Daily walk with God - Honor the Father

Introduction

What must I do to Honor God?

When I thought of honoring God, I often though about what I need to do to honor Him. If i am to please God , I need to find what I need to do to please Him.

Do we seek to honor God through accomplishing a list of “do” and “do nots”?

How are we to live daily in a relationship with God that honors Him?

Living with others is more than simple obedience to a list of does and do nots.

Speak kind to your Spouse. Give a hug and kiss. Do not hit your spouse. Do not be rude.

There is an interaction of love and care for that person that is reciprocated.

Just like living in a relationship with others is not a relationship based on obedience of a list of thou shall or thou shall not, our relationship with God is more than simple obedience.

Seek First (Matt 6:33)

Matthew 6:33 (ESV)

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Seek not like the World.

Matthew 6:25 (ESV)

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Matthew 6:31–32 (ESV)

31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

The World seek after these things.

We are to seek.

Seek - to try to obtain something from someone—‘to try to obtain, to attempt to get, to seek. (Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996: 564. Print.)

The Kingdom of God

“KINGDOM OF GOD (also “kingdom of the Lord,” “kingdom of heaven”). Refers primarily to God’s kingly power exercised over creation and people.” (Seal, David. “Kingdom of God.” Ed. John D. Barry et al. The Lexham Bible Dictionary 2016: n. pag. Print.)

Jesus Prayer - Matt 6:9-13

Matthew 6:9–13 (ESV)

9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

His Righteousness

Righteousness - the act of doing what God requires—‘righteousness, doing what God requires, doing what is right.’ (Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996: 743. Print.)

1 Timothy 4:6–9 (ESV)

6 If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. 7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. 9 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.

Seeking to live under the sovereign rule of God and living in accord with that Kingdom.

Obey His Commands (Matt 22:37-40)

John 14:21 (ESV)

21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

Has and keeps his commands (14:15, 21, 23)

“Of course, we cannot fail to do what he directs us to do and yet still be in his will. And quite apart from any specific directions he may give us, there are many ways of living and being that are clearly not in his will. The 10 commandments given to Moses as so deep and powerful on these matters that if humanity follow them, daily life would be transformed beyond recognition, and large segments of the public media would collapse for lack of material. But one who inquires seriously after God's guidance must never forget that even if one was to do all the particular things God wants and explicitly commands us to do one might still not be the person God would have one to be. It is always true that ‘the letter killed, but the spirit gives life’ (2 Cor 3:6). An obsession nearly with doing all God commands may be the very thing that rules out being the kind of person that he calls us to be.” (Hearing God, Dallas Willard, page 10)

God’s commands

Matthew 22:37–40 (ESV)

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

What does it mean to love someone?

Love - to have love for someone or something, based on sincere appreciation and high regard—‘to love, to regard with affection, loving concern, love. (Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996: 292. Print.)

“ἀγαπάω (agapaō), GK 26 (S 25), 143×. agapaō is one of four Gk. verbs meaning “to love.” In secular Greek especially before the time of Christ, it was a colorless word without any great depth of meaning, used frequently as a synonym of erōs (sexual love) and phileō (the general term for love). If it had any nuance, it was the idea of love for the sake of its object. Perhaps because of its neutrality of meaning and perhaps because of this slight nuance of meaning, the biblical writers picked agapaō to describe many forms of human love (e.g., husband and wife, Eph. 5:25, 28, 33) and, most importantly, God’s undeserved love for the unlovely. In other words, its meaning comes not from the Greek but from the biblical understanding of God’s love.” (Mounce)

Loving others changes how we talk to them, treat them, act towards them, and interact with them.

Being loving - Doing things that bless them and not doing things that hurt them. (Rules of relationship)

When I say I love my Wife, it is shown in how I talk to her, interact with her, and act towards her.

When we say we love God, does it show in how we talk to Him, interact with Him, or act towards Him?

Jesus’ Command

John 13:34–35 (ESV)

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Love others the way he loved us.

Sacrificial love for the benefit of others.

Living in relationship with God means that we seek to be obedient to His commands. His main command for us is to love Him and love others.

Live the Life (Eph 4:1-7)

Living in relationship with God is more about who we are than what we do.

What do I do?

When I was in College: what do I do? Where do I go? Who do I marry?

When I became a pastor: What do I do? What do I preach? How do I lead? How do I make disciples?

“When our children, John and Becky, were small, they were often completely in my will as they played happily in the backyard, though I had no preference that they should do the particular things they were doing there or even that they should be in the backyard instead of playing in their rooms or having a snack in the kitchen. Generally speaking we are in God's will whenever we are leading the kind of life he wants for us. And that leaves a lot of room for initiative on our part, which is essential: our individual initiatives are central to his will for us.” (Hearing God, Dallas Willard, page 11)

In the Book of Ephesians, Paul writes a letter to the church starting with theological truths and ending with practical life application. In the practical section, Paul writes:

Ephesians 4:1–7 (ESV)

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Walk in a manner

Walk - to live or behave in a customary manner, with possible focus upon continuity of action—‘to live, to behave, to go about doing.’ (Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996: 504. Print.)

Call - the state of having been called to a particular task and/or relation—‘calling (Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996: 423. Print.)

Walk in a new way

Old life (17-19)

Ephesians 4:17–19 (ESV)

17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

We were living in ignorance and fulfilling the passions in our sin with no real care or concern of God.

New Life (20-24)

Ephesians 4:20–24 (ESV)

20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Put off the old self

Manner of Life - to conduct oneself, with apparent focus upon overt daily behavior—‘to live, to conduct oneself, to behave, behavior, conduct.’ (Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996: 503. Print.)

Deceitful - to cause someone to have misleading or erroneous views concerning the truth—‘to mislead, to deceive, deception.’ (Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996: 366. Print.)

Desires - to strongly desire to have what belongs to someone else and/or to engage in an activity which is morally wrong—‘to covet, to lust, evil desires, lust, desire.’ (Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996: 290. Print.)

Put on the new self

Likeness - a marker of a relation involving similarity of process—‘in accordance with, in relation to. (Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996: 777. Print.)

Righteousness - the act of doing what God requires—‘righteousness, doing what God requires, doing what is right.’ (Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996: 743. Print.)

Holiness - the quality of holiness as an expression of the divine in contrast with the human—‘holiness, divine quality.’ (Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996: 744. Print.)

Just like the illustration given by Dallas Willard, God is more concerned with the righteousness and holiness of how we are living our lives than what exactly what we are doing at all times.

Summary

Living in relationship with God daily is not about establishing a list of thou shall and thou shall nots, but is about living in a way that we are seeking to live obedient to his commands in Righteous and Holy living.

In our pursuit of honoring God, we do so through living transformed by the Holy Spirit into Christlikeness.

“My strategy has been to take as a model the highest and best type of communication that I know of from human affairs and then place this model in the even brighter light of the person and teaching of Jesus Christ. In this way it has been possible to arrive at an ideal picture of what an intimate relationship with God is meant would be and also come to a clear vision of the kind of life where hearing God is not an uncommon occurrence. To take this ideal picture seriously is to exclude all tricks, mechanical formulas and gimmickry for finding out what God wants one to do. We cannot reduce it to a device that we use to make sure we are always right. Indeed I hope to make it clear that the subject of hearing God cannot be successfully treated by thinking only in terms of what God wants us to do if that automatically excludes-as is usually assumed- what we want to do and even what we want God to do. Hearing God is but one dimension of a richly interactive relationship, and obtaining guidance is but one facet of hearing God.” (Hearing God, Dallas Willard, page 10)