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May 07, 2017

How To Be Holy

How To Be Holy

Speaker: Dennis Gallaher

Series: Being Different

Category: Sunday Morning

Deep down, we all want to be good. But when we try and fail, we lose hope and any chance of being truly "good" seems impossible. The good news is that Jesus provided they way to success.

Everyone wants to be good. It is a part of human nature as breathing. When you loose hope of ever being good, bad things happen. You can’t go on sinning and feel good about yourself.

Opening Scripture:

1 Peter 1:15-16  But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

How can I live a holy life?

The original Greek word for “holy” is hagios, which means different.

Look at verse 16 again. “You shall be different (holy) because I am different (holy).

Being different begins on the inside and not the outside. Holiness is commanded.

Leviticus 11:44   For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth.

Leviticus 19:2   “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”

Leviticus 20: 7  You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.

That which is hagios is different from ordinary things.
- the Temple = different from ordinary buildings
- the Sabbath = different from other days
- Christians = different from other people
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1 Peter 1:13-16  Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

It is a life that is futile. To be separated from your Creator is to be separated from your purpose in life.

It is a life that is determined by desire. A life controlled by lust, by want, by never being satisfied, never being fulfilled, never being known is one in which you are separated from your Creator; you are separated from what will truly fulfill you.

It is a life characterized by ignorance. There is no possible way you can properly invest in what matters if you live apart from knowing your Creator.

vs. 15-16 Biblical holiness is holiness that doesn’t see personal goodness, behaviors, or gains as the goal. It is a holiness that sees “being like Jesus” as the key to life and the key to unity. Unity is the key to evangelism, and evangelism is the key to obeying the Great Commission.
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Why would God demand something that seems so impossible? He also provided for our success.

Acts 1:4   Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me.”

Jesus gives instructions to wait for what the Father had provided.

John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26  “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.”

God can require the impossible, because He provided the way for success.

In order to be holy, hagios, you need the Holy Spirit living inside of you.

Beyond salvation, it is the greatest promise of all!

Holiness is the mark of the Holy Spirit; that is why we are told to:
- Be filled with the Spirit.
- Walk in the Spirit.
- Pray in the Spirit.

It is the reason for the Gifts of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit.

Since He is the Holy Spirit, when we pursue a relationship with Him, we become different, hagios; we become holy!
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How do we get filled with His presence and His power? By asking Him.

Luke 11:13  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

How much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!