Good morning church. Well I hope you're excited for this morning. I know it's a little cold outside, but it's warm in here. It's been warm.
The first service has been warm, and the Lord is just moving powerfully. Listen, last year, we started off last year with a powerful series called The Fear of God. That series literally changed the trajectory of our church. I mean, we got the fear of God.
Different ones of us began to repent, deal with different things in our lives. I mean, just a real sense of the awe of God, of God's spirit inside of us. And we're kicking off this year with this series on obedience. And I love that graphic behind me.
Andrew did a phenomenal job. Look at that graphic. It goes from dark to light. When we're in disobedience, we're in darkness.
We come towards the light. The God spirit comes alive inside of us. It's just a beautiful picture of what's inside store for us. So next week, we're going to talk about obedience.
And boy, let me tell you some obedience is a big deal. I'm going to store it from Donald Trump. It's a huge deal. It's enormous.
But it's amazing how many Christians don't understand obedience. Obedience is a big deal in the life of a believer. It's a big deal in every employee. It's a big deal in children's lives.
I think I'll get a real resounding shout down. I'm going to shut me down. Come on, it's huge. So let's go and look at the blessing of obedience.
The blessing, I'm going to give you the blessing. But I'm going to give you a complete, almost overview of the entire series in one deal. And we're going to break it apart each of the next seven weeks. I'm breaking apart what God has for us.
And I love what Ignatius of Loyola says. Obedience is a disciples first duty. Any disciples in here? Any followers of Jesus?
Our first duty is obedience. Oh, no one's ever told me that. They just told me I just need to show up to church. Oh, how about this?
Andrew Murray says this. To obey is the one thing required of man. Ooh, we got quite all of a sudden. Obedience is the first duty.
It's a requirement of man. But no, Pastor, I'm a Texan. Nobody going to tell me what to do. Well, that's fine.
You got a problem with God. Because God's going to tell you what to do. If you see what we talk about, the Lordship of Christ, God gives commands. He doesn't ask.
Oh, I felt like a Lord wanted me to do it. No, no, no. He commands. And if we open up our Bible every morning, we're going to read the Bible.
We're going to find command after command after command after command after command. Why? Because he wants us to live a great life. Amen?
Amen? Back in September, when I go away from retreat in September, beginning to pray about this year, the Lord brought me to a very familiar scripture, Matthew 28, 19 through 20. Now most of us in the church know this passage in the scripture and we go, oh, the great commission, evangelism. Yes, that's there.
But let's look at what it really looks like. It says very simply this. Therefore, as you go, disciple people in all nations, baptizing the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit. Andrew just did that a few minutes ago.
He was the name of the Father, Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey. Oh, I didn't like that word as a kid. My dad would make me say, oh, babe, he would spake me. You know all these things?
Because your dad did it the wrong way. It doesn't mean Father God is going to do it the wrong way. Father God's going to do it the right way. And if I'm going to be a good pastor or even just a good discipler, a good mentor, then what's my responsibility?
To teach the church how to obey. Mentors and discipleship, their job is to teach people how to obey. Parents, our job is to teach our kids to obey. We know it's a big deal, but when it comes to us and our walk with Christ, it becomes a different issue.
Teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you. So it means we know the commands of God. And we know the commands of God, then we're supposed to teach other people how to obey. And remember, I'm with you each and every day until the end of the age.
Now, ladies, I'm going to get some of your husbands in trouble real quick, but maybe you can get you in trouble real quick. What if your husband said, honey, this month, we're going to have 30 days of obedience? What are you talking about? What if your husband said, honey, I'm called by God to lead you?
And I'm going to help you. I'm going to help myself first, but I'm going to help you as well learn how to obey God better. All those amenians don't shoot me. I'm all you women just shouting me down.
Listen, you go, what in the world? But that's what we're called to do. As husbands, as leaders of the house, we're called to help arts families learn how to obey God's ways. As a pastor, my job is to teach the church how to obey God's ways.
Life of your leaders, the exact same thing. Youth pastors, children's pastors, I mean you name it, it's a whole gamut. Because guess what? Obedience will decide a person's destiny.
Disobedience messes everything up. Adam and Eve? Oh man, Patrick, Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam mess things up. And he messes up for all of us.
But if he's not what, and Adam, I think it was Michael, I would have messed it up too. If he was Vic, he would have messed it up too. Come on. If he was Jesse, he would have messed it up too.
It was just normal. Because man does what we mess things up. So let's look at Genesis 2, 15-17. Very simply, we're going to look at how the Bible and how serious it takes obedience.
Genesis 2, 15-17. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but, but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For when you eat from it, you will certainly die.
That's not a spiritual death. That's not a physical death. That's a spiritual death. And what's the idea?
We want to kill our flesh. We want our flesh to go away. Adam had one rule to follow. Don't eat from that tree.
That's it. That's it. I'm going to just one thing or follow, could you follow it? We'd say, yes!
Just don't do this. And what does man do? Wow. There's fruit on that tree.
And who beat him there? His wife. And she said and handed right to him. Come on.
Genesis 3, 8-11. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord as they were walking in the garden in the coolant day and they hid from the Lord among the trees of the garden. But the Lord called to the man. Where are you?
Like God doesn't know where Adam is at. He answered, I heard you in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid.
I love God response. And he said, who told you you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree I commanded you not to eat from? Ooh man.
Obedience was the one thing they had to simply do. It was the one thing they had to do just to stay in the garden. One simple thing. Come on church.
That's just simple. I got that. I know this word about good. Let's go all the way to the end of the Bible.
Turn to Revelation 22. Turn to Revelation 22. And if you turn to Revelation 22 and you get there, it's the last page of your Bible. You're at the very end.
The very end of your Bible, Revelation 22, 12 through 14. And behold, I am coming quickly. And my reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Blessed are those who do his commands. Obey that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city. How do we get back? It started with Adam and Eve saying very simply, don't eat that.
Obey. And you get to enter into. We got to see this church because it starts in Genesis and it runs all the way through Revelation. As you read in your quiet time every single morning, you're going to see command after command after command after command after command.
Obey, obey, obey, obey, do, do. Amen? Amen. So Revelation 14, we get John speaking to his followers, 144,000 followers.
He shares the message of three angels, three messages. But here's what is so powerful. Revelation 14, 12. God's people must learn to endure.
They must also obey his commands and have faith in Jesus. Isn't it interesting how the Bible lays that out? You and I must learn how to obey his command and have faith in Jesus. When we learn how to obey, then we begin to have faith.
Why? Because when we obey and God begins to come through, what happens? We go, I got this. And it's easier to walk in faith.
Obedience. Oh, come on church. That's the most favorite part of the whole Bible. Between Genesis and Revelation, there's Jesus.
Between Genesis and Revelation, there's Jesus. Romans 5, 19. I love this passage. There's one passage that I begin to learn and read more and more as this passage because it's very cool.
For as though the one man's disobedience, Adam, the many were made sinners. Even though through the obedience of the one, the many were made righteous. Adam made us sinners. Jesus made us righteous.
Well, Pastor, I'm a sinner saved by grace. Good for you. I'm not. What do you mean you're not?
I'm not a sinner anymore. Jesus made me righteous. I see myself as righteous as whole. I don't say, oh, I'm going to fall back into sin.
No, I'm going to see myself as righteous walking righteously. Will I sin from time to time? Absolutely I will. But here's the beautiful part of it.
How I see myself makes the world of difference. Oh, I'm a sinner. Oh, here I'm just going to keep messing up. I'm going to keep messing up.
No, no, no. I'm righteous. I'm going to keep making right choices. I'm going to keep doing right things.
What a difference the world makes. From dark to light. My brain opens up. Now, listen, I'm not going to step on the scriptures.
We're going to open this thing even further. We're going to develop this passage of scripture even more in the coming weeks. We're going to see something very simple. We were sinners.
Now we're righteous because of the obedience of Jesus. Amen? But obedience costs. Obedience has a price.
Hebrews 5, 8 through 9. It has a price. And this morning, listen, I'm going to give you a lot of scripture just because you don't need my opinion. You need scripture to back up what God is saying here because this is a big topic, big issue that we've got to see scripturally, not just the opinion of your pastor.
Amen? Jesus is God's own son, but still he had to suffer before he could learn what it really means to obey God. Suffering may Jesus perfect. And now he can save forever all who obey him.
Who doesn't make big concepts there? Number one, Jesus had to suffer. If he had to suffer, guess who else we've got to suffer? We do.
Because he suffered and he learned how to obey. Because he had to be learned how to obey in this situation, he can now save all of us because the obedience of one man. Oh boy. Well, pastor, I don't want to suffer.
Well, you've got a problem. Because listen, obedience calls him to suffer. Philippians 2, 8. And being found in a fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
We're going to develop that out as well. But very simply, when I'm talking about it on this piece as this, we got to learn how to kill our flesh. I've never heard a dead person say, ouch. No.
I'm not sure if that's you, God. A dead person doesn't do that. A dead person does whatever the person in charge does with their body. So do I have a lot of people who are dead in here this morning?
Dead to their flesh and alive to their spirit? Or do I have a lot of people who are dead to their spirit and alive to the flesh? That's a good question. And so we had a decision.
What are we going to do? Obedience costs. It's going to cost Jesus. It costs me.
Pastor Michael, did you ever do this and open? Never did that. You ever do it? No, never did that.
Why not? Because I was a follower of Christ and I never went down those ditches. It doesn't make me better than anybody else. But my obedience caused me to miss things the world would say is important.
And I have no idea what those things feel like I thought about it. Amen? So we're going to do some time this morning, look at the Old Testament and following some people in the patterns of the Old Testament. We're going to start with Noah.
We're going to go back to Genesis and Noah. We're going to Genesis 6 and 9. Noah's just a beautiful story. Sometimes I think we just get hung up with Noah.
He's the guy with the what? Hark. Hark. A big boat.
I left it wide open for anyone. Hark a boat. I'm going to talk to the animals. Now I know some of y'all are kind of upset with Noah.
And I know people say, well, when I get to heaven I'm going to talk to Noah about the mosquitoes. Talk to him. There's no here. What are we going to do about it?
When I get there I'm going to talk to him about XYZ rats, mice, snakes, whatever. Talk to him all you want. But we talk about Noah. Listen, this was a bad dude.
He was one of those guys that just 6 and 9 says this. This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was righteous man, blameless among the people of his time and he walked faithfully with God. Oh boy, put that on my tombstone.
Put that on my tombstone. He was blameless. Oh my Lord. He was faithful.
Oh my God, he was righteous. That's the kind of guy I want to be known as. Who called him that? Father God did.
Father God looked at the earth and said, that's the man. He's righteous. He's faithful. Oh my gosh.
I mean he is blameless. But when we pick up verse 11 what do we see? The earth is corrupt full of bad people. Full of bad.
This everything the whole earth was bad. But then we pick up verses 13 through 21 the Lord instructing Noah to build the ark. This is what I want to pick up on. I want to pick up on the pattern here.
Then it's a 6, 22. Notice Noah did according to all that God had commanded him. So he did. Genesis 7, 5.
Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him. You might get in the pattern here. Genesis 7, 9. There went into the ark to know about two's.
Melon female as God had commanded Noah. Very simple. God commanded. He got in the ark.
Genesis 7, 16. Those that entered Melon female of all flesh entered as God had commanded him. And the Lord closed it behind him. Noah very simply did everything God told him to do.
And when he did everything God told him to do. He became a blessing for everybody. For all of us. It became a blessing.
But what he took is this. Very simply. A man. And it could be a woman.
It could be an individual. But it took somebody who God said, will you do this? And they said, yes, I'll do this. Listen, there's a movie called Yes Man.
I don't endorse it. The word part of the show isn't bad. But I think we need to have more Christians who become Yes Man. Don't we do this?
Yes, God. Don't we do that? Yes, God. Don't we?
Yeah, I mean, what if we had a church full of Yes people? God said to do it. And I'll do it. I'm sitting here on a Sunday morning going, and God gives me a word to share with the body.
I go, is that really you, God? Oh, oh, my Pastor Michael a month ago, God gave me something. When we came to a beach, a bunch of people who became Yes people. God, I believe that's you.
Okay, great. Go share with Pastor Michael. That's me. Boom, boom, boom, boom.
All of a sudden people could heal. He was lives get changed. If we had more Yes people, we didn't want to know us. If you had a spirit of Noah said, I'll do it, God.
You say it, I'll do it. How it is it is? Because so many people have said, what are you building? I'm building an arc for what?
For when the rain falls. What is that? Christians around you will go, that's not God. The world doesn't care what you're hearing God or not hearing God.
Come on. So here's my question for you. Can God trust you? Can God trust you?
Has God been giving you things to do and you've been doing them? If you've been doing that, then God can trust you. Ooh, we got silent here real quick. I'm not trying to bring conviction.
What I'm trying to do is bring this. God is calling us up into obedience. God is calling us as individuals up to being Yes people. God is calling us as a church up to be a Yes congregation.
God, you're saying this, we're going to do this. God, you're saying this, we're going to do this. So come back to my question. Can God trust you?
Amen? Let's go to the next one. Abraham. Oh, we love Abraham, don't we?
Everybody knows the story of Abraham. He knows the events of Abraham and Isaac. But let's turn to Hebrews 11, 8, before we like to Genesis. Hebrews 11, 8.
By faith, Abraham, when he was called, there's that word again, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. I'm a Yes man. God, I'm a Yes man.
Hey, Vic, will you go and do this for me? Well, God, where are we going? Vic, will you want to do it or not? Well, God, let me think about it.
Okay, no problem. David, David, listen, I have something for you. Listen, will you go out and do it? Well, you know, my wife and my kids and my grandkids and my grandkids, God, David, no problem.
Rick, will you go and do what I'm actually going to do? Well, God, where we go? I don't know. Hey, I'm in.
What do you want me to do? I don't know. I'm going to tell you what's in result. He's simply going to say, are you coming?
Do you want to go? Yeah, God, I want to go. Yes. I don't think you have foolishly do foolish things that you think are God.
Be mature and wise in God when he commands you to say, yes, because I believe God is going to call different ones of us this year in different things and he's going to say, do this. Well, God, but God's going to say, okay, no problem. No problem. No problem, dear.
Rick, you in? Oh, you in? He's looking for a people. He's looking for a church.
Individuals within that church. We're looking for a church that says, God, I would do what you say. He's called us to be obedient. He's put us in this series to learn obedience.
There's something that's coming down the road from us that God wants us to be prepared for, say, I'm in, I told Becky here about a few weeks ago, I said, I feel like I'm sitting on a rocket ship. I feel like I'm sitting on a rocket, my legs, my arms are wrapping up, and God wants to take something, I don't know what it is, I can't tell you, this is where God's doing, this is what God's saying. I'm sitting on a rocket ship, I'm just building steam up, okay God, it's about to be released. But I believe it has to do with obedience.
Whether it's by obedience, your obedience, our obedience, obedience is the root of what God is doing here. Let's go back to Genesis 22, let's just continuously Abraham a little bit, it's Genesis 22, it starts out sometime later, God tested Abraham. Whoa, I'm not too sure about that one. Do I want to be tested?
Oh let me tell you something, I want to be tested. That's those are dangerous words. God will you test me, those are dangerous words. Why is it dangerous word because God says, I'm gonna come in and test you.
I'm gonna find out what's really in your heart, find out what's really inside you. And people go, oh I know what's inside, I don't want to go to the test me. No I want God to test me, so guess what? All the garbage gets moved out.
More of God comes in, test me so the garbage can come out. God I want obedience, I don't want to do those things. But if we turn to verse two there, Ron, I think I got a Bible, Ron will you take your son and sacrifice him? Yes I mean in theory, it was Abraham, I'm all good.
But when it turned to me and Andre, what, what, what, what, what, what? Hold on church, I believe God's gonna catch you, sacrifice your child, but sometimes it's not your physical child, it's actually the things that you hold on and you treat like a child. I have this pet project or this pet thing and God said, will you go and sacrifice it? And most of us will go, let me think about that.
Well, there's an issue. Abraham didn't think that way. In Genesis 22, 16 through 18, I love this about him. And it said, by myself, I have sworn to clear the Lord because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son.
Your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your seat as the stars of the heavens and the sand, which is on a seashore and your seat shall possess the gates of your enemies. In your seat all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. Did he obey his voice? Yes, but in verse three it's funny, he says early in the morning, early in the morning, he got up to go and sacrifice his son.
Now if I'm Ron, the day before I'm going, oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord, and Ron's not getting any kind of sleep. Oh Lord, oh Lord. Abraham's going, oh Lord, oh Lord. Good, here's one.
Dude, turn over. And he gets up, oh, we're supposed to be here at six o'clock, well, and he gets up at five, five, 31. Let's go, let's go, I was going, I was going, where we going, Dan? I don't know where we're going, we're going to the mountain top.
Put some wood on your back, we're going to the mountain top. Whoo, what a difference. That may. And God said, because you did this, you'll be my people.
You'll be mine. Stop and think about this for a second. Rick, I know why I'm looking at you. Rick, I'm looking at you anyway.
Because of Abraham's choice, because of the choice he made to sacrifice his son, we are all blessed because of that. We're Abraham's seed. We're the ones who are called by God. And here's a beautiful thing, Rick, because you chose Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
Cody is the ability to have Jesus as her Lord and Savior. She's a higher probability of blessings upon her life. And then Cody finds a young man who loves God, who's serving God, and Cody and that young man have a wonderful marriage. And they have wonderful kids.
And those kids have grown up, they find husbands, and they have great kids. And their kids love Jesus. And the generational blessing goes on and on and on and on, just because you chose it. You chose it, so God.
And then you taught your daughter how to obey God. And then you taught your children how to obey God. And the blessings just flowed out. Some of us, we've experienced that.
We're experiencing that. And others, we're honest. We're not experiencing that. Why?
Some unteaching some different things, sometimes disobedience. Why do I want to be hard on them? Oh, I don't want to do this. Listen, that's huge.
Okay, repent. Ask God for forgiveness and go on, because God can restore anything. And the reason I say he can restore anything is because the heart of Rick's family is coming back to Christ, and there's a relationship that's restoring. I think that's why God can be there with you, Rick, for a second.
Very simply, God's doing that. Amen? That's not even my notes. Praise God.
That's good. But there's generational blessings. Generational blessings on what God can do in and through our lives and through our kids. Amen?
Are we seeing a pattern quite yet? Let's keep going. Moses. Oh, Moses, what a great guy, wasn't he?
Exist, 19, 5. I'm going to keep my covenant. Then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples for all the earth is mine. Who wants to be the name of the child of God?
I do. Oh, I'm a child of God, baby. Oh, come on. That's the heart.
That's what we want to be, don't we? Oh, yeah. Oh, I want to be a child of God. I want to be a child of God.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, Pastor, I'm a child of God. I sing out here. I'm a child of God. I'm a child of God.
Oh, I'm a child of God. Are you obeying him? Because you're not obeying what he's saying. Singing the song time, he can heal his difference.
Singing the song, God is going to make a difference because those who are his children obey him. They follow what he's asking them to do. Deecch Bonhoeffer says this, you can only learn what obedience is by obeying. You can only learn what obedience is by obeying.
Oh, that's so powerful. I want to learn obedience by obeying. God says do this. You do it.
A dozen times, Moses' life is so powerful in the last three chapters of Exodus over 12 times. Over 12 times you will read the Lord command of Moses. And so he did. Or he did according to God's will.
Over 12 times in the last three chapters of Exodus. You see it over and over and over again. And then what happens in Exodus 40? This is beautiful.
Exist 40, 33, 35. Then Moses set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and the altar and put the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard. And Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tin of the meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Moses could not enter the tin of the meeting because the cloud had settled on it. And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. God said and he did. God said and he did.
And then all of a sudden the very end, the tabernacle was so full of God's presence. He couldn't even enter into the tin. Man, I want God's presence in my home. God said and Phyllis did.
God said and Phyllis did. And then all of a sudden the glory of the Lord engulfs her home. The members of Grace Community Fellowship. God said and they did.
God said and they did. And God's presence was so strong in here that we came in here to worship. Stephen's up here and he does his first strum and God's presence goes fff. And we're like, what?
Because what? Obedience drove that in. Well, God's sovereignly moves. Yes, God's sovereignly moves.
But if he knows the patterns of God, he sovereignly moves on the people who were obedient to him. Time and time and time again. Obedience came. Catherine Coleman says this, if you're going to be led by the Holy Spirit, you have to be willing to follow.
If you're going to be led by the Holy Spirit, you have to be willing to follow. Come on church. In Leviticus 8 and 9, you want to call in Leviticus 8 and 9. Now that's my first word.
Go back and reread it. Leviticus 8 and 9, encourage and treat it tonight tomorrow. Look how God begins to command Moses and Moses did. Well, let's talk about Aaron.
Slow down. Read your Bible. God commands Moses and he did. And all of a sudden the priestly line just makes a beautiful picture of just some simple things.
Do this, do this, do this. So let me ask this question to all of us. What's the last thing the Holy Spirit told you to do and you didn't do? Oh, that's a good question.
Well, I've read yesterday my Bible, this command, did you do it? No. Think of it back and do it. Amen?
And you're reading Leviticus 8 and 9, I hope you read Leviticus 8 and I want you to read it this way. God delights to dwell with his people and crowns the obedient with his favor and presence. God delights to dwell with his people and crown the obedient with his favor and presence. Alright, Christine, King says this, I love it.
Obedience is less painful than regret. Obedience is less painful than regret. Honestly, I'm gonna write it down as let's say just a different minute. Saint Augustine saying Augustine, the cost of obedience is small compared with the cost of disobedience.
We learned it with Adam and Eve didn't we? But let's be honest, we learn it in our own lives. When we messed up, when we were disobedient, and we got off track, things weren't good. You made it hurt, you made it hurt, you made it hurt.
40 years wondering, why? Disobedience. Deuteronomy has more conversations about being obedient and disobedient in the book than in the book in the Bible. No other books use the blessing of obedience than the book of Deuteronomy.
My passion, Michael, I read it, it was pretty boring. No one can read it, but it's not very boring when talking about obedience and the blessings of obedience. Most of the people over and over again, the blessing of obedience. Deuteronomy 11, 26, or 28.
Well, I feel like you guys are getting this this morning. I feel like this is just really good for us as a church to get. Deuteronomy 11, 26, or 28. See, I'm sitting before you today, a blessing and a curse.
Uh-oh, the blessing if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today, and the curse if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I'm commanding you today by following other gods which you have not known. God wants to bless us if we obey His commandments. Whether it's Kaina, whether it's Paradise, whether it's Wharton, Texas, whether it's Iago, Texas, whether it's East Bonard, Texas, El Campo, Texas, Bay City Tech, whatever part of the region you come from, God wants to sit His blessings upon you. But the cost is obedience.
How many people pray this? Father, teach me to obey you more. I don't know if I pray these things. God, let me hear your voice.
God, let me make my finances. God, help me do this. God, help me do that. God bless my wife.
God bless my kids. God bless my grandchildren. How many of us pray God teach me to obey you more? Teach me to please you and not myself.
Ooh, man alive. To live a life like that, God, I want to please you more than I want to please myself. God, I want to pour out myself and pour more of you in. Teach me.
What a pray for tomorrow morning. Teach me to please you more. Teach me to obey you more. Come on, Church.
The book of Jeremiah talks about people who disobeyed, but it also talks about people who obey this. Jeremiah 7, 22, and 24. And when I bought the answers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command, Obey me. And I will be your God and you will be my people.
Walking obedience to all I command you that you may go well with you, but they did not listen or pay attention. Instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backwards and not forwards. Well, Pastor, I feel like I'm going backwards in life.
Are you Michael Jackson? Are you moving walking through life? I was going forward in my Christian walk, but I feel like I'm going backwards. Where's the last time God told you to do something and you didn't do it.
It calls us to go backwards. Well, Pastor, understanding still, no, no, no, no. In the chemo God, you're moving forward or you're going backwards. Standing still, just rolling down the hill.
There is no just sitting in one place, you're moving one way or the other. Well, Pastor, I was walking strong. Yeah, go back to the place where you last obeyed. And when you disobeyed that last place, go and do what God told you to do and watch what happens.
Amen? Alright, that's Old Testament. I'm not going to do an overview. Let's do the New Testament.
Pretty simple. Who's the model of the New Testament? Jesus. Right?
And I think sometimes we read about Jesus and sometimes we just read real quickly through the things Jesus says. And sometimes we read the word of Jesus to go, real quick. I want to slow down this morning and very simply John 638. This is the word of Jesus.
For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. That's our model. Oh, we're in trouble. But that's the model that we're following as Christ's followers.
Hebrews 10, 5-8. When Christ came into the world, He said to God, sacrifices and offerings are not what you want but you have given me my body. No, you are not pleased with animal sacrifices and offerings for sin. Then Christ said, and so my God, I have come to do what you want as the Scripture says.
When's the last time we said, I only want to do what God wants me to do? I only want to say what God wants me to say. Remember the old bracelets, what would Jesus do? And be warm for every person who has what would Jesus do?
But what would Jesus want to do? The will of the Father? Come on Church, I only want to do what God called me to do. Amen?
Okay, so let's look at John 14, 5 through 16, John 14, 15, 16, 21, 23. And Jesus said to his disciples, if you love me, you would do as I command. If you love me, you would do as I command. I had two little girls who grew up in our home and they used to get the rod a lot.
They did. And we gave them the rod when they disobeyed. They got the rod when they lied. They got disobeyed when they fought.
They got the rod. And they're just a growing process. And then as they progressed through life, the rod wasn't happening so much. They said, well, they learned real quick.
They didn't want to get the rod so they behaved. No, no, no, no. What happened was they began to love the Lord their God. We instilled in them the love of God because they loved God and they wanted to obey God.
Just the natural reflux of it was. They obeyed Becky and I. And because they were the Lord they made us. And the rod separated in a long distance.
Because they simply would. We taught them how to obey God. And when they obeyed God, they began to love God. And when they began to love God, they began to love Becky and I.
Well, they're just kids. They love you anyway. No, they don't. They're sinners.
What are sinners? They don't love anything. But you learn how to love God. You learn how to love the Lord.
You learn how to love your parents. So this is what comes natural. Let's keep going. This is very important.
Jesus said to the disciples, if you love me, you will do as I command. Then I will ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit who will help you and will always be with you. Verse 21, if you love me, you will do what I have said. And my Father will love you.
Did you hear what I just said? I mean, you got slow down. We mean stuff so fast. We miss what's there.
If you love me, you will do what I have said and my Father will love you. Well, I thought God loved everybody. God does love everybody universal. But listen, eight days are still going to hell.
People who don't love God are still going to hell. So understanding what love really is. Come on church. Verse 21, if you love me, you will do what I have said and my Father will love you.
I will also love you and show you what I am like. Verse 23, Jesus replied, if anyone loves me, they will obey me. Then my Father will love them and they will come to them and live in them. Loving God.
Loving Jesus. Equates obeying. Equates obeying them. Oh, Pastor, I haven't read my Bible in a little while.
How you going to love him? Oh, Pastor, I read my little quick devotional, one quote devotional, and read about somebody else's. But what's the word of God say? Amen?
The blessing of obedience is the love of Jesus, the love of Father God, and God revealing Himself to us. Last scripture we're done. Luke 22, 39-43. I know I read a bunch of scripture this morning, but again, I wanted you to get scripture, not my opinion.
Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, pray that she will not fall into temptation. He withdrew by the stones that opened up beyond them, not in parade. Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me.
And then we'd normally read straight on, yet not my will, but yours be done. That wasn't just a hurried up sentence. Jesus didn't say, Father, if you take this cup from me, oh, no, okay, not sure. Not my will, but sure we'll be done.
There's flesh. How do I know that? Because he bled, he's sweating blood. There's a pause in there.
And if we're going to learn an obedience church, there's a price to pay. But the beautiful part is Jesus paid the ultimate price. And an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. Tomorrow morning you wake up and pray, and every person like says, God, not my will, but your will be done.