Ep 13 - The Spiritual Power of Obedience

Equipped to Lead Podcast: Welcome to the Equip to Lead podcast. I'm your host, Corey Kuchar, and I'm glad you're here with us today. Along beside me, I have our co-host, Pastor Josh Chambers. How are you doing today, Josh? I'm good. I prefer Bishop. what has God already told you to do? And so we're driving ⁓ a little deeper personally here, ⁓ what has God already told to do? What has he made clear to you? And you're going to know that in your own, you know, where you are. What has he made clear to you in his life? Where is conviction ⁓ already settled in your heart? And going to look different for everybody. But maybe there's something you need to repent of. Maybe there's something you've got to confess. That's true. I forgot. forgot. Holy high reverend. What I'd like. want people to stand when I enter a room. Okay. I'm just kidding. ⁓ going to get fired. So ⁓ it been this weekend? Courtney's been gone. You've been flying solo. ⁓ been gone. Yeah. it has been terrible cause ⁓ I stay up late and watch TV ⁓ and I like a bomb. when, when she coming home tomorrow. All right. Maybe it's time for you to forgive somebody or to lead your home. Maybe you need to apologize to someone else or maybe you just you just got to stop making excuses. it's time to get serious about your walk with the Lord. And I think ⁓ lot of men usually or tend to think, I need more information. You've got what you've got. You'll start to just ⁓ if you think like that, you'll never get anything done ⁓ because there's so much more to do. And so maybe you're So you got tonight and in the morning to do dishes, laundry, clean the house. Yeah, dishes are done. Laundry is not. I've so much laundry. I've got to do laundry. I probably need to sweep a little bit, get pizza boxes out of bar. She leaves me, every time. She will never listen to this, so it's OK. Someone will tell her, though. But she leaves me, and she never gets the food. She says, you've got plenty of food, and then there's nothing there. I'm like, I don't know. I went and spent like, sitting here and you're saying, I need to lead my family. need to lead my wife. Maybe it's just telling them, hey, I feel conviction from the Lord on this. I don't know what this is going to look like, but I'm going to try to be obedient ⁓ what God has called me to do here. And so I would appreciate ⁓ and patience and your love as I try to walk in this ⁓ guarantee you your and children will appreciate you ⁓ for so the issue usually is not a lack of information, though. It's a lack of obedience. You need to act on what like bucks at Walmart and I bought like nerds. candy. was like, this isn't what I need. I sustenance. No wonder you're tired. You've been living on a sugar high for two days. I'm going to get an energy drink after this. I'm going rage tonight, watch some Ted Lasso. ⁓ my gosh. So ⁓ today we're gonna talking about the spiritual power of obedience. We see a lot of men want to grow spiritually. They want to be stronger, they want to be steadier, ⁓ more disciplined, and useful to God. But we see a of men, stay stuck. They're not able to do it's not because they haven't heard God's truth, ⁓ or they don't own a ⁓ It's not because they don't know God has already said to you. And then there is power in that, there is joy in that, because when a man obeys God, his conscience gets clear, his heart gets softer, and his walk is going to get steadier. Yeah, and I think, you know, something that needs to be mentioned here is that, you know, obedience is not perfection. ⁓ are not saying a godly man never stumbles. We not saying that maturity means sinlessness. A mature is a repentant man, a responsive man. better. A lot of men stay stuck they stop at hearing ⁓ they move on to do anything or to obey what the scripture says to do. Because ⁓ truth but obedience is where truth starts to change a man. Where we take what studying in scripture and what God's asking us and telling us to do ⁓ and we actually apply to our lives and are obedient to him. ⁓ man, a man who does not harden himself when God convicts him. if you're listening to this and you're feeling the weight of this, the answer is not despair. The answer is repentance, to ⁓ resisting, ⁓ start responding, to in the truth that you already know. You know that is, you know where God's convicting you, and you know the things that you need to be doing, and ⁓ you need to that next step of obedience and start doing it, and start applying it. ⁓ reality fits, after talking, you know quite a bit about in the last few episodes about our spending some quiet time ⁓ with God somewhere where all distractions are away ⁓ and it's just quiet. It's you the Lord ⁓ just spending time in prayer ⁓ and reading scripture him ⁓ and studying scripture just feel like that today's just kind of You need to understand that when you fail, ⁓ run from God, run to Him. Just repent quickly, receive that grace, get back up and keep walking. And the beauty of the gospel. Jesus saves sinners, He restores sinners, and He teaches sinners to walk in newness of life. Yeah, ⁓ so your challenge, here's your piece of application, okay? I'm not God, but do what I'm telling you to do. ties right into that. we do all those things. It's good that we read scripture and we spend that time in prayer listening for God to guide us and direct us. But once we have all that information, we actually have to apply it. We have to be obedient and use what he's telling us to do. Because, once a man starts meeting with God and hearing from his word, you know, the next question becomes pretty obvious. what are you going to ⁓ So here it is. just admire truth this week. Don't just agree with truth. ⁓ just talk about it. All of that is great. I'm not telling you you can't do any of that, but obey it. ⁓ pick a clear area where God has already put his finger ⁓ your life and ⁓ on that. Okay, so not later, not when life slows down, not when you feel more ready. Do it now. Shia LaBeouf, right? Just do it. ⁓ Do that. Be obedient there ⁓ again, spiritual strength is do with it. Like we said, the goal is not to just say that I spent time in the Word today. The goal is to know God and to walk in what he says. And that's where it starts getting costly for us as men. Because when we do that, it's going to cost us, that obedience is going to cost us our pride. It's going to cost us that big C-word, comfort. It's going to cost us our built every time a man says yes to God and no to his flesh. And yes, it might feel costly, but what does it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul? so yeah, it might be costly in the moment, but disobedience will always cost you more. you know, also obedience is not where joy dies. It's where freedom begins. It's where compromise gets cut off. It's where strength gets built. You know, as you're going through this, just, you know, ask the Lord for a heart that is not just ourself will, know, but ⁓ ⁓ going to cost us more if we don't do it. We're going to suffer more in the long informed but surrendered to him and willing to obey. So you got anything else that you want to add to this before we get out of here today? ⁓ sir, no Mr. Corey. ⁓ Yeah, well, and I think the kind of the main text we think of when we think about obedience is what James tells us in James chapter one, be doers of the word and not hearers only ⁓ yourselves. That's a strong word from James. It's a strong word in the scriptures. Don't just hear the word, ⁓ the word. ⁓ so James tells us, if you hear the word and you don't actually apply it, if you don't obey it, if you don't put it into practice, then you're deceiving yourself. ⁓ so I think that that Well, you'll pray for us, we'll get out. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, God, we thank you for your word that you have revealed yourself to us clearly and lovingly. God, we do confess that we often hear your word, know your word, but delay or don't obey your word. And so forgive us for that. Make us men, make us people, make us disciples who delight in being obedient. So teach us and strengthen us and lead us by your Holy Spirit to be faithful in all that you've called us to do. We pray this. shows us that danger is not only open rebellion, that's what we think about is people out on the streets shaking their fists against God, know, protesting, whatever it might be, ⁓ things of God. No, it can be self-deception as well. ⁓ man can think he's doing well spiritually ⁓ he's around the truth ⁓ his actual life is not changing at all. So, ⁓ mean, we see this, I see this a lot that people listen to sermons, they know sound doctrine, ⁓ talk about the truth, they agree with the truth. In name of Jesus, amen. they might even feel convicted. But if that truth never turns into obedience, it never turns into application, James says, you're deceiving yourself. And I think that that should humble us. And so it's not enough to simply say, hey, I know the truth. Because later in James, he says, you believe that God is one. Well, good for you. So do the demons. That's my Georgian version of James too. But yeah, good. You know that. Well, what are you going to do about it? There's a difference there between us and the demons, hopefully. And so I think that this should cause us to be more humble ⁓ I think we need to be reminded that spiritual exposure is not the same as spiritual maturity. Hearing matters, absolutely. Reading matters, learning ⁓ matters, but not the end of it. ⁓ Obedience what we should be about. ⁓ And James gives us this picture of a guy. He says, is what it looks like if you're just a hearer of the word. You're like a guy who looked in the mirror and then when he left, he forgot everything about himself. ⁓ And so it's something that we need to take into consideration. So maybe when we read the Bible, you know, God convicts differently for different people, but maybe it's your pride that he's speaking to you. Maybe your anger is getting exposed. Maybe it's lust or passivity, or maybe it's compromise or prayerlessness or a lack of leadership, whatever it is in your life, instead of responding and saying, okay, that's my sin. Here's how I need to repent and walk forward from this, or here's how need to apply this truth. men will say, that's a good word and hey, praise the Lord and go on about their lives. Well, that's dangerous. so conviction ⁓ never becomes obedience usually fades. ⁓ think a lot of times of that conviction in second Corinthians that there's worldly repentance ⁓ godly sorrow. ⁓ ⁓ I think a lot of times if we feel that conviction, but we don't do anything about it, then that conviction, that passion to get better ⁓ gonna slowly get out of our minds. and out of our hearts and we're just going to. sink back into to what we've always done. so God doesn't, you know, he doesn't give us his word impress us. He gives us his word to shape us, to form us, to mold us ⁓ the image of his son. So don't just hear the word, ⁓ the word and obey the word. Yeah. So ⁓ might ask yourself, you know, so why do men stop at hearing instead of obeying? And I think, you know, one reason is that obedience requires change and is uncomfortable. You know, most men say they want growth until growth requires repentance, humility, surrender, and action. I think another reason is pride. Deep down, we still want control. We want to hold on to that power that we think we have. We want to decide what we will surrender and what we're going to keep for ourselves instead of turning it all loose and turning it over to the Lord. that, then we see that then there's the delay. A man says, I know I need to deal with that, but not yet. do that later, not right now, ⁓ it's more convenient. Or say, ⁓ I'll later, or I'll confess later, I'll leave family better later, or I'll cut that off later. But we still, in that we see that delayed obedience is still disobedience. then there's also this ⁓ familiarity with A man can hear truth so often that it ⁓ stops weighty to him. It becomes normal in his ears ⁓ while being absent from his life. That is of the dangers of being around biblical truth so long. We become so familiar with it ⁓ we don't surrender. It becomes and without that surrender. surrendering that in our lives, can harden us it can harden our heart. So, know, the question ⁓ becomes is not only have I heard this but the real question is have I responded to it? And, you know, think a lot of times we don't. Because like we said, we grew up in church, we're it day in and day out, and, you know, it just kind of comes in one ear, we've heard it, it goes out the other ear, and ⁓ we don't We don't. appreciate the full weight of what it's saying to us. Yeah, well, and I think that obedience or proves our love for Christ. ⁓ says this, whoever has my commandments, John 14 verse 21, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. ⁓ so that tells us, think that obedience is not just duty, right? It's relational, it's delight, it's personal. ⁓ Jesus ⁓ love and obedience together. And so a lot of men will say that they love Jesus, but Jesus makes it clear that love is not only something that you say, it shows up in how you respond to them. It's the same thing in any other relationship or anything else that we might have of, love this. Like I would question man's love for his wife. He says, I love my wife or a woman for a husband or kids or whatever it is. ⁓ they never spend any time with him. They never want to be around them or anything, talk to them, ⁓ him out on dates or go out on ⁓ you whatever it is, would look at them and say, well, that doesn't seem like you love them. You don't want anything to do with them, ⁓ don't know. You say whatever you want to. But ⁓ lot people say, Hey, I love Jesus, but they don't want to follow and be obedient. And I think there's something off with us. ⁓ And I when we talk about obedience, some people will hear this and we'll start ⁓ to say, that's legalism. You're starting to tell me what to do. But I'm just messenger. This is the Almighty telling you to do this. I'm just telling you what he says. They'll think it's legalism, but we're not saying, and you need to hear this, we are not saying that you obey to be loved by God. We're saying you obey because you have been loved by God. So you're not earning your salvation, you're not earning God's grace. You are doing this because God has been gracious, because God has been to you. We love because he first loved us. And I think I had a boss in Texas one of my best of the best bosses I've ever had Joey Cruz He ⁓ he ⁓ just good boss. I don't know. He was just it was funny. He was nice. He was fair He was really good ⁓ and I to work for him more because of who he was it was I didn't take advantage of him I just I loved him ⁓ loved how treated me and what he did for me and how he cared for me and my family and ⁓ I wanted do more for him and so I think Our obedience is not trying to make God accept us. It's the response of a heart that belongs to God. It's a heart that has tasted and seen that the Lord is good rejoices in salvation. We were ⁓ by grace through faith, Ephesians 2, verses 8 through 10. We were created for good works. ⁓ so this is what the Lord calls us to do, to obey him. So men will hear this, ⁓ and don't want you to hear this and think that this is about cold religion. because biblical obedience is tied to love. It flows out of God's love for us and out of our love for Him. And when we think about disobedience, right, on the other hand of that, it's not just breaking a rule. It's resisting the one who loves us and who gave himself for us. It's cosmic treason against the Almighty. And so this means that, you know, our problem isn't fundamentally behavioral. It's a hard issue. so we've got to ask ourselves, do I love Christ? To do what he says it do I trust him enough to do what he says do I believe that? What he says what he commands is for my good and for his glory And yeah, sometimes I mean obedience feels joyful. Sometimes it feels costly It will cost you something to be obedient, but either way it ⁓ the Lord ⁓ so when we're talking about obedience, we're not talking about perfection. ⁓ not saying you'll never sin ⁓ But ⁓ are talking about a direction progressively being conformed to the image of Christ and walking in holiness. Yeah, and we also see in 1st Samuel chapter 15 verse 22, says Samuel said, So, you know, here we see in that passage of scripture that Samuel tells to obey is better than sacrifice. tried to cover disobedience with religious activity and he did not fully obey God, ⁓ but still wanted to offer something spiritual. we as we still do that. A man can serve at church while neglecting obedience at home. He can sound while hiding compromise. He can stay active while resisting God in private. But God is not impressed by activity that substitutes for obedience. lot of men comfort themselves by saying, well, I'm still showing up. I'm still serving. I'm still involved. But question is still the same. Are you obeying? You know, does not want performance ⁓ instead of And Saul also reminds us that partial obedience is still disobedience. A lot of want to obey enough to feel decent while keeping the one area they do not want to surrender. But selective obedience is not full obedience. us as guys, we love loopholes that. ⁓ God is after surrendered hearts, not technical compliance ⁓ us. ⁓ it makes me think I'm to keep this name off. ⁓ Because don't know. I haven't talked to this guy in years. ⁓ But had a friend growing up. ⁓ And remember his mom told him to go upstairs and clean his room, make his bed, or whatever. ⁓ He went upstairs. He cleaned his room. He made his bed He did what she told him to do but the whole time he was saying a lot of unpleasant things about And I said man, this is amazing Like you just you obeyed her to her face and now you're up here and it's crazy I started thinking about that is a lot of guys will do that a lot of women will do that a lot of people will do that Hey, I went to church I listened to this but the whole time their heart was far from the Lord and and yeah that that guy's mom may have never known what he was saying, but God knows the reality of our hearts. And so God's not just about doing something. He cares about how we do it, why we do it, and the motives of our heart. And so I think that's a good word. yeah, obedience will build stability. So there's a passage in Matthew 7, building your house on the rock. Listen to what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and listen to this, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against the house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." And so what we see there, Jesus is telling the people, the disciples, and everyone else that's around listening to him that the wise man hears the word of God and does the word of God. He's the one who builds his house on a solid foundation. The storm comes and the house stands. And I think that's a powerful picture for us as men because every man is building something, whether we acknowledge it or not. are building, if we're married, you're building a marriage, you're building a family, you're building a pattern of life, you're building habits, you're building a witness, you're building building a legacy. And so the difference that Jesus points out in Matthew seven is not whether both men hurt. They both hurt. They both got the same thing. But difference between them is one obeyed and the other didn't. ⁓ And a man cannot ignore God ⁓ be stable. see that in the scriptures. And ⁓ we can't ignore God and think everything's going be okay. ⁓ And I think we to ⁓ be reminded of that. So steady men, we were built through repeated obedience over time. Stability usually ⁓ built in one dramatic moment. If go to the gym, that's just kind of where I'm at in season of life right now, I think I'm not gonna go to the gym and say, I'm gonna ⁓ drop 20 in this first session. That's not healthy. ⁓ If I to do that, something's wrong with me. Filter cop, what was about to say. So thank God ⁓ for the Holy But built on the daily choice, right? If I want to lose 20 pounds is the daily grind of eating healthy, working out, putting in the work, ⁓ the same thing. We want to see holiness. We want to see faithfulness. We want to see hunger and thirst in our lives ⁓ the Lord. ⁓ there, then ⁓ built on the daily choice to obey God when no one's watching. ⁓ then ⁓ the hardship comes and the storms come in our lives, ⁓ a man has been building on, well, eventually it's going to get exposed, right? So ⁓ marriage, your money, your purity, your speech, work ethic, fatherhood, church life, you can go on and on about that. going to get exposed in those areas. And so ⁓ need to recognize that most spiritual collapses don't come out of nowhere. They're usually the fruit of long-term disregard ⁓ obedience. ⁓ obedience produces stability in lives. Yeah, for sure. ⁓ And want to kind of shift gears here a little bit. And let's talk a little bit about what obedience looks like in real life. Because, know, let's be practical about this, you know, in most cases obedience is not something that's very dramatic. It's just something that happens in our daily ordinary lives that we live. Let's first let's talk about our personal walk. You know, ⁓ does obedience look like in that? It looks like opening your Bible ⁓ when you don't feel it or when you're tired or, you know, or cranky or things haven't been going way, but you still, you still do It could be praying when you feel dry. You're in that stage where you just don't feel like anything's happening in your life. It could be confessing your sin quickly or cutting what feeds temptation in your life, whether it's your phone, TV, music, whatever that is, whatever that looks like in your life. Another area ⁓ we could about is your marriage. It looks like loving wife. sacrificially. We've talked about this in the past. ⁓ look like speaking with gentleness ⁓ her ⁓ ⁓ your kids. could be ⁓ owning ⁓ your quickly with her. It could be serving instead of demanding. I ⁓ know that's big one for me. It could be instead of staying passive. We've talked a lot about that, how we ⁓ as men ⁓ and these generations have become more passive. And it could be us becoming the leaders our household and in our families that God's called us to be. In our fatherhood, it looks like being present, teaching children, spending time with them, and just leading your home spiritually, doing devotions like we've talked about in previous episodes, doing those family together with your ⁓ wife and your Another area that we see it's in our purity. It looks like getting honest, deleting what needs to be ⁓ whether it's Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, whatever it is that's causing you to stumble and just blocking that access to it. It could be confessing to a brother and him know what's going on in your life and to help hold you accountable. It could be cutting off compromise early, ⁓ just those areas where you need to cut that stuff off before it out of control. In our workplace, ⁓ it could look ⁓ just being honest. crazy we have to say that. Yeah, but you know it could just be being an honest person. It could be being a diligent person keeping your word doing what you say you're gonna do quality work while you're at work not there. Just milking the clock being a productive employee or boss And it could be ⁓ know and living with integrity when no one is watching You know ⁓ when you're ⁓ doing reports or whatever it is, you know when when nobody's watching you doing what's right in those times and not taking shortcuts. In our church life, ⁓ could look like ⁓ it may mean ⁓ into community. It may mean serving faithfully in some ministry or something in the church. It's ⁓ using your and refusing to sit on the sidelines ⁓ and just a consumer. It's being somebody that gets up and is actively engaged with the church and the church body and ⁓ not just a to consumer on Sunday mornings. We see a lot of men think obedience only applies to big moments, but most growth happens in those regular everyday ⁓ we talked about. Big spiritual strength is usually built through small repeated obedience. There again, like we talked about, it's not one single thing that you do one time, it's something that you do over time, ⁓ and over and over again. ⁓ think the question I want to ask is,