RADICAL
OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S WORD
A few weeks
ago I began a series of messages based upon our statement of purpose, which is
based upon “The Purpose Driven Life” written
by Rick Warren. The first subject was “Dynamic Worship and Prayer.” Your first purpose is to get to know and love
God. That’s called Worship. And two weeks ago our subject was “Life-Giving
Relationships.” God wants you to learn
to love other people and get along in His family and the Bible calls that Fellowship.
Today let’s look at the third purpose God put you on
this planet. Notice your outline (Romans 8:29) For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren. (KJV)
Now God’s plan has always been to make you like
Jesus Christ. His
plan from the very beginning has been to make human beings like Himself. No, God doesn’t want you to become a god; He wants you to
become godly. He wants you to develop His character, the
way He thinks, the way He acts, the way He feels, His values, His moral
character. God wants to make you like
Himself, and that’s God’s third purpose for putting you on this planet, to make
you like Jesus.
Look
at the next verse, But speaking the
truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even
Christ: (Ephesians 4:15 KJV)
Now what does it mean to grow up?
It means to be like Christ. God’s will for you
is that you grow up. Babies are cute,
but if babies stay babies, it’s tragic.
God wants us to mature and develop. So what does spiritual maturity look
like? Just take a long look at Jesus
Christ. Now unfortunately, a lot of
people grow older but never grow up.
Write this down, my third purpose in life
is Radical Obedience To God’s Word (Discipleship). God put you on this planet to become
like Jesus. Jesus is our model of what
He wants us to grow to become. This is a
process. This doesn’t happen
overnight. It’s not like one day all of
a sudden – ZAP – you’re just like Jesus.
It’s a process, and this process is called “discipleship”, and it takes
an entire lifetime. It’s going to take
the rest of your life for God to build character in you, the character
qualities of Jesus Christ.
How does God help me grow spiritually?
How does God make me like Jesus Christ? Well, there are a couple of ways we know
very quickly. We know He uses the Bible. It takes truth to
transform us. If you really want to grow
up spiritually, you’ve got to get into this Book. The more you get into it, the more you’re
going to grow. You need to read it and
study it and memorize it and meditate on it and think about it and apply it in
your life, because it takes truth to transform us.
Now the other thing God uses is people, and that’s why two weeks ago we talked about fellowship. When we
learn from each other, we grow and we develop. And the more you get with other
Christians, the more spiritually mature you’re going to become as you grow
because you’re spending time with them.
He uses more than the Bible and He uses more than fellowship. This morning we’re going to look at three additional
things that God uses.
Let’s look at this next verse,
God works all things for good to make us
like Jesus. And you say, “Oh, what does
that include?” Yeah, it does include
“all”. Does that include bad things; painful
things? Does it even include mistakes and
sins? Yes, it does. In all things God
works for the good of those who love Him.
It doesn’t say all things are good because there’s a lot of bad in the
world, but in all things God uses it to make me like Christ.
Let’s look at
three unexpected tools, and we’re going to see them in the life of Jesus
Christ. He had trouble in the
garden. He had temptation in the
desert, and He had trespasses on the cross.
And if you’re going to grow to be like Jesus Christ, God’s going to take
you through these same experiences. Now the problem is, these things
don’t automatically help you grow. You have to have your heart ready, because if your heart
isn’t ready you’re going to become bitter by these things rather than better by
these things.
Write this down,
God uses trouble to teach us to trust Him.
Now in the Bible this word “trouble” is often called “trials”
or “tribulations.” Trials are situations
used by God to draw us closer to Him. They’re not
designed to hurt us; they’re designed to help us. When things are going great in your life it’s
more difficult for your faith to be stretched and your character to be
developed. So God allows some things along in our life to stretch us, to cause
us to grow, and these are called troubles or trials. God wants to build character in you. How does He do it?
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also:
knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and
experience, hope: (Romans 5:3-4 KJV)
Very important
truth: God is far more interested in your life, in what you are, than in what
you do.
Why? Because you’re not taking your career to
heaven with you, but you are taking your character. That’s what’s going to last. Now I do believe that God guides us in our
career choices. The Scripture tells us “For God is working in
you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” (Phil. 2:13 NLT).
Remember there will be problems in this
life – troubles, trials, tribulations, difficulties – and when they come we’re
tempted to say, “Why me Lord? Why is
this happening to me?” as if your life is supposed to be a life only of
comfort. Well it’s not. The goal of life
is not comfort. This is not
heaven. One day you’re going to be in a
place with no problems and no trials.
Isn’t that going to be great?!
And you’re going to spend millions and billions of years there, but this
life is not heaven. And if you keep
thinking you’re going to have heaven on earth, you’re going to be very
disappointed. This is the place for character development--troubles produce
patience, patience produces character, and character produces hope.
Would you write
this down somewhere in your outline? Every problem has a purpose. I
don’t care whether you caused it, somebody else caused it or the devil caused
it. Every problem has a purpose. And
what is that purpose? It’s to make me
like Jesus Christ, to build character in my life.
Jesus went through many troubles and
trials in His life, but one of His greatest was the night before He was
crucified. He knew what He was going to
have to face the next day, and the intensity of that turmoil in His heart was
enormous. He was going to take the sin
of the world on Him. He was going to die a horrible death by crucifixion, and
the real question would be, “Would He trust God?” Would He trust God to know what’s best for
His life, even if it meant an extremely painful death? And that’s what He had to struggle with. He went to a place called Gethsemane. He took His disciples to a garden; actually
it was a grove of olive trees and under the stress of carrying the weight of
the world, He asked His disciples to stay with Him while He prayed.
Even Jesus needed friends when He went through
troubles. That’s why you need one
another. That’s why you need fellowship. Nobody is supposed to go through the troubles
of life alone. Even Jesus needed
friends. He says, “If you guys would
just hang out with me while I go pray.”
(Mark
14:33-34) And He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled
and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly
sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch." (NKJV)
This is major trouble He’s going through. He said, “I am almost crushed when I think of
what’s going to happen tomorrow, what I’m going to have to go through.” Most of you can say, “I know what it feels
like to wondering if you can make it another day.”
And notice how Jesus responded to trouble in the
next verse.
(Mark 14:35-36) He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and
prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He said,
"Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from
Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will." (NKJV)
Now friends, if you’re going to become
like Jesus, this is the first lesson you’re going to have to learn. When you go through trouble, it’s OK to say
to God, “God I don’t like this”, “God I want you to take it away”, “God I know
it’s possible for you to take it away”.
He said, “I know everything is possible with You. Yet, if this is what’s best for me, Your will
be done in my life”. He surrendered to
God’s plan.
Very Important
Truth: If you’re going to become like
Jesus Christ, you’ve got to learn to trust God completely, even when things
look terrible.
You’re going to have to learn to trust
God completely just the way Jesus did.
God uses trouble to teach us to trust Him. It’s easy to trust God when everything is
going great in your life. The real test
of your faith is, how do you hang out with God when you don’t feel good? When everything is going wrong and going bad
and you don’t even have feelings? God often takes
away our feelings in order to teach us to have faith. So, the next time you get into some troubles
and you go, “Why is this happening?” well, you’ll know why. God is teaching you to trust Him.
We Must Also Remember the Reward.
In eternity God is going to reward your character development.
(2 Corinthians 4:17) For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory, (NKJV)
Paul says, “You know what? What we’re
going through isn’t going to last, and even if it lasted a lifetime, that’s
nothing compared to the number of years you’re going to spend in
eternity.” He says, “What we’re going
through now is light and temporary, but we’re going to be rewarded for our
character in heaven”. I love this verse
in the Message paraphrase. It says this,
“These hard times are small potatoes
compared to the coming good times and the lavish celebration prepared for
us.”
Spiritual maturity
is realizing that we’re living not for here and now, but living in light of
eternity. And yes, there’s
tough things going on in our life in varying degrees, and everybody has their
own troubles. But God is using them all
to make us like Jesus Christ.
Sara Grove has written a song about how troubles
make us more like Jesus. “In your hands the pain and hurt look less
like scars and more like character; less like a prison, more like my room; less
like a casket, more like a womb; less like dying, more like transcending; less
like fear, less like an ending. And in
Your hands the pain and hurt look less like scars and more like character.” God uses trouble to teach us to trust
Him.
But Remember it’s your CHOICE how you
respond to them!
Let me tell
you a story about Jerry. Jerry is the kind of guy you wonder if he’s real. He
is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone
would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, ‘If I were any better, I would
be twins!’
He was a
unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from
restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of
his attitude. He was a natural motivator.
If an
employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look
on the positive. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up
to Jerry and asked him, ‘I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of
the time. How do you do it?’ Jerry replied, ‘Each morning I wake up and say to
myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood
or you can choose to be in a bad mood.’ I choose to be in a good mood. Each
time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to
learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me
complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the
positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.’
‘Yeah,
right, it’s not that easy,’ I protested. ‘Yes, it is,’ Jerry said. ‘Life is all
about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You
choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your
mood. You choose to be in a good mood or a bad mood.
I reflected
on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my
own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice
about life instead of reacting to it.
Several
years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a
restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at
gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand,
shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers shot him.
Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma
center.
After 18
hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the
hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body. I saw Jerry about six
months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, ‘If I were
any better, I’d be twins. Wanna see my scars?’ I declined to see his wounds,
but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.
‘The first
thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door,’
Jerry replied. ‘Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two
choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live.’
Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?’ I asked. Jerry continued, ‘. .
. the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But
when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the
doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘he’s a dead
man.’ I knew I needed to take action.’
What did
you do?’ I asked.
Well, there
was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,’ said Jerry. She asked if I was
allergic to anything.
‘Yes,’ I
replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I
took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Bullets!’
Over their
laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive,
not dead.’
Jerry lived
thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I
learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude,
after all, is everything. -- Contributed
by Dr. John Bardsley. Author Unknown.
There is a second surprising way that God
works in our lives to make us look more like Jesus. He uses our temptations. God uses our
temptations to teach us to obey Him. Temptations are situations designed by Satan and they’re
intended to harm us. God never tempts us to do evil. The Bible is very clear about that. They are designed by Satan, intended to hurt
us. God never tempts us, but God is
able, because of the greatness of His power and who He is, to use Satan’s
temptations for good in our lives because temptation always provides a
choice. And when I choose for God rather
than choosing for Satan, Satan’s plan is ruined and I grow in my life. And choices are needed to develop character
in our lives.
Jesus faced temptations. He never sinned, but He faced
temptations. Right after He was baptized
at the very beginning of his public ministry at the age of 30, He went through
an intense 40-day period of temptation out in the desert. (Matthew 4:1) Then was Jesus led up of the
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. (KJV)
Now, if Jesus faced temptations, guess
what? You and I are going to face
temptations, too. The fact that He faced temptations reminds us of some truths
about temptation that help us to get through it, some things to remember.
Number One; Remember
that it is not a sin to be tempted. Jesus never sinned, yet He was tempted. Martin Luther used to say, “You can’t keep
the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a
nest in your hair.” It’s not a sin to be tempted.
Number Two; Remember
that everyone is tempted in the same ways. The Bible says
we’re all tempted in the same common ways.
One of the ways that Satan tricks us is he makes us feel like our
temptation is worse than anyone else’s. So we think, “I’m really bad to even
think such a thing; nobody in all of human history has ever thought like this.” That a ploy of Satan. Your temptation is just
like everyone else’s.
It’s
important to remember that you’ll never outgrow temptation. You
never get to a point in your life where you become so spiritual that you’re not
tempted anymore. We all are tempted
throughout all of our lives. But it’s also important to remember that
Jesus teaches us in His experience that every temptation is an opportunity to
make the right choice. It’s a
stepping stone toward being more like Jesus Christ.
Notice
what Jesus did when he was tempted in
Temptation always
tests whether you love God more than the temptation.
It’s always a test of what do I love the most in my life. When I’m tempted by money the temptation is “Do
I love God most or do I love money most in my life?” When I’m tempted by a wrong relationship, the
temptation is, “Do I love that person or do I love God more in my life?” Obedience, choosing to say, “Yes” to God, is
a matter of love. It’s not a matter of
duty. The Bible tells us that Jesus
said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
Let me share with you a couple of
practical tips for dealing with temptation.
Number one, if you want to make it
through the temptations of life we all face, keep focused
on good thoughts. The Bible talks about this in Phil. 4:8 (LB)“Fix your thoughts
on what is true and good and right”.
Temptation always starts with getting
your attention. If you focus on the
temptation you are well on the road of giving in to that temptation. However if
you turn your thoughts and focus on something positive, good, right, true,
those things that God would have us think about, then all of a sudden you’ve
pushed out the temptation.
The second tip is,
get a spiritual partner. I know none of us like to talk about our
temptations, but one of the ways to defeat them is to be open about them, to
bring them out into the light. Get a
spiritual partner, someone who you can trust and confide in.
(Ecclesiastes 4:9-10) Two are better
than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall,
one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For
he has no one to help him up. (NKJV)
Don’t be ashamed or embarrassed to ask
help from someone else over something you’re really are struggling with.
The Bible tells us that the Apostle Paul had
a lot of spiritual partners. In fact, it
tells us the names of those people, guys named Barnabus, Silas, Timothy, Epaphrus and Titus just to name a few. One of the reasons he was able to live such a
great life of faith is that he wasn’t afraid to have partners to share his joys
and his struggles.
What temptation are you facing right now?
It’s an opportunity for you to choose God and choose right—an opportunity for
you to grow in character.
God wants to make you like Jesus
Christ. God desires that we are
radically obedient to His Word. It’s the third purpose that He put you on this
planet for. He wants to build your
character now so you can be rewarded in eternity. This life is not what it’s all about. This is preparation for eternity. And so today we’ve looked at two of the ways
that God uses. God uses trouble
to teach us to trust, and God uses temptation to teach us to obey.
Number three: God
uses trespasses to teach us to forgive. Now what in the world are trespasses? Well, if trials are situations designed by
God to draw us closer to Him and temptations are situations designed by the
devil to draw us away from God, then trespasses are situations designed by other people to
hurt us. Yes, there are people in life who want to
hurt you intentionally, and that’s why the Bible says in the Lord’s Prayer, “Lord, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
have trespassed against us.”
Now this is the tough one. Its one thing to handle trouble and it’s
another thing to handle temptation. However, bearing the hurt of other people without retaliation is, without
a doubt, the most important and the most difficult step in becoming like Jesus
Christ.
Now let me be real clear. These are not
good things. These are evil things, and
God is not the author of evil. God does
not cause these things. God hates
sin. But He didn’t even protect His own
Son from these things. Even His own Son
was misunderstood and hurt and judged and abused. What makes you think you’re
going to be let off the hook? You see,
on the cross Jesus Christ not only carried our sins, He also endured enormous
abuse from the people who were right there.
The Bible tells us in Matthew 27 the
people passing by while Jesus was on the cross shook their heads and hurled
insults at Jesus. The chief priests, scribes and elders along with others taunted
and made fun of Jesus.
And
what was His response? (Luke 23:34) Then
Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they
do." (NKJV)
(1 Peter 2:23) who, when He was
reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but
committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; (NKJV)
What did Jesus
do? What was His response to
trespasses? He yielded His right to get
even. He absorbed the hurt. He put up with the pain. He responded to evil with good. That’s what Jesus did.
Now, if you’re
going to grow up spiritually and if you’re going to become like Jesus Christ,
you’re going to have to learn the same thing. The truth is, in
life you’re going to be hurt. This is
not heaven. This is a fallen world. Everybody has sinned. There will be those who will hurt you
intentionally but also there will be those who hurt you unintentionally. And if
you’re going to become like Christ, you have to learn to forgive.
You may ask, “Well, how do you do
that?” Well, how can you learn to
forgive if you’ve never been hurt? You
can’t! You can’t learn to forgive unless
somebody’s hurt you. And yet forgiveness
is one of the primary qualities of God and He wants you to learn to become like
Him. So there are hurts that are allowed in your life in order to make you like
Jesus.
Now again, this is the toughest one, so
let me give you two tips for when people harm you intentionally or
unintentionally.
Number One, Remember
That God Has Forgiven Me. The Bible says (Ephesians
4:32) And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as
God in Christ forgave you. (NKJV) God will never ask you to forgive
anybody more than you’ve already been forgiven by Him.
Number Two,
Remember God Is In Control. When you’re being
hurt by somebody else—whether they are hurting you intentionally for
unintentionally--God will use it for good in your life. In fact that’s the very thing Joseph
said. Do you remember the story in the
book of Genesis where Joseph was betrayed by his older brothers? They so disliked their younger brother, they
sold him into slavery and then lied to their dad and said, “Oh, he was killed
by a wild animal”. And yet God had a
plan in it all. He was taken to Egypt and went through all kinds of things -
falsely accused of rape, thrown into prison…the first 30 years of Joseph’s life
went down, down, down.
Joseph had no idea, at the time, why things were going wrong in his
life--yet he trusted God. He maintained
a forgiving spirit. And God knew exactly where he was and had him
exactly where He wanted him to be and over time raised him up to be second in
command under Pharaoh. And it was his
plan that saved two nations, Egypt and Israel, from starvation when the famines
came. And later the brothers come to
this man, not realizing it was Joseph, and they went to ask for food to take
back to their home. And when Joseph
reveals who he is, they are afraid he is going to kill them.
And
yet Joseph says this, (Genesis 50:20) "But as for you, you meant evil
against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this
day, to save many people alive. (NKJV)
Would you notice the phrase “to save
many people alive”? He said “You meant it to hurt me but God
turned it into good to save the lives of many people”.
That is spiritual
maturity. God uses trouble to teach us
to trust, and God uses temptation to teach us to obey, and God uses trespasses
to teach us to forgive, because we can’t become like Jesus without learning to
trust and obey and forgive. Now I am
absolutely convinced your greatest testimony as a believer is how you handle
hurt. How do you respond when other people hurt
you? Do you respond like Jesus did?
God’s third purpose for your life is to
make you like Jesus Christ. And if
that’s true, then He’s going to take you through everything Jesus went
through. Why would He exempt you? That means He’s going to take you through a Gethsemane, an experience of
trouble, where you learn to
trust His love. He’s going to take you
through a desert, an
experience of temptation, where you learn to
obey Him and do the right thing. And
He’s going to take you to the cross, a time of trespass, where you learn to forgive.
But there is a promise. Look at these last verses on your
outline. “We go
through exactly what Christ goes through. But if we go through the hard times
with Him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with Him.” (Rom. 8:17 MSG)
Now, I don’t know what you’re going
through these days, but I do know how God wants you to respond to it,
regardless of what you’re going through.
It’s the last verse on your outline. “Your
attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus”
(Phil. 2:5 NIV).