My Connect Group

Session 1: Holy and happy
Ps James Murray

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

Hebrews 12:14

- God is saying that ALL of us need to be holy
- Stop having the misconception that holiness is something we as humans can never attain
- Some of us think that holiness is a burden you have to push around with you for the rest of your life, that it's something as burdensome as having to push your mother in law around in a wheelchair while everyone else is out having fun i.e. we tend to think that being holy means having to lead a boring, boring life
- Some of us even envy sinners, thinking that they're the ones having all the fun and enjoying life, while we, as little perfect Christians, are stuck being prissy and uptight
- If that is you, realise that what the world is saying is "Haha, I've got a bmx, you've got a Hummer"; and you're actually envying the world for that???
- Holiness is being full of it
- Remember that temptation is a voice in your life that will never go away. Even Jesus got tempted, why do you think you won't?
- The only two things that temptation says:
"once won't hurt"
"you've already done it once, messed up once. might as well do it again"
- The reason that being full of "it" enables you to be holy, is that when you give yourself wholly to God, you'll be so full that there's no room for anything else
- Many of us don't dare to trust God with everything, and therefore give pieces of our life away to other people/to things that will ultimately leave us empty. (note that the satisfaction will be there for a moment, but emtpiness will always sink back in)
- Remember that while you try to handle holiness, grace is handling you, because His grace is sufficient. When you screw up, grace is there to stand in the gap for you.