5.4.39 8.22.2021 Responsibility (God's Expectation)
My Hope is Built on Nothing Less: Sound Doctrine • Sermon • Submitted
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Entice: I’ve used some of this stuff a lot I have repackaged the last of a series of camp lessons which explains what we do after we become a
Christian. We do these things because
God expects them.
God expects them.
We are able to do them because
God has empowered them.
God has empowered them.
Engage: Technicians (Theologians) call Christian living "praxis". So we have the categories of:
Ortho-praxis=right living
Ortho-praxis=right living
Orthodoxy=right doctrine.
Orthodoxy=right doctrine.
• I don't like to separate the two. This leads to all kinds of theological and behavioral problems. We have all heard of famous preachers or leaders who have fallen. We have also heard their behaviors defended because "they taught good doctrine" or "did such good."
Expand: Considering all that God has done in Christ to save us, it really isn't all that complicated. He wants us to be consistent. He wants us to be Biblical in what we believe. He wants us to be Biblical in the way we behave. For more than 2,000 years we have been either falling short or running beyond what God expects of His
Church—of what God expects of
New Creatures in Christ.
New Creatures in Christ.
Excite: It is neither necessary nor practical to expect more than God does from us as Christians.
• It is theologically unnecessary because it results in a faith which will always seem too complicated, legalistic, and elitist.
• It is not practical because it results in expectations which are unreachable, culture-bound, and elitist.
Explore: God expects you to grow in your faith and to show others…To put it as simply as possible—
to bear fruit
to bear fruit
and
to bear witness
to bear witness
Explain: Let's use scripture to amplify these expectations…
First let’s what the NT expects when it teaches us to
1 Bear Fruit
1 Bear Fruit
NOTE: This is a consistent NT Theme: Jesus uses the analogy of bearing fruit when He says:
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
When discussing Christ-honoring speech James uses the analogy of good fruit and pure water to remind us of what should be a familiar truth.
11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?
12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
And Paul compares how the flesh works to the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit.
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
1.1 Prune away the works of the flesh.
1.1 Prune away the works of the flesh.
Identify
Identify
Eliminate
Eliminate
1.2 Plant, nurture, and bear the fruit of the Spirit.
1.2 Plant, nurture, and bear the fruit of the Spirit.
Plant the right seed.
Plant the right seed.
Nurture growth properly.
Nurture growth properly.
Reap the Harvest
Reap the Harvest
2 Bear Witness.
2 Bear Witness.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Discipling
Discipling
Baptizing
Baptizing
Teaching
Teaching
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
What we do is bear witness…
What we do is bear witness…
37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”
41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
Who?
Who?
JESUS
JESUS
Shut Down:
• Everyone can bear fruit. The Holy Spirit provides gifts of service for the Church. That's not what we are talking about here. Each gift comes with differing responsibility and accountability. We are equally responsible and correspondingly accountable for bearing fruit. Everyone can bear fruit. Everyone is expected to bear fruit.
• Everyone can bear witness. If you are bearing fruit it will be much easier! Your giftedness may put you in a different set of circumstances and we all have different families but someone is waiting for you to point them to Jesus.
• That's not just good theology—that's good living.