Untitled Sermon (2)

Read 2.

Obedience is how we embrace the love freely given to us, how we complete the electrical circuit in our relationship between God and Man. Obedience is how we relate to God, how we connect to God.

But when I use the term “Obedience” in our time that comes with the sense of a mouldering, mostly empty church. It feels unnatural, not popular, Victorian, that is of the wrinkled type, Puritanical like a sequel to Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid Tales, like a Friday with no fun, like non-alcoholic Beer.

But in truth, Obedience in it’s nature is the farthest from these things. We are struggling over a chasm of despair when it comes to our personal identities, and collective vision for what our society ought to be about, to value, and to do. We are maybe not more divided than past times, but we are quite divided. And of all the solution sets out there, I doubt Obedience the way I’m going to talk about it today is one of them

Only Obedience to Christ will make you see this world correctly. Our entire existence since Father Adam and Mother Eve has been thought the lense of disobedience. One man’s sin brought death, says Paul to the Romans.

We have lived in a tilted universe, an upside down, with an inverted yield curve of truth since the first days. We want to do good, but we struggle to do it. We want to do good, but we end up doing bad. We mock and make fun and often are resigned to a world self-destructing.

When we see someone like Abraham saying I will trust in God--it appears crazy. Child endangerment. You know if you’ve ever read ancient literature, whether it is Agamemnon sacrificing Iphigenia on the eve of sailing to Troy, or the Incans sacrificing children by the cartload for harvest, or children to Baal for rain, this idea was normal at the time. So was the God of Israel the same as all the others? Just another molester and incinerator of children.

No. Indeed not. God had just promised Abraham that Isaac would be the exact one to fulfill the family line, blessed to be a blessing, he was the sign of the promise. Abraham was asked to trust God and be Obedient to him first, most, and utmost despite the tension and unknowing.

Theres a lot of disobedience in the world. Disobedience is obedience to the wrong thing. Conforming to the wrong thing. It could be an organized religion, a national institution, the Army, our family, ourselves. Everyone is obedient to someone or something, and for many of us it but the tyranny of 1 whom we allow to dominate our expectations and experience the heap of anxieties from our powerlessness to fulfill our promises to ourselves. I won’t be obedient to God because I could never give up (my Son, Isaac) (my career) (my family) (my whatever) so I carry my own prison with me.

And when God tries to come into my life and say, you need to give this up. You need to trust in me. In my warped view. He’s the Jailer and not the Bailer coming to set me free from my own prison.

Adam brought disobedience and death. Christ brought obedience and life.

First Comes Love, then Comes Obedience.

What’s so unique about Abraham was not that he was perfect or particularly more moral than you or I (Have you read his Bio?!) It’s his undying trust in God. He believed he was valued, loved, a treasured possession.

Abr. trusted in God’s Promise AND SO, he chose to be obedient.

Obedience absolutely can be painful-but you generally shouldn’t have issues loving someone who loves you--that’s belonging!

This is where the cults, religions, and philosophies get it wrong. Obedience often sounds culty--like Jim Jones… They want you to conform and offer love and acceptance in return. Conform and then you shall be saved. Orwell is in the details.

A lot of Christians fall into this trap as well. Its always been this way (Romans, Gal,1 and 2 Cor). Paul tells the Romans clearly, Your wages earn you death. He tells the Galatians, If you try to be a Christian by rebuilding the law that death/R tore down… all you will succeed in doing is being condemned as a law breaker.

Do you keep his commands to get one up on those around you, to feel better about yourself, to stock your arsenal of damnations in which to gossip about your neighbor. When I say Love yourself, you say why? Love others, you say I don’t want to be hurt. I say Love God, and you say of course, and then whisper in your heart like a lamb to the slaughterhouse with no real love for God. You don’t my Jesus.

You don’t know my Jesus if you are drowning in shame when I talk about this. His Yolk is light. His grace is sufficient. His love shall electrify you. His law is refreshing. He is the Divine Chiropractor to reset your constitution on a foundation of truth. You are His and He is yours.

If you don’t have that, you tell him now, I want to experience your love. I want to know the love that Abraham felt so long ago as he knew you would keep your promise. Experience his Love and then you’ll have the capacity for obedience and the actuality of relationship.

Christ’s Obedience cost him more.

All Christians all of us, you and me, struggle with obedience. Tim Keller says it wonderfully, half the time, we feel like we’re obedient to Jesus, but that’s just because we agree with him. When Jesus asks us to do something we don’t like, and we have to let our will be crossed and do it--that’s obedience, right?

We feel the pull of our past lives before Christ. We feel the allure to love other things more, things which will gratify our flesh now. Things that will not push us and make us uncomfortable.

This is where we must remind ourselves that Christ is the perfect example of obedience. He lets the love of God flow through him. His desire is that of the father and he seeks to love those who don’t act lovely. He has called you his treasure and yet he knows you, messy and beautiful, sinful, hurtful, and all.

This Good and Gracious God is another great distinguisher from all other religions and Ideas. Abraham trusts in a Good God, a God who keeps his word. Maybe you have been mistrusting God, not believing he desires to do a good work in you. Maybe you struggle with letting go of the past OR overcoming your Sin because you don’t trust that God’s delivers on his promises and they always better.

You need to look at the Resurrected Christ. He is the seal of the eternal promise on your soul. He is the validator.... Until you can trust him, you won’t be able to obey him....