LIVE-IT-OUT GUIDE

PMC BIBLE MARATHON: SESSION 7

Sermon Recap & Discussion

Sermon Date: 6^th May 2018

Text/s: Leviticus 19:1-10

Title: What Really, Is Holiness!?

Speaker: Ps Jason Phua

(The sermon recording and slides can be found on the PMC website and MyPMC App.)

A) Key Lessons

What does it mean to be holy?

1. To be convicted of the love of a holy God who desires to dwell with us.

2. To be separated from sin, while at the same time, drawing ourselves closer to God.

3. To love others as how God would love them.

B) Key Application Questions

1) How has the sermon influenced your understanding of what it means to be ‘holy’?

2) (Quoting from the sermon): “When we immerse ourselves in the Scriptures, we are better able to ward off temptation and sin; our mind is fixed on God’s greatness instead of sin.”

How have you experienced this in the past week/month? Share with your group.

3) Given that almost all of us have day to day challenges immersing/soaking ourselves in God’s Word, how can we as a LG help one another to ‘soak’ in the ‘water’ of the Word?

Digging Deeper into Scripture

Read Leviticus 19:1-18

While earlier parts of the Bible give us hints at how holiness was practiced by the people of God, it is only in Leviticus 19 that holiness is explained in detail. Significantly, it was not until after God rescued Israel from Egypt and provided for atonement (Lev 1-17), did God call Israel to be holy.

As one of the most often quoted Old Testament texts by Jesus and the Apostles, Leviticus 19 remains an important passage for us. While Christians are not meant to apply all the laws in Leviticus 19 directly to ourselves, we can draw out principles that help us to understand biblical holiness.

1) Consider the following ways in which people understand holiness today. How are we prone to viewing holiness in these ways? How is holiness in Leviticus 19 different?

a) Ceremonial Holiness – Some think of holiness primarily in terms of special days, places or activities.

b) Positional Holiness – This understanding ties holiness to a certain office or position. A church elder, preacher or priest is automatically holy.

c) Holiness as Religious Mystery – Holiness is understood as something mystical. If someone performs a supernatural or miraculous act, he or she is assumed to be holy.

d) Holiness as Isolation – This understanding measures holiness by the separation between “saint” and “sinner”. Here are the cave dwellers, the hermits and the monks.

e) Holiness as Mere Morality – In this view, holiness is simply doing what is good. You are a holy person as long as you are religious, and you conduct yourself in a decent and respectable manner.

f) Holiness as Merit – In this view, holiness is first and foremost a way to earn God’s acceptance or to obtain some reward in the afterlife.

2) Consider Leviticus 19:1-8.

a) What do you think is the main theme in these verses?

b) What principles can we draw from these verses?

3) Consider Leviticus 19:9-18.

a) What is the main theme here?

b) What principles can we draw from this passage?

MAIN IDEA: If possible, as a LG, draft a sentence that captures the main idea for Leviticus 19:1-18.

APPLICATION: How can we live out Leviticus 19:1-18 in the coming week? How can we apply this Main Idea to our lives?