Three Basic Principles for Obeying
1. God has reasons for every command
Romans 11:33 CSB – Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments
and untraceable his ways!
34 For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
1 John 5:3 CSB – For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden,
2. We don’t always understand God’s reasoning
John 14:15 CSB – Jesus said, If you love me, you will keep my commands.
Psalm 1:1-3 CSB – How happy is the one who does not
walk in the advice of the wicked….
2 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction,
and he meditates on it day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams
that bears its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
3. We obey because we trust God’s love, even though we don’t understand His ways
Joshua and Jericho
Joshua 1:1-6 CSB – Now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites—no one leaving or entering. 2 The Lord said to Joshua, “Look, I have handed Jericho, its king, and its best soldiers over to you. 3 March around the city with all the men of war, circling the city one time. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry seven ram’s-horn trumpets in front of the ark. But on the seventh day, march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the rams’ horns. 5 When there is a prolonged blast of the horn and you hear its sound, have all the troops give a mighty shout. Then the city wall will collapse, and the troops will advance, each man straight ahead.”
v.15,16 – Early on the seventh day, they started at dawn and marched around the city seven times in the same way….. 16 After the seventh time, the priests blew the rams’ horns, and Joshua said to the troops, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.
v.20 – So the troops shouted, and the rams’ horns sounded. When they heard the blast of the ram’s horn, the troops gave a great shout, and the wall collapsed. The troops advanced into the city, each man straight ahead, and they captured the city.
Ecclesiastes 11:5 CSB – Just as you don’t know the path of the wind,… so also you don’t know the work of God who makes everything.
2 Corinthians 5:7,9 says – For we walk by faith, not by sight.…we make it our aim to be pleasing to him.
Hebrews 11:1 CSB – Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. 2 For by this our ancestors were approved.
Trust Jesus for salvation (not our own goodness)
Ephesians 2:8-9 CSB – For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
Acts 16:31 CSB – Paul said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
Example: Jesus’ Command to Forgive
Romans 12:19 CSB – …do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord. 20 But
If your enemy is hungry, feed him.
If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
Colossians 3:13 CSB – bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.
God’s Roles in the Home
Ephesians 5:22-25 CSB – Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, 23 because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her
God’s Command to be Baptized
Matthew 28:18-20 CSB – Jesus commanded his follower to make disciples, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 2:38 CSB – “Repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 6:4 CSB – we were buried with him by baptism into death… so we too may walk in newness of life.
1 Peter 3:21 CSB – Baptism… now saves you (not as the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God)
Naaman, the Syrian General
2 Kings 5:10 CSB – Then Elisha sent him a messenger, who said, “Go wash seven times in the Jordan and your skin will be restored and you will be clean.”
2 Kings 5:11-12 CSB – But Naaman got angry and left, saying, “I was telling myself: He will surely come out, stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the skin disease. 12 Aren’t Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?
Couldn’t I wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and left in a rage.
2 Kings 5:13 CSB – if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more should you do it when he only tells you, ‘Wash and be clean’?” 14 So Naaman went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, according to the command of the man of God. Then his skin was restored and became like the skin of a small boy, and he was clean.
