Obedience Series

OBEDIENCE

Series: “7 Spiritually Healthy Habits”

Perth Bible Church Sunday, November 1, 2009 AM

Rev. Todd G. Leupold

INTRODUCTION:

Ron Dentinger warns: “Health care is getting far too expensive. I just got a prescription. The instructions read: 'Take one every time you can afford it.'” The prescriptions for getting spiritually healthy can be quite costly as well. But not paying for it, will be far more costly!

This cost is our second Spiritually Healthy Habit: Obedience. Yes, obedience can be a big, difficult and sometimes bitter-tasting bill to for us to swallow. It costs us, sometimes richly, in pride, preference, personal control and self-sufficiency. Nevertheless, it is absolutely necessary if we are to maintain our spiritual health and the cost of refusing it is far greater!

Please, do not take my word for it, but do heed God's Holy Word!

SCRIPTURE:

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is: fear God and keep His commands, because this is for all humanity. For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.

1 Samuel 15:22-23 Then Samuel said: Does the LORD take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and defiance is like wickedness and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.

Proverbs 3:1-8 My son, don't forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commands; for they will bring you many days, a full life, and well-being. Never let loyalty and faithfulness leave you. Tie them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will find favor and high regard in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths. Don't consider yourself to be wise; fear the LORD and turn away from evil. This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones.

1 Corinthians 9:25-27 Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. However, they do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. Therefore I do not run like one who runs aimlessly, or box like one who beats the air. Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

PRAYER

HEALTHY OBEDIENCE IS:

1.) LIVING FOR MY MASTER

We ALL, according to human nature, must live for and according to the direction of someone.

Like it or not, we ALL have a Master to whom we are bound.

The question, then, is who is YOUR Master? Really?

Is the answer of your lips the same as that of your decisions and actions?

Romans 6:15-18 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! Do you not know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey--either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were entrusted to, and having been liberated from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

Illustration: An officer had received his orders from the Duke of Wellington. The officer protested, believing it impossible to execute his orders. Wellington replied: “I did not ask your opinion; I gave you my orders, and expect them to be obeyed.” In the same way, implicit obedience is required of every soldier of Christ. As the classic poem proclaims:

“Ours not to reason why;

Ours not to make reply;

Ours but to do or die.”

The true sign of allegiance is obedience!

Acts 5:29 But Peter and the apostles replied, "We must obey God rather than men.

Who are we really living for? According to whose rules? Whose preferences? Whose attention and favor?

The excuse of legalism: We have re-defined the Biblical concept in order to suit our own desires and proudly hold it aloft as a false justification for our own willfulness. We have determined in our own deceitful hearts that any accountable expectation is 'legalism.' That is a far stretch from God's Word which teaches that we are all to strive to meet all of God's standards of holiness. The legalism condemned in Scripture refers to either (a) the need for perfect obedience and sinlessness to earn salvation and/or (b) imposed laws of men that go beyond or different from Scripture.