Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning!

I thank you so much for once again allowing me to learn the art of speaking in front of people, to try to present God’s word accurately to you.

***Today’s topic is about obedience and faith.

As it ties in with last week, discipline and obedience go hand in hand.

Grace and faith go hand in hand.

These are basic principles of Christianity, and most of you have far more experience than I in your walk of faith; I’m a youngster at 9 years old this past May.

Now that we’re in June it’s beginning to feel like summer.

The NBA Finals started on Thursday.

For those two teams that made it, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors, I watched a few of their basketball games and checked out their statistics.

Wow, do both of those teams deserve to be there or what; just total domination of their competitors to get them where they are now.

However, there can be only one winning team.

The news always wants to talk about whether LeBron James is greater than Michael Jordan, but for me, I followed Jordan and the Chicago Bulls through their dynasty years, amazed at the incredible skill and focus they had to always come out on top.

I really like basketball.

It was my favourite sport growing up.

There was just something that appealed to me about using your hands and feet athletically, as a team, that didn’t require lacing up skates.

Plus, it was the sport my dad played when he was growing up.

He was my hero, and I have to admit I idolized him somewhat.

He told me that when he was in high school, with their small team of six players, the Berwyn Bears only lost one game in the three years they played.

So naturally I wanted to be like my dad.

Fast forward a few years, in that same village of Berwyn where I grew up, there weren’t enough kids to make a team in junior high.

However, I did play briefly in high school.

But it was in the neighbouring town, for the Grimshaw Trojans.

As teenage boys, we weren’t ignorant to what the name implied, but it didn’t matter to me because I got to play basketball.

The first year was somewhat successful because there were several talented grade 12 students with us new grade 10s; there were no grade 11s.

The next year was intermittent for me; I tore a ligament in my left knee skiing because I couldn’t decide which trick I was going to do.

Then later that same year, my temper got the best of me and I broke my writing hand on a kid’s forehead.

Needless to say, my academics and athletics suffered that year.

By grade 12, you’d think I would have matured.

Charlie Bouchard was our coach that year, and though he was incredibly talented, there seemed to be a personality conflict between us.

By disregarding his authority, it boiled to a point where he said it was either him or me.

So rather than let the team decide, I chose to quit so that the rest of the team could continue playing the sport I loved.

Although these transgressions are in my past, their impact follows me to this day.

We’ve all made decisions that have influenced who we are today.

I’m sure that if I knew Jesus back then as I do now, I would have made different decisions, but that is not the path chosen for my life.

Yet we have no regrets, because we know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient to cover a multitude of sins.

One thing I’ve learned through the troubles of my past having left a scar on my hand and a knee with arthritis, every decision or indecision we make changes us and shapes our future.

Since every indecision is still a decision, here is the big idea for today’s sermon: choices change us.

Romans 14:12 reminds us that we all must give an account to God, and it is those decisions about Him, his character, his authority, and our obedience of faith that we are giving account for.

***Now, I want to start off by relating the message last week to this week.

In 2 Peter 3:18:

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

To him be glory both now and forever!

Amen.”

Here we see the apostle Peter using the words Lord and Saviour together to describe Jesus Christ, for that is who he is.

By his grace he saved us, that’s the Saviour part.

But how do we consider his lordship?

See, we get caught up in his love and grace, the part that gives us joy, and we push aside or choose to forget that he has work for us.

But if Jesus is our King, Lord, Ultra-prime minister, CEO (Chief of Evangelical Obedience), then he probably has something for us to do.

There’s no leading if no one follows, but from Hebrews 12:1 from last week we remember that since there is a great cloud of witnesses that have already followed, His leadership is guaranteed.

***The passage we’re going to focus on today is from Matthew 28:18-20:

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

We’re going to break down that big idea that choices change us into three sections: Authority, Action, and Always.

So just keep those in the back of your mind as we go.

While we’re here, notice that it’s not just a little bit, or sometimes, or even a significant portion, but All Authority.

And as my Texas friend would say, “All is all y’all.”

Sometimes it is the choices of others that change us.

Often these are out of our control, but the main idea I want you to get out of this message is that as much as it is within our control, the most important choice that changes us is to submit to the authority of Jesus.

***With respect to authority, Romans 13:1 it tells us to submit ourselves to our leaders:

“All of you must obey those who rule over you.

There are no authorities except the ones God has chosen.

Those who now rule have been chosen by God.”

When it comes to spiritual leaders, this one is easy, right?

You guys show up here every week to hear a word from God, even if it is from an amateur.

But there are several other levels of authority in our lives.

From our teachers when we’re young to our boss at work.

But what happens when those authorities who rule over us pass laws that force us or the ones we love to undermine the laws of God?

Last year our federal government passed Bill C-14 which legalizes physician assisted suicide.

A CBC article published on April 20th, highlighting a male-male married couple who went through it, reported 1300 people chose to kill themselves with the help of professionals who declared an oath to do no harm.

This is on top of the abnormal suicide rates, especially in Nunavut.

Despite their lower population base (about 30,000), compared to the rest of the country the suicide rate in Nunavut is ten times higher than the rest of the country.

***Here’s a quote I found… In Canada right now we have a government that is spending parliamentary time to pass a law legalizing marajuana.

Whether we like it or not, our world is changing around us.

I’m not trying to make us feel sad.

These are the realities we live in, and we have been chosen by a just and merciful God to do something about it.

We just have to be sure of what we believe.

When Jesus asked, “Who do you say I am?”,

He wasn’t just addressing Peter, but everyone.

We all must choose to work within the laws of where we live, but if it is in conflict with God’s laws we must choose to do something or nothing.

***Moving on to our second section about Actions, in Matthew 7:20 we read:

Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.

A perfect example of our daily choices is with respect to finances.

What we spend our money on determines what we value.

You all do this I’m sure.

Those things that are substantial purchases, you spend more care and attention in selecting it because you want to get good value for your dollar.

And those things that are practically disposable you just go to a dollar store; why spend more money for something that’s just going to get thrown out?

But God’s word tells us that the things of this world are fading away and encourages us to lay up our treasures in heaven.

Those things that won’t burn up at the end of all things are the treasures that have eternal value

Just to make sure we understand how we get from faith to being justified in the Kingdom of Heaven, I want to discuss the relationship between faith, action (or works), and justification.

***James said faith without action is dead, but does this mean that we must keep doing things, being good, to earn our salvation?

In the midst of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus delivers his message about the purpose of the Law and Prophets.

***Matthew 5:17-18 reveals that Jesus came to fulfil all that the law requires.

But then the next verses, ***19-20, say that there are still commands to be followed.

So what exactly has Jesus fulfilled?

***One of the authors in the book Trust and Obey, John MacArthur, described two things: we are not under ceremonial law, and we are not under the law for our justification.

The ceremonial law is the heresy the Pharisees and Judaizers were accused of: to add more rules on top of the law, and ignoring the preeminence of grace.

Don Garlington said that the phrase “obedience of faith” concentrates in essence Paul’s gospel of salvation.

Said another way, obedience is the fruit of faith.

Further on in Trust and Obey, Jonathan Gerstner describes the relationship between faith and justification with some simple diagrams.