Reality #6 Part 4 The Importance and Cost of Obedience
Obedience is very important. If you know that God loves you, you should never question a directive from Him. It will always be right and best. When He gives you a directive, you are not just to observe it, discuss it, or debate it. You are to obey it. Notice what the Scriptures say about obedience:
Blessings for Obedience
"If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth...The LORD will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you." Deuteronomy 28:1,8
Curses for Disobedience
"However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you...The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him."
"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." Jeremiah 7:23
The Wise and Foolish Builders
"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete." Luke 6:46-49
"Jesus answered, 'My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.'" John 7:16-17
God blesses those who are obedient to Him (Deuteronomy 18:1-14). The benefits of obedience are beyond our imagination; but they include being God's people (Jeremiah 7:23), having a solid foundation when the storms of life come against you (Luke 6:46-49), and knowing spiritual truth (John 7:16-17).
Rebellion against God is the opposite of obedience. Disobedience is a serious rejection of God's will. Deuteronomy 28:15-68 speaks of some of the costs of disobedience. (For further study on the results of obedience and disobedience, see Deuteronomy 30 and 32.)
The Cost of Obedience
Obedience, however, is costly to you and to those around you. You cannot know and do the will of God without paying the price of adjustment and obedience. Willingness to pay the price of following His will is one of the major adjustments you will have to make. At this very point "many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more" (John 6:66). This also is a point where churches will not know and experience the fulfilling of God's purposes and will through them because they are not willing to pay the price of obedience. Those who are willing to pay the price and follow in obedience will experience the power and presence of God working through them.
Saul, for instance, was established in the religious power structure of Jerusalem. He had taken a lead in searching out Christians and having them imprisoned or executed. On his way to Damascus, Saul (later named Paul) had an encounter with the living Christ. The resurrected Christ told Saul that he had been chosen to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. He had to make a total about-face in direction. He went from persecuting Christians to proclaiming that Jesus was the Christ.
God will ask you to follow Him in ways that will require adjustments in your plans and directions. For Paul the adjustment was costly. It even put his life at risk with the Jews. The adjustments and obedience required of you will be costly as well. Sometimes obedience to God's will leads to opposition and misunderstanding. Because of his obedience, Paul suffered much for the cause of Christ. The list of beatings, imprisonments, and danger sound like more than one person could bear. He concluded on letter by saying, "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus" (Galatians 6:17). Paul had not had these experiences before he began to do the will of his Lord. Obedience was costly to him. Even so, Paul still could say: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." (Philippians 3:10-12).
The apostle Paul revealed the adjustments that he made to do the will of God when he said, "I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22). Your adjustments and obedience to Christ will be costly as well. The Scriptures are full of examples of costly adjustments and obedience:
1. Moses and the Israelites (Exodus 5:1-21)
2. Jesus and Mary (John 19:17-37)
3. Paul and Jason (Acts 17:1-9)
You must not overlook this very real element in knowing and doing the will of God. God will reveal His plans and purposes to you, but your obedience will cost you and others around you. When, for instance, a pastor surrenders his life to missions, it may cost those around him (his family, his church) more than what it will cost him. If he leads his church to become directly involved in doing missions, it may cost some in the church more than it will cost the pastor.
Adjustments in Prayer and the Cost
When you encounter a directive from God, you will often experience a crisis in prayer life. At those times I learn more about prayer than almost any other time. There are some things that only prayer can bring about. Often God waits until we ask. The crisis was this: Was I willing to pray until God brought it about? Mark 11:24 has been a prayer promise that has been challenging to me regarding the relationship of faith and prayer: "Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." This verse is sometimes used to teach a "name-it-and-claim-it" theology. You decide what you want. You name that in Your request, claim it, and it's Yours. That is a self-centered theology. Remember that only God takes the initiative. He gives you the desire to do His will (Philippians 2:13). His Holy Spirit guides you to pray according to God's will (Romans 8:26-28). The God-centered approach would be to let God lead you to pray according to His will (in the name and character of Jesus). Believe that what He has lead you to pray, He Himself will bring to pass. Then continue praying in faith and watching for it to come to pass. When God encounters you, you face a crisis of belief that may require major adjustments in your life. You need to learn how to pray. Prayer will be exceedingly costly to you. You may need to let God wake you up in the middle of the night to pray. You may need to spend much time in prayer. Times may come when you pray into the night or even all night. Becoming a person of prayer will require a major adjustment of your life to God. Prayer will always be a part of the obedience. It is in a prayer relationship that God gives further direction. Another cost will come as you try to guide the people around you to pray. Most of our churches have not learned how to pray together. The greatest untapped resource that I know of is the united prayer of God's people. Jesus, quoting from Isaiah 56:7, said, "My house is a house of prayer" (Luke 19:46). Helping your church become a praying church will be a rewarding experience. Every church needs to be a praying church!
Second Chances
You may ask, "When a person disobeys God's will, does God give him or her a second chance?"
The answer is, Yes, sometimes! He does not always give second chances, and He is not obligated to. I am comforted to know that God often gives a second chance. When God had a plan to call Nineveh to repentance, He asked Jonah to join Him in His work. Jonah disobeyed because he was prejudiced against these "pagan enemies." Jonah would have rather seen God carry out the destruction of the city. Disobedience to God is very serious. Jonah went through the trauma of being thrown into a raging sea and spending three days in the belly of a big fish. Jonah confessed and repented of his disobedience. Then God gave him a second chance to obey. The second time Jonah did obey (though reluctantly). On his first day Jonah preached a one-sentence message, and God used the message to call 120,000 people to repentance. Jonah said, "I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm" (Jonah 4:2). God's response to Jonah and Nineveh taught Jonah much about how deeply God cares for all peoples and wants them to come to repentance.
Some of the great people of God were broken by sin and disobedience, yet God did not give up on them. If God allowed people only one mistake, Moses would never have come to be the person he was. He made several mistakes (for example, Exodus 2:11-15). Abraham started out with a great walk of faith, but He went into Egypt and blew it-more than once (for example, Genesis 12:10-20). David muffed it (for example, 2 Samuel 11), and so did Peter (for example, Matthew 26:69-75). Saul (Paul) even began his "service for God" by persecuting Christians (Acts 9:1-2).
More on the Cost and Blessings in the next post.
In Christ,
David
Blessings for Obedience
"If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth...The LORD will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you." Deuteronomy 28:1,8
Curses for Disobedience
"However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you...The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him."
"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." Jeremiah 7:23
The Wise and Foolish Builders
"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete." Luke 6:46-49
"Jesus answered, 'My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.'" John 7:16-17
God blesses those who are obedient to Him (Deuteronomy 18:1-14). The benefits of obedience are beyond our imagination; but they include being God's people (Jeremiah 7:23), having a solid foundation when the storms of life come against you (Luke 6:46-49), and knowing spiritual truth (John 7:16-17).
Rebellion against God is the opposite of obedience. Disobedience is a serious rejection of God's will. Deuteronomy 28:15-68 speaks of some of the costs of disobedience. (For further study on the results of obedience and disobedience, see Deuteronomy 30 and 32.)
The Cost of Obedience
Obedience, however, is costly to you and to those around you. You cannot know and do the will of God without paying the price of adjustment and obedience. Willingness to pay the price of following His will is one of the major adjustments you will have to make. At this very point "many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more" (John 6:66). This also is a point where churches will not know and experience the fulfilling of God's purposes and will through them because they are not willing to pay the price of obedience. Those who are willing to pay the price and follow in obedience will experience the power and presence of God working through them.
Saul, for instance, was established in the religious power structure of Jerusalem. He had taken a lead in searching out Christians and having them imprisoned or executed. On his way to Damascus, Saul (later named Paul) had an encounter with the living Christ. The resurrected Christ told Saul that he had been chosen to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. He had to make a total about-face in direction. He went from persecuting Christians to proclaiming that Jesus was the Christ.
God will ask you to follow Him in ways that will require adjustments in your plans and directions. For Paul the adjustment was costly. It even put his life at risk with the Jews. The adjustments and obedience required of you will be costly as well. Sometimes obedience to God's will leads to opposition and misunderstanding. Because of his obedience, Paul suffered much for the cause of Christ. The list of beatings, imprisonments, and danger sound like more than one person could bear. He concluded on letter by saying, "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus" (Galatians 6:17). Paul had not had these experiences before he began to do the will of his Lord. Obedience was costly to him. Even so, Paul still could say: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." (Philippians 3:10-12).
The apostle Paul revealed the adjustments that he made to do the will of God when he said, "I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22). Your adjustments and obedience to Christ will be costly as well. The Scriptures are full of examples of costly adjustments and obedience:
1. Moses and the Israelites (Exodus 5:1-21)
2. Jesus and Mary (John 19:17-37)
3. Paul and Jason (Acts 17:1-9)
You must not overlook this very real element in knowing and doing the will of God. God will reveal His plans and purposes to you, but your obedience will cost you and others around you. When, for instance, a pastor surrenders his life to missions, it may cost those around him (his family, his church) more than what it will cost him. If he leads his church to become directly involved in doing missions, it may cost some in the church more than it will cost the pastor.
Adjustments in Prayer and the Cost
When you encounter a directive from God, you will often experience a crisis in prayer life. At those times I learn more about prayer than almost any other time. There are some things that only prayer can bring about. Often God waits until we ask. The crisis was this: Was I willing to pray until God brought it about? Mark 11:24 has been a prayer promise that has been challenging to me regarding the relationship of faith and prayer: "Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." This verse is sometimes used to teach a "name-it-and-claim-it" theology. You decide what you want. You name that in Your request, claim it, and it's Yours. That is a self-centered theology. Remember that only God takes the initiative. He gives you the desire to do His will (Philippians 2:13). His Holy Spirit guides you to pray according to God's will (Romans 8:26-28). The God-centered approach would be to let God lead you to pray according to His will (in the name and character of Jesus). Believe that what He has lead you to pray, He Himself will bring to pass. Then continue praying in faith and watching for it to come to pass. When God encounters you, you face a crisis of belief that may require major adjustments in your life. You need to learn how to pray. Prayer will be exceedingly costly to you. You may need to let God wake you up in the middle of the night to pray. You may need to spend much time in prayer. Times may come when you pray into the night or even all night. Becoming a person of prayer will require a major adjustment of your life to God. Prayer will always be a part of the obedience. It is in a prayer relationship that God gives further direction. Another cost will come as you try to guide the people around you to pray. Most of our churches have not learned how to pray together. The greatest untapped resource that I know of is the united prayer of God's people. Jesus, quoting from Isaiah 56:7, said, "My house is a house of prayer" (Luke 19:46). Helping your church become a praying church will be a rewarding experience. Every church needs to be a praying church!
Second Chances
You may ask, "When a person disobeys God's will, does God give him or her a second chance?"
The answer is, Yes, sometimes! He does not always give second chances, and He is not obligated to. I am comforted to know that God often gives a second chance. When God had a plan to call Nineveh to repentance, He asked Jonah to join Him in His work. Jonah disobeyed because he was prejudiced against these "pagan enemies." Jonah would have rather seen God carry out the destruction of the city. Disobedience to God is very serious. Jonah went through the trauma of being thrown into a raging sea and spending three days in the belly of a big fish. Jonah confessed and repented of his disobedience. Then God gave him a second chance to obey. The second time Jonah did obey (though reluctantly). On his first day Jonah preached a one-sentence message, and God used the message to call 120,000 people to repentance. Jonah said, "I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm" (Jonah 4:2). God's response to Jonah and Nineveh taught Jonah much about how deeply God cares for all peoples and wants them to come to repentance.
Some of the great people of God were broken by sin and disobedience, yet God did not give up on them. If God allowed people only one mistake, Moses would never have come to be the person he was. He made several mistakes (for example, Exodus 2:11-15). Abraham started out with a great walk of faith, but He went into Egypt and blew it-more than once (for example, Genesis 12:10-20). David muffed it (for example, 2 Samuel 11), and so did Peter (for example, Matthew 26:69-75). Saul (Paul) even began his "service for God" by persecuting Christians (Acts 9:1-2).
More on the Cost and Blessings in the next post.
In Christ,
David
posted by Mark 1:17 at 9:04 AM
1 Comments:
cool man! Right on!
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