'Holiness'

Speaker 1 00:00:09 Anybody has read a little like humble newspaper, um, quarterly offering to just church. And you would know that I have got this word on my heart this year. I'm not really usually like a word for the year type person. I think I'm just too much of a multitasker for that. But if there was ever a year for it, it, it is this year. Cause I have this word holy just so resonating in my spirit and in my head and in my heart. And so we're actually be speaking about holiness this morning in the sense that God is holy. And then throughout the story of the world, through both testaments, the people of God have been called to be holy. And the Israelites essentially show our power. It is so impossible for humanity and their own strength to actually be holy. They don't meet the standard. Speaker 1 00:01:00 We don't meet the standard. Even if you're 99% there in the light of a hundred percent perfection, that 1% shows up, you know? And so the Israelites reveal this inability of humanity and their own strength to achieve it and therefore the need of Saint and Jesus enter the story of the world and he gives us his Holy Spirit as he graduates onto heaven where he's sitting just inter seating. We are gonna talk about that later on for us right now, all the time. Um, and the Holy Spirit. We have a gift to us and so have a fighting chance to be holy as he is holy. But at the same time, just live in the space of such beautiful grace poured out from heaven because all of our failings just fall into nothing as we come into line behind Jesus. And Jesus is the one who is sin whenever any judgment is cast, okay? Speaker 1 00:01:58 It's like Jesus is the one who's sin His a hundred percent makes up for all of our failures. And so this word holy is a beautiful word to explore. But how about we just prayed for like fast speech and quick hearing because I always have much to say. And um, we have so much time so far, our prayer is just annoying this time. And our pray is your word and it is your agenda that goes forth into your people and your church. We've spoken about like, well I have, I know in, in series gone by last year, just these times that we live in. And I pray that this would be a word for now like, and now word. It is a timeless word, this word holy. But at the same time, father, there must be a reason that it's been highlighted and that it's um, that we're taking the time to just ponder it for a moment together as a company of people. Speaker 1 00:02:49 But will it just penetrate the hearts of your people and with the pondering continue on past just this moment that we've come together to listen and receive. So bless her, it's next half hour, but so to bless our ponderings beyond us and Jesus name, amen. Amen. Amen. I feel like maybe like a really great place to start. We're talking about holiness is just exactly what that word means because we all come from these different contexts and the word holy gets used in church out of church, you know, holy people are standing up there and it's like, what does it even mean? And so this is this little slider, Claire. Thanks Ellen. And it just gives us the Hebrew word guys, which you know that I love about Hebrew. It's this word kardash and, and it just means pretty much to be sanctified. This is the word holy, okay? Speaker 1 00:03:37 Kash is the Hebrew word for holy to be sanctified, to be consecrated, to be dedicated or to be separated from the world and worldliness. I really love that, that definition. And then if you're struggling with any of the other words, then like sanctified pretty much means to be set apart. The thing with God being holy when he says I am holy and it's like he's different. He is set apart from us. We can't liken him to us because he is not us. He is holy set apart. He is not of this world, he is not of worldliness, okay? He is sanctified, pure set apart is consecrated. It's when something is made sacred and sacred is that which has a connection to God, right? And so we as humans sometimes tend to like making spaces sacred. Like this is a hundred year old church building. I love that there have been people worshiping in this building for a hundred years. Speaker 1 00:04:40 I think it is just, it is covered with sincere praise, worship amazing. But the minute we all up uplift this building, this building is no longer secret. We are the ones that will bring the Holy Spirit in this um, article. Uh, I mentioned two Old Testament scriptures where you realize that is the same God through the old and the New Testament. That one of the scriptures that I read, Isaiah is six verse three. And it's this moment in the Old Testament where Isaiah incredible man, okay, incredible prophet of God to his time, he's talking, he has a vision and it's his angels are in exhibition and have singing. Holy, holy, holy. Isaiah has this vision of Jesus, his like robe is filling the temple and these angels are just singing holy, holy, holy around him. And in this moment, even Isaiah who, if you know anything about his life, hope the guy was phenomenal, he is like he is brought to his knees and actually feels like he is going to die in the presence of God. Speaker 1 00:05:44 He becomes that aware of his inadequacy. Isn't that crazy? Like, I mean that guy might be at 95%, but listen, standing against a hundred percent, he just becomes so aware and is brought to his knees. And the beautiful evolving of this vision is that this angel picks up this coal and this is the part that can get a bit confusing when you read it, you're like, what is going on with it? Coal, but it comes off the alto, which is always a place to sacrifice and it comes with theta and angel like comes over and puts this call on Isaiah's lip. Do you know the scripture at all? Most of you who read your bibles. But what is happening in this moment though is that Isaiah is then made completely pure. And it's this picture of even then in the Old Testament, pre Jesus and man living in a time where actually the people of God were more familiar with the judgment of God than they were with his grace. Speaker 1 00:06:44 And it was a time where if somebody unclean touched you, their uncleanliness would be imputable to you. You would receive like a letter. If he touches you, you are now unclean. You've gotta go through certain rituals to be made clean. Um, and this is what the people were living in a time where, where, where un holiness was always transferred onto you. And so it was this aim of trying to keep yourself pure all the time. And it was struggle, honestly. I'm super vocal. I am a New Testament present. So here in this image, this Cole comes over and it makes Asiah completely holy. And he has essentially a revelation of what Jesus is gonna do on the cross, that he's going to sacrifice himself as what happens on an altar. And because of his sacrifice, anything he touches is made clean. I mean him, him and the New Testament. Speaker 1 00:07:39 He would walk around and he would touch the le instead of the leprosy going to him. The cleanliness and the purity and the wholeness of Jesus would pass onto that person. But what we can't forget as New Testament believers is that it doesn't mean that he isn't still a God of judgment. How can you not be it you standing is here. It's like saying to people, oh, you need to get 85% to get formula center at St. You know, and then no one even checks and anybody's just allowed it, you know what I mean? To come and do the course. It's, it's like there is a standard. There has to be when you are perfect and when heaven is perfect and we don't get the standard because I'm Jesus, we are allowed access with straight access in this New Testament time. I wonder whether this word holy is on my heart because I I just never wanna ask this New Testament people to um, ride the grace of God. Speaker 1 00:08:34 Do you know what I'm saying? Like what? It's fine. Jesus just makes up for it. So problem, yes he does, but like it's only a hard thing that we can assess in ourselves as to whether we're actually trying to be holy as he is holy. Like wanting to become more like him. When compare six 19 it says, have you forgotten? This is Paul speaking that your body is now the sacred temple of the spirit of holiness who lives in you. How beautiful is that? You don't belong to yourselves any longer, but the gift of God, the Holy Spirit lives inside your century. It's a beautiful scripture. It's a scripture that when I read it I'm like, oh gosh, it's responsibility suddenly on my life and on on how I live and not in a burdensome way because that is actually not gonna ever be from Jesus. That's not how he rolls. But in a, oh my goodness, like he would trust us and and we are his plan right now on planet earth way. It's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful piece of scripture. Speaker 1 00:09:47 The thing is with the Holy Spirit like living in us, um, and with us, with God being holy, but us as the people of God, again across the testaments, then when they were the Israelites of the people of God, us the church today, the people of God, we've all been called to become holy. Like he is holy. And let me just read two Corinthians three and to you because I think it, it gives us a great idea of how how do we even do that? It says we can all draw close to him. With the veil removed before the scripture was talking about how Moses used to have to like have this veil on because of the presence of God and and and what it's essentially saying, without going into too much details, we can actually come face to face with God in this time, in this, in this chapter of the story of the world that we live in, we actually have direct access in a way that those guys did not have. Speaker 1 00:10:44 We have direct access to God, the veil removed from our faces and with no veil we all become like mirror who brightly reflect the glory of the Lord Jesus. Like that's it. We're not supposed to try and figure out, oh my gosh, how do I copy and paste? How do I do? We're supposed to just walk and talk and live and breathe with the Holy Spirit and then who he is. If we become like mirrors begins to reflect in and through and out of us, we become like merits who brightly reflect the glory of the Lord Jesus who are being trans figured into his very image as we move from my brighter level of glory to another. And his glorious transfiguration comes from the Lord whose spirit, it's like a pressure off that's just like do laugh with the Holy Spirit and watch and watch as perhaps more patience begins to ooze out of you more joy, more love is fruit of the spirit. Speaker 1 00:11:51 You find it engaged, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, beautiful things in Galatians five. And we can try and do that in our own square. I need to just have more self-control or we can go, my gosh, this is not something I can do on my own. We can all text we guys group that I need to just rest into the Holy Spirit and ask for that for my life to become like a mirror so it will begin to ooze out of me. Not because of who I am but because of who the one who lives in me is verse 13 and one, put one and says, so roll up your sleeps, get your head and the game you're totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrive. Don't make easily slip back into those old grooves of evil doing just what you feel like doing. Speaker 1 00:12:44 It's a heavy work to use actually. Now, if people were just doing whatever they felt like doing that the scripture would actually call it evil is heavy. Like when don't think of evil in that way, all it's meaning is it's like sometimes you, you do have to just go what's right? Like what does self-control require of me here? You know what I mean? What does discipline require in my life? Don't slip back into old habits. No, I mean literally pull ourselves into this lane cuz this is the right lane to live in. It says you dot know any better than you do now. It says people who found Jesus and have a holy spirit in them, they now know better as obedient children. Let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life. A life energetic and lazing with holiness. Okay? A set of partners, a purity, a sacredness. Speaker 1 00:13:44 God said, I am holy. You be holy. There is you're 17. You call out to God for help. Any help. I mean there's the good news guys. You can think to yourself how heck <laugh> he is not expecting us to do it on our own. There is no pressure on us in the natural. It is like you call out to God for help and then he helps. He's a good father that way. But don't forget, he's also a responsible father. This is his. This is churchman and grace and he won't let you go by with sloppy living. Verse 18 is so beautiful, your life is a journey. You must travel with a deep consciousness of God. Isn't that lovely? Your life is a journey and he's not expecting us to be like we just nailed it in one heads. He's not. He's like journeying with me and just have a deep consciousness of me and watch what will happen on the inside and work its way out of your life. Speaker 1 00:14:48 It's so beautiful. I talk about us being a temple of the Holy Spirit now and there were different temples across the story of the world. There was therefore with Moses, but when Moses then went and took the Israelites who were slaves in Egypt and led them out of Egypt into what was gonna be their promised land, it took an unnecessary amount of time. Okay? It should have been 40 days, it took 40 years. But God promised that his presence was gonna go with the people. I'm just showing you a bit of a picture of what the structure now looks like. That God says, okay, you are gonna be walking through the desert and I'm gonna go with you, okay? And my presence is going to be housed in a temporary tent pretty much. Okay? The humility of God <laugh>, that he would dwell in a tent or that he would dwell in a human body. Speaker 1 00:15:35 It's crazy how much he bust us. And so there he is, see that like smoke section at the back, that section would've would've been known as the holy of Holies. But just before that section was an an, an area that had roof over it and there were like three pieces of furniture in there. And then the section like all here, which doesn't have a roof in it was all known as the after court and the Israelites, okay, were essentially there was like protocol to the presence of God. There was like, like a pilgrimage to get to the holy of holies, although they never even ever were allowed in there as a normal person. The high priest was allowed in there once a year and the high priest would carry all of the sin of the people and all of the prayer of the people into the holy of Holies. Speaker 1 00:16:25 And God would like dissolve it all once a year. It was a day of celebration and then they would go back to their lives. And rituals have been reminded that essentially they could not do holiness on their own. We need a savior, we need Jesus. Okay? And so this is what it kind of looked like. If you can go to the floor plan, what I wanna show you, we don't have a tabernacle anymore. We don't need a tabernacle. We are not wondering through wilderness. But God is not wasteful with anything he does. And everything he's done across time is something that we can learn more about him. And essentially what we learn is that he just loves us and wants to be with us. And so here, the people in the Old Testament, what comes through this gate here, this is why I'm saying you gotta look into this small cause. Speaker 1 00:17:12 This escape was in the east. Jesus came through the east gate when he went into Jerusalem, the garden of Eden had an eastern gate. There's something so beautifully significant about the east, we'll save it for another time. But they all had to go through just this one gate to get into the outer court. And it was escape praises. Moses wrote psal. And in psal hundreds he actually says that I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart. I will enter his courts with praise. Moses and the people that he led would walk through here and, and then it was transferred onto other leadership when Moses, you know, went on to glory and, and they would enter thanking God, just thanking him, praising him for the amazing things that he had done. Basically blood was shared here, okay? And us on the New Testament. I'm so grateful we don't have to share blood because the blood of Jesus was shared once and for all. Speaker 1 00:18:07 But if you use this and you ask somebody that knows how to enter the presence of God with Thanksgiving and remind yourself that there was a cost, yeah, there was a cost, like blood is, was shared to us being able to even walk towards the holy of holies God himself. It it, there was a press, okay? And then you would see this label, which was like this huge face of it. It was made of mirrors at the bottom. The people would watch, they needed to wash because of the bloody mess before, but they would look down and these mirrors would like reveal, then they would see themselves and, and, and this the beautiful thing about them seeing themselves. You find David like writing later on. Can you quickly flip psalm hundred 39, just super quickly, David, I mean like he comes up with this prayer, which is essentially the kind of prayer that you might frame when you're at that labor and that mirror is reflecting yourself. Speaker 1 00:19:02 It's like, God, I actually invite you. Imagine praying this every day. God, I invite your searching date into my heart, not into my actions. And how well am I doing into my heart? God is all about the heart. Examine me through and through, find out everything that may be hidden within me. Oh my God, that is a dangerous prayer. Unless you've been wanting to show up. Like have yourself showing up for what's actually hiding in your heart. Put me to the tennis, this is David and sift through all my anxious cares. See if there is any path of pain walking on. Like this is what we do to ourselves. We've gone on a path. We're not going on the path of God. We're not walking with the Holy Spirit, but we just plow on anyway because you know, we've gotta, we're gonna get things done And it's like we're on a path of pain half the time. Speaker 1 00:19:51 Let's see if there's a path of pain I'm walking on and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting way. The path that brings me back to you. Isn't that stunning? That's the, that's what happens there in that basin. Can you go back to the floor plan really quickly? Um, once they go past the labor guys, you enter into that tainted place, A place that has a covering over it. And there's just three pieces of furniture in there that the people would've had access to on that side. There you had like this seven armed candlestick. The seven armed candlestick, um, was always symbolic of the Holy Spirit. And it was pointing to a time that actually, oh Holy Spirit was gonna come and reside with the people. And right opposite was what you called the table of show bread. And there was bread just baking. Have you ever walked into a bacon? Speaker 1 00:20:39 I mean, how about that smell? It was just baking all the time. And so the people would walk through and they would be like, ha, holy Spirit, ah, bread, the word of God. Like that is what we need to be feeding our souls with. It's this p it's this protocol to the presence of God. Thanksgiving blood was shared, your heart, your Holy Spirit. Feed me with your word God. And then the final thing was the altar of incense. Because worship was different to praise the gate that they entered in Warwick. Thank you for all you've done. It's about sometimes it's more about us, about God, but also about us. But worship is different. Worship is identifying God just for who he is, whether he's done stuff for us or not, for the fact that he is holy and we are not. And we can ask all the questions we want and we can feel unjustified all we want and we can feel like life is hard. Speaker 1 00:21:39 But at the end of the day, we are not responsible for the breath we are breathing. We are not responsible for the suning. We are not responsible for the time of which Jesus says, well one day come and roll up this whole thing. We are not, we are not in as much control as we think we are. He is holy. He is set apart from us and we have to remind ourselves of that. And that's what worship does. Worship just magnifies the bigness of God. And in that just doesn't make us feel small. But actually it makes us feel like heart blessfully that God like that would love us so much that he would come near to us intense and bushes and in our heart like, like how blessed are we that he cares enough for us. There's a scripture that David says like, who am I even that you would think on me, you know? Speaker 1 00:22:37 And like sometimes we've gotta remember that kind of stuff cause we can get a little big and then you end up in a holy of holies. And like I say, it was only the hard priest who went there once a year. Comet stand with me Jen. And um, and the high priest would pretty much go in and he would do what was called into session. And Jesus, when he left the earth, he says, I I'm gonna go but it's okay. We'll be fine. The Holy Spirit and still in my presence and I'm make the right hand of the Father and him to sing for you. He becomes like the heart priest of the you Testa it where he's, whatever we wanna bring to him. He just goes, that's fun. Straight to the Father. What do you wanna pray for? You wanna pray for our country? Speaker 1 00:23:24 No problem. Credit. We have to direct access to the Father. Three. Jesus, our heart priest, he is right there hearing our heart, hearing our prayers. And you know what, we could just go straight there. We can bypass all of it. Like we don't have the tabernacle, we don't need to be stopping at these stations and whatever else. But I really love how beautiful it's to perhaps keep us in a space where we understand the holiness of God and um, and in home sometimes we can just, we're in there, we're in that tent, if you like prayer so quickly. And I just wonder whether it's a, we remind ourselves some of things, the gratitude, the word of God.