Why Holiness isn’t what most Churches think it is

At Sun Valley, the church I have the honor of serving at, once a month we gather our team together from all of our campuses. We spend time worshiping together, we share wins with each other, we communicate some stuff that we everyone needs to know, we share a meal together and we do some leadership training with everyone. From time to time I share some of those thought here with you when they may be helpful. This month Chad Moore, who serves as the Lead Pastor at Sun Valley kicked off the new year with our team with a talk that may challenge you to think differently about holiness and following Jesus.

Big Question: How do you know when you’re growing in holiness?

• What does Jesus mean when He says, “By holy as I am holy?”
• Technically the word holy means “set apart,” but what does that practically and daily mean for us?
• For most of us growing up in church, holiness was more about what we don’t do…it was behavior oriented. If that’s accurate then holiness is all about following the rules.
• But Jesus says holiness = loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; and loving your neighbor as yourself…functionally speaking holiness is relational in nature.

Big Answer: You know you’re growing in holiness when you’re growing in relationship with God and people.

• Everything that God wants to do in our lives this year is relational.
• If you can’t be holy you have nothing else left but to be weird by trying to follow a bunch of rules.
• Jesus said that the world will know us by our love for one another = by the quality of our relationships.
• Ask most people in church about holy living and they’ll go to a list of what they have done and haven’t done this past week.
• So many churches leave the relational component out of following Jesus when relationships are the beginning and end of what holiness actually is.
• The reason the Church is irritating to so many people around the world isn’t because we don’t have the truth or good theology but because we don’t have love. This is why the bible describes love in terms and phrases like, “if I have everything right and together and don’t have love I’m still irritating to everyone around me,”…even if I’m right.
• Holiness is relational.
• You cannot be following Jesus in a real way and be a jerk.
• Relational health is spiritual health.
• The reason heaven is heaven is because relationships are perfect there.
• Holiness is relational…that is the Christian life.
• The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your relationships.