The Grow Up series has been good it seems to so many of you, we are going to keep with it for a few more weeks.

So far we’ve talked about:
Fathers, Young Men, and Children -That God is wanting to take you from the child stage - dependent, to the young man stage - overcomer, to the father stage - reproducing

Love - That just because God loves us doesn’t mean we get to do what we want, live how we want, and ignore the consequences of our fleshly actions
That love is discipline and discipline is evidence of our sonship and daughterhood

Handling Conflict - How mature Christians do what Matthew 18 commands, not lash out, develop allies, and take on offenses. Swallowing your sense of justice and allowing love to reign

4 Immaturities - Offense, Understanding scripture, Genie Jesus, and Orienting our lives

1 Corinthians 14:20
Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.

This is an interesting verse. Maybe next week we’ll tackle our thought processes, but most often, we get in trouble not in the things we do, but in the thought processes that got us there. You rarely just wake up and lunge headlong into iniquity. There is a process.

1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Remember as I’ve said before, you have a choice here. God will give you a door but he will not force you to take it. You have temptation running towards you, and you have faith running towards you. The way of escape is always God’s faithfulness and it takes spiritual maturity to make that decision to take that faithfulness, but what does that really mean? It means embracing obedience, even when it is easier to not.

To effectively embrace obedience, we have to know what God wants us to do. To know what he wants you to do, you have to know the Word.

My point is that when we tell you constantly to read the word, it isn’t so you can tick of your Jesus task for the day. You are going to get hit with temptation today that is going to be more than you can endure, but if you are willing to obediently choose God’s faithfulness, not only can you endure, you can overcome! But it will require you to know the word!

Romans 7:7
if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.

Obedience is key if you are going to succeed in the Christian life.

People typically see obedience in one of 2 ways: positive or negative.
Rule followers love following rules. S,C, personalities love order and rules give you that order. As a result, you obey because you know that by obeying, there is a better chance of order and that makes you see obedience as a positive.
Rule breakers hate following rules. D, I personalities love pushing the boundaries, exploring the borders. As a result, you are in constant contact with rules and it creates friction that makes you negative.

Here’s another way to say it:
Some people see obedience as a prerequisite.
Some people see obedience as a byproduct.

John 14:15
If you love me, you will obey my commandments.

When obedience is a prerequisite, you will see this verse as a negative. This verse to you will say if you want love, obey.

When obedience is a byproduct, you will see this verse as a positive.
This verse to you will say if you want to obey, love.

Until you truly experience the love of God, obedience will always be a chore. But when you continually experience the love of God, you’ll find obedience is a delight! But it takes maturity to go from obedience as a chore to obedience as a delight. Some flesh and ideologies have to die along the way.

So what does immature obedience look like?

A great example is in 1 Samuel 15 when God specifically tells Saul to go out to war with the Amalekites and eliminate everything, even down to the sheep, goats, and donkeys.

Saul decides to spare the king and he and his men kept the best of the livestock. Samuel confronts him about it, and here’s what Saul says:

1 Samuel 15:20-21
20 “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul insisted. “I carried out the mission he gave me. I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else. 21 Then my troops brought in the best of the sheep, goats, cattle, and plunder to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

Samuel responds with a very famous phrase:

1 Samuel 15:22
22 But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.

Saul ignored the command of the Lord and chose to disobey. It didn’t even seem malicious in nature! (I was getting a sacrifice) Most of us don’t disobey out of a genuine desire to front God. We disobey because we think we know better! We think we can make God’s end result even better! God needs my help! When really it is just selfishness and vanity that is guiding our thoughts and actions. We are not looking for a godly result. We’re looking for a result that brings us glory!

Saul wanted glory for the battle!
v12 Saul went to Carmel to setup a monument to himself!

Immature obedience isn’t obedience at all! It is partial obedience and that is disobedience! God is not asking for offerings and sacrifices. God is asking for obedience!

God can’t be pleased with unauthorized sacrifices. That is why doing to show or earn God’s love can never satisfy. Immature obedience will have you doing everything you can to be accepted, only to find that nothing you are doing will be accepted. God wants obedience, but it isn’t for the reason you think. He wants obedience because if you are obeying him, it means he has you. YOU. Your heart. Your soul. Your love. It means RELATIONSHIP.

Ok wait...Prove it. With pride.

1 Samuel 15:20-21
20 “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul insisted. “I carried out the mission he gave me. I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else. 21 Then my troops brought in the best of the sheep, goats, cattle, and plunder to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

"The Lord YOUR God."

There is the problem. Saul wasn’t obeying out of love. He was obeying out of duty.

Duty can never take you as far as love can.
Soldiers don’t jump on grenades and take bullets because of duty. It is love. Love for their fellow soldiers. Love for their country.

What has your heart will always command your actions.

Bottom line:
Immaturity in the context of obedience is evidence of a deficiency of the love of God in your heart.

Let me show you what mature obedience looks like.

Matthew 26:36-45
36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch[a] with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” 43 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. 45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

You have the disciples - tired, sleepy, fleshly, disobedient even
You have Jesus - begging for the cup to be taken away from him, but even so, not his will, but thy will be done.

1. Mature obedience is even unto death.

Wait what? God is going to ask me to die? The part of me that wants to comfort you says no, it is just figurative. But that wasn’t true for Nokseng, a Garo tribal man from India.

In the 1880;s Welsh missionaries came to the village notorious for head hunting. Nokseng and his wife and 2 sons were converted first. The chief, angry at the conversion, summoned all the villagers. He then called the family who had first converted to renounce their faith in public or face execution. Moved by the Holy Spirit, the man sung his reply, “I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back.” Enraged at the refusal of the man, the chief ordered his archers to arrow down the two sons.

As they lay dead, the chief asked, “Will you deny your faith? You have lost both your sons and you will lose your wife too.” But the man replied, again singing, “Though none go with me, still I will follow. No turning back.” The chief was beside himself with fury and ordered his wife to be arrowed down.

Now he asked for the last time, “I will give you one more opportunity to deny your faith and live.” In the face of death, the man sang, “The cross before me, the world behind me. No turning back.” He was shot dead like the rest of his family. But with the deaths, a miracle took place.

The chief who had ordered the killings was moved by the faith of the man.
In spontaneous confession of faith, he declared, “I too belong to Jesus Christ!” When the crowd heard this from the mouth of their chief, the whole village accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior (Stier, 2014, n.p.).

I don’t know what God will ask you to do or how far that will go, but one very important thing we have to remember as Christians is this:
Every breath you take is a gift.

I don’t mean that as a encouraging phrase to post on your instagram with a flower photo behind it. I mean Galatians 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Your life is not your own! This is why when I spoke about love a few weeks back I told you the love of God was not a license to do whatever you pleased! God didn’t save you so that you could find your truth. He saved you because you found HIS truth! We are not lost without him, not a sad sheep away from the flock, we are dead without Jesus! The only reason we have any life at all is because of him!

And I find it interesting in that verse that it doesn’t say “I have been gently euthanized” with Christ, but crucified! Here’s the truth: sometimes obedience is easy. Sometimes is ain’t! Sometimes it is just being a conduit. God blessed you, so you bless others. But sometimes God asks you to cut off the part of you that is dragging you to hell and it isn’t as easy to do as it is to say. Sometimes you have to brutally CRUCIFY your flesh so you can stay alive. The entire time that war is raging in you, disobedience and rebellion is enticing your flesh. But love is calling out to your spirit.

The Spirit isn’t saying, “If you love me you’ll obey me.” He is saying, “Love me, give me all of you, give me that part of you that is fighting obedience right now. I love that part of you too and if you would let that part of you experience my love, you’d find how easy it is to obey.”

So many times we are experiencing death in an area of our lives simply because we’ve not allowed the love of God to reach that part yet.

What needs to die in you right now so that you can effectively obey God?

Maybe a better question:

What in you needs to experience the love of God so you can effectively obey God?

2. Mature obedience is obedience even when you don’t understand

Obedience is easier when you understand why. “Don’t stick the butter knife into the electrical socket.” Why? The only people who don’t know this are immature people.

Why is obedience when you don’t know why hard? Simple. it requires faith.

Hebrews 11
11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

We see this evidenced so many times in Abraham’s life
- Genesis 12:1
Get out of your country and away from your relatives and from your father's house and go to the land that I will show you

- Genesis 17:16
You will have a son

- Genesis 22:2
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.

We like to think we would have the faith and courage to lay down anything God asked on the altar as a sacrifice, but most of us would still be in our father’s house arguing with God about where we were going to go in the first place.

God has a habit of asking you to do things that require faith, things that force you to lean on him. You’ve heard it said, “God won’t put on you more than you can handle.” That is a lie! He CONSTANTLY does this! In fact, most everything worth doing in your life will require more than you have to give. Here’s why: It isn’t because God is mean. It is because he wants you to realize how badly you need him!

You might think, “Well that seems kind of narcissistic of God, huh?” I might be inclined to agree if it wasn’t for the fact that the first thing we did when God put us in the Garden was to prove to him we aren’t capable of self sustenance.

God didn’t create you to need him because he needed to be needed. He created you to need him because he knew that total satisfaction in your life would require him. So when God asks us to do something and we don’t understand why, our response should be an emphatic YES LORD! That isn’t out of blind obedience. Remember, love THEN obedience.

I should be willing to do whatever he asks because there’s never been a moment in my life where he’s wanted anything but my best, and the God who loves me that much is worth my trust.

Yes, you have to deal with doubt. Yes, you have to deal with fear. Yes, you have to deal with those moments where you expected God to pull through and he didn’t. The longer I live the more I realize I don’t want to be in a situation where I don’t need him.
- You are going to often be in a place where what is asked of you is more than you have.
- You are going to often be in a place where he asks what you don’t understand.
- But you are not alone.

Pick a Bible character, any one of them, and put yourself in their shoes.
- Moses was asked to defy the most powerful human on earth and then lead millions of people through a desert.
- David was asked to face a giant.
- Esther was asked to save her people.
- Nehemiah was asked to build a ruined wall.
- Mary was asked to carry the Savior of the World.
- Peter was asked to pick up his cross.
- Paul was asked to change everything he understood about what he was taught.
- Martin Luther was asked to recalibrate the church.
- Billy Graham was asked to preach the Gospel

What has he asked you to do?

The disciples were faced with obedience even though they didn’t understand. John 6:66-68
66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”
68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

If God asked you to do something you didn’t understand, what is the worst that could happen?

This is how psychologists tell you to address fear in your life. The Bible tells us how in 1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

So here’s a question:

Would God ask me to do something and then not give me the means to accomplish it?

Philippians 4:19
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

One more verse

Psalm 37:25-26
I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. He is ever lending generously, and his children become a blessing.

It is this last verse that leads to the last point today:

3. Mature Obedience is always pregnant.
When the Lord first said this to me this week, I was surprised. We know pregnant means the process of a child developing within the womb, but there are other meanings, too: full of meaning, highly significant, something of infinite potential. The word actually comes from 2 words that mean: “before something is brought into being”

Obedience is always pregnant because obedience has the power to unlock the blessing of God in our lives.

“If you will”
If appears around 1784 tines in the Bible. If is a conditional clause that signifies an event will occur should the condition of the clause be met.

Deuteronomy 28:1, 3-6
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…
3 “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
4 “Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
5 “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

Your obedience is full of purpose and potential and promise!

If obedience is pregnant with promise, that means your disobedience is pregnant with pain.
Ask Abraham! Abraham was promised a son and all God asked was for him to faithfully wait on God’s timing. But we know the story - he took Hagar, his wife’s servant and Ishmael was produced.

Galatians 4:23
But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh
Paul goes on to say how this was representative of a covenant that brought about spiritual slavery to the flesh. This is the result of disobedience in our lives.

Deuteronomy 28 talks about the blessing of obedience, but also of the results of disobedience.
v20
The Lord will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me.

That last part is why: you have forsaken me. You have abandoned me, and because you have walked away, you are no longer near that which brings blessing. Just like in the Garden.

Isaiah 1:19
If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
let me say it like this:

If you are all in, and if you are close enough to me to do my will simply out of your love for me, then you’ll never have a lack of the best I have to give you.

Psalm 84:11
No good thing will he withhold from those who do walk uprightly.

God wants you to give birth to that which obedience conceives.

That’s why:
I don’t have to obey. I get to obey,
because when I obey, I not only get God’s pleasure,
I get to birth that which he promised to me.

You have to know the difference between God’s love and his pleasure. You always have God’s love. Nothing can separate you. His pleasure is different.

Philippians 2:13,
For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Pleasure here is:
“Complete satisfaction borne out of his will being worked out through faith.”

That sounds like obedience to me.

I want to obey because I love him.
I want to obey because I want to live in his pleasure.
I want my obedience to be mature.

So here’s the simple truth:
If I want to obey, I have to trust him.
If I want to obey, I have to exercise faith.
If I want to obey, I have to deepen my love for him.

All three things are only accomplished by spending time with him and his people.

What needs to be done in you today to help you more effectively obey him tomorrow?

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?