Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
November 10, 2002 - W0245

Have you ever felt like you were a part of something, but not really involved? Ever wonder why? I once attended a Billy Graham crusade. Over 80,000 people were packed into a stadium and though I was a part of this tremendous move of God, I wasnít as involved as I could have been. You see, I had failed to sign-up ahead of time, had no place to stay when I arrived and actually slept on a park bench that night!

Instead of being housed in a home or a hotel and volunteering to be part of the crusade, I was a out on a bench. And though I can say I was part of that Billy Graham crusade, if someone asked me whether I was involved, my answer would have to be ìNo.î I couldíve experienced so much more, had I been involved!

And, unfortunately, too many times our faith can resemble that experience. Weíre a part of something with Jesus, but weíre not necessarily involved. As Christians, we can be people operating in a high level of faith in public, but if we donít obey God in private, weíll never truly enter the Kingdom: ìNot everyone who says to Me, ëLord, Lord,í will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ëLord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?í And then I will declare to them, ëI never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessnessíî (Mt. 7:21-23).

Jesus says we are part of the church, and yet by our own choice may still not be part of the Kingdom. How? Because we ìpractice lawlessness,î or in other words, we refuse to submit and weíre not able to be governed. We claim to be in a relationship, and claim to have faith, but Jesus says we never really knew Him because we could never obey. One of the key fruits of relationship is joyful obedience.

1.     OBEDIENCE IS THE FRUIT OF RELATIONSHIP.

ìHe who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me...î (John 14:21).

ìTherefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rockî (Mt. 7:24).

God is sensitive about our obedience because He loves us and wants us to enter into His best. He knows that can only come by obeying His directions, which lead us into His obedience. God knows that we have one opportunity in this life and we will go through storms, but the He will walk with you because He knows the way. You can spend your whole life trying to figure out which way to go and youíll never make it through because you canít do it on your own.

Proverbs says, ìI will teach you and instruct you in the ways that you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Only donít be as a horse or a mule who lack understanding and refuses a brit and bridle unless itís done by force to hold them in check.î Psalm 23 says, ìThough I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.î In other words, God tells us that He will tell us the right way. We donít have to fear any circumstance, not even the valley of death, because He will always be right next to us walking through and showing us the way out. What a promise! That happens as we share in obedience and joyful relationship.

God said, ìCome, follow Me,î and the thing with obedience is that itís not for His sake but for our sake. If I trust His kingship and His wisdom, I will listen and follow whatever direction He gives me. If I refuse to heed the Lordís directions, this would be a tell-tale symptom of me devaluing my relationship with Him.

Q1: How is your relationship with the Lord? On a scale from 1-10 (1 being ìnot too greatî & 10 being ìgreatî), how would you rate your own obedience to the Lord?

The first life-altering key to joyful obedience is to understand that it is a fruit of relationship. Yet a lot of us know about obedience, however, we donít truly appreciate obedience until itís refined by opposition, afflictions or battles. For it is then that obedience turns into faith. For example, an athlete isnít a winner before the challenge, but after the challenge. This brings us to the second life-altering key to a heart of joyful obedience...

2. OBEDIENCE IS REFINED BY BATTLES.

ìAnd fire itself will test the quality of each manís work. If it remains, he shall receive a rewardî (1 Cor. 3:13,14)

ìAnd the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rockî (Mt. 7:25).

How well you build a house will test the quality of it. Therefore donít build for easy times or sunny days when itís nice and cool. Instead, build with storms in mind, planning for a certain amount of bad weather. Why? Because storms are inevitable and if weíre not prepared for them, weíll be wiped out by them.

Q2: In your spiritual growth, how has the testing of your obedience made you a better person? Share a brief story of such a testing time. What was one character quality you acquired in that experience?

Too often as Christians we just want God to get rid of all the storms in our lives. We just donít want to deal with any opposition! Is this the kind of faith we have, where we just ask God for blessings, and for Him to remove all the rain and the storms of life?

You see, we all look good before opposition. Then God refines our faith requiring us to go through winds, rains and floods of life. Yet these are the storms that will prove, test and help us to become stronger. If you look at Peter and Paulís lives, youíll see that they were tested and seen true only after, not before, they experienced opposition.

Most of us train for ideal opposition where weíre guaranteed to win, without pain or discipline. And God says we need to build for opposition because thatíll be the quality of our faith and where weíll be proven true. Athletes train in such a way to win against the best of the best, which requires a coach that will help him train for endurance, to break through fatigue, to have strength to finish and ultimately bring out the best. Scripture says, ìRun in such a way that you win.î This doesnít mean youíll always win, but you run in such a way that you have an opportunity to win. And that means training for the tough times when youíll want to drop out.

God will not run our races for us, but He will coach us through them. He wonít do our homework for us, but He will teach us. God doesnít exist to fight our fights, but He does exist to help us build well and withstand opposition.

Weíll never know what our inheritance is or whatís on the inside of us until we come to that quitting point and press through in obedience. And thatís where obedience is forged into faith. Then we enter the Promised Land because of a strong faith and a depth of character.

Our obedience will be especially tested in three key areas of our lives. These are our most important battles, ones that you and I must win. Try to win them all, however, the first battle is the most basic and foundational to the rest. This is the one you absolutely cannot lose...

THREE BATTLES WE MUST WIN:

I. OUR COMMITMENT AND FAITH.

There will be times when the enemy will try to trick you into exchanging your faith and commitment to Jesus for prestige, money or an illicit relationship. Donít do it! You can give up a lot of things in this life, but the one you must hold on to no matter what is your commitment to Christ and your faith. Never let Him go!

Also, please remember that when you exchange your faith for worldly things, you become buyable, sellable and without freedom. You begin to trade, sell and give away your freedom in Christ for the things the world has to offer. Itís not worth it; donít do it!

Some people contend that if they have to obey God, then theyíre still slaves, theyíre just slaves to Him. The truth is you become a slave when you are someone who stands on the block to be bought, exchanging your faith for whatever Satanís selling. You become a slave on a slave block only because youíre able to be bought. Freedom is retaining the right to say no to those offers. Donít become a slave to your emotions, flesh or to temptation. Donít allow the devil to lie to you by telling you if you follow God youíre not free. Your goal is not to be free from God, but to be free from the enemy.

So the first battle, above all else, is retaining your commitment and faith. You must win this battle! The second great battle we all have in this life is the battle forÖ

II. OUR MARRIAGE.

Our marriages are so critically important that we must fight hard to win this battle. And to those who have not gotten into your marriage yet, your future marriage is one that you want desperately to be able to win. Donít allow anything to hinder your marriage, contend for its health no matter what it takes. Listen to God early on and make sure youíre obeying Him and moving according to His command and build your marriage to withstand opposition.

However, if youíre one whoís already lost your marriage, then the devil is going to scrape you down to the first battleómaking you question your commitment to Jesus now that youíve broken the commitment to your spouse. Donít let him do it, even if youíve gone through a divorce, be sure to hold the line in the area of keeping your faith. Thatís a must!

Connected to the critical battle of your marriage, will be the next battle, that forÖ

III. OUR SECOND GENERATION.

The third great battle we will face in our lives is that for our second generation, our children. It is so important to have a strong faith and deep commitment to Christ. However, it is equally as important to pass that faith and commitment on to our children. Our kids are too important!

Letís make sure weíre investing into their lives and encouraging them to an intimate relationship with Jesus for themselves. Donít let them live off of your faith, instead introduce them to Jesus and encourage them to develop a relationship with Him. One way to do that is to sit and do daily devotions with them. We now have a Childrenís Journal available that tracks with the adult Bible readings every day. These are so precious and many kids are already enjoying Godís Word for themselves. This is just one way to encourage your second generation to get to know Jesus.

The final battle (which is an extra that Iíve added especially in our time of high divorce and absentee parents) is forÖ

IV. (OUR THIRD GENERATION.)

Grandparents are desperately needed and incredibly important in the ministry of our children. Because youíre blood related and have a deep love for our kids, we need you to speak into their lives. Talk with them about the things of eternity and give counsel about life. The wisdom of your years can be deposited into your grandchildren so they wonít make the same mistakes again and again. You need to pass the baton of faith to your grandchildren. The whole Old Testament was about the vital importance of passing the baton of faith from one generation to the next.

Q3: Which battle most needs your attention right nowóyour faith, your marriage, your kids or your grandkids? (You may want to prioritize all of these in order of greatest need.) How can you begin to win this battle?

In all three of these battles, the enemy will try to steal, kill and destroy you, just as the Bible tell us in John 10:10. He will steal your children, kill your affection for one another and destroy your faith, and this is when he makes you his slave. Do your best in all these battles. If one or two whittle off, make sure that at the very least you always keep your faith in order for you to win in the end because....

3. WISDOM IS GAINED BY LEARNING TO LIVE FOR THAT WHICH LASTS.

By His wisdom youíll be able to make it through the storms of life and enter into His Kingdom. ìAnd everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fallî (Mt. 7:26,27).

?        But if I act upon His words, I will gain wisdom.

So stand on Godís promises to guide you through opposition, adversity and temptation. Allow His promises to coach you as you run your race. And build for the toughest times because these will be the greatest tests of your life, your marriage and your relationships. For in times of betrayal or when something goes wrong, youíve been trained and built for it and you wonít bail out.

Above all, value your relationship with the King of Kings. For when you understand His heart and follow His ways, a heart of joyful obedience will result. And then youíll hear Him say, ìëI know the plans I have for you,í says the Lord, ëTheyíre not for your calamity, but for your welfare in order that you might have a future and a hopeíî (Jer. 29:11). And as you do, you will become a person whose life gets better and better.

Q4: What impacted you most and how will you be different today because of it?

Mahalo, Doreen Rabaino, for this summary!