Unleashing Holy Freedom Part One
Asbury Free Methodist
February 22nd, 2026
Isaiah 6
The Three Aspects of Holiness
In 1871, the city of Chicago was reduced to smoldering rubble in what we now call the Great Chicago Fire. Buildings collapsed. Businesses vanished. Fortunes disappeared overnight.
But in the days that followed, something interesting happened.
When the ashes cooled, inspectors began walking through the ruins. They weren’t just looking at what had burned. They were looking at what had stood. A few structures—very few—remained upright. And when they studied them, they discovered something simple but powerful: those buildings had been constructed differently. The materials were stronger. The foundations were deeper. The internal supports were reinforced. The fire didn’t create their strength. It revealed it.
If you live long enough you know that life has a way of bringing its own fires. Loss, temptation, success, betrayal, disappointment, grief all have a way of revealing our character. Can we love deeply in the middle of loss? Can we walk in peace in the middle of turmoil? Can we say it is well with my soul when it is certainly not well with my circumstances?
Where do we find our comfort? In the middle of pain do we look for it in addictions or in God himself? Where do we find the strength to go on in the middle of the wilderness? Is it in our walk with God or something else?
The structures had to be built well in the first place to withstand the fires of Chicago. The structures of your heart need to be in place so that when the fire comes, you can claim the promise of God that says
Isaiah 43:2b–3a (NLT)
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
you will not be burned up;
the flames will not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
The Bible has a word for the kind of heart that will sustain you in the fire. It is called holiness.
Over this Lenten season I am going to be speaking about holiness. The title of the series is “Unleashing Holy Freedom.” There are a number of reasons why I want to preach this series and some good reasons why not to preach the series.
While I enjoy a challenge, I don’t need a challenge and speaking on holiness is a challenge. It tends to be a topic that is not spoken about much, with the exception of talking about, “holy cow!” Holiness is not on people’s radar.
When it is talked about, it has a way of surfacing the worst of how the church has behaved in recent years. Holiness poorly understood is legalism. Holiness preached poorly is guilt-inducing. If you grew up in a legalistic or guilt-inducing church, then the topic of holiness may contain all kinds of triggers for you. We could try to exchange the word “holy” for something else but I really think that God likes his own name. One of the names of God is Holy Spirit. The third person of the trinity.
In spite of those reasons, I am still going to preach this series on Unleashing Holy Freedom. The first reason I want to do this is that holiness is fundamental to discipleship. I am committed and we as a church are committed to fostering disciples who are deeply connected to Christ. Holiness is part of that process.
As your pastor, as your spiritual coach, I want you to live your best life. You will not be able to do that without holiness. There is a freedom in holiness that allows you to move through life joyously. There is a strength in holiness that allows you to move through life’s fires undamaged. There is a quality of holiness that unleashes the power of God in your life.
The last and probably the most important reason is that I sense that this is what God would have us focus on during this season of Lent. The Free Methodist Church of Canada is updating its mission statement, and the tagline is “Unleashing Holy Freedom” Which dovetails nicely into this series.
*****
So, I hope you will stick with me through this Lenten season. If you happen to be away for a Sunday, I encourage you to pick up what you missed in the series either on the podcast or on YouTube. I will also upload the manuscript to the website.
****
Today is an introduction to and an overview of holiness. I want to talk to you about the three aspects of holiness.
Three things that a person needs for success
Dr. Henry Cloud, a well-known psychologist, in his book “Integrity” says that there are three things that a person needs for success. One is that you must have a core set of competencies. You need to be good at what you do. You can only fake it for so long –
But there are a lot of people who are good at what they do, but they don’t really get to be significantly successful. They do a good job, are happy, are fulfilled – But if you want to be hugely successful then you must possess a second ability. You need become an alliance builder.
This person is able to do more than just network with people. He or she is able to form mutually beneficial relationships. If you have the ability to create alliances with people around you, you tend to be able to move at a much larger scale.
But there is a third thing you need to be a success. There is no shortage of brainy people who are good at what they do. There are a lot of people who are able to build alliances. But if you’re truly going to be successful, – to use Dr. Clouds words, is “you have to have the character not screw it up.”
I have known some people whose competency rose above the level of the character. It did not end well for them. You see character is something that comes from the inside, something that flows out of the heart. It’s something that God wants to develop in you. Character is an aspect of holiness.
Now you can be a person of good character without being holy but you cannot be holy without being a person of good character.
None of us like people who have a holier than thou attitude. But all of us want to hang around people of excellent character. None of us like to be with people who are Pharisaical, judgmental, lemon sucking, stickler for the rules kind of people. But all of us like to be with people are generous, and joyful, and truthful yet discrete.
One of the devils tricks has been to have the word holy be associated with things that are negative. After all I don’t want to be holy if it means becoming a legalistic, pompous, pious, judgmental, fool. But that isn’t what holiness is. Not true holiness anyways.
There are a lot of places in our world that still understand that character counts. Ethics and integrity matter. We want to work with people who don’t lie, cheat, and steal.
But our world is moving away from character. Increasingly people are functioning off the paradigm that says, “If I can get away with it, it must be all right.” As we move into that kind of world, character is going to stand out.
Dr. Cloud says, “who a person is will ultimately determine if their brains, talents competencies, energy deal-making abilities, and opportunities will succeed.” Here is what you need to know God is committed to building your character.
All the way through scripture we are called towards good character. Here is what the psalmist says:
Psalm 15:1–3 (NIV)
1 Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent?
Who may live on your holy mountain?
2 The one whose walk is blameless,
who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from their heart;
3 whose tongue utters no slander,
who does no wrong to a neighbor,
and casts no slur on others;
If you want to succeed in life build a character that is good. If you want to walk with God and you want God to walk with you, build a character that is good.
***************
The Second Aspect of Holiness
The second aspect of holiness is holiness of heart. All through scripture we have this idea of a changed heart, a holy heart, and a heart full of love connected together.
1 Thessalonians 3:12–13 (NLT)
12 And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. 13 May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people. Amen.
I have a fairly clear vision of who I want to become: I want to be able to love people deeply from the heart. I want to walk into messy situations and leave messy situations with a heart full of peace. I want to live out of the hope that is found in Christ, not optimism or wishful thinking but a hope that deals with present realities head-on while knowing that what we see is not all there is. I want to have the kind of heart that repels despair and moves past discouragement.
I want a heart that can handle the reality that life isn’t always safe. But there is more to this life than we can see. I want a heart that lives out of the place where God sees and knows and understands and will eventually move so that the purposes of evil will be thwarted and good will prevail. I want a heart that is full of faith.
Over the years I found that when I am unable to love people deeply, or when I’m not walking in peace and hope, when I move towards despair and discouragement, that it is a holiness issue. I have found that when my fear is bigger than my faith. That it is a holiness issue.
To go back to the building and structural metaphor, when I am unable to live out of my heart in the way that I want to, if I look deep enough, there will be beams that are rotting and foundations that weren’t installed right. There will be places of darkness where there should be windows of light. When I am unable to live out of my heart well, it is a holiness issue.
Husbands, how you love your wives will be affected by your holiness. Wives, how you love your husbands will be affected by your holiness. How you love your kids, your friends, and your co-workers will be affected by your holiness. How you love your enemies will be profoundly affected by your holiness.
Holiness when understood well is not an abstract idea. It affects how we live in this world. It affects the depths of the relationships that we cultivate in this world. It affects our perception of our place in this world. It has a way of determining whether our hearts will hope or despair in this world. Holiness of heart matters.
If God allows you to see your heart clearly, you will get this truth deeply.
The Third Aspect of Holiness. – Holiness of Spirit
The third aspect of holiness is holiness of spirit. This is intimately connected with the holiness of heart. In fact I could have put these two aspects of holiness together but I think that it will be clearer if I separate them.
Our holiness comes from and out of the holiness of God. Listen again to Isaiah’s vision.
Isaiah 6:1–7 (NIV)
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Can you see in your mind’s eye the throne room of God? There on the throne high and lifted up was the Lord. The train of His robe fills the temple. There were angels flying around the throne and they were so aware of the holiness of God that they had to cover their eyes. They called to one another, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory.” The power of their voice shook the temple.
Isaiah, being a witness to this vision, was distraught. Holiness of spirit is the ability to go into the throne room of God and feel at home there. Isaiah did not have that ability.
Isaiah 6:5 (NIV)
5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
Isaiah is saying, “I am a sinner. I have broken God’s laws. I’ve said things that aren’t holy. And I live amongst a people that are not holy.”
If you or I were transported into the throne room of God, we would have to say the same thing. We would have to say, “Woe is me,” for I have said and done things that don’t fit with the throne room of God. I live in a culture and am bombarded by messages that don’t fit in the throne room of God.
Well, look what happens to Isaiah.
Isaiah 6:6–7 (NIV)
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Having your lips touched by a live coal cannot be a pleasant experience. But the angel says to Isaiah, “Your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for.”
There is no way that any of us can be at home in the throne room of God unless we deal with sin in our lives.
There is an initial holiness that comes when you first forge a relationship with Jesus. When you recognize him for who he is, and when you receive him into your life, the blood of Jesus is applied to your life – and just like the coal touching Isaiah’s lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for. This is initial holiness.
Many of you have made that choice to invite Jesus into your life. But some of you are feeling stuck on your journey. When Isaiah had this vision, he had already been called of God. He had already journeyed with God for a while. If you would have asked the people around him, they would have told you that he was better than most. But when he encountered the throne room of God, there was a deeper work of holiness that had to take place.
I have noticed the people who are really at home in the throne room of God are familiar with the discipline of repentance. This deeper work of holiness is holiness of spirit.
Something that amazes me is when God shows us our heart how deep the stain of sin goes. But what amazes me more is that the grace of God goes deeper and the power of the cross is stronger than any stain that sin could leave.
One of the things that I am thankful for is that I do not have to make myself holy. I do not have the power to change my own heart but God by the power of the Cross through the work of the Holy Spirit is at work in my life to make me holy.
As the song says, “Holiness is your life and me making me clean through your blood.”
You cannot deal with the power of sin on your own. All you can do is be obedient to the movement of God in your life. We are going to talk a little more about the process of how this happens but let me say that when you came to Jesus, He forgave your sins and gave you robes of righteousness so that when God looks at you, He sees you as righteous. That is your standing before God.
But the Bible tells us that not only were we saved but that we are being saved. There is a progressiveness in the work of holiness in our lives. The theologians would call it progressive sanctification. As we walk through life being obedient to the voice of God, he continues to take the rot out of the beams and install healthy cleaned wood. He moves in the structures of our heart to change us so that we can live well in this world.
There will be times along the way where you will have special encounters with God where the Spirit of God washes over you and takes you to the next level on your spiritual journey. I hope you will have a number of those in your journey. Where God purifies our heart just because we encounter Him.
This morning on this first Sunday of Lent as we journey towards the cross, I want to issue you an invitation to move deeper into holiness. To hear and heed the work of God in your life and cooperate with Him as He works in your heart.
Over the course of this journey he may point out some character issues, or some heart issues, or some sin issues. If he does that, repentance will be your friend.
I can imagine Asbury being full of people who are walking into the heart of holiness. Can you imagine a church where God unleashes holy freedom? Where our hearts have been so transformed by the work of the cross and the Spirit of God that we walk through this life? I’m believing that for you. I’m believing that for me.
Let me end with Paul’s vision of the church,
1 Corinthians 1:2 (NIV)
2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:
We are called together to be God’s holy people.
Let’s pray.