Man walked up to vending machine, put in coin and pressed button labed, ’Coffee, double cream, sugar’. No cup appeared but the nozzles went into action sending forth coffee, cream and sugar. All disappearing down the drain and the machine turned off. ’That is real automation..this thing even drinks it for you’. Christian life cannot be lived for you you have to drink it yourself.
Last Wednesday we focused on the discipline of faith, the key word was faith. One of the disciplines of the Christian life is not just faith, but obedient faith. A faith that believes but doesn’t obey isn’t faith at all; it’s just feeling. We’re not going to focus so much on faith as we are on obedience. Obedience is a discipline. The discipline of obedience teaches us to obey, .
Max Anders, ’Only the disciplined ever get really good at anything." Everything in life requires some sort of discipline.
SATURDAY EVENING POST ARTICLE ON JACK LA LANNE: ’Fit for Life’
1) At 86 has dipped, chinned, pushed, pulled & lifted more than anyone in history.
2) Rises at 5:00 - 2 hour workout - championed sound nutrition & exercise in the 40’s & 50’s and was thought a nut.
3) ’This body works for me, it’s my slave. I take care of it. Many complain and have so many excuses, they think about the good old days, the good old days are today! When I was 40 people said, ’You’re over the hill’. Thought I couldn’t swim so I put on handcuffs and swam from Alcatraz to the mainland. Every 2 or 3 years I would do something even harder: swam the length of the Golden Gate Bridge underwater towing a 2,000 lb boat. On one birthday I did 1,000 chin-up and 1,000 push ups in 1 hour and 22 minutes. I water skied behind a helicover at over 70 miles an hour. At 70 I towed 70 boats with 70 people on board handcuffed and shackled for a mile and a half. At 87 I want to swim from Catalina to L.A. underwater in around 20 hours.
We want to be men and women of power? God’s power—the power that leads us to obedience. But to be disciplined in obedience is not an easy task. There are always obstacles to our obedience. There are obstacles to every area of life. But nothing worth gaining is gained easily and no one worth obeying is going to be easily obeyed. That’s especially true of the Lord Jesus.
1) If you and I are to discipline our lives to obedience, discipline ourselves to obeying Jesus Christ as Lord, then we need to see the struggles of others—those who accomplished this task, those who were disciplined in their life. And I think the best examples we can find, are the examples in God’s Word.
All I will ever need to know I learned from NOAH:
(1) Don’t miss the boat
(2) Remember we are all in the same boat
(3) It wasn’t raining when Noah built the boat, plan ahead
(4) Stay fit: When you are 500 someone may ask you to do something big
(5) Don’t listen to critics but finish the job
(6) Speed isn’t everything: Snails and cheetahs were both on the ark
(7) Remember that the ark was built by amatures and the Titantic by professionals
(8) No matter what the storm God presence brings a Rainbow
2) We want to see the discipline of obedience as it’s evidenced by Jesus’ disciples.
Luke 5:4. "Now when He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, ‘Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’ But Simon answered and said to Him, ‘Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.’
And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’ For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had just taken."
I think there are some lessons about the discipline of obedience that we can learn directly from this story.
1. The discipline of obedience means we obey even if our Lord’s commands are contrary to our own experience.
a. Jesus was the son of a carpenter; He was a land lover, if you will. He was born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth. He often got to the Sea of Galilee, but not as a fisherman.
Peter was a trained fisherman; it’s all he knew. Jesus the carpenter
came to Peter the fisherman and said, "Simon, cast your nets out in
the deep. Go out further into the Sea of Galilee and let down your nets
and you will fish."
b. Sometimes in order to obey the Lord Jesus we’re going to have to do things that are contrary to our experience. There are times in our lives when experience teaches us and we rely on that experience. BUT often when the Lord Jesus tells us to do something, it’s going to be very different from what we’re used to. The discipline of obedience is a discipline that says, "Yes, I will obey, even if it’s different from what I’m used to."
A shipwrecked crew off the coast of Brazil had drifted for days and was suffering the horrors of thirst but they dared to not drink the seawater. They saw a vessel coming near and began to call out, ’WATER, WATER’. ’Dip your buckets over the side’ was the answer. The water was fresh even though they did not know it. They had drifted into the flow of the mighty Amazon sending fresh water far out to sea.
c. God may call you to do some things that you just don’t understand, things that are very contrary to your own experience. But when you hear about them from God in His Word, you have to discipline yourself to be obedient, because the lack of discipline will bring about a lack of obedience. Sometimes the discipline of obedience means we must do things contrary to our experience.
Gospel of Luke. Chapter 10, verse 1, says this: "After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.
Then He said to them, ‘The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither moneybag, sack, nor sandals; greet no one along the road. But whatever house you enter, first say, "Peace to this house." And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you.’"
(Jesus is sending out His disciples and He’s saying, "I’m sending you out as lambs among the wolves, as sheep among the wolves." The only thing that makes it possible, the only thing that will allow you as a sheep to go out among the wolves of the world is if the Shepherd goes with you. But Jesus not only sends out His sheep—He goes as the Good Shepherd with us.
"When you go out, I don’t want you to take any provision. Don’t carry any money bag. Don’t take a sack with you. Don’t take sandals. I want you to go believing that I will provide for you everything that you need."
2. The discipline of obedience means that we obey even if our prospects for success are dismal. This is just not the way to do things.
a. The way to do things is, first of all, you amass a war chest. You get yourself a nice allotment of money. You make sure you have all your papers together. You see that all your friends are there to send you off. And then with no little fanfare you go on your way. And Jesus said, "I don’t want you to do it that way at all. I want you to go out as lambs among wolves. You won’t understand it; I’m not asking you to understand. I’m asking you to obey."
JACK HANDLEY’s book Fuzzy Memories. Used to be a bully who would demand his lunch money every day. Decided to fight back so started taking Karate lessons but when the Karate Lesson guy said I had to start paying him $5 a lesson I decided it was cheaper to just pay the bully.
b. The discipline of obedience that means we obey, even if our prospects for success are dismal. But you will never have better prospects for success than those prospects that come from obedience.
FRAM OIL FILTER: Pay me now or pay me later
Dentist office sign: ’Ignore your teeth and they will go away’
Luke 19:28: "When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, when He came near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, saying, ‘Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose him and bring him here. And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosing him?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of him.’"
Look at what Jesus told them to do. Verse 32 is their response. "So those who were sent departed and found it just as He had said to them. But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, ‘Why are you loosing the colt?’ And they said, ‘The Lord has need of him.’ Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own garments on the colt, and they set Jesus on him.’"
Of the three stories this one is the greatest test of discipline. Jesus sent these disciples into the city and He said, "You’re going to find a colt tied there. I want you to loose that colt and bring that colt to me." Now this is not grand theft auto but. this is Jesus using something He needed and the master who asked, "Why are you loosing the colt?" did not object. I don’t know if the man knew why they were loosing the colt or not, but obviously, he gave them his silent permission to take the colt.
3. This is a pretty strange story, but it teaches us a lesson, a lesson about the discipline of obedience, and here it is. The discipline of obedience means we obey our Lord’s commands, even if those commands make us personally uncomfortable.
a. There are lots of things that I am just not comfortable doing as a believer and a pastor. But if I’m going to be obedient, I’m going to do them. And it takes discipline and I’m learning this discipline of being obedient to the Lord’s commands, even if I’m personally uncomfortable. God doesn’t ask me to be comfortable, He asks me to be obedient.
A Roman centurion was instructed to deliver a message by his commanding officer. In order to deliver that message, he had to go through some pretty dangerous territory. Now one of his soldiers approached him and said, "Sir, if you try to deliver this message, you could be killed." The centurion looked at the young man and he said, "Soldier, it’s not necessary for me to live. It’s only necessary for me to obey."
b. One of the great lessons of the discipline of obedience is that sometimes we obey our Lord’s commands, even if those commands make us uncomfortable personally. It’s not necessary that we live; it is necessary that we obey. It’s not necessary that we be comfortable; it is necessary that we be obedient, and that takes discipline.
Notice again that as soon as Jesus finished telling the disciples what to do, they did it immediately?The lessons that we are to learn about the discipline of obedience are not easily learned. They’re tough lessons. The discipline of obedience means we obey, even if our Lord’s commands are contrary to our experience. The discipline of obedience means we obey even if our prospects for success are dismal. The discipline of obedience means we obey our Lord’s commands, even if those commands make us personally uncomfortable. The Lord Jesus doesn’t expect our obedience based on our understanding, based on our agreement, based on our prospects for success, based on our previous experience. The Lord Jesus expects our obedience unconditionally. If we’ve been disciplined in the grace of obedience, He’ll get it.
One New Years Day in Pasadena, Ca at the Tournament of Roses Parade a float suddenly sputtered and quit. It was out of gas. The whole parade was held up until someone could get a can of gas. The funny thing was that this float represented the Standard Oil Company. With it’s vast resources of oil it’s own truck was out of gas.
Embarrising for a Christian to lack God’s power because of a lack of taking time to see to the things that are the most important things when God’s vast resources are at our disposal to bring success.
