Sermon Tone Analysis

There are certain times in every persons life when staying true to Jesus demands the deepest sacrifice, and the greatest cost.

That’s when we find out if we were really committed to Jesus or if we were only along for the ride.

Follow God regardless of the cost

Passion is a word we hear used in many different ways.

It can describe marital intimacy, to excel at work or an intense commitment in any pursuit.

It’s a strong feeling about a person or a goal.

It is an emotion that motivates us and drives to go the extra mile when it comes to the object of our passion.

A true disciples gives up everything so that nothing can get in the way of the love power and effectiveness that comes from obeying Christ

Some people fool themselves by saying you know I’m not really passionate about anything, i am just not an emotional kind of person.

You are lying to yourself.

God created you with passions because you were created in the image of God and He is emotional.

He loves He becomes angry, He grieves.

God is your creator and you were made in His image, therefore you are by nature a passionate person.

The only question is what is the object of your passion?

For example when your cotton picker breaks down and you are running out of daylight Im pretty sure Dennis doesn’t say, Oh heavens I guess we will just try tomorrow.

No he probably gets irritated and begins trying to fix it.

Why?

Because it is crucial to His success it is vital for his livlihood.

(rich young ruler)

All of us have at least one thing that captures out hearts and as a result everything in our lives revolve around.

Consider the things we give our time attention and money toward.

If you’ll notice I am dressed a little funny The things I am wearing today represent the things which dominate most our passions.

You can find out what a person is passionate about when you consider the amount of time money and energy is spent on a thing.

Take hunting for example:

Rent Land

Buy equipment

Buy seed (food plot)

Wake up before daylight

Sit in the freezing cold

Buy ammunition

Pay the processor (or buy the equipment to process yourself)

Fishing:

Buy a boat

Buy a lakehouse

Insure the boat

Gas up the boat

Buy the equipment

Get up before the sunrises

Fish all day long

When the big one gets away you dont say Shucks I sure hope I get him next time......

Shopping:

Go to buy one thing, end up with 5

Spend all day getting you nails done, hair done

Buy clothes that you cant afford to impress people you dont even like

hair dyed

I’m not saying these things are wrong I am just trying to help you understand that you are passionate about things you love and enjoy.

Some of us are passionate about our families, getting to the next position in our careers, or cheering for our favorite teams.

Others are consumed with the thirst of revenge, or to escape the pain and emptiness of their lives.

Our passion is our pursuit of that which consumes our hearts and choices.

Our highest goal and our biggest dream always pushes its way to the front of our minds.

Before I trusted in Christ I was a passionate sinner I lived to drink and party and tried to do anything I wanted to do.

I was also passionate about the game of baseball; if you were to talk to my mother she would tell you something.

I ate slept, and breathed baseball.

I watched it, studied it, had a diet that helped me achieve some level of success at it.

Worked tirelessly to be the best athlete I could be.

Even after I got saved I pursued my dream of playing in the major leagues with everything I had inside of me.

My time, money, and energy was consumed with my pursuit of being a major league baseball player.

It was what I wanted more than anything else in this world, and that was the issue, I wanted that so much that when it came to my life everything else came second even the Lord.

Which is why I believe the Lord took it from me, it was the idol of my heart.

When I began to follow the Lord as a disciple Christ put Himself in the center of everything in my life and i became a passionate follower of Jesus Christ.

I realized some of those things, money, my dreams, and baseball.

Needed to become secondary others were distractions that needed to go (drinking, girls, drugs)

I also realized really fast that their weren’t many people inside the church that were really passionate about Jesus.

Every week I stood next to people who if they sang at all, only mumbled the words of praise to our great God.

During the sermon they looked like they were thinking about anything but God’s amazing truth.

My guess is when they walked out the door each Sunday they didn’t think about God until the next Sunday morning.

So what is it that turns a bored and self-absorbed believer into a passionate disciple of Christ?

Last week we looked at 10 differences between believers and disciples.

1. Pleasing God takes priority over pleasing men

Today were going to look at 3 of those and let the Bible show us the difference.

Remember if you live as a believer and never follow you will never enjoy the adventure that awaits for you by being a follower of Jesus Christ.

“When Christ calls a man He bids him come and die”

To do this were going to look briefly at one believer and one disciple, and notice the differences in mindset, and heart and see how they approach following Jesus, and the spiritual reality behind these biblical accounts.

If we dont understand this truth we will always remain believers and not disciples.

When you are passionately pursuing something, when you have a passion, your time, energy and money go towards what you love.

however if your passion is in the wrong place it can be a hindrance in your ability to follow the Lord.

This is why the greatest commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all your heart soul mind and strength.

Because if there is one thing that Jesus knew and that is WHEVER YOUR TREASURE IS YOUR HEART WILL FOLLOW!

If your treasure is in your hobby then all of your time and money will be given there, if your treasure is your children then your children will take priority over everything else in your life, if your career then all your time money and energy will go there.

YOUR HEART FOLLOWS YOUR TREASURE!

This morning were going to look at the first PROBLEM the believer has which is THE PASSION OF HIS HEART IS IN THE WRONG PLACE....

Believers believe in Jesus but live to please themselves.

Believers don’t have eternal life, because they have never followed Jesus as Lord!

Believers well intentioned people who believe (agree) with Jesus but are hindered in their ability to follow after Him because their passions are simply in the wrong place.

Consider quickly the rich young ruler

Matthew 19:16

Consider his question....

His desire was for eternal life, he agreed, that if there was someone anyone who had the ability to tell him how to be saved, Jesus had to be the one.

This is a genuine question, this man was well intentioned and by what we can see in this story he must have been a pretty good individual.

WHAT GOOD MUST I DO TO INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE

What an astounding question up until this point no person had come to Jesus and asked such a question.

He was mentally leaning toward Jesus as his source for eternal life, which is where many people who are deceived fall.

But Jesus would confront one flaw in his thinking.

Now some people would say, well this is weird I thought we weren’t able to be saved.

You are correct, we are not able to keep the commandments, but Jesus wasn’t telling the young man this in order for him to actually do these things and inherit eternal life.

Jesus was taking him on a journey through his own mind and heart to reveal to the man what was actually on the inside of him.

Notice the young man responds:

Which ones?

This man is getting his list ready he is ready to write down what to do, Jesus lists off some commandments.

Matthew