Beyond - Holy Confusion

The word, "HOLY" is common around church, religion, and even curse words. Everyone has heard it, but the million dollar question is...what exactly does it mean? As we continue in the letter of 1 Peter the Apostle teaches us that "holy" is far bigger and deeper than we often realize, and makes a significant impact in our real, every day lives. 

For more info about RPYA check us out on Instagram @rpyoungadults or at our landing page on rockypeak.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What is going on, RPYA? We ready? Uh, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Oliver and I'm on the first impression tier. Thank you, Jay. And uh I'm gonna be reading the passage for tonight. So if you could open up or turn on your apps, open up your Bibles to a 1 Peter ver uh 1 to verses 13 to 21. That's where we're gonna be in, so I'll give you a couple moments. Alright, we ready? Sweet. Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who uh called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. For it is written, Be holy because I am holy. Since you call on a Father who judges each person's work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear, for you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Thank you, Oliver. The word of the Lord. RPYA, it is always a delight to get together with all of you. I look forward to these Sunday nights very much so. And for those of you that it's your first time, let me just take a few moments to introduce myself. My name is Dre. I am the Young Adult Pastor here at Rocky Peak, and I want to tell you a little bit about what you got yourselves into. Welcome to RPYA, that stands for Rocky Peak Young Adults. We meet in this building every Sunday night at 6.30. And the reason why we exist, as you saw in that little bumper video, is that we believe that God wants to unleash a movement of passionate Christ following, 18 to 25 year olds. We believe that your generation is meant to transform many generations and the world around us. And the primary way that we feel that we get to partner with God in that is by providing these Sunday nights. These Sunday nights are designed top to bottom to be a place of encounter in which real people, and that's the beautiful part of that, real people, not idealized people, not perfect people, not Disney movie ending people, but real people with very real problems, messiness, and limitations can come and encounter a very real Jesus. And we're excited to not only continue what the Lord is up to, but we're excited for what's to come in the summer. You heard Kristen and Peyton talk about it. We're swinging kind of high this summer as we feel the Lord's leading us to do what's called a one-day conference. That's something we've never done before in the history of RPYA. But what we're looking to do is gather not just us in this room, but gather young adults from all across our valleys, gather from our neighboring churches, to even those that are exploring faith to gather us in one room for one day to unleash one generation to change all the others. And that's what one day is all about. How do we learn to live as disciples of Jesus in our real life? What does that look like in love, sex, and dating? What does that look like when I'm hurting and suffering? What does that look like in the digital world that we're immersed in? What does that look like when I go back to school in the fall? What does that look like here? What does that look like there? One day is an opportunity to be equipped and then unleashed in that. We believe that all it takes is one day to change everything. And so we'll talk a little bit more at the very end to be able to register for that. But I really hope that you would join us for something special the Lord is up to. But for right now, as I get to lead us in our time of teaching, I have no intention in talking at you. I'm here to learn alongside with you as we open up God's word. And so I want to invite you to go ahead and take one or two deep breaths. So loud when you breathe, RPA. It's just a way to focus us. Let's go ahead and close our eyes. And I'm gonna pray for us. Before I do, just in the stillness of your own heart, just between you and God, would you just pray and would you just finish this statement? God, one of the reasons why I find you to be awesome is dot dot dot. And let me clarify, I don't mean awesome in like Southern California surferlingo, although that's my bread and butter. I mean, in the true definition of the word, meaning awe inspiring. So just let the Lord know what it is about him that you love that brings you to a point of awe and wonder. Take a few moments. And it's beautiful because that's what brings me to awe when I tend to forget when life gets hard, when I'm running so fast, is that you are so big that there is always more to see. There is always more to experience. And so would your Holy Spirit, the gift that you have given us to mark us as your sons and daughters, daughters, would your Holy Spirit open our eyes tonight so that we can see more of who you are, Jesus? More of your love, more of your presence, more of your forgiveness, more of your power, more of your unleashing. Would you open our eyes to see that you are bigger than this room? You are bigger than this church, you are meant to be in every day, King. And so as we go into this time of teaching, I love the words of John the Baptist. Would I become less as the communicator? It's not about me tonight. Would you, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, become much, much more in our lives? And so we give this time to you to do what you will, King Jesus. It's in your name. We all said, Amen. Hey, I want to start off by asking you a question. What comes to mind when you hear the word holy? Now, I'm not asking you what the right answer on a test is. I'm asking you honestly, when you hear the word holy, what is the first thing that pops into your mind? What's your blank reaction, so to speak? Take 10 seconds, turn to somebody around you. What's the first thing that came to mind when you heard the word holy? Go. Hey, so I'm gonna jump back in here. Now, here's what I want to unpack this evening. Even for those of us that have been going to church for any length of time, some of us we have grown up in church seemingly. This word is actually pretty mysterious. If I had had the time, and I don't, and I'm not gonna do this, and I went around and individually asked you, what was your answer, what was your blink, what was your answer, we would actually get a pretty wide spectrum. But I think there's some common thoughts that a lot of us tend to think of when we hear the word holy. For some of us, the first thing that comes to mind is a type of person, but I don't necessarily think like a regular person. How we tend to kind of imagine like a super religious, if maybe like perfect person. So an example of like a pope in the garb, and we think of somebody and go, okay, that's a holy person, right? That's a religious person. There's others of us that the first thing we think of when we think of the word holy is like a sacred space, a place that we would consider holy. Now, this is the inside of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan in New York City. And so if you walk in, it's a place I've been to many times, you can go, man, this feels holy, not just because of what's happening in the masses or the church services, but there's like statues of Jesus, there's statues of Bible figures all around, there's like hundreds of years of architecture. We might go, okay, well, that's kind that's a holy place, right? There are some of us that if your mind went here, I love you because you're actually honest about the question, that the first thing we thought about was curse words. Because if you think about cursing, cursing involves the word holy quite a bit in a lot of different, and in some cases, very creative uses and variations. There are some of us that we think of God. But I would say that we think of God in like a general sense. We're kind of like, well, holy God. And we kind of know there's a connection, and again, that's church isn't a place to pretend to be perfect, church is a place to be honest. But I think a lot of us would go, like, I don't know if I fully know what the connection is. I think we've heard or we've been taught or we've been raised or even read in the Bible, God is holy, but what does that mean? What does that mean? What implication does that have? I think there are some of us, and when we think of the word holy, we think of moments. We think of these moments that we would consider holy moments, maybe like a powerful worship experience or a powerful life group experience. Maybe we would think of a moment like a camp, if you were in a camp at your church or a Rocky Peak in student ministries, these moments in which God's presence felt very, very tangible. And so we would probably think of a lot of different things, and as I talk about some of these, we probably go, yeah, yeah, I can see that, I can understand that. But here's a question I want to ask you, and it's a rhetorical question. She's just between you, yourself, and God. When you think of the word holy, do you ever think of yourself? When you think of the word holy, do you ever think of yourself? And there's another part to that, and do you ever think of your real life? Does holiness have any type of impact on you in the way you live your daily life? And this question is actually tied to how we ended last week as we started our journey through Peter's letter. If you remember, we started this journey as in 1 Peter, and Peter began by writing about salvation. Last week we unpacked this question of what does it mean to be genuinely saved? And Peter in his letter gave us three essentials for genuine salvation. And the very last one, it's at the top of your note sheet, is that salvation makes a difference in your real life. What we talked about last week is that salvation is not simply a moment in which our Christian life starts and then we move on. But salvation is the foundation of our entire life, of what everything else is built on. And so as we tie this together, Peter now goes on in this letter to tell us that the difference that salvation makes in our everyday life is holiness. That holiness is now a part, not only a part of our lives, but our everyday lives, our real lives. In fact, our very identity is now defined by holiness. And I'm excited to unpack and learn alongside you this evening. For those of you that are here for the very first time tonight, we're in week three of a series called Beyond the Yearbook. And this is a journey that we're being led on by the apostle Peter in the New Testament. And where the title comes from is that if we look at Peter when he was a younger man, when he was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, if there were yearbook photos or yearbook awards when Peter was a disciple, he would have gotten least likely to succeed. And the reason why I say that is because of what we know about Peter. He was brash, he was impulsive, he was arrogant, he was angry, he was insecure. Jesus saw all of that, everything that he was, and yet Jesus still saw more. And so Jesus invited Peter to live in that more, to not be defined by what he is in that moment, but to live beyond his yearbook photo, so to speak. And the reason why we're on this journey is Jesus makes the same invitation to you as well. That Jesus sees everything you are in this moment, your limitations, your messiness, your sin, and he invites you to more, and that more is experienced in his gift of transformation. And so we are following an older, a wiser, and a much more humble Apostle Peter, who is writing this letter of 1 Peter 25, 30 years after the resurrection of Jesus. And as he continues to talk about the impact of salvation, he gets into this topic of holiness. And here's the beautiful thing. For so many of us, the way that we view and understand and interact with holiness is way too low. And I hope you catch the emotion in my voice. I am not saying that in a convicting, in a guilt, or in a shaming way. I'm excited for us because it's a joyful opportunity to learn that God has more for us when it comes to how we see our real lives, and it's through the lens of holiness. So if you got your Bible still open, if you've got apps on, let's go back to the passage. Oliver read a large section. We're gonna stay focused on just a few verses, so I'm gonna go ahead and start by going to verse 15 in chapter one. The apostle writes, But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written, Be holy because I am holy. And so the first thing that we need to do through Peter's words is we need a working definition of what it means to be holy. And so Peter is gonna go on to give us three key characteristics of what it means to be holy. And the very first one starts with that statement. Peter is quoting the book of Leviticus from the Old Testament. He is that's where that comes from. Be holy because God is holy. So that leads us to the first part of understanding holiness. Your first fill-in is this holiness is identity. Holiness is identity. I think a lot of times when we tend to think of like holiness, so to speak, we think of actions, we think of behaviors, but that's not where it starts. It is the overflow of identity. But we need to understand this in two key areas. The first one is that holiness is God's identity. That's your next villain. This is God's identity, and this is absolutely beautiful. Being holy is not simply what God does, it is part of his core character, it is part of what makes him God. And the best way to understand God's holiness is to understand it as the complete and total opposite of sin. So sin is death. Therefore, God as holy is life, sin is darkness. God as the opposite as holy is light. Sin is hatred. God is the opposite is love. Sin is utter evil. God is the opposite is holy, is good in the biggest and the deepest sense of that word. God is holy. Now Peter is quoting Leviticus, one of the earliest pages of our Bible, of the 66 books in our canon. If we turn, I'm not gonna have you turn for the sake of time, but if we were to go to the book of Revelation, the very last book, we see this in Revelation chapter 4. The apostle John is given this window into these four creatures having the most epic worship gathering of all time. And the way they are worshiping is by declaring holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, and focus in on that word is. So the Bible, cover to cover, the entirety of the Bible. By the way, as a quick sidebar, the Bible is not an unrelated collection of stories and letters. The Bible is one big story. So in the big story of the Bible, over and over again, it wants us to understand that God's identity is holy, the opposite of sin. And here's the beautiful thing: God's identity is holy. And then when we give our lives to Him, He invites us to experience transformation. He changes us from the inside out that leads to the next villain. Holiness is now our reborn identity. Holiness is identity. It starts with God, it is who God is. And because of the work of Jesus, the death and resurrection, the forgiveness of our sins, we now have a brand new identity. And in that identity, we're the sons and daughters of God the Father. We get to reflect our Father, which means we now get to be holy as well. And what that means is that holiness for a Christ follower is a marker. Holiness is a way that we are marked, that we now belong to the kingdom of God. We now belong to Jesus the King. Holiness is a marker that we belong to resurrection, we belong to life, we belong to transformation. It's a marker and a declaration that we no longer belong to sin, to darkness, to evil, to hell. Even though we are imperfect, we have been marked by the Holy Spirit. We are marked by a life of holiness. Let me illustrate this in. Let me illustrate this using some movies that are near and dear to my heart, the Toy Story trilogy, the original Toy Story trilogy. They should have stopped after three. They should have stopped at three. Thank you. And it's, it's, yes, they told a very complete story, and that's a beautiful thing. But do you know why they should have stopped after three? Have you, if you go back and watch Toy Story when you're not a kid, these movies are incredibly depressing. Being a toy sucks because it's all about getting abandoned, it's all about kids growing up. And it gets worse and worse. Like Toy Story 2 and Jesse's man, my goodness. And like the new one where it's all about technology wins, like I my heart can't handle it. But in Toy Story, in the original trilogy, as they are Andy's toys, do you remember how Andy marked them? You just shouted up. Andy wrote his name on their foot. And why did Andy write his name on their feet? Well, one, there was kind of like a possessiveness of, hey, in case anything gets mixed up, people know these are my there's a protection. But another reason why Andy wrote his name on the feet of his toys is because he was proud that people knew they belonged to him. He's like, look, this is mine. This is my buzz. This is my bullseye. This is my Mr. Potato Head. This is Mr. My Woody. And the reason why I use that illustration is because that's what holiness is in our lives. Holiness is the mark of a proud God the Father saying, no, no, she is my daughter. He is my son. I love them. I'm changing their lives. I want to be with them for all of eternity. That's why I sacrificed my son, Jesus the King. Holiness is all about identity. And so there in your note sheet, you have a statement called neon light. Because this is our definition. This is the one thing that if you don't remember anything else, please remember this. That a definition of holiness is that holiness is a life set apart from sin because you belong to God. Holiness is a life set apart from sin because you belong to God. And here's the beautiful thing about holiness. Holiness is not a way to earn God's love. We get to live in holiness because we're already loved. Hear that again. Some of you came here tonight not knowing why, and this is why. You needed to hear this. Holiness is not a way to earn God's love and favor. We get to live in holiness because we are already loved by God the Father through Jesus the King. And so holiness is identity. The second thing that Peter teaches us in the statement, this next element, is that holiness is learned. Holiness is learned. And so let's go to verse 14. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. And so let's focus in on that phrase, obedient children. Now we might read that and go, oh man, the Bible is yelling at me to like get my act together and mature. And yeah, maybe that's true. But this actually isn't meant to be a dick. It's meant to be an illustration to help us understand our relationship with God the Father. A child needs to be taught how to live life well. As a parent, my primary responsibility is to teach my kids to live their lives, to be able to live life well, and not just in their actions, but in their heart, to know the most important things, that they are loved, that they are forgiven, that they are accepted, that they are a son and daughter of Jesus the King. Children need to be taught. And so as we think about ourselves, if we go back to what we studied last week, 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3, in his great mercy, he has given us new birth. And focus in on that. New birth means that when we give our lives to Jesus, we are a brand new baby. We are starting over. We are living a life that is brand new. And just like a real, actual physical baby, that is a journey that we need to learn one step at a time, one area at a time. This is a lifelong journey. There's not this spiritual switch that just flips on, and now you know everything that there is to know about journeying with God. You know everything there is to know about sin and the enemy and how to avoid that in spiritual warfare. You know how to make every wise decision, you're never gonna screw up again, and life is just gonna be sunshine and roses and all of that. No, it's a journey, and for us to do this well, we need to be taught. Let me illustrate it this way. How many of you here tonight, by show of hands, either currently are or have any point ever been like a barista? How many have ever been in a barista? A good amount of you, awesome. You are the salt of the earth. You keep my life running, so God bless you. So this is true of most jobs, but I'm gonna focus in on a barista. I'm gonna talk specifically about a Starbucks thing. I spend a lot of time in a Starbucks, and one of the things that strikes me every time I'm sitting in a Starbucks is how hard their job is. Because there are like a thousand things you need to be doing at the same time. So I want everybody to go on a thought exercise with me, okay? Imagine you're starting a job at Starbucks tomorrow. It is day one, moment one. You walk in, the manager greets you and then says, Okay, get to work. And that's it. How did you feel in that moment? I think if you're like me, your mind would immediately be running with everything you don't know how to do. You'd probably be looking at the machines and be like, I don't know how to work them. I don't know the library of drinks. I don't know the menu, I don't know how to work the headset. I don't know what button shuts people up. I don't even know where the headset is. I don't know how to work the register. If you've ever worked any job, I worked retail when I was your age. If you ever worked any job that involves a register, that thing comes from the pits of hell, okay? Because it never works. He menopails me. We got this. But here's another thing. You also don't know what are the goals of your what are the goals? What is like Starbucks's goal? What do they value? What is the most important thing when it comes to the customer? Should I be talking and making a relationship? Should I be spending time? Should I be moving them out? Should I be making sure this is ready? I don't know that. And then imagine you're looking around at everybody else that's working and seemingly they were born to do this. Like they're just doing everything like they invented coffee, like they invented the machines. They are working the drive-thru like a pro. And then the managers keep coming back and they're giving you a hard time. Why aren't you working? Why aren't you producing? Why aren't you doing good? Why aren't you doing this? They're punishing you for not knowing how to do this job. How long would you last? We treat ourselves that way when it comes to our faith. Because we have a deep misconception of what it means to be mature. We have a misconception that maturity means I know everything, I don't struggle, I've got it down, and I don't need to be taught. Real maturity is I know nothing. Jesus, teach me. Show me, lead me. And when it comes to holiness, the beautiful thing is that when we give our lives to Jesus, he gives us one of the most important, if not the most important, gift of our lives, which is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives in us, dwells in us, and the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to teach us, is to guide us, is to lead us in this process of holiness, whether you want to call it sanctification, whether you want to call it uh spiritual formation, the Holy Spirit is meant to teach us what it means to live as God's holy sons and daughters. And here's the beautiful thing is Peter writes this, Peter went from being, I know it all, to experiencing the beauty of God teach me. God teach me. He's experiencing the beauty that there's more. So that's the second thing. The third thing that Peter teaches us is that holiness is being proactive. Holiness is being proactive. So in verse 14, again, he wrote, as obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. So think about that word conformed. That word conform means don't follow the rules of your old life. And so by saying that, he's saying there are gonna be times in which we're tempted to go back to what we used to do, to go back to what we used to know, to go back to what used to be normal. And he's telling us don't wait for an emergency, because now God opened our eyes to see that the old rules, the old way of life is the old way of life is rooted in evil. And as we talk about evil, we're talking about the enemy, we're talking about sin, we're talking about spiritual warfare, but the one goal of the enemy, the one goal of evil is destruction, is to destroy what God loves, which is you and I. And the primary way that evil tries to destroy us is to lead us away from holiness, is to lead us away from identity. You know, some of you have heard me talk about this before, that one of the mistakes in spiritual warfare is that we think we're gonna see the devil coming. We think because we've grown up watching cartoons of a figure dressed like the devil, that he's gonna be obviously the devil, that he's gonna be ringing this like evil bell saying I'm evil, that he's gonna make his offers like I want your soul or your firstborn or like a blood sacrifice or something stupid like that. And we're gonna sit there and go, yeah, I'm gonna see him coming from a mile away. That's not how the devil operates because the devil is too smart for that. The best thing that the devil can do is to trick us by us not knowing he's here. And how he does it is one step at a time, leading us away from holiness, leading us away from obedience, leading us into sin. That's how the devil leads to destroy us. That's what evil is, is being led away from your true identity. And so last week we looked at the fact that Peter starts his letter with salvation. And what I love about that is that charge of salvation, that charge of holiness is don't wait, pursue it now, seek holiness now. And that's one of the biggest mistakes we all do at any age in our spiritual faith, is we wait for things to fall apart before we seek holiness. For some of us, God's wake-up call this evening is that we're living what's called a reactive faith. That we are living a reactive faith, that unless something is wrong, unless I am deep in sin, unless I am confused, unless I've been hurt or I've hurt other people, unless I'm lost, unless I've been exposed of what I've been hiding, unless that happens, I don't need to pursue holiness. It's the lack of maturity and wisdom when it comes to our physical health that says I won't go to a doctor until there's a reason. Think about that. Some of us will, and honestly, this is convicting to me. We won't walk into a doctor's office unless we've got a very obvious reason for why. You know why they want us to come at least once a year? Is for them to be able to take a good, honest look and go, hey, there's nothing wrong yet, but we could see where you're heading. We could see a trajectory we could avoid a lot if we just be proactive now. And in our faith, Peter is inviting us to no longer be reactive. And hear me, there's gonna be times we're gonna have to be reactive. We don't see things coming. There's gonna be times when life throws us curveballs, but where we get to experience a beauty of the power of God is in choosing to be proactive. Peter is speaking from experience. He's saying, younger brothers and sisters, I know what this is like. Trust me. Trust me and experience the benefit of being proactive in your faith in your youth. Now don't wait for quote a reason. And so because that's such an important, uh, that's such an important truth, I want to be able to unpack that just with a few moments that we have left. There in Enochi, you got a section titled Two Ways to Be Proactive. So what does that look like? What does that look like to proactively seek holiness? Here's the first one is to invite Jesus to speak into your real life. This is a beautifully bigger view of prayer. Man, God the Father invites you to bring your petitions to ask him for things in prayer. But for some of us, that's all we know how to do in prayer. But you're being invited with God the Father to a level of intimacy. And in that is to invite him to speak into your real life. And I think this reveals an opportunity for a lot of us, because I think for a lot of us, we don't tend to think about God being in our real life. And I don't think that's intentional in a lot of ways. It's just the way we've been formed. That we think of God at Sunday night or Sunday morning, we think of God in life group, we think of God at Encounter, we think of God at the Fellowship of Christian athletes, we think of God at this on my campus, we think of God with my family, reads the Bible together. We have these moments where God is, but then we live our real lives. And the idea of God being in our real lives feels weird. Let me let me illustrate it this way. When you were in elementary school, and this is true junior high and high school, but I feel like it's arts in elementary school, did you ever run into a teacher in real life? Wasn't that the weirdest thing? Like I remember vividly, we were like like in like a Joann's or something like that in elementary school. And it was the first time I'd ever seen one of my teachers like outside of the classroom, and I was floored because I didn't think they existed outside of the classroom, right? They were wearing like normal clothes. I had never seen that before, and my mom was like, Do you want to go and say hi? I'm like, no, because they're my teacher. Like, that's I you only interact in like a controlled setting outside. This is chaos. A lot of us, that's our relationship with God. Yeah, at church. But not at school. That'd be kind of weird, right? Not in my dating life, not in what I want for the future, not in my social media, not in my friendships, not in this. So if we want to be proactive about our holiness, that means being proactive about inviting God into our whole lives, our real lives. And so what does that look like in prayer? Well, honestly, it looks like it's simple. It's taking a part of your life, take school, and say, God, what does it look like to be holy when I'm at school? It's your relationships. God, what does it look like to be holy in this? It's your uh work. God, what does it look like to be holy in this area? Take your temptations, your struggles. You're saying, God, I'm struggling, I'm failing, I'm falling here. What does it look like to be holy in this area? God, I'm gonna invite you in my real life. This is gonna sound funny, but it's huge. Some of you, y'all need to bring up your driving with the Lord. They're like, God, what does it look like when I'm really annoyed with the person in front of me on the 118? Let me give you a couple of key areas that I think are important to bring God's voice into this. One area I think, especially for your generation, is the digital world. Your generation is really the first set of people that have only ever known iPhones, social media, YouTube, and all of that. I'm old enough that I remember the before and the after now, right? But your generation has never grown up in a world around it. And one of the dangers of that is because the digital world has kind of set the rules of what's right, of how it works, of what the values are. We don't question it. It's just normal. And so when you think about how you engage with the digital world, that could be social media, that could be the time you spend. It interface, it's immersed in everything, right? It's in our jobs, it's in our school. In a sense, we can't get away from it. And not all of it is bad, but we don't want to let it become king of our life. For all of us, one of the most important things we could do is to come before the Lord and God, go, God, what does it look like to be holy in my digital life? What does it look like to be holy on Instagram? And the answers are gonna be different. For some of you, the Lord is gonna lead you. Hey, be encouraging in this. For some of you, the Lord's gonna be like, you need to get off because this is terrible for your health. This is terrible for your temptations, this is terrible for your relationships and what it's doing. For some of you, the Lord is gonna be like, you need to burn TikTok to the ground. For some of you, the Lord is gonna be like, you need to go outside. And I don't say that in a joking sense. I say that as somebody that has had to give their digital life up to the Lord and notice like this is not healthy or growing me, God. What does it look like? But it didn't happen until I started asking the question. God, what does it look like to be holy in my digital world? Here's another example that I think is important for you guys and your generation. What do you think you're doing in the fall? School, work, all of that. Have you brought that to the Lord? And hear me, that's not meant to be like shame or guilt. It's an honest question from an older brother. I think a lot of times we make certain decisions because it seems to make sense or we're excited, and it could be really, really good things, but it's a question of God, when it comes to what I think I'm doing in the fall, whether I'm going to school, not going to school, whether I'm going away, whether I'm staying here, whether I'm going abroad, whether I'm gonna work, or I'm gonna do this, or I'm gonna focus on this, or I work full time, or I'm gonna stay at my job, or I'm gonna go in. Have you gone to the Lord and be like, God, what does it look like to be holy with that plan? What does it look like to be holy in this? What does it look like to live a life of holiness in this? So if we want to be proactive of pursuing God, of pursuing holiness, it begins by inviting God into our real life and saying, God, what does that look like in my real life? To be holy in this. So that's the first step. The second step is to confess daily. We have a super distorted view of confession because the enemy has distorted the view to make confession something we fear and we avoid. For a lot of us, the idea of confessing our sins is super intimidating, is super scary. It brings a lot of guilt and shame. For a lot of us, it's not that we don't want to confess it, but we're so sad that we've disappointed God. For some of us, we think confession means we need to punish ourselves. We need to whip ourselves, we need to give ourselves the lashes, we need we need to punish ourselves because of what we've done. And here's the truth: the enemy wants to distort our view of confession because the enemy's gonna fight like hell to keep you from confessing. Because Jesus teaches us to confess each day. And you know why? Because confession is one of the most essential ways to pursue holiness. Because what we are doing in confession is that we are saying that God, I don't want anything to come between you and I. And right now there are things that are doing that. God, I don't want anything to come between you and I, and I don't have the power to change this. But you do. And so confession is saying, God, I need to give you this anger. I need to give you the pornography. God, I need to give you the fear. God, I need to give you the people pleasing. God, I need to give you the finances, God, I need to give you my school. God, I need to give you this because I don't want anything to come between my relationship with you. Because when something comes between my relationship with you, then I forget who I am because I forget who you are. Confession is how we live in identity. When we confess, we're being reminded Jesus is King. My King loves me, my King forgives me, my King empowers me, I am his son. You are his son, you are his daughter. Confession is a reminder of that, and confession is a reminder that God has not stopped the work of holiness in my life. This is an important part of it. That's why when Jesus teaches us to pray in Matthew chapter 6, he tells us to confess daily so that every day we get to pursue holiness through it. So in my life, one of the ways that this has worked out, I've talked about this a little bit before throughout the last couple of months, is through the school year, when I wake up my kids to go to school, when they get dressed, it gives me about a 10-minute window in which by myself I just leave my phone in the kitchen. I leash up my dog Rocket, and um he's cute, but he's an idiot. Um I leash up my dog Rocket, and I go on a 10, 12-minute walk around my neighborhood. And these are prayer times. And in different seasons, the Lord has asked me to focus on different things in these walks. And over the last year, there were a lot of times in which these mornings turned into times of confession. And what was really interesting was God often kept bringing up the same two things that I needed to confess to him. He kept bringing up my anger towards people that I felt had wronged me, whether rightfully or whether perceived wrong. Even in various degrees, how God was showing me that it was unhealthy, I think some of you do this like I do. These were people that I found myself often arguing with in my head and winning. But like over and over again, I would have arguments that we never actually had. I would put them in their place. I would show them that's what you get for hurting me. And the second thing that God would bring up is my fear. Specifically, my fear of failing. My fear of letting you down, my fear of letting the church down, my fear of letting my wife down, my fear of letting my children down, my fear of letting my parents and my brother and sister down, my fear because I'm not perfect. And it reveals that I desperately want to be. And I'm trying to be. And you know what was interesting? The reason why the Lord kept coming back to those two was because those two were deeply rooted in my heart. And so one time of God, I give you my anger was not the surgery I needed. God loved me and is still patient with me to keep calling it out, to keep forgiving it one step at a time, to keep going deeper and deeper so it no longer has any hold on me. And I remember specifically a couple of months ago, I was walking rocket my dumb dog. And the Lord is like, you need to confess to Megan, my wife, something that had happened in our first year of marriage. We've been married for 20 years. And you know what happened in my heart when the Lord said that? I got excited because I'm like, yeah, I don't want to hold anything anymore. I've been experiencing God's mercy and God's grace and God's freedom through confession. And so I was so excited when she got home from work. I'm like, can I talk to you? And she's like, Yeah, and I took her to the roof, like, I have to confess something to you. And she's like, Okay. And I shared with her Megan, like, the Lord led me back to when we first married, first couple of months. I said this, I think this hurts your feeling. Like, I'm really sorry. Can I ask for your forgiveness? And she just smiles, she's like, I don't even remember that. But she looked at me and she said, Thank you. And I think the beautiful thing is, I don't think that was for me. I think that is God showing you how beautiful confession is. And I'm like, Yeah, I was so giddy to confess. I've heard our pastor Michael say this, and when he was a young man, the Lord did a big work in his life about confession, and he uses the phrase that when God began to show him that it's God who heals, not himself, that he's like, So my sin is your problem. Awesome. I get to bring this to you, and I get to be a part of this. But you're the one that's gonna change and solve all this.