Living A Holy Life Everyday

And welcome to those people who are joining us from

whatever Latin name, whatever Spanish-speaking country you're from. We blog

now in 13... We were fasting this week. Who enjoyed

fasting this week? Over half the church prayed and fasted

this week. I was blown away by the number of

people who were on the call on Tuesday night and

Thursday night as we fasted. Thank you for fasting. But

I want you to know it's not finished. I don't

mean the fasting. I mean the impact of the fasting.

It's not, okay, we finished fasting, but God hasn't finished

his work. He hasn't stopped. We've prayed. It's like dropping

a stone into a steel pond. The stone has been dropped,

but the ripples are still running. God is still at work.

And I sense in my spirit there's somebody who's got

a blinding headache today. If that's you, would you stand?

And other people who are doing legal things today, this week.

There's one or two people in the room who've got

legal things that need to be signed. I just want

to pray for you. I'm not going to call you out,

but I sense there's some people who are going to

sign some legal paperwork this week. There's people with blinding headaches.

If that's you at home, please stand because I want

to pray because I believe God wants to heal people today.

God is a healing God. God is able to do

immeasurably more than we ask or imagine. Father, I pray,

Lord God, right now for those people who are standing. Lord,

if it's a headache, Lord, would you put your finger

right on where the pain is coming? Lord, would you

take away the blockage Would you take away the pressure point,

Lord God? Father, would you loosen and free everything that

needs to flow in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. And

Father God, I pray for those who are signing paperwork,

Lord God, signing legal paperwork this week. Father, I pray that, Lord,

it would be a joy rather than the pain. It

would be a privilege and a pleasure rather than something

to worry about. Father, I pray that those people who

are signing paperwork would step into freedom and a new

season in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. So, thank you. So,

you've picked a nation. Thank you for praying. Thank you

for fasting. Also, this week, we started blogging in another

couple of languages. Because we are a multinational church, multilingual church,

we started blogging in Greek this week, and soon to

be followed by Portuguese. Thank you. So, and I'm going

to do something now. I'm going to really test my

memory now. Morning True. Number one Pekingese belong guard is here.

You're probably wondering what on earth I said. But we

are blogging in Pidgin English. It's a language I used

to speak 30 plus years ago. I was a math teacher.

I don't know whether you recognize a teacher in me,

but I was a math teacher and one of the

schools I taught in, in Papua New Guinea, I had

38 different languages in the class. So I got each

of them to teach me how to say good morning

in a different way. And every week I do it

in a different language. I've forgotten most of them now.

But anyway, so children, you're staying in, but I've got

some activities for you too. Today I want to speak

about living a holy life every day. Now, I want

you to think about your worst day this week or

your worst moment this week. When you did something or

you said something and you thought, I hope nobody else

sees this. Children, I'm just asking you to look at

your parents now and just remind them about something maybe

they did or something they said. Imagine dropping a plate

of something that you prepared all over the floor. You

probably said something. I was driving somewhere this week and

somebody pulled out in front of me unexpectedly without me

waving them in. I had to brake quite hard. Anybody

else feel like that? Yes, thank you for being honest.

You know, the people do it. Thank you, Rob. Rob's

being honest there. Living a holy life every day. So

I was in a queue in a... I'm not proposing

or advertising one brand over another, but I was in

a queue in Waitrose. And we went downstairs to pay

for the car park, and there was a queue to

pay for the car park. And there I was thinking,

I'm in a hurry. Come on, come on. And then

I realized the lady at the front was struggling to

pay for the bill. In the end, she gave up

and stepped away and joined the back of the queue.

She was standing behind me. Now, here's the lady who

was causing the blockage for me, and now she's standing

behind me. And I felt humbled. I thought, okay, I was,

what are you doing? Hurry up, come on. I'm sure

nobody else does that, do you? Am I the only

one here? You have a hurry sickness? You get in,

you know? Yeah, Juliet always does. Anyway, I felt in

my spirit, Okay. Turned and had a conversation with her.

She said, I'm trying to put some money in the machine,

but I can't see anywhere to put mine. I said,

this machine doesn't take money, madam. You need a barcode.

And I had some extra barcodes. So I turned and

I said to her, here you are. You can use

the same machine and you can use that to pay.

I had an opportunity to bless her. And it turned

from to blessing. Just a simple blessing. She said, why

would you do that? Let me give you the money.

I said, no, no. Just be blessed. Living a holy

life every day. 1 Peter 1, 15 and 16. Just

as he who called you is holy, so be holy

in all that you do. For it is written, be

holy because I am holy. Now, what is holiness? Holiness,

you ought to be able to notice. It ought to

be different. If we are a holy people, it ought

to show. It ought to show in our attitudes, in

our language, in what we do. And if it doesn't,

we need to pay attention. I'm not going to go

on the guilt trip here. It's not about me saying,

you're not good enough. That's not where I'm going. I'm

just saying, okay, we can be changed from within because

he is holy. Notice, number one, it's in all that

you do. If your house, if your spiritual home has

rooms in it, maybe when you invite people round to

your house at home, you have to tidy things up.

And there's a space, maybe it's under the stairs, maybe

it's a cupboard that you just kind of shove everything

in before they come round, just so the place looks tidy. No,

you don't do that? Yeah? But I'm talking about your

spiritual home now, not the house. And children are smiling

here because they're looking at their mums and dads saying,

we know you do that, mum. We know you do that, dad.

We've seen you do it. And sometimes we've even been

part of it when mum said, come on, clear the table,

put the stuff in, just put it anywhere. But I

want to talk about your spiritual home. So if your

body is different rooms, what is the room that you

wouldn't take someone to? What is the room under the

stairs where you shove everything in that you don't want

to talk about? Now people are looking around now. It's

a bit ouchy. Peter said, be holy. Be holy. In

all that you do. Not just on Sundays, but on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays,

and Saturdays. In your life group. Worship is good. Be holy,

not just when you lift hands up and feel good,

but be holy at one o'clock in the afternoon when

you're feeling stressed at work. Maybe when something's happened on

the commute to work. You know, some of us treat holiness...

as something that's for the special people. It's for all.

It's for you and me. It doesn't matter how good

we are, because we will never justify being saved and

being redeemed by God. Not us. We will not justify it.

Christ justifies it. He is the perfect sacrifice. And so

I want to give you a very clear picture, children

as well, that holiness is not a ladder you climb.

It's not points that you score. It's the life of

God flowing through you, saying yes to God every day.

So holiness begins with who is God. It doesn't begin

with who we are. It begins with who is God.

Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, and the

seraphim cried, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, says

that in Isaiah 6.3. His first response was not a program,

was not self-improvement. He said, woe is me. This is

where Simon ended last week. Woe is me. I am ruined.

Then the live coal touched his lips and his guilt

was taken away. Holiness means we're set apart. It means

that there ought to be some of the goodness of

God and the character and nature of God that shines

in us and through us. A.W. Tozer, I love him,

I've got a number of books by him on my shelf,

said that what comes into our minds when we think

about God is the most important thing about us. A

small view of God produces a casual view of sin.

A great view of God produces a glad and reverent

and holy life. Romans 12 verse 1, offer your bodies

Romans 12:1

as a living sacrifice. holy, and pleasing to God. I

don't know whether you're the kind of person who looks

in the mirror every morning and goes, there's another wrinkle,

there's another gray hair, or there's a spot. God loves us.

All of those things. Some of us don't like them ourselves.

We want things removed and we want to colour our

hair I'm not saying that's right or wrong I'm just

saying that's sometimes the way we look at ourselves we

look at ourselves as being imperfect and we want to

sort some of that out you know that's why the

beauty much money but God looks at us and says

you're wonderful you're wonderfully made you are precious and special

and unique there is no one like you. And maybe

one or two of the children went, yes, that's true.

There's no one like my mum. There's no one like

my dad. Romans 12, 1. Offer your bodies as a

living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your

true and proper worship. Holiness is a daily surrender. Not

just once in a while, not just when we feel

like it, And it starts here. It starts with the

renewing of our minds. It goes on to say in

Romans 12 too, how we do not conform to the

pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing

of your minds. If we've got it wrong, if we've

said something wrong, if we've done something wrong, quick response.

Just say sorry. Just turn to God in a moment.

Just find a space. Just go into a corner and say,

sorry God, I shouldn't have said that. Keep short account

with God. He is faithful to forgive us, and he's

merciful to us. His compassions are new every morning. We're

reminded of that in Lamentations 3. Holiness is not something

we achieve perfectly overnight. It's a work in progress. It's

a direction for our journey. It's a direction for our lifestyles.

So holiness is something we can see in the ordinary.

We read, if you like the book of Daniel, I

love the book of Daniel. Anybody else like the book

of Daniel? Yeah, great. I love the fact that it

makes it the real world. Daniel operated at work. Daniel

took his faith, he took his faith to places where

you and I probably wouldn't. I don't really want to

end up in the fiery furnace because I've done something

at work, but it happens. You know, holiness is not

tested in the prayer meeting. Holiness is tested in our

everyday living, in the places when no one else is watching,

or maybe some people are watching, maybe some of your children,

and I want to include the children in this because

you do see what goes on at home. One of

the things, I have the privilege of travelling from time

to time and staying with people, and sometimes people say,

I'll put you up in a hotel. I say, no, no, no,

please don't put me up in a hotel. I'd rather

stay with you if that's okay. And it's not just

about saving money. It's also I want to spend some

time with them. And you start to see the way

people live their lives. So my first challenge, I've got

two challenges today, is how is your holiness? What's it

like at work? What's it like at home? What about online?

What about our wallets? What about our expense claims? What

about our appraisals if we have to give appraisals to people?

What about standing at the coffee machine and having a chat?

Do we jump into gossip and start to criticize people?

Whatever we do, work at it with all of our

hearts just as unto the Lord. Colossians chapter 3 verse 23.

Colossians 3:23

Are we patient with one another? I wasn't patient in

that queue trying to pay for pay for the parking.

I wasn't patient at all. And sometimes we're not patient

because we're in too much of a hurry. Sometimes we

need to give ourselves a little bit more time to

do things. And we'll do them better, and we'll notice things.

I think I've told you this story before, but it's

relevant here. I did a course, and part of the course,

there was some homework between the different modules. And one

of the pieces of homework And I had a choice

of things, but one of them was to sit and

look at a tree for 15 minutes and just enjoy

the tree. If at any point you started thinking about

your to-do list or started thinking about something else or

work or something that was going on, you started the

clock again. You had to focus on the tree. Do

you know what? I tried for two weeks. I couldn't

do it. I couldn't do it. So I'm in too

much of a hurry. It's a great hurriness test. So

what's the state of your relationships at work? What about

at home? Is there some things that go unsaid? Who

said it? Was it Elton John? Sorry seems to be

the hardest word. How many people like saying sorry? One

or two people. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah? Yeah? I

don't want to say sorry, but you know what? Sorry

is a good word. Sorry, I didn't mean that. Sorry,

I didn't mean to say that. Sorry, I didn't mean

to punch you in the face. Don't know whether it's

ever happened. I've certainly elbowed somebody in the face. I

just turned around and, you know, it just caught somebody

on the tube on Monday this week. So this is

a real fresh story, you know. It was a person

who was about this tall, so I wasn't kind of

doing this. I just turned around. I had bags in

my hand and didn't see them. At least I didn't

break a nose or cause a nosebleed, thank goodness. Holiness

is spirit empowerment, not self-empowerment. We live in a world

where there's a lot of self, self, self. This is

how you do it, self-improvement schemes. I want to encourage you,

if you're focused on self-improvement, Yes, and we can be improved.

Don't do it on your own. Do it with God's

help because he will shape you and mold you and

me in ways that we cannot even ask or imagine.

Here's the good news. God never asks us to manufacture

holiness in our own strength. Walk by the Spirit. Do

not gratify the desires of your flesh. It says that

in Galatians 5.16. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience.

I'm pausing here because I want you to take it in. Kindness.

Some people know this off by heart. That's great. You

know the word goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Fantastic. Any

one of those fruits will influence just a little bit

of holiness, give people a little glimpse of God. If

you've brought fruit at this time of year, my There's

often raspberries in our fridge. Keris will tell you this.

They're often moldy. Because we start eating them and they

end up in the back. There's something fresh about holiness.

In the Old Testament, we hear about how manna was

provided on a daily basis. Bread was provided. Food was

provided on a daily basis. It did not keep. It

went bad very quickly. Why? You know, I believe the

same with holiness. I think actually the more holy we are,

the more we can pour out. And actually it's holy

living that people will notice and they will see. 1

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Thessalonians 5 verses 23 and 24. May God himself, the

God of peace, sanctify through and through. The one who

calls you is faithful and he will do it. I

want you to notice here, who does the hard work here?

It's God. It's God. Our part is to stay close

to him, catch what he's trying to say, be surrendered

to him. Now, do you know what? When somebody tells

you this is the way you should do it and

you think you should do it differently, there's a fight. No, no,

I don't know whether the parents and children will go there.

Don't do it that way. Don't eat your dinner like that.

Don't hold your fork like this. But I like eating

like this, mummy. I like eating. I like balancing peas

on the end of my knife. I like sticking my

knife in. I'm not recommending this, children. I'm not even

going to complete the sentence. Do you know what? Sometimes

we have to submit. Sometimes we have to yield for

the greater good.

Now, for

the greater good means we make less of ourself and

more of others. So, I'm going to ask you just

to consider this challenge. as I bring what I'm going

to share to a close. And it's this. You want

to bring the challenge up? What would change on a

Monday morning... if I treated my workplace... or school... or university...

or college... or wherever you spend a large part of

your week? What would change in my Monday morning... if

I treated that place... as holy ground. A place to

be holy. Now I'll be honest, I'm going to go there.

Some of you and some of us don't like our bosses.

Some of us don't like our teachers. Some of us

definitely don't like the bus driver who drives us to

college or to work once in a while. He's always Mr. Grumpy.

Do you know what? What would change if we treated

those moments as holy and we were willing to be

a lightning rod with God and say, Lord, whatever you

want to release in this moment, at this time, whether

it's just a kind word, whether it's just an open door,

whether it's doing and saying something that you or I

wouldn't normally do or say, that's my reflection moment for you.

But I'm going to start with where we're at. If

you want to work out where you need to go,

the first thing you need to do is to work

out where you are. If you don't know where you are,

you don't know how you're going to get to where

you go. And so I'm just going to ask some questions.

I'm going to ask us to close our eyes. And

this is for people at home, people listening later, people

listening anywhere in the world. And I'd like us to

close our eyes. And that includes the children too now.

And I'm just going to ask a few questions. And

if that's you, would you stand? I'm not going to

call anybody out. I'm not going to say anything else.

But I just sense that God wants to cause us

to step into a holy place. If in the last

week you have said something that has hurt someone and

you haven't sorted it out, would you stand? I'm really

starting with some big ouches. If you said something that

hurt somebody and you haven't resolved it, you haven't sorted

it out, you know it's a loose end, maybe you've

got to, would you stand? Please, eyes are closed. I've

got my eyes closed too. I'm really not that interested.

I just want to pray. But if that's you, would

you stand? If you said something, if you did something

that was not glorifying to God, if we played it

on the video screen right now, you'd be hiding behind

your hands. and you haven't resolved it, unholy living, would

you stand? If in the week ahead you already have

planned something that you would not want to be on

the front page of the local newspaper, because it's not God,

it's you, would you stand? Would you stand? And this

is not a guilt trip, guys. I'm not going there

at all. One final thing. If there's something that's been

on your to-do list for months, if not years, and

you've never got around to it, but you know someone

has been hurt because of it, would you stand? I

thank you for the honesty of the people who are standing. Father,

I want to pray Father, we've messed up. We got

it wrong. Lord, we want to say we're sorry right

now as we stand. But as we stand, Lord, in

saying we're sorry, we say, help, Lord. Help me. Help

me now. Let your holiness flow through me. Let me

make better choices in my talk, in my thinking, in

my payments, in my calendar choices. And fill me, Lord.

with the power of your presence. In Jesus' name. Amen. Now,

I thank you for those who stood. Thank you. It

wasn't easy. It's not an easy thing to do. Julia

said later on, that there was, said earlier on, that

if you need prayer, then please, you know, if the

song that we sung earlier on touched you. We've got

a ministry space just behind the glass doors, so when

we come to the end of the service, if you

need prayer, there'll always be a couple of people out

there ready to pray for you. We're just trying to

make space for God to move. God can move into service,

that's fine. But sometimes people say, yes, but I just

need prayer about this. That's exactly why you've got a

sign behind me on the glass doors that just says

ministry space. So I'm done.