Neto GregórioNeto Gregório

The right thing with the wrong motive

Sermon Outlines
Two stone altars in a field, smoke rising from one of them
Abel also brought a gift (...). The Lord accepted Abel and his gift (...). Genesis 4:4

Introduction:

  • You can do the right thing and still get it wrong.
  • Wrong in the motive, wrong in the way, wrong in the timing.
  • God does not look only at what you do. He looks at why, how and when.

1. The wrong motive. God accepts the person first, then the offering (Gen 4:4).

  • Cain and Abel did the same thing: both brought an offering. The difference was faith: "It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did" (Heb 11:4).
  • The Pharisee and the tax collector went up to the same temple to pray. One prayed to show off: "I thank you, God, that I am not like other people" (Luke 18:11). The other: "O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner" (Luke 18:13). Only one went home justified (Luke 18:14).
  • Simon the sorcerer wanted to buy God's power. Peter answered: "your heart is not right with God" (Acts 8:21).

2. The wrong way. Good intentions do not replace obedience (1 Chron 15:13).

  • David wanted to bring the Ark to Jerusalem. The right thing. But they placed it "on a new cart" (2 Sam 6:3), not on the shoulders of the Levites.
  • The oxen stumbled, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the Ark, and he died right there (2 Sam 6:6-7).
  • David learned: "We failed to ask God how to move it properly" (1 Chron 15:13). The second time, the Levites "carried the Ark of God on their shoulders (...) just as the Lord had instructed Moses" (1 Chron 15:15).

3. The wrong time. The right thing outside God's timing becomes a tragedy (Acts 7:25).

  • Moses wanted to deliver the people. The right thing. But he did it with his own hands: he killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand (Exod 2:11-12).
  • "Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn't" (Acts 7:25).
  • It took forty more years in the desert until God appeared in the bush (Acts 7:30). The calling was right; the timing was God's.

Conclusion:

People may be pure in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their motives. Proverbs 16:2
  • Doing the right thing is not enough. Do it with the right motive, in the right way and at the right time.
  • "For everything there is a season" (Eccles 3:1).
  • Why, how and when have you been doing what you do for God?