January 22, 2017 OBEDIENCE: Shaping Your Habits To Win | Matthew 5:17-26, 48; 7:2

Every second Google is asked 40,000 questions.  Which means each day Google processes 1.2 billion questions and 1.2 trillion queries per year. If this is true for the Google search engine, imagine how many questions God is asked a day. 

 

But here is what I find most interesting about Q&A conversation. In the Bible, roughly 3,300 questions are asked. And most of those questions are asked by God to people. Not because God didn’t already know the answer but because He wanted to know if those queried knew the answer. And if they didn’t, did they know they didn’t know. Questions like: “Adam, where are you?”; “Who do you say that I am?”; “What is most important?”;  “Which one of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man in need?”. 

 

In the Sermon of the Mount, many important questions are asked about our habits. 

 

How do your habits help you to win in life? Are some of your habits self defeating? Do you shoot yourself in the foot with some of your habits? Essential among these questions is our motivation with people. By knowing why we do what we do we are able to let God set us free from self defeating habits. How we feel and think  about people are key indicators of our level of obedience to God’s pathway for living. For instance,  “For in the same way you condemn others, you will be condemned, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”   Matthew 7:2