What Does Obedience Look Like? Series

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.