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The Urgency of Obedience to God's Call
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Greatness is about doing something meaningful with your life. Today, we're going to look at case studies in the Bible and examine various instructions and types of obedience that you must follow from God. By the end of this series, you will be thoroughly equipped and will no longer say, "I don't know what to do" or "I don't know what I'm called to do."
You will understand how your regular, everyday life fits into the mission of Jesus.
From the time Jesus began to preach, he said: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:17)
Jesus had one message: change your ways. Get born again, get filled with the Holy Spirit, and live your life according to the Word of God. The message is this: you live the message, you invite others to live the message, and you retain them in the kingdom. It's all about the kingdom of God.
You live the message. You subscribe to it. You live it. Then you invite others to follow, and you go and make disciples of all nations.
Walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers—Simon called Peter and Andrew—casting a net into the sea. They were fishermen. Jesus said to them:
"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." (Matthew 4:19)
Jesus was essentially saying: Leave your message, leave your objective, leave your goal, leave your plan. I will do something bigger with you. That was a call from the Lord.
And immediately, they left their nets and followed him.
Moving on from there, Jesus saw two other brothers—James and John—with their father in a boat. The Bible says:
They immediately left their boat and their father and followed him.
They left their boat. They left their father. They left what they considered their objective, their reason for existence, their means of livelihood—their source of stability—and they followed him.
Jesus was saying: I know you are busy. I know you have an agenda for the day. But I want you to follow me. I want to swap your schedule for my schedule, and I will make you fishers of men. I will do something meaningful with your life.
Everyone who followed God—God made them great. Everyone who swapped their schedule for the schedule of Jesus, who swapped their objective for the objective of Jesus, became great. But if all you want to do is be born, give birth, eat, sleep, and die, then that's okay. That's a valid objective too.
Let's look at Genesis 12:
The Lord said to Abraham: "Leave your native country, leave your relatives, and leave your father's family. Go to the land that I will show you. And I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:1-3)
Abraham was 75 years old and living in his father's house. At 75 years old, he had three critical problems:
First, he was living off his father's estate. Imagine being 75 years old and still collecting money from your father's inheritance. That money should be put in a foundation somewhere, and the profits should be used to help humanity.
Second, at 75, he had something his life desperately needed that money could not buy—a child. If you live long enough, you will find something that money cannot provide.
Third, at 75, nobody knew him. He had no purpose. Even if he had known the will of God for his life, he did not know how to fulfill it.
Is this really the life you want to live? By 75, have money, be a grandpa, but have no professional legacy? The scriptures are given for our examples. We examine our fathers and learn from them so we can adjust our course and not end up like them.
But God called him:
"Get out of your father's house. I am going to do something meaningful with your life. Get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house. Go to a land that I will show you." (Genesis 12:1)
And the Bible says:
Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. (Genesis 12:4)
It is not too late. You may be old now, but it is not too late. I stood on the hill where God spoke to Abraham in Genesis 12:7, where He said, "This land is for your seed." It was a camel ride—do you know how cold it is on those mountains? How terrible those mountain roads are? And he obeyed.
I realized that all these men and women—they did something. They went for it. They obeyed.
Will you obey? Will you obey? Will you obey the Lord?
Abraham could have said, "Oh God, you're going to bless me here. Why must I leave Haran? Bless me here. Look at my life here. I know this land very well. Why should I go from here? I'm 75 years old. Don't you know how cold those mountains are?" But he didn't argue. Not even when God asked him to bring his son—to bring Isaac, his son—and sacrifice him. Very early in the morning, Abraham got up and obeyed.
From these men and women, I learned: When God calls you, respond immediately. When God calls you, swap your agenda immediately. If you want to make something meaningful out of your life, you must learn to respond to the call of God and respond immediately.
Let's look at Judges 6:11-14:
The angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor." And Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonderful deeds which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the Lord bring us from Egypt?' But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites." Then the Lord turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?" (Judges 6:11-14)
Gideon was a very smart man. He was working and hiding in a cave, creatively trying to create food for his family. Just like you do on Monday morning—you get out of the house, take the boss to catch the train, take the tube to a job that pays half your bills.
But the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, "Have I not sent you?"
Before Gideon was even born, God had already set a mission and called him to his destiny. God came down to Planet Earth and found Gideon busy—like many of you are busy today—and the angel came to remind him of his destiny.
I am reminding you now: "Have I not sent you? Is this not the reason why you are here?"
We are not here to complain about the obvious—not about the economic situation, not about Brexit, not about teenage gangs, not about leaders, not about kids carrying knives. Have I not sent you? What is the message of Jesus? You be one. You bring one. You be one. You bring one.
Gideon also responded. The Bible says:
Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father's house and the men of the city too much, he did it by night. But he did it anyway. (Judges 6:27)
You are all very smart people. You set your goals for this year. You say: I'm going to have some savings. I'm going to have some investments. If possible, I'll buy a new house. If possible, I'll buy a new car. If possible, I'll change my job.
But let me ask you this: What is your goal for invitation this year?
How many people exactly do you plan to invite to the house of God and expose them to the Word of God so they can follow Christ? What is your number? 50? What is your target?
I know you have goals for your savings. We're waiting for your savings. I love you setting goals for your children. Many of you have said, "By this time, my kids will be in level seven." But what goal have you set for yourself?
How many people will you use God to invite to His kingdom this year so they can be exposed to the Word of Christ? How many people do you plan to encourage and retain in the house of God?
Do you have any idea how many people leave the Christian faith every single day? Do you know how many people the enemy snatches back into hell every day? What number? What goal have you set for yourself in that regard?
Maybe someone will say, "I'll invite 30." But what if it's not even in your agenda? You don't have a goal for invitation, and you don't have a goal for retention. Yet you say you're a Christian, and you have the heart of Christ. Something is wrong. Awfully wrong.
But the bias and the witness is this: These men and women were very obedient. Very obedient.
Deuteronomy 28:1 says:
Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. (Deuteronomy 28:1)
God is saying: If you respond to my call, if you swap your agenda for my agenda, if you swap your mission for my mission, you will lose nothing. I will do something meaningful with your life. You will be a blessing to many generations long after you are gone. Men will be thanking God that you walked the face of this earth.
But to do that, we must learn to respond. Respond quickly. Respond immediately. We must learn to be obedient.
To fulfill God's purpose for your life, you must be willing to obey these types of instructions:
1. Obeying instructions that you enjoy. This is easy. There are instructions you enjoy, so you quickly do them.
2. Obeying instructions that are in line with your personal goals. If the instruction of God aligns with what you want, you will quickly do it. Many of us operate only at this level—we obey only the things that suit our goals.
3. Obeying instructions that are reasonable. When they make sense to you, you say, "Okay, fair enough. It makes sense to me, I'll do it." How many of us are at that level? "I won't do it unless it makes sense to me."
4. Obeying instructions that lead to something good for you. Like the instruction I received: the Holy Spirit said, "Move your phones from PayPal to your bank account immediately." I didn't find out whether it was reasonable or not—I just did it anyway. And you know what happened? A few days later, I got an email from PayPal saying they were shutting down my account. If I had waited to understand, I would have lost access to my funds.
5. Obeying instructions when you know why they have been given. This is also easier. We understand the reason behind it, so we obey.
But these are just the easy ones. The real test comes with the difficult types:
6. Obeying instructions you do not understand. Do you think Abraham understood God's instruction? Do you think those boys understood? No. They just got up and did it. You don't need to understand God's instruction to fulfill His will. Just do it. Get born again. Go invite the world to your Christ. You may not understand it, but just do it.
7. Obeying instructions that go against reason. There are instructions that go against reason—the more you try to explain it, the more ridiculous you sound. You just have to get up and do it. You don't have to believe it. That's your business. But you must obey it. You won't go far if you do not obey this kind of instruction.
8. Obeying instructions that are painfully difficult. At some point on this journey, God will ask you to do things that are painfully difficult. Giving your tithe when your increment itself is not enough is painful. I remember a time when I was so broke. I had only £15 left to my name. A message came about how Joseph went from the pit to the palace, and I became angry with God. I brought that £15 and put it in the offering. I prayed and asked God to forgive me for complaining.
But you know what happened? On my way home that day, a woman who was equally broke—the church ladies had come together and contributed money—gave me £150. She ran after me and said, "The church asked me to give this to you." So what I had given—£15—came back to me tenfold.
These are instructions that are painful. But you just cry and do it.
9. Obeying instructions that make you unpopular. In two weeks, we'll be teaching about your calling and vocation. You will understand this more then. But understand this now: if God tells you to do something and it makes you unpopular, you must be willing to do it. I told a friend that God had called me to ministry. He said, "You have friends?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Not anymore." Do people have to like you? Yes. But forget about that. It doesn't work on this call. You have nothing and nobody owes you anything.
10. Obeying instructions that are bizarre, weird, and confusing. Abraham, in Genesis 17:10-14, received such an instruction. God told him to circumcise all the males in his household—newborn babies included. That's bizarre. That's weird. That's confusing. But Abraham obeyed.
Likewise, God told Hosea to go and marry a prostitute to experience the infidelity that Israel had committed against Him. That's bizarre. That's weird. That's confusing. But the Bible says Hosea did it.
If one God is to do anything meaningful with your life, the most mental obedience is often to obey.
Put your heart in the right place. Ask Jesus to help you. Praise the Lord.
