Sermon Tone Analysis

Me: How I struggle with this

We all know we are supposed to follow Jesus… which means we are supposed to obey what he tells us… right?

We know that if we obey & follow Jesus, it will change our lives.

We may not always like it, especially when we want to do something else, but at some level, we know are are supposed to obey what Jesus tells us to do.

God’s love for you and me is not based on our obedience, it’s based on his GRACE… there is absolutely nothing we can do to make him love us more.

But once we give our lives to him, he expects us to follow him and to obey him.

Jesus says right here that if we love him, we will do what he says.

He also says that if we do not do what he says we do not love him.

We - how we all struggle with this

We usually obey God for not so good reasons.

I think that maybe we all struggle with this somewhat.

We obey God for some reasons that are not the best reasons to obey him.

1.

We often obey God because if we don’t someone will find out.

A lot of people try not to sin because they are afraid that they will get caught and they will look bad to people they want to look good in front of.

Most of us want people to think nice thoughts about us… right?

When I was growing up, I didn’t do too much wrong because I always got caught…

There are two problems with this reasoning.

The motivation for not sinning can be taken away.

(business trip… no one is watching)

Once you mess up, and people know, there is no reason not to just keep sinning.

Barbara was married but was interested in a guy at work, but she would not do anything with him because she was afraid of being caught and didn’t want people to look badly at her. but when she was out of town on business, there was no one to to catch them and an affair began.

2. We often obey God because we don’t want Him to be angry with us.

Some people only obey because they are afraid of God.

That’s not all bad, but it should not be the only motivator for good behavior.

Fear will only keep us straight so long.

We need to have a healthy fear or reverence for God because to die without Christ will cause God to judge us and punish us for eternity.

Not wanting God to be angry with us as a reason to behave will cause your relationship with God to be cold and mechanical.

God does not want us to live in fear of Him.

3. We often obey God because we believe that we have to earn God’s love.

We believe that we have to live up to certain standards so that we will deserve his love and favor.

This comes from a wrong view of who God really is and our relationship with him will be reduced to simply keeping a list of rules.

Following Jesus is not just about do’s and don’ts.

Instead of an intimate relationship with Jesus, we practice a ritual… a religion.

4. We often obey God so that he will bless us.

We look at God like an investment bank.

We actually try to manipulate God by our behavior.

You may haver heard people say that if you do ??? then God has to do ???.

Listen to me - God doesn’t have to do anything.

We say stuff like, I have been faithful and he should have blessed me.

I gave money and he didn’t fill my bank account up…

We begin to see ourselves as someone who deserves to be blessed in the ways we want… that we have earned these blessings.

Listen - He is the awesome creator of the world and he is holy and we are not.

We are sinful people who rebel against God and deserve death and hell.

God is not a bank that pays interest nor is he a formula.

He is the living God.

None of these are really good reasons to obey God.

God gives us Six really good reasons to obey Him.

1.

We should obey God because of Jesus love for us.

Understanding God's love makes us want to act in obedience because love motivates us to please the one who has so freely loved us.

When we experience love, we usually respond by seeking to express our love in return.

(couples)

God has clearly demonstrated is love for us…

So how should we respond to this great love that God has for us?

a. Obeying God is how we show Him that we love Him.

Paul stated that Christs love compelled him …

b.

We love him because He loved us first.

A lot of people miss this because they don’t believe that God loves them unconditionally.

We actually can’t really comprehend it because we don’t have the capacity to truly love unconditionally.

Nothing that we do will earn his love… he already loves us.

This is important because our picture or image of God is important.

If we view him like a strict or an abusive parent, or like a policeman we will view him as strict and waiting to catch us messing up.

That’s not who God is.

He loves us unconditionally so we respond to him by loving him… obeying him.

2. We should obey God because sin is destructive to us and those around us.

ILL - story of Jonah.

Jonah’s sin …

endangered his life

endangered the lives of those on the boat with him

resulted in the loss of property.

caused Jonah to have a hard heart and be un-sympathetic to others.

caused Jonah to lose his testimony.

isolated him from God and others.

ILL - My friend’s son who did a drug deal in the house wiht his mom and sister present in the house where a gun was drawn …

Satan has blinded us to the consequences of our sin.

In the garden he told Eve that she would surly not die if they ate the fruit.

You will surely not die… “

The effects of sin are everywhere in our self centered pleasure seeking culture.

As we become more aware of the harmful effects of sin, we will choose to obey him more.

Some of the effects are:

Emotionally, sin causes us to experience the pain of guilt and shame; and the fear of failure and punishment.

Mentally, sin causes us to experience the anguish of flashbacks - continuing to relive our sin.

Physically, sin may cause us to suffer from illness or to be abused.

It could result in the loss of property, or even the loss of life.

Relationally, sin can alienate us from others.

Spiritually, sin causes us to make the Holy Spirit sad, to lose our testimony, and to break fellowship with God

3. We should obey God because he will discipline us

The HS convicts us of sin which is a form of discipline.

Discipline is not punishment.

Discipline ie meant to steer us to obedience.

Too often we make decisions without regard to God’s truth or his consequences.

When we make choices outside of what God wants … there will be consequences.

There are also consequences when we make decisions within the will of God - we call these blessings.

a. God’s discipline is always for correction, not condemnation.

All of us have heard that small voice in the back of our heads telling us not to do something before we did it.

But we went on and did it and got into trouble… now you are being condemned by the world.

b.

Jesus bore on the cross all of the punishment we deserved, therefore, we no longer need to fear punishment from God for our sins.

God will discipline us to guide us to become more and more like Jesus, but punishment is reserved for those who never follow Jesus.

4. We should obey Jesus because His commands are good, and good for us.