Sermon Tone Analysis

Let’s read our theme verse for the series together.

Psalm 34:

We are in a message series about having the good life.

How are we going to have “the good life”?

We are going to fear God.

We are going to deal properly with temptation.

We are going to seek God.

We are going to believe God.

We are in a message series about having the good life.

How are we going to have “the good life”?

We are going to fear God.

We are going to deal properly with temptation.

We are going to seek God.

We are going to believe God.

Charles Swindoll wrote in his book Living Above the Level of Mediocrity,

Imagine, if you will, that you work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country and spend an extended period of time abroad.

So he says to you and the other trusted employees, "Look, I'm going to leave.

And while I'm gone, I want you to pay close attention to the business.

You manage things while I'm away.

I will write you regularly.

When I do, I will instruct you in what you should do from now until I return from this trip."

Everyone agrees.

He leaves and stays gone for a couple of years.

During that time he writes often, communicating his desires and concerns.

Finally he returns.

He walks up to the front door of the company and immediately discovers everything is in a mess--weeds flourishing in the flower beds, windows broken across the front of the building, the gal at the front desk dozing, loud music roaring from several offices, two or three people engaged in horseplay in the back room.

Instead of making a profit, the business has suffered a great loss.

Without hesitation he calls everyone together and with a frown asks, "What happened?

Didn't you get my letters?"

You say, "Oh, yeah, sure.

We got all your letters.

We've even bound them in a book.

And some of us have memorized them.

In fact, we have 'letter study' every Sunday.

You know, those were really great letters."

I think the president would then ask, "But what did you do about my instructions?"

And, no doubt the employees would respond, "Do?

Well, nothing.

But we read every one!"

This story is modern day parable which characterizes the modern church.

We have all of the letters from God.

We have put them together in a book.

We study them and read them, but are we obeying the instructions from God’s word?

We need to realize an important fact.

The Bible knows nothing of belief without obedience.

Belief without obedience is a foreign concept to the Scripture.

In , Jesus is giving what we call the farewell discourse.

Jesus’ farewell discourse is a collection of things Jesus said just before he was crucified.

Open your Bibles to and look down to verse 18.

In , Jesus is giving what we call the farewell discourse.

Jesus’ farewell discourse is a collection of things Jesus said just before he was crucified.

Jesus taught his disciples an important fact and it is one that we still need to be mindful of today.

Obedience is the test of love.

Jesus’ commands were not given to make us better theologians.

They were given to make us better disciples, better people, so that we could have the good life.

The Bible knows nothing of belief without obedience.

Belief without obedience is a foreign concept to the Scripture.

If you keep God’s commands, you prove your love for God.

Obedience is the evidence that we love Jesus.

You might think, “Well, this sounds like legalism.”

Jesus is not being legalistic.

He emphasizes that we need to keep his commands over and over.

He says it in , ; ; and 14:24.

He also talks about it in ; ; ; ; .

Jesus is not being legalistic.

Jesus is stating a reality.

Obedience to Jesus’ commands proves you love God and truly believe God.

Look at again.

Obedience implies knowledge.

Obedience implies knowledge.

The one who has my commands.

In other word, you must know what Jesus’ commands are if you are going to obey them.

In other word, you must know what Jesus’ commands are if you are going to obey them.

1. Know Jesus’ commands.

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“Has” means to grasp with the mind; you understand, not just to be in receipt of.

You can be given facts, but not internalize them.

You can know things, but not be impacted by them.

You can read things, but those things do not shape your life.

What are Jesus’ commands?

Matthew 22:34-

All of Jesus’ commands are summarized in two statements.

Love God.

Love others.

To know, to grasp Jesus’ commands, you need to immerse yourself in the Scriptures.

Read it and internalize it until it shapes how you think about the world around you.

Generally, the things we spend the most time with shape how we think.

We call this your worldview.

If you worldview is shaped by the culture and media, you will think it is okay to have sex outside of marriage.

You will think that living together before you are married is okay.

You will think that homosexual relations are normal because some people are just born that way.

You will think cheating is not a problem if you are careful.

You will think that lying to cover your tracks is okay.

Everyone does it.

If you immerse yourself in the Word of God you will discover that much of what you thought is right is wrong and many things that you through were wrong are right.

If you are going to obey Jesus’ commands, you first must know them.

Also, if you are going to obey Jesus’ commands, you must keep them.

2. Keep Jesus’ commands.

You must grasp them and keep them.

This is very important and is ignored by so many.

You can’t pick and choose what commands we obey based on our own preferences.