Sermon Brief
Date Written: August 28, 2013
Date Preached: September 1, 2013
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: A Series in 1 Samuel
Sermon Title: What Does Obedience Look Like?
Sermon Text: 1 Samuel 23:1-5; Acts 2:41-47 [HCSB]
Introduction:
Last week we learned a great truth from the story of David and Goliath… actually from the story of David from the book of 1st Samuel… Does anyone remember the truth we learned from last week?
Before victory comes obedience… We learned that David was victory in what he did NOT because of his prowess but because of his obedience… We must learn that if we are going to see victory in our walk in Christ that we must live a life of obedience toward the Lord!
So if obedience comes before victory… what does obedience look like? Well we can see a great example of David’s obedience in ch23 when David was in a difficult situation. Even when things looked difficult, David was still obedient! READ PASSAGE HERE
In this passage we see David wanting to do what was right and even though he is on the run from King Saul, who is trying to kill him… he looks to protect and deliver his countrymen from invaders!
Obedience has many parts but the:
1st part to Obedience is seeking God’s direction – v2
David wanted to serve God and he had a great desire to deliver his countrymen. We all know that David WANTED victory in this situation, but what we see is that before David sought out victory, David sought out God’s direction:
2So David inquired of the Lord: “Should I launch an attack against these Philistines?” The Lord answered David, “Launch an attack against the Philistines and rescue Keilah.”
The NEED was evident, his countrymen needed rescue from the Philistines and David wanted to meet that need… David did not jump to doing this on his own plan, but the 1st thing we see here is that David goes to God!
Now, I want us to see something here… it is very subtle, but it is a definite pattern for David when he was experiencing success.
When faced with a task, David turns to God and asks for God’s direction! Now David was the leader of the nation and the one the people looked to for guidance and leadership!
David knew that the people were looking to him for answers… in this case the ‘people’ are the men/troops that David was leading…
Now, when we LOOK at this passage we can come to the conclusion that David knew what he thought he should do because of question he asks God:
2So David inquired of the Lord: “Should I launch an attack against these Philistines?”
But even though he ‘thinks’ he knows what to do… what we see here in this verse is that he does not trust his own wisdom, but instead turns to God for direction!
Now when David turns to God for direction, we DON’T see him praying for success or victory… but instead he prays for God’s guidance and direction!
This first step of obedience has two parts… The 1st part of the 1st step to obedience is that we must realize our wisdom is lacking, even when we think we may know the answers or what to do… our wisdom is NOT sufficient!
The 2nd part to the 1st step to obedience is turning to God for direction! THIS is a tremendously important part of serving God! David did not rely on his own wisdom… but rather David sought out God’s direction!
Often we find ourselves in positions of service and we think that is obvious what our next step should be… but what we must KNOW and realize is that we must turn to God for direction!
WE are called to serve God, and service TO and FOR God takes ACTION on our part! However, before we jump to service, we should always seek God’s direction!
What does obedience look like… we can see by David’s example here is that the 1st part of obedience to God actually has 2 steps… 1st there is the understanding that our wisdom is lacking and then 2nd we must turn to God for His direction!
The 1st part of obedience is a hard call for us because it calls for us to deny our own wisdom and instead seek God’s direction, but…
2nd part to obedience is trusting IN & acting ON God’s direction – v3-5:
3But David’s men said to him, “Look, we’re afraid here in Judah; how much more if we go to Keilah against the Philistine forces!” 4Once again, David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered him: “Go at once to Keilah, for I will hand the Philistines over to you.” 5Then David and his men went to Keilah, fought against the Philistines, drove their livestock away, and inflicted heavy losses on them. So David rescued the inhabitants of Keilah.
To be obedience it requires trust and action on our behalf… For us to fully obey God we must trust Him in the direction He gives.
In our passage this morning we see David going to God for direction and God instructing him… BUT then we see that when David tells his men what God said… it SEEMS as if both David and his men were not real sure about God’s direction…So David went back to God and asked again! “Are you sure God?”
Don’t you DARE judge David… I know that there are many of us here that want to judge David harshly here! How could you NOT trust God’s direction David… O Ye of little faith!!
Or you may judge David’s men because they were fearful even when they knew God had given David these instructions…
BUT I want to ask YOU a question this morning… how often have you KNOWN what God wanted from you and you were all, “God are you sure…” OR “God I am just not sure about this...” You were fearful of God’s direction… you were fearful of what may happen if you obeyed God’s instruction!
Aren’t you glad that YOU or I are NOT God… we would lose patience so fast, but God is a patient God… He knows our fears, He understands our hesitations…
And here is an especially true point we need to understand… God is big enough to overcome our fears and doubts!
BUT God does not want us to live in our fear and doubt… God desires us to trust in Him and His direction for our lives! God wants us to seek His direction and then put that direction into action!
When David goes back to God, he comes back with the same answer… David and his men then put into action… the plan of God and victory is achieved!
Now last week we learned that Before Victory comes Obedience and this week we see that before David and his men could experience victory in this situation, they had to be obedient to God’s instruction!
What we are learning THIS week is what that obedience we must have looks like… and we can see it has 2parts:
1a – Do not trust our own wisdom…
1b – Seek out God’s wisdom and direction…
2 – Learn to TRUST God’s wisdom and direction…
Now these truths may sound overly simple but they are timeless… The fact of the matter is that when we seek God’s direction instead of our own, and then trust in God’s leading and become obedient to His direction…VICTORY will be ours!
BUT what does this mean for the individual member of Oak Park Baptist Church? What does it mean for Oak Park as a fellowship?
Well looking at this Scripture from this morning we can see that David first SAW the situation… and he believed he knew what to do…
Well today we also KNOW the situation for our church. Our church is called by God to reach this community! Just as God had called David to lead the nation… God has called me here as pastor to lead you as a fellowship… God has also called several godly men to be part of the leadership of our body…
We have seen the situation of need… our church NEEDS to penetrate our community for Christ! We have tried to do this on our own wisdom, but we failed. SO what we did was GO TO GOD, seeking His direction for our fellowship!
God has answered our prayer! We are already seeing victory thru God’s leading and guidance! God has opened up doors of opportunity that did not seem to exist just 2 years ago.
Ben and I prayed for God to show us what to do… we knew that we needed to reach the youth of the community and we THOUGHT we knew how… God led Ben to begin a basketball ministry.
I can remember when Ben came to me with what he believed to be God’s instruction… We prayed about it and we felt a peace about it and I told Ben to go out and buy a basketball goal… NEVER in our wildest dreams did we expect God to work like He has!
Now at times there are as many as 20-25 young men coming to the basketball ministry on Wednesday nights… Recently we have seen the numbers drop to about 15 or so each Wednesday night BUT 10 of those young men are now coming on a regular basis to the Wed night Bible study & 7 of them have made decisions for Christ!
But not only youth are coming… several members within our fellowship have stepped up to God’s calling and have begun to work with the youth and God is using them to reach and touch the lives of even MORE youth…
Others are beginning to show up… even young men older than 20 are coming… seeking to know what is going on! We can see this as a victory AND IT IS… but the battle wages on! We must continue the obedience we started 18mo ago to continue seeing the victorious results! Obedience to God’s instruction has LED us here to the victories we are now seeing!
I can remember when Ben came to me after a couple of months of being here… I can remember when he came into my office and told me he had been prayer walking the neighborhood and God had laid on his heart to start this basketball ministry…
In my heart, I was like David… “Are you sure God?” Ben, come up here for a minute… [wait on him…] People, LOOK at this man! Does he look like an athlete? Now YOU tell me, does this man look like a basketball player or someone who you would think could start a basketball ministry in OUR neighborhood?
Please know that I am NOT belittling Ben, but I know Ben and I know his strengths and weaknesses… and I can tell you his strength is NOT basketball… in fact his strength is NOT sports at all! Ben is the LAST person I would have chosen to start a basketball ministry in our neighborhood!
I am not saying anything Ben has not thought about… in fact, if you would have told Ben 2yrs ago that he was going to go to New Orleans to a predominantly black neighborhood and start a basketball ministry, I bet he would have thought you were out of your mind!
You may not know much about Ben, but like I said, Ben is NOT the athletic type. He is SUPER smart and a super great teacher… I can bet that Ben believed should be used by God in an academic setting or in the classroom somehow…
The fact of the matter is that God DID call Ben to teach… God HAS called Ben to the classroom…of sorts… it is just NOT the classroom Ben envisioned!
But it is NOT just Ben… you can look at ALL of the staff here at Oak Park and you can see that God has called ALL of them to serve Him!
I can tell you that if you would have talked with them 2yrs ago, they would have NEVER guessed they would be doing what they are doing now… leading a ministry in an Urban City setting… all of these boys are from rural GA or NC…
Also take a look at our Music Minister… he drives from Gonzales, LA each Sunday to be here… he works a full time job and when he came to us it was SUPPOSEDLY for a short time to be our ‘interim’ music minister. Well it’s been OVER 2 years and God is STILL using him greatly…I can bet he never thought God has THIS in store for him…
What about Jason? I am sure Jason NEVER thought he would be here at our church for 7yrs when he got to Seminary, but God is guiding and Jason is trusting in His guidance! I can bet Jason never thought God has THIS in store for him…
Now looking all these examples of obedience whom you see serving EACH and EVERY week… you need to ask yourself WHERE am I in my obedience to God?
How am I being obedient to God’s calling on my life? Am I turning away from my own wisdom and seeking His guidance? Am I trusting in His wisdom to lead me?
God has opened up another wonderful door of opportunity for our fellowship… God has recently opened the door of ministry to Parc Fontaine Apts, but that is NOT the only place you can serve God here at Oak Park! There are many places God can use you in His ministry…
With the Parc Fontaine Apts and with ANY of our ministries we may think we know what direction to take, but we must know that even tho’ we may THINK we know the way, we have to turn to God for instruction…for guidance!
God is calling us to penetrate this community and He is opening up door after door for us to step thru and serve Him… are you willing to STEP UP and begin to serve Him… are you willing to STEP UP and be willing to trust in and follow God’s instruction!
Preacher, of course I am willing to listen to God! Well let me put it like this… As David was called by God to lead the nation of Israel, God has also called me and the rest of this staff here to lead YOU! God gives us instruction and we equip you to DO the ministry God is calling us to do…
Eph 4:11-12 says, “…11And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…”
We have been called by God to lead and equip the saints… and YOU are the saints that God has called us to lead and equip!
I can assure you that God is leading us in this basketball ministry! I can assure you that God is leading us in this Parc Fontaine ministry…
AND another thing I am sure of is that God is not leading us into all these different ministries so that WE (the staff) can do all the work… He has not placed us here so that we are the focus of ministry efforts!
Absolutely NOT! God has led this staff here and God is calling this staff to lead, equip and train YOU (the fellowship) to do the work of the ministry FOR God! God is leading us so that you can know where and how to serve Him! This means we lead by example and you follow in obedience to God!
So I ask you again, “Where does this leave you?” Are you serving where God has called you? Have you been approached by a staff member and asked to serve in ministry?
I want you to know that we do NOT approach you because it is OUR idea… we may think we KNOW what is right but we deny our own wisdom and we seek God’s guidance in our leadership!
Are you listening for God to lead you? God may be speaking to you THRU one of our staff members… are you listening?
Before victory comes obedience and OBEDIENCE is denying our own wisdom and seeking God’s guidance… THEN it is trusting in God’s guidance… Are you being obedient to God today?
As Bro Ken comes to lead us in our hymn of invitation… I want to open up this altar for those of you who are fighting a battle in your heart today… you know God is calling you… you know God’s direction for your life but you are resisting Him… you may be like David this morning and you may be saying “Are you sure God?”
You know if God is calling you to serve Him… You know in your heart if God is leading you to serve Him…
You may think that you cannot do what you are being asked to do… but I am SURE that David thought the same thing… I am sure that Ben thought the same thing…
In fact, I KNOW that Ben thought the same thing when God led him to start the basketball ministry here at Oak Park… but it was NOT Ben’s jump shot or crazy basketball skills that has produced such a great victory in our fellowship!
You see BEFORE VICTORY COMES OBEDIENCE and the fact that Ben had a willingness to turn away from his own wisdom and trust in God’s direction led to obedience on his part… and because of Ben’s obedience (as well as others who are serving with Ben in this ministry) we are seeing great victory for Christ!
If you questioning God about His calling… that’s ok, but don’t refuse Him… Come and seek His counsel and guidance as the altar and allow Him to calm your spirit and ease your mind! Come and turn your fear over to Him!
Give Evangelistic invitation here…
