God's Love Child

Obedience is finding ways to let the Word of God dwell in you richly. Performance is quickly scanning a passage so you can check it off your Bible reading plan.

Obedience is inviting guests to your home for dinner. Performance is feeling anxiety about whether every detail of the meal will be perfect.

Obedience is following God’s prompting to lead a ministry. Performance is reluctance to let anyone else lead the ministry because they might not do it as well as you would.

Obedience is saying yes to whatever God asks of you. Performance is saying yes to whatever people ask of you.

Obedience is following the promptings of God’s Spirit. Performance is following a list of man-made requirements.

Obedience springs from fear of God. Performance springs from fear of failure.

In our quest to accept God's invitation to be holy, as he is holy, we must guard against merely performing holiness.

Our pursuit of holiness must be based on loving obedience.

How can we be sure we are obeying rather than performing?

Explanation

The difference between performance and obedience is love

How does J tell us we can ensure we are obeying in holiness rather than performing it?

Twice J makes a connection between love and obedience:

John 14:15 NLT

“If you love me, obey my commandments.

John 14:21 NLT

Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”

J says if we love him, then we will obey him.

Not out of a sense of duty, but because our love for him encourages us to conform to his will.

We will want to please him and do as he commands.

Perhaps it is for this reason that John Wesley likened holiness to a perfection of love.

And perhaps it's also why J summed up his commands this way:

Mark 12:29–30 NLT

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’

We love God with our hearts

Earlier in series, we spoke about holiness being an invitation from God to be in relationship with him.

We can open our hearts to God.

By his Spirit we are free from fear and condemnation, and we can draw near to him, as he draws near to us.

What does this mean as far as holiness is concerned?

When we turn our hearts towards J, the HS does a deep work of transformation in our hearts.

We begin to turn into the very image of the God whom we love with our hearts.

What we give our hearts to, moulds us in many ways.

I am more like Gail because I have given my heart to her, and bless her, she is more like me because she has given her heart to me. Pray for her!

We love God with our mind

When it comes to obedience or performance, then perhaps our mind is the greatest battlefield.

Whoever controls the mind, controls the person.

If our mind is controlled by HS, then we will obey J willingly.

We will have on our minds the things that J desires.

Our minds will be ones that bring life and peace.

We will have in mind to please J and to submit to his commands.

Our minds will be filled with the Spirit.

If our mind remains in our control, if our minds are controlled by the flesh and our minds will be filled with the things of this world.

Our minds will be hostile to J's commands, seeing them as oppressive or impossible to follow.

And so holiness, will simply be a performance, an act we put on that masks what is really going on in our minds.

Romans 12:2 NLT

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Transformation from performance to obedience takes place when the HS renews our minds.

What do you spend your time thinking about?

What do you fill your mind with? From the TV, images, reading.

Does it conform with Paul's suggestion?

Philippians 4:8 NLT

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

We love God with our strength

We can choose to live life in our own strength, or we can choose to walk in the Spirit's strength.

He helps us to love God and to obey J's commands.

If we live in our own strength, then Paul says what results is:

Galatians 5:19–21 NLT

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

That may sound over the top for Christians, but I can testify to falling for some of those sins when I rely on my own strength rather than the HS's. And then any holiness on my part is performance rather than obedience.

But when we live in the strength of the Spirit, we bear fruit.

Galatians 5:22–23 NLT

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

In other words, we obey J's commands in love to him.

Holiness is a love child. It is the fruit of the Spirit of love living in us.

You

Do you love God? Then keep his commands

Message this morning is simple:

Do you love J?

Then obey his commands.

Your sinful nature was crucified with Christ.

It is finished!

It's done, over with.

Christ has given you a clean break with your past.

You are now united with Christ, through the power of the HS.

You are free to love J with your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength, free from sin, in the power of the HS.

You can accept God's invitation to holiness.

Next Steps

SA 397 - This is my desire

This is my desire, to honour you: Lord, with all my heart I worship you. All I have within me, I give you praise: All that I adore is in you. Lord, I give you my heart, I give you my soul; I live for you alone. Every breath that I take, Every moment I?m awake, Lord, have your way in me. Reuben Morgan © 1995 Hillsong Music Publishing. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Used by permission. E-mail: publishinguk@hillsong.com Used By Permission. CCL Licence No. 232358 Copied from The Song Book of The Salvation Army Song Number 397

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