Experiencing God Through Obedience
Sermon #5 – Experiencing God SeriesJn 14:23 (PP)
"If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. NASB95
This is the fifth message in the series: "Experiencing God, Knowing and Doing the Will of God." We are presently finishing up a thirteen-week course on this subject with twelve brothers and sisters from our congregation. It has been a life-changing course for many of us.
I will be offering the classes again in February. I hope all our Elders, Deacons and Trustees will be able to study with me. Please be praying for our ongoing growth and development in our understanding of God’s will for the ministry here.
God has always been at work in our world. He is now at work right here in and through Glasgow Bible Church. God always will take the initiative to come to us and reveal what He is doing or what He is about to do. When He does, this will be His invitation for us to join Him.
Joining Him will require major adjustments of our lives to Him, so He can accomplish His will through us. When we know what God has said, what He is about to do, and have adjusted our lives to Him, there is yet one remaining necessary response to God.
To experience God at work in and through us, we must obey Him. When we obey Him, He will accomplish His work though us and we will come to know Him by experience.
(PP) We come to know God by experience as we obey Him and He accomplishes His work through us.
Obedience is the outward expression of our love for God.
Jn 14:15
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
Jn 14:24
He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.
If we have an obedience problem, we have a love problem.
God is love. His will is always best. God is all knowing. His directions are always right. God is all powerful. He can enable us to do His will. If we love Him, we will obey Him.
In many ways, obedience is our moment of truth. What I do will:
Reveal what I believe about God.
Determine whether I will experience His mighty work in me and through me.
Determine whether I will come to know Him more intimately.
*Look up I John 2:3-6. (Notice the words "know" and "obey".)
1 Jn 2:3-6
3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep/obey His commandments.
4 The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep/obey His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
5 but whoever keeps/obeys His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:
6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. NASB95
Application
How can you know that you have come to know God through Jesus Christ?
What is the clear indication that a person does not know Him?
*If you do not obey Him, that indicates that you do not know Him.
Mt 7:21-23
21 "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
22 "Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
23 "And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ NASB95
God blesses those who are obedient to Him:
Dt 28:1, 8
"Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
"The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
Dt 28:15, 20
"But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
"The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me.
Je 7:23
"But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.’
Lk 6:46-49
46 "Why do you call Me, ‘ Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
47 "Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like:
48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
"But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great."
Jn 7:16-17
16 So Jesus answered them and said, " My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.
17 "If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.
Read Together: (PP)
Ps 119:33-35
33 Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes,
And I shall observe it to the end.
34 Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law
And keep it with all my heart.
35 Make me walk in the path of Your commandments,
For I delight in it.
Read Together: (PP)
1. If I love God, I will obey Him.
2. Obedience is the outward expression of my love for God.
3. Faith that does not obey in action is dead.
4. Obedience is my moment of truth.
5. God blesses those who are obedient to Him.
Jn 14:15 (PP)
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
Obey What You Already Know To Be God’s Will (PP)
Some people want God to give them an assignment to do for Him. They will do whatever He asks. But when God observes their lives, He notices they have not obeyed iin the things He already has told them to do.
God has given us the Ten Commandments, are we obeying them?
Jesus tells us to love our enemies, are we doing that? Jesus told us to make disciples of all nations, are we doing all we know to obey Him? God tells us through scripture to live in unity with our Christian brothers and sisters, are we doing it?
Smorgasbord Obedience (Illustration – Choosing food on a smorgasbord.) (PP)
God’s commands are not given to us so we can pick and choose the ones we want to obey and forget about the rest. He wants us to obey all His commands out of our love relationship with Him. When He sees we are faithful and obedient in a little, He will be able to trust us with more. The Holy Spirit will guide us daily to the specific commands God wants us to obey.
Is God a God of second chances?
Will God give us another chance, opportunity to do His will?
Jonah is the Old Testament example supreme here. He tried to run from the will of God in disobedience. God sent a big fish to swallow him and give him time to repent. He then went and did God’s will.
Peter is the New Testament example supreme. He denied the Lord but He later repented and was greatly used of God.
Yes, yes God is the God of second… and third… and on and on opportunities to do right…. to obey Him.
Disobedience is Costly
Disobedience is not taken lightly by God. You read how Jonah’s disobedience almost cost him his life. Moses’ murder of the Egyptian cost him 40 years in the wilderness. David’s sin with Bathsheba cost him the life of his son.
Even in our disobedience God is teaching and molding us. He will even take the circumstances of our disobedience and work that together for good (Rom. 8:28) as He corrects us and teaches us His ways.
Obedience means joy and uninterrupted fellowship with God. The hymn "Trust and Obey" reminds us of the relationship between obedience and fellowship with God: (PP) (p. 586)
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, what a glory He sheds on our way! While we do His good will He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey.
Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies, but His smile quickly drives it away; not a doubt nor a fear, not a sigh nor a tear, can abide while we trust and obey.
Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share, but our toil He doth richly repay; not a grief nor a loss, not a frown nor a cross, but is blest if we trust and obey.
But we never can prove the delights of His love until all on the altar we lay, for the favor He shows and the joy He bestows are for them who will trust and obey.
Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet, or we’ll walk by His side in the way; what He says we will do, where He sends we will go—Never fear, only trust and obey.
Chorus: Trust and obey—for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus—but to trust and obey.
When we obey God, He will accomplish through us what he has purposed to do. When God does something through our lives that only he can do, we will come to know Him more intimately. If we do not obey we will miss out on some of the most exciting experiences of our lives.
When God purposes to do something through you, the assignment will have God-sized dimensions. This is because God wants to reveal Himself to us and those around us.
If we can do the work in our own strength, people will not come to know God. But, if God works through us to do what only He can do, we [along with all those around us] will come to know Him.
Read Together: (PP)
1. When I obey God, He will accomplish through me what He has purposed to do.
2. God wants to reveal Himself to me and those around me.
3. I will be blessed when God does a special, God-sized work through me.
4. I need to be very careful that any testimony about what God has done only gives glory to Him.
5. "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord" (I Cor. 1:31)
Ask yourself: (PP)
Am I responding to all God already in leading me to do?
Have I obeyed all I already know to be His will?
Do I really believe that He loves me and will always do what is best and right?
Am I willing to patiently wait on His timing and obey everything I know to do in the meantime?
It is a relationship… not a religion. (PP)
Jn 14:23 (PP)
"If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.
God calls us to a relationship where He is Lord – where we are willing to do and be anything He chooses. If we will respond to Him as Lord, He may lead us to do and be things we would have never dreamed of. If we don’t follow Him as Lord, we may lock ourselves into a job or an assignment and miss something God wants to do through us.
God will never give you an assignment He will not enable you to complete. (PP) He will give you the supernatural empowering to accomplish the assignment He gives you.
Will you pray: (PP)
Lord, I will do anything that your kingdom requires of me. Wherever you want me to be, I’ll go. Whatever the circumstances, I’m willing to follow. If you want to meet a need through my life, I am your servant; and I will do whatever is required.
Those, who from their hearts, will pray this prayer out loud, would you please stand.
Let us pray it together to the Lord…. Together.