So good to see each and every one of you. And I don't say that in any way to sound weird. I just. I love seeing your faces. If you're joining us online, thank you so much for joining us.

We are glad to be able to have the opportunity. I don't take this time lightly that we get to sit under the word of God and to glean what it is that the Lord would have for us to hear. And so I'm asking you right now, would you say a little prayer? Lord, speak to me. Lord, speak to me now.

I'm not talking about my words. I'm asking that through his scripture, through His Word, that he might speak to you. Because through this series, there's an interesting thread that has emerged as each one of these messages of the parables of the kingdom have kind of been tied together. And that's the Word of God. The Word of God has come and he's given us this promise that God wants to bring us into his fold, his family, that we are soil, that God comes and he scatters those seeds into soil, that it might take root, and then after it takes root, that it might grow into a tree or something, you know, biological.

It's not intended just to stay in the soil, but to grow and to be planted into the world. You may be in the weeds, you may be in thick weeds, but he intends for us to grow where we're planted. And then last week, didn't Grant do a good job? Let's give him a hand. He's not in the room, but Grant will save that for you later.

But he did such an awesome job pointing us to the fact that if we're growing, we're growing for the benefit of those around us. In fact, his last two points said this last week, we must have obedience to sow God's truth in our lives. I want you to think about that in reverse. As God sows His truth through His Word into our lives, it should lead us to obedience. In fact, he went on to say that when we obey God, our lives can provide refuge for others.

And it made me think about this question, and I really want you to think about this question, too. Why in the world should we obey at all? I mean, we know that we don't have the capability of being righteous in and of ourselves. So why obey? I can't be saved by my work, so why do any of those things?

Are you following me? Like, why obey at all? That's a very fatalistic view of sanctification. When I say, well, you know God. You've done all the works.

There's nothing required of me. Well, there is a requirement. And God has always wanted obedience from his people. If we don't obey, there is an issue at hand, and it's an issue that I want you to really think about. Why would I not obey?

You know why? Do you know why you don't obey? Do you know in those times of obedience, why you just kind of let it flow by? It's trust. You and I disobey when we don't trust.

We don't trust the person in charge, or we put more trust in ourselves. I know better. I have a better way. It's not convenient right now. It costs too much.

But what if God is asking us today to consider something new? What if he's asking us in our lives, to be radically obedient? How different would this world be if the true followers of Jesus Christ were radically obedient? Not just, well, I'm going to get by. I'm going to get to heaven by the skin of my teeth.

No, but like out of the boundary, obedient to whatever God would put in front of me. I want you to consider for a moment that you have been hired to be the CEO of a company. And in your mind, you're just like, well, you know, I'm really not good enough to do this job. And, man, I don't want to think more of myself. But this company has hired you to be the CEO, and they've given you one job as the CEO of this company.

The board has said there's a division in this company that is costing us way too much money. It's dysfunctional and it's corrupt, and you are to shut it down. That's your job, to shut down a division. That means you're going to have to cut some things away, and that means you're going to have to fire some people. But they've hired you not because you are the best, but because of your willingness.

And so they hire you. And you go in and you begin to analyze this division and you're like, well, you know, they've got some pretty cool equipment that we could use somewhere else in the company. Oh, well, these people were just hired and they really don't know much about this corruption, so they're okay. And maybe you get in there and you realize, oh, I remember that guy. He has a lot of influence over people around him.

And so instead of shutting it down, firing the entire division, you keep some people on and you go with a new Plan. Because the board's plan was to shut it down. And your idea is, well, maybe I can salvage it a little bit. So you go with your plan. Well, the chairman of the board shows up and you walk up, your chest is all bowed out.

You know what? I shut it down.

The chairman looks at you and says, well, really? Because I just walked from downstairs, and the same trucks that were moving product for that division are rolling out with stuff on their trucks. And the hallway where that division met, I still see lights on and people buzzing around. And you go, well, you know, for the good of the company, I felt like it would be of a benefit to salvage the good stuff.

And the chairman looks at you and says, so you feel like that in your disobedience, you've been successful.

Can I ask you a question? If that were you and you did that, what should that board do to you when you didn't do what the board told you to do? There's a word for it. Donald Trump's used it many times in his little show. What's it called?

You're fired. When you look at first Samuel, chapter 15, that's exactly what King Saul did. King Saul was told to go in and utterly obliterate the Amalekites. But he gets there. And here's this man who did not seem himself fitting and good in his own eyes.

He would be in a crowd and he would try to hide. Remember, that's why it was kind of hard for him to hide, because he was so tall. He was little in his own eyes. And yet when he was told to do this by God through Samuel, he disobeyed. He changed the plan.

He got there and he saw the cattle and the sheep, and he's like, oh, this is good stuff. And he took spoils when God said to utterly, the Bible says, utterly destroy the Amalekites.

And when Samuel shows up and he says, is that the buying of sheep that I hear? He addresses King Saul and he says to him, has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams. And some of us believe that our obedience is our sacrifice. I'm telling you, obedience is more than than sacrifice.

To obey is better than sacrifice. So why in your life, what in your life would ever motivate you to live in obedience to Jesus Christ? Let me tell you. It's a trust issue. It's a trust issue.

Who is in control? Because, see, when I Hear the Word of God, and I'm confronted with the absolute truth that comes from the utmost, the most superior sovereign God of the universe, who spoke all these things into existence. That truth, when it is sown into my life, must produce obedience. In Ezekiel 36:27 in the New Covenant, he said the Spirit would move on us and cause us to obey his commands. God did not give up on the standard and the expectation of obedience.

And you and I, when we fail or refuse to listen to the word of God, we are disobedient. In fact, in the Greek, there's two primary words for disobedience and obedience kind of go hand in hand. One is the word from which we get persuasion. So I am persuaded to do something or to not do something. Sometimes I'll joke about very persuasive people and say, like man, they're so persuasive they could sell fire insurance to Eskimos.

They're very persuasive. And it's the same kind of word that when the Word of God works in my life, there is persuasion, to act and respond. The other word is a beautiful word. It occurs 15 times in the New Testament, but it's very pointed. And basically it's a compound word that looks like this.

It means to be underneath what you've heard, underneath what is very similar to the word ekklesia, which means called out ones. What this word means, obedience, means to place myself under what I have heard. And you and I, today, we have heard the good news of the kingdom of God. That word has come. And because it's come, there's two things I know for sure.

Number one, faith grows by hearing. We know that Romans 10:17 says, now faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. When I hear the Word and I continue hearing the Word, there's a consistent challenge in my life to grow in my faith. Not in my doing, but in my believing that as I hear the Word of God and act on the Word of God, I am keeping God in his proper place in. In my heart and in my mind.

But when I begin to rationalize the thing God asked me to do, when I began to dismiss them as inconvenient, or I'm just not there yet, or, you know, maybe one day when I begin to do that in my mind, I'm placing myself in a place of disobedience.

We grow as we hear. And God's word for us is to keep hearing. Faith comes by hearing. And if you're struggling in your faith, it might be because You've put your fingers in your ear and you're going, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.

Why do you think it is that you said, give us ears to hear.

We live in a world that is atheistic and agnostic and secular and growing that way. And do you know why it is because if I can't dismiss the truth, then I dismiss the source of the truth. And if I can dismiss the source of the truth, then I can dismiss the truth. And then I begin to create truth around me and I become God and I determine what's right and what's wrong. Do you know what's wrong with that whole image?

We have millions of rights and wrongs.

And you know what else is wrong with that? You become God. Is that not what the final temptation of Eve was? Look at that fruit. It's good to eat.

Yeah. Yeah. Did he really say that you would die? Yes, he did. The moment that you eat of it.

Here's the deal sealer. You will become like God. And Eve's like, wow, that means I don't have to worry about what he thinks anymore. That means that I can just be my. I can have freedom.

Is that really what freedom is? Is doing whatever you want to do?

And in that, she shut herself up in sin and disobedience. And Adam. I don't know what Adam was thinking. Sure, let me eat some, too. I mean, faith comes by hearing.

Don't be in history. Like Captain Horatio Nelson, who, although was successful in battle, was reported to have done this in a battle where his superiors were about to tell them to retreat. And he had a blind eye. So he put his telescope in his blind eye so that he wouldn't see the flags of retreat. You know what that's called?

Disobedience. Can y' all just say disobedience? I just wanted to make sure. It can come out of your mouth. Say it.

Disobedience. And when you and I fail, fail to put ourselves under the word that has been spoken, we live in disobedience as well. Obedience in our life is a revelation of the faith at work in us. So, yes, yes, the Christian is to obey. And it is not for us to question the Sovereign One who has said, thou shalt or thou shalt not.

When I begin to rationalize, I have put myself in the same place. Eve says, y' all aren't shouting at that one today. That's okay. James 4:17. Y' all know that verse?

When's the last time you memorized a verse, Too long James 4:17 says, Therefore to the one who knows to do good and does not do it to him, it is sin. I could talk about sins of commission and omissions. I could talk about intentional and unintentional sins. But the truth is, when I hear it and I do not do it, I have sinned. I am living in disobedience.

And the only hope for disobedience is mercy. It's mercy. In fact, when you read and study the Old Testament, there were no sacrifices for intentional sin. You know that, right? There was death penalty.

I didn't like that one either.

The only hope you and I have is that we look at the ugliness of the cross, see where my sin landed Jesus. And because of what he did, my sin can be washed away and my disobedience can be washed away. But what a slap in the face of our Savior if we continue in that sin without repentance. And see, I could keep going on and on about that. And I hope that you've been keeping up with the series.

As we talked about a few weeks ago about the promise that God has come to restore what was lost. And you know, we talked to Kevin, did a great job talking about that soil. And he's come to reap what is sown with that word being in us. And that word then comes in us and it invades as God plants us out in the world, and we are starting to become a plant. And that plant, as Grant shared with us last week, is to grow branches out that where the world can find refuge.

Do y' all know why we hark so much about talking about Ebenezer being a place of hope? Well, those words are meaningless. And once we realized that if we don't have hope, we can't give hope. We are actually the broken leading the broken to hope in Christ. But much like the scribes and the Pharisees and the high priest and the priests in the temple court, we think we've arrived.

We think we're perfect. Because I can go through and say, well, I did that. I did that. Oh, I did that one, too. And we begin to take stock in our own righteousness.

And we fail to remember how much mercy and grace we actually need. And it's no different than this text that we're about to read. I'm going to ask you to stand with me, and I'm going to read the first of three parables in 21 and 22. Jesus, just like Luke, had three parables to answer why Jesus ate with tax collectors, and sinners. There's actually three parables in here that span from chapter 21 to chapter 22.

And Jesus is answering the question about his authority. He's answering the question about his authority and the repercussions of not coming underneath that authority. And I want you to pick up with me in verse number 28, he says, but what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, son, go work today in the vineyard. And he answered and said, I will not.

But afterwards he regretted it and went. That's called deliberate. That would be sins of commission, like he deliberately disobeyed. The man came in. The man came to the second Son and said the same thing.

And he answered, oh, I'll go, sir. But he did not.

Which of these two did the will of his Father at the beginning? Neither of them did. They said the first. Jesus said to them, truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him.

What's the key word here? Believe? Faith. Faith comes by hearing. They heard and they responded in faith.

Say faith. And you, talking to those priests seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterwards so as to believe as well. Father, as we dig into this, speak to our hearts and help us to see with clarity. In Jesus name, Amen. So as you open up, we've jumped from 13, chapter 13, all the way over to 21.

And a lot of things have taken place. But 21 starts a very key piece of history. 21 starts with the triumphal entry, Passion Week, as we call it, the week of Easter. Jesus has come into the city and he's already made the Pharisees mad. As you back up into those chapters between 13 and 21, you see this increasing tension between Jesus and the religious rulers.

You know why? Because they don't want him. They don't want him telling them that what they're doing is wrong. They're no different than the mayor of Whoville. Yeah, y' all watched the Grinch, right?

And I've used this illustration before, but it speaks so loudly to how we need God to move on our systems and change them for his benefit. And that traditions and legacy can actually be boundaries from God doing his work, because we're holding onto things that we shouldn't hold on to. And so in the movie, after they've invited the Grants to become the holiday cheermeister, the mayor's mad because who's usually the holiday cheer master? The mayor. They've wrecked the system.

They threatened his position of authority. And so after the Grinch has his tantrum. Tantrum. And burns down the Christmas tree and wrecks the town, the mayor says something so insightful. He says, can't we just get back to the way Christmas ought to be?

Y' all don't know that line. Grinchless, Grinchless. Like, get him out of the picture. And it's the same thing that's going on here. As soon as Jesus comes into the city and they're crying, hosanna.

Hosanna. They're quoting the Old Testament, saying, save us now, Lord. They're calling him Lord, and they have a huge problem with this. And he walks up to the temple and you can kind of imagine what was stirring in his heart because he knew, I'm about to do something. And in his righteous, perfect, holy anger, he walks into that temple and he sees the lost sheep of Israel being abused at the tables and the money changers and them selling overpriced doves and all the other things because they came to sacrifice, but they didn't have a sacrifice.

And so they're being abused. And Jesus grabs the tables and begins to throw them over and he runs them out of the temple. And he says, my house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations. You've made it a den of robbers and thieves. He purified the temple.

You think that made the priests happy? No. Because you know what they ate, the sacrifices that were being made. It threatened them personally, but it threatened their authority. It threatened their position of power.

So the next day, they go out of the city. They come back, and Jesus is heading into the city and there's a fig tree growing. There's no figs on it, most likely because it wasn't the time of year. But you know, God. God wants us to produce fruits even when it doesn't make sense.

Be ready in season and out of season. And he looks at that fig tree and he curses it. May you never bear fruit. And that was an image of Israel and the Judaic system that had become so corrupt that God said, I'm coming to reset it. And he goes back into the temple.

And that's where we pick up in this story. He's in the temple, and the chief priest, starting in verse 23 of the Elders came to him while he was teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things? Let me translate that. Who do you think you are? Let me further translate that.

We don't believe that you are who you think you are.

Matthew, similar to Luke, now begins these three parables to answer that question about authority. Because remember what I said about obedience. We don't obey because we don't trust. And they were rejecting Christ's authority. And if they could reject his authority, then what could they reject?

His Word. So Jesus uses a real life example. In verse 24, he says, well, let me ask you something. Because Jesus could have said, well, I'm doing this by the authority of God. Where would that have gotten him?

That had just been a circular argument, but he says this, the baptism of John, John the Baptist. What was the source of that? From heaven or from men? Now, these guys are smart, they step back and they have a little bit of a council meeting and they say, well, if we say it's from heaven, he will say, well, then why didn't you believe? And if we say it's from men, then we fear that the people will rise up because they believe John to be a prophet.

Does anyone remember what John was preaching? Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. I am the forerunner of the king. If they admitted that John the Baptist was from heaven, then they had to admit Jesus was the king who come. Are you following?

That's what the word Messiah means. Anointed one, Christos. That's what it means. It means anointing. The one who's anointed, he's the king.

And so what we see in these parables is we're going to see someone in charge, we're going to see a responsibility extended and then we're going to see those expectations not being met. Whether that's a dad asking his kids to do something, or whether that's a landowner wanting a part of his crop, or whether it's a king throwing a party for his son. There was responsibility and, and there was expectations and it was reasonable. It was reasonable for the dad, the landowner and the king to expect obedience. You see, Donald Hagner observed that the real question here really wasn't a revelation of Jesus authority, but it was a revelation of their heart.

And you and I today, I want you to look at me. Some of you struggle with obedience. You really, really struggle with obedience. One, because you're not in the word of God, you're not consistently staying in the word of God for it to saturate your life and to feed your life. Or number two, you're misinterpreting the Bible, you're reading it through the lens of an American eye in a Western culture, rather than letting the word speak forth truth.

And then when you find a truth, then you go into rationalization. You begin to go, well, maybe Jesus didn't really mean it that way, or maybe that command wasn't that extreme. You realize that God sometimes asks you to do stuff that's not necessarily inherently wrong, right? He calls us to be sacrificial. Why?

Because his son was sacrificial. What greater sacrifice has anybody made life than to lay down your life for other people? Would it then be discourteous to ask his followers to do the same, to have radical obedience? See, our problem is a problem with authority. Point number one.

The central issue of obedience concerns who is in charge. And that's a question that you have to ask yourself today. He said, but what do you think he's springing right off of what he just said about John the Baptist. If you say, well, he's from God, then you should have believed. And if you say he's not from God, then you're afraid of man.

And both of those are a sinful position.

And they admitted it. They rejected the authority of Christ and cowered to the authority of man. He said, well, what do you think? A man had two sons, and he said to the first, go and work in my vineyard. Why does he have authority?

Number one, he's their daddy.

Everything those two sons had came from the father. And number two, he owns the property they live on. He owns the produce that's there. He's the one in charge. And if he says, go work, then you should work.

So parents, delayed obedience is what disobedience? Unlike this, dad, if you tell your child to go clean the room, and they don't clean the room, when you ask how, you ask, what's the consequence? Oh, you did so good.

Delayed obedience is what? It's a disobedience. One delayed his obedience and the other lied and never did it.

It's ironic that Jesus turns this around after they reasoned about obeying or not obeying the call of John the Baptist to then talk about two sons. And neither of them obeyed. See, obedience is more than just doing things. The Pharisees did the things. Y' all get that right.

They did it perfectly. To look at them on the outside, they kept the law. But Jesus said, for I say to you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. But what was wrong with the Pharisees? I mean, weren't they Keeping the rules.

Why wouldn't they get into the kingdom of heaven? Because their heart was not in the right place. They were building a kingdom for themselves. You know why? Because God really wasn't the one in charge.

Who's in charge of your life? Don't give me the Carrie Underwood, Jesus take the wheel kind of stuff. Please don't. I hate those cliche things. Those songs have softened the gospel.

No offense. No offense. I like Carrion Underwood.

Jesus has called you to radical obedience. You know why? Because it's a display of the power of God in our lives. And when we reject his authority and his position, we have put ourself in its place.

First Peter, 5, 6. Write that on your bulletin. First Peter, 5, 6. Another verse you need to memorize. Therefore, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you at the proper time.

It's not your place to exalt yourself. It's not your place to prove yourself to other men. Because when you do, you're actually putting yourself in submission to the world system. We should be in total submission to the one who called us and saved us. And his leading us Is God in control?

Point number two. Are you accountable to the one in control? No matter the situation? Are you hearing me? No matter the situation, no matter the person, Everyone has a responsibility to obey.

Lead balloon right there. There are no more perfect person than somebody else. You either is or you is not. You are either saved or you're not saved. You are either obeying or you're not obeying.

And if you are a Christian living in disobedience, what hope do you have? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just. To forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness. All right. Jesus has forgiven me.

He's cleansed me. Now what do I do? You obey.

If Jesus has done so much for you, why would you not want to obey him? Based on what he's done in the great mercy that. That he's extended. In fact, when you read Romans 14:12, it says this. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord.

Every knee will bow to me and every tongue confess, Give praise to God. Now, here's what we think. We go in there. Yep. All those sinners.

Someday Jesus is going to come back and they're going to have to kneel. I don't care about them kneeling. I'm asking, are you kneeling right now? Because then he says so. Then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I was okay when I was looking at how bad everybody else is. But now you're asking me to look at how bad I am.

And what was the answer? To bend the knee. What's bending the knee? It's called humility. I wish they sold it in a little jar and you could crack open it every day and just take a humble pill and be like, oh, I'm humble for the rest of the day.

That's not how it works. It's choice. Isaiah 29:13. Jesus quotes this about the Pharisees. This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

They kept the rules, but they didn't keep it in their heart. Pick up with me in verse 29. And he answered and said, the first son, I will not. But afterwards he regretted it and went. And the Pharisees agreed.

This one did obey. And who did he liken that son to? The tax collectors and the prostitutes. Let's go back a few weeks ago. In Luke 15, Jesus answered the question, why are you eating with tax collectors and sinners?

They heeded the invitation. And for you and me today, as we sit here and read this, we can become judgmental of these two sons. Or we could ask ourselves the question, which one am I? Because then he came to the second one and he said the same thing. And he answered, I will, sir.

But he did not go. And he said, which one of these did the will of his father?

Matthew 7:21. Not everyone who says to me, lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father. Well, how are we going to do his will? Again I ask you the question, what in the world would ever motivate you to obey Jesus Christ? I'm saved.

I got everything right. If the word of God is implanted in your heart with faith, it should be growing. Is it? Is it growing in your life? If you had to give yourself a grade right now, as far as obedience to the gospel in Jesus Christ, what grade would you give yourself?

That's not. I don't want that to be a shameful. I just want it to be an introspective question. Am I living in obedience to Jesus Christ? Therefore, to the one who knows to do good and does not do it, it is what y' all are afraid to say.

That word. Say it. Sin. It's not a dirty word. There's 13 dirty words in the English language.

I'm just kidding. We're not going there.

You got to know. The word to know means you've ingested digested, taken in the word of God, and we are accountable. Now, if a person sins and does the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, though he was aware, unintentional, he is still guilty and must bear his punishment. Leviticus 5:17.

Ignorance will never be an excuse when we stand before God in judgment. Jesus tells another parable that kind of bears this out, that we are all accountable and responsible. In Luke 12:42, 48. If you want to scribble that down in your notes, Luke 12:42,48, listen to what this parable says. And the Lord said, who then is the faithful and sensible steward?

You know what a steward is, right? We don't use that word a lot in English. But someone who's taking care of the master or the owner's business says, whom his master will put in charge of his servants and give them, to give them rations at their proper time. A little bit more than just doing the work in the field. This is somebody who's responsible for other people.

Says, blessed is the slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. A lot of these parables talk about a landowner not being there. And a lot of us will obey when mom and daddy's in the room, but when they stepped out of the room, that's when we usually slapped our brother or sister.

True obedience happens when the master's not present. How are you obeying in your closet, man? How are you obeying at night at 11 o', clock when your wife's gone to bed and your device is sitting on the nightstand?

I'm not talking about public, I'm talking about private. But listen to what happens here. He keeps going on this parable. But if that slave says in his heart, my master's been gone a long time and he's delayed his coming. And then because of that begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and to get drunk.

The master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him to come, in an hour that he does not know will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. And that slave, who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, in his absence will receive many lashes for what disobedience. His job was to take care of the other slaves. And what did he do? He beat them.

And he neglected them by reveling in something else. Listen to what the last verse says. From everyone who has been given much, much will be Required, and to whom they've entrusted much of Him. They will ask more. Everybody is accountable.

And you may be like, well, you know what? Jesus hasn't come back. I can just keep on living the way I'm living. It's okay. You know what?

I'll get it right tomorrow. Today, I don't have time because I got to go to Mom's house and she's cooking for us, and then I've got to go run this air. Oh, we got baseball, and we got all the things that fill our life, and we keep delaying the inevitable. God has called us to obedience, and obedience is the fruit of the Word growing in our life. So there's only one of two conclusions.

Either A, we're disobedient, disobeying the one in control, or I'm rejecting the word. Remember what I said? Obedience means to place yourself under the hearing. What's God saying to you right now? What's God speaking to you right now?

Because if you deny it, if you reject it, if you push it away, it's not a rejection of that truth. It's a rejection of the one who sent the truth. Moses in Deuteronomy 11:26-28, kind of paints this picture. He says, see, I'm setting before you today a blessing and a curse. Now, this was the Mosaic covenant.

This is the covenant God made with Israel. And he said, I'm giving you blessing if you will listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I'm commanding you today. And the curse if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today. Now, that was the Mosaic covenant, and the New Covenant is superior to that covenant. So you and I can choose to live in the blessing of eternal life if we will heed the word of God.

Or I can reject the word of God. And in fact, I believe, be more miserable than the unbeliever. Because the only unforgivable sin I read about in the New Testament is blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. And that's a rejection of the lordship of. Of Jesus Christ.

See point number three. Our obedience should flow from a position of faith in and a commitment to Jesus Christ. Is he in charge? I don't want him to be my co pilot. I want him to be my driver.

I don't want him to be my best friend. I want him to be my king. You'll see the difference. Who is in control and in charge of your life. Jesus then explains the parable he says, truly, I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.

How he tells them, for John came in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him. He preached the kingdom coming, repent of sins and be baptized to show that repentance. And they sat on the banks scoffing with their arms folded and saying, look at who they're touching. Look, he touched that woman. He touched that guy.

Doesn't he know they're a prostitute? Doesn't he know they're a thief? Then they stood there in their judgment and they were dying in their sin.

Aren't you glad if we'll put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ? I no longer have to be judge and jury of the world.

And if you're holding on to that and you think it's your job to be the corrector, the hall monitor of the world, stop it. It's not your job. Your job is to appeal to the world, to be a fruit bearer, that the world might see the hope that they can have in Jesus Christ. In fact, in this I saw a parallel to First Corinthians 1:27 when he says, But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and he's chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. And those priests and those scribes, they stood there with their arms folded going, by what authority do you do this?

And they failed to recognize the King of the universe. They failed to recognize standing in their presence was the very word of of God made flesh. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. An interaction and an experience with Jesus Christ should change your life. And if it's not changing your life, then you are rejecting the authority of Christ.

What would life look like today if you decided, you know what? I'm going to live I a life of radical obedience. Radical obedience that I'm going to shun my disobedience and put it where it needs to be, under the blood flow of Jesus Christ's cross.

And I'm going to strive to present my members, as Romans 6 says, to righteousness, to bear that fruit of righteousness. You see, it says in Romans 5:20, the law came in so that the offense would increase. In other words, to highlight in us the sin wretchedness that we are. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Aren't you thankful?

Aren't you thankful for the grace of Jesus Christ that saves you from your sin. Aren't you thankful that though you are a wretched worm in terms of righteousness, Christ came and as a beautiful gift, gave you his righteousness. And if he did that, he's given and granted you eternal life to live forever with him in his presence. But that lives inside of us now. What greater gift can we give back in our worship than to obey?

See, this is what radical obedience is. Radical obedience is obeying no matter the ask, the timing or the cost. Let me repeat that. It's in your study guide. Radical obedience is obeying no matter the ask, the timing or the cost.

That's what it means to live with radical obedience. David Platt wrote, radical obedience to Christ is not easy because you still are incapable and unable and unwise. But now you as a believer have the Holy Spirit living in your life to give you the direction and to give you the power. It's like you have a nuclear plant living inside of you. And what he wants to happen in your life is this is as the word of God is in, is moving and working and moving and working.

And those pistons are pumping. It's producing in you a life of humility and faith. As you deepen in faith, you should be deepening in obedience. Like in Genesis 6:14, God told Noah to build an ark. How radical was that?

In Genesis 12, he told Abraham to leave his home country to go to a land that that would be flowing with milk and honey. The promised land. He'd give him descendants. And he did it. In fact, it was so faith filled that when God said, I want you to take the son of promise and kill him, he didn't hesitate.

And then you get to Exodus chapter 2, and Moses, after having a death sentence on his head and is gone for a while, God calls him at the burning bush to go back to the place that would put his life in danger, to lead his people out of Israel. Then you get over into the book of Joshua as they're going up against Jericho and how weird is it? Go walk around the city for six days, once a day, and on the seventh day walk around it seven times, blow the trumpets and they saw the walls fall down. Or Gideon in the book of Judges, when he's told to go up against the Midianites. And he goes there with thousands and ends up with 300 and ends up destroying the Midianites.

Folks, God is calling us to radically obey. And then the power of God sweeps in and takes control. Maybe like Peter, he's saying it's time to step out of the boat. It's time to walk on water.

But the first response wasn't the step. The first response in his heart was, faith, will I trust the one who's in control? That final plank on your page says this. The kingdom has come to increase in what God has commanded. Matthew 28:20 says, Teaching then to obey all that I have commanded.

Well, you can't teach what you don't obey. When I was a math teacher, one of the hardest things, one of the things my students hated, is when I would get up and make them teach the class the problems they were assigned on homework.

That meant they had to be prepared. That meant they had to come in and see me before class. Because if they couldn't do the problem themselves, they definitely couldn't get on the board and do the problem. You and I can't teach others to obey what we are not obeying. And we can't obey that which we do not hear, and we can't hear unless I am in the word of God.

So I want to give you three things before you put your stuff up. Three things I think that you can take away from this. And I'm going to challenge you with a statement, three ways. I think you and I can begin right now living with radical obedience. The first one is this.

Read different. Read different. When you pick up that Bible, instead of it being like, okay, I didn't answer Jesus, no, no, neither. Thank you, Lord, that I had time to spend with you for the last minute and a half to do my devotion today. I hope you're pleased and happy with me.

In Jesus name, amen. What if from this point on, every time you pick this book up, you read a verse and you say, God, what are you asking me to do? Get a notebook. Get a journal. And every time you read a verse, write down the words, what am I going to do?

James chapter two says, to be doers of the Word. That's the second D. Read different, but be a doer. Can I get on a soapbox for a moment? Grace and love. Some of you have sat in a Sunday school class or a Life Group for 30 years, and you're not a doer.

If you've sat in a group for 30 years and you're not serving in your church, that group has had no benefit in your life.

God's plan for you and me isn't to sit in groups. He means for us to be sown in the world, serving and showing the world the love of Christ and the gospel.

So my advice to you is, if you're Going to be a doer. And you're in a group that's not encouraging you to serve. You need a new group.

Well, that one didn't go over well either. Y' all can just chew on that later. But I mean what I say, and I think what I said is right here in Scripture. God puts us in the body as he sees fit. And he puts us in the body for the benefit of the body, not our group.

Your group is not a church within a church. And if you're guilty of that, stop it.

All the members must come together for the church to have health. And you know how that happens, by being a doer. And lastly, be disciplined. Part of the reasons why you may feel the anxiety of life is because you're just not disciplined. In fact, if you want to be honest and frank, that's one of the things I'm working on in my own life is to be more disciplined in reading and doing other things.

Like I bought a new fictional book and it sits on my nightstand and my goal is that I'm not always reading self help stuff, but I'm reading a fictional book. You're going like, well, that's weird. No, because it's retraining me to read and to love reading. What in your life do you need to discipline yourself over? Because here's the truth Jesus said in John 14:15, a sentence that I hope will just go right to your heart.

I'm sorry I'm a little long, but you know, I didn't preach last week, so I got to make up for lost time. And Grant was short, so I've got that little room there. Just kidding. Jesus said this. If you love me, if you love me, you will keep my commands.

Now look at me. Do you love Jesus? I'm not saying. Well, I came and I sung today. Kumbaya, my Lord.

Not saying that because you can sing and not love Jesus. You can read your Bible and not love Jesus. You can go on a mission trip and not love Jesus. I'm asking you, have you fallen in love with the Savior who died for you? If he did, then you'll read your Bible different.

You'll want to be a doer because you'll want to be like him.

Do you love him, Father, in Jesus name, I don't know the needs in this room. And you know God, I could come up with some pretty crafty little things that they might could do. But I'm not talking about what we're doing. I'm talking about what we're being. If we're going to be in obedience.

We have to remember who's in charge. We have to remember that all of us, all of us accountable to you. But at the end of the day, if I have not faith, it profits me nothing. So, Lord, I pray that as you're speaking to our hearts about what we can do, maybe I do. Maybe I have gotten into a routine where I'm just flipping through my Bible and it's just not engaging me.

Lord, help us to be engaged. That maybe I have stopped doing. Maybe I've gotten offended at something in the church and I've decided, you know what? I'm just not going to give my money. I'm not going to give my time.

Lord, I know without a doubt you don't care about our offenses. You don't. You don't care if we're offended because you told us what to do if we were to forgive. And if somebody slaps us on the cheek, you told us to let them slap the other one, too. So, Lord, move in our lives and draw us.

Maybe some of us in this room were struggling with discipline and routine and God, maybe. Maybe we just need to do. Just need to do something to get back into routine. But, Lord, through all of it, speak to us about how we can maybe consider how to be radically obedient. Not just getting by, not just cutting the edge, but being radically obedient.

Being quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry or forgiving others as you've forgiven us, whatever that command may be, God, I pray that we would be radical to do it. When you ask how, you ask, no matter the cost, we love you. In Jesus name, every man.