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NewCity Orlando Sermons
Leviticus Is For Lovers | Leviticus 19
Senior Pastor Damein Schitter continues our fall series, Leviticus Is For Lovers, preaching from Leviticus 19. He connects the teachings here in Leviticus with New Testament calls to live purposefully, in order to uncover the timeless value of compassion, justice, and holiness.
Holiness transcends mere behavior; it's about belonging to God and living in love. By reflecting on the phrase "I am the Lord, your God," Pastor Damein helps us understand how this divine relationship influences our actions and fosters true holiness. He challenges the notion of morality based on fear or duty, emphasizing that genuine holiness is rooted in love and relational commitment. Ultimately, Pastor Damein illustrates how belonging to God through Jesus enables us to reflect His holiness, leading to changed behaviors and genuine freedom.
Hello everyone. This is Pastor Damian. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando. At New City, we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life. For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2:If you're able, please remain standing for today's scripture reading, which comes from Leviticus 19,. One through 18. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them you shall be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy. Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father and you shall keep the Sabbaths. I am the Lord, your God. Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal. I am the Lord, your God.
Speaker 2:When you offer a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord, you shall offer it so that it may be accepted. It shall be eaten the same day you offer it or on the day after, and anything left over until the third day shall be burned up with fire. If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is tainted. It will not be accepted and everyone who eats it shall bear his iniquity because he has profaned what is holy to the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from his people. When you reap the harvest for your land, you shall not reap your field up to its edges, neither shall you gather the gleanings after the harvest, and you shall not strip your vineyard bare. Neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and the sojourner.
Speaker 2:I am the Lord, your God. You shall not steal. You shall not deal falsely. You shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by the name falsely and so profane the name of your God.
Speaker 2:I am the Lord. You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God. I am the Lord. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material. Are we stopping here? This is God's word.
Speaker 1:You can be seated. The same thing happened last week. Yeah, sorry about that, hannah. Great job, great job, all right.
Speaker 1:So I'm about to do something that's so meta. I'm about to say, in case you missed the in case you missed it email, last week there was an in case you missed it email. I want to point something out about that one and then pay attention to next week's, but I'm saying it now so as to draw your attention to it. So last week, we mentioned how, in our July series, following Jesus in Politics throughout the fall, we were going to be releasing resources on our podcast and other ways, which we did, so we released resources. If you missed any of those and you're curious, you can go back to our All of Life podcast and you'll see some episodes that we released. Last week, we actually sent a podcast recorded by another ministry that we thought was helpful and we wanted to make you aware of it, so you can check that out. Also an article that we wanted to make you aware of. So if you're interested in that, you can go back to the In Case you Missed it email In Case you Missed it, and you can click on the links and it'll take you there Looking forward to next week's In Case you Missed it email.
Speaker 1:We wanted to let you know that the next two weeks sermons have a PG-13 warning. Okay, so we'll make clear in the email what the topics are. They are both weeks on sexuality and so we tried to time them so that they wouldn't be on family worship, which is today, but nevertheless, we wanted to say they really will be PG-13. So we'll give you categories of words and phrases, but one of the things we like to do is give you a heads up, because many of us have our children younger children in here with us and if that's you and you wanna make a different decision the next two weeks, we wanted to give you a heads up so you could do that ahead of time. Okay, so we'll mention that again in case you missed an email that comes out this week. But I wanted to say it to you all. That's the next two weeks PG-13. All right, well, today we are in Leviticus, chapter 19, which is all about holiness, which I'll mention in a minute. But last week, ben preached the peak of the book of Leviticus, which means that we're now in the falling action of the book. We're on the descent both of the book and also of our sermon series, and today we're in Leviticus 19, which is, as I mentioned, about holiness.
Speaker 1:Now, when we think about sin and holiness, often those words and concepts are winked at. In our culture it's almost like a relic, the concept of holiness. In fact, in our culture holiness and sin are often trivialized, as in phrases like holier than thou or sinfully delicious. You notice, what's sinful now is chocolate, but not people in our culture so often. And so when we think about that, it's not just them out there, it's also us in here.
Speaker 1:Christians, we can feel uncomfortable with the word holiness because it's not just out there but it's in our hearts. Holiness can often feel daunting and a distant ideal. Even as Christians, we can get squeamish about the word holiness. It often conjures up our failings and our shortcomings. We get nervous that talking about holiness reduces our faith merely to a list of don't do that or do this and that will make you holy, which of course would be an impoverished view of the Christian faith. We rightly fear that if we talk a lot about holiness, what it might devolve into is, when preaching the gospel, saying to believe the gospel is to stop doing bad things and start doing good things like us, good people, which of course is not the gospel. But Leviticus 19 gives us a powerful reminder that holiness is not about moral striving alone, it's about who we belong to. You see, we can easily, in our fear and squeamishness, miss the heart of holiness.
Speaker 1:Now, to be sure, the biblical understanding of holiness offers a distinct moral orientation. That's true. And when God's people have this distinct moral orientation in the world, it does set us apart as a contrast community. That's right. But to only conform to a model of morality short-circuits the meaning of that morality. You see, to be holy is first to belong to the Holy One. In other words, before holiness is about what we do, it's about who we belong to.
Speaker 1:So today we're going to explore holiness from this frame in Leviticus 19,. And we're going to explore it in the ideas under three questions First, what is holiness? Second, why would we want it? And third, how do we get it. What is holiness, why would we want it and how do we get it? First, what is holiness?
Speaker 1:Now, if you look in your Bibles even the heading of most of your Bibles it will say something at the beginning of chapter like the Lord is holy. That's what it says in the ESV, the very first verse. And the Lord God spoke to Moses saying speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them you shall be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy. Then, in verse 37, at the very end of the chapter, it says and you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules and do them. I am the Lord. Okay, so the chapter is about holiness and everything in the middle about what you should do and what you shouldn't do, is teaching you and I how we ought to live a holy life. Okay, if you've been around church much or around Bible teaching, you've rightly heard that holiness means to be set apart. Right, you've heard this before.
Speaker 1:Whenever I was in college, I had just become a Christian and I asked the man who was discipling me. I said what is holiness? Can you describe to me what holiness is? And he looked around and he saw this was in the early 2000s. He saw one of those big black binders and he opened it. It had all my CDs in it, right, and we flipped it.
Speaker 1:Nowadays, you know you don't text and drive Back. Then it was. The danger was trying to change CDs while you were driving right. So this was back in those days and he said if I asked you what your favorite CDs were, your most listened to CDs, your highly recommended CDs, would you know what they were? And I said yeah. And he said, well, where are they? And I said, well, they're all mixed in. He said, well, holiness would be if I gave you a whole separate binder and you took all of your favorite CDs, the one you listened to the most, and you put them in there and it was set apart just for your holy favorite albums.
Speaker 1:Now, there's something really beautiful about that. I still remember it. In fact, I talked to him on the phone last week and told him I was going to use that illustration in my sermon and he said I have no idea, I don't remember that at all, but I do. I remember it and it stuck and there's something right and good and true and you probably have heard some version of that before. Now that's exactly right. That's what we've seen throughout Leviticus. We've seen that not only is the tabernacle set apart, but God has holy instruments and he has holy furniture and he has holy rooms and he has holy candle holders and everything to be used is set apart and holy, and that's right. But for the first time in Leviticus here we see that it's not just things and places and rooms that are holy, but also people. This is the first time God says he not only calls a holy place, but holy people.
Speaker 1:One commentator says holiness is the special quality of something that has been withdrawn from normal use and consecrated to God's service, and so this is what it means for God's people to be a holy people. He takes them out of the nations and he makes them his peculiar people, his prized possession, his special people, in order that he can bring them to himself and then send them to represent himself in the world. Now, these are basic concepts many of you have heard before, but it's at this point that I need to lean in, because we can easily misunderstand things here. There is a way that some people can talk about holiness where holiness is primarily a withdrawing from the world, that in order to stay holy or be holy, we have to withdraw from the world. But that's exactly the opposite of what God is saying to the congregation here in Leviticus 19. He's saying that true holiness is lived out in the world. So to be holy is not to retreat from the world. It's actually to be set apart and engage the world. That God's holy people would be in the world, as we often say, but not of the world.
Speaker 1:Holiness isn't confined to the tabernacle or the rituals. It extends to the very fabric of daily life. Holiness covers relationships, work, family, justice and even economics. There's a table on the screen behind me that shows an example, a snapshot, of all the spheres of life. Eventually there will be something, I think, on the screen behind me that will show the spheres of life. Eventually there will be something, I think, on the screen behind me that will show the spheres of life, and it's a lot of them. Is it there? That's great. I'm taking your cue. I knew it wasn't there and now it is Great.
Speaker 1:So oftentimes we can think of holiness only in the sphere, for example, of worship. And of course, there are several verses where, in Leviticus 19, worship and worship practices are talked about. Down here, the second to the bottom, ritual practices. You got half of a verse 19b on specific ritual practices. But look at all these other verses where God is talking about his holy people being sent into the world. You have explicit business practices. Look at all those verses God speaks directly to business practices, the court of law, proper treatment of the poor and disadvantaged, social interactions in general, family, and so you can take a picture of this and you can read later on in your own time. But I wanted to point this out, that just in verse, just in chapter 19,. Rather, there are several verses where holiness is not about withdrawing, it's about engaging in all of life. So, as you see from this table, you cannot contain holiness in so-called religious areas of life, but all of life is the arena of holiness. In other words, holiness is lived out in every sphere of life, creating a contrast community.
Speaker 1:Now, to make this more concrete, I just want to double click briefly on some of these areas that were on the table and remember this any law made by anybody reveals the values of the lawgiver. Remember that If there is a law, whether it's just or unjust, if it is a law, it reveals the values of the lawgivers. Okay, so it's no different from God. All of his laws are just, but in all of his laws we see his values and his very heart, what he prioritizes. So let's remember that as we look at just a few examples.
Speaker 1:So I wanna pick up on in verses nine and 10. Let's read verses nine and 10. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not reap your field right up to its edge. Neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. I am the Lord, your God.
Speaker 1:So what we see here is a practice that many of you have probably heard of out of all the examples I'll give, and essentially it was this idea that Israel was supposed to not maximize profits, but people. So there was nothing wrong with profits. Business owners, even in Israel, had to make a profit. They had to be able to survive. They had to be able. It was totally fine. But what wasn't totally fine was to maximize profits in order to minimize people. So there were many people around that did not have the order to minimize people.
Speaker 1:So there were many people around that did not have the means to feed themselves, and so what God said that would be true of his people is that they wouldn't take the produce all the way to the edges, but they leave just enough. And not only that, when they drop some grapes and other goods, they weren't to sweep it up, but rather leave it there. Now, why not just collect it all and give to the needy? Well, because there's another value here, and the value is is that God wants all of the sojourners in the land to still have the dignity of gathering their own food, of going and getting it, of harvesting it for themselves and for the family, putting in a good day's work, a full day's work, in order to go and gather and take back to their families and their loved ones. This is what God was revealing here. So what we have here is, when the farmer leaves part of his harvest for the needy, he embodies the Lord's compassion. Or what about in verse 15? Read with me verse 15.
Speaker 1:You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You see, the judge who applies the law fairly embodies the Lord's justice. There's no underhanded dealings in Israel, or at least there ought not to be, which was very common in every other culture and is today, but not so among you. The Lord says what about verses 17 and 18? You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And this is what Jason was speaking to earlier. You see, the wronged person who extends pardon and love to his wrongdoer embodies the Lord's forgiveness. And finally, as a concrete example, the powerful person who shows compassionate care to the vulnerable embodies the Lord's mercy.
Speaker 1:Pausing here what you do with your power is what God cares about. Don't try to get rid of it. Power's not a bad thing. What you do with it, how you use it, how you steward it, that is the real question. So let's look here in verses 13 and 14. You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him, obviously.
Speaker 1:What about the next one? The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. Why this is business practices. Why, well, these people who are working in your field all day long? They're counting on that day's wage on their way home through the market to purchase food for their family. So even if you pay them at the end of the week, all that you owe them, it's not loving or just Because he's saying you know that they need that money to buy their meal on the way home, to take it to their family. And so what they were commanded to do, in order to reflect the Lord's mercy, was to be waiting at the edge of the field, that is, the business owner, and as the workers came off, they were paid that day's wage. And in this way we learned so much about the Lord, our God, because the laws reflect the values of the lawgiver.
Speaker 1:Now, as we saw here, all of the spheres of life are included, and what's true about the whole Bible the Torah and Leviticus as well is that all of life is to be brought under the lordship of God. No area of life is free from God's purpose or his will. But it's not just this call to holiness in the Old Testament, but also in the New Testament, and even to us, the Apostle Peter understood that it's God's holiness that transforms every part of our life. Listen to what Peter says in his first letter. He says as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since, as it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. You see how Peter is quoting Leviticus right here.
Speaker 1:Peter is laying out a vision for following Jesus in his first letter and in the very first chapter he sets it in the context of holiness. That is to, we are to be holy in all of our conduct because we belong to a holy God. All right, so we see here what is holiness. It's to be set apart by a person for a purpose. But it's one thing to understand holiness in theory, but why should we actually want to live it out? Why should we want to be holy? Well, to get at this, let me ask you a question. Imagine a world without holiness. Imagine a world without holiness, a world where nothing is sacred, where commitments and values have no depth. When you imagine that world, what you eventually will get to is a world that lacks meaning, purpose and beauty. Think about this what is a world with no holy moments, no moments that are set apart, no moments that are unique, no moments that are uniquely true, good and beautiful, no moments that awaken the awe in you. It's just flattened.
Speaker 1:I think about the first time I saw the Grand Canyon, and if you've ever seen the Grand Canyon, you also remember the very first time you saw it. It's a holy moment, and not just for you as an adult. Maybe if you were a kid you remember it. I remember the first time I saw it. Scarlett, our second daughter, was three and I remember we're walking up. It's a beautiful day and we're walking from the parking lot and we're getting closer and closer and I can feel I'm excited to see it. And I just noticed out of the corner of my eye that Scarlett is like distracted by a chipmunk and I'm just thinking she has no idea where we are, she has no idea what's happening. But as we walk up, we were in front of the group, the rest of the group's just behind us, and we walk up and we both got a glimpse of the Grand Canyon at the exact same time. And it wasn't me, it was her who immediately stopped and said wow, yeah, it's funny, isn't it so funny? I love the kids are here. They get it Right. This is a holy moment. We know that these moments are set apart. Or let's get more to the heart of it.
Speaker 1:Let's think about marriage. What if there were no holy relationships? No relationships set apart for a unique purpose? There's a sacredness to marriage vows. I still get goosebumps every ceremony that I do, when I pronounce, when I read the vows, but certainly when I pronounce them, husband and wife, I still get goosebumps that go throughout my whole body. There's something so sacred, there's something so holy and powerful about a wedding where two people declare exclusive and lifelong commitment to one another. Right, this is what they say. They say excluding or forsaking. How many? All others, all is a pretty big number. And so this is what marriage is. It's holy, it's set apart. Why would we want holy things? Because this reflects meaning and purpose in the way that creation is. You see, in this way, in marriage, their lives are now defined.
Speaker 1:How, by belonging to each other. And you see, just as marriage vows set a couple apart for each other, god calls us to be set apart for him. To be holy is to live with God as our primary devotion and love, shaping our choices and our behavior. So, you see, ultimately what we see in Leviticus 19 is to be holy is first to belong to someone, not to do something. Of course you do something, but it flows from first belonging to someone, from first belonging to someone. Let me show you in the text.
Speaker 1:The phrase I am the Lord, your God or I am the Lord appears 15 times in Leviticus 19. I am the Lord, your God appears seven times. What does this mean for him to say the Lord, to say I am the Lord, your God? Well, of course he's hearkening back to Exodus. He's saying I have saved you, I've called you to myself. This is what defines you. It's not your behavior that makes you holy, it's your belonging that makes you holy. I am the Lord, your God. You are holy. Therefore, live holy lives. You see, god has graciously redeemed them. He's called them to be his treasured possession. He's blessed them with a mission of reflecting his holy character to the world.
Speaker 1:And by emphasizing this phrase I am the Lord, your God all of these times, what he's saying is obedience was not meant to be an impersonal checklist. Holiness is not meant to be an impersonal checklist. Holiness is not a way for Israel or you to earn salvation. Instead, holiness, obedience was a relational act of love, being faithful to your spouse. Is that a checklist? I mean, I guess you could say it's a checklist. If that's all it is to you, you should go see a marriage counselor. Talk to someone in your community. If being faithful, keeping those vows to your spouse, if it's a checklist, is the only reason you don't do that, then you're missing it. Why would you repent for breaking vows? Why do you seek to keep vows? It's because you've made an exclusive, lifelong love. You belong to one another. This is the nature of holiness. All behavior that's holy flows from a belonging. That makes you holy, that makes you set apart.
Speaker 1:All right, here we go, you ready, buckle in, get your Bibles out or get your thumb ready to scroll. I'm going to prove it to you. Okay, out or get your thumb ready to scroll. I'm going to prove it to you. Okay, verse 3. After every command that I'm going to read, it says I am the Lord, your God, verse 3. Every one of you shall revere his mother and father. He shall keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord, your God. Verse 4. Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal. Why, I am the Lord, your God. Verse 10,. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard, you shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. Why I am the Lord, your God, verse 25. But in the fifth year, you may eat of its fruit to increase its yield for you. Why I am the Lord, your God, verse 31.
Speaker 1:Now we're going past our scripture reading. Do not turn to mediums or necromancers, do not seek them out and so make yourselves unclean by them. Why I am the Lord, your God, verse 34. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you. Verse 34. Verse 36. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just hen. Why I am the Lord, your God. Finally, verse 36. I just read verse 36. Verse 3, verse 4, verse 25, verse 31,. Verse 34, verse 36, verse 37. If you want to include the shorthand I am the Lord, which means the same thing. That's verse 12, verse 14, verse 16, verse 18, verse 28, verse 30, verse 32, verse 37.
Speaker 1:What makes you holy it's not how you behave, it's who you belong to. Now, why does holiness have a moral connotation? Because who you belong to shapes your life. Again, let's go back to marriage. When you belong to one another, you don't get to live however you want. Paul makes this clear you don't want to live like you're married. Don't get married. It's really clear. Once you're married, you got to live like you're married. Deal with it, because the relationship that you're in is a holy one. Therefore, it shapes your behavior. This is what God is saying in Leviticus 19.
Speaker 1:And, of course, this is way more fundamental than morality. It's not against morality, but, listen, it's possible to be moral out of a sense of duty or cultural expectations or out of fear. It's possible to stay faithful in your marriage out of a sense of fear of what will happen if you get caught. That doesn't make you holy. You can be moral and you can be completely selfish, but if you belong to one another in marriage or in this case let's go to the analogy if you belong to the Lord, holiness is not about being selfish, it's about belonging to another. You see, you can be moral and belong to yourself, but to be holy means you must belong to God, and to be married means you must belong to your spouse. Do you see this? Holiness is first about who you belong to. That sets you apart, not how you behave. And who you belong to changes your behavior. The essence of holiness is intensely personal, intensely personal.
Speaker 1:There are only a few people in your life that has such claims of love on you that you can say I belong to them. I've been using marriage, so I won't belabor the point. If you're thinking well, would I really say that to a person? Well, what does love look like? I tell you this much. Well, would I really say that to a person? Well, what does love look like? I tell you this much.
Speaker 1:When a baby wakes up screaming in the middle of the night, do you want to go help that child? No, of course not. Maybe at first, because it's it's so cute and I just want to see them. And maybe for me sometimes it's like are they breathing? Oh, this gives me an excuse to go in and make sure they're breathing. I get all that, but you know, like six days later, days later, maybe six weeks later, you're like I am so over this. But what gets you up? That child belongs to you. That child belongs to you and it shapes your behavior, does it not?
Speaker 1:Love and belonging set apart. Relationships put expectations, they put duties on you, but it's way more than duty. It's way more than duty, and this is lived out in all of life. For example, what does it mean to be holy in all of life? Let's just take work, for example, in your workplace. In Ephesians 6, paul is unpacking what it means to live in Christ and he starts talking about daily work. Okay, listen, if you're working for your boss essentially what Paul says you'll only work hard when your boss is around. Or if you're only working for a promotion which is, if it were, only selfishness then you would only work hard and pull your weight if it contributed to that goal. This is basically what Paul is getting at, but he says if you work for God, because you first of all belong to God, then even your daily work can be holy, because who you belong to shapes your behavior.
Speaker 1:A great example of this would be you know there are these books called Every Moment Holy, so there are several volumes. It's a wonderful book that depicts exactly what Leviticus 19 and 1 Peter are getting at, and I would recommend this resource to you. When you look at it, they're expensive books, but they're worth it. I'm just telling you. If you're like, oh, I want to look it up and you're like, oh, my gosh, I'm just warning you, okay, this is what these books do. They provide prayers and liturgy for everyday activities like morning coffee or washing dishes or changing diapers.
Speaker 1:And the reason I love this is because it's a reminder that God is present in every moment, even in the mundane. The mundane can become sacred when you belong to him. Even in the mundane, the mundane can become sacred when you belong to him. It's like whenever you're walking with your spouse. Even that walk, that mundane walk that you take every night down your street after dinner, or with the kids trailing behind, because you belong to each other, even that mundane moment can be set apart. Even that can be holy. Right, I keep trying to make it concrete with something that we know and experience viscerally. This is what it can be like with God.
Speaker 1:Holiness isn't about retreating from the world. It's about seeing how all of life, in belonging to him and living before his face, can be an act of worship, can be a life of holiness. One more thing I wanna point out here is that in verse two we see how relational, how intensely relational, holiness is, because the way idolatry is described. Look with me at verse two. Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel. Sorry, verse four. He says do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal. I am the Lord, your God. Here's the language Do not turn to idols. Okay, let me make this connection for you All. Commentators I read point out Jeremiah 2.27 here that this is what Jeremiah is referring to, this language.
Speaker 1:Jeremiah 2.27 says that those of you who say to a tree you are my father and to a stone you gave me birth for, they have turned their back to me and not their face. Not their face. What is the face? The face is your relational gate. If I take my face away from you, what have I done? I've broken relationship. If I turn my face away from you to another, what do you say? Look at me. What do you say to your kids? Look at me. I am listening to you. Look at me, look at my face. Why? Because we know we need your face to be in relationship. I need your face. That's one reason why it's so hard and vulnerable, when you feel insecure, to look someone in the face, isn't it? It's so hard, it's so intimate to look someone in the eye, to look in their face. You see, to belong to someone is to give them your face, and to turn from them is to turn your face, and that's exactly what Leviticus 19 is pointing out.
Speaker 1:Holiness is about having God's face and giving him your face because you belong to him. Wickedness to turn away from holiness is to turn your back and trust someone or something else. Wickedness to turn away from holiness is to turn your back and trust someone or something else. It's like looking at your spouse and saying I don't trust you, I don't need you, I don't care what you say. I'm going to turn to someone else and listen to them. So why would you want to be holy? Because at the heart of holiness is a life of belonging, a life of belonging to God and a life that's marked by joy, gratitude and a sense of purpose. A life lived in response to God's call is not grim duty. No, it's not legalistic striving. It's about embracing the abundance of God's grace because you belong to him.
Speaker 1:Now we might understand what holiness is, and hopefully I've convinced you that you want holiness, or at least you're intrigued by holiness. So I'll end here. One more question how do we get it? How do we get holiness? Listen, holiness isn't just about changing our behavior. I've tried to make that clear. It's about a new relationship. It's about a new belonging.
Speaker 1:You see, what Peter was getting at in his letter, quoting Leviticus, is that through Jesus, the Holy One who was cut off, through him, we're welcomed into God's holy presence. It's only in Jesus we can truly become holy and live as a holy people. Jason mentioned this earlier, this invitation into the presence of a holy one. Let me tell you this the only way you get access and not die to the holy one is if you've been given access and God's yes to us. Coming into his presence is through faith in his son, jesus Christ. And once we are in God's presence, not only are we made holy, but this is how we become more holy. This is what I mean. Holiness isn't about simply adopting new behaviors. It's about being transformed by God's presence. You see, as we draw close to him, we begin to resemble his character, we begin to naturally reflect his holiness in our actions and our attitudes.
Speaker 1:I was reading a book recently about an alcoholic telling his story and a very, very successful man, an entertainment lawyer living in LA, ruining his life one binge after another. Miraculously doesn't go to jail because the court lost his file True story, which is. His lawyer said this has never happened, and he tells a story about going to his first AA meeting and recognizing that he thought everyone was going to be so different than him. And when he went there, everyone was exactly like him Successful people, doctors, lawyers, people from all parts of life. And what he said was there's this adage in AA that the most miserable alcoholic is the one that gets enough AA in their minds. And so he had been close, he'd experienced what it might be like to be with other people pursuing not just not drinking, but true sobriety, and it had gotten in him.
Speaker 1:And then, when he went to live, all of a sudden the world that he found beautiful, the world that he found good because of his presence, of another image of what good could be like, all of a sudden he didn't want that anymore. You see, this is what it's like whenever we draw near to God, when we're in God's presence, we begin to naturally reflect his character, because we begin to see the goodness and beauty of who he is. And then, when we walk away from his goodness and beauty, we miss it, we long for it, we want more of it. You see, the more we're in God's presence, the more we begin to look like him. It's kind of like the longer you're married You've seen pictures right when people who are married and you see when they're first married they don't look anything alike. This is just uncanny. Google this later and then you see pictures of them after 50 years and you swear they're brother and sister. I don't know what it is. It's just something about being together for all of those years. Not only the looks, but of course you take up the mannerisms and the phrases.
Speaker 1:There are things that my wife said in her Southern accent when we first got married. I didn't even know what she was saying. True story. I would say wait what? She would say? It's over past that hill. And I would say what are you talking about? It's a hill, not a heel. But then she would say other weird things, like when you plug an extension cord into the wall, what do we say? We say I'm going to plug it in. But she would say we're going to plug it up. We say we're definitely not going to do that. We are going to plug it in. But then all of a sudden I found myself a couple of times saying, hey, will you plug that up? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, right. And so, thankfully, there were some things I rubbed off on her, some things she rubbed off on me.
Speaker 1:But the point is this is that being in the presence of a holy God is the thing that will make you more holy, but to make you holy in order to get in his presence is only through Jesus. And let's consider how this works. In conclusion, do you remember that time when Jesus was in the gospels, he met a man with leprosy you remember this? And this man was unclean, he was impure, and they would have to walk with their hands over like this and they would have to cry out impure, impure. Why? Because if anyone touched them or accidentally got near them, they also would become impure. Because this is how it works Impurity goes from the impure person to the pure person. That is to say, unholiness corrupts that which is holy. That's the way things normally work.
Speaker 1:But as we right now consider how we become holy, how holiness truly transforms, let's look to Jesus in this encounter, because what happens is that there's a moment when this man, this diseased man who was unclean and untouchable by Jewish law, approaches Jesus. And Jesus doesn't run Now. Ordinarily, anyone who touched an unclean person would themselves become unclean, but when Jesus reaches out and touches this man, something incredible happens Instead of impurity infecting Jesus, his holiness flows out, healing and cleansing this man completely. How do you, who are unholy and impure, become holy? Only the touch of Jesus, only Jesus.
Speaker 1:This is the power of God's holiness in Jesus. It's not fragile, it's not a fearful thing. God's holiness in Jesus Christ is a contagious, life-giving presence that overcomes your sin, that overcomes your shame and even your biggest areas of impurity, the things that you couldn't imagine telling anyone else. Jesus, the Holy One, brings us into God's presence, and it's there that he transforms us, so that we too can reflect his holiness in the world. You see, when we draw to God and belong to him through Jesus Christ, we become holy, and that holiness, as we're with him, begins to change our behaviors. That is the order you belong, then you behave.
Speaker 1:This is the way to holiness, this is the way to belonging. This is the way to belonging, this is the way to freedom, and this is what's offered in Leviticus 19. Let's pray, father, we are grateful for your goodness to us that what makes us holy is not first how we behave, but that we belong to you. And would you fill our hearts again afresh and new today, with the gratitude and the humility and the hope that comes from being reminded that you are the Lord, our God, that you are the one who came to us and saved us. You are the one that brought us out of slavery. You are the one who gives us a new identity, a new name adopted, belonging my child, and it's in Jesus' name we pray amen.