Obedience,
the Day before Victory
Radical obedience keeps us in grace, protects us from straying
from grace, and matures us to receive more and more grace.
Our
past inheritance and conditioned past do not have ultimate control over
us.
Romans
6:12-19 (NLT)
12
Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful
desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to
serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were
dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do
what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no
longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the
freedom of God's grace.
15
Well then, since God's grace has set us
free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! 16 Don't you realize that you become the slave
of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to
death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17
Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you
wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from
your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to
righteous living.
19
Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of
slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper
into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves
to righteous living so that you will become holy.
1. We can all ultimately
choose not to follow our conditioned past
We get to choose who and what to
obey and we become what we choose to obey.
Matthew
21:28-31 (NLT)
"But what do you think about this? A
man with two sons told the older boy, 'Son, go out and work in the vineyard
today.' [29] The son answered, 'No, I won't go,' but later he changed his mind
and went anyway. [30] Then the father told the other son, 'You go,' and he
said, 'Yes, sir, I will.' But he didn't go. [31] Which of the two was obeying
his father?"…
Summary:
1. Why don’t we obey God in order to receive more
of His grace? Often because of fear,
discomfort and a sense of losing control.
2. Where
do these emotions and motivations come from?
Our conditioned and inherited past through bad choices, bad experiences,
situations that are all added together.
3. The
choices we make to obey God can override all the conditioned and inherited past
since they only influence, shape and affect us strongly, but they cannot make
me do what I don’t want to do or choose not to do.
John
5:6 (NIV)
…"Do you want to get well?"
Many
of us cope and survive using deferred and uncommitted hopes, but
all we are doing is postponing our difficult choices that become more difficult
over time
Obedience
resets our default response system to a healthier level
Matthew
8:22 (NIV)
But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and
let the dead bury their own dead."
Let’s
again summarize:
1. Am
I willing to obey God especially when it is not convenient in order for me to
receive more grace?
2. Why?
3. Where
did that come from?
4. Will
I continue to let it control me?
5. Or
do I want God’s best and a life that gives glory to God?
2. Be aware of the quiet motivations
that influence our important decisions and realize that we no longer have to listen
to them
John
8:32 (NIV)
Then you will know the truth, and the truth
will set you free."
Isaiah
44:22 (NLT)
I have swept away your sins like the
morning mists. I have scattered your offenses like the clouds. Oh, return to
me, for I have paid the price to set you free."
Philip.
3:13-14 (NLT)
… Forgetting the past and looking forward
to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize
for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.
Every saint has
a past and every sinner has a future
Joshua
3:5, 8-10, 14-16 (NLT)
Then Joshua told the people, "Purify
yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you." … Give
these instructions to the priests who are carrying the Ark of the Covenant:
'When you reach the banks of the Jordan River, take a few steps into the
river and stop.' "So Joshua told the Israelites, "Come and listen
to what the Lord your God says. Today you will know that the living God is
among you. He will surely drive out the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites,
Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites…When the people set out to
cross the Jordan, the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went
ahead of them. Now it was the harvest
season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. But as soon as the
feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river's
edge, the water began piling up at a town upstream called Adam, which is near
Zarethan. And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the
riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the city of Jericho.
3. God invites
us to take the first step of faith and obedience into uncertain
waters – because He is leading us, He will take us safely to the other side