Mike Orr: Holiness will glorify God and draw people to Him
Photos by Michael Duncan
ORLANDO–In a message titled, “A Holy People,” reflecting the theme of Florida Baptists’ 2024 annual meeting in Orlando, Mike Orr, Florida Baptist State Convention president, focused on 1 Peter 1:13-16 and stated, “We must pursue intimacy with Christ that results in holiness.”
Orr, pastor of First Baptist Church in Chipley, said that God had been impressing on his heart the necessity of Christians living holy lives.
He told the story of an Iranian Christian couple who had fled persecution in their home country to the safety of America. Soon after arriving in the United States, the wife told her husband she wanted to return to Iran, saying, “There is a satanic lullaby here; Christians here are asleep, and I am getting sleepy.”
Orr explained, “This Christian woman would rather face the brutality of life in Iran than live with a spiritual risk of being lulled into complacency.”
Many Christians in America “have become complacent,” he said. “We have failed to be salt and light that our Lord Jesus Christ said that we are. We need holiness!”
He continued, “To glorify God and reach the lost, we must be holy men and women of God.”
Both the Old and New Testaments, he said, speak more about the attribute of God’s holiness that any other attribute.
“Therefore, His children–you and I–must be holy. We must imitate Him.”
Orr went on to outline three things that are necessary for believers to pursue and practice holiness.
First, he said, “Put your mind on your future hope.” He explained that a believer’s future hope is the completion of salvation that comes when Jesus returns.
“Spiritual complacency and worldliness result from not resting our hope fully upon our salvation/inheritance,” he said, adding that believers should “be willing to strip away any and everything that hinders our focus on Jesus.”
Second, he said, “Put to death your sin.” Christians today tend to “make light” of their sin. “We are to be separate from the world’s ways. Don’t act like you did when you were lost.”
Christians will continue to have struggles as imperfect people. Yet, he said, “We cannot let that fact undermine our responsibility to not conform to our old ways.”
Third, he said, “Pursue personal holiness.” Orr emphasized, “We are not perfect now; one day we will be like Him. Until then, we are to live as close to how we will live then—now.”
A pursuit of holiness, Orr said, will glorify God and will draw people to Him in faith.
“If we are holy people, it will enable us to reach Florida and beyond” with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“Can you imagine if all 2,700 churches in the Florida Baptist Convention began to pursue holiness? Can you imagine every congregation ablaze with holiness? What a difference we could make.”
To hear the sermon in its entirety, click here.