Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / April 10, 2019 | Patty Diliberto - Called To Surrender - Session 5

Transcript

April 10, 2019 | Patty Diliberto - Called To Surrender - Session 5 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Let's uh let's pray and get going.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: Father God, thank you so much for this time.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for uh the ways that you're gonna minister to us through your Holy Spirit.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: We just offer this time up to you.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: We offer our hearts up to you, and and we would just ask, Lord, that you would come and manifest your presence here among us today and just give us a very sweet time with your spirit, we pray.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: So last week in my teaching, we talked about and looked at trust and especially how trust builds how much God values our trust because it represents love and and even in the detours of life, how difficult that is.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: If you missed last week, it's on the um on the website, on TBC's website, so you can listen to it and catch up with it.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: But today I'm gonna we're going to look at love-born obedience.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: And I want to share a little bit of my story with you to tie this in.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: I went home from my freshman year of Bible college, not intending to go back.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: I packed everything up and took it all from Florida all the way back to Colorado.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: Wasn't intending on going back.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: I had done the work at school, um, but my heart wasn't in it, and obedience was was very lacking at this point.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: So I went back to home and I went back to my old friends and went back to my old partying and lifestyle and all that.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: And one night I was at um I was at a party and where there was lots of drinking and everything that goes along with that that was taking place.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: Earlier that evening I had been at rehearsal at the church that I was attending so I could sing there, and then I left there and went to the party and felt pretty hypocritical, which I should have felt hypocritical, right?
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Well, at one point that evening, I just um I just kind of took a step back and I and I just kept watching what was going on.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: And the realization, and I'm sure that God brought this realization on me, um, was that we just we thought we were so cool and that we were doing our own thing, and that we were just, you know, being so cool.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: And really what was we were doing was we were following exactly what the world and Satan tells us is important and valuable and that we should do.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: And so it was just like it was like God took the blinders off for me that night.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: And I just sat there and I thought, is this really what I want?
2:36
SPEAKER_00: You know, is this really what I want?
2:38
SPEAKER_00: Do I want to go through the rest of my life with Satan jerking my chain?
2:42
SPEAKER_00: And I decided that I didn't.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: And that clarity in that moment was really amazing for me.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: It was like he had taken the blinders off, and right then I decided that I was gonna choose God.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Even though I hadn't been obedient and I and I had really been messing up, I was gonna choose him.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: And I left without saying goodbye to anyone.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: I went home, I crawled in bed, and I started crying.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: And I said, God, if you can use me in any way, shape, or form, I'm yours.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: And I I gave up the fight that night to have my own way.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: And um I I determined if he could do anything, I was gonna do it his way, finally.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: And I went back to Florida Bible College, submitted to do his will and his way, and I absolutely had not reached a place of surrender at all.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: And and and I I but at that point I traded places with God, and I got on the back of the tandem bike and let him take the lead.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: The amazing thing is that God didn't wait until I was in a surrendered place to use me in kingdom work.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: He started using me right away in kingdom work.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: Um I was I was in awe that he would even consider using me after the screw up that I'd been.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: But I have to also tell you that I went the serving that I was doing was in my own strength.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: It was in my own ability and and not God's.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, but even then, he let me do it for quite a long time until my 39th year from you know where.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think I'm alone in this.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: I think that um God graciously uses us in his kingdom work even when it's more about us than it is about him.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: Even when it's a selfish motive of ours, he'll still let us do that kingdom work.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing to me.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: Rather than being doing it in his strength, he'll let us do it in our strength until we frustrate ourselves and get totally defeated and trying and the attempt to do it ourselves.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: Many believers will only ever serve making it more about them than it is about God.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: And how unfortunate is that.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: Before that night, for me, that was definitely some of my motivation for serving God.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: Fear was there because I felt like if I didn't serve him, he was gonna kill me, or he was gonna make my life really, really miserable.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: And he was gonna do something to get my attention and then he was gonna punish me, basically.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: And I felt guilt because I was doing something I shouldn't be doing.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: So of course I felt guilty.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: I was guilty.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: And I felt obligation because I had stood up in front of everybody and I had said, I'm gonna dedicate my life to God, I'm gonna go to Bible college, and I'm gonna, you know, an I, an I, an eye.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: Ad nauseum.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: But um, but but so any serving that I was doing was out of fear, or it was out of guilt, or it was out of obligation, because I felt like I had to.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: To the outside, unsaved world, those outside the church, I think this is what it looks like is going on inside the church.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: But it but but it can look like we are serving God out of guilt and fear and and obligation, and it's not very appealing, right?
7:16
SPEAKER_00: It's not.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: After that night at that party, I began obeying and serving God from a new basis, the basis of love and gratitude, gratitude that he would use me at all.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: Not because I had to, but because I wanted to.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: I had made the choice for him and not for the world or Satan.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: I wish we could go around and everybody could could share how their had to changed into a want-to.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: Because at some point we kind of we we hopefully we all get to that place, and maybe that's the journey that you're on, is getting your will to be God's, what God wants for you.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: The fathers of the Reformation, which were Martin Luther and Calvin and Zwingli and Haas and Knotts, and my own ancestor, Heinrich Bullinger, understood this, and that is actually one of the reasons the Reformation took place.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: These men had tried to follow the commandments, and every stringent church teaching and instruction.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: Instead of experiencing God's love and grace, though, they felt empty inside.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: And Martin Luther was actually even angry with God because he was so miserable.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: What he was trying to do was not working, and he was miserable in that.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: They had tried to serve God and the Catholic Church, and they were doing it because they had to rather than wanting to.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: But then one day God opened Martin Luther's eyes, and he he really understood because of the Holy Spirit, Romans 1.17, which says, the just shall live by faith.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: It was by faith and not by works that they were all doing, that a person is justified or made right before a holy God.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: And that was what set Martin Luther free.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: That was the basis that changed Luther's had to to a want to in gratitude for God.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: And it motivated the others to do the same thing.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: They had embraced the truth that it was through faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone, through Scripture alone, and for God's glory alone.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: And that was the the five tenets that they based the Reformation on.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: That it was that important.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: It was those things.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: Love-born obedience is what we're talking about, not obedience-born love.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: There's a difference.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: Obedience-born love is what Luther and the others were attempting, but it only brought them condemnation and misery and guilt and failure.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to obey your way into loving God, right?
10:32
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to keep doing all the things that you have to do so that he's pleased with you.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to do that.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: Because obeying our way into his love smacks of legalism.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: Legalism is defined as excessive adherence to law or formula and dependence on moral law rather than personal religious faith.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Does God love us any less if we are disobedient?
11:05
SPEAKER_00: Does he love us any less if we are disobedient?
11:09
SPEAKER_00: No, he does not.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: Scripture clearly teaches us that his love is unconditional, no matter what we do, no matter what we do.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: As a parent or a grandparent, do you love your children any less when they're disobedient?
11:26
SPEAKER_00: You might be disappointed in them and upset with them and maybe even angry with them, but you don't love them any less.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: Your love doesn't change, and neither does God.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: Because of our disobedience, God may be disappointed or upset with us.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: He may even be angry with us, but his love is unfailing.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: John 4.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: John, 1 John 4.10 says, This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: God took the initiative in loving us, in making a way for us to be his.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: God, what what we repeatedly see in Scripture is that God initiates that process, right?
12:15
SPEAKER_00: And that's so different because we get it turned around and we think that we're the ones who initiate that.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: But scripture is clear that God has been pouring out his love on us constantly until we respond to him.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: This goes back to that concept that love comes down first from God to us, not the other way.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the the other way around is our response to him in gratitude and in love back to him.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: But it first comes from him down to us.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: If there's a blockage, we're the ones who are blocking it.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: It's coming from our direction up to God, not God's direction down to us, because he would not do that.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: It would be inconsistent with who he is.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: Um 4.16 says, and so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: God is love.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 4 19 says, we love because he first loved us.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: And Romans 5, 8 says, God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: God didn't wait for us to come to him before he loved us.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: When we were still in that sinful mentality cycle of sin.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: He still loved us then.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: He still loved us when we were defiant and maybe even shaking our fists at him, or when we were running away from him, or when we did that thing that we thought nobody saw and you don't want anybody to know about.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: He loved us when we were still sinners, when we were still in that state and still doing that thing.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: And the demonstration of that love, this verse says, is that Christ died for us.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: He died for that, that rebellion and that sin.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: Legalism comes from trying to earn God's love by obedience and sacrifice.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees were famous for this, right?
14:28
SPEAKER_00: We and we can easily fall into that ourselves.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: And and some have.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: Obedience offered in love is the fruit of grace and is an anecdote to legalism.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we have the perfect, perfect example of someone who did it perfectly, and the only someone who has ever done it perfectly.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was the most authentic person to ever walk this earth.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: He he knew who he was and he was comfortable with who he knew himself to be.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: He was.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: He spoke with authority because he had authority.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: Jesus spoke from the depth of who he was, and there was that authenticity and that that passion that just stirred others to want to follow him and listen to him.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: I hope and pray that through your study this past week and all of these weeks, that you really are grasping how much Jesus Christ centered his whole life and ministry on the will of the Father, how his obedience to the Father was of utmost importance to him.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: He repeats it so often in the Gospels.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: It's it's truly amazing.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: He was he was Jesus was was um was intent on carrying out every single thing that the father wanted him to carry out.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: And it was important that he did that to the very last degree.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: Everything that God wanted him to do.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: He he had to do.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said what he meant, and he meant what he said.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: And the way he said it had power and it had the authority and it drew people to himself.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: When he makes statements about obedience, we better listen to what he says because he's the perfect example of it.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: So we want to know what motivated that obedience, and of course, love for the Father motivated that obedience.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had to perfectly, excuse me, Jesus had to perfectly fulfill everything that was spoken and prophesied about the Messiah in the Old Testament.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: He had to perfectly fulfill those things.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: Since he had to do that, that meant that he had to follow God's will to the very last degree.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at a few of the things that Christ fulfilled from the old from the Old Testament.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: That Christ would be born in Bethlehem, that he the forerunner of Christ would be John the Baptist, that Christ would enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey, that he would be betrayed by a friend, that Christ would be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, thirty pieces of silver would be cast down and used as a potter's field, although innocent Christ kept silent when on trial, and he was crucified, the way Psalm 22 tells us.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: They would pierce his hands and his feet, that was uh is also in Psalm 22, that he's crucified with thieves, that the piercing of his side with the sword, that he would be given gall and vinegar to drink, that he would have no broken bones, that he would be buried in a rich man's tomb, and that lots would be cast for his garments.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: Those are just fifteen.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: Fifteen.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: Most of those are of his death and crucifixion, not to mention his birth.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: There are between 200 and 400 prophecies in the Old Testament about Messiah.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: The reason there's a variance there is because some people might determine that this particular passage is a prophecy, and some might say, no, it's not really a prophecy, it's something else.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a degree, but 200, even if it's just the minimal amount, 200 is incredible.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: But think about the fact that Jesus had to perfectly obey the will of the Father in order to fulfill all the messianic prophecies about him in the Old Testament, all of them.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: One person fulfilling eight prophecies, just half of those that we mentioned, was one in the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, a bunch of zeros after that.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: One person fulfilling 48 prophecies, one chance in ten, to the 157th power, and one person fulfilling 300 prophecies, only Jesus.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: Only Jesus.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: The creator of the universe, Jesus, who called the galaxies into being by the power and authority of his voice, illustrates through his own life the need to bow to the authority of God the Father.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: That's what we are seeing here.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: Colossians, Paul writes in Colossians 1:16.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: For in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had full authority over heaven and earth, over everything that was created.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: And yet he fully submitted himself to the will of the Father, to the obedience of God.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: God had authority.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: Never have love and obedience been more beautifully demonstrated than through the life and the death of Jesus Christ.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: But he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: John, 1 John 12, 49 and 50.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: For I did not speak on my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: I know that his command leads to eternal life.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it amazing?
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew the will of the Father and obeyed it perfectly.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: And even in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He when He prays, Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: Yet not my will, but yours be done.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: And think of that from the Father's perspective.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: The Godhead knew the plan that was set from eternity past.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: They knew what had to happen.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: And they stayed with that plan to the very Last degree, because it was a heart issue for the Father and the Son.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: It was a heart issue of obedience because of their relationship, because of the relationship that they had.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Our obedience is a heart issue because of the relationship that we have with Jesus Christ.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: It's a heart issue for us.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: The Father had to let the Son carry out the obedience, knowing in advance all he would suffer.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: And the Son knew that all that was going to come, and yet he was steadfast in his obedience to God, the Father.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: One day I was talking with a young woman who we were talking about this, and she looked at me with conviction and she just like dropped her mouth and she said, When did obedience become an option for me?
23:00
SPEAKER_00: When did it become an option for me?
23:03
SPEAKER_00: And she just sat there with tears in her eyes because she realized I've been obeying him when I want to obey him, when it's beneficial to me.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: But I've been disobeying him because I know what he wants me to do and I'm not doing it.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: She made that comment and and and it really struck me too.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: When did obedience become an option?
23:26
SPEAKER_00: We can probably all relate to that.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: I know I can.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: The thing is, obedience was not an option for Jesus Christ.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: He had to obey the will of the Father, but he did it with such love and grace and compassion.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: It was the only plan to reconcile a sinful people to a holy God.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: It was the only plan.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: There was no plan B for them.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: There are many reasons why I think J.I.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: Packer has it right.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, I have to go to a different one.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm back up here.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, we'll go back to Thomas Aquinas.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: Thomas Aquinas says, the Father did not force Jesus against his will.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: Rather, he was pleased by the fact that Jesus freely accepted death and out of love.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: It was this love which the Father worked in Jesus.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: There's these things from J.I.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: Packard that I think is really accurate and spot on, too.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: He says, in all of this, the Son is obeying the Father in true humility, living out a natural, voluntary, and joyful subordination.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: Remember that verse, for the joy that was set before me, he endured the cross.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, the father's aim of having the son worshipped and glorified equally with himself is steadily being fulfilled.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: So listen here.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: The son's aim was that the father would be glorified.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: The father's aim was that the son would be glorified, because that's all that exists in the Godhead is equal, mutual adoration and exaltation.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: That's what they do.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: The voluntary obedience of the Son made it possible for the Father to glorify him, but the Father would have glorified him anyway, because that's what exists there.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: But it was Christ's aim to please the Father and glorify him.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: Just like last week we saw that the detours give us opportunity to trust, so the so obedience gives us the opportunity to glorify Christ.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: The Son's obedience glorified the Father, and our obedience glorifies the Son.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: If it was so important for the Son to glorify the Father, how much more important should it be for us to glorify the Son?
26:03
SPEAKER_00: Every bit is important.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: Sonic Light gives us another reason why his obedience was so necessary.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: His going into death was his final conflict with Satan for man and on his behalf, man's behalf.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: By submitting to it, he took away the power of death.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: He disarmed death by burying its shaft in his own heart.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: So in order for us to walk in freedom and obedience, Jesus had to defeat Satan.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: When we walk with God in love and obedience, unhindered by self or by Satan, Jesus will be glorified in what we do.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: Because we're walking in his freedom that he bought for us.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: Tony Evans says, Paul tells us to have the mind of Christ.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: The mind that sees obedience to God is the thing of highest importance.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: Out of love, Jesus came to earth to be a servant and to obey the Father's plan, even to the point of death and separation from God.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: When he swept blood in the garden and prayed that the cup of death on the cross would pass from him, he asked that the Father's will be done.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: And he followed through in obedience, trusting that God's plan was best.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Love and obedience is what we see so perfectly demonstrated on the cross.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: Oswald Chambers says, our Lord's first obedience was to the will of his Father, not to the needs of men.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: The saving of men was the natural outcome of his obedience to the Father.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't love for us that held Jesus on the cross.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't the motive.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: The motive was obedience to his holy God.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: To holy God.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: It was obedience.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: Saving us was an outcome of that.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: But it was the love for God that held Jesus Christ on the cross.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has told us that he did and said all that the Father wanted him to do and to say.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: And then he turns it to us and makes it personal for us.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: And we see that our obedience is an opportunity to look like Jesus.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: So let's see from Jesus' own words to us how closely linked love and obedience is.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: John 15, 10 and 11.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: Just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love, I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: Obedience results in a more intimate and joyful relationship with God.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: And he says in John 14, 15, if you love me, you will obey what I command.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: Jesus will know if we love him, if he sees a similar obedience to the one he demonstrated.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: In the past, when I had a legalistic mindset, I read that verse completely differently.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: I read it as if you love me, you will obey what I command.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: That's how I read that verse.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: Anybody else?
30:06
SPEAKER_00: Really?
30:07
SPEAKER_00: Anyone else?
30:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm not alone.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: In essence, it felt, I felt like it was saying, you will prove who prove how much you love me if you obey me.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: When we tend to we tend to focus on the obligation to obey the commands of Jesus, but we forget that first part.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: If you love me, if you love me, then you're gonna do what I want you to do.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: Love is the basis.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: Love is the genesis of the action of obedience.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: Love is the genesis of the action of obedience.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: Sonic Light says, some believers love Jesus more than other believers do.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: The results, this results in some believers obeying him more than others and enjoying a more intimate relationship with him and a greater understanding of him than others enjoy.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: The way to become a great lover of Jesus is by learning to appreciate the greatness of his love for us.
31:13
SPEAKER_00: If you observe someone whom you really admire for their relationship with Christ, don't assume that he just loves them way more than he loves you.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not true.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't love us any differently.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: But those people who you see who are enjoying that have done some really hard work.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: They've dealt with self and with sin.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: And they've they've tackled the question of am I going to obey God when He tells me to do something?
31:46
SPEAKER_00: They've wrestled with it and they've come to those determinations.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: And the first one being obedience is going to be their first response to God, not their last response.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: They're not going to argue with God about something that he wants them to do.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be their first response, yes, Lord.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Lord, I will do that, whatever that is.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: John 14, 23 and 24.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: My father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: Our love for Christ activates in a way the Father's love and enables the Spirit to come and take up residence in us.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, granted, God always loves us.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: His love is consistent.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: He has always loved us because he knit us together in our mother's womb.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: He put your DNA together.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: He put you together exactly the way he wanted you to be.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: So he has always loved us.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: But how remarkable is this that the Father and the Son, through the Holy Spirit, come in and make a home with us.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: They come in and they come, they take up residence inside of us.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: He says, My Father and I will come to you in all of your misery, in all of your suffering, in all of your stuff, in all of your baggage, in all of your in all of it.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: He will come and make a home with us.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: A place.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: And what is a home?
33:10
SPEAKER_00: A home is a place where you belong.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: A home is a place where you fit in.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: And a home, a home is a place where it just feels right.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: And that's what God gives us.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: He gives us heaven on earth.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: And that's where it is, inside of us.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: Heaven and earth is inside of us.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: When we think about heaven, we might think about big, elaborate mansions or tables laden with food.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: It's the things.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: We might think of it more as things rather than relationship.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is saying it is relationship that brings you heaven on earth.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: The Father, the Son living in us and through us.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: And this is the place where we get to interact with heaven before we ever reach heaven.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: Because that's true.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: Every and every believer's reality, anyone, anywhere, no matter their living conditions, can experience it.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: Praise Jesus.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: This is true.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: Because I've seen some of the poorest people in Haiti.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: And my heart breaks for them, but you know what they have?
34:18
SPEAKER_00: The relationship with Christ that that is heaven on earth for them.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: Even though their possessions are so few, they experience heaven on earth.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: The richest people you know can experience heaven on earth.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: Anyone, anywhere, no matter their living conditions, can obey God and love Him.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you grateful that that's true?
34:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm so grateful that obedience and love are a heart issue and not a possession issue.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: Not of if I have the ability, if I have the gifting, if I have the thing that I can give him.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: It is a heart issue, and therefore anybody, anywhere, can partake of it.
35:00
SPEAKER_00: Thank God that is true.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: We only truly possess one thing that we get to offer to him, and that is our heart.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: It's the totality of our being, and yet every one of us can do it.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: Even those who have limited cognitive ability can do it.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: I've seen it, and I'm sure that you've seen those precious ones who still love Jesus and are full of joy.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' obedience impacts our obedience, and our obedience impacts the other, impacts the obedience of others.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: Those who have obeyed the will of God for the past 2,000 years have laid the groundwork for our obedience, and how we respond to God in obedience is going to lay the groundwork until the Lord Jesus comes back.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: This is important, isn't it?
35:56
SPEAKER_00: When we reach a place of surrender, love-born obedience is just a given.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: You just know that if God convicts you over something, your heart attitude will be to obey and to agree with him about what he has convicted you of.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: You just know, yep, you're right, I'm wrong, I'm an idiot.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: Let's move on.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: I repent.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: Your desire won't be to argue with God and tell him how you were wrong, how you were right, and and until until he agrees with you, which he won't.
36:30
SPEAKER_00: In surrender, the fight to have your own way is over.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: And your desire is the will of God, the will of the Father.
36:39
SPEAKER_00: The result of Christ's obedience was that God was highly exalted through him.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: And he bestowed on Christ that name that is above every name.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: That at the name of Jesus, every knee is gonna bow and confess that he is Lord to the glory of the Father.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: The power behind our obedience is the Holy Spirit.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows that we cannot follow him without a power beyond ourselves.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: And that is why he sent the Holy Spirit.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: Now, what would you think if you saw this guy pushing his car?
37:16
SPEAKER_00: What would you assume?
37:18
SPEAKER_00: He needs help.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: He is probably out of gas, and you might stop and offer gas.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: But how crazy would it be if he said to you, Oh, that's okay.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: I just push my car wherever I want to go.
37:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, well, that's one way to do it, and you're crazy.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: And he he would be crazy.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: Cars are not supposed to be powered by us, they're supposed to be powered by gasoline and driven by us.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: And it's a silly illustration, but the same is true for us.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to be powered by the Holy Spirit and go where he wants us to go, not pushing ourselves to do it because we have to.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't give us commands which he wants us to push ourselves to obey.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: He also gives us the source of energy to do it, to do what he wants us to do, to empower what we do.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: Charles Stanley says, we cannot garner the power of the Spirit in order to use God.
38:23
SPEAKER_00: Conversely, we experience his power when we surrender to be used by him.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: God releases his power through us as we walk in obedience to him.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: Peter is such a good example of this.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus called to Peter saying, Follow me, Peter followed with no hesitation.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: It was an easy thing to do because everybody was doing it, at least all of his friends were doing it.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't all that hard.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: The irresistible presence of Jesus and the pre and the presence of the Holy Spirit in Jesus made him very desirable.
38:57
SPEAKER_00: People wanted to follow him.
38:59
SPEAKER_00: But three years later, when the stakes got higher for all of them, and Peter was no longer just an observer, but he was a participant, things changed.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: When he should have followed, which was Jesus' directive, he fought.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: And when he should have supported, he bailed out.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: And then he denied Christ with shouts and curses, denied that he ever knew him.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: This was a huge, severe testing and a huge fail on Peter's part.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had told him, You must follow me.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: Follow me.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: But the next time when the resurrected Jesus tells him, You must follow me.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: Peter was ready to do it the right way, God's way, in obedience to and out of a gratefully forgiven love.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: And he followed him.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: Christ had, and Peter had to follow him.
40:03
SPEAKER_00: Peter had to do it.
40:05
SPEAKER_00: But he now had a power that he had never experienced.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: The same power that drove Jesus and motivated him now drew Peter.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: And Peter couldn't keep his mouth shut.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: Everywhere he went, he proclaimed Jesus Christ, the risen Lord.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: If Peter hadn't failed, he wouldn't have needed the kind of forgiveness that he received.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: And his love for Christ would have been a lesser love.
40:32
SPEAKER_00: And a lesser man would have walked away in shame and never come back.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: But Peter didn't.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: Peter did follow, and he proclaimed Christ and he went and it took him all the way to death as a martyr.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: God greatly used him and the others to completely change the course of the world.
40:52
SPEAKER_00: The fathers of the Reformation, Peter and myself, have learned what we should all learn love-born obedience from a greater love than our own, obedience empowered by the Spirit of Jesus, a love-born obedience that is built on the person of Christ, the presence of Christ, the power of Christ, for the glory of Christ.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: How remarkable it is.
41:45
SPEAKER_00: How much he says it over and over and over.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the demonstration of his life to us.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to do it perfect.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: You already know that.
41:56
SPEAKER_00: You're not expecting perfection because we're not Jesus Christ.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: But whenever you see our obedience, you're really pleased because we look like Jesus in what we're doing.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: That just that just blesses you.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: So I thank you.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: I thank you that you you call us to obedience, but for all the right reasons.
42:18
SPEAKER_00: Not the reasons that we've probably thought of in the past that we had to to make you love us, but because we want to, because your love is so unfathomable for us.
42:31
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that because you live inside of us, we can experience heaven on earth before we reach heaven.
42:37
SPEAKER_00: But what a glory that's gonna be.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: If we could see, if we could see what was waiting us for us up there, it would make us so much more surrendered.
42:53
SPEAKER_00: God move us from a have to to a want to.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: Move us from from doing it in our own strength to doing it empowered by your spirit for your glory alone.
43:08
SPEAKER_00: Because you are great and you are glorious, and you are greatly to be praised.
43:15
SPEAKER_00: We bless you today, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
43:20
SPEAKER_00: In your name, amen.