Radical obedience, gentlemen. Radical obedience. So each time – I said I was going to share with you one thing that Jesus did with each one of these attributes and the thing that he said in regard to it. Philippians 2:8 reads, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Now, no doubt guys, no doubt Jesus Christ was the most obedient man. We believe that. I assume you probably do as well because you’re listening to this podcast.
But Jesus Christ was the most obedient man. And he showed us the way; he didn’t just tell us about it. He showed it to us. That’s what I love about Jesus. Full integration of lifestyle, right? Fully integrated. But he also commanded us to do the same. John 13, verse 17, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them,” notice the conditions there. “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” So, we have a challenge, gentlemen. You have a choice. Are we going to be obedient or not?
Here’s attribute three for you.
Attribute three – a man is radically obedient. A man invites obedience to God’s moral code because he understands that morality exists outside of himself. He can obey God, even when he’s uncomfortable and cannot see the whole picture. Because he knows that his obedience is a living act of faith and trust in God. Obedience and disobedience will reveal a man’s true character.
Wow. This is an opportunity for us to become radically obedient today. And so today as you’re listening to the podcast, I want you to begin to reflect on where in your life you need to be more obedient. Well you know gentlemen, unfortunately, we are not Jesus Christ. So, we have to work on this one. This one doesn’t come easy for us. Because often – I believe, we learn obedience through our disobedience, right?
We know that everyone has sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God – Romans 3. We understand that Jesus Christ was the only perfect living human being and that he was the ultimate man. So, guys, we have to conclude that we have to learn obedience often through our disobedience. And this is true for each and every one of us. Just think about a moment that you did not listen or obey your parents as a child.
So here’s me, 13 years old, living with my grandparents over at their house. Next door is one of my best friends, Adam. No joke, Adam was a Jewish friend of mine. And he lived next door, and we were buddies for a long time. One day, he comes over to my house bringing and bearing in one hand a can of BB’s, and in the other hand a Daisy spring loaded rifle.
Yep. I was not exposed to guns as a kid, so this was my first exposure to guns – age 13, Adam bringing over this spring-loaded rifle. And no kidding, we were screwing around in the backyard with this big old can of BB’s and we shot up everything. We shot the fence, we shot cans, bottles, birds, bird feeders, neighbor’s houses – and finally ended up on my grandfather’s wind chimes.
Now, I will say I wasn’t very smart. Because I tell you, my grandfather only had a few prized possessions. One was his 1959 Chevy Apache step-side big window truck in the front yard, and the other was in the backyard. It was his wind chimes. He had a few of them hanging around underneath the shed. And I’ve got to tell you, I don’t know what happens when you get 2 boys together, but really what you get there is about half a brain between 2 kids. You get 3 boys, you got a quarter of a brain – you get 4 boys, you’ve got no brain.
So essentially what you’ve got is me and Adam in our backyard – my backyard, my grandfather’s backyard – sitting back there with the Daisy spring loaded rifle, and we’re shooting at my grandfather’s prized wind chimes. Okay? This is going on for probably about 20 minutes until my grandfather comes in the backyard and catches us, realizing what we’ve done.
He grabs that rifle out of my hand, he hands it to Adam. And I have never seen my bald grandfather get angry in my life, at this moment he was mad. His head turned red. He told Adam never to come back over to our house with that Daisy spring loaded rifle ever again. And Adam ran off with it in one hand, and the BB’s – what were ever left of them – in the other.
Now you would think that I’d learned my lesson until the next day came. Right? Adam was back over at our house. I was down in my room; Adam was down there with me. I told Adam – because I was having so much fun yesterday, with that Daisy spring loaded rifle – I told him to go back over and get it. And he was kind of like – kind of winced at it. And I said, “We won’t get caught. We won’t get caught.”
So he went back over and he got that rifle – brought it back over to my grandfather’s house, and for about 30 minutes we kind of were on this covert mission of not getting caught in the backyard – when my grandfather was inside of the house sleeping in his La-Z-Boy chair. Now, this went on for 15, 20, 25 minutes and finally we decided to stop – because we started to feel a little guilty, I think.
And no kidding, I grabbed that rifle from Adam one more time. And what I was going to do was I was going to spin around and shoot those wind chimes one more time. I cocked that rifle – spun around in kind of this slick turning move, shot at the wind chimes. I heard its launch, and I heard it hit something but the wind chimes didn’t sound. We waited 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds – and all of a sudden we realized what I had struck.
I had struck the spigot in the backyard. My grandfather had a water spigot coming up right in the middle of the backyard toward his garden. And it was a piece of PVC pipe coming out to a metal spigot. Now, I had just struck the edge of it – just gently enough that it held for a few seconds, and then all of a sudden we just saw this stream of water squirting out of this pipe. No kidding, Adam grabbed that gun from me so fast and ran. I was left alone to deal with the consequences of my actions.
So trying to reconcile the situation – I ran into my grandfather’s garage, and I grabbed some gray duct tape. Now, I don’t know what I’m thinking about putting gray duct tape on a white piece of PVC pipe – but I thought it would rectify the situation at least temporarily until I could figure out what to do about it. So I took this gray duct tape, started wrapping it around the PVC pipe, and eventually, the water stopped. And then I decided to wrap it one more time, and the pipe cracked.
No joke, it cracked straight up and down the side. Water is now squirting out the top of the tape, the bottom of the tape – all over me, and it’s just like a fountain – I’m getting drenched. So what do I do? I wrap more tape on the pipe, of course. Total sense to a 13-year-old boy, right? As I’m wrapping it around the pipe, all of a sudden I look up into the kitchen window and there’s my grandmother washing dishes shaking her head back and forth. And of course, she yells for grandfather.
Grandfather comes into the backyard. Sizes up the situation, looks at me, looks at the pipe, looks at me, looks at the pipe. Turns the water off, doesn’t say a word. Very coldly goes up to his chair, back in the house and relaxes in his La-Z-Boy chair. Of course, I go to my room. I’m now having this deeply reflective moment.
And I’ve got to tell you, this was probably one of the hardest places that I had been with my grandfather to this point in my life. I realized that my lack of obedience – my lack of obedience had damaged our relationship. And I’ve got to tell you, I never loved anybody more than my grandfather. My grandfather, to me, was my father. And because of this – I felt deep pain for the next hour until finally, I had the courage to walk up the stairs. Go stand next to his La-Z-Boy – wake him up, and apologize.
Gentlemen, isn’t this the story of our life? Isn’t this the same pattern that we keep repeating over, and over, and over again? Don’t we learn obedience through the actions of our disobedience? Isn’t that the way we learn? Unfortunately, this is true about us. It doesn’t have to be true, but it is the truth about us because we are human beings. Because we are fallen, creatures.
Therefore, we are implored by Jesus Christ to walk a path with him. Matthew Chapter 7, Verses 15 through 23 read, “Enter by the narrow gate,” this is Jesus now, right? “Enter by the narrow gate,” feel the strength of Jesus’s voice there. He’s imploring us. He’s commanding us. “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Now, I love these words because Jesus is giving us clarity around the 2 choices that we have for life. There’s only 2 – 2 paths. There’s a path of obedience and there’s a path of disobedience. One is narrow, one is hard – one, few finds. The other is wide. Many find it, and it leads to destruction. But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He’s going to tell us how we get on the wrong path, how we get down the wrong way.
Verse 15, “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered by from thornbushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”
Now, Jesus is kind of repeating himself here a little bit. Because he wants us to see how we get down this path of disobedience. It is by false prophets. Or let’s just called it, “bad philosophy” or “bad teaching” – whatever you want to think of it as. It’s not following the voice of the master. It’s not by following his way, his truth, his light. It’s by following teachers that are guiding us down a path that looks like it might be obedience but really isn’t. And he tells us the way that we can figure out whether they’re a false teacher or not is by their fruit. It’s by the produce of their life. Because those little inconsistencies will be seen over time by the produce of their life.
Jesus continues, and he hangs this all one single idea that comes right at the end of this text. He says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven. But the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. On a day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Cast out demons in your name? And do many mighty works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'”
Now, Jesus here is teaching us that there’s a lot at stake, isn’t he? In fact, we learn that there’s so much at stake that we should be extra cautious about which way we’re on, and who we’re following. Because we could get to the end of days and be genuinely surprised, unfortunately. And even though we did a lot of really good things – like, I would call prophesying a pretty good thing, wouldn’t you? And maybe casing out demons a pretty good thing. And doing mighty works a pretty good thing.
But however, Jesus is looking for something different. He is looking for the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. Not just the one who proclaims good things, the one who does good things. He is looking on the final day for obedient men. Gentlemen, obedient men. That’s what he’s looking for. And this is the way and the radical obedience that God has called us to.
Now there’s all kinds of little principles here that I think are really important. I just want to consider them with you for a second. They’re principles around obedience. That we need to probably embrace.
Number 1 – obedience is harder than we think, right? Number 1 – obedience is hard. This is not an easy path that God is calling us to walk. It’s not a stroll down the street. Obedience is hard, right? We’re going to have to do it. You might reckon obedience as to driving down a difficult road of life, rather than taking the freeway. It’s going to be hard, it’s going to be bumpy. There’s going to be bends and turns, it’s going to be difficult at times.
Number 2 – Obedience requires us to be careful about who we’re listening to, right? If we’re going to be obedient, we’re going to have to be careful about who we’re listening to.
Number 3 – Obedience is my individual responsibility. It’s not dependent upon anybody else. It’s dependent upon me. It is my individual responsibility to seek out the truth and to ensure that I’m living an obedient life.
Number 4 – Obedience is always determined by God’s moral law. God is the only one who defines morality. He is the gate. Jesus is the gate. And there is no other truth.
Number 5 – Obedience always produces fruit, always.
Number 6 – Obedience is a life or death situation.
Gentlemen, these are great principles. These are principles to live by. These are principles to do life by. And so my challenge for you today is this. Find some way to become a more obedient man today. You’re not out on a stroll. This life is intended to be difficult and hard. Obedience never comes easy. Gentlemen, what is one way that today – that you can increase your obedience to God?
Is there something that needs to change immediately? Something that you need to do? Something that you’ve been putting off for too long? Something you’ve been hanging onto too tightly? Gentlemen, God wants us to be obedient. Like my grandfather wanted me to be obedient to him, God wants us to be obedient to Him. For no other reason than to avoid the pain and the suffering of life, and because he loves us. And we demonstrate our love to him when we keep his commandments.
