NEW SERMON SERIES: GETTING RELATIONSHIPS RIGHT
TODAY’S TOPIC: LOVE GOD AND OBEY GOD
OBEYING OUR WAY TO JOY
JULY 6, 2014
1 John 5:3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome…
BIG IDEA: HEALTHY OBEDIENCE YIELDS SATISFYING JOY!
INTRODUCTION:
1. WORD GAME—
What emotions are triggered by these words?
 Authority
 Commandments
 Obedience
 Boss
 Consequences
 Internal Revenue Service
NOTE: Sermon title is OBEYING OUR WAY TO JOY—Now putting “obeying” and “joy” in the same sentence
might sound like an oxymoron to you. If you feel that way, may I suggest that you could use a burst of spiritual
insight?! Try this on for size…
2. Walter A. Hendrichsen: “One day I sat down and meditated on what would be the most horrible thing that
could happen to me as a Christian. The conclusion to which I came was that when I die, God would take me
aside and say to me, ‘Hendrichsen, let Me show you what your life could have been like if only you had done
what I asked, if only you had been faithful to Me, if only you had disciplined your life and made it really count,
as I wanted you to.’”1
3. So why is it so important for us to obey God’s commands? There are at least five major reasons for
obeying God’s commands:
1) Authority Compliance
 Exodus 4:22 Thus saith the LORD…
 Philippians 2:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow...
2) Gratitude Response
 2 Corinthians 5:15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but
for him who died for them and was raised again.
 If God be God, and died for me,
No sacrifice too great can be
For me, a mortal man, to make –
I’ll do it all for Jesus’ sake.
(Written by missionary William McChesney, 4 years before he was martyred in the Congo in 1964)
3) Pain Avoidance
 Hebrews 12:5-6 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My
son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because
the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."
 This may be the lowest motivation for obedience, but if it works, run with it. Not being spanked is
better than being spanked any day.
 By the way, this works especially for the immature—but we all start as baby Christians.
NOTE: These first three reasons are pretty familiar, so having acknowledged them, I want to move on. I’m not
implying that they are unimportant reasons—indeed they are compelling reasons—but I think we’re already
1
Walter A. Hendrichsen, Disciples Are Made—Not Born (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, SP Publications, 1976), 1617.
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convinced of them. So I want to move on to two other reasons for obeying God--that are not so often in our
conscious minds—and they are also exceedingly compelling.
4) Do-ability for Living
 The Bible is the “Owner’s Manual” that describes how human life works best!
5) lessing Attraction
 When we obey God, He shows up to actively support us!
BIG IDEA: HEALTHY OBEDIENCE YIELDS SATISFYING JOY!
This sermon’s Big Idea demands that we answer two burning questions:
Question #1: Where Is the “Satisfying Joy” in Obedience?—Here we’ll dig into Reasons # 4 & 5.
Question #2: How Do We Improve Our Obedience Performance?
I.
Question #1: Where Is the “Satisfying Joy” in Obedience?
DO-ABILITY FOR LIVING--OBEYING GOD’S COMMANDS PRODUCES A LIFE THAT WORKS.
Joshua 1:8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you
may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and
night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not
wither. Whatever he does prospers.
A. The Alternative Is Self-Destruction
1. When we contemplate disobedience, we don’t fantasize about self-destruction. We don’t deliberately
destroy our families and our careers. We don’t deliberately choose a pathway to shame and loss of a
good conscience. We sin because it looks attractive and pleasurable. It looks smart. We don’t speed on
the freeway thinking to ourselves, “I’d love to get a $125 ticket today—that would be just so cool!”
2. Far from it. Disobedience always presents itself to us attractively:
 James 1:14-15 each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.
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Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth
to death.
 Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the
eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her
husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
 Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
 Think of Adam and Eve in the Garden-- Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the
tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took
some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
 As she visualized disobedience she was thinking about the deceptive benefits. She wasn’t thinking
about all the destruction that would emerge downstream.
 Advent of physical death
 Expulsion from the Garden
 Noxious weeds in the soil.
 Murder of firstborn son
 Genghis Kahn and his ilk
 World War II and the Holocaust
3. God’s commands are guardrails that keep us safe from sin’s deceptions and destruction.
B. The Argument Is The Design Factor--The Bible is the Owner’s Manual for Life
MY JEEP OWNER’S MANUAL
 Psalm 119:4 You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed.
 Psalm 119:30 I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws.
 Psalm 119:93 I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life.
 Psalm 119:98-100 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. 99
I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. 100 I have more
understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.
 Psalm 119:104 I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.
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 Psalm 119:130 The unfolding of your words gives light…
 Psalm 119:140 Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them.
1. The Book of Proverbs majors on the workability of a life of godly obedience: Proverbs 10:4-10
Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. 5 He who gathers crops in summer is a
wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son. 6 Blessings crown the head of the
righteous, but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked. 7 The memory of the righteous will be a
blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot. 8 The wise in heart accept commands, but a chattering
fool comes to ruin. 9 The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found
out. 10 He who winks maliciously causes grief, and a chattering fool comes to ruin.
In these brief seven verses…
 Harvest success
 Safe paths
 Legacy building
 How not to be a chattering fool
 Security of integrity
2. C. S. Lewis--God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on gasoline,
and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on
Himself…. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.
There is no such thing.2
3. Here’s one of the best arguments I’ve ever heard for doing life God’s way-- Dakota tribal wisdom
says that when you discover you’re on a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. Of course there
are other strategies. You can change riders. You can get a committee to study the dead horse. You
can benchmark how other [organizations] ride dead horses. You can declare that it’s cheaper to feed
a dead horse. You can harness several dead horses together. But after you’ve tried all these things,
you still have to dismount.3
4. John Ortberg--We break rules—we violate God’s will—because we think breaking them will help us
win, or at least avoid pain….In a strict sense, I cannot break the rules. They endure, for they reflect
the way things are. I can only break myself against them.4
NOTE: We’re trying to answer the question—Where is the satisfying joy in Obedience? We’ve just chewed on
Reason #4: Do-abiolity for Living. In other words, Obedience to God works. He made us. The Bible is my Life
Owner’s Manual.
Now reason #5…
II.
Question #1: Where Is the “Satisfying Joy” in Obedience?
BLESSING ATTRACTION--OBEYING GOD’S COMMANDS ATTRACTS GOD’S BLESSING.
Joshua 1:9 the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.
Psalm 1:6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous…
NOTE: God’s “With-ness” and “watching” of his children are never passive. When God is with us and
watching us it means protection and blessing and intervention.
Like Psalm 23:4 I will fear no evil, for you are with me…
A. God Is Eager to Bless His Obedient Children
1. EYES OF THE LORD: The prophet Hanani to Judah’s King Asa-- 2 Chronicles 16:9 the eyes of the
LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
2. Like spiritual sonar…
3. Beatitudes—Jesus’ first recorded sermon—The Sermon on the Mount-- starts with the Beatitudes.
One writer calls them the “Be-Happy-Attitudes.” A life of Obedience to God is a life of deep-seated
happiness. To be blessed is to be happy.
 BKC—“Blessed” = Happy/fortunate
 NAC—“Blessed”=to be congratulated
 Humility, meekness, persecution, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, mercifulness…
2
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (MacMillan Co., 1968), 54.
Gary Hamel, Leading the Revolution
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John Ortberg, When the Game Is Over It All Goes Back in the Box (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 117.
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Example: Kevin DeYoung—In my experience, Matthew 5:8—“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God”—has been the most helpful verse in the Bible in battling the temptation to lust. The key
is that Jesus fights pleasure with pleasure. Sexual impurity can be pleasing (in the moment), but Jesus
promises a greater blessing for the pure of heart: they will see God.5
5. John 10:10 I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
6. Deuteronomy 30:19-20 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set
before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may
live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the
LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers,
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
B. We Ought to Salivate to Be in the Way of Blessing
1. Rebecca Pippert-- Is Jesus’ desire to be the Lord of our lives some little fetish of his? Why is it so
important to him? Why should we want him to have control of our lives? Besides the fact that he
deserves it because of who he is, he knows he is the only one in the universe who can control us
without destroying us. No one will ever love you like Jesus…. And the great and joyful paradox is that
while he totally transforms us, he makes us more ourselves than ever before.6
 Jesus’ control is a good and safe thing because he LOVES us!
 He loves us better than anyone else.
 He always does things FOR me, never TO me.
 Even his discipline is benevolent—it is constructive for me.
 Every time I free-lance my life I mess it up
 Relationships off-kilter
 Resources misaligned
 Self-attitudes tainted by arrogance
2. Speaking of salivating
 Matthew Henry--The joy of the Lord will arm us against the assaults of our spiritual enemies and
put our mouths out of taste for those pleasures with which the tempter baits his hooks. 7
 Piper elaborates: This is the great business of life—to “put our mouths out of taste for those
pleasures with which the temper baits his hooks.” I know of no other way to triumph over sin
long-term than by faith to die with Christ to our old seductions, that is, to gain a distaste for them
because of a superior satisfaction in God.
4.
NOTE: So far two big reasons for obedience to God:


Doability for Living
Blessing attraction
SO HOW DO WE DO THIS???
I.
Question #2: How Do We Improve Our Obedience Performance?
WE FEED OUR BRAINS THE RIGHT STUFF.
 Psalm 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
 Joshua 1:8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night.
 Psalm 119:10-11 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. 11 I have hidden
your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
 Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind.
 Martin Luther: The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold
on me.
5
Kevin DeYoung, The Hole in Our Holiness (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 86.
Rebecca Manley Pippert, Out of the Saltshaker (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, , 1999), 54.
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18 October 1662 – 22 June 1714, a Puritan pastor in England
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II.
III.
 If you’re at all like me, you need to be laid-ahold-of!
Biblical meditation is not empty-mindedness or repetitive chanting
Rick Warren: Meditation is focused thinking. It takes serious effort. You select a verse and reflect on it
over and over in your mind…..[I]f you know how to worry, you already know how to meditate. Worry is
focused thinking on something negative. Meditation is doing the same thing, only focusing on God’s Word
instead of your problem. No other habit can do more to transform your life and make you more like Jesus
than daily reflection on Scripture.8
Question #2: How Do We Improve Our Obedience Performance?
WE CULTIVATE THE RIGHT AFFECTIONS.
 Imagine how hard it would be to get a man …to set willful fire to his own property….But this he would do
willingly if he saw that a new property of tenfold value was instantly to emerge from the wreckage of the
old one.—Thomas Chalmers—19th century Scottish minister
 The only way to dispossess [the heart] of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one.—Thomas
Chalmers
 Jesus said this is the Greatest Commandment-- Matthew 22:35-38 One of them, an expert in the law,
tested him with this question: 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus
replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38
This is the first and greatest commandment.
 This is not aversion therapy or bootstrap techniques.
 This is replacement discipline.
 Remember Kevin DeYoung’s statement: Jesus fights pleasure with pleasure!
 Like the wedding vow: Forsaking all others and holding to her forevermore…
 Why would a young man so limit his options by this exclusive devotion? For a greater
joy!!!
 God has never been interested in wooden, cringing, legalistic obedience.
 Isaiah 29:13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their
lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
 Do you see the significance of the Great Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4-6 Hear, O Israel: The LORD
our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
 Jesus said this is the Greatest Commandment-- Matthew 22:35-38 One of them, an expert in the
law, tested him with this question: 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37
Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
 When you love someone, it transforms everything--even taking out the garbage becomes an act of devotion.
 Ann Lamott writes about having a really good friend having a great friend whose company you love,
whose mind you love to pick, whose running commentary totally holds your attention, who makes you laugh
out loud….When you have a friend like this, she can say, "Hey, I've got to drive up to the dump in
Petaluma--wanna come along?" and you honestly can't think of anything in the world you'd rather do. By
the same token, a boring or annoying person can offer to buy you an expensive dinner, followed by tickets
to a great show, and in all honesty you'd rather stay home and watch the aspic set. 9
Question #2: How Do We Improve Our Obedience Performance?
WE CHOOSE TO JUST DO IT!
 1 Timothy 4:7-8 train yourself to be godly. 8 For physical training is of some value, but godliness has
value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
8
Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life (Grand Rapids: Zonderrvan, 2002), 190.
9
Ann Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. As·pic—1 [as-pik] noun 1. a savory
jelly usually made with meat or fish stock and gelatin, chilled and used as a garnish and coating for meats,
seafoods, eggs, etc. 2. a similar jelly made with spiced tomato juice and gelatin, served as a salad.
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1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?
Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.
They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I
do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body
and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
John 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command.”
John 7:16-17 Jesus answered, "My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. 17 If anyone
chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my
own.
The Message John 7:17, Anyone who wants to do his will can test this teaching and know whether it’s
from God or whether I’m making it up.10
CONCLUSION:
1. Psalm 119:131 I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands.
2. A Bicycle Built for Two
At first I saw God as my observer, my judge,
keeping track of the things I did wrong,
so as to know whether I merited heaven or hell
when I die.
He was out there sort of like a president.
I recognized his picture when I saw it,
But didn’t really know him.
But later on when I met Christ,
It seemed as though life were rather like a bike ride,
But it was a tandem bike and I noticed that Christ
Was in the back helping me pedal.
I don’t know just when it was
That he suggested we change places,
But life hasn’t been the same since.
When I had control
I knew the way.
It was rather boring, but predictable…
It was the shortest distance between two points.
But when he took the lead, he knew delightful long cuts,
Up mountains and through rock places
at breakneck speeds.
It was all I could do to hang on!
Even though it looked like madness,
He said, “Pedal!”
I worried and was anxious and asked,
“Where are you taking me?”
He laughed and didn’t answer,
And I started to learn to trust.
I forgot my boring life and entered into the adventure.
And when I’d say, “I’m scared,”
He’d lean back and touch my hand.
10
Peterson, E. H. (2005). The Message: The Bible in contemporary language (Jn 7:17). Colorado Springs, CO:
NavPress.
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He took me to people with gifts that I needed.
Gifts of healing, acceptance, and joy.
They gave me gifts to take on my journey,
My Lord’s and mine.
And we were off again.
He said, “Give the gifts away;
They’re extra baggage,
Too much weight.”
So I did…to the people we met.
And I found that in giving I received,
And still our burden was light.
I did not trust Him, at first, in control of my life.
I thought He’d wreck it;
But He knows bike secrets,
Knows how to make it bend to take sharp corners,
Knows how to jump to clear high rocks,
Knows how to fly to shorten scary passages.
And I am learning to shut up and pedal
In the strangest places,
And I’m beginning to enjoy the view
And the cool breeze on my face
With my delightful, constant companion,
Jesus Christ.
And when I’m sure I just can’t do anymore,
He just smiles and says…”Pedal!”
(Author unknown)
TIMOTHY G. WALTON
ALDERWOOD COMMUNITY CHURCH
JULY 6, 2014
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