The Guest Towel

This morning I’m going to try and illustrate the concepts of consecration and sanctification in under 5 minutes.

Here’s our scriptures

Ephesians 2:10 NLT  For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

2 Timothy 2:21 NLT If you keep yourself pure, you will be a
special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.

He has consecrated us through the power of His grace at the new birth.

We are sanctified by the power of His grace as we obey His word daily.

It’s all about His grace and our obedience.

Have you ever heard of a guest towel? It is a hand towel that hangs on a bar near the sink in the bathroom that a guest would use in your house.

As I was growing up and began understanding things, One day I noticed that we had a towel with an R on it that was in the bathroom. I didn’t know what it was or why it was different than all the other towels so I asked my mom.

Of course she explained to me that this is the “special towel” that we keep in a certain spot in a certain bathroom of the house so that guests can dry their hands off on it when they are in our home visiting us.

She also told me that it was for the guests only off limits to me.

I thought, OK, so that’s pretty neat, and if a grown up thought of that then it must be a good thing.

So I made sure that I never used it and that it was always straight and looked good for the guests.

This is an very simple example of consecration and sanctification.

God consecrates us by the blood of His Son at the new birth. When we receive Jesus as Lord, He puts His name on us and puts us in a place where He wants to use us for His purpose. We have been set apart by God to do His will. This is consecration.

And as we we do His word daily, we keep ourselves straight and clean and in the right place, ready for Him to use us for His purpose. This is sanctification.

We are consecrated by God when we are born again. That happens in a moment.

We are in a continual process of sanctification as we live in obedience to God’s word on a daily basis. That sanctification is an ongoing work by the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Today we can confess -
I have been born again and consecrated through the blood of Jesus by my Father God. I am set apart for His purposes. I belong to Him. And I choose to do the word of God daily. I obey all that He tells me to do so that I am useful in His Kingdom. I am growing and His will is being done in my life daily.