Sermon Tone Analysis

Well, we are continuing our series on The Transformed Life.

We are looking at the core values, or foundational beliefs that we hold as a church community that Kelley and I have not just recognized, but experienced as being the keys to a life that is transformed by God.

I’ve quoted from James 1:22 quite a bit in the last few months, and I believe it’s a scripture we all need to memorize because it keeps front and center the reality of the Christian life.

/ / But don’t just listen to God’s word.

You must do what it says.

Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror.

You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.

But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

Sometimes that can feel a bit like we’re advocating for a works based Christianity.

Saved by our doing good.

Saved by our following the rules.

And it maybe feels that way because essentially says ... do what [the law] says and... God will bless you for doing it.

But we know that’s not it, right?

We know we are saved by grace through our faith in Jesus Christ.

So, let’s break that down a bit this morning.

The ESV says it this way, / / But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Alright, I want to ask you a question:

If a go to a financial advisor and they tell me exactly what to do to get out of debt and live a life of financial freedom, and I go home, and do nothing of what they told me, will I experience the outcome I want from what that financial advisor told me to do?

Of course not...

If I go to a gym and the trainer walks me around the whole room, explains all of the exercise machines, how to use them, the best way, best method, even takes the time to show me.

But then I just go over to the counter, order myself a jacked up protein shake and sit down and watch the other people work out, will I benefit from all that I was taught?

No, we know that.

What if I go to a counselor, and I am able to talk things out, and it’s good, because I have found a safe place to talk about things, and even in the moment the counselor walks me through some good things, and I am able to experience a level of freedom, and that counselor says, “This is really good, we made great headway today.

Now, what you want to do is take this and go home and apply it everyday, because this is going to take time to walk out your new reality...”

I mean, a Dr told us that.

That person spent years getting a degree that qualifies them… We believe it don’t we?

Of course we do.

BUT, what happens if we go home, life kicks in, we don’t do what they said, we get distracted, don’t apply the good things we were taught....

Even though we gained some headway in our lives, will it last?

Will it maintain?

Probably not, right?

This is why Paul says in Galatians 5:1, / / So Christ has truly set us free.

Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.

This is interesting, isn’t it?

On one hand James seems to be telling us to follow the law, and on the other hand Paul seems to be saying be careful not to follow the law.

Is that possible?

Is that confusing?

It’s all about how they are saying it.

James says ...if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, or the ESV says, But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty...

They both use the word “perfect”, and that word is / / teleios and it means complete, brought to its end, finished, wanting nothing necessary to completeness.

It doesn’t need anything else to be completed, it has been completed.

Jesus says in Luke 24:44, And this is right at the end of his time on earth, after he’s been crucified and put in a tomb and raised back to life, he’s spent time with his disciples and he says, / / “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

...the law, prophets and Psalms must be fulfilled… That word, fulfilled is / / pleroo, and it means to be full, to be complete, the end.

When we look into the perfect, or completed, fulfilled law of God, what do we see?

The Messiah, Jesus Christ, the One who actually completed its requirements, fulfilled its purpose.

This is what James is talking about.

But, then on the other side of things, Paul is essentially saying, this MUST be how we see it because if we don’t see that Christ has set us free by fulfilling or completing the law we will be left thinking WE still need to be the ones to fulfill it, and when we do that, we WILL fail, and we will be enslaved to it.

See, Paul understood it, because he’s also the one who wrote the book of Romans and in Romans 6:16 he writes, / / Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey?

You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.

Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you.

Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

Look at how he says that.

First of all, what does he NOT say?

He doesn’t say, follow the rules, be a good Christian by obeying the rules.

He says, choose to obey God, and when we choose to obey or to live a life of obedience, it results in doing the right thing, righteous living.

Jesus said that over and over again, didn’t he?

If you want to be my disciple, be faithful to my teaching, follow me, follow my teaching, be obedient to or submit yourself to my authority.

Deny your way, embrace God’s way.

Paul is essentially warning us that the law, or let’s bring it to terms we understand today, the bible, can end up being a hindrance if you’re simply reading it as a book to try and follow a set of rules.

Galatians 5:1, don’t fall back into slavery of the law, what’s the law?

The Law is the Old Testament books that outlined the covenant between Israel and God.

It’s the bible.

Why would he say this?

Because, you can read the bible and not fully understand what it is saying, and as a result live your life trying to accomplish things you aren’t meant to, or doing things in a way that God never intended!

We just read it, right, Luke 24 says, / / Then he [Jesus] opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

These are the disciples of Jesus who know scripture, who have read it AND had him teaching them for 3 years, and yet, in this moment it suddenly all makes sense!

It is no longer about us fulfilling the requirements of the law, because HE did!

But it wasn’t that they figured that out on their own, it was because Jesus opened their minds to understand what the scriptures had said he had come to fulfill...

And this is important, because today, we are going to jump into Part 2 of God’s Voice in the Silence.

Last week we looked at the invitation to / / intimacy // In-To-Me-You-See.

We looked at the fact that the enemy works overtime to try and get in the way of intimacy, it’s been his game since the beginning, and if he can win the war of shame in our lives, the result is hiddenness - like Adam & Eve in the garden, we hide from His presence.

Life, and I don’t mean life in general, but true life, the life Jesus offers, is found in embracing the difficult, becoming comfortable with having conversations we would rather not have.

Why does it seem easier to just walk away rather than work things out?

Why does it feel more natural to hide or isolate when we’re going through stuff?

Why does it feel safer to not share our lives and what we are truly feeling?

If you missed last week I want to encourage you to go back and watch it.

Go on our youtube channel or our website or on our facebook page and watch it.

Jesus is bringing healing as we are looking at these topics of transformation.

This isn’t just teaching, this is opportunity to embrace and experience the God who loves you and cares more for you than anyone else in this world ever could.

So, we’re talking about God’s Voice in the Silence.

Today we are going to be looking at the practical application and aspect of a God who speaks and wants to speak to us.

Two things we have to settle in our hearts and minds when we begin to think or talk about hearing the voice of God.

/ / God is real

/ / God wants to speak to you

Hebrews 11:6 says, / / Anyone who wants to come to him [God] must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

The ESV says, anyone who wants to draw near.

Basically it’s saying, if you want to get close to God, first of all, you have to believe that He exists, but more importantly, that he WANTS you to come to Him, to be close to Him.

What is the reward for seeking?

FINDING!

God WANTS you to seek him, so that you will find him.

Listen, when we were kids, the goal of hide-and-seek was NOT to be found, we get that.

But, when we became parents, that changed, didn’t it?

When we play hide and seek with our children, as a parent we make sure our toes are sticking out from behind the curtain, or we make a little snicker “by accident”… we WANT to be found… God WANTS to be found!

Acts 17:27, Paul is preaching and he says, / / His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him - though he is not far from any one of us.

Jeremiah 29:13 says, / / If you look for me [God] wholeheartedly, you will find me.

So today I want to talk through 4 very basic, simple, and yet incredibly profound steps to having a consistent relationship of intimacy with God and learning to hear His voice.

Remember, that’s what we’re talking about here.

The four foundational beliefs, or core values of our church: