Why Does Holiness Make Us Cringe? | Kingsmen

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Welcome to the Kingsmen Podcast, where we are reclaiming biblical manhood by equipping and training men for the work of the kingdom.

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I'm your host, John Moffitt. I'm the pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and also one of the hosts of Theocast.

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And thanks for tuning back in. If you didn't hear last week, I'd encourage you to go back and listen to that. That's part one, where we really set up the hope that we have in Christ, and we're going to pick that back up here this week.

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And this is part two, part of a greater lecture series I did. And if you want to know more about that, you can look at the notes.

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It's in TheocastU. It's about an hour and a half long. So a little Q &A, that's in there as well.

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And I did a recent sermon on this, so I will put that in the link as well, about guarding our minds.

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Well, to a five -second review, we talked about the differences between coaches, right?

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You've got the one who tells you everything you shouldn't do, and you're worried about messing up. And then you have one who gives you the vision of what real joy of playing in the game, and the vision of success.

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That's different. Now you realize, well, I need to stay away from these fallacies that can trip me up.

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What does Christ call us to? Well, go back to Matthew 6. Seek first the kingdom of God, right?

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Hebrews, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves. Why? Because the church is God's mission for the world.

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The church gathered, working together as one body. Both Peter and Paul use the language, and Paul three times, uses the language as the body of Christ being the mechanism and the mouthpiece to the world of how they can enter into rest and enter into this kingdom.

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So that's our goal. And the promise that we have is in a world full of suffering, death, you can have joy and hope in life.

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You can be salt and light, right? And it's effective, not a flashlight to the eyeball and salt to the wound, right?

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But a light in darkness and salt that actually is savory and it reflects who

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Christ is. Well, that's where we want to be. And coming back to this, in order for us to remain focused on our mission, what it is that God has called us to, and truly believe that, because I know, man,

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I wake up in the mornings and there are times I'm like, I don't know if I really want to do this anymore. I don't know if I want to be a part of this anymore. And that's my flesh listening to the world thinking, well, if I had this, if I had this much money, if I had this house,

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I had that, whatever, you know, this many people on social media, this size church, whatever it is that your struggle is.

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We stop thinking about what God has called us to in his promises, like it said in here in Peter, and we start focusing on a lie.

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We become intoxicated. We do not protect our minds and we become lazy with it, which then causes us to be spiritually lethargic.

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Lethargic. I can't talk at this point. Lethargic. There we go. I don't want to go back to 1

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Peter 1, verse 13. This is from last week. We'll just pick it back up. He says, therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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If anybody ever tells you that you can overemphasize grace, well, I'm going to have you take that qualms up with Peter here, because he doesn't think you, he tells you that's where your heart needs to be resting.

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You float in a boat of grace and you get out of that thing and you drowned. That's exactly how it works.

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And he goes, you got to stay focused to stay in that thing. You got to stay. And take notice what he says here.

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Set your hope fully. That means there's nothing else held back.

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You don't have an investment plan that's 60, 30, 10, right? It's 100 % on Christ and his grace.

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It's so important. And then he says, then he focuses in on what we should be doing.

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As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you as holy, you also be holy in your conduct.

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So it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. Now the response to this is a, it starts in your, in your mind.

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Something I've been thinking about recently is your body is a slave to your mind. It starts in, this is why

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Jesus tells the Pharisees when they come to him and they say, well, I haven't killed anybody and I haven't slept with another man's wife.

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He says, put your thought about it. And that's the same thing because our minds is what leads us to actions.

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Multiple times in this letter, Peter says this, this is 1 Peter 4, 7, he says, the end of all things is at hand, therefore be self -controlled and sober minded.

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1 Peter 5, 8, be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

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Now, sometimes we listen to that and we think to ourselves, yeah, well, you know, I'm not really worried about that. He's probably not going to touch me.

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All he needs to do is get you, go back. All he needs to do is get you to be lazy. Not ready for action.

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All he needs you to do is get you intoxicated, not with alcohol, with something in the world.

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And guys, it doesn't have to be bad. The intoxication could be something of value.

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Could be your wife, could be your kids, could be your job. It could be some kind of work in the city.

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It could be inappropriately involved in your church. All he needs to do is get you focused on anything other than the mission and your gospel, your grace, right?

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Grace is what fuels our motivation to spread the good news of the gospel. I love this.

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He starts with, put your hope on Christ, then turn from your sins. Isn't that amazing?

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Let's read the sequence. Preparing your minds for actions and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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By the way, it's coming to you at the end of the life, not now, right? So the inheritance and the final fight is all over.

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That's at the end. While we wait, what does he say? As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

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Oh, ignorance. What a great word. What great use of a word. That literally means you didn't know what you were doing before or why you were doing it.

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Now you do know, and he's saying, you do not want to go back to that. Be obedient and do not go back to that.

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But as he has called us, you... Sorry, this is verse 15. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in your conduct.

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Man, I remember this word. I used to cringe because holiness meant anything modern to me. If it was new, then

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I wasn't allowed to do it. I can remember there were certain shirts I couldn't wear. There were certain kind of pants.

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I remember hammer pants. When they came out, it was like, oh no, you cannot wear hammer pants. Or you can't wear, you know, you can't fold peg your pants.

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There was certain kinds of shoes. I couldn't have certain kind of hairstyles. One reason is because it was modern. So holiness to me just meant modern.

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Anything modern was bad. And you know what? Logically, it doesn't make sense. Because that would mean computers are bad and the internet is bad and microphones are bad.

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We're not going to go down that road. And some churches did believe the internet was bad. I remember churches were like, we will not have a website.

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We will not be on that wicked place called the internet. And they have a website now because it's 20 years.

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For whatever reason, after 20 to 30 years, it's now acceptable. I was at a college that they said we will never have screens.

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And then this is true story. And it's funny. Then they built their new auditorium and they did the construction wrong and everybody in the balcony couldn't see the platform.

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So guess what they had to put in? Screens. So you can actually see the pulpit. I think that was

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God. I think that was just funny. Anyways, that's not holiness, guys. And I too would cringe.

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Holiness makes sense when you understand who God is and what he's calling us to.

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The opposite. So holiness literally means to be other, separated from, but unto something.

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Separated from that which is filthy and dedicated to that which is glorious.

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Right? That which is wonderful and beautiful. I'll give an example.

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You know, we have spatulas in our home. And if I told my children to go outside and shovel up the dog's waist and get rid of it and my son started walking out with a spatula, like, no son, that's a holy spatula.

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What I mean by that is that that is used for something that is other than that. And it's special and precious because it's a preparation tool for us to eat.

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This is how God's using this language. That you now have a holy purpose.

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And it's not that you're living sinless. It's that your life is dedicated to that which has a greater value than doing what you were using it before.

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We were using our bodies, as it says here, to our former passions.

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Now, former passions can be evil and gross, but they also could just be of not thinking about the new life that we have in Christ.

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So they're not—Hebrews describes them this way. Describes them as a weight. It's a weight. So we're actually—because sometimes

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Paul said it this way. He goes, not everything that is not a sin, right?

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He goes, you are free. You are free to do this. Is it profitable, right? So holiness has the concept that you are setting yourself away from the agenda of the world and the ways of the world and the thinking of the world.

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And it's not just a separation from. It's a separation unto. That which is valuable and that which is honoring and pleasing to the

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Lord and really joy for us. I mean, to love your neighbor as Christ has loved you, you're being utilized as a tool that one, is for that person's benefit, but two, you get the joy,

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John 15, right? No greater joy than this, than a person lay down his life, right? It's wonderful.

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So that's the image of holiness needs to go from the trip to the dentist, right? To the trip to the candy shop, right?

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It's something that's sweet and desirable, something that we look forward to, something that we want, but where does it start?

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It actually starts by realizing Satan can get our focus off of holiness by simply getting us to become lazy and intoxicated, lazy.

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And then no longer we're being used as tools for God's kingdom. We're no longer light and salt.

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We become selfish, right? We become lazy with not only our eyes, but with our minds and with our words and with our wives and with our children and at work.

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And then all of a sudden priorities change where church is not that important to us because your mind is clouded.

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You know what happens when people are intoxicated? They don't think logically. They become blurred and they become slurred.

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It's a beautiful word that he uses, sober minded, because he's talking about someone who's thinking correctly. Intoxication by the world.

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Man, I'm telling you, I have felt it. I feel it every day. You can feel the world's agenda. My kids and I decided to sit down and watch a movie recently.

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And it was a half decent movie. Halfway through the movie though, they begin to depict the struggle of a man who's changing genders from a man to a woman.

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And the story, it was a big part of the story about how this guy's wife was really kind and compassionate as a teacher to this young boy or young girl, whatever you're going to call it.

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And there was like this tear jerking moment. And if you're not being sober minded, that right there will intoxicate your brain.

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And all of a sudden, you're going to be compassionate towards a situation that's enslaving someone.

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You should be 100 % compassionate for that person who is confused and who has taken God's glory and distorted it.

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But you should never be compassionate towards somebody who's enslaved. I'm going to give you a story no one would be acceptable of, but it's the same thing.

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If a man sat down with you and said, I beat my wife every single night. And let me tell you what, I love her and I buy her gifts.

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And we have such a great marriage, but I beat her in the face every night. You're like,

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I'm about to beat you, man. What's wrong with you? Right? You would never accept that to be as an acceptable practice because it's damaging to that young lady or whatever age she is.

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You have to see sin as damaging. You can't if you're being lazy with your thoughts and you're intoxicated.

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And guys, the more you allow, this goes back to a couple episodes ago, the more that you allow

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Satan to influence your thought process and you don't allow setting your hope fully on these things. How are you going to set your hope fully on this?

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Here's my final thoughts and we'll be done for this episode. God has given us means, the word of God.

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And he gave us people gathered around his word. You cannot separate God's mission, the kingdom with God's people from God's word.

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They all three go together. We learn about God from his word. Then we learn about his people and we learn about his kingdom.

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Therefore, if you're going to set your hope fully on him, this is why he says, consider how to build one another up, forsake not the sin of yourselves by the teaching and preaching of the elders.

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This is how you grow, that you weren't tossed about by every wind of doctrine. Consider, let the word of God dwell in you richly,

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Colossians. Why? How? By psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing to one another. The community of God's people gathered together, encouraging one another is how we continue to grow in the grace, setting our hope fully on the grace.

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This should be the priority of your heart and your home. The way you work your job, the way you care for your family should all be centered around that.

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Christ, his people, his kingdom. So those are some introductory thoughts. I just want to start challenging us in this way, gentlemen.

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Gather up your thoughts. Be careful what you listen to. Be sober minded.

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If you're starting to be carried away with former passions, that means you're intoxicated. You need to ask yourself, are you being driven by your job, your image, whatever, what's driving you?

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What consumes your mind? And if it's not the hope of Christ and the revelation of Christ, I am so guilty.

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I am not judging you. I am the first to admit, I wrestle with this. I love my elders.

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They care for me. I love my brothers in our church. We gather as much as we can. We confront each other. We encourage each other. We build each other up.

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We laugh. We cry. And we need that because I am easily intoxicated by the lies of this world and they are juicy ones.

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Oh man, they're so good. The lies are so good and we let them sit in our brain. I don't know about you, but this is my last illustration.

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If you ever had a memory from your past, like from your childhood, something you really just enjoyed, and then it's been a long time, like 10, 15, maybe 20, 30 years.

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And then you go and you do it again and you're realizing this isn't as good as I remember.

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That's how advertisement of the world works. It intoxicates and controls our brain. And then when we actually partake in it, we're disappointed.

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It never satisfies. Remember the dissatisfaction. Remember it not only dissatisfies, but it makes you ineffective and unfruitful.

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Set your hope fully on Christ and His promises. Encourage you to go to read chapter one of 1

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Peter. Guarantee it will encourage you in light of this indicative imperative and we'll see you guys next time.