Peace, Prosperity, and Sin, part 2: Entering the Holy Place

This sermon is from July 19th.  We left for vacation that day, so I am just now getting this posted.

In the midst of a prosperous era, Judah's king Uzziah became arrogant.  What he did next brought disaster on him personally but also illustrates two vital truths for today.

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Holy Desires

What do others have that you want?

 

That question seems to form the basis for any sort of ambition, goal-setting, or purchase that you make. The American way of life sort of runs on that very question. Yet a simplified version of the last

of God's Ten Commandments could be, "Do NOT want what others have." How can this be?

We finish our holiness series with the 10th Commandment, which shows us that God intends to complete His work of holiness in us all the way inward to our hearts and desires.

  

 

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Sanctified by Truth

We all know that God doesn't want us to be liars, but "walking in the light" is as much about being honest with yourself as being honest with others.  And most importantly, being sanctified by truth means walking with the One who is the Truth...

“Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world,
I also have sent them into the world.  I sanctify Myself for them, so they also may be sanctified by the truth.”

—John 17:17-19 (HCSB)

 

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Holy Stewardship

"Thou shalt not steal" seems like a pretty easy commandment to follow (unless you're a thief).  But the Ten Commandments all point to deeper issues of God's lordship over our lives.  What statement is God making with this command?  What does it take to keep from breaking this command in our hearts?  These are the questions we looked at this past Sunday.

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Guest Blog Post

Here is a link to a blog post by my friend Richard Foster, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Camden.  His post really gets into much of what we have been talking about the last three weeks as we discussed sexuality, God's plan for marriage, and our responsibility to live as holy people in a profane world.

(It's unusually long for a blog post, so read it when you have some time).

Richard Foster: "Why So Much Confusion About Marriage?"

Holy Matrimony

Weddings are big business these days, from bridal expos to dozens of cable reality shows, but marriage is not as celebrated. But God's plan for marriage is still a wonderful gift. This week we looked at why, if we obey God's plan, God will always fulfill his purpose in our marriages.

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Sacred Sex

There's no place area in our culture where God's standards and society's standards and practices are farther apart than in the realm of sexuality.  So why go against the flow?  Why is God so strict about sex anyway?  We try to answer those questions this week.

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Here is the video we showed when you hear the music in the podcast...

Holy Temple

Have you ever heard that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?  A lot of times, that idea is used to promote being healthy, but that's like saying that the most important thing to care for Solomon's temple was to keep it clean.  Important - yes - but not the primary concern.  So what is the temple for?  And what does it mean that WE are God's temple?  (It goes beyond our bodies...)

**We've had some issues the last couple of weeks with getting everything recorded and posted, but back on the horse!

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Becoming Holy: Worship

One of the greatest things that happened during our revival is that we truly worshiped together as a church. As we returned to our "Holiness" series, we take a break from the Ten Commandments for a couple of weeks to look at how God makes us holy. One way is that He calls us together to worship Him. So how do we come and truly worship God each time we gather?

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Life Is Holy, Part 2

Today was about what it means that "life is holy" at a societal level. This truth speaks to so many different areas: abortion, human trafficking, slavery, pornography, the environment, treatment of animals, embryonic stem cell research, war, poverty, euthanasia, adoption, and even more. It was a lot for one message, but I hope God speaks to you as you listen!

 

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Life Is Holy, Part 1

Holy people don't murder (Exodus 20:13). That's easy, right? Got that one covered? In Jesus' commentary on the 6th Commandment (Matthew 5:21-26), He tells us that it is not enough just to avoid physically harming others. In order to be holy, to be godly, to be perfected in the image of our Father, we must let Him renovate our hearts and extend grace and forgiveness even to those who anger and hurt us. Because that's what He did for us!

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Video of the testimony video from the message after the jump (audio is on the podcast)

Holy Priesthood

God has initiated every believer into his priesthood.  Normally, we think of that idea ("the priesthood of the believer") in terms of our privileges.  But when Peter wrote that we were a "holy priesthood" (1 Peter 2:5), he was referring to the responsibilities of the Old Testament priesthood.  Looking back at the Old Testament, what can we learn what it means to be God's holy priesthood in this world?  On to Leviticus!

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Fathers Day Message: Holy at Home

(With VBS going strong, I missed posting the Fathers Day sermon thus far... Better late than never!)

Christians are known in the public face for being big on family. But studies show that the casual church-goer typically lives out their family lives no different from the rest of the society around them. As we studied the 5th Commandment this Fathers Day, we saw how God made family foundational to a prosperous people and how God's people are called to be distinct in how they raise their families to honor God and those He placed in authority.

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Holy Labor

NBC News: How the Smartphone Killed the 3-Day Weekend

God uses the Sabbath day to teach His people about work and trust. In our world, technology causes the demands of work (and everything else) to follow us everywhere, if we allow it. God's gift of the Sabbath has never been more relevant.
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Wholly Other: What Do I Know of Holy?

We ran into technical difficulties with last Sunday's sermon, causing it not to be recorded.  Here is the video we made to introduce the sermon.

Motherhood Is Holy

Call Her Blessed from seekfirstmedia on GodTube.

 

Jesus calls his disciples to a holy life. That means we should anticipate that God's perspective of this world is going to be very different from the popular view, and we should adopt the truth that God reveals. This week we look at a provocative Scripture (1 Timothy 2:15) to try to understand how God has designated motherhood as a holy thing and what that means for us as God's people.

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The Holy One of Israel (The First Commandment)

God established His people by rescuing them from slavery in Egypt and leading them to another land.  At Mount Sinai, He gave a personal introduction and let them know what it meant to be a holy people belonging to a holy God.  The baseline of all other truths is that God is singular.  He deserves our worship because He is the only God.  This week we look into what it means to live in the truth of the First Commandment.
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Holy, Holy, Holy

There are many unspeakable and utterly indescribable mysteries in God. God is too far beyond us to really remain anything but a mystery. Yet we can know Him through the truths He has revealed in creation, in His Word, and through Jesus an...d the Holy Spirit within us.

Many of these mysteries have been named: Trinity... God's omniscience... omnipresence... omnipotence... His unchanging nature... But just because we have named it does not mean we have grasped it. And just because we cannot explain or understand something about God does not mean it isn't true.

We have put God in the box of our own pat answers and tidy theology so much that we have lost our wonder. We want to grasp God, because to understand Him is to be able to predict (or even control) Him. But instead of trying to grasp God, we are meant to worship Him. And academic study does not bring us to an encounter with the Living God or His promises. Worshiping Him in His undiminished glory and holiness does.

 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness

 

Psalm 29:2

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Holier Than...?

"He that sees the beauty of holiness... sees the greatest and most important thing in the world" - Jonathan Edwards

"Happiness, not holiness, is the chief pursuit of most people today, including many professed Christians. They want Jesus t...o solve their problems and carry their burdens, but they don’t want Him to control their lives and change their character. It doesn’t disturb them that eight times in the Bible, God said to His people, ‘Be holy, for I am holy,’ and He means it" - Warren Wiersbe

"If I had my choice of all the blessings I can conceive of, I would choose perfect conformity to the Lord Jesus, or, in one word, holiness" - Charles Spurgeon

In our effort to avoid being “holier-than-thou”, we’re not holier than anyone. The life of holiness is life as God's treasured possession, living at peace in His care. We are desperate for this life, and the world is desperate for God's holy people to show the way to the Holy One who is worthy of their worship.

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