My Heart is personally holy

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 10/22/17

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^NRS  Philippians 3:15 Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. ¹⁶ Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.  ¹⁷ Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. ¹⁸ For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. ¹⁹ Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹ He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.

One Sunday morning, an old, shabbily dressed man happened to be walking through an elegant suburb when he spotted a huge, beautiful church. He entered during the worship service, and took a seat in the rear pew. The well-dressed congregation was unnerved by his appearance. As he was leaving the service, the pastor told the old man, "Before you come back again, please pray and have a talk with God. Ask Him what He thinks would be the proper clothes for worshipping in this church." The next Sunday the old man returned to the church in the same shabby clothes. After the service, the pastor again asked him whether or not he had talked to God about the appropriate attire for church. "I did talk to God," the old man replied. "He told me that He wouldn't have any idea what was appropriate attire for worshipping in your church. He said He's never been in here before."

Today I finish a three-part series on holiness. We began with the challenge for Social Holiness and then followed with the challenge for Financial Holiness. John Wesley remarked that we need to do three things in order to truly fulfill our God given purpose here on earth. Do good in all things, do no harm and to follow the ordinances of God. We walk this earth for such a short while and yet there is more that can be done in that short time in relationship that sets the stage for all eternity.

What does it mean to be holy? What does it mean to be in a relationship with God? These are the questions for this weekend. What does it mean to be holy? It means that we spend our lives modeling them after Jesus. We mimic as much as we can His journey here on earth, His love for the people around Him and His desire to heal the broken people of the world. Now before we get too far, I will admit that my goal is to model my life with that of Jesus. But I am not perfect and my humanness shows through from time to time. When it does I hope that those who know me will show me grace and mercy just as God shows all of us mercy and grace. It is that time of stumbling when we experience the grace of God the most. And we will all stumble. But the grace of God is that when we desire to be like Jesus, the Holy Spirit helps us transform our lives so that we become more like Him every day. Jesus walked this earth being obedient to God in all things. He resisted temptation, focused on prayer and conversation with God and teaching people the things that God had told Him. Our role then is to do the same thing. We can begin that conversation with our acceptance of God as our guide, our spiritual leader, and our creator. We take Jesus into our hearts in love, just as God has already taken us into God’s heart. We use prayer as one of the ways we communicate with God. Just as we do with the love of our life in human life, we desire to learn more about God, to learn the things that make God happy and do the things that keep our relationship strong and alive. Prayer can be done anywhere, anytime and simply requires of us to be in a place where we are willing to talk and listen to God. Recently someone through a survey told me that they felt that I was suggesting that our prayer service is the only way to pray. I thought I was very vocal about how to pray, when to pray and that there is no single time or single method that works for everyone every time. I often pray to God about my needs in silence, use verbal words for many of my intercessory prayers for others and then pray in silence to hear the voice of God. The second thing we must do to maintain and grow our relationship is to read the Bible. It is there we find the stories of God interacting with humans. We find God’s love within the chapters from Genesis to John’s Revelation. We find how we can be obedient and how we are often disobedient. We find grace and mercy amongst the dysfunctionality of the families in the Bible. We find God’s love in the stories of Noah, of Abraham, of the prophets and of course the life of Jesus. When we spend that time in the Bible God will speak to us. And finally we spend time together. God speaks to us through each other. Truth is we often meet on Sunday’s because we are resurrection people and Jesus was resurrected on Sunday. But we can also gather on Wednesday nights at suppers, at Bible studies, at gatherings with other fellow Christians and so on. Wherever two or more are gathered Jesus told us that He would be among us. So we gather to share our stories, our lives and our witness to the power of God. And there we learn to be Holy.

Why be holy? Hebrews tells us in the twelfth chapter, 14 Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” We have been instructed by God to be holy. Jesus told us that the Kingdom of God was at hand. That through his death and resurrection that we are living in the Kingdom right now! And the King, our Lord and savior has instructed us in how we are to live in that reality. And 2^nd Peter reminds us that God has promised and will keep that promise. And when we meet God again, we will be asked how we lived out this holiness in our lifetime. Maybe the simplest reason to be holy is because we are loved, so we should love back.

So how do we live holy lives? We start by not conforming to the world. That is hard to do. The world believes in success regardless of the cost. The world believes that we should all melt in a common pot and look alike, dress alike and talk alike. A funny thing about that! Not everyone is allowed to be equal and blend in. And yet, even that is part of the world we live in. I have asked what would happen if the church became revolutionary rather than constantly being a pacifist. And what if we truly tried to change the world so that it is a better place for everyone? Paul tells us not to conform to the world. But he tells us to live in the world as a new creation. I believe that Paul intended us to live holy lives, loving one another.

Wesley said that we are to be good to all people all the time. That is a tall order to be good all the time and to everyone. Just Friday night I let my humanness show through during a prayer. I regret that. And yet I also share that we are all human and if it were not for the grace of God we would all be condemned. So we endeavor to be good. We share our bounty with those in need, we share our lives with those around us and we try to do the right thing all the time. Will we stumble, sure! But when we do we see the grace and love of God in those who reach out a hand to pick us up. So it is important that we strive to be good. Jesus never denied anyone His time or His teaching. Neither shall we.

Wesley said that we are to do no harm. That means that with our words, our actions and our deeds we are to never cause hurt among the people of the world around us. That is probably more difficult than anything we can do. I teach the children that harm can come as simply saying something mean spirited. And like the toothpaste in a tube that is squeezed out, it can never be put back in. So we need to think about how our actions, words and deeds will impact people before we say, do or act on them.

Wesley said that we need to follow the ordnances of God in order to be personally holy. We have already talked about some of them like constant prayer and daily Bible reading. There are also great devotions that can be obtained and used daily to strengthen our relationship with God. We must also gather together in places where we can lift each other up. I wonder what the world would be like if we worked at being nice to each other? What if instead of gossip we truly shared prayer concerns and then did whatever we could to make that person’s life better?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Two fellas were watching an old cowboy movie and it came to the part when the cowboy, on his horse, at full gallop, was headed right towards a cliff. One of the guys said to the other, "Hey, I’ll bet you 10 bucks that he rides over the cliff." The other said, "You’re on!" Well the cowboy and the horse went right over the cliff. The fella that lost the bet paid up. A while later, the guy who won said, "Hey, I’m feeling a little guilty about our bet and need to make a confession ... I already have seen the movie." The other fella replied, "Well, I have also seen the movie before ... but I didn’t think he’d do it again!"

Our world is changing. Our church needs to change with it. Our lives need to change with it. We must have hope in God if we have any chance to stand before God and receive the gift of eternal life. God loves us beyond ourselves and beyond our mistakes. If we do what we have always done, we will get what we have always gotten. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.