Embracing Belief and Obedience: The Transformative Power of Faith

Have you ever witnessed the incredible transformation that occurs when someone shifts from doubt to unwavering faith? Jeff's powerful opening prayer in our latest episode sets the stage for a journey into the essence of believing loyalty and the relentless pursuit of obedience to God's Word. We share touching testimonies, including my own path from agnosticism to belief, that reveal the life-changing influence one person can have on another's faith journey. 

Navigating the treacherous waters of modern life calls for an anchor, and we find it in the legacy of biblical obedience. Our conversation sails through the importance of planting faith's seeds within the family unit, discussing how scriptural teachings from Deuteronomy to Isaiah guide us in interweaving spiritual wisdom into the tapestry of daily interactions. We confront the challenges head-on, from the fear of discussing Jesus with our children to the broader anxiety of sharing our faith with the world, offering insights on how to approach these conversations with confidence and authentic zeal.

As we draw our episode to a close, the call to arms resonates deeply as we urge you to become valiant 'dragon slayers' in your own life's narrative. Reflecting on the stories of biblical figures like Abraham and David, we illustrate how their steadfast obedience led to monumental victories. With a closing prayer, we challenge you to embody this same spirit, aligning your actions with your convictions, and building a formidable legacy of faith and obedience for the ages. Join us, alongside Jeff, in this profound exploration of what it means to live a life loyal to the commands of God.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:03

God, thank you so much for who you are, thank you for everything that you do. I pray that you're. The Holy Spirit is just on this message this morning, that it's challenging us, god, that it's convicting us, that it's bringing us to the understanding that really genuine transformation comes from knowing you and listening and doing the things you call us to do through your word and God. Just thank you so much for Jeff, thank you for his heart and thank you for him being here this morning, as always. May you just fill him with your words, god. It's not about him, but it's all about you. I protect everything. He says that those who hear whether he or online or just they hear your truth in your word being taught. God, we love you, we thank you. There's nothing to pray, amen.

Speaker 2: 1:56

Alright, is this thing working? Can you guys hear me? Alright? So before I get started, if I'm teaching on obedience this morning, I need to be obedient. And the first thing is you sir in the back row that gave the community meditation. I feel that I need to speak to you for a second. Your son is not involved in the church. Don't give up hope on that kid. I was an agnostic, leaning atheist, when I was in high school and into college. It took one guy to wreck my worldview. That changed everything for me. So please don't give up hope on him and church pray for that kid, like it may be very well one of you in here that has that conversation with him that changes his worldview, that changes his perspective. So please don't give up on him and I will pray as well and, if God willing, if God ever puts him across the table from me, I will love to have a conversation with him. I would absolutely love it. So, with that said, like I said, if I'm speaking about obedience and you feel prompted should be obedient, if I get up here and I'm like I'm just gonna ignore that prompting completely, my message here is completely void. As Jason said, my name is Jeff Lees. I'm a former youth minister. I am still a minister in many regards.

Speaker 2: 3:27

I will have a conversation about Jesus with anybody, and last time I was here I talked about a guy that called me an idiot at a gas station because I had a God shirt on or a Jesus shirt. And the guy called me an idiot and I'm like all right, I've got 10 minutes of spare here, I'm gonna put my beverages down, I'm gonna talk to this guy, alright. So likewise here, just a few days ago I had a conversation with a gentleman over a phone. We were having a financial meeting with a financial advisor of all people, and at the end of the conversation the guy made a comment about how many people are going to, how many people are gonna be talking to us in the near future, and I laughed. I said that's fine, they can keep coming, I'm just gonna talk about Jesus. And he looked at me. It's like that's kind of an odd response. He's like that's awesome, like I believe in Jesus too, but he's like that's such an odd response. I've never heard that from somebody before. And I said our Bible literacy is at an all-time low in this country and when God tells us to be obedient. We should obey, right. If we believe in God, should we not obey? And so in that moment, having a conversation with the guy that I've never met in my life and still technically haven't met, just had a phone call with him and I tell him, like listen, I will talk to anybody about Jesus, like that was enough for him to take a moment, just pause on that. That was enough for him to take a step back and say, oh, this is an okay space to talk about Jesus. That's all that it took is just that one little moment of a conversation, all right.

Speaker 2: 5:02

So what I want to talk about this morning is this idea that we get in Scripture that we don't talk about nearly enough, and this idea of believing loyalty. All right, believing loyalty this has become kind of a mantra for me in my life. This is something that I was introduced to about five years ago, and this is idea that if we believe in God, if we believe in Christ, if we truly believe what the Scripture tell us, should we not obey? If we believe, we will be loyal. So what does it mean to be loyal? You obey, all right. That's a simple point to start with. All right, it's this idea of believing loyalty that is all throughout Scripture and honestly it needs to be written on.

Speaker 2: 5:55

Obeyed the initial command of God, temptation wouldn't have been a thing. All right again. We would still be in Eden. So in Genesis 6, with the fallen sons of God having kids with the daughters of men again, had they obeyed, chaos isn't on the table anymore, all right. So let's look another step. Let's look at Abraham and Sarah. Are you guys are familiar with them, right? So if Abraham and Sarah had just waited on God and obeyed what he said, ishmael would never have been born and the chaotic Arab nations would not be in play today. You guys realize that? But then also, if the nation of Israel had its formation in the Bible, if the nation of Israel had obeyed when God commanded them to do certain things, the nation, their land, would not be under so much dispute today. Again, do we see this? Even from the beginning of time, from the beginning of humankind? When disobedience steps in, chaos ensues down the line, even thousands of years removed. Now we're in 24 years past the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and we're still dealing with the chaos of disobedience that we find in the Old Testament. Do we see this. Do we see this? So, again, the idea of believing loyalty is a concept that is throughout throughout the Old Testament, even into the New Testament. It's this idea that if you believe who I am, as Jesus would say if you believe who I am, you will obey what I command.

Speaker 2: 7:54

Now there are some things that I think we could do better as Christians. For example, if we look at Judaism, all right, we're gonna get a little dicey for a second, I'm sorry. We look at Judaism and Islam All right, let's look at an example. There are practices that those two groups do that I really wish we did. I really really wish we did, because understand, like throughout Judaism and even in Islam, this idea of God, or Allah, yahweh. It permeates their entire culture, it permeates everything that they do. Every aspect of life for them revolves around their God. Can we say the same? All right. So, for example, prayer, all right.

Speaker 2: 8:47

The call to prayer daily, if not hourly, within the Islam practice, like we've all seen it, whether we've seen movies or we work with people that are Muslims. This is a practice that they do, it is a routine, it is a ritual for them. They do not miss it. Prayer outweighs every other aspect. They could be in the middle of a job and when it is a call to prayer, they will quit what they're doing. They will quit their vocation. In that moment, to pray their God, allah, is far more important to them than their vocation. How often do we pray? How often do we communicate with God?

Speaker 2: 9:37

Orthodox Judaism is very similar. They have kind of the same approach. It's the they will very similar to Islam. They will face Mecca, they will pray toward the Holy Lands, they will pray to Yahweh and they have their times of days and times of year where prayer is exceptionally important to them. Again, it permeates everything that they do. So again I ask where is our prayer life, where is ours in this? Where is our practice, our obedience in this Proselytizing? Now bear with me here.

Speaker 2: 10:16

I understand that Islam has a very weird way of proselytizing. It's aggressive expansion, if not violent expansion. But the point that I want to make with even the proselytizing of the Muslim, it permeates everything that they do. Every aspect of their walk is them furthering Allah. Now, whether that is actually the appropriate way of doing it or not, I think we all agree that's not great. But again, it's part of who they are, even from being children raised in this. It's who they are Judaism. They don't have the aggressive expansion, obviously, but again, they raise their children in this. They do not deviate from the Scriptures.

Speaker 2: 11:08

All right, and this is one thing that like every conversation that I've had with an Orthodox Jew they may not be militant in how they communicate, but they are always prepared with a zeal and a fervor that I rarely see in the modern day church. They are prepared to defend their faith and they are prepared to defend their faith from when they are about this big. They are taught these things. They are taught these things. So again, I ask us as a church, as the body of Christ as a whole, not just you guys here, but as a whole where are we with this? Where are we with teaching our children how to do this, how to be a part of this?

Speaker 2: 12:01

And I want you guys to understand that this is a commandment, by the way, that this is one of those areas that is, a believing loyalty. If you believe in God, you will be loyal. But what does it mean to be loyal in this way? If you look at Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verses 7 through 9, you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk, by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise. Proverbs 22, 6,. Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Isaiah 54,. All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. That's just three verses.

Speaker 2: 12:51

That talks about the importance of teaching your children this, like ingraining this into them so they see this Again. This is a part of the idea of being loyal, of having obedience. It's how do we bring up our children in this? How do we talk about this? How do you have regular conversations about God, about Jesus, about the sacrifice that was made? Every aspect of Scripture should be an everyday conversation.

Speaker 2: 13:22

I'm not saying you need to sit down and have a sermon with your kids because they've got 30 minutes and they're done or less, but it is something that your kids need to be able to see how it's important to you If church and Bible Scripture, reading, prayer, talking about Jesus. If it's not important to you enough to talk to them, they're going to read that, they're going to see that. If it's not important enough to mom and dad, why should it be that important to me? I really want that to kind of sink in. Alright, if it's not important enough for mom and dad to be excited about it, why should I, as a teenager, give two rips about it? If we're not excited enough to share and talk about Jesus, we're missing something. If Jesus has just become a part of your ritual, your weekly ritual, this is just what we do on Sundays, but the other six days of the week we are completely avoiding even a basic conversation. We've missed a large part of what it means to be loyal to Christ.

Speaker 2: 14:47

Now, I'm not saying that we all need to go out and be preachers. I'm not saying that it takes a very odd individual and Jason too it takes an odd individual to stand up here and talk about Jesus. But I will tell you, this is easy because we all have relatively the same worldview. So I can get up here and I can talk about Jesus all day to you guys, and this is simple because we all have the basic same understanding and belief structures. Now for you to sit down and talk with your financial advisor and just make the comment like, hey, I'll talk about Jesus all day long. That's different.

Speaker 2: 15:24

But again, it's the idea that we are not the ones changing somebody's heart. That's not our job. That's not our role. Our job is to simply make the introduction to Jesus. That's all we do, that's our role. And then when people make that exception, or when they accept who Jesus is or they accept the conversation, then it becomes a discipling matter. Then they say, hey, let's actually talk about this. I want to know your worldview. Have you come to some of the conclusions that you've come to? By what standard are you living? Just by the way, if you ever want to have somebody squirm in a conversation, ask that question. Have you ever get on to like a religious conversation and they say something that you don't agree with, that goes against the Bible? Ask them by what standard. It gets very interesting very quickly, so. But again getting back on point. So the idea of no.

Speaker 2: 16:22

Let's look at prayer. Are we being loyal with our prayer life or is it just something we do before meals or before bed? It's just not all bad. You're still praying. I would applaud that. But when Paul talks about prayer, he talks about it as a continual prayer, unceasing. Now, that's tough, but that is what we are called to. Alright, I lost my spot, sorry, alright.

Speaker 2: 17:01

So why are we scared to have these conversations? Again, if we're asked to be obedient, which I think a lot of us would say would be like I want to be obedient to this, I want to be able to have these conversations, but I get timid, I get scared. Why are we timid or scared? Does anybody have an answer for that? Why are we timid? Or we're scared to have a conversation about Jesus with somebody? Does anybody want to answer that one? Oh, that's a good one. There's another one over here. Rejection Unpack that a little bit. What do you mean by rejection? Like them rejecting you, or Okay, okay, and those are very, very good answers. So the ones that I've come across as well, along with those.

Speaker 2: 17:53

What if they ask me a question that I don't have an answer to? Have any of you ever been in that position where you want to have the conversation? But, ah, this person might be a little more smarter than me, they might have a little more knowledge than I do? What if I say something that they don't agree with and they come back with a question that I don't have an answer to? It happens, it's okay, I promise, it'll be okay, I promise.

Speaker 2: 18:19

Or another one is what if I offend somebody? That's another big one right now. What if I offend somebody? I offend somebody's worldview. What if my friends or my family don't agree with me and I lose them? What if I'm kicked out of my house for my religion? What if my friends disassociate with me Because I don't want to run with them anymore? I don't want to do the things that we've been doing. Those are tough questions and those are things that we need to address and we need to talk about. But also I'm going to be brutally honest here for a second, as if I haven't already. None of those reasons really matter. None of those reasons should be adequate reasons for us to be afraid. Sorry If I just destroyed your excuse, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2: 19:24

So an example Exodus, chapter 4, verse 10,. God says to Moses I will give you the words to say and just so I don't get the, you're taking the verse out of context In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 21,. Ford, is not you who speak, but the spirit of your Father who speaks in you. How often do we speak boldly enough within our loyalty that we can say like it is God that speaks through me. Do we have that kind of confidence? We should, we should, all right. And I will say, even from my standpoint, from where I am, there are times where I'm like I'm not sure that I want to have that conversation right now because I don't know that I will have the words to speak and I forget what the scriptures tell us. I forget that, engaging in those conversations, the spirit will speak through us. All right, all right. So, and if it comes down to like, why don't want to offend somebody? Look at the entire Old Testament and how God handles offending people. Look at the entire ministry of Jesus himself.

Speaker 2: 20:43

Jesus, it's not that he didn't care about offending people, but Jesus would cut to the truth. And if you were offended by the truth, that's on you. That is, the prominent message that Jesus would give is that I'm going to give you the truth. I'm going to share the truth of God with you, all right. And then I'm going to tell you how to get out of sin. I'm going to tell you how to get away from your punishment that is coming. I'm going to give you all these things. I'm going to give you the truth of it. If you're offended by it. That's on you. That's a hard issue with you, not with me, not with Christ. That's on you.

Speaker 2: 21:25

Jesus wasn't so much worried about offending people because again he would cut to the core of it. He would cut directly to the truth and he would share the truth and let people deal with it as they would. But even with that said, like, why are we so concerned with offending people who disagree with our worldview? Should we not be more concerned with offending the creator of the cosmos? Should we not be more afraid of offending the one who literally breathed stars? When God says let there be light, he is breathing out stars. I'm going to say I don't really worry about offending people, I don't want to offend that. All right, I'm gonna do what he asked me to do. If you're able to breathe out a star, let me know and I'll start listening to you.

Speaker 2: 22:25

Matthew, chapter 10, verse 34. I think my phone just fell asleep and that's my timer. Oh, yeah, we're good. Matthew, chapter 10, verse 34. Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace but the sword, for I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter in law against her mother in law, and the person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son and daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Speaker 2: 23:02

This is the idea. What if I upset my friends and my family and they walk away? Jesus was very clear that when you share the truth, when you share him with people, with family members, people are gonna walk away. You're gonna face that If you love Christ more than your own kids, you're gonna share Jesus with them, despite what they're going to say, and any other family member, any friends, because the most loving thing you can do is share Jesus with those people. That is the most loving thing that you can do for them. I see you, I see your sin, I see your life, I see all of this. I'm not calling any of that out, but what I'm calling you to do is understand that Jesus loves you. He wants you where you are. So don't think you have to get cleaned up first before you come to Jesus. Come to Jesus and he'll clean you. Let Christ take care of that. But it's the idea that we love Christ. We love Jesus more than anything else, more than anyone else.

Speaker 2: 24:15

Jesus comes before my wife. All right, my wife very much understands that and she would say the same thing. Jesus to her is priority number one, even over me. And we've got two kiddos. We've got a seven-year-old and an almost four-year-old. Jesus comes before them too, which is an interesting conversation with a seven-year-old when she says daddy, do you love me? Yes, I do. Do you love me or Jesus more? Well, sorry, you're not gonna win that one, but she's starting to wrestle with it. She's starting to understand because this is an idea, that this is something that we do on a daily basis that we have these conversations with our kids. Why do I love Jesus more? So my daughter her name is Annika Like I will tell her like Annika, you can't save me from my sins. You can't save me from the eternity of chaos and punishment. You don't love me the way Jesus loves me. You don't see me the way Jesus sees me. So I wanna share this one stat with you real quick. And this was sobering for me and a little. It was hard to read this and I'm gonna read it like I don't really like reading from the paper. But to make sure I get the numbers right, I'm gonna read this to you.

Speaker 2: 25:38

A new nationwide survey from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University has made a troubling discovery 12% of children's and youth pastors hold a biblical worldview. 12% hold a biblical worldview. 41% of senior pastors hold to a biblical worldview. You got one that holds to it, by the way. He's solid, he's good. I've checked him out, he's all right. 43% of church going Christians Christians hold to a biblical worldview on matters of sin. Listen, that's an F, that's an F Like. If you guys were to like, take your grade cards home. As you were a kid in like high school and you showed your parents that you got a 46% in a class, what kind of a response would that have generated with your parents? I would have beat, let me tell you Like I would have run out of the house. All right, that is a failing grade. So what are we doing? All right, and here's the other part of this that gets even more scary for me.

Speaker 2: 26:59

62% of church going Christians identify with syncretism. You guys know what syncretism is, no, so syncretism is where you take other ideas in your culture and try to mesh it with your philosophical and religious views and you come out with something else in the back end of that. You're trying to mesh things. This is where we get progressive Christianity, by the way. You take the views of the world, the chaos that the world is giving you. There are things about it that you like and you take elements of that and you try to mesh them together with your spiritual worldview.

Speaker 2: 27:43

By definition, this is a heresy. This is disobedience at its core, but this is where we are church. This is what we are facing as Christians, as followers of Jesus, and I know I've shared this before with you, but when I'm having conversations with people, I don't even call myself a Christian anymore. I don't. If someone asks me, no, are you a Christian? My immediate response is not yes. My immediate response is well, what do you mean by Christian?

Speaker 2: 28:19

Unpack that for me, and most of the time not all the time, but most of the time the response that they give is not something that we should be if we are being obedient to Scripture. No, I get the well, you hate gays. You haven't talked to me. No, I don't. Well, you are. You're completely against all these other religions. I'm against the other gods, yes, but I'm not against the person Because, again, as the Bible teaches us, our enemy, our conflict, is not a flesh and blood. Our enemy is something that is supernatural. I do not look at people as if they are my enemy. I look at them as if they might be my opposition, sure, but they are definitely my mission, but they are not my enemies. I should never view people as an enemy, never Again. This is the idea of believing loyalty. How do you interact with people?

Speaker 2: 29:27

All right, as we kind of wrap this up this morning, do you want to share, like some of the biblical characters that we have, like, what happens when obedience is observed? Noah? Noah was told to obey God by building a boat, building a very big boat. He was obedient and his family was spared. He was then another starting point for the civilization of that time. All right, god did a miracle through them.

Speaker 2: 30:02

Now, abraham and Sarah again, they were obedient. After the whole Ishmael debacle, they were obedient and God started a nation through them. Moses Moses was obedient and now we have the book of Exodus, David out of his times of being disobedient. When David was obedient, giants fell, the 12 apostles, even Judas, cast out demons. You guys realize that, paul.

Speaker 2: 30:44

When Paul was Saul, he obeyed. He was a Jew of Jews and then, when Christ came to him, he obeyed. Because of Paul's mission, we have the church today. And let's not forget who the narrative of Scripture is about Jesus himself. Jesus came to fulfill his promise. Jesus was obedient to his call, to his promise. Do you guys see this?

Speaker 2: 31:22

When we obey, we can fight the hurricanes. When we obey, we raise up entire generations of followers and believers. When we obey, the gods are stripped of their power and their authority. When we obey, we can fight the giants. When we obey, the miraculous becomes our daily journey. When we obey, nothing else matters.

Speaker 2: 31:51

And when we obey, we slay dragons. Do we see this? Have you ever thought about that? As followers of Jesus, we become dragon slayers. This is the model and the example that is put forth through all of ancient context the ancient dragon that is in Revelation. When the dragon is defeated, are we not all dragon slayers? Are we all not putting the dragon in his place? So are we acting like children of the star breather? Are we acting like children of the creator of the cosmos? Are we being obedient to our call?

Speaker 2: 32:44

I want to challenge you with that this morning. Are we being obedient? If we believe in God, if we believe in Christ, we are to be loyal, and being loyal means obedience. Let's pray, father. God, we come to you this morning and we thank you so much for this opportunity, just for this time, that we can choose to come here, that we can choose to come and worship and be a part of this, father, and I ask that, as we go from this place, that you remind us of what it is to be your children, to be your image bearers in this world, father, to be dragon slayers in this world. What does this mean for us? What does it mean to have believing loyalty? Again, father, I thank you so much, just for this time, and for all the people that are here that are willing to come out and listen to some weirdo preach at them. Again, we thank you so much for this time, father, we thank you and we love you, so as we ask and praise in Jesus' name, amen,