2 Peter 1: Divine Nature

Okay, guys, here comes the leader. We will go straight into the teaching right now and

then take a break later. Brandon, could I have my tea? If someone can get the table, it will

be fine. Yeah, you can get started. It can happen now.

Sheldon, your phone is here, eh?

Yeah, can you? Yeah. What's up, Judah? Okay, today we continue with 2 Peter. So if you

want to turn to 2 Peter, we've been there for two weeks, we might be there for a while.

So we did 2 Peter 1, picking words from that. So we did promise and faith. And now today

we will go back a verse and pick on divine nature. 2 Peter 1, starting at 3, I'll just

read 3 and 4 for now. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness

through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these,

he has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate

in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. So it's

this idea of sharing in his nature, his divine nature. If you go to the NIRV, it puts it this way.

Same scripture, NIRV if you have it, otherwise I'll just read it. 2 Peter 2, it just simplifies it.

It says, he has also given us his very great and valuable promises. He did it so you could share

in his nature. He also did it so you could escape from the evil in the world. He did it so you could

share in his nature. He also did it so you could escape from the evil in this world. So we'll focus on

this idea of his divine nature. And to look at his divine nature, let's go to Isaiah 6.

Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6. If you had to get the essence of god's nature, that's what we're trying to

extract. That's what we're trying to extract. So we're going to Isaiah's, thanks man.

We're going to Isaiah 6 and let's read 1 to 8. Isaiah 6, 1 to 8. Here's what it says.

I pray God that we learn this scripture. In the year that King Uzziah died,

I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above him were seraphs, so seraphim, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces,

with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling out to one another,

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory.

At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.

Woe to me, I cried, I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips,

and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand,

which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said,

See, this has touched your lips, your guilt has taken away and your sin atoned for.

And then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

And I said, Here am I, send me. And then he gives Isaiah his commission and what he needs to say.

And so let me just read again from verse one to four.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, lifted high.

And I saw his robe, the train of his robe fill the temple.

And I saw a seraphim that had six wings, with two they covered their feet, with two they covered their eyes, and with two they flew.

And they kept crying out to one another. And they cried out, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord as in Adonai of hosts.

The whole earth is filled with his glory. And as they began to cry to each other, the thresholds in the temple began to shake.

And the room was filled with incense. You know, of all the things that God is in his essence, the essence of God is holy.

Surprisingly, it's not love, it's not mercy, it's not justice. This is the word.

Nowhere else in the Bible do you get this thing called the tri-hegios, is the Greek word for holy, tri-hegios, or the idea of holy, holy, holy.

Nowhere else. You don't hear mercy, mercy, mercy. You don't hear love, love, love. You don't hear justice, justice, justice.

But the one thing you hear is holy, holy, holy. And it is his essence.

And you hear it in the Old Testament in Isaiah 6. Then you go to Revelation 4 and you hear it again.

Revelation 4, verse 8 it says, and the four creatures before the throne began to cry out, saying,

Revelation 4:8

Holy, holy, holy is the one who sits on the throne, who is, who was and is, and will be forevermore.

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament have this idea of three times, holy, holy, holy.

Both were being spoken by creatures that were not human. And both were seen in a vision, one by Isaiah, the other by John.

Revealing to us the essence of his nature. So what's his love like? His love is holy love.

What's his mercy like? His mercy is holy. And yet we haven't defined the word yet.

But it is put before everything. What is his justice like? Holy justice.

This is why, what is his bride like? A holy people.

What is this nation that he is building called? A holy nation.

What is his spirit called? Holy spirit.

And the other strange thing is, in Isaiah 6 you're talking about Yahweh, Adonai seated on a throne.

In Revelation 4, verse 8 it shifts. Who are we talking about now? Christ, the risen one.

Revelation 4:8

Why? Because we know from John chapter 1 that in the beginning was a word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

John 1 · chapter mention

Doesn't matter which way you look, the essence of his nature is holy.

Until I find that out and begin to fathom it and understand it, everything will be blurry.

Everything will be blurry. Because if you don't know the essence of the nature of someone, everything else,

you may understand but you won't understand it the way you need to understand it.

Any questions thus far? Any questions?

Yeah, that's the rest of the sermon. Thanks Mark.

Any other questions? No really, we talk about that.

We talk about what it means to say God is holy. Let's begin with that.

Okay, so then let's try and define holiness because it's almost impossible to define

because it's the essence of the nature of the one who is creator and who created everything.

And so here are some words that might help. Holiness is God's, holiness is God's unique,

transcendent as in out of this world, above everything, transcendent, infinite, pure essence,

or the core of his nature.

Here's what the word kadosh actually means. Kadosh means to cut off, to separate.

That's what it means, to separate. Separate from what? Separate from the common.

Separate from the secular. That's what it means. It is distinct. It's devoted. It is otherness.

So let's look at it this way. It's what makes him God. Nobody else has holy.

Guys, when God made man in his image, when Adam was made in his image,

we must understand that one of the attributes Adam did not have was holy.

Holy belongs only to one.

Yes. So holy, there's only one that is holy. In the entire universe, there's only one that is holy.

Only one. Even Adam did not have this holy. This is a unique God thing.

Nobody else has it. It makes him who he is. At the end of the day, the best explanation for holy is holy is God.

There is no other. Even when man was made in his image, he was made with certain intellectual capacities,

moral fiber, moral being, kindness, innocence. Yes. Pure. Yes. But holy, no. That belongs only to one.

It is his otherness. He is distinct like that. There is nobody else.

Now you see why he had to then come down to the earth and die and live so that he can indwell us, so that we may become like him.

It's the only way. There's no other way around it. For some of us, this is a struggle.

Here's a question that I've heard. It's an old question. It's not a new question. If you think you came up with it, eh.

Here's a question. Why should I adore and worship a God who keeps telling us who he is and says,

worship me because I need to tell you that I am this, I am that, I am this? If any human does that, it's self-exalting.

But the only one who can do that so that you begin to worship him and are satisfied inside is God.

Why do we worship? Why does he say, listen, I am holy, I am worthy, I am pure, I am kind, I am God, I am who I am?

Why does he say that? Because he created you. And the only way you will find deep satisfaction inside is when you connect to the one who created you.

Anything else that you try has ended in failure, will continue ending in failure.

But the moment you and I begin to say, I am this or I am that, it's self-exalted.

But the highly exalted one must say that to you so that you can worship him.

So perish this question of why does he say it. That's like a question that was asked in Romans and so many other places.

And the reply from God to Job and to others was, hey, does the clay look at the potter and say, why did you make me?

He turns to Job and says, do you know how the deer gives birth? Have you wrapped up all the rain in your fist?

Have you sent lightning and thunder? Did you set the dimensions of the earth?

Did you know how you were created in the womb of your mother?

And Job says, I had heard about you, but now I know you.

That's on the side so that you don't go down that road because it's easy to go down that road.

At the end of the day, man was made in the image of God, but this is one attribute that God is alone.

And that is he is holy. He is so holy, guys, that even when he doesn't show up,

even when he doesn't show up physically, if you see him, it can blind you and knock you off your horse.

That's what happens in Acts 9.13. God just doesn't even show up.

All it says in Acts 9.13 is, and then there was a brilliant light from heaven.

And it blinded Paul and knocked him off his horse.

That's all it says. We can't even approach him. He's that kind of unapproachable light that he lives in, that kind of holiness.

In Acts 9.13, even when he doesn't show up physically, when he just shows up as light,

the light of his holiness is so brilliant that you can't stand it,

which is also why the seraphim cover their eyes as they fly and cry.

What do they cry? Holy, holy, holy.

This kind of brilliance is unimaginable. It's not showing.

I was wondering why people had a grin on their face.

Just need your touch.

To see your writing develop.

That didn't make it any better. Oh, it's lagging. Yeah.

Okay, guys, now you see why when God gave the law to Israel, why did he give the law?

The reason he gave the law was because he wanted to reveal his holiness and then say to mankind,

Listen, I am so holy that even if you kept all these rules, you wouldn't be able to attain it.

That's why he gave the law. He gives the law to Israel. And why does he give the law to Israel?

The law was given to reveal the holiness of God and to let mankind know that it's unattainable.

And now you see the costly logic of his love, where Christ must die to live in me, that I may be holy,

that Christ must die to live in me, that I may be holy.

So any questions before we go on?

So if God's holiness is his nature, if God's holiness is his nature,

then God's glory is the display of his holiness.

If God's holiness is his nature, then God's glory is the display of his holiness.

Or in other words, it's God's holiness going public. God's holiness.

Glory is God's holiness gone public.

Think of that, eh? Everything that God is, is holy. It's an invisible attribute.

We don't know his beginning. He's been from everlasting to everlasting.

Everything about him is, if there's one word that defines everything he does, everything he does, it is this word, holy.

It's like a plumb line. You cannot define it. You can only say, holy is God.

Sorry? Christ's logic, it makes us understand the logic of Christ's love.

He knew that since he alone is holy and creation is not, that he would have to die for our sins,

rise up again and live in us for us to be holy.

There's no other way around this. There's logic to it.

But think for a second. If holiness is the nature of God and it's invisible, it has been forever,

he calls himself that. He calls himself the holy one of Israel, the holy one who is the Lord of hosts.

He calls himself holy.

If holiness is his invisible attribute since the beginning, then the display of holiness is his glory.

Every time he displays his holiness, we see it as glory.

The idea of Shekinah was this idea of God's glory, God's holiness now on display. God's holiness on display.

When God's holiness is on display, it's called the glory of God. You read it in Leviticus 10 verse 2.

Leviticus 10:2

If you read the message, Leviticus 10 verse 2, and Remy was reading this verse last week and he mentioned it too yesterday.

Leviticus 10:2

It says, God is saying to Moses, tell them that I am holy and tell them that because I'm holy, I will show you my glory.

Holy and glory go together. Holy is the concealed glory of God. Glory is the revealed holiness of God.

It's not terribly complicated. The words seem big, but it's not. Holiness is the concealed glory of God.

Everything he does is that way. It's holy love, holy mercy, holy justice, holy truth, holy son of God, holy assembly, holy bride.

Everything he does comes out of just one thing that he is, holy.

And so holiness is the concealed glory of God and the glory of God is the revealed holiness of God, which means that you cannot have one without the other.

Which means you cannot have one without the other.

If I do not understand the holiness of God, I will not partake in the glory of God.

I'll have occasional forays. I'll have occasional things where God breaks out for the sake of others.

I'll have occasional times when during worship I might experience his manifest weight, splendour, substance, magnificence, power.

I may experience it every so often.

But that's passing. What we want is permanence. What he desires is permanence.

In coming into our lives, in coming into a group of people, he desires permanence.

But for that permanence, what he wants is, hey, you want my glory to flow?

Here's the way to do it.

Build the invisible foundation of holiness in your midst and I will build the visible manifestation of glory through your midst.

Build the invisible foundation of holiness in your midst and I will build the visible manifestation of glory through your midst.

It's a very simple equation.

One of the things I've been crying out to God as Father, you have to understand that you cannot have one without the other.

As Father, you had us talking about reviving 20s and 30s across the earth for the last two or three years.

You've told us for the last 16 years that there are wells of healing in this church.

You've given us promises saying that you will manifest yourself.

We have had an occasional taste of it, sometimes during worship, sometimes during worship night, sometimes during prayer.

We've had an occasional taste of it.

There is a deep desire to see signs, miracles and wonders happen breaking through everybody in this church.

There is a desire to go to nations and ignite those nations and set 20s and 30s afloat on the grace of God that is about to pour on them.

The question is, Father, if that is the case, then why, Father, aren't we seeing a free flow of it on a regular basis?

And the key for the manifestation of His glory, by glory what do I mean?

The word cardboard means weight, substance, magnificence, splendour, laughter, power, goodness, all rolled into one word called cardboard of glory.

To see that manifest, God says, build into invisible holy.

And you build into invisible holy and I will build into visible glory.

One needs the other.

Read Leviticus 10 verse 2 from the message.

Leviticus 10:2

Leviticus 10 verse 2.

Leviticus 10:2

Leviticus 10 verse 2.

Leviticus 10:2

Verse 3.

Moses said to Aaron, this is what God meant when he said, to the one who comes near me, I will show myself holy.

Before all the people, I will show my glory.

Holy and glory are so deeply connected.

And so let's assume that Acts 29 is here.

And we desperately want to see the glory of God manifested.

We want the promise of the Hebrides 2 revival, 2.0 revival that God has promised three years ago to come to pass.

But we don't seem to see it flow like a river.

God is saying, hey, you want a key?

I found this picture.

You want a key?

Here's the key.

Can you begin to practice holy?

And when we think of practicing holy, we got all kinds of thoughts coming to our minds and thinking, oh man, this is going to be really difficult.

No, it won't be.

Can you begin to practice holy?

Can you begin to practice holy?

Why?

Because for glory, for glory to manifest visibly and flow, holy must become the invisible foundation.

What will it cause for the threshold between us and the promise to be shaken?

What will it take for the instance of heaven to fill this room?

Fill your house.

Fill your family.

Fill HIP's family.

What will it take for this revival to sweep the earth?

What will it take for the glory of God to be manifested?

What will it take to break into these promises?

Whenever we talk about holy, what usually happens is we immediately stop thinking of actions.

Oh, that means I have to stop thinking purely.

Oh, I got to have my motives clean.

Oh, I got to stop doing this, this and that.

Oh, shucks, I'll have to forgive this and I'm bitter in this and I've got imaginations in this.

It's just so messy because it's so many actions and it drives you nuts because you're already struggling under an effortful load.

And so the answer is not in looking at actions that are holy to fix this.

The answer is simply in looking at the one who is kadoosh, separate, distinct, holy, like no other, to be able to see him.

To be able to see him 40 times every hour, 40 times every hour to see him.

In the year that Trump became president, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up.

And the train of his robe filled the temple.

It hasn't changed.

Revelation 4, 8 now.

And I heard a voice saying, come up higher.

And as he took me by the Spirit, there before me was him who sat on the throne and the lamb.

I looked at the lamb and he suddenly looked like a lion.

I looked again and he was like a lamb that had been slain.

And the elders and the creatures before him bowed and they worshipped and they began to sing,

Holy, holy, holy is the one who sits on the throne, who was and is and is to come.

Look at him 40 times in an hour.

It is impossible for you then to worship or live or practice things that would not be so holy.

It is impossible.

It's in the practice of looking at him.

It will first undo you.

You know, most of life is lived outside of our time of worship.

To experience the presence of God in worship is...

I'm using that word too often today.

So let me use some other word that's more descriptive.

Experiencing... three times? Thank you for counting.

The idea of experiencing God during times of worship is so not helpful

because most of life is lived outside.

What happens when this time is over?

That is when it counts, man.

That is when I must walk in holy so that I can display his glory.

And by looking at him...

What does mercy look like, oh God?

Jane did this to me. What does mercy look like?

Don't practice mercy till you look at him.

When you look at him, your heart will desire to show mercy.

Oh, I thought you were Jane because you guys were wearing sweaters that were similar.

That's... No, I didn't think you were Iris.

I thought you were Derek.

Your sweaters are similar too.

So what does it take for me to continuously connect with him?

Not only is the father holy, not only is the son holy...

Guys, just think of this for a second.

The one who is here right now, who's helping me with his words,

who's helping you understand, who brought us into beautiful times of worship earlier today,

who led us in songs, who brought hip into Christ, Emily into Christ.

Who is he? He is the spirit of this holy.

You can see why he desires clean vessels.

He thrives, he flourishes when people are beginning to walk in holy.

And what are we talking about? Perfectionism? No.

What are we talking about? Getting everything right? No.

We're talking about looking at someone.

And every time you look at him, you begin to change.

It is impossible to look at him 40 times and not change.

Partly because when you look at him 40 times in an hour, you begin to fall in love with him.

He's the creator of the universe.

He created you with space in you for him.

It is not possible.

Couples that are in love, they look at each other and they'll do anything.

They'll change. They'll stop dropping towels after a bath.

They'll pick up their dirty underwear.

They'll comb their hair.

They'll brush their teeth four times.

It's the truth.

You cannot look at him and not be changed.

It is in looking at him.

If you take Isaiah 6, it's so beautiful.

To begin with, God continues to live.

Uzziah died but he is still alive.

Doesn't matter how many big people come, they're all going to die.

He'll still be alive.

You will always catch a glimpse of him because he's seated very high.

There's nobody that is seated above him.

He's the ultimate throne.

There's nothing else above him.

Above all powers, above all thrones, he is seated.

He's high and lifted up.

You will see him.

If you have received him, you will see him easily.

You don't have to imagine him.

You don't have to imagine anything about him.

You will see him.

Very odd. Christians see him.

Christians don't see him.

Christians see him.

You see him.

When we were worshipping here, you saw him.

You felt him.

You heard him.

But it's here.

And this is... I'm not pointing to my heart.

I'm pointing to my spirit, brand new, filled with the Holy Spirit.

I see him.

You think you can't see him 40 times in an hour,

and then you realize you don't need to see him 40 times in an hour.

You need to see him 30 times in an hour.

Why?

Because the times that you now focus on him are beginning to get longer and longer.

And every time you see him, Holy begins to happen in you.

Deep calls out to deep.

What do you mean deep calls out to deep?

The Christ, the Holy One, who is resident in you,

begins to call out to Christ, the risen one seated in heaven.

Deep calls out to deep.

Something wipes, something connects.

You hear the call of your origin.

You originated from him.

He's seated on the throne.

And yet he also lives in you.

And the Christ in you begins to call out to the Christ who is seated on the throne.

Sorry, Thea.

I've been shouting a lot, but I didn't mean to.

That's what happens.

Deep calls out to deep.

And this is why songs say,

And I am changed in the presence of a holy God.

Everything he does is like this.

During worship then, you begin to connect to him as one who is

separate, present, living, indwelling.

Separate, present, living, indwelling.

He is separate.

That's the big difference between Hinduism and all the isms and Christianity.

In all the other religions, God becomes part of the ecosystem.

In a stone, in a tree, not this God.

Transcendent, separate.

One essence, holy.

And that is the standard for everything.

And because of that standard, he had to come down.

Because man, even though he was made in the image of God, was innocent and pure in the garden.

But man was not kadosh.

That is a God attribute.

That can only be ours if God comes and lives in you.

And after he lives in us, we are still struggling.

We are still struggling to keep things straight.

And God is saying, I already live in you.

Let me give you one more key.

Look at me.

And the me in you will see the me seated.

And you will change, guaranteed.

And it's critical for our existence as a church.

Leave alone a Christian's existence.

Any questions before we go on?

Invisible.

Of course I knew it.

Yeah, so...

What do you mean by saying, see him 40 times in an hour?

Soren Kierkegaard.

I think he's Swedish or Danish or Scandinavian for sure.

He...

Is he Swedish?

Tuni?

Theologian?

Danish.

Okay.

Yeah.

So...

Thank you.

See, he's a very good man.

He's a very good man.

He's a very good man.

He's a very good man.

Thank you.

See, when Tuni went to college, he spent his money well, eh?

Yeah.

So Kierkegaard talks about how he wanted to see the stars.

And so he wanted to see God's glory displayed through the stars.

And so he decides, okay, I'm going to go at night and look at the stars.

And so he calls his carriage, because he lived many years ago.

And the carriage comes and he gets into the carriage.

And the carriage has two lamps by the side where you get in the doors.

And then he goes and he doesn't go too far out of the city.

He's still within the radius of the city center.

And he looks up and he says, I couldn't see nothing.

It was not because the stars were missing, but because the lights around him were so bright

that it is impossible to look at the stars.

And he tells the story and then he says,

Very often when we try to look at the holy of God or the glory of God,

there are so many competing lesser lights that you rarely get to catch

the brilliance of his holy or the brilliance of his glory.

If you need to do that, you need to go to a place where these lights are no longer bothering you.

Or you've got to keep finding, keep finding.

And if that means I look 40 times in an hour,

which means once every one and a half minutes if I start identifying him,

you will find that my walk internally and eventually externally will be like the plumb line of God.

And when that begins to happen, the flow of his magnificence, his splendor, his weight, his substance,

his power, his laughter, his goodness will begin to flow through me like something diffusing through me.

I aim to model this for you and I expect the leaders here to model this for you

and then I expect you to model it for the rest of the earth.

And it is the responsibility of every one of us here.

But before that happens, the same thing that happened to Isaiah must happen to us.

Because every time you look at him who is holy,

it is possible that it will pierce you sometimes and you will say,

Whoa, I am undone. Oh my God, I'm so messed up in this area.

Ah shucks, I've been trapped in this sewage for the last 15 years.

Oh, I've got such suspicious thoughts about you, oh God.

And one of the things that happens to Isaiah when you really think of it is he sees God

and usually everybody nowadays wants to see God.

But when he sees God, the first expression out of him is, Whoa, Whoa is like a curse, man.

Jesus used to say that to the Pharisees, Whoa, you Pharisees, you are whitewashed tombs, Whoa, you Pharisees, you are snakes.

It was a curse. And that's what Isaiah is doing. He is saying, Whoa is me. I am undone.

I'm a man of unclean lips and I have seen the glory of the king.

He knows that death is near.

That's when an angel comes and takes a coal out of the altar of heaven and presses it to Isaiah's mouth.

And I'd like to say to you that the angels use tongs.

And then you're taking a coal that is hot from the fire and you're putting on a man's lip.

Samosas are bad enough.

A coal applied to your lips, it is piercing.

I pray God that I'll be pierced in my heart, that I'll be pierced in my soul, that I'll be pierced in my feelings,

that I'll be pierced in my thoughts, that I'll be pierced so that out of it will come.

A redoing of Jacob.

Whoa, I am undone. And then God puts him together.

And it is after that, that he hears God saying, Who shall I send? Who will go for us?

I'd like to suggest to you that his response is not, Here I am. His response is, Here am I.

Here I am makes a difference.

Here I am may give you a person your location. Here am I is your ability and availability.

He's been made able. Why? Because the coal from heaven touched his lip.

He's been made available and then he makes himself available. Here am I.

This must happen for us.

I know some of us are laboring under sin. I know some of us are caught in sexual sin.

I know some of us have tried to come out of porn for years and we keep going back into it.

I know some of us lie as a habit. I know some of us get bitter and offended.

I know some of us need the approval of men. We crave for it. If it doesn't come, we are destroyed.

I know all of these because many of these things I share or I have shared.

And God is saying, Listen, I'm not asking you to now begin to look at your actions

because every time you try to fix your actions, you will fail.

But if you look at the one who is holy and unfailing, you will succeed.

So look at him. Look at him. Look at him.

And every time, 40 times an hour, you look at him, I assure you, you will desire inside you.

You will delight inside you to be like the one who you call father and who lives in you.

It's very natural. This is the logic of Christianity.

Any man who can't accept this needs to examine the basics of Christianity.

Any questions? Tears back? No.

Any questions?

The trick is to let the Holy Spirit refocus attention to the Holy One.

40 times an hour, outside times of worship.

And you know what will happen then? You will decide to cut yourself off from this.

You will decide to separate yourself from what? From the common, from the secular, from banal banter,

from wasteful talk, from wasteful imagination, from TikTok, which has come back,

from social media that doesn't feed your soul.

You will cut yourself off.

Cut yourself off.

It's what happens when you look at anybody you want to become like, want to adore, or are in love with.

You change.

You always change.

Either because of the pain that's being inflicted on you, or because you have fallen in love,

or because you have learned too much, or because the reward is too great.

Four things that change a man. Reward too great. Pain too great. Love too great. Learning too great.

Any of these four things are key to changing a person.

Unfortunately, the reward thing doesn't work for Christians because we want the reward now and it should be in dollars.

Heaven doesn't cut it.

So the other three things will work. Pain, knowledge, love.

It's crazy. If I gave, if God could promise each of us a million dollars for changing a habit,

we would change before we leave the service.

Pain, knowledge, love, reward. Reward.

So guys, why is this a key for us?

It's happening.

One, holy, three seeds, his glory filling the earth.

Isaiah 6, 3. Holy, holy, holy. That's the calling out of the essence of God.

And what follows? The whole earth is full of his glory.

You want the whole earth to be filled with the glory of God so that millions of 20s and 30s across 170, 180 nations of the world

get ignited and turned to God, then holy is critical for glory.

And how many people does it take? One man.

Because that one man is enough to ignite another man. One woman enough to ignite the rest.

Next one.

If you want the kingdom to advance here on earth and the will of God to be done here on earth,

Matthew 6, verse 9, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done.

Matthew 6:9

Hallowed be your name. What does hallowed be your name? What does it mean?

It means, oh God, show yourself, show yourself and make your name, show yourself and make your name

Holy, set apart, pure and magnificent through me. In me and through me.

Who taught us this prayer? Jesus. So what am I praying? Our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed be your name.

As in, oh God, through my life and in my life, show yourself and your name, holy, pure, magnificent.

Show yourself.

Holy precedes his glory filling the earth.

To holy or hallowed, to holy or hallow him precedes kingdom advance.

To holy or hallow him precedes kingdom advance.

And his will here on earth according to the Lord's prayer.

Holy is not an adjective, eh? Holy is his character. His mercy is holy.

It's not holy mercy as in, oh, so the, now it's the essence of who he is.

Let's, I mean, think of a character or nature that is dominant in Nick.

What's a nature that's dominant in him, besides bok choy? What else?

What is something that is so dominant in Nick as his nature?

Generosity and kindness. That's dominant in his nature. That is his nature.

So everything he does, when he buys you a gift, when he invites you for dinner, when he drives you around,

when he talks to you, when he has money, when he does not have money, when he wants to do good,

everything is governed by that simple thing, generosity and kindness.

I can go around this room and pick different people and you will find that there's an essence to your nature.

That permeates everything you do. For some of you it's justice. For some of you it's generosity and kindness.

For some of you it's encouragement. For some of you it's strength to break people through.

For some of you it is to come alongside. I don't know what it is for each person,

but it begins to mark everything you do. The one thing that marks everything God does since creation and before creation,

because he existed before that, is holy.

Therefore, to look at him, even now as I'm talking to you, how many times am I looking at him?

I'm thinking, hey Tim, how many times am I looking at him? Sorry, were you trying to sneak in? Too late.

Every time I look at him, I must see holy. Separate myself just like he is separate.

Cut out myself from the secular. Cut out myself from the common. Cut out myself from the things that are base.

And realize that, ah, I love being like you.

And when you say that to him and he sees your delight in him, what do you think the father wants to do?

The father wants to open the vaults of heaven and pour through you upon others everything he wants to,

because he's found a vessel that's deeply connected to him.

On a level that is not just gift-oriented or fruit-oriented, but is the essence of him.

Every fruit that the Holy Spirit gives is holy.

Is it love? It's holy. Is it joy? It's holy. Is it peace? It's holy.

The earth gives you all the fruit that God gives, except that it cannot have the word holy in front of it.

You don't think the world gives you love? You don't think the world gives you peace?

A piece of Poland, a piece of Warsaw, a piece of... I mean, that's from an old Mel Brooks movie. Sorry, sorry. Erase.

You think the world doesn't give you peace? The world doesn't give you joy? The world doesn't give you love?

What is missing is a single word, holy.

Third, holy proceeds. Holy proceeds being made able and available.

Holy proceeds being made able and available.

You'll be undone. You'll be cleansed. You'll be made ready.

Isn't that wonderful?

Is there anybody here who doesn't need being undone? No one.

To be undone. To be cleansed. To be remade.

If you want to open ancient gates, we keep talking about ancient gates, we sing about it.

You want to open ancient gates? Holy precedes that. How do we know it?

Psalm 24, verse 4. Who shall ascend the holy hill? Who shall open the gates? He who has?

Psalms 24:4

Clean hands and a pure heart. It seems to be at the base of everything we are talking about, man.

It seems to be at the base of everything this church is attempting.

It seems to be at the base of everything that God is demanding of the church.

All revivals are preceded by witnessing his glory and his holy which go hand in hand.

That's how every genuine revival has started in the world.

This is why in 2 Peter 1, 18, Peter is saying, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

We saw him on the Mount of Transfiguration. We heard the voids saying, this is my beloved son. Listen to him.

Every revival requires people to witness his glory and his holy.

You can't witness his glory until it's presented through his holy.

So what does this mean for us? What will it look like? What might change?

Guys, one of the things that will change if we actually embrace this is seriousness and weightiness.

Seriousness and weightiness will come in and will prevent banal banter.

Meaning, it's very strange, eh, how as soon as the service is over, it doesn't matter how splendid and how God a service we may have had.

Have you noticed as soon as we step out of this environment, it goes completely wonky.

We start talking about things that I'm not saying we should not talk about Manchester United and the Canucks because they both exist in the same echelon right now.

But I'm saying it goes into useless banter. We seem to have switch-offs and switch-ons.

Now is the time to be holy and now is the time to be normal. Not unholy, holy and normal.

One of the things that will happen when God begins to turn up like this in our lives is you will find a seriousness and a weightiness descending upon your person and us as a person, people.

You'll begin to see it. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't have a good laugh, throw your head back, come up with really smart retorts.

All that is fine, but not into a banter that is so, so not continuous with who we've been with and where we've been.

That's one thing that'll change.

The second thing that'll change is the pain of God piercing our heart, my heart and soul.

And sometimes being, sometimes the circumcision of flesh by another's hand.

This is the other thing God will begin to do if we take this up seriously, where it'll be, hey, God is asking piercing questions that ruin you because he's not letting go.

He just keeps pushing, keeps pushing.

And the other thing is the circumcision of the flesh as in the parts of our life that are still so sin-prone.

Circumcision of the flesh not through God but through someone else.

Everybody wants God to do the circumcision and God then sends someone else to do it.

That's a dislike.

That's another thing that could happen.

Okay, so let's assume I'm a guy who is not trustworthy.

And then God sends you to say to me, Jacob, I've known you for the last 20, 25 years and you are not trustworthy.

You cannot be depended on.

You cannot be relied on.

And God wants to say change or else he will remove you from the radius of influence you presently have because he is faithful.

Now if God says that to me, that's fine.

But if Diana comes and says that to me, that's not fine.

That's another thing that happens with this.

Oh yes.

It must get to a point where one, I should be able to handle the circumcision of the flesh through the hand of someone else

when God sends them.

This does not mean open season where we go to each other with a pair of scissors.

We're not doing that. That's called mutilation. It's not circumcision.

We're not doing that.

This is a process. Everything can't be packed into one teaching.

But this is something that we need to learn because we always want to be corrected by God.

And if you give a person something from God but it didn't come directly from God, that becomes a problem for most of us, all of us.

Then there's the, these are some of the changes that will happen.

Seriousness, the pain of God piercing, and the awareness of practicing holy living.

Practicing holy living.

1 Thessalonians 4 verses 3 to 8 do not be sexually moral.

1 Thessalonians 4:3–8

1 Peter 1, 18, I am holy. Why don't you start being holy?

Psalm 24, verse 2 to 5. Jacob, don't sweat deceitfully.

Psalms 24:2–5

Don't spill blood with your hands, as in don't hate people. Don't do them harm.

Do not speak things that are impure.

Maintain a clean, maintain clean hands but also have a pure heart so that your motives are pure.

These things have to be practiced by looking at him and smiling at him and then going back to one's filth is just incompatible.

It's incompatible. It's not even Christian.

Let me put it this way. A believer who is not changing must question his salvation.

A believer who is not changing, changing in what?

A believer who is not increasingly becoming like Christ should question his or her salvation.

So that's the practical part of it.

Guys, I want to close.

No he won't. No he won't. I just love that song.

He won't, he won't, he won't, he won't.

What hinders, what hinders this process?

One. You know, Christians love living in between Isaiah 6-3 and Isaiah 53-7.

And once Isaiah 53-7 says, he was led like a lamb to the slaughter and he did not open his mouth.

Isaiah 6 verse 3 says, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and lifted up.

Isaiah 6:3

Holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is filled with his glory.

We like living between. On a Sunday we like living in Isaiah 6-3.

On a Saturday we like, from Sunday to Saturday we like living in between.

And God is saying the moment you start looking at me, you will begin to live in both.

There will be times when you will be disliked, rebuked, rejected, put aside, deprived, trodden over, used, manipulated.

And every time that happens, you will remember that even the naked one who hung on the cross was holy and is hanging there naked.

And you will be okay with it.

And then there will be other times where you will be caught up like John, like Isaiah in the rapture of a vision of the throne room, of Revelation 4, of Revelation 5.

And you will enthrall yourself there and you will say like Paul, I heard things that I cannot utter.

I didn't want to come back, but I know I have to come back into the valley.

I will not build a tent there, but I will live in both. I will live in both.

That's one thing that hinders us. We like living in between.

Between majesty and meekness, that's where we want to live.

We don't want to go full meekness, we don't want to go full majesty. We live in between.

God is saying, listen, you start down this road Jacob, you're khalas.

You will begin to live in both.

There will be times when you will not want to leave because you're so caught up like Ezekiel, like Daniel, like Isaiah, like Jeremiah, like John, like Paul, like Peter.

You will be caught up.

And then there will be other times where like Jeremiah, like Isaiah, like Ezekiel, like Paul, like Peter, you will be trodden about and spat upon.

And you will remember me as a majestic one who hung naked on a cross and you will still say, holy.

That is what we're going to. That is what also hinders us.

But this, I mean who doesn't want this? Isn't this what we live for?

If you live for Christ, this is what you live for.

Anything less is uncivilized.

The second thing that hinders us is in John 12, verse 37 or something, it says, they craved for the approval of men and not for the glory of God.

John 12:37

And so one of the things that will hinder us from walking this way is when the approval of men, the praise of men, is not for the glory of God.

The second thing that will hinder us from walking this way is when the approval of men, the praise of men, the acceptance of men is so important to you that the holy and the glory will be compromised.

John 12, verse 37.

John 12:37

John 12, verse 37, I think.

John 12:37

It's John 12, verse 43.

John 12:43

John 12, verse 43.

John 12:43

We compromise purity because we crave the approval of men than the glory of God.

We compromise purity.

We compromise holy because we crave the approval of men.

It is important for us that men accept us.

To be able to stand and say to somebody, when you have a following, that if you do not eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part of me, is the easiest way to lose people because it's akin to cannibalism.

And those were the words he speaks.

And John 666 said most of them left him.

So perhaps if words are spoken from holy love, but words are spoken with holy firmness, it is possible that you may have to steal your heart, s-t-e-e-l, not to be offended.

And the last one is what I said when I told you the story about Tunisian Danish theologian.

We get dull to the holiness and glory of God because of lesser lights that blind or compete for our attention.

That's another reason why we sometimes can't stay with holy and glory, which is why my prayer today for you is very simple.

Oh God, forty times an hour could you take us back to him who is holy, whose essence is holy?

Can you show us how to see him here?

So that before words come out, before actions are done, before thoughts are brewed, before things are created, that I will see and the plumb line will begin to help me with the word and with the spirit operate differently.

I will change and glory will flow.

So that's all I wanted to say.

One of the things I want to explore is what is the connection between holy and going to the nations.

I don't know it yet, but there is.

Can you read these scriptures?

Look at what it says.

They cried out, holy, holy, holy.

And then the next verse says, the earth is full of his glory.

And then the next verse is, who shall I send?

And then the verse after that is, here am I, send me.

What is?

What is the connection?

There is one.

And it will come.

Why?

Because God is saying, listen, I'm here to give you guys a key.

I've given you promises.

You're trying to unlock it.

I'll give you the key.

A man who gives you a promise that needs to be unlocked will give you the key.

Sometimes he waits for us to reach for the key.

Things don't come easy in the kingdom.

One should desire it, wrestle for it.

But he will give us the key.

And when he gives us the key, what is the connection between holy, holy, holy?

The whole earth is full of the display of your holiness.

Why?

Because glory is holiness revealed.

Holiness is glory concealed.

Glory is holiness going public.

The whole earth is filled with your glory.

You are undone.

You are remade.

And then you stand and you hear a sound and a voice saying, who shall I send?

Hundreds of hands shoot up in this place saying what?

Here am I, here am I, here am I.

I have been made able.

I am available.

Send me.

Please send me.

Please send me.

And when he sends, he goes with you.

And the earth ignites and the earth ignites and the earth ignites.

We'll explore that next time.

I'm looking forward to it.

Sometimes it's like a video game.

You go level by level.

You find a key.

You pluck some bananas.

And then you jump.

And then you get a gun.

And so on.

Let's pray.

Hey, Vibi, do you want to bring the communion bit in?

Let's pray that simple prayer.

Father, if there is anything, you are in your core.

I used to think it was love.

If there's anything, you are in your core.

It is that you are holy.

And to say that you are holy is to say that you are separate.

There is an otherness to you.

You're cut off from everything that's secular, that is earthly.

You're transcendent.

There's an otherness to you.

And then you go ahead and call us ecclesia, separated ones.

You had to die so that you could let mankind become holy like you.

You had to die.

You had to rise.

You had to live in us.

And now you're saying, hey, I know I've given you guys promises.

I know I've called a ragtag bunch like you to ignite the 20s and 30s across the earth,

to bring Hebrides 2.0, which happened in the 1945s, happen again on earth,

just saturating 20s and 30s across the globe.

I know it's an impossible task.

I've called you to it.

And now I'm giving you a key.

You look at me 40 times a minute, and Holy Spirit, that's what I ask for.

That even now as I'm talking, my heart sees you and it cries out, holy, holy, holy.

And as I do, O God, you begin to fill this place because one man recognizes you right now.

And then another man and then another woman.

Suddenly, this place is filled with your splendor and your magnificence,

your power and your goodness and worship in runs, O God.

O God, we want this not for ourselves, but for what we want to do across the earth.

Kadosh, holy, holy, holy.

Holy, O God, you are a holy people that will display your glory, Father.

Let your will be done, O God.

Fill the earth with your glory, O God.

Let your holiness be revealed in us and through us, through these people, through me.

Let it happen, O God.

Spirit of God, Holy Spirit, you are so kind to dwell with us day in, day out through

sometimes ways that are so unholy, so unholy in our thinking, in our doing,

but you put up with it.

You get grieved, but you put up with it.

We recognize you.

You bring the holiness of God to us.

You put up with it.

But guess what?

We are turning around, O God.

We are turning around.

Forty times an hour we will look at you.

Spirit of God, please help us look at him.

Please help us look at him forty times an hour and recognize him, how we will be changed

in our relationships with you, with each other, with our children, with our work,

with the way we think of people, the words we use.

We will be changed.

That's what I ask for, Father, in Jesus' name.

Amen.