You Can’t Look Like the World and Represent God | Mornings with Mico

People, what's going on, man? Top of the morning. I'm out here just doing my daily rope, my reflection time with God. And to be honest with you, this idea of being set apart has really kind of hit my heart in a chokehold these past few days. I know we touched on it earlier this week, but I don't know, I was sitting just talking with God about this today and just really kind of started identifying just his heart behind this idea of holiness and being set apart. And I just want to share with you just a few of the things that, and I felt like God was just really ministering to my heart and all this, right? There's a number of different things that I believe God is doing with this when he calls us to holiness, when he calls us to be set apart. There's a number of things that God's doing there, but I just want to touch on about eight things. And I'm going to try to just touch on them, you know, real high level because we don't have time to just delve deeply into each one of them, but just wanted to at least just kind of give us this something, you know, to just continue to chew on. And I want to one time with God as we, in regards to holiness and being set apart, because this is something that's just very key to our walk. And it's just something that matters to God a lot. Like he has his holiness is set apart. He has that in place for a reason. And one of the first things that, that I see in this, that, that, that I believe God is revealing to me and, and, and, and holiness is purpose. Jeremiah, Jeremiah was called for a purpose. It says that, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you before you were born, I set you apart. This is Jeremiah one five. And he wasn't set apart randomly. He was set apart for an assignment. Biblically consecration is pretty much always connected to calling. God separates people into purpose. That's the, that, that's a key. That's like a very foundational reason behind, you know, God's setting the people apart. God's call to holiness. It's, it's, it's, I'm setting you apart because I have purpose in you as there's purpose I'm going to do through you. Another thing is purity. Being set apart is to be pure, to be purified. In book of Judges 13 five, Samson, Samson was the Nazarite and he had a vow. His vow

symbolized a life marked by consecration and distinction. His purity in scripture is not merely moral restraint. It's undivided devotion. Being set apart means refusing to let competing influences on your heart. And the thing is those in those competing influences don't always have to be bad things. Like sometimes the enemy can use good things. He can use things that appear, you know, at, at, at a surface level to be okay. They can use those things to distract you and, and, and, and remove you from just your calling of, of being set apart of, of, of, of your purpose. He can allow you, you know, if not, if we're not careful, we can allow these things to take up too much space in our heart. Whether it's our children, whether it's working out, whether it's, um, just relief, right? Like maybe a shows that we're watching, whatever the case is that that may not be inherently bad, whatever these things may be, but they're taking up space in our heart. And according to the word that takes us out of alignment with this call of, um, being pure as we're being set apart mission, mission is a key thing when it comes to, to, um, to be a set apart Paul, the apostle and, uh, the book of, um, Galatians one 15 says, God set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace. Paul's being set apart, led directly into mission. Biblical holiness is never just separation from something. It's separation into something. We're not just saved. We're sent. He wasn't just called to be separated from everybody else. He was actually set apart and made holy because he was an instrument being used by God. He was on mission. Wherever you are, you're on mission. Wherever I am, wherever I go, I'm on mission as believers, as followers of Christ, hear me, y'all, we are on mission and being set apart is a big piece of being on mission. Um, another one, worship. I love in, in Exodus 40, it gives this example of the tabernacle in the temple, the tabernacle, the priests, sacred objects, they were consecrated for worship. What was set apart belonged exclusively to God. Worship is ultimately the recognition that this is yours and that includes our lives. The way that we live our lives is a, is a form of worship. The way we live.

our lives is us stepping into agreement with our call to be set apart and saying, no, Lord, I'm yours. So I can't operate the way they operate. I won't operate the way they operate. I won't say the things that maybe they say. I won't do the things that they do. I will choose to live my life in a way that sets me apart from the rest of the world. And this is a form of worship for you or to you. Sacrifice, holiness, being set apart, this is sacrifice. Jesus says, for them, I sanctify myself. Jesus set himself apart fully to the father's will, even unto the cross. Like all the way, you know, like there was no end to it. There was no limitations to it. He set himself apart. He sanctified himself all the way into the cross. Consecration in scripture, it's gonna cost you something. According to scripture, that's what we see through and through. Consecration is gonna cost you something. To belong fully to God usually requires surrender. And honestly, I won't even say usually, I would say always. That's it, always. It's gonna cost surrender. The more you grow in your consecration, you're surrendering. You're surrendering your will. You're surrendering your preference. You're surrendering your perspective. You're surrendering your ideas,

all of the things that are of you, that are separate from him. You have to surrender those things as we become more and more consecrated unto the Lord. Distinction, this is so key. This is so key, man, distinction. The Israelites in Leviticus 20, 26, this guy says, I have set you apart from the nations to be mine. Israel wasn't called to live differently amongst... Oh, Israel was called to live differently amongst surrounding cultures, not to appear superior, but to reflect God's character. Biblical distinction is less about isolation and more about representation. It's not about simply being separate from people for the sake of just being set apart and isolated or away from everyone. That's not the purpose of it. That's what it looks like in some cases, but that's not the purpose of it. It's about you being a representative of him, wherever you go. God cannot use you as a representation of him if you look like the things that he's wanting to redeem, if you look like the things that he hates. If we look like that, we're no different than, we're not distinct from them. So we can't be used by God in those spaces to reflect him and to represent him.

So there is definitely in our call to being set apart, we are called to be distinct from these things, these cultural norms that are around us. God's presence. This is when it really, I don't know, I'm chewing on this a lot now, man. This idea of God's presence being, like things being set apart, marked by God's presence. In Exodus 19, Sinai became holy simply because God's presence descended there. Throughout scripture, things become set apart because God is near. The presence of God transforms ordinary places, people, and moments into sacred ones. This is, when we see this, I'm reminded of like, even how in the Old Testament, a lot of times when people would have an encounter with God, they would then build altars there and make monuments or, you know, like this doing remembrance of like, where I heard from God, like God saw me here, God met me here, and they turn that, not like they're idolizing that place or that rock or that thing or whatever, but they're treating that moment as holy because I encountered the holy God here. And it's like, this is, I don't know what this looks like for us today, but we're still called to do things like this. We're still called to honor,

whether it's moments to honor things that, wherever God's presence is, let's honor that. Yesterday or the day before, whenever that was when I had went to visit the Tumi Dome at All Red Prison, that was a place where God's presence had descended and you can see how it was set apart from the rest of the compound. You can clearly see there was an honoring of this space. And after talking to some of the residents there, even other people who weren't believers, they honored that space by not bringing foolishness into that space. They honored that space, man. And this is what we're called to do, bro. Anything, anytime that God's presence is there, honor that. That place is set apart. Treat that as holy. Obedience. I'm thinking of, reminded of the Sabbath. Genesis 2, 3, the Sabbath being set apart required trust and obedience. Israel had to stop working and trust God enough to rest. Often being set apart means living differently than what feels natural, efficient, or culturally normal. Obedience is one of the clearest, outward signs of consecration. There is no consecration. There is no being set apart.

There is no embracing our call to holiness. without obedience, it just doesn't work. And I love the example of the Sabbath because this is just one of those things that just doesn't make sense probably to the rest of the world. When work needs to be done, it's time to get busy. But God is saying, I don't care what work needs to be done. I still call you to rest. And that's going to be a huge distinction from us and the rest of the world when we choose rest simply because we know that this is pleasing to God. And this is us embracing our call to holiness and our call to being consecrated, our call to being set apart. When we choose rest in God, trust in Him, in whatever that may look like, right? Like there's not a certain day that's more holy than another day. Like that's not what that's saying, but it's saying, no, I didn't call you to just be a workhorse at all times. Like, I want you to rest in me. I want you to choose my rest. This is us showing God to be trusting. And this is going to set us apart. This may set us apart from the rest of the world. This is one of the ways that God has chosen to set us apart from the rest of the world. Whether that sparks conversation as a person,

like curious, like, why do you do that? Or how are you still just okay and chilling right now when there's work to be done or whatever the case is. Whether it's work or whatever you're resting from, but you're choosing His rest. Like that is a form of obedience. And that's us being, that's something that He's used to set us apart from Genesis to Revelation, y'all. Holiness is not about elitism. We see this throughout the whole, throughout all of scripture from beginning to end. It's never about us being better. It's never about us being superior. It's about belonging to God. It's about reflecting His nature. It's about carrying His presence and participating in His mission. The New Testament theme, it's not about isolation from the world, but it's about distinction within it. When we see holiness and being set apart play out in the New Testament. 1 Peter 2, 9, it says, but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession. Set apart people are not meant to withdraw from the world, pride. And we get it wrong when we do that.

We get it wrong when we take our call to being holiness and we step in obedience. And all of these things is we're being obedient in our call to holiness. But when that starts to build up pride, that's when we get it wrong. We're meant to live in the world as evidence of another kingdom. That's the point behind it. We're living amongst people in a set apart way as evidence of another kingdom, of God's kingdom. As believers set apart today, being sanctified by God, we are in the world, but we're not of the world. So I'm gonna leave y'all with that, man. It's been burning a hole in my chest, man. So hope that blesses you. Let's embrace this call to holiness. Let's embrace this call to being set apart because that's what God's called us to. We're called to be set apart. We're called to holiness. It's purpose, purity. It's our mission, worship, sacrifice, distinction, God's presence, obedience. Hope this bless y'all. Talk to y'all tomorrow.