Set Apart

Intro

Do you ever set aside something for a specific purpose?

If you are a parent, you might tell your kids, “When mom or dad gets home from work, they need thirty minutes by themself!”

Maybe you have a specific time set aside for something special (vacation, personal time, a show you enjoy, or your devotions).

Or maybe you have a special set of dishes that you only get out for Christmas dinner.

When I was a kid, one of the houses we lived in had essentially 2 living rooms. One was the one we used everyday. It was where we watched tv, played games, or hung out as a family.

Then there another one that we didn’t use very often. If fact, it was typically only used for when there was something special going on. I remember watching Super Bowl 30 in that room when the steelers lost to the Dallas Cowboys.

But it was a special room that as kids, we for the most part weren’t allowed to use. We called it the brown room because of the color of the furniture. It was a treat to use the brown room.

You see the brown room as special because that room had been set aside, or set apart from the other rooms in the house for special purposes.

Maybe you can think of something in your life that growing up, or maybe something you use now that is set apart or set aside for special purpose.

And this concept of setting something apart from everything else is exactly what God does with people. And there is a word that God uses to describe this group of set apart people… Holy.

Now, when we hear words like holiness or sanctification, we might think of saintly/perfect people who never fail or do anything wrong.

But “to sanctify means to make holy or be made holy. … Holiness refers to separation or apartness.

In the Old Testament, Israel was called a holy people because of their separation to God from all other nations.

The concept of holiness continues to describe God’s people in the New Testament—Christians.

The Christian life is a life set aside for God’s purpose. He wants to change our life and the very core of who we are to reflect Jesus and use for his purpose.

This is the sanctification of the Christian life. God is concerned not only with the believer’s status (saved or not), but also with their actual condition.

This brings us to the second part in our series Fail Forward. Last week we talked about the fact that God cares about our moral character and how we live.

We established that fact that while we are saved by grace; we cannot earn it. It does not mean that we have a license to live however we want. That God expects his people to learn from their sin and their failures so that they do not continue to keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

Today we are going to look at this word sanctification. Meaning, to be made holy. I mean what does that even look like?

Power in the Text

Paul does a good job describing what sanctification looks like in...

Philippians 3:12-14 NLT 12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Paul describes the process of sanctification (growing in Christ) like a marathon, where he is “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” (Philippians 3:13).

At this point in his letter to the Philippians Paul has spent a large chunk of his adult life serving Christ, and even though he is an apostle, he had to mature and grow in his walk with Jesus.

Remember that: the apostle Paul grew as a follower of Christ. Paul didn’t have his Damascus experience (Acts 9:1–19) and then become super-Christian, or a mature follower of Jesus.

In fact, he says, “Not that I have already achieved this righteousness …, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Philippians 3:12).

Sanctification isn’t a sprint or a dash; it’s a long marathon with twists and turns. It’s about endurance, not speed.

In fact, if you know much about distance running, and I know it doesn’t look like it anymore, but when I was in the military I used run long distances of 7+ miles at a time. But if you know much about it you know how important it is to pace yourself.

If you come out of the gate too fast, you burn out before you can finish the race. Sprinting certainly has its place, but it doesn’t work if you goal is to run a long distance.

Some of you have been in involved in the Church world for a while, and maybe you can relate. But one thing I have learn along the way is to be very leery of people who visit the Church and come out of the gate sprinting.

Those who have a lot to say, sound super spiritual, and don’t mind offering their opinions of what you need to do differently.

More times than not, the more they talk, the less I trust that their walk can keep up with their talk.

And more times than not, they burn out and move on to somewhere else only to do the same thing again.

As followers of Jesus we have to understand that this life is like a long distance race. Once where you are constantly moving forward, but at a pace that makes it possible to finish.

Big Idea/Why it Matters

Paul is describing the Christian life in Philippians 3.

He understands that salvation is not found in religious ritual but says that if salvation came from being religious, he would have found the way.

Philippians 3b:4 NLT …we rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, 4 though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more!

Paul goes on to say that if holiness and righteousness were possible by our own efforts, he would have achieved it. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. A Pharisee. He followed the law perfectly. Yet at the end of the day it was all garbage compare to the righteousness that he received through faith in Christ.

Philippians 3:7-9 NLT 7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.

Paul dismisses any notion of the false teaching on Christian perfection in this life. He himself says that he is striving for it, but has not yet achieved it. Why?

Because as long as we are alive in this life we are running that race in which we are striving in the Spirit to conform to Jesus, but at the same time recognizing that we will never be finished with this process until our race is finished and that doesn’t happen until our time on this earth is finished.

This is the sanctification process. Being made holy or set apart is a life long process. Not one that is accomplished as the result of a short term effort, but long term consistency.

Application/Closing

We are going to mess up along the way. We are going to fail, but let’s fail forward and learn from our mistakes.

Being holy doesn’t mean being perfect, it does mean being set apart. But set apart for what? It means to be set apart for God’s purposes.

We go through the sanctification process in order to become what God needs us to be in order to use us how he sees fit.

“Although believers are holy, we are commanded in scripture to a continuing self-sacrifice in which this transformation may come about.

This is not a movement toward sanctification, we were set apart as holy at salvation. Instead we grow from a sanctified position, or a gradual process of transformation

In his commentary on Philippians, Phil Comfort explains, “On the one hand, God is responsible for completing in the believers what he began, for it is his goal to conform every believer to the image of his Son, Jesus Christ. On the other hand, it is the believer’s responsibility to cooperate with God so that this work can be made complete”

The Holy Spirit guides us and changes us. But we must be willing to be conformed to the image of Christ.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit needs to confront us as believers, in order to change us.

In the show Restaurant Impossible, the host confronts business owners who are struggling. Most of the time he must reveal that they are the problem and need to change.

For many people, such a confrontation is difficult to come to grips with. But they need to grieve over how bad their situation is.

Only in confronting this truth can something positive then take place. Confronting failure leads to growth and sanctification. Facing what consumes us makes us free.

So embrace the sanctification process. Recognize that He that started a good work in you is faithful to complete it.

Also recognize that God is not going to force you into His image.

It won’t happen over night and there will be bumps in the road along the way, but if you stay consistent and commited to the process, like Paul you can forget the past and look forward to what lies ahead, press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling you.