Obedience, Not Performance

Do you feel like God is calling you to do something you can't do? Think again. With God you can do all things. Listen and get inspired.

Thank you, Dr. King. No rights owned to the "Street Sweeper" speech.

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SPEAKER_00 0:30

That the word today is coming from the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 4, and I'm going to be reading from the New King James Version of the Bible today. Exodus chapter 4, and I'm going to be reading verses 10 through 17. Verses 10 through 17. And this is what the word says. Now Moses said to the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. So the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say. But he said, O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else you may sin. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well, and look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you he will be glad in his heart. Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. So he shall be your spokesman to the people, and he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as his God, and you shall take his this rod in your hand with which you shall do the signs. I've read Exodus chapter four verses ten through seventeen. So our subject for this noonday service is obedience, not performance. Obedience, not performance. Many of us, as old as we are, are still trying to figure out our purpose in life. We ask, Lord, why did you create me? What is my purpose? What do you want me to do? And sadly, when God answers our prayers and tells us what to do, we often say, like Moses, I can't do that. We concoct all types of excuses. Exodus four records that the Lord grew angry at Moses. He said to Moses, Don't you know who I am? I know how you speak. I made the dumb, the deaf, and the mute. I am calling you to go do a work for me. But since you need help, I will use your brother Aaron to speak for you. You will be like God to him. You will tell him and he will deliver it. But it is you, Moses, that I am calling, and you that I will use to carry out my will. That is your purpose. So here's the thing. Purpose is not about performance, but it's about obedience. Ephesians two and ten says, For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. What does that mean? It means that although salvation was a gift from God, our good works are the result. They are our gift to God. Not using works to earn salvation, but works as gratitude for the good that God has done for us. He gave to us. We give back to him in appreciation that he did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice for us. Now we don't have to come before God with a camel, with a with a goat or bull or a cattle, a cow. But Jesus has been the sacrifice for all of us. Not only that, we are God's handiwork, artwork, his masterpiece. Look at yourself. Look at your hands, your fingers, your legs. Check your heartbeat, your pulse, breathe in, breathe out. Aren't you a masterpiece? Who could have accomplished this but God? But God, and He is so proud of us. We are made in His image. He knows us, knows our name, is concerned about us. And when He calls us, He already knows what we're working with. So God has preparation in place for us. Do you think it was an accident that Moses had an articulate brother who was a Levite priest? No. God's impatience with Moses was that Moses would think that God would call him and not support him. Not support him in carrying out the purpose. The word says God prepared for us beforehand that we should walk in it. So God already knows us. Here's something else to consider that we have a problem with. Looking around at other people. There's a saying, don't let your food get cold looking at someone else's plate. I'm gonna say that again. Don't let your food get cold looking at someone else's plate. Stop looking at what someone else has or does. Jesus is our benchmark. Try to follow his standard as best as we can. God called you for one thing, he called somebody else for something else. He called our neighbor down the street to do something else. First Corinthians four one through five tells us that the most important thing is to be found faithful. Faithful. Everything we do should be works that we can offer to God. Stop looking for that one thing to give, but rather be obedient to God and faithful in all that He tells us to do. It is a privilege to be called and do what you do in your authentic self, not thinking that you have to imitate anybody else. Just be you. Nobody can beat you being you. I read that a study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology revealed that people who live within themselves with a sense of calling have significantly higher levels of resilience, life satisfaction, and emotional well-being. To be clear, this is people who know that God is calling them, that there's a calling on their life. Not just people who have talent and are gifted. You see, your gift is what you're good at, but your purpose, your calling is why you're here, why you were created. And I have come to know and realize that just because you're good at something doesn't always mean it is your purpose. It could be, it could be not. And get this: just because you're not good at something doesn't mean that it is not your purpose. Sometimes purpose won't align with your skill set, and like Moses, you feel inadequate. I know that feeling all too well. Perhaps you do. But don't you know people who started out doing something and they were terrible at it? But they had a burden to continue to work at it, to practice it, to be obedient to God's call to do it anyhow. And over time they became phenomenal. Because God will make provision for what you lack. Whatever you need, ask God, and He gives it to you liberally. And here's something else that we should know. Two things. Then God is probably calling you to do it. And then the second thing is that you will be energized by divine grace to do that thing you're called to. What does that mean? That means that you won't be depleted, you're not constantly wearing out, and it's not really a burden for you. Because if it is, if you're always tired and don't want to do this and you're wearing out and it's a big burden to you, then it might not be your calling. Because God gives us grace for what he assigns to us. So today the topic is obedience, not performance. Obedience, not performance. God's not looking for you to be great from the very beginning. If you look at the twelve people he called, ordinary men, fishermen, old lion tax collector, one who ultimately would betray him, and he knew it. Just ordinary men, we don't hear that they were pretty smart or that they were very talented or that they had any particular gifting. But God said to them, follow me. And that's what he's saying to us. Your purpose is not just what you do, but it is what happens to other people when you do what you do. And look at what happened when the disciples spread the gospel, and they went from just a few people knowing about Jesus to now Christianity is a worldwide religion. So I'm gonna say it again. Your purpose is not just what you do, but it is what happens to other people when you do what you do. Do you influence other people for the better? Do you encourage and inspire them to reach higher? Grow taller? Are people trying to do what you do? Do you simply exist around them like a knot on a log? I don't know. Think about Jesus' influence on other people. When Jesus came around, lives were changed. They were willing to give themselves to others. They wanted to tell everyone about Jesus and so on. What about when you come around? Are you enabled to encourage anybody to help them? To let them see something that they didn't see about themselves? If God is calling you to follow him, be obedient. Be obedient to God. Because today, people, it's all about obedience and not performance. God bless you. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for this word today that gives us to know that we don't have to be perfect, we don't have to have any particular skill set. We just need to be willing. And so, Lord, we thank you that you have everything we need prepared for us. That in fact you have prepared it beforehand. And we thank you. And so, Lord, help us to get to muster up the courage to go, to say, here I am, Lord, send me. And then Lord, be with us on the journey. Because it may get hard, it will get hard, but you are there and pick us up, turn us around, and start us anew. We thank you, Lord. We thank you for what you're doing in the midst of us and for all those who look upon us. We ask that you would help them see the Jesus in us, that we may be influential for you, and that you will gain all the glory, honor, and praise for all that we do, sharing our little light to others. We thank you in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen, everybody. Thank you for being with us today. We um realize that, you know, we all have different needs, but for some reason or other, the devil's tactics are the same with all of us, whispering doubt into all of our ears, causing fear. So we bind the devil on today, and we call forth power in the name of Jesus. So think about that. God has everything we need. We just need to follow Him and be obedient. Now unto Him who's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power both now and forevermore. Let us all say Amen. I love you and you can't do a thing about it. Now go and be great for God.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

What you're gonna be in life. You are functional, lunch and motion and do the job, little