Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
January 13, 2008 - W0802

Noah will teach us what obedience is all about and why it is so very important to God.  Noah, as well as Abraham and many other heroes of the past, have had their lives recorded in the Bible for our benefit.  Romans 15:14 tells us that whatever happened in the earlier times were written as examples for all of us living today.  It is through perseverance and the encouragement of scripture that we will have hope.  1 Corinthians 10:11 says that these things happened as examples and were written for our instruction, the people upon whom the ends of the ages have come.  Take a look at their lives and it will reveal life essentials that will help us avoid pitfalls that can cause us to trade our lives for a worldly gain that we will lose anyway.  Because these heroes have gone through those pitfalls, they can tell us what to do and what not to do.  They are mentors of ages past.  Read through their lives, and you will find yourself sitting at their feet, engaged in conversation. 

The book of 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.  It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”  The Psalms give us the same ‘breath’ of wisdom God gave to David.  “For the word of God is alive and powerful.  It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow.  It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.”  (Hebrews 4:12)

 In Psalm 119:98-99, David says, “Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are my constant guide.  Yes, I have more insight than my teachers, for I am always thinking of your laws.  I have gained the wisdom of the ages. I have walked in your ordinances.”  Take the Wisdom of Solomon, the words of David, the mistakes of Samson, the faith of Abraham and the obedience of Noah as lessons to deposit into our hearts.  Then, God will give us the wisdom of those lessons for it is the wisdom of the ages.  But, you must spend time with these heroes to acquire that wisdom.  Most of us lose half of our life before we realize the importance of obeying God.  That is why you must spend time reading the Bible and recording what you have learned from it.  David taught us to number our days and not wait until death is knocking at your door.  It will give you a better life. 

When Noah was asked by God to build an ark, most of the people thought it was a crazy idea.  The ark was to be 450 feet long, 100 feet wide and 50 feet tall, which is equivalent to a 22,000-ton ship built today.   

 “Then God said to Noah…’Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside an out with pitch’…Thus Noah did according to all that God had commanded him”  (Genesis 6:13-14,22).

A lot went on in Noah’s mind between verses 14 and 22 of Genesis 6.  He had to change his way of thinking before he came to the point of obeying God.  In fact, Noah defines for us the difference between agreeing with God and obeying God, which is:

·        AGREEING WITH GOD IS DOING WHAT HE ASKS WHEN IT IS CONVENIENT.

It means you feel okay about it because it doesn’t really change your life much.  It sounds like something you could do.

·        OBEDIENCE IS DOING WHAT HE ASKS WHEN IT IS NOT CONVENIENT, BUT YOU KNOW IT IS HIS WILL.

Obedience reveals itself when, despite your complaining and rebellious thoughts, you obey God.  Your body and your flesh may distress over it, yet you continue to obey God because you know that is the right thing to do. 

Most Christians agree with God, but don’t obey Him very often.  That becomes a problem when Christianity is made into a fun-filled experience.  It makes us happy to agree with God, but not obey Him because it just isn’t convenient right now. There is a difference between obedience and performance.  Catch these phrases and you will understand what this means.

·        Obedience is seeking God with your whole heart.  But, performance is doing your devotions because you will feel guilty if you don’t. 

·        Obedience is finding ways to let the word of God dwell in you richly.  Performance is quickly scanning a passage so you can check it off on your Bible reading plan. 

·        Obedience is following God’s prompting, such as starting a bible study.  Performance is reluctance to let anyone else lead the group because they might not do it as well as you would. 

·        Obedience is doing your best.  Performance is wanting to be the best.

·        Obedience is saying yes to whatever God asks of you.  Performance is saying yes to whatever people ask of you.

·        Obedience springs from a healthy fear of God.  Performance springs from a fear of failure.

Understand the differences of agreeing, obeying and simply performing.  Why do you think God is so intent on obedience?  It’s not that he has an iron fist or likes to be a killjoy.    Consider the professional home run baseball player who practices with his son.  He teaches the boy how to hold the bat, keep an eye on the ball and follow through on his swings.  But, the boy doesn’t listen to his father instructions. He wants to do it his way and not the right way.  All the father wants to do is transfer all his abilities, all his love of the game, all his competencies and all his strengths into his son.  But, it can’t be done unless the son obeys him.  Likewise, God wants to transfer everything of His best to us.  To teach us how to stand, think, and speak in response to problems.  But, it’s only available if we obey.  God wants to give us His heart.

Heroes of the Bible who rejected what God asked of them are telling us that, even when it isn’t convenient to do what God has asked, do it anyway because it is God’s will.  In the long run, it’s the best thing that can happen because God will transfer all that He has to you.  That is the joy of obedience and it is the good news of being a Christian.  The bad news is disobedience to God that carries consequences, so you must:

1.      UNDERSTAND THE CONSEQUENCES OF VIOLATING SPIRITUAL LAWS.

This helps you cultivate a heart of obedience as Romans 6:23 proclaims.

“The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”  (Romans 6:23).

Underline ‘the wages of sin is death’ because that is a spiritual principle.  Sin occurs when you reject God’s instructions.  Americans pride themselves in doing whatever pleases them.  But, it prevents the fullness of God to fill us because our lives are inconsistent with our beliefs.  Deciding to follow God’s instructions happens when you realize that God wants to deposit everything He has into you.  You will still be free to make choices, because you can choose to reject Him or you can choose to obey Him. 

Consequences of disobeying God cause sin, like when an archer takes aim at the target.  Every concentric circle that you hit away from the bulls-eye is called a sin, like one sin, two sin, etc.  It’s an archer’s term of missing the mark.  When you choose to sin in your life, you have chosen to ‘aim’ somewhere else.  This causes a spiritual debt and it must be repaid.  You can’t cover it up because there remains a spiritual violation; a debt needs to be repaid.  Luke 12:2 says there is nothing that is covered that will not be revealed and nothing that is hidden that will not come into plain sight.  Numbers 32 also says you can be sure of this:  your sin will find you out.  Like an email attachment that releases a virus into your computer’s hard drive.  You find that you can still work on your system, so you ignore the virus.  However, the virus is slowly infecting your computer and one day it will wipe out your entire system, erasing everything on your computer.  Sin is just like a computer virus, releasing a toxin that ultimately causes death.  And that is the wages of sin.  You may look alive and well, but you are really dead.  The consequences of sin are huge, especially when it is:

·        UNREVEALED CONSEQUENCES

Sin is like the computer virus that isn’t revealed; yet it is present.  Unrevealed consequences exist when you choose to violate God’s commandments because no one will know.  But, there is the power of repentance.  In Genesis 20, Abraham tells King Abimelech that Sarah is his sister, but she really is his wife.  Although a code existed whereby a king would never take another man’s wife, he could take another man’s widow.  Thus, the king could arrange for a husband to be killed so that he can take his wife.  And, that is what Abraham feared because Sarah was a beautiful woman.  He lies to Abimelech to protect his own life.  So, Abimelech takes Sarah into his harem believing that she is Abraham’s sister.  But, he never touches her because, in a dream, God tells him that he will die for taking Sarah because she is Abraham’s wife.  Abimelech defends himself, telling God that Abraham lied to him.  Never the less, God tells him, you must restore her to her husband or you will die.  Abimelech quickly returns Sarah to Abraham.  God then heals Abimelech’s wives so they could bear children.    

“Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children.  For the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife”  (Genesis 20:17-18)

The importance of this scripture is that God planned to end the lineage of Abimelech because of Sarah.  Yet, no one knew this.  Abimelech’s wives didn’t know they would not be able to have children because only a short time had passed.  But, God knew; so he planned the end of Abimelech’s future.  Abraham’s prayer, however, brought repentance so God opened the wombs of the king’s wives. 

There will always be unrevealed consequences for disobedience because the ‘womb’ of your future will be shut.  That is the devastating consequence of unresolved sin.  If it weren’t for the power of repentance, as in Abimelech’s case when he returned Sarah to Abraham, no future would exist.  The beauty of obedience lies in God transferring all that he has over to your future.  The danger of sin lies in the end of your future potential.  The greatest weapon against the devil is repentance because it ensures your future.  That gift of repentance was purchased on the Cross so that you and I can have a future and a hope.  To gain that ability of obedience you must:

2.      ALLOW GOD’S WORD TO MAKE PROGRESS IN YOU.

“I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet, you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you” (John 8:37).

When Jesus says, ‘My word has no place in you’, it means ‘My word makes no progress in you.’  He is telling these descendants of Abraham that his word makes no difference in their heart or their character, no matter how well they knew scripture.  A person can be a Christian for fives years and still be the same person they were five years ago.   

I knew a pastor who was dismissed after carrying on an affair with one of his secretaries.  I asked him how he could preach the word of God and yet engage in something that was in direct violation of those words.  He told me that he merely handed out the word of God to people.  What he should have done was hand out the word of God into himself before giving it to others.  Let God’s word change you within your mind.  Proverbs 12 says that the thoughts of the righteous are just, but the perceptions of the wicked are deceitful.  Obedience lies in the way we see with our mind.  Our minds define how we think about what we see.  God is more concerned about what we are on the inside rather than the outside is why He looks at our thoughts.  Matthew 6:20-22 says the lamp of our body is the eye and if the eye is clear then your whole body will be filled with light.  But, if your perception of things are bad, then you body is filled with darkness.  The bottom line of obedience lies in your mind.  Every time you have bad thoughts, ask yourself if you can bring that thought into obedience to Christ, so that it can be corrected.  Correct the thought before it becomes an action.  Each time you catch hold of a bad thought, you will correct it sooner than you did the last time.  Eventually, you won’t think that way anymore because your thinking will become one of obedience.  Pray to God that your thoughts will please Him each day.  One way to do this is to: 

·        EVALUATE YOUR MOTIVES CONSTANTLY.

Check your heart each day, as Luke 9 shows us what happened when Jesus faced the Samaritans, who didn’t like him very much. 

“When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume?’  But He turned, and rebuked them, and said, ‘you do not know what kind of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them”  (Luke 9:54-56).

If you don’t monitor your thoughts, they will become those of a spirit residing in you.  At first, your thoughts come from your emotions when you respond with, “How I would like to…” or “If I had a chance…” But, if left unchecked, those thoughts will come from a spirit of destruction that is unclean.  Don’t entertain the wrong spirits.  Hebrews tells us to show hospitality to strangers because you might be entertaining an angel, unaware.  If we can do that, we can also entertain the wrong kinds of spirit, unaware.  In Luke 9:54-55, Jesus told his disciples not to think those bad thoughts because it might invite the wrong kinds of spirit.  Obey God in your mind as you pray, “Lord, may my thoughts please you today.”  We must also: 

·        LEARN TO OBEY REGARDLESS OF HOW YOU FEEL, IN ORDER TO PROTECT YOUR POTENTIAL! 

Don’t shut down your future or your potential because of unresolved sin.  Obey God so He can transfer all that He has over to you and to your future.  God did this for Noah and he ended up in the Hall of Faith within the book of Hebrews. 

“By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household…and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” (Hebrews 11:7).

Noah inherited a bright and great future because he obeyed God even when it wasn’t convenient.  Noah received the potential of his future and, therefore, understood the joy of obedience.  Pray that we will all become a people of obedience.  Thank God for His grace and thank Him for showing us that obedience is not just do’s and don’ts, but allowing His best to come into our lives to ensure our future is in tact.  Thank Him for the joy of obedience and the ability to say yes to what He has asked us to do.  So, let our thoughts please God today and every day.  

DISCUSSION ITEMS

1.      Name a hero from the Bible and the lesson you learned from his or her life.

2.      How has obeying God when it was inconvenient made your life better?

3.      How can you transform performance into obedience?

4.      How can you redeem unresolved consequences of sin?

5.      How did you correct a bad thought before it became an action?

6.      Identify a spirit of destruction and how would you guard yourself against it.