The Value of Obedience

The Value of Obedience (Deuteronomy 26:16-19)

• A newspaper on the day of Elvis Presley's death in 1977 is for sale on eBay for $750.

• Some old McDonald’s happy meal toys from the 90s worth $350.

• An Apple 1, circa 1976, is one of the most valuable computers sought by collectors. That particular model sold for $355,000

• Why would someone pay that much for something like this?

• There is no logical reason.

• The 1939 issue of D.C.'s "Detective Comics" that introduces

  Batman is now worth a whopping $1.38 million

• It’s simply because they value it.

  I want to show you three aspects about the value of obedience:

  1. Obedience involves your heart (v.16)

  16 This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.

God values things as well. He values his creation. He values life.nHe values people. He values holiness.
He values obedience. Why? Because our obedience is good for us.

So we see here that the key to obedience is not trying harder. It’s not being more disciplined.
It’s not making more rules so you don’t break rules. Obedience is fostered by loving God with all your heart and soul.

Throughout the first five books of the Bible we see God through his leaders, notably Moses, continue to remind the Israelites (who descended from Abraham) of this covenant obligation. Now, as the Israelites prepare to cross into the promised land, they review all of God’s commands and are issued this challenge yet again.

Obey...but do so because you want to.

Way back in the book of Genesis, God called a man named Abraham.
God made a covenant with him.
He said, I am going to bless you and your family and use them to bless the entire world.

This covenant was initiated by God, but was conditional.
The conditions of the covenant were this: as long as you obey me and serve me, I’ll give use you to bless the world and in turn I’ll bless you.
God reminds them of this earlier in the book:

Deut 11:26-28: See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, 28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.

How do we obey God with all of our hearts?

• You have to know Him more (Prayer, Bible reading)

• You have to act like Him more

• You have to love others more

Obey with your heart.

This involves turning from sin.
This involves resisting sin.
This involves replacing sin with glorifying behavior.

The longer we walk with Jesus, the more we will be turned into His image.
A heart changes over time.
It either gets hardened or it gets softer.

If your heart is getting hardened by the things of the world, quite simply, you’re not spending enough time with Jesus.
If your heart softens and love the world then it is evident that you’ve been spending time with Jesus.

It is evidence that you are obeying Him with all your heart.

A mouse was playing under the bushes when a cat spotted it, and chased it all the way to the fields.
The mouse was so scared that it called out for its fairy godmother and asked that it be transformed to a cat.

So, the mouse became a cat.
One day, the same cat was bobbing in the prairie when a dog spotted it, and chased it all the way to the woods.
The cat was so scared that it called out for its fairy godmother and requested that it be transformed to a dog.
So, the cat became a dog.

2. Obedience involves your commitment (v.17)

17 You have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice.

One sunny day, the dog was searching for food in the woods when a tiger spotted it, and chased it all the way to the river. The dog was so scared that it called out for its fairy godmother and begged that it be transformed to a tiger.

So, the dog became a tiger.
One morning at sunrise, the tiger was prowling in the hills when a couple of native hunters spotted it, and chased it all the way to the jungle.
Natives make use of tiger skin and fur as their clothing.
The tiger was so scared that it called out for its fairy godmother and demanded that it be transformed to a native hunter.
The fairy godmother finally replied, "I have transformed you from a mouse to a cat, from a cat to a dog, from a dog to a tiger, and now you want to be transformed from a tiger to a native hunter. I can make you whatever you wish to become, but if your heart remains to be a heart of a mouse, you will always live in fear”.

No matter what we look like or how we change...if our heart and trust in Jesus is still puny like a mouse, we haven’t really changed.
Obedience your heart changing and trusting in God.

Obedience involves more than just knowing God, however. It also involves making a commitment.
That’s the essence of baptism.

Baptism is a visual representation that we are committing our life to Christ.
It is our profession to Christ.
We are receiving his forgiveness of sins.

We are receiving his gift of eternal life.
But we are also entering into a relationship with him that involves commitment and obedience.

You know, if you think about any type relationship, it’s hard to have one without commitment.
In fact, if a person is not committed to the health of a relationship, you could argue that there is no relationship at all. If a husband or wife is not committed to making a marriage work, it won’t work.

If a grown child or parent of a grown child is not committed to having a relationship with the other it won’t work.
If a sibling is not committed to having a relationship to another sibling, there won’t be one.

So why do you we expect things to be any different with our relationship with Christ?
We expect him to do all the work?
Now..he does a lot of it.

But we still must show commitment in order to see the value of being in a relationship with Him.
This was such a serious thing that God instructed the Israelites to do the following to show they’re committed:

Deut. 11:18-21: 18 You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and

when you rise. 20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

You know, when you are in a spiritual wilderness, God is all you have.
When you’re having troubles of any kind and you have nothing but God to rely on, there is not temptation to lose commitment. That’s how the Israelites were more or less for 40 years.

But now as they moved into a place of blessing, temptations will abound.
That’s why obedience involves commitment.

God wanted to see visible representation of their commitment. Further, when the people would see these signs, they could tell their children about God.
Because he also knew that their commitment would be tested as they moved from the wilderness into the promised land:

Deut. 12:29-31: 29 When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?— that I also may do the same.’ 31 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

3. Obedience involves God’s blessing (v.18-19)

And that’s the thing about blessing: we should be careful that God’s blessing does not preclude our commitment.
Because, obedience does involve God’s blessing.

The Upper East side of Manhattan is the most expensive neighborhood in America.

18 And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, 19 and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.

The average single family income is $350,000 dollars. There are 120,000 residents.
56,000 are Jews.
46% of the residents.

Despite the Jewish people’s need to individually trust Jesus Christ for salvation, God doesn’t forget his covenants.
He is still blessing the Jewish people today.

Part of God’s covenant would be contingent on their obedience, He would bless them.
But in His blessing, we must never forget where we came from. Look what he tells them in Deuteronomy 8:

Deut 8:11-18: 11 Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today,

12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

Don’t forget where you came from!