Sermon Central
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If You Know Better, Why Don't You Do Better?
Contributed by Raymond Watson on Oct 20, 2006 (message contributor)
Summary: This sermon is to help people to understand that one of our purposes in life is to live in a way that shows that God is in the center of their lives.
If You Know Better, Why Don’t You Do Better?
As we have been blessed to come to this first Sunday of the New Year we must remember that it has not been by our goodness that has brought us here, but it has been by the goodness of God that has brought us thus far. God brought us this far for a reason and a purpose. That reason and purpose is not that we glorify ourselves but we glorify God. God has a purpose for every one of us in the world. No one is here by chance or that they are a mistake. Every life, everyone is important to the purposes of God.
One of our purposes that we have to do for God is to praise Him and lift Him up. We are to bless His Holy name. For all creation was made for HIS pleasure.
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
The other purpose that we have to do for the Lord is to be a witness to others for Him. It is when we witness for God that others know that there is a God. In today’s world there are many that are looking for something to believe in. What people are looking to believe in is something that rings with truth. People have a need and want to believe in something that is going to change their lives. The problem is that we hear of these things, see the programs on television, and go to the gatherings to be a part. We experience the emotion of what is going on inside. We feel that what is going there is what we are missing. However when the music stops, and the crowds thin out, we get the opportunity to speak to the people, only to find that they are the same as the ones that we run into the everyday. What I mean by that is that they have the same cold, uncaring attitude you may find on your job. Others have the same self-centered, me my and I outlook on life you find at school. What happens when you see people with the same attitude you meet in everyday life? You start to think that what this group is getting is not real. If it was real then the lives of this group would be changed. This is the same that the people in the bible were thinking about their religious leaders.
The lawyer that came to Jesus was one that was in Jewish leadership. In the accounts of opposition that Jesus ran into while in His earthly ministry the people who confronted Him where the scribes and the Pharisees. In the Jesus’ time a lawyer and a scribe were the same. Therefore this person that posed the question to Jesus knew the answer that he was looking for. This was not a question for additional enlightenment, but it was a question that was designed to entrap Jesus.
These are the questions that we must beware of ourselves. There are those that are out there that look to bring down others with their words. The bible does state that we need not to entertain foolish questions:
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
These are questions that are inspired by the devil to create confusion and fan the flames of strife. It is these questions that can lead to splits and broken relationships. That is because when these inquiries are put to us, we want to answer them with haste without fully understanding what has been said or asked of us.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
This lawyer’s motivation was wrong for the Word states that he tempted Jesus with a question about the Word. This lawyer thought that he had Jesus right where he wanted him. The lawyer was going to record Jesus’ answer and report it back to the Pharisees so that they would have something against Jesus. Oh how wrong this lawyer was, for instead of giving an answer that the lawyer expected, Jesus answered the question with a question.
This just proves that you can not put Christ in a box. That is because Christ is so much bigger than any box that we can put Him. The confines of man’s mind are so limited compared to the vastness of Christ. When you think that you have pinned God down to what you think that He going to do, God moves in a new way. That is what happened with the lawyer. I’m sure that he heard that Jesus would answer a question when asked; now to his surprise he finds the shoe on the other foot.
