[0:05]
pursue peace with everyone and pursue holiness for without it no one will see the lord the words of hebrews 12 don't hold back and telling us just how important deeper holiness is we're supposed to pursue it or we won't see god and enjoy him forever it's pretty blunt isn't it and it means that talking about deeper holiness takes us right to the core of what it means to be a faithful follower of the

[0:35]
lord jesus christ to do what god asks of us as his servants and his children nothing matters more than this for our future life with god somehow depends on it so why don't we talk more about deeper holiness now i could be wrong and please forgive me if this isn't true of you or your church but i don't think holiness has been very high on our agenda over the past few years i'm not saying that we don't care about it or don't believe in it

[1:06]
i just think we haven't been talking about it very much i suspect that as we've emphasized other things we've dropped the ball when it comes to holiness could that be an issue in your church on your team in your relationship with the lord jesus if it is how do you think this could have happened i think there could be a whole bunch of reasons for example we rightly think it's really important to steer well clear of legalism we don't want to lay a

[1:38]
burden of rules on people we want to make sure that people get the fact that we're free in christ and sometimes when we talk about holiness it does start to sound as if we're just telling people to clean up their lives and we don't want to do that or it could be we want to encourage people to make sure they find their security by looking outward to the lord jesus rather than inward to the way in which they feel sometimes we can be afraid of talking about holiness because we

[2:10]
we don't want to encourage people to be introspective then there's the fact that in recent years most of us have become more aware that lots of the new testament texts that speak about holiness are actually talking about the fact that we're already holy in christ positionally holy if you like so we stick to those parts of the bible and tend to ignore the others where it tells us that we're supposed to grow in holiness all those things may be factors in downplaying holiness

[2:40]
and are dropping the ball but for some of us at least i suspect the reasons may actually go a little deeper if we're honest it may be that speaking about holiness makes us feel like frauds there's a sense in which all of us can only speak about the things that we really know so we quietly avoid speaking about holiness because we don't think we know much about it to be honest it's hard not to feel like

[3:12]
a fraud when explaining that our god says be holy for i am holy who can live up to that one so instinctively we veer away from it it may be we've just put speaking about holiness in the too hard basket we're all for it we think it's good we're just not really sure how to aim for it or how to nurture it so we focus on just explaining the text in front of us rather than trying to apply it in a way that confronts people and

[3:42]
moves us towards repentance and faith towards change and holiness if we're honest for many of us it's much easier to focus on important things like strategy and philosophy of ministry and and pipelines and pathways and ecosystems things that at least we can try to fix than to speak about and aim for the holiness without which none of us will see the lord but whether we've silently avoided

[4:14]
talking about holiness because we feel like hypocrites or because we've opted to focus on something more achievable the challenge is clear god commands us and urges us to pursue deeper holiness but let's press a little further what actually is it i think the best place to start is with that simplest of refrains we bump into repeatedly in leviticus be holy for i am holy to be holy is to be like god in every way that finite human beings like us can be

[4:45]
it's to be godly or to put an even sharper focus on this side of the cross for us it is to be like the lord jesus in his perfect humanity deeper holiness is basically deeper likeness to christ this is what we should pursue why should we pursue it because the holy god tells us to because unless we pursue holiness we won't see him because unless we pursue holiness we

[5:16]
won't become more like him because if we're not like him if we're not holy then we won't there can't be effective ambassadors for the gospel ultimately if we're not holy then we won't love people as god loves them we won't be passionate about our mission as god is passionate and we won't actually be willing to do what it takes to reach our nation

[5:47]
see to be holy is to be like the god who seeks people like us out and sends people like us out but more of that later for now we need to turn to the most pressing question if pursuing deeper holiness is pursuing christ's likeness if there is so much riding on this where do we get it how do we pursue it to use the language of hebrews well this afternoon our aim and the time we have is simply to answer that

[6:19]
question where do we get this deeper holiness how do we pursue this holiness without which no one will see the lord and to help us in that we're going to turn to isaiah 6. in the first five chapters of isaiah the prophet provides us with a series of snippets of his preaching over the early years of his ministry as he reels against ungodliness warns god's people of searing judgment and paints vivid pictures of god's soaring salvation as isaiah 1-5 are a disconcerting

[6:49]
fast-moving blast of god acting for his glory in both salvation and judgment and then suddenly isaiah hits pause what has shaped his preaching and his vision of god what drives him he says come with me to jerusalem in the year 740. i'll tell you about what happened then and you'll understand now of course isaiah's experience as he

[7:20]
recounts it in this chapter is well it's isaiah's experience none of us has ever been in solomon's temple or ever will be none of our words are co-authored by god and will be written down for the good of god's people across the centuries but there is another sense in which this prophet who lived almost 3000 years ago is just one of us this is what it's like when a human being encounters the one and only god this one-off experience provides a template

[7:52]
which is reflected over and over again through the bible but we can say more than that because isaiah is one who is appointed to speak god's word and his experience is a special resonance for those of us who've been set apart by god's people to pour ourselves into word ministry f this side of the cross but ultimately what happened that day in jerusalem as a message for all of us who

[8:23]
in the power of god's spirit are enabled and called to speak the gospel in isaiah's unique experience we see how god works to lead people like us into deeper holiness what does it take well deeper holiness starts with gazing at the god of holiness you'll see that in these first four verses look with me again in the year the king uti had died i saw the lord seated on a

[8:55]
high and lofty throne and the hem of his robe filled the temple seraphim were standing above him they each had six wings with two they covered their faces with two they covered their feet with two they flew and they call to one another holy holy holy is the lord of army says glory fill us the whole earth the foundations of the doorway shook at the sound of their voices and the temple was filled with smoke that's not allow familiarity with these words obscure or even take the edge of this stunning and overwhelming

[9:26]
experience which is described king uzziah or azariah as he's called in second kings 15 was a typical king of judah he was kind of godly but he didn't match up to either david his ancestor or the model of a good king that god had given moses back in deuteronomy 17. from a divine point of view he was just okay humanly speaking in a really long and successful rain 52 years it was a golden age for judah but his reign was tinged with sadness

[9:58]
for he was a leper in his case his illness had a very specific cause kings explicitly says that god had afflicted him for some undisclosed sin issue we'll come back to that in a moment but the important thing at this stage is to recognize that for uh isaiah everything had just changed isaiah it seems was a prophet who had a full royal scholarship you said i had set up some kind of prophetic mts

[10:29]
and i saw isaiah seems to have been a relatively happy apprentice until the king passed away that's when it happens he's at the temple minding his own business when he saw the lord i'm actually struggling to think of a more arresting statement in the old testament there he was just doing his thing and he saw god for god's old covenant people

[11:00]
it doesn't get any more shocking any any more incredible than this isaiah glimpsed the god of the universe no it's true that as john says in the prologue of his gospel that no one has ever seen god as engazed with unprotected eyes on god in all his splendor but it doesn't mean that no one's ever got a sneaky peek and isaiah is one of these guys he glimpses the holy one of israel so what does he

[11:31]
say basically he sees the god of all creation sitting on a huge throne now the problem is that he sees it from close up i've got a bit of a thing about tall buildings so you know over the years back in the day when it was possible to leave australia anywhere i find myself if there's a tall building in the city i i try and get up it so the sears star in chicago the rockefeller center the empire states

[12:02]
um the eiffel tower and pal in in paris even center point in sydney a giant photo frame strange thing with a glass floor in dubai and then the burj khalifa now the birds just blows the rest of them out of the water it's twice the size of the empire state building and three times the size of the eiffel tower but all those buildings have got one thing in common

[12:32]
standing at the bottom it's very hard to get a sense of how impressive they are other than the fact they're tall and my neck is sore now that's what isaiah's vision is like he's at the base of the throne and he knows that god is up there sitting on it and that he could see the throne and presumably by extension god or massive but that's about it all i can say is that it's really big

[13:07]
oh and that's the hem of god's robe and even the ham is over overwhelming the temple robes in the ancient world didn't tend to have long flowing trains i'm guess guessing the floors just weren't clean enough for that but the point is that just the hem the little sewn bit around the very edge of god's garment completely overwhelmed the temple the sheer scale of this vision

[13:39]
overwhelms description but that's only the start because the other thing that isaiah sees is a pair of seraphim literally burning ones on either side of god above him are flying flaming attendants who've got all these flaming wings i said it does his best to describe what these things look like but to be honest he's fighting a losing battle even god's flunkies are mind-blowingly

[14:09]
impressive it's also worth adding remember these heavenly creatures are enormous if the hem of the robe is enormous and the throne is bigger then it's highly unlikely that the seraphim are kind of flaming mosquitoes buzzing around the lord of armies even the attendants are utterly overwhelming as befits the god of all power and glory gazing at this was life changingly overwhelmingly huge

[14:43]
18 months ago we took a qtc study tour to jerusalem and braved the cues and the fairly hostile security to make the most of the one r each day that non-muslims are currently allowed onto the temple mount well probably not this week but up until a couple of weeks ago as we walked around the dome of the rock we tried to get a glimpse inside i knew from visiting years ago there's a very large rock in there which is purported to be the very spot that abram prepared to sacrifice isaac

[15:15]
but some friendly men with automatic weapons made sure that none of us even got a glimpse of it this time there is no way that unholy people like us were even getting a glimpse of what's at the heart of the temple mount which actually must have been pretty like isaiah's normal experience pretty much every day i guess he wandered around the temple precinct knowing that at its heart inside the holy of holies sat a golden box flanked by two fairly small angelic creatures called cherubim who had two

[15:47]
wings often they called this box the throne of god now if isaiah had an inquisitive bone in his body he must have wondered exactly what this symbol of god's throne looked like even long to see the holy box but my god in his mercy gives him not a glimpse through the the curtain that separated the most holy place off from people like him he gets a glimpse

[16:18]
of the real thing a little look at god's throne and god himself although even the hem of his robe is almost too much to take in after that i recognize i looked at the temple a little differently you know it's like a lego version of the grand canyon or uluru a good effort but still made out of tiny plastic bricks as it gets to see the real thing

[16:48]
and he's only getting started because this vision came with dolby atmos sound having tried to describe the the visual impact in verse 3 isaiah turns to the soundtrack one call to another holy holy holiest the lord of army says glory fills the whole earth we can only guess how loud that must have been but volume's not really isaiah's issue it's the content these creatures have been have invented a super superlative

[17:19]
to try to convey just how breathtakingly pure and majestic god is he's super super holy they keep shouting so utterly holy that the earth isn't even close to being able to contain the outflow of his beauty and splendor from this moment on isaiah tends to refer to god as simply the holy one of israel which is perfectly understandable and as all this is going on the grind where isaiah was standing or probably by this stage lying face down with his

[17:50]
fingers in his ears quaking shook and the temple was filled with smoke could be sweet smelling incense smoke singed beard kind of smoke or seraphim odorless smoke whatever it was isaiah was surrounded by it it was a truly immersive experience and frisia this is where it all began this is the beginning of deeper holiness i hope you can get some sense of just

[18:21]
how earth-shattering this was for isaiah it blew his mind this is a foretaste of the fulfillment of everything god created us to know and revel in and bring glory to him the entire course of human history is shaped by god's commitment to make this entire cosmos a place where he is the blazing center of all things and where he is known by the people that he has made and rescued and reshaped we are made to know this god and enjoy

[18:53]
him forever and that day in the jerusalem temple eyes i had got that gradually from this point on god would start to show him how this might come to reality that people like us might know this god as the anointed servant of the lord would show up and suffer and die and win and rule and straighten all things out and we have seen that so much more

[19:24]
clearly in the coming of the lord jesus who comes that we might have life to the full real life in god and with god that starts now and goes on forever see this is why the gospel makes us gasp john piper in his is marvelous but god is the gospel puts it like this the ultimate good of the gospel is seeing and savoring the beauty and value

[19:57]
of god god's wrath and sin obstruct that vision and that pleasure you can't see and savor god as supremely satisfying while you're full of rebellion against him and he is full of wrath against you the removal of this wrath and this rebellion is what the gospel is for the ultimate aim of the gospel is the display of god's glory and the removal of every obstacle to our seeing it and savoring it as our highest treasure

[20:27]
behold your god piper says is the most gracious command and the best gift of the gospel the gospel is about removing every obstacle for us so that we can gasp at the god of all holiness this is where it starts this is the foundation gazing at this god remember what isaiah saw was utterly amazing

[20:59]
but even the least in the kingdom of heaven have seen more than this here these well-known words from the apostle john and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory glorious of the only son from the father full of grace and truth no one has ever seen god the only god

[21:30]
who is at the father's side has made him known god has revealed himself to us in the lord jesus who's whose goodness and power and purity we taste and see in the gospel in a way that leaves even what isaiah experienced here in jerusalem far behind it's in seeing and savoring the lord jesus himself that deeper holiness begins

[22:00]
if we don't feel something of this when we get out of bed in the morning if we're not gripped by this if we don't manage to convey to people that this is the god who's revealed himself to us in the lord jesus then we're missing out ourselves and selling others short and maybe that for us the next step to deeper holiness is simply by being confronted again ourselves or for the first time by the holiness of god in his blazing

[22:30]
purity and overwhelming attractiveness and shouldn't we know and see something of this every time we open the bible and read it for ourselves every time we we show up on sundays to hear the gospel explained or explain it to others a growth group at school in our eye classes every time we open the bible to read it with someone who's not yet a christian we believe that our god the holy one of

[23:02]
israel reveals himself to us through his word to make us gasp as we glimpse him and to launch us on a lifelong trajectory of pursuing holiness as we pursue him this is where we must begin as we sit and listen across australia this afternoon can we honestly say that that's where we're at is there a resonant note of awe at our god in our lives

[23:33]
in our conversations about the lord jesus in our gatherings you know over the past 30 years i think we've done a really good job at stripping away all kinds of obstacles to communicating the gospel to people now our seating and our lighting and our language and our dress sense and our air conditioning and our music all make it easy for people to join us let's not lose sight of the fact that the goal of all this

[24:04]
is that people like us people including us might marvel and gasp at the god of the gospel father son and spirit the holy holy holy god and be utterly amazed by his beauty and tenderness and purity which leads us inexorably to the second thing which if anything is even more unnerving because when we gasp at the god of holiness it makes us face our own unholiness

[24:36]
facing our own unholiness is never much fun i've been reading paul tripp's latest book but simply called lead and at one point paul helpfully provides a 49-point list describing a leader whose life is in gospel balance his leadership is shaped by faith not fear she leads out of humility and neediness not pride and self-reliance he's uncomfortable with the dichotomy between his public ministry persona and

[25:06]
his private conduct that's just three 46 to go and i was feeling undone already but if we're to be more holy this is what we need if we are to live with and for this god we need to be undone ruined first five i said to me wooded me for i'm ruined it's hard to capture the word in english ruins pretty good

[25:37]
undone's not bad gobsmacked kind of in the ballpark but it's actually more serious than that isaiah is so utterly overwhelmed and exposed that he's good he's just got nothing nothing to say i heard harvey weinstein interviewed a while ago briefly on his way to our rehab clinic in the clip that i heard this incredibly powerful man sounded bewildered confused and defeated

[26:08]
eventually he just muttered i have real problems i'm counting on the fact that everybody deserves a second chance as the procession of women that he had abused over the years grew he realized the game was up can't even remember the extent of his mistreatment of women so he shut up and stopped protesting confined undone ruined but isaiah is taking there instantly by this vision of god

[26:41]
i do think it's worth pausing there just for a second to ask if if we actually think of ourselves as those who've been ruined a couple of weeks ago we were in college chapel and we were singing oh lord my rock and my redeemer i actually find myself balking at the line which says gracious savior of my ruined life my man my mind started protesting my life isn't ruined at the moment it's actually holding together quite well

[27:15]
then i realized what i was doing protesting at the core truth which is a prerequisite to deeper holiness at that moment i was denying a reality which i've already accepted that i seek to build my life on but in the moment i didn't believe it i know that you know that we're still unholy

[27:47]
i know that we all know that we're nothing more than forgiven sinners i'm sure we could all widely affirm that we'll never be more than unprofitable servants but the question we have to keep on asking ourselves is are we actually living out of this truth did we get out of bed this morning with a profound sense of gratitude to the one who is the gracious savior of our ruined lives as human beings we have a staggering ability to bind spark to recover our equilibrium

[28:19]
we'll think a bit more about this tomorrow as we look at deeper hope we have an innate ability to recover our pride even when there's nothing to be proud of to forget that we're deeply unholy to forget the need to live as those who have been undone who ultimately have nothing those whose personalities and plans and abilities and gifts can finally achieve nothing lasting because we are sinful people who have been confronted by an irresistibly

[28:50]
irreducibly holy god this is the unavoidable undeniable unpalatable truth but this is where we must stand and serve but actually isaiah's point is a little more specific than that he doesn't just say he's wrong because he's sinful he says it's because he's a man of unclean lips who lives among a people of unclean lips and because his eyes have seen the king the lord of armies

[29:21]
isaiah says he has a problem with his lips apparently is a race we have an issue with our lips too so what on earth does that mean now i've always thought this was just a poetic way of talking about her speech you know we all say stupid and sinful stuff and that's true but i don't think that's what this text about there's only one place in the bible where unclean and lips appear in the same context it's in leviticus 13 verse 45.

[29:52]
the leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose and he shall cover his upper lip and crack cry out unclean unclean he shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease he's unclean he shall live alone his dwelling shall be outside the camp this is the year that king uzziah the leper died isaiah says he has now seen the king yahweh of hosts

[30:26]
what is god impressing on isaiah not just that we all say wrought wrong things but thy that like isaiah the leper king who had to cover his lips every time he spoke because of his leprosy as a dramatic marker of his disobedience we're all unclean because of the sin problem when we see ourselves when we're confronted by the searing moral purity of yahweh of armies we have to shut up the only thing we

[30:58]
have to do is say unclean to stand there and kind of gulp like shaggy and scooby-doo used to in every single episode when they were confronted by the ghost slash monster strike slash axe wielding murderer for the first time but the problem here is there will be no relief from this fear because the person we stand before we're won't turn out to be the grumpy janitor the fact the fear will go through the roof as it dawns on us that we are

[31:28]
utterly exposed before the flawless maker of all things being undone is the realization that we are unholy people standing before a holy god and his eyes response ruined i'm a prophet with nothing to say a messenger with no message no gospel to announce and this is the place we need to return

[31:58]
to again and again if we're to no deeper holiness it was jc reilly in his classic book holiness who once famously wrote a right knowledge of sin is at the root of all saving christianity and ryle was right there's no point talking about deeper holiness unless we're willing to face the fact that we're sinful to the core that we have nothing to say until we speak and lead from a place where we speak and lead us those who have been undone

[32:29]
ruined isn't this exactly what jesus said over and over again if we want to live we need to die it's only an abject weakness that we find strength if we want deeper holiness we need a deeper appreciation of our sin that's at the heart of what happens next then verse six one of the seraphim flew to me in his hand and in his hand was a

[32:59]
glowing cold that he'd taken from the altar with tongs so one of these giant flaming heavenly creatures takes a burning coal which in the old testament always symbolizes judgment and holiness and approaches isaiah it seems that somewhere in the periphery of isaiah's vision he also sees an altar of which there were several in the temple the mini earthly version of god's throne room what does the creature do he takes them in a pair of tongs now that's interesting i would have

[33:31]
thought that a flaming creature would have been able to pick up hot objects in his fingers although he may not have had fingers so i don't really know why he used the tongs but he did and he touched my mouth with elisa rights and said now that this has touched your lips your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for the action of this flaming one is so simple and yet so effective what promises to be an excruciatingly painful part of isaiah's vision turns

[34:03]
out simply to bring relief as god finds a way to deal with his inner twistedness and guilt god deals almost effortlessly here with isaiah's unholiness sin is burned away and the prophet now forgiven is freed to speak the closest the new testament comes to this kind of language is at the end of hebrews 12. therefore as we're receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken let us be

[34:34]
thankful buy it i think that's by the fact that we are given this rule by grace we may serve god acceptably for with reverence and awe for our god is a consuming fire in other words we are to serve and speak as forgiven sinners as those whose holiness has been exposed but has been dealt with as we have encountered and are gripped by and stand in awe of

[35:05]
our god who is a consuming fire many of us are teachers all of us are committed to the ministry of the gospel we must do what we do as forgiven sinners there is no other biblical stance there is no other way that we can represent or present a holy god there is no other way to deeper holiness this is not rocket science

[35:37]
it's pretty obvious but this simple truth will invest our teaching with humility and seriousness sitting with this reality should be enough to remind us that what we are doing could not be more serious or more urgent and should lead us in our weakness to throw ourselves into knowing and sharing the message that has been entrusted to us

[36:10]
even as it pushes us into a deeper awareness of the fact that our god tells us to be holy for he is holy and that he has done everything it takes to enable us to share in this holiness without which none of us shall see the lord deeper holiness for us then involves gazing at the god of all holiness and facing our own unholiness it's a life in which our vision of god is constantly expanding as we pursue this god and the life in which our view of ourselves is always diminishing

[36:43]
or if we're honest re-diminishing as our pride continues to stick its head out of the ashes to be exposed for the joke it is yet again the way of deeper holiness is a life of a growing vision of our god and repeated repentance and faith as we kill off sin before it kills us to paraphrase jonathan we gaze at god's holiness we face our own unholiness and then verses 8-13

[37:15]
deeper holiness leads us to a willingness to suffer for the gospel after he encounters the the utterly holy god and faces his own holiness isaiah's vision takes another unexpected turn because his path to deeper holiness doesn't take him on a tortuous inner journey it takes him out of himself to speak for and suffer for the god of all holiness shouldn't really come as a surprise if deeper holiness means deeper christ likeness it shouldn't really be a shock that it means being get getting ready to suffer

[37:47]
as we get the message of the gospel out to our world now for the first time in verse 8 god himself speaks from the throne god asks a question i think that's fascinating in and of itself the lord of all glory the king of the universe speaks what does he do how condescending is this he asks a question god doesn't actually force us to do anything even though our wills are shot through with sin even though we blew our real freedom at

[38:17]
the fall so my god finds a way to work in us which doesn't simply overwhelm our personality and decisions i heard the voice of the lord asking who should i send who will go for us is anyone prepared to be a spokesperson for this awesome king and isaiah pipes up squeaks probably here i am saying me

[38:49]
it's an incredible moment the throne of god is looming over us in all this splendor flaming beings are flying around with the burning forgiveness of god in their hands the voices of these flaming ones are booming out holy holy holy the prophet has faced this utter moral bankruptcy and inadequacy god's voice thunders from the throne who will go to represent the godhead father son and spirit and isaiah goes

[39:20]
me sorry to break it to you but that's the contribution we make to the work of our god we add our squeaks to the powerful voice of our god and king that in itself is a gentle or perhaps not so gentle rebuke to all our pretensions and self-delusions and kingdom building all our efforts all our schemes all our words are ultimately

[39:52]
just a little squeak but we go on behalf of the lord of glory the honor and the power and the kingdom belong to him we speak on his behalf we're simply ambassadors it is an immense privilege for any of us to be part of this to go for him calvin says this remarkable instance of obedience sought to produce such an effect on our minds that we shall readily and cheerfully

[40:23]
undertake any task which he may be pleased to give us and shall never refuse any task however difficult we may imagine it to be see this is part of what it means to be more holy more aware of god great god's greatness more acutely aware of our sin and readier than ever to speak as god's purifying work in our lives propels us out in mission what are we to say god said go say to these people keep

[40:54]
listening but don't understand keep listening but don't perceive make the minds of these people dull death in their ears and blind their eyes otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears understand with their minds turn back and be healed they're the words picked up obviously by jesus in the parable of the sower the shape of gospel ministry always has and always will be a matter of proclaiming the truth of who god is and what he has done and watching as he

[41:24]
works in both salvation and judgment bringing some to life and hardening others and all before our watching eyes and while these words are are given to isaiah in the context of a cl of a a crisis with assyria the fact that jesus picks them up and uses them of his ministry does set an expectation for us see this is the greatest joy and perhaps

[41:55]
the sobering reality of being involved in this ministry deeper holiness will lead us to speak more but as we speak more we will also suffer more both internally and externally part of the suffering will be because of the response of those who reject both the message and the messenger but part of the suffering will simply be the result of deeper holiness deeper christ likeness it will be a peel reflection of the

[42:27]
suffering of the one who said jerusalem jerusalem who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her how often i wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings but you were not willing is that where we are sent in an increasingly tender hearted ministry which grieves for those who don't respond and longs to see people brought to new life in christ until when isaiah says

[43:00]
until judgment has come through and is finished until only the stump remains until the day of the lord jesus arrives when people like us are equipped and called and sent to take this message to our world this afternoon what do we need most as we pause to recalibrate refocus be re-energized

[43:35]
is it to gaze again at the transcendent power and holiness of our god is it to face ourselves or is it simply to commit ourselves again to going speaking and suffering for the lord jesus as we take the gospel to this nation and beyond whichever it is hear these words of peter as we close therefore with your minds ready for action be sober minded and set your hope

[44:06]
completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of jesus as the one who has called you as holy you also are to be holy in all your conduct for it is written be holy for i am holy amen