This sermon focuses on the first characteristic of a faithful Christian, which is holiness as a priority. The speaker emphasizes the importance of drawing closer to God by separating from the defilement of the world, thoughts, and actions, leading to a spirit-filled life. Holiness is described as a fire burning within, sparking faith, spiritual power, and a deep prayer life. The sermon warns against carnality, a rebellious spirit that hinders holiness and quenches the fire of the Holy Spirit, leading to a lukewarm faith and dried-up spiritual vitality.

Revelation 3-7, the message is seven characteristics of a faithful Christian. Seven characteristics of a faithful Christian. We've been in the book of Revelation for about six weeks. We've been doing a survey of every church that Jesus talks about and now we find him talking to the church in Philadelphia. It's known as the faithful church so I thought why not show us or show you what a faithful Christian looks like. Now all of us will be able to add to this list. Let me tell you something right there. I was at number 20 and I'm like I better get this down to the top seven because it's going to be a two-hour sermon. So this is just gleaming characteristics of a faithful Christian from the book of Revelation chapter 3 verse 7. And to the angel, remember Jesus is writing, and to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, these things says he who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens. I don't know if you caught that but he said these things says he who is holy. Now throughout the chapters or actually the verses we've been reading, we've only been in chapter 1, 2, and 3, Jesus gives himself different names. And this name he's saying I am holy, I am true. And the first characteristic of a faithful Christian is holiness is a priority. Oh it's quiet on that one. Right? Holiness is a priority. Charles Spurgeon said there will be three effects of nearness to Jesus. When a person is near to Jesus, if they're truly near to him, there's humility, happiness, and holiness. You can't avoid those three. And holiness, I could give a long definition I have many times before, but what it really is is you are separating yourself from the filth, the defilement of the world, and thoughts and actions, and you're separating and you're drawing closer to God in how you think and how you live and as a result you're becoming holy and spirit-filled and closer to Christ because of removing that sin that so easily ensnares us, that sin that creeps in and we can begin to, we draw away from God because of the sin. Now all of us sin but there's a big difference between a lifestyle and a struggle. There's a big difference between bringing something to the cross and being done with it and repenting and allowing it to continue in our lives. So the closer we draw to Christ, it's a call to holiness. And the enemy of holiness is a rebellious spirit. The enemy of holiness is a rebellious spirit. A rebellious spirit basically says, I want to do what I want, when I want, to who I want. And I'm not really concerned with what God's Word says. And it's the spirit of rebellion and that is often the enemy of holiness because it prevents us from drawing closer to God. And you have to fight for holiness. Your relationship with God is dependent upon it. Holiness always produces faith and spiritual power. When a person is holy, when they're set apart for God, for example, instead of sleeping in this morning, coming here and worshiping. A step to holiness. Instead of doing things that draw you away from Christ, you do things that build that relationship. So that begins to spark faith. Your faith is increased. Spiritual power. What I mean by that is the joy of the Lord and being able to pray for people. Sensing the direction of the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit. So all this increases spiritual power and holiness. And we often think of holiness as those big hats, right? People have holy and they got a gown on. And the most reverend such-and-such. Or the holiest of holies, Reverend Bill. And we have this look and this big necklace. And they've got actually a big cross and a big gown. And boy, they just look holy. No, that's not holiness. Holiness is something in the heart that wants to draw closer to Christ. And the opposite of holiness is what? Carnality. Carnality gives God his due a few hours on Sunday. But they forget about his call to come out from among them, from the world, and be separate. So when God says, my name is holy. He's saying, I come out and I'm separate from the world. I'm not a friend of sin. I died for sin. I redeemed you from the sin. So come out from that sin and draw closer to me. My name is holy. As a matter of fact, the angels don't cry, love, love, love. They cry, holy, holy, holy is our God. Anytime a person would see God from the prophets. Isaiah, he said, he saw the Lord high and lifted up. And he said, I'm unclean. I dwell amongst the people that are unclean. I have seen the Lord of glory. I am unworthy. I am unholy. Peter fell down. John fell down. Paul, this holiness of God. See, when you remove holiness, you bring in carnality. When you remove holiness, you bring in what the Bible considers lukewarm. And you're removing all these things that draw us closer to Christ. It's a fire burning within. That would have been a good sermon title. Holiness is a fire burning within. Do we stoke the flames or do we put up or do we put them out? You remember when you're little, some of you, you'd say, I'm so stoked. Right? I'm so stoked. What? You're on fire from using up for the things of God. Right? I'm so stoked. They are going out on a date with me. I'm so stoked. I'm going to see a new Star Wars movie. Right? I'm so stoked. I'm so I'm on fire for God. That's the same thing. Holiness is a fire burning in your bosom. You want more of God. I'm stoked. Truth be told, I got up at 245 and couldn't go back to sleep. I had to get here. I had to worship. No, Shane, you're so holy. No, I need him. Don't you understand? I need him. I have to be broken before him. That's where the sermons come from. They don't come from pop psychology. I can't just pull this off the website, put it here and just, well, there we go. Here we go for the day and get through it. Let's go to lunch. It's got to be that fire burning within. That's what holiness is. So in your case, do you stoke the flames or put them out? Because carnality means that the fire is almost out and the rivers of living water are dried up. Often throughout the Bible when it talked about holiness and Jesus being holy, it resembles a fire. There's a fire. There's a passion with God. Actually, John the Baptist said, I baptize you in a baptism of repentance, but there's one coming after me who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with ice cubes. With fire. With fire. He will baptize you. Baptized just means overwhelmed, outflowing. He will overwhelm you with the Holy Spirit. That's why he's called the baptizer of the Holy Spirit. There's this overwhelming sense of God's presence. And that's what I've been praying for this church more than anything else. It would end all, well not all, it would end most bickering, most complaining, most family feuds, most hard hearts, most lukewarmness, most disgruntled this and unforgiveness this. When the Holy Spirit comes in your life, he wrecks everything. He wrecks everything. Everything's gone. You come in with these burdens and this bitterness and then you're just a mess. You're weeping as the Holy Spirit's drawing these things out of you and rebuilding and renewing and restoring. What does fire do? It purifies. It burns. That's the fire of the Holy Spirit. But carnality dries that up. It also dries up the rivers of living water. What I mean by that is there's rivers of living water that are produced. And some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Some of you don't. And I would just encourage you to say, Lord, I want what Shane's talking about. I want that that Holy Spirit's fire. God, I need that. And those of you who maybe have dried up in this area, remember that brook was running, that river was, it was like a dam that just, just, just broke. And here comes the, and when a dam breaks, it doesn't follow this little pattern, does it? It consumes everything. It knocks down trees and boulders and everything else. It consumes everything. But carnality will dry, dry holiness up. I'll give you a few examples I think are important. For example, somebody is leading a ministry today and they decide to have some eggnog last night. Not the kid's kind of eggnog, you know. Captain whatever. Are they going to get here filled with the Spirit of God? Witnessing to the children? Can't wait to get more of God? Are they going to want to hurry up and get out of here and get their job done? Carnality dries that up. What about, we talk about often here, entertainment choices. If we fill our mind with darkness and depression or sexuality and all this ungodliness, we're filling our mind with these things. And then you think you're going to come here and hear a quick little sermon and be back on fire for God? Who a person is all week is who they are when they come to church on Sunday. So these areas of carnality begin to quench that fire. What about Chatty Kathy? Right? The gossip, the backbiting, the putting it down, and we're just going around putting everybody, you think you're going to be filled with the Spirit of God? You think the Holy Spirit in you is saying, Amen? Because you go tell them off too. You go, yeah, go tell them about that person. No, you're actually quenching that fire. The fire is going up. That's why you don't want to go to church as much. That's why you want to miss prayer meetings. And the whole reason I'm doing this is not to have you get upset at me, although that does happen. The whole idea is for the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to pierce your heart. And it is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. It pierces the heart and change takes place. We have to crush carnality, or if a person is hard, hard and angry and prideful, right? I've been a Christian 30 years. That's wonderful. But you're a Pharisee. If they're arrogant and hard and prideful, you think you're going to be filled with the Spirit of God? You think you are. You think you are, but you're not. See how this works? The more carnality, the more hard-heartedness, the more anger that comes in begins to draw us away from Christ. We cannot love both Christ and this world. A carnal Christian does not pray, really pray and seek the heart of God. A deep prayer life exposes facades and crushes hypocrisy. If a person is not filled with holiness, filled with the Spirit of God, they cannot pray. And I mean really pray. Because we cannot pray in the car, oh Lord, help me get to my job today and please let that bonus come in and just, you know, would you talk to Sally? I'm talking about heart-wrenching, soul-searching prayer. It'll disrupt that. And a carnal Christian, you can't, you won't find them at a prayer night or a worship morning, but you will find them at Cinemark in the mall. Now, can you go to Cinemark in the mall? Yes, of course, I do. Right? But you see the priority there. So you won't find them seeking the heart of God. You won't seek, you won't find them seeking more of God. That's a good, what are you hungry for, is a good test of where the heart's at. If we're thinking that church every other week is going to suffice, folks, we got another thing coming. There's a battle going on. It's warfare. The battle is for holiness to come out from among them and be separate.