Sermon Tone Analysis

Go and Do…It the Right Way

Intro - seque from Choir Anthem....all about worship.

Recap past two weeks - Go and Do, Come and See.

Called to Go, but before we can go we must answer Christ’s invitation to open our heart to His vision for this world and ideas for our lives.

…and so that brings us to the next step in our little journey this year.

One in which we will be talking about how we are called not just to go and do, but to go and do, and to do it the right way.

So let’s turn in our Bibles to ...

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pray

[picofmoneychangers]

[history and interpret beginning of text] -

[just before slide transition]....Jesus gets mad…expects to see worship but instead sees selling and profit and personal gain.

John 2:

They were turning faith, and worship, into a product to be sold rather than a Creator to be praised and adored.

But we all sell things, either to ourselves or others...

[move from selling, and why we sell, to our bargaining]

[holy water commercial]

[What do we get when we follow Jesus?]

[talk about Jesus’ response (temple 3 days) and the depth of the idea of that phrase (leave out body until next slide)

[wearethebodypic]

Sign?

You want a sign?

How about this, I will tear down this temple, and raise it up again in 3 days!

And not just that temple!

Any temple we might have in our lives!

And more than those temples we might have, our very lives themselves are what He is after!

Church WE are HIS body!

And because of that, we need to drive out all that stuff IN US that would strip away God’s plan and promise.

We need to drive out our greed.

We need to root away all those things that don’t belong to a worshipper of Jesus.

Those things that lead to bargaining and interrupt our faith.

Those things that distract us from the miraculous and the beautiful.

Those things that when we allow them to become systemic, would change us to become deaf to everything God is doing.

[our thoughts/ways/traditions/selfishness(most important) must be destroyed and rebuilt by Christ]

And they have to be destroyed, church, because they can and will cause us to misunderstand God and have a shallow faith.

[our thoughts/ways/traditions/selfishness(most important) must be destroyed and rebuilt by Christ]

[our thoughts/ways/traditions/selfishness(most important) must be destroyed and rebuilt by Christ]

[expand briefly]…and when that happens—> we feel like God isn’t there…we turn our spiritual houses, our temples, into markets and we buy, or latch onto, anything that will help us to feel better in that moment, or will help us to fulfill some set of expectations...

we feel like God isn’t there…we turn our spiritual houses, our temples, into markets and we buy, or latch onto, anything that will help us to feel better in that moment, or will help us to fulfill some set of expectations...

…and we hold onto those expectations as if they were Christ Himself!

Just like these early worshippers held onto the buying of these items as faith itself.

But God knows our hearts…And further, God wants our hearts to be aligned with His so that we can see without the blinders of obligation on!

We have to be willing servants of God, not adherents to a faith only because of our fear of death!

We have to do that, because that is the only way that His arms will reach the hurting, and His words will teach the world the truth, and church, it is the only way His love will be able to show them that there is a way!

John 2:

So we must clear our temple, our bodies, of those tendencies toward self if we ever want to Go and Do it the right way.

Mark

Church we have to clear ourselves of those tendencies, and allow ourselves to be remade by Grace if we ever hope to emulate our Savior, and show the world His love...

…At the end of the day, God can show us all the signs in the world, but if we aren’t looking for Him, and don’t even know what He looks like, we will never truly be able to worship Him! Just like these worshippers in our text, when we get our ideas of worship and faith mixed up, we are no longer the Body of Christ, and we become blinded to the reality that He intends us to see.

[picof JoshuBell in subway]

That reminds me of a story…end with idea that she knew him so she stopped and listened.

Church, this moment in our text, is one of those moments.

We need to stop and listen.

If we know Jesus, we can’t keep walking around acting like He isn’t there!

We can’t just wait for God to show us a sign to get us to do what we need to do!

Sign?

You want a sign?

How about this, I will tear down this temple, and raise it up again in 3 days!

You see, the temple is our body, that is what houses God’s Spirit!

That is God’s home!

Our hearts!

Our souls!

We are supposed to be vessels for Christ, a temple and holy priesthood!

And this story is a great metaphor for what has to happen in our own lives!

We need to drive out all that stuff IN US that would strip away God’s plan and promise.

We need to drive out our greed.

We need to root away all those things that don’t belong to a worshipper of Jesus.

Those things that lead to bargaining and interrupt our faith.

Those things that distract us from the miraculous and the beautiful.

Those things that when we allow them to become systemic, would change us to become deaf to everything God is doing.

- we are all selling something....holy water commercial with olivia

Church, our faith can never be about what we get for what we do!

It has to be about what we do with what we get!

With all the time, and faith, and hope, that we are given.

It is all about how we worship our Creator.

Second half points -

- What does our expectations of God do for us when we are in crisis?

Do we bargain?

Do we beg?

How does that inform our faith

- When we bargain, or somehow feel like God isn’t there, or isn’t listening what do we start missing?

Tangible examples.---vs

16…we turn our spiritual houses, our temples into markets when we bargain.

“What do we get when we follow Jesus?”

Don’t miss out on God because you are trying to settle your score, or trying to check off your requirement, or trying to somehow live up to the manmade expectations of a Christian.

Don’t think that God will just show you a sign to get you to do what you need to do!

Our faith isn’t about what we get for what we do, but about what we do with what we get!

We have the sign.

We have the faith.

We have the reason.

Church - we have it, because WE are the body!

And if we are the body, then we need to do what the head, that is Christ, tells us to do!

We don’t follow some random set of rules, we follow the example of the perfect savior of the world!

And because of that we are called to invest everything we have - time, talents, money, decisions, love - all of it; in God, and in people.

Following Jesus isn’t about what you will get, or what prize might be in store for you.

Following Jesus is all about submitting to God and experiencing the life He has in store for you, and most importantly, offering yourself to Him so you can do His work the right way.

- What sign in our lives are we looking for before we commit to living like Jesus?

Listen we have the sign!

We have the faith!

We have the reason!

And church, we have it, because WE are the body!