Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Living Holy: through grace or through works?

This past Sunday, our preacher gave a sermon on living holy. I was expecting this sermon to be conflicting, considering our church is typically very legalistic.  In my opinion, if we accept Gods great grace and live a life through it, He will change our hearts to better reflect Him and his holiness; the works will come with a heart change. It is not necessarily up to us to become holy, but rather to offer our lives and hearts to God and then allow Him to make us holy. I believe that after our lives and hearts are completed tuned in to what God wants, we will start slowly changing into an intimate, holy relationship with God, and we will want to become more like Him. I do not believe we will become holy by doing good things. We need Gods great grace to carry out His holiness. Unfortunately, many people believe that holiness comes from doing things and trying to be perfect. Thankfully, we dont have to be perfect to be holy; but rather strive for living a life like Jesus. Doing works without having your heart in the proper place will not make you holy, it will only make you a hypocrite. We need to put our entire being into the Lord before we can even consider becoming holy. I was pleasantly surprised to find that his views were very similar to mine.

11 comments:

  1. Dude... you totally didn't listen to the sermon, did you? In fact, Pastor Sheridan said the EXACT same thing you are saying. That holiness is an extension of completely giving one's own will over to God, and is a gift from the Holy Spirit, and once that gift is received, the fruit of the Spirit should be evident in a persons life. I can get his sermon notes for you if you would like. =)

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    1. Dude! I totally listened! Weird right? Yes, my thoughts are almost the same as his own. But, there are people in my life that would disagree with those thoughts, I'm not posting in disagreement, but agreement with him.

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    2. She was just reiterating what Sheridan said. Have to be honest.....this sermon, coming from a Pastor of a Nazarene church, kind of shocked both of us! It was awesome!

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    3. Then why did you say that our church is "legalistic?" That makes no sense. And the Nazarene denomination is a denomination based on John Wesley, who is the founder of the Holiness movement... sounds like we need to have a good Sunday school class on what the Nazarene church believes. Your post very much reads as if you are stating that Pastor Sheridan is legalistic, and thinks we can achieve Holiness through works alone. This post did not, in any way, imply that you were agreeing with the sermon on Sunday.

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    4. I have updated this post to better reflect how I viewed this sermon. And yes, I did say that I percieved pastor to be extremely legalistic...was he not talking about a manual to the Nazarene faith?

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  2. Just because someone believes in the church manual, which is basically a statement of theological belief so that others inside the church and outside the church can know what we believe theologically, does not make something legalistic. To be legalistic (the definition of the word) means that someone believes that following the law of the Bible is what brings redemption. Pastor Sheridan and no one else in our church believe's that we can follow a set of laws and be redeemed. This is how the Jewish people view their covenant with God,through the laws He gave them in the OT. The church Manual is a set of statements of belief and theological foundation for what the denomination believes, they are not "laws" that we believe bring us redemption. Just because a denomination has a manual, does not mean they are legalistic.

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  3. And if you talked to Pastor Sheridan about it, I am positive that he would insist that the church manual is not the decisive book on what brings about Salvation. No matter what we believe about the manual, it is just an interpretation of what we believe to be important in the Nazarene denomination. It is not something that we have added to the Bible, and it is not the Bible. We, as a Church, do not believe that living according to the church manual we can receive salvation or redemption.

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    1. I do value your opinion, but we are just gonna have to agree to disagree on this(:

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  4. I do not think there is anything to disagree about... I am just questioning what the reason is behind your statement that Pastor Sheridan is legalistic. Making those kinds of blanket statements about him is hurtful and could be incredibly damaging to the ministry that is happening in the church. I am also attempting to understand what you mean when you say "legalistic." If you seriously want to discuss these topics, let's do it. I am all about it. =) There is agreeing to disagree, when each side makes sense, but Sheridan was not saying that following the church manual as a set of rules is what gives us Holiness. He was preaching against legalism on Sunday, from the beginning to the end of the sermon, and I am not comfortable when that is being misrepresented.

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  5. She in no way is trying to damage any type of ministry that is going on in the church. I grew up in the Nazarene church and I for one do know how legalistic it can be. Having said that, I do not believe that everyone in the church is legalistic; no, definitely not. I also do not believe that a church needs to have a "manual", per se. My "manual" is God's Word, and that is the only thing I will live my life by. When I was younger, the Nazarene church was all about no drinking, no smoking, no movies, no dancing, etc. Whether I do those things or not, are between God and I and not the church.

    I have seen some big changes in Sheridan that excite me for sure. Sarah and I both know that he was preaching against Legalism on Sunday. I for one, was shocked, because there have been some issues in the past between Sheridan and the church, of what we can do and can't do. Unfortunately, some of the older generation of our church still believe in the "don't do's" of our church.

    I seriously believe that we need to get rid of the manual and the title "Nazarene." Seriously, what purpose does it serve?

    Kevin and I are raising our girls with the knowledge of how important Grace is and that there is nothing we have to do to keep our salvation. Jesus did that for us on the cross with His blood. We also add that because we love God, we choose to obey Him, not because we have to, but because of our love for Him. I was not raised this way; in fact, the whole notion of Grace was not something I really considered until about 3 years ago.

    I think that you and Sarah are saying the same thing, but there is a difference when what is being said, comes from a 14 year old and a 20 or 30-something year old. :)

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  6. I cannot agree that we need to get rid of the manual. The "don't do's" are not all that important to me, but what is important are the articles of faith, statements of belief, and theological foundation that is given in the manual. Also, it teaches about how the church is run (with the board, pastoral leadership, lay leadership, etc.). It also protects my husband and those employed by the church, while also protecting the lay leadership. It is more than just a small book of "don't do this or that." I realize that legalism is an issue in every church, everywhere. It does need to be preached against, and I agree with that. What I was trying to say was, calling a Pastor legalistic is hurtful. To the pastor personally, and to the church in light of someone reading this and thinking "wow, I will never go there." If we won't say it to Pastor Sheridan's face, I would suggest not saying it at all. That is what I was trying to get at. =) I love you both, and this conversation has been fun.

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