One Obedience (2:12-18)

One Obedience: Living Lights Pray and Intro: (A Portrait of Parenting) When you see Paul’s life and hear Paul’s heart do you have any doubt that He loves Jesus? Do you have any doubt that His utmost desire for others God has placed in His life is that God be glorified b/c they too love Jesus more than anything else?  I’m not so worried about how I’m remembered as I am concerned about how I’m remembered reflects who I am now. Paul, who has no children, is a portrait of godly parenting: Follow my example. (But not really just mine,) follow the example of our Savior in humble obedience.  A worthy life, a worthy response to the life and example of Christ = obedience to the will of God. Let us work together as a team toward that end. Read Passage and Discuss: (Obey. Obey with the right attitude, actions, & words. Obey with joy.” I. Obey.  Obedience = hearing (divine word proclaimed) and submitting in action (Sounds like James: Not just hearers but doers also = true obedience)  In Faith and Follow-through—living… lights (Respond to the gospel and Reflect God’s glory and grace) A. Obedience of Faith – Hebrews 5:9 – obeying the gospel command to repent and believe B. Obedience of Follow-through – “obedience is the very best way to show that you believe” 1. These are good kids – just as you have always obeyed  even when I’m not there, do even better… 2. Work out your salvation (put fully into effect, continually working to bring to fulfillment or completion) a. Not works-based salvation: Eph. 2:8-9 b. Having received it as a free gift of grace, now cultivate it in your lives, knowing that it is God’s purpose and power (work) for his pleasure c. See Peter’s similar description [OFF] – 2 Peter 1:3-11 3. For it is God who works in you: Theological balance – God’s sovereignty and the accountability of man; God’s work and our effort (involvement) 4. Family ties (follow through with faith, specifically achieving unity through humility, thinking of others first, serving others with the heart of Christ) C. Purpose to obey; Set your course for obedience 1. In Awe of God – fear and trembling (instead of grumbling and disputing)  reverent awe and healthy fear of God’s displeasure and discipline – respond in devotion (honor) and duty (obey) 2. God gives the motivation (the will, desire) and ability (the energy, the power) to do right (without him, we lack both)  (But some of us might need to hear this too.) Don’t just wait around for the desire to do the right thing. Foster a desire for God. Start obeying, and God will grant the right attitude toward the specific task. 3. For His good pleasure or purposes  Do you wake up each morning, communing with the Savior, praying, “In every situation, dear Lord, in every interaction, help me to submit to the heart and plans of my sovereign God, trusting him to work in me and in others.”? How might that first posture affect your daily outlook and practice? II. Obey with the right attitudes, behaviors, and words. A. Let God prove his work in you by not complaining and disputing amongst yourselves (or with God), but rather shining together as stars in the cosmos. B. Without grumbling or questioning (arguing) 1. Complaining at and disputing with one another, with God’s plans and commands  wrongly questioning and complaining against God; challenge in a selfish spirit rather than submissive spirit [there are limits to the health of questioning, of doubt, of constant skepticism] – always having a negative spirit towards leaders 2. I’m not convinced that some of you understand how much a complaining spirit tarnishes the testimony of Christ in you. 3. Do ALL things – this isn’t really that surprising... C. Blameless and innocent  without blemish 1. Blameless (outer moral integrity), innocent (inward moral integrity) = above reproach 2. Crooked (crooked – unjust), twisted (crooked – perverse) generation (Deut. 32:5) – Does not listen and submit with a happy heart; instead, grumbling and complaining at God, questioning his decisions and purposes for our lives. D. Shine like stars in the cosmos  What does a light do? (shines, draws attention to the source of light, the giver of light) – contrast useless saved people (instead – 2 Peter 1:8 “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”) 1. It is genuinely strange in the world (other-worldly) to not be whining, complaining, grumbling, griping, about our lives and questioning God. 2. Children are like mirrors reflecting their parents (embellishing our curves—the good, and especially the bad) – children also reflect on their parents  (Mt. 5:15-16 “Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.”)  Our desire is for God to come shining through and be glorified. 3. In the darkest night. (The darker it is, the more evident the light.) – Your most effective witness for Christ is when you love, live, and lead like Jesus to shine in the darkest of circumstances. (How?) 4. Holding fast to and holding forth the word of life!  imagine yourself in a lighthouse in a terrible storm, imagine yourself as the light in the lighthouse 5. Do you not see your strategic placement in the community to be a light for Jesus? E. While calling them to follow the example of Christ, here Paul additionally challenges them to make their surrogate dad proud in the way they honor their heavenly Father. (Just as he does—runs (energetic activity), labors (hard work)—knowing that the day of Christ is coming)  poured out (his sacrifice) on top of their sacrificial service of faith – offering themselves and their works to God (All rejoicing at sacrificial service to God! – Rom. 12:1 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”) III. Be joyful in obedience. (This kind of obeying brings great joy.) A. Obedience brings joy in God! (So rejoice at the opportunity to obey God) B. Why? B/c the day of Christ is fast approaching, and we will not have run, labored, and sacrificed in vain. (Just as Jesus himself did not.) C. Rejoice and be glad that you have been given life. Rejoice that you have been given a commission, a life to live as a reflection of what you’ve been given. Rejoice when given opportunity to shine the brightest when the times are darkest and the suffering is hardest. (Romans 12:12) D. When life gives you a lemon… submit your heart to God and joyfully obey his will for your life! In that you will find such great joy! IV. Obedience check: Are you a living light, emanating the life and light of the one who is life and light, who gave you life to make you a light? A. Do you see yourself as a part of the bigger string of living lights? (Do we?) B. My prayer for you, beloved, is that you will see yourself as a strategically placed living light for the kingdom of God so that you can love, live, and lead like Jesus. C. Therefore, my beloved… 1. Keep obeying in faith and follow-through. (for it is God who works in you) 2. Obey in all things with the right attitude, actions, and words. (for it is God who works in you) 3. Be joyful in obedience. (for it is God who works in you) 4. (with #1) You have not been saved for nothing. You have been saved because God is redeeming for himself a people to be for the praise of His glory. And He isn’t done yet. He’s working in you and in others, and he has commissioned you to be a part of shining the light of the gospel, that you might play a role in His purpose, by His grace and for His glory. 5. (with #2) Quit griping and bickering with other Jesus lights about piddly nonsense. The glory of God is at stake. The lives and eternity of people like you are at stake.  Stop grumbling against God. Don’t complain about where he has you, and what he has you doing, and who he has you doing it with. Trust God. Love Jesus. Be intentional about wanting to radiate the light of Christ to others. Represent God with fear and trembling. 6. (with #3) Be joyful b/c God has sovereignly worked in you. Be joyful b/c God continues to work in you. Be joyful b/c it is a joy to belong to Him, to be for the praise of His glory, to be used by His grace for His purposes. You find a man in the depths of imprisonment, in the throws of persecution, yet keeps his eyes fixed on Jesus, who is His life and light.  When asked what could possibly give such a man such joy, he responds, “What do I NOT have to be joyful in? I have been saved by grace. I have been given the great privilege of obeying my Lord and my God. To run, to labor, to sacrifice for such a one as this is joy everlasting!”