The Christian Handbook - What Does God the Father Want

God, we thank you for tonight. We thank you for your word as

we open it. God, I pray that it jumps off the pages and

into our hearts. God, that we hide your word in our hearts,

that we might not sit against you, as it says in Psalm one nineteen.

God, we are just so grateful that you've given us your word,

and we take it seriously God, and we're so grateful that we get a

chance to go through it and learn about you and become closer to You and

closer to each other as your believers. And so God, we just thank

you that you guide tonight, that all the words spoken tonight are your words,

not mine. God, that your word it pierces our hearts and changes

us from the inside on. And we're so grateful for this time together.

And Gee's name, everybody said, Amen, Okay, I do have a

story that I want to tell before we get in the two much. It's

from this past Monday night. We have our elders meetings pretty much every other

week unless something's going on, and so we meet at the office and talk

through all this stuff we do as elders. So last Monday, I try

to finish up the workday and go home so I can spend a few minutes

at home the family before I'm gone all evening at the meeting, right,

And so Jesse and I we talk about, Okay, are we gonna do

you want dinner before the meeting or do you want to wait till after to

eat the meat eat your meal? And I was like, I'll be fine,

I'll just eat after the meeting. It'll be fine, right, So

we decide I'm gonna eat after the meeting. I go to the meeting,

awesome meeting, and at the end of this meeting, I'm ravenously hungry.

I'm like, I want I want to eat anything and everything. I was

trying to talk to myself out of stopping to getting fast food, right,

So I want to eat everything on the planet at this point. And I'm

like, okay, well, I'm gonna go home because I know Jesse made

me food for the evening and I'm excited to eat whatever she made me.

I'm looking at the watch and I was like, okay, well, I'm

getting home just in time to do bedtime routine with the boys. For those

who don't know what bedtime routine is, it's something that moms like to make

take way longer. And Dad's all generally hate just kidding sort of, Dad's

always hate it. But it is something that just goes on and on and

on. So it's this routine that you go through with your kids, right

you, Okay, we gotta brush your teeth, you gotta use the restroom.

We like to read some books, and as a kind of a side

note, in the middle of a story that's probably gonna take way too long

to tell, we like to do is read some of our Bible at that

time. So we read a book for Grayson, a book for Jackson,

or parts of a book for both of the boys, and then we read

some Bible stories. It's an awesome time to do that. And then we

pray together as a family. And that's part of our bedtime routine, which

the boys are always coming up something that makes it take longer. Right,

So I'm like, okay, we got time to go home do bedtime routine

before I get eat. So we're doing bedtime routine, which keeps going longer

because moms like to make it take longer. And and I said, and

I probably topped this number of eight thousand times. I'm hungry, I'm starving,

I'm like the whole time, I'm just talking about how hungry I am.

In the middle of us trying to put the boys down to bed.

Right, So we're going through our bedtime routine, reading our Bible, We're

saying our prayers. The last thing we do in their bedtime routine is both

the boys are in bed, was we scratch their backs, right, just

kind of a way to calm them down and just spend some time. Right,

It's real cute. Oh, that's great. We scratch their backs.

So I go in scratch Grayson's back. I'm like, okay. We go

over to Jackson and I start scratching his back, and then he starts asking

me some weird questions about top ramen. And if anybody knows me, they

know I love top ramen, Like didn't you eat enough of in your college

age years? Yeah, and I still love it. I would eat it

to this day. So he's asking me a weird question about top ramen.

I'm also very particular about how I like it cooked. I like it very

specific way. You have to boil the walk, put the water in with

the seasoning before it's boiling. When the water comes to a boil, you

put the noodles in which I like the mash up and make them small,

and then you let them You put the timer for three minutes, but you

only let a boil for one minute, and then you turn the burner off

and just let it sit in there for the extra two minutes, and you

immediately have to pour it into the bowl that has some ice in there to

cool down to the perfect tempture to eat immediately. This is like, this

is the thing, guys, top ramen. I'm not encouraging to eat it

because it's terrible for you, but anyway, I'm starving. He's asking me

this weird question about top ramen, like, hey, dad, what if

you didn't have two bags of top ramen? Because he knows I was eating

two. He eats one, I eat two. What if you didn't have

two of the same one, would you mix flavors? And I was like,

this seems kind of weird. Probably not because it might taste bad.

And he's like, okay, well, and I'm sitting here like all right,

buddy, come on, let's get this wrapped up. You're talking about

food. I'm starving. I want to go downstairs and eat my food.

And so he's like well, what about if you just use one packet of

seasoning for it. I was like, well, I don't think that would

be enough flavor. And he's like, but what if you did like less

water. I'm like, what, sure? Maybe love you a good night,

Like I want to go eat like I'm starving cool and he's like okay.

I was like, hey, love you, buddy, see you,

and I'm going downstairs. I'm like, okay, finally I gotta go downstairs.

Eat well. My wife already made for me. It's sitting in the

fridge, wait and just be heated up. And I walked downstairs and I

see on the counter a note and a bag of top Ramen. And I

walk up to the note and it says I got this out for you because

I knew you were hungry Jackson. Ps. By the way, there was

only one. My entire heart exploded, and all of a sudden, all

the light bulbs went off on my head. All this same time, I

was like, this kid, this kid was listening to me complain and about

being hungry, and sometime during the bedtime routine, which I don't know when

he did it, ran downstairs, got a back at top ramen, stuck

in on the counter wrote a note to me, and so you better believe

I started boiling water because I'm going to eat that back at top Ramen.

I mean, I obviously when my wife cooked me too. So I hate

him both because I want to show her. I want to show him how

much I appreciate what he did for me, right, because he thought he

listened to what I said, and then he's like, hmm, this is

what dad wants and I'm going to go do something about that. And then

he even asked me follow up questions from worse to get a deeper understanding of

what I actually wanted and how I liked it. And then I stopped and

thought, I wonder if that's the way it is when God, when we

do something it pleases God. I wonder if that's how he feels when we

do something it pleases him. Now, this is obviously has happened on Monday,

and it wasn't until I was midway through the week studying that I was

like, Okay, I get God, Thank you. I needed that because

I'm supposed to preach on Sunday. So he's taking me through this story to

or I'm taking you through the story to show you. What I learned in

the midst of this is something that I think is far greater and far deeper,

that I think God feels the same way I felt about my son when

he did something for me. When we do something that pleases him. Jackson

listened to what I wanted, he asked follow up questions for deeper understanding,

and then he went and actually did something about it. So today's message is

called this what does God the Father want? What does God the Father want?

And we're in We've been in a series called the Christian Handbook. Drum

roll please do we have this slide for that? Okay? Good? I

was like, maybe it's not in there. The Christian Handbook Fundamentals of the

Faith. We've been talking about what do Christians believe and what do Christians do?

Because our beliefs drive our actions, or our beliefs inform what we do.

And today is the last message in the series We made it, guys,

we did it, which has been an amazing series. And so today's

kind of a little bit of a recap because we've covered a ton of different

topics. We've covered who God is, the Trinity, and these are small

topics right the Bible the gospel, eternity, discipleship, worship, serving,

giving spiritual gifts, evangelism. But we only scratch the surface of all those

topics. We have to be continued learners, like we need to continue to

We could have taken some of those weeks Duncan and I were talking about,

we could have spent a month on one of those topics and made its own

series. Raf it sounds like it's feeding back to me. I don't know

if if you hear that at all, I don't know if you want to

help them do okay. If so, it sounds good to you, then

it sounds good to me. But no, we need to continue to dive

into these these messages, these topics, these biblical truths, because there's so

much more that we can learn from them than we got the chance to talk

about in us going through the series. But today my hope is I want

to argue a point that I think has been woven through the entire series.

And I kind of think of it as as like a like a backbone,

as as kind of a backbone of everything we've been talking about. But it's

why is why is it so important that for us to know and to understand

what we believe as Christians, or what we believe is the people of God.

Why is that so incredibly important? And it's important because if our belief

drives our actions, then our belief will uncover more of what the Father,

God, the Father wants from us. Okay, if our belief drives our

action, then the more we understand about our beliefs, the more will understand

about what God actually wants from us. Because we are the people of God.

Can you put that message slide back up the Yeah, the title what

does God the Father want? Because if we are the people of God,

then it should be our greatest aim in this short life that we have on

earth. The greatest aim in this short life we have to be to find

out what he wants to do everything we can to please him. That should

be our goal as the people of God. He's the creator of the universe,

the one who breathed out stars galaxies. That's the creator of the universe.

He's the sovereign God. There's no one more powerful than him. He

is all powerful and he's a loving father. This is the two extremes right

we have. This God is so infinitely huge that we could never know him.

But he is so infinitely also personal for us. He's both beautifully and

perfectly. He is both. But this loving Father made a way to fix

the deepest, most broken part of us, our sinful flesh. He made

a way to fix that. He made a way for us to be in

a right relationship with him. So we got to spend eternity in his presence

only to experience his love and grace. The creator of the universe, we

owe him everything. So I want to look at Romans twelve. We're finally

getting to the Bible. This is probably the longest I've ever gone before referencing

a verse in my life. Romans twelve one. Therefore, I urge you,

brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies

as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true

and proper worship. So this verse right here, what we're talking about as

a paradigm shift, a fundamental a different way to think about things. This

idea that it's much deeper than than we may first at first glance. It's

a lot deeper than what we might understand. So when you think about this

as a paradigm shift, that are true, proper or reasonable worship. Some

translations say reasonable is for us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice.

That is reasonable in view of God's mercy. Our lives are meant to be

lived fully unto Him, fully everything, all of it, unto the Lord.

That's how much of our life should be lived unto Him, fully,

all of it. And this is really easy to grasp when we understand the

depths of God's mercy. To the depth that we understand God's mercy, it

makes sense to say it's reasonable to offer my entire self to the Lord because

we understand what we've been saved from. But the opposite is also true.

If we don't have a good depth a grasp of a depth of the mercy

of God, then it's harder to understand why we would ever live our whole

entire lives or give our bodies as living sacrifices to the Lord. But before

we get too much further down that train of thought, I want to address

one very very important thing, and that is how do we know who our

father is? How do we know who our father is? And Jesus had

some very pointed words about this in the Gospel of John. So I want

to go to John chapter eight. I kind of want to read this from

my Bible. We'll see if I can juggle everything to the Jews who would

believed him. Jesus said, if you hold to my teachings, you are

really my disciples. Okay, if you hold to my teachings, you are

really truly my disciples, then you will know the truth, and the truth

will set you free. Do you see that you will? If you if

you hold to his teachings, then you know you're his disciples, and then

you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Lots

of people use that verse, but they forget to read the first part of

it. They answered him, we are Abraham's descendants. We have never been

slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?

So they're saying, hold up, we're we follow Abraham, we're descends of

Abraham. We've never been slaves of anyone. And then Jesus is like,

okay, let's keep reading. Jesus replied, very truly, I tell you

everyone who sins is a slave to sin ah. Okay, so he's not

talking about the type of slavery that they are thinking. They've never been enslaved

to anyone. He's saying, anyone who sins a slave to sin. That's

because you obey your master. If Sin tells you to operate a certain way

and you go and do that, well, who are you obeying sin?

Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now, a slave has no

permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So

if the son sets you free, you will be free. Indeed, can

I get an amen? I know that you are Abraham's a sentence, because

they're like, were Abraham's a sentence? And he's like, I know that

you are Abraham's a sentence, Yet you are looking for a way to kill

me because you have no room for my word. I'm telling you what I've

seen in the father's presence, and you are doing what you have heard from

your father. Okay, so now Jesus is like starting to address kind of

They're saying descendants of Abraham, but he's saying, you're doing something. You're

looking for a way to kill me. You're doing what you've heard from your

father. And they replied, Abraham is our father, they answered, and

then he says, if you were Abraham's children, said Jesus, then you

would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a

way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I

heard from God. What did Abraham do? God spoke to him and he

believed it, and it was credited to him as righteousness. He believed the

truth. That's what Abraham did. So verse for you, as it is,

you are looking for a way to kill me and the man, a

man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did

no such things. You were doing the works of your own father. Okay,

they said, Abraham's father. He's like, no, no, no,

no, Abraham's not your father because you're not doing it Abraham did.

We are not illegitimate children, they protested. The only father we have is

God himself. Okay, now they're leveling up. They're like, okay,

well's appeal a little bit higher than Abraham. The only father we have is

God himself. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you

would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not

come on my own. God sent me. He's saying, you love me

if God was your father, because God's the one who sent me and then

he says, verse forty three, why is my language not clear to you?

He asked a very pointed question, which seems kind of like a little

bit of a slap in the face, But he asked a pointed question,

and then he gives the answer, why is my language not clear to you?

Because you are unable to hear what I say. Now, that sentence

is very, very thick theologically, we don't have time to talk about all

of what it means. But he's saying, you don't understand. You're unable

to hear what I say because you belong to your father, the devil,

and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from

the beginning and not holding to the truth. There is no truth in him.

Okay, he's a murder from the beginning and a liar. What's the

two things they're trying to do here? They want to kill Jesus and they

don't believe him, and he's speaking truth. They want to kill him and

they are holding to a lie, which because Jesus is bringing the truth.

So he's saying, the devil is your father, where am I? Oh?

There? When he lies, he speaks his native language so when we

lie, we're speaking devil. That's just a little side, no little nugget.

When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a

liar and the father of lies. Yet, because I tell you the truth,

you do not believe me. Can any of you prove me guilty of

sin? If I am telling the truth? Why don't you believe me?

Whoever belongs to God, Here's what God says. The reason you do not

hear is that you do not belong to God. Okay, what are we

talking about. We're talking about who's our father. If you belong to God

and he's your father, you don't act like all these things that we literally

just went through and read. Jesus lay in the SmackDown. But what's his

main point in all of this is the way that they responded revealed who their

true father was. The way they responded when Jesus came to them revealed who

their true father was. They argue that their fathers Abraham or even God.

Right, they're trying to like level that up, but Jesus tells them a

very simple and straightforward truth. Can I the next point? Please, your

actions show your true who your true father is. Your actions show who your

true father is. A lot of I think today's message is going to feel

like cart before the horse kind of, but it's not. And you're gonna

understand why. And I'm gonna say it again later. But a tree is

known by its fruit. You look at the fruit is something and you will

know your actions show who who your true father is. A true is known

by its fruit. Or the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Everyone

knows that, saying I've never thought about it in this context. I was

like, Oh, that makes a whole lot more sense. The apple doesn't

fall far from the tree. We all follow our father. And if you

are of this world, your father is the devil, and you will do

what he desires. But if your father is God, then you'll do what

he desires. You will do what your father desires. This is the test

to know who your true father is. Just stop and look at the fruit

of your life. Just look at the fruit of your life. What are

the things that you do? Our beliefs drive our actions. So if our

actions are in alignment with what the devil does and what the devil desires,

then who does that mean our father is? But what did Jesus say at

the beginning of this part of the text, back in verse thirty one,

to the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, and when this believed

isn't like believed in a selvific way. This is just Oh, I believe

you enough to continue listening to you, Like I believe what you're saying right

now, Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, you are really

my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set

you free if we hold to or another translation will say, abide in.

When you abide in my teachings, you are really his disciples. So if

we actually follow what he teaches, and we actually here's the kicker, do

what he commands you to do, then we really are his disciples, and

what happens next, you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free.

If we believe and obey what Jesus said, then God is our father,

because God is the one who sent Jesus. Does that mean we perfectly

follow everything he teaches? Yes, just kidding, I wish that would be

amazing. Every time I'm like God, can you just like make me perfect?

And I never get angry? Ever again, He's like, put some

work into this. Brother Son actually doesn't call me brother, calls me son

because he is my father. We will not do it perfect, so thank

God for his forgiveness through Jesus. Right, we won't perfectly follow, but

we will always strive to. And I say, like, Christians are just

live a life full of repentance. That is how we do it. We

walk, we follow, we scraper and need we stand up, and we

keep moving forward. Right, we were constantly in a life of repentance.

The ones who follow, the one whose teachings we follow, excuse me,

whose actions we imitate? And I don't want to stop on that for a

second. It's not just the teachings that we follow, but it's the actions

we imitate. Sometimes we think like, okay, well this whole thing I'm

kind of talking about is you say one thing, but are you doing it?

Do you live it? Out? Right? Whose actions we imitate or

the whose words that we hold is true? That's who our father is,

the one we believe, the one whose words we cling to, That's who

our father is. And I feel like I hadn't dig a little pause here

and remind everybody that salvation is not by works. We know that Scripture is

very clear about that. It's not by anything we do. So none of

us can boast right, but we will. So, for instance, we

don't we don't obey Jesus so that we would be saved. We obey Jesus

because we are saved. He saved us, and we desire to do that.

He's given us a new new desires, a new heart of flesh.

Right, so we actually want to do what he says. I think of

our obedience as more of a thermometer rather than a thermostat. Okay, A

thermometer just tells us what the temperature is, a thermostat setting it, So

our obedience is like, oh, that's uncovering to me the temperature that I

am? Or whose father that I am? Who do I obey? Okay,

Now we get to talk about how we learn what our father, God,

the Father wants from us. We're gonna look at First Corinthians, chapter

two. However, as it is written, what no eye has seen,

what no ear has heard. This is from I think Isaiah sixty four or

sixty five. What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard,

and what no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who

love him, Man I love verses like that, These are the things God

has revealed to us by his what by his spirit. The spirit searches all

things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person's thoughts

accept their own spirit within them in the same way, no one knows the

thoughts of God except who the Spirit of God. Okay, it's God's Holy

Spirit who knows the thoughts of God? And guess what if you've put faith

in Jesus, that exact same Holy Spirit lives in you. He resides in

you. You are filled with the Holy So what God? Some of the

things that, like I kind of wrote down a list of the things that

God the Holy Spirit does in our lives. Things like he convicts us of

sin, of righteousness, of judgment. Right, so when we do things

outside of alignment with God's plan, we feel a certain way about that and

praise God for that. It's a mark of the work of the Holy Spirit

in your life of righteousness. No, we know what we should or ought

to do. Of judgment, knowing that Jesus is going to return one day

to judge the living and the dead. He comforts us. He's the comforter.

He guides us into all truth. I love that he reminds us of

everything Jesus toad that was specific to the disciples, but also applies to us.

He is the seal that guarantees our salvation. So if you see the

fruits of the Spirit in your life, you see evidence of the Spirit in

your life, guess what that is the mark of the seal that you are

going to be saved when Jesus comes to for a second judgment or excuse me,

second coming for the judgment. That's our seal, our guarantee. The

Holy Spirit. It's God. I love the scriptures, God who works in

us to will and to act in order to fulfill his good pleasure. It's

God working in us. Anytime we want to do what He wants us to

do, and anytime we actually pull it off, it's God working in us.

That's the Holy Spirit working through us to do that. But one other

thing that I think is really important that God the Holy Spirit does for us

is he illuminates scripture. He helps us understand what the Bible means. And

we just read that those whose father is God hear his words, that those

whose father is the devil can't hear his words here also implying understand, God

the Holy Spirit is the one who worked in all of those who wrote scripture.

He worked through them. It's by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that

we even have the Bible today, and praise God, thank you for that.

If you're like, why should we believe the Bible, Well, God's

sovereign. If he wanted to create, if you wanted to have a book

like Romans written, he create a Paul to write the Book of Romans.

I don't remember who said that, but it's awesome, so I stole it.

That's at Second Peter chapter one. Above all, you must understand that

no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. Okay,

so it's not about what the man thinks. For prophecy never had its

origin in the human will, but prophets through though human spoke from God as

they were carried along by the who by the Holy Spirit. God wrote the

Bible. It's his word, and he chose to use the mouths of men

and the hands of men to speak it and to write it through the inspiration

of His Holy Spirit. That's why it's God, the Holy Spirit who illuminates

what scripture says and what it means. It's not just it just what it

says, but it's also what it means. That's how or that's why.

It's God, this Holy Spirit who does that. The only reason that we

can read it, understand it, and believe it is truth is because God

the Holy Spirit revealed that to us. That's the only reason that. The

only way is that God the Holy Spirit has revealed it to us. So

how do we know what God the Father wants? We do what Jackson did

with me. We listen when he speaks I'm hungry, and Jackson heard that.

We listen when the Lord speaks. The Bible is God speaking to us.

This is how we find out what God wants. It's in his word.

He has already spoken to us. And what did Jackson do after he

listened? He asked questions to get a deeper and clear understanding of what I

actually wanted. That's what's studying God's word is We're asking questions, seeking a

deeper and clear understanding of what God said and what he meant by what he

said. That's us studying scripture, and things won't always make sense the first

time around. When we read them, and so we always say we get

this from that SIMI and trust is read, reread, and then read it

again. Just keep reading it. The more you read it, the more

familiar getting with it, the more you're gonna feel comfortable with the text.

You're gonna understand more, you're gonna see what the Holy Spirit intended in its

meaning. Read, reread, read again. And I think that sometimes God

takes us through a process, a longer process, to understand his word.

That's the way it works sometime, and it's in that process that we learn

all kinds of stuff. We learned so much more through that process. So

how do we learn and know what God wants? Listen when God speaks and

study what he says. Pretty straightforward, Listen when God speaks and study what

he says, study God's word. Okay, now we know who our father

is and we know how to learn what it is he wants. But how

should we respond when we find out? But Greg, you didn't tell me

actually what God wants. Don't worry, we'll get to that. The message

isn't over yet. But I want to talk about first, how should we

be bonding to finding out what God wants? What God wants, and so

let's look at a Psalm one nineteen. And for those who are curious,

Psalm one nineteen is the longest psalm in the all of the Psalms. It's

like, I think, one hundred and seventy six verses or one hundred and

seventy five somewhere und there. It's awesome. It's a giant love letter to

God's law written in a very poetic way, following like the alphabet Greek alphabet,

right, Hebrew, excuse me Hebrew, the Old Testament. There we

go. Be good to your servant while I live that I may obey your

word. I don't have time to stop on that. It's really good,

though, open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.

I am a stranger on earth. Do not hide your commands from me.

My soul is consumed with longing for your laws. At all times. You

rebuke the arrogant, who are cursed those who stray from your commands. They

think they got it all figured out. Move from me. They're scorn and

contempt for I keep your statutes. Though rulers sit together and slander me,

You're they make funny. The world's gonna You're gonna look funny if you follow

the laws of God, if you follow God's plan. But though they sit

together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees. Your statutes

are my delight. They are my counselors. That's amazing. This is how

we should respond when we find out what God wants. It's not I mean,

it's his commands. Is what he commands us to do, and we

find out about what he wants. This is how we should respond. Listen,

how he talks about God's law is consumed with longing for God's law at

all times. He views God's law like a teenager views Taylor Swift. Duncan's

a Taylor Swift fan. He's a swiftie collecting rainwater from one of her concerts

and selling it online. Come on, stab it. Oh he didn't do

that. Other people did that. How much money did you make? By

the way, Just kidding. But he's completely obsessed with God's law. That's

how we views it. He has delight in God's law. But what's his

point here? He found something to be sought after, he found something to

be cherished, something to be cherished. But doesn't this show how high he

views God. Though, If he if he views God's law and what God

told him to do with this high of a value, how much higher of

a value does he view got himself? God is valued with him? And

what did Jesus say in John fourteen? If you love me, keep my

commands. If you love me, keep my commands. What's Jesus saying.

I mean, I think it's pretty clear there, But he's saying that the

proof that you love him is in your obedience to all that he commands to

you. The proof to show that you love him, you will keep his

commands. That's what he's saying. One of the ways we show our love

and adoration and belief is through our obedience to the Lord. We care about

what he cares about. It's important to us. I am a giant nerd.

It is no secret. Everyone knows this. I love the Lord of

the Rings. I like to read comics, I watch anime, I play

nerdy role playing games. It's just I just am a giant nerd. My

wife, on the other hand, is completely not. She is absolutely not

a nerd in the slightest, not even in the slice. But when she

shows interest in some of my nerd crap. It makes me feel loved.

It's not the only way I know that I'm loved because she does all kinds

of amazing stuff for me. But one of the ways I know I'm loved

is because she shows interest in some of these things that she naturally doesn't have

any interest in. Or, to put it another way, we show God

that we love him when what's important to him is important to us. I

think it's huge. One of the ways that we show God that we love

him is when what the things that he cares about and things that are important

to him are the things that we make important to us. They're the things

that we care about. We're showing God, and I think they're also showing

ourselves that we love him by this. This is how we should respond.

We find out what God wants. If he wants it, then I want

it to But I want to take a step deeper. What does James say

in his letter, My dear brothers and sisters take note of this. Everyone

should be quick to listen and slow to speak, and slow to become angry,

because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Yes,

absolutely true. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that

is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you which can save

you. Okay, there's this word. The only word you're saved by is

the Gospel of Jesus. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive

yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does

not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a

mirror, and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he

looks like. There I am walk away like what do I look like?

That's someone who hears the word and doesn't do. But whoever looks intently into

the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what they

have heard, but doing it, they will be blessed in what they do.

This is a huge bit of text to just put in your back pocket

and always have with you. But what is this perfect law that we're supposed

to look into the commands of God? What he's told us to do?

The Word, the Gospel, it's a picture what is his commands. It's

a picture of what a follower of God should look like. That's what we

should look like as the followers of God, because the followers of God do

the things he told them to do. And James says that just hearing and

not doing what God's word says, like looking in the mirror and seeing ourselves

or seeing who God has called us to be or commanded us to be.

Seeing that, but walking away and immediately forgetting who you are. I think

part of this is an identity thing. You forget who you are when you

don't have constant reminders of it. It's when we're hearing and actually doing what

God's word tells us that we will not forget what we look like, that

we will not forget who we are. And if we continue following God's commands,

we will be blessed in what we do, which is awesome that that

promises. There. God tells us what he wants, and he tells us

who he wants us to be. And it's all found where in his word

he told us. It's all found in his word. He lays it out

in all of his commands to his people. And the way that we should

respond to these commands is what with delight, love, but most importantly with

obedience. With obedience, this is kind of the big idea if ours put

in a statement, God's people must respond to his commands in humble obedience.

Kind of repeating myself, but I figured I should put a point on the

screen for those who are taking notes. God's people must respond to his commands

in a humble obedience. He is God, we are not. Our job

is to follow and obey. And for those who struggle with submission, this

is going to be your greatest test yet, and for the rest of your

lives probably is. This is what we're called to as believers. And if

we are struggling with that idea of submitting to God, I encourage you to

go back and read Romans twelve one again. In view of God's mercy,

understand what he saved you from. In view of God's mercy, it's reasonable

to offer our entire lives as a sacrifice to him. I should have told

you, guys to put on your seat belt and get your head gear on

for today's message. It's reasonable to offer my entire life to him in view

of what He's done for me. Any sin, one of them, any

one little thing, tell the smallest white lie I hold, though I'm thinking

like the hall of faith, and when they lied to hide the Lord's spies,

littlest white lie. What's the payment for that eternal punishment? God's wrath

on me for all eternity, for the smallest thing. How many lives have

you, guys told? Can you count them? What do you call someone

who's told uncountablemount of lies? You call him a liar? We're not good

according to God's standard. But what did he do? He took the punishment

that I deserve from my lifelong full of sin. And in view of that

mercy, God, I owe you everything, everything, the whole part of

my life. So if you're struggling with submission, go back to Romans twelve

and pray that God would continue to reveal the depth of his mercy on us.

We liked it. We have this habit of pushing Jesus off I called.

I say, we all have a throne in our heart, and I

say, we have a bad habit of pushing him off the throne and sitting

there ourselves. We don't want to submit to anybody. I mean, submission

is not a fun word. And you know you're truly submitted when you disagree,

right, You're like, oh, I don't think I should have to

do that God. Well, if you don't in that moment of disagreement,

if you don't submit, you're not really submitted. And we at that moment,

what we've done is we've pushed Jesus off the throne of our hearts and

we've sat there ourselves and know, I want to be God because I think

I know best. That's what this struggle of submission is. It's it's a

who's the king of your life? Who's the lord of your life? Issue?

And even though I'm a high sense of duty person, we can't forget

what the end of James text just said. So let's look at that again,

verse twenty five. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives

freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what they have heard, but doing

it, they will be blessed in what they do. They will be blessed

in what they do. There is blessing in obedience. There is the most,

the best, and most blessed. How do you say that three times

fast? The best and most blessed possibility for your life is an obedience to

God, the greatest option. Whether you have the whether you have had a

very horrible life. Think about how bad it would be if you weren't following

the Lord. You could have the best life that you could imagine, and

if you weren't following the Lord, it would be worse. The best possible

life is in obedience to God. Because there is there. They will be

blessed in what they do. And I think oftentimes we try to define blessing.

Let's let God define a blessing. He'll bless us the way that's perfect.

Our blessings are shortsighted. We would make the same decisions God made if

we had all the same information he has. He has all the information for

those who are wondering. He knows everything. But how do we walk in

obedience to God? We know that God is our father. We know what

he wants because he tells us in his word. We know that we should

respond in humble obedience. But how do we do that? And I want

to look at John chapter fifteen. I am the true vine. This is

Jesus speaking, and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch

in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he

prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because

of the word I've spoken to you. Pause right there for a second.

He's speaking to his disciples in this moment, and there's a couple different ways

to understand verse three. But this idea of pruning and cleansing are kind of

a similar ish term. This word prune is I'm cleaning the branch so that

it would bear more fruit. And Jesus saying, you're already clean because of

the word I've spoken to you. But then he says something key, remain

in me next slide, as I also remain in you. No branch can

bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you

bear fruit unless you remain in me. Okay, So Jeseus explains the analogy

or the parable, and now he's going to make it personal. I am

the vine. You are the branches. If you remain in me and I

in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can

do nothing, nothing of significant, of eternal significance, nothing of value.

Apart from me, you can do nothing. Can you go back when where

you are? If you do not remain in me, you are like a

branch that is thrown away and withers. Because what happens to the branches that

don't bear fruit. You cut them off and you throw them away. Its

such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you

remain in me and my words, remain, and you ask whatever you wish,

and it will be done for you. This is to my father's glory

that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. This is

how this is how we do it. This is how we are able to

respond to God's command in humble obedience. We remain in Jesus, our hope,

our trust, our faith must be in him. We hold firm to

his promises and believe what he said until we bite the dust, and then

he proves it all to be true, even though we already knew it.

Because we have faith in what he said, and we believe him because God's

our father, we hold on to this, hold on and believe the promises

that he said until the very end. That's how we remain in him.

A lamp does nothing when it's not plugged in. It does nothing useful.

He use it, maybe as a paperweight. A lamp must be plugged in

to be useful for its purpose. We have to remain plugged in or part

of the vine in order to bear fruit. And all those who remain in

Jesus will bear fruit. So if you look at your life and there's no

fruit, you have to ask yourself animate the branch that was cut off.

And then we just go talk about the gospel with you, about hearing the

gospel message of who Jesus is, what he did on your behalf. And

then you turn and belief and repent and belief. But believers will bear fruit.

We will bear the fruit that comes with a life that is following Jesus.

We will become more christ Like day after day. But if you don't

stay connected to Jesus, we're like the branch that withers, the fruitless branch

that gets withers, and it's worthless and it's used only for fuel to be

burned. And what does it say in verse eight at the end, can

you go maybe back us slide so I can see the beginning of verse eight.

Yeah, this is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit,

showing yourselves to be my disciples. When we bear fruit, we are showing

that we're the disciples of Jesus God gets glory. God is glorified in that.

And the sheer fact that we're showing, or that we're bearing fruit,

is showing that we're to His disciples. Right, this is a tree is

known by its fruit. That whole idea of like the result, uncovers the

state. I guess there's a way to say it, and this should give

us more insight into exactly what God wants. Kind of the band come up,

this is what God wants. God the Father wants us to glorify him

through our obedience. God the Father wants us to glorify him through our obedience.

He wants us to obey him, and our obedience brings him glory.

Our obedience brings God glory. Let's go to Let's go to the Old Testament

for Samuel. But Samuel replied, does the Lord delight and burnt offerings and

sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice,

and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is

like the sin of the of a nation, and arrogance like the evil of

idolatry. Because you've rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you

as King, can you go back once? Likes? I really want to

focus in on this first part. The second part is to give you a

little bit of insight that this is Samuel talking to King Saul right after he

didn't do what God clearly told him to do. But what's the point that

Samuel, the prophet Samuel's making. God doesn't want the sacrifices, the feasts,

the celebrations as much as he wants obedience. He just wants his people

to obey, to do what he commanded us. And Francis Chan gave a

great illustration that I'm a one hundred percent steal right now. If I went

to my boys and I said, hey, clean your room. Your rooms

are messy. Clean your room, they come back fifteen minutes later and say,

hey, Dad, I studied what you said. In fact, I

memorize what you said. You said, clean your room. See, I

memorized it, you know, And I even studied it in the Greek and

I got down to the deep definitions of all those words. And you know

what, I actually called up a bunch of my friends and every week we're

gonna get together and we're gonna have a meal, and then we're gonna talk

about what would our lives be like if we cleaned our rooms? Clean your

room? Just clean your room. I don't care that you studied it,

that you memorized it. Do it. That's what we want, That's what

the Father wants. It's good that we study. It's good that we know

the Greek. It's good that we meet in our community groups and talk about

it. It means nothing if we don't do it. Obey the Father.

Clean your room. But what does Jesus say in Luke sixty six? Why

do you call me lord lord and do not do what I say? Why

do you call me lord lord and do not do what I say? Do

you see how that doesn't make any sense? Why would someone call Jesus lord

or master and then not do anything he says? By definition, he's not

your lord, he's not your master. Slaves obey their masters, subjects obey

their king, that's what they do, or else you are a slave of

a different master or a subject of another king. But let's bring it really

close to home. What about us? Do we walk out the faith we

claim to possess? Or do you walk away from the mirror and immediately forget

what you look like? Our belief drives our actions. Do you actually believe

what you say you believe? If Jesus is your lord, then obey him.

We don't get the luxury of being apathetic or indifferent or even lazy.

That's probably my go to. We don't get the luxury of being that way.

Well, what we can't do is sit here, read something in scripture

or here's something we talk about in the Bible and say hmm, that's a

good point, and leave and do nothing. We can't do that. If

Jesus is our lord. We can't do that, because what does the Bible

say? He's not your lord if you don't obey him. We do what

our master says, obey the Lord. Take our obedience to his commands seriously,

like we have to take it seriously, all of them, all the

commands, all of them in its proper context. That's why we study.

Live your life in alignment with the belief you say you have. And if

we weren't feeling beat up enough already, let's go to first John. We

know that we have come to know him. If we keep his commands,

we know that we have come to know him Jesus. If what we keep

his commands whoever says I know him but does not do what he commands is

a liar. And the truth is not in that person. But if anyone

obeys his word, love for the love for God has truly made complete in

them. This is how we know we are in to have one more next

slide him. Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

WHOA, Okay, that's a high bar. But what's the point that John's

making. If you say you know Jesus but you don't obey him, you're

a liar. That's such a strong word too. It's just like, no,

you're a liar. What you're saying is just factually not true. You're

a liar. And I feel like sometimes we need to stop and just take

a real sobering self assessment, like where am I hattan right now? Am

I a liar? God? Are there things that you've said to me or

commanded of me or called Christians to be that I'm just like whatever that I

don't take seriously. The whole series was Christian belief. Here's all the things

we believe. Are we indifferent about any of that? Do we care?

If you really know Jesus, you will believe what he said, and if

you believe what he said, you will do what he commands because of what

he said. The beginning and the end, both the beginning and the end

of this passage here tells us that our assurance that we do in fact know

Jesus is what that we keep his commands and we live as Jesus did.

That's our assurance that we do in fact know him. Again, we will

never do this perfect on the side of heaven. That's why our life is

wrought with repentance. That's what this is. We are always imperfectly following Jesus,

always striving for perfection, getting better at it. Day by day we

moved from degree of degree to glory, more into the image of who Christ.

We are being made more christ Like as we walk with him. We

will see fruit in our life though, if we follow Jesus, and that

fruit or also known as the can also be known as the evidence of our

obedience. We must take the commands of God seriously and take his words seriously.

But one beautiful thing term to remember in all of this is this point,

Understanding is often found in obedience. Understanding is often found in obedience,

and I actually almost cut this subpoint because I'm all about duty and I account

God. You don't have to tell me why. I don't have to understand

why you told me to do something. Yes, sir, I'm going to

do it. But I also think because there's times we're not going to understand.

But I think that oftentimes we do get understanding in obedience. We tell

our children, what before they cross the street, look both ways. That

might not make sense them until they walk up to a busy street and almost

get hit by a car trying to cross it. Right, the understanding is

in the obedience. Oh, that's why I'm supposed to look both ways to

see if there's any cars, to see if it's safe before I cross the

street. Sometimes we don't understand why God told us to do something until we

actively obey it, and then we understand the truth of what it is.

How about this be in Christian community. Don't forsake the gathering, serve one

another, be generous, love your wife like Christ, love the church,

submit to your husband. Just to name a few, turn the other cheek.

God told us to do all those things, and we might not understand

why until we actually do it. That understanding, oftentimes is found in obedience.

We know who our father is, God the Father. We know what

he wants obedience to all that he has commanded us in scripture. We know

how we should respond in delight and humble submissi. And we know that the

only way that it is possible for us to do that, the only way

that we can produce fruit that glorifies God, is by remaining or abiding in

Jesus, clinging to him for everything. He's This is our life. He

is not a piece of our life. Our life is now replaced with Christ.

Our life is in him. He is the center, sole focus of

our entire existence. Everything else fits around him, everything else. We are

not of this world. If you put faith in Jesus, you're not of

this world. We're looking forward to a kingdom that is not here or foreigners

in the land, and the kingdom we get to look forward to. Thank

you, Jesus. Our belief drives our action. If we claim to believe

in, or to follow, or to know Jesus, then our whole life

should model that. And if we say that we know Jesus and don't do

any commands, you're a liar. By definitely, shoe, don't be a

liar. Take his word and his commands seriously. And I am begging you

everything we've read in scripture today, everything we've talked about when you're at home

reading your Bible, Please don't say hmm, that's a good thought and leave

and do nothing. Your lord and your king, the most important person to

your existence, told you something that was important to him to say, I

don't care with your actions and walk away. Don't please don't do that.

I have nothing else written in my notes. So can you guys stand up?

Please? We're gonna go into one more song just to worship before we

leave. Just like every week, I'll be standing on the side, and

any the other pastors elders will be available on the side for prayer for anything.

I know it's really heavy today, which is good because I was being

beat up as much studying it, and then I was like, okay,

God, I gotta get up on stage and actually say it's to people.

All right, here we go. I'm feeling the exact same way. So

if you're feeling a conviction you just want to talk to somebody about it,

pray about it, please come and see us. If you're not quite comfortable

to come up and pray. We do have our cards, our connect cards,

and on the back you can put your prayer request and we send these

out to the elders, get these, the community groups, get them,

teams, get them every We want everybody praying for them. If you would

rather remain private though, and just go to the elders or the pastors,

just put private on there and we'll make sure that it doesn't go out to

everyone. But we do pray over these, so don't act like they don't

think that they get thrown into a shred or somewhere. We do pray over

them. Also, if you can prepare to give, you can use the

envelope and both these things just go in the offering box in the way out.

All right, I'm gonna pray, and then we're gonna sing and glorify

God. God, We thank you for today. We thank you for your

word, as much as it challenges us, as much as it makes us

stop and reflect on our life. God, we're grateful for that. If

we feel confiction, thank you God, that's proof that your Holy Spirit is

working in us. So God, I pray as we feel this conviction,

we do something with it. We don't ignore it again We're not apathetic,

We're not indifferent. We care about what you care about. God, God,

break our hearts for what breaks yours. Let us walk in obedience,

humble obedience, submitting to the King of all kings and the Lord of all

lords, knowing that you are good. And anytime I try to weasel my

way back onto the throne of my heart, God, please gently remove me

from there violently if I'm clinging to it. God, you need to be

on the throne of my heart. So God, continue to convictness and need

to draw us into a deeper love for communion and fellowship with You, and

a love for your word. And let us delight in your commands, just

like Psalm one nineteen, God, continue to reveal more of yourself to us

through the power your Holy Spirit. Reveal what scripture says and what it means.

We as your children, are asking you, God, to do that

work in our hearts. So God, as we worship you, pray that

you are glorified in us lifting our voices, that it is a pleasing sound

to your ears. God, we just want to glorify you. We want

to please you. So God, we listen when you speak, and we

study what you say, but most importantly God, in humble obedience, we

actually obey, and Gee's name every seven Amen,