Sermon Central
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Life Of Obedience Series
Contributed by Cesar Delgado on Oct 8, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: How do you demonstrate your obedience to God? True obedience to God means doing what God says, when He says, how He says, as long as He says, until what He says is accomplished
Obedience to God’s Word
September 16, 2007
Sermon series: Following Christ
Introduction
Today’s message is fourth in our series on Following Christ. In the past last weeks, God place before us that following Him means:
1. Live for Christ
• Place Christ above all others
• Sacrifice our personal goals and desire for the sakes of Christ
• Lay our possession to Him
• Devoted to Him
2. Cost us something
• It cost our personal “comfort zone”
• It cost our personal priorites
• It cost our personal relationships
3. Trusting Christ through life storms
• Under His divine direction
• Following Him doesn’t mean we’re free from storms of life
• Storms of life teaches us to be dependent
• In the Storm we saw divine dominion
Now, this afternoon I have question for you to consider. I want you to deal with it honestly – do you honestly obey the words of the Lord? Do you consider that obedience to Christ is at very foundation of Christian life?
How do you demonstrate your obedience to God? Many people think they are demonstrating obedience to God by helping others occasionally, avoiding temptation, and attending church. But there is much more to obedience. True obedience to God means doing what God says, when He says, how He says, as long as He says, until what He says is accomplished.
Observation
1. As Jesus come at the end of His sermon on the mount, He drives homes the necessity of obeying what He has taught. He ask the crowds, “why do you called me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not what I tell you?” (v.46a)
2. Then Jesus Christ shows to them what it is like to be obedience to His words (v.47)
3. Jesus Christ tells a parable. This parable has two distinct people doing identical activities.
• First, two main people are both builders (vv.48-49)
• Second, both of them face a storm of rain and winds ad floods.
However, there’s a significance differences between them.
• The first builder “hears” and “act” on the words of Jesus (v.47)
• The second, “hears” the words but “does not act on them.” (49)
So, it say here that what really important in life is not what we “hear”; it is what we do with what we hear.
The outcome of the first builder is that his house stand firm when the flood bursts against it. The second foolishly build his house without foundation not only fell, but great was its fall.
In the parable the foundation is obedience to Christ’s teaching.
Hear, now, what the Son of God teaches us in these four verses of Scripture.
I. Obeying Christ is doing what He says (v.46)
While he walked and preached in this world, the Son of God himself had many followers who were his disciples in word only, many who pretended to honor him by calling him Lord, but were yet rebels and refused to obey him.
Many profess Christ but there are very far away from what Christ requires of them. They have just a intellectual accent. They don’t have genuine faith. Genuine faith submit to the Lordship of Jesus.
Don’t make a mistake that I am talking about Lordship salvation. That’s not my point. What I am pointing at is that if we have a genuine faith in Christ, the faith that saves results in good works, result in OBEDIENCE to Christ command.
It has always been a painful fact, throughout the history of the church, that multitudes profess faith in Christ who do not know him. Multitudes wear his name and use it, who do not follow him.
If we call Him Lord, we prove it by doing what He tells us to do in His word. True obedience is not an option for some who want to be committed to Him. The Lord doesn’t want partial obedience. The Lord wants our complete obedience.
To illustrate this point, let’s take the example of Noah.
When we read the story of Noah in Genesis 6-9, we see a clear picture of complete obedience. God call Noah to an extraordinary task – something that seemed both impossible and illogical – and Noah complied without asking questions. It took Noah years to complete the task.
Noah obeyed God even in spite of what other people thought of him. Noah was a man who chose to walk with God in the midst of the corrupt society. So corrupt that God chose to destroy them.
The life of Noah teaches us that: When God tells us something to do, we must not focus on the things or persons who try to distract us from doing it. Noah didn’t listen to his critics instead he focus on God. He chose to be absolutely obedient to God.
