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What If I Don’t Feel Like Being Good?
by Steve May
Text: 1 Peter 1:17-23
Topic: Why we should be good
Big Idea: Being good makes good sense.
Keywords: Obedience; Behavior; Conduct; Rewards
Introduction:
- Being good means living a life that is consistently obedient to God’s will—choosing to do the right thing day in, day out.
- By our very nature we don’t always want to do what we know we should do.
- There are things behind the scenes of every choice you make—things you think about and things you believe—that either empower you or dis-empower you to act with integrity.
- Big Idea: Being good makes good sense.
Being good opens the door to God’s blessing in your life.
- 1 Peter 1:17
- God’s laws apply to everyone evenly across the board, and he established them in such a way that if you obey, you are blessed; if you disobey you are not blessed.
- Illustration: May illustrates partiality by telling the story of “the quiet game,” a game he played in school where a group of friends compacted to favor one another to beat the game.
- God doesn’t bless according to whim, he blesses us according to his laws.
- Illustration: May illustrates God’s adherence to his laws through the hypothetical example of a car salesman who can’t change the car’s fuel economy to benefit his preferred customers.
- Romans 2:6-7
- 1 Peter 1:17
- Illustration: May illustrates the “reverent fear” of 1 Peter 1:17 through the example of an electrician who must have a healthy respect for electricity, regardless of his experience.
Being good is the right response to the goodness of God.
- You can’t get right with God—you can’t earn eternal life—by doing good works.
- 1 Peter 1:18
- Illustration: To illustrate the reality that we have all sinned, May tells a joke about a father who claims to have lived a faultless childhood, but whose sons know enough to recognize the dad is lying.
- I am challenging you to live a life of integrity not so that God will accept you; I’m challenging you to live a life of integrity because God has already accepted you.
- Remember what Jesus did for you.
Being good makes you good enough to spread goodness to others.
- 1 Peter 1:22
- Illustration: May holds out Mother Teresa as an example of someone who, in being good, was further enabled to do good to others.
- You are purified by obeying the truth. As you grow in purity, you grow in your ability to show love to others.
- Your obedience makes you a better person, and ultimately helps you make the world a better place.
- Proverbs 11:17
Conclusion:
- We all have days when we do not live up to what we know we should do.
- Regardless of how we feel, being good makes good sense.
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