Well, I'm so thankful to see you this morning. And if you're here for the first time again, we'd love to have that moment to connect with you and a home folk. If you see some people you don't know, go over and say hello and see how they doing and ask their name and what their favorite football team is and, you know, all the little questions. There's a lot of questions you can ask. I think two years ago at Breakaway, Dylan Lavender was here, and he's like, just ask somebody about their shoes.

Like, say, what kind of shoes are those? I like your shoes. And if they're. As long as they're not red.

Just kidding. Hey, go ahead and turn to Exodus 31 if you've got a device or Bible, but I want to deviate for just a few moments. I want to read a verse to you out of first Timothy 5, 17. Don't turn to that. The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard and teaching and preaching.

Guys, I don't know if you know how blessed we are with the staff that we have, but we're incredibly blessed with the pastors that God has called to be here. Our own Fred Lodge right here. Kevin Hurt. Randy, Timothy's downstairs. Crosby is floating outside somewhere.

I'm just kidding. We did not put a balloon on his back. But we also have an incredible administrative staff that. That does so much. The guys in the back that's running our sound and our overheads.

But I just thought it would be very appropriate for us this morning to just let these men and ladies know how much we appreciate them for what they do.

And this is my challenge. It's kind of like, you know, when Valentine's Day comes around, we know our ladies like flowers and candy and stuff, but I just want to challenge you. If for these men and women, would you take a moment this week and just make a. Write them a note, send them a text, send them an email or something. Just say, hey, I just want to say thank you for what you do.

And so I just want to encourage you to do that to show appreciation and that honor that Paul wrote about to Timothy. How many of you have already decorated for Christmas? No one's willing to confess that, you know. You have. Yes, thank you.

You have. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, last year we did something different. When we decorated, Laura acquired a set of Christmas dishes.

Now, these are very unique. Of course, we're not eating on them all year round because they're Christmas dishes. Right. And I'M kind of one of those bah humbugs. I don't want to put anything up until after Thanksgiving, and I want to take it down the day after Christmas.

But we took these dishes last year and we set them on the table and they had nice little rings for the napkins and all that stuff. They're fine china. A lot of you have fine china, right? You know, you don't eat on fine china every day. In fact, some of you have a china cabinet.

Now, I always wondered when I was a kid, like, why are you calling it a china cabinet? Like, what does that even mean? Where did that come from? Well, back many hundreds of years ago, before porcelain began to surround the world, the only place you could get porcelain china was from China. And so Queen Mary of William and Mary in England, she loved to collect fine china.

And she had rooms, they say, that was just full of that. And so it started this, this idea that you take this fine china, the stuff you don't want broken, the stuff that you don't want to use every day, the stuff that you don't want to wear out, and you put it in a china cabinet. Now, I don't know if my grandmother had a china cabinet, but it was crammed full of all kinds of stuff, not china. But in a few weeks, we're going to take those dishes and we're going to put them out because they have value and they represent something even more than that. It represents something extra special because they belong to her grandmother who left us a few years ago.

And so when we put it out, we put it out not just because monetarily it has value. We put it out because it means something to us. See, you and I, we take things that are important to us and we set it apart, we protect it, we put it in a special place because it has value. And today, you and I have special value. You see, when Jesus Christ died on the cross, he showed the world how valuable you are, that the son of God of eternity would come down and put on human flesh and die the sin, death that you and I deserve so that you could be saved from your sin.

That's how much he valued you. But unfortunately for many of us, we had hell scared into us and we went down to an altar and made a profession. And we have no idea what salvation is supposed to be doing in my life now. Like what it looks like now to live dynamically as a spirit filled believer. We don't see that God wants to set us apart, that he wants to put us in A specific place for a specific use.

There's a word for this, and I'm going to be honest with you, I'm using a lot of big words today, and that's okay. All of us grew up singing supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. A lot of us were in spelling bees spelling words we've never used before then or after. But I'm going to give you words today that matter. I'm going to give you some words today that if you've never heard this word before today, I hope that when you leave today, it is the very thing that you're chasing and pursuing with your life.

And it's the word sanctification. You should see it on your study guide or if you're taking notes at home. The word sanctification in the Greek hagios or hagizo is the word that we use to talk about being set apart. Being set apart, separated from something else. That's what it means to be holy.

The word sanctify and being made holy are used interchangeably. We are made holy and separate. Well, separate from what we're separated from, from this world. This is what blows my mind when people profess Christianity, is they'll acknowledge that Jesus died on the cross. Sometimes they know that he did that to forgive their sins.

And here's how I know that, because they'll make a profession of faith, but they never leave their sin. They make a profession of faith and they don't embrace this idea that God is working the work of, of sanctification in your life. And my goal today is to convince you that sanctification is a serious life or death issue.

It's serious and we've got to take it as such, because if we don't, we might fall away from that proclaimed faith that we have. If I'm not in pursuit of the sanctification that God has birthed in me at salvation and that he's leading me into as a Christian and as a follower of Christ. A lot of times people fall away from their faith. They walk away or they backslide because, number one, they really weren't saved to begin with. But number two, they've never realized how serious it is that God wants to work inside of me, to separate me from the world, scheme from the world's philosophy of and the things of this world.

See, I knew this one wouldn't float very well. I won't get many amens today. And that's okay. We may get a whole lot of oh mys. But again, my goal is that I convince you today, some way, some form, some fashion, that our pursuit in faith is our sanctification.

And I promise you, this won't be a word that you put on a shelf. It will be a word that you will start using of yourself. In fact, if you want to know what sanctification is, let me give you a couple of reference definitions. The New Hampshire Baptist confession of 1833 reads like this. We believe that sanctification is the process by which, according to the will of God, we are made partakers of God's holiness, His other than ness.

That it is a progressive work, that it starts at regeneration, rebirth, salvation. And now there's this work going on inside of me. Like you don't just kind of burst in growth and stop growing. It's progressive. It continues to grow.

And it's carried on in our hearts, in the hearts of believers, by the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. Like we love. And we've got friends that will talk about the manifestation of the Spirit in a worship service. A lot of times it's just emotion, the real power, the Holy Spirit is exhibited as he begins to transform you and me from the inside out, to be conformed into the image of His Son. And he says he does this by appointed means, the word of God, self examination, self denial, watchfulness, and prayer.

In other words, yes, sanctification is a work of God inside of me. But I have to respond to that work. I have to tap into that work. I have to come along with God. God's not going to just do it for me.

We've already seen this modeled in the book of Exodus. God worked to get the Israelites out of Egypt, and now he's having to work to get Egypt out of the Israelites. And so he leads us up to this text that we're going to read today in Exodus, chapter 31.

And so I want us to understand, sanctification is this work of the Holy Spirit from God, by God and for God, because he has a plan for your life. Why? Because you and I, we're His Poema, Ephesians 2:10. You are his workmanship. You are his art piece that he wants to put on the wall.

You are his china pot that. That he wants to put in his china cabinet because you have a specific work that he wants you to do. And by sanctification, there's a couple of nuances that are implied in that. One is holiness. Say holiness.

First Peter 1, 1516 says, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves, in all of your behavior, be separated from the way the world behaves, because this world is filled and under the COVID of sin, live separate. He calls us to purity, so we have holiness, and now we have purity. Like the stains of sin, God wants to cleanse us from those things. First John 3. 3 says, and everyone who has this hope fixed on Christ purifies and himself.

In other words, yes, God will cleanse you of your sin by the blood of Jesus. But now you got to clean yourself, too. I mean, he can give you the wash rag and the soap, but you got a lather. I'm serious. You've had teenage boys, too.

Nothing scars a young man more than saying, listen, do I have to come and make sure that you're lathering yourself?

Sometimes God needs to come make sure we're lathering ourselves with the truth of God and the word of God. Because sometimes we just kind of go, okay, I'm good. I just kind of get a little water on myself and come out, and I still smell like the world. There's a reason it's deodorant soap, because it needs to cleanse us. And the third word there is consecration.

We're called to be holy. Set apart. We're called to be purified. But consecration takes it even one step further. Second Timothy 2:21 says, Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, God's honor.

Sanctified, useful and prepared for every good work. Well, who decides what's a good work? God does. Why? Because God is working in you.

And I'm partnering with that work as God is sanctifying me. Say the word sanctify. See, I knew you'd be able to say it. It's not hard. Like the word I'm about to quote in a few minutes.

Because I'm only saying God's name this time, one time. As you see, I didn't even want you to have to write it because it's such a hard word. But today, guys, it's serious. It is a serious thing that we don't just say, well, I'm going to do some good stuff for Jesus. I want to live in sanctification, which means I'm being made holy, that I'm being purified and I'm being consecrated for his good work.

He calls us after we're saved to walk in sanctification.

So in this text, in this text that we're going to read today, we last. It's almost like I feel like I'm the old Batman episode. When we last left our caped Crusader, when we last left the Israelites in chapter 17, they were fighting the Amalekites. Now we saw them in 15, remember, that's when they grumbled and they got water. In chapter 16, they grumbled and they got quail and they got some manna.

Now God has instituted manna. Every day they get up. We're going to talk about that in a little bit. And they get bread from heaven. And then 17, they fight.

God has said that I am the God who heals, and. And I am God your banner. Then in 18, Jethro, Moses, Father in law, shows up and says, dude, you're killing yourself. You cannot be the judge for a million people. And so some order is brought, and they move from Rephidim now to the base of Mount Sinai.

They're exactly where God intended for them to be. Their journey has brought them here. And Moses uses this word, consecrate. Say consecrate. I challenge you to use that word sometime in a sentence.

Today. This is my consecrated chair. No one else can sit in it. You see there? I just used it.

In 19, Moses said, you need to consecrate yourself, people. You need to get yourself ready because we're going to be around the base of this mountain and in three days time, something really cool is going to happen. Don't touch it. Don't touch the mountain. Don't come near it.

And on that third day, a cloud descends on the mountain and thunder and lightning. And the way it's described is like a furnace is burning because the presence of God had come down on Mount Sinai. Now you know why they say, don't come up and touch it, no one can see God and live kind of notion. And so he calls Moses up. And from that point up to the point we're about to read, he is given the Covenant.

In chapter 20, he gives the Ten Commandments, a lot of, you know, the Ten Commandments. And then chapters 21 through 24, he gives them just a variety of different laws and different rules to follow. And then Moses comes back down for a period in chapter 25, and he makes a covenant with the people. He makes a covenant with the people to be God's separated, chosen people. So he segregates a people for himself.

That's important because after that, he then gives them instructions to build the tabernacle. He has a separated people to be in a separated place. Are you following separated people living different from the world? A separated place, a holy place, a different place, a consecrated place. For his people to gather and meet with the Lord.

Now we get to Exodus 30, verse 12. Exodus 30, verse 12. I want you to stand. I'm only going to read two verses and then I'm going to give you some observations from this. But I want you to note the reason this context is important is because he separated a people.

He gave them a separated place, and now he. He's about to give them a separated time because they are a separated people. It all goes hand in hand. It says, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, but as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, you shall surely observe my Sabbaths. Say Sabbath.

For this is a sign between me and you throughout all your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who. Who sanctifies you. Let's pray. Father, I ask God that you would speak in this message. God, you know my heart.

I want to convey the seriousness, the seriousness of sanctification, Lord, that we would pursue holiness and righteousness and purity. But more than that, God, that we would find how it is that you have consecrated us for your service, for your will and in your work. In Jesus name. Amen. I need to correct myself.

I think I said they made that covenant in 25. It was 24. I misspoke. Please forgive me for saying that. So, at the top of your study guide, or if you're taking notes at home, here is his title, Yahweh Mechadishkim.

That's it. I'm not saying it again. You can go home and play with that all you want to, but it means the Lord who sanctifies. In Genesis, chapter two, verse number three is the first time we hear this word being used. And it was used to sanctify the seventh day of creation.

Now you know why God said, I'm giving this as a sign because I had already long time before, set the seventh day of creation aside. In Exodus 19, 5, 6, he tells them again, I want a people for my own possession. You are my set apart people. In 25, eight, when he's making that covenant, he said, let them construct a sanctuary for me, that I may dwell among them. A separated place.

Well now in the new covenant, the law has been fulfilled. Where is that place and who are those people? First Corinthians, chapter 6, verses 19 through 20 says this. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and that you are not your own? You were bought with a price.

Therefore glorify God with your body. We are that people set apart, and we are that Place that is set apart. That's how serious this is. We are the place that the presence of God lives inside of us. It does not make us gods.

It does not make us anything other than we are. What it makes us is sanctified, separated, holy, pure, consecrated. Unless I'm not participating in that work. Look with me again at verse number 13. He says, but as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, you shall observe my Sabbaths.

I want you to. If you circle or mark your Bible, I want you to note my Sabbaths. Where do we get that? Well, let me quote Genesis 2, 3 to you, then. The Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested or ceased from all the work which God had created and made.

Or literally, that's an infinitive, to make, that he created to make. I mean, that was his intention. After each day of creation, God said, it is good, and it is good. It is good. It is good.

And that last one, it's very good. God, according to Isaiah 40, does not need to rest. He does not weary like we do. He doesn't get tired. So why did he need to rest on the Sabbath?

Because he reflected on the creative order. Now, let me meddle. I'm just going to promise you I'm meddling a lot today. We don't practice Sabbath.

We practice the Lord's day. Sabbath was yesterday according to the calendar. And here's the problem. A lot of people say, well, you know what? I need the Sabbath because I need to sleep, I need to rest, I need to take a nap.

But what they don't do is the same thing God did on the seventh day, which is reflect on the gloriousness of the creation. To reflect on the provision of God to set aside time to. To be with God's people in God's place, to reflect on God. There's a lot of people that are not in church today because there's Sabbathing. But they only got half of it.

You and I. This is the meddling part. I'm going to chase this rabbit and it's gone. There's a lot of things in your life that you place as more important than Sabbath sanctifying. Time to be with the Lord Jesus Christ, to be with God's people.

Because God didn't just call one person to be his people. He called the church to be his people. The body of Christ.

Forgive me when I put athletics and I put recreation ahead of that designated time of gathering on a Sunday to celebrate the Lord's day. Why do we celebrate this as the Lord's Day. Do y' all know why is it Sunday? Because it's the day of the week that our Lord Jesus Christ busted out of a grave and was raised back to life. So that's why we celebrate the Lord's Day.

It's Resurrection Day. It's Easter every Sunday. So let's get the eggs, let's hide them and hunt them and make some egg sandwiches.

A sign. A sign to all generations that you are my separate people. How serious was it? Buckle up. Therefore you are to observe the Sabbath.

Verse 14. For it is holy to you, it's separated to you, it's made for you. Jesus would later say, when they're trying to accuse him of, of breaking the Sabbath, that the Sabbath man was not made for the Sabbath, but Sabbath was made for the man. Why, yes, we need to rest our bodies. Yes, we need to do that.

But we also need time for concentrated reflection on the goodness of God, the righteousness of God, the holiness of God, the provision of God, the plan of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to set time to come in here and sing songs about the gospel, and sing songs about our God and sing songs that proclaim the goodness of who he is. Come on. I mean, that's what this is for. I mean, you're here, let's have a party.

I mean, if you came in here, just said, well, I'm just going to get my duty done. God, how much longer is he going to be? He's a long winded preacher, I can tell you. There's countries around the world right now are begging for preachers to be able to come to even speak the word of God to them. And we get upset if a devotion goes more than 10 minutes.

I mean, he says everyone who profanes it will be put to death. Now everybody's going to say, thank you, Lord, that the law has been fulfilled in Christ, that no one's coming to my house and say, why ain't you at church today? And got rocks in their hand, throwing them up and down. He says for everyone who works on it, they would be cut off from the people. You see, we're going to be cut off one way or another is what he was saying to them.

For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day, it's Sabbath. For complete ceasing, for complete rest. Wholly to the Lord. So now, wholly to you, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death.

So the sons of Israel shall observe The Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generation as a perpetual covenant. Now here's the thing. It anyone who went against this was doing what's called a high handed sin. It's intentional. I'm intentionally not going to do this.

In fact, In Leviticus, chapter 15, there's a guy who does this. He gets up one Sabbath morning, he goes out, he gathers sticks and he receives the death penalty. And they stone him to death. Why? Because if high handed sin is not dealt with, it will destroy a group of people.

It will permeate, it will grow. That's why in America today, a lot of churches are ineffective because they've allowed high sin now to rule in the church.

We're not under Sabbath anymore, thank God. We're not going to die if we're not going to church. And all of God's people said amen. Yeah, but you know what that means? That means my time is not confined to one day.

It means my time with the Lord is not confined to one hour. My time is called to be limitless. A called people, a called place and a called time. You and I now, we're the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are that place, we are that people.

And he's given us a sign. And that sign is his very own presence, the Holy Spirit, living and working inside of us. And notice again, it's about reflection. Verse number 17, he says, but on the seventh day he ceased from labor and he was refreshed. God doesn't tire out.

So what does it mean to be refreshed?

He was so satisfied in creation, satisfied in the work that he had done. Now he's trying to. To pass that down to his people. Are you satisfied in the work that God has done? And I think for you and me today, as he's calling us out to be separated from the world, are you satisfied in the gospel?

Are you satisfied in what Jesus Christ has offered you? Or do you say, well, you know, I believe Jesus is the Son of God. I prayed that prayer, but I'm still walking in the same muck of sin that I used to walk in. My, my life is no different. You know why?

Because you have not embraced the idea of sanctification in your life. And today that invitation is for you. Will you realize today that God wants to sanctify you young people? God wants to work in your life to transform you and keep you from making the mistakes all of us adults have made. But walk in the Lord and walk in his power and walk in his truth.

Does that mean you're not going to mess up anybody in this room not messed up in the last week. You're a liar. That's a sin, too. Like Peter wrote, you are a chosen race. Listen to these words.

Listen carefully. You're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. The reason we don't do that proclaim the excellencies is because we've forgotten we're a chosen race. We've forgotten we're a royal priesthood. We've forgotten we're a holy nation.

We've forgotten that we're a possession of God, not our own. Living separated for God and by God is serious. Did you catch how I said that? Living for God, it's His purpose and by God, it's his work. But it doesn't matter if I don't participate in it, if I don't take responsibility of it, if I don't pursue it.

If you go to the doctor today and they give you a bottle of medicine for your ailment and you go home and set it on the counter and don't take it, it does no good, you can tell somebody, well, doctor gave me medicine, but if you don't take the medicine, it's no good. God has called you and me to sanctification. He's given us the beautiful gift of his presence inside of us, and now he's calling us to walk in sanctification. Are you? I mean, that's the whole thing.

I mean, I could stop right now and give the altar call. Are you walking in the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, to call you to be holy, to. To call you to be pure, to call you to be consecrated, to call you out of sin, to cleanse you of your sin and set you out on the purpose God has for your life. Are you see, it's two sides of the same coin. God works sanctification in us, but now we're called to work sanctification.

In fact, if you look at the study guide, you'll see two questions. How am I separated and how am I separating? Separated in the passive sense that God is working that in me to separate me. And my response is to be separating myself. So write this down.

How am I separated? Sanctification is the work of God to purify and separate us after salvation, plain and simple. He still. Y' all want me to sing to you again? Only two cats howled or meowed and one dog howled a few weeks ago when I sang to you.

But I sang a song growing up called He's Still Working On Me to make me what I ought to be. It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars how loving and precious he must be. He's still working on me. You know that song, right? Well, see, when he created creation, it was completely done.

But the work that's not done is what he's doing inside of you and me. Will I embrace it. So let me give you some verses. I'm going to. For time's sake, I just want to tell you what the verse is teaching.

You have them on your study guides. John 17, 17, 19, actually. God separates us by his truth based on his Word. We are separated. We're different as the people of God because of the word of God.

Jesus prayed, sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. We're sanctified. So this. Come on, guys.

This has got to be number one in my life. I love it, I cherish it, I read it, I study it, I memorize it. Because it's the very means by which God is sanctifying and setting me apart. Number two. First Corinthians 6:11.

God separates us by the name of Jesus, by the Spirit of God. It is a triune work in our life that we're being set apart through for the Father because of what the Son did by the Holy Spirit. Some of you were this way, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the spirit of our God.

We have unlimited power. And we're not Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars. Some of you got that.

Go watch episode three. Never mind number three. Philippians 1:6. The work of sanctification is progressive. He who began, began salvation.

A good work in you will perfect it. Constant until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. At a future time, from now to the day you leave this world, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is working inside of you.

You don't need to go to some priest and they tell you you're forgiven. Jesus Christ forgave you. You can go straight to the advocate who's sitting next to the throne of God. You don't need someone dispensing grace to you. You don't need to do the works.

But you know what's interesting to me? I'm meddling. If we were as serious about our faith as The Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, and the Muslims. I wonder what this world would look like.

You know why we don't. You know why it's not that way? Because we don't take sanctification serious. Will you do it? Will you do it?

I told you I'd step on your toes today. First Thessalonians 5, 22, 23 and 24 says, May the God sanctify you entirely, body, soul and spirit. Like he's not just sanctifying your mind, he wants to sanctify your hands. I can't be sanctified in my heart, and my hands not go along with what my heart is. Jesus said that it's what comes out of our heart that defiles us.

That's why he wants to give us a new heart. Not just so we can say, well, I was saved when I was 7 years old and I was baptized, well, great, wonderful. What's he doing in your life now? Is there power at work in your life now? 2nd Thessalonians 2:13.

God separates us by saving us. And it is a work of the Spirit through faith. Our faith is the medium through which God it's sanctifying us. If it took Jesus dying on the cross to save us, it took Jesus dying on the cross to sanctify us. Unless I don't embrace that work.

Unless coming to church is just a checkbox and I go and I live my other lifestyle. I'm like Miley Cyrus in the old Disney show. Got the best of both worlds. No, you don't. Because if I don't live my faith outside the church, the faith I claim in this room is meaningless.

Hebrews 10:10. God separates us by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This is consecration. Say that word again. Consecration.

It's a pretty word, isn't it? He says, by this will we have been sanctified. Whose will? God's will. Through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

They consecrated the priests. That's what Moses was told. He said, consecrate them by sacrifice and blood, and they were separated for a purpose. Do you guys know that in Israel, the tribe of Levi didn't get any land allotments?

They didn't get any land allotments. They lived in the cities because they were serving the purpose of God to minister to the people. Well, they abused it, but they were separated. They were consecrated for a purpose. And you have been, too.

You have been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God with your body. I love this quote. I found by a guy by the name of Henry Martin, a 19th century Anglican priest. Now, I want you to hear this quote.

It's really cool. Let me be taught that the first great business on earth is the sanctification of my own soul. It's that serious. So how am I separating myself now? I'm going to go into hyperactive mode here.

Y' all are missing all of my good movie quotes today. Leviticus 11, 44, 45. We separate ourselves knowing that God is wholly separate. He said, be holy, for I am holy. He said it multiple times, be holy, for I'm holy.

If we're his children, then we need to be like him, and he is wholly separated from sin. Romans 12:2. We separate ourselves by renewing our mind to recall God's will. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You're separating yourself from this world system.

2nd Corinthians 7:1. This one hit me in the gut a few weeks ago, and I marked it then because I knew it would come back up again. We separate ourselves by pursuing personal holiness. Some of you today need to make a hard decision. It's time to cut off some of your friends and some of the places you go, because it keeps leading you back over and over and over again to the same sin that you're committing.

You're like, I just don't know why I keep doing this over and over again. I do. Because you keep going back to the same place. You keep hanging out with the same friends. You keep letting the same media come into your head.

And that's why you keep walking right back into it. And part of that's because, have you set aside time, sanctified, time, separated from God, to reflect on what God's done for you, how good God is? Philippians 2:15. We separate ourselves by being a light for God as His children. He called you to his glorious light to reflect that light.

You're a child of God. You've changed. You should be changed. If not, please come down to this altar today and come up to Fred or Kevin or Randy or somebody and say, I don't know if I know Jesus Christ, because I don't know that this light's living through me. It might be that you believed the Jesus part, but you didn't repent.

And today God wants to call you out of that. Second Timothy 2. 21. We separate ourselves by cleaning up ourselves for God's purpose and then doing that, we're separated. First John 2, 15, 17.

You can go read that one. It's a very familiar verse. We're separating ourselves by forsaking the world, the economy of the world, the philosophy of the world, and the things of the world. I have to draw a boundary or I'll continue to be pulled back into that. Remember, sanctification is about holiness, purity and consecration.

Let me add three verses. Write these down. John 13, 34, 35. One of my favorite passages. We separate ourselves by expressing the love of of Christ to others.

I can't go out these walls and tell people that I love them unto the gospel if I can't love the people inside these walls. The world will know we're his disciples if we have love for one another. So some of you still to this day are harboring things against other people, even inside this room, and vice versa. And it's diminishing your witness. What if today you decided, you know what?

I'm gonna go and do everything I can to make up with that person. But be the kind of person that somebody who might be offended to you can come to. Don't come to them and fold your arms or shame them to death. Receive them in love. That's what we're called to do.

Psalm 43. We're separating ourselves by focusing on prayer. Listen to this verse. It's so beautiful. He says, but know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for himself.

I read that and I went like, am I godly enough? How could I be godly enough? How can you be godly enough? The gift of the righteousness of Christ, he gives to us when we're saved. That's the only way you'll be godly enough.

But he says to him, the Lord hears when he calls. We're separated by prayer. And finally, Hebrews 10:24,25. Let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds. Not forsaking ourselves together as some are in the habit, but so much more as that day approaches.

There's actually three things in there. Number one, we're to be accountable to each other. That's how we're separated. That's how we're sanctified. We're to get together like the church is intended to get together.

Don't forsake assembling yourselves together. And finally, finally we're to serve. We're separated to serve. And all of this pulls us to that last point. We have hope because God has set us apart.

I can tell you story after story this morning of secular examples of athletes and other people who were on the surface, running the race well, but behind the scenes, they weren't. Johnny Manziel, for example, admitted in an interview he was a quarterback back in the 2000 and tens, and he had stopped really outside of the football field, doing what he needed to do to be the athlete he needed to be. And he only made it two years in the NFL. Now, there's been some restoration there. Don't hear.

That's not a terrible story, but the truth is, it's like what we read in 1st Corinthians 9, 24, 25. Do you not know those who run in a race? All run, but only one receives the prize. Run in such a way that you may win. That doesn't stop you.

Don't if you're going to be an athlete, if you're a baseball player. When's baseball season in high school? Spring. If you're going to wait till January to start running, you probably aren't going to make the team because you're going to be out of breath. You work now.

And it's the same thing with our spiritual life. We get up every day and we pursue the Lord who sanctifies me and the Lord who sanctifies you. Write this verse down. Hebrews 12:14. In fact, I'm giving you your homework right now.

Write that one on a card. Put it on your dash. I love my dash. I don't see any of my gauges now. My car could run hot, I wouldn't know it.

Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see. The Lord God wants you pure. He wants you holy. He wants you consecrated. You are his people.

You are his place. Will you take the time now to declare to God, God, I know you are working sanctification in me. How can I pursue that with you?

Many years ago, I heard people would come to the altar and they say, you know, I just need to rededicate my life to the Lord. That's all fine and dandy. They were down there expressing fear and frustration emotionally. But they'd get up and they'd be like, well, what do I do now? I'm telling you right now, take sanctification serious.

Some of you today need to rededicate your life to the Lord. Not to be re saved. Maybe some of you need to be saved, but the invitation today is, lord, I know you have called me to live separate from this world. Help me. Help me go back and read all those verses that I gave you and see how it is that God has separated you.

And how now I pursue that separation. Some of you need to take the first step of public obedience, baptism. You need to identify that you're wholly different from this world and that Jesus Christ did what he did to sanctify you. And now you're going to identify with that work. Maybe you need to make a list of things that need to purge.

Maybe there's some songs and some shows and some places, some friends, some acquaintances, some behaviors you need to cut out of your life so you can be successful in your spiritual life. You need to go and pray first. John 1:9. He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and what cleanse us from unrighteousness. Maybe today you need to ask God, God, how have you consecrated me?

What is your plan and your purpose for my life? It's not by osmosis, as Garfield used to claim in the comics. This is done by actively pursuing the call of God. Would you bow your heads with me this morning? Father, we love you.

Lord, I don't know what you're stirring and doing in people's lives. I think the call is clear, Lord. You're calling us to live separated, but we have to embrace that work. You are the God who sanctifies us. But if I reject that sanctification, it has no effect.

So, Lord, call us to live holy lives. Call us to live pure lives. Call us to live consecrated lives. And we can't do that on our own, Lord, we need you to do it for us. So as we open this altar up in a few minutes, Lord, whatever business people need to do, maybe they do need to rededicate their life.

Maybe there is someone here today who says, I don't have the confidence that I'm going to heaven. I don't have confidence that I know Christ. They don't have to leave that way. But I pray you stir in their hearts the spirit of God to draw and call them today. We love you.

In Jesus name, amen.