Sermon Tone Analysis

Divine Duties

Last week we looked at and talked about our Domestic duties which was how we pursue Christ socially—how to treat our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ whether we are living with them or taking care of them through hospitality or if they are in prison.

Then we talked about how to love through remaining faithful to our spouses and that we are internally to be content with what we have.

Just a great set of advice from the writer and its just a rapid fire bucketload of advice to give to this church.

So those were the domestic duties of the Christian.

This week we want to look at the divine duties of the Christ follower.

We say it all the time, Being a Christian looks like something.

There shouldn’t really be a question about a person who says that they have surrendered their lives to Christ.

There should be tell tale signs.

And don’t worry if you are shy, it isn’t always the personality that leads

Remember your leaders.

Those who lead in the church will hopefully have an influence on the people of the church.

Paul says in 1 Thessalonians to imitate him.

When a person surrenders to Jesus will usually look to that person who led them to Christ as sort of a spiritual father or mother.

And sometimes that relationship will continue and they will be mentored or discipled by that man or woman who led them to Jesus.

And that is a beautiful picture of discipleship.

Leaders don’t have to just be people with a title.

The leaders emerge as you live your lives for Jesus and everybody knows it.

They have a great reputation, they know Scripture, they put their trust first in the Lord.

The word says Imitate those people.

Do the stuff they do.

That is what disciple-ers do, that is what mentors do if you like a more modern word.

Imitate them, consider the outcome of their life.

Look what their lives produced.

And at the end of the day we are impressed with how people lived, with how they were faithful.

We don’t usually look at a casket and think man, they made so much money.

Or, man, they were so important at their job.

No, the focus is on relationships and how they lived their lives.

That they were faithful.

That other stuff is forgotten so quickly and what is truly important survives.

But the fact remains that leaders die.

This is the context with which the writer is speaking.

Imitate them even though they may not be around anymore.

Take their example and live it out.

And then one of the most famous verses in the bible shows up.

Those other leaders, imitate them, but remember that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever!

Isn’t that an awesome verse!

Dwell on that for a smidge.

Read that with new eyes this morning.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

That should be encouraging to you!

He is unmoveable, He is unshakeable, we know what we get with Jesus because He never changes!

Thats really what you are looking for in a God.

A God that you know.

Now He may surprise you, that’s okay, but He never changes.

Thank God for that!

Thanks be to God that he remains consistent!

My feelings, my commitments come and go, aren’t you glad you aren’t God? God never changes.

This is why we put our trust in Him, this is why we worship Him.

He is unchanging and that is loving.

That is loving.

And it is hard to understand.

So Jesus doesn’t change and that means that our faith remains strong in him.

We are steadfast!

We are called to be steadfast in Christ.

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And that they, and we are called to be steadfast.

1. Steadfast

We live in an age of strange teachings.

Let me define that; anything that isn’t biblical is a strange teaching.

Now that seems like quite the sweeping statement but it isn’t as fanatical as it may sound.

When you hear an idea or an opinion about God or about truth or even just the way things are, if you aren’t looking to the word of God to agree with that, it is a False Doctrines.

This is where we really want to dig in a little bit.

The bible is the source for what we know about God.

And we cannot receive any information as truth about God or Jesus unless it is affirmed in the Bible.

There are lots of myths or I will call strange doctrines that people believe that just aren’t true based on what the bible says.

When someone dies they become an angel.

That is not true.

It sounds nice to say that God needed another angel in heaven and that is why someone died, but that is completely wrong.

God doesn’t need any more angels, if He did, He could create them.

Humans are distinct from angels, we are created in God’s image.

As a matter of fact, angels look to us

The angels look to the relationship we have with God and wonder.

They belong to the Lord but the are not like us.

We actually have the Holy Spirit dwell within us.

Angels don’t have the same relationship with God that we do.

So that wold be a strange teaching.

We do not become angels.

Another example is the statement that many of us have said, I believe quite innocently: “God won’t give me more than I can handle”.

Scripture does not say that.

It does say in reference to sin, that God will provide a way out of sin, so that we don’t have to sin,but nowhere does the bible say that God won’t give you more than you can handle.

On the contrary, the nature of our relationship with God seems to be quite the opposite.

We are called to be broken vessels.

Broken.

We are told that we are being refined.

That involves a total breakdown and dependance on God.

No, God refines us to get us to a place where we will finally rely on His strength instead of our own.

God will regularly give us more than we can handle so that we can learn to trust in Him and in Him only.

And so we don’t need to eat special foods, or stay away from other particular foods to worship God.

Our dependance on God relies on grace and not foods.

Remember what Paul says when he says when I am weak, then I am strong.

So these are examples of the strange teachings that we deal with even today.

Let me reiterate, if there is a teaching that is contrary to what the Bible says, stay away from it.

Even though you may like it, even though you may want that thing to be true, don’t follow any teaching that is not in the bible.

Self Righteous Doctrine

So we remain steadfast in the true word of God.

We also understand that even though we don’t need an altar our worship is

2. Sacred

We do have an altar (in case they were worried).

Remember that their whole relationship with God was centered on the altar.

This altar probably refers to the fact that Jesus was the sacrifice for us.