Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
The subject tonight is found in Leviticus chapter 26, and
it talks about
the obedience of the Israelites
and the disobedience of the Israelites.
And I will do an outline, but I will be digressing enough
because I think that it is pertinent that we talk about not only obedience, but order, because they're the
two inseparable, identical twins to each other when it comes into the economies of God
and what He wants to do in our life.
Obviously, He wants us to obey, but in obedience there then has to be order.
And so consequently, we put these things together, and I'll be working that theme most of the evening.
First of all, God's required obedience is the bedrock of relationship with you and I.
Only through obedience can we grow and mature spiritually.
If we're not obedient, we don't grow.
We're not receiving what God has for us.
It says in John 15.4, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Those things that are commands in the Bible for us to do.
And out of this chronology of events that you see on the right side of the screen,
you'll see at the top the pyramid, and it was too small to get God in there,
but He is the bedrock or the beginning and the ending.
And so consequently, in the pyramid of life, there is God on the bottom,
which lays our foundation, and we'll call that obedience to God.
And in a family situation, as we have spouses and then we have children,
there is the self that we deal with, the personal identities.
There is the church, the work that we have, secular, whatever, the family,
the larger family also, and then others.
And then if there is time and opportunity, there are hobbies.
And I used to get these things wrong so often.
And in looking at the other side of the equation,
God's order then in creation reflects His original design and purpose
for a spotless church without faults, and we find that in Ephesians 5.27.
As an example, order in the home is the basis for all ministry.
If the home isn't what we will call subject to Christ,
there is little one can do to bring about a life-changing ministry within your goals
because that's the proving ground, and all of us that have been married
and have children know and realize that there is a test of faith here.
There is a test of obedience, long-term commitment.
And if we don't get the priorities right, God can little use us
because our priorities are so wrong.
Let me give you a couple priorities in some people's lives that are out of sync.
If you substitute hobbies in church and you say hobbies before church,
and if you remember my long-standing issue with my love affection for cars,
you may remember that I had a hard time getting over that,
and Gordon, because you're new here, I had five race cars that I restored,
and that kind of was my goal after going through the ministry and so forth,
so that gives you a perspective.
So that's priority that in some people's lives they have.
Excuse me.
And on the other side, some people put work before their spouse.
Oh, I'm just so busy at work, I can't do these things,
and Roger, why don't you come forward a little bit?
Everybody is just losing ground here.
There you go.
Thank you, folks.
That's okay.
You're allowed.
That's all right.
Thank you for coming forward.
So we see that that's not a priority and is right,
and without Godly order, families can struggle with confusion
and conflict and instability leading often to division,
and it will be harder to guide our children then if we don't follow this
and guide them in spiritual and moral issues
because the home may lack a clear definition of purpose and direction.
So it all starts with these two interrelated things,
and if we don't have that right in the beginning, even before children,
sometimes, and I will admit, that I was an only child,
and there were certain privileges that only child children have,
and that's that you didn't have to fight with your sibling for attention.
There wasn't dividing an ice cream cone or things like this,
and so consequently, it was interesting when I got married
that there was a consideration for the other half.
And, you know, just to give you an example of that,
and I thought I was ready, and our wedding night came,
and I went into the sweet bathroom,
and I took my toothbrush out, and now I'm in the military,
or was in the military.
I took the top off and squeezed it in my mouth,
took my toothbrush and washed my mouth out and brushed my teeth.
My wife says, what are you doing?
She said, well, I'm brushing my teeth.
She couldn't get over the fact that I had the toothpaste
and just squeezed it right in my mouth,
and then I knew that there was another half to my marriage
that I hadn't experienced.
So sharing doesn't necessarily or didn't necessarily come easy for me,
but through the years of 53 precious years,
I've learned that you don't take the toothpaste tube off
and squeeze it in your mouth, if nothing else.
Okay, and I would just like to go back
to this wonderful aspect of priorities
where the husband and the wife are in one and in unison
to be able to glorify God.
And what I'd like to celebrate tonight
is the love-dare relationship that Gordon has with his wife.
And how do I know that, Beth?
And we want to congratulate you that there are 31 years of marriage,
you're still growing strong, you still love each other,
at least that's what he said,
and God bless you for supporting in frank actions
the things that we're talking about here,
because there is a world that we have
that doesn't believe in these things and the priority
and the objectives of Christ and the family.
So congratulations to you, too.
It's wonderful.
It's wonderful to see you in God.
And thank you for picking Lansdale Life, too.
Yeah, be blessed.
I was honored to do that.
Now, oh, you're welcome.
Again, obedience establishes order.
When we follow God's commands,
they create a structured and purposeful life,
and a life that is rooted in divine order
makes obedience more natural.
You want to obey God,
and sometimes we don't by virtue of a little bit of resistance
and our flesh getting in the way.
We all know those things.
We all deal with them.
But the objective is to obey God and what he says
and have order in our life
so that we can exemplify who he is.
The consequence to that is that failure
in these two areas alone brings an end
to our character building if there is resistance.
We plateau.
And many of you know and have friends
that are Christians that have come up,
and all of a sudden they plateau.
And I can't judge them.
I don't walk in their shoes,
but it's so disappointing to see them settle for less.
And then second of all,
our potential use for God's kingdom
becomes limited because he can't take you further.
He needs obedience to build his forever kingdom.
Now, why do I say that?
Because he uses people who listen and execute
and not reluctant or resistant bystanders.
You know, we have many,
and we've been in ministry for years.
You have people in church.
I had this one individual that periodically,
after sharing, you go home Sunday afternoon,
you're tired, at least I was,
after giving a sermon,
dealing with people and announcements and all that.
He used to call me in the telephone
about 2.30 or 3 o'clock,
Brother John.
And boy, I tell you,
he didn't read the riot act,
and he was one of these lengthy conversations
that was like a half an hour, 40 minutes,
and that's the last thing I wanted to hear.
I said, Erv, I'm sorry.
I said, I have to hang up now and goodbye
and put the phone down.
But it's the idea that in looking at
what it is that he wants to do
is the goal in life.
What does he want to do with your life?
He needs order in our life to bring us purpose
and for the unity of the church to be experienced.
And that is the distinguishing factor
in all that Christianity has,
is the distinguishing factor or difference.
And what does it say?
That they may be one in John 17, 21.
So there are these things that are unquestionably
things that require our attention
and things that we need to adhere to.
So having said that,
we're going to flop in and out of this obedient
and order thing during this night.
I'm going to take my liberty in the sense
that I'm going to review the chapter for you,
but I'm not going to significantly talk about
just what's in the chapter.
I want to add two.
So in verses 1 through 13,
it talks about the blessing for obedience.
God promises prosperity, peace, and protection
for those who follow his commandments.
And blessings include, again, abundant harvests,
victory over the enemy,
and we all know the wars that were fought
when they depended upon God when they didn't,
and God's presence among his people.
And that's 1 through 13.
Verses 14 through 39
talks about the curses for disobedience.
And at the end, I will talk about disobedience,
but I don't want to major on that tonight.
I want to major on the fact of what obedience and order is.
So in 14 through 39,
it says that if Israel rejects God's laws,
they will face disease, famine, defeat, and exile.
And we talked a lot about these things.
If you do this, I will do this.
If you don't do this, this is what will happen.
As he's building this nation
out of 12 independent warring tribes,
he's bringing order and organization,
and he's telling them,
look, this is what's going to happen.
If you do it, there's going to be a blessing.
If you don't, there's going to be destruction.
And the punishments, again,
intensify if they continue in rebellion,
leading to, again, dislocation,
dispersion among other nations.
And of course, we know that that happened.
And then finally, verses 40 through 46
about the promise of restoration.
Despite all the consequences of disobedience,
God offers hope and restoration for those who repent.
That's going forward.
That's what you and I experience in our lives
probably every day when we ask the Lord for forgiveness.
He remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And he ensures his people are not completely abandoned.
He will always be there.
I will never forsake you, he says.
So this chapter then highlights his justice,
his mercy, his faithfulness,
showing that obedience leads to blessing.
Blessing, obedience, obedience, blessing.
And disobedience brings hardship and sometimes even death.
But repentance always is an open door for us.
We can always come back.
All right.
Let's define some of the terms that we have been looking at.
First, again, S for secular, K for kingdom meaning.
And a secular sense of obedience involves complying
with orders or regulations without question.
It almost sounds like a militaristic definition.
The kingdom idea of obedience is portrayed in the words
acts of faith and trust that God's going to bless us
as we are obedient.
Much softer relationship.
Disobedience, when it comes to secular meaning,
involves intentionally disregarding or refusing to follow instructions.
And what happens in the military when you refuse to do that,
you get court-martialed and you're out of there.
The kingdom side of disobedience is
choosing to disregard God's teachings and reject his will.
So there's a consequence to this.
It doesn't fall just on me.
There are other kingdom principles beginning to invoke our attention here.
Order, in a secular sense, is again a structured arrangement of things.
And then in God's kingdom, order means in God's structure
that governs everything.
So now, if you look at these things,
there's a lot of harsh words that define obedience
and define order.
And some of us, again, may have wrong emotions
and bad experiences that distorts our understanding of God.
But all that he wants to do in these two things
is bring redemption to us and make us a useful tool for him.
That's all that he wants.
Not just a free ticket to heaven to get in the door.
So, here are some things I want you to think about
because I'm going to ask a question.
Which of these describes best who God has been for you?
Do you see him as judge, accuser, master, father, friend,
disciplinarian, or maybe a word that you want to put in there?
So my question to you is, and I'll bring up both questions,
which category best identifies your original
or early description of God as you just began to come into the kingdom?
And second of all, now, what category best identifies
your present description of God?
So where are we at?
Did we all come with peaches and cream when we came to the Lord?
No.
All right, thank you.
So, with the upbringing that I had in a Reformed Presbyterian Church,
I always felt like God was a judge
and that he had this big sword that he was holding over me,
waiting to whack me into shape if I stepped out of line.
That's how I used to feel.
But now I feel like he's my father.
Isn't that transforming when you kind of look back on that
and say, okay, this is where I was and this is where I am now?
Anybody else want to share? Any thoughts? Yes?
I think I was young as a teenager when I came to know the Lord,
but then through teaching I would say initially
I was like a disciplinarian because I felt if I did something wrong,
if I didn't do what the word said, then, you know, there were consequences.
And now I agree with Gail, like now he is mine.
He's my Abba father, like he is my father.
Isn't that wonderful to have that relent,
have that not-relenting feeling of the judge,
the guy with the hammer?
And now, I mean, when we have devotions, my wife and I,
it's just so wonderful to be in God's presence, you know,
and you almost hate to break out of that and do your normal things
because, you know, he's such a relative person.
Anyone else?
All right, I'll leave you go for next question.
All right, okay.
All right.
So there is a difference in our lives.
Because of these very things that we've been talking about.
Now, let's look at some examples of this theme.
First of all, the theme of obedience versus disobedience
is central throughout the Bible.
We know that, we can see that.
And it illustrates the consequences of human actions
in relationship to God's commands.
So that's what we're looking at.
There are many narratives, many teachings, many laws,
and that highlight the blessing associated with disobedience issue
and obviously the consequences.
A couple of examples.
The big one that we all know is Adam and Eve.
The first instance of disobedience occurs in the garden
and when Eve did it, that's Adam's excuse,
there was a fall and that fall was serious
because sin came into the world.
It introduced sin into the world, it introduced death
and we know by virtue of God sending his son,
he has come to redeem the world back into the kingdom
and so that the efforts of Satan will be null and void
and will be done away with.
There will be no more sin, there will be no more sorrow.
The death, destruction, and the agony that he brings on us
will not occur anymore.
But Adam, or but Abraham on the other side,
he had a willingness to obey even in such a difficult command
resulting in God's blessing.
I don't know that I could pass that requiring, again,
we all know that when we have children,
the tenderness that you have,
that he was willing to give up his dear son
for the sake of the Lord God speaking to him.
I don't know, that would be kind of hard for me.
And then last, the Israelites flopped back and forth.
The blessings and curses outlined in Deuteronomy 28
provide a clear contrast between obedience and disobedience.
Justin, are you still up there?
No? Okay.
Could someone back there turn the air conditioner on?
It's getting rather warm up here
and I thought it was going to be cold in here,
and I got a long-sleeved shirt on.
Kenny, do you know how to do that?
All right.
All right, thank you, sir.
All right.
I have a T-shirt on underneath, so maybe I'll have to...
All right.
Okay.
Order and obedience
are a reflection of God's nature and his governance.
As stated, the obedience is the act of faith
and trust in God's wisdom and sovereignty,
which includes order,
as they are really intertwined themes in the Bible.
Can you imagine, like in Genesis,
when it talks about there was chaos in the world?
And if that chaos existed and now God's telling you,
okay, in my redemptive plan, I want you to obey.
Well, the literal confusion that is about the world,
it would be very hard to have organization come into your life.
So consequently, he sets order in.
We know that from the beginning of Genesis.
There was an earth without former void,
and he came and he performed order.
And we look at and we see nature.
We see blue skies.
We see green trees now and green grass.
So the concept of order is deeply embedded
in the narrative that we're going to look at.
So this narrative that I'm going to major on tonight
is the creation, society, church, family,
and our individual lives.
So we're going to go through these things.
So order calls us to align ourselves with God's divine order,
living in harmony with his will
and reflecting the glory in all things.
Examples, again, order is the arrangement,
the organization, the structure established by God.
You can't but help it understand and see that in his creation.
It's called the ontological view of God.
When you look at nature and you ponder it enough,
nature equals God.
Not that that's the answer, but in his creation,
it was such that he gave us a perfect creation.
Additionally, it signifies purpose,
and we'll talk about that.
And again, divine orchestration of events.
Anybody ever have that?
Divine orchestration.
Now, a little example of that.
As you know, my wife is disabled.
She's in a wheelchair.
She has no strength whatsoever from her waist down.
And we have a lift in the car that I put on the door handle.
I lift her up.
I bring her out.
I sit her in her power chair
and do the same when she goes back in.
And that takes about seven minutes.
So when it is raining out on Sunday morning,
we don't take her to church,
because all the water goes down my neck
when I do all these things with her.
And then I have to hold the umbrella
so her hair doesn't get wet.
That's a tough thing to do, you know.
And all the human, you know what that's about, right?
Okay.
I have not a problem like that.
So as incidental as it was,
we always look at the forecast Saturday, Friday or Saturday,
and say, okay, it's going to rain Sunday.
And that's what the forecast was.
It was about down out our way, about 50, 60 percent.
Okay, let's wait.
So we got it out.
It was cloudy, but it wasn't raining.
So, okay, let's get ready.
So we got her ready.
Got in the car, and the car is in a garage,
so that's no problem.
Came to church, dark out, no rain.
Took her out of the car, came in.
Here we were in church, and it was raining.
Got out of church, rain stopped, got in the car,
turned the light, went over the railroad tracks,
and a pouring avalanche came down.
That's the sovereignty of God.
At least that's how we look at it,
because we didn't get wet,
and we decided to do those things that were called of us,
assembling ourself together in the house of God.
So there are many circumstances that all of us could speak of
that really typify what He wants
and how the relationships that He makes for us prosper.
The concept of order is fundamental
to understanding God's nature
and His expectations of our conduct.
So here's a question.
Explain how God's call for obedience and order challenged you
when you first realized that this was part of the life
that you were called to be part of.
How did that affect you?
You accepted the Lord, you came to the Lord, you found Him,
and now you read the Scriptures, you hear from the pulpit
about obedience, about order.
What's the natural reaction to that?
There's going to be some resentment.
Yeah.
Without the Holy Spirit,
and I was a very frustrated Christian for years,
because I didn't have the Holy Spirit,
and I didn't know that the Holy Spirit was supposed to work
everything out in me and make me who I was supposed to be,
that I couldn't do it.
So yeah, that's how I felt at first.
When I came to the Lord, I was about 10 or 11 years old,
and I felt a calling, and then I went home,
and my mother and father said,
well, you know, you did this,
and this is what's expected.
I don't want to do that stuff.
I mean, I was like 12, 13, and I was, you know, okay.
And then when I reached about 15 and a half, 16,
I didn't like what I saw.
So I rebelled, and the whole thing that you go through
when you lead your own life.
But it's difficult.
It's not in our nature.
Or is it in anybody's nature to obey and to listen?
No, it's not.
I want to do it my way.
What's wrong with me?
So we have this issue that's before us.
So let's take a look at what that is.
So let's look at how he has changed our lives
because of us yielding to these things.
And I want you to think about each one as I read it
because you're going to be asked a question
at the end of this slide.
Now, these things have influenced us
over the years, over the months, whatever the case may be.
Integrity.
Being honest and upright in all actions.
Humility.
Recognizing our dependence on God.
And you notice there's a little asterisk there.
That's my downfall.
And compassion.
There's another asterisk.
Showing kindness and care for those in need.
Forgiveness.
Letting go of resentment and extending grace.
Faithfulness.
Remaining steadfast in our commitments and beliefs.
And then wisdom.
Seeking and understanding.
And discernment in decisions.
Love.
Loving God and others.
Selflessly.
Not selfishly.
Selflessly.
Self-control.
That's needed in today's society.
Experiencing discipline over emotions and actions.
And perseverance.
Staying strong in the faith through challenges of life.
And of course courage.
Standing firm in truth.
Despised.
Despite adversity.
So which of these was or is your greatest challenge as you look at them?
And while you're thinking about that I will tell you humility.
I am from the school I can do it myself.
And I don't really need your help.
It would be nice, but to be honest with you if I have to tell you about what we're doing
it's more of a nuisance than letting me do it myself.
So that was kind of my ilk in coming to the Lord.
Okay I prayed, but I can do it myself Lord.
I'll give you five minutes and if things don't work out I'm going to do what I think is right.
And then the other one is compassion.
I'm German by nature and if you know something about German heritage we're not compassionate people.
This is the way it's got to be.
But then entering into the ministry dealing with people's sorrows and grief.
I learned the other side of that and I feel very compassionate.
And again one other added event as my wife has been disabled and deteriorates from MS.
I am very compassionate about who she is and try to give her the best and the options that I can.
So I have changed and that's my story.
So what is your story?
Where has the Lord challenged you?
You're raising your eyebrows.
You want to participate or would you rather not?
Sure.
What?
It sounds obvious.
I mean exercising discipline over emotion and actions I carry around extra weight.
And there's just other things.
So self-control and routine, a strong routine to do things.
Just to do the things that I should do.
Not so much to keep me out of trouble but it's like I have to have God time first thing in the morning.
Because otherwise it isn't going to happen.
You're right.
I just don't have that.
And every once, I mean it's fortunately very rare but there will be mornings where I'll wake up and I have a set pattern but something will break that pattern and it'll be half an hour and I'm like I didn't do it.
Oh my God.
Time.
I didn't do that.
So yeah.
So it's a self-control and discipline.
Okay.
That's good stuff.
All right.
Anybody else?
For me John, it can be a little bit of everything.
Okay.
A little bit of each one of those.
Please help.
I'm trying.
All right.
You want us to pray for you now?
No, I'm just kidding.
Not now but at the beginning.
No, no, I get it.
Right.
A little bit of all that.
In other words, there probably was confusion in your life.
And maybe even chaos.
I'm not speaking, you know.
No, you're right.
But it's just the idea that the more things that come down the way that you're trying to look at and all of a sudden God comes in your life and gee, that's not right.
That's right.
There must be confusion in there.
Yeah, really.
Anything from the small?
No?
Okay.
Letting go of resentment the next day.
Scotch.
That's probably worse, right?
That's probably worse.
You're right.
Don't cross me again.
But yeah, resentment of a lot of people that shaped me when I was growing up.
It took me a long time to let go a lot of that.
How do you get over these things?
Grace.
Yeah.
You know, you can sum it up and grace.
And when we fall, you know, God has grace.
He's there.
He's ready to pick us up.
He has denied us.
And so, consequently, we move on.
So, another question.
How have you overcome or presently overcoming these challenges other than grace?
Now, Ken, he told us.
He has to have a program and a schedule.
And I'm kind of rigid that way.
If I get up, I get up before Joni and I get the cup of coffee and I go out in my cathedral
and I have maybe a half an hour.
And I tell you what, that sets my day.
If that doesn't happen, you're right.
It kind of, you know, it doesn't feel good.
Right.
So, how do you overcome these things?
Okay.
Yeah.
Oh, that's a good combination.
Right.
You know, so many, you know, we have in our, we run a Wednesday morning prayer time.
And we gather at nine.
And it's a very group.
It's Catholics.
It's Presbyterians.
It's Charismatics here and some people on the fringes of whatever.
But the prayers that some people pray, you know, go all around and don't hit the target.
And I'm not being critical, but now that I'm in a retirement community as we interact so
much, it's different if I lived in my own home and didn't see neighbors and all this,
but we interact so much, I think, wow.
Not that that's shallow, but they don't know the goodness, the meaning behind what prayer
is and understand that.
And, you know, I pray for them in the sense that it's, to us, to Joni and I, it's a
missionary outreach.
It's part of the diplomacy that we endeavor to bring to the community.
Okay.
So now let's ask the question.
How does our yielding to his obedience and order bring us real meaning?
So we're going to do these things.
There's no doubt.
We volunteered.
We fought through the battles of life.
But what is the end of that?
What is the outcome of that?
Well, let's take a look at that.
As we begin to surrender to God's nature in our lives and his nature against our
nature, that's the battle sometimes, he builds his character one step at a time.
He doesn't show you the end because we'd never get there.
It's too much, too great, too much of a difficulty.
It would appeal to our ego.
Perhaps he shows us one step.
So here's what happens.
In the beginning, a principal is first taught that you heard.
He said, boy, that's different.
I didn't hear that.
And it says in James 1.5, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask for it.
So God's giving you wisdom.
He's imparting things to you, revelation to you.
Do any of you still go into services where all of a sudden you hear something
said that's just brand new?
Yeah, as much as we hear the gospel, there's something new.
So we start off, it's a taught principle.
We begin to assimilate that and practice that.
In Psalm 119.1, it says, blessed are those who walk in the ways of the Lord.
Not just to hear, but to walk.
Okay, so we heard it.
We now begin to walk in it, try it out.
Oh, it really works.
The third aspect is we begin to live it out in our lives.
We engraft that opportunity.
You know, this obedience is pretty good here.
I mean, you know, I've seen God in so many different things.
In 1 Peter 3.17, it says, you are better off to obey God
and suffer for doing right than to suffer for doing wrong.
You want to obey.
When the Lord opens things and opportunities to it,
we want to seize on that.
So we've heard it.
We begin to practice it.
We begin to live it out.
And then we begin to see increase in our lives
because the love of God will be shed to the world like Jesus said.
In John 14.31, it said, I obey my father so that everyone in the world
might know that I love him.
And that's the pattern.
I want to be that person.
I want to be that servant.
I want to do what God wants me to do.
And then as you begin to live life boldly,
we become ambassadors for him.
We are Christ ambassadors as though God
were making his appeal through us.
What's that mean?
We're not speaking.
First of all, what's an ambassador?
An ambassador is a representative.
He only speaks in behalf of who he works for.
He has no opinion.
He may, but he doesn't voice it.
And he says the storyline, so to speak.
And if you look at what God wants us to do,
the storyline is that God loves everyone.
We are ambassadors.
We really don't have a lot to say other than what he tells us
or infuses us in that sovereign moment of witness
how people open their hearts and they hear
and all of a sudden they're praying the sinner's prayer
or in relational evangelism as we practice over in Meadowood
is that we see people, we get close to people,
and we can begin to ask the questions
through that relationship.
So we are ambassadors.
You know when I speak of ourselves,
I mean we have opportunity to go to a very nice dining room
every night and have a meal.
We choose a lot of times to get the order outside of that
and bring it home and eat.
Because you sit down and you talk with people
and there's nothing wrong with it.
But when you're with people that don't know the Lord,
the conversation is very shallow, isn't it?
It doesn't really get anywhere
unless you have common interests.
And I'm not disparaging that,
but you know there has to be a calling.
So we said, okay, like three or four nights a month,
we're going to go and invite people
and we're going to have dinner with them.
And my wife, she kind of, after she goes through her ceramics
and her painting and all that, she's extremely tired.
She wears out fast.
And she said, are we going out tonight?
I said, yeah, you know, we're going to go over.
So that's another two hours that we sit.
By the time, you know, you say, hello, how are you,
yada, yada, yada, yada.
And then you leave, it's an hour and a half.
So there is a calling to that,
but we are ambassadors for His kingdom.
So that's how we progress.
We have gone from learning a principle
to being an ambassador,
little by little, here and there,
as God adds increase to our life.
And in 1 John 5, 3, it says,
we show our love for God by obeying His commandments.
And they are not hard to follow.
Every child of God can defeat the world
and our faith is what gives us the victory.
And that victory is seeing people come to the Lord
and enjoying what you and I have.
Okay, the next question.
So how does one learn obedience and order?
How do you learn that if you don't have that background?
And again, Gordon, I'm not going to pick on you,
but you said, okay, you live the confused life
and there's maybe a little chaos and all that.
How do you get to know and learn obedience and order
after all that life?
All right, well, there are several ways.
Through God's word, first of all,
and you know yourself as you sit down
and you read the word,
there's a revelation that comes to you,
the Spirit takes that works in your conscience,
your conscience assimilates that
and you begin to change your ways.
That's one.
Number two is the Holy Spirit taking that word,
assimilating it into your conscience,
and your conscience then dictates your emotions
and your thoughts and so forth,
and you begin to see change.
And the third way is through authority figures in our life.
This is how He tangibly works these things out in our lives.
Why does He do that?
He brings those opportunities that are very tangible to us
to refine us, teach us, and test us.
What are they?
Your husband or your wife, parents, children,
pastor, employer, government, teacher,
those people are ordained by God
to be working in your life
and to giving you those opportunities
so that you can express your obedience.
Now, we have to take and understand
that there may be spurious requirements of us
that are marginal.
We don't obey that.
We obey God rather than man.
If it's immoral, if it's unjust, we don't do those things.
But we must make a conscious choice
to obey these people in authority so that what?
We get the benefit of the teaching.
If we don't, we're going to be going around and around
that circle all our life.
And this is how we know where we're gaining ground.
We can choose to be disobedient in one of those areas,
husband, wife, parents, pastor, employer, government, teacher.
Or we can choose to be obedient.
And what I find is the older I get,
the less I say, yes, but, Lord,
it said, okay, if this is what you want, Lord,
I want to do it.
So there is me that deals with this.
Do I choose to be disobedient?
Do I grumble?
I only see this authority as suppression.
And I mean, I've gone round and round
with people that believe that.
It denies my freedom.
It represses my actions.
It's taking away my options.
And it restricts my choices.
You know, this God stuff, you know, that's not for me.
So what do you end up?
You end up with resentment in my heart, in your heart.
That's the ultimate outcome.
On the other hand, if you choose to obey, it's God,
it's not me.
I see this authority as liberating me spiritually
and emotionally.
It's two sides of the coin.
Loving all of me totally as He does.
He cares for my life.
He cares for your life.
And He protects all of me, not some of me, all of me.
Like I said, He even protected us from the rain on Sunday.
Wise in giving life to me.
And what do I get out of that?
Contentment in my heart.
What did He promise us?
Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Not righteousness, peace, and joy without the Holy Spirit,
by the Holy Spirit.
If we let Him work in our life, we see these things come about.
So that's how we begin to see these things come into our life.
So now let's look at the order of things.
First off, I said there is creation order.
The Bible begins with the account of creation
where God brings order out of chaos,
and this is the last time I'm going to drop these things, I think.
If I don't have these things, my voice goes about halfway through
about slide five or six.
God, again, brings order out of chaos.
Where do we find that?
In Genesis 1 and 2.
In the beginning, God created heavens in the earth,
and now the earth was formless and void,
and darkness was over the surface of the deep,
and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
So the divine order then reflects His wisdom and power
to bring about order in the world.
In Psalm 104.24 it says,
How many are your words?
O Lord, in wisdom you have made them all.
The earth is full of your creatures and your habitat.
In some translations it says.
Okay, so from the universe to the smallest detail in nature,
God establishes a harmonious system
where everything functions with purpose.
I follow a lot of agriculture, YouTube things,
because my ancestors were farmers,
chicken farmers, ranchers, and so forth and so forth.
And it amazes me how when they deplete the land
of one particular thing that's in the land,
the land starts to go down,
and they have to then fertilize that much more.
They have to induce the soil.
They have to do this.
They have to do that.
And then I got onto this one blog in England
where the fellow said he bought about 500 acres,
and he was going to let the farm go back to the way it was.
And in 15 years, he had all the produce,
all the bugs, all the flowers,
all the habitat, running water in streams
because he left things go back to nature.
It was just utterly amazing to see the transformation.
And, of course, you understand that when God made these things
there was a beautiful balance.
All right, so question.
In what way has God's call for obedience and order
affected your life since you yielded to him?
What's the result of this in your life?
So you did these things.
You wrestled with God.
You decided that he was right.
You stopped the fight, and now you're in the blessing.
What's that mean to you personally, specifically?
Yes?
Less anxiety.
Ah, very good.
For that righteousness that comes in, peace, joy.
Yeah, less anxiety.
Good.
Anything else?
You were all transformed.
Yeah.
Well, you know what I find?
I have always found my worth in doing.
I'm now delivered from that.
I don't have to do to be worth.
Is it too cold in here for you?
I will take the shirt off and wear my T-shirt if you want.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you.
Of course, it gets hot up here when the spotlight's on you.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
Anyone else?
Dottie, are you?
I have to really think about these things.
I don't know.
I hope you do.
No, I have.
Yeah, I just have been.
I just become.
I don't even know how it all happened.
They're good questions.
Well, I wish not that I don't want to.
It's just that I can't wrap my thought around how to answer them.
But I don't know.
I mean, obedience is.
Well, what's the result?
You now obeyed.
How long have you known the Lord?
50 years.
So 50 years, here's the beginning.
I remember your testimony.
That is what itself you fast forward 50 years.
As a whole picture, what is that obedience and that order done in your life?
On the grander scale.
Oh, giving me a whole new life.
Okay.
But everything changed.
I mean, I'm really beginning to know who I really am.
He's giving me an identity and.
All right.
Yeah.
My goodness.
Yeah.
Are you satisfied with yourself?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Okay.
That's one good thing.
Yeah, it really is.
We're not at war.
No, no, no.
I just, my life in him is beautiful.
I just love him.
I mean, he's in me and I'm in him.
And wow, we just have a good camaraderie.
I don't know and understand how I can.
I'm sorry.
I have a lot of, I can't remember.
You know, it's like.
That's okay.
You know what?
It's trying to remember what it was like when I was first married.
You're right.
I'm so much of Roger now.
I don't even know which is Roger, which is me.
The Bible says two shall be correct.
It was.
Truly, that is.
And you know this.
And the Bible says the same thing with the Spirit.
We obey the Lord as one Spirit.
And then after 50 years, so much of God he's put in me.
Me, I've been crucified in him.
You know, I mean, I no longer live.
And wow, I just don't.
Honestly, John, I just can't remember.
Well, we want to have an altar call for those who argue with their husband and wife.
Unlike Roger.
I know.
No, I mean, that's what's wonderful.
I just can't remember.
Yes, I think I have a lot of more peace, too, because I don't have expectations from people anymore.
I only have expectations from God because he's the only one that can fulfill them.
What are you doing today, Lord, that I can that I can serve you?
I don't have an agenda.
Isn't that nice?
Yeah, I can just relax.
Oh, I was going to say.
I'm still yielding to him every day.
It's not like it's past, you know.
You know, so that obedience, it's not like I'm like, yeah, I'm completely obedient now and yielded to him.
You know, I came to Lord as an adult.
So there are a lot of things that I'm still I still wrestle with God over, you know,
and, you know, lots of deep questions that don't always get answered.
So, you know, my word is always, you know, Israel was named Israel, wrestle with God, and I'm still doing it.
But why, Lord? Why?
Yeah.
You know, he really doesn't owe us an answer, does he?
No, it's a truth.
And, you know, it's just I don't know.
It's just not like that simple, easy walk for me.
That's fine. I mean, you know, I would say my walk turned to where I'm yielded.
And a lot of you know the story.
I had full-time minister, didn't take salary, had my own business, had 37 people, raising three boys, had a wife.
It was hit the ball and dragged my family, counseling on Tuesday, home meeting on Thursday, preach on Sunday.
I knew everything until the Lord pulled a rug because we were here, there, and everywhere.
And that was in the charismatic days.
I mean, you know, God blessed us in spite of ourselves, doing crazy things.
And only after that experience, built our dream house.
Here it was on share of sale because I used my collateral to run the business, and the business failed.
Okay.
And in cleaning a warehouse out that was 10,000 square feet, all the equipment that we bought, no more employees,
putting it in the junk with the forklift of which I sold, crying my eyes out for three weeks.
That humility factor where I had nothing was the turning point of my life.
But it took, it took, I will tell you, we went through hell.
I mean, the mortgage payment was one thing on the house.
Joanie had a very good job.
She was a nurse.
But the interest alone, I paid three or $4,000 interest a month just to sustain the business debt, let alone paying principal.
It was a very dark time, and I found the Lord because I had no place to go.
Nothing.
I mean, here I was, 49 years old, and I couldn't provide for my family.
You know, I felt useless.
So that's when I cried and, you know, flipped the life.
Not saying that you have to go through that.
Okay.
All right.
Now, that's good.
Debbie, thank you for being honest.
I mean, that's wonderful that we can share these things.
Okay.
Oh, my gosh.
Can we make it to number five or do we, are you all okay or not?
It's five after eight already.
Okay.
Our society.
God's order extends to human society where he establishes structure for government and justice.
In Romans 13, one and two, obey the rulers who have authority over you.
Only God can give authority to anyone.
He puts those rulers in their places of power.
People who oppose the authorities are opposing what God has done, and they will be punished.
Our belief is that our social order is divinely instituted and that rebellion against this lawful authority is equivalent to resisting God's ordinance, which we had talked about.
Remember, Moses put up a representative government with tribal leaders, with judges, which has followed through even into our American society and government.
In other words, I'll answer this to keep it short.
What kind of government has God ordained?
Well, he's ordained a theocracy, which means rule by God.
He has sovereignty over all of his subjects.
That's us.
And this kingdom, form of government, is the natural order of things.
And this is a question I'll ask.
When it says in Isaiah 33, 22, he is our judge, our lawgiver, and our king.
What does that mean?
In other words, he provides for all.
So if he's a judge, what does he do?
He judicates right or wrong.
If he is a lawgiver, what does that mean?
He keeps order.
Okay.
Let me make sure.
He also makes the law.
No, it makes the law, right?
Okay.
And then he's our king.
He is the enforcer of the entire system.
So we see that there is a provision for everything that he has in his government, in his kingdom.
Order in the church.
Definition of the church is the home of the family of God and the center of the government of God on earth.
Its function, the church is, again, this visible expression of his kingdom, the instrument of God, and it executes his kingdom rule.
Our mandate is to rule in our sphere of influence and ministry, whatever that is.
That could be the groups that we lead, the people that we work with, whatever that sphere of influence is.
The New Testament provides guidance on maintaining order within the church.
In Corinthians 1440, it talks about being orderly and doing things in an orderly manner.
Church leadership is also structured where there is divine order.
Timothy and Titus, we think we know that.
And just a note, if you experience chaos in church, this isn't God.
And it's not anointing.
God is orderly.
Not stiff, but he's orderly.
The things that we talked about in chaos, the things that were reckless, if you will, and those we experienced in some of the charismatic movements early on.
There was a recklessness toward God.
And he looked at that and he didn't like it.
But there is order in the church.
Order in the family.
Order in the family is about structuring relationships within the home according to Biblical principles, God's love, mutual respect, and spiritual growth.
Order emphasizes harmony and responsibility at the same time.
You don't have harmony by giving in.
You can have differences of opinion, but you have harmony in the sense of what responsibility God's giving you.
God is the foundation.
The family centered on faith seeks guidance from God in all aspects of life.
Marriage is the cornerstone.
Again, we believe that the Bible describes marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman built on unity and commitment.
And again, that says a lot against our society today.
Roles within the family, husbands are called to lead with love, wives to support with respect, and children to honor their parents.
Parenting with a vision.
Parents are entrusted with raising their children in faith, providing discipline and instruction in a nurturing way.
Not in a rule based relationship, but in a loving relationship.
As God loves us, so we love our children.
Mutual love and respect.
Every family member is encouraged to treat one another with kindness, patience, and understanding.
And sometimes that's hard to do when you're raising three boys.
All right.
Question.
What challenges do we face in living out our faith at home?
A lot.
Because this is what we see on one side of life.
But when we get home and we get in our pajamas or we get in our sweats and we cool out or we chill out or we do, is there another person?
Or are we the same person?
And I won't answer that question.
Okay.
We'll leave that for you.
Yes, Dottie.
I do have one for that.
Yes.
When I first became a Christian, I had no idea what it meant with submission.
Oh, wow.
That was a big thing because in my family growing up, my mother was the one that she ran everything.
So coming into a marriage...
Was submission a bad word to you?
I didn't understand it.
But when I was taught it and I was told what it was,
it was submission to your husband and son to the Lord, you know, then things became to be okay.
But I have to laugh because to really submit and to really...
I first did an outwardly one.
I was in a Presbyterian church at the time.
And I think I was only three of us at the time in the whole church.
I wore a hat to church in spite of everything to make me remember that I'm a woman in submission.
There was just something between me and the Lord.
But that's the way I kind of disciplined myself in Him to wear a hat.
And I really liked it.
I thought it was really nice to wear a hat.
It did remind me.
But over the years, the Lord's done a good job of putting me in my place.
Good.
Yeah.
Yes, Gail.
I think that the basic thing about loving God is knowing that He loves you first.
And you have to be able to trust Him in order to be able to submit yourself to Him and obey Him.
Because if you don't really trust Him, if you don't really trust in His love, you can't do that.
You can't yield yourself to somebody you don't know.
And so that just covered a whole lot of basis for me once I understood that basic thing.
That if I really knew that God loved me, then I could trust Him and I could trust in His faithfulness.
And then I could obey Him because I trusted Him.
And then I realized that if I really trusted God, I could even be submissive to my husband
as Sarah was to Abraham, even when he was not a perfect husband and made major mistakes.
Yet she could trust Him and be obedient to Him and submissive to Him because she trusted God first.
And I think that's really, really important to know that.
What's interesting about that, if we don't trust, in your case, your husband,
and willing to go whatever that storyline is, how can then God intervene on your husband's life
if you're always taking it away from God's activity?
We have to relinquish, I'm right, you're wrong, or have the dispute.
And I mean, I had, in our three children, there was one issue with one daughter-in-law
that came from a very chaotic home, and she had learned the hard way to defend herself.
And I give her credit on that.
And she admits that she had to relearn the whole aspect of relationship because she was raised.
And my question to you is, were you in a family that you didn't trust in the family environment?
Is that something that you had a problem with because of issues in the family or not?
Well, I came from a family who was also German and Welsh.
So, bam!
So, my father did not know how to show affection.
Nobody ever said, I love you in my family.
Ever, they never said it.
So, it was really hard, yeah.
And then I went to the opposite extreme, and my first husband was saying it off the cuff,
oh, I love you, but it didn't mean anything.
So, it was hard to find that balance.
I think we all come from that generation.
I grew up the same way, and I'm not blaming my parents.
No.
Maybe it was taboo for them back then because they never said, my dad never said,
I love you until I got saved and we were adults, and I was living on my own.
And once I got saved, and the very first time my dad said, I love you,
it broke something because from that point on, we could have a conversation.
And if I forgot to tell him, I love him, he would say it first.
And it just went from there.
Yeah, it just didn't happen.
I think a lot with men, not so much in this generation, but before.
We're macho.
I'm the answer.
I got it all.
I don't need to tell you.
Honey, I told you, I love you once.
We got married.
That's enough after 53 years, right?
One time.
Does he tell you that he loves you?
All right.
Okay.
Good.
We're getting the truth here, right?
All right.
Individual conduct.
Again, you look at the natural man, man meaning woman and husband or man and lady.
In Ecclesiastes, it shows us the darkness of our heart.
The eyes are not satisfied with the seeing.
The heart of the sons of man are full of evil, unsatisfied appetites,
visual desires and judges, it says, as the people of Israel.
And so all the Israelites did whatever they thought was right.
That's one side of it.
The spiritual man, again, we are called to live an orderly life,
reflecting God's character and his commands.
We talked about that.
In 1440 of Corinthians, let everything that should be done be properly
and in order, and we should again align our personal conduct with God's order
and live with diligence, integrity and purpose in all aspects of life.
Isn't that interesting?
Now we won't answer the question.
These are scriptures that support disobedience.
You know, why do you keep saying that I am your Lord when you refuse to do what I say?
I'll skip down.
All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
But then God forgives us, like in the last couple of verses of 26 Leviticus,
as in John 1.19, but if we freely admit our sins when we, again,
when his light uncovers them, he will be faithful to forgive us every time.
God is just to forgive our sins because of Christ,
and he will continue to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The final thoughts I have are these.
How far am I willing to advance in God's kingdom is entirely upon me,
nobody else, nobody else.
How far do you want to go in God?
You are the limitation that takes you as far as you want to go.
And again, righteous living, as we talked about,
is a daily and sometimes hourly choice.
What choice are we going to make?
Follow him and yield and obey or not.
So, Lord, we thank you for conversations tonight.
Lord, we thank you for the frankness that we have to speak about our lives,
who we are, our impediments, our strengths, Lord, our weaknesses.
But we ask one thing tonight in the name of Jesus,
that you would honor us with your guidance tonight, tomorrow,
and the rest of our life.
And Lord, we thank you for the honoring of Beth.
Having a wonderful husband as Gordon,
we ask that you would bless them, bless them, bless them,
as they take this time to cherish one another.
In the name of Jesus, everybody said, Amen. Amen.
God bless you. Thank you for coming tonight. Be blessed.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church
as we praise God and discuss His Word.
Don't forget to join us for Worship Lives Sunday mornings
at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day!