God Always Rewards Obedience - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, October first. God has a will for our lives, but to find it, it demands we follow His instructions. A familiar story from Luke chapter five serves as a reminder that God always rewards obedience. Have you ever made a decision to obey God as a way of life? I don't mean just obey God once in a while, but I mean that's the bottom line of how you make decisions.

Or do you find yourself still struggling over decision after decision after decision? Well, how will this profit me? Will this bring me pleasure? Will this bring me security? What are other people going to say?

In other words, all those questions you have to go through over and over and over again. Have you ever made a decision just to decide, I'm going to obey God no matter what? You see, obedience as a lifestyle means this, that at some point in your life, you make a definite, deliberate decision to obey God in all the circumstances of your life no matter what. That is, you're going to obey Him, leave all the consequences to Him. You're going to obey Him in your life and watch Him work.

Or you're going to have to keep hassling back and forth, what shall I do about this and how shall I answer that? God does not intend for His children to be harassed or those kind of decisions. Now, sometimes we have to pray and find out what the will of God is. But the bottom line should always be, I'm going to obey God no matter what. And yet most Christians will never come to that conclusion.

It's like you have to evaluate. We say we believe that He's a God who is all wise and has the best in store for us. If that's true, then the issue is not shall I, shall I not, what are people going to say, how will this profit me? The only issue is this, is this the will of God or is it not?

And oftentimes your friends try to push you into making decisions from their perspective what they think is the wisest thing to do. The issue is, what is the will of God for you to do in whatever the decision may be? Once you make that decision, that you're going to be obedient to Him no matter what. Here's what happens.

A lot of fretting and fuming and worrying and all the rest that goes on in your life's going to be gone. Because you have accepted the fact that God is the sovereign God of this universe. He's in control of all things.

And listen to this. You say, but my life's out of control. If God is in control of all things, your life's not out of control. God has your life in control.

The question is simply this. Do I trust this God whom I serve? Do I trust this God whom I talk about? Do I trust Him enough to know in my heart He's going to guide me and lead me to make the right decision? And if I believe Him that thoroughly and that completely, then the only issue I have to decide is this. Is this the will of God?

If it is, it's a done deal. That's what I'm going to do. Or you're going to have to go through life Him hauling around about this and that and the other and trying to find out what you're going to do. When the real question is, what does God want me to do? Once you come to that decision and make that decision as a way of life, then what happens is you eliminate a lot of that. There's a sense of peace and joy and contentment and happiness because He's in control of your life. And then you begin to understand that by a way of life it means that you come to a definite, deliberate decision to obey God and leave all the consequences to Him.

Now, let's think about it for a minute. You say, well, I usually do what God says, but sometimes I don't agree with how. Listen to this, partial obedience is disobedience. Do what He says when He says and how He says. If God is who He says He is, all-knowing, all-wise, loves you unconditionally, has the best plan for you, then it is foolish not to do what He says when He says and how He says to do it.

And it is indeed a process. For example, if you look in Hebrews chapter five, verse eight, there's a phrase here about Jesus that sometimes people are confused about. And He says in this eighth verse, although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. Somebody says, well, how could Jesus learn obedience if He were perfect, if He were sinless? Well, here's the way He learned obedience. At every stage of His life, He learned to be obedient at that particular stage as He learned new things, confronted with new situations and circumstances, always obedient in every single situation of His life. He never sinned against God. On one occasion, His parents got upset with Him.

They couldn't find Him. He'd been to Jerusalem and so they finally found Him in the temple discussing great theological questions with the Pharisees and Sadducees. And they wanted to know why are you here and where have you been? You remember His answer?

I've been about my Father's business. Settle that issue. Now, you and I learn obedience. We weren't born with it.

It's not a gift. It's a learning process. When you and I came along and our parents said this is the right thing to do, you and I made a choice whether we'd do the right thing or not. Well, God gave children, parents, fathers and mothers in order to do what? To instruct us, to teach us to be obedient. And you see, if you don't like authority in your life, you're going to rebel against it. And oftentimes kids grow up because their parents do not teach them to be obedient.

And they grow up just naturally rebelling against all kinds of authority. If God is who He says He is, I am subject to His will and to His ways. And if I have the spirit of obedience ruling in my life, I'm going to willingly, lovingly choose to be obedient.

But it's a process. We have to learn it. As you and I learn to obey our parents, we learn to be obedient to God, which says that there is failure involved in learning obedience. We fail because we choose to yield to temptation. We fail because we choose to rebel against authority. So finally, we in our Christian life, we grow and we learn it is much wiser, more profitable to be obedient to God.

So it's a process. And I want to emphasize the fact that in learning the process, we fail. Learning the process of obedience, we sin against God. Because when we come to the second larger part of this message, very important, we understand God's attitude and what we do with these failures. So you see, a person who has the attitude and the spirit, a person who has made a decision to live the lifestyle of obedience, that does not mean they'll never make a mistake. It does not mean they'll never sin.

They're in the process of learning. But at least very early in life, in our Christian life, you and I should be living obediently before God, making decisions. The bottom line of which is not what'll profit me, what'll please others, but what's the will of the Father? All I want to do is know the will of the Father because whatever it is, I'm going to be obedient.

So here's what I'd like to do. I want to give you three examples in the life of Peter in which Jesus challenged him to be obedient. Now watch this. Because this is where we get trapped. Unless it's a big issue, somebody says, well, there are some things God just left to me and I'll make up my own mind about them. Unless I think they're significant. I want you to recognize in this passage how very important that some things that you and I consider insignificant and of very little importance, God knows is very important because my obedience today prepares me for my obedience tomorrow and tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the years to come. And when you grow up being disobedient, that's the attitude of your life and that's the habit of your life and that's your way of life.

You set yourself up for all kinds of unnecessary suffering. So I want us to look at three requests, three commands that Jesus gave to Peter and what the result was. As he operates in Peter's life is the very same way he operates in your life and my life.

Very important you get this. Everywhere you turn and look at this passage of Scripture, all the things that happened as a result of him doing what? Simply obeying this request and that is, let's go fishing. So, when you look at that and you realize that everything in the fishing business changed on one trip. He'd never seen so many fish. Two boatloads and not only were boatloads, the Scripture says they were about to sink. Well, imagine what happened to his faith. His faith soared, standing in the presence of a miracle from the Son of God, recognizing this man must be from God. Financial up, just beyond his expectation. The awesome rewards that happened on that one fishing trip because he simply said yes to Jesus. Now here's the issue. Do you know what you've already missed in life because you've said no to God?

Not really. Wouldn't it be exciting maybe if God said to you, let me show you what I had planned back there, but you said no. I don't think that would be a very peaceful moment in our lives.

All of us have been there at some point in our life. We've said no and He said yes. He's issued commands and we didn't think it was a good idea. And so, we quarrel with Him at times. And just think about this, when you begin to negotiate with Jesus, you're going to fail.

You're going to lose every single time. Because here is unconditional love issuing us a command which is the best thing that could possibly happen, the wisest thing that could happen to us, and now we want to negotiate and say, well now what about this and what about that? Can't negotiate with God.

He's not going to ever agree with us against His will and against His wisdom and love for us. So think about it. First request, very simple. Let me borrow your boat, no problem.

And look how God blessed him. Second request, let's go fishing. Well, I don't really want to go and it's, I'm tired and weary, but I'm going.

You said go, I'm going. And look what happened. Never forgot it. And what an awesome financial plus that was for his life. But more than that, what was Jesus doing? Look at this, because He does this in our life. He sets us up for the blessing. He sets us up for rewards.

He sets us up. And you see, God doesn't, for example, if the Lord spoke to you today, more than likely, He wouldn't walk up to you and say, next Sunday, you're to preach in the pastor's pulpit. No, you know what He'd probably do? He'd probably sound you to share your faith.

Then the next thing you know, you may be teaching a sons' school class. Next thing you know, God may call you. In other words, God knows the process in your life and my life to teach us to obey Him. He's not going to require something of you He would not equip you to do. He's not going to require something of you that you cannot do apart from the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life.

That is, because He's going to supply whatever is necessary. The important thing is this, one of the ways of God is this, that you and I come to the point in our life where we say, from this point on, I'm going to be obedient to God, whatever He calls me to do. By the grace of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm going to be obedient to Him. I want that to be my lifestyle. I want that to be the way I live. Obey God, leave all the consequences to Him. Obey God, watch Him work. Whatever He says, I'm going to do what He says, whether I like it or not like it. I'm going to be obedient anyway. Because you don't know what God has in store for you on the next request.

Now watch this. First request, very simple, I want to borrow your boat. Next request, a little bit more demanding.

I want us to take, spend time, and I want us to go fishing. Don't like it, but I'm going to do it. Both times, Peter was rewarded for his simple act of obedience. Satan will reward you for your simple act of disobedience. That's why the Scripture says in Hebrew, speaks of the pleasures of sin for a season, notice. So, wherever you are in life, whatever the situation, the circumstance, the issue is simply this. And that is, it's maybe a simple request of God, but it's very important. When you read the Scripture, and let's say there's something in your life that shouldn't be there, and God says to you, you need to get that out of your life. And you know it's true.

You know it's true, nobody else has to tell you. When you read the passage of Scripture, and the Spirit of God convicts you about something that needs to go, there are only one of two answers to God. Yes, it'll go.

No, I'll keep it. Let me just tell you what happened this morning in the first service. At the end of the first service, this young man comes down the aisle and here's what he said. He says, Pastor, I woke up this morning and I turn on the TV. I don't go to church.

Turn on the television. God spoke to my heart, lying in the bed, told me to get up, come to the first Baptist church and give my life to Christ this morning. And that is exactly what He did. Now suppose He had said, go to church.

I haven't been in a long time. And He said, this is the first time I've been to church by myself. He said, suppose He'd have said to God, Lord, look at me, I'd have to get up and get showered and shaved and dressed and by that time it'd be late, la-da-da-da-da. He got here at the nine o'clock service. Some of you don't get here till about ten thirty anyway, but I'm saying, this guy, you know what he did?

Here's what he did. God spoke, he obeyed, he got saved. How many times has God spoken to you and you gave Him an excuse? You gave Him some very reasonable, sounds like a very persuasive excuse.

You and I don't know this. That young man obeyed God because God had something in mind when He speaks to a lost person so strongly, so directly, so clearly, so authoritatively, he gets out of bed, gets dressed, goes to church, gets saved. God's got something in mind. Now what that young man doesn't realize he did is this, he set himself up to be blessed of God because he obeyed God probably the first time that he could ever remember God ever saying anything to him.

I'm sure he said that to me. He obeyed God. How many times has God spoken to you and told you what to do and you rationalized it?

Oh, well, I know it's what the Bible says, but you know what? That was written so long ago and besides that, that doesn't apply to me. Listen, that's what this book's all about. This is God's instruction book that teaches how to walk in obedience to God and to do so successfully and to do so, listen, willfully, joyfully, happily, confidently, boldly, with great expectation. What has God said in His Word to you that needs to go in your life and you're still holding on to it?

Do you realize what's happening? Same thing that would have happened to Peter if he'd have said, bar somebody else's boat, too tired to go fishing, not going. Obedience. Here's what obedience is, doing what God says when He says do it and how He says do it. It's just that simple. And we want to twist it around, manipulate it, negotiate.

Obedience is doing what God says to do when He says to do it and how He says do it. So, look how it operates. Can I borrow your boat? Yes. Look at the blessing. Secondly, let's go fishing?

Yes. Look what a blessing. And look at this third one now. The third one says simply this. So, verse nine, For amazement had seized Him and all of His companions, because of the catch of fish which they had taken. And so also, it was James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, that is to Peter, Do not fear, from now on you'll be catching men.

When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him. Watch this. Simple. Borrow your boat.

Let's go fishing. But now wait a minute, now you're saying to me, I'm to walk off and leave my livelihood the way I make a living. I'm to walk off and leave my family and my friends and follow you and your ministry.

Yes. Why were these first two experiences so important? Because what Jesus was doing was what He does in your life and my life, teaching Him quickly to be obedient. Suppose your parents had taught you this principle when you were twelve years of age. Say sixteen, maybe eighteen. You learned at sixteen, eighteen years of age, it's always best to be obedient to God. It's always wiser to do it His way. Do you know how much interest you've paid the banks and all these folks if you've only gotten in debt?

They won't have any debt and you still have it all. Think about the things that you've suffered through because you disobeyed Him. Now this is a big request. Peter, leave it all and come follow me.

And that's exactly what they did. Now let's go back. Can I borrow your boat? Sorry, boat's busy today, it's all tied up. That'd been the end of Peter. That's why it's so dangerous to disobey God.

Secondly, go fishing. Well, I'm too, not, mm-mm-mm. There'd have been no second. And there certainly would never have been an invitation to come join me in the most important ministry that will ever exist, this life-transforming ministry of Jesus Christ who came into this world to die for the sins of the world. They fellowshiped with this man. They touched him. They knew him.

And there they see him. Here's the Son of God dying for the sins of the entire world, and He's our friend. Dangerous to disobey God.

Watch this. It isn't just dangerous because of the reward or the penalty of disobedience, it's dangerous because of what you'll miss in life, what you'll miss for not being obedient to Him. You can't consult your friends whether to be obedient to God or not. They're going to tell you most of the time what they would do or what they think they would do or what they think you ought to do.

That's never the issue. The issue is what is the will of God? And you see, that's why you need to come to a place in your life where you say from this moment on, this is where I'm going to make all my decisions, I'm going to be obedient to God no matter what. Thank you for listening to God Always Rewards of God.

God always rewards 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 In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.