The Challenge of Obedience
John 14:15-24
It is hard to obey = someone – anyone – it is a challenge to obey
Why is it so hard to obey?
Why do children not obey their parents? – the most basic of all relationships. Thousands of books are written on how parents can get their children to obey them.
Children are born with a will – strong wills – Children grow into adults with wills - tempered
Children want what they want. They want it when they want it. They want it the way they want it.
Is not always the best – parents know this – but that doesn’t change the fact that the child wants it.
Adults are the same
James 4:1-2
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don't get it.
Someone at work tries to get around whatever the boss says, Spouses think they do not need to obey the other,
When we do not obey earthly masters why do we think we will obey God -
Obedience is an indication of maturity –
We all believe in God – not hard to get there
Most all believe God loves – that is good – to our benefit, makes me feel good
God is going to teach us what it is to love and how we mature in love...
Three things we are not sure about & keep us from obeying God
God is good – We are not so sure about that – bad things happen to good people
Luke 18:19 "No one is good — except God alone.
God is trustworthy – He will come through – faithful – longsuffering
I want it NOW...so my picture of faithfulness is delivering sometime in the next 2 minutes.
To know God as faithful – pushes our patience – Job – Heb 10
God is true – he knows best, he knows what is right, His ways are worthwhile
These are the same reasons children don’t obey their parents
Same reasons we don’t obey our bosses, teachers, leaders
We have great uncertainties because we each have wills that want to be unbridled – what we fool ourselves into thinking is freedom, but is really just wild. Our will will tell us we have a right to be unbridled.
“I do it” a child says – “I do it” an adult says
Parents love their children they sacrifice for their children– but they also buy into a lie – they think their children love them too – they don’t – as children mature they grow to love as they begin to sacrifice their desires to obey their parents.
When a child trusts that the parent knows what is best for them, they have their best in mind, they are good and will be good to them then they will obey
There is a secret power, a deep power, that overpowers our own disobedient hearts
– it is taking control of my will – overriding my will for the benefit of others – overriding my will for God desires --- agape – the active, self-sacrificing love.
15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command.
When we love God we are trusting
That God is good – we are used to trusting in ourselves
That God is trustworthy
That God is Right / True
Love is an attitude of our hearts
We find the blessings of God when we obey him
- 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever
- 21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father
- 24 "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him
The entire Godhead – F/S/HS comes to live within us
We Obey Jesus by doing what he has told us to do
John 13:34-35
34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
You are loving others when you are proving you are good, trustworthy and true to others –
The truth is you and I cannot do that on our own, we need God to do that through us
Obeying Jesus looks like loving others as Jesus loved us
Jesus said multiple times – “I only do what the Father has told me to do; I do what the Father shows me to do; I say what the Father tells me to say...”
and the same will be true for us as well.
When we love others, in Jesus name, we are obeying Him and we will experience His presence in our lives.
Loving is loving when it is not easy, loving when I would rather be doing something else – I am making a conscious choice to take the reigns of my will and direct it towards looking to the needs / interest of someone else, making things right between me and someone else, following the lead of someone one – that is loving
We must take control over our wills
This is one thing we can do – no one can do it for you
The only way to take control over your will is through love – giving yourself to others and receiving love from others.
What do I do today to begin to Obey God?
- begin to look to God to be Good, trustworthy
and true
- Who are you being Good Trustworthy and true to (who are you serving, sacrificing yourself, giving yourself to)
- Begin
looking to the Body of Jesus to be Good Trustworthy and True
- Who are you looking to as Good, Trustworthy and True (who are you following)
Serve someone else in love – God showing up through you
Look to someone else in love – God showing up through them to you
Costly / Sacrificing
Risky / Trusting
God LOVE=OBEYING