Living in Obedience to God's Will

The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, in that story, God brings them to this place where he has created for them to live. He makes it clear exactly what he wants them to do and what he doesn't want them to do. And things are great. God comes every day, talks to them like he's their best friend. We don't know how long they lived in the Garden of Eden before the circumstances changed, but they did. Suddenly, one day, they were thinking about things, what God wanted them to do, what he said they should and shouldn't do, and they began to question God's real wisdom. They really decided that maybe they knew something God didn't know, and so they decided to do something that God said, you're not to do this. Suddenly, everything in the world changed for them. When God came that day to talk to them, they didn't want to talk to him. They were ashamed. They hid. When they looked at each other and they were naked, they were embarrassed and ashamed. Never had that happened to them before. The key ingredient in all the story of the scriptures is focused on this single event, and all of the Bible is about this story. God, the creator of heaven and earth, the ruler of everything, who has made the world and all the people in it, has set rules by which he wants us to live. Not rules like laws, but they're instructions about how to be able to live in this world and find the maximum life that God had for us. All the way through the story of the scripture, there is one great theme. The creator of heaven and earth is consistently ignored and people rebel against him. When all of this happened, God started doing something different. He said, I want to have exactly what I had there in the beginning, but I want to have it again in a different way so that it will never be destroyed again. And so he starts looking for someone who will accept the idea that he made everything in the world and that his instructions to us are really gold. They give us the secret to life. He found a man named Abraham. He said to Abraham, if you'll go where I want you to go and do what I tell you to do, here's my promise to you. I'll guide you, I'll provide every need that you have, I'll protect you, and your life will be a great blessing to the world. So he started with this one man. The nation of Abraham's descendants grew tremendously. And they were in Egypt at this time and in slavery. God said, I'm ready now to form you into this great people that I want to lead. I want you to recognize my supreme authority over you. So he delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Brought them to the mountain where he described to them exactly what he wanted for them. I want to be the Lord and ruler of your life. I want to have authority over you and I want you to do everything that I tell you. And then he began to tell them what he wanted. If you look back in the Old Testament, you'll find there are two or three books in the Bible containing detailed instructions about what God wanted. What they were to wear, what they were to eat, how they were to treat their enemies, how they were to farm. Complete details about every single part of their life. I am the Lord. I've told you what I want from you. And I expect complete, total obedience. At the end of explaining all this, he said, now here's the one thing I ask for you. I want all of you to say openly and aloud, we will do everything you tell us. This was their affirmation to God. He was trying to recreate with this group of people exactly what in the Garden of Eden he had before they rebelled against him. He led them to the land he was going to give them. Before they went in, he made them come again to a great mountain and he had them read all of these things again they were supposed to do. And he wanted them to say out loud, we will do everything you tell us. You are in charge of our lives. May we be cursed if we do not. And they did. They said all that. And they went into this land of promise. They began to live that way. But sooner or later, just like in the Garden of Eden, they began to think, well maybe this is not necessary. And they began to rebel against God. So what God did was he said, I'm no longer going to help your choices. I'm no longer going to provide your needs. I'm no longer going to protect you from your enemies. And you will become a laughing stock to all the people around you. And that's exactly what happened to them. Not once. But what happened was at the end of this they would say, you know maybe the past days when we literally followed God was the answer. And so they renewed their devotion to God and he began to guide them, provide for them, protect them and make them a powerful force in the world. And then again they began to say, well maybe all this is not right. Fifteen times they did this. They said, maybe the problem is we need a king. And then the king will remind us of your great glory and we'll do what he tells us and do what you tell us. So he gave them a king. And it didn't happen over and over again. The king led them to say, it's not important that you listen and obey God. Disaster after disaster came to these people. God said, I want you to see what it's like for someone to live saying, I am going to live in obedience to God no matter what. I am going to send you a Messiah. You will look at his life and you will see what I've been trying to get you to do all since the history of the world started. And so Jesus came into the world. Jesus had a powerful and great ministry. A ministry that everyone was impressed with and they saw something in him that they had never seen in anyone else. Jesus described to them in John chapter 5 verse 19 exactly what the reason was for his great success. He was talking about his life and the reason it was the way it was. He gave them this answer. He had healed on the Sabbath day and they complained about it. I tell you the truth, the son can do nothing by himself. He can do only what he sees his father doing. Because whatever the father does, the son also does. For the father loves the son and shows him all that he does. Jesus is showing us that what he wanted Adam and Eve to do what he wanted the people of Israel to do was exactly what he was doing. And them marveling at his ability to heal someone was simply a result of the fact that he was living in obedience to the commandment that God had given to them. Then in chapter 5 verse 30 of the same chapter By myself I can do nothing. I judge only as I hear and my judgment is just. For I seek not to please myself but the one who sent me. Here is a man coming into the world who is doing what he wanted Adam and Eve to do, what he wanted Abraham to do what he wanted the people of Israel to do and he was doing it exactly as it ought to be done. This Jesus is saying is the secret of his ministry. It's the secret of his life. Here we have a picture of a person who took God at his word and said now I will live and you will see what God will do in the life of a person who is devoted completely to him. Chapter 12 of the book of John Jesus again refers to the relationship he has with his father. Chapter 12 of the book of John verse 11 and 12 is referencing again what took place in his own life. Excuse me, chapter 12 verses 49 and 50 I'm going to read in just a moment. Jesus said, for any person who hears my words and does not keep them I do not judge him for I did not come to judge the world but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words. The very words which I spoke will condemn him in the last day. For I do not speak of my own accord but the Father who sent me commanded me to say what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life so whatever I say is what the Father has told me to say. You look at Jesus and say here's a wonderful man, a powerful man but what he tells us is everything in my life is based on one thing. Even the things I say are the things the Father has told me to say. I live in complete subjection and obedience to God himself. And if there is any secret to me it is the secret that comes in the relationship that I have with the Father. In chapter 15 Jesus is talking again to his disciples. He is talking about the relationship that they should have and he talks about them being joined to the Father like a limb is joined to the branch of a tree. When you look at a tree and you see a branch there you don't think well that's a branch it's not a part of the tree you see they're connected. He said that's really what God wants for you. This connection that makes you so much intimately a part of him that there's no way you can separate one from the other. Chapter 15 verse 9 As the Father has loved me so I have loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands you will remain in my love just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. Jesus is showing us that the secret in the relationship between him and the Father was his complete dependence and obedience to what the Father asked. And when Jesus was gathering his disciples around him he didn't say to them would you ask Jesus into your heart. He didn't say to them would you receive forgiveness of sins. Instead what he said to them was if any of you wants to come after me you must deny yourself. How many times do you think that Jesus when he started to say something had other thoughts come to his mind? When people were nasty and mean to him and he responded the way the Father wanted him to I can tell you that inside of him he was thinking different things than that. All of us are when we're hurt and angry. But he put aside his own interest and feelings to say this is exactly what the Father wants. He wants me to say these words to give these instructions. So I ask you, Jesus said, if you're going to learn the life that I want for you you must prepare yourself to say I will no longer allow my human nature to control my behavior. Instead I will let God control my behavior. You must then, he said, take up your cross. You must pay the price for being obedient to God. Whatever it is that God asks you to do you do it with everything in your life. And then he said you must follow me. Now when Jesus describes the following him the scriptures that I've read give you some idea as to what he means about following him. Learning to live the way he lives. Learning to do the things that he did. Learning the secret of his lifestyle which was complete obedience and submission to the Father. What Jesus was saying to us is no one enters the kingdom of heaven apart from a declaration I give my life to you. No longer will I be in charge of it. But I surrender it to your will. What happens to so many people is they come to church and they hear the promise of salvation, eternal life in heaven and they hear people say well if you'll say this prayer you can get there and they say a prayer but they don't intend to do the things that God tells them to do. They want to go to heaven. They want to have a wonderful life. What a lot of people do is they come to say well I know what God wants and I want to do some of those things but some of them I don't want to do. People who do that will never enter the kingdom of heaven. They'll never become disciples of Christ. What Jesus was trying to tell us is when the end of the world is over the only places in heaven there are for people are for people who have lived their life devoted to obedience to God. Reading the Bible. Letting it shape your heart, mind and character. The way you have a marriage. The way you raise your children. The way you do business. Bringing to God all the decisions that you have to make. Saying Lord what is it you want me to do? And as best you know how. Making choices to do those things you know God wants you to do it His way. This is what God intends. What happened in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve rebelled against God is what God has planned for people forever in heaven. There will be no place for people who say I know sort of what God wants but I don't want to do everything He wants. I want some things for myself. No place for that kind of person there. What God has prepared is a place for people who say I have given my life to God. I will live in obedience and submission to Him the rest of my life. When you read the story of what takes place in the book of Revelation in heaven you see that it's filled with people who are praising God and talking about the greatness of God. Chapter 20 of the book of Revelation a powerful passage in which the people who come recognize the presence of God. Then I saw a great white throne someone in charge ruling and him who was seated on it. Earth and the sky fled from his presence and there was no place for them. I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne. The books were opened. The Bible says when Christ returns everyone in the world atheists, agnostics will have to acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Lord. There will be no question in that day the supreme authority and ruler of the world for every person will stand before God he will look into their face and tell them what they've been. You talked about me. You set Sunday school but you also set aside part of your life that you never let me touch. There's no place for you here. If God allows in heaven someone with a rebellious spirit then it's the garden of Eden all over again. So the judgment is based, he says. The books were opened. Another book was opened which is the book of life. The deeds, the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. He doesn't mean as to how many good things they did and how many bad things they did but whether or not they were devoted to live their lives in complete surrender to the authority of God. That's the one standard by which we're all judged. It doesn't mean that you have to have done all of that. It means that that has to be the purpose of your life. And in the middle of all of it we come to understand sometimes we fail. But because we've devoted ourselves to do that in the moment of our failure we stop and say, God, I failed. I renew my devotion to you. Where is your heart? With Adam and Eve they said we sort of want to obey God but what we really want to do also is do what we want to do. Where is your heart? That's what God is looking for. Throughout the scriptures there's one thing God talks about through all the history of the world. Trying to find people who love me with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind. Chapter 21 of the book of Revelation. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. In other words, all this stuff that we've been living here with the opportunities to have life, a choice, living one way or the other, all that's gone. And there was no longer a sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is with men and he will live with them. Do you remember the story of the Garden of Eden? God lived with his people. There was no rebellion against him. They welcomed him every day because they were doing what he wanted them to do. Then that fatal day came. I am restoring, he's saying, what I wanted in the beginning. But there will only be people here who do not want to live like Adam and Eve but have made a choice for their life to say, Everything in my life is yours. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. It is to these people he makes his promise. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away. He was seated on the throne and said, I am making everything new. Then he said, Write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. He said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. What I was at the beginning, now I will be again at the end of the earth for what I wanted to have in the Garden of Eden is completed. For only those who enter, see Adam and Eve never entered the Garden pledging to live in complete submission to God, but only those who enter heaven will have made that vow to him, I pledge myself to serve you. That is what heaven is going to be about and that is why it is going to be so different. To him who is thirsty, I will give a drink without cost from the spring, the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderer, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all the liars, their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. What God has done is created a place like the Garden of Eden, but the prerequisite for us to be there is a pledge to say to God, I no longer control my life, I surrender to you. I trust you, I believe in you and I will live my life in submission to who you are. So when you get to that place, every one of us won't have to worry about your neighbor. There will be a person who belongs to God. You won't have to worry about the people around you. There will be people controlled by the authority of God. You won't have to worry about the surprises whether or not they're going to cheat you or lie to you because their lives are controlled by God. We've been given an opportunity in this world to come to know Him and develop in our lives a practice of living in submission to Him. That life of submission comes through this world to the very end and then He takes us and places us in a place where only the people who pledge themselves to God really live. Jesus, when He was gathered with His disciples and getting ready to go, He was concerned to be able to share with them the things that were important to Him, the things in His life that had meant so much. In the book of Luke, Jesus gathered His disciples together for what was called the final supper. It was the only thing that God promised that we would have in this world that we'll have in the next. I want to ask those who are going to serve this supper if you'd come, please, for just a moment. The Lord's Supper is for people who've made the promise to God. I want to live my life in submission and obedience to You. The people gathered with Jesus that day were people who'd made that promise to God. They were the disciples who'd learned and began to follow Him. They denied themselves, taken up their cross, and they were following Him. And gathered around that table with Jesus in that moment of intimacy, they were saying, My life belongs to Him. I've given myself in service to Him. And He said to them, I want to show you a promise that I'm going to make. I'm going to take this meal, the remnants of the Passover meal that they had, and we're going to share in it. And I'm making a promise to you that just as you shared it with Me today, so when you get to heaven, you'll share it with Me again. Then when the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had been sacrificed, Jesus sent Peter and John saying, Go make preparations for us to eat the Passover. It was the Passover meal that they were eating. But when they finished, after taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among you. For I will tell you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. This was Jesus' last meal on earth. He had it with His followers who were pledged to the Father as He was. Then He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them saying, This is My body given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. Father, take this bread, torn in pieces. Help us to remind ourselves that Jesus gave His body in complete submission to You. He didn't give it away to immorality. He didn't give it away to lying, cheating and stealing. He gave it in submission and surrender to You that He might show us how to live the way You want us to live. As we take this bread, renew in us the promise we make to You that we give our bodies to You. Not to be used as we enjoy, but as You instruct. In the name of the Father we pray. Amen. Now, if you have never made the promise to God to give your body to Him, this is a time in which you have an opportunity to do that. You can say to Him, Lord, I've lived sort of doing what I want with myself, but beginning right now today, I want to follow You as Jesus did. And I say to You, take my body. I don't want it to be used for anything other than what You say is right. Hold the bread in your hand and see it as the body of Christ, the example for yourself, and say to Him, I will live as best I can as You lived. Jesus made it clear in His own life that His ability to live in obedience to the Father was not the result of His own strength, but that the Father lived in Him. And that will come for you too. You will find as you surrender yourself to God, He gives you new strength to say yes to things you should say yes to and no to things to which you should say no. Your body, Christ, was given as a living example for us. We eat this bread to receive You as our Lord and to promise to You that we will devote our lives to being like You. In the name of Christ, we promise this. Amen. In the same way, after the supper, He took the cup saying, this cup is the new covenant of my blood which is poured out for you. Father, we know that You've asked us to make the same covenant with You that Abraham made, the people of Israel made, and even Your Son Jesus made. A covenant that says our intent from this moment on in our life is to live in obedience to You. As we hold this cup in our hands, we remember, Lord, that You faced the most difficult days of Your life and it was hard for You to say, I'll do what You ask, Father. You gave Your own body and blood as a sacrifice for our forgiveness. As we look at this drink, remind us that You were obedient to the Father even though it meant Your death. As we drink it, we're pledging to You, we will obey You even if it means our death. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.