Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning, it is good to see everyone this morning please be in prayer as our praise team is on mission this morning with our director of Missions John Thomas as they share the gospel and lead a worship service for all the peanut festival workers.

Let’s pray God would save some souls through the power of the shared word of God and the gospel in song.

I want to speak with you this morning about this subject:

Values or Virtue

We are currently in a series of sermons describing the difference between merely believing and following.

The difference between someone who is actually obeying the Lord because they have a personal relationship with Him, and someone who is resting their eternity on a moment when they agreed with Jesus and never has truly followed Him with their lives.

Last week we noticed the difference Believers believe in Jesus but live for themselves while disciples believe in Jesus but live all of life to please God.

This morning I want to talk about a subject that doesn’t get talked about much, and it is the difference between Values and Virtues.

We are once again going to allow the Bible to paint a picture for us and show us why Virtue is the goal for a true disciple of Jesus but values dominate the believers heart.

In order to do this we will need to define these words so let me do that for you quickly:

VIRTUE= CONFORMITY TO A STANDARD OF RIGHT

While a VALUE= An Individuals standard of behavior, what someone sees as important in life

As disciples we cannot allow our values=things we see as important in life to take precedent over virtue meaning.

We must conform to the only standard of righteousness the word of God, We must seek virtue over values.

One thing believers are known for is their values, it doesn’t matter what the word of God says, they base all of their judgments on what they perceive to be right, or what they have been raised to believe is right.

However we cannot do this, no matter how much I love my mamma she is not the standard of righteousness and while she taught me many good values, those values are subject to change if they contradict what the word of god teaches.

MAIN POINT: TRUE DISCIPLES ELEVATE GODS WORD OVER THEIR FEELINGS, EMOTIONS, AND TRADITIONS

Disciples know in their hearts that the only authority there is in all of life is found in the truth of the word of God.

They know that the Bible is God’s total word, and is absolutely true and therefore they base their lives on that truth and seek to know and apply it to their lives.

They don’t just wanna hear it they want to obey the Word of God.

While believers elevate their opinions, traditions, and feelings over the word of God.

How do believers elevate their feelings, traditions, and emotions over the word of God?

Believers elevate traditions, feelings and emotions over the word of God

We see this the most clearly when we look at the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ, the religious leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees.

They stood against Jesus who was Himself called the word of God

John 1:1-

In Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior was the Word of God, since Jesus Himself was the word of God and yet the religious leaders stood against the Son of God and even crucified Him.

We say this all the time but I think it gets downplayed by many, but it shouldn’t these religious leaders knew the prophecies they knew what the Bible said about the coming Messiah and yet they completely missed Jesus.

Not only did they miss Jesus they hated Him!

The same one they had longed for the same one they had no doubt been looking for, for decades was right in front of them fufilling prophecies they had taught and learned about and they wanted Him dead.

How does this happen?

Spiritual blindness takes place when Christ and His word have been demoted in your heart.

Often this does not happen intentionally but over time we as human beings tend to allow our opinions and traditions to trump what God says in HIs word.

We can see this clearly in our world can’t we?

Where Santa Clause takes center stage at Christmas and Jesus is secondary.

We see it in many things in our culture where something good has taken the place of God’s best.

We see it very clearly in the lives of these religious leaders.

Let’s take a look at a couple of instances where we can see this play out.

The first instance we see this happens in a grainfield.

Luke 6:

One of the biggest issues between Jesus and the religious leaders was that they had a big disagreement concerning how to observe the Sabbath.

The Jews took the sabbath seriously and desired to keep the law.

The only issue was tha the law they were keeping was not even the law of God.

They had morphed and added to the laws of God to make things very hard for people the laws they were keeping were man made and God did not expect the people to keep all of those laws.

Jesus confronted them and told them that their religious regulations should be relaxed and that they were leading people astray making it hard for people to come to God.

Wow man Jesus had some harsh words for these men.

So this argument stemmed over Values, and these poor scribes and pharisees were blinded by their values.

For years they had the values instilled within them that Sabbath day law was the way to please the Lord.

But over the years they had made the Sabbath law so strengent that no one could keep it.

a person could not walk but a certain number of steps on the Sabbath because if they stepped one step over it was considered work.

People drank their drinks with little filters over top of the cups because if a gnat landed on your cup then it was considered unclean and you would have to go through the purification rituals to be able to go to synagogue to worship.

So these disciples were out there picking osme grain and eating since they were hungry, yet these religious rule keepers wanted to condemn them as sinners because of man made rules and regulations.

Luke

These man made laws were the oral tradition of their religion and were passed down by religious leaders and even family of the past.

Here they are the religious police coming to condemn the Son of God and His disciples for breaking traditions held by men.

This is huge for us to understand because some of you have come in this morning and whether you realize it or not have brung with you preconcieved ideas about who god is and how He should act.

Who he should forgive and what He allows but heres something we all need to remeber it doesnt matter what our grandparents taught us, or what our parents taught us, our job is to obey the word of God and to approach it and allow the Word to inform us not our tradition, this is an easy trap for all of us to fall into.

Especially those who have been around church their whjole lives and think they have all the answers.

It is possible to be blinded by your traditions and family values but if your values and traditions do not line up with the word of God then your tradtion is wrong anfd you need to repent and become virtuous CONFORM TO what the word says not allow traditions to change or alter in anyway what the Word of God says.

Jesus replied using their great ancestor of the faith David and he says haven’t you heard what David did?

He technically broke the law, when he went in and ate the “bread of presence” however according to law no one except for the priest was supposed to eat that.

It is here we see Jesus condoning what David did even though it did not fit within the values of the Jewish religious world.

This infuriated the Pharisees because hers what Jesus told them, I AM LORD OVER THE SABBATH!

The Son of Man was Jesus’ favorite name for himself while on Earth, and here He is telling them that He is Lord over what they considered the Lord’s day.

Top be Lord over a divine institution is to have a very high place indeed, He was saying if David can override man mad tradition and law, then I surely can since I am God in the flesh.

This made the Pharisees furious, why?

Because their feelings were attached to their values.

Many people without realizing it, have their opinions about different subjects and they unintentionally have elevated those opinions or traditions, or feelings over seeking the face of the risen Lord.

They follow those values until they can no longer even see what is righteous and true any more but have become more concerned over winning an argument than serving the Lord.

This is why in the church in America we have so much turmoil inside the church, this is why we have church splits because we would rather tell people what we stand against, than actually pursuing and doing what we stand for.

This is dangerous territory because many of people who fall into this category actually think they are ok when really they are in sin, and are blinded by their selfrighteousness.

Jesus was saying you are trying so hard to keep your tradition in the name of being holy that you have acutally made yourself the most unclean of all.

Luke 11:52-

This is what someone who has elevated their feelings traditions or opinion over the word of the Lord do, they become angry with the very Son of God and begin their attempt to trap Him and even become so angry they push Him to the brow of the hill and try to throw Him off a cliff.

These were supposed to be the good guys, these were supposed to be the ones who rejoiced when the Savior came, but instead they were blinded by their values and totally missed the Lord.

Jesus is actually saying here that the religious person who thinks they have light in them who thinks they are ok but are basing it off of their ability to keep the law, that they are actually in more danger than the lost person, because they are blind to the fact they are not in relationship with God.

Wait a minute is it possible to be so wrapped up in our values that we never fully come to know Jesus as Lord?

yes it is

This is why I fear for believers most of all, because we can fill our lives full of doing good things, we can rest in our own selfrighteousness in our own deeds and never ever truly come to know Jesus in a true and intimate way.

Luke 6:6-

Wow

People who place high priority on their opinions or feelings or traditions can really be blind to what Jesus is trying to do and accomplihs here on this Earth.

Jesus came to heal the lame and the leper, and here He is doing exactly what the prophets of old prophesied He would do and yet the religious leaders were so filled with anger and hate that they could not even see who was right in front of them

Let me tell you something from the bottom of my heart, if this is you, if your in here and you feel the Lord tuggin at your heart, let’s talk.

Because Pastoral students, pastors, Sunday school teachers have all somehow made the mistake that somehow some way relying on yourself to be good, is enough to make you right with God.

ITS NOT ENOUGH!

YOU NEED TO KNOW CHRIST AS LORD OR YOU DONT KNOW HIM DONT LEAVE PLEASE DONT LEAVE WITHOUT MAKING THINGS RIGHT WITH THE LORD!

Now let’s see what happens when the transformation happens:

Let’s consider Paul who was “a Pharisee among pharisees”

When it came to religious capital he had it man, He was the leader of the persecution of the church of Jesus Christ.

He was raised and had climbed the ladder of religious success, thinking he was doing God a favor.

He killed Christians, sentenced them to imprisonment even women and children, but something happened on that Emmaus road

and a chaneg took place.

You see when you have values you seek to please those people who instilled them within you.

Even if they are not Biblical.

But notice the change that took place in the apostle Paul’s life

Galatians 1:1

Galatians

Galatians 1:13-

Heres what Paul is saying