02 Do You Care Most About What God Cares Most About?
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The world judges Christianity not by what the Bible says, but by how Christians live.
That means there is significant emphasis to be made on the holiness of life.
As the writer of Hebrews exhorts in chapter 12, verse 14,
‘Strive for peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.’
Strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord….phew that’s good.
Let's talk about it.
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‘Do you care most about what God cares most about?’
In part one last week I proposed that above question to you all and we unpacked one of the two things that God cares about most, which is salvation.
We talked about how when looking internally we don’t seem to value our own salvation enough, taking joy in our work for God & not THE WORK of God in our hearts.
We also talked about how when looking externally we don’t seem to value the salvation of others enough, desiring other things more than desiring for them to share in the fullness of joy that comes with being in the presence of God, and the love that we get to embrace & experience through a saving relationship with Him (which again I think the biggest reason for that is because we don’t value our own salvation enough to value others’ enough).
Now if you haven’t listened to that podcast yet, I really encourage you to do so, and if you did tune in to that podcast, you would know today we’re talking about the other thing God cares about most, and that is our sanctification.
Although I’m sure many of you know what sanctification is, I want to put a definition on it…
EM Bounds says,
‘God’s work is to make holy men out of unholy men. God is holy in nature and in all His ways, and He wants to make man like Himself.’
And that is exactly what sanctification is…it is God’s work, first and foremost, and that work is the becoming more like Him.
I love what Peter says in 1 Peter 1:15-16…He says
‘..but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” ‘
That’s following Jesus right there. I’ll read it again.
‘As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” ‘
Again that’s following Jesus right there. Why? Because when you are truly saved, when the Holy Spirit lives in you, your truest desire is not to go out and party, it's not to attain generational wealth or some high position or important social status, your truest desire is no longer horizontal in nature.
When you become indwelled with the Spirit as a follower of Jesus, you are no longer a slave to your flesh and to your sin, but Paul says in Romans 6:18 that you have become a slave to righteousness, meaning that your truest desire is now heaven bound, its vertical - it is to be made holy. To become like the one who saved you.
AKA to become sanctified.
Now back to verses 15 & 16 in 1 Peter 1, notice how Peter says twice that we ought to ‘be holy’...
On the surface you may think that’s insignificant but it's actually HUGE that we come to grasp the choice of language there & its importance to us. Those words reveal to us that we cannot make ourselves holy…we can’t do it. God is the one who called us to holiness, not ourselves. We must be made holy through His work & Holy Spirit in our hearts.
In other words, and I really want you to get this because this is important, and it builds off what we talked about last week:
Above all we’re not called to do holy, but to be holy.
Yes, we have good works to complete & doing holy is something every Christian should do, but being must precede doing.
You must be holy before you can do holy. You need to have a holy heart, of which only God can change, before you can live a holy life.
Now although that may seem pretty obvious, we don’t live like it is. We think we can just do holy without being holy.
We think we can adjust our behavior to clean up our language or our bad habits or we think volunteering or being generous with our money is going to help us be holy, but it's not. It's a facade because it's mechanical change and not organic change. It’s surface level change.
We honor with our lips, but our hearts are far from God (Matthew 15:8).
And if you don’t agree with that I want you to ponder for a second the American church.
Hear what EM Bounds writes on this in one of his books released in 1920…he writes,
“The work of God in the world is the implantation, the growth, and the perfection of the holiness in his people. Keep this ever in mind. But we might ask just now ‘Is this work advancing in this church?’ ‘Are men and women being made holy?’ ‘Is the present day church engaged in the business of making holy men and women?’ This is not a vain and speculative question; it is practical, pertinent, and all important. The present day church has vast machinery, her activities are great, and her material prosperity is unparalleled. The name of religion is widely spread and well known. Much money comes into the Lord’s treasure and is paid out, but here is the question: ‘Does the work of holiness keep pace with all of this?’ ‘Is the burden of the prayers of the church people to be made holy?’ ‘Or are preachers really holy men?’ ‘Or to go back a little further are they hungering and thristing after righteousness, desiring the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby?’ ‘Are they really seeking to be holy men?’ Of course men of intelligence are greatly needed in the pulpit, but prior to that and primary to it, is that we need holy men to stand before dying men and proclaim the salvation of God to them”.
Bounds is on to something here. I think his question of whether or not the holiness of God’s people is keeping up with the activities and machinery of the church is a great question and one that the modern 2023 American church clearly answers as no.
I mean Bounds wrote that in the early 1900’s, saying that the machinery, money, and activities of the church were great. How much more are they now in 2023?
I mean some churches put on a whole movie-like production every Sunday, with the crazy high-tech equipment they have and they do choreography and their worship is a lot like what you would experience at a concert.
We’ve got more money than ever in the American church. We’ve got multi-site churches, we’ve got events after events going on in the church, we’ve got the Tuesday morning coffee with the ladies, and the men’s meet to up to grill & watch college football on Saturday…we’ve got the weekend retreat coming up as well as the multiple events for Christmas fundraising & gift packing.
We’ve got a WHOLE lot of activity going on in the church, and Bounds asks
‘Does the work of holiness keep pace with all this?’
Does it? Does the church care most about what God cares most about?
Are they, first and foremost, prioritizing the growth of holiness in the people of the congregation? Or are they first and foremost prioritizing material matters? Are people’s sanctification on the mind & a driving factor in the church? Or is it their money? Or their attendance in the name of a full church?
Think about that.
I’ll say this and this is the hard truth…if we are called to be holy as Christ is holy, and yet we are not growing in holiness, then we are not abiding in Him. Simple as that. We’re not.
Again, to use the words of Bounds, he says
‘Unfortunately, where designedly or not, we have substituted the external for the internal. We have put that which is seen to the front and shut out that which is unseen. It is all too true as to the Church, that we are much further advanced in material matters than in matters spiritual’.
Think of those words in our present Christian culture.
Ask yourself: Are we in American Christian culture more advanced in material matters than in matters spiritual? Are we?
Now ask it directly to yourself:
Are you more advanced in material matters than in matters spiritual?
Are you more concerned with doing holy than being holy?
Do you find yourself more inclined to skip time alone with God to go and do things in His name or just do things in general?
Guys, and hear my heart here with this, this is something heavy on my heart and something I’m very passionate about.
Literally just this weekend I was explaining to some friends in the car on the way back from church how much it bothers me that there is such a lack of godly men in the Church. It bothers me that I interact with and have interacted with so many leaders, some my age and some who hold high positions in very large churches, who do not prioritize personal holiness and becoming more like Christ.
That’s a problem. As leaders go, so in large part will the church…
Now obviously I can only speak from my experience with other men, but I’m sure this is prevalent with women too. We have totally gotten away from prioritizing and valuing personal holiness in America’s Christianity. We 100% have. And the evidence is everywhere. You don’t have to look very far to see the holiness issue in the church.
And that brings me back to the first thing I said on today’s podcast.
The world judges Christianity not by what the Bible says, but by how Christians live.
Friend, people are watching! They are watching! There are very few people who are curious enough to study the Bible on how Christians ought to live…they don’t know how we are called to live….what they do know, however, of God and of Christianity, comes from you.
It comes from the way you live. And right now I don’t even know what a non-believer would say a Christian is because they get so many contrasting images of them!! It’s true!
My mom has told me before that you may be the only Bible someone reads. And I know what you’re thinking: Yes ,I do have the best and wisest mom in the world, and yes, she is 100% right.
You may be the only Bible people read.
What a great responsibility and also what a great honor to represent God in that way.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:20 that
‘We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.’
Child of God listening to this podcast, you are Christ’s ambassador. You are sent to represent God on this earth. You represent God!!!! HELLO! Your life is so important. Your holiness matters a lot. As He is holy, so you must be holy.
Back to Hebrews 12:14,
‘Strive for peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.’
We are to strive for holiness because without it no one will see the Lord. No one will see who He truly is. No one will come to see His HOLY HOLY HOLY character. No one will encounter Christ-likeness! That’s huge! Again the work of God in our hearts from the moment He enters them through salvation is to sanctify us. His work is to set us apart and make us holy. That’s what He wants to do! God cares most about your holiness, and your being made more like Him.
So the question becomes: Do you? Do you?
Do you value your holiness and your being more like Christ as much as Christ does?
Do you care most about what God cares most about?
I hope this podcast and this short series can help open your eyes to some things that you may desire to change in your own heart or the Church in general.
But, as much as you may desire to change, it is God's work. And that should be both humbling and freeing at the same time.
It should be humbling because you cannot save yourself and you cannot make yourself holy, but at the same time it is so freeing because there is someone, that someone being Jesus Christ, who is able to do that, and not only is He able, there is nothing He’d rather do, because salvation and sanctification are what He cares about most.
He died for our sins so that we might be saved & so that we may be reconnected with God, to abide in Him and to be made like Him.
So if you’re reading and you are a Christian, but you don’t feel like you care as much about your holiness as God does, or you feel like you don’t care about salvation as much as God does, man I encourage you to lay your life down before Him. That’s the best thing you can do.
Open up your heart, and let the master carpenter do His best work in you. Let Him do what He wants to do. Let Him make you holy.
And if you’re reading and you don’t know Jesus, well you should. Because He rocks. And there is no greater freedom and joy than that which is found in Him.
I love each and every one of you. God bless.
