The ChristianLife Week 2
Bob Marcaurelle
A. Goals (Continued)
b. Obedience
GOD WANTS US TO OBEY
“If anyone loves me he will obey my teachings.”
(Jesus in John 14:23)
“If someone says he knows Him (God) and does not obey his commands; that person is a liar.”
(1 John 2:4)
Love Obeys God
Second only to love, is God’s priority for you and I to obey Him. The proof of love is obedience. . Jesus says, if we love Him we will obey Him. (Jn. 14:23)
If I yell up to you in the middle of the night, that your house is on fire; I do not want you to sing praises to me, tell me how much you love and trust me, and go back to sleep. I know you trust me when I see you run out the front door with a kid under each arm. I know you trust me when you obey me. Unlike the fellow in the well, you won’t be asking anyone else if my advice is right.
Romans 13:8f says,
“Love one another. Whoever does this obeys the Law (God’s commands). The commands, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet, are all summed up in the one command, Love your neighbor as you love yourself,”
If we loved each other, there would be no need for policemen, locked doors, courts and jails. Laws are loving people’s protection from unloving people.
6. Love is Tough at Times Day 2
Sometimes we have to hurt someone to help them. Doing it doesn’t bring us or the person we help immediate pleasure. An example is parenting. “Loving” parents often say, “I love my children so much, I can’t spank them.” The Bible says the opposite, “Whoever spares the rod hates his son (or child). But whoever loves him will be careful to discipline him.” (Prov. 13:24)
To prepare our children for life we must teach them choices have consequences everywhere. If we really care about them and want what is best we will prepare them for life by controlling and disciplining them. Bill Gates, speaking at a graduation ceremony gave some life rules said, “Do what you are supposed to. If you think your mother was tough, wait until you get a boss.”
The Anger of Jesus- When Jesus drove the dishonest money changers out of the Temple (Jn. 2) or called Pharisees hypocrites (Mt. 23:13), these were acts of love. He wanted to wake them up to who they were so they would repent and be forgiven and changed.
A. The Areas of Obedience
The Lord said to Joshua, “Be sure that you obey the whole Law that my servant Moses gave you (Scripture). Do not neglect any part of it / Study it day and night and make sure you obey everything written in it.”
(Joshua 1:7-8)
1. God’s Scriptural Will
Jesus, quoting the Scripture, said, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Mt. 4:4; Dt. 8:3)
We are to obey the will of God as it has been revealed to us in Scripture and in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, keeping in mind that the Spirit will never tell us to do anything contrary to Scripture. This includes the following:
2. God’s Saving Will Day 3
“He (God) is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but wanting everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Pet. 2:9)
God wants us first to repent and trust Christ to change us, to forgive us and to allow us into heaven.
3. God’s Sanctifying Will
“This is the will of God, your sanctification (holiness).” (1 Th. 4)
James 1:27
“Pure and genuine religion to God the Father is this-to take care of widows and orphans in their affliction (love) and to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world.”
In short, we are to be like Jesus Christ. We will never be perfect in this world, but our aim is perfection.
This includes religious practices
Religion is not primary in God’s will, but it is an important part of God’s will, because it prepares and strengthens us to love and to obey. Love and obedience produce Bible study because God tells us, “How can a young man keep his way pure? He does it by keeping watch on himself with the Word.” (Ps. 119:9). Here we find out what the right thing, the loving thing, the God like thing, really is.
Love and obedience will produce worship because Jesus said of living in the will of God, “You will worship the Lord your God, and he alone will you serve.” (Lk. 4:8) To live in this wicked world, we need the strength, encouragement and wisdom that comes from fellowship with other Christians and from a man of God called to teach and apply the Scriptures to daily life.
They will produce evangelism. If we truly love all people and try earnestly do what is good and right around them, we will be interested in their spiritual welfare, we will pray for their salvation, we will pray and study our Bibles as seek ways to get through to them that God loves them. And with our love and goodness toward them we will be building a bridge between them and the Lord. We will be making the gospel believable and attractive, because,
“People do not care how much we know until they know how much we care.”
4. God’s serving will (Rom. 12:6). Day 4
“Seeing that we have different gifts according to the grace that has been given to us, let us use them.” (Rom. 12:6)
God has given to every believer a spiritual gift, an ability to minister to needs (love) through the local church (Rom. 12, 1 Cor. 12). We are to discover our gift of ministry; dedicated it to God; develop it and do it.
5. God’s Special Will (Acts 20:22f).
God has a plan for every Christian’s life and we are to find it and do it. The great Apostle Paul met with the Pastors from Asia Minor and broke their hearts by saying he would never see them again. He said,
Acts 20:22-25
“In obedience to the Holy Spirit I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. What I do know is that the Holy Spirit has told me that in every city, prison and troubles are there for me. But I consider my own life worth nothing to me if I can only finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me. I also know that none of you will ever see me again.” (Acts 20: 22-25)
God told Jeremiah He called him before he was born (Ch. 1) and told Paul he called him in his mother’s womb (Gal. 1). Paul, going to Jerusalem to suffer, was only following his Lord, who looked at the cross in Jerusalem and prayed, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup be removed. However, not My will, but Thine be done.” (Matt. 26:42)
God’s Plan for You and Me- We can be saved, obedient to Scripture, and exercising our spiritual gifts, and still be disobedient if we are not doing God’s special revealed will for our lives. For me not to be a gospel minister; would be disobedience, disloyalty, and rebellion. Until this is settled, we cannot pray, because the first petition in the Lord’s Prayer is, “Thy will be done.” (Mt. 6)
A Word of Caution- Satan uses this idea of God’s specific will to get Christians to neglect His will in other areas. Don’t go looking for God’s special will like a hidden Easter egg. Do what you are supposed to where you are right now.
A woman came to D.L. Moody and said God called her to be a foreign missionary. When Moody found out she had four children and a sick husband at home he said, “Woman, go home! That is your mission field from God!”
B. The Motives of Obedience
We obey laws and requests in life and in our Christianity for different reasons, some good and some, not so good.
We obey out of fear- We are afraid not to. We do it because we have to.
We obey out of duty- We are ashamed not to. We do it because we know we ought to.
We obey out of love. We are delighted to. We do it because we want to.
I love the story of the guy who pulled the covers over his head one Sunday morning and told his wife, he was not going to church. When she asked why, he said the people didn’t like him, he didn’t like the music, and the kids made fun of him. His wife said, it is your Christian duty to get up out of that bed and be in God’s house. He said if you will give me three good reasons to go, I will go. She said, “OK, you need to go because: (1) God’s Word tells you to. (2) You need to set a good example for the kids. (3) You’re the Pastor!”
1. Obeying out of Fear Day 6
Jonah 2:10-3:3
“The Lord commanded the fish to vomit Jonah up on the shore; and it did it. After that the Lord told Jonah again to go to Nineveh / And Jonah went.”
Prov. 16:6
“Because of the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.”)
Prov. 1:7
“The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.”
Heb. 12:8-11
“Our human fathers correct us for a short time, and they do it as they think best. Don’t all parents correct their children? God corrects all of His children./ God corrects us for our own good because He wants us to be holy as He is. It is never fun to be corrected. In fact at the time it is always painful.” (12:8-11)
It is amazing how much the Bible uses fear to motivate us to live for the Lord. It shouldn’t have to. The Bible says, “There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out feat” (I John 4:18) That’s the problem; I am not perfect and you are not perfect. Sometimes God, just like our parents did, has to remind us of the switches on top of the refrigerator or the belt behind the door.
2. Obeying out of Duty
We do some things for the Lord, like that preacher under the covers, because we have to. This is not the highest motive but it is the track Christianity runs on, and thank God for it. If people came to church, tithed, visited others, only when they felt like it or wanted to, the church would be crippled beyond repair. The heroes of life are moms who work and dads who work and preachers who preach and soldiers who fight and laypeople who support their church because it is right, whether they feel like doing it or not.
3. Obeying for our Own Good Day 7
Prov. 1:33
“Whoever listens to me will have security. He will live in the security of peace with no fear.”
Prov. 19:16
“Keep (God’s) laws and you will live longer; if you ignore them, you will die.”
When all else fails, read the instructions. The Bible is a manual of common sense living. It is a statistical fact the people who attend church regularly, have fewer heart attacks. God’s laws, physical and spiritual are for our good. The law of gravity warns me not to jump out of an airplane with no parachute. If we jump we don’t break the law of gravity, we illustrate it. We don’t break God’s laws as mush as we break ourselves on those laws. Christian know God knows more than they do, so they obey him to prevent some bad things happening. I tell people who struggle financially to start by giving God all they can. That is good common sense advice because Malachi 3 says God will financially bless those who do. This may be a selfish reason, but it one most of us use at times.
This, for the Christian is a matter of faith.
“Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. Nevertheless, because you say so, I will let down the nets.” (Luke 5:5)
The fellow in the well turned loose by faith, and Peter cast his net one more time by faith. Sometimes God’s commands, like Jesus’ command to Peter to fish some more, may seem unreasonable. But we do it because we believe God loves us and wants what is best for us.
The Miracle Mile (Matt. 5:41-42)
Take the example of the Hebrew boy in Matthew 5. He is compelled by a Roman soldier to carry his pack and bed roll one mile. That was Roman Law. He did it because he had to and his day was ruined. He stayed mad at Romans and at God for creating Romans all day. Now here comes Jesus and tells him to carry it two miles. The guy comes, the boy picks it up, he doesn’t say a word and he goes past the mile marker. (Every Jewish boy, it was said, had the mile markers marked, so they wouldn’t make one more step than necessary.) Now he walks the second mile because he has become a Christian and he ought to. He’s got that marked too, so at two miles he throws it down and heads home. His day is still ruined.
But what if he is motivated by love for Jesus, who walked the second mile, to the cross, for him? What if he is motivated by love for this fellow human being and wants to share Christianity with him? He talks, he laughs, he learns this man’s personality, his fears, his dreams. He talks to him about Christ, and forgets all about markers. The journey ends, they say their good-bys, and he goes home. He is whistling. He tells the family, some Roman soldiers aren’t so bad. I met one today and got the opportunity to share our faith with him.
This boy has just traveled the miracle mile of love. Why a miracle? For one thing, he has been in control, not his circumstances. He has taken something “bad” and made it purposeful and meaningful by his sharing his faith. He goes to bed that night feeling good about himself. He was walked the miracle mile. That same night, a hardened Roman Soldier may go to sleep thinking, not all Jews are bad, that was a fine young man I met today. Joy was in both homes. Amen!
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