Sermon Tone Analysis

OPEN WITH BIG BUT video!

Read ,

When we read these words that our Lord Jesus spoke while He was still on this earth, it paints a rather different picture of following Jesus than what many, if not most Christians have in their minds; if they even really think about the truth of following Him at all!

Just like the funny little video that we just watched, there are so many “BUTS” that we have in our lives which hinder or prevent us from moving into that deep and intimate relationship with Him that He desires and that is ABSOLUTELY necessary for us to be conformed more into His perfect image.

Being conformed into Jesus’ image is actually the will of God for you and I, as Paul wrote of in , “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be CONFORMED to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

In , we see the scenario where Jesus is showing the imperative nature of following Him.

The Greek word used in verse 62 for “fit” is the word, euthetos, and it means, (suitable, fit, USABLE, of value).

So, if you are plowing, you would be making a straight line (looking forward to Jesus, as He directs you on this straight and narrow path).

If, however, you turn and look back, you will veer off of the straight path and, according to Jesus, you are not suitable, or usable or of value for the Kingdom of God, while you are still looking back with desire to the world!

Very similar to Peter getting out of the boat and walking on the water.

As long as he was looking straight ahead at Jesus, he was doing good, but as soon as he turned away.........well you know the rest of that story, he sank (as do we when our faith is weakened and we turn away from Him!)

This same word, “euthetos”, is used , the opening passage that we just read, in the last two verses, where Jesus finishes by saying, “Salt is good for seasoning.

But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again?

Flavorless salt is good neither for the soil nor for the manure pile.

It is thrown away.

Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!”

One more passage here from Jesus and then I am going to move into the overall theme of this morning’s message.

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OK, so let’s take everything that we have just read that Jesus is saying and let’s form a conclusion as to the point that He is making.

From , Jesus is saying - I am to supersede every relationship that you have, that is, your love and devotion and attention is to be for me first and foremost above any other earthly relationship!

Be very careful and weigh out the cost of saying you want to follow me, because I do no take it lightly and neither should you.

Your desire for this world, (just like salt that has lost its flavor and is of no use), makes you of no use within my Father’s Kingdom.

, Jesus is saying - If you stop looking to me and you start looking back to the world out of a desire or a longing for any part of it, you are of no use for my Father’s Kingdom!

And then in , in Jesus’ priestly prayer that He made right before He was arrested and ultimately crucified, He said - It is my desire and wish that everyone who comes to Me through their belief in the gospel message, that they shall be ONE.

Just as I am one with the Father, as the Father is in Me and I am in the Father, so may all of these be in us!

I want them to be perfectly unified, so that the world will believe in who I am.

So, if you and I are to make Jesus the SUPREME Lord over our lives and not try to juggle our relationship with Him with the world also and if we are to be perfectly unified and operate as one (as the church should) with the Father and Son in us and us in them, this leads to a very simple understanding.

I am going to use a common phrase to sum it up, that we are all probably familiar with this morning, and that phrase is, “SOLD OUT”!

We MUST be SOLD OUT for Jesus, if we are to have this unified and complete relationship with Him and His Father that HE said we must have!

He was SOLD OUT for US and proved it by going the full distance to the Cross of Calvary!

Look here, those weren’t drops of sweat that rolled down that old wooden cross; they were drops and streams of His precious, pure untainted blood that He allowed to be poured out for each and every one of us!

Jesus was sold out to the will and plan of His Father and He proved at the Cross!

SOLD OUT - Completely committed, devoted, invested and engaged to a cause.

To have no reserves about the decision you are making.

To be willing to go anywhere, do anything and give up everything in order to achieve your goal by any means necessary.

I would like to stop here real quickly and give a BIG SHOUT out and thanks to brother Jon Krause and the awesome word that he brought this past Wednesday evening, that God had birthed in his heart last week!

What God gave Jon, fits in perfectly with the message today.

The message of Joshua and Caleb is a prime example of those who are sold out to God and the reward that goes with it!

It was Joshua and Caleb who affirmed that the promised land was theirs for the taking, because it would be God who would give it to them!

Joshua and Caleb were SOLD OUT to God!

The great Judge Gideon from , was sold out to God and along with 300 men, he destroyed thousands of Midianites with just horns and torches and shouting!

When you are SOLD OUT for God and His will, He will do the fighting for you!

In retrospect, the great Judge Samson, from , was too caught up in the world and was not completely SOLD OUT to God (He served God, when it served him and his desire.

Sounds like a lot of people today, right?)

God still used Samson, but in the end, Samson lost everything.

Even in his final petition to God to let him have his strength back one more time, it wasn’t for the glory of God, it was for retribution and repayment for his losing his eyes to the Philistines!

Yet, God honored his request and gave him back his supernatural strength one last time, as it was also judgement against the enemies of Israel, who God had appointed Samson over to begin with.

The great King David, was SOLD OUT to God, as were a host of others from the Old Testament.

In Daniel chapter 3, we read of the account of the three friends of Daniel: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and their refusal to worship the statue of King Nebuchadnezzar.

This account has, possibly one of the most notoriously brave statements ever uttered in the recorded history of the Bible and as it turns out, it is a BUT statement.

Actually, this account we are about to read, is the clashing of the BUTS, as there are two specific BUTS found in this story; one opposing God and one honoring God!

However, this one is in favor of serving God and not an excuse to shy away from Him.

reads,

“But if not....”, “God could save us from your wrath, BUT IF NOT”, “God could stop you from ever sending us near that furnace, BUT IF NOT”, “God could make it so that the fire keeps going out in the furnace and you have nothing to throw us in, BUT IF NOT....”

“We want you to know, personally O king, that we will never turn our back on the one true God and worship anything or anyone else.....PERIOD!”

THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS THE BOLD DECLARATION OF PEOPLE WHO ARE SOLD OUT TO GOD!!

That is in your face, BOLD and SOLD OUT!

And look how God honored their faith and belief.

King Nebuchadnezzar, stood up suddenly and asked, “Didn’t we throw three men into the furnace?”, at which his men said, “Yes, definitely, O king!” Then Nebuchadnezzar says, “Then someone tell me why I see FOUR men walking around inside the furnace, unbound and the fourth one, looks like a son of a god; a deity?!”

Could it have been, that this was a theophany?

An appearance of the Messiah Himself, walking around with the three SOLD OUT young men in the midst of the furnace, as God bent the laws of physics and nature and turned the whole thing into a relaxing chat session?!

SOLD OUT BABY!

OK, so let’s jump back real quick into the New Testament and look at an example of someone and their decision of becoming SOLD OUT to Jesus, or walking away from Jesus.

(After all, this is exactly what Jesus said we must do; weigh the cost and then decide to submit and become SOLD OUT or walk away!)

Jesus never recanted or changed His mind about the matter.

(Evidently, it must run in the family, because His Father never changes and neither does the Son.

When they say do or don’t do something, you had better know that they mean it!)

, in Jesus’ letter to the church of Laodicea, He informs them that they have become self sufficient in their own mind and thus they are lukewarm, that is, they didn’t see fit to submit totally to Jesus and become SOLD OUT!

He told them to very quickly turn from their indifference and pick one or the other!

“You either become SOLD OUT, or walk away!”

In the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, we find a very familiar story that is referred to as the Rich Young Ruler.

I am primarily pulling the account from , although, I have blended the accounts together for some details.(

For instance, Matthew tells us that he was young and Luke tells us that he was in fact a ruler.)

Mark says that the young ruler RUNS up to Jesus and kneels down and asks, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Up to this point, none of the disciples had even asked Jesus such am imperative and pertinent question and one that would completely reveal His purpose in coming!

Before Jesus addresses the million dollar question, He points the young ruler’s attention to the manner in which he addressed Jesus, by calling Him, “Good teacher”.

Jesus told him that no one, except for God, was GOOD!

(In Judaism only God was considered good, not the teachers, scribes or rulers.)

So, Jesus was directing the young man’s attention at this point to God and possibly, trying to make the connection with the young man’s mind that since he had called Jesus good and no one was good accept God, then possibly the young ruler would see that there was a link from God to Jesus! (Since the young man called Jesus teacher, he, like most people, including the disciples, didn’t truly recognize who Jesus was and His connection with the Father!)

Jesus then mentions the second half of the Decalogue (Ten Commandments), the half addressing how man corresponded with man.

He didn’t mention the first five commandments, as to how man was to revere and live in relation with almighty God, but only those of man dealing with man.

The young ruler says that he had kept all of those commandments.

It is interesting that Mark alone, mentions the next part of this encounter, where he says that, “Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him.”

Many people look at this young man’s encounter with Jesus and the way that he brought his MORAL report card to Jesus as a sort of prideful and boastful gesture, as in, “Look at what I have been able to do!

What more needs to be done to inherit eternal life?”

However, Jesus, knowing the truth of the young man’s heart, saw what was inside, unlike many of the religious hypocrites that approached Jesus, Jesus was drawn to this young man from his sincerity and felt a genuine, AGAPE, love for him!

In fact, no one else in the Gospel of Mark, does Mark say this about, that Jesus “loved him”, as He did so for this young man!

Jesus didn’t question or challenge the young ruler’s statement that he had kept the commandments, as to the ones pertaining to his dealings with others, which eludes to the fact that the young man was probably very diligent in his pursuit of eternal life and was truly looking for the path to obtain it!

Then, Jesus told him, “There is still one thing you haven’t done, one thing that you lack.

Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, (not to your friends and your family, but to the poor) and you will have treasure in heaven.

Then come, follow me.”

At this, the Bible says that the young man’s face fell; that is, he became very sad and at this statement and he went away.

(No rebuttal, no progressive action plan, or anything else.

He just walked away.

The reason for the sudden change in affect and his walking away, was told in the same verse, because this young man had MANY possessions!

He was RICH and the instant that he heard that the money was the only thing stopping him from having eternal life, he never challenged or questioned it, because the truth of his heart had been found out by this GOOD TEACHER!

It is worth mentioning here, that the verses right before this account in , record the instance where the disciples are trying to stop the children from being brought to Jesus and Jesus becomes angry with them and then breaks the news to them all, that unless someone receives the Kingdom of God as a child, they will never enter into it!

Well, what does this really mean?

A child has nothing, on their own.

They are completely DEPENDENT on their parents for support and sustenance and all forms of protection!