Do The Right Thing

On the last Lord's Day, we continued our series on overcoming the sin nature in our lives entitled Proper Conduct For An Excellent People, with an exposition on a wonderful text housed in I Thessalonians 5:22 which says in the ESV abstain from every form of evil, which I entitled Do the Right Thing. I used for an introduction the main controversy found at the end of the film. Spike brought up the argument of two different ideals regarding the violence in the movie's conclusion. One ideal is that violence is never justifiable under any circumstances, and the other ideal was that violence is intelligent when done under the action of self-defense. Many scholars could not agree as to which ideal they would consider to be the correct one, so they basically decided to agree to disagree.

While that may work for movies, that is never tolerated when it comes our conduct as the people of God toward our Father in Heaven. I Thessalonians tells us that we must abstain from every form of evil. Why? Because our Heavenly Father wants to sanctify us for his good purpose, which means that he desires to set us apart for his use, but he can't do it while the wickedness of our lives is at the forefront of our desires. Here is the sermon outline:

Thesis: our ability to be set apart for the express purpose of God's exclusive use, hinges totally on our willingness to turn away from our wickedness and do the right thing.

I. Positional Sanctification

-verse 24

II. Practical Sanctification

-verse 24

III. Perfect Sanctification

-verse 24

Proper Conduct For An Excellent People

This year 2008, the year of new beginnings, the emphasis for our church is "A Spirit of Excellence"...Proclaiming God's Word For His Glory, Protecting The Weak From His Judgment & Preparing the World For His Return. So in this season of excellence, the Lord has led me to deal with our congregation about overcoming the sin problem in our lives, and if we are truly going to live an excellent life for God then we must get rid of our inability to sincerely strive to live a life absent of sin.

So the Lord has led me to begin a short expositional series on overcoming sin entitled Proper Conduct For An Excellent People, and the first in the series is out of that familiar text out of Hebrews 12:1-2 which I called Stay in the Race. The anoynomous Hebrew writer began in verse 1 by saying therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

The writer uses athletic imagery when penning this chapter, for he paints a picture that we are inside a great arena with the cloud of witnesses who make up the faith hall of fame in chapter 11, sitting in the stands as spectators watching us as we run this Christian race called life. But in actuality, they are not being witnesses but rather they are bearing witness to the fact they faced adversity in their lives yet they never gave up because they had great faith in Jesus Christ. We can stay in the race because we look to Jesus who is the founder and perfecter of our faith. Here is the sermon outline:

Title: Stay in the Race

Thesis: our complete trust in the flawless example of Jesus Christ, will release his power in our lives to provide us the endurance and encouragement we need to stay in the race

I. Relinquished His Position
-verse 2...who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross

II. Rejected His Pain
-despising the shame

III. Reward Was Perfected
-and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God