Church of the Nazarene – East Rock
https://www.bible.com/events/49245979
Holiness as Wholeness, Part 3
Holiness as Wholeness
The idea behind this teaching series is that Holiness, rather than being a heavy burden of impossibility placed on believers, is a healing and freeing effect of Christ’s sacrifice. Holiness is good for us; it restores to us the design of God for our lives. The enemy wants us to believe it is a chain placed upon us, so we dread its requirements so that we’ll turn our back on it or roll our eyes at it. But, in essence, holiness brings all that we really want into our lives. It makes us whole with all of the attendant beauty of that idea. Holiness is not a requirement as much as it is a remedy. The Nazarene understanding of Christian Holiness or Entire Sanctification is freeing, not binding. Through this sermon series then, we want to see Holiness as Wholeness.
Often we can struggle to see what the big deal is about a little sin.
“It’s fine, God isn’t THAT concerned about it.”
We imagine that we have control over it, that we can call the shots, quit when we want, that it’s not a big deal. But that’s not what the bible says about sin.
Jesus said “I tell you the truth, everyone who commits sin, is a slave to sin.”
Paul says in Romans 6 “The wages of Sin is Death”…
On our own we tend to have a very different and often less severe of an outlook about sin than what the bible gives.
As we continue with part 3 of our series, we will seek to understand the serious and destructive nature of sin in our lives. Without a proper understanding of sin, it is easy to miss the urgency of seeking holiness.
The great lie of sin is that it is harmless, or even that the pleasure it can sometimes bring will actually help us. Whether we would say it or not, when we choose sin, we are saying that we know better than God.
Romans 6:19
I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.
Paul is referencing back to a metaphor he began in verse 16 of being a slave.
For the Apostle Paul, we only have two choices. We are either offering ourselves to God leading to righteousness or we are offering ourselves as slaves to sin leading to death.
There is no spiritually neutral position. Every single person you meet, including yourself, is serving one of these two- Either God or sin- there is no option C.
Notice that Paul says you USED to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity. Paul is presenting a picture of the Pre-Christ life, and in so doing, he gives us the real true nature of sin.
He says “You offered yourself”
Sin was and is a choice.
It’s a conscious decision. It doesn’t just happen; we don’t just end up there. We choose it, we go along with it.
“You offered yourself as slaves”
Sin has an imprisoning, enslaving power over us.
So often we think sin will bring us freedom and autonomy, but it really brings enslavement and bondage. The exact opposite of what it promises.
“Slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness”
The idea of “ever-increasing wickedness” describes the insidious, cumulative impact of sin, like a cancer growing within on its way to total destruction.
The old saying “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay.” It’s true, because sin is never static. It’s never neutral. It’s always growing, always grasping for more, always binding and blinding us to its real nature.
“So now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness”
Christ has come and broken the power of sin, he has given us freedom, and as Christians we are to respond. Just as we used to sign up for sin, we need to sign on to righteousness, to saying yes to Christ.
Rather than leading to death, choosing to offer ourselves as slaves to God leads to holiness
Romans 6:20-21
When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
As you think about your life before Christ, what benefits did you reap from it? How did that go for you? Paul is inviting us to remember…
Paul has gone to great lengths illustrating the destructive enslaving power of sin that used to dominate our old life.
He has pointed to Christ and the forgiveness and life we can have in him.
He has brought up old memories for us of sin form our old life. We literally have experienced everything he’s talking about.
But all of that teaching, all of that personal experience, and yet, so often we will underestimate the seriousness of sin in our lives, we invite it back into our lives. We still undersell it, minimize it, ignore it, we dabble with it, we put off dealing with it until later.
Rather than choosing to pursue holiness with as much fervor as we used to pursue sin, we pursue Christ and holiness up to the point that it gets inconvenient, or it gets hard
And friends, we will never, ever find the true wholeness and healing pursing God half-heartedly. We will never know holiness as wholeness, without taking sin seriously.
Romans 6:22-23
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In Christ, we have been set free from not only the penalty of sin, but it’s power is broken as well. Sure, Christians experience temptation, Christians can still sin, but in Christ we are free not to. That’s the invitation of Holiness.
To make the conscious decision to see him as Lord of your life, to be his slave. To give up your right to yourself, to give up your ways of thinking, and completely surrender to him. Yes, our outward practices, but also our inner most self.
The invitation to take sin seriously, to be holy, is to pray beyond the external actions that plague our lives. It’s to ask the Lord to deal with us at a heart level. To give us freedom and power in the innermost parts of who we are.
And this victory, this cleansing, this power over sin in our lives is available in Christ Jesus.
You don’t have to be a prisoner of sin any longer. There is freedom to be found in Christ.
Holiness and the Church of the Nazarene
Former Nazarene General Superintendent Dr. J.K. Warrick discusses the distinctiveness of the Nazarene Church with a focus on Holiness.
Updates on the new Waynesboro campus
God is inviting us to step out in faith to plant a Spanish-speaking campus in the Waynesboro community. Join us on the journey! Check out the link below for more information and for frequent updates throughout the journey.
Giving at COTN
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Establish COTN as Your Church on the App
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https://help.youversion.com/l/en/article/y03uerubo8-mychurch