God's Faithfulness Produces Obedience

Today marks the 3rd Sunday of Lent. So far we have looked at God’s provisions for us in facing temptation. That long before temptation comes, God provides us with everything we need in order to resist. Just as Jesus resisted temptation in the wilderness after his baptism, so Jesus, in us, reminds us that we belong to him, he loves us, and he is well pleased in us!

Then, last week, we considered how suffering can lead to doubts, fears, cares and concerns. It can tempt us to abandon God. But God knows what we experience in this life. God knows we will face suffering. Jesus himself was familiar with suffering, a man of sorrows. Because of Christ in us, we can face suffering with confidence. We know that God is right beside us, alongside of us, he is our strength in suffering.

Today we turn to God’s faithfulness as it produces obedience in us. The two passages from the Revised Common Lectionary that we’re studying this morning, work together to remind us to put our trust in God.

There comes a time when reality takes hold, when we get knocked out of our complacency. But prior to that, like goes along merrily. We fall into certain patterns, and sometimes without realising it, we discover that we’ve taken on an unbiblical worldview.

We take on the world’s view. If you get a car with a heated steering wheel, you will be happy & satisfied. If you get a bigger house, a nicer car, a better job, a spouse, a pet, a best friend, a you can fill in the blank. If you just had the next best thing, you will find great contentment and joy.

Now, these things do bring joy and they do bring contentment. But such joy and contentment don’t last. The vehicle with heated steering wheel depreciates, rusts, wears out, gets dinged by rocks, by other cars, or totalled in an accident. The house needs constant maintenance. The better job has greater responsibilities, the spouse results in lesser freedoms, freedoms willingly surrendered, but still leaves a bit of longing. The pet rips apart a favourite pair of shoes. Your friend betrays you. You come to realise that all these things fail to fully deliver on your deepest desires and longings.

And that’s where the words of speak into our hearts: God is what we long for; we are like desert lost souls, thirsty for the living water only God gives.

We remember those times when we have come into God’s sanctuary and we are washed over with his goodness and grace. Where we are reminded of God’s incredible power, his pure holiness. How in his presence, the only appropriate response is to give praise, our arms are lifted and we hardly realise it, so natural is the expression.

Because of God’s goodness, even during sleepless nights, our mind turns to God’s goodness, mercy and help moves us to draw as close to God as we can. We sense his power, protection and strength with us.

Suffering does this as well. Suffering jolts us out of complacency. C.S. Lewis once said that suffering is God’s megaphone to rouse us out of a human centred existence into a God centred existence. Suffering has a way of sharpening focus right quick. It forces us to take stock, to identify what is important in life, and what is not: heated steering wheels seem trivial in light of a cancer diagnosis.

So the question comes, how does God call us to respond to suffering? When we turn to our passage in Luke, we have the inevitable question: why are we suffering? What did we do to deserve it? Or more fittingly, when we see others suffer, what did they do to deserve it?

There were some present with Jesus who thought more highly of themselves. They perceived that because they didn’t suffer as others did, that God favoured them more, and they were therefore less guilty than others were.

That’s an easy temptation to fall into, isn’t it? Have you ever looked around you and considered you are better off than others are because of what God has given you? Have you ever considered that your fortune is a result of your obedience? Well, because I give, or attend church, or Bible study, or volunteer my time, God is blessing me. I have health and wealth. We hear such messages from other places, and it reinforces this same attitude that was present in Jesus’ day.

Then suffering hits you. And you wonder? Why me? Why am I being robbed of my youth, or my loved one, or my career, or whatever form it takes? What did I do? God why are you punishing me?

How shall we respond?

Soberly consider how you stack up to Christ, not to others. Are you more faithful than Jesus is? Are you a better Christian? Are you more obedient that God? The question of why am I suffering is not, “Why me?” But rather, “Why not me?” I am as guilty as anyone. Apart from Christ, I am guilty. I deserve the curse, I deserve death.

And so, I repent. I confess my sin. I receive the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, which he bought through his death on the cross.

Where are you at? When God looks at you, at your life, what does he see? Does he see a healthy tree that has a strong trunk and luscious leaves, but no fruit?

Are you living the life one way on Sunday, but completely differently throughout the week? Do you look at shiny and good, but fail to produce fruit?

The vineyard owner expects fruit. Is God the Father considering your state of fruitfulness and finding it lacking?

Take courage! Jesus the gardener, will dig around you and fertilise the soil around you. Jesus will bring things into your life to cause you to consider, to stop and take stock of what is God pleasing and what isn’t. Jesus will take the difficulties that you will face in this life and use them to get your attention, not to make you think that they are punishment for sin, rather that they are a wake-up call to reality.

Jesus will pour himself into you, so that you produce fruit!

But, what happens the following year, when the owner comes back and there’s little or no fruit? What then?

Here’s what I beleive Jesus will say. “Leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilise it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.”

With Jesus, there’s always grace. But there’s also reality. God expects faithfulness, God expects obedience, God expects fruit.

But it is the faithfulness of the gardener, who breaks up the hard soil of our hearts, who pours his power, his strength, himself into us, that brings fruit. God’s faithfulness produces obedience in us.