OBEY

Introduction/Tension

· Believe – Rest – Listen - Obey

John 6:29 (NASB95)

Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

Keeping and watching over our heart is largely about the WORK of cultivating the beliefs of our heart (Listen to last week’s message)

1st Building Block: Our work is to BELIEVE in Jesus.

Fully believe that He accomplished everything the Bible says He accomplished.

2nd Building Block: Once we believe, we can enter REST.

Hebrews 4:3 (NLT)

For only we who believe can enter his rest....

REST- A condition of the heart and soul being at peace and fully in agreement with God’s Word.

3rd Building Block:

Everything hinges on our willingness to LISTEN to God’s voice.

John 10:27 (NASB95)

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;

It’s the birthright of every believer to hear the voice of God

We know now that we can all HEAR God’s voice, the question is…will we LISTEN?

Hebrews 4:7b (NLT)

“Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”

Mark 4:24–25 (NLT)

“Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given—and you will receive even more. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.”

4TH BUILDING BLOCK: OBEY

TRUTH

Hebrews 4:2–3 (NLT)

For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. For only we who believe can enter his rest...

Hebrews 4:6–7 (NLT)

So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”

Hebrews 4:9 (NLT)

So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God.

Hebrews 4:11 (NLT)

So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.

John 14:15 If you [really] love Me, you will keep and obey My commandments.

James 1:21b–25 (NASB95)

...in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

Psalms 37:27 AMP “Depart from evil and do good; And you will dwell [securely in the land] forever.”

OBEDIENCE IS A KEY TO ABIDING IN REST

(Disobedience can disqualify us from entering rest )

BIG IDEA: We naturally OBEY what we LISTEN TO and BELIEVE

APPLICATION

Hebrews 3:18–19 (NLT)

And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed him? So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest.

Was it disobedience that kept them out of the rest? Or unbelief? It was BOTH…because you only disobey God’s Word if you don’t LISTEN to it and truly BELIEVE it.

Proverbs 4:23 (NASB95)

Watch over (cultivate, keep, guard) your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs (issues, course, source) of life.

Proverbs 23:7 AMP For as he thinks in his heart, so is he [in behavior…]

Luke 6:45 (NLT)

A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.

BELIEF drives BEHAVIOR. And BELIEF comes from what you LISTEN to and ACCEPT as truth.

Romans 10:17 (NASB95)

So faith (belief) comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Inverse of this verse: So FEAR (unbelief) comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of anything other than Christ.

If I want to truly know what I BELIEVE…I can look at what I am SPEAKING, and what my BEHAVIOR is in relationship to God’s word.

John 14:15 AMP If you [really] love Me, you will keep and obey My commandments.

Jesus is simply stating a reality that obedience naturally follows true love. True love of God can only come from LISTENING to Him and BELIEVING (accepting and trusting) in EVERYTHING He says.

“What I really believe is seen in my lifestyle. Behavior begins as an action, but matures into a reaction. In other words, what is my first response when I face a problem or even an opportunity?...Our reactions reveal our internal culture.” Bill Johnson, the Way of Life

Things I have chosen to believe based on God’s word that have, through time, been seen more and more in my reactions to life. If ever I struggle with some area of obeying God’s word fully, it usually comes back to me not believing one of these four things to the fullness that I need to:

· God is ALWAYS GOOD

· ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE through God for those who Believe

· JESUS PAID FOR EVERYTHING, so I can take Him at His word

· EVERY PERSON is valuable and has significance

LANDING

We naturally OBEY what we LISTEN TO and BELIEVE

Obedience is the most natural state of a believer. We will obey what we truly believe and trust in to be the truth.