A Lineage of Obedience

I want to begin by saying this is the first part of a 2 part message. So if you listen to this sermon today, please listen to next weeks because they go together.

Intro

Obedience, one of the things that we so zealously want from others but often fight to have ourselves. How often do we want obedience for our children, or our grandchildren, or our employees, or anyone else and then we do not practice obedience ourselves.

Obedience, friends, is doing what is asked, when it is asked, with the right attitude. and obedience is not optional for followers of Jesus. In fact, he himself said so. Two times in John 14 alone Jesus tells us that if we love him we will keep his commands.

Luke 6:46 ““Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”

Luke 11:28 “But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!””

1 Peter 1:14 “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,”

James 1:22 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

James 4:17 “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

The Source of Obedience

Notice what Jesus says in John 14- if you love me you will keep my commands. Obedience to God is the overflow of Love for God. Maybe you are like me and you have had someone ask you how you can obey all the things in the Bible- why you would allow a book like this to govern your life. But it is impossible to explain why I obey God to someone who does not love God. It is like trying to explain the ocean to someone who has never seen a pond. If you don’t know the first there is no way you can understand the second.

This is one of the things we must keep in mind as we see things unfold in the world; if someone does not love God, then they have no reason to obey God. Let’s take something like abortion legislation. We have so many people in our government who are not Christians, so they have no need or desire to obey Christ. It does not surprise me when people who do not love Jesus disobey his Word.

This is why our primary task as Christians is not to pigeonhole the world into obeying the Word of God- it is call to the world into relationship with Jesus and fall in love with him.

Second, the source of our obedience is the Word of God. Is there anything more frustrating that when someone asks you to do something, gives you no clear instruction, and then complains about how you did the thing they asked you to do? If there was something specific you wanted or needed, you should have told me! And that is exactly what God did- he told us exactly what he wanted and needed- we call it the Bible. In this Bible we have everything we need to walk with and obey Christ.

The challenge is, of course, that many practice what I like to call Buffet style obedience. I love Wood Grill, don’t you? What is amazing about Wood Grill and places like is they throw out any kind of food you can think of and just say- take what you want. There’s a salad bar there- or so I hear, I have never experienced it myself; because if you don’t want salad- cool just pass by and get what you want. There are hotdogs on the bar- don’t want a hotdog, no problem pass them on by; chicken livers, mushrooms, green beans- not your cup of tea; no problem, pass them on by. Buffets- great for food; not good for Bible reading.

The Fruit of Obedience

There are some promises in the Bible about what happens when we obey the Laws of God. We are not going to dive into each of them specifically, but if you are wondering why you should obey the Bible; this is a really good list of Scriptures to study and I would be happy to send you the list

Isaiah 1:19 “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;”

Exodus 23:22 ““But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.”

John 14:23 “Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

Jeremiah 7:23 “But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’”

1 John 3:24 “Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.”

Hebrews 5:9 “And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,”

The Consequence of Obedience

Obedience brings the promises of God.

“Obedience is not a stodgy plodding in the ruts of religion, it is a hopeful race toward God’s promises.”Eugene Peterson.

Obedience connects us to Heaven

Matthew 7:21 ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

Our Obedience can save others

Jonah 3:1–6 “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.”