Sermon Tone Analysis

OUTLINE

 

TITLE: THE HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS           

TEXT: ISAIAH 35:8-10

 

PROPOSITION: Holiness is one critical area that the Church needs to address today and Church leaders must create paths of growth that help congregants in this aspect of their Christian life because God requires Christians to travel on the pathway of holiness on their way to heaven.

THESIS:

One aspect of the Christian life and consequently congregational life that the Church needs to address today is this aspect of Holiness because God requires Christians to travel on the pathway of holiness on their way to heaven.

ANTITHESIS:

Many congregations, however, do well in the areas of worship, church growth, expansion of facilities, salvation (helping people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus the Christ) but they often struggle in areas of discipleship, regeneration, and sanctification, in this thing called Holiness.

Churches are struggling with finding ways to help Christians practically live out what they have been taught.

RELEVANT QUESTION:

How does a redeemed, ransomed, & unregenerated person leave the wilderness and successfully navigate down the highway of holiness and achieve the goal of getting into Zion.

How do I make it down the Highway of Holiness to my ultimate destination with an unregenerate mind?

SYNTHESIS

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Stay of the path.

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God placed me on the path

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Get to my destination when I follow the path

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Guaranteed protection while on the path.

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Summon others on the path.

Invite other to the path to walk with you for support, accountability, and strength.

Serve.

This is your service.

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Serve God by inviting other

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Share your testimony

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Shout on the path.

Why do I shout why do I celebrate

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Remember where I’ve been

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Revelation of the Prophesy

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Rejoice in the presence of God.

Celebrate on the path.

This provides encouragement and motivation during the journey and invites the presence of God.

CELEBRATION: We celebrate because there is one who ransomed us and made it

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! THE HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS

 

INTRODUCTION:

My brothers and my sisters in Christ Jesus and in creation, one aspect of the Christian life that the Church needs to address today is Holiness.

The Church needs to address this today because God requires Christians to travel on the pathway of Holiness while on their way to Heaven.

Not only must we address holiness but also Pastors, Church leaders, staff, and Christian Educators must work cooperatively to create paths of growth to help congregants in this area of the Christian life.

Again because God requires Christians to travel down the pathway of Holiness, the Highway of Holiness while on their way to Heaven.

You don’t have to believe me, God says in 1 Peter 1:15-16, “In all of your behavior, in all of your conversation, in all that you do, be Holy!

Because he who called you is holy, he who saved you is holy.

As a matter of fact, it says, you shall be holy, you shall become holy, and you are holy!

In other words, make no mistake about it you will be holy.

WHAT HOLINESS IS~/WHAT IT IS NOT

 

Holiness is not a denomination, it is not a false outward appearance, it is not some air of religious superiority that reveals itself in arrogance.

Holiness is not something that you put on and it is not what wear (on our head or on your body) but rather Holiness is an outward expression of an inward dedication to a God who is Holy.

It is one of the essential attributes of God’s divine nature.

It is separation or setting apart from all that is sinful, impure, or morally imperfect.

Holiness strikes at the core of character and conduct.

You see, we were created in the image of God, whose attribute is holiness, but because of our fallen state, because of sin, we lost one of the most essential features of that Divine nature – holiness.

In Christ however we regain that attribute, not through putting forth some strenuous effort, or through exertion of human will, but rather holiness is regained as an outcome of God’s gracious work in salvation through Jesus.

RESULTS OF HOLINESS

 

God redeems me, sets me on a path, and as a result of his redemptive work he:

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Positions me in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:2, 30)

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Presents me as being of Christ (Rom 6:11) – sanctified experientially

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Personally conforms me into the image of Christ (Rom 8:30)

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For the total Glory of Christ

 

REQUIREMENT FOR HOLINESS

 

And the reason the Holiness does not get its proper press is because Holiness requires self-denial, Holiness requires sacrifice, and Holiness requires submission to Jesus even unto death.

But the good news is that even as God raised Jesus from the dead, so shall he raise you.

Many congregations, however, do well in the areas of worship, church growth, expansion of facilities, salvation (helping people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus the Christ) but they often struggle in areas of discipleship, regeneration, and sanctification, in this thing called Holiness.

Churches are struggling with finding ways to help Christians practically live out what they have been taught.

In know we must grow in the area of Holiness because, according to George Barna, the great researcher for the Kingdom,

#. 1 out of every 3 people on earth is unchurched.

You cannot tell me that 2~/3 of the earths population does not have an effect on the 1~/3.

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While 4 out of 5 believer donate money to their church only 8% of believes actually tithe.

And on top of that 16% give absolutely nothing to the support the institution that Jesus created to nurture their faith.

#. 50% - ½ of Christians believe that the bible is not totally accurate.

#. 50% - ½ do not believe that they have the responsibility to evangelize.

#. 44% (less than ½  ) believe that there is not absolute moral truth and do not that their faith must be based on biblical truth.

Israel has come out of bondage.

They came out of exile because God delivered them from the hand of the Assyrians.

And how many of you know that God is a strong deliverer?

How many of you know that when you have taken just enough that God will make a way for you and that God will redeem his remnant?

Judah was coming out of Assyria and Babylon, they were coming out of self-inflicted exile and the bible declares that God made a way for the exiled to return home.

He made a way for the lost sheep of the house to return back to Zion.

But wait, those that are going back are not going back the same way they left.

Those who are returning have trading in their sorrow, they’ve traded in their shame, and they have laid their sighing aside to return to Zion with singing.

They are returning with Joy.

But the Zion they left is not the same Zion that they are returning to.

In fact, the pathway for them to get back is not the same for God has created a new way, a new path, and it is called the Highway of Holiness.

They are returning with freedom, they are returning having been delivered and possessing a new hope.

However, there is one challenge.

While the pathway is new and the atmosphere is new, the redeemed and ransomed people going into a new place, down a new path, into a new city called Zion, but yet they are still struggling with the hurts, habits, and memory of their past.

These redeemed and ransomed folk still struggle with their wilderness experience and although they are free in terms of their relationship with God, they are still in bondage in their minds.

Held victim to the memory of their past.

Their position with God is not, but their mind has not yet been regenerated.

Their journey is now new; their walk is supposed to be new; but their mind has not yet been regenerated.

And when the mind is not yet regenerated, when the individual has not been made over, they have a tendency to go back and live life the way they used to.

The challenge in this text is the same challenge that many churches face today, and that is how does a redeemed, ransomed, rescued, and restored people make it down a path of Holiness resulting in getting to a new place, Zion itself, when their minds are not renewed?

How does a ransomed, redeemed, un-regenerated person get to Zion?  HHow do I make it  How do I make it to Glory and survive the Highway of Holiness?

Come on wrestle with me.

I’m save, I’ve said I believe, I’ve walked down the isle, gave the preacher my hand, God my heart, but my mind has not yet been regenerated.

I mean, I’m a babe in Christ, I’m new in Christ, I know I’m supposed to live a certain type of way but all this stuff is so new and I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing.

God has brought me through so much stuff, he’s brought me out of the Wilderness, out of exile, and placed me on this path, and my mind is saying do one thing but yet my body is saying do another.

How do I make down the Highway of Holiness to my ultimate destination, which is Heaven, the New Jerusalem, with an unregenerate mind?

SYNTHESIS:

 

1.

STAY ON THE PATH

In order to walk the path and ensure your destination is Zion, you’ve got to stay on the path.

And to stay on the path you must saturate your mind in the Word of God.

You cannot overcome the power of your old experiences and your old memories unless you create new healthy thoughts and though processes.

So you must read the word of God, get a bible reading plan, pray the word, meditate on the word of God, because if you do this the Word of God will guide you.