Be Holy, Be Different: Why God Calls Us to Stand Out - Sermon 19th October 2025

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The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, say to the Israelites, of all the animals

that live on the land, these are the ones you may eat.

You may eat of any animal that has a divided hoof that chews the cud.

There are some that only chew the cud or only have divided hoof,

but you must not eat them.

The camel, though it chews the cud, does have a divided hoof.

It is ceremonial, unclean for you.

The heraxe, whatever the heraxe is, though it chews the cud and does not have

a divided hoof, it is unclean for you.

The rabbit, though it chews the cud and does not have a divided hoof,

it is unclean for you. And the pig, though its divided hoof,

does not chew the cud. It is unclean for you.

You must not eat their meat or touch their carcass. They are unclean for you.

Of all the living creatures in the water of the seas and the streams you may eat,

that have fins and scales, but all the creatures in the seas or streams that

do not have fins or scales, whether among you, whether among all the swarming

things or among all the living creatures of the water, you are to regard as unclean.

And since you are to regard them as unclean, you must not eat their meat.

You must regard their carcasses as unclean.

Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be regarded as unclean by you.

By these, the birds you are to regard as unclean and do not eat,

because they are unclean.

The eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, the black kite,

any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screeched owl, the gull,

any kind of hawk, the little owl, the comorant, the great owl,

the white owl, in other words, don't eat owls, the desert owl,

the osprey, the stork, the heron,

the hoopoe, the bat,

all flying insects that walk on all fours are to be regarded as unclean by you.

However, some...

There are, however, some flying insects that walk on all floors that you may

eat, those who have jointed legs for hopping on the ground, of these you may

eat, of any kind of locust, catrid.

Cricket, grasshopper, but all the flying insects that have four legs you are to regard as unclean.

You will make yourselves unclean by these. Whatever you touch,

their carcasses will be unclean until evening.

Whoever picks up one of their carcasses must wash their clothes,

and they will be unclean until evening.

Every animal that does not have a divided hoof or that does not shoot the cud is unclean for you.

Whoever touches the carcass of any of them will be unclean. Of all the animals

that walk on all fours, that walk on their paws, are unclean for you.

Whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean till evening.

Anyone who picks up their carcasses must wash their clothes,

and they will be unclean until evening.

These are the unclean animals for you. Of the animals that move along the ground,

these are the unclean for you.

The weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, the gecko, the monitor lizard,

the wall lizard, the skink, the chameleon, of all of those who move on the ground,

these are the unclean for you.

Whoever touches them when they are dead will be unclean till evening.

When one of them dies and falls on something, that article, whatever its use, will be unclean.

Whether it is made of wood or cloth, hide or sackcloth, put it in water,

it will be unclean until evening and,

And then it will be clean. This is God's Word.

39 years ago, I went to a Bible college church army up at Billrose.

And every morning we would have devotions.

And we would appoint verses or passages to the person who was doing the devotion the day before.

We had this lovely little New Zealand girl.

And every time she did it, whoever it was told her that was Psalm 66 verse 6.

Psalms 66:6

So she would repeat it with Psalm sucks the sucks verse sucks.

And we all roll around laughing at her.

And she didn't understand for two years why we gave her Psalm 66 verse 6 all the time.

Psalms 66:6

This is not the same joke, Mark. Hopefully it becomes clear why we read that

out. Who's ever read Leviticus out loud?

Congratulations, Mark. I think you're the first person in the church to do so.

Actually, 39 years ago, I was at this Bible college, Church Army,

and we had a lecturer on preaching, a minister called David Ray.

And he would have come in once a week. Me?

He would come in once a week. And I remember one lesson, lecture,

he was telling us, never start a sermon with a joke because if it's a bad joke,

you've lost the audience.

And then he challenged us for next week to come in with a joke based around

a sermon and see how it went.

And I still remember 39 years ago the joke that I did.

And to remind David, I had actually had a vision. It was more of a dream.

I saw around my church and it was very under, needed a lot of repair.

And the elders got together and they decided, you know, well,

least we can do is give it a nice big fresh coat of paint and they could all,

you know, spruce it up a bit.

But the treasurer came in, of course, being a treasurer, so we can't afford it.

We can't afford it. We can only afford about half the paint that we would need.

And the builder in the church, not mentioning any names, said,

well, why don't we get some, I'll tell you what, I've got some thinner in the

garage, why don't we make it half strength and then we'll cover it.

And the whole eldership went, that's a great idea, fantastic, we'll do it.

So unknown to the congregation, they went about doing that for a few weekends,

and painted it beautiful.

Then it was all finished, sparkling in the sunlight. and the congregation go

around to thank God for the beautiful paintwork and for the elders,

the great job they had done.

And they're there praising God and all of a sudden this little cloud.

The size of a man's fist, came from the west and hovered over the church.

And from this little cloud, this huge thunderstorm came and rain poured all over the church.

And because of the paint, it started running and it ran all down and pulled

in front of the congregation in horror.

And from this little cloud, a voice came from the heavens and said,

repaint, repaint, and never thin again.

I don't know if you remember that, David.

So hopefully by the laughter, I haven't wrecked the sermon up.

Can you imagine you're guilty of murder and you're found guilty you're charged

by the judge for execution.

And you're taken to the prison cell in a few days. Then the morning arrives of your execution.

And you hear the footsteps coming down the corridor. And you hear the key unlocking

your cell. And you're expecting the guard to take you away.

But instead of the guard, there's the judge who sentenced you to death.

He looks at you with a bit of a smiling face, but also grief on his face.

And he says, you're free to go.

The penalty has been paid. How would you feel? You'd be overjoyed,

wouldn't you? You'd be so excited.

Thank you, thank you, I'm free. There's no condemnation of me. I'm able to go free now.

And you walk past the judge, you give him a handshake and you go away and probably

for days, months, weeks, years even, you wake up every morning and go, I'm free.

I'm free. And then you ask the question, why am I free? Who paid the penalty?

And then you inquire and you find out that the son of the judge actually took your place.

Took the spot for you and died in your place.

You'd probably be very thankful for that person, that son.

And maybe for days, years, weeks, months again, you'd get up every morning and thank that son.

But there's a question that isn't asked. Why?

Why did the judge do that? Why did the son do that?

And I feel sometimes in our Christian life, because it's the same story,

isn't it? We're the guilty ones.

We stand before a God, and He judges us, punishes us, punishments on us because of Him.

His wrath is anger, but then He sends His Son to take our place.

And we should be thankful. We should be thankful every single day of our lives.

We should be thankful all the time.

But I think the question still remains, why?

Why did God do that? Why did Jesus go there, die and rise from the dead for us?

What's the purpose of salvation?

Why are we saved? Some people say it's because we can get a good life now.

That depends on your definition of a good life, I suppose.

Tell that to Paul as he's shipwrecked, as he's been beaten, left for dead.

Tell Peter that as he goes through all the trials and the persecutions.

Tell two-thirds of Christians today in the world who are getting martyred and

under severe persecution because of their faith.

Is that a good life that God purchased for us?

Maybe it's to find great purpose in our lives.

To achieve things, to feel good about ourselves.

Is that why Jesus died for us? Is that the reason why we should be going out

there so there's a great purpose in your life?

A lot of people have great purpose in their lives and they don't know God.

Maybe it's because we can escape hell, escape that punishment, and that's true.

But when I look at it, it's really a side benefit of what Jesus achieved for us.

Praise God for him, thank God for that but I think we're missing the real point

the real purpose of why are we saved,

In Leviticus chapter 11, as so wonderfully read by our minister.

Leviticus 11 · chapter mention

Why did God tell the Israelites not to eat those animals?

Why? Was it because I've heard all different reasons I've said to myself,

it's because they were unhealthy animals.

You know, pigs don't sweat. I heard pigs don't sweat or something,

and then they keep all the poison in their skin, and so you shouldn't really

eat bacon at all. Bacon's just right off the charts.

Why do all those animals...

Why rabbits, even? I mean, I would never eat a rabbit, but it's because at the

end of the chapter there,

it says, do all these things because I am holy and you are to be holy.

Or through Leviticus, I could have used any chapter or any passage from Leviticus

with the same purpose, the same message.

I just chose that one for a few reasons, just to see people squirm about food.

And get off their morning tea.

But it's not bad because all the other nations were eating these foods.

If it was unhealthy, if it caused diseases, they wouldn't eat those things.

They wouldn't eat the pig if the pig was awful. And I was thinking about, did Abraham eat pig?

This is before the law came in.

I'm sure he had a nice pig roast now and then. Maybe he had bacon for breakfast.

Maybe he had some owl with there. Not sure.

I looked at a few commentaries as well, and I've got some really weird things, comments about it.

One commentator said, the hoof represents us walking straight and strong in faith.

That's what it's talking about there. So if you've got a hoof foot,

you can walk straight and strong in God.

Why fish have scales? Because the scales represent the shield of the armor of God.

We try and find so many spiritual things about it.

But my feeling, my understanding is God said those things to make Israel different

to the world around them, to the nations around them.

There's no some deep spiritual significance about each animal.

There's no real health issues about them.

It's that God decided that these animals were going to be the ones he called

clean, that he called holy, and these ones were going to be unclean or unholy.

And what holiness is, is means to be separated, to be distinct,

to be so different that you're like an alien.

And Israel were called to be a holy nation. They were called by God.

Now, why did God choose Israel?

Don't know. There's nothing special about them. It was Abraham,

Isaac, missing one, Jacob, and the other guy.

They were ordinary men. They failed all the time. But God chose them to produce

the Hebrew people, to be a holy nation.

So when they went into this place, this land that God gave them,

they were to be distinctive, so different to the nations around them that people

would recognize them and go, why? Why are you different?

Can you imagine going to any vegans here?

That's good, because I don't want to insult you. There's nothing wrong with vegans.

Have you ever been to a dinner or something with a vegan? And there's...

It's a bit of awkward, isn't it? You're stuffing yourself with the meat,

you know, like in the medieval times.

And there's this vegan looking at you in horror. Actually, the mother of my

grandson, Milo, who actually rolled over for the first time yesterday.

I was going to bring the video in and show you 10 times, but she's a vegetarian.

And she's not, you know, out there.

She's just quiet about it. But we go to the pub and, you know,

or get me and my son, Matthew, you know, we get the chicken schnitzel with everything

and she gets her tofu and that kind of thing. She's different.

And it makes us go, why? Why?

And this is why God said to you, be a holy nation.

Why? So you can imagine going to a dinner with a Hebrew who follows these laws.

They go, sorry, can't eat that. Why? What's wrong with it?

God just told me to. God told us to.

We are called to be a holy people.

All through Leviticus, we have the offerings, we have the sacrifices,

we have all the laws, different kinds of laws, all for one purpose,

that Israel would be completely different, would be holy people.

And that would be people, all the nations around them will question why. What is going on here?

The same applies to us. Peter says in his letter, be holy for he is holy.

So it's brought back. We are called to be a holy people.

And I fear today that the church in the whole is not holy.

Now, holy is not the moralistic, you know, we do the right things,

you know, we're good morals and all that.

That's a part of it because when we are holy, When we're distinct from the world,

those things come naturally and they do flow naturally.

I see the church in a hole today that we're not holy. We're not distinct. We're not different.

You know, we have church services that look like rock concerts.

I can't tell the difference between that or Pink Floyd concert.

I know the Pink Floyd music's better, if I can say that.

I just did anyway, so. I see, I've seen YouTube clips of people preaching using

movies, exegesing movies.

I saw one woman casting out racism in the church by the Lord of the Rings incident.

When the wizard told the demon not to pass and he put his stake down three times

and said, you shall not pass.

And she was using this and had a staff on the stage and saying to the congregation,

join with me, saying to racism, thou shall not pass.

They did it three times because that's what Geldof did. Is this holy? Is this different?

And by the way, it didn't work. There's still racism in the church,

in America and other places as well.

We are called to be holy we're called to be different i'm not saying we don't

there's nothing wrong with music there's nothing wrong with that it's all gifts

from god but are we different to the world we're trying to attract the world

by being similar but god says be different so different that the world,

sees that in questions people will think you're stupid people will think you're

dumb you're crazy See you next time. See you next time.

And as the church in the book of Acts, they were holy, they were separate.

And the Bible says that God added daily to their number.

Yes, they were persecuted. Yes, they were mocked. But then people came to them

because they saw the holiness of God.

The holiness, the true holiness of God is either attracts people or it repels people.

And we can't limit, we can't dilute God's holiness simply because we want to attract people.

We've got to say we are God's people, we are holy, we are different.

In Hebrews 12, verse 14, it says, Without holiness, no one will see the Lord.

Hebrews 12:14

Again, in Leviticus, we have all those offerings and all those sacrifices.

There was one purpose, that the people of Israel who were in sin,

in wickedness, in transgressions, they were able to get to God through those

sacrifices, through those laws, through those offerings.

Praise God, we don't have to do that anymore. Why? Because Jesus came and fulfilled it all.

But we still got to have faith. We still got to trust.

Those people, as they took their sacrifices to the temple, as they refused to

eat those kinds of foods, as they did all what the law said,

they trusted, they had faith in God that this would produce holiness.

We can't make ourselves holy. It's impossible. We can't do it because of sinful nature.

But it's God who declares who is holy. It's God who declares what is holy.

We are called to be a holy people. God makes us holy. He declares us holy.

But on the other part, we've got to do our part. We've got to believe.

We've got to act upon what God says, and we're not left alone by it.

Says be holy. That's an impossible task when you think about it, isn't it?

To be like God, what did God say in the garden? He created us in His image.

Not like we look like Him, not like God's got arms, legs, muscles,

all that, but He is holy and He made us holy in the garden.

But through the sin, that holiness was lost.

Why does God want us to be holy?

Christianity, true Christianity, is the only religion that has something completely

different to all the other religions.

And that is, all the other religions want the people to be good enough to get

to their God or to get to their state of being, whatever.

But true Christianity is the God wants to come to his people.

He wants to reside with his people.

In the Garden of Eden, God came down in the cool of the evening and walked with his people.

He walked with his people. In the wilderness with his holy nation,

he came in a tent, the tabernacle, and he dwelt there in the midst of his people.

And all the people could come, limited ways, but they could come.

And then in Jerusalem, when Israel was settled, the nation was settled,

the temple was there, Again, God resided in the temple and the people could come to the temple.

There's no tent anymore. There's no building anymore. This is not the temple of God.

We're the temple of God. God wants us to be holy so he can come and reside in us.

Think about that. The God of the universe, the God who created everything,

the God who is always there and always will be there, the God who created this

whole universe out of nothing, wants to come and reside with his people.

If that doesn't get on your knees and praise him and worship him, I don't know what does.

But the God of Israel, the God of the universe, wants to dwell with his people.

And there's coming a time when he will. In Revelation, we read about the new Jerusalem.

It says the new Jerusalem was built as this huge cube, perfect cube.

It's not some building. It's not some structure.

The new Jerusalem is made up of all the holy people, redeemed and saved by Jesus.

We are a brick in the new Jerusalem. Each one of us can be a brick in the new Jerusalem.

And on that great day, it says, Behold, your God comes, and he comes to dwell

with us on the new earth and the new heaven.

Is the new earth, this earth, replenished, restored? Or is it completely new?

I don't know. I waver between each definition. I'll find out one day.

But we are, wherever it is, our God will come and dwell with us forevermore.

But what an awesome task, though, to become holy.

But we're not left alone. Jesus has paid the prices. He has paid the sacrifices.

He has enabled us to come to him.

It's a thing called sanctification where God wants us to become holy and holy

and more and more and more.

Lay aside all those things that get in the way.

He just doesn't say, okay, off you go, guys. Do your best.

He's given us somebody. Jesus said, I send you. When I leave,

I send you my gift, the Holy Spirit.

Now, the Holy Spirit is actually the wrong way around. It should be the Spirit, holy.

That name is like a surname. and it describes what that person does.

You know, surnames, that's where surnames came from. Like Smith,

Blacksmith, Goldsmith, whatever.

That's what their occupation was. You know, there's John the Goldsmith.

That's what he does. And then surnames evolved from that.

And the Spirit that is holy comes with one purpose, to make us holy.

We're not left to our own devices. We're not left to our own strengths and struggles.

The Holy Spirit comes and he convicts us of sin.

He convicts us of these things that need to be right. He convicts us of our

guilt, whatever, and then says, I'll help you through Jesus to be holy.

Over the last few months, I've been really concentrating, really thinking about holiness.

And I've come with, there's three things that God, Holy Spirit has spoken to

me about being holy. Now before I mention these three things,

I want to say this is for me.

Sometimes we can get so, try and pursue holiness, that we can become legalistic.

I met a friend of mine's mother was in the holiest movement in the 40s,

and the men weren't allowed to wear black ties, because colour ties would be a distraction.

Put a pen in their top pocket because that pen would distract the Holy Spirit,

the move of God in the church.

That's just getting legalistic.

There's a fine path, I suppose, on that.

So these three things are for me, what God has spoken to me.

If it applies to you, great. If it doesn't, great.

But this is how the Holy Spirit works.

The first thing is music.

I love music. Probably one of my biggest regrets was when I was seven,

I've got a sister a year and a half younger than me.

Around that age, my parents said, you can go off and learn piano.

Piano? That's for girls. I want to play footy.

And I refused. I didn't go. My sister went off, learned piano, and she's brilliant.

She actually teaches piano now. She's got the whatever grade they have.

And she's brilliant and I always regret that

then I got to high school and I remember going to high school for the first

time and all I knew was Peggy Lee and what's her name all those great singers

from the 60s that my parents loved 50s and 60s Doris Day that's my dad's favorite one.

I found real music at school. My first album I ever brought was Slade, Alive.

Anyone know Slade? Anyone old enough to remember Slade?

This glamour rock band from England.

And then I went to Fitness Kent and I thought, I've got to learn piano.

But I can't learn piano anymore. So I learned guitar. Mum, can I learn guitar?

Yeah, sure. But you've got to learn classical first.

And I thought, that's for girls.

But then I went off and I learned classical guitar. That was fantastic because

I learned to read music. I learned about scales. I learned about theory. It was fantastic time.

And I went to this fitness camp there at Narrabeen. I still remember it.

I took my classical guitar, this nylon thing, Yamaha it was.

And I took it there looking really trendy.

And this guy had an acoustic guitar, steel string acoustic guitar.

And he showed me Sunshine of Your Love by Cream. I don't know if you're old

enough to remember that song too.

And he showed me how to play that. And I'm trying to play this on this classical

guitar, the action's about this high, and I'm trying to play it.

And I thought, I got to learn guitar, real guitar. And I learned that.

So music's been a huge part of my life. I started off when I was 14.

So it's been 10 years now I've been playing music and uh

i was a bit distressed about moses saying you got 70 years and i've been in

band ever since then i've been in bands i formed a band at school i went to

karengai high school and i was in the first rock and roll band to play in a

concert at karengai high school thank you.

I'm a rock legend. We did Stairway to Heaven, Smoke on the Water,

in a song that we wrote that you'd never heard of.

We made a recording and went plastic.

And I've been in pub bands. I've been in bands and I played at church.

When I first became a Christian, I went to a Baptist church. Woo-hoo!

And then I used to play bass as well.

And one of the associate pastors said, I don't want to get rid of my bass and

my little ant. Does anyone want to play it in church?

And I went, yeah, okay, okay. And so I started playing in church.

Then I went to beach missions and music's a big part of my life.

In the last 10 years or so, I was playing in a band called The Vinyl Edge,

a local band, yeah, woo-hoo, with a friend of mine, Ryan.

He's Canadian and unfortunately went back to Canada because he lives there and

his family are there for some silly reasons.

So the band sort of broke up.

But I love music. And I listened to music.

My favorite bands, you might have heard Pink Floyd, all those kind of things.

But in April, God spoke to me.

That's getting in the way between you and me. It's causing a division.

And I went, what? And I went, that's not God. That's not God.

And I started to think about it. I started to meditate it. I started to pray over it.

And I said, there's nothing wrong with music, but what's the spirit behind it?

And all the songs I was listening to, all the bands I was listening to,

they weren't out there evil, except I grew up in Black Sabbath.

But that's another story.

The motivation is about self. It's not glorifying God.

And the Holy Spirit sort of gently convicted me not to listen to that music

anymore, not to play that music anymore.

And he said not to play music in pubs and clubs because the temptations there are incredible.

Play guitar there, and all the girls think you're fantastic.

I've got a few horror stories about that. He says, I want you to concentrate on me.

I said, I love music. I didn't say give up music. I said, give up that kind

of music. Stop playing that kind of stuff.

I thought, well, it's limited in what I can listen to.

So I started to write songs. The Holy Spirit has given me a whole lot of songs.

And I love writing songs and this is my plug for the day.

I've got a webpage and a YouTube channel called A Song for a New Day.

And I'm going through the Bible writing songs about books of the Bible.

That on Leviticus, which is a bit of a challenge. And with the help of AI,

I make the produce the music and things like that.

And at school, we have a thing that's called faith stories in the morning, on Wednesday mornings.

And one of the staff members talks about their faith and a significant moment of their faith journey.

And I've started to write songs based on that faith story. I can't tell you

how many people are blessed by that.

I'm not trying to show off or anything. I'm just saying what God has done.

I wrote one for a guy who did on Wednesday. He just sent me a text this morning.

He said, I was listening it to on the way to church. I had to pull over because I'm weeping.

Hopefully because it wasn't bad, but because it meant something to him.

He said, it means so much to me that someone has gone to the trouble to write

a song about my life experience with my God.

And my wife is crying beside me. We're going to keep playing this and keep playing this. Thank you.

Songs for people's birthdays and this also people who leave.

I wrote a song, our pay person left last week and I wrote a song for her and

she was just so blessed by it.

And as I was leaving, this lady came up to me and said, do you take requests?

I went, she goes, I'm going to hospital for some major operations next week.

Could you write me a song that I can listen to, to inspire me,

to encourage me, to help me.

I went, sure, just give me some information, just give me some things and I'll write a song.

God takes things away, but also brings things in. We're called to be holy.

Second one is probably the hardest one. I love football, soccer for the pagans.

I absolutely love football. I just finished my 57th season straight of football.

Actually, Jeremiah said, 57 years?

You must be old i absolutely love it

but also i love chelsea football

club who's ever heard of chelsea football club well you

asked oh quite a few of you in my first year of football playing here i was

10 and i got the best and fairest for the year my first year and the guy gave

and i started off as goalkeeper and the guy gave me a little trophy and he gave

me a book on a guy called Peter Benetti, who was the keeper of Chelsea at that time.

Why? I don't know, but he did. So for 57 years, I've been following Chelsea, mad about them.

I have 20 shirts at home, Chelsea shirts.

I get up at 2 o'clock in the morning to watch Chelsea sometimes win.

But in last summer, they had a thing called the transfer window,

where clubs buy and sell players.

In February, it closes. Sorry, in April, it closes.

And I was at a trivia night, and this guy came up to me and said,

did you hear about what happened with the transfer window?

And I went, yeah, a lot of money was spent. He said $6.6 billion was transferred

in buying and selling players in the English Premier League,

one division in the world.

$6.6 billion. And that went through me like a bullet right through the heart.

And I went home and I Googled countries that their gross national product is under $6.6 billion.

I found about 50 nations in the world that don't make that in a year.

And most of the countries that I've been to, ministered to in the Pacific Islands,

all of them were in that group.

Nauru, that I go to all the time, they were the second lowest.

They made $2.3 million last year. $2.3 million.

Meanwhile, people are getting paid billions, millions and millions of dollars

to kick a soccer ball around.

I thought, that just can't be right. That's immoral.

That these people living in poverty while these people play football.

And the Holy Spirit gently said, what are you going to do about it?

I've stopped following Chelsea. I've stopped following football.

Not because I'm going to make a big difference.

I'm not going to buy another shirt. I'm not going to watch another game.

Instead of buying a shirt that my daughter gets me every Christmas,

I'm going to ask the money be put to a mission trip to Nauru.

Or get up and look at a game, I'm going to spend that time praying for those

nations under $6.6 billion.

I tell you, it's not easy. It is so, so hard.

But today I declare that I'm going to be holy for God.

The third one is health. I suffer from gout. I even got a bit in my finger at the moment.

And information, I know one's supposed to do. It's all about diet.

But all the foods I love cause it.

Isn't it always the way? And then I get it. I get depressed.

And the best way to get out of depression is to eat those foods that give it to you.

So you just got this visual circle.

I know I'm supposed to do. I know I'm supposed to do.

But I'm not. And it's causing the division. And the Bible says that you are the temple of God.

Your bodies are the temple of God. Am I looking after this temple?

The Bible says also that we are wonderfully and fearfully made.

And I think by eating it and getting gout and causing all that information and

disease, I'm not respecting this incredible gift that God has given me.

I'm not saying, hey, girls, look at this. I'm saying God has given each one

of us a body, just wonderfully and perfectly made.

I'm seeing this in my grandson, Milo. Have I mentioned Milo, my grandson?

I don't know if I... He rolled over for the first time yesterday. I've got video.

I just see this incredible human learning, growing.

God has provided that. God has provided this body.

In holiness, in truth, and on a glorifying God, I've got to look after it.

So again, today I've decided that this is the day.

Now, as I said, those three things are for me personally. But what's the Holy

Spirit speaking to you about?

What things in your life is saying?

He doesn't want to spoil. He's not a party pooper. He doesn't want to be miserable.

He just wants to reside with us. He wants this to have perfect, perfect, perfect life.

With each one of us. But the only way, because He is a holy God,

because He is so distinct in the

whole universe, the only way we can have that is by being holy as well.

But as I said, He doesn't leave us there just to struggle through it.

He gives us the Holy Spirit to lead us.

We have to respond to Him.

Are we in church doing the same things?

Are we seeking God's holiness or the world's approval?

Lord, I just thank you so much that you want to be with us, that you want to dwell with your people.

Lord, you call us to be holy.

What an awesome privilege that is when we get our minds around that.

But Lord, also, what an incredible, I don't know how to describe it Lord,

incredible responsibility that we have,

so I ask that the Holy Spirit will enjoy me, enjoy each one of us today and

that we would heed that call be holy for I am holy, Lord whatever it takes,

whatever food we don't eat, whatever thing we ignore, whatever thing we We flee from,

Give us the strength Give us the ability to respond to that So we become a holy

people In your name Jesus Amen.