for God’s help to become transformed.

· We work towards changing the way we live that is not God’s will for us.

· We acknowledge but do not dwell on our failures.

· We repeat. We seek new ways for us to become closer to God.

(Transition)

Being Holy like Jesus is an impossible task. But it is a task that each one who believes Jesus is their Savior is called to try. But we do not have to try on our own. Our mission statement offers it to us this way. We are to grow in faith together.

We should be striving with God’s help to be formed into the person that God desires for us to be. One way we do that is to spend time with God through prayer and scripture in order to allow God to develop us into a greater understanding of who he is and what he did for us.

We then, go into our communities and show the love of God to all people through our words and our actions. Letting God lead us into the opportunities to be the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus. The disciples showed us how to try to be holy like Jesus. Let us be willing to become the person that God created us to be.

Let us pray...