Formed By Obedience

This week, Pastor Cameron walks us through how God uses both big and small moments of obedience—especially in the Palm Sunday story—to shape us into people who truly love and follow Jesus.

Creators and Guests

Host

Cameron Lienhart

Cameron is the Senior Pastor of Conduit Ministries

What is Conduit Ministries?

We are all about helping people get closer to Jesus.
Sundays @ 9 AM & 11 AM - 120 Delaware Ave in Jamestown, NY

Speaker 1: 00:09

Let's pray so I can stop talking, and Pastor Cameron will come up here and give us a sermon. Heavenly Father, this morning as we turn our attention and we open up your word together, I pray that you would speak to us. Lord, I know that each and every person in this room is going through different things, Lord. And Lord, I do believe that your word is effective and that your Holy Spirit is active among us. Lord, I pray that you would bring the message that each of us needs to hear today, Lord.

Speaker 1: 00:43

That you would, through pastor Cameron and through his surrender to you, that you would be glorified. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Cameron: 00:53

Good morning, friends. Thank you, pastor Luke. We have continued in a series that we named or called Formed, which highlights some of the ways, not every way of course, but some of the ways that God forms us to be more like Jesus. So that we live like Jesus, we love like Jesus, we serve like Jesus. Some of those things that God uses are, we can call, or we generally think of as pretty positive, like community.

Cameron: 01:30

Like God forms us through our oneness in spirit and the relationships that we have in community. Then there's other things that God may use that form us in significant ways that we would rather have avoided if we could. That God forms us through suffering. I don't know if it's a good or a bad one. I don't know.

Cameron: 01:59

Ultimately, it is good because any way or through any means that we are formed into the image and likeness of Jesus is a good and merciful gift from God. Today we're going to talk about being formed through obedience. As Pastor Luke mentioned, today is Palm Sunday. And if you're familiar with the events around the last week of Jesus' life, as He's leaving the area of Bethany and coming into Jerusalem. You'll maybe see some connections here between Jesus' acts of obedience and ways that we can be formed by obedience as well.

Cameron: 02:52

But Palm Sunday is the day that we celebrate Jesus coming into Jerusalem for the final time before he is arrested and crucified, and then later, of course, resurrected. But what does Palm Sunday represent? Well, represents a lot of things. It represents a kind of misalignment in the expectations that the crowd and the Jewish people had of Jesus and Jesus' own mission and ministry. They wanted Him to be a certain kind of King.

Cameron: 03:27

The Father had Him on a different type of path. There was a measure of obedience that was necessary for Jesus to cast off the expectations of those around Him so that He could pursue the ministry that God had, that the Father had called Him to. Maybe that's a little bit of your story as well. But what I want to highlight a little bit for us this morning is that Palm Sunday is essentially a day representing a very, very visible expression of Jesus' obedience to the plan of God, despite what He knew ahead of Him. This was kind of paramount in our understanding of what it means to obey, is that obedience always comes at the point of our will's resistance.

Cameron: 04:22

The place where we step into the threshold of whether we will do the thing that God has called us to or asked us to or not do the thing that God has called us to or asked us to. Obedience, it's difficult to say I am living in a state of obedience when it's something that you want to do. Right? Then you're just doing the thing that you want to do. But obedience is coming to the threshold of resistance.

Cameron: 04:48

And we're going to talk about how that resistance forms us. I think you probably know this. And I think you probably know this because it's probably at least somewhat a factor of your own heart. It's a factor of my heart. I'm not really like a cultural critic or apologist in any way.

Cameron: 05:11

This opinion here really just comes from, I know my own heart. And we do not live in an exceptionally obedient culture. We really don't. We really champion individual thinking and behaving. And actually, what I found is that we may actually become a little skeptical of people who so quickly and seemingly mindlessly in our thinking, obey.

Cameron: 05:47

Like, well, they're just a sheep. They just do what they're told. No independence in their thinking at all. No pioneering into their own future. They just obey as if obedience is somehow a scarlet letter to our character.

Cameron: 06:06

But I will tell you, and what I hope to share this morning is that the scripture says that obedience is the hallmark of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, to be a Christian. And if we don't accept or we don't have a concept of obedience for our Christian walk, we will struggle to live into the fullness of God's life for us. If we are just automatically resistant to the idea of obedience because we are our own person and we will make our own decisions and we are going to chart our own way and no one will ever tell us what to do with our lives, you are going to have a very difficult time following Jesus. And so until we develop a concept of what it means to obey, we will struggle in life. James, the half brother of Jesus, I mentioned this in a sermon, I think, on the formation through God's Word a couple of weeks ago, that James says in James one twenty two that we are to not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves, do what it says.

Cameron: 07:27

That there is a factor to knowing what to do, but choosing not to do it that is an act of self deception. That you actually live a lie when you hear the truth, but don't apply it or do it. And so obedience is a way to step out of a deceptive inner disposition and into a receptive disposition of God's spirit in our lives. This is a pretty striking verse. To not be hearers but doers also.

Cameron: 08:07

And so to escape being deceived. There are more striking verses about obedience in the scripture than this one. Much more, offensively more, scarily more. Okay? Here's some examples.

Cameron: 08:25

First John chapter five, verse three, probably the two most poignant examples that connect obedience, look, connection of obedience to love for God. Okay, several points here. This is scary. Obedience is a mark of love. Even we may say the mark of love for God.

Cameron: 08:59

John says in his epistle, one John five:three, This is love for God. To go to church, throw a little money in the bucket, Say God bless to the waitress after lunch. Maybe even serve in a ministry team, do more positive things than you do negative things. None of this. Right?

Cameron: 09:28

This is not love for God. Love for God is to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome, John says. Now we're going to come back to that second part there. His commands are not burdensome.

Cameron: 09:43

But I want to concentrate just here at the beginning with this idea that for John, the disciple of Jesus, the mark of love for God Himself was the measure of His obedience to the things that He commands. That it is impossible for us to say out of the same mouth that I love God, but I am disobedient to what He asks me to do, what He calls me to do, to the life He desires me to live. Like, well, maybe John got it kind of lost in translation a little bit. Maybe John didn't exactly mean what he was saying there. I think so, maybe we could go to Jesus in John 14.

Cameron: 10:36

And in John 14, Jesus says virtually the same thing. In fact, I bet you that this is where John got the language to begin with. Because in John chapter 14, Jesus says this, If you love me, you will obey my commands. You will obey my commandments. Now, I would love to stand up here and tell you that there is a really significantly theologically nuanced way to understand these verses so that somehow we can maintain a heart of love for a God and still live in willful disobedience to His commandments.

Cameron: 11:19

But it just ain't there. We just can't do it. And sometimes the most obvious and simple things that are right in front of us are the things that are the most difficult for our souls to accept. But this is the truth of the word. Love for God equals obedience to his commandments.

Cameron: 11:41

Now we often pray here. It's something that I pray here because I desire it and I want it for us. I'm often praying here something similar to, Lord, let us grow in our capacity to love you and to love others. Have you heard me pray that before over us? Us grow in our capacity, God, to love you and to love others.

Cameron: 12:11

What are we praying here? What we are praying then is that God would grow us in not just in our capacity of affection towards him, but in our capacity to obey him and his word. Lord, give us the grace that we need to be increasingly obedient to you. Don't just stir us up with emotion and affection for you. Root us in the intentional choice to obey your word when we're standing at the threshold of resistance and do the thing, do the things that we don't want to do.

Cameron: 13:05

Now here, as I think, what sometimes happens to us when we talk about obedience, doing the will of God, obeying His commands, being obedient, is that we paint a picture of our lives of a really, really big decision that we must make. Something huge, A really big moment that we have to say yes to in a major way that has extraordinary consequences. That's what obedience is. Those things do happen. You do have big, huge moments in your life that have really significant consequences where you have to make a major decision, and maybe you don't want to make it, maybe you don't know how to make it, but out of obedience and faith, you take that step forward to say, Lord, yes, I will follow you in that and this.

Cameron: 14:08

Those big moments do happen. I am here preaching to you this morning because I had one of those moments, right, of leaving a great church that I love full of great people. And like there was, I had a future ahead of me. But I stood at the threshold of resistance where I knew God was calling me to something different. And I knew God was calling me to something else.

Cameron: 14:42

And I didn't want to take that step into the unknown, but I knew that I just could not live anymore as a man who said I loved God, but were continuing to like, But not that much. And that was a big decision that man, talk about rerouting your life. Rerouting my life in more ways than is visible to you, but rerouting my life. Those big things do happen. What I'm going to tell you is that there, actually let's do this first.

Cameron: 15:34

Let's hold on to this moment for a second. And I want you to, we're gonna read John 12 twelve-nineteen, which is John's account of Jesus finally coming into Jerusalem this very last time. It's often called in your Bible, there's a heading over it, usually called the triumphal entry. All of the gospels have the account of the triumphal entry. But here in John, it says the next day, and the next day was the next day after, He had brought Lazarus back from the dead and anointed, He was anointed in Bethany.

Cameron: 16:23

The next day, the great crowd that had come for the feast heard that Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, and they took palm branches and they went out to meet Him, shouting, Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the King of Israel. Now this was a sign, or this was a practice of the Jewish people of was like a You know, back in like the great wars, the world wars, they would often have victory parades for wars that were won. Right? The sign of palms was the sign of a victory parade over a king who was returning from battle back into his kingly or royal city.

Cameron: 17:15

And so as Jesus was coming into Jerusalem, the people were waving palm branches, kind of betraying that their expectations of His coming was to be the same type of military ruler and king that they had thought that they were getting in order to overthrow the Romans and to take back control of Jerusalem. But interestingly enough, Jesus chose a slightly different way into the city than you think a victorious military king would. And this is what he says in verse 14, Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it. As it is written, do not be afraid, oh daughter of Zion. See, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt.' At first, his disciples did not understand all of this.

Cameron: 18:17

Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him. Now the crowd that was with Him, when He called Lazarus from the tomb and raised Him from the dead, continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that He had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet Him. So the Pharisees said to one another, 'See, this is getting us nowhere. Look at how the whole world has gone after Him.' Listen, Jesus, in this moment here, Jesus, I want you to hear this, Jesus made a choice to go into Jerusalem.

Cameron: 19:00

He could have made a different choice. Previous to going into Jerusalem, He was in an area known as Bethany. Bethany was one of the locations where Probably the location that Jesus did the most miracles in His ministry. It was a place full of faith that believed that Jesus was the Messiah. And because it was full of faith, Jesus was able to do miracles there that He was not able to do in Nazareth, He said.

Cameron: 19:34

For example, the raising of Lazarus back from the dead. And so I'm gonna be honest with you. If I was a Let's just say that I was a spiritual leader and I was in a place where lots of people really liked me. Yeah. And appreciated my ministry and wanted me to stay there, right?

Cameron: 20:05

And there'd been a lot of fruit in that place. It would be really, really easy to just be like, You know, this is look at all that God is doing. Look at all that we're experiencing. Like, can't you just feel the movement of the Spirit here? Let's I'm just going to stay in Bethany.

Cameron: 20:26

We're just going to stay in Bethany. But this was for Jesus, one of these really big moments where He, knowing what had been written, Zechariah nine is an example here from John 12, Knowing what had been written about Him, what had been designed for Him, decided instead to follow the path of obedience when it would have been easier to stay in Bethany. And instead, He went into Jerusalem marching essentially to what He knew was His death. So this was a big moment of obedience where Jesus was choosing to follow and obey the plan of God to go into the city, knowing that it would ultimately lead him to his betrayal, arrest, abandonment, and death. But I want to be clear about something here.

Cameron: 21:24

I want you to see something. Jesus' obedience in that moment to the plan and will of the Father for His life did not begin on Palm Sunday. It wasn't like Jesus had just lived His life in whatever way that He wanted to, and then He approached this moment of big decision with lots of consequence and said, You know what? Okay, yeah, I'm going to go ahead and obey the will of the Father here in this moment. Palm Sunday was not the beginning of Jesus' obedience.

Cameron: 22:08

It was just the visible expression of a lifetime of what was likely very small and hidden obedience. The will of the father. The will of the father. The will of the father. The will of the father.

Cameron: 22:27

The will of the father. And listen. This is what most of our life is composed of. Most of our life is not composed of the big decisions that have major consequences that reroute the whole trajectory of our lives. Most of the obedience thresholds that we come and step before are small, hidden obediences that no one will ever see.

Cameron: 23:07

That no one will ever be party to. These are the types of obedience that form us over time. The small ones that no one sees, that bring us to the capacity of making the big ones that everyone sees. Obedience, listen, obedience at its root is quiet and boring. It is.

Cameron: 23:44

Obedience is quiet and boring. It's one of the reasons it's so hard. It's not usually, it's not usually, okay, it is sometimes. It is not usually a very public thing. It is almost never flashy, but it is almost always a quiet faithfulness.

Cameron: 24:10

99% of which people will never see. Not the major decisions, but the small ones. Some examples maybe. Maybe when we are expressing the quiet and boring obedience of our thought life, choosing not to replay an offense in our mind over and over and over and over again so as to nurture the bitterness and nurture the hurt and root us in unforgiveness even more. An obedience to let it go in forgiveness.

Cameron: 24:57

Maybe an obedience for our thought life looks something like replacing our incessant need to compare ourselves with others with a spirit of gratitude. Lord, thank you for what you have given me, what you have entrusted to me, what you have blessed me with. I will not compare myself in an envious way with those around me. Maybe a small obedience that is quiet and boring looks like obedience with our words. Maybe not exaggerating a story to make yourself look better or other people look worse.

Cameron: 25:49

Maybe it's the obedience of choosing not to gossip when the opportunity is right there and you could really show that you got the information that no one else has. Maybe the small obedience of your words is saying, I was wrong, and I take responsibility for what I said and what it caused in you rather than trying to defend yourself. Maybe there is some small obedience in our reactions for life. How you respond when your plans get interrupted. How you treat your spouse when you're frustrated or how you respond to criticism or being misunderstood.

Cameron: 26:45

Perhaps there's some obedience that we can do in a small, quiet and boring way with our integrity. Not taking something that isn't mine, like time, credit, or resources, or being faithful and diligent in the small responsibilities at work or at home that mean really nothing to anyone else, except you've been asked to do them. Maybe obedience, in a small and boring way, looks like following through simply on what you said you'd do. Or maybe it looks like forgiving someone who you don't think has earned it or serving someone who doesn't notice it or will never reciprocate it. Listen, obedience does not just happen on the big stage of life where everyone sees it.

Cameron: 28:01

Sometimes it does. But if you think you're going to perform on the big stage of obedience when you don't perform, when no one's looking, you're not. Obedience is small, quiet, and boring. And small acts of quiet obedience over long periods of time shapes our instincts, shapes our loves, and shapes our decisions. It is the small acts of obedience that actually shapes who we are and shapes our capacity to make decisions going into the future.

Cameron: 28:55

In this way, and in like all of the other things that we've talked about around the idea of being formed, obedience is intentional. We must make intentional decisions to say, I will do the thing when no one's watching. In the quiet moments and the big, we must choose obedience as a mark of love. And it will be God's grace, not our own willpower, not our own gutting it out. But when we choose obedience as a mark of our love for God, it will be His grace that empowers us to be increasingly obedient to Him.

Cameron: 29:51

This is what we've I've said this several times, that obedience naturally is resistance. We can't rightly call something we do being obedient when it's kind of something maybe that we want to do. We're talking about obedience as that moment that we step at the threshold of resistance and we walk through it anyway. But listen, when we choose faithfulness and fidelity to God's word or God's plan, when our hearts naturally want to do the other thing, it is in those moments that we are formed more into the image and likeness of Jesus. Here's something I want you to remember.

Cameron: 30:37

Obedience is the resistance training of formation. Anyone ever done some resistance training before in their life? Have you ever picked up a weight? That's what that means. Resistance training, Picked up a weight.

Cameron: 31:01

Done a pull up. Attempted a pull up. Done a push up. Done a sit up. Right?

Cameron: 31:15

Ran up a hill, sprinted up, like resistance, right? Resistance training. What does resistance training do? When we lift weights, right? When we add resistance, as you add resistance to the bar, so to speak, your muscles grow and then you grow in your capacity to what?

Cameron: 31:38

Lift more weights. And every time you add a little resistance, you grow in your capacity to lift more weights. And it hurts and it's hard. And resistance is necessary for physical growth. And resistance and obedience is necessary for spiritual growth.

Cameron: 32:03

When we obey in the small things, we feel Listen, when you obey in the small things, we feel that resistance to our hearts, right? I don't want to say I'm sorry. I don't want to have an attitude or a posture of gratitude when I'm not content with the things that I have. I don't want to do the things that I don't want to do the integrity thing. No one's watching anyway.

Cameron: 32:34

Why do I have to But listen, when we obey in the small things, when we feel the resistance of those small things in our hearts, and then we obey anyway, our hearts become stronger in our posture of love to the Lord. We grow in our capacity to love God more when we obey, even despite the resistance. When we cross the threshold being like, oh, this is so hard and it hurts so bad. But we get stronger. Not stronger here.

Cameron: 33:18

Right? Stronger here. Stronger in our love for the Lord. Stronger in our love for others. And so the more we obey, the more our love grows.

Cameron: 33:34

And then the more we obey, the more our love grows, and the more we are formed to live, love, and serve like Jesus. See, our hearts are changed and transformed through continual faithful obedience. And one of the ways that they are formed through faithful continual obedience is we begin to love the resistance. We begin to love it. Like, oh, yeah.

Cameron: 34:14

Put more weight on the bar, please. Give me more. This is a biblical principle. Remember I said we were going to come back to one John five:three? We're going to.

Cameron: 34:31

One John five:three, In fact, this is love for God to keep His commands. The second sentence there, And His commands are not burdensome. I mean, how many of y'all been like, I don't know, seem pretty burdensome to me. Like, those commands, seem pretty burdensome. I have.

Cameron: 34:58

I have. Over and over and over again, one of the most instructive parts of scripture for my heart, in order to get this in here has been There's others, but Psalm 30 seven:four, most of us will know it already. Psalm 30 seven:four, the psalmist writes, Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Now, if you read Psalm 37 as a whole chapter, what you will recognize is the whole of the chapter is the comparison of those who respond in delight and obedience to the Lord, and those who simply chase after wicked ways.

Cameron: 35:54

It is a kind of a juxtaposition of the two types of people. Who are the people that delight in obedience to the Lord and chase after Him? Who are the wicked who chase only after their own unrighteous desires? What happens to both of these people? What happens to them?

Cameron: 36:13

Now, when the Psalmist writes this, here we pluck this verse out, it's a great verse, I love it. Delighting in the Lord could very easily be understood and is often understood as obeying the Lord. Seeking the Lord, pursuing holiness, Obey the Lord. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. And when you do so, when you delight yourself in the Lord, it says that something happens in the environment of your delight.

Cameron: 36:55

When you delight, the desires then of your heart are met. You're delighting, you're delighting, you're delighting. And it's like something happens in your heart. Well, my heart now gets full as its desires are met. And it says that the Lord meets them.

Cameron: 37:15

He will give you the desires of your heart. Now this could, errantly so, be understood as meaning that, listen, delighting yourself in the Lord and obedience to God is simply the way that I get from God what I want. I will be good and God will give me the stuff that I want. Right? I will follow the rules and God better show up with the goods.

Cameron: 37:56

I follow the path, I get the lifestyle. This is not the heart of this at all. The better understanding of it is this. As I delight myself in the Lord, as I obey him in the big things, but more faithfully, the small everyday things that no one sees. My heart is transformed to love the things that He loves, to desire the things that He desires, and to pursue the things that He pursues.

Cameron: 38:42

And so through obedience, the very desire structure of my heart is transformed, and His commands are no longer a burden, but now a delight. Man, there is nothing more than I want than the things of God in my life. There is nothing more that I Lord, I delight myself in the things that You want for me. That is what I desire. That is what I pursue.

Cameron: 39:18

I will obey to that end, Lord, knowing that your desires for me are the most fulfilling to my heart that I could ever imagine. Obedience changes the very way that our heart approaches the commands of God. And we begin to approach it now with delight. These are not burdensome. These are a gift of God for the formation of my heart and life so that I now may be exactly who He has created and called me to be.

Cameron: 39:56

I want you to understand this. This is a narrow road. This is a narrow road. Wide is the road that leads to destruction, and many find it. Narrow is the road that leads to life, and few find it.

Cameron: 40:25

The joy of obedience, the pursuit of delight in the Lord's commands is a narrow road. And others will not always understand your desire and pursuit of obedience. Get it out of your mind right now that everyone's going to be on board, that everyone's going to be encouraging, that everyone's going to understand the small obediences that you pursue. Even in the church, you will be misunderstood. Even Jesus' disciples in John chapter 12, what did John say?

Cameron: 41:14

And his disciples did not understand what he was talking about or why he needed to do the things that he was doing as he was going into Jerusalem. Even after telling them, you know, umpteen times in His ministry, this is what's going to happen, this is what we must do. Sometimes people's approval or disapproval can affect or change our obedience, can shift the desire of our own heart, can change what we know God has called us to do. And listen, it's very important that we hear this, obedience is not for obedience sake. Nor is it for the sake of God's favor.

Cameron: 42:10

Obedience is not for the applause or the approval of others. See, the people were insistent that Jesus was to be their king, but they wanted his kingship to be on their terms, not on the father's terms. So when others' expectations weigh on you, will you remain obedient or choose another way? I'll finally say this, I'm going to close in this and ask the worship team to come back up. Obedience is a response to the gospel's work in you.

Cameron: 42:56

It is not the gospel itself. Okay, do you hear that? Obedience is a response to the gospel's work in you, it is not the gospel itself. We don't obey all of the laws, all of the commands, all of the desires. We don't follow all of the rules so that God is now happy with us and we receive his favor or we receive his blessing or we're being good little boys or good little girls, right?

Cameron: 43:34

No, we do not obey to receive anything but God's delight. We obey as an expression of our love to a God that has redeemed us out of darkness and brought us into his wonderful life. The gospel is the good news. Listen, the gospel is the good news that even in our disobedience, we were offered righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. So obedience is not obedience for salvation's sake.

Cameron: 44:14

It's not obedience to earn favor. It's not obedience to be better, because it is in our disobedience that the good news of Jesus Christ is offered to us. Obedience becomes then the worshipful response of a heart and life that has been redeemed and saved. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, our desire is to express our deep and abiding love for you.

Cameron: 45:01

Lord, we do want to grow in our capacity to love you and to love others. And we know, Lord, by your word, that that means that we need to grow in our capacity to obey. Father, I pray that you would begin to form in us even now in this moment, a delight in your word, a delight in your commands, Lord, knowing that they are not burdensome, Lord, but that they bring life. Lord, help us to resist also the deceit of the enemy that would tell us that in order to earn your love, we must do this, do that. Don't do this, don't do that.

Cameron: 45:58

Obey this, obey that. Lord, we know from the truth of your word that obedience is the mark of our love for you. Obedience is not the qualification of your love for us. Lord, while we were still sinners, Jesus Christ has died for us. While we were still living in disobedience, Jesus Christ died for us.

Cameron: 46:24

While we were living in the brokenness and hardness of our hearts, Jesus Christ died for us. Lord, but when we receive Jesus by faith and his righteousness becomes our own, our hearts are transformed, and we delight now, Lord, to obey you. Lord, transform us more and more to live like Jesus, to love like Jesus, and to serve like Jesus. In his name, amen. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us.

Cameron: 47:13

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the scorning at shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of god. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that he will not grow weary and lose heart. Conduit, you are loved. Have a great week. We'll see you Good Friday and next Sunday, nine and eleven.

Cameron: 47:44

Go in peace.