The Truth About Obedience - Are You Sabotaging Your Own Blessings?

Hello. Hello hello hello, hello, hello, I hope that you had a great day, I'm Bruce Smith. This is the Essential Discourse podcast, and today I want to talk to you about a little term that gives us many, many, many fits. That term is obedience. Obedience. We all know what obedience is. We've been learning about obedience since we were toddlers, and we are still having to contend with obedience or comply to be obedient and our adult stages. And you say, I ain't got a Well, let me give you a couple all struggle with obedience from Practical example number one you leave your house, you get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle you are driving on the highway, interstate, whatever. You've driven this route many, So you are aware that there is a And, you know, you oftentimes drive above the posted speed limit. But when those flashing red and get you get a case of the eggs. You know, you get aggravated you, they're holding you up and bunch of questions, possibly. And now you run the possibility going to cost you money, which Now, why were you speeding? Well, most of the times when we speed, we leave the house late or we have placed a high priority on being where we need to be. And we are like the speed limit It don't make no sense. Why is it thirty miles per hour Right, right. I've been there. I've been there with But at the situation, this worst case side of the road with a police lights flashing and him asking proof of insurance because we Had we been obedient, we might be in this situation that we're Second. Second. Second, second. Practical illustration. You've been on your job five, ten, fifteen years and you know the standard. You've been taught how to do money to do. But all of a sudden they come in They ensure that, you know what the new training is involved involves, and the expectation is for you to apply the new standards, the new practices and this new workflow that they have, uh, that they have decided is going to be, you know, the standard. But because you've been on your job five, ten, fifteen, twenty years, you're like, this is stupid. Change is dumb. I'm going to do it the way I And you may get away with it for for a while, but the first time something happens and then people start going through your processes and they start looking through, uh, did you follow process? Did you follow standards? Were you in the procedures Now you're in jeopardy. You're in jeopardy of being put written up, or worst case you don't have a paycheck coming You're mad. They didn't have to do that. I've been on that job five, ten, Never been in trouble for But at the end of the day, you You did not follow the rules, that had been set. Now, if it's like that for us As who work jobs, or even as as You know, we have standards that And when our children don't they don't follow the rules, there's a consequence that they If it's like that with us. Why would we expect it to be any Why? Why would we expect God to just know your heart. You know, that's the line we You know my heart. Why would we expect God to say, And, uh, we going to give you another chance without consequence? No, that ain't how it work. That ain't how it work. And the reason I'm talking about lesson this past Sunday, and the God without being obedient. You just can't do it. You can't do it legitimately. You can't do it earnestly. You can't do it truthfully You can't even engage in worship You can't experience true There's a blessing in being The Bible even says obedience is See, that's what got Saul in You know, Saul thought he was these sacrifices, but God never The thing that God told Saul to therefore Saul got fired. And so many of us, so many of defeated with all these dreams, and we're praying and but we won't even do the very is to be obedient. And you can't be obedient to His And what's even what's even recognize that it is true and life or my life. Now, I'm not trying to be, you I've got my shortcomings, too. You know, being obedient is is It's tough work. It's tough work because I have do what God desires. Obedience. Being obedient. I mean, that takes a conscious You have to be conscious of the You have to be courageous enough in being obedient to him. And I'm here to tell you, It's hard because we all have a We all have a way that seems seems quicker, it seems more logical. It seems to be more efficient But if you know anything about God, you know that he's all knowing. And if you know anything about The things that he allows to things that he prevents from according to a purposeful will, And there's something in his There's something in what he growing and maturing us. And the more obedient that we obedient that we that we become. You know, we're passed these tests, these challenges, and we can be able to move on to the next progression of growth versus, I'm going to be disobedient, I'm gonna do it my way. And then we end up stumbling and you know, being mad at the we had to do was be obedient. And that's hard. That's hard. It sounds simple, but it's hard. And it's hard because we all It's hard because I've placed what God wants. You know, it's just like driving You know, I'm trying to get to HEB because I want to get to the store. I want to grab what I got to car, get to the house so I can And I knew that the speed limit is thirty miles per hour in this certain stretch, but I'm driving fifty, and now I have the audacity, the unmitigated gall to be upset because the police are out here doing their job, which is law enforcement, rule enforcement, standard Standards enforcement. And there's a consequence for me And that consequence cost me. It cost me, it cost me money in the in the terms of I'm getting a speeding ticket, I got to go to court or I just got to pay the ticket. One of the two it's going to It could possibly raise my It could possibly, you know, do adverse effect on what I'm able Now, you put that in the Just being disobedient to God's Word that you know is true, right? You know it. You know it's true, but you And then you got the audacity. To be mad because of the My pastor told us something last He says consequences announced And we as people, we tend to The consequences can't be that I can handle those consequences. So I could be I could be Can I tell you that disobedience that we're in right now as a, as Disobedience is what got us into the position that we're in right now. Disobedience is the reason that And die on the cross and be buried and be resurrected from the grave. It's all because of Yeah, you go check it out. In Genesis, God told Adam, don't And Adam told Eve. The serpent asked Eve, is this She told him. She told that serpent what? Adam had told her the truth. But yet and still she had a Got that fruit. Ate that fruit. Gave That fruit to Adam. And then Adam, who heard And here we are a mess. All because of disobedience. We got family members who got cholesterol, and a whole bunch because of disobedience. The doctor says, hey, stop Hey, you need to stop being so Hey, you need to increase your Hey, you need to take this Hey, you need to start taking And what we do, most of us that know what he's talking about. I'm gonna eat, I'm gonna eat. Yeah, I'm gonna eat these. These pork chops. And I'm gonna saturate it. And in Louisiana, hot sauce, which is. a high salt intake. Right. some high blood pressure. I'm gonna eat it. I'm gonna eat this. This bag of M&Ms. And I'm gonna eat this sweet potato pie. I got high blood sugar, high glucose, high, high insulin. yeah, yeah. I'm gonna do it because it's what I want. is disobedience. We have individuals who are rotting away of what? Say it with me. Disobedience. There's a blessing in being obedient. it in terms of a parent to a think about it. Think about it from the terms of a parent to child does everything that you teach them to do it. When supposed to do it without you tell them over and over and to you and ask you for anything, to make it happen? You would. I absolutely would. Versus the child who you had to. Hey, why didn't you? Man, why do you even take care of this dishes over here? Cuz, why the floor ain't swept? Okay, I see you washed the dishes and Why is it crumbs all over the stove? bathroom ain't clean? You know, you're supposed to clean the have to have these the same child about the same and over. Over again. How how how how how likely are you to child come to ask you, can they ain't how that works. That ain't how that works. It don't work that way with us. So why would we expect it to work that We have a miss... we have a miss. misguided sense of, you know. Yeah, he's he's he's he's He's faithful to forgive. He's this, he's that. And that's all true. But that doesn't mean that you don't experience the consequences for being disobedient, nor do I. Nor do I get exempt from from the consequences of being disobedient. So if you really want to be really want to be blessed, Start being more obedient. Exercise the courage to say, you You said it. I'm going to do it, and I'm going to make it. You're going to make this work That's essentially what you're saying When you're being obedient. You're also saying, God, I I respect you enough to do what have commanded me to do. So yeah, even though these talking about me and they're going to cuss them out. I'm not going to curse them. No, I'm going to continue to I'm going to continue to give I'm going to continue to behave in the way that you want me to behave. I'm going to I'm going to turn Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even though even though even are lying on me, I ain't. I ain't going to chase that. Lie down. You know the truth and I know And I'm going to continue to Obedience is a huge blessing in Huge blessing. Huge! Huge! And let me tell you how serious God is about this obedience thing, man. Y'all remember. Y'all remember when when Moses was on the mountain getting the Ten Commandments? Yeah. Y'all remember he was he was up Commandments and the people was You know, the golden Calf. They was down there building the And then they was getting ready to go party and do all type of immoral things. And God came back to Adam and he Your people, God gave us away. God gave, God gave. God gave the people back to back He said, your people. They over here tripping. This is this is I'm This is this is my translation Okay. He said they down there trippin You need to get down from this what your people got going on. Uh, because I'm getting ready. I'm getting ready to do them And Moses was like, yo, yo, yo Let me, let me go down here and And when Moses got down off that I cannot believe you jokers And then that led to a whole nother catastrophe for those Israelites, man. It led to them just wandering And you would think that they But all throughout the Old Testament, especially in the book of judges, you know, them jokers get to doing their own thing, And then it takes a judge to come in and get them back on target. But not before consequences take And then eventually, because of you know, Israel and Judah, you Assyrians and Babylonians. All because of disobedience. All because of disobedience. And many, many, many, many real life, right now, many of us are experiencing what we believe to be hell because of our disobedience. Our disobedience to God, our irreverence for those who he's whether that be our parents, whether that be, you know, the You know, we sit here and we You know, I know better. And now you gotta face these People who don't pay their You know what? You know what the consequence They might take all your stuff. Yeah, yeah. So I know I'm making good sense. I know I'm making good sense. And I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling you what God loves. Let's, let's, let's agree in going to do our best to be We're going to do our best to be is written to the Word of God, individually and collectively. Because like I told you earlier, obedience is better than sacrifice Being obedient can prevent us from experiencing a lot of the hardships that we experience. Not to say that we're not going because we're obedient. No, that's that's that's not I'm saying a lot of these extra hardships that we're experiencing, we can prevent ourselves. What are your thoughts? What are your thoughts on this I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to hear what you have What are your what are you what What are you really feeling? Does this resonate with you? Do you have some work to do in I do, I most certainly do. I love to hear. I love to hear what you have to I love to read your comments. Get in the comments. Please get in the comments and All right. Um, that's all I got for today, this podcast episode, and I hope about this episode and, you This podcast can be heard on all include iHeart, Amazon, Apple, And you can also view and listen All you got to do is search Essential Discourse Podcast, and Search The Essential Discourse And you can listen to this episode in its entirety and all the other episodes in their entirety. Guys, it's been a pleasure to sit here and commune with you today. Uh, tonight, this morning, whenever you're listening, I just want to put it on your hearts and your minds to be obedient. Do your very best. If you really want to be blessed, let's start by being more obedient to what we know is true to what we know is for our best. Our best is for our best. It's not to hurt us, it's to It's to grow us. It's to mature us. Even though we don't like it. You know, God never told us to We just need to trust him and trust what he said is for our good. That's it. Trust it and comply. Yeah, trust and comply. That's what we need to do. All right, gang, again I'm Bruce Thank you for listening. And I'll talk to you the next Y'all have a great day. Peace out.