The Learning Process - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, March 7th. Do Christians ever have the right to ignore the laws and rules under which we live in society? Let's examine this important question as the series on obeying God continues with part two of The Learning Process. You would think that when you become a Christian that this automatic thing to do is to obey God.

Well, I wish that were true, but it is not. There are many things that you and I have to learn once we receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. I believe that the most important thing you and I learn is we learn to obey Him. If that's not right, then nothing else is going to be right. Reading the Word of God, prayer, all essential, but you can't have obedience without both of those, and so I would include those. Well, jot this down.

This is number one. I want to give you seven steps in learning to obey God, and the first one is this. If I'm going to learn to obey God, I must learn to wait upon God in prayer. I must learn to wait upon God in prayer for the simple reason that God is not going to always show us His will or what He wants to do in a given situation or a given decision every time instantly. There are times when God delays those answers.

Sometimes He delays those answers because He wants to get our attention about some of the area in our life that He wants to clean up before He gives us clear direction for this decision. And there are different reasons that God waits. Sometimes it is a matter to build our faith.

But oftentimes we don't know what to do. There are decisions that come along that affect our life, the life of our family, and so we must come to Him. If you're going to be obedient to God, you must learn to wait upon God in prayer.

The second thing I want you to jot down is this. If you're going to learn to be obedient to God, you must meditate daily upon the Word of God. You want to be a success as a mother, as a father, as a student, as a businessman, as a friend? You want to be a success?

Here's the key right here. That is meditating upon the Word of God. And so God said to Joshua, Joshua, in order for you to succeed, you've got to obey me.

But in order to obey me, you've got to have something to obey. How do I know what to do apart from the Word of God? The Word of God is the mind of God put in print for you and me. The Word of God is the mind of God. It is the statutes of God, the commands of God.

It is those principles that God wants us to live by. How in the world am I going to know what to do if I don't know what the Word says? How am I going to be obedient to a God whom I don't even know what He's thinking about and how He operates and the principles He's given us?

How do I know what to do? You cannot walk obediently before God and neglect this book. Write it down. God's willing to pull off some miraculous, fantastic things in your life. If you get in this book and find out what He wants and do what He says do His way in His timing. Third thing I want you to jot down because it is so very important in learning obedience, and that's this. If you and I are to obey God, we must walk where the way is not clear. Now what I mean by that is this. There'll be times when God will challenge you to do things and you say, I don't understand that.

God, I'm willing to do that as soon as you tell me what the results are going to be. God is under no obligation to make a deal to say, okay, if you will obey me, I'll tell you what's going to happen. No, because if He did, it wouldn't require any faith. So one of our challenges in life is to do those things that God requires of us when we don't see our way clear. We say, well, God, how in the world is that going to work? It may appear a little foggy and dark out there because we can't see our way clear, but that's the way God teaches us how to trust Him. He teaches us faith.

We go a step at a time. And the will of God is oftentimes revealed to us one step at a time. If you're going to be obedient to God, you've got to have some courage and you've got to have faith. And that's what we talked about in the very first message, and that is what is involved in obedience. One of the things that is involved is faith.

Why is it involved? For the simple reason, sometimes God only gives you a little itsy-bitsy bit of light and says, all right, just move out. But God, what's going to happen? Just move out.

But what are they going to think? Move out. What's going to be the consequences? Move out. What's going to happen to me?

Move it. And many people never reach the best of God's blessings. Listen to me, and I say with all of my heart, many people miss out on God's very, very best because they're not willing to trust Him.

You're not willing to trust Him because you can't see your way clear. Now there are decisions that are not so major as jobs and things like that. Decisions in our life that you and I oftentimes think are very, very insignificant. Decisions that to us, well, what difference does it make? Does God have an opinion about that? I believe God not only has an opinion about things, He has a will about things. Now I always use this as an example because somebody thinks about this. No, I'm sure that God isn't concerned about whether I wore blue socks or black socks.

That's not the issue. I don't have to worry about those insignificant things, but we do have to be concerned about those decisions in life that we make that really affect our lives. And to be obedient to God, I must be willing sometimes to take the hard decision and do what I do not understand. And sometimes it may not make any sense to anybody else, but you remember this, God wouldn't ever tell you to do anything that is senseless to Him. So God's going to tell you to do some things that humanly you have a real difficult time with it. My friend, just do it. If you know God is saying do it, do it.

The fourth thing I want you to jot down is this. If we're going to learn to be obedient to God, we must be willing to suffer conflict. We must be willing to experience and to suffer conflict. There'll be conflict in the flesh. There will be things that you and I want in life, desires that we have, fleshly lust in our life, material things in life that are not of God. And so there'll be conflict and the conflict is, am I going to be obedient to God? Am I going to do what I want to do? Am I going to be obedient to God?

Am I going to have what I want? And so there's that conflict. Then there is the conflict with the world system. And I want you to turn, if you will, to 2 Timothy just for a moment.

2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 3, and the Apostle Paul writing to young Timothy gave him a warning. It's a warning that most of us need to be reminded of every once in a while. You see, you will never obey God if you're one of those kind of persons who just wants everything sweet and rosy and you want everybody to like you and everybody to agree and you just want to bend over backwards and just agree just anything to keep down conflict. Let's just don't have any conflict.

Let's keep everybody happy no matter what. And so you sort of go through life being sure everybody's happy at your home and you give in to this and you give in to that and you agree with this that you don't really agree with and you agree with this that you don't agree with and so what happens? You just can't stand conflict. I'm here to tell you, neither can you live the Christian life. Because conflict is a part of obeying God. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 12. And indeed, look at this now, all who desire to live godly, that is to be obedient in Christ Jesus, will be what? Persecuted.

Listen, he didn't say they would just not like you, he said they'd persecute you. If you obey God, you're going to have a head-on collision with the world system. And what you have to decide is what's more important to you, what the world thinks or what the Lord Jesus Christ thinks and if you're an obedient child of God, I know the answer to that question. Well, number 5.

Now watch this one. If we're going to learn to be obedient to God, we must learn to submit to earthly authority. We must learn to submit to earthly authority. Now in the Scriptures, for example, in Ephesians chapter 6, the Bible says that children are to obey their parents. Why do you suppose God said children are to obey their parents? Because God wants children to learn to obey Him by learning to obey someone that is tangible, someone who loves them, someone who's taking care of them, someone who's looking out for their best interests, someone who really and truly has their best interests at heart.

So that's the place all of us should have learned to be obedient to God. Then of course, the Scripture says in Romans 13, that very first verse says that you and I are to be in submission to, are to be in subjection to, let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God. That is, God is the one who gives the parents authority in the home. He's the one who gives the employer authority in the business.

He's the one who gives the government authority over all of us. And so, likewise, in the church, turn if you will to Hebrews 13. Because the same thing is true in every area of our life. And what is God attempting to do? He is attempting to teach us to obey Him. So He places earthly authorities in our life, tangible people we can see who are imperfect, who will make mistakes, but from them and by them and in them and through them, we are to learn to obey God. So He says in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17, speaking of the people, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.

Don't do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. And Paul makes it very clear in 1 Peter and in Timothy that pastors are not to be domineering, they are not dictators, they are shepherds. They are the under-shepherds of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are leaders in the congregation. They do have authority. It is God-given authority. And so, therefore, while it is to be authority under the Lord Jesus Christ, and while it is to be the authority of a loving, compassionate shepherd, it is still authority. And so if you'll think about it, in every aspect of our life, we are confronted with some type of authority. You see, we learn authority in those tangible people around us in order to submit to the authority of God. Now I want you to turn to 1 John chapter 4 because here is a good comparison to what I'm talking about.

1 John, the epistle, Revelation, Jude, 3rd, 2nd, 1 John chapter 4. Look, if you will, and here in this chapter he's talking about love. And I want you to listen to this verse and then let's apply this to obeying and how and why we should obey authorities. Verse 20 says, If someone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he's a liar. For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

Look at that. He says, If you can't love your brother whom you have seen, and you hate him, then you can't love God whom you have not seen. He says it just doesn't work that way.

Now think about this. If you and I will not obey our parents, if we will not obey the school teachers, and if we will not obey the governing authorities, and if we will not obey the employers, and if we will not obey the authorities in the church, then how do we think we're going to be obedient to God? Listen, you can't live an earthly life of rebellion and some divine submission and reverence toward God. It doesn't work that way. We learn obedience.

Obedience is a process, and God has given us those authorities to surround us in order to teach us what obedience is all about. Anybody can say, I don't always agree with my employer. So what? I don't always agree with my mom or my dad or my pastor or something else. That doesn't make any difference.

You know what? I don't always agree with God. But He wins every time. And when I don't obey Him, I lose. I lose more than just the fellowship for the moment, because you cannot disobey God without losing.

Unless you correct it quickly, you're going to lose. If we're going to learn obedience, we have to learn to submit to earthly authority. Number six, if I'm going to learn obedience, I must be willing to leave the consequences of my obedience to God.

Now, this is where a lot of people have a difficult time. They say, now, Lord, I'm willing to do what You're saying. But now, Father, what about this? Suppose this happens and suppose that happens and what are people going to think? Listen, you cannot obey God being concerned about the consequences.

I believe that's one of the most strategic parts of learning obedience. You have to leave the consequences to Him. You can't be worrying about what's going to happen. First of all, you can't figure out what's going to happen.

Most of the times, things don't fall out the way we think they're going to fall out. He is big enough to catch all the fallout of your obedience and take care of it absolutely perfectly. He always has and He always will. He can handle it.

This is where faith really comes to the surface. Am I willing to do what He says no matter what? Don't know how the consequences are going to be, but I'm going to be obedient to Him. The consequences are His thing. They're not ours.

We don't have to worry about that. He said to Joshua, Joshua, you obey me, do what I tell you to do, I'm going to bless you, prosper you, going to make you a success wherever you go. That promise was known as the Joshua. It's to every single one of us. Does that mean that if we obey Him that He'll make us rich financially? Not necessarily, but I'll tell you what it will do. It'll make us rich on the inside.

And friend, there's no wealth in the world like this on the inside. Knowing God, the security of a great relationship with Him, the security of an intimate relationship with the Creator of this universe, there's nothing in the world to match that. Living obediently before God, trusting Him, and leaving all the consequences to Him. You see, oftentimes pastors will share with me and the conflict that they're going through in their churches and they'll oftentimes call and say, what shall I do? And I've had them to call me on Sunday morning, eight o'clock on Sunday morning and say, Pastor Stanley, I'm going to a church this morning and we're going to vote on whether to keep me as the pastor or not or we're having a big deacons meeting this afternoon and we're all in a big fuss and we're fighting over all kinds of things and I just want to leave and I just want to get out and go somewhere if somebody loved me and listened to me preach the gospel.

What shall I do? I'm asking this question, are you where God placed you? Yes, then stay, brother. But you see, the problem is that so often a man wants to run to something that's greener. He wants to be where people love him. Every pastor would like that. But I'm here to tell you, I want to say to all of those godly men out there who really want to do the right thing, don't run because of conflict.

Don't run because you're not liked. Listen, they crucified Jesus, Paul, you name it. And if you live godly in Christ Jesus, you're going to suffer conflict. And we were not always going to know what the fallout is. I don't have to know what the fallout is. All I have to do is do what God says do and let the fallout be his problem. And you know what I've discovered?

My fallout has never been a problem to him for not one day. Last thing, jot this down. If we're going to learn obedience, watch this one now, we must be willing to accept divine chastisement. We must be willing to accept divine chastisement. And we must do it in a willing fashion.

Now let me give you an example. You see, if I'm going to be obedient to God, and let's say that I disobey him, and he chastens me, disciplines me, and I say, God, I don't appreciate that. I don't like that. And I rebel against his chastisement. If I rebel against his discipline, what I'm saying is I still have a rebellious spirit. I not only disobeyed him that brought the discipline, now I'm rebelling against the discipline. Do you know why we do that?

Because we don't understand the purpose of the discipline. I learned a great lesson along this line. God was dealing with me and disciplining me about something he needed to discipline me about. And it was a little bit painful for me and it was difficult. And I was praying and just sort of arguing with him a little bit and then I sort of got through all that. And finally, when I prayed through it all, I had to say, well, Lord, what you really did is you just loved me. That's what you did.

You loved me. All divine discipline, all discipline that comes from God is an expression of love. So you see, if I really want to walk obediently before him, I'm going, listen, if I don't discipline myself, he's going to do it. If he does have to discipline me, if he does have to chastise you, then we're to look at that and thank him that it is an expression of his love because if he didn't discipline us, what would we do?

We'd do the same thing over and over again. Now, I want to remind you parents and grandparents of something. When your children were growing up, what did you say? Now, Dad, he hates to have to spank you, but it's because I love you and I'm just looking out for your future good and I want you to grow up and be obedient and be the kind of son and daughter you ought to be and so I'm going to have to spank you. Oh, please don't do that. And they cried and they carried on and you did it anyway. But here you and I come along and we think, oh, no, God.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And I want to encourage you, listen carefully. If you're going to learn to be obedient to God, you've got to be willing to accept divine discipline.

I'm not going to say cheerfully and joyfully and all that stuff. I'd be wasting my time, amen? But at least accept it as a gift of love from God that He's looking out for your future. Now, that's seven very simple things, all of which you probably already knew, but you maybe just hadn't put them together quite like that. And I want to encourage you, listen, you can do one of two things.

You can jot them down, take them home, throw it in the trash, stick it in some table, draw it somewhere and forget it. But if you're wise, you print them out so you can read them a little better, put them up on the mirror, on the refrigerator, in your Bible somewhere, you can check yourself off and say, how am I doing, Lord, in my growth toward a life of obedience? And I want to challenge you that if you've never received Christ as your Savior, then you're living in rebellion, cheating yourself and depriving yourself of God's prepared best. He prepared His very best for you, but He can't give it until you are willing to walk obediently before Him and to receive it. Then I want to challenge you, my friend, if you are in the throes of making a decision and you're afraid to do what you know is right, you are thinking about what other people think. I want to challenge you to put all of that behind you and tell God that you're going to obey Him and leave all the consequences to Him. Thank you for listening to Part 2 of The Learning Process. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.