OUTLINE:

Your deeds are a reflection of where your heart is.
Mt 7:15-23, 15:18

If love for Christ is your root system/your motivation, then your deeds will be good/fruitful, bringing glory to God. 2Co 5:14

If you find that you're deeds are inadequate, or inappropriate, God wants you to examine your heart, and to turn to Him  and His Word for help with fixing it. Mk 9:24, Lk 17:5

Abraham was willing to sacrifice his “only son, whom he loved”. Gen 22:2

Abraham is positioned here a “type” of our Father in Heaven…with Isaac being a “type” of Christ. Gen 22

Only the power of God's love can give us the willingness to "raise the knife" on people or things that might wrongly take precedence over God in our lives.

“because you have done this thing”
The LORD reveals a cause-effect relationship between loving Him more than our greatest loved ones and blessings.

Conditional Blessings
The fact that the Bible never skirts the issue of cause-effect when it comes to conditional blessings is something we must take the time to understand wholly.

Since our God is a god of perfect integrity, the sword cuts just as cleanly in both directions, also…whether blessings or curses.

Ex 20:5
“for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me.”

In a perfectly divine way, God is “pleased” to bless or curse in order to maintain His holiness.

Is 53:10a
But the LORD was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,

Is 55:8-9 [TLB]
This plan of mine is not what you would work out, neither are my thoughts the same as yours! For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than yours.

God wants us all to experience His love firsthand.

God's Loving Choice
IF (conditional statement) He was willing to sacrifice His only begotten Son… and IF said Son was willing to die willingly on His Cross to accomplish His Father’s will… THEN we all would have a way back to Him…to reconciliation, that is.

Our Joy Is Conditional
Joy in time for a believer is conditioned upon obedience (Jn 15:7-11; 16:24).

A lifestyle may not be sinful by itself. However, if you ARE weak in a certain area and you architect a lifestyle that consistently places you in the crosshairs of temptation, then you are sinning.

If you are knowingly premeditating a lifestyle that ultimately takes you away from your “first love,” then, even though the lifestyle, at face value, isn’t sinful…just you knowing that it results in sin due to weaknesses in yourself…well, my friends, that is a sin!