Pastor John Tilton
May 5, 2019 - W1918

Blessings of Obedience

Bless This Mess

Pastor John Tilton

May 4 & 5, 2019

Welcome New Hope! The Holy Spirit is moving in this place! What a powerful inspiring worship presentation about heaven, done by Colleen Nomura and her dance team! And Pastor Richard Waialeale explained John 20:7 NLT that says, “while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings,” that the folded cloth meant that Jesus is coming back! Do you believe that He is coming again? With such a spirit of reverence in this place, I’ll jump right into the message about being ready—Obedience! Rapture will take place first. Are you ready to meet the Lord Jesus? No one wants to be left behind! 

Revelation 21:4-7 NIV says, “⁴ He will wipe 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. ⁵ He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!' Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'  ⁶He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. ⁷ Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.’”

We don't hear much about the second coming of Jesus in church because many times when we share it, people tune out—but the Bible says there will be clear signals about the end times.  Look at what's happening in the world today: Earthquakes, famines, storms, wars, immorality, and God being taken out of our government! Jesus said these are clear signs of His soon coming:

Luke 21:11 NIV says, “There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.” Verse 31, “Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” Do you feel the reverence and impact of what we're talking about?

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 NLT says, “¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. ¹⁷ Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ So encourage each other with these words.”

I'm here to encourage you and celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ is coming soon and we don't have to do anything spectacular—we just need to be ready!

Romans 2:6-7 NIV says, “⁶ God will repay each person according to what they have done. ⁷ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.” 

Last week, Pastor Reece Whitehead from Willow Creek Church said that new believers in Christ are infants feeding on milk, but in order to grow in the things of God, they need to hunger for solid food/meat! We heard, listened, and got inspired; but the distractions of life came, and we never followed through on our intentions.  There may be a desire to be obedient, but the lack of follow-through is called Disobedience! 

1. Obedience Is Obeying The Word Of God   

Luke 11:28 NIV says, “He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Obedience means complete compliance with God’s Word—wanting to, desiring to, and being intentional in acting on God’s commands—being passionate! In the beginning, we're on fire, but because we lack the discipline of obeying God's will, we get complacent and comfortable; and the things of life keep us busy. We must contend with the tension between what we want to do for God and all the things that occupy our time!  

2. Obedience Brings Favor and Blessings 

This is God's delight: Obedience tells God that you love Him because you are willing to put aside all that He says not to do; and doing all that He says to do! Deuteronomy 5:33 NIV says, “Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.”

But life will not always be perfect because we are in the world, but are not of the world.  

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Worship is wonderful—obedience is the highest form of worship and we experience favor and blessings! But when times are tough and things don't go our way, can we still trust God and be obedient. Remember, disobedience is a blessing blocker. If things are not running as well as they should, The Bible says that there is probably sin in your camp!  Get on your knees, ask God for forgiveness, and ask Him to reveal what is taking away your blessings.  

3. Obedience Is Often A Test Of Faith And Trust 

Pastor Wayne just went through a bout with prostate cancer. When the doctors diagnosed him, they gave him two options:  Radiation or surgery. In any health matter like that, there's always a risk, so Pastor Wayne went on his knees before the Lord and prayed for God's will.  He felt God impressing him that he should go the way of surgery; but when he went back to his doctor, his doctor told him to have radiation, instead.  But Pastor Wayne chose surgery, and changed doctors.  Like Pastor Wayne, we need to follow the ways of obedience—even when times are tough and we don’t think things add up!

Hebrews 11:6 NASB says, “ And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”

Sometimes obedience will cost you relationships, jobs, and more.  But know that if you're being obedient to God, He may be asking you to give something up—because He has something better for you!  Right now I want to call up a dear friend, Scott Hogle.  

Scott is the senior vice president of iHeart Media, the largest media company in the nation!  He is the author of a New York Times Best Seller, “Persuade,” is one of the original founding members of the John Maxwell Foundation and Organization, and is on the board here at New Hope Oahu.  In the last seven years, Scott has had seven bouts with cancer.  During his last bout, he and I sat in my office and shed a lot of tears and did a lot of soul searching.   

Scott is like Pastor Wayne, in that he can pull scriptures right out of the sky, name the scripture, where to find it, and tell you about God. He is a great teacher and has always been a pillar for many of us on the church board and to the men in the church—but this time, the seventh time battling cancer, was different! 

SCOTT: This one took me really by surprise because it wasn't like the other ones where there was a clear path from diagnosis to cure.  This one had spread so much to the point where I knew that I needed God to intervene because if he didn't, well, frankly, I wouldn't be here right now.

In cancer, there are numbers .33 to .159, where a particular blood level should have been.  Last July, I was actually at .59.  I just had a scan so I knew I was in big trouble!  Pastor Wayne and I had the diagnosis around the same time—but with a different type of cancer. 

I believe there are different dimensions of obedience; and there would be a lot of decisions of obedience that I would make over the next few months.  What I didn't know then (but I know now) was it would be a very long journey. 

First, God put on my heart to read the Book of James, where I received very specific instructions from Chapters 1 and 5.  In chapter 1, God talked about double?mindedness and becoming very single?minded about my faith.  What that meant is that I was to take His Word (what He said about my health) above what the doctors would say and what they would diagnose. That's tough when you have to block out your own voice and fears, and other people's voices. 

Second, James 5 says, that if you're sick, go to the elders of the church and have them pray for you, so I came to see you.  I didn't want to go to your office because I was a wreck, and I did not think I could get through the meeting.  There was a lot of weeping and praying during that two?hour meeting—I would say that was an act of obedience.

The first action I had to take was to get a hold of myself because nobody can take hold of you but you; the second action was to come and see you and be obedient to that—but there would be a lot of decisions to obedience. I think obedience gets a bad rap sometimes because a lot of times people think obedience is about what God wants you to do for them, while it's really about what God is trying to do for you!  Often, God will see something in your future that you don't see, so He's nudging you in your heart and speaking within your conscience, saying, “Just do it!”

I have another piece to add to Pastor Wayne’s story you were telling, that he had shared with me. I can relate to this story because I've learned I would have many doctors’ meetings over the next 5 to 6 months!  It's very important to listen to your doctors because God will often use them as part of your treatment plan.  There were some doctors I followed—some I didn't!  

When Pastor Wayne picked one of the two options given to him, the doctor said, “No, I don't want you to do this I want you to do that.” Pastor Wayne said, “No, God told me to do this,” and the doctor, basically, fired him and said, “I can't be your doctor any more,” which makes sense!  You must do what God is telling you to do!  

Over the next few months, it would become very important for me to be able to hear and heed the Word of God—it wasn't always convenient.  One of the things that happened was the story of my leg where the cancer had eaten the bone. When the doctors looked at it they said, “You need to put a metal spike in that thing because if you don't, your foot will break off!” But we had made a commitment to take every medical decision back to God, and He said, “Don't do it.”  I could get a metal spike and be walking in a week and be out of pain; or listen to God and who knows what would happen.  Well, several months went by, and at some point, I'd go back to the Lord, as if I didn't hear Him right. But then one day I woke up and started to walk, miraculously! I've been walking ever since!

PASTOR JOHN: Scott, what helped you get to the point of total faith and trust?

SCOTT: As Christians, we believe that God can do anything, that He's all-powerful! But we can't do anything!   I've never met a Christian who doesn't believe God can do all things, but I've met many who can’t believe God can do anything through them!  Believe it or not, you have the power to stop God's hand from working in your life.  We see this in Nazareth when Jesus had to leave Nazareth because He could not do any mighty miracles there because the residents had stopped the flow of the miracle? working power through their unbelief!

So what caused me to be able to have the faith and trust for my healing? There's this little thing the enemy doesn't want you to know:  Simply, that if you're double?minded and don't hang on to your faith with all you have, and you allow things to compete in your heart where God lives—that will short-circuit the miracle in progress!

PASTOR JOHN: I pray that God would move on you so that, in obedience, you would have the faith and trust to surrender your hearts with single mindedness unto The Lord for what you or your loved one are going through. 

QUESTIONS TO PONDER:

1.       Define what it means to you to be obedient unto The Lord
2.       In what circumstances have you needed to put your faith and trust in God alone?
3.       How has God answered when you were obedient unto Him?
4.       What does it mean to be double minded, or single minded?