Do you want things to go well in your life?
Do you want a life that is happy, satisfied and full of joy?
Would you like to never ever again get a traffic ticket?
Do you want your needs to be met?
Do you want your prayers to be heard and answered?
Do you want your lost family members to find salvation?
Do you want your rest from the burdens of life?
Do you want freedom from the demons that haunt you?
Do you want peace and tranquility?
Do you want to have the life God intended for you to have?
I know the answer – would you like me to tell you what it is?
It’s 3 words – FOLLOW THE RULES
FOLLOW THE RULES it’s as simple as that.
Listen, God is a God of order. He created order out of Kaos. He spoke the universe into existance and when he created it he built in order.
There is order in everything in creation. There is order in how the planets rotate around the sun. There is order in how each planet rotates on it’s axis. There is order in the physical rules that God set up in our solar system and on our planet. God created gravity so that we could have an atmosphere, air to breath, weather and most important – dry land to live on. If it wern’t for gravity holding the seas at bay, we would be under water. Even the Moon’s gravity controls the ocean tides.
Gravity is a force, a law of order that God has put in place to benefit us all, but, if we stupidly choose to ignore the law of gravity and step off a cliff what happens?
The law of gravity takes over and we fall. Then the law of smack takes over when we smack – hit the ground.
We use the laws of thermal dynamics to our benefit but they also act against us as well. Take the 2nd law of thermal dynamics for instance. I call it the “law of old,” basically it states that energy degrades over time and the former state of a thing is never the same current state – that’s why we can’t make a perfect refridgerator. It’s also why our bodies grow old and die. Speaking of the laws of thermal dynamics, what happens when you drive a wedge of uranium 238 into a ball of uranium 238 at a high velocity????
Don’t try this at home, unless you are at least 30 miles away from me – thank you very much. Because when you drive a wedge of uranium 238 into a ball of uranium 238 at high velocity you get a nuclear explosion. It’s a physical law that God set in place when he created our universe.
Listen, God created order in the universe and if we don’t respect His laws we pay the price.
Let me give you some more scientific laws from my own boyhood experiments:
(Kids, don’t try this at home without adult supervision.)
How about the law of shock? If you touch two electric wires that have current running through them you ge-e-et sho-o-o-o-cked.
How about the law of stick? If you touch your tounge to a freezing metal flag pole you can leave a piece of it there when you rip it off.
How agout the law of PeeYuuu? If you leave an egg out for six months and then drop it in the garage you get the foulest smell.
How about the law of Yeaooooh! This law goes into effect when you hit your thumb with a hammer or when your dad finds out you intentionally broke a rotten egg in the garage.
How many of you understand that there is a price to pay when we violate God’s laws of nature?
How many of you understand that there is a price to pay when we violate God’s spiritual laws?
Lev 26:3-25
3 "`If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, 4 I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. 5 Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.
6 "`I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove savage beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. 7 You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. 8 Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.
9 "`I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. 10 You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. 11 I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. 13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.
14 "`But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, 15 and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. 17 I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.
18 "`If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over. 19 I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze. 20 Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of the land yield their fruit.
21 "`If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve. 22 I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted.
23 "`If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction but continue to be hostile toward me, 24 I myself will be hostile toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over.
It is abundantly clear, that if we do not obey God’s spiritual laws, God will spank us and spank us hard!
God does not long endure rebellion. God will punish our rebellion every-time. He may punish you by withholding blessing. He may punish you by allowing his natural laws to run their course. He may punish you by letting you get completely discusted with the filth of your sin. He may punish you by allowing the government to exercise it’s authroity over you. He may punish you by completely disrupting your life. God is a merciful God, but he will not put up with our sin.
Let me read you some scripture that illustrates the principle of obedience and blessing.
Josh 1:6-9
6 "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."
You want to be successful and prosperous? FOLLOW THE RULES!
You want to be pathetic and defeated? Then REBELL and don’t follow the Rules.
1 Sam 15:1-23
15:1 Samuel said to Saul, "I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the LORD. 2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: `I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’"
4 So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim-two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men from Judah. 5 Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. 6 Then he said to the Kenites, "Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt." So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.
7 Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, to the east of Egypt. 8 He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. 9 But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs-everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.
10 Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel: 11 "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions." Samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the LORD all that night.
12 Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, "Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal."
13 When Samuel reached him, Saul said, "The LORD bless you! I have carried out the LORD’s instructions."
14 But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?"
15 Saul answered, "The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest."
16 "Stop!" Samuel said to Saul. "Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night."
"Tell me," Saul replied.
17 Samuel said, "Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. 18 And he sent you on a mission, saying, `Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.’ 19 Why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the LORD?"
20 "But I did obey the LORD," Saul said. "I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. 21 The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal."
22 But Samuel replied:
"Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king."
Saul didn’t start out as a rebel. Saul didn’t wake up one day and say, “What can I do to offend God today. I know, when he tells me to do something, I’ll do exactly the opposite.” No, Saul started off on the right foot when he began his reign as Israel’s first king. What happened? Where did he go wrong?
He failed to obey God’s commands and therefore rebelled against God. He became arrogant and therefore rebelled against God. He took matters into his own hands and failed to completely trust God. He didn’t follow the rules.
Your spiritual growth is stunted if you’ve been serving the Lord for years but you haven’t advanced spiritually. Are you a better Christian today than you were last year?
Our speaker at the men’s retreat made this observation, “Where you are spiritually is the culmination of all your “yeses” and “no’s” to the Holy Spirit. Every time you say no to God, you say yes to the devil.”
If you’re living a crummy, disfunctional and unsatisfying life it’s because you’re not following the rules.
Listen, you got into this mess you’re in one “no” at a time and you’ll get out of it one “yes” at a time.
You want to know how to be obedient to God? Learn to say “YES” to Jesus!
When you understand authority you understand God and you can go as far as you want to in Christ one yes at a time.
Listen to what the Apostle Paul says about authority in Romans 13:1-2
13:1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
Like it or not, you and I are under authority. There is someone over us and there is someone under us. We all have to answer to someone in authority over us. Why? Because God designed it that way.
A test to determine how well you are submitted to authority is how you respond when you are asked or required by your authority to do something you would rather not do.
Now the Bible talks about 5 authority sturctures we are to submit to – they are:
1. God Ps 99:1
2. Family Eph 6
3. Church Titus 2:13, 1Thess 5:12
4. Government Rom. 13
5. Work Titus 2:9
I need to say something about the nature of authority. Authority is not related to superiority – rather it is positional and related to functionality. Just because you are in authority over someone doesn’t make you better than they are. You are in a position of authority because God put you there and you need to keep in mind that God can take you out of that position of authority just as fast as He put you into that position. Don’t be like King Saul and be guilty of the sin of arrogance.
God set up authority in society because it promotes order. Without authority, there is no order.
Do you love God? Do you truly love God? Because true obedience comes from true love of God: Listen to what Jesus says in John 14:21
“Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
There are many of you here today living in spiritual poverty because you have an authority problem. You have a problem being loyal to your authority, whether it is God, Family, Church, Government or Work. You are a rebel and the windows of heaven are locked shut because of your rebellion.
Would you like the windows of heaven to open and shower blessing into your life? You have the key in your hand and it’s called the key of obedience.
Use the key. Unlock the door and let yourself out of the prison of dissobedience and rebellion. Enter into the benefit and blessing of being obedient and saying “Yes” to Jesus.
Hear what the Apostle John says in 1 John 2:3-6:
3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4 The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
Obedience is the key to living as Jesus did.
Are you walking as Jesus did in complete obedience and loyalty to God?
Invitation: I want you to come up to these altars or turn around in your seat and kneel before the Lord our God and maker. Seek His face and ask Him to examine your life to see if there be rebellion there. Ask Him to show it to you and then ask him – yes plead with Him – to help you become an obedient servant. Ask His forgiveness of your sin of rebellion which is as bad as the sin of witchcraft and ask Him to give you a pure heart. Lets come and do business with God.
