DO WE HONOR GOD? 2

 

DO WE HONOR GOD? 2

Matt. 7:16-17 “You can detect them by the way they act, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit. You don’t pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles. A healthy tree produces good fruit, and an unhealthy tree produces bad fruit.” NLT

There are several observations we can make from our Scripture text for today.

It does not honor God when we prevent the Spirit from changing our hearts. The genuineness of one’s faith is seen in the life changes that are seen in one’s life. If the Spirit controls our lives, we will bear the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), not the fruit of a worldly heart (Gal. 5:19-21).

It does not honor God when we come to worship Him without living for Him the other six days of the week. It is a mockery, shows great disrespect for who God is, and is hypocrisy to pretend to worship God while living like the devil. We need to examine why we gather with others for worship services. True worship is exposing our hearts before God and letting Him do whatever needs to be done to make us right with Him. It is Christ-focused, nothing more, nothing less.

It does not honor God when we try to live by anything other than grace. Eph. 2:8-9 We do not try to save ourselves by our good deeds. We don’t try to save ourselves by impressing others. We don’t save ourselves by our accomplishments in this live. We can only be saved by the grace of God poured out upon us through Christ.

It does not honor God when we misrepresent Him before man. What honors God is our being real about our faith. Not only do we do good, but we don’t try to pretend to be so good that we never mess up, react in ungodly ways, have fits of anger, say mean things, etc. We are not perfectly godly people. We have never been and will never be as long as we are on earth. We honor God when we are honest about our failures and strive to improve upon them.