Holiness 9.15.21 (Pastor Raymond Sloan)

for you young folk that are in here i need you to look at me real quick for you young folk in here listen carefully if you don't get this when you're young you're going to battle this your whole life i'm telling you a truth if you don't understand holiness you're going to struggle with it get it in your heart and mind and grasp the reality of the word of god is that okay mom and dad right young folk you need to get this let me quickly go over uh the um first two lessons we we gave a f everybody drew a picture of god what did it look like somebody had a stick man somebody had nothing somebody had a circle with everything written across it um who can i need a volunteer who can help me real quick anybody dakota come help me buddy come here man hurry up real quick stand right here and tell me what you see looking that direction christian i don't need you over there helping what do you see you see himself anybody else want to try this trick go ahead sit down thank you anybody else it wasn't a trick was it dakota you knew what you were going to see that's an image in the mirror of what's in front of the mirror simple enough that's you with your relationship with god holiness is a direct reflection of your relationship with him that gets better and clearer the closer you get to him the better you can see him the better others can see what's going on in your last week again brother gibson continued on talking about some specifics of holiness tonight i am going to go into a couple of things that i feel like that every listen to me here every generation has to come to this point where they have to decide whether it's legalism or if it's not okay i want to help you tonight if you'll allow me just a few moments hebrews 12 this is what i read the first session uh let's we're going to read this out loud together it's a really long verse there's about 10 words in it some of you this may be the only thing you've read all day so i'm going to help you check that off your list you got to read today right if you need a copy harper thank you he's got a couple more all right hebrews 12 14 you ready everybody follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the lord follow peace and holiness let's go to james this was a really short letter new testament james chapter 1 verse 25 let's read it out loud together you ready everybody verse 25 but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed where all right so there is a perfect law of liberty tonight we're going to talk a little bit about the legalism or the liberty okay now here's the question that i'll begin with tonight it's here on your paper how do you how does one get to holiness for many of us let's start this way many of us feel like holiness is the destination if i can just get holy everything else will be fine that's that's not a truth because you're constantly in a path moving forward closer to god you with me there are three things that you need to understand about getting to holiness three things you're going to need first of all you're going to need faith everybody say faith by faith we accept that his word leads us through all of life's situations he is working on us and in us to make us what he wants us to be that's faith lord lord i i know that i'm not there yet but i believe that the work continues i believe that if it's in the word that the word is life therefore that word is going to work in me i believe that listen carefully the reason that's important friend is because with all of the mess-ups and the mistakes and all the junk and garbage that you bring to day-to-day living you need to deal with that agreed has anybody here repented of your sins go ahead wait raise your hand it's okay anybody okay some of us if you've repented of your sins what did you do you made a decision you asked forgiveness from the only one that could forgive you and you did and about faith so we there all right now faith has to take over and although you haven't seen it yet you believe in the work of god in your life this is very important for you parents out there your children are not always going to be knuckleheads you gotta have faith lord help them lord let them live long enough to to get out from under mine i'm joking you understand faith got to believe number one number two to get to holiness the second part of this is you have to love listen carefully have to love if we love god we will want to please god this is a relationship word you love god this is a relationship and when you want to please him you want to do all that you can do to understand him and to pursue or to follow after him the greater our love for god the greater our desire is to be holy love listen to this goes beyond duty when a pastor when a teacher when a parent when anybody talks to you about holiness automatically automatically there is a degree of resistance that comes up why why is that the case why isn't holiness just a common topic around your dinner table at night okay it's different translation yeah okay what else what when you start talking holiness what comes to mind what is it requires something a change a decision a commitment remember the list i gave you a couple weeks ago on sanctification and justification and and they should vacation y'all got a different list than i did listen carefully when when that love relationship is there when you begin to talk about holiness friend when you're including god and all of your life's decisions then you will begin to see in the reflection of your life the plan and the patterns of god unfolding but it begins with that love you believe and then you love lord i'm doing this not out of duty because many times allow me to answer the question i asked a while ago when i begin to talk about holiness we want to know the rules we want to know the a b c d e f g allow me if you will cornerstone apostolic church just an example brother duran minister of music here at our church he does a fabulous job with that agreed if you want to be on the music team at this church there are certain expectations that you have to meet those are in writing those have been prayed over those have been thought over those have been discussed in other words we want you to sing if you can sing we want you to play an instrument if you can play an instrument but you have to do that at a certain level imagine if you will if we did not in this church have any degree or any point of attainment or a certain level that you'd have to be at before you could get up here and sing just just a question huh it if not not not a lot of old timers in here but it'd be like old time sister kathy i'm going up on the rough side knowing they can't sing i know that's an extreme but i i know what would happen tyler i know what would happen duron would leave the piano walk down the aisle out the door i've done can't do it hold on to me y'all don't turn loose to me yet there are certain things that we're going to ask of you why because you are now in a position to lead folk into worship hold on to me if you're looking for a list that you have to attain before you can be used in that you have missed the whole principle of wanting to help people into the atmosphere of worship i believe in the atmosphere of worship cancer can go away i believe that i believe blind eyes can open in an atmosphere in the presence of god i believe sins can be washed away in baptism and the spirit of god can fill somebody as the spirit gives utterance i believe that you hear me but if we're not willing to say lord i'm not doing this for duty i am doing this because i love you then we've missed it because then the next thing we'll see without a shadow of a doubt if we allow just anything to happen hear me is we're going to see your t-shirt sales go on you have a tail i need to set me table up out here in the four-day so i can sell the shirts two for ten five for fifty you know and everybody's going wait a minute who are you this ain't about you now can everybody sing yes yeah come on now orton you may not but we can all make a noise we can be joyful about it huh huh you say you don't sing yeah right whatever driving down the road by yourself and that song come on um huh in the shower can't hit none of them knows that's all you hear singing you hear any hear what i'm saying if it's out of duty that you do as unto the lord you have missed it because it is not out of duty that you'll make heaven it is going to be because of your relationship with god love third thing you walk after the spirit everybody say i want to walk after him holiness is a part of hear it our new nature spirit of god's working in us we now have a new nature we are alive in jesus his word his will they are worth following after so what happens is it used to be before you receive the glorious gift of the holy ghost and begin to follow jesus that you didn't care what went on you were kind of with the group just kind of hanging out doing your thing spending your money on what you wanted to your time your effort energy not a whole lot of compassion or care for the world you may have spent a dime to help dig a well in some country but as far as you were concerned you lived and you let die okay said i said i whatever will be will be but then you came in contact with the creator and he begins to breathe life into you hope comes into you sins are removed you feel fresh and new and and brand new and there's finally a freedom and the liberty that you've never felt before and the word of god breathes into you and now you're standing upright in your right mind ready to worship and love god okay you with me now that new nature says god i cannot do this by myself i already know i can do bad all by myself i need help lord and i want the new creature to grow and i want the old man to fade away you're with me faith love walking in the spirit let me give an example of this you ready for it's written here farmer he is totally 100 dependent on god for sunshine rain and the miracle of life in the planted seed with it that's that's what it is it's nature nevertheless the farmer will not have a crop unless he the farmer cultivates plants tends to harvest the crop in short we cannot do what god must do but he will not do what we can do we have to do our part by submitting ourselves to his word understanding his promises sitting under the the feet of jesus and saying lord teach me show me your way let me walk upright before leave me in the plane path push away the the dark stuff god let me know you i i've seen many times before in that my old past you said i've used this a lot he used to say you know a lot of us are really good at sowing a really bad seed and just praying for crop failure because we don't want to have to reap it but listen if you've had a bad life and a rough life and you've been raked over the coals you've made some really tough choices your life has just been a mess and then shambles why don't you try jesus am i right josh he can clean you up am i right he can do something ethan in your life can he come on you you thought you knew hope out in the world come in here and know jesus he'll he'll change everything about you you thought you understood some things that but you get in the word and and things will begin to illuminate themselves you hear me now what of legalism because again in our culture 2021 a lot of times this is the the word that comes out you guys are you guys are just legalists i said that's true it is legal for us to worship no no no no that's not what i mean tongue-in-cheek okay stay with me what is legalism anybody don't read your paper what is legalism y'all never answer what is legalism okay this is english class this is where our dear brother duran says okay this is where you respond to a question leaker okay