Welcome to the InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, July 28th. Do you ever wonder how to find true intimacy and closeness with the Lord? Today's podcast explores how obedience isn't just a duty, it's the pathway to a deeper relationship with Him. I was only in the first grade, but I still remember That big long key. that unlocked and locked the door of my home where my mother and I lived.
And it was one of those long black keys. And I would take that key after I left in the morning and locked the door and hid it under a rock. And nobody but my mother and I knew where that key was. And I remember sometimes coming home in the afternoon, and wondering if the key's there and I can still remember a little bit of how I felt when I moved the rock. There it was.
And what made that key so important was it was the key to my house. It was the key to where my mother and I lived together. where my needs were met. and were all of our belongings, which were extremely minute. They were all there in that one house.
That's where I felt my mother's love and her care for me. is a very important key. And more than likely, you have keys to your house, to your car, to your desk, to your drawer, to your safety deposit bugs. You get all kinds of keys. But haven't we all talked about having the key to somebody's heart?
And what do we mean by that? Simply this: when you have the key to somebody's heart, you know how to get on the inside. You know how to move them towards you. You can sort of get a little bit of a feeling of what they feel. It says something about what you know about that person.
and about how you relate to them. And when I think about Having the key to somebody's heart. Let me ask you a question. If you could hold the key to anybody's heart, Whose heart? What do you want the key to?
Well, more than likely you could think of one, two, three, or several people, but probably somebody came to your mind first. Maybe it's somebody you love, somebody you greatly admire. It could be that somebody you wish loved you. If you just had the key to their heart.
Well, I want to begin a series entitled The key to the heart of God. Because there is a key to the heart of God. You may say, well, anybody knows what that key is, it's love. No, it's not love.
Well, then it would have to be faith. No, it's not faith.
Well, it must be service. No, it's not service.
Well then it's possibly, more than likely it's humility. No, it's not humility. Maybe perseverance. No, it's not perseverance. The key to the heart of God.
is obedience. Most people don't. No that. Most people don't even like the idea. That obedience is the key to the heart of God?
Yes, it is. And in this first message in the series, I want to talk about the priority of obedience. And what I'd like to do is to take you through the scriptures to demonstrate, to show you why. I do believe this is the key to the heart of God. And um As you follow through the scriptures with me, what I want you to do is to listen carefully.
And to look at these scriptures. and then relate them to your own heart. Because sometimes it's difficult to be obedient.
Sometimes it's painful to be obedient. but it's always the right thing to do with no exception.
So, I want us to look at one scripture. I'm not going to talk about this scripture, but this is sort of the anchor scripture. We'll come back to numbers of times. And I want you to look, if you will. End of the fourteenth chapter.
of John 14th chapter of John, the 23rd verse, and then we're going to go to the Old Testament. And I'm going to take you through and show you why. Obedience is the priority in the eyes of God for your life and mine. He says in the fourteenth chapter of John, and these are those wonderful chapters fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen.
Now, when we say that Obedience is the key to the heart of God. I want you to go all the way back to Genesis. Chapter 2 Let's begin in chapter 1 of Genesis. And I want us to see What God is saying in this particular passage. Because in the very beginning of God's relationship with man.
He was in the process of teaching him. The most overriding, most important principle of all, and that is to be obedient to God. Because you see, the truth is, if you're not obedient to him, What difference does faith make? What difference is humility and all the rest if there is no obedience because you see to obey God is to honor God? We express our love to Him by obeying Him.
We honor him by obeying him. We express our reverence to him by obeying him. We express faith, love, is so much that we express by obedience. And if obedience is missing, Then something Very important is missing.
So, I want us to go to this first chapter of Genesis, and I want you to notice here that God gave. In the Garden of Eden, two commands to Adam and Eve. Beginning in verse 28, listen to what he says. God bless them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.
Rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Commandment number one. That is, be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth. Commandment number two. begins in this second chapter.
Beginning in verse 15, listen to what he says. Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it. and they keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden. You may eat freely.
But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die. Those two commands, what I want you to see is this. With God in the Garden of Eden. Obedience was the issue.
He had given them paradise. He had given them every single thing. They had the privilege of subduing and controlling and being fruitful and multiplying in an awesome paradise for which we cannot even begin to explain or to describe. And he says, The other command is. Do not eat of the fruit of that tree, because the day that you do, you will surely die.
They rebelled against God. They may have tried to explain, and if you'll notice what, and you'll see this over and over again, back to this third chapter. You'll see this over and over again in the examples that we're going to talk about here, because here's what he said. When God confronted Adam, He said, verse 11, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?
The man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the tree, and I ate.
Now you laugh at Adam. How many times Have you said, but God, I know it's wrong, but here's what he did. Here's what she did. And what do we do? We want to blame our disobedience on someone else.
You and I are responsible for our disobedience to God.
Now, I want to say right up front.
So you'll understand. When we talk about obedience, I'm not saying that you should go through the Bible and write down all the commandments of the Ten Commandments, all the things Jesus said in his life, all the things that Paul said, and list all these hundreds of things and say, you mean to tell me that in order for me to be obedient, I've got to live up to all of that? That is not the issue, that is not the question. The issue is this. What is the next thing God's telling you to do?
You don't have to make a list. Jesus was not Legalistic. He didn't make a long set of rules and That's what the Pharisees and Sadducees did.
So we're not talking about that, we're talking about your relationship to Him. You're being obedient to Him step by step, day by day, as He tells you to do something. That's exactly what He means. And you see, most people have the idea. That if I at least just head in the right direction, that's really all that matters.
In other words, I'm obeying God after all. That's not obedience. Obedience is doing what he says, when he says, how he says, as long as he says, until what he says is accomplished, is finished. That's not what we think about in this society in which we live. People wonder why doesn't God answer my prayer?
Why doesn't God hear when I cry to Him? Why are things so bad in my life? Why is it I try and try and try and try and things don't work out? More than likely. If you've trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior and that's happening somewhere you are not dealing and have not dealt with something, or you are living in disobedience, or you are disobeying God in some area of your life, or it could be that God said to you a long time ago, or some time ago, here's what I want you to do, and you didn't do what He said do, you did part of it.
And so you decided: well, I did exactly what God said to do, you only did part of it.
Well, here's what I did. That's not what God said. The question is, the issue is this. Can you say, I did all that God commanded me to do in this situation? The issue is this, it's about your life today.
It's about what did he tell you to do? Have you done what he's told you already? We're not talking about a long list, we're talking about a single thing. What is God working on your heart about? You read the scripture, He keeps bringing something up.
It's sort of like the windshield wiper: flip, flop, flip, flop. Every time you get into prayer, and every time you come to the Word of God, every time you come to a message, God just keeps bringing this thing up, and you say, Well, I'm going to handle that one of these days, one of these days, days, days. Weeks go by, months go by, years go by. You're living in the same mess that you've been in for the simple reason you have chosen to do it your way. Listen, disobedience is rebellion against God, irreverence toward God.
It is a statement of your heart that you have chosen to do it your way. You refuse to acknowledge God's authority, His right and His power in your life.
Well, let's move on to someone else. Let's go to the 12th chapter of Genesis. I want you to notice here what God does because In the 12th chapter of Genesis, he reaches down into a very pagan society. And he speaks to a man by the name of Abram, and here's what he said to him. Chapter 12, verse 1.
Now the LORD said to Abram, Go forth from your country. from your relatives. From your father's house to the land which I will show you. He didn't even know where he was going. He didn't say, This is where I want you to go.
He said, I will show you, which meant, as you go, I'll make the way. He said, I will make you a great nation, I'll bless you, I'll make your name great, and so you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I will curse. And in all the families of the earth, They'll be blessed.
Now, Abraham was the father, ultimately, of the whole nation of Israel.
Now listen. What did Abraham do? He didn't say what most people would say.
Well, tell me where I'm going. God is under no pressure. I cannot pressure God to tell me something He's not ready to tell me. One of the reasons many people not being blessed in their Christian life. Is because you're waiting for God to give you details, and God is waiting for you to be obedient to the very issue.
He said, here's what I want you to do, Abraham. I want you to get up. And you go, you leave your family. and you go to a land that I'm going to show you. And You'll know as you go I will show you how to get there.
That he said, I want you to leave your family. But I want you to notice something. What did he do? Immediately, verse 4.
So Abraham went forth as the Lord had spoken to him. This is a bad sentence. And Lot went with him. What did he say? from your relatives.
You know when Abraham got in trouble? With Lot. He had no business being with him. Here's what I want you to see: listen and say amen. You cannot Be obedient to God and have it your way.
Unless your way is his way. He says, and he took Lot with him. He started out doing exactly what God told him to do. He got up and he headed out. And what happened?
He took lot with him. He should not have taken Lot with him. You know what we do? We say, well, I'm going to do what God wants me to do. Here's what I'm going to do.
And by the way, I'm going to add this. That's not what God said. What I want you to see is this: Obedience in the mind of God is absolutely essential, and obedience in the mind of God is doing what He says, when He says do it, how He says do it, as long as He says do it, with no exception.
Now look what happens. He is a godly man. He moves along in his life, and the Lord bless him, not perfect. He makes his mistakes in his faith. One time he faltered there a couple of times.
But God brought him through all that, and then there came a time, you must listen to this very carefully. There came a time When God chose to test Abraham, not in order for God to find out what Abraham would do, God is omniscient and knows all things. He knew that Abraham needed to know what he would do. If I should ask you... Are you an obedient child of God?
Both unlikely? Why sure? And if I say to you, well, How obedient are you?
Well, I'm real obedient. What would it take? For you to sin against God. Most people have the idea that with enough of something, you can get bought off. No obedient child of God can get bought off with anything.
When you ask yourself the question, well, What would it take for me to be disobedient? He said, it depends on what the sin is. No. Mm. We either either our heart's obedient or it's not obedient.
So here's what I want to just give you a little warning.
Somewhere along the way in your life, You're going to get tested. In the area of your obedience, you say, Well, man, I get tested every day. No, no, I'm talking about the acid test. I'm talking about the test that's going to determine if you have a heart after God or if you do not. I'm talking about a test where you will know because the requirements will be so strong.
It may be painful, very, very painful. That you just surrender this or surrender that. But at some point, If God is going to use you at all, If you're going to become the person God wants you to be, you're going to have that acid test. I can remember. Two very acid tests in my life.
One of them Was something I fought with the Lord about. For many months. And on the morning that that decision had to be made, I was in the hotel room and I walked to the door. and I can still see that doorknob. I reached for the doorknob.
Because I had decided I was not going to do it. I had rationalized it. I'd gone away and prayed and fasted and argued with God and rationalized it, and so I'd figured I wasn't going to do it.
Somebody else could do it. I reached for the doorknob. And I am certain I heard God say, Don't put your hand on that doorknob. Until you're willing. To do what I tell you.
I dropped. at the foot of the bed and weeping and knowing in my heart. That I was afraid. I was afraid to obey God. I didn't think I knew how.
And I thought somebody else could do it much better than myself. Had I reached for the doorknob, Ignored the voice of God and went on and said, No, I'm not going to do that. I would not be standing here. A second acid test in my life. was very painful.
Very difficult. It took me a while to come to realize I had to make a decision. I couldn't put it off any longer. I couldn't rationalize it. I couldn't argue with God any longer.
And God says, here's what you must do. Wasn't easy. What I want you to say is this. Obedience is always right, but not always easy. And I had to let go.
I don't want to let go. Very, very, very painful. But I knew what God had said. And I knew that I was at the fork of the road. in a very important place in my life.
And I only had one of two choices: there was no argument, no rationalization. It was very, very clear. And I just want to say again, I would not be standing here. if I had not obeyed God. That second time, More than likely there's going to come an acid test in your life.
And what I want to say to you is this: please do not listen to other people's opinions. Please do not listen to other people's suggestions. You've heard from God, He's told you what to do, or He's told you what not to do. You must not do. what God tells you not to do.
You can rationalize, you can argue with God. I've been through all of that. I want to tell you, it's just as rebellious no matter how convincing you may think you are. You may think that you have enough arguments that even God will listen. It's still rebellion.
in the eyes of God. The common acid test. And that acid test is going to determine your future happiness. Your joy, your prosperity, what God does with you, how He uses you, or what you become in your life. And you know, I look back in my own life and I see decision after decision.
But there are few very acid tests. And I can tell you I know for certain. If I had disobeyed him there, Or here or here. I will not be standing here. God does not take no for an answer.
Without releasing the penalty and the consequences of disobedience. And what I want to say to you is simply this. You don't know how obedient. You are. Until the acid test comes.
There may be many tests in your life. There probably will be.
Some of them will appear to you to be insignificant, but they are not. Test after test, they're not insignificant test. God knows how we're going to respond. But more than likely there's going to come a fork in the road. and what you do in this acid test of your life.
is going to determine the kind of person you ultimately become. and what God will be able or not be able to do in you and through you. Thank you for listening to the priority of obedience. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org.
This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
