Holiness: God's Gift and Our Calling
November 23, 2022 · 1:40:13 · Watch on YouTube ↗
These notes - summary, key points, and highlighted thoughts - were generated by AI from the recording and are not the preacher’s exact words.
Summary
On the eve of Thanksgiving, the service opens with a call to keep peace with God and to confess sin honestly, drawing on Psalm 32 - blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven. A joyful report from the mission field tells of many young people turning to Christ, echoing the harvest of Pentecost read aloud from Acts 2.
The main message asks what we truly have to be thankful for and answers from Hebrews 10:9-10: through the once for all offering of the body of Jesus, God has made us holy and set apart for Himself. Yet holiness has two sides - what God accomplished in an instant, and the lifelong growth He invites us to share. Like a child born into a noble family who must still be raised in its ways, the believer is born holy but must grow into that holiness.
Drawing from Romans 6, Hebrews 12, Ephesians 2:10 and Matthew 5, the preacher urges us to present ourselves as servants of righteousness, to pursue the holiness without which no one will see the Lord, and to let our lives shine as good works that glorify the Father. This process is begun by God and stopped only by death, and the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey so the work can be completed in us.
Key Points
- Peace with God and honest confession of sin keep our prayers from being hindered (Psalm 32).
- Christ's once for all sacrifice makes us holy and set apart - our deepest reason for thanksgiving (Hebrews 10:10).
- Holiness has two sides: what God gives in an instant, and the lifelong growth He calls us to continue.
- Like a child born into a noble family, we are born into God's family but must still be taught its ways.
- Becoming servants of righteousness produces the fruit of holiness, whose end is eternal life (Romans 6).
- A holy life is light that shines before others and glorifies the Father (Matthew 5:14-16).
- Do not dismiss the call to holiness as legalism; pursue it by God's love and the fear of God.
Devotional
Thank God today not only for what He has given you, but for what His Son has done: by one offering He set you apart as His own. Yet do not grow comfortable, as if the work were already finished. Ask the Holy Spirit to keep shaping you, cutting away whatever does not honor Him, until your life quietly shines His holiness to everyone around you. Be faithful in this growth to the very end, for the One who began it will surely complete it.
By one offering Christ has made us holy, and the same God will not stop that work until our final breath.
We are born into God's family, yet we still must be raised in its ways.
A holy life is light; let it shine so others see good works and glorify your Father.
