The Courage to Obey

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Do you have an attitude of obedience? Do you have an attitude that says, "God, what You say to me, that will I do"? Or do you have the attitude like so many who don't want to go in the direction the Lord wants you to go? You don't want to do what the Lord tells you to do? That's the sad truth for so many who call themselves Christians. They say, "Lord, Lord," but then they don't obey the Lord. Why is that?
Larry Nobles: Welcome to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. Thanks for being with us today as we learn to get off the ground with God and learn to soar for Him. Hey, if you really want to soar in life for God, if you really want to rise above it all, regardless of what you might be facing in life, then you need to have an attitude of obedience that will take you to altitudes spiritually that you've never imagined. It's an altitude where you willingly and often say, "Yes, Lord." The title of today's lesson is "Trust and Obey," and we're in part two that we started last time. It's from Pastor Jeff's series, "Attitude for Altitude," a series that will help us discover how to adjust our attitude Godward and experience the peace, power, and presence of the Lord to the full. If you have a Bible handy, now open it to the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Luke and listen closely as Pastor Jeff Schreve teaches us the importance of trusting and obeying.
Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now, here's the picture: Jesus is there at the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee. And Jesus gets in the boat, and He says to Simon, "Hey, take me out a little ways in the boat so that I can preach." And Peter did it. Look at verse four. It says, "When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, 'Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.'" And Simon answered and said, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing." Listen, when it comes to your life, the Lord Jesus Christ knows best on every single solitary thing in your life and my life. You know, when it comes to fishing, He knows everything about fishing. Because you know what? He knows where all the fish are. He knows where every fish in the Sea of Galilee, as He stands there, He knows where all the fish are. "Put into the deep water for a catch." "There are no fish there, Jesus. We've been fishing all night. There are no fish there." "Oh yeah, there are fish there. There are fish there because I'm in charge of the fish. I created the fish. I know where every fish is. I just whistle for the fish. They all come." He's in charge, right? God knows where all the fish are. God knows everything. He knows what's going to satisfy you. He knows what's going to fill your heart with love and peace and joy and good things, and He wants to do that for you. You don't know what's best; He knows what's best. So you yield to Him. But the people that are too smart for their own good, too proud, too independent, they're like, "No, no, no, we're going to go my way because I know what's right." You don't know best; I don't know best; He knows best. Psalm 119:128 says, "I esteem right Your precepts concerning everything because Your ways are right." And folks like this, the too smart, too independent, too proud, they view God's ways as unreasonable and unacceptable. It's unreasonable what You're asking me to do, Lord, and it's unacceptable. "Hey, Peter, let down your nets in the deep water for a catch." Now, don't get the idea that letting down the nets was some easy thing to do. He's not saying, "Hey, Peter, take your rod and reel and just cast it out there, and you're going to get a huge catch." The dragnet is a huge net. That thing was about 900 feet long. And they would take it out. He's asking them to go out into the deep water, and they would take it out there, and they'd make this big semicircle. And it was deep; it was 26 feet deep in the center. So it would make like this big bag, and they would just sweep it. And then they had winches on the boat that they could crank up and they would pull it. In this instance, they're just doing it by hand, but you would just pull up whatever was there. So it encompassed a huge area, and then you would pull that up. Well, for Peter to let down the nets, that's going to be a lot of work. He can't do that by himself. He needs to get James and John to help him. He needs to get another boat to help him. He needs to be able to put that thing all around to make this big semicircle to create this bag so that they can pull it up. Well, it seemed unreasonable because there are no fish here, and this isn't the time to fish. And so it was like, "Well, Lord, why would I go to all this trouble? This is unreasonable. This is unacceptable." Do you ever do that with God's commands? See, we weigh those in the balance in our mind, and we say, "Well, that doesn't make any sense." Let me give you a good example: what most people say, people who say, "Lord, Lord," call themselves Christians, what so many say, "This doesn't make sense. This is unreasonable. This is unacceptable," to do what God says. "Forgive the person who hurt you." "Well, Lord, come on. You don't know what that person did to me." "Excuse me, I'm God. I do know what he did to you. I was there. I know everything about everything in your life." "Well, but Lord, it was so bad what they did to me." And the Lord says, "Yeah, and your sin nailed Me to the cross, which is worse." Put that in the balance. That parent that was so terrible to us, how can I forgive? That person who stabbed us in the back, how can I forgive? That so-called best friend who stole your spouse, how can I possibly forgive? It's unreasonable. It's unacceptable. It's what God wants you to do. Don't be too smart. Don't be too proud that you say no. Don't get to the place where you say, "I can't do this." No, no. The commands of God, it's not that you can't do it. Let's call it what it really is: it's that you won't do it. It's that you won't do it. It's a matter of the will. He'll give you the power; He'll enable you if your will is there. You know another big one, a huge one, is to let go of the steering wheel of your life. When the Lord says, "I need to take control, I need to be Master, I need to be the driver in your life. You need to let go of your vice grip on this steering wheel of your life." You say, "That's unacceptable. That's unreasonable. Lord, I know where to go. And I'm afraid if I let go of the steering wheel, I'm afraid where You're going to take me. Who knows? You could ship me off to some jungle somewhere as a jungle missionary." God's ways aren't like that. You can trust God. Let go of the steering wheel. It might be unreasonable to you, it might seem unacceptable to you, but you've got to remember who's asking you to do that: the Lord of glory, who has nail scars in His hands because He loves you. He didn't come to wreck and ruin your life. He didn't come to say, "Oh yeah, as soon as you let go, I'm going to just nail you. I'm going to ruin you." That's not God. Obedience. Some people, too busy. Some people, too smart, too proud, too independent to obey. But listen, you don't have to be like some people. And I don't have to be like some people. We can be like Peter, and you can make the choice to obey. The choice to obey. Look at verse five again. "And Simon answered and said, 'Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but at Your bidding, I will let down the nets.'" You know, it's kind of funny. But when we get in this thing about, "Well, I know what's best," you know, we're over here just a little bit ago talking to the prodigal son, saying, "Hey, prodigal, how happy are you with these decisions?" "I'm miserable. I'm wanting to eat pig food." "Hey, Peter, you know, you're a real good fisherman. You're a real smart fisherman. How'd you do last night?" "I don't want to talk about it. Nothing. I caught nothing." You know, our ways always lead to zip on God's scale. I think that's embedded in this story. You go do it your way, and you catch nothing. You do it God's way, and things change. But here he is. He says, "Lord, we worked hard all night. We toiled hard all night, and we caught nothing, but at Your bidding, I will let down the nets. We'll do that. We'll go to all the trouble. We'll get these nets all out there in the deep water. We'll do all this. Why? Because You asked me to do it. And You healed my mother-in-law." And Josephus, the Jewish historian, said Peter didn't really know what to think about that healing. Now, I just made that up. It was a little cheap mother-in-law joke. It didn't work. But anyway, he knew that it was like, "The least I can do, Lord. You healed my mother-in-law. I mean, You've done so much, and I see so many miracles by Your hand. Yes, I'll let down the nets. I will do it." Now, notice three encouragements from making the choice to obey. Encouragement number one is you can obey even when you don't believe the outcome. Even when you don't believe it's going to happen like the Lord says it's going to happen. "Let down your nets in the deep water for a catch." "There are no fish here, Jesus. We're not going to get a catch, Jesus. At Your bidding, I'll do it. Because You asked me, I'll do it. If James or John asked me, I'd say forget it, but because You asked me, I'll do it." Did Peter think they were going to get a catch? No. No. You know what? That encourages me because sometimes my faith isn't so great. Do you ever have that trouble where your faith is not so great, you don't really think things are going to happen like God says they're going to happen, and you struggle with weak faith? I struggle with weak faith. Peter, he didn't think he was going to catch any fish. Hey, whatever He says, even if you don't believe, do what He says. Because what He says will come about.
Larry Nobles: You know, it's not the amount of faith we have that accomplishes these things. It's the object of our faith. And the object of our faith is a great God, so big that we can't even imagine Him. If we could, He wouldn't be God, because He would be limited then. Our finite minds cannot grasp the greatness and depth of the mercy of God. In a moment, you'll hear Pastor Jeff describe the second encouragement for making the trusting choice, and it is a choice to obey God. You and I are living in a time when many people, maybe most people, quietly carry deep grief about the loss of the life that they thought they would have. Their human expectations have been dashed. They're trying to get by on the outside while hurting deeply on the inside. Is that you? Some people feel forgotten by God. Others feel stuck in despair. Others wonder why they've had to endure so much struggle and sadness and loss. Whatever it is, Scripture reminds us in Psalm 34:18 that "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Our God specializes in meeting people in broken places and mending them to be impactful for Him in our world now. And this month, Pastor Jeff wants to meet you in that grief-stricken place as well with two incredibly practical and powerful resources for your gift of any amount. First, the five-message series "Life Goes On: How to Face a New Normal" along with the full-length companion book called "Life Interrupted." Both for your gift today of any amount. You can get the series in the format of your choice. Just simply call 866-40-BIBLE to make that gift. 866-40-BIBLE. Or go online to fromhisheart.org. And remember that whether you or someone you know is facing loss, illness, betrayal, financial pressure, or a season that feels overwhelming, God, your heavenly Father, is there. God bless you for joining our mission to share Christ around the world on From His Heart. Now, let's conclude today's "Trust and Obey" lesson from the series "Attitude for Altitude." Here again is Pastor Jeff.
Dr. Jeff Schreve: Second encouragement: let the Word of God govern your life. Look at it again in verse five. "But at Your bidding, I will let down the nets." "But at Your Logos" is the word for bidding. "At Your word." In the beginning was the Logos, the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. At Your word, Lord, I'll do it. Listen, you let the Word of God govern your life. You let the Word of God trump your reason. You let the Word of God trump your feelings. You let the Word of God trump your circumstances. You let the Word of God trump your plans. You let the Word of God trump your agenda. You let the Word of God just govern you. Whatever He says to you, John 2:5, whatever He says to you, do it. Do it. I don't care if you don't believe it's going to bring a quantity of fish. Do it. Hey, when it comes to this thing as we talked about tithing, so many people think, "I can't do this. I don't have enough. I'm barely scraping by." Whatever He says to you, do it. And what you're going to find is what so many of us that are in this room that are tithers can give a testimony of: God meets your needs miraculously when you do what He says. Can anybody give a testimony of that? He does. He will provide when you go His way. So let the Word of God govern your life and spend time in the Word of God. Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you." And then encouragement number three: know that God blesses when you obey. He just does. When you do what He says, when you let down the nets in the deep water, when you go to all that trouble and all that work thinking that there's nothing that's going to come of this, He blesses that. Jesus said in John 13:17, "If you know these things, you're blessed if you do them." And God blesses you when you obey, when you take that step of faith. What are the blessings? Well, number one, you'll experience His abundance. Verse six: "And when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break, and they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink." This was more fish than Peter had ever seen in his life. If you're a professional fisherman, you make sure that you have strong enough nets to handle a good catch. Strong enough nets to even handle a great catch because you're optimistic. He didn't have strong enough nets to handle this catch. His nets were snapping. There were so many fish that in his boat, a boat that could handle at least 13 people, because Jesus was in there with the disciples on one other occasion, He was asleep in the back of the boat. Remember, there's a big storm. This isn't some little johnboat that handles three people. This is a big thing and has winches on there where they would use to crank up these giant nets, the dragnets, to pull it up. This is a good-sized boat. He's getting all the fish in there. It fills up his boat. It fills up James and John's boat. And both of the boats begin to sink. You think about how many fish that is. Wow. What does that say to you and me? God wants to bless your life. He wants to load you down with blessings. He wants you to be able to say, as Bill Gothard said, as he was obeying God and God was just loading him down with blessings, and he was in his car and he had to stop his car and say to God, "God, will You stop blessing me? Because I feel like my heart is going to burst." God wants to do that in your life. To load us down with blessings. And you have not because you ask not and because we don't obey, we miss out on the abundance that God wants us to have. So you experience His abundance when you obey Him. You are made, number two, aware of His holiness when you obey Him. You see God more clearly. I love verses eight and nine. "But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.'" The fish everywhere! It's the catch of his life. There are so many fish just flopping around all over the boat and in James and John's boat, and both boats are starting to go down and down because they're so heavy with all the fish. And in the midst of all that, Peter, he gets a glimpse of who Jesus is. Jesus is not good carpenter turned great preacher. Jesus is God. And he's in the presence of God, and he knows it. And the Scripture says in 1 Samuel 6:20, "Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?" And what does Peter do? He falls down at His feet. He's not able to stand before this holy God. And he sees the Lord in all His holiness, and he sees himself in all his sinfulness and says, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." Now, he didn't want Jesus to depart from him. But there was a part of him that says, "I'm too sinful to be in Your presence, Lord." He said with Isaiah, "Woe is me, for I am undone." You know what I have found? The people that God uses the most are the ones who are so aware of their sinfulness. They're so aware of the fact that their feet are made of clay. They never think they're somebody special, somebody great, somebody awesome. That's a proudful person, and God's opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. And here is Peter, and he recognizes his own sinfulness, and he sees the Lord for who He is. Adrian Rogers said one time, I've never forgotten it, he said, "Bible study gives you knowledge of God, but obedience enables you to know God." There are a lot of people who know the Word of God, but they don't do the Word of God, and so they don't know the God of the Word. Obedience helps you to know God, and God will make you aware of His holiness and His presence. And then number three: you sell out to His mission. "And so also James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not fear, from now on you'll be catching men.' And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him." They left everything and followed Him. They weren't fishermen anymore; now they were fishing for men. Listen, God doesn't call every person who says, "Yes, Lord," He doesn't call us to full-time vocational service. He's not saying to everybody in here, "Hey, you're a coach, you need to resign today and you come and be a preacher." Or, "You come and be in full-time vocational service. You're a tax accountant, you come. You are a salesman, you come." He's not saying that. But He is calling all of us to get on mission with Him. What's His mission? To seek and to save that which was lost. To leave everything that is of our plans and our agendas and say, "Lord, I am following You. Here's the steering wheel. Not my will but Thine be done. And I want to use my life as I'm yielded to You to make a difference in my world, in my sphere of influence, with my neighbors, with my friends, with the people at school, with the people at work, with the people I rub shoulders with, people who are one heartbeat from hell. I want to use my life, Lord, and let You use my life to reach them for Christ. I want to be a fisher of men. I want to catch men and women and boys and girls." It's amazing that God would use us to be in that kind of endeavor. To know that God wants to use your life to make an eternal impact on the lives of people, that you can rejoice forever and ever and ever that God used you to lead this person, that person, the other person to faith in Christ. God wants us to be involved in that. He wants to use us to catch men. So many churches, as a pastor friend of mine said, they fish in the aquarium. They just swap sheep. They're just looking at this other church. "Well, maybe if we get so-and-so to come over from this other church to our church," and people move around like crazy. "Oh, I'm mad at this church, so I'm going to this other church." Or, "I got mad at that church, so I'm going back to this other church." And churches split because they get mad and this and that. And all it is, it's sheep moving from here to here to here to here, and the world's going to hell. And my friend said, "We're not fishing in the aquarium anymore. We're going after the lost. We're going to reach people that don't know Christ." I want that for our church. God wants to use us in that way. Obedience makes the difference. It brings blessing, it brings fulfillment, and it brings nearness with God. Hey, as we close out, are you obeying? Are you doing what the Lord says to do? Are you walking in His ways or are you kicking against the goads? It's hard to kick against the goads. Some of you, you're like that prodigal. You're leaving the Father's way. Why? Because you put it in your mind and you said, "My way's better than His way," and so you're moving out. Listen, let me tell you, you're going to end up at the pigsty, and you're going to experience a living hell. And God doesn't want that for you, and I don't want that for you. The time is now to get your life right, to go back to the Father, to know that His arms are open wide. He loves you, He wants to change you, He wants to help you. Some of you are too busy. Some of you are too smart and too proud, and you think you got it all figured out. His ways are right concerning everything.
Larry Nobles: That's a bold statement but backed by the Word of God. Listen, are you willing to obey God in all things? If you are, you'll experience His abundant blessings and recognize His holiness through your obedience. That's a promise from God. What a great message today called "Trust and Obey" from Pastor Jeff's "Attitude for Altitude" series. If you'd like to listen again or hear part one from yesterday, you can surely do that when you go to fromhisheart.org, click the listen link. And when you do go online, you'll also discover hundreds of other resources to help you in many areas in your life. Hundreds of messages that you can watch or listen to and, well, so much more. Discover how much God really loves you and has a great plan for your life. Go to fromhisheart.org. Time's gone for this broadcast. Thanks for being here. I'm Larry Nobles, hoping you'll join us again tomorrow for the last lesson of the week and the next message in Pastor Jeff's "Attitude for Altitude" series. Join us on Friday to learn the power of praying big. Next time here on From His Heart.