Sermon Notes

“Following God's Instructions”

By Tom Hanson

June 12^th, 2011

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We have a special needs student where I work.  Recently, there was some music playing, and she just got up, and started dancing.  She was so free, so uninhibited; she just expressed herself, and it was clear that she didn’t care what anybody else thought.  I talked to her mother, and she told me that her daughter had always been like that.  We had another student that was part of a foreign exchange program, and he wrote a letter to one of his teachers.  Basically, he said that in his own country, he had value, but, he was glad to be here, and he was thankful for the opportunity to learn.

When Abraham and Isaac went to offer a sacrifice to God, Isaac asked where the sacrifice was, and Abraham told him that God would provide.  As we go to follow God’s instructions, we don’t necessarily need to understand those instructions. 

The word ‘follow’ means to go or come after, to proceed along; to engage in as a way of life; to keep one’s attention fixed on…

What are we following?  God:  The being worshipped as the Creator and Ruler of the universe.

The word ‘instruction’ means to teach, inform, to give and order or command to; lesson, precept, command, order, directions.

We get a lot of instructions in our lives, and we categorize them, prioritize them or ignore them, depending on what they are, what day it is, or even who is giving the instructions.  We live in an information age where information and instructions inundate us through our eyes and ears and are just too much for our minds to take in completely.  Some information we just “tune out”—like the fine print of a pharmaceutical or credit card advertisement.

Some instructions are permanent, and we learn them from our infancy.  Instructions of personal and societal behavior—such as don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t lie—we learn those from our parents, our friends, our teachers, our governing officials, and, surely we learn these from our religious training growing up.

Let’s look at the granddaddy of all of God’s instructions:  The Ten Commandments.  Whether or not we want to proudly obey them, they will forever remain critically important to our spiritual well-being in the eyes of God.

 The Ten Commandments:

1.                  Thou shall have no other gods before Me (God speaking).

2.                  Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image to bow down or to serve.

3.                  Thou shall not take the name of the LORD thy GOD in vain.

4.                  Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.

5.                  Honor thy father and thy mother.

6.                  Thou shall not kill.

7.                  Thou shall not commit adultery.

8.                  Thou shall not steal.

9.                  Thou shall not bear false witness.

10.              Thou shall not covet.

 When we are raised by these rules, we learn to automatically recognize them, but, being human, we can definitely forget them.  We must constantly strive to rehearse them and all of God’s Word throughout our lives so that we may keep a fresh mind about how we must live our lifetimes.

 Galatians 5:19-21       …the lusts of the flesh…

 That’s what happens if I’m not prayed up.  These are the things that I do when I don’t have the Spirit of God in my life.  It’s a ‘me’ problem, and you’re not getting out of it.

 Galatians 5:22-26       …the fruits of the Spirit…

 He is the eternal King of all life.  He freely gives us of His Spirit.  Does He give us these instructions because He wants us to feel bad? No, of course not.  Parents give instructions because they care; God is the same way.  We are still little children in many ways. 

 John 15:1-8     …Abide in Me, and I in you…

 He is the true vine, and He cleans you.  He wants you to bear the fruit.  We live in a day and age when there are many false prophets.  Make sure that you follow God’s instructions.

2 Corinthians 5:10      …we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

 Ecclesiastes 8:11         For sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily…

 If I do something wrong, and I don’t get punished immediately for that, it doesn’t mean that I got away with it.  It really just means that God is showing mercy, and giving me an opportunity to seek forgiveness.

 Romans 3:3-4  …let God be true, but every man a liar…

 The instructions of God are valuable, but we are not the only ones that treasure them.  Following God’s Word is the light that we need to get out of this dark world.  King David wrote that the Word of God was a lamp unto his feet (Psalms 119:105).  Jesus said that he that endures unto the end, the same shall be saved (Mark 13:13).  You may be going through a wilderness experience now, but God didn’t keep the Children of Israel in the wilderness, He led them into the Promised Land.

                             Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd