The Blessed Dimensions of Obedience (Deut 8:1-20)
Many people think they can find happiness by satisfying their appetites yet remain unfulfilled. Sadly, people strive for more money, better jobs and promotions failing to realize that the Lord is the giver of success. God gave us directions in how to find life in all of its fulness in the scriptures. In Deut 8:1 he tells us to be careful to obey all of His commands.
As a result, He promises to give us abundant life, security and multiplying influence. The following are several areas where we need to trust God to help us obey Him.
Quote: Peter T. Forsythe was right when he said, "The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom but its Master".
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Integrity Crisis, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991, p. 22.
Illustration: On Dec. 4, 1893, Walter Gowans and Rowland Bingham of Toronto, Canada, and Thomas Kent of Buffalo, N.Y., landed at Lagos, Nigeria. Their aim was to establish a witness among the 60 million people of what was then commonly known as the Soudan, the area south of the Sahara between the Niger River and the Nile. Gowans and Kent died in the first few months. Bingham returned to Canada, formed a council, and went back to Africa in 1900. That attempt, too, was unsuccessful. In 1901 Bingham sent out a party that succeeded in establishing the Mission’s first base, at Patigi, 500 miles up the Niger River. When these first SIM pioneers landed in Nigeria, Gowans was 25 years old, Bingham was two weeks away from his 21st birthday, Kent was 23.
It is not the multitude of hard duties, it is not constraint and contention that advance us in our Christian course. On the contrary, it is the yielding of our wills without restriction and without choice, to tread cheerfully every day in the path in which Providence leads us, to seek nothing, to be discouraged by nothing, to seek out duty in the present moment, to trust all else without reserve to the will and power of God.
1. OUR HEART - Ask the Lord to help you obey Him with all your heart by loving Him more than any other. People who love the Lord with your heart are passionate about giving Him their greatest affection, worship and adoration.
Illustration: When I was in Junior High I once asked my friends to find out if a certain girl liked me because I did not want to declare my affections until I knew she liked me first. I did not want to risk being rejected. God took away the risk when He loved us first. I John 4:19 says, "We love because He first loved us." We can love Him unreservedly because we know His love is broader, deeper, longer and wider than any other love.
2. OUR SOUL - We obey Him by giving Him our soul’s best ardor. When I love and obey the Lord with my spiritual being I am expressing a willingness to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. When I love Him with all my soul I am willing to exhibit greater Christlikeness by adding to my faith, goodness then knowledge, then self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and Christian love. (2 Pet 1:3-8)
Application: The more Christlike I become in my intimacy with the Lord in my personal devotions and worship, the greater spiritual transformation I experience. The more I allow the Holy Spirit to produce godly fruit in me the more I am transformed from one degree of maturity to another just as by the Spirit empowers me.
3. OUR TALENTS - I obey God when I completely offer to Him all my talents for His greater purposes, plans and projects. Jesus told about a man who hid his talent while the man with ten talents went out and multiplied his talents to give back to the Master. Jesus said, "Take the talent away from the wicked and lazy man and give it to the man with ten talents. For to whom much is entrusted much is required, but to the one who has and does not obey, even what he has will be taken away from him."
4. OUR WILL - We obey God when we make consistent volitional decisions to obey Him regardless of the price. Jesus said, "If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself (surrender his natural rights and relinquish everything to me) and follow me." We need to continual surrender our will to the Lord so that He can bless everything about us.
Illustration: Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is; delayed obedience is disobedience. Whoever strives to withdraw from obedience, withdraws from Grace.
Thomas a Kampis.
Application: The best way I can think to do this is to follow the pattern in Psa 37:3-7, "Trust and in the Lord and do good. So shall you dwell and in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him and He will bring things to pass."
5. OUR BODY - We obey the Lord with our body when we give Him our strength, our capacities, even our sexuality. Recognize that every good thing comes from above. He gives us our bodies as a temple of the Holy Spirit so that they can be used for pleasure and fulfillment of needs according to His rules not our wishes. Too many people think that they can use their bodies for the fulfillment of selfish indulgences and find themselves on a path to self-destructive practicies.
6. OUR FINANCES - We obey the Lord when we offer up to Him all of our money, possessions and resources. It begins by recognizing that everything we have comes from the Lord in the first place. When we donate our time, talents and resources to the Lord we are simply proving ourselves to be good stewards of the gifts He has temporarily put in our charge. Let us remember that we are the managers of our possesions and not the real owners.
7. OUR RELATIONSHIPS - We obey the Lord in regards to our family, friends and associates when we submit to one another out of love from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1 Tim 1:5) Too many people have bad relationships because they have forgotten that it is necessary to put away anger, jealousy, wrath, slander and bitterness and then put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience bearing with one another, forgiving one another even as God in Christ has forgiven us." (Eph. 4:28-32)
8. OUR MINISTRIES - We obey the Lord by serving Him ultimately and not people. Jesus said, "Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45) You can tell if a person is best serving the Lord if they are obeying Christ’s great commission and advancing His kingdom in greater qualitative and quantitative ways.
9. OUR MINDS - We obey the Lord when we serve Him by seeking to know Him and His word and His will. Paul wrote, "Study to show yourselves approved of God a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth." (2 Tim 2:15) It is essential to develop our cognitive capacities to give an answer to everyone with a reason for the hope that is in us. (I Pet 3:15) To love the Lord with all our mind means that we are seeking to read, improve and sharpen our thinking in understanding all aspects of His will with all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that we can walk in a way that pleases the Lord in all respects and bears fruit in every good work as we increase in the knowledge of God. (Col. 1:9-11)
10. OUR WORSHIP - We all worship something. Maybe we worship our wife, husband or our family. Some people worship money, power or success. Whatever we love the most that is what we tend to worship. The Bible says, "Worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness. Come and sing praises to the rock of all ages." Beethoven’s most famous song is a testimony of his worship to the God who gave us music. "Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee. God of glory, Lord of love. Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee. Opening to the sun above. Melt the clouds of sin and sadness. Drive the dark of doubt away. Giver of immortal gladness. Fill us with the light of day.
You are giving and forgiving. Ever blessing, ever blest. Wellspring of the joy of living. Ocean depth of happy rest. Thou our Father, Christ our Brother. All who live in love are Thine. Teach us how to love each other. Lift us to the joy divine.
Mortals join the mighty chorus which the morning starts began. Father love is reigning over us. Brother love binds man to man. Ever singing, march we onward. Victors in the midst of strife. Joyful music leads us sunward, in the triumph song of life."
He deserves and commands us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Why settle for anything less?
11. OUR PRAYERS - Let us realize that the chief purpose of prayer is to worship, obey and commune intimately with God as we listen to His voice. Elijah figured out that the Lord’s voice was not in the wind, the earthquake or the big events of life but in the still small voice of God. That is why when we seek to obey God we must be like Samuel and say, "Speak Lord for your servant is listening."
12. OUR TREASURES - Jesus said, "Where your treasure is there will your heart be also." Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, shaken down, and running over it will be poured into your laps. For as you give you will be given. Let us stop fearing that we will lack when we give generously to support the great commission of our Lord.
13. OUR ALL - Jesus said, "You shall the love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, soul, strength and mind and your neighbor as yourself." (Luke 10:27) Let us realize that complete obedience requires all our time, talents, treasures both conscious and unconscious. When we present ourselves as a living sacrifice only then are we able to say, "We are pleasing to God as we are expressing an evidence that we are doing the will of God that which is good, acceptable and perfect." (Rom 12:1,2)
14. OUR FUTURE - We obey the Lord with our future when we decide to make service to the Lord and His purposes the main purpose of our life’s endeavors. Too many people are saving for the future just so they can enjoy a secure, successful and satisfying retirement, but that is being spiritually short-sighted. Our times are in the hands of God. He alone knows our future and we must realize that any moment our life may end. Ask the Lord to help you bring to bear more of an eternal perspective on your decisions for the future.
Quote: Only one life will soon be passed. Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Illustration: Where our Captain bids us go,
’Tis not ours to murmur no;
He that gives the sword and shield
Chooses too the battlefield
Where we are to fight the foe.
And overcome the world and woe.
"To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed that then the fat of rams."
