Sermon Tone Analysis

More Evidence of our Faith

I read recently a quote from a great preacher from the past.

"Christianity is not a voice in the wilderness, but a life in the world.

It is not an idea in the air but feet on the ground going God's way.

It is not an exotic to be kept under glass, but a hardy plant to bear twelve months of fruits in all kinds of weather.

Fidelity to duty is its root and branch.

Nothing we can say to the Lord, no calling Him by great or dear names, can take the place of doing His will.

We may cry out about the beauty of eating bread with Him in His kingdom, but it is wasted breath and a rootless hope unless we plow and plant in His kingdom here and now.

To remember Him at His table and to forget Him at ours, is to have invested in bad securities.

There is no substitute for plain, every-day goodness."

[1]

I really like that first sentence.

Christianity is not a voice in the wilderness, but a life in the world.

We are called to live out our faith.

Last week I said:

The Church of the Nazarene believes this new and holy way of life involves practices to be avoided and redemptive acts of love to be accomplished for the souls, minds, and bodies of our neighbors.

[2]

The first is practices to be avoided because either they are sinful or they cause harm to our relationship with others.

The second is redemptive acts of love to be accomplished for the souls, minds, and bodies of our neighbors.

So when I talk about do’s and don’ts it is not as in a checklist.

The do’s and don’ts are meant to keep sin away from our lives and also to reach our neighbors with the message of Christ.

What would happen if we began to live that out daily?

That is a question that we must answer if we are to really live out our faith on a daily basis.

I started seeing postings this week coming out of Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky.

The postings were about a revival that has begun there with the students on Wednesday.

It was an ordinary Wednesday that the students went to their chapel service.

It was anything but ordinary as the Holy Spirit began moving among the one present there.

They began confessing their sins and crying out to God to fill their lives.

There are reports of healing, reconciliation, salvation, callings to the ministry.

One report I read said that the chapel was packed Friday evening as people came from out of state to witness what God was doing there.

There was a group of students who traveled from Ohio Christian University to there and they said that revival was breaking out at their university.

Praise God! Oh that the Holy Spirit would fall on us this morning!

These young people are seeking out a real authentic relationship with God.

It begins with confession and repentance.

The author of the Hebrews wrote in verse 14

That peace that he writes about having with everyone is not possible without first having peace with God.

Thankfully God has provided that peace through Christ.

Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans

Romans 5:1–2 (CEB)

1 Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness, we have peace with our God through Jesus Christ. 2 We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory.

When we come to faith in Christ, believing he can save us and we repent, we have been made righteous.

Because of what Jesus has done we have peace with God.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that the Ten Commandments contain commandments about our relationship with God and about our relationship with our neighbors.

The things that we do or don’t do impacts both relationships.

In the Covenant that I have been referencing and mentioned earlier says

The Church of the Nazarene believes this new and holy way of life involves practices to be avoided and redemptive acts of love to be accomplished for the souls, minds, and bodies of our neighbors.

How do we do that?

James addressed in the passage we looked at last week about not being hearers only, but we must be doers.

There are things that we are to do that are summed up in the two great commandments.

As I was studying that last week the thought ran across my mind that we can’t really love God with every aspect of our being and we really can’t love our neighbors as we love ourselves if there is known sin in our lives.

One of the things has has troubled me in the past about the church is that we can get so caught up on the do’s and don’ts of our faith that me miss out on what the Holy Spirit is trying to say.

We we focus on the do’s and don’ts I believe we do just as much damage as we would if we were actually sinning.

I’ve jokingly used that old saying “I don’t drink and I don’t chew and I don’t go with girls who do.”

That saying is funny, but we don’t provide any context.

The context is that we are to first of all, at peace with God and then with our neighbors.

The second which is part and parcel of the first is that we are pursue holiness or sanctification.

If we don’t do that we won’t see God, because we will not be counted among the righteous.

The Covenant of Christian Conduct states:

In listing practices to be avoided we recognize that no catalog, however inclusive, can hope to encompass all forms of evil throughout the world.

Therefore it is imperative that our people earnestly seek the aid of the Spirit in cultivating a sensitivity to evil that transcends the mere letter of the law.

[2]

In other words “When we make a list of things to avoid, we know that no list, no matter how long or detailed, can cover every evil or sin in the world.”

Last week I said there were 7 things that we are specifically told to do from the Covenant.

This week I want us to begin looking at 8 things that as Christians we should avoid.

I know that I will not get through all of them.

We’re going to look at the first 3 and next week, Lord willing, we’ll look at the other 5.

1 - Taking the name of God in vain.

We all know that one comes from the Ten Commandments.

This one deserves more time than I have this morning to spend on it.

There are two parts of this.

The first is the name of God.

Who did God say He was when He told Moses to go to Pharoah to release His people?

He told Moses to tell the Pharaoh that “I Am Who I Am” has sent you.

Dr John Piper wrote

“Don’t take the name of Yahweh your God in vain,” means “Don’t take God, or anything that his name expresses about his reality, in vain.”

God is I Am, absolute being, Jealous, Holy, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Jesus, Word of God, King of kings, Lord of lords, “the Alpha and the Omega” (Revelation 21:6).

That is who he is, his name, his reality, his God-ness.

Don’t take him or any aspect of his being, his name, in vain.

[3]

The second word in that command is the word vain.

What does that mean?

It means futile, empty, pointless, wasted.

Why is that an issue?

Jesus answered that in

He’s saying they weren’t living out their beliefs.

Piper went on to write

When the heart is emptied of affections for God, and words are emptied of the truth of God, all thoughts, all words, all emotions, and all actions are empty, pointless, futile, in vain.

Therefore, to take the name of God in vain is to take up some expression of God’s reality into our thoughts or emotions or words or actions when the truth of God has gone out of them, and true affections for God are missing.

[3]

Growing up all I ever heard was that when you take God’s name in vain is that you are cursing, like “G D it” or “Oh my God” or “Jesus Christ.”

The command is way broader than that.

It involves all the aspects of God and who He is.

If we claim faith but don’t live out that faith we are taking God’s name in vain.

Ok, are you ready for number 2?

2 - Profaning of the Lord’s Day.

Uh oh, the pastor is really going to meddle now.

This is another one that comes from the Ten Commandants that says “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.”

This is another one that would take several messages to explore it fully.

In our Covenant it goes on to state “by participation in unnecessary secular activities, thereby indulging in practices that deny its sanctity.”

The Sabbath or Lord’s Day is to be holy, meaning it is set aside for God.

It is a day of rest.

We specifically stated that we keep it holy by avoiding unnecessary secular activities.

Back in the dark ages when I was a kid, there was nothing open on a Sunday.

There were all sorts of “blue laws” which prohibited that most places of business be closed on Sunday.

There are many things that could be unnecessary secular activities.