When Heaven + Earth Are Perfect
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Old Made New Pt. 12 - Lev 21-22
Sanctification: Walking in the Same Way in Which He Walked
Pastor Tim Brisson
Intro
Intro
offering
Christians today
Christians today
Barna’s research also led them to outline four distinct categories for eighteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds who grew up Christian:
Prodigals (22 percent): “ex-Christians” who “do not identify themselves as Christian despite having attended a Protestant or Catholic church as a child or teen, or having considered themselves to be Christian at some time.”
Nomads (30 percent): “lapsed Christians” who “identify themselves as Christian but have not attended church during the past month. The vast majority of nomads haven’t been involved with a faith community for six months or more.”
Habitual churchgoers (38 percent): those who “describe themselves as Christian and have attended church at least once in the past month, yet do not have foundational core beliefs or behaviors associated with being an intentional, engaged disciple.”
Resilient disciples (10 percent): “Christians who (1) attend church at least monthly and engage with their church more than just attending worship services; (2) trust firmly in the authority of the Bible; (3) are committed to Jesus personally and affirm he was crucified and raised from the dead to conquer sin and death; and (4) express desire to transform the broader society as an outcome of their faith.”
Leviticus 22 (NRSV)
31 Thus you shall keep my commandments and observe them: I am the Lord. 32 You shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel: I am the Lord; I sanctify you, 33 I who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord.
THE LAWS OF LEVITICUS ARE A RESPONSE TO GOD’S SALVATION, NOT A CONDITION
SIN = UNCLEANLINESS = SEPARATION FROM GOD
Steps 6 and 7
Step 6 -- We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Step 7 -- We humbly asked Him to remove all our shortcomings.
WE CHANGE AS A RESULT OF OUR RECOVERY AND RESTORATION
The Cross as compelling change
The Cross as compelling change
Mercy seat
Romans 3:21–26 (CSB)
21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. 22 The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction.
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
25 God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.
Cross as Love
1 John 2:4–6 (NRSV)
4 Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; 5 but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection.
By this we may be sure that we are in him: 6 whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked.
WE WILL ONLY REACH PERFECTION WHEN HEAVEN MEETS EARTH, THE TITLE OF TONIGHT’S MESSAGE
Sanctification
Sanctification
Lexham Survey of Theology (Sanctification)
Sanctification: The ongoing supernatural work of God to rescue justified sinners from the disease of sin and to conform them to the image of his Son: holy, Christlike, and empowered to do good works.
HOLY = other than, all of Leviticus, HOLY = WHOLLY OTHER
Christlike: Grace and Truth
Definitely different than the World
17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
EMPOWERED
Power by the Holy Spirit
Key Passages on Sanctification
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
TRUTH = HOLY SPIRIT
WE CAN NOT DO THIS OURSELVES
WE ARE SANCTIFIED BY AND THROUGH THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
10 And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
12 Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood.
COMPARE JESUS OUTSIDE THE GATES TO THE HOLINESS OF THE TEMPLE SACRIFICES
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
THE HOLY SPIRIT EQUPIS YOU
MAKING YOU COMPLETE
TO DO HIS WILL, WORKING AMONG US
19 “I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things.
HOW DO WE GET THERE?
HUMILITY
Philippians 2:8 (NRSV)
8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.
• So humility is grounded in OBEDIENCE
• Jesus walked the walk by humbling himself in obedience to the Father’s will, even to the point of death on a cross
• So what keeps us from from being humble and willing to change, to let go our old ways?
• John says FEAR
i John 4:18
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
JESUS EXPLAINS WHERE THE FEAR COMES FROM
▾ Let’s start with one of the most popular verses in the bible
• Just yesterday I was behind a car that had a license plate frame with the cite on it
John 3:16–21 (NRSV)
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
• Lest his works should be exposed = fear
• so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God = obedience = sanctification
▾ Fear
• Losing something you have
• Not getting something you want
• Being called out for something you did
• Coming clean is scary
• So at the end of the 5th step confession meeting, maybe you had a few shortcomings to work on
• Now is the time to start moving forward without fear
• We humble ourselves in obedience to the Holy Spirit that put those shortcomings on your list in the first place
• And we become entirely willing for God to do remove these shortcomings, so we humbly ask in prayer for God to remove these shortcomings that only He can remove
• Sounds easy, right?
• But we can get stuck
• Impatient, it takes time
• Fear pops back up
• Letting go of old ways is not easy
• It might just be a new way of living
• Steps 6 and 7 don’t say we ask God to remove only the unpleasant shortcomings, or unprofitable
• These attributes kept me alive!
▾ They may define you
▾ “People know me, I am a ______”.
▾ Hot headed
• Anger
▾ driven
• Workaholic
▾ Detail person, nothing escapes me
• Judge much?
▾ Brutally honest
• Let me guess, your honest opinions tend to tear down those around you?
▾ Known for my sarcasm
• Anger with a haircut
• So these traits define you?
• Exactly - God wants to re-define you, recast you in His Son’s image
▾ Remember Genesis 1
• It is a process
• Let there be Light
• Then the heavens were opened
• Then the seas were parted, revealing the land that was already there
• Then God planted the trees, placed animals on the fertile ground, and eventually Adam and Eve
• So it is a process with you
• We humble ourselves in obedience, asking God to remove anything doesn’t reflect His son’s image, so He reveals in us His perfected love.
• And in perfect love casts out fear, little by little, it is a process
• He is not here to condemn us.
• His will is to perfect His love in you, so you may fearlessly walk as His Son walked, so that it may be clearly seen that your works have been carried out in God
• So what do we do?
• Seventh Step prayer
“My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen.”
Seventh Step Prayer: “My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen.”
Father, I acknowledge my shortcoming of _____. I repent of this sin and come to You, entirely ready to have this shortcoming removed from me. I humbly ask that this shortcoming be removed, and replaced with _____, an attribute of Your Son, Jesus Christ. I ask for the strength and endurance to obey the Holy Spirit as I seek to die to my old ways, and rise in the power of the resurrection as a new creation in Your Son Jesus Christ. In the name of the Son Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.