Doing The Right Thing

Doing the right thing

Selected Scriptures

Introduction-

I have to tell you that I believe that we have hit a nerve when we began looking at practical ways to experience God.

Last week sermon on worship was well received and talked about this past week. It seemed that some were energized and refreshed. I got several great emails with encouragement and personal testimony of what God is doing in their life. That is a sign that the Lord is working.

We saw that worship was more than just an outward expression. It was what God was working on the inside of each of us. The stuff people usually don’t see.

If we only look at what is visible on the outside we would really be missing what God wants to accomplish on the inside.

I want to stay in the vein of worship by talking about doing the right things in our life according to God’s Word. That is in itself a form of worship.

Holding to some of the truths that we learned last week, we can see why doing the right thing for the right reasons is so important.

Attitude again plays a factor in doing the right thing.

Priorities still have to be right.

We do the right thing because we want to please God more than we want to please ourselves or others.

Doing the right thing at times is very hard.

Depending on what it is it may not come naturally to you or it may not be something that we want to do.

Doing the right thing may come in a variety of ways. Lawfully or by choice.

It may be a law, which is a mandate that is lay down and forced upon everyone for the safety and well being of the public.

You do it because you have to and if you don’t, there is a penalty or consequence for disobeying.

Then there is rules by design that God has lay down. Some coincide with the laws of the land and some are designed as choice and you obey them because you love the Lord and want to do what He has asked us.

The best way to do what is right is because you by choice have determined that you want to do it. One is mandatory and one is by free will.

Which one do you think God desires when He is looking at the people of God? Mandatory because I have too or because we have determined to please God and want to make Him happy?

Couple of Scriptures to write down this morning, here’s the first one

Romans 12:1-

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God-this is your true proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good and pleasing and perfect will.”

Paul tells us that because of God’s grace and mercy, it is reasonable to live honorable lives for the Lord. The problem comes when it feels like we have too instead of because we want to.

Illustration-

For all of you that think your pastor is and was perfect as a kid and lived 59 years in a bubble, you probably don’t want to hear this next illustration.

My first car was a 1966 Pontiac Lemans, Sky blue. I jacked it up, painted the pumpkin so that if you saw it from behind you would have to say it is a really sharp car. My 1966 I bought in 1973 so it was 7 years old when I got it. And I got it from my boss’s wife. I worked for a family owned grocery store and was their night manager at 17 years old. I worked part time in his store since I was 15 years old. I was crossing the 27th street viaduct in Milwaukee in that Lemans late one night with a gal that is not my wife because it was way before God gave me my beautiful wife Becky. I was speeding and showing off, cutting in and out of traffic of a four lane highway that separated North and South Milwaukee. I got about ¾ of the way across a mile span and I see the red lights behind me. There is no place to pull over on the viaduct so I cross and the store that I managed was the first parking lot across the bridge. I pulled into the lot and behind the store and I waited in my car for further instruction of the police. I am looking in the mirror, nervous, and the policeman that got out of the car was a cop that came into the store every night for coffee and to make sure that everything was okay in the store because the store was not in the best area of the city. I have to tell you that I was glad to see that it was him. He came to the window and asked me for my license and registration and I began kidding with him and getting out my information. I learned very quickly that he was not happy or impressed with me. He screamed at me to get out of the car and put my hands on the hood and he was in my ear like a drill sergeant telling me how reckless I was and how I was driving so reckless that I did not even notice that they were trying to stop me at the other end of the bridge.