Obedience to God
Notes
Transcript
Obedience to God
Obedience to God
Good morning children of God! Wow! What a week. I was telling Wes the other day that God usually gives me something to talk about by Wednesday. God knows I need time to work through a sermon. I was just so uninspired this week. I let my feelings about some things get the best of me. Has anybody else ever been there? You just don’t feel like reading your Bible, talking to people, or listening to sermons.
The truth is that God is not the one who stops speaking. We are the ones who stop listening. I was so focused on other things and marinating in my own head that I did not see what God was showing me. I kept seeing references to 1 Peter over the past several weeks. If I see scripture repeatedly, there is usually a reason, so I will go and study it. I did not do that last week.
Finally, while I was sulking in my office, I went back and started looking at the verses. Ya’ll, I can’t make this up. The verses I had been ignoring had to do with “Obedience to God” and “holiness.” It is like God was saying “Uh huh. Where have you been, Bob?” Sometimes I get frustrated with God, but man is He awesome!
We often talk about obedience to the LORD in our churches. Early in my walk, and even a bit further in my walk, I struggled with the idea of obedience to God. I would hear someone talk about “obedience to the LORD”, and I would say “I am not God’s dog.” “I do not need obedience training.” “I do not need to be obedient to anybody!” I would get very defensive and offensive.
Here is the problem, I was comparing God to the men in my life who were supposed to be earthly fathers. See, mom was married and divorced three times to very abusive men. Her fourth husband was an amazing man, but as a child, obedience meant getting beaten into submission, torn down, and made to feel less than dirt.
That is not our God. Our Father in Heaven does not beat us into anything. God is not a narcissist or an abuser. He loves us with an agape love. He gave His son as a sacrifice out of that great love. When we talk about obedience to the LORD, it has everything to do with Love, respect, mercy and grace. We are obedient because we love Him. I really like how Peter lays it out for us. We are going to look at 1 Peter 1:13-17 this morning.
13 So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.
14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then.
15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.
16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
17 And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.”
The believer’s obedience to God can be measured by how they live their lives. Obedience to God does not gain more salvation by our works. We are obedient to God because we love God and have hope in Christ. Let me just tell you today that my faith and hope are not in people I know or in this world. I love you all, I appreciate all of you, I am truly grateful to God for you, but my faith and my hope is in Christ alone. I pray the same is true for each and every one of you. Let’s look at 1 Peter 1:13 again.
13 So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.
Can I tell you that this gives me hope. This is Peter, who cut off a soldiers ear, cursed out people, and denied Christ. The Apostle is now exhorting us to prepare our minds for action and to exercise self-control. He had little self-control but is now obedient to Christ. It is a process brothers and sisters.
How do we prepare our minds? Peter is exhorting us to “pull our thoughts together!” We can not be short-sighted. We must get out of the mess in our own minds and focus on Jesus Christ. When our thoughts are focused on Christ, when we are focused on what’s to come, our attitudes change. His thoughts become our thoughts. His actions become our actions. We do not get tangled up in worldly things that weigh us down.
When we continually look for the glory of God, we become motivated to be obedient unto Christ. The grace that we have experienced in this life and continue to experience is just a little taste of the immeasurable grace we will one day experience. I fully believe and I am convinced that the more we are obedient to the LORD now, the more we experience His joy and peace now.
14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.
I can only speak for myself, but this is a gut check I needed. We are all called to be children of obedience to the LORD. We are to become so obedient to God that it becomes a basic trait in our lives. It can be difficult.
I have failed at being obedient more times than I can count and continue to fail at times. It is a slippery slope that I will slide down fast if I get out of the Word, stop praying, or forsake fellowship like I did last week. Peter is telling us that we are no longer ignorant to how believers are to look, walk, and behave.
We know what the Father expects of His children. That means I do not have an excuse when I allow those old ways to creep back into my life. If we are spending time making excuses or trying to cover up sin, how close of a relationship can we claim to have with God?
When we start putting other things ahead of our relationship with God, when we choose to stop obeying God by acting foolish, prideful, hurtful, or chasing after things of the world, we are acting like defiant children. God wants us to be fruitful in this life.
We all have needs.God knows that! The problem arises when we start craving after and chasing the things of this world. When we chase after the world, we stop serving others, we stop treating others as Christ would, and we stop acting as Godly men and women. It is not possible to chase after the world and be obedient to God.
Being right, winning an argument, or getting ahead do not matter if we do so by being ugly, mean, hurtful, or if we act un-godly. We are ALL called to Holy living and to develop holy behaviors. Before we move on, let’s talk about the word holy.
Holy—Saint—Sanctification:
Greek: hagios
Hebrew: kadosh
All three of these words, holy, saint, and sanctified, are translated from one Greek word, hagios. The Hebrew word, kadosh, means the same thing. It’s basic meaning is “to be separated, set apart, and different.” Morally, it means “pure, sinless, and righteous.” Something holy is set apart, separated, different from all other persons or things. It is someone or something that God has set aside for Himself. If you are a follower of Christ, you have been set apart by the very hand and of God this morning.
15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;
God is holy, perfect, and pure. When I first read this verse I said to myself “Oh boy. I might as well give up now, I am as far from holy as it gets.” “How am I to be Holy in all I do?” I shared with the guys at breakfast yesterday. That sometimes I feel like an imposter or a fraud because I fall so short sometimes? I am not holy, I am not even close to holy. God sees you and me as holy and as saints through the blood of Christ. True story. His words, not mine. The Apostle is exhorting us to live up to how God sees us and to honor Christ’s sacrifice in how we live.
Here is what I realized during my studies. The biblical sense of the word “holy” in this context means “to be pure in heart and motives”, not “perfect in action.” We all make mistakes, God knows that. If a person is saved by the grace of God through Christ Jesus, the natural progression is a change in our ethics. How we carry ourselves, how we treat others, serving others as Christ served, and doing what we can to take care of one another. A true conversion means that we seek after the holiness of God in our lives.
Peter used the word “called” here. You and I have been “called out of the darkness into His marvelous light.” We are no longer ignorant. We know the truth! You are sanctified, you are chosen and set apart for God.
Who here or online said or did something this past week that you know was not Christ-like? Me too. We must do better for the LORD. Seek forgiveness, offer forgiveness, DO NOT let pride or shame stop you from being the best Christian you can be. Again, it does not matter if we are right or wrong if our motives, attitudes, and behaviors do not reflect Jesus to the world and to one-another. Our desire should be to please God in our obedience to Him, and continue moving toward holiness in our lives.
16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
Peter closes this exhortation using Scripture to back up what he is saying. All throughout the Old Testament, God’s people are called to Holy living. All throughout the New-Testament, God’s people are called to Holy living. The crazy thing is that it is for our sake, not His. God does not want His children corrupted by or dying with this world.
When we turn away from sin, when we repent of sin, we are living out holiness. When we tithe, we are being obedient, when we serve others, we are being obedient, when we love our neighbor, we are being obedient, when we live out our love for the LORD, we are being obedient. When we are obedient to the LORD, we are living out holiness. We are setting ourselves apart from this world for His glory.
Because our hope is in Christ, we are no longer interested in conforming to the world’s or pop-cultures standards. We desire to be more like the one who brought us into the light. It is not a matter of being perfect. It is about living our best life in Christ and living for Christ. We are going to close with this verse.
17 And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.”
God has no favorites. He loves you as much as he loves any other believer. Father God is holy and righteous, and He does not compromise with sin. God is merciful and forgiving and we know that our sin was already judged at the cross!
One day we each will give an account for our works at the Judgment seat of Christ. Good works that should spring from our salvation.
During our time here on earth, we are to hold God in such high esteem and respect, that we fear hurting the heart of the Father. Simply stated, because we call Him Father, we should reflect His nature.
Everything here is going to come to pass in the blink of an eye. This is all temporary. On the day you are called to give an account to Jesus Christ, what will you say?
Worship Team/Alter Call
As we leave here today, ask Holy Spirit to guide you in your steps. Pray for the wisdom and strength to remain obedient to God and reflect Christ to this world. Please know that I am grateful for each one of you who have been part of my walk. I am humbled to call you my brothers and sisters in Christ.
If you want prayer this morning, we have people who will pray with you. If you need time at the alter, come up and take all the time you need. If you do not know for certain that you will be with Christ for all eternity, let today be the day. Come see me or Pastor Dakota or Pastor Paul. God bless you this morning.