Life Quest

LIFE QUEST

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, MSG

Text: Verse 6 – “Building lives of obedience into maturity”

(All other references are quoted from NASB unless otherwise stated)

A boy had been disobedient. His mother sent him to the corner and said “you sit there” to which he responded with folded arms slumped in his chair, “I might be sitting on the outside but I’m standing on the inside.”

Disobedience – an opposite response to expectations of another person, system or order

Where it all began…

• Genesis – God had created Eden, from the Latin meaning “place of pleasure”. Imagine an exotic tropical island and you will scratch the surface of the exquisiteness of Eden!

• Last creation was Adam and Eve. Genesis 2:15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16 The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

• God would visit the garden every day. Genesis 3:8 “They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” (Before all this they were not shameful about their nakedness) 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

Everything went downhill from there and we’ve been on banana peel ever since. We don’t like “not to” language – “do not”. It is what St. Paul spoke about in Romans 5:19 – “through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners…”

Our LIFE QUEST is one of building lives of obedience (MSG, 2Cor 10:6). Many of us have learned that the more obedient we are to God’s authority the more we grow like Him, the closer we get to Him and the better life is because of Him.

Impressions to my spirit that should be shared with you, that God wants to impress on your heart as well.

1. OBEDIENCE IS LEARNED

Play movie clip ACE OF HEARTS (:57)

Hebrews 5:8 of Jesus – “Although He was a Son, he learned obedience…”

Jesus did not learn obedience in the sense of having a corrupt nature or a tendency to disobey as is our case. He would however learn obedience by facing something that was a real choice for Him and something that would not be easy to choose – the Cross.

If Jesus was to understand how difficult the road of obedience is for us because of our nature to choose otherwise; if Jesus is to help us in our weakness and understand our tendencies, He could only understand with a temptation not to obey.

In this sense, Jesus had to learn to obey – to make the right choice; the choice of obedience.

• We learned to drive a vehicle and were taught how to OBEY traffic laws, signs

• We won’t ‘get it right’ naturally. We don’t always understand at first that running through the tube or up the ramp will be a life-saving exercise along the way of life; we’re slow to realise that jumping through hoops of “do-not” or “do this” or “go there” is always for our protection, for our good and for our abundant life-experience! We can’t make sense of having to parallel-park as part of the driving test, until we drive downtown and it’s the only spot open.

We will learn obedience to the will of God as that will becomes known to us. We cannot know His will unless we develop disciplines of intentionally searching, seeking, and listening for Him and His instructions and directions for every facet of our lives. You have to want to know what God wants to learn what God wants. In the meantime God is patiently coaching in the right direction toward taking the right actions and making the right decisions.

Will you decide that obedience will be your LIFE QUEST?

2. OBEDIENCE IS LEARNED THROUGH SUFFERING

Continuing Hebrews 5:8, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”

Our first reaction may be one of “okay, I’m not interested. If I have to suffer to learn obedience I’m not signing up.” Actually it’s quite the opposite. Often, through our decision-making and choices (which many times are not the better decisions and choices) we bring on pain and consequences. If we had our time back, in most cases we’d like to redo or undo those choices. We learn obedience by dealing with the consequences of suffering through disobedience.