Called To Holiness

Called to Holiness

October 26, 2008

Base Camp CCN

Have any of you heard any of the following:

The Holy grail, The Holy land, Heard anyone say Holy Smoke, Holy Cow, etc…

There are lots of things that are describes as holy and things that we say are holy, don’t we? But do any of these things really show us the true meaning of the word HOLY as God defines and commands?

I need 2 volunteers. Come up and play the mirror game.

Discuss that one person is imitating the other person. Imitating means to follow a model or example, or to BE or to appear like…

This is what God is calling us to in Leviticus when he says “Be holy because I, the lord your God am holy”. He is calling us to IMITATE His own character in ALL that we do.

What is holiness?

The word Holy means “exalted or worthy of complete devotion” as one perfect in goodness and righteousness. Holiness is the nature and character of God. God is the one that is exalted or lifted up, and worthy of our complete devotion because of His goodness and righteousness. In Isaiah 6:3 it says Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts! Holiness is at the center of ALL life, not only as it is talked about here in the Israelite community, but in our lives as well.

Our Scripture for this morning comes from the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament. In Chapter 19 verses 1 - 3 and then 15-18.

19 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

3 “ ‘Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God.

15 “ ‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.

16 “ ‘Do not go about spreading slander among your people.

“ ‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the Lord.

17 “ ‘Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.

18 “ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

Actually this whole chapter talks about Holiness and how it represents the character of God and represents His commands that were given to the Israelites on Mt. Sinai. Can we all recite what those Commandments are?

1. You shall have no other God’s before me

2. You shall not make for yourself any idols, in the form of anything

3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God

4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy

5. Honor your father and your mother

6. You shall not murder

7. You shall not commit adultery

8. You shall not steal

9. You shall not tell lies against your neighbor

10. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor

In every one of these laws, the commands that God gave His people; the motive, the thing that drives all of these commands is holiness. Imitating the character and nature of God.

We learn from these Bible verses the importance that God places on holiness in all areas of life. We learn how important it is to respect and honor your parents and we also learn how keeping the Sabbath day as a day of rest is also living in holiness.

Holiness and being holy is taught and commanded throughout the whole Bible. Even the apostle Peter, one of Jesus disciples talked about it in the New Testament and even referred to our Scripture passage that we’re discussing this morning in Leviticus.

In 1 Peter 1:3 and 1:14-16, Peter says:

3 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

So what does all of this mean to you? Sure Pastor John, I’ve heard of being holy, and living a life of holiness, and if I haven’t heard about it before today, I know about it now. But I’m just a kid. How does holiness become a part of my life?

Well, let’s take a look at areas of your life that you deal with every week.

Pick 5 kids to come up front

At School:

??? is sitting in her class. The class is taking a test on whatever subject they have been studying. As ??? is reading the questions on the test he looks over at the floor and realizes that the kid next to him has left the answer sheet out on the floor next to the desk. And…he can see all the answers. He realizes that his friend is cheating and is tempted to cheat as well. Surely no one will ever know. ??? decides that he is going to be holy in all that he does and he turns around in his chair and chooses not to look at the cheat sheet. A few minutes later the teacher walks up the aisle finds the paper and his friend gets in trouble, but ???’s mind is clear because he decided not to cheat but to please God.

At home:

??? has been working hard all week long. She/he has been studying, and doing homework, going to sports, playing with friends, washing the dishes. Now it’s the end of the week. She’s been doing so many things and has been so busy throughout the week, that her room has become a complete mess. Mom and Dad ask ??? to clean up their room before she goes to bed on Saturday night. What choice does ??? make? Sure she’s tired and ready to go to bed. However, she remembers to honor her parents and she cleans her room. She realizes it wasn’t that bad after all and it didn’t take long at all.

When you’re alone:

??? is alone in the family room. Mom and Dad are outside working in the yard and they’ve trusted you alone in the house to do your own thing. You sit down on the couch to decide what to do. Hmmm, you could watch TV, you could read a book, you could play with your toys, then something catches your eye. You see the video game machine over by the TV. You remember that your older brother brought home a new video game that even he shouldn’t be playing because its got bad stuff in it. However when you saw him playing it, it looked like so much fun. Maybe you could just sneak over and pop that game in and play it anyway. No one will know. Mom and Dad won’t be in for a long time and your brother is gone to a friends house. Well, ??? remembers that God is always watching, and that he commands us to be Holy even as He is holy and ??? decides to not give in to the temptation and goes and finds her Bible to read for awhile and then goes outside to help her parents.

On the playground: Kristin Lawrence

??? is out on the playground at recess, or is in their neighborhood playground. Their running around with a friend and playing on the monkey bars. A group of boys walk up to where they are playing and begin to take over the playground. They notice there are a couple of kids off playing by themselves. They can tell that they are not dressed real nice. In fact they are a little dirty and not well-spoken. They don’t make friends real easy. The boys begin to make fun of these two kids and put them down. They basically think they are better than those kids. ??? remembers that in God there is no distinction between rich and poor and the love of God fills her heart and she stands up to the bullies and tells them to leave the 2 kids alone, that God loves them just the way they are. Once the boys leave ??? goes over and makes friends with the 2 kids and makes them feel special.

At Church:

??? has just arrived to Base Camp on Sunday morning. He goes and gets his snack and comes back into Base Camp to see what he’s gonna do next. He sees that there is a slot over at the video game, and then sees there is a group of kids playing with the Lego’s. He then looks over and sees a boy that he’s never seen before. The boy looks a little scared and doesn’t have anyone around him. ??? realizes that this must be this boys’ first time at church and decides to go over and make friends with this new kid and start to build a relationship. He takes the new kid and introduces him to some of his other friends. ??? remembers that God said to love your neighbor as yourself and to not think of ourselves first, but look to the needs of others.

You see, the first part of our Scripture in verse 2 it gives the reason why we are to be holy. Because God commands it, because HE is holy.

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How we live in holiness and imitating God is mentioned in the last verse we read today in verse 18. It is only through Love. Loving our neighbor as ourselves. When it comes to any decision we make each and every day; if we make that decision with LOVE in our hearts, true Love, then we are doing our part at living a holy life, pleasing unto the LORD.

We are able to be holy as God is holy only as we love other people as ourselves.

When you have love in your heart, you WILL always respect and honor your parents
When you have love in your heart, you will NOT show favoritism to people, you will be fair in everything you do
When you have love in your heart you will NOT spread lies about people
When you have love in your heart you will NOT put your neighbor’s life in danger
When you have love in your heart you will NOT and can NOT have hatred toward your brother, your sister, your friends, or your enemies.
When you LOVE your neighbor as yourself you will NOT be able to hold a grudge against anyone else.

Here in Leviticus the people of God are called to be holy. We today are also called to be holy. It’s not some sort of game that God wants us to play. It’s not just a list of things to check off as we’ve done them. They aren’t hoops to jump through. It’s only because God is holy, that we are CALLED to be holy. We are to imitate Him. To be holy means just what we’ve talked about today, to roll up your sleeves, forget about yourself, and just love your neighbor, be a friend to a stranger, be fair with all people.

Living in holiness is an act of Extreme WORSHIP to the Lord our God. It’s putting Him first in all we do.

When you have LOVE in your heart, you are fulfilling God’s command to “be holy, because I the Lord your God am Holy.”