Holiness

Thank Pastor for this opportunity.

Encourage everyone to not take this night lightly. As entertainment. These men and women prayed and sought after God for a word for you tonight. It isn’t a show case.

I have 15 minutes so I better get going....cause y’all know I love to talk.

For those of you who know me, you know I am weird. And for those who don’t guess what, I’m weird. It’s not a bad thing. I love being weird. In fact my motto is “Life is too short to be boring.” I have had bright blue hair, blue and purple hair, shaved, fauxhawk, you name it, I’ve just about done it. I love make-up. I will wear some of the brightest colors. Growing up I was afraid to express myself. But then one day I realized that God made me who I was and it didn’t matter what others thoughtI wasn’t doing it for them. I didn’t live my life to please them. I am different than other people. You are different than the person sitting next to you. You may have similarities but ultimately we are all different. Some of us love to express ourselves. Some of us just want to be in the background, unseen. You may not like being in the spotlight.

But as Christians the very thing we are called to do is be different. Be unusual.

Romans 12:1-2 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

We are called to be holy. But unfortunately the word holiness has become a scary thing.

ephesians 1:4 “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love”

1 peter 1:15 “but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,”

1 thessalonians 4:7 “For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.”

Lets open our Bibles to Luke 2:25-32 “Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

Not preaching pastor’s sermon from Sunday. This was already in my spirit. I was afraid he was going to preach my sermon. I am taking a different path with this Scripture and focusing on Simeon.

So this story takes place after Jesus was born. He was about 40 days old. This was under the law of Moses that they bring Jesus to the temple to present him to God. The temple was open and everyone there were doing what the law of Moses was telling them to do, but there was this one man. I love how the KJ starts out vs. 25. BEHOLD. That means Luke really wanted you to see something here. It’s like a HEY YOU PAY ATTENTION TO THIS. Behold, there was a man named Simeon. The text says Simeon was waiting for the Messiah. And he immediately when he showed up. In fact he was the only one. Everyone else missed it because they were too busy doing their religous duties and making sure they looked holy. But Simeon had the Holy Spirit upon him. Not just in him.

We think of holiness as a set of boring rules we have to follow. I remember my parents telling me of a time when the people of the church couldn’t wear makeup, jewelry (except wedding rings), women couldn’t wear pants....so many rules to follow in order to be “holy and pleasing unto God”. Look at us today. I wear make-up, pants on stage, out pastor even wears jeans. I remember I could only wear jeans to church on Wednesday night for youth group. We live in one place that my dad had to wear a suit every where he went or the church members went crazy. Cutting grass, you better be in a suit. We for too long associated holiness with the outside. There is a whole denomination devoted to the outward “holiness”. We see holiness, and some have been taught that holiness, is deprivation, sad, lonely, bondage of law, a rule book, suffering , joyless, having no fun.

The Pharisees of that day were more concerned about making sure they checked off the boxes in their religious book than actually seeing the son of God.

Peter was so concerned about being circumcised which is an outwardly thing to become a Jew and be truly grafted into the Jewish ways but Paul said it was about the heart only.

Holiness isn’t about what we look like on the outside. Holiness is what happens inside of us. Holiness is to be set apart, consecrated to God. We aren’t made holy when we accept Jesus. We are made righteous by God but holiness is something we have to become. Inwardly. Once the inward part happens, then the outward part will follow.

Inward holiness will produce outward fruits but outward holiness will be the evidence of inward change.

Just as pastor was talking about in his facebook live yesterday about the pews moving and seeing stains underneath, we have been too used to looking good on the outside that our insides have become stained and no one else sees it. We have have justified our sins. We are engaged to be married so it’s ok to sleep with them. We look for ways to make our sins ok. In fact the church now days seems to be very confusing on what is sin and what is not.

Matthew 23:26-28 “You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

Then we throw words out there like remnant. We are the remnant because we still come to church. We are the remnant because we post on Facebook about Jesus. We have gotten good at looking the part but not being set apart.

hebrews 12:14 “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

I am here to encourage you. I don’t want to seem like I am condemning anyone. But I am here tonight to to tell you that we are stepping into a new year. New year when people start making resolutions. Changes. Its time to change our lifestyles. It’s time we make ourselves holy and pleasing unto God. If we, you are truly become part of the remnant of God we have to have a heart change. The spirit man is thirsty for God. I want the Holy Spirit upon me like Simeon not just in me. I don’t want to miss the things of God and a true encounter with him because I am too busy making sure I look the part. I don’t want to miss the Messiah when he walks in the door.

This world needs us to be different. We need us to be different. It’s time to embrace holiness again. Be set a part from this world and stop trying to look like it. It’s ok to be different.