/sermon by Mike Enns/
As you
probably know we are still in the sermon series of discipleship. And we have
talked about a lot of topics. -> Many
topics which are spoken about often. Like Love, or Worship, or Prayer. Which
have way more depth than we often give them credit.
->And
it is good we talk about them often because they are ->but sometimes we talk about things so often they seem to lose their
meaning……… My favorite example
is sneezing. …….. I don’t mean what you say in Bulgaria, “наздраве”. In English we say “God bless you.
“
Atheists
don’t want to talk about god with you. No problem. Just sneeze. There you have it. … And they will probably
never realize. They are talking about God’s blessings and don’t even
realize it.
And whenever
we speak about those hard and common topics we have to be very careful to realize what
power is in them. With our minds and our hearts.
But today I
want to talk with you about a very easy topic which is not so common.
-> And that is obedience.
Why is it
not so common? Let’s talk about that
later.
FIRST. I’ll
tell you why I think it is a simple topic. -> what is
obedience In 2 simple steps:
1. Do the things God wants us to do
2. Don’t do the thinks
God doesn’t want us to do
-Ephesians 4, 17-24: “So I tell you this, and insist on it
in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility
of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding
and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due
to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all
sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in
every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
-We should
“put off” our old self that does what God doesn’t want us to do and “put on”
our “new obedient self“ that does what God wants us to do.
The
explanation is simple enough ……and that is all about the theory.
Buuuut and this is a very big but. Why is it so atrociously hard for
us to do that?
-
I
mean we know this. Right?
That’s not rocket engineering. –
we should follow God’s will. Not the
world’s will how Paul said it. That includes the one of our old self
too.
So
why do we struggle so much to do this?
Well there
are only us and God in the relationship. And if the theory is simple, And we know what God wants from us. He wrote
it in this very practical book.
In
fact just after the passage we just read It is written in more detail: -Don’t lie -Do not anger Do not steal -do good -Do not swear -Do not go against the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 25-30
-> So if the
problem is not in God or in our understanding of obedience. ->then there is only us left in the
relationship where the problem can be.
Last week
Trif and I visited the Bulgarian Christian leadership forum and Glynn Harris
was there as a guest speaker from England. He is a Psychologist and described
the human heart very interesting as such:
The human
heart is a creature of habit. Like an elephant that walks its way for 20-30
years. And then there is the rider which
is our mind. Now after 20-30 years he says to the elephant today we are going
this way instead. ……….Do you think the elephant likes that? Do
you think he will stay on the new way when he has many years of experience
which tells him the old one works?
I think it is a very accurate description….I feel especially connected
to this picture where the rider tries to push him in the right direction with
his feet.
There is only one right direction. : 1 John 2:6 “Whoever
says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. “
има само един начин : John 14,6 "I
am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me.”
If you
remember in the sermons to the beginning of discipleship we said that it is a
process. And so is obedience.
I told you
earlier that obedience is simple. …………..That is not completely correct. ->
standing in obedience is simple. But walking in obedience is hard. It’s
really challenging to keep the elephant on track while on the move.
That’s why
Paul said put off you old self. Put off
your old elephant.
Get a brand new one. One Which is not tainted by bad
habits and start anew.
And that is for
the optimal case when we want to be obedient and the rider is right. …………… I
mean a lot of times the rider and the elephant happily go arm in arm together
the other way.
Who wants to
be obedient?
Who wants to
do what other wants us to do? We want
to do what we want to do. Right? That’s why Paul said we not only need a new
elephant but also a new rider.
->”be made new in the attitude of your mind” verse 23
-An English
pastor talked about his life story.:
Still very young he just started being in charge of his small church He
met a young family with and adorable 3 year old daughter. She would sprint
around the Church and her home listening to no one. She loved to ignore
everyone. …….Most her parents. You said sit down she stood up. You told her to
come and she went. ……………I’m pretty sure a lot of us have these experiences with
children.
One
day the garden gate was left open. The parents saw their child escaping our of
the yard and towards the road. To the parents horror they saw the car racing
down the street as she ran out between 2 parked cars. They both scream her to
stop. She paused for a second turned around smiled at them and then ran out on
the street. That
was the first funeral he conducted and what taught him the importance of
obedience.
- What are
we but God’s children. Having our own head but not knowing what is beyond the
garden gate.
Obedience is
not something natural for us. We have to learn it.
Learning
something new is not easy and even if we succeed once we will fail many more
times.
è That is also why obedience is not a
popular topic. 1st. we don’t really want to obey anyone. And if we
do 2nd. We fail a lot of times
…..we expect
our children to obey us how then can we disobey our father in heaven who does a
much better Job?
Don’t get me
wrong. ……..I don’t have any children jet. But I’m pretty sure God does with me
a better Job than I ever could.
I know
learning this is a challenge. I’m still in it as much as anyone.
Though with
God on our side. What can hold us down?
We have to
pray and set ourselves on cutting off this old deep rooted habit of
disobedience. It is on us to replace the elephant and rider, make our hearts
and mind new. On us to make this first
step in the walk of obedience.
Of course it
is with God’s help and God wants to help us make ourselves new, but it is on us
to start it.
Verse 22 in Ephesians
4
22 You
were taught…………., with regard to your former way of life,…………… to put
off your old self, to be made new in the attitude of your minds.
That is an awful lot of us which Paul tells us there.
And so it is us who are in the responsibility to make ourselves
new.
It is not something that comes with time so be active in learning obedience.
I’m coming to the end now. And
even though I talked a lot about obedience. I only mentioned briefly about what
God wants us to obey.
We talked about this before but I
want to remind you how important it is to read the Bible…………………… God’s Word
We find in there what we need to learn to obey and we get to know whom to
obey and much more.
And it is such a privilege to be able to study it undisturbed. We should see it as such and as the holy book
it is.
A situation in North Korea weights very much on my heart this last week.
I don’t know what you know about it. Some of you probably remember your own
experiences with communism.
But it is really bad there. For possession of the bible you get sent to
the death camps.
My heart bleeds for the people there forced to obey the “eternal father
of the nation”. But we can rejoice because we can obey our loving Father in
heaven. He is forgiving. However much we may disobey him and fail to get our
elephant the right way.
Amen.
- Sermon by Mike Enns
