ATTITUDE # 3 (Having an Obedient attitude) (ALL my sermons use illustrations from sermoncentral.com and all scripture is NIV unless otherwise noted)
Writing this series of sermons has been a great challenge for me, and yet it has been some of the most rewarding research and time alone with God that I have had in a very long time. After making the decision to retire from a passion, I begged God to give me 5 distinct messages and allow me to step out of the way and allow His word to preach. The Word came, it was ATTITUDE and the verse was PHP 2:5, your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.
We have already seen how the Word describes Him as a servant and a humble one at that. We have spoken of our need to serve and to humble ourselves before the Lord. Those two sermons stepped on my toes, they showed me how short I fall when it comes to acting and serving like the Jesus I claim. It showed me how much I have whined about my work when my Savior bled on a cross. It reminded me that I should be humble, for I am only a Christian because of what he did and nothing I have done. God’s Word has changed my life and my thinking!
This morning we speak of OBEDIENCE! PHP 2 tells us 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross!
Jesus, who is ALL God did not worry about that fact, He did not dwell on the fact that He could call down legions of angels, He did not dwell on the fact that mankind was and is not truly deserving of His actions and love. He HUMBLED Himself, became a SERVANT and became OBEDIENT, even to death on a cross.
WOW, now that’s OBEDIENCE - but as I have done in the past two sermons I must do today, I think it is important to understand what OBEDIENCE is and what it is not before we go any further.
Webster’s defines OBEDIENCE as: the act of following commands or guidance of; that act of conforming to or complying with . . .
So the first scripture I thought of was ROMANS 12:1-2 Rom Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.
DON’T CONFORM to the pattern of this world, BUT be transformed!! How many people in this room have actually felt the transforming power of Jesus Christ in their lives lately? THE TRANSFORMERS MOVIES
(They become something completely different, CHANGED)
I think that it is important to speak for a moment of what REAL OBEDIENCE does not mean. Many people think that if they attend church and go through the motions of traditional religion they have somehow been transformed. That going through motions of ritualistic traditions changes their lives.
I’m thinking of a small-town church in upstate New York. They’d had a rector in that church for over thirty-five years. He was loved by the church and the community. After he retired, he was replaced by a young priest. It was his first church; he had a great desire to do well. He had been at the church several weeks when he began to perceive that the people were upset at him. He was troubled. Eventually he called aside one of the lay leaders of the church and said, "I don’t know what’s wrong, but I have a feeling that there’s something wrong." The man said, "Well, Father, that’s true. I hate to say it, but it’s the way you do the Communion service." "The way I do the Communion service? What do you mean?" "Well, it’s not so much what you do as what you leave out." "I don’t think I leave out anything from the Communion service." "Oh yes, you do. Just before our previous rector administered the chalice and wine to the people, he’d always go over and touch the radiator. And, then, he would--" "Touch the radiator? I never heard of that liturgical tradition." So the younger man called the former rector. He said, "I haven’t even been here a month, and I’m in trouble." "In trouble? Why?" "Well, it’s something to do with touching the radiator. Could that be possible? Did you do that?" "Oh yes, I did. Always before I administered the chalice to the people, I touched the radiator to discharge the static electricity so I wouldn’t shock them." For over thirty-five years, the untutored people of his congregation had thought that was a part of the holy tradition. I have to tell you that church has now gained the name, "The Church of the Holy Radiator." That’s a ludicrous example, but often it’s nothing more profound than that. Traditions get started, and people endure traditions for a long time. They mix it up with practical obedience to the living God.
This is not the type of obedience that leads to a transformation.
There are ways of knowing if we are being obedient, and knowing if our ATTITUDE is the same as that of Christ Jesus.
First let us talk for a moment about blatant disobedience. I want to use Biblical example for all the comparisons and the one for blatant disobedience that came to mind immediately was Acahn.
Let me set the story up for you, God had left specific instructions on how to take the promised lands and the people were going along nicely doing as they had been told. Joshua was feeling good about the success they had thus far and decided that there was no need for sending a great number of men against the small city of Ai. He sent about 3000 and they came back whopped, Joshua was upset and tore his clothes and laid on the ground before God and God said get up, Josh 7:11
Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions.
These people had been told to take NOTHING as they tore through the enemy and Acahn did exactly the opposite: Josh 7:19-21 Then Joshua said to Achan, "My son, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and give him the praise. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me." 20 Achan replied, "It is true! I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: 21 When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath."
GREED got the best of Acahn and he did as he saw best and not what God had commanded. Greed is one factor in the blatant disobedience of God. We as humans want what we want and we are willing to go against the commands of God himself to get those things. Today we see it in our children and we see it in ourselves. People are willing to go against the very things they know to be right if there is a chance they will benefit from it. Our attitude is, “Who cares what happens to others as long as I get what I want.”
Reminds me of a story I have probably shared before. A rich man from Texas calls a church one day and the very proper secretary answers the phone. The Texan says, “Morning little lady, let me talk to the chief hog of the feeding trough,” the secretary was put back and said, “Sir, I have no idea who you are speaking of.” The Texan said, “Little lady you know who I mean, the lead hog of the slop pit.” “Sir,” she replied, “If you are speaking of our Pastor, I will tell you that is no way to speak of such a great man.” The Texan says, “Well, little lady I didn’t mean to offend, I was just fixin to make a donation to the church of 100,000 dollars” the secretary says, ‘hang on a minute, I see that fat pig a comin now.”
But disobedience is not always blatant, there are other forms of disobedience, for instance there is partial disobedience. Now, don’t get me wrong, partial disobedience is still being disobedient. If you tell your child to go to the kitchen, fix and sandwich, and clean up after themselves, and they go in to the kitchen fix a sandwich, trash the kitchen and leave it that way, they have not the attitude of obedience. We see this same kind of partial obedience in the Old Testament, God tells the people of Israel to takeover a country but leave no one standing, wipe them from the face of the earth, but the people of Israel do not carry through. They were told to never inter marry with other tribes, but some of them do it. I caught one teenager in a lie, and I was told, “It’s not like I lie all the time.” So do we think that if we do MOST of what we are supposed to do, that God somehow grades on a curve? If we go to church, say our prayers, give a tithe, and read our Bible, BUT we are involved in gossip, the good cancels out the bad. But doing some of the right things does not cancel out the bad things at all.
We must see this from the perspective of the cross, we must see this attitude of obedience from the one whom’s attitude we should have. Jesus, died a horrific death, He was obedient to DEATH, the scripture reminds us, EVEN DEATH ON A CROSS. Now we must understand, this is NOT something that Jesus was excited about doing, you remember the night before Jesus died, Matt 26:36-39 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
The scripture tells us that Jesus was sorrowful and troubled, He asked His Father, if it is possible, don’t ask me to do this, BUT if it is what you ask of me, I will do it, because you have asked.
How many of us would love to hear our children say these words to us, “Dad, I hear you saying, that I should clean this room, pretty big undertaking, but listen I really don’t feel like it, I was up late last night and I am really kind of tired, BUT you know what, if you are asking me to do this, I will get it done now.” The instead of picking up one pair of dirty pants from the floor, they clean the entire room!!
Jesus, did not agree to go to the cross and then when the whip came out, He didn’t say, “Whoa, wait one minute, I don’t think this is in my contract.” “The cross thing is bad enough, I am not taking a beating also!” He became OBEDIENT to death, even death on a cross.
How do you think God feels when we know that He is asking us to do something and we don’t try to altar his commands. “Lord, I know you want me to teach that Sunday school class, so I am putting up posters this week to find someone that can do the teaching.” How many times do we only give God what we feel is right, instead of what God asks us to give? How is our attitude of obedience?
Only doing part of what God asks, or changing what God has asked of us, is not an attitude of obedience, and in the end we will pay for the things we have done.
Perhaps the worst of all of them is a lack of any action, next week I will speak about having an attitude of action, having the attitude that Jesus had, seeking, healing, feeding, DOING. But to end today’s sermon we must see that a lack of doing is an act of disobedience. If I tell my children to do something, and they do nothing, they have been disobedient.
Why would we not act upon that which God has commanded? Why would we not do what we know God wants us to do? I have discovered that when the plans God has for us make little sense to us we decide that we need not OBEY the Lord.
I have been pondering a story of a weak sickly man. The man was so sick and he could not afford going to town to the doctor. The man lived in the deep back woods in an old log cabin, his condition seemed to grow worse. Out in front of his cabin was a huge boulder. The rock was massive in front of his place. One night in a very real vision, God told him to go out there and push the huge rock all day long, day after day. The man got up early in the morning, and with great excitement he pushed the rock until lunch, then he rested a while and pushed the rock until supper time. The man loved pushing against the rock, it gave him meaning. The dream was so real that it was with great excitement he pushed against the rock. Day after day he pushed. Day rolled into week, and week into months, he faithfully pushed against the rock. After 8 months of pushing the rock, the weak sickly man was getting tired of pushing the rock so much, in his tiredness he started to doubt his dream. So one day he measured from his porch to the rock, and after daily pushing the rock, he would measure to see how much he had moved the rock. After two weeks of pushing and measuring, he realized he had not moved the boulder not a 1/32 of an inch? As a matter of fact, the boulder was in the same place as when he started. The man was so disappointed, he thought the dream was so special and now after 9 months he saw his work had accomplished nothing, he was tired and his dream seemed dashed upon the rock. The man sat on his porch and cried and cried, he had invested many hundred hours into nothing. Nothing, it was all nothing! As the sun was sitting in the west, Jesus came and sat down next to the man as he cried. Jesus said, "Son, why are you crying?" The man replied, "Lord, You know how sick and weak I am, and then this dumb dream gave me a false hope and I have pushed with all that was within me for over 9 months, and that dumb old rock is right where it was when I started." Jesus was kind and said to him, "I never told you to move the rock, I told you to push against the rock." The man replied, "Yes, Sir, that was the dream." Jesus told the man to step in front of the mirror and look at himself. As an act of obedience the man stepped in front of a mirror and looked at himself. The man was amazed, he had been so sickly and weak, and what he saw in the mirror was a strong muscular man. The man realized that he had not been coughing all night. The man started thinking of how well he felt for several months and the strength that he had built by pushing on the rock. Then the man realized, that the plan of God was not for the rock, but for the man. So, I suggest to you today, that God is building people. God is building churches. The storms, the trials, the heartaches, the disappointments, are all but part of the process. We should never use people to build the church, we must use the church to build people. Don’t start measuring your success, trust the God that will take the process, and build His people. God is stretching you, God is growing you! Understand the plan! Trust His Hands!
Is your attitude one of obedience? God has called us to have the ATTITUDE of Jesus, who being in the very nature GOD, did not worry about HIS high status, He became a servant, He humbled Himself, and He became OBEDIENT, obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Jesus is calling you to Trust and Obey, there is NO other way. He is the only way to heaven, He is the sacrifice that paid the price for our sins. Have you accepted Him? Is your attitude where it needs to be?
INVITATION
