Obey God, even when it seems hard.

Introduction

Good morning LaFayette Baptist Family. It is great to be here with you all this Lord’s day morning. What a wonderful and treasured time this is together, getting to sing Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs together and learn from the Word together. Please go ahead and get our your Bible’s Our scripture today will be from the Book of Acts , specifically from Acts 5:17-32. Acts 5:17-32, please go ahead and turn their in your Bible’s. As usual, the scripture will be on the screen for us in a few moments, but please have it open so that you can follow along.

Have faith in God when your pathway is lonely, He sees and knows all the way you have trod; Never alone are the least of His children; Have faith in God, have faith in God.ChorusHave faith in God, He’s on His throne; Have faith in God, He watches o’er His own; He cannot fail, He must prevail; Have faith in God, have faith in God. Verse 2 Have faith in God when your prayers are unanswered, Your earnest plea He will never forget; Wait on the Lord, trust His Word and be patient, Have faith in God, He’ll answer yet. ChorusHave faith in God, He’s on His throne; Have faith in God, He watches o’er His own; He cannot fail, He must prevail; Have faith in God, have faith in God.

All to often, the hardest part of obeying God, is that we don’t have faith in Him. We understand Him. We don’t know or believe that can or will do something, that He is even capable of it, or if He if cares about you or me. Let me just say he can, and does know you and He loves and cares about you very much. This brings us to our main idea and sermon title, Obey God, even when it seems hard.

Scripture

If you would all please rise for the reading of God’s Word today. The words to the scripture will be on the screen, please read along with me as we are reading. When I am done I will say “this is The Word of The Lord” if you will all please respond with “Thanks be to God.” Let’s Practice that for a second. First, let’s pray.

Father God, we thank you for who You are and what You are doing to us now, in this place, and as we go into the world, into the mission field that you place each and every one of us in. We pray this day Father, as we are about to participate in the reading of Your word Father, that it penetrates each of us and effects us deeply. Make You Word refine, reproof, and correct us wherever we may need it. Obey our ears, our hearts, our minds, our hands, everything about us so that we can take in anything that You are about to show us about Yourself and apply it. Take away in distractions that we may have, because we want to know and Love You all the more. It’s in these things that I ask and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and Precious Name that I pray, Amen.

17 Then the high priest rose up. He and all who were with him, who belonged to the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 So they arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail during the night, brought them out, and said, 20 “Go and stand in the temple, and tell the people all about this life.” 21 Hearing this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. When the high priest and those who were with him arrived, they convened the Sanhedrin—the full council of the Israelites—and sent orders to the jail to have them brought. 22 But when the servants[a] got there, they did not find them in the jail; so they returned and reported, 23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing in front of the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”24 As[b] the captain of the temple police and the chief priests heard these things, they were baffled about them, wondering what would come of this.25 Someone came and reported to them, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple and teaching the people.” 26 Then the commander went with the servants and brought them in without force, because they were afraid the people might stone them. 27 After they brought them in, they had them stand before the Sanhedrin, and the high priest asked, 28 “Didn’t we strictly order you not to teach in this name? Look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”29 Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than people. 30 The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had murdered by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted this man to his right hand as ruler and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

Context

Continuing in Chapter 5, we just finished the story of the two false believes, Ananias and Sapphira. These were to a husband and wife who sought glory and personal gain from their faiths, seeing the praise that selfless Barnabas had received, and wanting that praise and prestige for their own. Their story is one that is all to often common churches everywhere, even back at the beginning, back at the founding of The Church. That is, people who appeared to be believers, were in and among us, but had not yet given their hearts, given their lives to Jesus; instead they wanted to exploit the church for personal gain. This happens often today, and it’s one reason why can never assume that we don’t need to evangelize within the church, and have The Gospel clearly given to us often, because You never know who needs it. Because of their false faith, this couple met their untimely end, dying suddenly in the face of their sins. A death, that is a tragedy because there is no doubt where their eternal souls rests, a tragedy that most of the world is staring at the face at any moment. So, it is our duty as Christians to not only know and accept that Christ offers salvation, but to share it with others often.

Their behaviors, though on the surface, seemed right, were wrong; because they were caught up in self. In our text this week, you will see a very different and selfless set of behaviors by the apostles; a different reason to think and act and motivate you. These behaviors and the reasons behind them are to be copied by believers everywhere for all of time, which has it’s heart a trust and love and faith in God. So, From the text I want you to have these behaviors in your faith as you obey God, even with it seems hard.

Message

The first behavior is that: You must listen to God

17 Then the high priest rose up. He and all who were with him, who belonged to the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 So they arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail during the night, brought them out, and said, 20 “Go and stand in the temple, and tell the people all about this life.” 21 Hearing this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. When the high priest and those who were with him arrived, they convened the Sanhedrin—the full council of the Israelites—and sent orders to the jail to have them brought. 22 But when the servants[a] got there, they did not find them in the jail; so they returned and reported, 23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing in front of the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”24 As[b] the captain of the temple police and the chief priests heard these things, they were baffled about them, wondering what would come of this.25 Someone came and reported to them, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple and teaching the people.”

As a reminder, the apostles were again preaching about Jesus at Solomon’s Colonnade, the place where John and Peter were arrested just days before. The high priest and the Sadducees (the financial and social elites of the day) were filled with jealousy, this was a jealousy of anger or malice as you would have towards your enemy. They arrested the apostles and had them put in jail. BUT they wouldn’t stay their for the entire night, because God sent and angel to go and free them and it gave them this message, Go and tell people about the life in Jesus!!! They went and did just this, at daybreak they went to the temple a began to teach and tell anyone who would hear. Meanwhile, their arrestors, would wake up thinking that all was well, intending to put these men through another harsh trial. I can only imagine it, everyone of importance was brought to the trial (they thought they had finally got em!). Then, as the high priest called from them to be brought out of jail and before them, something shocking happened…. Where they expected to see a room full of prisoners instead the room was empty, they are gone! While they were confused about this, a person ran in and reported, LOOK, THE MEN WE HAVE ARRESTED ARE AT THE TEMPLE AND THEY ARE PREACHING.!!!!????? These apostles did just what God had told them to do. It would seem natural and right to run or go into hiding, instead they heard their message from God, GO and tell people about Jesus in the temple, and they did just that.

You know, hearing something and listening to something are two very different things. Emily can attest to you, that just because I heard her say something, as in the words physically came inside my ears and I heard them, doesn’t mean I applied the part of my brain to the words to hear, understand, and then apply whatever it was that was said. For example, a few days ago, Emily let me know that dinner was ready, in fact it was set and ready to go, all I had to do was bring myself to the table. However, I heard that she said something and I knew it was something about dinner, but instead my brain was on something else, this was particularly letting the dogs out. So, I let them out and sat on the porch (for no reason might I add) for probably 15 minutes before I came back and realized (oh wow, hey that delicious dinner is ready).

The same idea or concept is all to often true in our faith lives. Yes we know that we are supposed to do things like: repent, live missionally, love others, etc but all to often we do not understand what it means to really listen and apply it our lives. For example, yes we all know that believers are to repent from our sins and this is to be an often a frequent practice, but oh man, that means I need to apologize to someone I talked to a little harshly or was maybe to impatient with. Or, we know we are to live missionally, everywhere we go being prepared to both defend and share our faith. But, that might mean that we need to find and keep resources with or near us at all times and might even mean that we need to be more brave and less afraid. We of course know that we are supposed to love others. But that means, also that difficult person you are thinking of. Also, it could mean that you need to recognize that you are being difficult and are making it hard for others to love you, which is in turn a unloving act in itself. My point here is that all to often we can “hear” and “know” that God has called you to do certain thinks (like going and making disciples and loving God and loving others) but to often we don’t “listen” and “apply” what that means. So, here is the thing, a behavior that you must have in your faith life is to listen to God.

The next behavior is that: You must teach about God

26 Then the commander went with the servants and brought them in without force, because they were afraid the people might stone them. 27 After they brought them in, they had them stand before the Sanhedrin, and the high priest asked, 28 “Didn’t we strictly order you not to teach in this name? Look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”

The apostles were brought in gently before the trail. This trail was in front of the Sanhedrin (or elders) and the high priest, these were the men who should have known very clearly that God was at work in these men. They should have been the first know and recognize that Jesus was the messiah, and they should have been the most sorrowful that they had been such a huge part in His execution. As you will remember, these men’s minds and judgement were clouded and wrong. Instead of keeping their eyes towards God and teaching and learning about Him both to themselves and others, instead they taught and learned about a system and process that kept the social power, prestige, and esteem all to them. To put it simply, they only taught and cared about whatever kept them important. They were selfish and self-centered. So, they asked the apostles, “Hey, what are you doing!? How dare you disobey us. Didn’t we tell you to quit teaching in this name of Jesus. You haven’t done that at all, look everyone is hearing about Jesus. This thing seems to be getting out of control to us and to us worse yet you make it seem this was our fault.” They didn’t want God to actually be taught to the people, instead they wanted God to be used as an instrument for their own pleasure and comfort.

Teaching one thing when you should be teaching another can have such big and long lasting consequences. For example, the food pyramid. You may or may not know this, but it has changed several times over the past few decades. The old food pyramid, and probably the one you are most familiar with starts with a base and biggest part of 6-11 grains a day and 3-5 servings of vegetables a day. The new pyramid, went from “servings” which can be anything to ounces, which is more accurate and understandable. Today though, more popular is the use of a “food plate,” which recommends that you take in an equal share of grains and vegetables/fruits in a day. BAAM, with just that, how a meal should look changes hugely. Whereas before we would expect a roll or biscuit with every meal, now it goes to not necessarily having that but adding a salad. This long built cultural habit, created the way we think a meal ought to look and even has long-standing health concerns that have made many people’s quality and length of life much less than it could be. All of this is from the intake of extra sugars and starches that aren’t balanced with healthy vegetables. With that example, the wrong thing was taught, because the social norm and it harmed many people.

So, when we teach the wrong things either about God or not about God, then we put ourselves in a dangerous place. We put ourselves out of God’s will, in the way of His kingdom, and perhaps even opposed to Him. We have to be so sure, especially in a church context, that first and foremost and of the most importance is teaching kids about Jesus, about Sin, and about how they need Jesus to be forgiven from sin before any and all other things. The other things might be good and right, but they fail in comparison to keeping the main thing the main thing, which is always Jesus and the cross. The same is true for us adults, not just the kids, we have to be sure to keep Jesus the main thing, and all other things much lower down the pecking order. The Israelites of Jesus time made this mistake, they got things out of order. Let’s not be a people like that. Instead, let’s be a people who’s behavior is one that always leads and gets to teaching people about God.

Another behavior is that: You must obey God

29 Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than people. 30 The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had murdered by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted this man to his right hand as ruler and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

In the face of threats, Peter and the apostles respond the way he did before, that we Must obey God rather people. God raised up Jesus the messiah, and you murdered Him on a tree. God exalted this Jesus and sits at the right hand of the father as ruler and savior can forgive us of our sins. We saw all of this, we know all of this, you should too. The Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit is in us and convicts us of these things, He tells us them and reveals them to us, and He tells us to tell people about Jesus. So, we are going to, and we must obey Him, we must obey God.

Has anyone here ever obeyed the wrong authority? Maybe when you were little you had an older sibling who watched you. Maybe that sibling said you could do something, and in fact SHOULD do it, when you know momma and dad said you aren’t supposed to it. Let me tell you what I bet happened to you when they got home. It wasn’t just the older sibling that in trouble, it was both of you wasn’t it? Why? Because you both knew better? You know that mom and dads authority out ranks that of older brother and sister, you know they didn’t want you do whatever it was (I don’t know maybe cook in the kitchen or watch tv or listen to the radio), but you did it anyways. It was your fault to. I bet once that happened, you never did it again; because you know that your must obey mom over big sister.

Why is this? Why would obey the higher authority? Because that authority knows more, sees more, and understands more. That authority knows that you have to put the oven on this way, or a fire may start, while big sister may not know that. God is like that and a thousand times more. He knows it all, He has the whole picture, and HE is the one to obey over anyone else. If God says go this way and your spouse says go that way, you better go with God. If God says move but your boss says stay, you better get to movin. If God says Love others as yourself but satan says love yourself more, better get to loving others. If God says go and share Jesus with others and make desciples (which by the way He does to each and every one of us, just in different ways that will all look and be different) but the voice in your head says no way, you better get to disciple making. This is behavior that we all must have, this is behavior that you must have, to obey God instead of others. Obey Him, and make your whole life your whole being about doing this.

Conclusion

Brothers and sisters, take on each and every one of these behaviors as your own. You must listen to God, don’t just make it head knowledge, do it and apply it; which often You must teach about God, everyone’s extent and ability will look different but we are all called and commanded to do this. Also keep in mind this behavior, You must obey God. So much else is vying for your attention and effort. Don’t let anything that isn’t about the growth of the kingdom get in your way. To this we must, Obey God, even when it seems hard. You know, this reminds of Hymn. When you go home, find this hymn. It’s called, Trust and Obey. It’s first bit goes like this. When we walk with the Lord in the light of His word. What a glory He sheds on our way! While we do His good will, He abides with us still And with all who will trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Go home and reflect on this hymn and this scripture passage, and let it bless you this week.

With all of that being said, I would be remised if I didn’t share the Gospel (or the Good News) of Jesus Christ with you today, for the benefit of both believer and non-believer in the room. This begins all the way back at the beginning, God created everything, and he created all things good. He gave His most treasured creation (us, mankind) the ability of free will, the ability to choose Him or rebellion. Man was deceived by Satan and desired to be like God and sinned (or rebelled against God). This brought the curse of sin and death into the world and it remains with us to this day; which separates us from God. God though, loved His creation (mankind) so much that He worked through history to redeem all mankind that would turn to Him from sin so that we can experience a full and perfect relationship with Him again. This was through the perfect and final sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the pay for sins. Accepting this free gift from God, makes you new and forgiven. All you have to do accept this free gift by repenting and believing in the Lord Jesus and you will get to experience the good side of God’s justice forever. So, now that you know this, you can no longer plead ignorance. I invite and urge you to respond today non-believer and apply this to every part of your life believers in the audience today.

With that, Let’s conclude. Brothers and Sisters, I love you all. During our last song together, if you need prayer, or want to talk more about Jesus, or have something you want to talk about, I’ll be here, don’t be afraid to come on down. Let’s pray. Father God, we thank You for who You are and what You are doing to us here in this place. May whatever it is that You are doing in each of heart here, continue as we leave go out into the world this week. Change us, mold us, make us, re-arrange us, that we can be both better lovers of You and better showers of You. It’s in these things that I ask and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and precious name that I pray, Amen.