Combination Separation

Combination Separation Leviticus 18:1-5 God says, "You must obey My Laws and be careful to follow My decrees." Many people hear that and say without much thought, "Ya, I can do that. Sounds easy." So they make a decision for the Lord and decide to try Christ on for size; to see if Jesus will be a nice addition to their life. They begin by buying a Bible, figuring they can read it through in one year, and learn about Christ through Scripture. But most people who are determined to read through the Bible in a year become bogged down and quit about halfway through Leviticus. After reading the fascinating narratives in Genesis and the dramatic deliverance in Exodus, Leviticus seems boring in comparison. Instead of reading about great miracles like the parting of the Red Sea, readers of Leviticus end up parting ways with God's Word. Leviticus reads more like an ancient manual for clergy, but don't be fooled because in reality, it's a textbook for pilgrims. It's a life-guide for people who have been delivered from their past and are living for a glorious, God-following future. It's a map providing the right path for those journeying through life. And it's a God-given guide illuminating your new life to keep you on track. Near the center of Leviticus, we find God's charge to His people. God told them they must not imitate the people of Egypt where they had been, nor copy the Canaanites practices where they are headed. And here is where most people's problems occur. Beginning in Genesis, those reading the Bible from front to back start with the greatness of Genesis and the excitement of Exodus, just to become leery of Leviticus. But why? One reason why is that today's Scripture calls for separating yourself to God while separating yourself from the temptations of evil. Not all evil looks evil. Even skyscrapers look stationary from the ground, but in reality, they're swaying 4-6 feet at the top. You're standing on steady ground, but be warned, because the higher you try to ride that elevator of success, the more swaying you'll feel. You dream of making your way up the skyscraper to that luxury condo you've always dreamed of, only to find yourself feeling more ill with every floor of achievement you pass. Evil can look like that skyscraper, big and amazing, tempting you to see the view from the top. Your past is on the lower floors, and your future is on the upper floors. You keep riding life's elevator, determining what floor you wish to stop on, and then you reach the floor of Leviticus 18. Chapter 18 combines your past and your future by separating your present to God so that you can live for God both now and in the future. Verse 3 says, "You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices." Here we have the LORD speaking to Moses, telling him to say to his fellow Israelites, "Don't do what others do." You are separated to God, and you're all combined to God because the LORD is God. The name Israel means "Wrestles with God," and people today, just like those ancient Israelites, wrestle with God. People call Him Lord, but also fall into sin and the temptation of evils. But verse 3 is a reminder that your past and your future are known by God, and this should affect your present. God knows all, and He knows your temptations, but He also says to "Obey My Laws and decrees." The obedience of following God's Laws and decrees was first stated in the Old Testament, but we're still to follow it here in New Testament times. As NT believers, Jesus Christ has completely fulfilled the Law, but that doesn't mean we still shouldn't obey God's Law. Salvation is found only in Christ, but being careful to follow God's Law is being determined to follow God and grow closer to Him by becoming more Christlike. And when we read in the Bible to follow God's Law and keep His decrees, what usually comes to mind first are the 10 Commandments. And not all the 10 Commandments, just the big ones like don't murder, steal, commit adultery, or worship other God's. You see, one of our temptations is to classify things into groups. Now there's nothing inherently wrong with this. Even the 10 Commandments are classified into 2 groups: Commandments 1-4 are directed toward our relationship with God, and Commandments 5-10 are directed with our relationship with one another. But living in the Egypt of your past or the Canaan of your future is like classifying big vs. small sins, and failing to realize that all sin is big in God's eyes. It's you determining what is and isn't that bad of a sin. People do this because they follow today's justice system, where a small crime gets a small punishment, and a big crime gets a big punishment. But it doesn't work like this with God. All sin, even those you may classify as small, receives the same punishment, death. This means that those small lies, that secret hatred you have for someone, that unresolved disagreement, that lust in your eye, or that greed in your heart that nobody sees, are all big sins in God's eyes because all sin separates us from God. But "God is love" (1 John 4:8), "not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). That's why Christ came, to take the punishment you deserved and to offer salvation in His Name, through His blood shed on the cross. Many people know this and name the Name of Christ, but still exit the elevator on Leviticus 18 because they're either living in the past of Egypt or desiring the future of Canaan. When you come to Christ, you can't just make a decision for Him and try to add Christ into your life. Your decision must be applied to your heart. Your life must be found in Christ, and Christ must be found in yours. A Christian cannot live the same way before they came to Christ for salvation. They cannot continue living as if they're still in Egypt, living as they used to live, nor can they adopt the worldly ways of Canaan and blend into their surroundings. If you say you're a Christian, then your life should reveal your new life in Christ, and it should stand out as being separated to God. Likewise, being a Christian means you're a Kingdom citizen, but still temporarily live on earth. God doesn't simply take you out of earth when you become a Christian because He wants you to preach Christ and bring as many people to heaven with you. When God took the Israelites out of Egypt, He led them to Canaan, which was the promised land. But Canaan was filled with false religions, sexual temptations, and a host of other sinful practices. God's people are separated from others, but combined together in God's love and guidance, which will lead you through any Canaan you might be going through. Now you may be wondering why God would lead them somewhere where sin and temptation were rampant. Well, look around, sin is everywhere. And since sin brings death and God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, what better place to lead His people than the place where God can be preached through both words and actions. Worldly desires are tempting, but Christians, like those Israelites, are to keep yourselves pure and set apart for God. God doesn't want you to become like your environment; instead, God wants you to influence your environment for Him. Today's Canaan is no different. It's still filled with sexual temptations, lust, greed, hatred, and selfishness. But today's current Canaan is also being called "The New Normal." I don't like that phrase, because honestly, what is normal? Is living in fear of Covid-19 and being separated in a cashless society normal? I don't think so. God said times would become worse, but the only normal is following God and keeping His Laws and decrees, because only then can we judge normal by God's Word. Normal should be defined by God, not us. That's why God gave us His Laws and decrees, so we could gauge what is and isn't sinful and normal. God's Law is like an X-ray: it reveals a problem, but it can't fix it. The problem being revealed has always been sin and how far people have strayed from God, but today the problem is also race, Covid-19, and their effects. There is nothing normal about wearing masks. There is nothing normal about having a shortage of coins and having to use only debit or credit cards. There is nothing normal about canceling the churches in-person worship. And there's certainly nothing normal about how it's affected each of us. There was nothing normal when I had to decide whether to open for Sunday service or cancel in-person worship. But let me tell you, it was not a hard decision. Some church members began knowing or even coming into contact with Covid-19. Many church members were becoming more nervous about in-person worship. My wife even knows someone who has Covid-19, and I have asthma, making this decision easy, whether you agree with it or not. You see, over the past couple of months, I've listed different ways of feeling caught in the middle. One of those ways is being a pastor because pastors have to think of everybody. Pastors have to think of not only their congregant's, but also their congregant's families, friends, work colleagues, where they go shopping, if they go on vacation, and what their congregant's day-to-day life involves. And knowingly but not willingly, pastors can't make everybody happy. There's nothing normal about not being able to have church functions or cancel our plans. There's nothing normal about me not being able to visit people or attend a Bible study. I'm standing here today telling you that there are times when I don't feel much like a pastor because of this, and because my sheep are scattered, and it's in part because I decided to keep them scattered. But being scattered doesn't mean we're not the church. We can't fight negative feelings with negative feelings. We can't fight distance with distance. And we can't fight separation with separation. Fighting distance with distance or separation with separation only leads to your own 40-year wilderness journey in which nothing ever gets accomplished and leads nowhere. We may be scattered, but we're all still in the same pasture. We're all still the sheep of our Head Shepherd Jesus Christ. So let's be separated together. But let's face it, when something negative happens, like racism, like being separated, like stopping in-person worship, or even wearing masks, it seems like it only happens to us. Like we're getting the raw end of the deal. Being scattered can distort our view because of how easy it is to see how a negative situation only affects us. All we feel, whether we see it or not, is how something affects us and those close to us, causing us to feel isolated and separated. But what about how the negative situations affect others within the pasture? How might they feel separated? It's a Combination Separation because we all feel separated, just in different ways. And with all the freedoms we've been given, people don't like being told what to do because of their "rights." But the rights we enjoy must first be in line with God, to whom we're all accountable. If you knew someone with Covid-19 or went to visit someone in a hospital or nursing home, you'd wear a mask because you love and care for that person. You would do what it takes to protect them. Likewise, I love and care for all of you, and I'll do what it takes to protect you. You might not agree with me, but all I ask is for you to see it from more than one point-of-view. Like the Israelites in Leviticus 18, the Egypt of their past and the excitement of their future in Canaan required God to remind them of His point-of-view so they could enjoy their present and remain steadfast in the future. I'm not saying I see everyone's point-of-view, but when I pray about your point-of-view through God's heavenly perspective, your Egypt's and Canaan's become clearer, helping me to better meet your needs both now and for the future. Your future holds great promise, just like it did for the Israelites entering Canaan. But temptations also filled the land of Canaan, just how temptations fill our land today. These temptations may look pleasing and unharmful, but if they separate you from God, then it's sinful no matter how small a sin you think it may be. Society has ways of shaping your thought life while pressuring you to conform to its ways of life. Egypt was familiar, and Canaan is pleasurable, but yielding to that pressure will eliminate our effectiveness in serving God while creating confusion as to which side you stand on. When Leviticus 18:3 says, "Do not follow their practices," God means those practices that are sinful and unbiblical, not those practices that are used for the common good. Serving God means serving others and doing no harm. In fact, doing no harm is in our United Methodist doctrine. But it's also one that can easily be neglected, especially when all we remember is our Egypt and all we see is our Canaan. Leviticus 18:5 says, "Keep My decrees and Laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I Am the Lord." If you're in search of abundant life, place saving faith in Jesus Christ who faithfully fulfilled every Law and decree. Live by God commandments as His faithful disciple, continually becoming more Christlike. The land of Canaan looks inviting and exciting, like an amusement park with a variety of food, drinks, rides, and prizes to win. Now in many amusement parks, they have 3-D movies. When you enter the theatre, you're given a pair of glasses. If you attempt to watch the movie without those glasses, all you'll see is a distorted picture. No matter how hard you squint and strain to make sense out of what's happening on the screen, all you'll see is a distortion because of the dimension through which you're looking. But the glasses that you were handed are the tool you need to see the screen without any distortions. One of the problems many people face is that they live with a distorted view. They see what they want to see, but they don't see all that there is to be seen. If all you see is the physical, visible scenario, then you're looking at your situation without your glasses. You need to have a divine frame of reference in order to see what is really going on. This divine frame of reference is God's point-of-view. The tool you need is the spiritual spectacles of God's Law. And the glasses required is the Bible, which keeps life from becoming distorted. A Combination Separation is you combining your life with God's. It's combining your Egypt with your Canaan and separating yourself from both to live for God. So let's not put a period after separated. Instead, let's put in a comma and keep the story of being separated together continuing in a way that does no harm and obeys the Lord because He is God and because we are separated together. AMEN 2