Sermon Tone Analysis

What Gets You Out Of Bed In The Morning?

Introducing the Subject

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

What compels you to wake up and go to work or school?

Why do you vacuum or go grocery shopping?

For that matter, why are you here this morning?

In other words, what motivates you?

What drives you?

What compels you to act in the ways that you do?

Have you ever thought about these questions?

In my experience, we don’t spend much time thinking about the ‘why’ behind the things we think, say, and do.

We just think, say, and do them.

But the ‘why’ behind our actions determine what our actions will be and where they’ll eventually lead.

This is not only true of our secular life - it’s also true of our religious life.

Jonathan Edwards, the famous, American theologian and preacher who wrote ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ argued that everything we do is motivated by what he termed, ‘affections.’

Listen to how described these affections:

“That which men love, they desire to have and to be united to, and possessed of.

That beauty which men delight in, they desire to be adorned with.

Those acts which men delight in, they necessarily incline to do.” - Jonathan Edwards

These are a person’s affections - not only their emotions but their deepest desires and passions.

These are the things that drive us on a daily basis.

Why do we get out of bed?

Because we’re passionate about our work - or we need money that we can use to fulfill our desires.

But imagine if you lost all of your affections - your passions and desires - you’d likely find it difficult to even get out of bed.

In fact, this is similar to what happens when a person experiences depression - their affections are dampened and it leads them to despair and depression.

If you’ve ever experienced depression, you know that it feels as though the fire of motivation within you has had ice cold water poured all over it.

So, what does all this talk of motivation and affection and passion have to do with the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit’s Place in Motivation

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at the ways in which the Holy Spirit works in our lives.

Two weeks ago, we examined and saw how a person is saved - they hear the Gospel, they genuinely believe or trust in Jesus, and the Holy Spirit comes and lives within them.

He seals them as belonging to God.

Then, last week we looked at and saw how the Spirit doesn’t just put a stamp on us - he actively teaches us and leads us into the truth about who God is, who we are, and what we’ve been called to.

And this is where our ‘affections’ come in.

Because the things that we believe in or know about are deeply connected to the things that we’re passionate about and delight in.

I am passionate about books and reading because I believe in their power to make me a better person.

I know that I’ve been changed by different books - and because of that knowledge and those beliefs, I find incredible delight in reading.

It compels me to go into the bookstore or log on to Amazon.

Take a moment to think about some of the things that you’re passionate about - why are you passionate about those things?

It’s probably because you know them.

You believe in them.

And that knowledge creates a passion within your heart.

We’re often the most passionate (for better or worse) about the people we know the best or believe in the most.

And the same is true of God.

The more we know him, the more we trust him, the more passionate we will become about him.

And that passion will drive our actions - and not only the ‘spiritual’ actions like praying or reading the Bible.

It will drive the way we interact with our families.

The way we work at our job or in school.

It will change how we live our lives.

This is the Holy Spirit’s role - he not only marks us as God’s possession, he leads us into truth and, in turn, transforms our whole selves from the inside-out.

So, with this in mind, let’s read what Paul had to say about this topic in his letter to the Galatian Christians.

Galatians 5:

In this letter, Paul is writing to a church that has become confused.

Paul had preached the Gospel to them - the Gospel that we can be saved and have a relationship with God through faith in Jesus.

But others had come and told them that if they really wanted to have a relationship with God, they needed to become Jewish first.

They needed to be circumcised.

They needed to keep the Sabbath and the Jewish festivals.

But that wasn’t the Gospel.

The Good News was that God would accept us and begin to transform us based on faith alone.

So Paul spends the first half of this letter combating the idea that we can be saved by keeping the Old Testament law.

But, some may have objected, does this mean that our actions don’t matter?

That salvation is merely a matter of saying, “I believe in Jesus”?

Absolutely not.

And Paul refutes that idea strongly in these words that we’ve just read.

He argues that when the Holy Spirit adopts us and begins living within us, he also does some major renovating.

And the more he works in our lives, the more we know and trust him, and the more we trust him, the more our affections are changed

Driven By The ‘Flesh’

Paul begins here drawing a stark contrast between two competing forces: the flesh and the Spirit.

He seems to be saying that our actions are motivated by one of these two forces and gives little room for any other.

So, it would be worthwhile to take a minute and find out, what exactly he’s talking about here.

What is the ‘flesh’?

So what is the flesh?

First, it’s important to recognize that Paul does not use this word to mean our physical bodies or selves.

There’s nothing innately sinful about our physical bodies.

So Paul is not making a statement about the physical world.

He’s talking about something deeper.

In Paul’s letters to the Roman and Galatian Christians, he often uses the word ‘flesh’ to refer to a human nature that isn’t controlled by the Spirit of God.

It’s our natural inclinations.

It’s the animal nature of man.

It’s that way of being that we’re all born into, characterized by selfishness and a seeking after personal pleasure.

When we’re controlled by our flesh, we simply do whatever feels good…whatever benefits me…whatever I want.

Paul says that the flesh has certain desires and that its desires go against the desires of God’s Spirit.

The flesh motivates us to act in these ways… And Paul gives us a list of deeds that are motivated by the flesh.

What does the ‘flesh’ produce?

Now, we could honestly spend hours looking at this list of sins and examining each one and what they mean.

Paul lists fifteen different sins which largely fall into four big categories.

(Sexual) immorality, impurity, and sensuality are all sins that are sexual in nature.

Idolatry and sorcery are both religious in nature.

Enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, and envying are all relational in nature.

Drunkenness and carousing are both about indulging the self beyond reason.

There’s a couple of interesting things about this.

First, Paul ends this list by saying, “and things like these...” In other words, this is not an exhaustive list of everything that the flesh produces.

But it produces things like this.

Second, though there are fifteen items listed and they fall into four categories, really they all have one thing in common: they place self above God and others.

One commentator puts it this way:

“However they might be classified, all the deeds of the flesh are manifestations of a life dictated by ‘self’ instead of being led by the Spirit, in pursuit of one’s own ends rather than in fulfillment of God’s will.” - Ronald Fung

The flesh is, at its root, only worried about pleasing itself.

And if that’s what is motivating you, you will inevitably hurt others, damage relationships, push God away, and…well, Paul tells us exactly where you’ll end up.

Where does the ‘flesh’ lead?

Paul writes, “those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

This is a cause-and-effect relationship.