Disadvantage Disobedience
Key verse: In all these things we are more than overcomers through Him who loved us. Rom. 8:37 So far in this series Discouragement, Distraction and Disadvantage. Today.Disobedience Subduing Our Self-Will What is obedience? Hearing and submitting to a higher authority. Placing oneself under someone by submitting to their authority and command. Another Greek word for obey in the New Testament means "to trust." To hear, believe and trust in a manner that motivates us to act in accordance with God s desires. Biblical Obedience: to hear, trust, submit and surrender to God and obey his Word. Of all the spiritual disciplines, none has been more abused than the discipline of submission. Nothing can put people into bondage more than religion, and nothing has done more to manipulate and destroy people than a deficient teaching on submission. Richard Foster In light of that True godly obedience is compliance that asked for, motivated by and carried out in love. Obedience is an Act of Worship It flows from a heart of gratitude for the grace we have received from the Lord. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God this is your true and proper worship. Rom. 12:1 We are urged to surrender our lives to God. Not on the basis of God s threats, coercion or desire to enslave us. This is not the heart of God. It is on the basis of His mercy, grace and love. We all have such a natural aversion to obedience. Submitting to God and to others does not come naturally. It is a work of God s grace in us! When we get obedience right, it releases all of the best that God has for us!
Today I will trust the Holy Spirit to show us any unsurrendered areas of our life. I will trust the Holy Spirit to produce in us both the faith and the desire to live a life of joyful obedience to God. In a Bible word study of a particular truth of the Christian life It helps to examine the place it takes in Scripture. Where is it used? How often is it used? What is its relevance to the whole revelation of Scripture? From beginning of scripture to the end, obedience to what God has asked is the number one priority! Genesis: Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat? Gen. 3:11 Revelation: Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life. Rev. 22: 14 Obedience is the one virtue of both Paradise lost and Paradise regained! Obedience is the one condition of man s abiding there! Obedience is the one thing his Creator asks of him! The one thing God asked of Adam in the Garden was obedience. Nothing is said of faith or humility or love obedience covers all. Obedience is the one thing that decides man s destiny! To obey is the one thing required! The greatest theme and truth of scripture: Man s fall away from God and his restoration to God through Christ. At the core of this truth is disobedience and obedience! For as by one man s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man s obedience many will be made righteous. Romans 5:19 The one bond of union, the one mark of likeness, between Adam and his seed was disobedience. The one bond of union between Christ and His seed, the one mark of resemblance, is obedience. The single cause of the power and destructiveness of sin in the world is disobedience. The single cause of the defeat of the power of sin is the obedience of Jesus! And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him. Phil. 2:8-9 Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. Hebrews 5:8 9
Can we learn how unspeakably important and pleasing obedience is in God s sight? May we be known by God and the world by this one mark A will completely yielded to God s will. The building of the sanctuary in which God was to dwell. Last three chapters of Exodus (19 X) According to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so he did. And then: The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Exo. 40:34 God's blessing will come upon our church. His glory will be seen and known as we obey the Lord. Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God... and the curse, if you do not obey. Deuteronomy 11:26 28 God crowns the obedient with His favour and His presence. Beware of praying only for a blessing. Let us seek obedience first, and then God will supply the blessing. How immeasurable is the reward God gives for obedience! It is the way to invite the blessing of God into our lives! It is the way to be a blessing to the world! In our desire to be like Jesus, we will quickly see that His life was a life of obedience! It was a principle by which he lived his life. Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God. Hebrews 10:9 He lived only to carry out God s will. The one all-controlling power of His life was obedience. My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. John 4:34 His greatest drive was to do the will of God! Yet, with all of this foundational teaching that points us to obedience It is the thing that we sometimes struggle with! How can we welcome and embrace a life of obedience? 1. Repentance. Turn to God with sorrow and repentance concerning the areas where disobedience has been evident. This is not a vague and generalized prayer. The Holy Spirit will guide us as specific areas of defiance and disobedience are brought to the light! 2. Faith. Have faith that obedience is possible. Not only is obedience revealed as foundational in our lives.
Not only does obedience bring favour and blessing A life of obedience is possible! The greatest defect of the Old Covenant was that it demanded obedience but did not provide the power for it. The new covenant gives us both a heart that delights in the law of God and a willingness and power to obey it. 3. Surrender. You can accomplish a life of obedience through surrender to Christ. We turn our back upon the divided life of disobedience! Wit faith in God s grace we say, I will obey. This may be the work of a moment. The power maintain this vow, comes from the living Christ. If we take the ever-present Jesus as both our Lord and our strength, we can obey. In surrender Let Him have everything. Give up your life to be as full of His presence, His will, His power, as you know He wants it to be. Yield so completely that He may have you wholly for himself as a vessel, as a channel, and for use in His blessed service.