Mekoddishkem

Manuscript Template

Title:  Mekoddishkem

Focus Statement:  God doesn’t only want us to get into Heaven, God wants to free us from the effects of sin in our lives now.

Function Statement:  Pray, seek God’s next step for you to talk toward becoming more Christ-like, set a goal, and make a plan to do it.

Tweetable Phrase:  In your Christian walk, have you settled for being saved, and given up on being sanctified?

Main Text: Exodus 31:12-18 / Leviticus 20:7-8

Supporting Text: 

Redemptive Closure (point to Jesus): Matthew 7:24-27

Benediction:  Titus 2:11-14

WELCOME

Good morning!!! My name is Ryan Hanson, and I have the honor of serving here at The Light KC as the lead pastor. I’m so glad you’re here with us.

‌Welcome to those joining us online. We hope you're doing well and hope to see you in person in the coming weeks.

And a special welcome to those joining us for the first time. We’re so glad you chose to be here.

ME/INTRO - Tension

Who here loves change?

Who absolutely hates it?

I love change, to a fault.

I look at change as an opportunity to improve.

Even when something good is ending, I tend (more often than not) to look past the disappointment and intentionally look for ways that God can be using the change to do some “Good Work” in my life and the lives of those around me.

That being said, who set resolutions during our discipleship series last fall?

Who still has them on their bathroom mirror and prays over them every morning when getting ready?

Who has let that daily practice lapse?

Who set a new year’s resolution this year? Are you still doing it?

I found out that the 2nd Friday in January is NATIONAL QUITTER’S DAY because it is (on average) the day when most people quit their new year’s resolutions.

That means that the average Americans only lasts between 8-14 days before they quit a goal that they seriously wanted to accomplish.

Why is this?

Why do we give up on the things we actually want to happen?

Probably because

Change is hard

We’ve all tried to change, and failed before

So, it is hard to believe that we can be successful if we try again

Yet, when we read self-improvement books it sounds so easy.

Anyone read the book Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg

[Image: Tiny Habits - book]

According to this book, to make any change in your life you only need to do (2) things

Understand that: Behavior = Motivation + Ability + Prompt

Then simply tackle the area of this equation you have issues with

Change the prompt (trigger)

After [XXX], I will [XXX], then I celebrate [XXX]

Increase your ability by learning what you need to know to succeed

Change your motivation (this is the hardest and we probably need God’s help for this one)

Yet, if that’s too hard, another book Atomic Habits by James Clear makes the process much simpler.

[Image: Atomic Habits - book]

According to this book, all you have to do is follow a simple (4) step iterative loop

[Image: Atomic Habits - habit loop]

Cue - create a trigger - For example if you want to start the habit of running in the morning, your cue can be to sleep in running clothes and put your running shoes by the door

Craving - the cue creates the craving - by removing the obstacles that get in your way (getting dressed, finding your stuff), you actually want to run

Response - now that you have the craving, you actually do what you wanted to do - you go for your run

Reward - you get the satisfaction of accomplishing your goal - you get the dopamine hit and endorphin rush that comes at the end of a good run

It sounds so simple...

Yet...it typically doesn’t have lasting results. If it did, there wouldn’t be a national quitters day.

A Professor at the University of Surrey by the name of Phillippa Lally tried to figure out why this is.

She researched and wrote a paper for the European Journal of Social Psychology

In her paper titled, How are habits formed: Modeling habit formation in the real world

She got a bunch of people try to develop new habits of varying degrees of difficulty.

She then graphed their AUTAMATICITY vs time, or how easy it was for them to do the new behavior.

Here are the habits she experimented with

Doing 50 sit-ups after morning coffee

[Image: 50 sit ups]

Walking 10 minutes after breakfast

[Image: walking]

Exercising 15 minutes after dinner

[Image: exercise]

Eating fruit with lunch

[Image: fruit w lunch]

Drinking a glass of water after breakfast

[Image: water]

Eating fruit while watching TV in the evening

[Image: fruit w TV]

When the graphs plateaued, the time at which the AUTOMATICITY reached 95% was determined to be the time it took to create the habit.

Depending on how hard the habit was to develop, it took this group between 18 and 254 days to create the habits.

The average time it took to create a habit was 66 days (more than 2 months)

[Image: habit formation - table]

The paper concluded that

To form a simple habit (going for a short walk every day) it would take about 25 days to develop the habit.

To form harder habits (50 sit-ups per day) it would take 55 days or more to develop the habit.

I think we’ve all experienced this in one form or another throughout our lives.

We set a goal

We choose a system to help us reach the goal

We do our best

But… we give up before we’ve given it enough time to creating that lasting habit

It probably doesn’t matter much when we fail at some habits

Losing a few pounds would be nice, but if we don’t most of us won’t be too worse for wear

Drinking 8 cups of water a day is nice, but I have never done this and haven’t regretted falling short of that even once

But… we do run into problems when

We feel a prompting from God to make a change in our lives, but fail to live up to the call God gave us

It is terrible to say out loud, but most Christians have settled for being saved, and given up on being sanctified.

Yet, Sanctification is not optional for believers; it is central to God’s covenant with His people.

As a Wesleyan Church, we believe that we can not only be successful in making the changes that God calls us to; we believe that it is possible to be ENTIRELY SANCTIFIED, completely free of all willful sin.

WE - Tension

Do you believe this?

Do you believe you can be free from all willful sin?

Are there sins in your life right now that you feel God calling you stop?

Have you felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit telling you to stop something that you’re doing that doesn’t align with God’s will for your life?

Have you tried to stop that habit, but failed over and over?

Do you want to be free from this sin pattern, but have no idea how to do it?

Today we’re going to look at a name God has chosen to be known by that only occurs in the Bible 2X, but shows us something so central to who He is and what He wants for us as his children.

If you missed the previous messages, please feel free go to our website, TheLightKC.org, to catch up.

As we begin, please turn with me to [Exodus 31:12-18: Sanctuary Bible Page # 70]

We’ll have the scripture on the screen, but if you have a Bible with you, or Bible app on your phone, I’d encourage you to turn to the passage and follow along. There is nothing that replaces having God’s word in your hand.

AND... if you don’t have a Bible, we have Bibles under the seats. If you don’t have a bible and would like one, please come see me after the service and I’ll get you one you can keep.

Let's dive in.

GOD - Text

Sanctification is God’s work, not ours

After God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt through the 10 miraculous plagues and helped them cross the Red Sea on dry ground by splitting the waters, God brought the Israelites to Mt Sinai where He gave them the 10 commandments that would serve as a covenant between God and His people, outlining how their relationship should function.

As the Israelites traveled throughout the desert of the Sinai peninsula, God gave further detail on these 10 commandments and started the work of forming the Israelites into a nation. God started building in the people the structures for their new society to function. God gave them guidelines about:

Idols

Servants

Physically hurting each other

Property

Social Responsibility

Justice and Mercy

Sabbath laws

Festivals

Then God setup a place where He could dwell among the people; the Tabernacle.

God provided all the instructions for how to construct the tabernacle and all the rules for the priests who would work there and how the sacrifices should be offered there.

It is here that we get a short passage where God talks about the Sabbath for a third time, but this time with a different tone.

Exodus 31:12–13 NIV

12 Then the Lord said to Moses, 13 “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.

It is here where God gives the Israelites another name that He is to be known by

Jehovah Mekaddishkem

The God who Sanctifies

Purifies / Cleans / Makes Holy / Removes from Common Use

If you remember back during our discipleship series we defined the process of Sanctification this way

Sanctification

The process by which the Holy Spirit makes a person holy and transforms us into the image of Christ

And the first point we want to make today is that, as God writes in Exodus 31:13 “I am the LORD, who makes you holy”

Sanctification is God’s work, not ours

Sanctification begins with grace (the undeserved gift from God), not human effort

Because as we talked about earlier, when we try to change ourselves by our own strength, more often than not, we fail miserably.

I’m reminded of the Casting Crowns song Love Moved First. In it they sing:

You knew I couldn’t make the change

So You became the change in me

And that is exactly what God does. Once we put our faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit takes up residence inside us, we become the temples of God, and the Holy Spirit starts the work of sanctifying us; cleaning us of our sins, and transforming us into the image of Christ.

This is clear throughout scripture.

Romans 15:15–16 NIV

15 Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

But God doesn’t just clean us up from the filth of our sins for no reason.

Sanctification is the process of God purifying, cleaning, making us Holy...

...it also means “to be set apart / removed from common use”

2 Timothy 2:21 NIV

21 Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.

God sanctifies us for a purpose.

To do His kingdom work, the good work, the work we were created to do.

It’s like my TV in the basement. It only gets used 1x per week. Saturday night. iIt is set apart.

Every day when the kids get their 1/2 hour of TV before bed, we use the TV in the living room.

But on Saturday, after dinner we all go down stairs, we lay on the 8’ knock-off Amazon bean bag under a huge blanket, and watch a movie together.

That TV and Bean Bag are set apart, removed from common use. It is only used for family movie nights. It makes it special; something we can look forward to each week.

Just like my basement TV, God has set you apart, for a purpose.

God has removed you from common use and given you good work to do.

When people spend time with you, is it special, do they get a glimpse of the love God has for them, do they look forward to seeing you again?

What purpose has God sanctified you and set you apart for?

Sanctification requires our cooperation

So if it is God that “makes us Holy,” if it is God that “Sanctifies” us, does that mean that we’re off the hook?

Let’s continue reading in Exodus 31, starting in verse 14

Exodus 31:14–17 NIV

14 “ ‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. 15 For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death. 16 The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. 17 It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ”

Here we’re told that we need to take an active role in the process.

Specifically, in this verse, we’re told to observe the Sabbath.

For those of us that aren’t familiar with the Sabbath

Sabbat

Cease / Desist / Put to an end

The sabbath is the 1 day a week that God commands us to cease from all activities that we have become known for during the other 6 days of the week.

The goal is to redefine your identity, away from your job, chores, etc and toward your identity in God.

Sabbath is the day each week when we are commanded to enjoy our relationships with

God

Family

Friends

Ourselves

Creation

Sabbath is gift that God gives us each week.

But, what do we do during Sabbath?

That gets us to our second point, Sanctification requires our cooperation

2 Corinthians 7:1 NIV

1 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

Sabbath is the one day per week when we can lay down all the responsibilities of life and focus on doing what God calls us to do

God wants to sanctify us morally and spiritually.

But, we cannot cling to sin and expect holiness.

Sanctification involves surrender, that we cooperate with the work the Holy Spirit is doing within us.

So, how do we do that?

The first things we should do is Spend Time in God’s Word

Psalm 119:9–11 NIV

9 How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. 10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. 11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

We should be reading the word of God every day, but...

If we are going to cooperate with God’s work of Sanctification in our lives we need to lean into our relationship with God, and spend time with Him through His Word, the Bible.

God then calls us to Prayer / Confession

1 John 1:9 NIV

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

James 5:16 NIV

16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Sabbath is also a provides time, set apart, for prayer and confession to God and to each other. If we are serious about eliminating all willful sin from our lives, we need to be honest about where we are, confess our sins, and pray for forgiveness from God and pray with others so we can be healed.

Finally we need to be in Fellowship

1 John 1:7 NIV

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

Sabbath is also a day set aside for us to spend time with our families and friends.

It is a time to go do the things you are too busy to do the rest of the week with the people you care about the most.

It is a time to invite new people to do things and to make new friends.

It is a time to go out and explore and appreciate the amazing creation God has made for us to enjoy.

Sanctification is something that God does within us, but we need to cooperate with the work God is doing.

Let’s build our lives on a firm foundation.

We need to engage in the process by

reading His word

Praying

Confessing our sins

Being in fellowship with others who can hold us accountable and call us out when we run into blind spots in our lives

God does the work of Sanctification, but it is our responsibility to do what God asks of us.

Sanctification is a process

You may have caught it earlier, but I said that the name of God, Jehovah Mekaddishkem was in the bible 2x.

The second place is in Leviticus 20:7-8:

Leviticus 20:7–8 NIV

7 “ ‘Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God. 8 Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the Lord, who makes you holy.

The word keep here is the word

Semartem

keep / watch / guard / tend

The word here refers to how a gardener tends to his/her garden.

Becuase a garden requires constant work

tilling

planting

watering

pulling weeds

The final point I want to make today is that Sanctification is a process.

Sanctification is the process of removing the weeds (sin) from our lives

It isn’t done all at once, but as the Holy Spirit works in our lives, He moves one weed after another until we’re a tended garden producing a harvest of fruit for God’s Kingdom

Paul describes it like this in Philippians 2:12-14

Philippians 2:12–13 NIV

12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Things won’t go perfectly, there will be failures, there will be setbacks, but we need to trust God, cooperate with His leading, and stick to the process.

Paul encourages the people of Corinth to look at the process of sanctification like a race

1 Corinthians 9:24 NIV

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

To win a race, you need to do a few things

Start

Understand there will be tough moments when you hurt and want nothing more than to quit

When those tough moments come, you don’t give up, but you choose to keep going

Give up the idea of being perfect, forget what happened in the past and focus on taking the next step

We need to live our Christian lives like people run races, with our focus on getting to the finish line.

YOU - Takeaway

So what are we supposed to do?

I think it would not be too much of a stretch to say that all of us want to

be free from any sin patterns we have found ourselves stuck in.

live the life of purpose doing good works for God’s Kingdom

produce the fruit that God created us to produce

But this requires faith

Faith that God will do the work of Sanctifying us

Faith that our cooperation and willingness to engage in the process and path that God sets will work

At the end of the day, it all comes down to one simple thing...

James 1:22 NIV

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Luke 11:28 NIV

28 He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

We need to be a people who trust God to do the internal work of sanctification but who actually do what God calls us to do.

What is God calling you to do right now?

Here is our Discipleship Pathway

[Image: Discipleship Pathway]

Are you moving forward in your walk with Christ?

Are you stuck?

Has God called you to take a step, that you have not taken yet?

What is stopping you from taking that next step?

Maybe for you God is calling you to

Attend Sunday worship more regularly

Attend the digging deeper Wednesday group, or sign up for the Marriage group starting this Wednesday

Take the step of faith and put your belief in Jesus as your LORD and savior

Grow through regular scripture reading or joining a small group

Serve here at church, with one of our ministry partners, or somewhere else God is calling you to serve

Start Giving or maybe increase your Giving. I think God is calling us, as a church, to show His love to this neighborhood in big ways, serve in areas of great need, and help the lost find the hope that can only be found in Jesus Christ. I’m excited for the future, what God is doing in this community. We need everyone to join us to make that happen.

Invite the people in your lives that don’t have a church family . I know it is hard, and the sting of someone saying “no” is real. I read so many responses to the town hall question on inviting that many of us are scared. That is real and understandable. But if we truly believe that a relationship with Jesus is the only way to live the best life now and live in eternity in heaven with God after we die, the risks are worth it. I don’t want any of us to be in heaven, grieving the people that aren’t there because we were too scared to invite them.

What is the next step God is calling you to take?

WE / JESUS - Redemptive Close - Call to Action

I want to end with a quick story Jesus told in Matthew 7.

Matthew 7:24–27 NIV

24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul writes that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit and that we should honor God through the use of our bodies.

Only God can do the work of sanctifying our lives, purifying us from sin and aligning our lives with His will.

But...let’s commit right now, as a church, to cooperating with the work the Holy Spirit is doing within us.

Let’s take sabbath seriously

reading the word

praying

confessing our sins to God and to each other

living in community with other believers

Let’s engage in the process, the path, that God has laid before us, taking each step we’re called to take, building a firm foundation for our lives that God can use for His glory

Let’s each commit to never quitting, but running the race God laid our before us to win.

I pray that through the transformation God does in our lives through His Sanctifying work, our church becomes a visible testimony of the love and power of God to the communities we live and work in.

PRAYER 

Will you join me in prayer...

SONG 

As we enter into our final song, I want to open the steps up front as an altar to anyone who needs God this week. The steps are open for you to pray to the God who is with you, who loves you, you wants to give you His peace.

‌

You may feel a hand on your shoulder as I or one of the elders join you in prayer.

BENEDICTION 

Titus 2:11–14 NIV

11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

This week...

Let acknowledge that we are fallen people, who regularly engage in activities / sins that do not honor God

Let’s stop trying to break those sin patterns ourselves through advice from self-help books

Let’s, by faith, trust God to Sanctify us through the work of the Holy Spirit

But let’s not just sit idly by, let’s actively cooperate with that Sanctifying work. Let’s:

Take sabbath seriously

Read God’s word and do what it says

Pray

Confess our sins

Be in fellowship with other believers

Let’s never give up, knowing that the work of Sanctification is a process and our job is to keep our eyes forward taking each step God calls us to take

Let’s be a transformed people and let our lives be a witness to everyone we interact with.

Quick reminder...

Marriage Group - Wednesday 6:30 PM

Digging Deeper Bible Study - Wednesday at 6:30 PM - Programming for all ages

Lent - Starts Wednesday - Please look for an e-mail from me where I provide a guide to help you reflect and prepare for Easter

If you’re new, please fill out the card in the seat back and stop by our info desk, or see me. We’d love to say “hi” and get you know you a bit better.

If you’d like to get more information about taking your next step of faith, fill out the card in the seat back and give it to me or turn it in to the info desk.

I hope you have a great week.

Go in peace.

You are dismissed.

DISCIPLESHIP QUESTIONS (download into APP)

What examples can you identify in your own life where you've settled for being saved but not pursued ongoing sanctification?

How do you define sanctification in your own spiritual journey?

What specific steps can you take this week to cooperate with God in your sanctification process?

Can you share a time when you felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to change and successfully made that change?

How do you prioritize setting aside time for Sabbath in your busy schedule?

What do you think it means to be free from willful sin, as discussed in the sermon?

In what areas of your life do you feel God is calling you to make a change right now?

How can you practically incorporate prayer and Bible reading into your daily routine?

How do you plan to support each other in your goals for spiritual growth this week?

What habits would you like to develop to enhance your spiritual life, and how will you start?