Ep. 74 | Whole Hearted Obedience | Genesis

Listen in as Pastor Eddie Blalock shares today’s daily devotional featuring Genesis 6:18-22. Let’s be Formed by The Word together!

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Transcript

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Every story has a beginning. And if you don't understand the beginning, you'll likely misunderstand everything that follows. Welcome to Formed by the Word. Currently, we're going back to the very beginning as we look together at the first 11 chapters of Genesis. These chapters explain our world, our struggles, and much about ourselves. We'll see beauty and brokenness, purpose and pride, judgment and grace. We'll watch humanity fall and see that God already had a plan to restore his relationship with us. The Bible doesn't start with a problem, it starts with a perfect God, and that changes everything. So, wherever you're listening, whether you're driving, working out, or just scrolling for something meaningful, lean in, open your heart, because the God who spoke in the beginning is still speaking today. Genesis chapter 6, 17 through 22. Understand that I am bringing a flood, floodwaters on the earth to destroy every creature under heaven with the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish, but I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark with your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives. You also are to bring into the ark two of all the living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of everything, from the birds according to their kinds, from the livestock according to their kinds, and from the animals that crawl on the ground according to their kinds, will come to you so that you can bring them and keep them alive. Take with you every kind of food that is eaten, gather it as food for you and for them. And Noah did this. He did everything that God had commanded him. Well every parent has experienced it, I suppose. You tell your child, please go and clean up your room. Thirty minutes later you walk in and discover the toys are picked up, but the clothes are still everywhere. The bed isn't made and half the mess has simply been shoved into the closet or under the bed. Then comes the classic response, but mom, but dad, I did clean it. Well, as parents, we understand something instinctively. Partial obedience is not the same as wholehearted obedience. The issue is not merely whether the child did something, the issue is whether they trusted and honored the instruction completely and followed it entirely. Spiritually, we often do the same thing with God. We obey the comfortable parts, the visible parts, the convenient parts, or the easy parts while we quietly hold back areas we would rather control ourselves or just don't want to fool with. In fact, one of the easiest lives to believe spiritually is this. Some would believe that almost obedience or partial obedience is obedient enough. But throughout the Bible, God never praises partial obedience. He always honors hearts that trust him enough to obey him completely, even when it is costly, even when it's unpopular or difficult. That's why Noah stands out in Genesis 6 and a corrupt world filled with compromise. Noah obeyed God completely. Genesis 6, 22. I just couldn't get away from this ending line. Noah did this. He did all that God commanded him. You can be sure of this. God is not looking for partial compliance. God's looking for wholehearted surrender. And wholehearted obedience begins with a wholehearted trust in God. We can't trust partially. We have to give it all. As we finish up Genesis 6, I think we need to be reminded that God extended unconditional grace to Noah. Noah found favor in God's eyes. So God decided that he was going to extend that grace to Noah and to his family. He told Noah to build an ark. He told him that the judgment was coming in the form of a flood, but that he would protect Noah and his family from the coming judgment. Noah's response was to trust God even before he understood everything. And then we saw in verse 18 that God established his covenant with Noah and said, You will enter the ark with your family, the animals will come to enter the ark also. So you must gather food for your family and the animals. The last sentence in chapter six, though, is the one that gets me. Noah did all of this. Noah did everything that God commanded him. Not most things, not the convenient things, everything. One of the greatest spiritual dangers, I believe, today is convincing ourselves that partial obedience is the same thing as faithfulness. We celebrate the parts of God's word that we follow or that we like, while we quietly excuse the parts that we ignore. The scripture repeatedly shows us God is not merely looking for religious activity, he's looking for surrendered hearts. Not partially surrendered hearts, fully surrendered hearts. And Noah did this. He did everything that God commanded him. As I thought about that text and I just couldn't move away from it, I thought about it and I saw it in two different aspects. And so let me break it into two parts for you as I observed it. The first part is obedience. Think about that phrase. Noah did everything. This comes after God gave incredibly detailed instruction for building the ark, right? God didn't just say build the ark. He told Noah to use specific dimensions, specific woods. He told him to gather animals, to prepare food, and to bring his family aboard. He told him to build compartments or nests. It was a very, very detailed plan. We observed some of these thoughts yesterday, I know, but my mind is lingering here, so let's talk about it again. We see from this that obedience is rarely easy. Obedience is faith in action. Noah didn't merely believe God. He acted on what God said. Real faith obeys even when it doesn't fully understand. Noah had never seen a worldwide flood before, and yet he obeyed. And we saw before that obedience often looks foolish before it looks faithful. Imagine building an ark while everyone around you, all of your neighbors, all of your friends are mocking you. Obedience doesn't always make sense, does it? I think we need to be reminded of that often. Noah obeyed without full understanding. You see, God often explains what before he ever explains why, or certainly that's been my experience. Noah had no precedent, he had no weather forecast, yet he obeyed. Obedience, my friend, is an act of faith. Noah obeyed despite public pressure. The ridicule was intense, the criticism was harsh, but obedience to God's will sometimes isolates you from the crowd. So obedience. Noah did this. The second part of the sentence, I think, shows wholehearted obedience. So let's move deeper into this thought of obedience just a moment. Not only did Noah obey, he obeyed all of it. That's the point. He did everything. Not just the big commands, not just the convenient commands, not just the plans that he understood, but everything. Everything really matters, doesn't it? You see, Noah obeyed completely, not partially. Partial obedience is often disguised rebellion, really. Saul obeyed partially. You remember the story of Saul? Noah obeyed fully, but Saul, the first king of Israel, was only partially obedient. Maybe you remember the text that Samuel gives us in 1 Samuel 15 tells us when Saul was told by the prophet Samuel to destroy the Amalekites and their king, and he was destroyed everything and take no spoil. And yet the scriptures tell us that he halted on that. And while he did win a victory over the army of the Amalekites, he spared the king. He spared some of the choicest cattle and some of the choicest prizes and kept them as bounty. And when he came back proudly to Samuel to tell him, look, we've won the battle, we've done everything that you've told us to do, and we've brought back some things to offer a sacrifice to God. And you may remember that Samuel was not happy. He replied, verse 22 of chapter 15, Samuel replied to Saul, Saul, what is more pleasing to the Lord? Your burnt offerings and your sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? He said, Listen, obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. In other words, Saul, your obedience was only partial, and partial obedience is actually disobedience. Selective obedience is disobedience. Convenient obedience is not obedience. Even delayed obedience is disobedience. So let's close out here with a couple of questions that we might can apply to our lives. Let me ask you this. What has God clearly told you to do that you keep delaying? Ask yourself, am I selectively obeying God, only choosing the things that I want to do? Or do I trust God enough to obey even before I see results and to obey completely everything? Ah, that's a big word. So here's the takeaway for today, and I hope it helps. Obedience is simply trusting God enough to do everything He says, not just the parts that we like. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for teaching us about obedience today. May we obey you, Lord, not in part, not selectively, not randomly, but consistently and fully. May we be found with our wholehearted devotion to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for joining us today. We are so glad that you chose to spend a few moments with us in God's Word. If this episode has encouraged you, we ask that you leave us a review or maybe share this episode with a friend. Also, would you consider sending us a note to let us know what God is doing in your life? Pastor Eddie would love to hear from you. You can find this email in the show notes. Until next time, stay in the scriptures, keep following Christ, and allow your life to be formed by the Word.