Sermon Tone Analysis

Alêtheia Christian Fellowship

 

William Smart - Civil War – single dad - six children - Spokane, 1910, 1972.

More collect telephone calls on Father's Day than on any other day.

14-21=7 Mark Twain.

Most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother."

There’s lots advice about fatherhood, but our understanding is only *Christian to the extent* that it is based upon the Bible.

Feminists want complete homogeneity h -m -j - n - -t except for plumbing.

God creates a family where various members have different roles, no member is more valuable as each are integral and essential to the whole – the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Like the Body of Christ.

Within the Biblical Christian community the role of stand-in father is played by the shepherd, overseer, elder, pastor.

In order to hear God effectively He has given us a council of elders or overseers.

These shepherds must be willing to lay down their life for the sheep.

In a family setting they function as the father for the group not by being served, but by serving.

Christian homes are to be led by Christian Fathers.

Breast feeding – offended and angry – hurt because of guilt

        Not only do I not want to know I don’t want others to benefit

 

Jesus teaches Christians to call God, *Abba*.

The word Abba is transliterated into Greek and then followed by the Greek word Patêr; literally, Abba Patêr.

It is a misnomer that Abba is the affectionate childlike daddy or papa.

However, The Father encompasses that meaning as well as a host of other nuances.

We are little children crawling up onto His lap as well as disobedient teens sheepishly apologizing as well as adults humbly and respectfully acknowledging the wisdom of our father.

We know that by definition, our Creator could only create out of complete agapê.

He desires to share Himself with you as an individual, yet because His love is pure He must not persuade you to love Him; that’s the proof of free will.

God establishes a plan, which must be accepted by way of faith – trust is essential.

Our capacity to accept or reject can be expressed very simply as the surrender of our control to God’s control or the rejection of God’s control in favor of our own.

God is God or He is not, and if He is not God by your determination that means you are god.

As I said everyone has a god that they serve.

Trust in God is built over time as relationship grows and that is the essence of the Christian walk.

Accept God’s plan by admitting you need Him by accepting the gift of Jesus and being filled with God’s Spirit.

Now, trust can grow in proportion to relationship growing and all of this by God’s work not ours.

We bring nothing to the table except our acceptance.

Acceptance and surrender are *active choices* made moment by moment.

God repeatedly tells us to obey His commands, Jesus says if you love me you’ll obey me and I have pointed out that on the Day of Judgment, those whom Jesus doesn’t know are those who don’t love Him.

How is it all related?

Obedience proves trust

Trust proves relationship

Relationship prove God’s Spirit is real

 

People obey me to exactly that degree to which they trust me and they trust me to exactly that degree to which they know me.

I recognize that people *obey me* precisely to the degree that my instruction is in conformity to what they are willing to do.

We act the same with our earthly fathers and also with our Heavenly Father.

Romans 8:13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit *you*(ye) are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.14

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received 2a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba!

Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

 

*according to the flesh & deeds of the body = the sinful nature*

 

What does it all mean?

Sinful Nature means that we sin by our nature – the fox and scorpion

 

So what is sin?

Sin is a religious word that is the opposite of another religious word; righteousness.

Righteousness is, “Right-ness,” with God.

According to the Bible it is by faith and only faith, but real faith, that produces an effect.

We are right with God when we Trust God.

To trust means to submit to His plan and purposes – to accept Jesus as both Savior and Lord.

Again, it is relationship built upon God’s free gift accepted and it ultimately produces OBEDIENCE!

If you love me you will obey my commands.

Breast feeding – offended and angry – hurt because of guilt

        Not only do I not want to know I don’t want others to benefit

 

Verse 12 - So then, brethren, we are under obligation….

Paul gives his readers no specific commands.

Instead, he speaks of the Christian’s *obligations*.

Why does he apply his teaching by speaking to his reader in terms of obligations?

Why not duty?

Why not obedience?

We feel obligated to another only when we believe they have done something for us.

This is why Paul *must remind us that we have no obligation to the flesh*.

The flesh has done us no favors.

It has acted independently of our minds, causing us to sin and to fear divine condemnation.

The flesh is instrumental in our doing things of which we are now ashamed; we owe the flesh nothing.

Why then do we feel obligated?

Why is it necessary for Paul to tell us we are not obligated to the flesh?

The reason, is simple: even though it is not true, we feel that the flesh has performed some beneficial service for us.

The false assumption is that the pleasures of sin and the lusts of the flesh are really good.

The legalist may sincerely believe he is avoiding sin and practicing righteousness, but he is doing so through the flesh trying to fulfill God’s Law by means of human effort and not by walking in the Spirit.

Satisfying the lust to feel good about ones self.

Whether the flesh produces *self-indulgence* or *self-righteousness*, it cannot please God.

There is no peaceful co-existence with the flesh.

We will either walk according to the Spirit or according to the flesh.

We must take this struggle seriously.

We must choose sides.

We dare not choose the flesh.

There is yet another reason for our obligation to the Spirit—our son-ship as those who have been justified by faith.

This son-ship has both a present and a future dimension.

What Is a Son of God?

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the *right to become children* of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God *(John 1:12-13).*

It is to this son-ship that the Holy Spirit, who indwells every Christian, bears testimony:

 

How different this is from the way of walking in the flesh.

Walking according to the flesh is slavery, and its motivation is fear (verse 15).

Walking according to the Spirit is not serving a slave master but obeying our Father as He leads us by His Spirit.

It is not a matter of slavery but of obedience, rooted in a deep sense of love, gratitude, and thus, obligation.

How different are these two ways of walking.

When we walk according to the flesh, we serve as slaves motivated by fear.

We are overpowered and overrun by it.

When we walk according to the Spirit, we are led.

We serve our Father out of a deep sense of obligation, not fear.

We owe the flesh nothing.

*We owe our Father everything*.

The Christian’s walk according to the Spirit is a walk of obedience, based upon our obligation to God, based upon His goodness and grace to us.

There are no harsh words, no dictatorial commands.

Paul is not a sergeant here addressing new recruits but a brother reminding us of the goodness of our Father.

God’s Spirit is a gift from the Father to every Christian.

He reminds us that we are sons.