May 4, 2025 • 52 mins
What if the world could see your faith lived out—unfiltered and unhidden? In Living in Glass Houses, Pastor Tyler Lynde explores Nehemiah 11 and the powerful call for believers to live lives of visible holiness.
As Jerusalem’s walls were rebuilt, the city still needed to be filled with people willing to live there. While the leaders led the way, others had to be chosen by lot to repopulate the holy city. Tyler unpacks why so many hesitated: living in Jerusalem meant living under constant watch. It was a city set apart, and living there came with heightened expectations. The parallels to modern Christian life are striking—we too are called to live as a “city on a hill,” with our lives pointing others to God.
Holiness is not optional for the believer—it’s our identity. But it doesn’t begin with behavior; it begins with God. Tyler points to Isaiah’s vision in chapter 6, where the prophet encounters God’s holiness and is immediately undone. That same holiness still transforms today. As Scripture teaches, everything God is and does is utterly holy—and those who belong to Him are called to reflect that.
Drawing from 1 Timothy 4:12, Tyler breaks down five areas where holiness shows up: speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. Holiness isn’t just about avoiding sin—it’s about becoming like Christ in every aspect of our lives.
But here’s the freedom: we don’t have to manufacture holiness ourselves. Tyler reminds us that Jesus, the only one to live a perfectly holy life, offers His holiness to us through the cross. And through the Holy Spirit, we’re empowered to live in a way that’s not just outwardly different, but inwardly transformed. Romans 8 says the same Spirit that raised Christ now lives in us—that’s the power we rely on.
Living transparently, with nothing to hide, isn’t about performance—it’s about reflection. When we live holy lives, others get a glimpse of Jesus. And in a world filled with pretense, that kind of authenticity is deeply compelling.
The question is: will we embrace our “glass house”? Will we accept the call to holiness, not as a burden but as an opportunity to shine with the light of Christ?
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Episode Transcript
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Tyler Lynde (00:04):
Mark did an excellent job last week of
showing us the renewal of thecovenant between God and his
people After the wall wasfinished and people came to a
point of repentance andrealizing their need for God
again, and then this covenantwas struck between them and God
and, kind of springboarding offof that, today's message is
(00:24):
called Living in Glass HousesLiving in Glass Houses.
So let's look at Nehemiah,chapter 11, verses 1 and 2, and
that's what we're going to readNehemiah 11, verses 1 and 2.
Now the leaders of the peoplelived in Jerusalem and the rest
of the people cast lots to bringone out of ten to live in
Jerusalem, the holy city, whilenine out of ten remained in the
(00:49):
other towns, and the peopleblessed all the men who
willingly offered to live inJerusalem.
Now there's a lot more in thischapter and there's about a
gazillion names, okay, and we'vemade comments each week about
the names and the pronunciationof the names.
Why are the names listed for usin scripture, especially in the
(01:11):
Old Testament?
Well, there's a reason.
The reason is because we cantrace the line, the lineage of
Jesus, all the way from Adam andall the way to Joseph and Mary
and to Jesus himself, and sothose names are very significant
and important.
Also, the people who were thepeople of God, the Jewish nation
, were represented, arerepresented in those names and
(01:35):
also, on top of that, these areindividual people who are
obedient to the call, and sothey're given commendation, if
that makes sense, in thesedifferent chapters.
So I know we've been reading inour Bible reading plan through
the Old Testament.
We've kind of landed inChronicles as of late a little
bit, and there's a lot of names,a lot of names.
But if you can think about itin terms of why they're there
(01:57):
and how they draw a connectionpoint between Jesus and even all
the way back to the Garden ofEden, it's so important and so
impactful.
All right, so let's pray.
Father, we thank you for thisday, we thank you that you're
here with us, thank you for yourpresence that is here.
Lord, we ask you that you wouldcontinue to work and do what
(02:20):
only you can do in this serviceChange our hearts, change our
minds.
Do exactly.
We ask that your will wouldcome to pass in every way in
Jesus' name, amen, amen.
So, if you don't know, I am acard-carrying member of.
(02:41):
How do I say this?
I'm a PK.
I'm a PK.
What is a PK?
I'm a preacher's kid.
I'm a pastor's kid.
Not only that, but I have fourchildren, and guess what they
are?
They're PKs as well.
Right, and then we have anothergeneration, which we just spent
a few days with in Florida, andI've discerned.
(03:02):
My daughter, hannah, came upwith a great wisdom on a
Wednesday when we were allattempting to do the next thing.
That comes with a house full ofpeople and a bunch of little
kids, right, and she said.
Somebody said to her use theword vacation, and she said oh
no, this is not a vacation, thisis a trip.
There's a difference between atrip and a vacation.
(03:27):
I didn't discern that beforenow, but now I know.
A trip is something that has anagenda, where everything moves
according to a certain you know,movement, and it's basically.
Everything was based upon thegrandchildren, which was amazing
.
We enjoyed every minute of it,right.
And then we went to Mark'swedding and we drove home.
We got home about 11 o'clocklast night.
So I'm praying that my filtersare all in place and then I'm
(03:52):
able to fire on all cylindersand say all the things that I
feel like God wants me to saythis morning.
But I also want to give you alittle bit of context as to what
this week has held for us.
It was amazing.
We loved it so much and we hada good time.
Amy and I had a good time.
We rode in silence for a whilein the car.
It wasn't because we were angrywith each other, it was just
(04:13):
because it was still.
It was still and it was quiet.
We were trying to take a napjust for a few minutes one day,
and Emma, one of ourthree-year-olds, somehow escaped
the room where she was supposedto be napping, and so she made
her way.
I don't know how she knew whichroom was ours, but she made her
way down to her way down to ourroom.
(04:34):
And hey pops, hey Mimi, whatyou doing?
Open the door.
So it was like oh, here we go,we're on a trip, anyway.
So what am I saying by me beinga preacher's kid and my kids
(04:54):
being PKs and then their kidsbeing KPKs, which are kids of
preacher's kids?
That's a new one that I've justcoined this morning, so you can
use that one if you'd like touse it.
What does that have to do withanything that we're talking
about this morning from thispassage?
Well, how many of you know thatthe general public doesn't
necessarily have a positiveoutlook on PKs.
(05:17):
In fact, a lot of times, pksare looked down upon because
what they're crazy, they're wild.
They do all of this stuff Well,and sometimes that's warranted.
Sometimes it is like that right, and we understand that General
public doesn't know something,though, about this group of
people, and I want to make youaware.
If you're not a card carryingmember, I want to bring you into
(05:38):
our world a little bit.
Like it or not, our lives are onconstant display.
Those who have the name pastoror preacher in front of their
last names, or however it is, welive in glass houses.
Our lives are on full display.
(05:59):
People get a front row seat tothe good, the bad and the ugly,
because we do live in proverbialglass houses.
And for most people andprobably for most of my life, to
be honest, I have had a littlebit of resentment in my heart
about that.
(06:19):
It's like why, why is it methat?
Why do we have to live in thatway?
Why is it that everybody getsto be exposed to our lives and
all of the things that happen inour lives?
And my children, especially,have asked that when I tell
particular stories about ourlives and about our family, you
know I've had to learn as theiradult children now that
(06:39):
sometimes I need to run a storypast them to make sure that it
receives their approval levelbefore I share it with the
entire congregation and theworld that's watching via the
World Wide Web, right?
But most people who haveexperienced the phenomenon of
being a PK speak of it innegative terms, based on feeling
(07:00):
unfairly judged.
Unfairly judged, unfairlyjudged.
But as I thought about thisthis last couple of weeks, I
realized that the forcedopenness of my life has been
used as a sort of protectionmechanism for me to keep me
considering the long-reachingeffects of my life and my
(07:21):
choices.
So here's a thought that I havefor us today, and you don't
have to receive this, you canjust consider it, ponder it,
whatever it is that you want todo, but maybe it would actually
be better if all followers ofJesus lived in glass houses.
Maybe it would be better, maybethe world would be better off
(07:44):
if every believer in JesusChrist lived in a glass house.
In our passage today, thechildren of Israel were being
asked to place themselves insort of a similar position the
work that Nehemiah had begun andbeen called by God to do was
basically completed.
Right, the walls had beenrepaired, the gates were hanging
(08:05):
in place, people had beenplaced on guard, there was
worship that was going on in thecity, all of the leaders had
been chosen and placed indifferent realms of authority.
Most importantly, the word ofGod had been proclaimed again
and put in its proper place inthe community.
The people had repented andturned back to God.
(08:25):
The covenant between God andhis people had been officially
made again.
The only thing left to do wasto repopulate the city of
Jerusalem.
That's all that was left.
And if you remember, back inNehemiah 7, it said that there
was a call that went out to theentire Jewish nation, those who
had been returned from exile forpeople to come and move back to
(08:48):
Jerusalem.
It's a great place.
I don't know if they hadbillboards or you know how they
marketed it or advertised it,but here's the reality.
The only people, or themajority of people, who chose to
move back voluntarily were theleaders.
People who chose to move backvoluntarily were the leaders.
Were the leaders.
Not many of the normal peopleor the regular people.
(09:09):
The followers, those who woulddo the work actually moved back
to Jerusalem just on that firstrequest, that first ask for
there to be volunteers there hadalready been, like I said, that
call.
The leaders responded thereweren't many others who seemed
willing, and I wondered why wasit that they weren't willing
initially?
(09:29):
Why was that?
So what did they do?
The decision was made to castlots which, under priestly
direction, was believed toreveal God's will right and as a
result of this, one out ofevery 10, which is a tithe a
10th percent of the people werechosen and agreed to move in
from the countryside, from theareas that were surrounding
(09:51):
Jerusalem.
So again, there may have beenmany reasons that people were
reticent to jump on the movingtrain and to realize the amount
of work that would be requiredof them in Jerusalem.
Maybe the perceived threat ofenemy attacks was on their list
of reasons not to move toJerusalem.
Maybe it was, you know, movingaway from their comfort zones.
(10:16):
We have our space here.
We're allowed to have chickens,wild chickens, running around
the yard.
You know there are no HOAs.
I think we just I think we'recomfortable living outside of
the walls of Jerusalem.
There's going to be somethingmore required of us if we move
within those walls, within thosewalls.
(10:38):
So, as I was reading thischapter over and over again and
trying to discern from the Lordwhat it is that I could say from
these two verses and the restof the verses that were names,
here's what I felt like the Lordshared with me.
It may have been difficult forpeople to choose to return on
their own accord because of whatwould be required of them when
(11:01):
it came to holiness.
When it came to holiness, we'regoing to talk about holiness
this morning.
So take a deep breath, it'sgoing to be okay.
It's interesting to me thesongs that were sung this
morning, and even the last song.
We were talking about holinessand they didn't know what we
were going to share this morning.
But God knew and he has it inorder, right.
(11:23):
So let's take one phrase out ofthose first two verses and
let's kind of land there for afew minutes.
Jerusalem, the holy city.
Jerusalem, the holy city.
The name Jerusalem meanspossession of peace or place of
peace, city of peace.
(11:44):
Very few times in the Bible isthere a description of a place
where the word holy is appliedto it.
Do you realize that there arevery few places in the Bible at
all where a place is called holy.
There are a few, there are afew, and this one indication
concerning Jerusalem is a bigone.
(12:05):
There's an indication here.
There's something that we needto dig into a little bit deeper.
What does holy mean?
Let's look at that.
Holy means set apart,consecrated and pure.
To be holy is to be set apart,it is to be consecrated.
It is to be set apart.
(12:25):
It is to be consecrated, it isto be pure.
In order to understand holiness,we have to go to one place only
, and where is that?
We have to recognize that Godis holy.
God is holy.
If you want to understandholiness, you cannot understand
it outside of God himself.
God's holiness is not just apart of who he is or what he
does.
It's the very essence of who heis.
(12:48):
God is holy.
Neil does a great job ofexpressing this by saying that
God is other.
There's an otherness to Godthat is not easily explained,
that is not easily understood.
We all who have basked in hispresence, who are children of
his, we have enjoyed that, wehave understood that, we have
(13:11):
experienced it in our lives theotherness of God.
But it's hard to explain or tounderstand unless you have been
touched by him or experiencedhim or moved on by him, if that
makes sense.
It's not just something thatyou can hear about and be able
to fully understand.
(13:32):
Right the expression God isholy.
It seems impossible to fullydefine the characteristics of
God, but it has to do with hisabsolute perfection.
God is absolutely perfect inevery way.
How many of us believe thatevery decision God makes is
(13:54):
absolutely perfect?
It's a loaded question, becausesometimes he chooses to say no
to a prayer that we really wanthim to answer in a certain way.
But is God absolutely perfect?
He is, he's absolutely perfectand he's absolutely trustworthy.
(14:15):
That's who he is.
He is completely absent of evena trace of sin.
There's not a trace of sin.
He doesn't even have the traceof sin.
There's not a trace of sin.
There's not, there's not.
He doesn't even have theability to sin.
He is above it and beyond it.
He's greater than sin.
He is high above any other andno one can compare to him.
(14:41):
No one can compare to him.
Everything that God thinks,everything that he desires,
everything he speaks, everythinghe does is absolutely holy in
every way.
This is who God is.
God is holy.
He's holy in every attributeand every action.
(15:03):
He's holy in justice.
He's holy in love.
He's holy in mercy.
He is holy in power.
He is holy in sovereignty.
He is holy in wisdom.
He is holy in patience.
He is holy in anger.
He is holy in grace.
He is holy in faithfulness.
He is holy in compassion.
(15:24):
He is even holy in faithfulness.
He is holy in compassion.
He is even holy in his holiness.
God is holy.
We have a representation ofthis in Isaiah.
(15:46):
Isaiah, this young prophet, thisyoung man who would speak for
the Lord, has this experiencewith God and his holiness in
chapter six.
Let's look there.
At Isaiah, chapter six, versesone through seven.
In the year that King Uzziahdied, I saw the Lord sitting
upon a throne.
Can you imagine this?
Isaiah is given a vision orsome kind of entrance point into
the very throne of God where heenvisions this.
I saw the Lord sitting upon athrone, high and lifted up, and
(16:11):
the train of his robe filled thetemple.
Above him stood the seraphim,each had six wings.
With two he covered his faceand with two he covered his feet
, and with two he flew.
I mean, steven Spielberg hasnothing on heaven, am I right?
Yeah, we had a Star Warsmention.
(16:32):
We'll just go all the way withit today.
And one called to another andsaid holy, holy, holy is the
Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of hisglory and the foundations of the
thresholds shook at the voiceof him who called, and the house
was filled with smoke.
(16:54):
Imagine Isaiah seeing thesethings.
He's experiencing this inliving color as he's given a
glimpse of God in his glory.
And what is his response?
Did he climb up in God's lapand give him a hug?
Did he high-five him?
Did he say yo, what's up?
Maybe he could have done that?
(17:15):
God understands.
But what did he do?
He said woe is me, for I amlost, for I'm a man of unclean
lips and I dwell in the midst ofa people of unclean lips, for
(17:35):
my eyes have seen the king, theLord of hosts.
Then one of the seraphim flewto me having in his hand a
burning coal that he had takenwith tongs from the altar, and
he touched my mouth and saidbehold, this has touched your
lips.
Your guilt is taken away andyour sin atoned for.
(17:57):
Did you know that the experiencethat the Jewish people are
having in repopulating Jerusalemwas partially as a result of
Isaiah's prophecies?
Did you know that Jesus and thestory of Jesus as he lived in
this life and died, the way thathe died and rose from the dead,
was partially prophesied andspoken of in the book of Isaiah.
From this point in Isaiah'slife, every word that he spoke
(18:21):
came to pass.
But what was required of him?
It was required of him to beencountered by a holy God.
My friends, god is holy.
We cannot encounter God'sholiness and remain the same.
(18:43):
Do not tell me that you andJesus have an understanding and
go on living like the rest ofthe world and still claim to be
a Christian.
God is holy and if weexperience his holiness, we
(19:03):
cannot remain the same.
We must change.
How many of you know he's notgoing to change?
He's proven that he is notgoing to change.
So who's going to do thechanging we are?
So not only is God holy, butwherever God is instantly
(19:25):
becomes holy.
Wherever God dwells is holy.
Let's not forget that therebuilding of Jerusalem was not
as much about walls and gates.
What was contained within thosewalls?
The temple.
The temple was contained withinthose walls.
One of the biggest parts, itwas the heart of the city of God
(19:49):
, this holy city.
The temple was there.
This is where God had chosen toput his name and his presence.
And once a year, the highpriest over the nation of Israel
, on Yom Kippur, the day ofatonement, would be allowed and
privileged to go into theholiest place, the holy of
holies, where the Ark of theCovenant sat with its mercy seat
(20:10):
and the two angels that wereshrouding it on one side or the
other.
All of this representative ofJesus who came to bring mercy to
us.
Amen.
And so the high priest wouldcome and he would repent of his
own sins and the sins of hisfamily and the sins of the
entire nation, and he would getto experience, just for a few
(20:32):
moments in time, once per year,the presence of a holy God.
Wherever God is is holy.
Not only is God holy andwherever he dwells is holy, but
(20:52):
also the people of God arecalled to holiness.
It's one thing to say God isholy, he is other, he's
different, he's set apart, he'ssanctified, he's all of those
things.
But I am not.
You see, israel was God'schosen nation, god's chosen
(21:13):
people, his special people, andconsequently they were given
standards that God wanted themto live by, so the world would
know that they belong to him.
There needed to be a separation, a distinction between the
nation of Israel and the rest ofthe world.
Why in the world is there somuch war in the Old Testament?
(21:35):
Why in the world is there somuch death and destruction?
You know, the main reason isbecause God wanted to separate
out to himself a holy nation, aholy people who could represent
him to the world.
And what did he know aboutthese people?
If they were allowed to besurrounded by and trenched in
(21:56):
the cultures of the rest of thisworld, what would they do?
They would be compromised.
They would give in to thethings that they saw around them
.
Sorry for this tickle in mythroat.
(22:21):
So did God shroud all of thisthe holiness that he required of
them, or did he make it prettysimple and pretty plain?
He actually wrote it on twotablets, didn't he?
Let's just quote those together, if you remember them.
If not, they're on the screenin modern language.
So let's just say them together.
(22:41):
Number one you shall have noother gods before me.
Number two you shall not makefor yourself an idol.
Three you shall not misuse thename of the Lord, your God.
Four remember the Sabbath dayby keeping it holy.
Five honor your father and yourmother.
(23:05):
Six you shall not murder.
Seven, you shall not commitadultery.
Eight, you shall not steal.
Nine, you shall not give falsetestimony against your neighbor.
And ten you shall not givefalse testimony against your
(23:25):
neighbor.
And 10, you shall not covet.
This was God's requirement ofhis people when it came to
holiness.
How many of you know, jesus wasasked a question by somebody who
was seeking knowledge.
They wanted to know what is thegreatest commandment, and how
did Jesus answer them?
We find it in Matthew 22, wherehe says you shall love the Lord
(23:49):
, your God, with all your heart,with all your soul and with all
your mind.
This is the great and firstcommandment, and a second is
like it you shall love yourneighbor as yourself.
On these two commandmentsdepend all the law and the
prophets Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul,
mind and strength, and love yourneighbor as yourself.
(24:10):
How many of you know that ifyou do those two things, the Ten
Commandments will be obeyed?
Because the Ten Commandmentsare really broken into two
categories loving God and lovingpeople.
Loving God and loving people,and that's what Jesus said.
Let's narrow it down to thesetwo things.
By the way, we're going to bestarting, in the month of June,
(24:32):
a new sermon series on theSermon on the Mount.
And I'm so excited about thisas we read the words of Jesus,
because he kind of one-ups.
If you think we can get awayfrom the Ten Commandments, he
one-ups them quite a bit becausehe not only talks about the
doing of something, he talksabout the motivation or the
(24:54):
heart behind things.
And if there's any doubt for usas modern believers concerning
God's directive concerningholiness, let's read 1 Peter, 1,
verses 13 through 16.
Therefore, preparing your mindsfor action and being
sober-minded, set your hopefully on the grace that will be
brought to you at the revelationof Jesus Christ.
(25:15):
As obedient children, do not beconformed to the passions of
your former ignorance.
But, as he has called, you isholy.
Who is holy?
God is holy.
You also be holy in all yourconduct.
Since it is written, you shallbe holy, for I am holy.
(25:37):
This is the word of God in theNew Testament.
Under the new covenant, we arecalled, as followers of Jesus
Christ, to walk in holiness.
We are called to live in glasshouses.
It's not a bad thing, it's agood thing.
And my life verse is found infirst Timothy and in it Paul
(26:03):
lays out for his son, timothy,an example, a very practical way
to look at what it means tolive a life of holiness.
1 Timothy 4.12,.
Let no one despise you for youryouth, but set the believers an
example in speech, in conduct,in love, in faith and in purity.
(26:23):
That is what it looks like tolive out a holy life.
Let's talk about these fivethings just quickly.
Holy speech, holy speech,friends.
(26:49):
What we say, what we saymatters.
What we say matters.
How horrible would it be for meto be in a job for three years
as a pastor?
Obviously, but in a job forthree years and for nobody know
that I'm a Christian, becausethey can't tell any difference
from my pattern of speech.
I tell the same jokes thateverybody else tells.
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I use the same words thateverybody else uses.
I am out of control when itcomes to what I say.
Do we use our speech to buildup or to tear down?
To bless or to curse?
To speak truth or to speak lies?
To witness or to deny JesusChrist?
(27:37):
These are our options, just afew of them.
These are our options, just afew of them.
We are called, as followers ofJesus Christ, to use holy speech
.
Do not be conformed to thepattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing ofyour mind.
(27:59):
I'll never forget.
I was in an accident one time.
It had snowed really bad andthere was still ice on the roads
, but it was like 60 degrees andI was delivering pizza and I
was driving my brother's Jeep,because it was a four-wheel
drive, and I had gotten prettyconfident because all the roads
were clear and all of a sudden Icame around a corner and it was
(28:27):
covered over, shaded, by treesthat were along that road, and I
found that vehicle slidingacross the road directly towards
another vehicle and I foundmyself screaming out a word that
I don't remember ever usingbefore, at least out loud.
I said bleep.
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I was honestly more devastatedby the word that came out of my
mouth than the accident itself.
The gentleman got out of thetruck.
Nobody was hurt, everything wasgood and he looked at me and he
said you have insurance?
I said yes, sir, I do.
He said good, I need a newtruck.
At that point I wanted to useanother word, but I refrained
(29:13):
from doing that.
Now I did.
I talked to the Lord about thatfor quite some time and I had
another incident, not maybethree years later, it wasn't the
same, I wasn't in an accident,but it was similar and I
screamed out, jesus, and I waslike I had to pull over and just
(29:33):
take a praise break for aminute, you know, because what
we say matters.
Oh, you're just being religious, tyler.
Come on, you're just beingreligious.
Okay, what we say matters Holyconduct, how we live, matters.
(29:54):
The way that we live our lives.
Are we genuine or are wecounterfeit?
Are we generous with our livesor are we selfish?
Are we Christ-like or do weresemble the world that's around
us?
The way that we live our livesmakes a difference.
It matters.
Can you imagine if the entireChristian world would live their
(30:16):
lives in such a way to portraythe holiness of God to the world
around them?
We cry out for America, but arewe willing to do our part?
(30:37):
The third one is holy love,loving God and loving others, as
Jesus said.
Do we walk in forgiveness or dowe grow ever more bitter?
Are we a worshiper or are wedetached?
Do we love, are we filled withcompassion towards others or are
we just overly critical?
Well, they deserve it.
(30:57):
They put themselves in thatplace.
Do we have right relationshipsthat are built on love and trust
, or is everything counterfeit?
We are called to walk in loveand to be holy in love.
(31:19):
The fourth is faith.
Holy faith.
We are to have an unshakabletrust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do we believe or do we doubt?
Do we pray or do we worry?
One of the greatest forms ofunbelief is worry.
Man, I feel like I'm going toneed a vacation after today.
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This is heavy stuff.
Do we share our faith or do weremain silent?
We are called to be people whowalk in holiness of faith, in
holy faith.
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And finally, holy purity.
What does purity mean?
Pure thoughts, pure attitudes,pure motivations, the reason why
we do the things that we do,the reason why we say the things
that we say, the reason why,the reasons, the motivations,
the attitudes of our heart.
Do we love others or do we lustafter them?
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Do we submit to godly authorityor do we rebel?
Are we filled with holy purity?
My friends, this is the call.
This was the call to the nationof Israel.
This was the call that, Ibelieve, caused there to be
resistance, to move back intothose walls of Jerusalem, to
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understand that you were goingto be watched, that you're going
to be plugged in and tovolunteer positions that you're
going to be having to defend,that you're going to be praising
all of the time.
You're going to be involved inthe reading of the word, all the
time You're going to beinvolved in the core, the very
center, most part of everythingthat God was doing in the earth
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at the time.
That sounds exciting until youcount the cost.
Remember, jesus said to hisdisciples you got to count the
cost of being a follower ofJesus.
You must deny yourself.
Take up the cross daily andfollow me.
What is that cross about?
That cross is about saying noto the things that we want to
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say yes to, and saying yes tothe things that we want to say
no to those things that are inalignment with what God wants.
That is a cross to bearHoliness is not for the faint of
heart.
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Israel had a real problem and,to be honest, we do too.
Without Jesus, you wonder whyin the world did they get it
right for a while and then theygot it very wrong?
They got it right for a whileand then they got it even worse
wrong, and then it got back andforth and back and forth.
Why is that?
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Why is that recorded like that?
Back and forth and back andforth?
Why is that?
Why is that recorded like that?
Why do the apostles of Jesusand the disciples and all of the
New Testament books show usexamples of failings?
Because if we could get itright, we wouldn't need Jesus.
Jesus, the Jewish nation, was torepresent God and his holiness,
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but they couldn't do it all theway.
They couldn't do it toperfection.
They couldn't perform the waythat God wanted them to perform.
They had to do the best theycould with what they were given,
but they, they needed to fail.
They needed to fail, theyneeded to fail.
That's the whole point.
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The reason we don't like glasshouses is because we know our
own failures.
We want to cover them up, likeAdam and Eve in the garden.
But, my friends, here's the goodnews Jesus, the Holy One, makes
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us holy.
Jesus is the only human who hasever lived a completely holy
life on this earth.
He died as a spotless sacrifice, taking upon himself our
unholiness and making a way forus to be reunited to God, our
Father.
He was always pure in hisspeech.
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He was always right in his love.
He was always correct in theway that he believed.
He always lived a pure life.
He lived his life as an exampleto all of us.
For us, holiness can only comefrom one place.
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It cannot come from us willingit.
It can't come from us having a21-day plan.
It can't come from us strivingor beating ourselves up enough
or doing more and more and more.
It cannot come from external.
It cannot come from us behavingin a certain way.
(36:35):
Holiness comes to us as adirect result of our right
relationship with God, byputting our faith, hope and
trust in Jesus Christ.
He is holy and he makes us holy.
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If we have not yet placed ourhope and faith and trust in
jesus christ to save us from oursins, then our pursuit of
holiness is in vain.
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You will not get there on yourown.
There is no path to holinessoutside of Jesus.
I've had several conversationswith people recently who have
said there's many ways to get toGod.
How do we know that this is theright one?
It's because he said it was.
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I am the way, the truth and thelife.
No one comes to the Fatherexcept by me.
Jesus is the way, not a way,not one of many.
This is not my religion.
This is a relationship with aliving Savior.
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So, in order to live holy lives, let's make sure, first of all,
that we are born againbelievers.
And you can do that today.
You can respond to the HolySpirit awakening you to this
truth and you can say Jesus,save me, change my heart, change
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my mind.
I am a sinner, I'm notdeserving of your grace, but I
need it, I desperately need it.
I want to change, change me,change me.
Our position in Christ, if weare truly believers,
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automatically sets us apart fromthe rest of the world.
Look in 1 Peter 2, verses 9 and10.
But you are a chosen race, aroyal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for his own possessionthat you may proclaim the
excellencies of him, who calledyou out of darkness into his
marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, butnow you are God's people.
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Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received
mercy.
This is our story, this is oursong.
This is our story.
This is our song, this is ourtestimony.
Once I was lost, but now I amfound.
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You see, under the old covenant,god dwelt in temples made with
hands.
But how many of you know, inthe new covenant it's very
different.
No longer does he live intemples made with hands.
But how many of you know, inthe new covenant it's very
different.
No longer does he live intemples made with hands.
He lives inside of us asfollowers of Jesus Christ,
because we are filled with theHoly Spirit of God.
The what the Holy Spirit of God.
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You see, the Holy Spirit enablesus to live holy lives.
It's not just that Jesus makesus holy.
We still get to live here inthis life in glass houses, not
just for the church to look andto view our lives, but for the
world around us to see adifference.
He lives on the inside of us.
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We can rely on him to convictus, to challenge us, to equip us
to act like Jesus.
If anybody knows how to actlike Jesus, it's the Holy Spirit
.
How many of you know, jesus didno miraculous works here in
this life until he was filledwith the Holy Spirit, and so he
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passed that same thing onto us.
Romans 8 describes it like thisIf the spirit of him who raised
Jesus from the dead dwells inyou, he who raised Christ Jesus
from the dead will also givelife to your mortal bodies
through his spirit who dwells inyou.
So then, brothers, we aredebtors not to the flesh, to
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live according to the flesh, forif you live according to the
flesh you will die, but if, bythe spirit, you put to death the
deeds of the body, you willlive, for all who are led by the
Spirit of God are sons of God.
The Holy Spirit enables us tolive holy lives.
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He equips us.
How many of you have had theHoly Spirit warn you?
How many of you have had thatthing in the pit of your stomach
?
That's not just somethingthat's in your natural character
or nature to be able todiscover.
That's the Holy Spirit, softly,gently at first, tweaking you.
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Hello, hey, tyler.
Nope, we don't go there.
Does the Holy Spirit talk toyou like that?
Sometimes it feels like he'stalking to me like that.
Nope, we don't go there, we'renot doing that.
But I want to, I really, reallywant to.
Nope, we're not doing that,don't go there.
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Ultimately, we live in glasshouses so that the world might
see Jesus going back to Nehemiah.
In that last part of thoseverses it says and the people
blessed all the men whowillingly offered to live in
Jerusalem.
It's funny, the willinglyoffered part After they cast
lots and the lot fell on themand their name was called out
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and they were brought before thepeople and they said oh, we'll
go.
Yep, send us, we'll go.
Would you mark down?
I volunteered to go toJerusalem Tyler's on the first
trip, all right, but the worldaround them, the world around
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them, the world around them,applauded them, recognized in
them something was different,something had changed.
Something was different.
Something had changed,something was new.
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And I guarantee you that thenine out of ten that remained in
their places of comfort lookedin those glass houses in
Jerusalem and they said to theirchildren act like that.
They said to theirgrandchildren you hear the song
that they're singing.
Sing that song Now, theirgreat-grandchildren.
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You hear the declaration ofscripture, the word of God
that's being proclaimed inJerusalem.
The word of God is beingproclaimed in Jerusalem.
Let's proclaim that in our home, too.
It matters.
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We who are followers of Jesus,with all of the advantages that
that brings, have even moreopportunity to show the world
around us who Jesus is by livingholy lives that are constantly
being transformed by the work ofthe Holy Spirit.
By the way, one of the mostholy acts that you can perform
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is an apology Fathersapologizing to their children
for becoming too angry, mothersor wives apologizing for a lack
of patience.
Neighbors yes, neighbors.
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I had this experience this week.
I had somebody, while we wereon our trip, sent me a note via
Facebook Messenger one of myneighbors that I had apparently
scraped up against his fencewith my lawnmower.
Now I got, to be honest, Idon't remember hitting that
fence.
But if he believes I hit thatfence, I need to go the extra
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mile.
And so I said to him I need togo the extra mile.
And so I said to him you dirty,rotten, I'll talk to you when I
get home.
I got two friends, smith andWesson.
No, no, no.
That's how we want to act.
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That's how we want to act.
That's how we want to react.
I said you know, if there'seven a chance that it was me
that did that, I want to justsincerely apologize.
And I said I want to make itright.
If there's something I can doto purchase, if there's some
work that I can do to help getit right, let me know.
I want to be a part of that andI'm sorry that that happened
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and I will be fastidious and,trust me, there will be a swath
of weeds between that fence andmy lawnmower, from this point
forward and forevermore, and Iwill be okay with that.
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We live in glass houses, andit's a good thing.
How else is the world going toknow?
Well, jesus would just appearin all of his spirit.
We get to be the light,finishing up in Matthew 5,.
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Nor do people light a lamp andput it under a basket, but on a
stand, and it gives light to allin the house In the same way.
Let your light shine beforeothers so that they may see your
good works and give glory toyour Father, who is in heaven.
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We don't do good works in orderto earn something from God.
We aren't holy in order to beable to say we're holy.
Holiness is a gift of gracefrom God, but we are required to
walk in it.
We are required by God's graceto walk in it.
We have everything that we needfor life and godliness.
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It's all been given to us, butwe still have to choose, as part
of our sanctification process,to say yes to the things that
God says yes to and to say no tothe things that God says no to.
Jerusalem, the holy city,knoxville, the holy city, the
lined home, the holy city, andon and on and on.
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Would you stand to your feetwith me, father?
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We thank you that you are holy,that you are set apart, that
you are other.
And yet, in your faithfulness,you did not want to leave us as
unholy and destined for hell,and so you sent your Holy Son to
do the work that only he coulddo.
And you gave us the ability, bythe Spirit of God, to say yes
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to you and to your call tobelieve on the Lord, jesus
Christ, and be saved.
And you also filled us withyour spirit.
And you constantly fill us andfill us again and again and
again with your spirit, not justfor power, not just for benefit
, lord, to equip us to beobedient to you.
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And so, father, I pray that youwould help all of us to embrace
glass house living, to embracethe fact that you have called us
to be other, that you havecalled us to live like none
other on earth, no otherreligion, no other foundation
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but Christ and him crucified.
And so, father, we pray thatyou would enable us, this week,
to make the changes in ourpatterns of speech.
Lord, would you deal with us inthe way that we conduct our
daily lives?
Lord, would you deal with us inthe way that we conduct our
daily lives.
Would you help us, lord, to putour faith in you in
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ever-growing ways?
Lord, would you help the lovethat we read about in 1
Corinthians 13 be real to us,first of all as recipients from
you.
And also, lord, would you helpus to transfer that love to
others?
And, father, would you alsomake us pure, refine us in
refiner's fire, not to destroyus, but to make us holy?
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Lord, we know that your desireis to return for a church
without spot or blemish.
And, lord, we confess to youthat there's no way that we can
make that happen outside of you,and so we ask you for your help
.
We ask you for your help.
Lead us and guide us.
Turn up the volume on theconviction of the Holy Spirit in
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our lives.
Help us to view thingsdifferently from this day
forward.
And, lord, for those who don'tyet know you, I pray that today
would be the day of salvation,that they would put their
confidence in you.
They would recognize that, eventhough maybe they've been in
church a lot of times or they'veread the Bible before, maybe
they just have realized todaythey've never dedicated,
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consecrated their lives to you.
Pray that today would be theirday.
We also pray for those that arenot here today, that we're all
crying out to you, for theprodigals, lord, those who have
tasted of the goodness of Godand yet find themselves running
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hiding.
Lord, would you cause them tocome to their senses, to return
to the God of their salvationand to be restored?
We give you glory and honor foreverything that you do, but,
most importantly, for who youare, and I pray, lord, for a
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blessing upon each and everyperson.
Pray that you would keep us inevery way.
We ask that you would causeyour face to shine upon us and
be gracious to us.
Lift up your countenance uponus and give us peace In Jesus'
name, amen.
Mark did an excellent job last week of
showing us the renewal of thecovenant between God and his
people After the wall wasfinished and people came to a
point of repentance andrealizing their need for God
again, and then this covenantwas struck between them and God
and, kind of springboarding offof that, today's message is
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called Living in Glass HousesLiving in Glass Houses.
So let's look at Nehemiah,chapter 11, verses 1 and 2, and
that's what we're going to readNehemiah 11, verses 1 and 2.
Now the leaders of the peoplelived in Jerusalem and the rest
of the people cast lots to bringone out of ten to live in
Jerusalem, the holy city, whilenine out of ten remained in the
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other towns, and the peopleblessed all the men who
willingly offered to live inJerusalem.
Now there's a lot more in thischapter and there's about a
gazillion names, okay, and we'vemade comments each week about
the names and the pronunciationof the names.
Why are the names listed for usin scripture, especially in the
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Old Testament?
Well, there's a reason.
The reason is because we cantrace the line, the lineage of
Jesus, all the way from Adam andall the way to Joseph and Mary
and to Jesus himself, and sothose names are very significant
and important.
Also, the people who were thepeople of God, the Jewish nation
, were represented, arerepresented in those names and
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also, on top of that, these areindividual people who are
obedient to the call, and sothey're given commendation, if
that makes sense, in thesedifferent chapters.
So I know we've been reading inour Bible reading plan through
the Old Testament.
We've kind of landed inChronicles as of late a little
bit, and there's a lot of names,a lot of names.
But if you can think about itin terms of why they're there
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and how they draw a connectionpoint between Jesus and even all
the way back to the Garden ofEden, it's so important and so
impactful.
All right, so let's pray.
Father, we thank you for thisday, we thank you that you're
here with us, thank you for yourpresence that is here.
Lord, we ask you that you wouldcontinue to work and do what
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only you can do in this serviceChange our hearts, change our
minds.
Do exactly.
We ask that your will wouldcome to pass in every way in
Jesus' name, amen, amen.
So, if you don't know, I am acard-carrying member of.
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How do I say this?
I'm a PK.
I'm a PK.
What is a PK?
I'm a preacher's kid.
I'm a pastor's kid.
Not only that, but I have fourchildren, and guess what they
are?
They're PKs as well.
Right, and then we have anothergeneration, which we just spent
a few days with in Florida, andI've discerned.
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My daughter, hannah, came upwith a great wisdom on a
Wednesday when we were allattempting to do the next thing.
That comes with a house full ofpeople and a bunch of little
kids, right, and she said.
Somebody said to her use theword vacation, and she said oh
no, this is not a vacation, thisis a trip.
There's a difference between atrip and a vacation.
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I didn't discern that beforenow, but now I know.
A trip is something that has anagenda, where everything moves
according to a certain you know,movement, and it's basically.
Everything was based upon thegrandchildren, which was amazing
.
We enjoyed every minute of it,right.
And then we went to Mark'swedding and we drove home.
We got home about 11 o'clocklast night.
So I'm praying that my filtersare all in place and then I'm
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able to fire on all cylindersand say all the things that I
feel like God wants me to saythis morning.
But I also want to give you alittle bit of context as to what
this week has held for us.
It was amazing.
We loved it so much and we hada good time.
Amy and I had a good time.
We rode in silence for a whilein the car.
It wasn't because we were angrywith each other, it was just
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because it was still.
It was still and it was quiet.
We were trying to take a napjust for a few minutes one day,
and Emma, one of ourthree-year-olds, somehow escaped
the room where she was supposedto be napping, and so she made
her way.
I don't know how she knew whichroom was ours, but she made her
way down to her way down to ourroom.
(04:34):
And hey pops, hey Mimi, whatyou doing?
Open the door.
So it was like oh, here we go,we're on a trip, anyway.
So what am I saying by me beinga preacher's kid and my kids
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being PKs and then their kidsbeing KPKs, which are kids of
preacher's kids?
That's a new one that I've justcoined this morning, so you can
use that one if you'd like touse it.
What does that have to do withanything that we're talking
about this morning from thispassage?
Well, how many of you know thatthe general public doesn't
necessarily have a positiveoutlook on PKs.
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In fact, a lot of times, pksare looked down upon because
what they're crazy, they're wild.
They do all of this stuff Well,and sometimes that's warranted.
Sometimes it is like that right, and we understand that General
public doesn't know something,though, about this group of
people, and I want to make youaware.
If you're not a card carryingmember, I want to bring you into
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our world a little bit.
Like it or not, our lives are onconstant display.
Those who have the name pastoror preacher in front of their
last names, or however it is, welive in glass houses.
Our lives are on full display.
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People get a front row seat tothe good, the bad and the ugly,
because we do live in proverbialglass houses.
And for most people andprobably for most of my life, to
be honest, I have had a littlebit of resentment in my heart
about that.
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It's like why, why is it methat?
Why do we have to live in thatway?
Why is it that everybody getsto be exposed to our lives and
all of the things that happen inour lives?
And my children, especially,have asked that when I tell
particular stories about ourlives and about our family, you
know I've had to learn as theiradult children now that
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sometimes I need to run a storypast them to make sure that it
receives their approval levelbefore I share it with the
entire congregation and theworld that's watching via the
World Wide Web, right?
But most people who haveexperienced the phenomenon of
being a PK speak of it innegative terms, based on feeling
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unfairly judged.
Unfairly judged, unfairlyjudged.
But as I thought about thisthis last couple of weeks, I
realized that the forcedopenness of my life has been
used as a sort of protectionmechanism for me to keep me
considering the long-reachingeffects of my life and my
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choices.
So here's a thought that I havefor us today, and you don't
have to receive this, you canjust consider it, ponder it,
whatever it is that you want todo, but maybe it would actually
be better if all followers ofJesus lived in glass houses.
Maybe it would be better, maybethe world would be better off
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if every believer in JesusChrist lived in a glass house.
In our passage today, thechildren of Israel were being
asked to place themselves insort of a similar position the
work that Nehemiah had begun andbeen called by God to do was
basically completed.
Right, the walls had beenrepaired, the gates were hanging
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in place, people had beenplaced on guard, there was
worship that was going on in thecity, all of the leaders had
been chosen and placed indifferent realms of authority.
Most importantly, the word ofGod had been proclaimed again
and put in its proper place inthe community.
The people had repented andturned back to God.
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The covenant between God andhis people had been officially
made again.
The only thing left to do wasto repopulate the city of
Jerusalem.
That's all that was left.
And if you remember, back inNehemiah 7, it said that there
was a call that went out to theentire Jewish nation, those who
had been returned from exile forpeople to come and move back to
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Jerusalem.
It's a great place.
I don't know if they hadbillboards or you know how they
marketed it or advertised it,but here's the reality.
The only people, or themajority of people, who chose to
move back voluntarily were theleaders.
People who chose to move backvoluntarily were the leaders.
Were the leaders.
Not many of the normal peopleor the regular people.
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The followers, those who woulddo the work actually moved back
to Jerusalem just on that firstrequest, that first ask for
there to be volunteers there hadalready been, like I said, that
call.
The leaders responded thereweren't many others who seemed
willing, and I wondered why wasit that they weren't willing
initially?
(09:29):
Why was that?
So what did they do?
The decision was made to castlots which, under priestly
direction, was believed toreveal God's will right and as a
result of this, one out ofevery 10, which is a tithe a
10th percent of the people werechosen and agreed to move in
from the countryside, from theareas that were surrounding
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Jerusalem.
So again, there may have beenmany reasons that people were
reticent to jump on the movingtrain and to realize the amount
of work that would be requiredof them in Jerusalem.
Maybe the perceived threat ofenemy attacks was on their list
of reasons not to move toJerusalem.
Maybe it was, you know, movingaway from their comfort zones.
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We have our space here.
We're allowed to have chickens,wild chickens, running around
the yard.
You know there are no HOAs.
I think we just I think we'recomfortable living outside of
the walls of Jerusalem.
There's going to be somethingmore required of us if we move
within those walls, within thosewalls.
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So, as I was reading thischapter over and over again and
trying to discern from the Lordwhat it is that I could say from
these two verses and the restof the verses that were names,
here's what I felt like the Lordshared with me.
It may have been difficult forpeople to choose to return on
their own accord because of whatwould be required of them when
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it came to holiness.
When it came to holiness, we'regoing to talk about holiness
this morning.
So take a deep breath, it'sgoing to be okay.
It's interesting to me thesongs that were sung this
morning, and even the last song.
We were talking about holinessand they didn't know what we
were going to share this morning.
But God knew and he has it inorder, right.
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So let's take one phrase out ofthose first two verses and
let's kind of land there for afew minutes.
Jerusalem, the holy city.
Jerusalem, the holy city.
The name Jerusalem meanspossession of peace or place of
peace, city of peace.
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Very few times in the Bible isthere a description of a place
where the word holy is appliedto it.
Do you realize that there arevery few places in the Bible at
all where a place is called holy.
There are a few, there are afew, and this one indication
concerning Jerusalem is a bigone.
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There's an indication here.
There's something that we needto dig into a little bit deeper.
What does holy mean?
Let's look at that.
Holy means set apart,consecrated and pure.
To be holy is to be set apart,it is to be consecrated.
It is to be set apart.
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It is to be consecrated, it isto be pure.
In order to understand holiness,we have to go to one place only
, and where is that?
We have to recognize that Godis holy.
God is holy.
If you want to understandholiness, you cannot understand
it outside of God himself.
God's holiness is not just apart of who he is or what he
does.
It's the very essence of who heis.
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God is holy.
Neil does a great job ofexpressing this by saying that
God is other.
There's an otherness to Godthat is not easily explained,
that is not easily understood.
We all who have basked in hispresence, who are children of
his, we have enjoyed that, wehave understood that, we have
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experienced it in our lives theotherness of God.
But it's hard to explain or tounderstand unless you have been
touched by him or experiencedhim or moved on by him, if that
makes sense.
It's not just something thatyou can hear about and be able
to fully understand.
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Right the expression God isholy.
It seems impossible to fullydefine the characteristics of
God, but it has to do with hisabsolute perfection.
God is absolutely perfect inevery way.
How many of us believe thatevery decision God makes is
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absolutely perfect?
It's a loaded question, becausesometimes he chooses to say no
to a prayer that we really wanthim to answer in a certain way.
But is God absolutely perfect?
He is, he's absolutely perfectand he's absolutely trustworthy.
(14:15):
That's who he is.
He is completely absent of evena trace of sin.
There's not a trace of sin.
He doesn't even have the traceof sin.
There's not a trace of sin.
There's not, there's not.
He doesn't even have theability to sin.
He is above it and beyond it.
He's greater than sin.
He is high above any other andno one can compare to him.
(14:41):
No one can compare to him.
Everything that God thinks,everything that he desires,
everything he speaks, everythinghe does is absolutely holy in
every way.
This is who God is.
God is holy.
He's holy in every attributeand every action.
(15:03):
He's holy in justice.
He's holy in love.
He's holy in mercy.
He is holy in power.
He is holy in sovereignty.
He is holy in wisdom.
He is holy in patience.
He is holy in anger.
He is holy in grace.
He is holy in faithfulness.
He is holy in compassion.
(15:24):
He is even holy in faithfulness.
He is holy in compassion.
He is even holy in his holiness.
God is holy.
We have a representation ofthis in Isaiah.
(15:46):
Isaiah, this young prophet, thisyoung man who would speak for
the Lord, has this experiencewith God and his holiness in
chapter six.
Let's look there.
At Isaiah, chapter six, versesone through seven.
In the year that King Uzziahdied, I saw the Lord sitting
upon a throne.
Can you imagine this?
Isaiah is given a vision orsome kind of entrance point into
the very throne of God where heenvisions this.
I saw the Lord sitting upon athrone, high and lifted up, and
(16:11):
the train of his robe filled thetemple.
Above him stood the seraphim,each had six wings.
With two he covered his faceand with two he covered his feet
, and with two he flew.
I mean, steven Spielberg hasnothing on heaven, am I right?
Yeah, we had a Star Warsmention.
(16:32):
We'll just go all the way withit today.
And one called to another andsaid holy, holy, holy is the
Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of hisglory and the foundations of the
thresholds shook at the voiceof him who called, and the house
was filled with smoke.
(16:54):
Imagine Isaiah seeing thesethings.
He's experiencing this inliving color as he's given a
glimpse of God in his glory.
And what is his response?
Did he climb up in God's lapand give him a hug?
Did he high-five him?
Did he say yo, what's up?
Maybe he could have done that?
(17:15):
God understands.
But what did he do?
He said woe is me, for I amlost, for I'm a man of unclean
lips and I dwell in the midst ofa people of unclean lips, for
(17:35):
my eyes have seen the king, theLord of hosts.
Then one of the seraphim flewto me having in his hand a
burning coal that he had takenwith tongs from the altar, and
he touched my mouth and saidbehold, this has touched your
lips.
Your guilt is taken away andyour sin atoned for.
(17:57):
Did you know that the experiencethat the Jewish people are
having in repopulating Jerusalemwas partially as a result of
Isaiah's prophecies?
Did you know that Jesus and thestory of Jesus as he lived in
this life and died, the way thathe died and rose from the dead,
was partially prophesied andspoken of in the book of Isaiah.
From this point in Isaiah'slife, every word that he spoke
(18:21):
came to pass.
But what was required of him?
It was required of him to beencountered by a holy God.
My friends, god is holy.
We cannot encounter God'sholiness and remain the same.
(18:43):
Do not tell me that you andJesus have an understanding and
go on living like the rest ofthe world and still claim to be
a Christian.
God is holy and if weexperience his holiness, we
(19:03):
cannot remain the same.
We must change.
How many of you know he's notgoing to change?
He's proven that he is notgoing to change.
So who's going to do thechanging we are?
So not only is God holy, butwherever God is instantly
(19:25):
becomes holy.
Wherever God dwells is holy.
Let's not forget that therebuilding of Jerusalem was not
as much about walls and gates.
What was contained within thosewalls?
The temple.
The temple was contained withinthose walls.
One of the biggest parts, itwas the heart of the city of God
(19:49):
, this holy city.
The temple was there.
This is where God had chosen toput his name and his presence.
And once a year, the highpriest over the nation of Israel
, on Yom Kippur, the day ofatonement, would be allowed and
privileged to go into theholiest place, the holy of
holies, where the Ark of theCovenant sat with its mercy seat
(20:10):
and the two angels that wereshrouding it on one side or the
other.
All of this representative ofJesus who came to bring mercy to
us.
Amen.
And so the high priest wouldcome and he would repent of his
own sins and the sins of hisfamily and the sins of the
entire nation, and he would getto experience, just for a few
(20:32):
moments in time, once per year,the presence of a holy God.
Wherever God is is holy.
Not only is God holy andwherever he dwells is holy, but
(20:52):
also the people of God arecalled to holiness.
It's one thing to say God isholy, he is other, he's
different, he's set apart, he'ssanctified, he's all of those
things.
But I am not.
You see, israel was God'schosen nation, god's chosen
(21:13):
people, his special people, andconsequently they were given
standards that God wanted themto live by, so the world would
know that they belong to him.
There needed to be a separation, a distinction between the
nation of Israel and the rest ofthe world.
Why in the world is there somuch war in the Old Testament?
(21:35):
Why in the world is there somuch death and destruction?
You know, the main reason isbecause God wanted to separate
out to himself a holy nation, aholy people who could represent
him to the world.
And what did he know aboutthese people?
If they were allowed to besurrounded by and trenched in
(21:56):
the cultures of the rest of thisworld, what would they do?
They would be compromised.
They would give in to thethings that they saw around them
.
Sorry for this tickle in mythroat.
(22:21):
So did God shroud all of thisthe holiness that he required of
them, or did he make it prettysimple and pretty plain?
He actually wrote it on twotablets, didn't he?
Let's just quote those together, if you remember them.
If not, they're on the screenin modern language.
So let's just say them together.
(22:41):
Number one you shall have noother gods before me.
Number two you shall not makefor yourself an idol.
Three you shall not misuse thename of the Lord, your God.
Four remember the Sabbath dayby keeping it holy.
Five honor your father and yourmother.
(23:05):
Six you shall not murder.
Seven, you shall not commitadultery.
Eight, you shall not steal.
Nine, you shall not give falsetestimony against your neighbor.
And ten you shall not givefalse testimony against your
(23:25):
neighbor.
And 10, you shall not covet.
This was God's requirement ofhis people when it came to
holiness.
How many of you know, jesus wasasked a question by somebody who
was seeking knowledge.
They wanted to know what is thegreatest commandment, and how
did Jesus answer them?
We find it in Matthew 22, wherehe says you shall love the Lord
(23:49):
, your God, with all your heart,with all your soul and with all
your mind.
This is the great and firstcommandment, and a second is
like it you shall love yourneighbor as yourself.
On these two commandmentsdepend all the law and the
prophets Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul,
mind and strength, and love yourneighbor as yourself.
(24:10):
How many of you know that ifyou do those two things, the Ten
Commandments will be obeyed?
Because the Ten Commandmentsare really broken into two
categories loving God and lovingpeople.
Loving God and loving people,and that's what Jesus said.
Let's narrow it down to thesetwo things.
By the way, we're going to bestarting, in the month of June,
(24:32):
a new sermon series on theSermon on the Mount.
And I'm so excited about thisas we read the words of Jesus,
because he kind of one-ups.
If you think we can get awayfrom the Ten Commandments, he
one-ups them quite a bit becausehe not only talks about the
doing of something, he talksabout the motivation or the
(24:54):
heart behind things.
And if there's any doubt for usas modern believers concerning
God's directive concerningholiness, let's read 1 Peter, 1,
verses 13 through 16.
Therefore, preparing your mindsfor action and being
sober-minded, set your hopefully on the grace that will be
brought to you at the revelationof Jesus Christ.
(25:15):
As obedient children, do not beconformed to the passions of
your former ignorance.
But, as he has called, you isholy.
Who is holy?
God is holy.
You also be holy in all yourconduct.
Since it is written, you shallbe holy, for I am holy.
(25:37):
This is the word of God in theNew Testament.
Under the new covenant, we arecalled, as followers of Jesus
Christ, to walk in holiness.
We are called to live in glasshouses.
It's not a bad thing, it's agood thing.
And my life verse is found infirst Timothy and in it Paul
(26:03):
lays out for his son, timothy,an example, a very practical way
to look at what it means tolive a life of holiness.
1 Timothy 4.12,.
Let no one despise you for youryouth, but set the believers an
example in speech, in conduct,in love, in faith and in purity.
(26:23):
That is what it looks like tolive out a holy life.
Let's talk about these fivethings just quickly.
Holy speech, holy speech,friends.
(26:49):
What we say, what we saymatters.
What we say matters.
How horrible would it be for meto be in a job for three years
as a pastor?
Obviously, but in a job forthree years and for nobody know
that I'm a Christian, becausethey can't tell any difference
from my pattern of speech.
I tell the same jokes thateverybody else tells.
(27:13):
I use the same words thateverybody else uses.
I am out of control when itcomes to what I say.
Do we use our speech to buildup or to tear down?
To bless or to curse?
To speak truth or to speak lies?
To witness or to deny JesusChrist?
(27:37):
These are our options, just afew of them.
These are our options, just afew of them.
We are called, as followers ofJesus Christ, to use holy speech
.
Do not be conformed to thepattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing ofyour mind.
(27:59):
I'll never forget.
I was in an accident one time.
It had snowed really bad andthere was still ice on the roads
, but it was like 60 degrees andI was delivering pizza and I
was driving my brother's Jeep,because it was a four-wheel
drive, and I had gotten prettyconfident because all the roads
were clear and all of a sudden Icame around a corner and it was
(28:27):
covered over, shaded, by treesthat were along that road, and I
found that vehicle slidingacross the road directly towards
another vehicle and I foundmyself screaming out a word that
I don't remember ever usingbefore, at least out loud.
I said bleep.
(28:49):
I was honestly more devastatedby the word that came out of my
mouth than the accident itself.
The gentleman got out of thetruck.
Nobody was hurt, everything wasgood and he looked at me and he
said you have insurance?
I said yes, sir, I do.
He said good, I need a newtruck.
At that point I wanted to useanother word, but I refrained
(29:13):
from doing that.
Now I did.
I talked to the Lord about thatfor quite some time and I had
another incident, not maybethree years later, it wasn't the
same, I wasn't in an accident,but it was similar and I
screamed out, jesus, and I waslike I had to pull over and just
(29:33):
take a praise break for aminute, you know, because what
we say matters.
Oh, you're just being religious, tyler.
Come on, you're just beingreligious.
Okay, what we say matters Holyconduct, how we live, matters.
(29:54):
The way that we live our lives.
Are we genuine or are wecounterfeit?
Are we generous with our livesor are we selfish?
Are we Christ-like or do weresemble the world that's around
us?
The way that we live our livesmakes a difference.
It matters.
Can you imagine if the entireChristian world would live their
(30:16):
lives in such a way to portraythe holiness of God to the world
around them?
We cry out for America, but arewe willing to do our part?
(30:37):
The third one is holy love,loving God and loving others, as
Jesus said.
Do we walk in forgiveness or dowe grow ever more bitter?
Are we a worshiper or are wedetached?
Do we love, are we filled withcompassion towards others or are
we just overly critical?
Well, they deserve it.
(30:57):
They put themselves in thatplace.
Do we have right relationshipsthat are built on love and trust
, or is everything counterfeit?
We are called to walk in loveand to be holy in love.
(31:19):
The fourth is faith.
Holy faith.
We are to have an unshakabletrust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do we believe or do we doubt?
Do we pray or do we worry?
One of the greatest forms ofunbelief is worry.
Man, I feel like I'm going toneed a vacation after today.
(31:45):
This is heavy stuff.
Do we share our faith or do weremain silent?
We are called to be people whowalk in holiness of faith, in
holy faith.
(32:06):
And finally, holy purity.
What does purity mean?
Pure thoughts, pure attitudes,pure motivations, the reason why
we do the things that we do,the reason why we say the things
that we say, the reason why,the reasons, the motivations,
the attitudes of our heart.
Do we love others or do we lustafter them?
(32:29):
Do we submit to godly authorityor do we rebel?
Are we filled with holy purity?
My friends, this is the call.
This was the call to the nationof Israel.
This was the call that, Ibelieve, caused there to be
resistance, to move back intothose walls of Jerusalem, to
(32:53):
understand that you were goingto be watched, that you're going
to be plugged in and tovolunteer positions that you're
going to be having to defend,that you're going to be praising
all of the time.
You're going to be involved inthe reading of the word, all the
time You're going to beinvolved in the core, the very
center, most part of everythingthat God was doing in the earth
(33:15):
at the time.
That sounds exciting until youcount the cost.
Remember, jesus said to hisdisciples you got to count the
cost of being a follower ofJesus.
You must deny yourself.
Take up the cross daily andfollow me.
What is that cross about?
That cross is about saying noto the things that we want to
(33:37):
say yes to, and saying yes tothe things that we want to say
no to those things that are inalignment with what God wants.
That is a cross to bearHoliness is not for the faint of
heart.
(33:59):
Israel had a real problem and,to be honest, we do too.
Without Jesus, you wonder whyin the world did they get it
right for a while and then theygot it very wrong?
They got it right for a whileand then they got it even worse
wrong, and then it got back andforth and back and forth.
Why is that?
(34:20):
Why is that recorded like that?
Back and forth and back andforth?
Why is that?
Why is that recorded like that?
Why do the apostles of Jesusand the disciples and all of the
New Testament books show usexamples of failings?
Because if we could get itright, we wouldn't need Jesus.
Jesus, the Jewish nation, was torepresent God and his holiness,
(34:45):
but they couldn't do it all theway.
They couldn't do it toperfection.
They couldn't perform the waythat God wanted them to perform.
They had to do the best theycould with what they were given,
but they, they needed to fail.
They needed to fail, theyneeded to fail.
That's the whole point.
(35:06):
The reason we don't like glasshouses is because we know our
own failures.
We want to cover them up, likeAdam and Eve in the garden.
But, my friends, here's the goodnews Jesus, the Holy One, makes
(35:29):
us holy.
Jesus is the only human who hasever lived a completely holy
life on this earth.
He died as a spotless sacrifice, taking upon himself our
unholiness and making a way forus to be reunited to God, our
Father.
He was always pure in hisspeech.
(35:51):
He was always right in his love.
He was always correct in theway that he believed.
He always lived a pure life.
He lived his life as an exampleto all of us.
For us, holiness can only comefrom one place.
(36:12):
It cannot come from us willingit.
It can't come from us having a21-day plan.
It can't come from us strivingor beating ourselves up enough
or doing more and more and more.
It cannot come from external.
It cannot come from us behavingin a certain way.
(36:35):
Holiness comes to us as adirect result of our right
relationship with God, byputting our faith, hope and
trust in Jesus Christ.
He is holy and he makes us holy.
(36:55):
If we have not yet placed ourhope and faith and trust in
jesus christ to save us from oursins, then our pursuit of
holiness is in vain.
(37:16):
You will not get there on yourown.
There is no path to holinessoutside of Jesus.
I've had several conversationswith people recently who have
said there's many ways to get toGod.
How do we know that this is theright one?
It's because he said it was.
(37:38):
I am the way, the truth and thelife.
No one comes to the Fatherexcept by me.
Jesus is the way, not a way,not one of many.
This is not my religion.
This is a relationship with aliving Savior.
(38:00):
So, in order to live holy lives, let's make sure, first of all,
that we are born againbelievers.
And you can do that today.
You can respond to the HolySpirit awakening you to this
truth and you can say Jesus,save me, change my heart, change
(38:21):
my mind.
I am a sinner, I'm notdeserving of your grace, but I
need it, I desperately need it.
I want to change, change me,change me.
Our position in Christ, if weare truly believers,
(38:41):
automatically sets us apart fromthe rest of the world.
Look in 1 Peter 2, verses 9 and10.
But you are a chosen race, aroyal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for his own possessionthat you may proclaim the
excellencies of him, who calledyou out of darkness into his
marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, butnow you are God's people.
(39:06):
Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received
mercy.
This is our story, this is oursong.
This is our story.
This is our song, this is ourtestimony.
Once I was lost, but now I amfound.
(39:27):
You see, under the old covenant,god dwelt in temples made with
hands.
But how many of you know, inthe new covenant it's very
different.
No longer does he live intemples made with hands.
But how many of you know, inthe new covenant it's very
different.
No longer does he live intemples made with hands.
He lives inside of us asfollowers of Jesus Christ,
because we are filled with theHoly Spirit of God.
The what the Holy Spirit of God.
(39:50):
You see, the Holy Spirit enablesus to live holy lives.
It's not just that Jesus makesus holy.
We still get to live here inthis life in glass houses, not
just for the church to look andto view our lives, but for the
world around us to see adifference.
He lives on the inside of us.
(40:12):
We can rely on him to convictus, to challenge us, to equip us
to act like Jesus.
If anybody knows how to actlike Jesus, it's the Holy Spirit
.
How many of you know, jesus didno miraculous works here in
this life until he was filledwith the Holy Spirit, and so he
(40:36):
passed that same thing onto us.
Romans 8 describes it like thisIf the spirit of him who raised
Jesus from the dead dwells inyou, he who raised Christ Jesus
from the dead will also givelife to your mortal bodies
through his spirit who dwells inyou.
So then, brothers, we aredebtors not to the flesh, to
(40:59):
live according to the flesh, forif you live according to the
flesh you will die, but if, bythe spirit, you put to death the
deeds of the body, you willlive, for all who are led by the
Spirit of God are sons of God.
The Holy Spirit enables us tolive holy lives.
(41:23):
He equips us.
How many of you have had theHoly Spirit warn you?
How many of you have had thatthing in the pit of your stomach
?
That's not just somethingthat's in your natural character
or nature to be able todiscover.
That's the Holy Spirit, softly,gently at first, tweaking you.
(41:44):
Hello, hey, tyler.
Nope, we don't go there.
Does the Holy Spirit talk toyou like that?
Sometimes it feels like he'stalking to me like that.
Nope, we don't go there, we'renot doing that.
But I want to, I really, reallywant to.
Nope, we're not doing that,don't go there.
(42:21):
Ultimately, we live in glasshouses so that the world might
see Jesus going back to Nehemiah.
In that last part of thoseverses it says and the people
blessed all the men whowillingly offered to live in
Jerusalem.
It's funny, the willinglyoffered part After they cast
lots and the lot fell on themand their name was called out
(42:42):
and they were brought before thepeople and they said oh, we'll
go.
Yep, send us, we'll go.
Would you mark down?
I volunteered to go toJerusalem Tyler's on the first
trip, all right, but the worldaround them, the world around
(43:03):
them, the world around them,applauded them, recognized in
them something was different,something had changed.
Something was different.
Something had changed,something was new.
(43:24):
And I guarantee you that thenine out of ten that remained in
their places of comfort lookedin those glass houses in
Jerusalem and they said to theirchildren act like that.
They said to theirgrandchildren you hear the song
that they're singing.
Sing that song Now, theirgreat-grandchildren.
(43:46):
You hear the declaration ofscripture, the word of God
that's being proclaimed inJerusalem.
The word of God is beingproclaimed in Jerusalem.
Let's proclaim that in our home, too.
It matters.
(44:07):
We who are followers of Jesus,with all of the advantages that
that brings, have even moreopportunity to show the world
around us who Jesus is by livingholy lives that are constantly
being transformed by the work ofthe Holy Spirit.
By the way, one of the mostholy acts that you can perform
(44:28):
is an apology Fathersapologizing to their children
for becoming too angry, mothersor wives apologizing for a lack
of patience.
Neighbors yes, neighbors.
(44:48):
I had this experience this week.
I had somebody, while we wereon our trip, sent me a note via
Facebook Messenger one of myneighbors that I had apparently
scraped up against his fencewith my lawnmower.
Now I got, to be honest, Idon't remember hitting that
fence.
But if he believes I hit thatfence, I need to go the extra
(45:11):
mile.
And so I said to him I need togo the extra mile.
And so I said to him you dirty,rotten, I'll talk to you when I
get home.
I got two friends, smith andWesson.
No, no, no.
That's how we want to act.
(45:33):
That's how we want to act.
That's how we want to react.
I said you know, if there'seven a chance that it was me
that did that, I want to justsincerely apologize.
And I said I want to make itright.
If there's something I can doto purchase, if there's some
work that I can do to help getit right, let me know.
I want to be a part of that andI'm sorry that that happened
(45:54):
and I will be fastidious and,trust me, there will be a swath
of weeds between that fence andmy lawnmower, from this point
forward and forevermore, and Iwill be okay with that.
(46:14):
We live in glass houses, andit's a good thing.
How else is the world going toknow?
Well, jesus would just appearin all of his spirit.
We get to be the light,finishing up in Matthew 5,.
(46:43):
Nor do people light a lamp andput it under a basket, but on a
stand, and it gives light to allin the house In the same way.
Let your light shine beforeothers so that they may see your
good works and give glory toyour Father, who is in heaven.
(47:10):
We don't do good works in orderto earn something from God.
We aren't holy in order to beable to say we're holy.
Holiness is a gift of gracefrom God, but we are required to
walk in it.
We are required by God's graceto walk in it.
We have everything that we needfor life and godliness.
(47:31):
It's all been given to us, butwe still have to choose, as part
of our sanctification process,to say yes to the things that
God says yes to and to say no tothe things that God says no to.
Jerusalem, the holy city,knoxville, the holy city, the
lined home, the holy city, andon and on and on.
(47:57):
Would you stand to your feetwith me, father?
(48:24):
We thank you that you are holy,that you are set apart, that
you are other.
And yet, in your faithfulness,you did not want to leave us as
unholy and destined for hell,and so you sent your Holy Son to
do the work that only he coulddo.
And you gave us the ability, bythe Spirit of God, to say yes
(48:51):
to you and to your call tobelieve on the Lord, jesus
Christ, and be saved.
And you also filled us withyour spirit.
And you constantly fill us andfill us again and again and
again with your spirit, not justfor power, not just for benefit
, lord, to equip us to beobedient to you.
(49:15):
And so, father, I pray that youwould help all of us to embrace
glass house living, to embracethe fact that you have called us
to be other, that you havecalled us to live like none
other on earth, no otherreligion, no other foundation
(49:38):
but Christ and him crucified.
And so, father, we pray thatyou would enable us, this week,
to make the changes in ourpatterns of speech.
Lord, would you deal with us inthe way that we conduct our
daily lives?
Lord, would you deal with us inthe way that we conduct our
daily lives.
Would you help us, lord, to putour faith in you in
(50:04):
ever-growing ways?
Lord, would you help the lovethat we read about in 1
Corinthians 13 be real to us,first of all as recipients from
you.
And also, lord, would you helpus to transfer that love to
others?
And, father, would you alsomake us pure, refine us in
refiner's fire, not to destroyus, but to make us holy?
(50:30):
Lord, we know that your desireis to return for a church
without spot or blemish.
And, lord, we confess to youthat there's no way that we can
make that happen outside of you,and so we ask you for your help
.
We ask you for your help.
Lead us and guide us.
Turn up the volume on theconviction of the Holy Spirit in
(50:58):
our lives.
Help us to view thingsdifferently from this day
forward.
And, lord, for those who don'tyet know you, I pray that today
would be the day of salvation,that they would put their
confidence in you.
They would recognize that, eventhough maybe they've been in
church a lot of times or they'veread the Bible before, maybe
they just have realized todaythey've never dedicated,
(51:18):
consecrated their lives to you.
Pray that today would be theirday.
We also pray for those that arenot here today, that we're all
crying out to you, for theprodigals, lord, those who have
tasted of the goodness of Godand yet find themselves running
(51:39):
hiding.
Lord, would you cause them tocome to their senses, to return
to the God of their salvationand to be restored?
We give you glory and honor foreverything that you do, but,
most importantly, for who youare, and I pray, lord, for a
(52:02):
blessing upon each and everyperson.
Pray that you would keep us inevery way.
We ask that you would causeyour face to shine upon us and
be gracious to us.
Lift up your countenance uponus and give us peace In Jesus'
name, amen.
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