Transcription
Thank you, God, for crying out to us as we call on your name, for waking us up from slumber, for giving us hearts of flesh that respond well to you, for giving us peace and minds that can endure all the way to the end of this age. We love you and are expectantly awaiting your return. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen and amen.
Thank you, ocean take. Thank you, Michael. Let's go ahead and stand for a moment. We always like to do this, take a minute just to greet the folks around you. And if you want uh the teaching notes, a hard copy, and you don't have them, wave your hand and we'll get an usher get it right to you in a moment here. Wave your hand big and the usher will give you a hard copy if you want one. Oh, no.
Okay, let's go ahead and have a seat, if you would, and open your Bibles to John chapter 15. John chapter 15. Well, one thing interns, we're going to miss you. We've so appreciated you being here. This is your last Friday night with us and so you're always welcome. You know, all the seats are free, so you would know. I'm just having fun. We've so appreciated having you part of our family here.
Well, let's pray. John chapter 15, verse uh 10 and 11 is what we're going to focus on tonight. Father, we come before you in the name of the Lord Jesus. Lord, we ask you God, for the release of your presence. We ask you for the release of the Holy Spirit to touch our heart and to touch our minds even now in the presence in in your very presence, God, release light. Release light and truth to touch our heart. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, tonight we're looking at session nine in our intimacy with the Trinity from John chapter 15, session nine. I'm calling this the superior pleasures of obedient love, walking in obedience and love with the Lord. The superior pleasures from John chapter 15, verse 10 and 11.
Just a review from last my last session, which would be session seven. I look at John chapter 15:9 and I never tire of saying this. It's my favorite Bible verse, John 15:9, together with John 17:26. So, I got to spend a whole hour on it 2 weeks ago and just really enjoyed it. And I'll give a real quick review in this one verse, there are two glorious truths and one commandment. Because uh I'm identifying that if this is your first time here, because you might miss it at a quick read. And in this passage in verse nine, because verse 10 builds on it, that's why we're reviewing verse nine, cuz verse 10 is counting on you understanding verse nine.
Jesus has declared his love for his disciples was as intense as the Father's love for him. I mean, this is an just indescribably glorious statement. This is one of the most dramatic and significant statements ever uttered in human history. It really is. Here we are, the uncreated God in a human form saying, "The way, the intensity of how my Father loves me is how I love you." This is just indescribably glorious. I cannot exaggerate the importance of this. The way that God loves God, the Father and the Son love each other, is the way that God loves people. This is the greatest love story imaginable. For billions of years, God will love people like God loves God. Billions of years this will unfold. It will never come to an end.
Just a quick summary, I'll just say it again. John 15:9, we see what I consider the two most important truths of the Bible. I said I qualified this when I gave the session. I said, "Yeah, there's arguably maybe eight or 10 more verses you could truth you could put in that category." But in my opinion, these are the two most important truths. And this is, I believe, the most important commandment. All all three phrases in one verse. And the reason I'm saying that is so that if chapter 15, verse nine is new to you, you might stop and say, "What? The the the most important? Are you Really?" Well, I got your attention. That's what I was trying to do.
Truth number one. Jesus says the way the Father loves me. Now, that he he's not limiting this reality to just how the Father loves him. It's how he loves the Father, how the Spirit loves Jesus, how Jesus loves the Spirit. Truth number one is this vast reality of how God loves God in eternity past in perfect delight and happiness in the relationship. Truth number two. This is how God loves his people, the same intensity. Number three, the commandment. I believe the most important commandment in the Bible. He says, "Abide in this love." What that means is to stay focused on this. A lot of folks kind of appreciate this truth. They go, "Wow." And kind of move on pretty quick. Jesus is saying, in essence, "Stay locked into these two truths. Don't move on past them. Even though there'll be seasons of your life uh in the Lord where he'll cause you to focus on various truths, various assignments, never do it at the expense of letting go of these these two truths. When he says abide, he means live in it. Stay locked in here. Prioritize time to search out these two truths, to study them, reflect on them, pray about them often. The two truths of how God loves God and how God loves people. And if you stay locked in, abide in this, then Jesus is going to tell us in verse 11 verse 10, you're going to have you're going to be empowered to obey and then verse 11, you're going to be empowered to walk in joy. But it's contingent on abiding in these two truths. And it's just the it's human nature, but it's the enemy's tactic, the body of Christ moves on quickly and lets those true truths just stay in the background.
Paragraph B. God is love. We focused on this a a couple times in this series. The nature of God, when it's when when John says God is love, his nature, the very essence of his being is wholehearted love. He doesn't just love, he is love. He is wholehearted love. The only way that God loves is with all of his strength. He always loves in fullness cuz he can't deny himself. He can't change. The point of it is, the way that God loves God, and we can grasp that with all of his heart, his strength, all of his mind. I mean, Jesus loves the Father with all of his mind. But God can't deny himself. That's the only way he loves. Therefore, it's believable he loves people that way. Well, if that's true, he loves you that way. And if that's true, you want to lock into this. You don't want to move on past this truth. Again, we study other truths and we search out other truths, but never letting this one just kind of drift to the background of in our conversation with the Lord.
Roman numeral two. The power and pleasure. We're looking at verse 10 of walking in obedience to the Lord. Now, Jesus Now, you I want you to really pay attention to the language of verse 10 and 11. Every phrase is important. And you can kind of read this fast and really miss the significance of what Jesus is is laying out here. Pay very, very close attention to every phrase. That's why we're taking an entire session on verse 10 and a little bit on verse 11, but mostly on verse 10.
Jesus connected the command in verse nine when he said, "Stay focused on this love. Stay locked into this love." He connects it to walking in a spirit of obedience in verse 10. Look at verse nine. Let's go back and look at nine again. The end of verse nine, he goes, "Abide in this love." Or stay locked in. Stay focused. Keep this truth in your conversation with me. But he goes, "I I want to tell you something, a qualifier, very important condition. If you keep my commandments, you'll be able to stay locked into this realm of love. If you keep my commandments, you'll be able to stay connected to this love and grow in it. Just as I kept my father's commandments and I stayed connected to his love. I stay engaged in it in my conversation with him and receiving it and returning it back to him. Then he goes on in verse 11 he says, "And I told you all these things because I want my joy to be released as a result of you interacting with me according to these truths." And the reason this is so important is so many believers and I mean complain I'm I'm not saying it in a negative way, but they would be desperate and complain about their weighed down with the spirit of heaviness. They have no joy. Spirit of despair and depression and the Lord's saying I really want you to know this thing is available to you. I think this is one of the verse 9 to 11 one of the most important passages for the body of Christ in the in the earth right now because so many in the body of Christ are weighed down with heaviness, fear, depression, all kinds of negative dark emotions are dominating their life. And Jesus is saying, "I'm telling you here there's a way out of that." But there is no other way besides my way.
And a lot of folks kind of go quick over verse 9, 10, and 11 and then they're confused why joy is so minimal or almost absent in their life.
Paragraph B. It says, "If you keep my commandment." Now the word you don't want to miss is the word if. It's a very important condition. He is implying by saying the word if to his apostles. He's implying it's easy to overlook this thing of keeping his commandments. Now everybody knows conceptually we're supposed to keep his commandments. But it's uh throughout history. I mean our own lives can bear witness to it. It easily gets lost in the conversation in our walk with God. It's it's kind of on the back shelf. Every now and then there's an issue, you know, we're looking at and the Lord says, "This is absolutely front central to me. This is critical to empowering you to walk in joy. It's critical. One of the essential requirements to abiding in love or to living in the power of it. That's that's the real That's what it means to abide in love. To live in the power and the reality of this. One of the essential commandments is to walk in a spirit of obedience. It's absolutely essential. And yet again it's I'm sounds like I'm uh pounding on people and I'm that's not really my heart to do that. It's just I want we need wake-up call because so many believers are confused why they don't have joy in their life. And Jesus makes it abundantly clear and they go, "Yeah, but." and they move on. And there is no other path forward outside of this. I mean this is critical. There's other elements in the progression of our faith, but there's no substitute for what he's saying here.
Paragraph one. Just moments earlier cuz we're in John 15 verse 10. Just a few moments ago in John 14 five times in John 14 Jesus linked loving God with obeying God. He says it five times in a row. And we have that in in the earlier sessions. And I love to say that John 14 is actually the most detailed chapter in the Bible on the first commandment on walking in love for God. There's all kinds of important truths in John 14 that again at a quick read you wouldn't catch them. But that's the most detailed chapter in the Bible of walking out the first commandment to love God with all of our heart. So whatever we do, we want to know John 14. I don't mean just know it conceptually. We want it to be a part of our conversation with the Lord. But here I'll just give you just a few of of the passages. He says it five times. I'm only going to mention three. Here he goes, "If you love me, keep my commandments." Verse 21. Chapter 14:21. "If you love me if you keep them, you love me." Verse 23. "Anyone who loves me he keeps them." He says it like over and over. Kind of like rapid fire. He just says, "Do you get what I just said?" He defined loving God as rooted in a spirit of obedience.
We We must love God on God's terms. We must love God according to how he defines loving God. Because today in the culture, particularly in the last 10 20 years, but even the last few years there's these new arguments that are raising up in the culture defining love in ways different than God does. And we have to love God on God's terms. And the cultural definitions are more and more getting stronger and the voice is getting louder and they're in direct opposition to what Jesus talked about walking in love. And the reason we must love God on God's terms cuz he's Jesus is the most qualified person to talk about love. There's all kinds of human arguments and debates about what love and justice and mercy and honor and value are, but Jesus can is qualified to define it second to no man in history.
Paragraph two. Just want to say it really clear though we know it, but it's just good to hear it and I and my prayer is that you will say it, not just that you'll hear me say it. But you'll get this into your uh passion for people. Cuz I say these things in my passion for people. Jesus said these things because he's contending for the greatness of his people, for their liberty, for their breakthrough. Jesus isn't teaching these things cuz he's mad at them. He's teaching these things because he's jealous for them. He loves them dearly. And I I say these things cuz I love people. And loving people I want them to hear the truth because there is no other way forward around this. No matter what the culture says and how much false grace rhetoric is in the dialogue and conversation of the church today. But here it is in in number two. There's no such thing as loving God without seeking to obey him. It's it's an absolute deception. The idea that there's another way to love him that's outside of this is is a deception.
Now I want to uh highlight the word I I I have say this regularly the word seeking to obey him. I didn't say attaining it with maturity. I'm talking about the setting of the heart. Because you set your heart to obey many times time and time again before the obedience breaks through to attainment. I'm not even talking right now about attainment. I'm talking about sincerely setting it in your heart to obey in that area or two or three that are challenging your heart and your mind. The distorted grace message is what I call it. Some call it the hyper grace message. I call it the distorted grace message today that is growing so popular. Many many ministries. They're promoting a sentimental definition of love that minimizes obedience to the one who is love. It's an utter deception. But its popularity is growing. And and and many are being taken unaware by it because they're not grounded in the word of God. Now the good news is God is going to have a billion soul harvest and a massive number of people who are going to lay hold of this with all of their heart. So I'm convinced the true gospel of the kingdom is going to win. But there's a there's a drawing back in the midst of millions and millions of believers right now. But they're drawing back with a false confidence. They're unaware of how serious what they're grappling with is.
Paragraph C. Top of page two. Jesus said No, if you If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. I want to circle or highlight the word will. This is an important promise. They Don't lose the promise here. You will eventually Eventually there will be a breakthrough of love in your heart. If you keep reaching for a spirit of obedience eventually the love that God has for you, the revelation will break through more and more and your love for him will break through more and more. There is a breakthrough. Jesus says, "If you will keep my commandments, you will actually live in this love. It'll be progressive. It may be slow before it it's really accelerates. Stay with it because this is a promise.
Now we abide in his love or we remain in his love. I'm just going to repeat this for emphasis. Meaning we remain under the influence of his love. That's what it means to abide in his love, to remain under the influence. The tenderizing knowledge that he loves us and that impartation we love him back and both of those dimensions grow slowly, but they grow steadily over the months and years as we reach in a intentional way to walk in a spirit of obedience before him and as we keep the love subject and truth in our conversation with the Lord. It's not enough just to reach for obedience. That's we abide in love by staying in the conversation. Thanking him for the truth and searching it out and asking for greater revelation and never moving on past that conversation. I I mean we have many other things in our conversation with the Lord, but not to the expense of this one or as a substitute to this one. There's a love cycle that builds that progresses in us. That's kind of a strange way to say it. But the more that we understand his love, the fact that he tenderly loves us in our weakness, the more we're empowered to love him back and obey him. I wrote a book years ago, about 30 years ago or so, called Passion for Jesus. And so for many years people say, "How do you get passion for Jesus?" And I says, "I know. I'm I'm I know for sure." They go, "How? How? What's the secret?" I goes, "It's not really a secret. Study his passion for you." Because when you understand his love for you a little bit, it awakens love in you back to him. You can't grit your teeth and grow in love. You don't try harder, but you stay more focused in the conversation with him and your heart awakens. There's a love cycle. The more you understand verse 9, that he really feels about you the way the Father feels about him, the more you're empowered even a little bit more to love him back. Then the more you're empowered to love him, the more you're empowered to love him, the more you obey him. More you obey him, then the more you understand he loves you. I mean it's the rich get richer. Just the cycle keeps building. And the more you understand he loves you, the more awakened you are to love him back. The more that you love him back, the more you obey him. The more you obey him, the more you know he loves you. It's this cycle just keeps building forward, but we cannot any one of those points. We can't just push delete on them and and move on.
I like to say this. It's a strange sentence, but paragraph C, that affection-based obedience is the most reliable type of obedience uh in the scripture. There's duty-based obedience. And and it's real. Duty-based being we got to obey this to get qualified, prepared to do that. It's we obey because we've got to get qualified for various things and that's biblical, but it's not the most reliable or the most powerful. Then there's fear-based obedience, which is very biblical. If you don't obey me, you go to hell. They Oh, whoa. If you don't obey me, I will discipline you. Whoa. That's fear. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's just not the most reliable or the most sustainable type of love. Affection-based love. By seeing his affection for us, it awakens affection in us back to him. That's the kind of love that's the most reliable. It's not the only kind that's biblical, but it's the most reliable. I I live in all three of them. I do some things cuz I know I need to get ready and prepared. And I do some things cuz I don't want to get in trouble. And there's nothing wrong with those, but I know those are not the strongest. And why am I saying this to you? So that you would prioritize that verse 9, searching this out. That love cycle uh when I understand love for me, then I have little more tenderized love back. And when that happens, I have a little bit more motivation for obedience. And the cycle just keeps growing.
Paragraph D. Serving Jesus faithfully and denying our lustful desires. This is the theater that God has chosen for you to express, for all of us to express our love to him. This is a big statement. Serving him faithfully, that's real positive. We follow we we walk in our divine assignments in our home, in the marketplace, at the university, wherever our assignments are. We typically got few areas of assignments in our life that we're serving the Lord. Starts in our families and our friends and our circles that are close to us. But that's not all. Also denying lustful desires. The Lord says, "This is the theater of life that I have chosen for you to show your love to me." Both of them, not one or the other, but both. And when we show our love for him in these ways, he takes it very personally. It moves his heart. Now, when I say lustful desires, some people think lust, they think immorality. Lust is much bigger in the Bible in the New Testament than immorality. Covetousness is a form of lust. Anger is. Retaliation, complaining, slandering, speaking about people outside of a process of being redemptive to help them. All of these are there's many types of lust of the flesh. And so when we deny those urges to speak that way and covetousness, bitterness, retaliation, all these ways, not just immorality, we are actually expressing love back to him. And the reason I'm saying that cuz that moves his heart.
Paragraph E. Every person, every one in this room, every one in the body of Christ, we each have a different struggle than the other than the person next to us. Your personality and your life circumstance is different from even everybody in your family in your home. Even though your life circumstance, well, there's some similarities, we're in the same family, but still it's unique to every single person. And my point is, that's the assignment God has given you in your 70, 80 years on the earth. He's saying, "That's the assignment I've given you to give me the gift of your obedient love." And because a lot of folks think of they're going to show their love for God by doing some heroic service of ministry service, you know, in some real heroic way. And there's moments where that might happen, but the Lord is saying, "I see you in your family. You don't feel loved. There's negativity. There's all kinds of pressures. Your body feels this way. Your money is that way. The people around you are saying this AND YOUR HEART'S [screaming] BUT YOU'RE CHOOSING TO DENY, yielding to that. Even though you yield sometimes, but you're signing back up. I want to love you." The Lord says, "You give me the your gift of love in that context." And so I'm wanting to frame out obedience to him in a practical way. So it's not just uh it's not ethereal, but it's really practical.
Paragraph F. I like to say this sentence. Jesus takes our obedience personally. It touches him. He remembers it. He esteems it. He rewards it. You give a cup of cold water in his name, he says, "I tell you truly." In Matthew 10:42, "Truly I say, you will get that reward. I promise you." "You obey me, I I will remember it. It moves me. And I want to reward it." And when Jesus gives his rewards on the last day, it's not about earning anything. It's about Jesus showing how he feels about the way you loved him in this age. He's so generous. He has so much. He goes, "I just want to show you how I feel about the way you loved me." You know, I think of some I mean, there's all kinds of situations. I think of some women particularly in the most difficult family circumstances imaginable with all kinds of resistance and negativity and just, you know, the whole list. And yet they're staying steady and saying, "Lord, I want to show love to you. I want to serve even in this context." And I'm thinking all over the world, the Middle East, America, just everywhere. I just think of so many godly women. They're going to get the shock of their life when the Lord shows them how their love for him what it meant to him cuz they thought, "I'm just kind of hanging in there. I'm not doing anything big. No one even knows me. No one even likes me." The Lord says, "I do. And I'm remembering every single time you deny your lustful desires in order to obey me consciously. You're doing it to obey me."
Well, the obedient disciple, I'll just stick with this lady. This I mean, there's a many different scenarios I could point. That that obedient woman is part of Jesus' gift to his Father. She doesn't even know that. He's going to She's going to Jesus say, "Father, look. Look what I did in the way she loves you because I touched her." Beloved, you're part of the Father's of Jesus' gift to his Father. The apostles talked about the great joy they had when their children, their disciples, their children in the faith obeyed God. Jesus has great joy when his disciples I don't mean they're well known. They maybe no one ever hears them. Maybe they never make a big impact anywhere, but in the secret place of their heart, they're constantly signing up to bless with their mouth and to connect with him even in difficult circumstances and to stay in the conversation best they can.
Paragraph G. Even when our love is weak and flawed, which my love is always weak and flawed, it is still valued to the Lord. Don't imagine that the only kind of love that's real is mature love. Weak love is still real. it's still genuine. He didn't say when you're as mature as Paul the Apostle, then it counts for love. And so, I want to encourage people, even the small movements of their heart. They're important to the Lord.
Paragraph H. Now, we're in John 15:10. He's telling them that if you keep my commandments, you will live in love. You will have a breakthrough. You'll abide in love. You'll have a breakthrough of understanding my love. It'll break through more and more, and you'll have a breakthrough of impartation of my love in you. And it will overflow to other people. You'll have a breakthrough in loving people, too. But that's in verse 10. If you obey keep my commandments, you will abide. You will break through in love. But go back a couple verses to verse six. Just a moment ago, I mean, probably a minute earlier, two minutes, who knows? He had given the apostles a very sober warning. And what I'm wanting to do is point out the the seriousness of obedience. It is just not in the conversation of the body of Christ almost anywhere. I mean, it might be in thousands of ministries, but out of millions, I mean, the percentage is really small. We need to have obedience in the center of our conversation, but it's not just obedience. We need a kingdom view of obedience, not just the drudgery, self-denial, dutiful, I'll obey you, AND I DON'T LIKE IT. NOT THAT kind of obedience. That's not what I'm talking about. I mean, the kingdom view of obedience. It's actually extremely positive. We need to have obedience in the center of the conversation, but the right kind, the kingdom view of obedience. Not the religious view that has become popular. Some, you know, people that are holiness play places and ministries, they're Some of them are just mean, you know. They're just like, "Whoa." I don't want to talk about the angry holiness thing. I'm talking about a joyful, heart-tenderized approach to what I call the superior pleasures of the gospel, feeling the joy in the interchange with the Lord. But anyway, go back to paragraph H. I'm going to point out the warning that many in the body of Christ are deaf to this warning. They're just not paying attention at all to it. They don't even believe it. But he had just told them in verse two and verse six. I have it right there. He goes, "Every branch in me, if they don't stay connected to me, they'll be taken away." In verse two, and in verse six, it goes, "They will be like a branch cast out. They won't even be in the vine." Uh that's a very troubling reality, but it's a very real one. We spent an hour on this some many weeks ago. I can't remember when. But the message is this. Obedience to Jesus is not an optional thing. It's It's a very important thing, but not only obedience, but the kingdom perspective of obedience, as well, the right approach to obedience.
Jesus earlier at the Sermon on the Mount, he gave warnings of the delusion and the false confidence that many people will have when they stand before him on the last day. You know, the preacher told him, "If you pray this prayer, you're guaranteed you're in the family of God, whether you repent or anything. Just pray the prayer, then it's fine." They prayed the prayer. They never repented. They never walked in obedience. They go, "Well, that guy told me years ago if I came forward and prayed that prayer, and they gave me the Bible in the meeting afterwards, then I'm in." And Jesus said, Matthew 7, you know the passage well. He goes, "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord.'" Many will say, "I did miracles, etc." He'll say, "I don't know you." I don't know you. I mean, but this the word is many. In other words, this is not a small issue to the Lord. The Lord's actually approaching it in verse 10 and 11 as the way to liberty and to greatness and to joy and and those things, but he says, "But do know that though there is a very positive approach to obeying me, there is a real serious part of not obeying me." And again, you We hardly hear it ever mentioned. And often, if it is mentioned, it's mentioned with a kind of an angry tone, you know, like one preacher said, he goes, "That old guy was preaching, he's like shaking them over hell on a rotten stick, kind of hoping the stick would break, you know." And that kind of approach isn't going to get the job done. I mean, warnings are real, but tender warnings when we're contending for their greatness and their breakthrough and their place in God's heart.
Paragraph I. Now, Jesus said in verse 10, he goes, "Just as I kept my Father's commandment, he goes, you keep my commandments and abide my love like I kept my Father's commandment and abided his love." Now, this is a really big statement what he just made. What Jesus is saying here, he is magnifying the value of obedience. What he's saying, he's vindicating the wisdom of it. He says, "I'm telling you to obey me, and you'll stay connected in the love." He goes, "As a man, though he's fully God, and as humanity, I did this. Not because I had to, well, he did have to, but because I saw the glory and the beauty of it and the wisdom of it." Jesus' lifestyle of radical obedience magnifies the value and the wisdom of obedience like nothing else his life does. He's the only man that would ever live on the earth that had not one regret ever in his life with God. Not one regret. He proved by his choices that the most noble, wise, joyful way of life is obeying his father. He goes, "I did it BECAUSE IT'S THE BEST. BECAUSE IT'S GLORIOUS. I proved it to you as a man with temptations like you." And so, the point of him saying this, and he's he's magnifying and vindicating the wisdom of obedience. That's the statement he's making.
Look at Roman numeral three. The kingdom view, it's not just enough to emphasize the importance of obedience. We need to have the kingdom view of obedience. And the phrase I've used for many years, I I probably got it from 10 other people. I can't even remember because I've used it for so many years. I'd read just anything I could read on this subject. I call it the superior pleasures of the gospel. Now, the kingdom view is not that clear to many in the body of Christ, the kingdom view of obedience. They look at obedience as a drudgery, as a kind of a necessary negative they have to do to be in the kingdom. And the enemy is constantly attacking and wanting to obscure the true kingdom view of what obedience is.
Paragraph A. This is a fact. The greatest pleasure available to the human spirit, there's many pleasures available to us. The greatest pleasure available to the human spirit is spiritual pleasure. It's when God reveals God to the human heart. There is nothing more exhilarating in this age or the age to come than that. God is a God of pleasure. Men There's a There's There's a number maybe five or six or seven natural pleasures that God was the author of. The devil counterfeits them, but God was the author of those pleasures. The The enemy counterfeits it. But the most exhilarating pleasure ever in this age or the age to come is when God reveals God, when the Holy Spirit reveals the Father's glory, Jesus' beauty, his love, his tenderness, his goodness towards us. THERE'S SOMETHING IN US THAT'S LIKE, "OH, THIS IS OH, I WANT MORE OF THIS." The Lord says, "Stay with it." Stay with it. That's the pathway to obedience. We are freed from the dominion, meaning the overwhelming power of the inferior pleasures of sin, by experiencing the superior pleasures of connecting with God. Many people, they look at sin, the inferior pleasures, because they're still pleasurable. And I'm not just talking about immorality or drunkenness or whatever those I mean, could just be gossiping, venting, wanting to tell the story out of God's will about somebody else. Those are Those are sinful pleasures. People get something out of that. But they A lot of folks, they they kind of they want to, you know, they say, "I want to obey God. I really want to do that." So, they kind of determine they're going to grit their teeth and say no to the inferior pleasures. And like, "No. No. No." They fall. "No. No." Fall. The Holy Spirit taps on the shoulder, goes, "Turn your attention around. Begin to seek the superior pleasures of connecting with me, and you'll have power over these other dark emotions. They will not have the same dominion over you. But you're never going to by the gritting of your teeth overcome those dark emotions. Turn your focus around, and by touching the superior pleasures of the gospel, just again, John 15:9, the way God loves God, the way God loves us, just his goodness, his plan, the way he's using us, the way he remembers every cup of cold water we give, many many facets of how God reveals God to the human spirit. When we are spiritually bored and when we're spiritually dull, we are far more vulnerable to the inferior pleasures of sin. A spiritually bored believer, which are millions and millions, it's really difficult for them to turn down, whether it's immorality, whether it's covetousness, whether it's just being and it's retaliation. You're just venting their anger. They can't uh They they have such it's They're so much more vulnerable to it when they're spiritually bored.
Paragraph B. It takes spiritual understanding. Paul called it the spirit of revelation in Ephesians 1. To see obedience Obedience again is not just drudgery, it's the way to liberty. It's the way to life of greatness. But it's a way to joy in this age, not just the age to come. When we see obedience in that path, I mean that way, that's the kingdom view of obedience. That's how Jesus presented obedience. He said it's my food to do God's will. I get strength from it. I get refreshed in my heart. I get pleasure in the knowledge that I'm obeying him and he's watching me smiling. It it builds me up. That's the kingdom view of obedience.
Top of page three. Just being repetitive here. Many see obedience or we call it holiness. Holiness is almost like a bad word today. I tell you holiness is a very important word. Holiness is out of style in the body of Christ. So is the word obedience. You know, it's just everything is grace, but there's so many defini- definitions when the word grace is being used. And so much of it's not the biblical definition. And I want to and I I'm confident God's going to put obedience and holiness back in the center of the conversation of the love-sick church, the bride overcoming, prepared in the first commandment to love, to walk with God, just fearless before even death itself. The truth is is holiness The truth is that God's holiness is the most pleasurable, exhilarating way to live. It's the way God lives. WE CAN LIVE IN this fascination. I don't mean we're overwhelmed constantly, but a little bit of this goes a long way. A little bit of this goes a long way.
Paragraph F. Now, people might look at the idea of obedience or holiness. I'm using those words interchangeably and some people might, you know, have some nuance difference of how to use that word, but in the general sense, they think, "Okay, I'm committed to obedience. Maybe in the distant future. Well, I mean, one of these days I mean I'm going to get there." For sure in the age to come. But I have good news for you. It's possible for a young believer to begin to live in a new preoccupation with Jesus and how he feels about them. That new preoccupation is the key. Again, it's John 15:9. They can begin to see the way God loves God, the way God loves them, the way God remembers the very movements of their heart, the way God's generosity towards them, God's good plans for their life. God has got He's search He's reaching for them. He's chasing them down. He has so much goodness stored up in his heart. The battle for holiness really is a battle to be preoccupied with the beauty of Jesus. The battle of holiness isn't overcoming all these dark emotions. The battle for holiness is getting preoccupied with the facet and fascination of the beauty of Jesus. And again, I don't mean fascinated to such a degree that you it's not even realistic. I'm talking about a little bit of this goes a long way. A little bit of this goes a long way.
Paragraph G. Jesus never apologized for calling people to holiness. Never or obedience. Never. He didn't perceive it as negative. He didn't see it as them losing something, but he saw them as gaining something. So, we've got to have this kingdom perspective of holiness. John would go on later and say in 1 John 5, he said uh right there in verse three, he goes, "God's commandments, they're not burdensome." They're not burdensome. They're designed. God's commandments are designed that when we commit to them again, we're not even We're not mature in them yet. We haven't fully attained, but we're reaching. We're reaching. We're in that right conversation. That's the pathway where joy breaks out in our life. That's where liberty comes to the inner man. John said, "His commandments, they're not burdensome." Now, today in the culture, the lie of the enemy's lies is that God's commandments are burdensome. Well, John was dismantling that lie 2,000 years ago and it's been around for 2,000 years. Look at this This is a really a glorious verse. This is John, the same one who wrote John 15. He's really developing some of the ideas he said in John 14 and 15 etc. Look at John 15 1 John 5:2. He goes, "We know" Now, follow this. Cuz this might be an unfamiliar passage to some. By this we know that we really love people, that we love God's people. Here's how we know our love is genuine. Because we love God and we obey God. For this is the love of God. John says it unashamedly. He's emphatic. That we obey him. And he goes, "And it's not burdensome to obey him." That's a lie.
Now, there's this false dichotomy that's in some ministry conversations, different circles. Well, you know, our church, we're really into loving God, but that church is really into loving people. There is That's a false dichotomy. John would not allow that to happen. He goes, "You know you're genuine in loving God and loving people if you obey God." He goes, "It's not You're not choosing God or loving people. You may not please people, but you're actually loving them when you're obeying God." Didn't mean that you're pleasing them and they're they're they're everyone's appreciating every act of obedience that you have with the Lord. That's not what he's saying here. So, there's a Don't allow that false dichotomy. I've I've heard it over the years. I've heard people say, "I know, you know, Mary's at the feet of Jesus, Martha's in the kitchen all day working. You know, I'm a Martha, she's a Mary." No, no. Jesus wasn't rebuking Martha because she served. He just said the greatest of all is the servant. He was rebuking Martha cuz she served with the wrong spirit, not because she was serving. And so, loving people and loving God is one reality. There is no dichotomy. Matter of fact, the truth about your genuine love for people is if you obey God's commandments. Because that's what empowers you with discernment and motivation to love according to God's way. You'll be far more discerning and empowered to love if you do it in a spirit of obedience to God.
Paragraph H. Well, the enemy promotes this lie that seeking to obey God and wholehearted you know, radical Christianity, whatever, you know, different terms, it's burdensome. Some will go as far to say, many will. It's more than burdensome. It's harmful. It's legalism to do that. This lie manifests itself by validating sin. All kinds of again, conversations in the body of Christ. I'm trying to be helpful to to people. I'm saying, "Don't validate sinful choices by using the rhetoric of grace language." Because most people that I know that are validating their selfishness and sinful choices, they're covering up their dressing it up with grace language. What it says here in Jude verse three and verse four. Actually, in verse Jude I have the passage here. In verse three, he says, "I exhort you to contend for the true apostolic faith." Because verse four, some people are in your midst. You don't even recognize them. They are distorting the grace of God. They're turning it into lewdness. Meaning they're preaching the grace, but they're giving license to live in a lewd way and calling it grace. He said in verse three, he goes, "God's raising up people that will contend for the real message because the ones that are giving the false message, they crept in your midst unnoticed. Because they had all the biblical language, you didn't know they were validating sinful lifestyles with the grace language." Paul says the same thing in Galatians 5. He goes, "You You're called to liberty." Liberty doesn't mean liberty to walk in immorality. Liberty means liberty in the heart from fear, accusation, and dark emotions. We're called to be liberated from fear, liberated from dark emotions, liberated from the devil's condemnation and accusations against us. That's the liberty. We're not liberated to live in a little bit of immorality, a little bit of drunkenness, a little bit of slander, a little bit of covetousness. That's not the liberty Paul's talking about. Talking about the heart being liberated. He says, "Don't use the doctrine of liberty as an opportunity to indulge your flesh." And again, the folks that are living on the edge at there's so many miss millions today. They're using grace language and they're using it as an opportunity to give expression to a fleshy lifestyle. And again, I'm not I'm only saying it cuz I care and I I love you. I'm contending for your greatness. I'm contending for your breakthrough. There's no reality there. That's a lie. That ends up bad, real bad in their heart and in their standing before God when they stand before the Lord. That's just not good. Their heart never gets free. They never enter into their inheritance of joy and liberty in this age. All the while proclaiming grace.
Paragraph I. And so that's why I'm I'm wanting to say this I'm really talking about verse 10 here in chapter 15 verse 10 where he said, "If you walk in my commandments, you will abide. You will have breakthroughs in love. YOU REALLY WILL. I PROMISE YOU YOU WILL if you stay with it because I did it. I walked in his commandments. And I my life is a proof of how wise obeying God is. I'm a proof to you.
Paragraph I. Jesus talked earlier about being yoked. Being yoked to him. He goes, "Put your yoke upon me. You'll find rest." Now, you know, the illustration is the two oxen. There's the the lead oxen and the new oxen and they're yoked together so they work together. Jesus says, "I'm the lead oxen. Be yoked to me. Go where I go and do what I do." Now, he says if you do you'll have rest. He's talking about emotional and physical and spiritual rest. And a lot of folks they misunderstand it. I've heard this verse over the years. The people
argue, but they mean rest. They mean a careless, sloppy, lazy lifestyle. The rest they're talking about, they're thinking he's talking about lots of lot more, you know, free time to just chill. That's what rest is. No, he's talking about emotional and spiritual rest. He's not talking about physical rest. Although physical rest is good. That's just not the topic right here.
Being yoked to his leadership. Here's what we get rest from. Look at paragraph I. I want you to see this. The weariness of option fatigue. It's so fatiguing emotionally to have so many options and not know which one to pick. The people are worn out. They need rest. Get yoked to him. Just say, "I'm burning the bridge. I'm going to obey him. I'm going to go where he goes and and do what he does."
The fear of missing out. More believers have more angst over the fear that they're missing out if they don't go do this and that, like if I spent more time with the Lord and I was just in godly fellowship with people, I might miss something. Well, have you so far? Well, no, that other stuff wasn't that great. But what if I miss something later?
Perpetually guessing what might make them happiest. Beloved, the question of life isn't what will make you happiest. The question of life is what is the path to faithfulness? This this idea of, well, if I do that, I might be more happy. I might have more friends. I might have more money. I might have more popularity. But if I do that, I might have more money the other way. Well, if I do that, more people might like me. Get rid of all that. Yoke yourself to him and obey him and all of this internal confusion and this, you know, I I I call it this people's emotionally emotional bandwidth is just overtaxed. And Jesus says, "I want to give you rest. I want to give you rest. Come and surrender and do what I tell you to do and trust my evaluation." Jesus is the only reliable pathway to spiritual rest.
Paragraph J, Jesus is the only reliable pathway to greatness. He tells us here in Matthew 5. He goes, He's talking about born-again believers now in the age to come in Matthew 5:19. He goes, "Some will be called least." We're talking about in they're in the kingdom. They're it's in in the age to come. They're standing before the Lord. The Lord will evaluate some believers. He will say, "Your choices were least." He will evaluate others, "Your choices were great in my eyes." They're all in the kingdom. So, he's not talking about believers and unbelievers here. We have the absolute reliable pathway to a life that God calls great. Beloved, that's awesome. We're not guessing. The world's guessing. And many even in the church are guessing. But if you're a Bible person, we're not guessing. I know what the pathway to greatness is. I tell the Lord, "Lord, shock me now. Don't shock me then. I mean, we got billions of years after we stand before you. I want to have reliable confidence that I'm on the right pathway, the one that you're going to say those choices were great."
Now, because he's so gracious, we've all made plenty of choices that aren't great. But you repent of those. You're signing back up for obedience. Beloved, you can hear obedience to him is the reliable pathway to greatness. The reliable pathway to spiritual rest. The reliable pathway to joy. It really is the only reliable pathway.
Top of page four, he talks about he goes, "My commandments." He goes, "Obey my commandments. I obeyed my father's commandments." So, what he's talking about God's commandments. Here's the point I want to make. His commandments, the fact that the human race has the commandments of the Genesis 1 God, the Genesis 1 God has opened up his heart and told us what he likes. That's awesome. It's not like, "Oh, that sounds like a bummer." Like, "No. If that's what you like and you're all love and you're being patient with my weakness, I DON'T NECESSARILY LIKE ALL THOSE THINGS. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? I'm setting my heart because I know I will like them when I figure out how smart and wise you are." His commandments are so valuable to have them. They are reliable guide to spiritual maturity. Meaning all these different conversations about grace and arguments, much of it, they're not reliable guides to true spiritual maturity. They're detours. They're false paths. [snorts] We have a reliable guide to what true spiritual maturity is that will hold up in God's eyes and what true greatness is.
Jesus is talking about he says, "They keep my commandments." Instead of obeying them, I'm going to take the word keep and I'm going to put a different application. He's talking about these are the people who keep my commandments. Obey for sure, but more than obey, they treasure my commandments. They contend for my commandments. Like the verse I read in Jude 3, the Lord says, "I want you to earnestly contend for the gospel, the apostolic gospel." They guard his commandments. You know, in the social debates and and the and the who gets likes and who doesn't get likes, Lord, I'M STANDING WITH YOUR COMMANDMENTS. I DON'T CARE IF THEY'RE MAD AT ME. I MEAN, I'D LIKE IT IF THEY were not mad at me, BUT I'M GOING WITH YOU. I TREASURE. I CONTEND FOR YOUR COMMANDMENTS. I'LL DIE FOR YOUR COMMANDMENTS. THAT'S WHAT I WILL I'LL KEEP YOUR COMMANDMENTS. He says, "Oh, yeah, you'll abide in my love. You'll actually have breakthroughs in my love in your life."
Jesus, I have John 12 here. He cherished. He guarded his father's commandments. And it was the father's teachings that got Jesus killed, by the way. I mean, Jesus actually offered himself on the cross as the as the as the willing sacrifice. But my point is he was hated in the society because of his father's teachings. He goes, "I only say what my father says." And I mean, the father said some really intense things. And Jesus says, "I cherish what he says. I will stand for it. I will guard it. I will contend it." And God's raising up a people that will keep his commandments. Not only in the obedience sense, but in the cherishing and standing no matter what it cost us, even in the public arena, is the point I'm making.
Paragraph 1, Psalm 2. I've shared this many times. So, I really won't go into it, but David talked about a time, and it's that time is right now, actually. He David gave a prophecy 3,000 years ago in Psalm 2. Talked about the time when the kings of the earth and the rulers of the culture, whether it's the, you know, the the the market leaders, the media leaders, the athletic leaders, you know, whoever, the decision makers of the culture, the rulers, they're going to stand against God. And what they want to do is verse 3, Psalm 2, they want to cast the word of God out of the culture because they see the word of God as bondage. They go, "We want to take GOD'S BONDAGE, HIS COMMANDMENTS, FROM OUT OF THE CULTURE. Away with the sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage and the sanctity of sex. Away with the authority of the word of God. Away with the one way of salvation WITH JESUS. AWAY WITH ALL OF THAT. It's bondage. Let's take his word and break ourselves free from it." And God's raising up people. They know the word of the Lord.
Paragraph 2, this is David again. He goes, "It's perfect. The word of the Lord is reliable. The word of God, you can count on it being reliable. It will hold up when we stand before God on the last day."
Roman numeral four, just kind of bring this to an end here. Empowered by joy. Now, I there's a lot more to say about joy, but I'm just kind of introducing it because this is the end of walking in obedience. My real heart was talking about the glory of obeying. The wisdom and the necessity of obeying. Not just the wisdom, the necessity as well. But the wisdom, too. The reliability of that being a wise way to live. That's the real point I'm making. And the assurance that if we keep his commandments, we'll have a breakthrough. We'll abide in love. We'll have a breakthrough in love.
Jesus says, "These things I've spoken to you, that my joy might be be in you." Here's my point. Jesus says, "What I've told you in verse 1 to 10, the 10 verses before here, but particularly verse 9 and 10, but really 1 to 10, these truths are essential if you're going to walk in joy. You have to have these truths." He's alerting them. He's even alerting them. He's saying, "You understand the last 10 verses, particularly the last two verses, verse 9 and 10. THIS IS THE WAY TO JOY. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?" A LOT OF BELIEVERS, AGAIN, they're all confused why they don't have joy. Those 10 verses, there's gold, phrase after phrase after phrase. We don't want to run past John 15, verses 1 to 10, quickly.
Paragraph C. He says, "My joy." Now, joy is that deep sense of well-being. I mean, there's many ways to say it. I'm not trying to say it in I mean, there's so many ways to talk about the joy, but it's that deep sense of security and confidence in his good leadership and his leadership over your life. This joy is not the same thing as natural happiness. And I'm not against natural happiness, but it is a delusion. And what I mean is, people just It's very common, the whole human race. So, I mean, it's very natural. They're seeking to have happiness through favorable circumstances and favorable relationships. If I get people and the love in the relationship is really good. I mean, if I got my best friends, I got the best marriage, I got the best kids, and it's really going good, and I have a happy circumstance, the ministry, the marketplace, the money's there, my body feels good. Things are working right. Happy. That doesn't fulfill the heart. I like all those things. I ask the Lord give me a double portion of all of them. But I don't have any delusion that that's where happiness That's where joy is. Joy is in interacting with the God-man on his terms. After joy is I I remember years ago I decided I'm not going to try to find that empty spot in my soul fulfilled by having great relationships and blessed circumstances. Though I love all those things, but there's one way. It's verses 1 to 10 of John chapter 15. That is the way to his joy.
Paragraph D. He said, "Your joy may be full." Your joy may be a full. I think I'll pick this up a little bit more on next week because it starts off as his joy, but it becomes our joy. There's a little distinction to it, but I think I'll just end with that right now, and we'll pick up on the subject of joy. There's a lot to say about God's joy and God's pleasure and God's delight. There's so much about his personality in this. So, I think I'll just end it with that. Let's just stand before the Lord and just ask him to come and touch our hearts now. [snorts] Father, here we are before you. Lord, we I just say I love your word. Even I don't understand it all. I'm going for your word. If you say it, I'm going to stand for it. I want to stand for it. I don't want to be in the popularity contest of the culture. You're the only one whose way is perfect [music] and reliable. Settle it tonight.
I want to encourage I'm This sounds like I'm picking on the young people, particularly the young people. The old people, too. My people, the old people, too. But there's When I met the Lord in the 1971, so [music] long time ago. Met the Lord in high school. We didn't have the same arguments that were that I'm hearing in the culture today. They're a little bit. The '70s and '80s were quite a bit different. The '90s started to The 2000s got a little worse. [music] And I mean, what the average 20-year-old is facing in the cultural conversation is so much more intense than what I was facing. So, I I have real mercy. And but I have zeal to be helpful. And I'm just saying, settle the issue. We are word of God people. We believe it. We're not looking for a We're not in the rat race of popularity to get people to like us. We're not virtue signaling trying to get people to go, "Wow, you're so amazing." We're trying to be faithful to the Lord. We're settling that. And when you get that anchored in your soul, it you get stable, and it keeps you steady in it. So, Father, here we are before you. Lord, we believe you for this. Father, we believe you for this.
Down on the room, I'm asking you to make a decision. You're going to be committed to what God says in terms of standing for it. And number two, you're going to seek [music] to obey it. Those one or two or three areas that are hitting you, you're saying, "Lord, I'm not I'm not breaking through yet, but I'm not quitting. I'm going to keep siding back up to obey you." And the Lord says, "That's the spirit of obedience." You'll get a breakthrough. You stay with that. You stay with that. So, all over the room, you're making that determination right now. I'm going to press [snorts] through on that area that I'm I'm stumbling in, and I'm going to stand [music] for truth no matter what it costs me. Here we are, Lord. [music] Here we are, Lord. Lord, we love your word. We want to obey you, be with you. [singing] Jesus, it was good enough for you, it's good enough for me to obey the Father. [music and singing] [music] [singing]