Obeying God – Part 2

SPEAKER 02 : 0:01

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, October 31st. God only wants His best for us, but we have to follow Him carefully. Let’s pay attention for some valuable principles that can guide you in pursuing His will in every situation.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:18

Are you happier when you know that you’re obeying God? Are you happier when you know that you’re being disobedient? Then why don’t we obey Him? If you’ll think about the reasons people don’t obey God, well, I may miss something. Are you going to miss something that God who loves you has planned your life? There may be some things in life you need to miss. And there’s some things in life you need to be there when it happens. And when you’re walking in His will, you’ll be there. You will not, listen, you will not miss when you walk in the will of God and be obedient to Him. Now, let’s think about how do we learn to obey God? You didn’t come into the world with knowing how. So, I just want to give you some things to consider in your own life because nobody knows your life like you do. But you need to learn how to be obedient to God. And the first one is simply this. You must first choose to trust Him. If you don’t trust Him, you’re not going to obey Him. And sometimes trusting Him demands courage. It demands energy. It demands waiting. In other words, if I’m going to trust Him, that means I’m going to do it His way. And if I’m going to learn to be obedient, I must learn to trust Him. How do you learn to trust Him? By acting, sometimes making mistakes, being ahead, being a little bit behind, a little slow. But we learn to obey Him by trusting Him. I believe He’s who He says He is, that He will do what He says He will do. Therefore, I’m going to trust Him. Therefore, I’m going to obey Him. So, the second thing is this. We must determine to be willing to wait upon God in prayer. And that is probably one of the most difficult things we have to do, especially when we see something we want and it’s in reach, yet God says, mm-mm-mm-mm, not yet. And so what I’m saying, well, I don’t know why not. And then people begin to look around and see what other people are doing. Listen, the last thing you want to do is ask your friends what you ought to do when God’s told you exactly what to do. Because they be, listen, watch this. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with them. They become tools of the devil. Now, when somebody comes to me and says, what do you think I should do? I’m very careful not to say, I think you ought to do so and so. But what I will say is, let’s ask first of all, does that look like God? Does that sound like Him? Is there anything in the Word of God that gives us clarity about that? And you see, you don’t want to be too fast to give somebody an answer. First of all, you and I could be wrong. If we only know part of the facts, only God knows all the issues. So, if we say, why don’t you find out what God is saying? Well, I’ve been reading the Bible and I haven’t found anything to keep reading. Especially if you’re reading it and you’ve already made up your mind. And so, if I’m going to be obedient, I must be willing to wait when I don’t understand why I should wait, when I can’t figure out what God is up to, when I think I’ve waited long enough. And this is what gets people in trouble. Well, you know, it’s been four weeks gone by now and I haven’t heard a thing, so this is what I’m going to do. Is that obedience? No. That’s you taking it out of God’s hands, placing it in your hands, making a decision and failing to trust Him because you’re failing to wait for His timing on whatever may be going on in your life. And so, I think about that and I think about what’s required of me to wait? Two things, patience and faith. If we’re impatient with somebody else, we can understand that. If you’re impatient, think about this, if you’re impatient with God, when you think about the impatient with God, I mean the One who knows all, who has the best plan for you and I’m impatient with Him, I don’t want to wait for His timing, then we’ll find ourselves in trouble because God’s timing is perfect. So, if I’m going to learn to. I’ve got to learn to wait upon Him. Another thing is simply this, and that is, I must learn to meditate upon His Word every day. You will not live an obedient life with a closed Bible. Mark that down. Did you hear that? You will not live an obedient life with a closed Bible. Amen? So, ask yourself the question, well, what do I do? Why do I need the Word of God? Because this is the primary way God leads us. And sometimes you won’t understand what God’s up to in your life. But I just gave you an example. You may just say, Lord, I don’t know what to do with this situation. I’m getting anxious or, Lord, I’ll have to admit I’m getting impatient. Speak to my heart. Here’s where you go. You think about how many things God has said in His Word. Somewhere in here, I’m going to find an answer. I have never gone to the Word of God, maybe not the first time, but the second or third or the fifth time, that at some point, searching His Word, asking, Lord, what would You have me to do, that He doesn’t give me an answer? But you see, the answers are available to everybody. Ask yourself the question now, genuinely, Lord, how often do I open Your Word and read it? Now, you say, well, do you just read the Word of God when you’re looking for something? No. That’s why you ought to read it every day. How many of you are so busy, you don’t have time to read the Bible? Well, well, well. Good, good, good, good. We all have time to read the Bible, right? Then why don’t we? It’s the Word of God. He says, I will guide you with My eye upon you. I will teach you in the way which you should go. What does that mean? It means this, that God is so personally interested in you that He will give you guidance in every single solitary situation in your life, period. All He wants you to do is to be obedient to Him. Why should God answer your request if He knows you’re going to be disobedient anyway? Listen, you will not live a godly life without an open Bible. And one of my favorite passages is in Joshua chapter one. I love this, and this has been one of my favorites for years. Listen to what he said. He said to Joshua, Have I not commanded you to be strong and of a good courage? He said, Don’t tremble or be dismayed. The Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And that’s a sort of a concluding statement. And listen to what he says in verse seven, Only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Don’t turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. You don’t read it once a week. But you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful. Listen, be careful to do according to all that is written in it. Then you will make your way prosperous. Then you’ll be successful. He says He will bless you in all that you do. But He says you’ve got to be in the Word. The Word of God is His, He says it’s a light to our path. And so, He’s given us His Word to give us guidance and direction. And so, I think about people, for example, who never read the Bible. Think about it for a minute. They never read the Bible. And then they wonder why things don’t work out. And here it is in just a very few verses. Be strong and of good courage. Reading the Scriptures day and night. Then, of course, we must walk when the way is not clear. Look, if you will, in Hebrews chapter eleven. We must be willing to walk when the way is not clear. Somebody says, God’s got to show it to me. You’ve got to write it in the sky. God’s not in the business of writing in the sky. Look, if you will, in this eleventh chapter of Hebrews about Abraham, verse eight. By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. You say, what’s that got to do with me? Simply this. I’ve lived long enough to know that many times if you’re going to be obedient to God, you’ve got to head out and you will not know exactly what’s going to happen. I think about where, for example, we are in touch today because of God, number one, and so many of you have prayed and given and so forth. We started that with a 30-minute program in Atlanta by 8 o’clock on Sunday morning. We had two little orange boxes that we call TV cameras. And today, you can hear it all over the world or see it all over the world. If somebody says… Now, if somebody says, how did you plan it? I had nothing to do with it. I say that sincerely. Never planned it, never programmed it, never said here’s what we’re going to do, here’s how we’re going to get there. And this is why what I want you to see is this. You cannot, you absolutely cannot foresee and foretell what God is going to do in your life until you obey Him. Suppose we just said, we’re not going to do that until we get some expensive stuff. We’re not going to do that till we have certain things that we don’t have and so forth. No. If God tells you take a baby step, you take it. And if you don’t know where you’re going next, listen, all you have to do is to obey God today. What He tells you to do today, He already has tomorrow perfectly in mind. Perfectly in mind. So, the reason we get in trouble is because if we can’t see our, watch this carefully. You listen and say amen. If we can’t see our way clearly, we imply that God can’t. He says, my word is a lamp to your feet, light to your path. God sees the second step and the third, the fourth, the fifth. He sees all of this. All we have to do is to be obedient to Him. And I can say to you, wisdom says, wisdom says it’s always best to obey God, even if it’s a tiny step or if it’s a major leap. You can’t lose either way because He is the one who is giving the guidance and the direction. He’s the one who has the goals in mind. And oftentimes I think people miss the will of God for their life and the blessings of God because they can’t see their way clear. Well, you know, I can see some of that, but I don’t know. I just, you know, I’m just waiting. And sometimes my heart is grieved when I see people who have ability, talents, and skills and just laying them aside because they can’t see how God’s going to use them so they don’t take the next step. You can’t predict what He’s going to do. We know answers prayer and we know that He’ll bless us if we do certain things, but somebody says, well, why doesn’t God just show us the full story? Why doesn’t He say, well, here’s where you go, here’s where I’m going to take you, here’s the reason why. Because God usually Let’s just take a step at a time. What’s He doing? He’s strengthening our faith. He says, I want you to follow Me. Trust Me. You can’t see your way clear, but just trust Me. And as I take a step and He does what He says, my faith’s going to be stronger. And the longer I walk in obedience to Him, my faith’s going to be stronger and stronger and stronger. So, think about this. Think about your children, for example. They watch how you live. And if they see you in the Word of God, and they see you talking about things of the Scripture, and they see you being obedient to God in decisions that you make, and seeing how God blesses you, it’s just natural. Now, they may get themselves in a mess for a while, but they get back. Obedience. It’s trusting holy, righteous, omniscient, unconditional, loving God to be in your life who He says He will be. And you cannot lose. Now, another thing is this, I must be willing to experience conflict. If I’m going to obey God, there’s going to be conflict. Every pastor in the world can tell you that. But you know what? Everybody who lives with God in life’s going to have something. It can be conflict in your family, with your children, your husband or your wife. There’s going to be conflict. For example, when God told Joshua to march around Jericho and watch it fall down, none of that fit. Anything human reason had to do with it. You go through the Scriptures and see how God challenged His servants to do one thing after the other. And oftentimes it creates conflict in their minds and their hearts because they wonder, how am I going to do this? And this is why we come to the next thing, you must be willing to leave the consequences to Him. If you wait till you can figure out the consequences, you will not obey God. And every single day, think about this, you and I have the privilege of growing just a little bit more. Every time we are challenged and we obey Him, we grow. Every time we obey Him and we watch Him work in our life, we grow. This is why I say, when I’m on my toes, obey God and watch Him work. Because if you watch Him work, you’re going to see Him work out His will in your life in a way that’ll surprise you. It’s just that simple. You said, I’m going to teach my children to be obedient. And that’s what God’s been doing in your life ever since the day you were saved, trying to teach you to be obedient to Him. Because what happens to a parent who sees their son or daughter grow up disobedient, rebellious, living in sin? Breaks their heart. Wasn’t what they planned. And so, the parents suffer as a result of a child’s disobedience. And so that’s why you and I have to be serious about being obedient to God because of the influence and the testimony that we have. And certainly, it’s very evident if you and I disobey God, there are going to be consequences. A parent that never disciplines their children is in for hurt and pain and sorrow and disappointment. And somebody says, Well, I would obey God, but suppose So, I always want to say, suppose what? Suppose what? Suppose God can’t fix it? Suppose God doesn’t know about it? Suppose God doesn’t show up? Suppose God doesn’t provide enough? All those supposes have no answer. In other words, God is sufficient, adequate for every single thing. It’s a matter of being willing to obey Him and leave the consequences to Him. You see, if I don’t obey Him, It means I don’t trust Him with the consequences. And when you and I face any issue in life, it boils down to that. If I don’t obey Him, I don’t trust Him with the possible consequences that could take place. And as a result, you’re now losers. We lose when we do not obey Him. Then, of course, I must be willing to accept the divine chastisement in response to my disobedience. If, for example, you disobey God and God brings down His hand of chastisement and you fight against it and you rebel against it and you refuse and you blame God, what does it say? It says simply this, I don’t trust Him. I don’t believe what He said. I don’t like how He responded. When the truth is we’ve disobeyed Him. Nobody likes chastisement from God. And He says it’s an act of love on His part for us. When you and I are really, when we really have an obedient spirit and we do something that brings down God’s chastising hand, I’ll know that I’m obedient to Him when I say, Thank you, God, for not letting me go the wrong way. Thank you for not letting me make that decision. Thank you for not letting me have that. Thank you for showing me a different way. In other words, if I have an obedient spirit, I’ll thank Him even when I’m chastised. But if I rebel against it, blame Him, ask Him why, when the truth is we know why, then somehow I’ve not learned to be obedient to Him. Now, when I think about all of those things and think about what rebellion’s all about and all of God’s servants had to get chastised at some point, we all do, and that’s good for us. It’s protection on God’s part and our behalf. When you think about your life, And realize that obedience is a learning process. What decision are you facing today that you’re having to deal with when it boils down, you get all this stuff out of the way, it boils down to, I’m going to be obedient to God or I’m not? It’s a decision. Ask yourself this question. Is there a better way to make decisions in life than seeking the mind, the will, the purpose, the plan of God who loves you absolutely perfectly? There is not. So, I’d ask you this question. What is it that you’re facing, that you’re dealing with that would keep you from saying this morning, Father, I want Your will in this situation no matter what. And I choose to say today, I will be obedient to you in this and I will leave the consequences to you. Is there anything in your life that would keep you from saying that? And if it is, ask yourself this question. Well, if I don’t trust Him, who am I going to trust? If I don’t obey Him, what am I going to do? You cannot lose obeying God. And if I could say one thing in my dying moment, this is what I’d say. Obey God. Leave all the consequences to Him. You cannot lose. You cannot lose.

SPEAKER 02 : 19:18

Thank you for listening to Part 2 of Obeying God. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.