Above all the Lord is calling us to be holy

Pastor Roberto Miranda has been transmitting a series of messages scrutinizing how to live according to the times we are living. And an inescapable answer that we hear from the Lord is this, let us be holy. God is calling us, this is inescapable, above all else that the Lord may ask of his people, above all the Lord is calling us to be saints.

This morning my brothers, we are going to explore two questions. First, what does that mean? to the truth what God is challenging us to when he calls us to be saints. Second, how is that done? how do we, if anything, to be holy. Just those two questions we're going to explore this morning and we're out of here.

The Reina Valera is projected but I am going to read this writing in the New International Version, to clarify certain language.

“I am the Lord your God, so sanctify yourselves and stay holy because I am holy. Do not become unclean because of the animals that crawl. I am the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. So be holy because I am holy."

My brothers, honestly how do you react to that word 'holy', holiness. How do you react when you read that? I know how I react and that was what led me, that confrontation in my spirit, when the Lord revealed this word to me, in my time alone with God and I had to honestly admit to the Lord, you know, maybe, Lord, yes Let's be honest I wish I could skip this writing. How many of us don't do that? we see something in the writing, it hits us a little heavy and we prefer to ignore that writing and perhaps imagine that it no longer applies to us.

If the Jewish laws that is the emphasis of Leviticus, chapter 11, it is a study of the Jewish laws governing what is eaten and what is not eaten. And if that doesn't apply to Gentiles anymore, to the vast majority of us, well, maybe this doesn't either, right? But this commandment has never been erased, it still stands, even in the New Testament, even after the cross.

Peter, the Apostle Peter, quotes this passage in Leviticus when he writes in his first letter, First Peter, “but as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all your conduct, for it is written here, quoting this very verse, be holy for I am holy.”

And if anything, Jesus goes even further by calling us to be perfect as your Father who is in heaven is perfect. If anything, my brothers, the book of Leviticus with its emphasis on our external behavior, what is heard, what is seen, what is spoken, what is eaten, how we walk, how we dress, Leviticus with its emphasis on the external represents what I would call a training wheel on the bicycle of holiness. That's good!

How many have taught a child? Parents have had the trauma and the privilege of teaching a child how to ride a bike. And they start with some wheels, some bars, so that they master the mechanical capacity of riding a bicycle. And it's something like that with the book of Leviticus, and its emphasis on the external. But Jesus goes beyond the training wheels. It was as if the Lord said, you're already big Samuel, and I'm going to take away your wheels. It is time to take off the wheels.

He goes beyond the holiness of the external. He goes beyond what we see and hear to the condition of our hearts, and to understand holiness as God sees it we have to start there. We have to start with the condition of our hearts.

Do you know what we call holiness that does not go beyond the external? There is one word to describe it. A holiness that remains on the outside, do you know what it is called? Religion. Have you heard that word? What's more, I go further. Here we secretly have several refugees from religion seeking an amnesty from religion.

I am going to confess to you, the great concern of the legalistic world in which I grew up was this external concern. Maybe my Spanish is a challenge but I know how to speak Pentecostal. God bless you, man, may the grace of the Lord continue on your life. Hallelujah! Amen. I speak it very well and with conviction. Because? There's nothing wrong with that. But the thing is that we spend a lot of time, I hear many brothers say, "Pastor, they trained me in how church people dress, how church people talk, how church people greet each other, how the church walks." church people. I was in church very well, the problem is that the church was not in me and I knew it."

The same, my brothers, from a Catholic background, fleeing too, refugees too. Because? Watching them, the people celebrating their masses but living as if God didn't even exist, most of the time. They had their life compartmentalized, they had their mass, their Sunday, they had their eras, they had their times, but most of the time God was not part of their life. I know, isn't that sad?

Moreover, we go further, religion can serve as a hindrance to true holiness. I go further, perhaps it is the most dangerous and effective deception of Satan. Satan's most effective deception is to convince you that you can be religious without being holy. See the distinction? To convince you that you can be religious without being holy.

How many brothers have I heard saying, "Pastor, I want to be free." They come and go and seek so many experiences seeking… it is the same sentence, “Pastor, I want to be free.” And God listens to you, brother, and when God listens to you he understands the true prayer of his heart, the true request is, "God I want to be holy." When he hears, "I want to be free," his heart, which God created in his image and likeness, is begging him "I want to be holy. " Because a life of religion without holiness leads us to live lives that I would call hollow, magnificent on the outside, on the outside a work of art but empty on the inside, hollow, hollow lives.

Don't you think that a God who loves us breaks your heart to see his divine creation like this? If God truly found out about his creation, how do you think God reacts to that? God loved us in such a way, because he loves us Jesus calls us to a holiness that goes beyond the external, calls us to a holiness that reaches the depths of our hearts and our being, which identifies us, calls us to holiness in the hidden of our hearts.

And much of Jesus' message was directed at this. The sermon on the mount, my brothers, when you read the sermon on the mount you hear the Lord over and over again use this phrase, "you heard that it was said," that is, the law declares this, "but I say to you," He says several times, "but I tell you" says Jesus who sees our hearts. But I tell you, you will not kill, says the word, but its true target is the hatred and resentment that dwells in our hearts. You will not commit adultery, but its true target is the immorality hidden in the corners of our hearts.

One afternoon a group of religious leaders, emphasis on 'religious', who approached Jesus to claim that his disciples were not keeping their religious traditions, it is not that they were not keeping God's law, they were not keeping religious traditions invented by the men. And when they approached Jesus complaining to him, Jesus instructs them, in Mark chapter 7, “Whatever enters a man cannot defile him because it does not enter his heart, but his belly and goes out to the latrine – this he said – making all food clean.”

In other words, now you can eat your lobster and your roast suckling pig with complete freedom. Glory to God. But that doesn't make you holier. That doesn't make us kosher, but it doesn't make us holier. And Jesus continues, "But he said that what comes out of man contaminates man," because from within, from the hearts of men come evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, homicides, thefts, greed, wickedness. , cheating, etc. all these evils come out from within and contaminate man.

God demands in other ways, my brothers, God demands that we give our hearts to him. You'll never know what it's like to be free until you do. True holiness is much more beautiful than an external approach, but at the same time it is much more difficult. And it is worth much more. Giving your heart to God has always been your purpose. It has always been his purpose that we give our hearts to him and that we be holy there.

The Lord declared, quoting the book of Deuteronomy, "and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart," this is the Old Testament and that is God's target. Because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

The idea is not to change how we behave, but to transform who we are. The idea is not to act holy, the idea is to be holy. The idea is not to change the way you act, the idea is to totally recalibrate who you are, who we are, our way of being, giving our hearts to the Lord.

Pastor, how do you do that? think about it. How do we go about being holy? By the way, my brothers, know this, there is a role in this that falls to God and only God and there is a role that falls to you and only you. First, what is God's role in this, God's role in making us holy?

Leviticus 11:45 begins with this statement: "I am the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God." First God rescues us from our slavery to sin, from our Egypt. How many here remember their Egypt? For some of us our Egypt was the day before yesterday, for others perhaps, you cannot imagine a world that does not include your Egypt. If that concept is a bit difficult, for me I prefer to think of this image.

Imagine, my brothers, being locked up, I see it that way, the work of God, what God did for me, imagine being locked in the darkness of a building in the middle of a fire. Through the smoke and the darkness God sees you, enters the building, chooses you, calls you by name, takes your hand, leads you, indeed, carries you out into the light, into the air, into safety, into life, outside, free. He rescues us, he saves us. Do you understand that word? He saves us, we were not able to get out of there. If we stay in the building we suffocate, we burn them, we die, he enters as the divine firefighter and rescues us. That is done by the blood of Christ, it takes us out of there, it takes us out of Egypt.

Because? My brothers, in heaven we are going to truly realize what God has done for us. Truly what has he rescued us from and to what has he rescued us. And if the Lord gives me a chance in heaven, I imagine asking God, “Why did you do this? why me? Because you did? God, why be so nice to me? Why so much love? Why so much mercy? Because?" and he will answer, “To be your God, Samuel, to be your God, to go before you, to fight your battles, to forgive your sins, to heal your wounds, to get you out of hate, to cleanse your mud, to rejuvenate you. like the eagle I brought you out of Egypt to be your God."

And now you and the generations that follow you are free. Free to live free, free to live free. We are on the sidewalk, glory to God, we are alive. He can go wherever he wants God has set you free and he looks at you and says, "Follow me."

In Colossians it is so clear, "who has delivered you from the power of darkness and transferred you to the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption through his blood." The forgiveness of sins. God brought us out of Egypt, glory to God. But now what? Now what does he want? Samuel, this world is in darkness, I want you to see my light in you, I want you to distinguish the pure from the impure, I want you to distinguish the holy from the unclean. My brothers, we cannot talk about holiness without talking about evangelism, nor can we talk about evangelism without talking about holiness.

Do you know God's plan for Boston, God's plan for New England? There is no plan B this is the plan, there are no hosts of angels ready with their cavalry to save this earth if plan A doesn't work, this is plan A to plan Z, this is the plan, the plan is this. This world in darkness will discover this God through you. What is it to have a God who loves you? A God who knows you, a God who takes an interest in you and considers you his, a God who listens to your prayers, a God who blesses you, who heals you, who incorporates you into his divine plans, how is that?

And these people maybe, they will not make you a Bible but they will fight you, they will make your life and they will be amazed in the name of Jesus the way God will transform you, the way you begin to think as he thinks , speak as he speaks and do the works of God, and because the closer they are to you, the more they will be amazed and the more he will be exalted in the name of Jesus. He brought us out of Egypt to be our God. He brought us out of Egypt so that we might be a chosen lineage, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired by God so that you may announce the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his admirable light. This is the plan.

He brought us out of hell, he rescued us from the flames, he freed us from certain death. If that were not enough, delegate his anointing to us and set us apart to be his priests. Incredible.

But pastor, how did we become that, in those people, in that people, in that priesthood? How do you do that? There is a role, as we said, that falls to God and only God, only God could do for us what he did. Now there is a role that falls to you and only you.

Leviticus 11:44 says, “I am the Lord your God, so sanctify yourselves and keep yourselves holy because I am holy.”

A part of holiness happens instantly, the hand of God rescuing us, that's what it's called, theologians call it justification. Our role is to consecrate or sanctify ourselves, that is, sanctification. Let me explain, consecrating or sanctifying ourselves is a process. And how is that, pastor? To consecrate oneself is to set ourselves apart and prepare ourselves for, it is to set ourselves apart in anticipation for whom, let's say. When one studies the word that appears in the Old Testament for this, sanctify yourselves, it appears in the different versions when this word appears, and this idea of consecrate or sanctify ourselves is translated in different ways. It is translated consecrate yourselves, sanctify yourselves, purify yourselves, another version of these same texts reads prepare yourselves, interesting. Second, many times when one finds this word, consecrate yourselves, within the same verse or very close it says, why? Consecrate yourselves and then state why. There is a why, there is an anticipation, the consecration is a preparation room.

My brother Domínguez is a doctor and before an operation there is a whole process of sterility and preparation to enter into this delicate process. It is the same with the idea of consecration, for example, and now I am reading from the Latin American Bible, in Exodus 19, before the Lord reveals the 10 commandments to the people of Israel, he instructs Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them." today and tomorrow because – they heard – because on the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people.”

Then in the book of Joshua the Lord reveals himself to Joshua, now taking the leadership of the people of Israel, the Lord tells Joshua, "Then, Joshua said to the people, consecrate yourselves because tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you."

Let us gather together, prepare ourselves, purify ourselves because the glory of Jehovah will descend in the sight of all the people. Let us consecrate ourselves, prepare ourselves, purify ourselves because tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among us. Let us consecrate ourselves because something precious, something divine, something wonderful, something extraordinary, something holy, something beautiful, something from the other world is going to be revealed to us. So it is worth consecrating ourselves because does holiness know what it is? Holiness is about intimacy with a holy God. It is the mere fact, it is the ticket, the ticket that we pay to enter and maintain ourselves in the presence of a holy God. And that has been God's will.

He invented us, he created us for this, creating at first a garden to be in communion, in communication with this creation. The dust of the earth, he blows breath into his lungs and then pushes it away and at a certain hour of the day the glory of God descended. And I imagine it was God's favorite time, to be in the middle of the garden, intimacy with Adam. And the biblical story ends with a great wedding and the word compares this church and the church of Jesus Christ to a great bride. And now, my brothers, we are doing the bow, we are putting on make-up, we are putting on perfume, we have looked for the most beautiful suit because the groom is coming and we want to present ourselves without stains, without wrinkles, perfect because we are going to be intimate with him.

And then we can understand how in Hebrews he declares, without holiness, you have heard it, right? Follow peace with all and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. We have heard, many of us have quoted that verse, without holiness no one will see the Lord. What does that mean? no one will see, no one will enter his presence. No one will know the intimacy of, no one will hear, no one will feel the Lord. It is impossible without holiness to experience this God. Holiness is not for others, holiness is not for priests, holiness is not for pastors. If you want to feel God, hear God, experience God, be in the presence of God, you need to ask the Lord for holiness.

And you know, my brothers, thank God as I have said, the Lord has opened the door for that.

First he sought you out, do not let Satan erase that from you, he wants this with you, he calls you by name, he takes you out of the flames, he reached in and pulled you out like a brand in the flames, he wants this. He desires it, he longs for it, for this you were created, he desires intimacy with you and the consecration prepares us for that. Consecrating ourselves prepares us for intimacy with a holy God.

But like I said, this is a process. I would like my brothers, who administer a pill or a Dominican remedy, a little pill, that for now, pastor, drink one of these every morning and wow, you are consecrated. We would buy, we would fly there, we would arrive with boxes of it, but it is not like that. This is a process. And pastor, how is this process? It is easy? It's easy and at the same time it's the hardest thing he's ever done.

It is the result of thousands of decisions that form us. 90% of them in the secret of our hearts. A decision to prefer the clean rather than the unclean. A decision to obey, when it would be much less costly to disobey, Lord, at least this time, to get out of this mess, a decision to forgive instead of holding grudges. Holiness is worth it, that it costs you.

A decision to prefer God perhaps over a little more money but achieved at the price of your integrity and your time with God. Or to prefer God perhaps over a relationship that satisfies you for now but you know very well that God will never be able to bless it [00:41:42]. With each decision that you make and you make it preferring God, each decision that you make in favor of God instead of our appetites or to which our hearts cling, the Lord in a mysterious way expands the horizons of holiness in your mind. and in your heart

And don't worry, you're not alone in this. You can count on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit whispering to you, the Holy Spirit telling you, decide this and not this. The Holy Spirit telling you, choose this and not that. The Holy Spirit directing you, yes, pay the price, obey and you will do well and you will live. The Holy Spirit advising you, the Holy Spirit encouraging you, and when you see what the Holy Spirit is doing, the Holy Spirit is making more and more room for him in you and this is taking place in your mind and in your mind. heart. This is the difference of religion where no one sees it, where it is impossible for an eye, apart from the eye of God, to see it, and even if no one applauds you and even if no one says well done, and even if no one gives you a hi five, your God tells you and will tell you one day, “He was a good and faithful servant. I know you, I know what you did, I saw what you did, I heard what you did."

He knows it for this, my brothers, like the priests of old, the Lord will write on his forehead on that day, holiness to Jehovah, on that mind that he has delivered to the Lord, holiness to Jehovah on that heart that you are delivering to the Lord. And do you know what you are going to discover? As holiness is to enter and prefer the presence of God, to enter and prefer communion with God, you yourself will be surprised at all that will be poured out on you beginning with peace, the shalom of God.

With holiness comes peace, with holiness comes wisdom, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom says Proverbs. As you seek holiness, the Lord will pour out wisdom on your mind. But I would say even more precious, with holiness comes your identity, because it's not about what you do, it's about what you are, who you are. With holiness, the Lord will begin to take the marble of your life and with his chisel create the work of art that is you, that he knows is in you, the greatness enclosed in you, the gifts enclosed in you, the nobility that is in you. you, what you are prophetically and we declare about you already, what you are.

By sanctifying yourself, you are getting closer to the maximum of God's creation in you and that is your desire. In other words, holiness is freedom. God loves you so much that he could not contain himself, seeing the precious work that he has seen in you wasted, seeing the beauty of his creation wasted, even if it cost him his Son and even if it cost him his blood. It's worth it.

Let's lower our heads. I will make a call in obedience to the spirit of God. If there is someone this afternoon who says, pastor, I want that, but I need God to take me out of Egypt, rescue me, I want to receive that gift, I want to receive Christ this afternoon. If there is anyone here who wishes to make that decision, I invite you to raise your hand in the name of Jesus. Someone to say, I want to receive the Lord this afternoon, I want to be rescued.

God is with you and has great purposes in changing the world through you. I invite, maybe my sister Blanca, if there is someone else. My sister I invite you to pray this prayer with me.

Lord Jesus, I have heard your voice, I have heard that you have called me by name, take me by the hand and lead me into your purposes and the purposes of your Kingdom. Today I declare you my God and my Lord. Write my name in the book of life, erase my sins with the blood of the lamb, fill me with your spirit and make me yours from now until I see you in glory in Jesus name. I bless you.