Sermon Tone Analysis

*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.