Pastor Ken Invites You To Hear "The Rest of the Message"

This is the 3rd message in the series - we are learning from the letter of Peter to the churches of what is now modern day Turkey. Peter was writing just before Emperor Nero's persecutions of Christians all over the Roman Empire were to begin. He was preparing them for a hard time, and giving them the hope which only Jesus Christ can provide beyond the hard time.

Here's our text for Sunday, April 20, 2008:

Struggling To Be More Holy

I still remember if not the first, still the most memorable preaching on the subject of holiness in my life. I think I was about 15. "Live holy as God is Holy; be holy because God is Holy; Holy is what and who you must be!" I left that preaching bored, frustrated and disgusted. Hey! I wasn't God! How dare God expect me to act like Him! I was a teenager in the sixties and I had already read that there were teens I hadn't yet found who believed in mixing aspirin with Coca Cola, free love, dropping acid, and chanting strange songs to the twangs of a Sitar. Live holy? BORING!

That was then, and this is now. I'm 58. 43 years past 15 and this is what I now know about Holiness.

Living holy doesn't mean living bored. It means living differently. Holy literally means "separate." God is holy because He exists separately from all else for He is not a product of creation, but the one and only Creator.

I can aspire to be holy, separate, not by trying to be like God but simply by struggling to be more godly each day than I was the day before.

This weekend we'll be talking about what it means to be holy in more depth but here's the skinny on it from my perspective:

Living Holy means:

*  Separating yourself from doing things you believe God would not want you to do. The old WWJD, What Would Jesus Do, is still the best question to ask when you are in a decision-making mode about anything.

*  Spending more time with others who seek to grow in holiness themselves so you can spend time with those who do not now seek it so that you might become a positive force for holiness when they are ready to receive it in their lives.

*  Live in the world, but do all you can to not become a part of it. The world needs more holy people, and not the kind who cloister themselves away in private or just with other believers.

About 20 years ago the School Superintendent of the Warwick School District in Lancaster County made a speech at a time when the homeschooling and private School trend was just beginning. He pleaded with Christian parents to not take their kids out of public school just so they could be raised in a more Christian environment.

Instead Dr. Bonfield called on Christian parents to do all they could to raise their kids in Christian homes and keep them in public schools so they could continue to be the positive influence on the unbelieving majority he saw as critically needed in our very secular world.

Some made that decision. Most did not, and our school districts across the country are missing the positive influence of more Christian students as a result.

Your world needs to see your holiness. Your world won't see it if you don't show it. You can't show it unless you live it yourself.

"Be holy as God is holy," Peter preaches. Peter, and that long ago preacher I remember, were, and are, right.

Struggling to be more holy,

Pastor Ken

NOTE: Unless otherwise stated, all Bible verses quoted in this website are from the New International Version (NIV). Any words from those verses that are in "red" are words spoken by Jesus.

Pastor Ken sends a Weekly Newsletter that includes his devotional message for the week and an update of the current happenings at Hope Church. If you would like to receive his newsletter, just click below and he'll add your email address to his list of subscribers.