Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Question

As we begin this year a good question to ask of the LORD is what must I do to live out the Kingdom.

As we begin our 21 Days of prayer and fasting, I would encourage you to make part of your prayers this question, this seeking of God, “what must I do?”

What are you asking of me God?

What are areas in my life that I need to surrender to Your rule?

What are attitudes in my life that I need to surrender to Your rule?

What are actions in my life that I need to surrender to Your rule?

My hope for this church body is that every member of this body and every active participant of this church would devote time to prayer over these 21 days and that you would determine in your mind to fast something (a meal, a food, a media consumption) every day.

That we as a body would be unified in this seeking, in this pursuit of the presence of God in us individually and as a church body.

That we would ask the Good Questions of not just what God can do for us, but what God would have of us.

This morning we are going to look at 2 men who sought out Jesus but only one left his encounter rejoicing.

Lets start with the first one.

It’s a familiar story.

Really both are familiar stories.

But lets start with the Rich Young Ruler.

The Rich Young Ruler

So the rich young ruler asks a good question.

What must I do to inherit eternal life?

The rich young ruler was concerned about the afterlife.

It’s good to be concerned with the afterlife.

Where we will spend the afterlife is a matter of eternal significance.

What must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus answers him according to the the Law and Religion.

Jesus answers as a Jew to a Jew.

But before He responds directly to the question he challenges the Rich Young Ruler.

I think Jesus is challenging this man belief about who Jesus is.

Do you believe I am good?

Do you believe I am the Word made flesh?

Do you believe I am the Promised One?

What do you believe about me?

I think Jesus is saying?

Eternal life always starts with our belief about Jesus.

Who do we belief He is.

What do we believe about Him?

Jesus doesn’t give the Rich Young Ruler a chance to respond with words, but will see the Rich Young Ruler respond with his actions and attitude soon enough.

You Know The Commandments

So Jesus comtinues to answer the man’s question.

Jesus here is repeated 5 of the last 6 of the 10 Commandments, the Commandments God gave Moses for the Hebrew people.

Jesus doesn’t mention the 6th directly, but it’s the reason the man is struggling with this question of eternity as we will see soon enough.

Something you should know about the 10 Commandments - the first 4 deal with our relationship with God and the last 6 deal with our relationship with our fellow humanity, our neighbor.

The Rich Young Ruler believed he was good with the first 4 because he believed he was a child of Abraham And an heir of the promise.

The Jews believed that because they were biological descendants of Abraham that they would receive the promise of God’s covenant with Abraham simply by genetics.

Well, we know Jesus came as the perfect Israel so that by faith in Jesus we could by adopted into the family of God by the Spirit of God.

So Jesus doesn’t even address the first four commands.

Jesus assumes that the Rich Young Ruler is keeping those commands.

Jesus goes straight to the practical.

And by doing so, Jesus is affirming the validity of keeping those commands.

Jesus is saying these things matter.

They mattered in Moses’s day, they mattered in Jesus’s day, they matter in our day.

They are basic foundational ethics and morals for human flourishing and obedience to created order.

What are these God-given morals that reflect His good character and lead us away from idolatry and sin?

Lets look.

Do Not Commit Adultery

Be sexually faithful.

Be sexually pure.

Be sexually honorable.

Follow God’s good design for human sexuality - one man and one woman in marriage covenant together.

Maybe you’ve lived outside of God’s good design in the past or are living outside of God’s good design in present, hear me, God is gracious and merciful.

He will not hold your past sin against you.

But he also requires you to live now in obedience.

Repent.

Be forgiven.

Be cleansed.

Be made new.

And then live as that new creation in Christ Jesus.

Begin the journey towards sexual wholeness and obedience today.

Saturday, February 4 we are having a Marriage Conference.

It’s called Save The Date.

So save the date for Save The Date.

You’ll be hearing more about that this week.

It’s for both married couples and singles who want to pursue God’s Good Design for sex and marriage.

Do Not Commit Adultery.

Do Not Murder

Most in this room are good here.

I think.

What is murder.

It’s the taking of a life.

There’s an understanding of innocent life.

God was setting boundaries.

Murder is sin.

Taking life is a direct affront to the image-bearing creative mandate.

However, siince sin entered the human condition at the fall God has set boundaries for the taking of life.

So the boundary here is murder - the taking of innocent life.

It’s a main factor in my stance against abortion and my stance against state sponsorted death penalty.

It’s why sex selective and genetic selective abortion is so ugly to me.

It’s why the possibility of executing an innocent person is so troubling to me.

Life is precious.

Murder goes against our image-bearing creative mandate.

But Jesus goes even further than I do.

Jesus says if you hate someone you’ve already murdered them in your heart.

Jesus is teaching us that life matters, humanity matters, and hatred in the heart leads to murder in the streets.

Do Not Steal

Do not take from someone else what belongs to them.

Why?

Because it isn’t just.

It isn’t fair.

It harms the human condition.

It harms the community.

It creates fear and distrust.

It harms the societal contract.