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11.01.08  		01 November 2008

THE PURSUIT OF "COMPLETE OBEDIENCE"


We must seek to live in a radical way before God.

Question:
What does it mean to live radically?

1) Jesus defined this in the Sermon on the Mount by calling us to live perfect by seeking to walk in all the light the Spirit gives us.

To live in comprehensive obedience, we are to have constant contact with God in our spirit,.
Walking perfect in obedience is relative in this age and absolute in the age-to-come.

Matthew 5:48
"You shall be perfect (walk in all our light), just as your Father is perfect."

The pursuit of "complete obedience" includes:

  • Bridling our speech;

    • James 3:2
    "For in many things we all offend.
    If anyone does not offend in word, the same is a full-grown man, able also to bridle the whole body."

  • Disciplining our physical appetites;

    • 1 Corinthians 9:27
    "But I buffet my body, and lead it captive, lest proclaiming to others I myself might be rejected."

  • Managing our time (for service and prayer with the Word);

    • Matthew 7:7
    "Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you."

  • Managing money (to increase the Kingdom beyond our comfort and honor;

    • Matthew 6:19-21
    "Do not lay up treasures on earth for yourselves, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.
    But lay up treasures in Heaven for yourselves, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
    For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

  • Making a covenant with our eyes to refuse to look on anything that stirs up lust

    • Job 31:1
    "I made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look upon a virgin?"

  • Engaging in communing prayer with the indwelling Spirit;

    • 2 Corinthians 13:14
    May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

    2) Six different Bible terms which speaks of being complete in obedience:

    Perfect:
    John 17:23
    "I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me."

    Mature:
    1 Corinthians 14:20
    "Brothers, do not be children in your minds, but in malice be like infants, and in your minds be mature."

    Blameless:
    1 Corinthians 1:6-8
    "Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you; so that you come behind in no gift, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
    He shall also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."

    Without Spot:
    Ephesians 5:27
    "That He might present it to Himself as the glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that it should be holy and without blemish."

    Worthy:
    Colossians 1:9-10
    "For this cause we also, since the day we heard, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, being fruitful in every work and increasing in the knowledge of God."

    Stand fast:
    1 Corinthians 16:13
    "Watch! Stand fast in the faith! Be men! Be strong!"

    3) Scripture presents two aspects of being complete before God:
    First, Justification - we are instantly made complete in Christ in our legal position.
    Second, Sanctification - we progressively become "complete in obedience" in our living condition before God.

    Colossians 2:10
    "And you are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power."

    The main objective in our life is to be able to present the testimony to Jesus, that our obedience was complete, thus our love for Jesus was complete.

    Enoch received the testimony that his life responses were pleasing to God.

    Hebrews 11:5
    "By faith Enoch was translated so as not to see death, and he was not found, because God had translated him;
    For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God."

    4) Our primary calling is to live in a way that expresses love to God by comprehensive obedience.

  • This is the inheritance that Jesus died for - to give Jesus a gift of our love on the last day.

    • 2 Thessalonians 1:10-11
    "When He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all those who believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that Day.
    Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of the calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power."

    Ephesians 1:18
    "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints."

  • Paul's main objective in his life was to win the prize of presenting the testimony to Jesus on the last day that his obedience was complete, thus his love was complete.

    • Paul's paradigm of his life was one long race to obtain this prize (v. 24).
    Our race is against darkness, not against other people.

    1 Corinthians 9:24-27
    "Do you not know that those running in a race all run, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain.
    And everyone who strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Then those truly that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.
    So then I run, not as if I were uncertain. And so I fight, not as one who beats the air.
    But I buffet my body, and lead it captive, lest proclaiming to others I myself might be rejected."

  • Paul had not won the prize of the crown of righteousness until his life long race was completed.

    • 2 Timothy 4:8
    "Now there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that Day; and not to me only, but also to all those who love His appearing."

  • The prize of the upward call of God is to receive the highest dimension of one's calling in the age-to-come.

    • 2 Thessalonians 1:11
    "Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of the calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power."

    Philippians 3:12-14
    "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I am pressing on, if I may lay hold of that for which I also was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
    My brothers, I do not count myself to have taken possession, but one thing I do, forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things before,
    I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

  • We must no longer be like small children, but mature christians and grown adults.

    • 2 Corinthians 13:9
    "For we are glad when we are weak, and you are powerful. This also we pray, that you may be made complete."

    Colossians 1:28-29
    "Whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
    For which I also labor, striving according to the working of Him who works in me in power."

    Colossians 4:12
    "Epaphras greets you, he being of you, a servant of Christ, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God."

    5) We are to ask the Lord for insight into areas where we lack complete dedication to Him.

    We must sit before Jesus like Mary of Bethany:

  • To worship,

  • To receive revelation of His beauty,

  • To intercede for others,

  • To gain insight into what we lack in our dedication.

    • James 1:3-5
    "Knowing that the trying of your faith works patience.
    But let patience have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing.
    But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and with no reproach, and it shall be given to him."

    Matthew 19:20-21
    "The young man said to Him, I have kept all these things from my youth up; what do I lack yet?
    Jesus said to him, If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven.
    And come, follow Me."

    In Psalms 101:1-6, David set his heart to live radically by pursuing full obedience.

    1) To walk in your house with a perfect heart is to obey God in our most familiar setting.
    2) David refused to set anything wicked before his eyes.
    3) He sought out leaders with this heart.

    Psalms 101:1-6
    "I will sing of mercy and judgment; to You, O Jehovah, I will sing praise.
    I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when will You come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.
    I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. I have hated the work of those who turn aside; it shall not hold on to me.
    A perverse heart will depart from me; I will not know the wicked.
    Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, I will cut him off; him who has a high look and a proud heart, I will not allow.
    My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land, so that they may dwell with me; he who walks in a perfect way, he shall serve Me."


      Dale Boehs

    11.01.2008


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