Sermon Notes, May 21, 2017
Rev. Garry McGlinchy
Pastor
Garry's fourth sermon in the series "Strange Love" was titled
"Strange Love is Obedient," and was based on Philippians 2:5-15,
where Paul admonishes us to be obedient, as Jesus was obedient.
It
probably came easy for Jesus, right?
Well, maybe not. Hebrews 5:7-8
says that Jesus had to "learn" obedience from the things He suffered. Just as surely as Jesus matured physically
throughout His life, He also matured spiritually. It took years and years of perfect obedience
to make Jesus the absolutely perfect representative for all humanity on the
cross.. We see this played out in Luke
2:41-52. This is the story of when Jesus
and His family were in Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. Jesus was about 12 years old at the time, and
after the festival had concluded, they made their way home. Well, not everyone left Jerusalem. Jesus stayed behind without telling anyone
what He was doing. You can imagine the
frantic state that Mary and Joseph had as they searched for their son. Luke 2:49-52 tells "the rest of the
story." Jesus was obedient to His
earthly parents, and "He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God
and man." This should alert us that
obedience is something that we all should be practicing.
In
our scripture reading, we get a very specific command that every believer
should take to heart. Paul writes to the
church in Philippi that they are to be imitators of Christ. We are to be like Him. When we look at Christ's relationship with
those He came in contact with, we can see some characteristics that stick out,
that we ought to replicate in our everyday relationships. First, we must replicate His humility. Jesus was willing to relinquish His rights in
order to be obedient to God and serve people.
This is the very attitude that we, His children, should have. We should have the same servant's heart that
is obedient tot the will and call of the Holy Spirit. We need to serve out of love of God and others.
Understand this: we choose our attitude.
We can choose an attitude that expects to be served, or we can choose an
attitude that expects to serve!
Let's
understand that Jesus voluntarily assumed the form of a human and the human
nature. (Philippians 2:5-7) While He was
still God He became a human being. He
did not give up His Deity to become human.
He set aside the right to His glory and power. It was out of obedient submission to the will
of God that He limited His power! In
reality, the one distinctive difference between Jesus and everyone else is that
while He was human He was completely free from sin! Jesus showed the world everything about the
character of God and gave us all an example of Kingdom living. Giving up one's rights for the sake of others
is a foreign concept for the world to understand. As believers of the one true King, our attitude
should reflect His. We should have the
attitude that enables us to set aside our "rights" in order to serve
others. As Christ-followers we should
desire to live as Christ lived. This
means we must develop the attitude that is obedient to humbly serve others. Even when recognition for our service goes
unnoticed. The way in which He handled
the challenge of obedience, along with the results, ought to convince us to
walk in His footsteps.
So
how do we measure obedience in our lives?
By the way we live our lives. Trusting
love, or obedience, proves that you're a Christian. "You are my friends if you do what I
command." (John 15:14) That's why
Philippians 2 tells us to work out,
or live out, our salvation by being obedient.
One reason a lot of people doubt whether or not they are saved is that
they don't obey; and the fact that they don't obey may be evidence that they're
not saved! There's nothing that builds
assurance like actually honoring Christ with one's life.
Obedience
is also measured by the way we view this life.
Real trusting love does not obey grudgingly; no complaints or arguments.
(Philippians 2:14) It stays positive,
realizing that it will always result in our good. It is critically important to believe that
all God's instructions for us are intended purely for our short- and long-term
benefit. Obedience to God leads to a
full and abundant life. (John 10:10, Psalm
16:11) Obedience is how we influence
this life. Paul says in Philippians 2:15
that we become pure light in a dark world when we obey. We shine like stars in the universe. Want to be a big star? Obey!
A dark and dying world is crying for someone to shine a light. Bev Lessin wrote, "God can do anything
that He wants to , at any time He wants - if we are yielded to Him. Life is never boring when we are walking in
obedience to the Lord."
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