Lessons From David: The Importance of Immediate Obedience

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

Good morning. Welcome to Victorious Faith. I’m Cherri Campbell. This morning I’m going to continue sharing with you message number two in a series of messages that I preached in our Victorious Faith services called, What Made David a Man After God’s Own Heart? So join me now in our live service for the continuation of message number two in this series, What Made David a Man After God’s Own Heart? Psalm 119.34, give me understanding and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Psalm 119.60, I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands. Here’s something else. I will hasten and not delay. Hasten and not delay. You can also say hurry or be quick to obey. Let me challenge you with that. Is delayed obedience… For example, if you have children and they’re sitting watching TV and you tell them, go clean your room. And they sit there for another hour. Is that obedience? No. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Just like when you tell your children go clean their room and they sit and they keep watching cartoons for another hour. That is disobedience. Even if they say, well, I’m going to, I’m going to, I’m going to. Delayed obedience is disobedience. So that’s why David said, I will hasten or I will hurry or I will be quick. And not delay to obey. Because delayed obedience is disobedience. And, as I said earlier, delayed obedience brings confusion to your soul, your mind. Being slow to obey gives the devil all kinds of opportunity to bring in outside influences to bring you to fear, doubt, and procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate. So you say, oh, I’ll do it. I’ll do it. I’ll do it. And then you just never get around to it. You know, it’s one thing. Remember the parable that Jesus told about the father who had two sons. He said to one son, go out into my fields and work. And he said, yes, I will go. But he didn’t go. He told his other son, go out to my field and work. And that other son said, no, I will not go. But then he went. Well, which one did his father’s will? The one who went. So just saying, yes, Lord, okay, I’ll go. But then never going? That’s disobedience. So procrastination is disobedience. And procrastination will usually end up with never doing it. And another point on this, sometimes even something God tells you to do only has a small window of opportunity. And that window of opportunity will close. Just for example, he leads you that you need to buy something and you weren’t really thinking of doing it. And he tells you where to go. Go over here. This is what you’re supposed to get. And you wait, you wait, you wait, you wait, you wait. And a few weeks, two or three weeks later, you decide, okay, I’ll go. You go to that store. Oh, we had those on sale for half price two weeks ago and now they’re gone. You had a window of opportunity and you missed it. So delayed obedience, and also sometimes it can be a job opportunity. It can be meeting a person in the right place at the right time. God prompts you. You know, I try to even go to Walmart or the grocery store or the bank when I get a prompting. Get up and go. I follow those. You need to follow those kind of promptings. When you get a prompting, go now. Go now. Follow those because it could be God wants you at that place at the right time because you’re going to meet somebody that he wants you to talk to. And you go an hour from now and you delay to obey, that person’s not going to be there. You’re going to miss the window of opportunity that God had and the purpose he had in plan. And you know, that’s another reason why many Christians do not end up on the path that God has for their life. Because they disobeyed or they procrastinated, procrastinated, procrastinated until the window of opportunity closed and they never got into the thing God had for them. Now, God gives other opportunities in other times, other places. You’re never without hope forever. But I don’t want to miss something that God has for me. Delayed obedience will cause you to miss opportunities. And blessings, not just opportunities, but also blessings. He has something for you. I mean, I can think of times when I was on the mission field one time. I had so many times of divine appointments on the mission field, and I was prompted, get up and go now. And I went into a building, into a store, just as someone was coming out, and it was somebody I was supposed to talk to. I mean, if I hadn’t gone right then, I would have missed that divine appointment. Another time, the Lord prompted me. I was going out the door of one building, and I was going to go this way to a supermarket and get a loaf of bread. And I had a change of heart, go across the street to that supermarket to get a loaf of bread. And as I’m crossing the street, somebody from way up the street saw me in the middle of the street. They rushed up to me and said, Oh, Cherri, I’ve been wanting to meet with you. Can I take you to lunch? And so they took me to lunch and bought my lunch and had a good time. I was crossing the street. They were way up there, that direction. They saw me. He said, I saw you crossing the street. That’s what they told me. Now, if I had gone this way down the street, two doors to the supermarket, that person wouldn’t have seen me. And I would have missed a blessing that turned out to be. They bought my lunch. They encouraged me. They were a blessing in my life. And so not being obedient to follow the promptings in your heart can cause you to miss blessings, increase, harvest, opportunities, open doors, divine appointments, and even the plan of God for your life. Delayed obedience is disobedience, and delayed obedience can cause you to miss all of that. So be quick to obey. And as we remember in Acts 13.22, after removing Saul, God made David their king. He testified concerning him, I have found David a son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. And what specifically did God say about made David a man after his own heart. It says it in the next phrase. He will do everything I want him to do. He will do everything I want him to do. And also, as we read it in 1 Samuel 13, 14, when Samuel spoke to Saul, now your kingdom will not endure. The Lord has sought a man after his own heart, appointed him leader of his people. Why did God reject Saul? Because you have not obeyed or kept the Lord’s command. So not obeying can even have things taken from you. The kingdom was taken from Saul because he did not obey. But obedience is one of the key things that God names that made David a man after God’s own heart. So do you seek the Lord’s will? Do you inquire the Lord? And do you obey to do everything God wants you to do? Are you quick to obey? Because delayed obedience is disobedience. Procrastination is disobedience. Are you quick to do what he wants you to do? Practice following the unctions of the heart. Practice. When you get up in the morning. I mean, practice when to get up. What to wear. What to eat. I mean, of course, if you have a job that’s at a certain time, you go there on time. You’ve got those fixed things that you don’t change. But then when do you go to the store? When do you go to the bank? Follow your heart. And you will learn that God is guiding you. And this is one of the confessions I like to say. But I don’t just say it futilely, uselessly, without acting. I say, in the name of Jesus, I’m always in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing with the right people the right way. I’m always in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing with the right people the right way. That’s one of my confessions. So I’m trusting God to lead me. And then I’m trusting him that I follow and obey the unctions in my heart, the promptings that I get in my heart. And then, like I said, obedience requires faith. Obedience requires faith. David was a man of faith who acted on his faith. Hebrews 11.6 says, Without faith, it is impossible to please God. It does not say it’s hard. It does not say it’s difficult. It says it is what? Impossible to please God without faith. And I want to find that scripture. We are not of those who draw back. Because I said fear is the number one thing that’s going to hinder you from obeying God. And so we don’t want to pull back in fear. Hebrews 10, 38 and 39. But my righteous one will live by faith. That’s another, the just shall live by faith scripture. You know that scripture, the just shall live by faith? It’s in the Bible four times. Four. That means it’s important. It’s the same verse four times. The just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith. And then the fourth time, the just shall live by his faith. And then this goes on. If he shrinks back. I will not be pleased with him. God is not pleased when you disobey. He’s not pleased when you hold back in fear. He’s not pleased when you procrastinate. Verse 39, but we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed. If you shrink back, you get destroyed. We are those who believe and are saved. Praise God. So we are not of those who draw back. And then, of course, I’m not even going to read the story of Goliath. You know the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, 32 to 37. Well, let me go ahead and read it. Yes. Let me read it quickly. David said to Saul, let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine. Your servant will go and fight him. Saul replied, you’re not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him. You are only a boy and he has been a fighting man from his youth. But David said to Saul, your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it. I struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it, and killed it. He has defied the armies of the living God. Notice this. He doesn’t say he might. I hope he will. Says he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. Saul said to David, go. Saul could hear the faith in David’s voice. Saul said to David, go and the Lord be with you. Go and the Lord be with you. And so without faith, it is impossible to please God. I feel like the Lord is making this an important point for us tonight. Obedience and obedience requires faith. What you just heard was the continuation of message number two in a series of messages that I preached in our victorious faith services called what made David a man after God’s own heart. And we will continue this message again tomorrow. So join me again tomorrow and remember God loves you. You are blessed and highly favored by the Lord.