Sermon Title: Cultivating Obedience in our Lives Sermon Text: 1 John 2:3-6 July 12, 2009 Introduction: Today we are stepping back into our series that we re calling The Other Six Days. This series is designed very specifically to help you and I allow the Character and priorities of Christ to be built into our lives. Another way of saying it is that this series is designed to help you understand how you can become a fully devoted disciple of Jesus. 1 John 2: 6 says, Whoever claims to live in him {God} must walk {live} as Jesus did. This is why we are spending time talking about building the character and priorities of Jesus into our lives. We re calling it the other six days because becoming a fully devoted disciple by allowing the character and priorities of Christ to be built into your life is not something that happens with a few hours of Church on Sunday morning. It s about becoming full time continually connected followers of Jesus. It s about refusing to compartmentalize your life and allowing yourself to think that your spiritual life can be developed in a few hours on a Sunday morning. It s about understanding that the character and priorities of Jesus are most effectively developed in you as you remain in step with God, not just on Sunday but also, The Other Six Days of the week. But, before we take another step today, I want to give you a little back story. About a year ago I asked Lowell Goetze, a retired church consultant who specialized in strategic discipleship programs, to run point on an effort to sharpen our efforts at growing fully devoted followers. So, we pulled together some folks who we knew had a heart for discipleship and mentoring believers and one of our first tasks was to try and describe what we were trying to achieve. We tried to boil down into as concise a description as possible what a person might look like, talk like and act like if he or she were a fully discipled person. We asked ourselves, What does the Bible calls us to as followers of Jesus? And we quickly realized that it was a tough thing to describe. But, we finally boiled it down to a list of 12 seemed like a godly number. Of course the discription could be much longer and probably could be shorter. But, here are the 12 descriptors: Lordship, Teachability, Worship- Eric, Purity, Evangelism Danny, Giving Dan, Fellowship Dillon, Compassion, Prayer Roy, Service, Obedience, Reproducer. As we went about laying out this sermon series on these 12 items, we realized that on our staff there are folks who have particular passion or have done a lot of reading or given more thought to one or more of these areas. So, we asked them to take a Sunday and speak to that area. So, to cue you up; over the remainder of the summer, I will be speaking to several of these, but you will get the chance to hear from different ones on our staff on their subject of choice and passion. And we ll all get a great chance to learn from one another.
As we get going this morning, I want to reinforce a core concept in developing the character and priorities of Jesus in our lives: It is God s work that we are called to cooperate with. In other words, you and I are not going to take this list of the C and P s of Christ and go off and muster up the strength of will to perfect them in our lives on our own. Not possible. Our sin nature prohibits it. That s why Phil reminded us that there are no super Christians who can power up and master these things in their own strength. The only way we can have any hope of moving the needle on any of these qualities in our lives is by cooperating and yielding to the power of God at work in our lives. This is why Jesus said, Remain in me and I will remain in you and you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. (John 15:4) It s God s power and plan that is at work in us. It s our response to remain to cooperate with God s power at work and to live and make choices moment by moment in such a way that we nurture an environment in our lives where God can grow the fruit of his character and priorities in us. In my garden things grow best when I tend and insure there are optimum growing conditions plenty of sun good soil adequate water fertilizer space for growth weeding tying up and supporting branches bug abatement Am I growing the vegetables? Am I making the plants fruitful? The plants and the process are God s plan and power. God has ordained the laws of nature that cause plants to grow. He does the growing. The things I do are INTENTIONAL ACTIONS that CREATE OPTIMAL CONDITIONS FOR GOD S GENETIC CODE OF GROWTH AND FRUIT TO OCCUR. In this way I am cooperating with God s design and working with God to experience maximum enjoyment and rewards from my garden. I m cooperating I m working with God to see that it happens. So far we have explored the area of Lordship: Making Jesus Lord means we put him first in all areas of our life. We live with an ever increasing submission to the Holy Spirit in both decisionmaking and behavior. We also explored the character trait of teachability. A Disciple is teachable, cultivating an attitude of humility and a willingness to accept and apply instruction. Today I want to explore the area of Obedience. Open your Bibles to 1 John 2: 3-6. We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Those who say, "I know him," but do not do what he commands are liars, and the truth is not in them. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. If we are going to walk as Jesus walked, we are going to need to cultivate a high value for obedience into our lives. Initially, obedience is one of those cold prickly words. At first we recoil at the idea of obedience, but I want you to consider the reality that from the beginning to end the Bible reveals God s deep longing for our obedience. From beginning to end the Bible reveals God s deep longing for our obedience From opening of Genesis to the closing of Revelation God s high value for obedience is clearly communicated. When God created humankind and placed them in the garden of Eden
he told them, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (Genesis2:16-17). You see, from the very beginning, what was God calling them to? Obedience. It was the one thing the Creator asked of them because it was so crucial to their intimacy and fellowship with him. Obedience leads to life and fellowship with God and disobedience leads to separation from the Father. Notice the similarity when you flip to the back of your Bible to Revelation. In the last chapter of Revelation, Jesus says, Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book (Rev. 22:7). From beginning to end from Paradise lost to Paradise regained, the Bible reveals God s deep longing for us to walk in sweet, close fellowship with him through obedience. God s deep longing for our obedience was the mantra of all the Prophets of the Old Testament. Calling the people of God to obedience was Job One for them. There is a classic story in Israel s history book of 1 Samuel 15. Saul was King and God had given him orders to go and completely destroy the Amalekites. They were a deeply evil people who hated God and everything God stood for. And they had severely mistreated God s people. For all of this, God commanded Saul to completely kill every living person and animal of the Amalekites. So, Saul goes and attacks the Amalekites but instead of completely destroying them, he spares the king and the best of the sheep and cattle and the plumpest, juiciest calves and lambs. So, God calls the Prophet Samuel to go confront Saul on his disobedience. And Saul tells Samuel that he has completely obeyed God s command to destroy the Amalekites but Samuel can hear all the cattle lowing and the sheep bleating in the background. And Saul rationalizes his behavior by telling Samuel that he decided to do it differently than God had commanded and instead of destroying everything, he kept some of the animals so he could sacrifice them to God as an offering. This would be like a Police Chief telling an officer to go and wipe out a notorious evil mob boss and burn all his evil money. But, instead of doing that, the police officer decides to keep some of the money. When confronted, he rationalizes and says, I was going to put it in the offering at church on Sunday. When Samuel confronts Saul s disobedience he asks a very poignant question that really captures God s deep longing for obedience from us, plain and simple. Samuel said, Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? OUCH. Then he said, To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry (1 Samuel 15:22-23a). {Arrogance is mentioned because it is arrogance that says, I know better than God how to do this or that. } You see, when you I choose to disobey God, we are basically saying, God, I don t think you really know best on this one. I think I know a better way. I know we don t consciously think that, but that is what we are saying to God.
God s deep longing for obedience was clear throughout the Old Testament and I hope you realize that it didn t go out of style in the New Testament. In the New Testament one of the first things we learn is that Jesus single life purpose was obedience to the God the Father. Jesus said, For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me (John 6:38). Jesus is our model of obedience. If anyone could have had the right to be arrogant and tell God he had a better way of doing things, it would have been Jesus. But, he said his sole purpose in life was to obey the Father. When you couple the example of Jesus to the command of Jesus God s longing for our obedience is reinforced even more. Matthew 28:19-20 captures the command that Jesus gave us. It s the commandment of Jesus that drives the entire reason for our Church s existence. It says, Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Now, I want you to be clear on something. God has a deep longing for us to obey not because he s an ego-maniacal, insecure God who is threatened by our self-assured challenge to his authority. God longs for us to obey because obedience opens the door for his greatest blessings in our lives. Obedience opens the door for God s greatest blessings. Obedience honors God and communicates love to him. Jesus said, Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me (John 14:21). Nothing says I love you to God better than obedience. There was an old Chorus that we sang years ago when I was doing youth ministry, I ll obey and serve you, I ll obey because I love you. I ll obey, my life is in your hands. For it s the way to prove my love when the feelings go away, if you ask me anything, I ll obey. Parents you can understand this principle pretty easily. When our kids do what we ask it communicates honor, respect and love. When they ask, why? or challenge us or push back on what we are telling them to do, we long for them to just trust us, right? This gets at the heart of God s longing for our obedience. A second blessing made possible by obedience that Obedience positions you for God s greatest work in you. Hezekiah was the greatest King the southern kingdom of Israel ever had. And Israel s historian tells us why in 2 Kings 18: 5, Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. 6 He held fast to
the LORD and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses. 7 And the LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. Obedience positions you for God s greatest work in and through you. Think about this in terms of a satellite dish. It functions best when it is positioned to receive the most signal possible. Think about your life; obedience to God positions your life to receive God s greatest blessings. Obedience is the key to insuring that you will not miss out on any of the adventure God wants to do in and through your life. Finally, obedience enables God to glorify himself through you. Obedience enables God to glorify himself through you. Now, here is a reality that we don t immediately embrace. Obedience might not lead to blessing in the way we usually think of it. It s important to keep in mind that Jesus was perfectly obedient, was he not? And for him obedience meant experiencing suffering and death. Philippians 2:8 says, he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross! But, in the end, he was exalted to the highest place and honored. And that s what we have to keep in mind. So, obedience is not a secret key to a pain free life, it might mean quite the opposite. But, in the end, if you humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and you are obedient to him, in the end he will lift you up. In the end, all of Jesus obedience was for the glory of God and so the same is true for us. Okay, recognizing God s call and the God s priority for obedience and the promise of ultimate blessing.the question becomes how do we become more obedient? HOW do we do it? Remember, this character trait and priority of Jesus is something God longs to build into our lives. He has committed to enabling us to be obedient. So, how can you and I cooperate with this work of God in our lives and cultivate obedience? Keys to cultivating obedience in your life: Present yourself to God and ask him to create an appetite for obedience in you. You and I must fundamentally decide if we want what God wants more than what we want. We may not always successfully follow through on that choice, but fundamentally each of us must decide to pursue obedience to God. Again, this resolve will only be formed in us as we regularly, if not daily present ourselves to God and ask him to create it in us. Ask him to form in us an attitude of humility and a willingness to surrender my will to his will in everything in every thought, in every exchange with our wives, our kids, our friends or coworkers in every expenditure of money in every venture to earn money in everything! As you present yourself to God ask him to reveal himself to you, ask him to surround you with his presence and fill you with his Spirit and put his hand on you and give you instruction. Give him complete permission to form you and shape you and mold you. Then trust him to do it.
Become familiar with who God is and develop love for him. This comes from regular connection and dialog and spending time and learning how God thinks and how he feels and what he cares about. It comes through becoming familiar with his deep love for you and how he demonstrated that love. It comes by recognizing to greater and greater depths that his priority of obedience to the Father was born out of his love for you. The foundation of a life of obedience is familiarity and intimate fellowship with Jesus. God rarely calls us to obey commandments or a set or laws or rules. The vast majority of the time God says, Obey me. He call us to become familiar with and listen to his voice. Do you see how personal it is? Coach Bush pulling me aside after a practice where he was on me for resisting his coaching inputs in my life. He told me he cared about me, saw potential in me and was seeking to nurture and grow that. Once he told me that, there was a new eagerness to do what he said. It is much more possible to obey the directions of our Fathers, or bosses or coaches or teachers when we are keenly aware of that they love us or care about us. Obedience then becomes obedience of a person, not some list of rules. So, greater and more intimate familiarity with Jesus opens the door to inspiration for obedience. Time with God in prayer and fellowship does not mean that we don t need to spend time getting to know God s word. Even though Jesus had a pure and direct connection with God, obedience for him was not possible with out the Scripture. Become familiar with what God wants - know his Word. In the same way Jesus was dependent upon the Word for his own life, so we are dependent upon the Word for our lives of obedience. Jesus found God s plan and path for his life in the Word and so can we. If you want to learn how to obey God, you have to be familiar with the only textbook, the Bible. Remember that the Bible was not given to simply increase our knowledge. It was given to guide our conduct. It was given to cultivate our obedience. Call on God for empowerment of Holy Spirit. We must remember, on our own we can do nothing. Even Jesus said, I can do nothing on my own (John 5:30). For obedience to be formed in us, we have to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit. When people come to God for salvation notice what God promises, 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. -Ezekiel 36:25-27
Cooperate by making choices to obey by doing it God s way. With knowledge of truth and submission to Holy Spirit we are then equipped to make wise decisions moment by moment going on what you know to be true despite how you feel in the moment or how you might rationalize a different course. Obedience requires that we make wise decisions based on what we know is truth and right and God s expressed will not based on what feels right to us, because our feelings are not reliable, but God s truth is reliable. Jeremiah 7:22-24, For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, 23 but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you. 24 But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. In our day to day lives, usually obedience comes down to choices we make moment by moment. Sometimes they are very subtle choices, almost unconscious. Other times our choices are very conscious, intentional and deliberate. A fresh resolve for obedience means that in all the moments of our lives we choose to draw on the power of God do what he instructs us to do, what he rightfully commands us to do, trusting that his desires in our lives are the best desires. When you blow it, admit it, receive forgiveness, learn from mistake and try again. Even though you resolve to fundamentally obey God in your life, you and I don t obey perfectly. And so, God has made the provision of confession and gracious forgiveness. 1 John 1:8-10 says, 8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.