Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Over the past several weeks, you and I have been talking a lot about
“both/ands”, haven’t we?
It started when we discussed the need to not just
proclaim the Gospel, but to both proclaim AND LIVE the Gospel.
Then we talked
about the need to not just listen to Jesus, but to both listen to AND FOLLOW
Jesus, if we want to be counted amongst one of His sheep.
Our attention then
turned to the fact that if we truly want to understand what it means to have our
identities solely as the beloved sons and daughters of God, to truly know “who we
are and whose we are”, what it means to find true peace, that we are called to both
love Jesus AND KEEP His word.
Then last week, we talked a bit about the
synergy of our heads and our hearts, how we have to be willing to not just have
Jesus speak TO us, but to also empty ourselves at His feet, to have him pray FOR
us.
Live AND proclaim the Gospel.
Listen to AND follow Jesus.
Love Jesus AND keep His word.
Let Jesus speak to AND pray for us.
Seems like a lot, doesn’t it?
A checklist of things that, let’s be honest, on
our BEST days, we can do, what 50% of?
75% of?
Maybe it seems overwhelming
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to you.
Maybe it seems like one more thing that is set up for you to fail at.
Maybe
it seems impossible.
And then Jesus comes along today and adds more to the list!
“If you love
me, you will keep my commandments”, He says.
More stuff, Jesus?! Really?
But
before we get to the point where we throw up our hands and quit, listen to what my
study bible says about it:
“Carefully note what Jesus actually says.
If we love him, we will obey him.
Jesus does NOT say if we obey him, THEN he will love us.”
Let me repeat that
part.
Jesus does NOT say if we obey him, THEN he will love us.
“The Gospel
turns everything right side up.
We can do nothing to earn or maintain a
relationship with God.
Our obedience merits us nothing; but our obedience is an
essential affirmation of our love for Jesus.
It is by JESUS’ obedience that we are
saved, and it is by OUR obedience, compelled by love for Christ, that we express
our gratitude for so great a salvation.”
Nothing in there says anything about being perfect, does it?
Nothing about
having to do “all the things all the time”, in order to earn God’s love, does it?
But
it does say that we are to be obedient.
An obedience that is in itself the expression
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of gratitude for how much God loves us.
An obedience that is the result, or fruits,
of an honest and earnest love for Christ.
An obedience whose engine, whose
driving force, is the Holy Spirit.
Think about back when you were in school.
When the teacher is in the class,
everyone is on their best behavior, for the most part right?
Obedient to the
expectations of the classroom in regards to behavior.
But what happened if that
teacher had to leave the room to go “down to the office” or to the copy room or
anywhere else that had their physical presence outside of that confined space?
What typically happened in that classroom?
If it was like the schools I attended,
what happened was nonsense, right?
Shenanigans.
Up out of your seat, talking to
your friends, completely ignoring those same expectations of obedience that were
being observed before then.
Imagine how easy it was for the disciples to be obedient to Jesus’ teachings
when Jesus was physically present with them.
But now Jesus, in order to save the
world, has to go away.
Has to be “out of the classroom” so to speak.
And
knowing that on our own and left to our own strength, we cannot keep his
commandments, he tells the disciples (and us) that He will ask God to send
“another Helper” (another because Jesus was the first, right?); send another Helper
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to be with us…forever.
The Spirit of Truth to be with us, to reside inside of us, to
guide us and remind us and rebuke us and convict us and encourage us and love us.
To aid in our obedience to God.
Not to make it easy, but to make it easier.
To
show us those places that need to be strengthened.
To show us those places that
need to be straightened.
This promise of the Holy Spirit is the promise of God’s
love.
Ed Bethea texted me yesterday, and part of what he texted was Romans 5:5
that reads in part, “God has poured His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
who has been given to us.”
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