40 Days of Faith IV, The Blessing of Obedience

Well, we're halfway into our 40 days of faith. So how many days is that, Joel? Very good. Alright, 20. I was just seeing if you were awake. Alright, 20 days. Halfway there. And it's been a pretty interesting number of weeks. I'm starting to get feedback from people who are saying, you know, I'm starting to sense things happening. I had a list of things I wanted to read to you, but something happened that's even more current. Last night, after the Saturday evening service, a number of us gathered to do this exact same thing on Saturday evening, which, by the way, is an option for you at any time, 6 o'clock on Saturday evening. A woman came up after the service, and she was just glowing. And she said, do you remember me? And I remembered her, but I couldn't remember her name. And she reintroduced herself, and she said, I'm the person that you prayed with at the beginning of this, three weeks ago, about coming off of an addiction. She was very afraid, because she tried in other times and had failed, or had great pain in doing so. And she was glowing with, she said, I've never had this happen. I've never been able to do this on my own, and I've never been able to do it without pain. And she said, things have really happened. And she said, God has answered my prayer. And she was, like many of us, she was kind of surprised, you know. God has answered prayer. And she was free of the dependence of this substance in her life. And she was thrilled with this development. So we praised God, and I jotted her name down. And I said, well, there are other people who need your encouragement. Because, you see, that's how this grows. We help each other in our steps of faith. We began, just three weeks ago, looking at the life of Abraham. Remember, he was the one that was kind of comfortable. And God said, it's time to grow. And what did He make Abraham do? He said, get up, leave this country, and go somewhere. He got into a crisis. How many of you are still in the crisis phase of faith development? Anybody? It happens to us, and we get nudged out of our comfort zone. And then we looked, a couple of weeks ago, Pastor Dave taught on Esther, on seizing the day in faith. You know, using those moments when God gives you a holy opportunity to make a difference. And I've had a couple of people say they've had moments like that happen in their life. And then, last week, we looked at Joshua, overcoming doubts. When you know God's calling you, but you've got all these roadblocks, Joshua moved forward by seizing the promises and taking the land God had given to him. Now, look at your card. Because I did something that's kind of unusual. I listed, I don't know, 15 or more promises of obedience. These are the positive things that God wants to do for the people who say, I want to obey God. Look at these. I'm not going to read them all, but it says, God blesses those... Now, if you think of something you'd like to have happen in your life, just think of the positive first. God blesses those who obey Him. How many would like that to be part of your life, being blessed? The Lord watches over. Would you like God to be protecting you, watching over you? Those who obey Him. God gives us what we ask for because we obey His commands. Keep God's laws and you will live longer. Those who obey Him have all they need. And look at this little list, just real quickly there near the bottom. You will live in perfect freedom. You will have greater wisdom. How many times have I prayed for wisdom? These are all promises that go with obedience. You'll dwell in security and peace. You'll be prosperous and successful. We saw that last week. You'll be great in the kingdom of heaven. And you'll be rewarded, now in this life and in the life to come. These are all some promises that God gives to those who are willing to obey Him. And I want you to notice, dear ones, this isn't given to people who are holy necessarily, or pious in some way, or perfect. Just obedient. How many of you have perfect children? A couple of deluded parents out there just put their hand up, no? Sorry, it's not true. Your little angel is about to show you the other side sooner or later, if they haven't already. They are all strategically tweaked with fallen nature. But how many of you would settle for obedient children? If you have a perfect child, by the way, get them out of the nursery or the kids' nursery, because they're going to get messed up in there by the rest of those fallen sinners. Maybe that's what those numbers are for. Get number 238 out of there. He's perfect. Now, it's very clear in Scripture that God places a high value on obedience. In Scripture, faith, now watch, faith plus obedience will equal a promise received. Obedience is the premise to receiving the promise. In other words, you just don't say, okay, I'll take that. Obedience is required to receive. I say it this way on the outline. These promises are given by grace and enjoyed by obedience. Given by grace and enjoyed by obedience. And that's very important. You see, it's not enough just to know they're out there. You've got to receive them. God's given them by grace, but you've got to receive them by obedience. Let me give you an illustration. When I was maybe 14 or 15, like most kids that age, you want to get your hands on something motorized. You're not allowed to drive a car or a motorcycle legally or whatever, but you can drive a boat. And my dad had, as I was growing up, a couple of just small little ski boats, nothing really fancy, 18, 17 footers, whatever. And I remember the day I'd been with my dad for a couple of years, fixing the boat, keeping it going, and he said, well, you know, I think you're old enough to do it on your own now. So he said, but here's the deal. You've got to keep the rules of the river. We lived out in the Beaver area near where the Ohio and Beaver River come together. And I remember the first time he gave me the keys and I was hot to go, you know. And a couple of buddies and I went on. It was after school. I just remember it was after school, so it was probably early September, still a warm day. Got in the boat. And those of you who have boats know that where they dock the boats, they have what they call a no-wake zone. Some of you have that here when you come. But the boats and the docks, there's a no-wake zone there as well. And that means you just can't go very fast. I mean, if you do, it just creates a little bit of mayhem for the boats. So when I left, the first time I had the buddies, we were very diligent to kind of just crawl out and get out on the river. And we went skiing and, you know, I had just a blast for a couple of hours. And then it was getting late and dark and I was late getting back. And I really hurried to get back in. And when I went across the threshold, they had the other sign coming in, no-wake zone. But I just went barreling by about 25 or 22, something like miles an hour. And I remember thinking, this probably isn't good. And I throttled way backward. Guess what? At that point, what happens? It's too late. The wake starts catching up with the boat. And I'm sitting there and here comes, I can feel the back of the boat go. And then I just watch it as all the boats and the docks just go all up and down. And I see, you know, all these guys doing like this and they're looking out there. They all know my dad. So a couple of days later, dad, I go down to the boat and at least two guys said to my dad, Hey, Jack, your son, quite a cowboy out there with that boat, isn't he? That was the end of my privilege for the balance of that season. I didn't drive the boat again until next spring. Because why? Because I didn't obey the simple rules of the river. You see, God's given us, by the way, have you left a wake in your life? Are there a whole lot of people that are just sort of bouncing around because of some stuff that you've allowed to happen in your life? Very possible. But you miss out on the promises as well. Don't do that. Obedience is designed by God to help us, not to hurt us. God is not up there, by the way. These commandments we're going to look at today, these things, these aren't there to crush you. They're not there to confine you. God's commandments give us liberty. And people have a hard time believing that. That's why God says, now listen, this is going to be difficult. That's why God says, forgive those who hurt you. Have you been hurt recently? Has someone offended you? God says, you're called to forgive. Even before they ask. That's why God says, there'll be no sexual activity outside of marriage. Oh, come on, that's so irrelevant. That's so out of touch with the culture. God said it. And He said it to protect you from getting involved in the kinds of emotional entanglements and sometimes physical things that develop when you get involved sexually outside of marriage. That's why God says, bless those who hate you. I mean, that doesn't make sense, but God said to do it because that way you stay at peace with Him. That's why God says, give the first 10% of all your increase and I'll multiply the rest of what you have. Oh, I don't really want to do it that way. I have a better way. No, God said to do it that way and He'll honor you. These are just some of the many, many, many directives that God gives in His Word to help us. And the second quote up here, you see, how to combine faith with obedience is surely the essential task of the church as it enters the 21st century. We've got to learn this, folks. It's a lot more than just believing God. Most everyone that passes by Route 19 believes God. Most everybody that's going to be hanging out, watching football or whatever all Sunday long and never even think much more about going to church or being committed to anything believes about God. But they don't have faith and obedience. And that's what the church needs to have as we move forward. Now, I want to use a very familiar set of characters to just illustrate obedience. And we used Abram, Esther, and Joshua. And we're going to look today at the three wise men, the Magi. And I selected them, not just because it's Christmas, because these are people that were not godly heroes like Joshua or Esther or Abram. These were people who really, in essence, they were Gentile Persian kings. They came from a far distant country because God told them to go do so. So look in your outline. Let's just look at these four characteristics of obedience. Because as you will see here, these are things that we can all embrace. First thing to do is we have to obey God immediately. Obey God immediately. These kings didn't dilly-dally around when God said to go. They began right away. But notice it says after Jesus was born. Here's a little balloon popper for some of you. You may not be aware of this. We have in our mind the image of the manger scene and we see the shepherds. And who's usually beside the shepherds at the manger scene? The wise men. Right, the Magi. In fact, they'll be there in our presentation here. But that's not really biblically accurate. They didn't show up at Bethlehem for at least a year, maybe two. How do we know that? Because a little later on, Herod killed all the baby boys in the area under the age of two. Just to be sure that his power didn't become compromised in response to the Magi's visit. We'll get to that in a second. But the Magi moved when God told them to move. And as a result, by the way, this is interesting, by the result, prophecy was fulfilled. Prophecy that God had given that there would be a weeping going out for the lost children. Had they not obeyed, Herod wouldn't have had cause and so on. See, God knows how all these things connect. Their obedience was significant in this story. Now, listen, when God says to obey, don't start playing this, well, you know, why should I? Don't let yourself rationalize these things. Look at the next verse. I will quickly obey your commands. If there's ever a time to hurry, it's to obey God. The rest of the time, slow down a little bit. But when it comes to obeying God, get moving. What if I don't understand it? Well, do you understand everything you entrust yourself to? When's the last time you got in an airplane? Well, it's been a long time. Well, again, some of you get in airplanes every week. Do you understand how they work? No. Do you ever sit in that seat going down the runway and trust that the pilot knows what he or she is doing? And that somebody, some aero-physicist somewhere figured out how much lift was going to be needed to get a half a million pounds without your suitcase up in the air? We have lots of things we have to trust that we don't understand. I don't understand computers, but I like email. I don't understand how a lot of things function, but I use them. My cell phone, I mean, how does something go up there and down here and find me over there when I don't want to be bothered? I mean, it works every time. God's commands work even if we don't understand them. Parents, have you ever had your kids respond, why, when you tell them to do something? Do you like that? No. In fact, have you ever gotten to the point in exasperation where you said, because I said so? Any parent ever said that? Because I said so? Usually not the first thing you say, but usually along the way, because I said so. Now, what do you really mean when you say, because I said so? You mean, because your little pea brain doesn't understand the importance of doing what I'm telling you to do, and as soon as you grow up a little bit, you'll understand it, and then you'll know that what I'm doing isn't your best interest, so just do it. That's what you mean when you say, because I said so. I think God says to us now and then, hey, just do it because I said so. You can't understand why you should do everything I'm telling you to do? No more than an ant can understand you. Can we understand God and all His sovereign wisdom? So obey Him immediately, even if you don't understand Him. And by the way, people say, well, I want to obey, but I have a bad attitude. Here's a question for you, parents. I'll use your analogy once again. Is it better to obey with a bad attitude or to disobey? Wait a minute. This has happened in every service. There's this pause. Is there a question about that? Is it better to obey with a bad attitude or disobey? Obey and deal with the attitude later. Just do what I told you to do. We'll fix up that attitude a little bit later. I mean, moms, if you say, honey, I want you to go up and clean up your room, but you don't have to do it until you have a positive experience about it all. Why won't the room get clean? Okay. That's it. So we need to obey, even if our attitude isn't exactly right. You know, adults act like little children when they say things like, you know, I don't really feel like being committed to a group, or I don't feel like breaking off this affair because it's just something I need in my life, or I don't feel like forgiving somebody. Well, listen, immature people act on feelings. Mature people act on what's right because God said so. Just think of it as a little train. There's the fact of God's Word, there's the faith that it's right, and then the feelings come along. They're the caboose, but you know what? They'll come along. And I want to say to some of you who right now are, God's telling you to do something that you don't feel like doing, if you just do it obediently, God will bring the feelings along. Not difficult for Him at all. So trust Him in that. And by the way, another thing when it says obey immediately, it doesn't mean, you know, just kind of a little bit when you get around to it. Immediately means when? Now. In fact, anytime God gives a command, if it doesn't say a specific time or date, like, you know, on the first day of the week, bring in your offering or whatever, when He says now, He means now. If it doesn't say anything, He means now. So do it then. Don't just push it off. And one of the little subtle ways this works in people's lives is when it comes to counseling. Adults, really, you know, very wise adults will use counseling as sort of a means to delay their obedience to God. How long have you been in counseling? Oh, 15 years. Well, you know, I probably could have helped you save a lot of money in 14 years of going to seeing counselors if you just obeyed God in the first year. I am pro-counseling. I believe counseling can be helpful. But some people are just looking for someone who will say what they want them to hear. So they'll just bounce around looking for, you know, to hear rather what someone... That's what I need. That's that. No, I don't know. Now you're telling me I have to... No, I'll go over here. Just do what God tells you to do. Do it now. And God will bless your life. Number two, obey God. Not just immediately, but obey Him completely. You see, imagine I made this journey, these wise men, and it was long, but it was fairly... Reading between the lines here, but apparently it went fine until they got very near to the end. And that's when Herod, wicked Herod, showed up. I mean, he was a diabolical maniac. Anyone that would slaughter innocent children under the age of two, just slaughter them on a whim, on the fear that their power would be taken away, is a maniac. And these wise men encountered this maniac, and it could have been that they, you know, they could have shrunk back and said, you know, I think this is about as close as we want to get to following this star. Let's just go on back to Persia because this guy's a nutcase. But they didn't say that. They just sort of listened to him, and then they went off and continued on their mission. See, that pleases God. Look at the next verse. Lord, you gave your orders to be obeyed completely. Loved ones, listen. Beware of false maturity that teaches what I call selective obedience. I see people all the time. I'll ask them a question, and they'll say, I may not recognize. Maybe they'll come to a meeting that we have, or some outreach, or some, or maybe I'll just see them and get into a conversation somewhere. They'll recognize me from Real Family or something. They'll say, aren't you, and I say, well, where do you fellowship regularly? They say, well, I just go where the Spirit leads me. I say, well, you know, that sounds awfully holy, but it's very unbiblical because the Bible says we're a body, and we're connected. You know, and my hand never gets up on Sunday morning and goes where it feels like. It goes where it's told to go with the rest of me. You know, this selective obedience thing. Well, you know, I want to be part of the group, but I only want to come once or twice a month even though the group meets every week because that's just what I kind of think I need. Or people say to me, I don't need to do the stewardship thing God's way. I don't need to tithe. I just tend to give as I'm led, and usually they're led to give a lot less than tithe, which I think is very strange because grace exceeds the law. This all stems from this selective obedience thing because they feel like somehow, well, they know better than God how to work things out. I want to just quote Dallas Willard in his book The Divine Conspiracy. He says this about following the law. He says this, to be sure the law is not the source of rightness, but it is forever the course of rightness. Now let me explain that. What he's saying there is that when Jesus came and said, I didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. He is saying to us, the law that I gave is to direct your life in specific ways. I didn't come to wipe that all out and throw it away. I came to fulfill it. Now that's not the source of power. See, the Jews looked at the law to fulfill and give them the source of power. It didn't work. Jesus came and said, I'll put a new law inside of you. I gave you the power in the inside, but the course of the outcome of that will forever be the same. Grace enables us to fulfill what the law demanded and we couldn't do on our own. That's the power of God's grace in our life. Remember that God has much greater perspective. He just wants you to obey. Look at the next verse. Your job is not to decide whether God's law is right or wrong, but to obey it. If it was right 2,000 years ago, it'll be right next week. The Lord doesn't change His mind about these things. By the way, how many of you are detailed people? You're detail conscious. I mean, you can tell if one of these Christmas trees is a little off. You're counting lights. How many of you are married to detailed people? How many of you, both husband and wife, are detailed and you're married? I take back what I said about counseling to you two. That's a challenge, boy. But no. You know, God is very detailed. Have you done an exegetical study of the book of Leviticus lately? Look up Leviticus tonight just before you want to just kind of drop off to sleep. And read Leviticus without some commentary or some help. It won't be long before all that detail just puts you right under. But God is very detailed. Look at nature. Why in the world would He create all these insects? These things that crawl under the ground and women are squirming. And why would He create how many different species of animals and the different kinds of flowers and intricacies of all the things? Because He cares about detail. And He says He cares personally about you. He knows how many hair are on your head and the condition thereof and the color thereof as well. He knows the detail of our lives. We veil our God completely. He expects us to obey Him the way He wants us to. I mean, the how. Not just the what, but the how. Well, that's different. Ever do something the way you wanted it rather than the way someone else wanted it done? Men, hanging Christmas decorations, do you hang them your way or your wife's way? When Carol went away to visit her mom for a week, which was several months ago this year, earlier this year, she said, Honey, I've got casseroles ready. Food's coming. Everything's going to be taken. The house is clean. All you have to do to make this trip happen is to take care of the litter box. If you're a guest today, somehow God made one sovereign mistake in creating cats, but we deal with it. We get over it. So for me to do the litter box, the litter box was an act of love. So I dutifully, I remember the end of the second day, noticed that there was some fragrance coming from the basement, went down to deal with the litter box. And it's a sizable thing, you know, those litter boxes. And I looked there and I saw these rather significant clumps of stuff. How many of you have cats? You're going to follow with me. If you don't have cats, you may not follow this illustration. Forgive me if this is gross, but this is a fact. This happened. And one of those things, I'm saying, Well, you know, there's a lot of those in there. I'm just going to pick this big thing up and empty the whole heave-ho thing into the old trash can. Well, at the end of the week, I used up three and a half bags of kitty litter. Did my job. Came to discover it wasn't my wife's way. What you're supposed to do is use one of those little shovels with the things in there. What is more gross than going like this? There is nothing more gross than that. Okay? So I'm not doing that. You're away. I'll just dump it out and take it out. See, love is doing it the way the person wants you to do it or God wants you to do it because you love him. But listen, faith is a little different. Faith is doing it because I believe that you know best and I trust you. That's obeying it and doing things God's way. That's why when Naaman the leper came to Elisha, the prophet, in 2 Kings 5, Naaman came and Elisha said something very menial. He said, Just dip yourself seven times in the Jordan River and you'll be healed. And the Jordan River wasn't particularly inviting at that time. And Naaman said, We have nicer rivers than this where I come from. This is stuff. This is silly. I'll do it my own way. And his servants pleaded with him. They said, Master, if he told you to do something difficult, wouldn't you have done it? He said, Yeah, I would have. Well, just do this and give it a shot. And so Naaman went down seven times in the Jordan and came up and his leprosy was healed because he did it God's way. And that's all I'm asking today, church, is can we be obedient and do things God's way and trust that he will deal positively and beneficially in our lives. Number three, I'll do this quickly. Obey God gladly. The wise men, the Bible says, continued on their journey and when they saw the star, Matthew 2, 10, they were overjoyed. That word means they had exceeding joy in their life. Why will obedience bring joy into your life? Well, because there are fewer problems, there are greater rewards and you're demonstrating that you love God. You know, when you ask someone to assist you, maybe you need your bags or something, help to get into a hotel, or maybe you need a phone number and they say, you ask them to help you and they say gladly. How does that make you feel when someone says gladly? You feel like you're not imposing, you feel like you're doing, they're helping you because they want to. Well, that's what God wants. He wants you to say, when he says do this and you say gladly, I think God really likes that. Jesus said this about joy in John chapter 15, I didn't put this on your outline, but John, you might jot this down, John 15, 10. He says, If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love just as I've obeyed my Father's commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. If you're missing joy in this Christmas season, maybe it's not all about just getting your gifts and decorations, maybe it's because you don't have the joy of the Lord in your life. Obey His commands gladly. And finally, obey God sacrificially. Be willing to give what God calls you to give. Look at the next verse. The wise men opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And by the way, that's the only reason we think there were three of them because there were three gifts. It could have been 15 and 8, but we just know there were three gifts. And they gave them happily, gladly, they obeyed God. Henry Perry Lyddon wrote this, Nothing is lost by a life of sacrifice, but everything is lost if we fail to obey God's call. Nothing is lost by a life of sacrifice, but everything is lost if we fail to obey God's call. There's a mindset that's in our culture these days I call the minimalist mindset. What's the minimum I have to do to be counted? What's the minimum I get away with and still be called a... What's the minimum level of participation for me to qualify? What's the minimum of this and the minimum of that? And Jesus Christ comes and says, I'm going to turn that whole thing upside down. I'm going to say, if you want to follow me, you have to pick up your cross every day. It's going to be a challenge. Paul wrote it this way in Romans 12, Therefore, last verse in your outline, I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, for this is your spiritual act of worship. God is not going to play games. Can I just be real frank? In the end of this all, God knows the ones who've obeyed Him and the ones who've just sort of played the game. He knows the ones that have looked at their life and counted the cost and given wholeheartedly of themselves and the ones who just sort of sat back and let it all pass them by, judging the others in their pursuits. And I want you to know, in the end, God says, I'm going to reward obedience. Now, you're not going to be saved by that. You're saved by your trust in Christ. But the rewards, loved ones, come by obedience. And the joy that I have today is that this church is growing in our desire to obey. And if you want to grow in faith, then obey the Lord. Immediately, completely, gladly, and sacrificially. Let's stand and pray. We're going to receive communion, come to the Lord's table together. But as we bow in prayer, I'd like to ask you this question. I'm confident today that many of you that are here have a relationship with Christ and you know that God has opened heaven's door to you. But there are also a number of you here today for whom this issue of being one with God, being united with Christ, being, listen, being sure that you're one of His. This is not a settled issue. I'm going to lead you in a brief prayer. Because the Bible says all you have to do is to confess that you want Him and that you need Him in your life. And God said, I will come to you and I'll make my home in your heart. So pray this prayer, would you please, wherever you are. If you desire to know Christ in a personal way, it doesn't have to be a big dynamic experience. It can be a quiet moment of intimate contact with God. Pray with me, wherever you are. Heavenly Father, say the words to Him, Heavenly Father, I want.